Not Excited About Softball

I ran in a 5K race today. I felt I did well, and was satisfied with my time. (Though it does leave plenty of room for improvement.) There is not a whole lot to say about it. If I get a copy of some photos, I'll post them and maybe talk a little more about the run.

The other "sporting event" is that a friend is trying to bring back the co-ed softball team at our church, where we play in a community recreational league. My wife and I are an in-demand commodity when it comes to softball, primarily because my wife has some interest and ability when it comes to the sport. In the league we're in, fully-staffed teams play 5 females and 5 males, and it tends to be easier to find males that are interested in playing. In other words, everyone wants her, and I'm just additional baggage. :-)

Our first game is tomorrow afternoon. I mentioned that I would prefer to stay home with the kids while my wife goes to play, assuming that there are enough men to field a team. On-and-off, I've been playing softball all my adult life. I've come to a point where I realise that I'm not very good, and I'm not getting any better. I mean, I'm sure I could improve if I worked at it, but I'm not going to work at it.

I may be young and athletic compared to the rest of my team. But it gets a little frustrating playing against teams comprised of athletes in their early 20's, or just against people who are good softball players in general. I think the best summary of me and softball is this: More than a decade ago, I was playing first base. I don't remember the details of the game situation, but either there were some bad throws that came my way, or maybe some difficult-to-field balls. I also don't remember if I made the plays or not. But I do remember the other team's first base coach say that he'd never seen a player work as hard at playing first base as I was. To which I responded, "You know what they say: The good ones make it look easy."

Another issue is dealing with keeping track of kids who aren't mature enough to keep track of themselves while I'm in the middle of a game (not that I expect it of them at their ages.) In general, I end up putting a lot of pressure on myself. I suppose losing could be a chance to be humble. But, while I still like playing softball at the recreational level, I'll be happy to sit back and let others do the playing.

Since I've been posting a photo with each post lately, here's one from 2004. You're on your own in identifying who is me.

Second Day of Cheerleading

Since I mentioned I would yesterday, here's a photo from the second day of cheerleading practice. There's not yet a whole lot of exciting action to photograph.

Hold On To The Ball!

Today was the first day of cheerleading practice. Unfortunately, I got there too late to take any photos (I'll post one soon), so here's a close-up football action shot. The first thing I see is an explanation for all the fumbles! (To be fair, he's not normally a ball carrier, except in a few drills in practice.) He had a few good hits too. I'll have to get some video.

The Not-Quite Blue Ribbon

We spent a good deal of Saturday at the fairgrounds. It would have been nice if they gave awards at the conclusion of each category, or if they would tell people when to be back for awards. But they didn't. So, after arriving at 7:30 AM and talking to the judge at 9:30, the awards ceremony began at around 3:30 PM. (I replaced my wife as chaperone at 1:00 PM or so.) I suppose it was worth the wait. However, the ribbon isn't exactly blue. It's for Fifth Place in Junior Dog Care. And, yes, there were more than 5 contestants. There were something like 11. I'm proud of her. She did a good job!

I hear that the livestock categories don't force kids and families to wait around all day. We're not going to do dogs again next year.

In case you were wondering, D.D. was judged not guilty by reason of insanity.

Napoleon (Penguin Lives) by Paul Johnson

Here's a book club selection: Napoleon from the "Penguin Lives" series, written by Paul Johnson. The author claims that only Jesus Christ has had more books written about him than Napoleon Bonaparte. So why write another? A big reason is that they sell, I suppose.

Don't you hate it when an author refuses to take a stand on an issue? For example, he may try to present both sides, and leave it to the reader to make up his own mind. If you do, you're in luck. Johnson is not afraid to express an opinion, and his opinion is very Anti-Napoleon. A few of Johnson's views are as follows:

• Napoleon was an opportunist who had no guiding principles besides the growth of his own power, which directly resulted in the deaths of millions of people.
  
• By constructing the world's first totalitarian state, utilizing a secret police, propaganda, faked plebiscites, and so on, his was the model of the totalitarian states of the 20th century, such as Stalin's U.S.S.R.
• He awakened a sense of German nationalism, resulting in the creation of the Second, and thus, the Third Reich.
• For more than a century before Bonaparte's time, France was the largest and most powerful nation in Europe. One of Napoleon's legacies is the relative decline of France, from which it hasn't recovered.
• Johnson also points out that the United States of America was a lasting beneficiary of Napoleon's short-sightedness. By the sale of Louisiana to the US for what was then considered a very low price, he paved the way towards making America a world power. Frankly, I have a hard time envisioning a large, lasting French-speaking power in what is today the Central US. But if anyone could make it happen, it would be Nappy.

Johnson does look at Napoleon's life and explains some of the reasons for his successes. For example, he was apparently better with maps and logistics than any military man before him. But, to the author, the successes are far outweighed by the failures.

People who aren't history buffs will likely be bored, and the book did have a few annoying aspects. For example, it seems that a working knowledge of French is assumed, as Johnson will quote sentences such as, "Non, assurément, c'est un jeune homme trop bien elévé pour cela," without a translation. Johnson also showed off his knowledge of the English language. As an example, one word I learned was Sangfroid. I'll give it a relucant three stars out of five. I'd give it a lower rating, but I can't suggest a better book on the subject, and the book is memorable at least by the author's opinion of the subject matter.

A Discussion Between Two Cubans

[Note: I first heard this one a long time ago.]

Two Cubans were walking along a beach near their homes, and had the following conversation:

"Look at the beautiful sunset! I thank God for sharing this beauty with us."

"You may thank God, but as for me, I will thank Fidel."

"Thank Fidel? When I look at the beautiful land or my house or my family or the food I have to eat, I want to thank God."

"You may thank God, but as for me, I will thank Fidel."

"Amigo! Fidel is just a man. He will not live forever. One day, he will dead and gone. Then who will you thank?"

"God."

Is That Next to POLONIUM on the Periodic Table?

I was checking some source code today that had to do with foreign language support for the product. We have a enumeration in the source code that lists potentially supported languages, though not all of them may actually be currently supported. The enum contains values like the following:

• ENGLISH
• SPANISH
• FRENCH
• PORTUGUESE
• KOREAN
• JAPANESE
• CHINESE
• RUSSIAN
• UKRANIUM

I wasn't familiar with that last one.

That's More Than 5K!

After a few years mostly off, for various reasons, I am trying to get a little back into running this year. I'm up to what I considered my "normal" distance, which I measured this morning on my bicycle at 3.41 miles, or, if my conversion is correct, 5.48 km. I am certainly giving more significant figures than is reasonable for the device. Anyway, so what if I run 10-minute miles! To anyone that runs regularly, this will seem real slow. But I suppose this seems like a long way to run to people that don't.

As an incentive and goal, I recently signed up for a 5 km race, which will occur on August 12 at a local park. Since I go more than that distance, I figure that it wouldn't be too tough. Still, I thought it might be wise to go try the course before race day, since I don't normally run on a packed, tiny gravel (what is that called?) surface, and the course is hillier than my neighbourhood. Since the course was available online, I went to the park, found what I thought was the starting line, and gave it a try.

Forty minutes later, I was still running, and I stopped a bit before I reached the "finish". That is the longest duration I've run in a long time! I know I wasn't fast, but surely I had covered 5 km in that time, at least I would think. On the 12th, I will discover which of the following are true:

• I (or the map) messed up with the location of the starting line.
• I am a much slower runner than I would have ever thought.
• My bicycle odometer is really messed up.
  

First Day of Football Practice, 2006 Edition

After football practice today, I asked, "Are you tired?" and thought I had an appropriate response for any possible reply. Yeah, probably I would have said something like "I told you so" regarding being a bit more active over the summer, had the response been "Yes." However, the response I got was, "Daddy, you know you told me that I'm not allowed to tell the coach that I'm tired." While I am not the coach, I'm pleased to see that he did remember something!

It's difficult to focus on a moving target at maximum zoom.

High School Reunion Photos

Here are a couple of photos from the high school reunion that I was roped into attending on Saturday night. The first photo, which shows just about all of the small percentage of graduates that actually attended, especially strained my camera's ability to take a good photo, given the low lighting conditions in the room. (I'd say that it did an adequete job.) Also, I wanted to wear a tie, but that idea was vetoed. I would have been just about the only person doing so, had I worn one.

New Arrival (Émilie)

The child we were expecting arrived yesterday. As expected, she's fluent in French, and very good with English as well. In other words, as we did last year, we're hosting a foreign exchange student. This year, it's for one month. The point of the month so that the students can attend a Language and Culture Enrichment Camp. This is aimed primarily at students from Asian countries such as Thailand and Japan, where their English might need some quick improvement to be able to survive in an English-speaking high school. After the relatively short "Camp", the students (maybe 25 or so) will disperse and live with English-speaking families throughout the continent.

Strange Affair by Peter Robinson

Rather than The Glass Key, this is the book that my book club decided as our crime novel. Strange Affair is a contemporary crime novel in Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks series. I don't know how many previous books there were in the series. On the one hand, I thought that I was able to enjoy the book without really understanding the backstory that helped to govern the relationships between the characters. But on the other, it was clear that, by starting in the middle, I was missing out on a little bit.

In a recent novel, Banks' house burned down, almost killing him. So, at the start of the book, Banks has physically recovered, but is still trying to emotionally recover from the fire. With this backstory, an attractive young woman is murdered in her car. She's discovered to have Bank's address (to his burned-down house) in her pocket.

The same day, Banks receives a phone message from his brother Roy, with whom he rarely has any contact, desperately asking for his help. When Banks can't reach Roy by telephone, he decides to travel to London to investigate what is going on. Due to his brother's past shady business dealings, Banks doesn't want to immediately involve the police, as he doesn't want to be the one to expose any illegal activities Roy may have been involved in. (Plus, as a police officer himself, he doesn't expect the police to be interested in an adult who has been missing for such a short time.) So, Banks, on his own, starts off his own investigation of what happened to Roy.

What, if anything, does the highway murder have to do with Roy's disappearance? Of course, we, as the readers, get to find out. Unfortunately, I can't say a lot more about the plot without giving too much away. Suffice it to say, Banks, his colleagues, and the readers attempt to discover whodunit, what they did, and why.

It's a fast-moving read. A lot of believable-sounding details of police work are included, but not too much to make it boring. Also, there is a bit of exploration of the relationships between the characters, but not too much to turn the book into a relationship study. If you're looking for a contemporary crime page-turner, I'm sure you can do worse. None other than Stephen King, on the back cover, claims, "The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market." While this may be true, it also might not say much about the genre. I give it three stars out of five. If you like this kind of thing, you'll think it's a winner. If not, then you might not see a lot that is special.

The astute reader will notice the dilemma caused by legal abortions.

Birthday Party for the Big O.

Since everyone was invited, I left work early on Friday, and drove with the big kids for about 2 1/2 hours to a birthday party. Everyone had a good time. I need to do stuff like this more often!

Before the kickball game:


Putting that food service industry experience to good use:


The birthday girl with the "Arizona Mountain" cake:


Mmmm. Good:


We did not sing Kum by Ya, but I was wondering...:


The post-downpour volleyball game. With all the kids running around, it took on an Australian Rules Football flavour. With Mike, Tom, Joe, and myself on hand, we certainly had the players.

Who Is This Girl?

(I barely recognize her!)

A Bit of Art

A Mountain Sunset by A.

Invitation to Job Interview

Since it has been a few years since I updated my resume, I've been working at making it up-to-date again. I recently reactivated what I have at Monster. At this stage in my career (i.e., currently being employed) I can be a little choosy with what I am looking for, both in terms of the job and its geographic location.

This morning, I got an e-mail from Ameriprise Financial. They say, "You are being considered for the financial advisor position". Thank you very much, Ameriprise. If you read the first line of my resume, you would have known that is not the type of job nor the location that I am looking for. (I sent a nice reply, saying that it didn't meet my needs at present, but I would keep the information in case my situation changed.)

The point I want to make is that, if you want to work for a company that is willing to consider just about anyone without bothering with the courtesy of glancing at a resume, consider Ameriprise. If you are looking for a financial services company, and you don't care that your advisor was desperate for a job and willing to take just about anything, consider Ameriprise. Others might want to stay away.

Bad Day at the Ballpark for Trot Nixon

Today's White Sox/Red Sox game went 19 innings. Checking the box score, I see that Christopher Trotman "Tricky" (Trot) Nixon went oh-for-nine. Ouch. By the way, he had 4 strikeouts. Has anyone in baseball history ever had a worse day at the plate, in terms of most at bats without a hit or a walk? Has anyone ever gone oh-for-ten (or worse)?

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

As an attempt to do something "lighter" for the summer, my book club is reading a crime novel. The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett was considered, but we decided not to do this one. I read it anyway.

It starts off running. There is no introduction to speak of -- I felt like I was starting in the middle of a book. Part of the point seems to figure out who is who, and what they are up to. It soon becomes clear that the main character, Ned Beaumont, is a gambler, friend, and a kind of unofficial assistant and advisor to Paul Madvig. Madvig is high up in the political structure of the unnamed city. It's never mentioned explicitly, but I had the impression that he's the mayor. (Is he?)

When there's a murder, the evidence begins to point to Madvig as the killer. Is it just the opposition-controlled newspaper planting false leads, or is there something to these claims? In this bleak picture of city politics, Beaumont slides between the political establishment and the criminal underworld (with the division between the two quite blurred at times) trying to aid his boss and come to the truth behind the killing.

Overall, while not exactly a bad read, I hesitate to recommend it. I'm not a big fan of crime novels. I would recommend it to people who are fans of the genre, or those who are interested in the history of the genre (which the book flap says that Hammett basically invented). For others, you can probably find a book you would enjoy better. Two stars out of five.

Vacation Thoughts

I don't have a lot I want to say about our recently-concluded vacation, but I thought that I'd mention a few things:

• It was really nice to rent a fully-equipped house (or a "self-catering cottage") for the time on Pelee. I'm sure that it's not for everyone, but for a group of our size and ages, it was great having separate bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room with a VCR and a movie library, etc. Plus, for the time we spent there, it was likely cheaper than the cost of two hotel rooms per night.
• There is not a whole lot to do on Pelee Island. Not that there's anything wrong with that. However, the flying, biting insects made outside things a lot less desirable. It wasn't really bad outside where we were staying on the south shore, but when we went to the lighthouse or the east side beach, the bugs were horrible.
• One thing I wanted to do was go to Fish Point (see below), the most southern point in an inhabited land in Canada. This was the day after the lighthouse trip, and nobody else wanted to go on another "nature walk". I packed long pants and a long-sleeve shirt and biked to the beginning of the park. The bugs were a lot less bad than at the lighthouse. I'm not sure if this was due to the long clothing (which, of course, made me hot), insect repellent, the location, or the wind. It seemed more like a normal walk in the woods, which meant that there were still plenty of bugs. By the time I got to the end of the woods and the beginning of the beach "spit" part, I didn't feel like walking what looked like another mile on loose, seagull-infested sand. So, while I made an attempt, I didn't walk to the point of Fish Point.
• When you go to a place like the post office or the store on Pelee, you end up chatting with the person at the counter for a while. I suppose everyone is friendly, and happy to have a customer to talk to!
• I'm not sure I'd want to go back to Pelee Island. At least not at the same time of the year. Too many bugs.
• Even after spending some time in London, I still don't know much about it as I would expect for a city of its size.
• Everyone else sleeps a lot! When on vacation, why sleep?!?
• Kojo Aidoo is my favourite football player!
  

Fish Point, looking North:

Greetings from London

Greetings from London! Every lodging establishment should have high-speed internet access. This is great!

Here are a few photos from the Pelee Island part of the trip. The first one is the family walking up to Lighthouse Point:


Here's everyone but me at the east side public beach:


Since I'm not in the photo above, here I am on the old clunker bicycle that I rented. It rode surprisingly well on the bumpy roads.


To me, the most striking part of Pelee Island is the overabundance of wildlife, especially the 6-legged variety. There were large quantities of these "fish flies". Since the didn't bite, they're really nice compared to the others.


And here's the Tilley Lady with her new Tilley Hat, purchased in Leamington.


P.S. An overabundance (I may clean it up later and add comments) of photos will be available at http://photos.yahoo.ca/poutineq2 (Click on the appropriate trip). They are uploading as I type and may be as I sleep.