Month: October 2008

Have A Ghoul Day Today

Happy Halloween everyone!  Today happens to be my favorite holiday.  I am not exactly sure how this came to be, but since I was a little demon I have always been fascinated by this day.  I still remember a number of my costumes ranging from the classic cheese Spiderman to the pretty cool Zorro.  The latter was especially awesome because my brother’s friend Kevin taught me how to greet the candy givers in Spanish which helped complete the look.  The most enjoyable part of the holiday has to be the barbaric massacre of the orange flesh.  That’s right, the butchering of the pumpkin.  There has to be a study out there that correlates the number of late year stabbings by the sheer viciousness a youth attacks a pumpkin.  I have visions of Orange Juice right now and I don’t know why.   As it turns out, it became kind of a quest with my brother to make a scarier and cooler pumpkin carving year over year.  Over those years, the process was refined to near perfection.  We had the perfect tool for gut scraping, the approach to the scariest eyes and the best cutting utensils to create a smooth and flowing cut.  Needless to say, I think after the first year, there were no more triangles in our pumpkins.  Now I have a urge to go back and find the old pictures.  Would be pretty neat to have a pumpkin through the years collage – note to self.

We were also able to get together along with his kids to carve some pumpkins a number of years ago.   Looked like the skilz’ had passed on to the next generation.  I am not sure if Ron has continued to carve, but I have carried on and have continued to refine and try new avenues.  The largest improvement came with the foam pumpkins.  These are fantastic in the sense you do not have to worry about the rot.  Nothing is more disappointing that throwing out a green fuzzy glob after spending so many hours making it just right.  It also allowed for more precise carving.  About 15 years ago, I had an idea of using the Dremel (I am not taking credit for the idea because I assume many others had done it, but I can honestly say I had not seen it done at the time).  The catalyst for using the Dremel is the desire to do the now common half cuts.  I laugh every single time I think of that night because I was using the engraving ball bit for about 2 hours straight.  I got off the floor and looked in the mirror to see my entire shirt and face covered in pumpkin flesh – the pumpkin rocked though – it had a Blues hockey theme with blues symbols for the eyes (one reversed), a puck for the nose and I thinking a missing tooth grin (everything was half cuts so it actually stayed fresh for over two months.  With the new foam pumpkins, I can work the half cuts to the precise depth I want and get very clean edges.

Here are my 2008 additions.  Note, the spider was stock, but I work a lot on making my own patterns from photos or drawings I find on the web.  A number of hours with a graphics program can turn out some pretty cool designs.  The werewolf and demon were results of that type of effort.  Note, I also embellish a lot with bats for the sole purpose of solidifying the cutouts and hopefully adding to the longevity.

New 2008 Pumpkins

Here is a darker version to give the full effect

2008 Pumpkins

Figured I would also show some of my other efforts

Previous Pumpkins

and with less lights – they definitely look better in person and generally get good comments about them from the Trick or Treaters that come throughout the night.

Previous Pumpkins

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!!

I Got My Sticker

Today, I did my Patriotic Duty.  Thanks to Biden, you first might think I went and paid more taxes today.  However, you would be dead wrong.  Instead I voted.  Yep, I took advantage of the opportunity to get my vote cast early in the presidential election.  Before I leave the Biden thing, I was caught off guard by my brother who offered up a quandary;  if the Democratic ticket is so willing to pay more taxes, why don’t they just go and do it now.  He is absolutely correct; there is nothing out there that is preventing them from doing that.  Any takers?

Back on track.  So I finally get there and pleased to find out there was only 15 or so people ahead of me.  One interesting thing I noted was a blue piece of paper being passed back through the line that was supposed to be read before you voted.  Basically the paper detailed out the fact that there was question on the ballot asking if there should be a Congressional Caucus (think that was it) that was worded unconstitutionally.  Apparently stating that a non-vote represents a specific vote (I think yes in this case) was illegal.  How ironic that constitutional request would be worded in violation of the law.  But that was the most interesting part.  I finally made it to about 2 or 3 back when the steward held up the blue paper and asked if everyone had read it.  I nodded along with the people ahead of me and most of the people behind me, but it then the nods turned horizontal.  How odd.  This rationalized into a short in the process in a very apparent location… that being the individual right in front of the first negative motion.  I think the lady in that position noticed me looking in her direction (honestly, I was just trying to understand the situation and not trying to apply any guilt).  All of a sudden, she pulls out the piece of paper and proceeded to undo the quad-fold and then passed it to the person behind her.  Clearly, she saw the paper being passed continuously in front of her, so the only thing I could think of was she was the last in line at that particular time.  Which would mean she forgot the process when the line started up again behind her.  I’ll chalk that up to short term memory, but then became very alarmed that she was actually preparing to vote.  Good thing they do not allow campaigning near the building.

I also read the polling location rules and your rights list posted on the window of the voting room.  One caught my eye.  This particular entry pertained to having the right of a non-harassing environment to make my vote in.  I had to chuckle to myself.  The horde of middle school girls practicing their annoying cheerleading routines literally 3 feet from where I was standing had to make that specific location the MOST irritating and thus harassing environment I have been in all year.  The horror, the horror.

Lastly, I had my first experience with an electronic voting machine.  I have spent a large percentage of my life in the I.T. world and can only wonder “What were they thinking when they designed this specific unit?”.  As a check and balance, I was given a PIN I had to enter into the voting c0mputer before I started.  So there are 4 empty squares to put your numbers in and a grid of numbers right below it.  So I hit the numbers on the grid and nothing happens.  I hit them again thinking I didn’t hit them properly, but nothing happened again.  Turns out after a little investigating that you have to spin a large wheel below the screen until the number you want is highlighted and then you can hit an enter  button to accept the number.   Don’t try to claim older people can’t figure out a touch screen, I’ve seen the grey hairs going to town on the video poker machines in casinos.  So this method progresses through the ballot until I come to the verification step.  I actually liked this and I am assuming this was a hanging chad requirement.  Once accepted, it then started printing out on a paper roll next to the screen and indicated I could leave the booth at that time.  Note to voting machine designers, I am not leaving until my vote printout is completely rolled passed the display window.   I will tell you I had a little bit of uneasiness while I was voting.  I was given a unique PIN number which I had to put into the machine first.  A unique number that is assigned to MY name.  You would think they would have pamphlets and notices about how that PIN is assigned to you only for validation purposes and is not associated to your particular vote selections.  Did I mention I am in the IT industry?  I did scan the printout and didn’t find it on the paper, but the barcode printout at the end ….

Get out and Vote!  and if you feel the need to pay more taxes, feel free to stop by your local IRS office

Book Recollection: The Afghan

Every once in awhile I like to dish up some lemon sorbet to cleanse the reading pallet.  This gives me a little break from the multitude of subjects I read about with the intention of learning something of value.  If you have been following my other book recollections, you might have recognized the pattern.  There comes those times when you just need to sit back and enjoy a book for pure entertainment with no expectations of knowledge retention.  This was on of those times.  While I was picking up the Gang Leader for a Day book and the Black Swan (next on the docket) I glanced over and saw Frederick Forsyth’s latest novel call The Afghan.  I had actually read a quick review in one of my magazines (guessing Men’s Health) and they gave it pretty good marks.  Add to that the fact it was on sale and you have a combination that leads to a purchase.  I honestly had not read a book by this author since The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File were required reading in my English class many many many years ago.

Clearly Frederick is jumping on the Terrorist bandwagon theme similar to the other Clancy’s in the world, but unlike the Sum of All Fears, this book was fairly tight in the plot, had a few interesting (but somewhat predictable) plot twists and probably in most contrast to the Sum of All Fears, was concise – translated around 343 pages.  Note to Clancy, I am not reading another one of your 700+ books especially if it is eventually going to star the acting challenged Ben Affleck in the movie adaptation.  I actually approach entertainment fodder different than retention material.  For pure enjoyment books, I mentally replace all names with something very common and monosyllable based on maybe a combination of letters in the name or someone it reminds me of.  For example, in this book Marek Gumienny is Gum, Martin is Art, Izmat Khan is Mat.  This allows me to visually replace the occurence of that name with a quick substitute for more efficient reading.  I also cast out all the non-value words (I have the most problem with female authors who think 5 adjectives or more is needed to convey the fact the subject is wearing shoes).  As a result, I crank through these books pretty fast.  Unfortunately, it took me a little bit to get into gear which is sometimes the problem when the author is from another country or has a weird sentence cadence.  Obviously, Frederick is English and it may just be me, but you have to get used to the writing style.  I had a similar problem with Ronnie (Ron Wood autobiography).

In summary, it was an okay book.  It served its purpose and kept me interested throughout.  I do not want to give any plot details away on this because it was meant for pure entertainment and I don’t want to ruin it for others.  There were a few parts I think he let end a little too quick.  It almost seemed like he was conscious of the length of the book or grew a little bored with that particular track – Mat in the woods is one of those areas.  I give tremendous credit to Frederick for not selling out and making an “Everybody Happy Feel Good ” book.  All things do not have to come out exactly perfect and I appreciate authors willing to take that risk.  If you have seen I Am Legend or the original movie version Omega Man, these are other examples of that approach.  Although in Legend, whoever made the dog decision needs a whoopin’ – ‘g’ left of in intentional reference to Sarah Palin.

So, if you are bored sometime, I recommend giving it a read, you should be adequately entertained.

Sidebar: my pallet cleansing was quickly tainted.  I started receiving Rolling Stone Magazine for no apparent reason.  Needing something to read while my dogs were running agility, I grabbed it on my way out.  After reading about two articles I decided that it was the most worthless piece of liberal rag I’ve ever wasted an ounce of time on.  After reading an article on Chrissy Hynes and her passion for doing drugs every night on tour and about 3 paragraphs on how McCain is the devil’s gift to the earth and received preferential treatment while a POW… I tossed it in the garbage.  It doesn’t surprise me they have to reduce the size of their magazine in a desperate attempt to save costs.  Tomorrow I intend to call them up and make them remove me from their mailing list.

Whack A Time Share Peddler

I like Vegas.  My wife and I have a tendency to spend some time out there at least once a year and have become quite familiar with all of the sights and sounds that go along with a place labeled affectionately as Sin City.  Our recent visit was actually to go to a family wedding being held there, but for specific reasons I am going to hold off on commenting about that specific event (for now).  As a perk from visiting that city at a regular frequency, we tend to get fairly good rates on hotels.  Such good rates that we often end up going back to the same hotel(s) even after we have decided we wanted a change.  That is the situation we had on our recent trip.  Even though we have stayed at the Luxor like 6 or 7 times now, the $59/night room rates is hard to pass up especially since they usually end up comping them out at the end of stay anyway.  We could also use our offer to get a cheap room for others that were heading out there with us.  So, setting the tone for this post is we went to Vegas, stayed at a hotel even though we would prefer to go elsewhere and had brought a number of people with us.

Four things stick out about that visit that has significantly impacted my desire to ever go to that particular hotel again.  I will let you form your own opinion if I am simply overreacting.  The first of these issues is the room location we were given.  Having been to Vegas so many times, the room view is not an issue for us – to be honest, I really do not sleep much while I am out there and prefer to spend time out in the lights rather than just looking at them from a window.  What is critical is my ability to actually get some sleep when I decide to head there.  Keep in mind, this usually consists of me going to the room after 4am and getting up around 10am to sleep the rest off under the sun at the pool.  Note, the reason for the couple of hours in the sun is to detox from the smoke and fumes from the casino floors.  The first day plays out as expected, hit the room about 3am and hit the zzz’s.  At 8:30am I am awakened by extremely loud drilling from what appears to be the floor right below my room.  This I find extremely annoying and even try to drown it out with the pillow without success.  Frustrated, I decided to simply get up and head out to some places my wife wanted to visit.  Day plays out again exactly the same along with the same drilling which starts closer to 8am this time.  Furious, I call the front desk and ask them how long I am going to have to listen to them drilling every morning.  The response was “Oh, they are replacing windows below you, but we can move you to the other tower if you want to?”  No, really I enjoy the sound; I just wanted to know if you could add a jackhammer.  Idiot, of course I want moved or I would not have bothered to call you.  My take away from this was that they KNEW this was happening but put us there anyway.  The other issue is they had to move another party that was on the same floor (they needed to be close to us… no comment at this time).  I relayed that they needed to be moved as well and that was agreed to by the clerk.  So we packed up both rooms and headed out to the casino floor to kill sometime before the rooms were ready.  At 1:00pm we gathered up our luggage and headed to the registration desk to get the new room assignment.   Turns out they second room wasn’t done yet, but ours was.  We took the keys and I specifically asked the clerk what the second room number was and wrote it down on the key envelope as well.  We dropped all the stuff off at our room and headed out to the casino floor again.

Continue reading Whack A Time Share Peddler

Left ’em hanging at the Courthouse

A week ago, I was heading out for a quick lunch in downtown Peoria.  Local restaurants bring carts downtown by the courthouse with various menu items.  Now that I have multiple offices for an assignment I am on, I get the benefit of being able to enjoy a larger variety for lunch.  As I walked past the courthouse I saw an individual of African American descent (is that the proper classification these days?) walk past an individual of Anglo Saxon heritage standing by a retaining wall.  The guy standing must have said something to the guy walking by because he turned back to talk to the guy standing.  As soon as the walking guy recognized him, he put out his right hand for the standard greeting handshake.  He literally stood there with hand out for close to 30 seconds while conversing back and forth.  The standing guy never took his hand out of his pockets nor even changed his expression to acknowledge the extended hand.  Finally the shake initiator raised his elbow up higher to draw further attention to the request for a shake… no response.  In a last desperate attempt he switched hands and tried to get the guy to shake the other hand but that was met with the exact same lack of acknowledgment.  Finally the guy turned back and continued on his way.  I found this very strange.  There was no change in voice tone that I could tell so it was not an issue of being angry, just a complete lack of desire to shake his hand.  I wish I could have actually heard the conversation to be able to determine if the visuals matched what was actually going on.  For all I know the standing guy could have been completely paralyzed in both arms and was unable to remove them from his pocket – of course, Biden would have demanded that he extend his arms anyway – maybe the standing guy saw him spit into both his hands earlier in the day.  He certainly could not have felt threatened in the presence of the universal sign for “I am not carrying a weapon” and he did not even twitch to the opposite direction.

Anyway, I thought it was odd and that is what this site is all about.

The 3P Principle… or Gaming Gas Pricing — Now NOPE

Updated: Oct 31st, 2008 My brother has now provided further clarification of the principle and has given this m0vement the moniker NOPE for Not One PEnny.  Please see his comment below for more discussion and additional tie breaker rules.

I have to credit my brother Ron for the topic of this post.  The catalyst for this entry was that I actually acted upon his theory twice while traveling around Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin this weekend.  So about now, you are wondering what this theory is all about.  Ron and I have had numerous discussions regarding the price of gas.  During one of these discussions, he detailed out a plan to influence market pricing for gas.  It is actually fairly simple in understanding and execution, but the dilemma is that it has to be regionally followed or it will have little impact on the overall pricing.  If collectively executed, I think it may change the way the market looks at demand based pricing.  Ron never gave a clever title to his concept, so I am going to go ahead and label it for him…. he is definitely welcome to change it if he wants.  So here goes.. ready… The 3P Principle or expanded… the Perfect Petro Pricing Principle.  Unlike most economic principles these days, this one doesn’t take a thesis to explain.  In fact, it only takes a sentence.  If there are multiple gas stations in reasonable proximity, ALWAYS go to the station with the lowest displayed price even if it requires an inconvenience to get to the location or wait an additional amount of time waiting for a free pump.  Now that was not that difficult was it?  The heart of the theory is market based pricing.  There is absolutely no way an establishment can continue pricing different than a competitor who has the same customers.  Eventually, depending on his loss longevity, the price will have to come down to at least match the other businesses…. and ideally, from a capitalist point of view, he might re-price down below the competitors to win back some of the lost customers.  That sets up another round of discounts from the rest of the competitors.  There are some quirks to the principle due to some options like the level of octane that is provided, what detergent is included etc.  But apparently the gas stations don’t really think this is important to you or they would actually put it on their sign next to their displayed gas prices so you could decide how much YOU really care about it.  If you are not driving a high end vehicle, I doubt you care if it is 87 or 89 and in the Midwest just assume it has 10% Ethanol in it.  So instead of just complaining about the high prices or bandwagoning on the dependency of foreign oil so we must go green crap, do something about it and start following the 3P Principle (or whatever he decides to call it)

Doing my part this weekend, I had the chance to make this choice twice.  The first time was South of Rockford IL in a small town called Rochelle…. and as I say everytime I pass that city: “Rochelle Rochelle, a young girl’s erotic journey from Milan to Minsk”  If you are a Seinfeld fan, you should be laughing now.  Anyway, we had to fill up for gas and as usual on the interstate, there were three filling stations to choose from.  Two of them were at $2.99/gallon and the other one was at $2.84.  Even though we had to drive 500 feet extra and wait for a light, I made my wife go to the cheaper gas.  Of course, there were some customers at the other stations paying too much, but it will probably take a little while to get the word out on this genius plan.  We filled up and went on our merry way having lost only about 4 minutes extra due to seeking out the cheaper price.

The second time was up in Lake Geneva, but it slightly backfired on us but on reflection, the proximity parameter really wasn’t met.  We drove into Lake Geneva off of Rt 12 on the East side of the lake.  The gas price at that particular spot was $2.95.  We were still okay on the guage, so we completely traversed to the West side via the southern Lake Shore drive.  On that end, there was a gas station displaying $2.85.  Can someone please tell me why the gas is priced differently a mere 20-30 miles away?  We noticed the cheaper gas, but the guage was still in our favor so we started heading back to the East, but this time via the North side.  Unfortunately, I made my wife take a wrong turn which literally brought us back down to the exact same point we saw the $2.85 station.  Yes, I heard about that for at least 20 minutes straight.  At that point I decided it was an omen so I made her stop for gas.  Unfortunately, when we retraced our Northern route, we passed another gas station that had $2.84 displayed…. still better than $2.95 though.  So, we did our part this weekend.  A few more thousand regionally concerned citizens and we should start seeing a true impact.

All credit goes to my brother Ron!  now about that nomogracult thing…

Lake Geneva Gets It

I was able to catch the last presidential debate between Obama and McCain.  To be honest, at one point I was stunned and left just starring at the TV.  Both candidates clearly have their faults and quirks, but the last time I witnessed the statements like – we need to redistribute the gains of the wealthy to others and a patriotic duty to pay your (unfare) share to the government – I was reading about Marxism.  This is completely unbelievable and quite frankly the most disgusting thing I’ve heard so far in this campaign… with exception of course to Biden telling a wheelchair bound individual to stand and Palin purposely leaving off her G’s.  I clearly do not have the assests of the individuals at the top of the wealth lists in the US, but in no way, shape, or form do I think they should be obligated to give it back to those who didn’t take the same chances or make the right decisions.  Last time I checked, America was built on capitalism, not a share the wealth commune. 

I was close to the Wisconsin boarder this weekend at a dog show and happened to have the opportunity to run up to Lake Geneva to find out why Chicago natives flock there every weekend.  It is definitely a pretty nice area and the lake is clearly large enough to have some fun on, but honestly, it didn’t leave me with the unquenchable desire to rush home and book a hotel.  Beyond the lake, there didn’t look like a whole lot to do – other than checking out the georgeous houses out there.  On the other hand, when Lake Delton fills up again, we will be heading up there for more fun on the jet skiis, casino and all the miniature golf you can handle.  Now what did catch my attention at Lake Geneva was the near 15 to 1 ratio of McCain signs to Obama.  Apparently they get it… which isn’t surprising based on some of those dwellings.  Sure, I am a little envious of their opportunities, but glad I live in the land of choice that provides everyone that opportunity should they have some initiative.

Now we just need to figure out how Joe the Plumber is going to pay his back taxes.

Book Recollection: Song Man

As you may recall, my brother gave me Will Hodgkinson’s previous body of work called Guitar Man which I blogged on back in May.  Well, he also gave me his second book entitled Song Man.  Having successfully learned enough about the Guitar to complete his mission of playing a gig, Will now took on the task of learning how to actually write a song.  The goal of this effort is to learn enough about composing a song to write an original work and record it.  I definitely enjoyed the guitar learning saga and was hoping his second book would be just as entertaining (although I currently do not have a thirst to develop my own songs so I did have a little bit lower expectations compared to the fact I too have been experiencing the torture of learning the six string.)  The gang was all back from Guitar Man so it flowed very nicely from the first book.  Similar to the process in that book, Song Man is constructed around Will’s journey to seek out experts in the field, gain insights into their approach to making great songs and then tried to apply those nuggets of genius into his own songs.  The disappointing aspect of these books is that it doesn’t come with a CD of the created material.  After awhile, you start wondering how the transformations in the various songs actually sound, was the advice he was getting from the experts actually improving the work or was it stifling his creativity.  Something tells me I am going to have to seek out a copy of his pressed songs and take a listen.  The nice thing about it, I will have a complete understanding of how the song came to be which has always interested me more than just hearing the actual song.  This is probably why I like VH1’s Behind the Music and their Unplugged show so much.  In those short sessions, the artist usually gives a glimpse into the creativity process, the catalyst for their particular piece of art.  Of course every once in awhile you get the heart wrenching “it was just luck” or an “accident” when questioned how a particular riff was constructed or a particular beat was established. 

From Song Man’s perspective, he must be commended for setting a goal, formulating a process to achieve that goal and ultimately delivering on his Life List entry.  In comparison to Guitar Man, I thought the first book was a little better read, but I still enjoyed this particular work and now looking forward to what journey he dreams up next.  It actually just occurred to me that I am developing a common theme for some of my favorite types of books to read.  Many of them tend to involve the subject putting himself under some type of challenge followed by a detailed account of the journey to that end.  Both Will and probably my favorite author A.J. Jacobs fit this description to a T.  I would definitely recommend Will’s (and Jacobs’) if you also like this type of theme. 

Follow the link below to read my highlights in Song Man

Continue reading Book Recollection: Song Man

Book Recollection: Gang Leader for a Day

Finally, things should start slowing down a bit around here.  Friday was our annual Halloween Cookout party which is more properly titled Work My Butt Off Trying to Get Ready for a Party.  Now that is behind me, I can focus back on Rock Band 2, oh, I mean the Blog.  My travel book for my recent Vegas vacation was Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh.  I actually found out about this particular body of work from reading Freakonomics.  There was a chapter in that excellent book discussing why drug dealers still live at home.  A lot of the information in that discussion was based on Sudhir’s information gained while befriending one of the gang leaders of the Chicago based Black Kings.   I was actually intrigued enough from that brief introduction to go out and purchase Sudhir’s book to get a little more understanding of what it is like in the gang realm.  Just trying to broaden my horizons a little bit and understand life from a different viewpoint.

The basis of this particular book is an account of Sudhir’s friendship with a gang leader in a poor Chicago housing district.  At the time, Sudhir was a graduate student at the University of Chicago.  As a part of his coursework, he wanted to understand what it was like growing up in a poverty stricken Chicago neighborhood.  With the advice of his professor, he embarked on a survey mission in the Robert Taylor Homes.  I consider this a pretty gutsy move for a son of a South Asia immigrant who grew up in the well off Southern California suburbs.  In this situation, I am not entirely sure a white individual would have had as much success.  During the course of his survey efforts, he came in contact with the gang leader of the locally established Black Kings.  The leader’s name was given as J.T., but upon confession at the end of the book, he did disguise the names for safety (his and the subjects).  T.J. became fixated by the thought of having an autobiography about him and therefore accepted Sudhir into his fold and gave him access to a tremendous amount of information on his gang operated, the organization hierarchies and probably more interesting, the daily social interaction with the residents of the housing project.  It did bother me a little bit while reading this account if there was not a line being crossed – especially when the author had the opportunity to act as the leader for a day in order to understand what it was like to lead a gang.  He did eventually get some legal council to set some boundaries on his engagement, but I would characterize it as a little gray.  I think the most fascinating aspect of the book was the small business ecosystem that was created within the residents.  Beyond the easy revenue streams of prostitution and drug dealing, there were not so obvious aspects of renting out stairwells, ad-hoc car repair services and a clever barter system orchestrated by the tenant housing authority representative (for example, recommending which store their tenants should shop at for free alcohol which is then given to another merchant for coats.  I was also amazed about how much the gang actually contributes to the local housing economy in order to gain their friendship and quite frankly to guarantee they can operate without hassle.

As a summary, I thought it was a pretty entertaining read.  Sudhir’s style is candid with a good amount of introspection and analysis.  I still disapprove, but clearly have a better understanding as to what motivates individuals in this situation and the context of which their decisions are made in.  My hat is off to Sudhir who actually pulled this off without getting killed.

My summary points can be found after the jump.

Mathematically Eliminated.. or Yeah for the Goat!

Let’s start this quick post by saying I am a St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball fan.  This was not so much selected as opposed to handed down from my father.  As a result of this affiliation, I am also an anti-Cub fan.  No surprise there since it also goes along with my distaste for the Beatles probably based entirely on being a fan of the Rolling Stones.  I wonder just how much of our likes and dislikes are really based on contrasting scenarios?  I like the Illini, I dislike Michigan – I like Physics, I dislike Chemistry…. sounds like a future post topic, but the point of this one is to pick at the wound we like to call “Cub’s Post Season Dysfunction”

So I had the opportunity to go up to Wrigley field for a game in the final series of the season between the Cards and the Cubs.  So I grabbed my Cards hat and headed up with my Cub friends (and another Cardinal fan that was apparently too worried to actually wear the RED).  It ended up being a fairly pleasant day, probably due to the fact we hit their star pitcher out of the park for an early exit and rode a nice 12 run outing to the win.  Only twice that day did I hear the taunt of Mathematically Eliminated tossed my way in light of the Redbirds inability to make the playoffs this year.   Then on the way back to the car and SUV drives by with a similar disparaging remark on my team.  Yes, they got us this year, but noted to myself to see just how far they make it in their Cinderella year.   Last night I got the answer to that question… EXACTLY 3 GAMES.  Nice going Cubbies – a stellar year full of highly paid players who choke when it matters.  So… we concede we didn’t make it to the playoffs, and we admit your season was longer than ours…  a whopping 1.9% more.

Here’s your broom… see ya next year!