Heated optimism, arranged by category

In sports:
Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Yanks at the deadline. This is a big contract assumption, but at least it's not Kevin Brown 2.0 or something. Abreu is a bona fide offensive threat, and any decent arm (of which Lidle is one) can only help. Two questions: Will they be able to compete at the varsity (AL) level, or has their success been based on the fact that they've played against inferior players? And second, does anyone still play for the Yankees at the minor league level? I can appreciate wanting to Win Now, but I worry every time I see a trade that involves giving up more prospects. I could almost get behind a true rebuilding project, one that would give Jeter a shot at being part of another great run at the end of his career. I'm not sure this present strategy will ultimately be successful, even in the short term.

In life:
I'm still pretty tired from going 1,100 miles round trip to surprise my family in Maine, but it was worth it. Abel walked into their cottage at about 9:30 Thursday night and said, "Surprise!" That was fun. My sister and her husband brought two kayaks, reminding me once again how nice it would be to have one (er, two) of our own. We also walked around the Old Port and had a nice lunch at Flatbread Company. Every time I go back to New England, I wonder "Why, oh why, do I live in New York?"

In weather:
Has anyone you know mentioned that it's hot? The high for tomorrow keeps going up; one more degree and it'll hit the dreaded Century Mark. Keep this up, Weather, and you're going to make me say something I don't want to say. Something that rhymes with "I'm ready for summer to be over, already."

In books:
Audiobooks, to be exact; we listened to David Sedaris's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim on the way to and from Maine. It's rated R for language, sexuality, and impressions of a southern accent, but it's quite funny. Funny in that same way that [analogy removed for the sake of my soul], or anything else that's actually very sad, are funny.

In politics:
It's pretty depressing when the only good news politically is that Charles Barkley is running for governor. Of Alabama. In the year 2014.

In blogging:
Remember Mini-Reviews? How about the interactive blog game Trifecta? Or Monday Columns? Yeah, me neither. This blog sucks. Good thing I'm not getting paid to write it.

The cake

Here's a picture of the finished guitar cake. Since I know from experience that you find nothing but crap when you Google "guitar birthday cake," I will definitely post my process for putting it together. But just not now. Early next week when we return from our special weekend away.

Birthday cake

I'm working today on a guitar-shaped birthday cake for Abel. Hopefully I'll be back on later tonight with pictures and a description of the process, though I can't promise that will happen before next week.

Blog business

Hello all. I'm preparing a sermon this week, so there won't be any significant posts until at least Monday. I'm working on a piece containing tips for recent switchers to OS X (many friends and acquaintances fit that description), so you can look forward to that.

In the meantime, here's the gospel reading for this week's sermon, from the Revised Common Lectionary:

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things....When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Friday morning latte art

I was in a rush to drink it, and it cost me a well-focused photograph, but you get the point. My machine steams pretty decent milk, but the espresso is still too thin. If anyone wants to buy me a new espresso machine, my birthday is September 1.

Loose ends

Here's a upturned junk drawer of thoughts for you, a few mini-reviews of media I have consumed lately, because I'm not inspired to write anything extensive right now. Be warned: the Rambling Probability Alert for this entry is ORANGE.

Last Thursday, Tracey and I went to see the Al Gore global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. I am not an Al Gore fan, but for some reason, I have felt drawn to this film for several weeks now. We finally went to see it, and we both enjoyed it. Well, I suppose it's hard to "enjoy" a film about the impending incineration of the planet, but it was a well-done movie. Some have called Al Gore's global warming slideshow "the best PowerPoint presentation ever," which would be easy to quibble with since it was made in Keynote, not PowerPoint. However, the presentation was very interesting to watch, and I was surprised at how excellent Gore was at presenting this material. If you are interested in global warming, environmental science, or integrating an oral presentation with a slideshow (hello, pastor readers!), I can recommend this film to you. And it probably is one of those films that works better on a big screen, so try to catch it before it disappears into the, ahem, atmosphere.

Earlier that day, I finished Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. It was a nice, long, slow read. I bought the book a few years ago after hearing Tony Jones (I think) recommend it as the "great postmodern novel," and I just recently got around to reading it. Indeed, the description does ring true, especially at the climax, when logic, theory, enlightenment, and knowledge are demolished in spectacular metaphorical fashion. In spite of the fact that The Name of the Rose enjoyed broad critical and popular acclaim, not everyone would enjoy it. For one thing, there's a good deal of untranslated Latin. Personally, I enjoyed trying to decipher it, but hey, I'm weird like that. Also, the plot does not move at the pace of certain other novels involving monks, papal corruption, and mysterious murders. But it's also much more rewarding to read a book like The Name of the Rose than one like The Da Vinci Code. It's a slow burn, a novel that held my attention over the course of a few weeks. Sometimes I want to plow through a book; not this time. It is wonderful piece of literature that is still pretty accessible.

Also, I picked up Johnny Cash's American V: A Hundred Highways, which I wrote about prior to its release. I took advantage of Circuit City's tendency to sell hot new titles at $8.99, which is great for two reasons. First, it's a fantastic price. And second, I have the perfect defense for anyone who might criticize me for shopping at an Evil Corporation instead of a locally-owned business: $8.99 is probably about a 3-4 dollar loss for said Evil Corporation. (But let's be honest. I went there for the price.)

The album is about what you'd expect from a posthumous release that was built around tracks set down by a dying musician at the end of a hard-lived career. That is to say, it's about what you'd expect if that musician were Johnny Cash. You can hear the strain in his voice at times, and it's never as strong as it was in healthier days. But it's still Cash. And in some cases, this only adds to the despair of the lyrics. It's hit and miss, but long-time and recent fans alike (I am one of the latter) will want to pick this album up. After a casual listen or two, I'd say the three best tracks are Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind," Hugh Moffat's "Rose of My Heart," and the original "Like the 309" -- the last song Johnny Cash ever wrote.

Napster: They can't give it away

(Via Daring Fireball.)

From the WSJ Online, a little story about the failure of free music subscription programs to take root on college campuses. Well, free to the students, anyway; the institutions are paying for them. No doubt Napster and the others are hoping that access to the free service during the college years will entice students to pay for the service (because otherwise they'll lose all their music) upon graduation.

But the students, by and large, are not taking the bait. Why? Partly because of the other inherent flaws of the subscription services, namely that they would have to pay a per-song fee to burn tracks to a CD or to copy them to a digital device. What, you don't want free songs that you can only listen to while sitting at your computer? Why not?

"There's also the problem of compatibility," writes Nick Timiraos. "The services won't run on Apple Computer Inc. computers, which are owned by 19% of college students, according to a 2006 survey of 1,200 students by the research group Student Monitor. In addition, the files won't play on Apple iPods, which are owned by 42% of college students, according to the survey."

Emphasis mine, because those numbers are staggering. We knew the iPod was strong, holding about a 70% market share, but 42% of all college students, including those who have no digital player at all? That's wild.

And for a computer maker with a market share of less than 5% of all computer owners, holding 19% of college students in your pocket must be extremely encouraging news, even granting the fact that unlike with digital music players, college students probably own computers at very nearly a 100% rate. But even if that 19% is 19% of computer-using college students, that bodes well for Apple's future market share with Real Grown-Ups.

I've never been one to wish for a high Mac market share, though. Apple is extremely profitable with a low market share, and I suspect their relatively low production numbers help them keep their quality as high as it is. But that's a post for another day.

Speaking of athletic feats

Are you serious?



I think he turned a little before he jumped, so I'm only giving him 700° on this one, not the full 720°.

Why do we watch sports?

To see people performing athelitc feats we could only dream of performing, like this one:

More on flag burning

A slightly more highbrow perspective on the flag-burning amendment, from yesterday's featured article at OpinionJournal.com. Christopher Hitchens and I would no doubt disagree on many political issues, but I certainly resonate with his take on the idea of an amendment prohibiting "desecration" of the flag. Here's a taste:

"If I find that I have stuck a flag-stamp on an envelope and accidentally put it on upside-down, I admit with slight embarrassment that I now start over with a new envelope. Nobody would ever notice my tiny disrespect, but I still won't commit it. However, the whole case would be altered if I was told that I had to get it right. The flag would no longer stand for the constitutional spirit that gives it meaning in the first place."

It's tacky when bloggers say "read the whole thing," but it is a well-reasoned argument that I think you might like.

Return of the Blind Boys

The extremely awesome news: The Blind Boys of Alabama are coming back to Rochester next month!

The extremely crappy news: I'll be camping two hours away that night.

Anyone who is in town on July 29 must go to this show. It is unlike anything you will ever see.