Cup of Coffee

October 24, 2012: Nothing Left to Learn

47 Comments

Chris awoke with his esophagus burning with the intensity of, let’s say, fourteen, burning suns. On his day off, he had finally tried Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in the old Lehigh Valley Railroad Station. He had finished off Tres Hombres accompanied by a side of Cajun Corn and washed down with two Labatt Blue Limes. It had tasted great, but now he had some regrets. After diving into his medicine cabinet and finding some Pepto, he wandered into his living room.

He reached onto a shelf and found a crumpled up piece of paper. Chris unfolded the paper and set it on the table. Finding a pen, he crossed “Dinosaur Bar-B-Que” off the list. His eyes scanned the page and fixed on the only item left uncrossed: find a way to walk from the ground floor to the top of the Xerox Tower. He didn’t need to report for work until 5:00pm that afternoon, so he knew where he would be heading.

Chris entered the Xerox Tower through a revolving door and walked past a security guard and receptionist. He examined the lobby looking at the exit signs for one located far away from anyone’s prying eyes. He found a promising door in the southwest corner of the floor and gave it a tug. It swung open to expose a fire stairwell. Chris quickly entered before anyone could question him.

After climbing all thirty floors, he entered into another lobby. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, flipped through his contacts, and dialed.

“G’day, Chris.”

“Hey. I’m at the top of the Xerox Tower.”

“That’s a beaut of a climb, righto?”

“Um. Yeah. I guess. You know, I never quite understand what you mean, you know?”

“I’m gobsmacked that you understand me.”

“Well, anyway, I’m at the top of the building. It was the last thing on that list you gave me.”

“Okay, mate. I’m rapt to hear it. Stoked for you. It’s official, I’ll tell Ron.”

“Tell him what?”

“You have nothing left to learn in Rochester.”

Story by The Dread Pirate

Image by E-6

47 thoughts on “October 24, 2012: Nothing Left to Learn”

    1. I know you didn't address me directly, but you did mention me, so here goes.

      There's a lot of ways to do this that I'm aware of. One would be to simply download Audacity, set the input source to "Wave Out" or "Stereo Mix", hit record, and start listening to the podcast. Anything that comes through the speakers will be recorded to the mix, which you can then export as a WAVE or MP3.

      You could also use FlashGot to download the video, then use any number of programs to rip the audio from the downloaded videos.

      1. If the audio is already in a podcast, then it would be simpler to open that file in Audacity (or your audio editor of choice), find the part you want, and export it. Same thing with video. The audio part is separate from the video, but you may need to demux it first to get a separate file you can open.

    2. You guys are most excellent. Thanks! Also, I should have mentioned sean too - knowing that it concerned teh interweb and computers and whatnot.

      1. Yeah, but you know how much effort I put into getting music from wherever it's available.
        I've actually got a bunch of videos of Lydia Loveless, Linfinity, and a few other bands in concert that I've downloaded from that one service but never gotten around isolating the audio from.

    3. Oh, I did miss that.
      What Sean and Nibs said. I'm unfamiliar with Flashgot, but I've used a different service, that Bootsy tipped me to.

      If you've got a podcast mp3 (or other sound file), you can just use iTunes as well. I haven't reloaded Audacity or other things on my new computer, but I've used iTunes for some things simple sound editing. In the full track's "Get Info" or whatever the dialog is, I set the start time and end time I need, and adjust the volume level up and down. Then I exit the dialog box, check levels, start and end points, and right-click to "Make MP3 Copy." I don't think that iTunes can convert a video to a sound file, which is a shame.

      I used to use WinAmp to output mp3s of the sound from video files, but I've

      (More primitively, I've used the basic recorder that used to come with Windows (does it still?), and just recorded the sound from the soundcard as it played (have to monkey with the input and stuff I think so it's not grabbing the sound via the microphone. You'd better shut everything else down though, because any sound alerts would also be recorded. I used this method to convert cassette to mp3, but it was a pain. (Replaced the in-line microphone 1/8" stereo jack with a double-male extender connected to the headphone output of a boombox. Pressed record on the little program and then play on the tape deck. I think it records only straight to WAV, and I had to convert it later using something else. Or I might have burnt it to a CD, deleted the files (because they were huge and my hard drive was tiny (this was 1999)), and re-ripped from that CD to MP3.))

      BTW, there's probably some ignorance of things up there. Like it doesn't come from a soundcard or something. I just know that I've figured out how to get the results I desired, not the workings behind it.

  6. I just did a spit take all over my computer screen and then nearly choked on an almond reading Dadboner's latest you guys.

    2. This is a perfect illustration of one of my greatest pet peeves. Let the shit under the current layer of paint remain under the current layer of paint. Boo. Now get the hell off my lawn.

  9. According to the twitters, the Cubs claimed Carlos Gutierrez off waivers from the Twins. I always hate to see one of the boys go, but he's 26, was hurt most of last year, and really hasn't succeeded above Class A. He's had good strikeout numbers in AAA, though.

    1. I don't think he's a huge loss, but if they're cleaning room off the 40 man, I'd think there are plenty of guys who could be cut before Gutierrez.

      And it appears that many of them were outrighted. Carry on.

      1. Yeah, the twitters also say that Jeff Manship, Luis Perdomo, Esmerling Vasquez, Kyle Waldrop, P.J. Walters and Matt Carson have been removed from the 40-man roster.

        2. No surprises in that list. Letting Gutierrez go kind of surprised me, but this was his third year in AAA, albeit with reduced innings due to injury. I think he would have made a passable reliever, but I also think Slama would have as well.

          1. The Twins tend to have more patience with high draft picks, so that was why I was surprised with the move.

    2. There's a good chance that Gutierrez won't add up to much. The Twins can probably go on waivers themselves and find someone of comparable or better value.

    1. I like this move a lot. I hope there's an option for 2014 as well. If he can come back healthy, I'd like to see him stick around for a while.

        1. The Twins have a $9.25M option for Baker, so I imagine that any new contract would be for less than than per year, at least in guaranteed money.

    2. The talk after the organizational meetings is the Twins were looking to add three starting pitchers to the organization. I wonder if signing Baker to a new deal would be considered one of the three or if he would be considered separate? If he is not one of the three, then it sounds like they won't be starting the season with Gibson in the majors, since it would be a rotation of Baker, Diamond and three new pitchers. Otherwise, it would be Baker, Diamond, two new pitchers and then a fifth spot going to one of Gibson, Hendricks, DeVries, Deduno or Duensing. That is a pretty good selection for a fifth starter. Of course, it depends on what kind of talent the Twins actually bring in to the organization, but it certainly has to be better than what we had last year.

          1. oh I agree. I just have a feeling the Twins will throw some money at him. They may not land him, but it shows 'hey, we are trying to get people'

        2. I would be thrilled with this. But even if they don't, and they go out and get one of Annibal Sanchez, Jake Peavy, or Dan Haren and one of Edwin Jackson, Shaun Marcum, Brandon McCarthy, or Joe Blanton I'd be pretty excited about the rotation next year.

          Sanchez/Peavy/Haren, Marcum/McCarthy/Blanton/Jackson, Baker, Diamond, Hedriks/et al. with Gibson waiting in the wings would be the best rotation they've put out there in a while.

          Obviously Greinke, Sanchez, Baker, Diamond, Gibson would be my ideal scenario. I'd be very excited about next season with that rotation.

          Oh, and I hope they stay far, far away from Dempster.

          1. I'd guess it's more likely, at the start, to be something like Guthrie, Saunders, Diamond, and a couple of the flotsam still hanging around from 2012. I wouldn't go into the year expecting either Baker or Gibson to pitch a full season of innings, or expecting Baker to be ready to go right out of the gate.

            1. Yeah, I'm thrilled that they're looking at Baker, but I certainly wouldn't pencil him into the rotation -- has he even faced a batter since his surgery? Gibson sounds more promising than Baker right now.

    1. I don't see how you let the Lion out of his cage when Cunningham plays this well.

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