52 thoughts on “April 27, 2021: Melon-Con”

  1. In order to reduce my FB footprint, I did another purge of FB Friends. A lot of Citizens went by the wayside as I figured I get enough of you guys here. I also dropped a bunch of groups and other "likes." Eventually I will just go away from FB, but I kind of like the withering of the vine approach I am taking. Given that besides my vaccination selfie I haven't posted since early January, I doubt that I will be missed on those pages. I will follow anyone who has an Insta account however.

    1. I have a slew of folks I just didn't friend in the first place -- I use FB to catch up with people I don't get to see frequently. Thankfully I never did join many groups or have many likes, although someone needs to tell B-Ref and Astronomy mag to reign in their feeds just a little bit.

    2. Having fewer friends, likes, and groups means you really can see who the heavy posters are. My FB is probably dominated by a handful of heavy users. one thing that helps is that I can block meme sites. So if my sister posts something from Mommy Likes Wine, I can block it and I will never again see anything from Mommy Likes Win in my feed (in theory).

      1. I have hidden many people from my stream. Many people think it is a news aggregation page. I'm not there for that.

      2. *resists checking to see if he made the cut*

        dude, you would totally miss my cat-under-covers posts if you dropped me.

  2. I just got word that a retired friend of mine just passed away on Saturday. Despite being blind, he picked up and moved with many of the StL gang in 2003 when work consolidated in Omaha and he rented an apartment there; he would be a frequent companion on weekend flights when I happened to be flying to the HQ (if I was his "escort" I got to board early, which was an unnecessary but appreciated perk). MLB audio came along just in time so he didn't have to miss any of his beloved Cards games. And he lived in a beautiful corner apartment on 10th floor of the Orpheum Theatre building, with tall, art deco molding and huge windows facing two directions...of which he couldn't admire at all.

    Many times I would visit with him at HQ, and he would have a bruise or something from walking into a scaffold or hole where sidewalk/road construction wasn't well marked. He showed me his work PC setup once; it used something called "Jaws" which would read the screen to him, and it was entertaining to hear him talk about how it would interpret variables or abbreviated terms. More than once he'd ask for a second opinion on something, and I'd have to turn on his monitor first.

    I miss that hearty laugh and his long friendly conversations.

    1. 🙁

      this LTE was both sad, poignant, and a beautiful reminder that the Americans with Disabilities Act and advances in technology both have helped persons with various kinds of handicaps live fuller lives, and in turn have enriched all of us by helping them to be contributors and colleagues.

      1. He knew the names of the shuttle drivers and the airport gate agents and they all greeted him when they saw him. He also taught me the correct way to lead someone sight-impaired: never take them by the arm, but instead extend your own elbow and let them take your arm. Also, verbal cues ("there's a railing coming up on your right") is more appreciated than any physical cue

        1. The half's and full marathon's do a great job in accommodating blind runners. People 'get it' and give them wide berth.

        1. The Terminator is an awesome flick.

          Spoiler SelectShow
  3. The Pioneer League will decide games tied after nine innings with a home run derby. I don't like it, but it makes about as much sense as what MLB does. Instead of goofing around with stupid rules, why not just allow the game to be a tie? That makes more sense to me than deciding a "winner" in a totally artificial way.

    1. "In a ruling update today, MLB has announced that any game still tied after nine regulation innings will be decided by a rundown between third base and home, with the baserunner decided by lottery."

      1. at the alma matter, in the intramural softball leagues, all ties between runner and fielder were resolved via chug-offs. Teams had designated chuggers. In the event of a tied chug-off, the next level of resolution was a "line-out," i.e., a team chug-off relay.

        Highly recommended. Although I guess in today's world, this might be seen as alcohol abuse.

            1. We had 5 guys who could open their throats and pour beer directly into their stomach. We never lost, very rarely tied. I am not one of them, so I never had t o worry.

    2. Starting a runner at second at least has regular baseball for everything else. More akin to 4-on-4 hockey while a home run derby is like the shootout.

      1. Home run derby is more like a slap shot velocity contest, though. Home runs score runs, but are not the ONLY way to score points, whereas goal-scoring much more closely approximates an essential hockey skill in a game-competitive situation. It would be like home run derby, but with an opposing pitcher. At that point, they may as well just play the game.

      2. better yet, do the hockey thing. Start removing defenders. Start the 10th with only 8 fielders, the 11th with only 7, etc.

        1. My "favorite" thing about NHL Hockey is that games that end in regulation count as two points, but games that go to overtime count as three points. Why on God's green earth aren't regulation games worth three points to the winner and overtime games worth two to the winner and one to the loser? I guess that would make too much sense.

          1. the real question is why there hasn't been more collusion to put more games into OT.

  4. Cool, cool. Funny that Silver told him to stop dragging the game

        1. It's one of my favorite Minnesota words. Between ish and ope you can cover a lot of ground.

  5. At the airport for my first business trip since a year ago January- it's pretty sad: airport parking is maybe 1/3 full, the arrivals / departures monitors are pretty bare...not a ghost town, but still

  6. An opportunity to buy a viking professional 36 inch, 6 burner range with vent hood for 700 dollars fell into my lap today. I..... have to do this, right? Okay, the rub. I have to move my fridge 6 inches over, remove an upper cabinet, remove a lower cabinet, counter top, back splash, remove a 30 inch upper cabinet and replace it with a 36 inch upper, shift the vent, and add 6 inches of tile above the backsplash. I have to do this, amiright?

    1. What you’re describing is basically cosmetic changes, amiright?

      Yes. Yes you do.

  7. The Timberwolves are on the Bally backup channel so that you can watch an hour on NDSU football. Seems right.

      1. They're going to lose that pick, but I would feel better about that if the reason is "competent coaching".

        1. The odds don't drop that much between worst team and fifth worst team but, yes, they will probably lose the pick.

          I haven't seen many articles about Wiggins lately. I assume he's averaging a triple double and playing great defense.

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