PHP time

Given that a bunch of my friend have their websites written in PHP, I decided it was time to learn some rudimentary PHP to accomplish some basic server side goals while working on the Bush League of Nations website. We wanted an "email this page" system and I figured that PHP is going to be the easiest way to accomplish that.

On Wednesday night, I was at a talk by PHP creator Rasmus Lerdof at Yahoo!. He is one of those engineers who has the right combination of laziness and brillance that he'll build a tool to fill a problem. He's lead a wild life from birth in Greenland to Denmark, then Canada, a few years in Brazil and then to PHP. His life proves that you don't need to know where you are going or have any plans at all.

Rasmus had some good points about why people contribute to open source projects and how open source projects are very similar to the 2.0 web in the sense that users supply most of the content and that these users are driven by 4 things:

Self intrest
Building their recognition
Hormones
Trying to change the world

Maybe this isn't the most accurate list of 4 things that drive people to network on the web, but he made some good points. He attributed the success of PHP to completely solving an important problem, having lots of first class documentation, and allowing contributors to have latitude in how things are implemented.

I have to admit, this talk helped inspire me to get the PHP work done! So go to the Bush League of Nations site and start emailing your friends!

Giants Year-in-Review: 2008

Now that we've had some time for the accomplishments and failures of the 2008 baseball season to soak in (and that it look like the Dodgers are on their way out of the postseason), lets take a look at the 2008 season.

Two goals were not accomplished, Bary Zito did not lose 20 games and the team did not lose 100 games. Zito got his act together in the second half and pitched like a serviceable 3-4 starter. The team, inspired by Pablo Sandoval, played very well in the second half of the season to finish with 72-90 record, or about 10 games better than I could have hoped. Perhaps I underestimated how hard it is to lose 100 games, even San Diego only lost 99 games.

Given my low expectations, I have to call this season a success. The Giants played 24 rookies, many of whom were rushed to the big leagues from the low minors. Much of the Giant's tallent still lives in the low minors so the end of next year should also be a good chance to see more tallented guys coming up. A good number of the rookies will see significant time next year.

Offense: The offense severely lacked a lot of things. The Giants were 14th (of 16 teams) in the NL in on base percentage, 15th in runs scored, 15th in slugging precentage. They were the only team in the majors that did not hit 100 home runs and the next lowest homerun total for a team hit 17 more bombs than the Giants. The preception that the team used its speed well is also a bit incorrect as the Giants, lacking any great base stealers on a team with a lot of fast guys, only had a 70.1% stolen base percentage (effective stealing is around 80%).

Power makes up for a lot of problems with an offsense, but from what I've shown you above, they also need to find good on-base guys. AT&T Park is a tough place to hit homeruns, but the Giants are going to have to do better. They are more than "one bat" away from having a solid lineup. Prince Fielder or Mark Teixeira would help a lot, but they won't be able to carry the whole offense.

Pitching: The pitching was 9th in the NL in ERA, 2nd in strikeouts, 12th in WHIP (because they allowed the 2nd most walks in the league), and 8th in runs allowed. I can imagine those numbers would be a lot worse without Tim Lincecum's unbelievable year. The media rightfully so blames the poor bullpen performance as one of the key areas of weakness for the Giants, but it would also be nice to have a 5th starter.

One through 4, the Giants have a good if not great rotation. Zito makes a good 3 and Sanchez is a flakey 4 who has flashes of brilliance. The fifth spot is a big hole, which will get bigger if the Giants trade Cain for a serious bat. Looks like its a good thing the Giants didn't trade Lincecum for Rios last winter.

The bullpen has a lot of work to do. I think it is tough to break young guys in in the bullpen, and the Giants certainly did that, calling up all sorts of parts from Fresno to pitch the 6th-8th. Romo has earned a spot in the bullpen for next year, but other than that things are a mixed bag. Hinshaw and Sadler walk too many people (29 in 39.2 innings and 27 in 44 respectively) to be dependable bullpen guys (who by definition must come in and throw strikes). In spite what everyone says, I'm still not a big Brian Wilson fan (1.44 WHIP, .263 BAA). Thats not to say he's a lot better than some of the guys they've had in there recently, he's just no Joe Nathan. That being said, he has a strong upside and I hope he can keep anchoring the back of the Giants bullpen.

Keep in mind as you see offseason moves that relief pitching is a crapshoot. Many relievers are effected by their previous years workload. Robb Nen would alternate average and exceptional years, even in his prime. I'm not a fan of ever giving big contracts to relievers, especially not 7th and 8th inning guys (see Scott Eyre). That being said, the Giants need to add one veteran relief pitcher who can fill a 7th-8th inning role and mentor the young arms.

So all things considered, I think the Giants are in as good a position now as I could have hoped. The offense was as bad as I thought they would be, but the Giants managed to win a lot of close games. Things will only be better next year as the younger players get more seasoned.

Uni: Sea Urchin Sushi

I remember growing up and going down to Natural Bridges State Park to go tidepooling. One of the most common things you'd see there were sea urchins.


I'm not an expert of culinary sciences, but as a kid I never really wanted to pick one of those up (for fear of impaling myself) and eat it. It just doesn't look good.

For my birthday, I went out to an excellent local sushi restaurant and ate the sushified version of sea urchin or uni. For what its worth, most online references to uni say that "sea urchin sushi uses the gonads of the sea urchin". I'd image that in this context, the word "gonads" means "tastiest part" instead of any of its usual meaninges. It looked something like the image below which is more or less a yellow tongue.


Because it was my birthday, I tried it. When you eat these guys, the tongue texture dissolves in your mouth and it gives way to a fatty paste of sea urchin deliciousness. It has a very strong taste that I've heard described as "buttery" but I"m pretty sure that isn't the word. I've also seen it written as "sweet", but I can't quite put that word on it as well. I keep thinking it is something like raw egg yolk.

I know a lot of sushi eaters can't stand uni, but if you get the chance you have to try it because the taste can be best summed up as "one of a kind".

Nothing better than a Sunday roast

When I was traveling in Britain, I remember one of the hosts I had asking me if Americans did "Sunday roasts" to bring in a new week with a big chunk of slowly cooked meat. One can make a good argument that British cooking is bland, but one thing they do well is roast different sorts of animals.

I love doing roasts. A couple of my favorite things to do is take a chuck roast, surround it with tomatoes and mushrooms and put it in the oven for a few hours. I also like making tri-tip roasts with my special teriyaki sauce. Today, I took the easy way out and bought a pre-marinated turkey breast roast and it was quite good.

The great thing about roasting is it takes a long time, which forces you to not rush though dinner. It becomes an experience instead of an event. You spend hours smelling your roast which prepares you quite well to eat it.

Sundays are great because you can watch football while your meal cooks. In general, Sundays tend to be some of my most relaxing days which makes them perfect for roasting.