Three consecutive Final 4's and baseball time

Not to toot the horn of my undergraduate university, but going to three strait men's basketball Final Fours is pretty darn impressive. You have to recruit well, keep your guys from going to the NBA and get a bit lucky too (see Gonzaga game 3 years ago). Its probably not something I'll see again in my lifetime. Consider how the two teams that were in the championship game last year, Ohio State and Florida didn't even make the tournament this year. I'm not trying to say its easy to get to the national title game, but its even harder to be on the doorstep three consecutive years. Sustained excellence is a lot harder the temporary excellence (or recruiting Greg Odem).

So lets all do an 8-clap for UCLA.

Baseball season starts today for the Braves and Nationals (and then for everyone else tomorrow). Its about time. As much as I may complain about the Giants being bad this year, life is still better during baseball season than during not-baseball season. So here is to the start of a new year in hopes that it brings new challenges and excitement. I also hope Fred Lewis gets to play a lot.

Other than the Giants...

Amongst experts, the great tag line describing the National League West is "other than the Giants". As in "other than the Giants, the NL West is the best division in baseball" or "other than the Giants, the NL West should have a tight four way battle". I can't say they are too far from the truth, but its kinda sad. The Giants lost to their minor league AAA team today, ouch.

While running on Monday, I saw a bunch of kids playing baseball. This of course brought back lots of great memories of Little League baseball as a kid. I pitched and played second on the division winner back when I was an 11 year old. I remember giving up a lot of home runs as a pitcher, because all I tried to do was just throw a lot of strikes and make people swing the bat. I should have figured out that the big kid with the fake birth certificate can take me out of the yard, but alas, I was so young and naive back then. I also drilled a lot of guys, ala Rodger Clemens. I remember nailing this kid right in the forearm with a fastball and my mom freaking out and making sure the other guy was ok. I didn't do much hitting, but I did a lot of walking. I had a .300 walking average.

Go Bruins!

My brain is ok and the Sweet 16

A full day of cheering yesterday managed to get UCLA and Stanford into the Stweet 16. It was much more of a challenge than I was hoping for as both Marquette and Texas A&M played very well. Both teams took advantage of players for which the other team could not match up with in the form of Collison and Love for UCLA and the Lopez twins for Stanford. Lopez and Collison got money baskets at the end of their respective games to seal the victories. Those two games showed me just how difficult it is to advance in the tournament as every team is very good once you get down to the last 16.

Its nice that both of the teams I'm rooting for played on the same day as that way, I can spend Sunday doing things other than watching basketball.

I got a CT scan this week on my brain. Other than the radiation, my brain appears to be normal. This of course is very comforting to know that they don't have to upgrade the firmware in my head or even worse get new hardware. I'm never a big fan of getting radiation, especially on my head, but finding out that my brain was normal was worth that kind of risk.

There really isn't anything scary about a CT scan. You have to fast for 3 hours before the event, which meant I drove to the morning appointment a bit light headed. You have to use the bathroom right before you do it, which means I had to wander through the medical facility in search of a restroom. Finally, you have to remove all the metal in your head (glasses, etc), so I did the whole thing without being able to see very well. They put you on a moving platform that pushes you in and out of a large circular radiation shooter. It makes some noises and you have to stay still. I may have a different opinion of it when I get the bill :).

It could be an ugly year and basketball

The Giants have issues at almost every one of their infield positions. If you care enough to read this paragraph, you probably know that Vizquel is out injured and that means starting a minor leaguer who has never played above single-A ball at short. If these reports are correct, then the Giants may have another single-A player on the major league roster. Frandsen, Aurilia, and Durham are all injured temporarily, so there goes three of your projected four infielders. Furthermore, Ortmeier has forgotten how to hit which causes even more issues. My new mantra this year is not to get too worked up about things I can't control to keep my stress level down, but this is pretty ridiculous.

Furthermore, their backup catchers, who never did a lot of catching very well aren't hitting either. Bengie Molina played a ridiculous number of games last year and this year, he could play even more.

I'm not going to get started discussing the supposed strength of the team, pitching which as been awful in the spring as well. Granted everyone complains about the thin Arizona air, but at some point your best guys have to start pitching well. The opposing pitchers have the same conditions, so when you keep losing 8-1 you can't blame it all on Arizona.

This began as a Giants blog but has evolved into something a little more general purpose and for that I'm very thankful. It makes for a happier blog where I can discuss things like yummy fish and drunken moths.

On a lighter note, Stanford and UCLA represented well in the first round. Now the games are going to get a bit tougher. At least I can say I'm actively rooting for 2 of the remaining 48 teams!

Things I believe in and Spring has sprung

I have a friend who says she believes in "safety". She discourages drunk driving and other hazardous behavior. This of course got me thinking because I too believe in safety. She once complemented my for preventing a drunk friend from trying to lift his leg over his head while standing on the top step of the stairs. So clearly, I am a firm believer in safety, but I think I'm a complex person and I must believe in some other things.

As a libertarian, I firmly believe in liberty. Every man has the right to free choice as long as their choices don't interfere with another man's right to free choice.

I believe in running the ball on first down at least 60% of the time, because drives stall when you don't get 4 yards on first down. Of course, there isn't much reason to believe in running on first down if you also don't believe in a power running game and a passing game built off play action. I think I'm a Big-10 fan in a Pac-10 fan's body.

I believe in the power of live music. No matter how good your sound system is listening to the real thing will always impress.

I believe in garbage collection. I would be happy if I never have to free memory ever again. I would be even happier if I never have to fix someone else's memory corruption issues ever again.

I believe in bowling one must hit the head pin, otherwise you forgo any chance of a strike.

I believe in throwing strike one. Don't pitch from behind in the count. And keep the ball down while you are at it.

I believe playing at least a half hour of foosball at work will decrease my stress level and make me a happier employee.

That's enough things to believe in for a Tuesday afternoon. This of course does a great job of setting up a post titled, "Things I don't believe in".

On an unrelated note, I also enjoy the 'spring forward' weekend we just had. Granted it is tough to get up for church/other Sunday activities an hour earlier, but I love nothing more than having sunlight when I get off work! I guess that means I believe in sunlight.

Saving the pot roast

Today is annual pot roast day where I take some moderate sized piece of beef and try to slowly bake it in the oven until it becomes soft and delicious. Everything was going smoothly. I had defrosted the beef, I had the supplementary foods (tomatoes, onions and mushrooms) and I had wrapped the whole ordeal in tin foil. I preheated my oven and put it in, planning to eat a delicious meal in a couple of hours.

I then realized that the oven was not working. The bottom coil was completely out and the top coil would only work for the first few minutes before deciding that it needed to stop working. The roast was still cold to the touch after half an hour.

I had to rescue my dinner, so I moved the whole thing to a pot and boiled it for 3 hours. I was inspired by New England Boiled Dinner (which I'm going to make next weekend), and I boiled that chuck roast until all the life came out of it.

It turned out better than I could have predicted (and a lot better than eating a large piece of raw beef). So when your oven breaks down, think about boiling your roasts.

Tuna in Monterey

I've had some 'favorites' in life. My favorite baseball team is the Giants. My favorite robot is Stanley. My favorite cheese is provolone. In spite of all of these previous favorites, I've never had a favorite fish before yesterday.



On a recent trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I spent some time watching the gigantic fish swim around their million gallon tank. Most people fall in love with the sea otters on display in the aquarium because people tend to bond with fellow mammals with personality. I however had something else in the cards, the mighty and delicious blue-fin tuna.

However, this is not the first time I've encountered these beasts from the deep ocean. One a recent trip to Hawaii, we all ate at Sasabune, a world class sushi restaurant. I ate blue fin tuna in all sorts of different ways but none more memorable than as 'toro' or fatty tuna. That is composed of the stomach area of the bluefin and it dissolves in your mouth like butter and is one of the most interesting things I've ever eaten.

As I watched all of those beautiful fish swimming around yesterday, I kept wanting to jump into the water, hug them, and then carve up their stomachs and eat them. I tried to take a picture of these fish swimming around, but alas, it was too dark to take pictures without a flash and the glass wrecks havoc with flash pictures.


I also decided that mahi-mahi (or dolphinfish) is really ugly, so that is going to limit my desire for those. So in conclusion, don't forget miss out on the chance to see your dinner in action!