Author: Mark

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MLB Rule Changes in 2023

Each time I sit down to establish my feelings about the new MLB rules going into the 2023 season, I flounder. I have a hard time separating the baseball I know and love from the inevitable future version it must become if it’s to survive and hopefully thrive. I can only imagine what the players faced with learning these new rules must feel, because some of the changes are rather drastic.

Consider this post a snapshot of my mind right now. It’s not clean or concise, and my feelings will change once I get a few games under my belt this year and see the practical ways these rules affect gameplay. But here’s where my heart and my head lie for now.

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Science Museums

Science museums are awesome, and The Exploratorium in San Francisco is particularly fantastic. We went for their Thursday After Dark series, where they stay open from 6 to 10 at night, and you must be at least 18 to get in. They serve drinks and have a different theme each week with various exhibits and presentations among the standard fare. It was a surprisingly vibrant experience!1To be fair, we happened to go when the theme was Sexploration. I have a vague feeling that other theme nights don’t have quite the same turnout, but it still indicated a healthy crowd. When we would go to similar adult nights at the Minnesota Science Museum, it felt like there were a couple dozen people at most.

There are so many opportunities for excitement at a science museum, all stemming from different areas of curiosity and experience. Going to a new museum means new demonstrations and exhibits that I’d never come across. Others are similar to what I’ve seen before, and take me back to my favorite bits of physics classes oh so many years ago now. I get to experience concepts again, sometimes in fresh ways, and marvel at the world we live in. If you have any science museum nearby, give them a visit at least once a year. You won’t regret it.

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    To be fair, we happened to go when the theme was Sexploration. I have a vague feeling that other theme nights don’t have quite the same turnout, but it still indicated a healthy crowd. When we would go to similar adult nights at the Minnesota Science Museum, it felt like there were a couple dozen people at most.
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Multi-Effects Guitar Pedal

Years ago when I got my first electric guitar, a used Squier Stratocaster in white, my guitar-playing uncle was nice enough to pass along a multi-effects pedal.1For those not in the know: effects pedals allow guitar players to change the sound in a huge number of ways. The defining sound of many guitarists is a mix of their guitar choice, the string of pedals they implement, and the settings of their chosen amplifier. A multi-effects pedal provides a digitally-processed version of a large number of these sounds—both individual effects and combinations meant to mimic famous guitarists—and gives you access to them in a single pedal with a straightforward interface. The budget version I have would almost certainly not be used by a true professional, but is perfect for being at home and noodling around. For hobbyist playing on my own, it was a fun toy that gave me new sounds and allowed me to attempt imitating the sounds in songs I was trying to play.

This memory popped back into my head the other week as I was tooling around with my much-improved Fender Telecaster I bought last year. Despite my excitement about having a guitar with a simple, clean sound, I found myself wishing again for more ways to have fun with playing. While flows like plugging into an interface and using Garageband are viable options, that requires more connections and isn’t any less expensive than where I ended up. After doing some research, I found that reputable multi-effects pedals were way less expensive than I originally imagined.

I decided to purchase the ZOOM G1X Four. It has 40 built-in effects with the ability to add more from a computer, the tools to create custom effects strung together, and niceties like some rhythm options, audio-in for playing along to tracks from my phone, a tuner, and good headphone output so I can play silently. It’s been huge fun having it available, and encourages me to keep practicing the songs I love. I’ve yet to dive fully into everything it has to offer, having mainly stuck with the built-in effects, but over time I plan to see what sounds I can get out of it.

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    For those not in the know: effects pedals allow guitar players to change the sound in a huge number of ways. The defining sound of many guitarists is a mix of their guitar choice, the string of pedals they implement, and the settings of their chosen amplifier. A multi-effects pedal provides a digitally-processed version of a large number of these sounds—both individual effects and combinations meant to mimic famous guitarists—and gives you access to them in a single pedal with a straightforward interface. The budget version I have would almost certainly not be used by a true professional, but is perfect for being at home and noodling around.
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Review: ChatGPT’s Satirical Ability

I asked ChatGPT to write its own Onion-style article with the same title as what I published yesterday.

My request along with ChatGPT’s response.

Make your own judgement on how it did, and continue on if you’d like to read my thoughts.1Disclaimer: I commit the cardinal sin of explaining a joke later on in this post.

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    Disclaimer: I commit the cardinal sin of explaining a joke later on in this post.
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On Digital Organization

We create and accumulate huge quantities information these days. I don’t think that makes us fundamentally different than our ancestors in terms of organization. What separates us is that it’s now possible to have our data completely disorganized in a way that is invisible to others. This requires an increase in awareness and intentionality to reap the inherent benefits of organization.1The title of this post is brought to you by Semicertain.

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    The title of this post is brought to you by Semicertain.