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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Start times for postseason games

In yesterday's Boston Globe, Bob Ryan captured my thoughts exactly on late start times for postseason games in professional sports:

"It's time those pampered PDT/PSTers had to live with World Series, baseball playoffs, NBA Finals, and Final Four starting times that either a) prevent normal working people from seeing the finish of games or b) preclude the youth of America from watching these games at all. That's the reality of life on the East Coast."


I remember all too well the sorry state in which I existed during one month in the fall of my junior year of high school, that being the Sox' October 2004 playoff run. The ALCS against the Yankees was especially brutal. I don't deal well with less than 8 hours of sleep now, and as you might imagine, 16-year-old me handled the chronic baseball-induced sleep deprivation even more poorly. When a Sox/Yanks game lasted until after 2 in the morning and I had to get up at 6:23 to get ready for school, it was trouble.

I'm tired (pun intended) of bending over backwards for the benefit of left-coasters and the networks. Thankfully, some start times are getting moved up for postseason baseball games this fall. It's not perfect, but it's a start. And in this world of maddeningly staggered progress, that's all one can realistically expect.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Boston Sports, the Song.

Here's a little something I recorded in one take with one microphone. Consider it lo-fi therapy after a tough week for the Boston sports fan. The first fret capo makes a guest appearance.

Boston Sports, the Song.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

This is not a joke.

Dell now has a website specially geared towards meeting the unique computer demands of the fairer sex.

Its name: Della.

You can't make this stuff up.

Am I the only person that thinks this is ridiculous? Maybe they're just trying to deflect attention from this.

Props to ZDNet for bringing this to my attention.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Fried-day

It's a dank one out there, and I'm .5/10-15 pages into this paper about how Reagan's economic policies screwed over the majority of Americans. Suffice it to say I'm gonna be bogged down working on this thing for a while. And then I've got three finals in 24 hours...At least I've got some sweet tuneage to help me push through...

Scattered thoughts from recent days:
  • Jonathan Van Every does it ALL. His Dave McCarty impression was most admirable. If only I were a lefty, maybe I could also be a 30-year-old career minor league outfielder transformed into major league mop-up man with a 73 mph fastball and a fantastic Mississippi drawl...I don't think that's aiming too high for a dream job...
  • Given the awful economic situation, I feel incredibly fortunate to have a job this summer. It pays to have a little bit of technical expertise and something vaguely resembling people skills, I guess.
  • Cutting my own hair was a remarkably rewarding experience. On a par with beardsculpting, if not better. (Thanks for letting me use your buzzer/trimmer/haircuttin' thang Sean!)
  • That last softball game was awesome. It was the best loss I've ever been a part of. Another example of why you shouldn't give up easily.
  • The Andrew W.K. show kicked a serious amount of ass. Yes, I got on stage with the band. Yes, I got to touch him. No, I don't have a lock of his hair. Y'all are creepy for even thinking of it.
  • So far in the medical-afflictions-which-are-a-giant-pain-in-my-ass category, tree pollen > "swine flu". I'm not buying the hype.
  • How the hell is it May already?
  • Shooting to scrobble 10,000 songs this summer. As long as neither my iPod nor MacBook die out of warranty, I think it's doable. Also, "doable" is a terrible-looking word whose pronunciation is utterly counter-intuitive. Yeah, I said it. [UPDATE: I ended up easily meeting this goal. Epic win.]
  • I'm either going to learn how to cook this summer or order an awful lot of pizza. Hoping for the former, but wouldn't be entirely surprised if the latter occurs. I think a happy medium of the two would be optimal for maintaining my sanity. [UPDATE: I ate an awful lot of pizza and various other take-out for the first month or so of the summer, then wised up and started cooking low-maintenance food.]
  • The whole time I was writing this I could have been working on that monstrosity of a paper. But wait, I'll rationalize this...simply honing my writing skills, gently massaging half my brain by churning out a few hundred words of sludge, warming up for the marathon of paper creation that will shortly ensue...
    Yeah, I feel marginally better now.
    Back to work.