Before Big Papi

David Ortiz has the tactile feel of a Hall of Famer, though I look at his bbref this morning and see he only has 1630 hits.  That’s not enough, generally.  But he is almost certainly going to play two more seasons.  With that he’ll get close. In three seasons he’ll (very probably) surpass 2000 hits, and with that be voted into the Hall of Fame someday.  Heck, maybe his entry is assured by this point.

There’s a non-absurd alternate universe where David Ortiz is not non-tendered by the Twins after the 2002 season.  In this alternate universe he stays with the Twins through 2006 at least.  This is also not absurd.

Fair to say, perhaps even more probable than not, in this alternate universe of 2003 – 2006 a lineup of Mauer, Morneau, and Ortiz is the most formidable in the league, and captures a World Series one of those years.  I’ll pick 2006, where Mauer wins batting title, Morneau wins MVP, Santana is Cy Young, and Cuddyer also drives in 100.

The Twins non-tendered David Ortiz after 2002 and kept Dustan Mohr.  Not saying it was a choice between the two, inasmuch as they certainly made decisions on 7 or 8 other guys.  Just saying…. They kept Dustan Mohr.  And Bobby Kielty.

Flee and Tic

I quit smoking labor day of 2009 or so.  Tried to quit for about 5 years, and was also a passionate nicotine gum chewer during that time.  I went through a lot of generic nicorette gum over several years.

Fall of 2009 I went to managing my Asperger’s features / Adult ADD with adderall.  I don’t know if it’s the lack of nicotine or the adderall, but I have been a finger snapper since then.  Snap, snap, snap, all waking hours.  I don’t know how much it’s harming me.  Maybe not much, but I’d kinda rather not snap.

Other tics: 

I’ve had rather pleasant music running through my head all my life.  Various riffs, sometimes the same one for days.  There’s a clinical name for this I am sure, but this is commonly known as an earworm I believe.

I usually need a heavy quilt on me to sleep.  This strikes me as a parallel to Temple Grandin’s “hug machine”.

So there’s that.  Also prominently, I’ve been afflicted by being an immature goofball.

Douche Misanthropy: recognizing you have a problem

Democrat staffer gets canned from his low six figure gig on the White House staff…because he couldn’t help himself from snarking up the Twitter.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/10/nsc-aide-admits-twitter-attack-on-white-house-175722.html

There’s no guarantee he’ll confront his culpability of course.  That’s I think a high bar from someone in the detached irony crowd.

I have many thoughts on douchebaggery and misanthropy.  I am, or was, a little misanthropic myself, certainly in the Holden Caulfield sense.  Combined with douchebaggery, this misanthropy variant is both an assertion of superiority and an inability to participate in a conversation in good faith.  Too much snark and overwrought wit sabotaging the discourse.  It’s a big problem, as you can see with Jofi.  I have every reason to believe they’ll be a diagnosis and therapy in the next 10 years or so.

The Bug Whisperer

This morning ebay is afflicted by an outage where you can not key text into the big description field in a listing.  In edit listing mode, the field won’t take the cursor for entry, won’t display existing text if there is any.

So I knew this, having encountered it.  I called into support, I dunno, because I guess I was curious about ebay “process” in a holistic sense.

Well the process is, the IVR tells you to expect a 6 minute wait.  It’s actually a half an hour.  You tell them they have an outage.  They tell you, yes, we have an outage.  A ‘site issue’.  So there’s that.

Shutdown day 2

• The old vets getting denied access to the monuments is absurd.  Especially the ‘BarryCades’ on day two.  But on the whole it’s not an argument / observation I can proffer with much enthusiasm.  Too obviously jingoistic.
• Still…. Given the typical LEOs instinct to tase or baton at the first cross word from any citizen they might encounter, I’m surprised some codgers haven’t gotten killed here.
• Budget meeting at the White House?  And this is b/c of the monuments outcry?  Doesn’t compute to me, I don’t see this overturning a week of bad press for the R’s.
• The President doesn’t walk away the victor by being the adult in the room.  If he concedes on anything, he loses.

  

OHIO

MLB playoffs start tonight BTW.  I’m saying Cincinnati Reds .vs Cleveland Indians in the World Series.  You heard it here first.

ACA day 1

Odds and ends…

—  I have been an active participant on SW development projects for some many years.  My livelihood is plied within this country’s vast software staff augmentation blob.  “I’m a consultant”.

It was obvious to me that the exchanges wouldn’t be ready today, because the resource demands of ACA implementation have to this point made no ripple whatsoever in my industry.

“Started software testing in August”?   You gotta be kidding me.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918804579105092032930278.html

—  My family HC premiums are over $567 a paycheck (bimonthly pay), so I am actually keenly interested in alternatives, say those that would be available on an ‘exchange’.  I don’t know that I’d be eligible, particularly for the subsidies, but I’m interested.

Bronze, Silver, and Gold plans are ostensibly stepped to cover 70, 80, and 90% of claims.   In terms of product offerings, this seems to me almost a laughably useless gesture.  I don’t know who takes a 70% coverage when the 30% can bankrupt you.  At the other end I’m not sure 90% coverage is enough either.

— Young invincible are not going to enroll, K?  This isn’t a real question, like one people have to speculate about what is going to happen.  They are not going to enroll.  They’ll stay on their parent’s policy until they are 27.  Then they’ll enroll in their employer plans, if they have a job.

—  As a retrograde crank, I imagine I ended up less biliously against say ‘national healthcare’ than other retrograde cranks.  I don’t have an Ayn Rand style objection.  Indeed, during the national debate I was swayed by a moral argument.  A moral argument I had to look very hard to find, I might add, among BS claims that ACA would save money, etc.  But the moral imperative exists nonetheless.  Plainly expressed, it is that in a society that produces this much wealth and prosperity, some can be diverted to a national health system serving those of modest means.

— Ezra Klein quotes aside…. ….any honest discussion grants these intuitive points about ACA:

• Healhcare costs increase in total
• The program is not a break even proposition over any time period you choose to examine.  The taxes are not enough, it will be subsidized out of general revenue
• Policy holders encounter increased premiums
• The regulatory structure depresses employment

To the extent it was argued otherwise, that was BS.  This is yglessias tacit acknowledgment of that .

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/09/obamacare_s_original_sin_implementation_delays_driven_by_dumb_talking_points.html

Why Blog?

Prominently, I was an absurd comment troll at SRC.  Obviously I got something out of that, and I still need it.

Aside from the absurd comment trolling thing….writing little missives was a way to refine thoughts I had in my head throughout the day.  Topically and temperamentally, SRC was a good fit.

Well, I have…ahem, because of the absurd commenting…limited ability to engage in the conversation there now.  So here’s my blog.  Comments are not moderated, though I don’t have great expectations I will develop much regular readership.

This will be a way for me to put greater discipline into the written expression of my own ideas.  As a thing, blogging might very well already be leaving, but I work in software.  It’s good to learn WordPress. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/09/24/225793577/popular-science-mag-online-comments-are-bad-for-science

Listicles are the new thing

Or have been for some time.

Yes, it’s kinda tacky.  Internet snack food.  And I’ll be obliged to write in detailed narrative, if only for myself.  But when time or a perfect transition sentence is absent, a listicle isn’t bad.

My internet news addiction probably only spans a few years, and in that time I’ve been a fan of Susannah Breslin.  In her pieces at Forbes woman, she basically writes in bullet points.

As far as content, listicles are an oblique tool in search optimization.  There’s probably a million dollar idea out there that will be realized with a good listicle method.  I wouldn’t mind knowing what that idea is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listicle