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Thursday, October 13, 2005

I’ve been too swamped with things to write anything here, and it’s a shame because I have a lot to say. No poker content, though, because I haven’t had any time to play (or even get my Windows machine out of my garage so I could play).

Baseball

I guess I’ll start with October baseball. I have (almost) no doubt that St. Louis is going to win it all. They are certainly the best team left in the playoffs (and the best team in the majors this season, anyway). I’m a bit disappointed the ALCS isn’t Sox vs. Yanks again, but I’m always glad to see the Yankees eliminated. I’m pulling for the Angels vs the White Sox, because if they win, I might get to go to a World Series game.

The end of last night’s game was ridiculous. Two outs, bottom of the ninth, tie game. A.J. Pierzynski swings through strike three, and Josh Paul catches it near the dirt. Home plate umpire Doug Eddings rings him up, and Paul rolls the ball back to the mound. Pierzynski then decides to run to first, as if the ball got away from the catcher. After much arguing, the umpires rule the ball hit the dirt, and he’s safe at first. After pinch runner Pablo Ozuna steals second, Joe Crede lines an 0-2 hanging breaking ball to the left field wall for a game winning double.

Now, there’s no guarantee the Sox wouldn’t have won anyway had the game gone to extra innings, but that call, in that spot, was just awful. I know, umpires make mistakes (but not as many as we think, and I agree with the article that we don’t need an instant replay in baseball), but this one was just unacceptable. He made the right call, and then got faked out by the batter, essentially. I think all the credit for the White Sox win belongs to Pierzynski. This map is hilarious. The whole country (hell, the whole world) except for Illinois think the blame for the Angels loss lies with the umpire. Illinois thinks it lies with the catcher for not tagging the batter out. After the home plate umpire called him out.

Whatever. Just crazy.

House

Alrighty, on to my house. It’s finally coming together, with just a little work left to do. The painters did a good job, once they finally did it right. The wiring is good, and the lighting is awesome. The wired in-wall speaker setup is very cool. The carpets were steam cleaned, and now I have to vacuum every day for a week or two and get the newly hatched fleas before they lay more eggs. Without a pet, I should be able to take care of this and not have them come back.

While the electricians were working, some of the ductwork in the attic got detached, so I had someone come in to fix it. He said he wouldn’t, because all the ducts had asbestos in them. Not good. According to this, an asbestos inspection isn’t required in California for a home purchase. I called the inspector, and he said as long as it’s non-friable, he doesn’t see any need to mention it. This needs to be changed. It’s definitely the kind of thing I would have wanted to know before buying. It wouldn’t have stopped me, but I could have at least factored in the cost of getting them removed, tested, and replaced. Or even had the sellers pay for that, possibly. I don’t think I’m in any danger, because the guy who did the removal said it was all self contained and not airborne. I still wanted it out of my house. I wonder how I go about getting the law changed so there needs to be an asbestos inspection before purchase.

There are a few other little things to do, like put exhaust vents in the attic and vent the fans from the bathrooms through the roof instead of just into the attic. I haven’t done anything with landscaping the backyard, or getting a sprinkler system put in yet, but I’m not really in a hurry for those things. I want to really start unpacking and getting more furniture now.

Fuck AIM

Not only is my AIM account still suspended, but I can’t even get them to respond to me. I’ve filled out the form at http://www.aim.com/suspended_account/report.adp a million times, and they won’t even e-mail me back telling me why my account is blocked. No response at all. Anyone who’s using AIM Mail should take this as a warning: Your account can get suspended and you’ll have absolutely no recourse. You’ll probably lose all your mail. I did manage to get an email reply from webmaster@aol.com, but AIM and AOL are different services, so they couldn’t help me. webmaster@aim.com got no response. If I didn’t know so many people on AIM, I’d probably drop it altogether and switch to something like Google Talk. I have created a new AIM account. If I was on your list, I haven’t contacted you, and you want to know my new screen name, send me an email. I’m still trying to get my old account back, but I have no hope that I’ll actually succeed. If anyone has any recommendations on what to try or who to contact, let me know.

Other Stuff

I went to a Green Day concert in LA Saturday. It was very good. I took a picture. That’s it, can’t think of anything else.