...of Summer. At least, that's what Labor Day has always meant to me. Well, all the stuff co-opted from May Day too.
49 thoughts on “September 3, 2018: The End”
Good timing for the end of summer; the compressor on our air conditioner died on Saturday.
All the same . . . if anyone has recommendations for companies that install air conditioners in the Twin Cities, please let me know!
It's the 159th anniversary of the Carrington Event, and if anything kept me up at night, a repeat would be at the top of the list.
In June 2013, a joint venture from researchers at Lloyd's of London and Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) in the United States used data from the Carrington Event to estimate the current cost of a similar event to the U.S. alone at $0.6–2.6 trillion.
A bit sad for our senior daughter. In August, she dislocated a knee cap during soccer camp. Coach still put her on varsity squad for the fall, even though she wasn't cleared to play right away or practice fully in tryouts. She was all set to return to the field fully this week. Last Thursday she hurt the other knee and is pulled from all activity for a few weeks at the minimum. She is pretty bummed out. At this point we are just hoping she can get healthy in time for the hockey season, as she wants to return to the "X" this year.
Ick. Best wishes.
could be worse. The Boy had a partially separated shoulder early in the wrestling season his junior year. Unbeknownst to us, the dumbass coach talked him into wrestling before he was fully healed, just because the dumbass didn't want to have to forfeit a weight class in a meet. We weren't at the meet (Because Not Expecting Him to Wrestle, Because Hurt), or I might have committed a felony.
I hope this isn't the end of Buxton's desire to sign an extension with the Twins.
IIRC, Glen Perkins had a similar issue early in his career. It worked out well in the end.
If you consider a career shortened by injury working out "well" for either party.
In other words, the dispute ended up having no impact on his career.
Perk was a September callup in 2006 (rookie year).
In 2007, he made the club out of training camp and pitched in April and May, then got hurt. Spent some rehab time in the minors and finally returned to the big club in September.
In 2008, looks like he started the season in AAA, then was called up in May and spent the rest of the season with the Twins. So he likely was short of two years of service time at that point.
In 2009, he was with the Twins from the start of the season until some time in late May when he got hurt. He had two rehab appearances at Clearwater in June, then returned to the Twins. Looks like he may have gotten hurt again in August. He made one appearance in a Rookie League game August 29 and was done for the year. It is hard to tell how close he was to Super Two status by then.
In 2010, he signed for the ML minimum and was with Rochester until, August, made 4 appearances, got sent back down for three AAA appearances (August 30, Sept. 2 and Sept. 4), and was a September call-up. The service time dispute happened in 2010, apparently.
In 2011, he was arbitration-eligible and signed for $700k. He was with the big club until early June, when he was sent down. He made two appearances (June 11 and 14) and was back up three days later for the remainder of the season.
In 2012, he was arbitration-eligible and signed for $1.6 million. He was with the big club all year.
In 2013, he signed for 3 years+1, $10.3 million.
In 2014, he signed a 4-year extension, which raised his 2014 salary by $200k over the contract he signed in 2013 and by $800k for 2015 over that contract.
I am a little unclear as to all the timing for how close he was to arbitration eligibility in 2010 and how close he was to the 6-year service threshold for manumission in 2012. Clearly, there was a big jump in compensation between 2012 and 2013. If he was within a few service days of eligibility prior to 2012, he reasonably could have expected to command quite a bit more after his 2011 season than he got via arbitration. Fangraphs pegs his 2011 value at $12.6 million. Given he more than doubled his salary from 2012 to 2013 (on a weaker 2012 than 2011), I think it reasonable to say that holding him back a few days (if that was the service difference) cost him at least a million dollars. That's certainly an impact on his career.
The issue wasn't that it had an impact on his career, it was whether this impacted his desire to sign an extension with the team.
Trying to figure out the service time amount from BR. The 2011 line says 3.138 so I assume that's what he had at the end of 2011. This appears to be similar to Buxton actually. Buxton will definitely be a Super Two player, this is entirely about 2.x vs 3.x for service time. It appears Perkins was a Super Two for 2011. I can't yet find anything to corroborate historical service time amounts.
At Saints game. Down 6-1, they put up a 10 spot in the 6th. That was fun.
so a touch down + extra point and a field goal? #whodat!?!?!?!
Game day is showing Keuchel as UHP..."underhand"?
So, my phone upgrade saga continues. Walmart and Verizon are pointing fingers at each other. Bottom line seems to be that my Walmart store cannot upgrade my Verizon phone today (or yesterday).
I'm seeing confusing things online about unlocked phones with Verizon. I'm locked in with that carrier Because Family Plan. Anybody have specific experience with Verizon and using an unlocked phone on their network? What Samsung or Verizon apps will I be locked out of by using an unlocked phone on Verizon? Any that I should care about? (I'm seeing stuff about Caller ID, Samsung Cloud and other apps not being available)
My understanding is that I can use the Samsung Smart Switch app to transfer my data between phones. The Galaxy S6 did not support microSD, so there is no removable storage to transfer.
yes, Rhu keeps telling me I should buy on Ebay. I'm chicken-shit, so will almost certainly buy the unlocked S8 from Walmart (same phone, as best as I can tell, as the Verizon one).
You should be fine with an unlocked phone on any carrier. The only catch is if the unlocked phone supports that carrier's frequencies. I believe that's much less of an issue these days and it tends to differ based on country instead.
Note that Android has its own transfer app when upgrading phones.
The only catch is a carrier's default apps and having to override them. I was able to assign Samsung apps instead, but could not delete Verizon ones. Best to get an unlocked phone for the same carrier.
I've always been more of a hardware person. Software, whatever.
Yes, my understanding is that Verizon is CDMA. I think the Galaxy S8 supports both GSM and CDMA.
I see that I confused microSD storage with the SIM card, which the S6 does indeed have.
As long as it's unlocked CDMA and used CDMA, it will work.
Uhhh. Are you suggesting that the SIM from my current, locked phone is not transferable?!
Is it a physical SIM? If so, you can move it to the new phone.
Yes. I'm saying that you're BEST bet is finding an unlocked Verizon phone, although any other CDMA carrier's phone will also work
Ok. Unlocked Samsung S8 procured. I gave the Verizon store a chance -- they wanted over $700 plus tax for the same phone for which I just paid $507 plus tax.
Let the swearing begin!
Updating, because I know you are all hanging on this with baited breath. [err, bated. Although I suppose some of you smell fishy....]
New phone is fully charged and connected to my wifi. Now running the Samsung Smart Switch app on both phones to transfer data, wirelessly because the promised adapter was not included (the adapters are for USB-C, but the old phone is microUSB). Anyway, wireless is pretty fast. Looks like it will take about 10-12 minutes total. Then I proceed to shutting down both and transferring the nanoSIM.
Galaxy is notorious for problematic charger cord connection; the wireless charger works outstanding. Thinking of getting a third one (Mrs. and I have one on each side of our bed, and would like one on my workstation. Wish I could send a like for the great screen protector I have, but I don't see it available anymore -- it had a nice matte finish and didn't bubble when installed.
yea, what I've read, the S8, with the curved glass, doesn't take too well to screen protectors. I've not yet decided whether to get a case, let alone a screen protector. But I was looking here for case options. I'm considering the Nomad folio wallet.
The curved screens are truly annoying, and don't seem to have THAT much in the way of benefits, but the wife and I went with liquid screen protectors this time around.
Supposedly, they don't offer a lot of protection from anything but minor scrapes and drops, but I had mine fall facefirst four feet onto an asphalt parking lot yesterday, and there's not a scratch on it. Plus, they are truly seamless when applied, so I'm sold.
I went with a slightly heavier duty (but still open faced) Speck case, which sort of renders the curved edge void, but probably takes on some of the screen protection, itself.
As far as wireless chargers go, they are awesome, but the ones I've used haven't been super speedy, so I still have a cable, and just use the wireless chargers at work and on my nightstand.
I've found the wireless to be as fast or faster than the cord, and a whole lot more dependable. Plus, just a bit of pocket lint in the charger hole on the phone and your connection becomes suspect.
Schoolhouse Rock says have your cake and eat it too. Did they make any songs about false dochotomies?
So I'm cut off at courant.com, nytimes.com, bostonglobe, and startribune.com for reading too many articles and not paying for them. Arabnews, bbc co uk, Haaretz, Le Monde, Allgemeine Zeitung, Al Jazeera, WashingtonPost, HuffingtonPost does no such thing.
And if you use an ad blocker, you suffer additional abuse
change browsers, use incognito mode.
Or do what we did -- subscribe!!!! (NYT and WaPo, anyway, not that birdcage liner that employs a certain favorite writer)
Only go there when sent, otherwise I'm a USAToday dweller
You know what this country needs more of? Fun inspectors. We are falling behind China in the Fun Race.
Yet the ministry’s harshest criticism is reserved for schools and tutoring agencies that overburden pupils by “teaching ahead”—imparting knowledge that is too advanced for a given age group. Zhang Ling, the head of Ben Jen kindergarten in Beijing, suspects that most nursery schools in the city use materials that are designed for the first or second years of primary school. That will no longer be allowed.
In July the ministry ordered kindergartens nationwide to focus on “fun and games” in the classroom. Fun inspectors will be dispatched later this year to enforce this. Ms Zhang, who says her kindergarten was already in compliance, welcomes the greater scrutiny. She says she can now wave an official document at parents who insist that their children be exposed to too-advanced academic fare.
Oddly, after a rain dealy of more than six hours, Cedar Rapids and Beloit have started their game. It's the last game of the regular season and has no impact on the playoff picture. I guess Beloit just really wanted to play this game.
It's Wisconsin. Think of how much they made in beer sales in those 6 hours.
Didn't want to hand out rain checks for games next season.
I was wrong--the game did have playoff implications. Beloit finishes third in the division, but since they take two teams and the second place team, Quad Cities, had won the first half, Beloit qualifies for the playoffs with a win.
aaaand phone is activated. There was much rejoicing in the land!
Good timing for the end of summer; the compressor on our air conditioner died on Saturday.
All the same . . . if anyone has recommendations for companies that install air conditioners in the Twin Cities, please let me know!
It's the 159th anniversary of the Carrington Event, and if anything kept me up at night, a repeat would be at the top of the list.
A bit sad for our senior daughter. In August, she dislocated a knee cap during soccer camp. Coach still put her on varsity squad for the fall, even though she wasn't cleared to play right away or practice fully in tryouts. She was all set to return to the field fully this week. Last Thursday she hurt the other knee and is pulled from all activity for a few weeks at the minimum. She is pretty bummed out. At this point we are just hoping she can get healthy in time for the hockey season, as she wants to return to the "X" this year.
Ick. Best wishes.
could be worse. The Boy had a partially separated shoulder early in the wrestling season his junior year. Unbeknownst to us, the dumbass coach talked him into wrestling before he was fully healed, just because the dumbass didn't want to have to forfeit a weight class in a meet. We weren't at the meet (Because Not Expecting Him to Wrestle, Because Hurt), or I might have committed a felony.
I hope this isn't the end of Buxton's desire to sign an extension with the Twins.
IIRC, Glen Perkins had a similar issue early in his career. It worked out well in the end.
If you consider a career shortened by injury working out "well" for either party.
In other words, the dispute ended up having no impact on his career.
Perk was a September callup in 2006 (rookie year).
In 2007, he made the club out of training camp and pitched in April and May, then got hurt. Spent some rehab time in the minors and finally returned to the big club in September.
In 2008, looks like he started the season in AAA, then was called up in May and spent the rest of the season with the Twins. So he likely was short of two years of service time at that point.
In 2009, he was with the Twins from the start of the season until some time in late May when he got hurt. He had two rehab appearances at Clearwater in June, then returned to the Twins. Looks like he may have gotten hurt again in August. He made one appearance in a Rookie League game August 29 and was done for the year. It is hard to tell how close he was to Super Two status by then.
In 2010, he signed for the ML minimum and was with Rochester until, August, made 4 appearances, got sent back down for three AAA appearances (August 30, Sept. 2 and Sept. 4), and was a September call-up. The service time dispute happened in 2010, apparently.
In 2011, he was arbitration-eligible and signed for $700k. He was with the big club until early June, when he was sent down. He made two appearances (June 11 and 14) and was back up three days later for the remainder of the season.
In 2012, he was arbitration-eligible and signed for $1.6 million. He was with the big club all year.
In 2013, he signed for 3 years+1, $10.3 million.
In 2014, he signed a 4-year extension, which raised his 2014 salary by $200k over the contract he signed in 2013 and by $800k for 2015 over that contract.
I am a little unclear as to all the timing for how close he was to arbitration eligibility in 2010 and how close he was to the 6-year service threshold for manumission in 2012. Clearly, there was a big jump in compensation between 2012 and 2013. If he was within a few service days of eligibility prior to 2012, he reasonably could have expected to command quite a bit more after his 2011 season than he got via arbitration. Fangraphs pegs his 2011 value at $12.6 million. Given he more than doubled his salary from 2012 to 2013 (on a weaker 2012 than 2011), I think it reasonable to say that holding him back a few days (if that was the service difference) cost him at least a million dollars. That's certainly an impact on his career.
The issue wasn't that it had an impact on his career, it was whether this impacted his desire to sign an extension with the team.
Trying to figure out the service time amount from BR. The 2011 line says 3.138 so I assume that's what he had at the end of 2011. This appears to be similar to Buxton actually. Buxton will definitely be a Super Two player, this is entirely about 2.x vs 3.x for service time. It appears Perkins was a Super Two for 2011. I can't yet find anything to corroborate historical service time amounts.
At Saints game. Down 6-1, they put up a 10 spot in the 6th. That was fun.
so a touch down + extra point and a field goal? #whodat!?!?!?!
Game day is showing Keuchel as UHP..."underhand"?
So, my phone upgrade saga continues. Walmart and Verizon are pointing fingers at each other. Bottom line seems to be that my Walmart store cannot upgrade my Verizon phone today (or yesterday).
I'm seeing confusing things online about unlocked phones with Verizon. I'm locked in with that carrier Because Family Plan. Anybody have specific experience with Verizon and using an unlocked phone on their network? What Samsung or Verizon apps will I be locked out of by using an unlocked phone on Verizon? Any that I should care about? (I'm seeing stuff about Caller ID, Samsung Cloud and other apps not being available)
My understanding is that I can use the Samsung Smart Switch app to transfer my data between phones. The Galaxy S6 did not support microSD, so there is no removable storage to transfer.
yes, Rhu keeps telling me I should buy on Ebay. I'm chicken-shit, so will almost certainly buy the unlocked S8 from Walmart (same phone, as best as I can tell, as the Verizon one).
You should be fine with an unlocked phone on any carrier. The only catch is if the unlocked phone supports that carrier's frequencies. I believe that's much less of an issue these days and it tends to differ based on country instead.
Note that Android has its own transfer app when upgrading phones.
The only catch is a carrier's default apps and having to override them. I was able to assign Samsung apps instead, but could not delete Verizon ones. Best to get an unlocked phone for the same carrier.
I've always been more of a hardware person. Software, whatever.
Yes, my understanding is that Verizon is CDMA. I think the Galaxy S8 supports both GSM and CDMA.
I see that I confused microSD storage with the SIM card, which the S6 does indeed have.
As long as it's unlocked CDMA and used CDMA, it will work.
Uhhh. Are you suggesting that the SIM from my current, locked phone is not transferable?!
Is it a physical SIM? If so, you can move it to the new phone.
Yes, physical.
Per Verizon, it looks like I should be able to just switch the SIM from the locked phone to the unlocked phone (both take the Nano size).
Yes. I'm saying that you're BEST bet is finding an unlocked Verizon phone, although any other CDMA carrier's phone will also work
Ok. Unlocked Samsung S8 procured. I gave the Verizon store a chance -- they wanted over $700 plus tax for the same phone for which I just paid $507 plus tax.
Let the swearing begin!
Updating, because I know you are all hanging on this with baited breath. [err, bated. Although I suppose some of you smell fishy....]
New phone is fully charged and connected to my wifi. Now running the Samsung Smart Switch app on both phones to transfer data, wirelessly because the promised adapter was not included (the adapters are for USB-C, but the old phone is microUSB). Anyway, wireless is pretty fast. Looks like it will take about 10-12 minutes total. Then I proceed to shutting down both and transferring the nanoSIM.
Well, if you're not scared, let me suggest
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F113227016822
Thanks, Rhu. I'll be looking into that.
Galaxy is notorious for problematic charger cord connection; the wireless charger works outstanding. Thinking of getting a third one (Mrs. and I have one on each side of our bed, and would like one on my workstation. Wish I could send a like for the great screen protector I have, but I don't see it available anymore -- it had a nice matte finish and didn't bubble when installed.
yea, what I've read, the S8, with the curved glass, doesn't take too well to screen protectors. I've not yet decided whether to get a case, let alone a screen protector. But I was looking here for case options. I'm considering the Nomad folio wallet.
The curved screens are truly annoying, and don't seem to have THAT much in the way of benefits, but the wife and I went with liquid screen protectors this time around.
Supposedly, they don't offer a lot of protection from anything but minor scrapes and drops, but I had mine fall facefirst four feet onto an asphalt parking lot yesterday, and there's not a scratch on it. Plus, they are truly seamless when applied, so I'm sold.
I went with a slightly heavier duty (but still open faced) Speck case, which sort of renders the curved edge void, but probably takes on some of the screen protection, itself.
As far as wireless chargers go, they are awesome, but the ones I've used haven't been super speedy, so I still have a cable, and just use the wireless chargers at work and on my nightstand.
I've found the wireless to be as fast or faster than the cord, and a whole lot more dependable. Plus, just a bit of pocket lint in the charger hole on the phone and your connection becomes suspect.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here to say that pulling a gun at the ticket window and firing shots is not a good way to get a ticket to a sold-out concert
Schoolhouse Rock says have your cake and eat it too. Did they make any songs about false dochotomies?
So I'm cut off at courant.com, nytimes.com, bostonglobe, and startribune.com for reading too many articles and not paying for them. Arabnews, bbc co uk, Haaretz, Le Monde, Allgemeine Zeitung, Al Jazeera, WashingtonPost, HuffingtonPost does no such thing.
And if you use an ad blocker, you suffer additional abuse
change browsers, use incognito mode.
Or do what we did -- subscribe!!!! (NYT and WaPo, anyway, not that birdcage liner that employs a certain favorite writer)
Only go there when sent, otherwise I'm a USAToday dweller
You know what this country needs more of? Fun inspectors. We are falling behind China in the Fun Race.
Oddly, after a rain dealy of more than six hours, Cedar Rapids and Beloit have started their game. It's the last game of the regular season and has no impact on the playoff picture. I guess Beloit just really wanted to play this game.
It's Wisconsin. Think of how much they made in beer sales in those 6 hours.
Didn't want to hand out rain checks for games next season.
I was wrong--the game did have playoff implications. Beloit finishes third in the division, but since they take two teams and the second place team, Quad Cities, had won the first half, Beloit qualifies for the playoffs with a win.
aaaand phone is activated. There was much rejoicing in the land!
By you or Rhu_Ru?
pffftt, he never calls me, so I don't care
but you call me out all the time!
Talk to the hand
