What's the deal with baseball?

Why are so many people obsessed with baseball? I don't get it. Now, I enjoy going out to the ballpark and watching a game too (if "watching" means drinking beer and chatting with the people I went with), but how can this sport consume people the way it does?

I read a bunch of blogs on a daily basis. Many of them are grouped together for a publication called Juice. One of these bloggers writes about some quasi-pro league for men stuck in their high school and college years. He's apparently a founding member or whatever. (I'm not a regular follower of his blog, though I have read it when he talks about non-baseball topics.)

Today this baseball-aholic made a comment on someone else's blog that is the inspiration of my own thoughts here today. He said, "My goal in life, other than playing the game for as long as I can, is to put a kid in the major leagues. Whether it be mine (please, Lord, if it’s a boy, give him a golden arm and a love for baseball) or the kid down the street–that is MY goal!"

Isn't that a bit of a strange goal in life? I understand everybody has their own priorities and interests, but this guy's GOAL IN LIFE is to make someone else get where he probably wanted to be 10 years ago. Maybe it's time to look at life beyond baseball. Or maybe I just need to watch more baseball. If so, then please pass me a big-ass beer and cheese brat or I won't make it.

A brief interjection

Every feel like banging your head on your keyboard?

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That's what it looks like.

Wanted: a nap

So I'm relaxing on the couch this morning. I'd love to take a nap, but the caffeine I drank earlier is still at a level to not allow that.

Last night I woke up at 2:43 a.m. and heard music outside. It wasn't really loud, but just loud enough that I could hear it. And I found it impossible to not hear it. I finally got up and opened the window to figure out what it was. Best I could tell a neighbor in the crappy houses to the west was having a late night party with loud music outside. Now...it wasn't rock or hip-hop or even country. It was just music. I'm not particularly sure what was going on, but it was way too late for it. I can only imagine what closer neighbors thought.

After trying unsuccessfully to ignore it, I had to turn on the TV to sleep. Now, sure, that sounds ridiculous. But the TV is something I'm accustomed to sleeping through and it isn't a faint noise. Even so I had a hard time staying asleep. I kept waking up over and over. I finally shut off the TV at 5 a.m. hoping that the music was gone. It was. So...I slept until 6:30. Yay.

Political Ads Suck

I am lucky enough to live in a state where I'm currently assaulted daily by Presidential TV ads.

This barrage of attacks will be increasing ever so annoyingly as the year drags on. I've already become fairly immune to them. Basically I stop listening until I hear something completely ridiculous or strange.

And yes, today I heard just that. This ad was both ridiculous and strange if I heard this ad correctly. Mind you, I was getting ready for work this morning, so my attention span was more on the even spread of mascara than it was what Candidate X was saying, but I'm pretty sure I heard what I heard. I even considered waiting until I saw/heard the ad again, but I really felt like blogging tonight.

So here it is. This candidate first caught my attention by saying he'd had a child past the age of 50. This caught my "awwww" factor. (As a woman who currently dreams often about having her own child and has sisters and friends procreating like rabbits, this strikes a chord.) But then he said what struck me as both strange and ridiculous...he said his daughter was born two days after 9/11.

So with one fell swoop he invoked two political goldmines. Kids and 9/11. I've been going over this in my head many times and still I can't figure out why he decided it was a good plan to say his daughter was born "two days after 9/11" other than to mention it to tie himself in. That day was horrible and yet politicians still invoke it to make themselves more "credible". But how does having a child two days after the tragedy really make a difference? What was this guy thinking? Or better yet, what was his staff thinking. It's a completely transparent attempt to bring a American touchpoint into a campaign.

I for one, am sickened. I know who the candidate in the ad was, but at this point, I honestly don't know his affiliation (Republican or Democrat). Either way, at this point, I would not vote for him. It's this sort of crap that makes me ignore the whole presidential advertising process.

Feed a Giraffe...please!

Today I did my first stint as a volunteer at the local zoo. I get to feed giraffes some crackers and help others feed them crackers too.

Giraffes are impressive creatures with their long necks and slow deliberate gaits. But to be up close to one is amazing...they are quite large. And beautiful. You've never been guilted before if you haven't had a giraffe look at you with those large brown eyes begging for a cracker.

There's one giraffe at the zoo who doesn't miss a chance to get some crackers. The others are hit and miss, but Zuri is seemingly magnetized by people near the feeding area. I could stand there with her for hours. And to watch little kids' faces when this 18-inch black tongue snakes toward them for the cracker is priceless. Some are scared to death, others are in absolute awe. Parents usually forgo this event to get the camera on the kid. Let me tell you, it's an experience everybody in the family should have.

Today I had one little girl reach in to pet the giraffe. It was a complete reflex. And I totally understand the instinct, but these animals could snap your arm with the flick of their head. They wouldn't mean to; they could possibly just be nodding off a fly. But their power is amazing. I even heard they can decapitate a lion with a kick. Now that's a powerful kick. I hope I didn't scare the little girl, but I immediately grabbed for her arm and told her to be careful.

And as the title suggests, I think everybody should try feeding a giraffe. It's amazing. It's a little gross (slimy even). But to come into contact with such a beautiful, wild animal is an awesome experience. Better yet, come out when I'm there and I might sneak you a free cracker.

Right job?

Have you ever wondered if you made the right choice along your career path? Of course you have. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. (And yes, I know a few people I work with have the link to this blog...but I don't think this will surprise them.)

I don't think I made a particularly good choice at moving to be the department WebTrends analyst. I really enjoy working with most of WebTrends, but I'm NOT good at determining things like percent of lost opportunity or other statistical pieces of data the software doesn't calculate for me. My strengths are in knowing out website structure and figuring out how to extract data that WebTrends has or implementing things to get that data...not in taking that data and making more calculations.

So since I loathe that part of my job, it's making me a bit (ok a lot) sick of my job.

I love where I work...and working with most of the people around me. But I don't feel like I can do this much longer. Not only am I burning out, I feel like I'm not the right person for the job. I feel that the team isn't really getting what they need from a person in this role.

That I need a change is clear to me. The problem is....what is that change? Is it going back to writing? Is it moving back toward web design? Is it something completely different. I have strong technical aptitude and love to work with computers, but what do I do with that? What can I do that I enjoy and can still pay my mortgage?

Yes, I know only I can actually figure that answer out. But I thought by throwing this out into the world wide web that some sense of clarity will suddenly strike. So far...that hasn't happened.

A great date

So that people don't think that all I have are crappy dates, let me tell you about a date I had last night.

I'm not sure if it can be considered a "first date" since we met Friday morning for bagels at Bruegger's before work. But since that was only about 40 minutes and neither of us were effectively caffeinated I'm not sure it could be considered a date.

Anyway...last night we met up at a Mexican restaurant for a pretty good meal on the patio. It was a gorgeous evening. The temperature was perfect and there was a slight breeze. After dinner he suggested we go to Gray's Lake to take a walk. It was a great way to chat and get to know more about each other. After one loop of the lake we decided to go to a local coffee shop to get something to drink and chat more. As it grew dark we decided to head outside to walk around the Western Gateway area of downtown. It's a beautiful place at night. The only thing that could have made it better was if area teenagers weren't "scooping the loop" nearby.

We had stopped and were chatting near the library when a few drops of rain started to fall, so we headed back to the car to head home. It was a perfectly delightful evening. And even if we don't have another date, I know this was one of the best dates I've had.