Top 5

I think most of you know already my love of lists and of choosing favorites. Our little group even had an entire blog dedicated to lists, based mostly on the legwork of Nate. I don't know why this particular list came to mind the other day, maybe the talk of Spring Training vacations or upcoming fantasy baseball, but I put together my list of favorite baseball players of all time. Because of the history necessarily involved in addition to my own relative shallow experience in first-hand baseball knowledge, I'm incredibly curious about everyone else's list. I've only watched baseball for a bit of the 90's and most of the 00's, which swings my list heavily towards recent players. Now, I know most of the big names from other eras, but I can't really put any of them on my list since I haven't gone out of my way to watch old games or research the personalities. I'm confident I could pick out the best players of each generation, but they're mostly flat images made up of statistics and awards. They could never be considered a favorite. So, you out there, feel free to add a top 5 of your own in the comments with the more detailed the explanations the better. Here we go:

1. Ken Griffey Jr.

Without a doubt the easiest choice on the list. The first player I ever really attached to, in my mind, in any sport. The 90s Bulls teams were cherished, naturally, but I feel like Griffey was the first ever choice I made and thankfully it is one that I still respect. I liked the home runs, the crazy highlights in the field, but what stands out most was and is his character: the easy affability and joy in playing baseball. The time he stole a fly ball from his dad, hearing about him as the lead judge of the Mariner's clubhouse kangaroo court. He seemed like the one guy I would absolutely want to hang out with in sports, the guy I would want on my team no matter what. I could watch highlight reels of his catches all day. Oh, and until my Dad finally put a stop to it, I would do the Griffey one-handed follow-through on my swing.

2. Ozzie Smith

The Wizard is a bit tough, being a Cardinal, but I started out baseball as a shortstop and Ozzie Smith was my little league goal for the position. I wasn't a power hitter and we weren't allowed to steal bases yet, so the way to set myself apart was as a fielder, which was not helped by being a lefty who wanted to play shortstop. Through a collection of spins and reloads I would fire across the body to first, until finally forced to give it up for center field.

3. Randy Johnson

My favorite pitcher and one of the most dominant leftys of all time. He was unstoppable in videogames and as long as he wasn't walking people, pretty much unstoppable in real life. I loved that Mariners team.

4. Ichiro Suzuki

Probably common to everyone, but what I look for in a player is the best aspects in how I played (in reality or just imagined). I like baseball players that steal bases, play great defense, and are usually shortstops or center fielders. Ichiro had these, played for the Mariners, and did it year after year.

5. Jeff Bagwell

I liked his crazy batting stance and his stubbornness to not give up the inside corner.

Honorable Mentions

Ernie Banks - If I had seen him play I'm sure he would be top 3, but a great guy.

Jose Reyes

Brandon Phillips

I may have forgotten someone, but I feel like that is the main list. So throw in some new considerations, any stories or rationale for how you found favorites, and we can talk a bit of baseball. I'm surprised at the lack of Cubs, but maybe I shouldn't be. When they were good, they still weren't all that likable. Or they were too tragic. I liked Prior and Wood, but you know. Maybe Randall Simon. I liked the old "I'm going to swing at anything, maybe even a pickoff attempt at first."

Esto es un Mapa

This is a mop. I mean map. Personally, I love maps. They are kind of amazing. From the old ones that were works of art full of sea monsters and dragons

To the strange ones that show different perspectives

To the more politically motivated

Maps are a fascinating portrayal of how one person, country, whatever perceives the world around them, and likewise, can have a profound effect on how other people view the world. Larger scale maps cannot be truly accurate, which is fascinating. How pervasive is the sense that North is up? This has been throwing me lately because I always enter the PSU campus from the north, so my mental map of campus has south at the top of the map. This always makes looking at actual maps of campus really confusing. Did you know that north wasn't always at the top of the map. That convention started when sailors started using the North Star to navigate. Most maps before this placed East at the top. Orientation comes from Orient comes from Oriens, meaning East.

Anyway, about a month ago, I saw some gorgeous maps out in Pioneer Square. I wish I could have gotten some closer pictures, but my camera died. Using about 10 different flowers, a group had mapped out the world to celebrate the Festival of Flowers in June.

The Oregonian posted some pictures with a better vantage point.

Anyway, my classes just ended, so you can expect some more geography/planning nerdery to come. I've been pretty happy to dive back into maps.

Back in Business

Have I used that title yet? Apologies all around for my wildly inconsistent work here. However, school is over for a little bit, and I can get back to throwing pasta at the wall. The good news is that I've had my camera with me lately, so the next few posts will be photo heavy.

It's been a decent summer thus far for seeing some unusual things. Tammy and I have been exploring once more, seeing new neighborhoods, going to new parks and plazas, and wandering around town aimlessly. It's been great. So there will be some items later, but first we have to talk about some Morris dancing.

Morris dancing is something I had only ever heard of before through Terry Pratchett novels. From those, my understanding was always that it was some type of probably not made up English or Scottish folk dancing that involved hitting things with sticks and was generally dangerous to all participants and spectators. For the most part, I was content with this image, though there must be more to it than that.

A few weeks ago, we walked by a pleasant little plaza where you can dip your feet in the water while you read, when we happened across a rather large collection of Morris dancers. Turns out, it was basically a Morris party for some group in Portland that had been around for a while, so groups from all over the west coast came in to celebrate.

So Morris dancing is not all that different from my first impression, though in this setting it is considerably safer, since everyone was sober. It is an actual English folk dance from the 1400s, which can include sticks, bells, swords, and whatever else you can find. The bells are attached to the shins and are used in counterpoint to the accordion or fiddle that is providing the music. When sticks are used, they are for hitting against each other or the ground in rhythm with the song. The dance is usually a mix of steps and wheels with groups anywhere from 2 to, I don't know, say 20 people. School's out, I'm not researching this. Anyway, some pictures:

Notice the bells on the shins.

And the number of different groups in the background.

For this last one, the three would hit sticks together in a way that sort of passed it along to the left, if that makes any sense, and then they would break apart into some skipping and steps.

Here is an example of the dance in action in England:

So there you go, some Morris dancing for you. Oh, and thanks to Terry Pratchett for giving me just enough cultural knowledge to hang myself with. Before this weekend if cornered and asked if I had heard of Morris dancing, I would have responded, "is that the one where you hit stuff with sticks and most people go home bruised?" Now I can confidently say that it's the one where you hit stuff with sticks and hardly anyone goes home bruised, providing they're sober and have practiced recently.

Chronotons and Graviolies

Sorry it's been so long. I keep sitting down, starting posts and then discarding them not even halfway through. I've had things I want to write about, what's happening around here, some urban planning projects in New Orleans, invisible systems, etc...and I do plan on getting back to most of these. But rather than stressing about not finishing things, or feeling like my first post back has to be an award winner, I've decided what matters most is just getting some points up on the board.

I'm in the midst of what I've been calling the Summer of Self-improvement. I'm not entirely comfortable with such an unabashed title, but that's the way it is. I've wanted to do something useful with the extra time on my hands, so I've come up with a few goals. First: I am slowly working my way through the Japanese alphabet and basic phrases. Second: I've been running in the morning. This is stalled as I've failed to get out for about a week now. Third: volunteer as often as possible for all things bike related to put on my grad application. There were other things that have come and gone, but those three are the ones I plan on sticking by all summer. Oh, also my summer class starts on Monday, but I don't think that counts. I do well enough when there is structure provided. The real goal here is to flourish in my current, structureless lifestyle. Let's make it happen.

4square And Brazilian BBQ

Thanks for a great Saturday are in order for Cassio and Ahren. Cass threw a fantastic bbq of Brazilian goodness. Plates were passed around pretty much non-stop of crazy good meats, the best of which was the picanha. There were also some amazing breads and fried rice balls. It was good to be out in a backyard grilling, sitting in the sun. Felt like summer was back.

After this it was up to the NE to Ahren and Megan's for a 4square party. It was rough going at first, but we soon regained our childhood form and laid down some sweet moves. It's really tough to make up rules nowadays. If you don't remember, whoever is in the King Square gets to make up a set of rules to play by until they're knocked out, and I seem to remember it being way easier to invent good rules when I was a kid. Maybe we just had no idea of what good rules were and said whatever came to mind. I don't know. Anyway, we played a bunch of 4square and it was great.

Happy that soccer has led to meeting a great group of people. After a couple false starts with some less fun groups, this has been much better. To finish off the night we came back here for dinner and then watched half of Coraline. Tammy didn't quite make it through before falling asleep, so we had to call intermission.

But way to go world. That was a great Saturday.

A Moral of Note

I had my first scare the other week while playing pop-a-shot at the arcade with Tammy. First off, it's important to note that this was a Sonic the Hedgehog pop-a-shot. Why that's important to note I don't know, but it is. This was all at a decent sized arcade attached to a bowling alley called Big Al's. I guess these side notes are to show how incredibly classy it would sound when I had to tell this tale. I suppose as well, these asides are simply to expand and enhance what is, in all honestly, a momentously foolish and ridiculously brief story. Without further hedging here is the actual story:

I threw my wedding ring while playing pop-a-shot.

See how easily I could have laid it out there. But that seems to be the way I tell stories. I start with roundabout lead ins that delay the story as long as possible. Anyway, my shot missed a bit to the right, but the ring went right through the hoop. Most fortuitously, my ring bounced back to me in much the same manner as the mini basketballs. So naturally I almost put it up for another shot. Ok maybe not, but still. Nearly lost it down the sides of the machine. That Sonic is a greedy one, always trying to collect those rings. What a jerk!

See, it all comes back around. Those asides end up as haphazard references to games from 15 years ago. Look Mom, I'm a writer!

I should probably start planning these posts out in advance.

The moral of the story is thus: The greedy who want more lose all...wait no..um..unless the seed of evil is destroyed it will grow up to destroy us. No that's not it either. Fine, we'll have to use one of my own morals if none of Aesop's will fit.

Don't trust hedgehogs, they're after your valuables. Plus they didn't even count the basket.

NBA Playoffs

It's been a long time since I felt this invested in the playoffs. Part of this is the champion feel to this Bulls team. We've had some playoff runs in the past few years, but never something like this where it would be a disappointment not to win it all. So that's a huge factor to be sure. And I'm also feeling it because I picked Dallas out of the West a few weeks before the playoffs began. Ask my Dad if you need proof. But I've never been this invested in the playoffs as a whole. The West has been incredibly entertaining from top to bottom every round. The top two seeds knocked off, the Lakers getting run out of town, vintage Chris Paul, Memphis forcing their way in, and a ridiculous Rose. We also saw the end of multiple dynasties. Phil Jackson is done. The Spurs, the Lakers, and the Celtics are all showing their years. Maybe they get back for one more year, but they're no longer the gatekeepers to the finals. We're going to be crashing up against the Heat for the next several years.

Anyway, I just saw the first Dallas v OKC game. Nowitzki put up 48 points on 15 shots. He didn't miss a single free throw and he took 24 of them, breaking the playoff record. And OKC was playing serious defense on him. It was one of the most epic performances I've ever seen, the rest of Dallas was playing well, and OKC still kept it close the entire game.

I hope not to miss any of the remaining games this year. This has been an almost World Cup sort of experience. We have a wide open field here. Let's see the Bulls make their mark.

It's getting easier to feel old

A while back I was talking to Jacob Hines and Sean Woitas, and we got around to some of the things that have drastically changed in our life times. I mean, I'm 24 and I already have some of those stories backlogged that the telling to any future kids would inevitably result in them staring at me in disbelief. And these events are from not that long ago. We talked about cell phones. The first cell phone I ever carried was my Mom's and it looked a lot like this:

It was the size of a brick and there was no way that thing was going in your pocket. You had to pull up the antenna to make a call. Do you see that "screen"? Look at it again. It doesn't even have room for an area code. Even to me that relic looks ridiculous. That was just 10 years ago. Nowadays my phone could probably make me pancakes.

You know what really got me down though? I am apparently out of touch with candy. Candy! We went to the corner store to pick up some movie candy and I was thrown off balance by the sheer volume of candy and flavors that I had never heard of before. Starburst sharesize, Sweet Fiesta, Skittles Blenders, Twix Coconut. I have never before in my life felt disoriented in a candy aisle.

This cannot stand! I will regain my candy fitness. Which will be difficult as I work on my actual fitness as well. Geez. Candy used to come naturally.

Excuse me, but I have some serious research to do.

Whaaaat?

Welcome to one of the best dinners of your life! Tammy cooked up Chicken in Cider and Bacon Sauce!? Are you joking, you may ask incredulously? No! Cider And bacon sauce. With parmesan potato wedges and green beans cooked in the chicken broth with more bacon. This was a seriously great weekend.

Sunny Portland

One more set of sunny pictures from this past weekend. These are from a bridge up on Vista, not too much of a hike. This is the first time we have ever gotten Mt. Hood on film (digital?) and I feel pretty good about it. Hope everyone out there had a great Easter weekend!

Some Hippos

These are some hippos we made. Our techniques are still pretty unsound, but we are improving, definitely an up and coming phenom you should be looking out for.

Let me hear you say Rooftop Access!

We are finally hitting some good weather these days. Today was a joyous 68* with more sun than you could shake a stick at, if you were into that kind of thing. So here we have the three major views from our rooftop patio, which is where you live the life.

This is looking due west up at Nob Hill. Fancypants places nobbing it up on their fancy hill.

Up next we have our view due north with the Freemont Bridge and Mt St. Helen's off in the distance. You can usually see it pretty clearly, but I still haven't figured out the right setting on my camera to really light it up. Nonetheless, it is magnificent.

Finally we are looking a little east, but mostly due south. If you look closely you can see where Benton Fraser first followed the trail of his father's killers. For various reasons, he stayed. You can also see a bit of the downtown skyline, which is probably a bit more interesting at night.

The one incredible downside, though, is that there is no grilling allowed. This is severe disappointment, but we must carry on.

This week we shall see some very silly cupcakes, a little bit more of downtown Portland, and finally some Mt Hood. Tammy found a pretty sweet little bridge with a great view of the city and for the first time in decades, a clear view of Mt Hood.

Enjoy your Easter everybody!

Welcome to the show Pokey

We are finally in business! In honor of the Gumby cartoon that was playing throughout the whole buying process, we have decided to name it Pokey after one of the greatest ponies of all time. This little dude is AWD (ready for Mount Hood and snowboard trips next winter), with a bike rack, and cd player. Yes, this means I am back in the business of mix cds.

The buying process wasn't too bad actually. A couple weeks of research and then three days of actual shopping around. The amount of information available online lets you get superprepared before going in, so we were feeling comfortable enough to buy early on. First day of shopping around I went out with Sam and Sean to a few dealerships: Subaru, Toyota, and Honda. There were several options available at Toyota and Honda. We were hoping for a small suv, but were pretty doubtful that something like that would be in our price range. But hooray hooray, not only did our top choice (crv) drop into our price range, but it had decent mileage and a 6 month power train warranty, which was an absolute rarity. So we ended up in the upper levels of our price range, but got the car we wanted in our price range and even managed to bargain down about $1200.

Things have been going well so far with more and more trips across the river, getting out to soccer games without having a 35 minute bike ride, and Tammy getting over to work everyday. Pokey is holding up. I'll have more pictures soon, and I'm sure Pokey will start making it into some vacation pictures as well. Seattle for the second weekend in May and Montana sometime this summer. Road trips are now on the table. That is glorious news.

Anyway, things are looking up. It looks like sun all week, I am up off my butt and running in the mornings, I'll start work sometime this month, and I found a bike/workshop volunteer dealie that will start in May. I am now a person that does things.

Portland's very own Godzilla

I nearly fell off my bike the first time I saw this guy looming over Stark St. And just as suddenly as he appeared, he is gone once more, returned from whence he came. He bides his time waiting for the day that Portland will need him.


I also want to point out that the top two floors of this building are residential. Someone woke up on a Saturday morning with an enormous crab right outside their window.

Life is Bananas

1. I have a job
2. I have my own company?
3. We quite nearly have a car
4. The Bulls are great, or should I say Los Bulls
5. We tried to buy some plants for the apartment and the lady at the garden store said no

Clearly, there are many bananas. I think all of these will be covered in more detail at a later date, but here we go.

1. Melody has set me up with some work with RDC3 doing some work with Razor's edge for OES and maybe Marylhurst. At the very least, it looks like I'll have work for the next 3 months. Wooo!

2. For tax purposes and some other reasons, I am setting myself up as an independent contractor for this. I think this means I own my own business. I'm not sure yet. This should start to solidify in the next week, and maybe start work this month.

3. We have put a deposit down and they have pulled the car off the sales floor. Either Monday or Tuesday we will be heading over to sign the final papers for a 2000 Honda CR-V. I had planned out a series of posts detailing the car process from the point of view of a first-timer. I may still write out a wrap-up post to go with some pictures, but no series on the lengthy process as this all took about 3 days.

4. The Bulls clinched the first seed in the east, are well ahead of the Lakers in the West, and might still catch the Spurs for best record in the league. I am endlessly jealous of Mom, Dad, Nate, and Dana for having a set of tickets for each series including the finals if they make it. So jealous.

5. We need plants for our apartment. We face north and north only. We were denied plants. Even though there are many low light and indoor plants a person may have, and we saw at least a couple at this store, we were denied plants. No plants for us. The end.

Pictures of the car up this week, clarification on job status soon, and there are some pictures I still need to get of Tammy's camera for a post. One of these photos is of the tremendously large crab that ravaged downtown Portland.

Cannon Beach

The McBeths are in town this week, which is super exciting. This is the first time we've seen Sean out here, and it is not often we get Sam as well. We made a quick trip out to the beach yesterday, to Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Astoria. A little chilly, but I always do like getting out to the beach. These shots are from Cannon Beach, which I suppose is pretty popular with the surfers, although there weren't any out there yesterday.

Astoria turned out to be pretty cool as well, but we didn't spend too much time there. I had to get back for a soccer game, so we didn't get around as much as I would have liked. Regardless, it was a hilly little town alongside the Columbia River right next to the ocean.

I'll have more stuff this week as we continue our McBeth adventures. I think I'm finally out of the woods with whatever kind of illness I had, so I can focus once more and get back to writing.

Ice Cream Cake

Another creation of Tammy's kitchen, although this one wasn't the unmitigated success that we have seen in the past. Mostly I think it came down to the fact that the ice cream cake just isn't quite worth it. It tasted pretty good, although not quite as good as some of the other cakes we've done, but it was several times over more work than other cakes. Also, decorating went poorly. We tried to do frosting with a ziplock bag. All in all it was a herculean effort, but not one that will be repeated. I think we'll focus more on baking, and if needed, just add the ice cream at the end. That's the moral of the story. You can always add ice cream at the end.

A few pictures ago

Back in business with a few pictures from Nate's visit. We still are far from adequate when it comes to taking pictures, but we're working on it. So I thought I'd show you the Waffle Window we found down an alley.

One of the classiest places we've found so far. We also have a few shots from our night over at the Silver Dollar Horses Horses Saloon, or something like that anyway. The three of us played pool and somehow we all lost.

All the concentration and serious faces in the world couldn't help us sink a shot, but at the very least we were evenly matched.

Nate Nate

We'll have a better post with pictures up next week, hopefully, but I wanted to throw something on here before we leave for Chicago tomorrow. Nate was in town Friday to Monday, which was fantastic. It was one of the walkingest weekends of my life, but really good times. Days were made of good food in large quantities, breakfast out every day, a blazers game, saturday market, arcade, billiards, donuts, videogames, and still more walking around. We made it through pretty much everywhere downtown, most of Hawthorne, and a little bit of Mississippi/Alberta. Weather held out well around 55 with infrequent rain.

This was kind of our first run through of hosting someone besides parents, which lent an interesting perspective. I think both of us are feeling pretty comfortable these days in getting around town under the scrutiny of a third party, finding good eats, and filling time with fun stuff. Nate seemed pretty approving of our new apartment and Portland in general. Food carts are a big winner in getting people on board, at least among our friends. You can get a ton of great and varied foods for super cheap.

Anyway, good times were had. We didn't do amazing, but we will have some pictures up later, which is a positive step. Anyone who wants to come out here, we now have space and are happy to show you around.