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Maybe I Should Hit the Batting Cages

Anyone who knows me knows that I bleed Royal Blue, but even my loyalty has limits and this picture on their homepage definitely reaches that. Can they honestly be asking fans to vote for Pena Jr. for an All-Star slot!? Haha The guy is simply atrocious at the plate. He's batting a monstrous .139 with an adjusted OPS of -1! If you don't understand that stat, I'll quote the guys over at Royals Authority (The best blog on the Royals bar-none)to help give you an idea:

"Pena’s OPS+ is negative one. HOW THE HELL IS THAT POSSIBLE? For OPS+, 100 is considered average. If you’re dead, you rate a zero. Pena has a freaking -1."

Seriously, I'd put Pena's chances at winning an All-Star selection as equal to Lindsey Lohan winning an Oscar. For Cinematography. Twice.

posted by Jason | 11:41 PM
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Coming Soon: Google Bedroom View

Has anyone else discovered the insanity that is Google Maps Street View? Apparently, the voyeurs over at Google weren't satisfied with just bird's eye views of maps and decided they needed to have full 360 degree shots of every street in major metropolitan areas. It really is a mind-blowing tool that's easy to waste hours fiddling with. Sadly, and somewhat bizarrely, Seattle is not included. That only means, however, that any time I see a strange van patrolling outside my doorstep, I'm running outside to be digitally immortalized...or kidnapped.

Locations of Note:

- Where my life began

View Larger Map

- Where I grew up (with bigger trees)

View Larger Map

- Where Vertigo was filmed

View Larger Map

posted by Jason | 11:06 PM
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Swimming in the Movie Stream

Can anything really compete for a cinephile's attention like Netflix? (Except for seeing the films at an actual theatre of course...) It seems the folks ar 'Flix are upping the ante once again and offering to stream a boatload of films online for subscribers...for free. Now they've had this option for around a year, but you were only allocated a certain number of hours per month to watch and I never felt like hassling with it. But you can't really argue with free.

So, I gave the gizmo a whirl couple nights ago and it was about as I expected; When it works, the quality and experience seem fine; However, roughly every twenty minutes or so, the streaming stops, telling me my 'internet connection has slowed' and it takes about 3-to-4 minutes to reconfigure itself and start up again. Now when I'm watching a documentary or television show, that may only be mildly annoying, but I can imagine how frustrating it would be to be constantly interrupted mid-story of a feature film for technical problems; Almost like a projector at a theatre stopping a film, turning the lights up and telling everyone to hold on because the camera bulb has to be replaced. Additionally, the controls for watching the films are simplistic at best; play, pause, scrub the timeline. Further functionality like chapter searching and a more detailed clock would certainly enhance the experience. Regardless, it's a pretty sweet addition to their service and I'm sure it will only improve over time. Though it makes me wonder what all those striking writers think of it...

posted by Jason | 4:53 PM
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Whirlpool Holocaust

I just noticed this 4-star review of Schindler's List on Netflix and thought it needed to be shared:

'I have not washed the movie yet but it is coming in the mail the weekend and i cant wait to see. Ive seen prevews of the movie and it looks very very sad. My friends say it is a heart-warming movie.'

posted by Jason | 11:49 PM
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No Wizard Am I

Tonight holds the less-than-important distinction of being my inaugural attending of 'Pinball Tuesday' down at Shorty's, thanks to an invitation from Lucas. I had only been to Shorty's once before - when Justin & Susan were visiting this summer - and the service there had left a lot to be desired. (I recall a heavily tatted bartender girl glaring at us when we asked for a pitcher) But I suppose a lot of that can be chalked up to a weekend crowd chock full of cheap hipsters and other unruly patrons. Or maybe the staff was sick of smelling the hot dogs cooking behind the bar.

Anyways, I didn't notice on my first go-around just how many pinball machines they had in there. I also forgot how difficult pinball really is. I probably hadn't played in over a decade and I doubt if I had that I would've been any better. It's a dismal feeling to be psyched to play, launch your ball into action, and then watch in horror as it jettisons past your flippers within a few seconds with absolutely no preventive measures possible. Oh - and some of the machines mock you when that happens, so I guess that's worse. Some of the machines are really elaborate too; a boxing one where you have to launch the ball off ramps into a boxers face, a medieval machine that makes you demolish a castle, and an evil clown game that doesn't give you any points and laughs at you constantly. Still, it was a lot of fun for a pocketful of quarters and I plan on further honing my pinball futility in the coming year.

posted by Jason | 9:39 PM
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Six (Sorta) Train-Related Films Worth Seeing

- The Train (1964)
- Closely Watched Trains (1966)
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
- Trainspotting (1996) (A bit of a stretch, but oh well...)
- The Station Agent (2003)
- The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

posted by Jason | 8:47 PM
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The Long Road

The day finally arrived and as of two weeks ago I, after six years of post-Olathe schooling, became officially employed. I signed a contract with a great firm downtown here in Seattle that, ironically, was one of the firm's I initially considered somewhat out of my league. But after two rounds of interviews with ten different employees, I was lucky enough to land an Interactive Designer position there. The whole staff seems incredibly accommodating and talented, the offices are amazing (pictures soon), the benefits incredible, and their work thoroughly organized and thoroughly top-notch. I started on Monday and keep finding myself imagining that I'm in some elaborate prank and they'll soon pull the wool away from my eyes and give me the steel-toed boot into the street. I mean, don't you kind of have to pinch yourself when you see that this is the tshirt design for an AIGA tour of our office?

posted by Jason | 11:39 PM
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