Giants 7, Rockies 6
Have I mentioned that one thing that really honks me off about MacOS 8.5 is that they included a wonderfully stupid implementation of the Windows feature to use ALT-TAB to switch between applications? Rather than bringing up a menu to allow you to select the application to switch through, instead it cycles through them alphabetically - loading each app into memory as necessary, of course (swap, swap, swap). Gah.
Yes, Windows did actually include a few new useful features; the other one which the Mac never caught onto was the two-button mouse. Of course, Windows also completely fucked up implementing the Finder (a.k.a. the File Mangler/Program Mangler/Windows Explorer), the Apple Menu (a.k.a. the Start Menu), and in fact pretty much their entire pull-down menu scheme in general sucks eggs (menus are attached to individual windows rather than applications, which presents a myriad of problems in application design). So I guess it balances out. Well, okay, let's face it: Windows still sucks.
But the Mac gets stuff wrong sometimes, too. Fortunately, I can still use a nice little shareware extension called Argus to switch between apps.
I met Ceej and Lucy Huntzinger in Mountain View today to head up to see the Giants/Rockies game. Also present were Ceej's cow-orker Timo and Lucy's husband John.
It was pretty cool and cloudy when we left, but by the third inning or so it had gotten sunny and warm, and I'm pretty sure I got a sunburn today. That plus stadium food also made me quite sleepy by the end of the game, and I've been pretty groggy ever since.
Although I'd talked to her on the phone before (while planning our eventually aborted opening day trip to see the Athletics), I'd hadn't met Lucy before. I didn't really have any preconceived notions, in part because I only started reading her journal a few months ago (sometime around the time when I decided to move out here, I think!). I did feel that she was more-or-less the sort of person she represents in her journal (he says cryptically). Reads science fiction, baseball fan, somewhat older than me and clearly at a different stage in her life (like, she's married, for instance). Nice to hang out with, apparently more focused on the game and less on chatting than Ceej and I were. (Or maybe it was just me.)
(You know, I basically lack the proper eloquence to be able to talk about people I've met for the first time. I always feel like a dunderhead when I relate such encounters here. Especially since I have this ingrained programming to use the word 'nice' as if it actually means something. Which to me it does, but it always seems like other people find it a meaningless, uh, nicety.)
Anyway.
There were a couple of friendly drunks sitting behind us shouting taunts (albeit not obscene ones) at Rockies outfielder Larry Walker, and comments at a few other players. They were pretty amusing, and set Ceej laughing hysterically at a few points. The game itself was a good one: The Giants fell behind 1-0, then scored 4 runs, and then the starting pitcher was yanked in the 6th after giving up a 2-run homer. The Rockies scored again in the inning to take a 5-4 lead, and the Giants finally came back to go up 7-5, with Robb Nen overcoming problems in the ninth ("NENth" they call it on the park scoreboard) to get the save. A pretty touch-and-go game.
Next weekend my Red Sox are in Oakland for a 4-game series, and Ceej agreed to go to a game with me. I may see if I can get my friend and fellow-Boston-expatriate Rob to join us.
Ceej also made the cardinal error of asking if I can suggest ways for her to become more knowledgeable about baseball. I suggested a few books about the game, its history, and how it's played, and also suggested that if she wants to dive in to the depths of player analysis in 1999, I can lend her the latest Baseball Prospectus. To Lucy's horror, she went for the prospectus. So I'll probably hand that to her, and also push some comic books at her since she says she hasn't read any lately. (I am pretty evil when it comes to pushing comics at people. I like to lend out stuff like that. I've been burying John in various odds-and-ends from my Mass o' Stuff in my apartment.)
To be fair, Ceej lent me Kage Baker's The Garden of Iden, which she just finished, said she loved, and wanted to push at someone. So maybe I've met a kindred spirit in that regard. :-)
Oh, and Lucy and Ceej both endorsed the "leave Campbell and move to the peninsula" concept. Guess where they both live?
Yeah, no secret which direction I'm leaning in on this subject lately...
We also talked a bit about the whole dating scene, which we both are somewhat down on lately. After my last dating experience, I'm pretty resistant to the notion of asking a woman out who I'm not reasonably sure is interested in me. And it doesn't help that it seems like the intersection of women in whom I'm interested and women who are interested in me is pretty close to zero. John has fairly different outlooks, I think, and I think he feels my attitudes are largely the result of low self-esteem. Which is probably true, but not something that's likely to change in the foreseeable future.
I also got e-mail which shows that after one week I'm leading my new fantasy baseball league in aggregate points. Woo-hoo! I bet the injury bug going about the Majors this season has a lot to do with it, though... I always have a tendency to go for players with safe injury histories, but even Barry Bonds is spending 10 weeks on the DL this season, and he's been as solid as they come for many years...
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