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I reached a crossroads today. maybe it was the strange weather, the alternating sunny/40mph windy/ torrential thunderstorm weather of the weekend. Maybe it's because I got drunk with matt wronka at 5 in the afternoon yesterday. Who knows, we don't choose these things, they choose us. All I know is, as of 4 hours ago, the object of my desire, my raison d'etre, ceased to be the sole competitor for my affection. I met someone else. And now I can't choose.
that's right, i'm in love with both. Two beautiful cars.
my original crush was the Infiniti G35 Coupe. I was almost going to buy one this summer, but saw that the model was going to be updated for summer 2007 with a lot of stuff that I would want (300+ hp, paddle shifters, mp3 hard drive.) So I was going to wait until that version of the coupe came out.
see? absolutely gorgeous. Powerful, slick-handling, 2+2 coupe, rwd, etc etc. for over a year i've been planning on buying this car when I got a job.
probably one of the best price to performance luxury cars out there. And with all the new features, it was going to worth it to drive my old car for another year and wait out this model's release.
Then today I started really reading about transmissions. I refuse to drive a manual. As Vincent Gallo so eloquently stated in the indie film Buffalo 66,
- "Is this a shifter car? I cannot drive a shifter car, alright, so we got a little situation here. I can't drive these kinda cars! What the fuck is goin' on! You think that's funny? Would you like to know, smartass? Would you like to know why I can't drive this kinda car? I'll tell you why, I'm used to *luxury* cars. Have you ever heard of a luxury car? You know what luxury means? Ever heard of Cadillac, Cadillac Eldorado? That's what I drive. I drive cars that *shift* themselves."
anyways, I want an automatic that offers a manual mode. So I started reading. most luxury cars today have a manual mode on their automatics, called sequential manual gearbox or something like that. but most of them are slow, have a little delay on the downshift, or otherwise aren't perfect. that is, a good driver on a manual stick with a clutch would shift faster. All except for Audi/VW's direct shift gearbox (DSG). DSG is an actual manual transmission that is controlled by a computer. It has two sets of gears, one that has the gear you've currently selected, and one that has the next gear pre-selected. So while moving up and down the gear range, there's virtually no delay between gears. No human can shift that fast. (there's a video of a japanese professional driver getting beat everytime by the DSG version of the car he's driving).
Long story short, the transmission is amazing, and I started to look for cars that had it. unfortunately, not many do. a lot of Volkswagen's do. I will never drive a jetta or a beetle though, and only the GTI really has any shot of me ever setting foot in it. So on to Audi's. unfortunately, there are only a few audi's that have the DSG, and not the nicest ones. although the RS4 is out of my price range anyways. At first I thought the only one I could get with DSG was the A3. A frigging hatchback. After promising endless ridicule to Josh if he bought one, there's no way I can get one now. a coupe or sedan version of the car would be perfect. but they don't exist, so I keep looking. Previously, a long time ago, I considered the Audi TT coupe. that tiny tiny car. that, "i'm probably a beetle in disguise car" maybe it's because the only ones I see are the blue ones, but i just didn't like them. However, now I find out they do have a DSG. They're in my price range. and the new model for 2007 is being redesigned and will be longer and wider, so it won't be so tiny. and from the pictures, they're very nice looking as well, not G35 nice, but still nice looking. So there it is, my new crush. less power than the G35 (250 hp) it has AWD, so I can drive it skiing and such, which the rwd coupe would have trouble with. gas mileage is a lot better with the smaller engine and DSG too, closer to 30 than the 18-24 the G35 gets. Sigh, tough tough tough tough choice. I still love the G35, but the Audi is catching up.
So, there it is. I'm at a crossroads, and I really don't know which to choose. Luckily, i've got a good 10 months before I really start to seriously look at buying the car.
choose one Brian.
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i finally got internet access in my new apartment, and not a minute too soon. Every day i worried I would forget to record the bumper sticker that i saw a few weeks ago, and why it sums up a vast part of my outlook on life. I was driving home from burlington to providence, in decently heavy traffic, and was passed on the right and cut off by some jerk. No big deal, that happens all the time driving on 128. However, this car was a Toyota Prius. A hybrid. Now, normally hybrids don't upset me at all, but this one had a bumper sticker. "Hybrid Car = Less Oil = Less War" THAT was what annoyed me. Nevermind the ridiculous leaps of logic necessary to construct that equation, it was sheer pretentiousness of having a statement, on a giant (took over half the bumper) sticker no less, that boasts of the driver's social responsibility merely because of the car that they drive. Listen buddy, blowing $25k on a souped-up golf cart doesn't make you Ghandi. And even if it makes you feel that way, there's no way I want your holier-than-thou message plastered all over my windshield. Especially after you just cut me off.
politics. what a drag. If someone forced me to choose between moving all my stuff again next week, or engaging in an hour of political discussion, I would probably explode.
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Thursday, March 9th, 2006
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Thursday, December 8th, 2005
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a little while back i posted this:
"5 shows i wish i could see/have seen:
1. U2
2. Rolling Stones
3. Led Zeppelin
4. AC/DC
5. Iron Maiden"
I now need to update this list as such:
1. Rolling Stones
2. Led Zeppelin
3. AC/DC
4. Iron Maiden
that's right. It was a sunday bloody sunday for me on wednesday!
I'm also pumped because apparently I found someone with a scale, and according to that have dropped 18 lbs...with clothes on. so i might have beaten brian, i will have to find out for sure though.
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Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
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i finally played hockey again last night, it's been about 3 or 4 years since I last played (sophomore year in undergrad). I didn't realize how much I missed it until last night. I had a ridiculous amount of adrenaline going in the first 5 minutes or so before I settled down. After that it was just getting back into the swing of it...now, I've only ever played intramural, and can't skate backwards, and am not the best puckhandler, so it's not like I was Bobby Orr out there. However, it went much better than I thought, and I think I left off at the level I was at when I last played, which was good. A year of hockey lessons as a kid would've helped with all the little skill stuff though. Didn't record any points, but the team won 5-3. You can read more details about it at our hockey web log. Physically I felt great, I've been lifting a couple times and biking 5 or 6 times a week for a couple weeks now, and those are pretty much the same muscles you use skating. If I keep it up, I should easily win my contest against Brian to weigh less than him by the time he returns in december, as he keeps eating fried fisherman's platters. He did have a 20 or so pound headstart, so it will require a little effort. Regardless, it certainly helped out there on the ice, and with two weeks before our next game, I should be even stronger next time out.
Oh, and a new feature here, my beer-of-the-post recommendation.
This post's brew is Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. Something about it makes it go down extremely smoothly and you can quickly drink too many. the 6.5% ABV doesn't help either...
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Dighton, MA -- On a beautiful summer Sunday, those lucky to be in attendance at Jarrad Plante's backyard wiffleball field saw what will likely go down in history as the greatest wiffle ball game of all time. But let's start at the beginning. The field is a replica of fenway park, with a real green wooden left field wall. Concessions are made to playability and affordability, so the rest of the walls are low and made of black, tarp-like substance. There are solid foul poles, bright yellow and stretching 20 feet into the heavens. The bases are a decent distance from home plate... there is about 10 feet of outfield between 2nd base and the wall. There is a real mound about 35 feet from home plate. Home plate itself sits in front of an elaborate backstop, from behind which the umpire can make his calls and spectators can watch without fear. The field is, in essence, perfect for this game... a magical place not unlike Kevin Costner's cornfields. And it was on this day that two teams met for an epic contest.
First, the lineups, to best of this writer's recollection.
For the home team;
1. Brandon - Age 9
2. Kelsey - 18
3. Josh Demelo - 23
4. Adam Chmielewski - 23
5. unknown girl - 23?
6. Steve - 24
7. fontaine - 19?
8. Nextdoor neighbor - 13 or so
Away Team:
1. Kristina - 17
2. Frank - 16
3. Andy Silvia - 23
4. Ethan Plante - 21
5. Chris Collins - 23
6. Jarrad Plante - 23
7. Some other girl - 24
8. a "12 year old girl"
9. Another girl - 18
10. possibly another player
pitchers changed every inning for the most part.
The teams traded runs back and forth early, with Chmielewski hitting a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first off of Ethan Plante, and the away team coming back with 3 runs on a solo homerun, some poor fielding and a botched pickoff play in the top of the second. The lead stretched to 5-2 when Plante returned the favor to Chmielewski by launching a majestic solo homer off of him. The home team scratched a few runs back, including another solo homer, this one by steve (batting lefty), leaving the game at 5-4 after 5 innings. The middle innings featured some spectacular defense and multiple double plays. The middle innings also featured the first conflict of the night, as the replacement umpire for the game proved to be incredibly incompetent, forgetting counts, losing track of the outs, and making capricious judgement calls. Tensions would have boiled over had the calls not been equally atrocious for each side. The teams fought through the nonsense and the game continued at 5-4 until the bottom of the seventh. The away team brought in their bullpen ace, Andy Silvia, whose left handed junk kept the first two batters of the inning off balance. Then Brandon came to plate and launched a solo-shot from the right side, to tie the game and bring new life to the home team. The teams both survived nerve-racking situations in the 8th inning, but the game remained tied into the ninth, when all hell broke loose.
If this game was the greatest wiffle-ball game of all time, then the ninth inning was the greatest inning ever played. The home team sent out Fontaine for the top. She didn't have her best stuff, and the first batter to step up to the plate, Silvia, greeted her with a line-drive shot over the left-field wall for a 6-5 lead. The next two batters also reached, on some more lax defense before Jarrad Plante sent a moonshot into deep center field for a commanding 9-5 lead. Fontaine got out of the inning, but the damage had already been done. Little did she know, she was only setting up the fireworks to come.
The bottom of the ninth, or, where heroes are born.
Perhaps feeling a little cocky with a four-run lead, the away team sent out one of their weaker pitchers, a 12 year old girl, to mop up the bottom of the home team's order. Steve sent notice that the home team would not go quietly, ripping a deep drive over the wall, cutting the deficit to 3. Fontaine made up for the runs she gave up by singling down the 3rd base line and hussling for the hit. the next batter also singled to the wall, putting two runners on with no outs. Perhaps trying a little too hard to tie the game, Brandon popped up to second, failing to advance the runners. The next batter, Kelsey, gamely sent a hard hit between 2nd and 3rd, but Collins was near enough to attempt a play. He was not prepared for the speed of the ball however, and it ate him up, bouncing up and over and to the wall. more importantly, the potential game-ending double play was avoided, and the tying run was on first base, with one of the larger batters in the home team's lineup up next. However, Demelo has demonstrated time and time again that he is not a pressure situation performer, and amazingly, struck out meekly against the 12 year old girl for the second out of the inning. What happened next will go down in wiffle-ball lore, but only the players present will be able to know for sure what they saw. Adam Chmielewski, struggling after his first inning homer, stepped to plate in the do or die situation. Nerves struck, and heckling from the away team didn't help, as Chmielewski stepped in and out of the batters box several times. The sun had just set, and the rose color sky was clear of clouds. A nervous breeze, blowing in from center field, cooled off the humid field. The tension was palpable, and the idle chatter ceased as the greatest moment in wiffle-ball was about to occur. Finally, Chmielewski stepped into the box, and dug in, down three, down to the last out. The first pitch came in with slight downward motion, but it was left up, and Chmielewski swung with all his might. The result? A Hobbsian shot into the night, into the wind, up up up and back back back, framed perfectly against the sky with day's last light. The away team gazed upwards, silently praying for the wind to knock down the ball. However, this ball was not coming back. Deep over the left-field wall, a perfect arc, landing deep behind the field. With a triumphant yell, Chmielewski circled the bases, consumed in the moment. The entire team came down the third base line to congratulate him, and he almost forgot to touch home plate, so wrapped up in pure jubilation, before being reminded to by a teammate. Words cannot describe the pain and anguish the away team must have felt, and the weight of the game was definitely being carried on their shoulders off the field. But that pain was overshadowed by the camraderie and celebration that the home team felt, as mighty Chmielewski delivered once again. All in all, he went 2 for 5, with both hits being home runs, for a total of 2 runs scored and 6 rbis, and also pitching an inning of relief, striking out three batters sandwiched around a Ethan Plante home run. However, if all he did was the heroics in the ninth, that still would be enough to justify the game MVP award given. In a losing effort, Ethan Plante impressed at the plate, going 4-5 with 3 solo homeruns, however, his pitching left much to be desired, as the home team scored 4 of its runs off of him.
Only time will tell the impact of this game. Is Chmielewski's Walk-Off one for the ages, like Gibson's or Yaz's? Or will it someday be overshadowed? Can anyone not there understand the power and perfection of that moment? Maybe not. Everyone who was lucky enough to be alive and present that day, however, knows in their heart that they witnessed a display of sport that is unrivalled in the annals of history. And that's all that really matters.
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Thursday, July 14th, 2005
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is there anything more ridiculous than the brouhaha over this grand theft auto sex scene mod? Politicians hopelessly out of touch with technology wanting to rerate the game, remove it from stores, have a public stoning for the the ceo of rockstar, etc... it's really goddamn stupid. "yes parents, your child can now buy hardcore pornography for his playstation...but don't worry, we'll fix it so that he can shoot cops and beat up prostitutes without exposing his eyes to that other filth."
also, maybe it's because I get my news from google news, which unfortunately does not have a bad writer filter written yet, but the vast majority of stories on this have been ill-informed, poorly constructed, and just plain sensationalist.
and now hilary clinton is stepping in (what, captain america wasn't available?) and calling for a [really loud and serious voice] FEDERAL INVESTIGATION [\really loud and serious voice], yet another step on her staircase to that coveted presidential nomination and place in history. Don't politicians have something better to do than protecting the precious innocent 17 year olds that have been exposed to such a despicable, immoral game by fixing the rating and letting only the mature, responsible and unflappable 18 year olds of the world buy it?
and i don't even like the game!
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Thursday, June 30th, 2005
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the pogs of 2005, i.e. things that too many people think are cool but are really just lame:
- remixes
- modding your car
- surfing
- white fitted hats
- POKER
- WATCHING POKER
- PLAYING POKER ONLINE
- SuperSystem I and II
- the words pwned and noob and noodz
- rims
- i love them, but the red sox
- bad dance/rap/hip-hop songs, like anything 50 cent puts out.
- Gwen Stefani (see above)
- ringtones
- bittorrent
- iPods (and yes, even I have one)
- anti-bush bumper stickers
- support our troops bumper stickers
- fuck it, all bumper stickers
- cellphone headsets
- blogs
- bill simmons
- in-car video systems
- budlight commercials
- "I'm Rick James bitch"
- "git er done"
- Outkast
- not using turn signals
- DJ's
The news is not all bad, the following are criminally underrated:
- The Eagles
- tennis
- Infiniti G35
- chinese food
- The Wire
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Neyer/James guide to pitchers
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someone asked me...
- "do you always pick the song you are currently listening to, or do you try to make it as varied and eclectic as possible in some vain attempt to foster some hipindiechiccool look?"
- of course...
anyways, last weekend i went on a downloading spree and added a bunch of new albums to my collection:
- well I actually bought this one, but Nick Cave and the Badseeds - B sides and Rarities 3 disc box set, which i'm currently listening to, is awesome. 57 total songs, and it really consolidates all of the miscellaneous singles and solo mp3's i had lying around. Great mix of material, plenty of stuff i haven't heard, and different versions of songs I have heard. I would give it a 10/10.
- White Stripes, get behind me satan - I've read a couple reviews of this that compare it to other band's "experimental" career changing albums, like exile on main st for the stones, or in utero for nirvana, or Kid A for radiohead. I guess i can see that. My overall feeling is that this an enjoyable album, full of very different songs and as a whole, is quite excellent. If you listened to only 1 song at a time, spread out, though, I think a lot of them would feel a good bit weaker. There are no full out incredible songs either, something elephant and white blood cells were chock full of. there are a couple really fun (as in unexpected) songs too, like the bluegrass "little ghost" and the Nurse, with some tropical instrument. (although i get kind of sick waiting for that song to ramp up.) it's perfect for my 50 minute commute... i can listen to the whole thing on the way down to work and that's when it sounds it's best, one continous listen. 8.5/10.
- Europe - The final countdown. - confession: every saturday and sunday I wake up at 11am or so, and watch vh1classics metal mania to wake up for two hours. I love hearing all these songs I heard when i was like, 5-10 years old, and vaguely recognize. like, the final countdown. I've seen this video 3 times now. it's a wicked cheesy keyboard synth track, but that's what makes it so recognizable. suprisingly, this album has some decent songs on it. cherokee (also found on the hard rockin' 80's compilation, of which i am a proud proud owner) and rock the night are both songs that I would be excited with if they come up on itunes shuffle. as far as 80's metal goes, this is in the upper echelon. 8/10
- Blondie - Greatest Hits - again, welcome back to the 80's. I was turned back onto blondie by that fidelity commercial where "Call me" is the music. I thought, god, that's such an awesome song, why don't i know who this is? so i looked it up on new favorite website http://www.whatsthatcalled.com/ and bam, a blondie fan is born. listening through this, i recognized even more classic songs that i recognized, but would have had no idea who they were by; "heart of glass," "one way or another", hangin on the telephone, etc. a solid 9/10
- Cursed - Two - I really liked One, and my first attempt at downloading Two ended up being a big disaster, with wrong tracks and artists everywhere. But i finally got a decent copy of this, and I'm glad i did. Well, it's not One... but it's still really good. Nice driving rhythms and enough recognizable parts so that the songs don't all blend together. fun stuff. 8/10
-part two will come later, my dinner just arrived and i have to actually listen to the albums
expect: queens of the stoneage, disney's greatest hits, bongzilla, anal cunt, a life once lost, the godfather 1-3 sndtracks, a huge pink floyd box set, monster magnet, jay z unplugged, led zeppeling remasters 2(actually, i'll save time and just give that a 10 now) and the birthday party. but don't hold your breath.
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so today steve jobs announced he was switching apple's internal processors to intel's from ibm's powerpc. I wasted the entire day refreshing news sources and waiting for this news. And now that it's happened, I don't really think it's that big a deal. I am impressed by how seemless the transition COULD be, Apple's been preparing for this day forever apparently (5+ years of compiling osx for intel as well, rosetta "emulation" layer, FAT binaries). So, i don't think the end-user is really going to be bothered too much...and i'm glad i didn't just blow a bunch of cash on a new desktop, as prices will surely drop on the current hardware, and even if they don't, new intel stuff should be announced within a year, hopefully including a nicer apple laptop.
and i won't pretend to know enough about business and industry to predict how this will affect everyone involved, and those not, such as Microsoft, but it'll be fun to watch.
the important thing is that by tying their fortunes in with the largest microprocessor company in the world, Apple isn't going anywhere but forward.
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Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
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despite the hassles involved in getting there, I saw a really good concert tonight, Billy Idol of all people. while i didn't actually think about this during tonight, i did at the last concert i went to before this, Converge at the living room, and i thought about how i've been going to shows for a good number of years now and have seen a bunch of good (and bad) stuff. And so i began to think of the best shows (and worst as well) that i've ever been to, and how listing these would be such a typical livejournal entry that i might as well put it in. (saving all those ticket stubs over the years really helped come up with some of these that i'd forgotten about.) so without further ado,
top five concerts ever attended:
1. Rush - 2004 - Great Woods: 3 hours of heaven in an outdoor venue in a downpour. Heard 2112 live. 10 minute drum solos. This was definitely the greatest show i've ever been to, no question.
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - 2003? - Orpheum: Nick Cave rules, and they never tour that much, so this chance to see them probably represented my one and only. And thank god i went, because it was so much fun. first of all, i got to sit on a balcony with a seat. for this kind of show, a seat with a good view is definetely key. And the band was completely awesome...i've been a cave fan forever, and this was icing on the cake.
3. Fugazi - 2002 - Massart: before this show, fugazi last played boston 13 years ago. this was probably before i even got into ian's other bands, minor threat and government issue. sure it was in a gigantic hot as balls gym with shitty acoustics. It was also like 5 bucks, and goddammit, it was fucking fugazi.
4. Dropkick Murphys - 2001-5 - Avalon: I'll lump all of these shows together...for five years now i've gone to the annual dropkick murphys st patrick's day shows... and while the crowd has gotten worse and worse every year, the shows are still a ton of fun. playing "pipebomb on lansdowne" while performing ON lansdowne street... fun times
5. Metallica - 2000? - Great Woods: yeah it was the reload tour. yeah they're greedy bastards who are complete sellouts now. well, they were at the time of this show still the heaviest live band on the planet. this was also before they got that gorilla to play bass. played the thing that should not be, which is definitely not a concert staple, but one of my favorites. played about, oh, 4 new songs, the rest were pre-Load.
Honorable mentions: I couldn't pick one particular show, but in my years in boston especially, i saw Converge, Isis, and Cave in more times than i can remember, and almost every single one of those shows were euphoria. also: the dwarves, anal cunt, andrew w.k.,sick of it all, bane, the suicide file,type o negative, american nightmare, flogging molly, and billy idol definitely was cool too. and i grew up on Tree shows, which will always have a special place in my memory.
5 worst shows
1. Fuel - 2004 - hampton beach: crappy venue, fake casino, crappy band.
2. Biohazard/clutch - 2002 - jarrad's place: i went to see candiria, who played for like 20 minutes. clutch is alright, but the sound sucks here, and it wasn't enjoyable
3. Piebald - 2003 avalon - opened for cave in, i didn't get there late enough to miss this crap.
4. P. Funk - 2001? - lupos: i wasn't really a P. Funk fan at the time, and this was like 3 hours long filled with tons of lame white people dancing. super lame dreadlocks galore too. being underage, spent the entire time trying to bum drinks with my friend ritchie.
5. Godsmack, bunch of other bands - 1998 - still under my parents reign, i had to leave this show before the main acts even got to play, so i saw a bunch of crappy openers. Also, the perfect example of why a smoking ban is needed in clubs. I almost died i think.
5 shows i wish i could see/have seen:
1. U2
2. Rolling Stones
3. Led Zeppelin
4. AC/DC
5. Iron Maiden
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perfection in print, care of deathwishinc messageboard:
"With The Closing Of The Choppin Block [bar in boston]...where are the kids supposed to go now?"
- person #1
"the choppin block had food"
- person #2
"Transvestites arent food Mike."
- person #1
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I'm already sick of school again, and i've only been back home for the span of two hours after 5 perfect days in Utah. I need to have a nice relaxed summer, or come fall i'm going to spend the proverbial year finding myself. or 10.
on the plus side, i finally smoked Jupiter Bowl, 18 years after first laying eyes on it. Although it was kind of warm and melted, so you couldn't really race down it, and the snow was pretty thick, making turns worth a premium. If anything though, the trip reinforced the NEED to stay in school, get this degree, and work, so i can afford to make such trips often in the future, and buy myself nice fat skis to handle powder and thick spring dumps better than my wicked awesome but sometimes painfully too narrow Volkl's. Now if only i could find a job that would let me take, oh, say, winter, off.
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Tuesday, March 15th, 2005
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| Subject: | Who's this? |
| Time: | 1:11 am. |
| Mood: | how many people pick quixotic because they don't know what it means?. |
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There are many things people do on that annoy me on a daily basis, such as:
Not signaling when changing lanes.
Not signaling when approaching an intersection that they plan to turn at.
Riding an elevator up or down 1 floor. Especially down. ESPECIALLY when there are stairs right there.
Cross the street WITHOUT looking both ways.
Assume that they are invincible when crossing the street and that cars can stop within a foot distance.
Do not fully optimize parking spaces by pulling up close to the car in front of them when parallel parking, thus reducing the overall number of parking spaces available to everyone.
and so on.
but the thing that has been bothering me lately is my phone. i have a landline, and get few calls, mostly wrong numbers. it is these wrong numbers that really get me. They inevitably, on hearing my cheerful hello?, will say "Who's this?" or "Who's dis?" or "oos dis?" Which is really rude. If I call someone and get a voice i don't recognize, i just say "hi, i'm trying to reach " not, "Who's dis?" I have gotten many of these calls recently, two in one day yesterday, which has prompted this entry. I have a stock response now, which is equally rude with a trace of contempt: "Who's this, you called me." sometimes if i'm awoken from sleep i'll resort to "Excuse me? Who's this, you called me." I'm trying to think of better ones, but these work pretty well, both putting people back on their heels when they realize that they are both A. in the wrong. and B. pretty goddamn rude.
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Saturday, February 19th, 2005
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i just spent the most infuriating 83 minutes of my life trying to buy red sox tickets. a few weeks ago i entered a drawing to register to get the chance to buy tickets, specifically to yankee games:
------------
Dear Adam,
Congratulations on being selected for the opportunity to
purchase tickets for select individual Red Sox home games
versus the New York Yankees or on Patriots Day. We have
taken extensive measures to ensure that as many fans as
possible have the opportunity to purchase these highly
sought-after tickets.
This first-come first-served online opportunity begins on
Saturday, February 19, 3:00pm ET and ends at 6 p.m. (2/19)
or while supplies last.
Please note that the following games will be initially
offered during this special online sale - while supplies
last: 4/11, 4/13, 4/14, 4/18, 7/14, 7/15, 7/16, 7/17,
9/30, 10/1, 10/2.
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pretty cool, right? WRONG. as i'm purusing craigslist to see how much people are offering for tickets, i read this: "The Red Sox gave people different times to get into the VWR. Everybody that won the lottery got a 3-hour block of time. The first block is 12:00-3:00, 1:00-4:00, 2:00-5:00 and finally 3:00-6:00. So if you're hoping to get opening day tickets with the 3:00 time slot.. guess again. Don't you wish the sox would release this info to us?? I'm an unlucky person w/ the 3:00 slot. Guess I'll hafta settle for another game...."
ok, so the email i got was bullshit. pure and simple. anyways, i resign myself to getting less than perfect tickets. so at 3:02 (couldn't get in any earlier, doesn't everyone use the same atomic clocks to set their time???) i try for 4 tickets, best available to opening day, and they pop up with 4 bleacher seats, giving me 1:30 minutes to decide. I think, well, i least i got in, maybe i should get these (although you only get one game.) so i thought about it for 70 seconds TOPS, and finally decided, bleachers at opening day is worth it. click submit... "Your tickets have been released" that was not fucking 90 seconds, i know that much. sigh...
so then i get kicked out into a virtual waiting room when i look for a different game. Now the virtual waiting room... its just a browser window with an automatic 30 second refresh, and a javascript that doesn't let you manually refresh. there's no state attached to it. so realizing this (after trying to buy other tickets earlier in the year), i open up 6 windows, with staggered refreshing, hoping to get in sooner. here's another reason to get OSX, exposé. this feature lets you minimize all open windows of a program into small enough versions of themselves so that they all fit on the screen. So i was able to do that with all my vwr windows, and then sit back and look for one of them to look different than the others. anyways, that happened after about 20 minutes. from there, i was like, there's no way in hell i'm going back into that room.
From here i entered another, less frustrating cycle of waiting and clicking. looking for the best available seats returned this 19 times out of 20: We're sorry, we were unable to process your request due to high transaction volumes. Please try to submit your request again by clicking the CONTINUE button. (23-13)" I finally get through for opening day: no tickets available. motherfucker. so i look for other games, getting that same high transaction bullshit over and over. When i do manage to get through to a game, the first 3 times, the seats were standing room only, although one time i did get high bleachers, which are actually cheaper than standing room, which should tell you something about them.
However, not everything was bad, because eventually i managed to get 4 tickets together to sunday, 7/17/05 @ 6:05 pm... they were regular bleacher seats (the same kind i could have gotten to opening day if the system wasn't such a piece of crap.)
Now, if I ever get the chance to work on my own, on my own projects, the first one i will do is create a fast, fair, and reliable high volume ticketing system. I think the key is pretty obvious, don't make it first come first serve, no matter how unAmerican that is. use randomization as much as possible. force buyers to register with a unique ID, like their SSN's. Have buyers rank their preferences and then optimize (similar to a project we will be doing in my artificial intelligence class actually...) so maybe after i get a job and make some money for a couple years i'll have the means to start that up, maybe make a company with it.
but for now, i'm going to see the Red Sox beat the Yankees in July. that's enough...
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Thursday, February 17th, 2005
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Fantasy Baseball has started up again. It's unfortunate that my true passion is a game based on statistics of professional athletes and not some betterment of humankind.
Speaking of true passions, strings were pulled, and Brown has been added to the list of approved schools for the NREIP. Therefore, I will be working in Newport for the third summer in a row, with an extra $1000 in pay because i'm a graduate. And now I don't need to worry about finding a job for the summer...in fact, my next employment search will be for real...
Scott and I have pushed back our hike to at least sunday, and possibly next week due to cold ass weather and possible snow storms (although our original date looks at least clear of those, the snow showers predicted for saturday mysteriously disappeared from the forecast.) This is good actually, since my stiff ass shoes still need to be broken in more, and the temperature will be 37 degrees, as opposed to 22.
I also needed to reschedule my hike since my name was picked as one of those who can purchase red sox tickets against the yankees, which means that i have a HIGH probability of going to opening day and seeing the rings given out to the team. against the yankees. that'll rank up there with the parade in terms of awesomeness.
speaking of the parade, i am also making a video for my ski trip that i took in january. I'm using an all OSX editing platform, and it rules. My workflow is basically as such: titles and effects -> Adobe After Effects. then pipe that into Final Cut Pro HD and combine with footage that was imported by iMovie. when the film is completed, i'm gonna load it into DVD studio pro, add some menus and other cool stuff (like a commentary track, which might require the investment in a decent computer mike), make dvds, and mail em out to everyone in the video. But wading through 3 hours of raw footage and turning that into a watchable movie is quite an endeavour...although its fun. about half done i'd say... i'm also learning a lot about the process and the software. I already knew a good deal about after effects, but FCP is a new beast all together. For instance, tonight i learned how to turn a clip from color to b/w... by running the color correction filter on the clip and turning the saturation all the way down (effectively removing the color... makes sense, but a dedicated b/w button would be easier, which is why it exists in iMovie-here, not only can you turn it to b/w, but you control levels of the highs/mids/lows, you can remove all but a certain color range or selection [i.e. the Pleasantville effect]). but yeah, it seems every sequence i do i learn something new about the program, which is good.
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Tuesday, February 15th, 2005
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for those of you waiting with breathless anticipation for this entry since the last one...i'm here to disappoint.
I will be hiking/climbing Mount Monadnock (http://www.geocities.com/jimmarkovitch/mt_monadnock.html) on saturday, weather permitting, with my friend scott. It is a secret desire of mine to get caught on the mountain and have to survive overnight on my own, but hopefully it will not happen this time. It should be very enlightening though... i read the Dharma Bums about 3 months ago, and that philosophy has been resonating with ever increasing frequency since then. I will also relish the chance to say "Because it's there." very haughtily to anyone who asks why I am attempting such an endeavor.
Another concern is what type of alcohol to bring with me to celebrate at the summit with. It's going to be 30 degrees at best, so something warming like brandy or jagermeister is probably in order. I would bring some harpoon winter warmer, but beer is too heavy to carry. Although, i have never actually had brandy, and got really sick the last time i had jager. Looks like peach schnapps for everyone.
also, how do you enforce hard returns in this thing?
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i still don't have anything to say...
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chmielewski's journal
