Between Christmas, travels, and being sick the last few days, it’s been quite a while since I wrote anything. Rather than giving you pages and pages of dribble to read though, I’ll just summarize a bunch of the random thoughts that have been running through my head for the last few weeks.

Charlie Bartlet

While laying around the house sick yesterday, I watched Charlie Bartlet which I’ve had on my Netflix queue (along with about 50 other movies) for a while. It’s about Charlie Bartlet (tada!) an affluent high school student who makes friends at his new school by becoming an amateur psychologist/drug dealer specializing in anti-depressants and stimulants. Billed as a comedy, it is genuinely funny and most of the acting (Robert Downy Jr and Kat Dennings especially) is decent, there are a couple problems I had with the movie. Namely, that while the message in the end (be yourself, world be damned) is good, the excessive use of drugs without medical supervision is treated as more of a comedic device than the felony it actually is.  In the end, it’s worth a few good laughs but Varsity Blues and Grease are far better movies about what being in high school is like.

Gaza

Wow, what a mess. I would describe myself as generally pro-Israel but the Israelies are quickly eroding their moral high ground in their fight against Hamas. To be fair, Hamas isn’t doing anything to help their own cause in giving reason for Israel to continue their offensives. But as the death toll continues to mount, sooner or later Israel will run out of the political capitol and friends in Washington they need to stave off foreign intervention from the UN or Arab League.

Mariner Baseball

Mariner fans have quickly gone from despair to optimism about the 2009 seasons and beyond as new GM Jack Z-somethingsomething has moved to quickly rebuild the farm system destroyed in the disastrous Erik Bedard trade and move the club from a strict scouting oriented organization to one which gives equal time to scouts and stat heads. The fact that he and new manager Don Wakamatsu are talking about the importance of team defense is a massive improvement over the last group who stressed chemistry. Now, if we could just sign Griffey to a cheap farewell tour contract we can really have a party!

Grad School

While I still haven’t received the actual letter (seriously? USPS, fail!) I have heard from the Admissions people at Northwest University that I’ve been accepted to the International Care and Community Development program. If you read my blog, you probably already know this because I know most of you (but maybe not, shout out to anyone new!), but since I realize I haven’t written anything here yet, I thought I probably should. The plan right now is that I will move back in with my parents in Edmonds and start school in the Fall. Hopefully between now and then I will be able to find a job that pays somewhat decent wages and ideally at a non-profit that does international relief work. My long term goal is to find ways to help missionaries and aid workers tell the stories of the people they work with.

5D Mk II

Hopefully after I get my tax return and a stimulus check (though I hear rumors the package includes just tax cuts, no checks like last year) and continued savings I will be able to go forward with my plan to buy the aptly named “Jesus camera.” While $2700 is quite a bit of quid to drop on a camera, when you consider the fact I could easily spend $1500 on a first gen 5D and another $2000-3000 on a good HD camcorder, it’s actually quite a good deal. And while the 720p D90 Nikon came out to much fan fair and then fizzled somewhat, the 5D Mk II seems to have pro shooters drooling all over themselves. And who can blame them with the quality of the demo footage shot by guys like Vincent LaForet.  I could always keep waiting for whatever Red has up their sleeves with their Digital Still and Motion Camera (aka DSMC) but while that will likely be an equally good value, it will probably end up more in the $5000+ range, which is definitely out of my budget.

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Anyway, that’s most of what I’ve been up to in the last few weeks. I had a great Christmas with the fam back in Seattle in the snow and a pretty anti-climactic New Years back here at Mount Hermon. I’m off to make a stop at Safeway and then figure out what I want to eat for dinner since I had a late lunch. Later!

“Speaking of pitchers, the guy below doesn’t have any issues with back stiffness. Too bad you can’t rewind to two months ago, huh? By the way, Cha-Seung Baek (the uniformed guy in the picture below) told me the team’s explanation to him the night he was designated for assignment was that he’d gone back-to-back nights and a fresh arm was needed. Kind of what we’d figured all along, but that’s a tough pill to swallow. You groom a guy, see him have some success in the majors, then lose him because you need a long reliever every second night. Oh well. Baek starts tomorrow against his former team.” –Geoff Baker, The Mariner Blog

Hear that?  That’s the sound of Mariner fans hitting their heads against walls, tables, pretty much anything within reach.  Could we at least get a GM who isn’t so bad at roster construction that he has to cut a prospect to add another releaver?  Sheesh.

“I’m beyond those kind of motions. I’ve surpassed those emotions,” he said. “I don’t even know if I’m to a point where I can tell if that’s how I feel.” -Ichiro on if he feels disapointed by the play of his teammates.

If only the Mariners were as good at playing baseball as Ichiro is at giving mind blowing quotes after games:

“”Playing on this team and seeing what’s happening around me, I feel that something is beginning to fall apart,” Suzuki said through a translator. “But, if I was not in the situation and I was objectively watching what had happened to this team in the past week, I would probably be drinking a lot of beers and brewing it.”

What kind of beer?”Usually I enjoy Japanese beer, but given the situation, if I was objectively watching the game, I wouldn’t care if it was Japanese beer, American beer or beer from Papua New Guinea,” he said.”

Awesome.

Through all of the steroid controversies in baseball right now, Griffey remains one of the classiest, funniest guys in baseball.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3398292

George Sherrill 3.18era, 6 saves, 4k

Adam Jones .278, 1hr, 3 rbi

vs.

Erik Bedard 3.10, 1-0, 10k, 15 day DL

Brad Wilkerson .152, 0hr, 4rbi

Mike Morse .222, 0hr, 0rbi, 15 day DL

Obviously this is a trade that is going to be judged over the next 5 years or so, but to this point, the Mariners traded away depth they are now sorely missing for a sore hip and two trips to theDL.  If I’m Bavasi, I’m praying for Bedard’s hip because he’s pinned his Mariner future on this trade.

I keep forgetting to post a link to this blog post by Geoff Baker. It’s basically his debate with the Mariners’ fan base about why they seem so pessimistic about the team. My favorite part is where they conclude it is because the Seattle fans are the smartest in baseball. 

I might post more thoughts about it later, but its an interesting read either way. It explains a lot about the fan frustration with a team that has on paper been getting better and better the last two years.

Sounds like someone’s been updating Wikipedia after reading the USS Mariner blog. . .

“Bavasi views the trade [for Eric Bedard] as beneficial, due to his oversight of the prospects’ potential and his misunderstanding that Bedard will likel seek a contract elsewhere after the minimum 2 years of being bound to the team. Ironically, should this trade go down, Bavasi will be heralded by uninformed fans, including Howard Lincoln. This will buy him at most two more years as GM, in which the Mariners will be in fringe contention, until he will be placed in the “hot seat” again, quite likely along with Howard Lincoln.”

Griffey Grows in Stature

Among all the names that are being thrown around in the wake of the Mitchel Report, there is one that continues to draw no second guesses as to being or not being on the list, Ken Griffey, Jr.  If ever it seemed like there was a player who could justify his use of HGH or steroids to hasten his return from multiple devastating injuries, it’s Griffey.  Yet he, seemingly alone, has the respect for himself, the fans, and the game to play the hand he is dealt.  Come 7 or 8 years when his name is finally on the ballot, it would be fitting for Griffey to be the first unanimously elected player to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Barry Bonds Indicted

Well, it finally happened.  Looks at this point like Bonds career is over since he is already 43 and will likely spend the next year or more tied up in court.  I can’t imagine a team even offering him a contract now.  Hopefully this will allow baseball to move on and finally put the worst of the steroid era behind us.