I read a great passage by Mary Oliver:
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my armsWhen it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if i have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t wan t to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world
Thought this video was pretty funny. Sarah’s been dating Jimmy Kimmel for 5 years now. Here’s what she delivered on his show last week. Matt Damon is really a killer:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnVJZkDuVBM]
I thought he was really good in his cameo in European Road Trip, but the Silverman one is better
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Vyj1C8ogtE]
About 7 years ago, there was a “Free Johan Santana” movement in Minnesota that wanted the Twins to move the young left-handed phenom into the starting rotation. After Santana spent the majority of four years in the bullpen and another half-season at Triple-A, the Twins finally gave him a permanent spot in the rotation to begin the 2004 season. He immediately became the best pitcher in baseball, winning the AL Cy Young by going 20-6 while leading the league with a 2.61 ERA and 265 strikeouts.
In four seasons as a full-time starter Santana went 70-32, winning two ERA titles and three strikeout crowns while capturing a pair of Cy Young awards and deserving a third. It was an amazing metamorphosis. At 21 years old Santana was a little-known Rule 5 pick who showed some promise, at 23 years old he was an ace-in-waiting who dominated from the bullpen or rotation, and at 25 years old he was the best pitcher in baseball. Three years later he’d be the best pitcher in baseball and all of us in MN were pretty damn happy.
This week Johan was traded to the Mets for 4 prospects. While getting 4 unknowns for the best pitcher in baseball seems like a travesty, you can’t really think about it like that. Johan was going to be lost to free agency next year, so the Twins really were trading one season of the best pitcher in baseball for 4 prospects, which really isn’t that bad. The Twins have had great success in getting prospects and turning them into great players – in fact, that’s how we got Johan – so i’m not going to say all is lost
In a perfect world, we’d sign Johan and he’d be the best pitcher in baseball for another 10 years and he’d enter the Hall of Fame witha Twins cap on his head. The world just doesn’t work that way unfortunately, especially when you’re a small market team. So, all i can do is thank Johan for brightening my day every 5 games and wish him well.
I’m just happy he didn’t go to a Boston team, with Moss, Ortiz, and Garnett they’ve done enough.
The United States Beer Drinking Team!
What is it? From the website:
The U.S. Beer Drinking Team™ ( USBDT ® ) is the first team dedicated to the millions of passionate beer drinkers in the United States. The USBDT’s goal is to promote the “sister and brotherhood of beer” while promoting responsible drinking.
This is a cool company and what’s even better is that it’s actually profitable. The founder was just on Oprah – apparently women are the biggest customers. Women seem to buy a lot of U.S. Beer Drinking Team T-shirts for their guys. They are available in 16,000 convenience stores as well as the Targets and big stores.
They even have an official netcasting station. Apparently the business started as a joke – definitely not a laughing matter anymore 🙂
just something good to get your monday going…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzjLlqIuVhI]
I am pretty sick of hearing about the Patriots, their quest to perfection and all that. I am forever destined to curse the entire Boston area for stealing all of the good Minnesotans. First is was David Ortiz and Doug Mientkiewicz going to the Red Sox, then it was Moroney going to the Pats and Kevin Garnett going to the Celtics. The final straw was seeing Randy Moss catching passes as a Patriot. It just drives me nuts. It’s as if Minnesota is the JV team to New Englands Varsity squad. It just hurts so much
I did like Klosterman’s recent article about the meaning of perfection and how Brady and the Pats relate. Check it out here.
Go Giants
I love this. Some high-school kid built a wooden bike. Everything is wood – even the chain. Pretty sweet (from Gizmodo)
This was a quote i found on Chris Anderson’s – the author of The Long Tail – and it refers to how search will be done in the future. The short popular stuff will be pre-loaded results by humans, the medium will be populated by friends and the obscure long tail is found by algorithms. The quote from the blog post is:
“The short head will be human, the fat middle social and the long tail algorithmic” Still, that single sentence is worth another book. I won’t write it, but I’ll bet someone else does.
It is an interesting way to think about it. Of course, it is all ad-supported and it does make a good case for Mahalo.
Which occasionally is me. So, i cannot rip on this site. Instead, i found myself updating it — almost too much. What is it? Chickipedia is a wikipedia type site about chicks. Chicks like Angelina Jolie, Keri Russell, Megan Fox, etc. It’s a site dedicated to turning you into a more sketchy version of yourself. That said, you should still probably check it out.
There’s a new novel by Chuck Klosterman who as many of you know is one of my favorite writers. While his past 4 books were all non-fiction, this new book, called Downtown Owl, is a fiction novel that takes place in 1983 North Dakota.
I think it’s a pretty good book and it definitely captured my attention. My big issue with the book is that it’s all description and details. There is very little interaction or plot. It’s a 300 page summary of a time and people in North Dakota with some interesting anecdotes. It’s funny, witty and well-written but it’s not necessarily a story.
That said, it’s very Klosterman-ish and has some great elements. As usual he explores deeply the frivolous. There are entire chapters about a theoretical fight between a hulking giant of a boy named Grendal and a smaller, wrong-side of the tracks type kid name Cubby who loves to fight. With a typical Klostermanish metaphor, the scenario is more than just a “who would win” but a nice little metaphor for what you believe in the world. Do traits like physical appearance or genes win out in our world or will characteristics like desire and passion? Peolpe will lean different ways and that debate is by far the best part of the book.
One thing i really like is how he sets up the small town feel. One character in high school relates Owl to the book 1984 – the Orwell book his class was assigned saying:
“Everyone knew everything. So how was ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ a dystopia? It seemed ordinary. What was so unusual about everyone knowing all the same things?”
“People always say that nothing changes in a small town, but — whenever they say that — they usually mean that nothing changes figuratively. The truth is that nothing changes literally: It’s always all the same people, doing all the same things.”
Discussing the differnce between literal thoughts and figurative is something Chuck loves to do. He’s typically done it with popular culture but in Downtown Owl he does it with a 1980’s North Dakota town. And it makes for a pretty fun read
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