Updates Weekly
Last week, the Twins’ 13-game winning streak came to an end at the hand of the Brewers. I don’t professionally write about baseball, so I’ll leave the detailed breakdown to Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs. I’ll instead focus on how this streak felt as a fan.
It was magnificent.
Continue reading “A Great Twins Winning Streak”Our recent trip to New Mexico was excellent for two reasons: it was a distinct kind of trip from what we’ve typically had over the last few years, and the landscape was unique and gorgeous. You can look back at the pictures to understand that second part—mountainous terrain scarred by terrible fires that continues to fight back paired with high-altitude meadows, all of which abut scrubby desert; amazing cultural artifacts dating back centuries that speak to both a proud indigenous history and an impactful, conflict-ridden European influence; plus a smattering of my hobbies like baseball and disc golf to round it out.
These wonderful elements established how we would spend our days, but we didn’t solely plan this trip to see a place we’d never visited. That will come in the future. This was a trip to spend time with two people.
Continue reading “More on New Mexico”A quote from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, pulled from the CNN coverage on the 17 players reinstated from their permanently ineligible status1Given how egregious elements of this decision are, it hardly feels worth nitpicking the nature of the phrase permanently ineligible as something that can be revoked.:
Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game.
This is not obvious to me.
With institutions of culture like MLB, each notable player is a symbol, an icon, representing something greater than themselves. Who the institution allows to represent them fundamentally describes their standards, ethics, and beliefs as an organization. By walking back names from the—ahem—permanently ineligible list, Manfred is himself compromising the integrity of the game and claiming the reason Rose was banned was solely as personal punishment to he man, rather than a level enforcement of rules against betting on baseball that, though indeed having the effect of punishing the individual, also acts as a clear signal that the actions are not tolerated in the least.
This is a discouraging and cowardly move by a commissioner who does not care about the impact of baseball as a cultural phenomenon and is willing to sacrifice its ethos for… what exactly?
What with all the moving I’ve done as an adult, my desk setup has changed dramatically over the years. I wish I had a comprehensive album, but I’ve still scrounged together a good set of pictures of various desks, culminating with my first dedicated desk space in a room separate from where I eat, sleep, and/or socialize.
Continue reading “Evolution of My Desk”Erin and I returned late last night/early this morning from visiting her brother and his wife in New Mexico. It was our first trip there. We spent most of our time near Los Alamos, and had a day trip to Santa Fe. It was glorious.
While I intend to write a bit more when I’m not running on fumes after a long travel day with several delays, here are the highlights through pictures.
This post isn’t about who does or does not deserve to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s simply this: which Hall of Fame players had the most bad seasons, or the worst seasons in general. My thanks to Sports Reference’s Stathead for existing and making this easy to find. Let’s get started.
Continue reading “Bad Hall of Fame Seasons”I received a surprise letter in the mail this week from my friendly, not-so-neighborhood California Department of Motor Vehicles, specifically the collections arm of that renowned institution. Since I didn’t do them the justice of notifying them I had moved to Connecticut, their system assumed I was illegally driving my car around California with expired registration for the last seven or eight months.
Now, let’s not worry too much about the double jeopardy implied by the fact that if I were doing that, I certainly would have received a ticket or two at this point to go with the fees I already allegedly owe.
Here’s the kicker: the letter they sent was not via USPS forwarding. They sent it directly to my Connecticut address, so there is some record, somewhere, that I live there now.
Luckily, this has been resolved relatively quickly. There was a phone number I could call to dispute the charges, and I quickly got on the line with a nice person who told me what to expect. They were going to send me an email where I needed to detail when I left California, when I arrived in Connecticut, when I first registered my car here, and a copy of the registration document.
That email never showed up, but they gave me the email address from which I should expect it. I emailed them directly and received a notice that the DMV’s records were updated—the only remaining step is to call again so they can forward me to the Collections folks and settle the record. Why I have to do that is beyond me, but hey, I’m just trying to follow the rules.
I’m frustrated by the “guilty until proven innocent” tinge to this situation. Thousands of people must be similarly caught unaware by their policy, and it falls into the vast bucket of laws and regulations, which makes it extremely easy to accidentally violate because you have to think to ask the right question to discover said regulation.
My company held its second Hackathon last week, when (most) regular work pauses or slows down, so we can instead focus on new ideas aligned to our mission.1We still need to work with customers, provide support, and generally keep the lights on. But anyone who wants to participate can always find the time to do so. We get to explore and build, play around, meet new people, and add to our general culture of inquisitiveness, curiosity, and hard work.
I used it as an opportunity to get back to my curriculum roots. I ran text adventure Math Jams in our online classroom for three years in the same fashion I do with OHAC. The main difference is I’m working with around 200 students who are voting on what to do—it gets chaotic.
It’s been over two years since I ran one of these sessions, so I took the week to brainstorm ideas with some people. The most recent adventure I ran, Casework, is full of company-specific easter eggs and takes place in a loose approximation of our old headquarters. This new adventure, Casework 2: Overwhelming Evidence, follows that up.
I’ve attached the text adventure document, along with the video I created for the final project presentation. It was incredibly fun to work on.