Author: Scott (Page 89 of 104)

Day 46: draft aftermath and garbled thoughts

March 29, 2009 / Scott / 0 Comments

For reference, here’s the fantasy baseball team I drafted:

C Mike Napoli
1B Joey Votto
1B Mike Jacobs (bench)
2B Brandon Phillips
3B Aramis Ramirez
3B Adrian Beltre (bench)
SS Jimmy Rollins
OF Bobby Abreu
OF Matt Holliday
OF Carlos Quentin
OF Jermaine Dye
OF J.D. Drew (bench)
DH Jim Thome (bench)
SP Erik Bedard
SP John Danks
SP Jeremy Guthrie (bench)
SP Rich Harden
SP Derek Lowe
SP Chris Young
RP Brian Fuentes
RP Chris Ray (bench)
RP Joakim Soria

Today, I dropped Mike Jacobs and picked up Kevin Gregg after the closer decision announcement came out. I also picked up and stashed Troy Glaus in one of my DL slots. I’m shopping J.D. Drew and may look to trade Beltre at some point to try and bone up my pitching (or a better catcher). Overall, I felt that the draft went relatively well, despite my rather weak starting pitchers.

Of course, we won’t actually know how successful my season will be until the real season starts in a week.

I had a dream last night that I had built an Iron Man-like suit and was flying down the hallway of an old apartment my parents and I lived in when I was a kid. It was quite strange.

I played Fallout 3 until about 3 AM last night. That was too late. I haven’t even bought the Pittsburgh expansion yet! I do plan to, though, so that I can stand in a ruined Point State Park and shoot mutants. It was my dream in Pittsburgh, but…the apocalypse never happened. Oh well. Maybe one day.

You know, I never thought I’d have one of those guy friends who’s “that guy.” But now that I think about it, my co-worker Jerome is kind of like “that guy.” And that’s cool with me. Like, the movie I Love You, Man just came out. Looked kind of funny, but would I really see it on opening weekend? If I’m Jerome, the answer is OH YES. That guy. He’s great. He and his scruffy Euro-face.

I don’t think Jerome reads these. I guess we’ll see!

I’ve been playing the recently-released EA DS game Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, which is a great title and an addictive game, but I’m not sure how much I actually like it. I want to keep playing because I want to see what additional powers I get, but the levels and action get a bit repetitive and dying – although there isn’t a large penalty associated with it – is annoying when it’s because I’ve been suddenly surrounded by enemies. In other words, the difficulty seems a bit manufactured instead of natural.

It’s no Professor Layton, that’s for sure. Here’s some Professor Layton fan art I found on the Internet:

Day 45: a day with malvolio

March 28, 2009 / Scott / 0 Comments

We spent the day in the city today with my high school friend Dan, who played Malvolio senior year in our school’s production of Twelfth Night, and a friend of his. Malvolio didn’t really come up at all, but I thought I’d give you some point of reference, and that felt as good as any.

Katie and I took BART into the city, whereupon we discovered that there was a Greek Independence Day parade going on down Market street. We even saw a boy on a tiny horse! That may or may not be Greek, but it is undoubtedly cute. Here’s a mediocre picture I took with my phone:

We met Dan and friend a bit after lunch at the Cartoon Art Museum, a small but fun little place with a bunch of comic and cartoon images throughout the ages on the walls of the six or so rooms they had. There was an exhibit about Usagi Yojimbo, a cartoon samurai rabbit drawn by Steve Sakai. Here’s a picture of Steve Sakai I found on the internet:

There was also a bunch of Watchmen stuff. I found the recreated props the most interesting. I haven’t yet seen the movie, so it was nice imagining that someone had just meticulously recreated items from the graphic novel for kicks. Or attempting to believe that we lived in their universe and that these were donated or confiscated items from the actual masked heroes.

Afterwards, we drove around the city for a bit and headed over to Absinthe for dinner, where we ate some delicious cheese and saw Jamie Lauren, who was on a season of Top Chef that we hadn’t watched. She’s the executive chef for Absinthe. Here’s a picture of Jamie I found on the internet:

Then, we got shakes at In’n’Out and parted ways. There’s actually a picture of Dan playing Malvolio in our senior yearbook, but I’m too lazy to dig it out and scan it, so here’s a picture of him I found on the Internet:

He’s the guy, as Dan is not short for Danielle or Dantooine or some hippie girl name. This was also taken almost a decade ago, when we all looked like, well, high school students.

Day 44: kids are awesome

March 27, 2009 / Scott / 0 Comments

It doesn’t feel like a Friday today. Maybe it’s because I started work on Tuesday this week. Maybe it’s because the excitement of the draft tonight has given me an overabundance of blood in my brain. Or a dearth?

My mom called me today. She’s still in a bit of pain, but she’s well loved by her friends, who continue to come over and cook her an overabundance of food. She has a follow-up appointment on Monday where I predict the doctor will tell her nothing but good news.

She also said that she was proud of me and really happy that I had turned out the way I had. Well, not in so many words. It was really nice. I’ve always lived, as most Chinese children do, in a somewhat constant state of wondering whether I’ve disappointed my parents. While certainly rather harrowing at times, I’m sure it’s also made me stronger in many ways.

Either way, it’s nice to hear something so direct and confidence-boosting.

What a task it is – rearing a child. Several of my co-workers have kids or are about to have kids or just had a kid. It’s really quite amazing. Each of us was once a baby, our entire lives consisting of our parents and bodily functions. And now? Now, we’re working members of society, living on our own (or with some other grown baby that we really like), blogging independent thoughts, and considering the latest stem cell research announcement.

That’s awesome. Isn’t it?

So that’s why I want to have children (eventually). Because there’s nothing better or more powerful I could do with my life.

Today, however, the best and most powerful thing I can do is pick a perfect baseball team.

Day 43: draft day

March 26, 2009 / Scott / 0 Comments

Tomorrow evening is this season’s fantasy baseball draft. It starts at 6:30 and I’ve spent a few hours of the past few days cobbling together a spreadsheet that I think will help guide my decisions come draft time.

For those of you out there that have never experienced a fantasy draft before, it’s one of the most exciting things in the world. I’m not a huge baseball fan; if I didn’t play fantasy baseball, I probably wouldn’t even follow the season too much.

For me, half the fun of the entire fantasy baseball season boils down to draft day. The time pressure, combined with the fact that you are making decisions that will affect your team’s well-being for the next half year, makes every second important. The adrenaline rush is one that I imagine similar to fleeing a wild animal. Or more accurately, a wild animal forcing you to pick a team of professional baseball players.

I ran a fantasy movie league a few times to mixed degrees of success (the balance of the league is thrown off because there are certain blockbusters that do too well in comparison to other movies), simply because I believe that everyone can find fun in a fantasy draft of some format.

It should be something that is on everyone’s bucket list, although the pinnacle of this experience – the live draft where all participants are together in the same room – has become less common with the rising popularity of online leagues.

Just like I’m no real baseball expert (although don’t tell my opponents that!), you don’t have to be a <subject> expert to have fun in a fantasy <subject> league. Can’t find one you like? Come up with your own! See if you can find scoring for random types of fantasy leagues online!

Just create a situation where a group of friends end up together in a room with sequential picks from a limited pool of things or people or something. With a time limit. And some stake in it – most often a scoring system.

The rest, as they say, is silence. The trading, the weekly lineups, the waiver wire watching – none of it adds up to the excitement and preparation leading up to a draft, nor the instant joy and crushing defeats felt at each pick.

Speaking of which, would anyone be up for some kind of unconventional fantasy league with live draft in the near future?

Author: Scott (Page 89 of 104)

Day 46: draft aftermath and garbled thoughts

Day 45: a day with malvolio

Day 44: kids are awesome

Day 43: draft day

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