Cup of Coffee

May 26, 2011: The Pieces Fit

73 Comments

This impending move to LA is coming together better than I could have hoped, and I already have several opportunities down there. That's the benefit of having contacts who have contacts.

73 thoughts on “May 26, 2011: The Pieces Fit”

  1. The old site is down, by my hand, at least for awhile. In the background, there are a few of us working on a way to port the archives over here or at least to a spot where the Citizens can find it. But, for now, I have the site in lockdown.

    1. When you said lockdown, you meant it. I thought there'd be some sort of "Thanks for stopping, but the site's been taken down" or something, not a 403 Permission Denied.

      1. If anyone needs or wants access to the site, let me know. We'll work something out. I am hoping that we'll have the thing ported over to a new location relatively soon.

        Also, sean, send me an e-mail with redirect instructions.

  2. Since there was no game last night and no other scheduled activities, I took the opportunity to convert Runner daughter into a goram browncoat, thanks to Netflics instant play. Pilot episode and two additional eps in so far; she's hooked.

    1. I bought Firefly on DVD, and my wife and I have been watching episodes for the last couple weeks. She's not a huge fan, but at least she's watching them.

      1. We've watched the show and the movie through quite a few times. The real shame of it is that I remember when it was on in high school and just never got around to following.

        The wife and I are faithful Castle fans now, and it's really great to see Nathan Fillion on a show that appears stable and has lasted more than 1 year.

        1. I've been meaning to try Castle. How much backstory do I need? Should I find season 1 somewhere, or can I just watch the episodes on Hulu?

          1. I would recommend watching season 1 cause I have a thing about watching shows , but you could probably get by with just watching the current stuff. There is a bit of character development, especially in Castle and Beckett's (female lead) relationship, and there are a few 2 part episodes out there, but other than that, you'd be okay.

            I know the DVD's are available on Netflix and I think the first season might be streamable, too.

            1. what Rob said. There is an ongoing storyline involving the murder of Beckett's mother, but most of the episodes are stand-alone. And the writers throw in an occasional, sly (or not so sly) Firefly reference.

              Castle and Bones are my two stand-by shows these days.

              re: Firefly, well done, Rhu. I own both the series and the movie.

              1. i've been meaning to check out firefly, though my main inspiration is summer glau. i was introduced to her in that terminator thingie, but had no real desire to watch the show. i've heard enough good recommendations of firefly for me to watch it as a vehicle for ms. glau.

                1. ALL of the actors in firefly are quite good. I particularly like Adam Baldwin (his acting, not his character) -- he can say a lot with a few (sometimes hilarious) facial expressions. I also like how the series treads lightly in regards to military, religion, ethics, and dinosaur figurines.

                  2. I particularly like Adam Baldwin (his acting, not his character)

                    I think Jayne is an awesome character. He gets a lot of great lines, a la Worf. Plus, he has a lucky hat.

                    Baldwin has brought a lot of the same feel to his role on Chuck. Except for, you know, the conniving, borderline mutinous part.

    1. pfft. i give him three weeks before he's selling himself over by the blue banana.

      1. It looks like two friends can get me enough work as an extra and a production assistant to allow me to make my money working in the business, but I may take a stable job at first to be sure first. As for Stone, that's a nice dream, but at two hours away from Hollywood I'm sure I'd tire of the commute in a rush.

        1. Oh wow, I didn't realize how far away the brewery actually was. I bitch about my < 3 mile commute, I couldn't imagine doing 2+ hours.

          1. My FIL has done a 2+ hour commute for most of the last thirty years! I have no idea why someone would do that to oneself, but it's better than actually living near the nuclear power plants at which he's worked...

            1. The first 2 years out of school, I had about a 20 minute, 16 mile commute. It wasn't too bad, but one of the main factors in moving jobs was the 5 miles between my home and work now.

              It isn't that much faster to get to work but I get to drive residential roads instead of insane highways, and it's so much nicer.

              1. If your commute in SoCal is less than 30 minutes, you're considered very lucky. Of course, my commute is zero (unless you count the 10 seconds it takes to walk into my home office), so I've got nothing to complain about.

                1. My commute to Century City is 35 minutes - but that's the time it takes me to walk it. LA is an underrated city for walking - uncrowded sidewalks, perfect weather, lots of palm trees and other greenery in many places.

                  1. I moved 4 times in the 5+ years I lived in LA. I never did get used to refering to commute distance by time instead of miles. Now my commute is twice as long as SoCal's.

                    1. We're looking to move because my commute is an hour and forty-five minutes one-way.

          2. San Diego county is larger than some countries (and is approximately the same area as the state of Connecticut).

        2. Yep, Stone's much more in my old neck of the woods, a job which strangely got me onto the set of Veronica Mars thanks to Stu Segall hosting an exercise on his lot.

  5. Seth Stohs with a good nine-inning post, but this is the part that most interested me:

    I am really struggling with this Kevin Slowey situation. Obviously I am not in the clubhouse every day like many, but I have never heard anyone say anything negative about Kevin Slowey. In fact, in my opinion, he is a terrific guy. We first made contact late in 2005 after he signed with the Twins and finished his season in Beloit. He has done several Q&As, and he continues to participate in my NFL “Expert” Picks each year. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about him. In fact, there are many great things to say about him. I remember talking to him at Twins Fest several years ago when a little kid came to him and asked him what his season highlight was. Slowey responded by saying that it was pitching the gold medal game against Cuba in Havana during an international comopetition. Then, he asked the boy what his favorite highlight of his season was. I was impressed. So when I hear reports of the Twins saying negative things about him, I can’t help but wonder aloud. When I hear Bert Blyleven and Dick Bremer bashing and questioning Slowey, it certainly makes me wonder.

    Slowey is incredibly smart and speaks several languages “well enough.” I have heard it from a couple of sources that Gardy and the coaches don’t necessarily like smart players. See Craig Breslow and Brendan Harris for a couple more examples. Is Slowey an ace? No. Would it be nice if he was able to just take the role (bullpen) that he is being asked to fill? Of course. But I think the level of disdain and disappointing the is spewing out of the coaching staff and the media is far overboard. Even if everything they say is true, why are they letting it become public? There would be several teams interested in Slowey today if the Twins made him available.

    To be fair, if Slowey is healthy and just asking out of the bullpen role, that would be disappointing. At the end of the day, the Twins are paying him well to pitch in whatever role they ask. And if he wants to get back into the starting rotation, the best way to do that is to pitch well in his given role, the bullpen. However, he was put on the disabled list yesterday with an abdominal strain. Even that can’t be an easy situation as Slowey says it is an ‘acute’ abdominal strain, while the Twins trainer says t is ‘mild.”

    Also of concern in the minors:

    Aaron Hicks was not in the lineup. He’s been playing very well of late. On Tuesday night, he was caught between third and home and dove into 3rd base and came away from there holding his hand. The extent of the injury is not known at this time. It could be a short-term thing, or (hopefully not!) it could be longer. I’ll try to get more information.

    1. thanks for highlighting that, socal. I don't read Seth very often anymore, through no fault of his.

    2. Thanks, socal. I never got into that site solely because of time constraints. This is my home, and anything else is gravy.

      Great post, Seth, if you're reading.

  6. From MLB Trade Rumors, this tidbit:

    The Rockies will call on internal options to replace Jorge de la Rosa, who will miss the rest of the season with Tommy John surgery, according to Troy Renck of the Denver Post. Rockies owner Dick Monfort says the team didn't have insurance on the left-hander's contract.

    De La Rosa signed his current deal on 30 Nov 2010, and will be paid $9.5M this year, $10M in 2012, and holds a 2013 player option for $11M. Exactly half that contract (the less expensive half) is now toast, and who knows how long it takes De La Rosa to come back as an effective starter. Unless there's a clause in his contract preventing him from exercising that option due to injury, that means the Rockies could potentially be paying him $11M while he's still sorting out his post-TJ pitching. As it is, the Rockies are likely paying $19.5M for the 59 innings De La Rosa pitched this year. Why would they not carry insurance on a player signed for that kind of money? Unless it's the length, I can't figure it. Even then, ten million bucks isn't exactly chump change when putting together a roster.

    1. Insuring players is more complicated than that. Quoting the quoted part in the linked-to post (emphasis mine):

      Each team pays a premium based on the salaries of its five highest-paid players, but is free to allocate that coverage how it wishes. Typically, a team will extend coverage to as many as seven players, Daly said. Coverage kicks in when a player misses at least 30 games. Beyond that, individual teams are free to pursue additional coverage, but the heavy premiums make it a losing proposition. To insure a player under the league program, it costs about 5 percent of his salary. To insure additional players, it would cost substantially more.

      I haven't seen anything about it changing since then.

      1. Interestingly, De La Rosa's salary is third-highest on the Rockies' roster this year, and will be the highest next year.

        So insuring De La Rosa's contract would cost at least $975,000? The ounce of prevention seems worth the pound of cure to me.

        1. B-R has him listed as second most expensive for this year and next, but next year is contingent on Aaron Cook's mutual option. It does make a lot of sense to have some insurance on his contract.

          1. Cot's has Cook second for this year, but first next year if the Rockies take exercise their part of the $12M option (unlikely, I think, since the buyout is only $500k and Cook is essentially a fifth starter). With Esmil Rogers and Juan Nicasio in the fold, I doubt Cook's option is exercised on the Rockies' end. What Cook decides to do, however, will make things interesting.

  7. cc to WGOM homebrewers: Watch your craft beer suppliers - I'm going to my local liquor store for a tasting of these tonight. You get to sample all 5 and the combined package in the form of a Latitude 48. Should be informative! A more thorough explanation is here.

    1. I did that on a slightly smaller scale a few months ago. Made a Columbus pale ale and a Amarillo pale ale and put them in kegs side by side. It was a lot of fun, and the Columbus was the clear winner on my palate.

        1. Yeah, identical grain bill and I did my best to get the calculated IBU's the same. They were a little off because I was going off of average alpha acid percentages, which were slightly different upon actual purchase of the hops. I definitely want to do it again, possibly next time I have two free kegs.

          1. 2 questions:
            1. Is the alpha acid % something you measure, or is it inherent in the variety of hops & marked on the hops package, and,
            2. Do you use bags, or just add pellets to your secondary and then filter before bottling?

            1. The alpha acid % is noted on the bag of hops. There's a general % that a particular hop variety will have, but hop growers do measure each harvest prior to packaging.

              I just toss mine in the boil kettle and don't bother straining them out at all. I rack to a secondary carefully, which leaves most of the hops behind in the primary fermentor. I've never really had much trouble with a lot of hop gunk getting into my bottles doing that, unless I've dry-hopped in secondary. I really need to start using a bag for that.

              1. Just so I'm on the same page - hops in the boil kettle for bitterness, dry hops in the secondary for hops flavor and aroma?

                -Also-

                Do you rack to a secondary with all of your beers or just certain styles?

                1. I'm a firm believer in not using a secondary fermenter. I'll rack the beer into a secondary only if there is a bunch of schizle floating around and if aging a beer before bottling.

                  But, that's just me. As to your original question, adding hops at different times in the boil will produce a range of flavors such as your bittering hops go in at the beginning to maximize bitterness / alpha acid extraction, but when you add hops in the middle / end of boil you are actually flavoring your wort with the essence of the hop added (think citrus for american west coast hops). Dry hopping (and hops added at flameout) mostly impart aroma which is a key to taste in APA, IPA and pale ale in general.

                  A brewer I know describes it like this, when you add carrots, celery, and garlic to a pot with chicken bones to make stock you don't taste those ingredients individually, rather they all add a roundness of flavor to the stock. So, if you want a stock that features garlic you will need to add fresh garlic to the pot as the stock nears completion. That's essentially the same idea with hops.

                  1. -meat: Although that's kind of what I'd been picturing, that description by your brewer acquaintance fully drives home the message. More to that point:

                    Just back from the aforementioned sampling. We tried 5 IPA's, each with of one of the hops that make up the 48: Hallertau Mittelfrueh (German), East Kent Goldings (England); and Ahtanum, Simcoe, and Zeus (WA - Yakima Valley). I didn't like any of them enough to purchase the twelver, but the Simcoe-hopped IPA was actually pretty good; bitter & citrusy - refreshing? I would buy that one if I could get it individually. The consensus was (according to the proprietor) that Simcoe was the hops which seemed to stand out most in the 48. My palate isn't sensitive enough to pick that out, but I could get a sense of all the sampled varieties in the "finished" product.

              2. Whole leaf (plugs in a pinch) rally are the way to go if you're DIY dry hopping.

                  1. Lets just call that a Freudian slip of what you'd like to see happen with the Twin's season.

      1. my company is both vendor and customer of the rail lines (i, unfortunately, am the latter). a buddy down the hall sent that to me, saying he got it from one of his customers there. i had to chastise him as the NS was coming down on the wrong side of the fight. cowcatchers FTW!

    2. Holy cr@p. I missed that. I was watching that game until Florida had a three-run triple in the top of the ninth to go up 6-2. I switched over to Burn Notice, figuring that the game was over and done with, missing the Giants' rally in the bottom of the inning to send it to extras.

      1. Some observers have argued a slugger of his caliber shouldn’t be behind the plate, where hits can be routine, and this injury surely won’t do much to quiet that sentiment.

        apparently they have Stribbers in the Bay area too. EVERY catcher should be disposable, right?

  10. Strib's Rand writes about a Braves/Cards game 23 years ago... and by sheer coincidence it's the only game I ever attended in St. Louis (I was on a road trip visiting a friend in college there). Best part: Bruno switching back and forth between right and left... and tons of free baseball since we didn't care who won and just wanted to be entertained while out drinking.

    2. Surprisingly, no position players were used in this game. My parents and I made it through 18 of the 22 innings (I wanted to stay, but they were my ride). Munoz ended it with the only walkoff homer of his career. The utterly forgettable Brett Merriman pitched three shutout innings to get the win and drop his season ERA to 14.25.

  11. Did I miss a game recap? I've been a bit out of touch with the real world for the last 3 days. While I can't say much about it another institution of higher ed has attempted to poach the good doctor. The location is once again not ideal, there is a pay cut, but the job is a far better balance of teaching and research with an added bonus of potential full time employment for me. Addition by subtraction. We'll see what happens in the next 48 hours.

    3. Good luck with that, meat. I'm assuming if the location is not ideal its not in the North, then.

  12. In the "too good to be true" department, I have a non-smoking, non-crazy friend (she has four cats, but no other hints of crazy) who will need a roommate in Lincoln Heights almost exactly at the time I want to move down there. It's 20 minutes from Hollywood (40 in traffic) so it fits my needs; the friend in question works in the industry and has no gripes about the situation, so I don't know why I would.

    Better yet, I'd be "the cousin who's staying in LA until he's on his feet," so no need for a deposit.

    Best of all, this friend is a very attractive female, and the Milkmaid isn't fretting over that. She shouldn't be, but the fact that she isn't was very important.

    I expect to be posting unforeseen reasons that this whole thing fell apart within the next few days, but until then, being laid off is turning out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

  13. OMG crisis barely averted. My daughter had tickets to the super sold out Adele show for tonight at first ave. In case you haven't been paying attention, the show was booked before her album blew up huge and Adele could have easily sold 6000 tix instead of the 1800 that fit into First Ave so the $28.00 tix are being resold for around $300.

    Anyway literally hours before the show, Adele wrecked her throat and canceled. My daughter was on the way to the show when the word came down. So she was super disappointed of course. First Ave said it would be rescheduled but my daughter has a bunch of out of town events this summer. Fortunately they announced a reschedule date on a day she will be in town. Thank God because it would have been a knock down fight on her staying in town to see the show otherwise.

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