101 thoughts on “February 27, 2012: Relief”

    1. I was at this game. That dude had the fastest looking fastball I've ever witnessed in person. Shame how everything's gone, I was really looking forward to seeing him zoom a few in there.

  2. Is anybody considering going to Gleeman's thing in Hopkins next Monday? It's on my side of town so I'm considering it if others will be there.

    1. I didn't watch much last night but Chris Rock was my favorite part that I saw. He made fun of voice work for animated movies. I won't try to quote him here but it was good stuff.

      1. Didn't see that, but as he's only been in Osmosis Jones and some Dreamworks films, so it's not like he's seen what it's like to do voice work for good animated movies.

            1. I watch the Oscars (on occasion) because they do generally get some of them - Director, Editing, and other incredibly important ones that average joes don't often get excited about - correct. The actor awards tend to favor hype and box office draw, though, as much as they favor talent. There are waaaaaay better acting awards out there - as far as getting them right - but I think the Oscars are the right movie awards for the average moviegoer.

              The Grammys, however...I haven't watched that show since I was a kid. I can't remember looking at a list of winners and ever going, "Yep."

            2. I struggle to see the appeal in watching the Oscars. Famous people dressed up on stage? Is that the appeal? Regardless of whether or not the Academy does a good job selecting winners, I can read and digest a list of the winners in 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops, instead of watching a 3-hour show. I figure it's a lot better use of my time to actually watch movies during the awards and then read about who won the awards after the fact.

              3. I feel this way too, ubes, though for me another reason is that I don't see how actors and actresses are in competition with one another. Different roles are apples and oranges. It makes no sense to compare actors from different films and different scripts. We're not competing.

                I mean, I get it. It's a way to recognize great work in the business. I just think I'd prefer it if no nominees were announced; that could seriously cut down on campaigning for the win (studios and agents do this). It could also increase it, too, but if everyone's campaigning the noise is so loud that the Academy just about has to ignore it.

              4. My wife insisted we watch it and then complained that it was long and boring. What? Had she never seen it before?

    2. I get the gag, absolutely, but they only speak because so many people listen (for some reason).

      I'll never understand why people worship and follow actors so much. Even at college, after I'd done a show, there was a certain type of person who'd see me afterward and regard me reverently. I was in an elevator at Gage towers and this girl started hyperventilating. She said "Sorry, I just think it's so cool that I'm meeting the guy from One Last White Horse."

      I'm not in it for the fame, but wow, that was a powerful feeling and I can see how some get addicted to it.

        1. It happened even more after professional shows. A group of high schoolers went to Cannibal! The Musical when I did it in 2007 or so, and they wanted their picture with me afterward. One girl got all giddy and nervous after I walked out to the front of the house. Just hilarious stuff.

          I remember turning to my friend Bob and saying, "Man, I wish I could have attracted this many high school girls when I was in high school."

          I don't know what it is that makes people this way, although some say the courage to get on stage in front of people when anyone could make a mistake just sounds impossible. For me, the mistakes are exciting. I don't want them to happen, but there's always a way to cover them. Other folks just can't get their heads around the idea of memorizing all the lines in a show. When I did One Last White Horse in college I had about 1100 lines of script. That's a crapton, but after working with it for just a few days and then getting my bearings onstage and playing off the other actors, it was just like any other show, in that it became harder to forget lines to remember them. After a show ends, it'll still remain in my head in its entirety for about a month unless I'm working on another one.

                1. Ours actually had a bunch of actual actors in it, too!

                  Our company's shows have done in well there because Dominic Papatola - a PiPress critic who doesn't like anything - really likes us. That one, though, sold out something like 28 of 32 performances, and there were a lot of people who showed up that were definitely obsessed with the movie. One night, there was a whole row of friends who showed up dressed as my character.

                  1. Awesome. I'm glad so many people came out for it. It's really wonderful.

                    You know, to be totally honest I'm surprised I didn't end up at those shows. That movie has been a thing with my closest friend down there and me for about as long as we've known each other.

      2. I have to admit I've proudly told people I know a guy who writes screenplays and just got a show picked up by Fox. It's so dumb. I don't think anybody has said, "Hey, I got a friend who is a social worker," expecting people to say, "Awesome! What's his name?"

        1. People have mentioned excitement upon finding out that I'm an IT guy. Of course, that's mostly because they've got a computer that's running really slow lately, and they tried downloading two or three antiviruses, and they just aren't working...

          1. Heh heh, yeah, I've "fine tuned" several of my neighbor's PCs. Not a big deal, and it's nice to be wanted and all.

            I sang in a small group that happened to have (as it I later found out) a guitarist/vocalist from the prog band Starcastle. The nicest guy and still greet him every other week or so. When I jokingly brought him one of their CDs to autograph, he signed it "I know you too well to sign this -- Steve". Have to admit that if I'd known he had been in the band (and I had known the band better, apparently they were big in the StL area at least) I'm sure I would have been taken aback.

            1. No, I'll never complain about it, because most of the people I fix PCs for are definite "you scratch my back I scratch yours" kind of people, and are proficient in areas that I am not.

              My little brother works on movies that people have seen, that's about it for people I'm connected to that do things that other people know about (except for Spooky, of course).

        2. It's sad how true that is. I know you've saved lives before, but if I told people I knew someone who'd saved people from suicide, they'd give me, "That's cool."

          When I tell people I know the black guy from Reno 911, though, or even the girl from the new casino commercial in Minnesota, they about have an aneurysm.

              1. I had never seen that commercial before. The woman bending over backwards in the beginning terrifies me in a way that I can't quite put a finger on.

                1. Yeah, when Cheryl told me about the commercial, I found it, and my first thought was "If that was Cheryl, there's a lot I don't know about her." I didn't catch the girl's face, if it was shown.

                  1. I think it's actually the weird look of sedated glee on the woman's face before she bends, and the fact that even if it's not enhanced, it has an unreal quality to it. That combined with the music makes it feel more like a surrealist nightmare horror movie than a lottery commercial.

                    1. Yeah, the bending over part doesn't bother me as much as the facial expression before she does it.
                      "I wish I had a beard." Heh, me too.

        3. I've mentioned it to a couple of people too. The response has been muted (or doubtful, but I'm naive, so a person lying to me on the internet has maybe happened before... (He said he was a crown prince!)).

          The only time my profession gets mentioned by anyone is when they're comparing how crappy their families are. "Yeah, well my brother's a lawyer, so obviously my family is worse than yours."

          1. I know we talked about this elsewhere, but the doubtful ones slay me. They seem to think that nobody could possibly know someone who works in the business.

            Certain family members (not close ones) were also pretty unsupportive. They have this idea - these folks who have rarely ever left Blue Earth - that stars are born out of thin air, and anyone who's not a successful actor now couldn't possibly ever be.

              1. Heh...myself, even.

                I was excited about this for probably about a week before people started asking "When will it start?" and my stock reply became "Probably never, but at least the creator and director still thinks it's going to happen."

      3. If it makes anyone feel any better, I'm met with blank stares when telling people who I am. I have to move to my hobbies to generate any sort of awe.

          1. I've never gotten that one, that'd be an interesting person to describe it to. I usually get "Is that, like, that thing on the ice?"

                  1. Also it is highly similar to the summer game Bocce, already popular among hipsters because it is usually only played by old European men.

                    Would you be surprised if I told you the club here has four (I think) bocce courts for the summer?

  4. Thanks, Beau.

    I'm actually not sick (particularly) though it seems most of Arizona is. Today, it's my daughter who's miserable, as she was last night, so the CoC was the furthest thing from my mind. She's thrown up six or seven times in three days. It's the sickest she's been since her traumatic birth and first month. All she wants is to go to school. She folded her hands, cried and said "Please" repeatedly to me this morning, just minutes after her last vomit. It's so, so hard to say no to that girl.

    1. All three of my kids threw up last Monday night, and the school policy is keep them at home if there's any vomiting within the last twenty-four hours. Both my girls begged to go to school, too. Evidently school is a lot more fun that it used to be.

  5. the National Weather Service must be pretty confident about this upcoming snow/ice/rain storm for tuesday and Wednesday because they hoisted watches for the area yesterday.

    After this fall and winter of storms falling apart/moving off track, I dont believe anything will happen.

  7. well, I dont have any hope Josh Willingham will amount to anything in a Twins uniform now. From AP guy twitter

    Jon Krawczynski ‏ @APkrawczynski

    Talked to O's SS JJ Hardy today. Gave same story Ortiz did after leaving Twins. O's told him not to mess around and pull the ball. 30 HRs

  9. whoa

    Edmonton Oilers ‏ @NHL_Oilers
    #Oilers acquire defenceman Nick Schultz from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for defenceman Tom Gilbert.

    Schultz is the all time leader in games played in a Wild sweater at 743 (Pierre Marc Bouchard is second at 522)

    2. Oilers acquire defenceman Nick Schultz from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for defenceman Tom Gilbert.

      Shouldn't Gilbert be changing position to defenseman when he crosses the border?

  11. This is already known by the nine followers, but I tweeted a brief synopsis and link to Jeff's What's the Plan post. I knew the nine followers would already know about this, but I was thinking the purpose of @TheWGOM should be to promote work of the citizens, either here or elsewhere. Right now it's being sent to the echo chamber, but someone could easily retweet it to their flock.

    1. this may belong in the “maybe someday” pile, specifically because i do not know how much work it would take, but is it possibly to add some sort of twitter widget to the posting screen? for example, people would write their post, and in the hypothetical “twitter box”, they could write a brief description and when posted, it would automatically get fired out to the twitter via RSS (or by whatever method) with a link. by extension maybe it could also get sent out to, say, MN gameday too (i know there was a problem with everything being sent there before, but this way it would be more the specific context than, say, the CoCs). i dunno, just kind of thinking out loud here.

      1. There is already a plugin to tweet everything that's posted. Plus an excerpt section when creating a post, so perhaps easier to do than I originally thought.

        Right now, I have everything in the RSS feed, because I don't think anyone uses it on their site. I could easily make a baseball or Twins specific feed and give that to MN Gameday. Probably should, so people don't still think the WGOM is dead.

        1. cool. yeah, it seems like a nice half-bakef way to get stuff out there with a minimum of (continued) effort.

          also, it's probably partially due to the recent mafiawolf game, but whenever i see this, i can't help but think, "in soviet russia, !"

            1. For @TheWGOM? Yes (now). I just added it below the video. How's its location? It isn't very prominent right now, so perhaps on the sidebar for a few days?

              1. i have an idea to make it more prominent without being ostentatious, but it will have to wait until later tonight.

  12. I sold a videogame to Adam Everett today and talked to him for about a half hour. He's a great dude.

    This is a great baseball city, and I'm seeing players constantly (I don't know who a lot of them are, but they're clearly ballplayers). It's helping me get excited when after a year like 2011, I might not otherwise have been revved up for baseball.

    1. OMG... having an aneurism... must get Tim Van Patten's number...

      (Adam Everett? That is the kid from Eight is Enough, right?)

        1. I take it all back. It was Vince Van Patten on that show. Tim Van Patten was Dick's half-brother--which makes him Vince's uncle, I guess. He's the one you want in your Rolodex, as he's directed eps of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, etc.

          Does Adam still have those stupid bangs?

          1. Shit, those bangs are fantastic, if you recognize that I use the word "fantastic" to mean "an unfortunate blip in American common sense."

            Yeah, it appears Tim Van Patten's the guy. I want to know that guy now.

  13. I dont know a whole lot about NASCAR....why was there a tanker full of jet fuel going around the track? (if you havent seen it, a car went out of control and hit it causing a huge fireball)

    1. I saw (and loved) the following unattributed line:

      Say what you will about Bud Selig, a World Series Game has never been delayed because third base exploded in a ball of flaming jet fuel.

  14. Wow. Just wow.

    The death of a 10-year-old Southern California schoolgirl after a fight with another student has been ruled a homicide, the coroner said today.

    Investigators said Joanna Ramos, a fifth-grader at Willard Elementary School in Long Beach, died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

    "They did surgery on her brain because she had a blood clot, and after surgery the doctor said she was still alive, and then a few minutes later he comes back and tells us that her heart stopped and they couldn't bring her back," Joanna's sister, Vanessa Urbina, told the Associated Press.

    Joanna died at 9 p.m. Friday. Earlier that afternoon, she and another fifth-grade girl had planned to fight in an alley near the school.

    "They were fighting over a boy, just for a boy," classmate Stephanie Soltero told ABC News affiliate KABC, crying. "It's just stupid."

    Police said there were seven witnesses to the fight, which lasted less than a minute and didn't involve any weapons. No arrests have been made, the AP reported.

    After the fight, Joanna returned to her after-school program with blood on her knuckles from wiping a bloody nose. She also complained of a headache, prompting the school to call her parents. Joanna was unconscious and not breathing when family members took her to the hospital at about 5:50 p.m., according to police.

  15. I'm currently in a McDonalds in a metro station in Vienna. I left Prague at midnight and got here at 5:00 AM. I've been bumming around on the subway to kill time. Embassy opens in an hour, then it's the 1:40 PM bus back, getting home around 7. It's gonna be a long day.

      1. I usually didn't go any further west on the Orange Line than East Falls Church (to catch the bus shuttle to Tyson's Corner for my internship).

      2. And that was immediately where my mind went too.

        I had to go all the way out on the Orange Line every other week to catch a bus to the Fairfax courthouse. I hated every minute of it.

        I avoided Tysons like the plague.

        1. ugh. the thing I disliked the most about living off of East-West Highway between Silver Spring and Bethesda was having to take a bus to get to the Silver Spring Metro stop. Transfers suck @ss.
          They make commuting feel ten times longer, even if they only double the actual time.

          1. Yeah, the transfers were brutal. If you just took the bus it wasn't so bad, but if you switched from bus to metro or vice versa it was painful.

            That was another reason I didn't love Maryland - VA seemed to be more closely grouped around the metro stops (at least the places in VA I went most regularly (except for those trips to Fairfax, of course)).

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