Zamboni-Cam

Zamboni-Cam(!)
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Here's video-proof that Fergus and I rode the Zamboni the other day, with Fergus sitting (somewhat nervously?) in the jump seat and me hanging off the side of the machine. Sorry for the poor quality video, but I didn't want to fall off!

Boys in the Locker Room

All Star Hockey Classic
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Vermont team locker room at the Vermont/New Hampshire All Star Hockey Classic...

30 Years Ago Today in Someone Else's Life

Appropriated, but not frivolously, from Jamie Livingston's Photo of the Day.

Chickeny

Chicken Doings
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Jeezum crow chickens grow fast. These things were little puff balls 6 weeks ago. Now I'm frantically building them some bigger living quarters. Here's Norah (and a Barred Rock) standing in the middle of what will become the new chicken coop......

Coop-Brain

This is the sort of email I'm sending while I'm sitting here at work supposedly thinking about modifications to an Electronic Health Record system:

"Hmmm. Maybe it DOES make sense to have the coop door around on the other side of the shed (under cover). Farther to carry water, but closer to the electricity source (for switching on lights) and I wouldn't have to worry so much about what the door looks like. Still might want to put the CHICKEN door facing the house, though (back right corner?)"

Wussy Am Me

Last weekend I got a last minute invitation to see the band "Wussy" in a small performance space in Montpelier called The Lamb Abbey. Chris Brokaw of The New Year was opening. I didn't make it, due to general parental exhaustion, and now I am feeling the regret. Here's a review of the new Wussy album from the Fresh Air radio program:

Throwing Hack-Weight

Today's Moment of Canadiana features the term "throwing hack-weight," defined here by the songwriter John K. Samson:

"It’s a curling term for when the skip calls the weight you should throw. Hack-weight is when you throw it from one hack, which is where you dig into the ice and slide out from, and if you throw hack-weight you mean it to land at the opposite hack. It’s used as a soft take-out. But if you’re trying to draw, which the person in the song is trying to do, draw to the button, and you’re throwing hack-weight, it means you’re too heavy. You’re sliding right through the house."

(Full Interview Here)

Jock vs. Nerd--Worldviews According to Hodgman

John Hodgman recently spoke at the White House Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner (link to video here) and had some insights into the Jock vs. Nerd worldviews.

Today on his blog he explains further:

ON THE SUBJECT OF JOCK v. NERD, look: I don’t want to make too much of this.

OF COURSE I was being somewhat reductive for the sake of comedy.

BUT ESSENTIALLY I was talking about a difference of philosophy that sort of begins in high school, around the time most people are exposed to team sports and math, and they choose a path.

JOCKISM IS NOT ABOUT ATHLETICS per se. It’s a philosophy–of certainty vs. endless nerdish questioning; of happy conformity, vs. nerdish loner ostracisim. Jockism is suspicious of complexity, because that’s how you lose games. It’s more comfortable with what it can see, touch, feel, punch.

JOCKISM actually a great way to win a sports game or a ground war. Buts, gratefully, in this country at least that’s not what most adults ever have to do in their lives.

NERDISM conveys a certain comfort with technology, a certain faith in science to be sure, but also, it builds its teams around abstractions, ideas, weird enthusiasms. From Battlestar Galactica to cosplay to spirit photography to political news to sports, paradoxically sports*, and, well, the idea of free and fair elections in Iran.

AS THE INTERNET is the greatest idea propagation engine ever invented, It’s no a surprise that global geekism is on the rise

I SAID ON FRIDAY HOW CURIOUS it was that the fate of the protesters in Iran is so strangely entwined with the sleep schedule of the geeks maintaining the servers at twitter and YouTube.

THAT THE PROTESTORS’ STRUGGLE IS VISIBLE, on a granular, person by person level, gives them optimism, and it gives us a new window upon a remote land and culture.

WHAT WE SEE: similarity.

YOUNG PEOPLE, CLOSER TO US in wardrobe, vision, and optimism, than we might have thought. And though great divides may yet separate us, the protestors are similar in at least one way: they all use the internet. And not in the insidious, demonizing way we were warned of, to recruit terrorists and plan attacks on civilians. But in the most geekish way: to subvert authority with an idea.

WHEN IT HAS COME to democratizing the Middle-East, we’ve seen two different approaches.

ONE, INCREDIBLY JOCKISH: an invasion, a top-down imposition of a new kind of order.

THE OTHER, IS DIFFUSED, SPONTANEOUS, founded on ideas and spread by technology. If the protestors in Iran have never heard of Dr. Who, their efforts now are undeniably geekish.**

WE’LL SEE which effort is more successful. And I mean this truly, for it is the essence of geek to admit: I do not know.

WE’LL SEE.


*(AS I’VE MENTIONED BEFORE, Any fantasy baseballist has more in common with someone who dresses as an orc on weekends than an actual athlete, because they are analyzing and processing massive data, and communicating with unknown others on the web.)

** WHICH IS NOT TO SAY that they won’t need to organize some jockish kick-ass conformity before it’s all done.

The Experimental Recession-Era One-Dollar Dragonboat Plea

Look, on August 2nd I will be racing a dragonboat, whatever that is, over the perilous and unpredictable surf of Lake Champlain .... and I need your help. YES, I WRITE TO YOU TODAY TO ASK FOR YOUR DONATION.



(Brief pause here while the aisles clear--but please read on)



HERE'S THE DEAL:



This year's Lake Champlain Dragonboat Festival is in major support of Vermont's Camp
Ta-Kum-Ta (TKT), a summer camp for kids who have--or have had--cancer.



My son went to TKT last year, and I CANNOT BEGIN to explain what an amazing experience it was for him (nor how his experience has reverberated through our lives).



This summer I'm honored to be racing a dragonboat as part of the dubiously-named-but-official "Team Puff Ta-Kum-Ta Dragon" with TKT staff, former campers, and parents of present campers. We may or may not win any races but, you know, we're unsinkable.



WHAT I'M GETTING AT:

• I don't want you to sustain my dragonboat career.
• I don't want your corporate matching.
  
• I don't even want your tens and twenties.

NO I DON'T.



But can you part with...ONE THIN DOLLAR?



I would humbly suggest that you (probably) can.



I mean, check your pockets right now (I don't even fold dollar bills any more, I just
crumple them up in my pockets). Pull out one of those bills and study it carefully. What are you REALLY going to do with it? Buy a cookie? Try to get a cup of coffee? Good choices, certainly, but helping kids with cancer feel empowered, loved, part of a community of peers...? Now and then it feels good to float a dollar in THAT kind of direction.



SO HERE'S WHAT I THINK YOU SHOULD DO:



Take that crumpled dollar bill--right now, before reading your next email, before
answering your phone--and place it in an envelope and send it to me (Rob Ryan) at this address:



3959 Center Rd.

East Montpelier, VT 05651



Don't include a letter, don't include a message on a post-it, don't even email me to say you're on board. Just drop the dollar in the mail. Nothing more, nothing less.



And no, this is not a scam. This is fund-raising stripped down to its essentials. You won't get a receipt. You won't get any tax benefits. You might not even get a handshake. :-) But you'll get that warm feeling of knowing that you helped build Camp Ta-Kum-Ta's new home in South Hero, Vermont. And that's worth far more than a buck.



Thanks; you rock my boat.



--Rob

Nancy Rides the Rockies: Friday

Friday - a mere 40 miles

Aspen to Glenwood Springs

along Rio Grande Trail

Mostly downhill :-)

Nancy Rides the Rockies: Thursday

Thursday Day 5 - 55 miles

Leadville to Aspen

Independence Pass

2nd highest paved road in Colorado

6.5% grade

Nancy Rides the Rockies: Wednesday

Wednesday Day 4 - 59 miles

Salida to Leadville

Nancy's daughter reports:

Today was Day 4 and she biked all 59 miles (uphill, to 12,000+ feet). In fact, she's biked the whole thing ...minus four miles in a sag wagon. She sounds tired but great -- and quite proud of herself :)

Tomorrow she does Independence Pass to Aspen (one of the most beautiful stretches of road I've ever seen) and has a little tribute for Wendy when she reaches the top.

I think this little adventure is exactly what she needed.

Global, Social, Ubiquitous and Cheap

Interesting talk.

"While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics."

Nancy Rides the Rockies: Tuesday

Tuesday Day 3 - 66 miles

Gunnison to Salida

8 mile steady climb up Monarch Pass

Grade averages 6%

Reports From Tehran

Vermont Public Radio's Steve Zind is not in Iran, but he has family and friends there, and via Twitter has been passing along instant messages and other news he has received from the streets of Tehran over the last couple of days. It has the immediacy and confusion of live reportage…..

1. Mousavi posting photos of police presence on streets in Tehran Sat. http://bit.ly/19RD8l.
   4:51 AM Jun 13th from web
   
2. Iran leader Khamenei tweeting "Important message about election" (in Farsi). He has 51 followers and follows NO ONE. Its lonely at the top.
   4:57 AM Jun 13th from web
   
3. Sup. Leader tells Ahmadinejad opponents to stand down. Mousavi urges 'resistance'. Gunshots now reported in a Tehran square (unconfirmed).
   5:39 AM Jun 13th from web
   
4. Protesters confront police today in Tehran http://bit.ly/aeGvR. Points up immediacy & reach of YouTube also limitations w/out reportage.
   7:12 AM Jun 13th from web
   
5. IM from friend near van ack sq in N Tehran: '(demonstrations) very chaotic, not organized. police are chasing students and ordinary people"
   8:27 AM Jun 13th from web
   
6. Wash. post reporter tweets: "saw 3 burned buses"...says there is report of man killed by police near vanak sq.
   9:08 AM Jun 13th from web
   
7. Mousavi tweets: "Dear Iranian People, Mousavi has not left you alone, he has been put under house arrest by Ministry of Intelligence"
   5:21 PM Jun 13th from web
   
8. Robert Fisk of the Independent writes from the thick of in it Tehran: http://bit.ly/159NLn
   5:48 AM Jun 14th from web
   
9. From Tehran friend today : "went to buy the paper; note says two [reformist] papers are closed by government. Please don't ask for them."
   8:14 AM Jun 14th from web
   
10. From Tehran: "I don't feel our votes for Mousavi were in vain. With them we have exposed the truth about our government."
    about 22 hours ago from web
    
11. 5pm in Tehran. People gathering for protest march. "Friends say its messy" says a friend on his way. Rumors Khatami, Mousavi will be there.
    about 9 hours ago from web
    
12. I am NOT in Iran, as someone reported. Too many rumors going around!
    about 7 hours ago from web
    
13. Reports from Tehran demonstration in past 15 minutes of shots fired.
    about 5 hours ago from web
    
14. estimate of Tehran rally range from 10s of thousands to 1.5 million. AP reports 1 dead. friend tells me of weekend demos in Shiraz.
    about 3 hours ago from web
    
15. A friend in Tehran "just back from Azadi Sq. they were shooting at people in front of my own eyes!!" (unclear if rubber or real bullets)
    about 3 hours ago from web
    
16. More from friend in Tehran: "I saw three people being shot couldn't tell if they were limp because of injury or were killed."
    about 2 hours ago from web
    
17. to clarify these shootings not at but near the demo . He saw people burning a police building. he says they were shot by police on the roof
    about 2 hours ago from web
    
18. He says: "After carrying the shot individuals back, they stormed the building again. Another group of people came toward the building ..."
    about 2 hours ago from web
    
19. "They had a man in IRGC [revol. guard] uniform they were beating him and kicking him. I was watching from 20 m away when all of a sudden ...
    about 2 hours ago from web
    
20. "10-20 baton twirling bikers attacked the people. I ran away, as far and as fast as I could."
    about 2 hours ago from web
    

Nancy Rides the Rockies: Monday

Monday
Day 2 - 80 miles
Hotchkiss to Gunnison
2% incline for most of the ride
Eventually traverses a canyon rim, and with a nice decline at the end of the day

Nancy Rides the Rockies: Sunday

My amazing sister Nancy, who turned [age redacted] this past December, is today starting a 6-day, 380-mile bike tour in the Colorado Rockies called "Ride the Rockies". The route is frankly pretty insane, if you ask me, starting and ending at an elevation of 5,761 feet, and crossing over three high mountain passes, the highest being Independence Pass, elevation 12,095 feet.

I think this was basically Nancy's way of motivating herself to get some exercise. She's a little extreme.

Today, Sunday, is the first day of the ride--and she's probably already on the road.

Sunday Day 1 - 80 miles and over McClure Pass

Glenwood Springs to Hotchkiss

Final ascent is 8 - 12% incline for three miles, and then a long ride downhill

TKT-Cat

TKT Reunion-Cat
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Two weeks ago our family attended the Camp Ta-Kum-Tah "reunion" gathering, in South Hero Vermont. Good food, inflatable slides, and facepainting.

Norah was transformed into a cat.

A half an hour later she had washed it all off because, oddly enough, she didn't like the attention it brought her. I think she also felt like she was no longer Norah, somehow.

But it was cool while it lasted.

Instead of face-painting, Fergus had a Romulan communicator painted on his wrist.....

Spring Reading at Dusk

Spring Reading at Dusk
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Grainy pre-bedtime reading, taken back in May.

30 Years Ago Today in Someone Else's Life

Appropriated, but not frivolously, from Jamie Livingston's Photo of the Day.

Wendy's House

My family gathered to say farewell to my sister Wendy this week. There were difficult moments to be sure, but all in all it was what the doctor ordered. And Josh's words at the funeral were exactly right.

Bye Wem, see you around.

Random Conor Oberst Lyrics Heard WHile Driving Around Syracuse New York, June 2009

I've grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame
Sayin' let me walk away, please

You'll be free child once you have died
from the shackles of language and measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
till then walk away walk away walk away walk away

So I'm up at dawn, putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I'm leaving but I don't know where to
I know I'm leaving but I don't know where to
...
Poison oak, some boyhood bravery
When the telephone was a tin can on a string
And I fell asleep with you still talking to me
You said you weren't afraid to die

Well let the poets cry themselves to sleep
And all their tearful words will turn back into steam

But me, I'm a single cell on the serpent's tongue
There's a muddy field where a garden was
And I'm glad you got away but I'm still stuck out here
My clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears

And I never thought this life was possible
You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for

The end of paralysis, I was a statuette
Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench
And when I press the keys it all gets reversed
The sound of loneliness makes me happier....

Moose Visitation

As some of you know, my sister Wendy died suddenly on Thursday (5/28). She was 56.

Coming home from the Creemee Stand today, the kids and I saw this moose grazing in a pond near our house. Even in Vermont, a moose sighting has a magical quality, like something we've been granted to see. It was hard not to think of Wendy when we came across this creature, as if it was her spiritual "familiar", or her guide to the next world. Sigh.

Moose Visitation
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.

--Mary Oliver, from "Wild Geese"

Jimbo's Electric Bug

My friend Jim has converted an old VW Bug to run on electricity. This charming short film explains:



Go Jimbo! Go Jimbo's stepdad, Bud!