Blog themes converge at AT&T Park

Last week I was lucky enough to have 2 (good) tickets to a Giants game fall into my lap on short notice! So, Marc and I went up to the city to see the game, a battle between the Giants and the Nationals, two of the NL's worst teams. We had great seats right by the visiting bullpen on the 1B side, and managed to stay warm despite the bone-chilling weather of San Francisco in July. Anyways, here are some pictures. I didn't realize that it would turn into an epic convergence of past blog themes, including the Washington Nationals baseball, the Yahoo! 404 sign, and enormous jumbotrons.

Not to be outdone, the Giants have their own giant HD-Jumbotron, new this year. I think the one in DC is bigger, though. You can also see the 404 in this picture.

Here's Marc eating his relish, with a side of hot dog.

Ryan Zimmerman Ks

Rich Aurelia is actually hitting the go-ahead 2-run double on this pitch!

It was an exciting game in that the Giants fell behind but came back to win with a late rally sparked by Omar Vizquel (perhaps energized by the poster giveaway featuring him that day?) and Bengie Molina. All-Star closer Brian Wilson shut the door in the 9th, and we headed back to the train as the seagulls descended on the stadium to gorge themselves on leftover garlic fries. It's always fun to see a game in that beautiful stadium.

New Blog!

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know that I just made a new blog: Commentate's Kitchen. I mostly wanted a good central place where I could store all my favorite recipes for easy access. I've got a good chunk of them up there now, but will certainly be adding more in the future. I tried to give credit for any recipes I may have stolen (from cook books or from friends or family), but I apologize if I missed any!

I love trying new recipes so if you ever come across something spectacular, please pass it on!

Yum,
Kate

Ominous advertising

I had this amusing feature of AT&T Park, where the SF Giants play baseball, involving a local advertiser pointed out to me today:

What do you think? Coincidence? Bad karma? Secretly curse planted by Google? Perhaps that's just up there for all the people that come to the park looking for Bonds in left field this year.

If you don't get it, you can click here for an explanation.

YouTube Video of the Day

There's also this version, which is also a little unique. Enjoy!

Entrepreneurial Friends

I've been meaning to post something about what two friends of ours, and up until recently, co-workers of mine at Lockheed, are up to now that they have started their own self-run businesses. I'm very impressed with people that can do that, and wish them both the best!

First up is Dustin, who has taken his skills as a machine/electronics/mechanical designer and created his own company, Protoplant. He's been flying solo for the past 6 months or so, and has been working on some really neat projects. Check out his website - I wish you could see some of his work in person as it's quite impressive! And, ummm, if you are in the Bay Area and need some custom industrial machine equipment prototyped, uhhh, give him a call.


Second is Luke, a Dartmouth/Thayer friend who also happened to move out to Sunnyvale to work at Lockheed after getting his MEM with me. Luke and his wife SK (who is in Business School at Duke, they have moved back East to Durham, NC) have created VisibleEnergy, a startup designed to (as described here) "provide residential power consumers with an energy monitoring device and an online community. The monitoring device will deliver a low-cost data feed from the consumer’s electricity meter to the VisibleEnergy data processing center. Our website will translate usage into meaningful terms, allow users to compare their consumption with similar homes, and provide tailored recommendations for cost and energy savings." Still in the early stages, Luke and SK have a great blog focused on responsible home energy consumption. Head over and give it a read or add it to your RSS feed, maybe it will inspire you to air dry your clothes more, adjust your thermostat settings, decide whether to replace your bulbs with CFLs, or maybe unplug some unused appliances. I enjoyed reading, and learned a few things too! Hopefully VisibleEnergy will take off, along with home energy savings. I know many of our family members have these electricity monitors in their homes and have commented how it has inspired them to change their behavior and consumption. Maybe my sister and family in Durham can participate in their trial phase! Here's another article about VisibleEnergy, also linked on their blog.

Iranians need some Photoshop training

Did anyone else read this story, about how it appears a photoshopped image of the recent Iranian missile test made its way onto the front pages of most major US news outlets?

I find it interesting that:

1. The Iranian state media would release such an obviously altered image, knowing it was going to get international scrutiny, and
2. US media outlets, such as the NY Times, Yahoo News, LA Times, and many others, were so quick to post such an image on their front pages without enough investigation into its integrity to reveal some pretty clear evidence of digital tampering.

As the story explains:
Agence France-Presse retracted its four-missile version this morning, saying that the image was “apparently digitally altered” by Iranian state media. The fourth missile “has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test,” the agency said. Later, it published an article quoting several experts backing that argument.

Geeky Humor

The following was casually posted in our office kitchen, by the water cooler today:

There were three medieval kingdoms on the shores of a lake. There was an island in the middle of the lake, over which the kingdoms had been fighting for years. Finally, the three kings decided that they would send their knights out to do battle, and the winner would take the island. The night before the battle, the knights and their squires pitched camp and readied themselves for the fight. The first kingdom had 12 knights, and each knight had five squires, all of whom were busily polishing armor, brushing horses, and cooking food. The second kingdom had twenty knights, and each knight had 10 squires. Everyone at that camp was also busy preparing for battle. At the camp of the third kingdom, there was only one knight, with his squire. This squire took a large pot and hung it from a looped rope in a tall tree. He busied himself preparing the meal, while the knight polished his own armor. When the hour of the battle came, the three kingdoms sent their squires out to fight (this was too trivial a matter for the knights to join in). The battle raged, and when the dust had cleared, the only person left was the lone squire from the third kingdom, having defeated the squires from the other two kingdoms, thus proving that the squire of the high pot and noose is equal to the sum of the squires of the other two sides.

Har har. There went 45 seconds of your life that you'll never get back. I guess this is one of the perks/occupational hazards of working at a place called the "Advanced Technology Center" that is chock full 'o engineers. (And scientists - I would be remiss to exclude the category into which reader Marc falls. Maybe he even posted it?)

Why mutts rock

Couple dog-related items that I thought I would share with y'all. The first is an online TIME article called "A Terrible Beauty" that is about the major problems inbreeding is causing purebred dogs, and how the AKC is contributing to it. I'm sure you all know my opinion about rescuing wonderful mutty dogs already, but it is interesting reading nonetheless. One particularly pointed quote: "The best use of pedigree papers is for housebreaking your dog. They don't mean a damn thing. You can have an immune- deficient puppy that is about to go blind and has epilepsy, hip dysplasia, hemophilia and one testicle, and the AKC will register it."

On the off chance anyone reading this is actually thinking about adopting or rescuing a dog, I'd like to point you to petfinder.org, where you can find the dog of your dreams. They've got lots of puppies, too!

Second item is a book that I just finished reading for my book group, Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, by Ted Kerasote. I found it wonderful and moving - and I particularly loved the amount of scientific analysis of how a dog's wolf ancestry has contributed to the way they act today. There is an awful lot of anthropomorphizing of Merle in the book, but as a dog owner who has often wondered what my pup is thinking, I found it plausible.

Banjo says hi!

Laa de Daa

Tom and Banjo and I just got back from a road trip to San Diego for the annual Ebel family summer crazytime. On the way down, we decided to take a little detour to go to an Angels - A's game at Angel Stadium. It is a goal of mine to go to a baseball game at every stadium in the country at some point in my life, so it was a good chance to check one more off the list and cheer on the A's at the same time.
We got to the stadium about an hour early (after dropping Banjo off at Camp Bow Wow for some playtime) and got to take two laps around the stadium to check out the sights. It is a nice stadium, but relatively nondescript besides the waterfall rock garden and the "Big A" that they are famous for (below). Incidentally, the water in the rock garden is rather stinky and you will regret getting splashed by it.

There wasn't a huge crowd there, as it was a noon-time game in the middle of the week. It seemed to be summer camp day at the ballpark, as well, and we had to keep dodging enormous groups of neon-shirted campers. Apparently one of the claims-to-fame of the ballpark is cheap beer (subsidized by the owner of the team), but we opted for a surprisingly large, wonderful, and delicious Ruby's diner chocolate milkshake instead.

Dana Eveland started for the A's (and Kate's fantasy baseball team), and Joe Saunders started for the Angels (and Tom's fantasy team). Unfortunately the bad guys (on both counts) took the lead early and managed to get the win despite some valiant comeback attempts by the A's. Tom took a bunch of good pictures at the game, including the one below of his current A's favorite, Carlos Gonzalez, hitting.

One highlight was when A's fan favorite Frank Thomas made a surprise appearance at the game. Howdy, Big Frank!More on the rest of the trip later...

Weekend goings-on

Tom and I had a busy, fun-filled weekend. After spending all day Friday waiting in line at the furniture store, driving a U-haul around, and then assembling said furniture, we were ready to kick back and do some grade-A relaxing.

My Uncle Paul and Aunt Martha had flown to San Jose from Aiken, South Carolina for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Since I don't get to see my "southern kinfolk" (as they have dubbed themselves) very often, we took the opportunity on Saturday to get some dinner and go to a play together. We decided to go to a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose, which really was quite a bold choice for the kinfolk, as there are approximately zero Vietnamese restaurants in Aiken, SC. Not ones to shy away from adventurous dining, my Uncle Paul ordered a braised pork shoulder dish which came with a whole (brownish-yellow) stewed egg and pickled sprouts. Aunt Martha got her hands dirty with some pork and prawn spring rolls, and also was the only one of the kinfolk brave enough to sample my rice-floured calamari and shaved ice / barley / seaweed dessert. Actually, "sampling" of the dessert was all I managed to do as well, as (perhaps unsurprisingly), seaweed desserts do not taste good.
Tummies full, the four of us headed to the play, which was "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" by Steve Martin. Our friend Mikey has a starring role as a young Albert Einstein in the play, so we were able to finagle some tickets despite the show being completely sold out. As it turns out, my aunt and uncle are actually big fans of Steve Martin. This may have something to do with the fact that my uncle bears a resemblance to him and has forged his autograph several times when accosted by adoring fans. They've seen almost all of Steve Martin's movies and read his autobiography, but hadn't seen his (only) play, so it worked out just perfect. The play was wonderful. Mikey (below on the left) was absolutely hysterical as Einstein - earnest and witty with a wry sense of humor and a fabulous mustache. He had the crowd howling (especially my uncle who fully appreciated all of Einsteins sciency humor). So, kudos to Mikey and the rest of the cast for a very well-done production.
Sunday was Tom's weekly softball game. His team was playing the weakest team in the league so they all tried out some new positions to keep the game close and interesting for everyone. Tom even got to pitch an inning, which I'm pretty sure is a first for him! He got a couple nice hits, too - in the photo below, Tom is gearing up to drive one over the outfield.
Pitching...
We ended the weekend by having a couple friends over to play "Guitar Hero", which is on loan from our friend Bailey (who is in Venice this week!). I'm pretty sure the photos below speak for themselves...
Yeah!! We're superstars!!!