Downloading the most recent “critical update” from Windows Update on my desktop machine effectively tanked it, turning it into little more than a large, pretty, rainbow-colored brick.
I’m kind of pissed off, but its not so bad since I was planning on reinstalling anyway (to get the full effect of RAID 0 striped over 4 HDDs), but seriosuly, M$, get your act together. If this had happened to this here laptop, I would be enhosified [hosed].
This evening was the Titan Robotics Club’s high school interest meeting. Chief among the plethora or failures was the anemic attendence. Causes of this are that the people who signed up to be contacted about the interest meeting were never contacted and that the flyers informing students of the meeting were only posted around the school today. Not so hot, guys. Especially considering the number of warnings that the leaders got that this was going to happen. Other failures included outdated and plain wrong information in the presentation (which, coincidentally hadn’t undergone any review), promises made that had not been discussed or even mentioned to any others, and general confusion and unpreparedness.
Unfortunately, exactly what we expected, so lets move along.
I noticed while logged into sf2 today that bob was logged in, running “vim wp-layout.css”. This could only mean one thing: Bobby’s weblog, Colorless Green Ideas, was being worked on. I accidently destroyed the last incarnation of CGI while teaching some people about how to use MySQL, and I am happy to see that a new version is looming on the horizon.
And then I saw it – especially that top bar (check it out now), and I began thinking again about how I keep saying I’m going to do something to my site, but I never get around to it. After this most recent episode, however, “never” is at least one increment of motivation closer to “soon.”
A sign at the final Mariners game of the season – and the final game of a stellar career of Edgar Martinez – read liek this: Edgar Martinez is spelled C-L-A-S-S. And that was about all Edgar had going for him on his final night. It ended relatively disappointingly, with the veteran designated hitter grounding into two double plays and with a few pop flies. But, for the second time in as many attended games, I was struck by the fact that the moment was swallowing almost everything else up.
Edgar was always one of my favorite players, ever since the wee old Kingdome days. And I’ll never forget what is now termed “the hit that saved baseball in Seattle.” For that hit, I was sitting in the shoe department of Nordstrom’s in Bellevue Square, watching on the smallish, vertically stacked TVs. In fact, the whole store was pretty mcuh watching those TVs when it happened. It was a pretty exciting time – the first time in the playoffs, and beating the Yankees at that, in such spetacular fashion. Its one for the ages, and one that a loss to Texas can’t ever take away.
Sometime earlier this week, Dan suggested that we get tickets to Friday’s Mariners game, since he predicted that Ichiro would break the record that day. So I agreed, and when Ichiro didn’t break the record the game before, Dan went ahead and purchased the best tickets available: 300 level, 25h row, seats 9 and 10. And yes, the 25th row IS the last row. Seats 9 and 10 also happen to be the hardest to get to in the row. And we were late, because the will call line people don’t understand last name eltter frequency. So, after hustling up the many stairs to the 300 level, Texas having finished batting, we went into the wrong section just to make sure we would see the hit if it happened.
And, of course, it did happen. Hit number 257 was a classic Ichiro, chopped just over the third baseman’s head. Fireworks went off and the crowd roared. We retreated and made our way to the proper section. Unfortunately, the usher didn’t direct us correectly, and we ended up in the wrong seats again. We watched the next inning like that, then the real seatholders came, so we had to go find our real seats again.
And we didn’t have to wait long. When Ichiro came up to bat, the crowd stood. He sliced off his obligatory fouls, then put the ball straight down the middle. Everyone knew what had just happened. Nobody sat down for at least five miutes. The Mariners emerged from the dugout to greet Ichiro. We clapped. And cheered. And clapped some more. Fireworks, rare at Safeco, were in abundance. Nifty preprepared graphics lit the outfield screens. And for all the melodrama, the best part was Ichiro’s mild, unassuming acceptance of the praise for a job well done, and then he got back to business, helping the Mariners go on to get the win.
But most impressive of all, to me, was the realization that I had when it happened; a realization which has come to me only rarely throughout my life: that these moments are the ones that make the human condition worthwhile. The pain and suffering, bad politics and worse policies, high taxes to pay for stadiums and to waste on social programs – all of these things don’t really matter in the long run. Overcoming them together – as an amazing player and his fanatics did on Friday – makes it all seem ok for the time being.
In response to Erik’s response to my response to his response to my response to an article in the American Spectator…
Erik states, “If the individuals are motivated to do the right thing withen the company it will as well.”
Wrong.
I think its one of the most wonderful and disturbing things about the advent of modern economics. The aggregate is often not the sum of its parts. Take, for example, this most oft-quoted phrase from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” This is the essence of the “invisible hand” that turns self interst into the best option for the group as a whole. Its not immediately obvious (it tok until 1776 to figure it out, after all), but the general interst being served by everyone looking out for him or herself is the actual effect.
The same thing goes for groups founded in the name of the “public interest.” Even if every person in the group is working towards some greater ideal, the result is quite often less than stellar. Countless socialist regimes, and the incredible failure of social programs in this country as well should testify to that.
The real problem here is that most people in this world don’t understand economics because the teacher’s union (that “public interst” group) knows that a society well-versed in economics would be detremental to their monopoly over education in this country. Cynicism is well in order. Thank you very much.
