A Life For Itself

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  • Bootcamps

    I wonder if I should combine aspects of the exercise bootcamp with the writing bootcamp. Write a poem for 30 seconds, write prose for 30 seconds, write a scene for 30 seconds, take a 2 minute break, repeat for 30-45 minutes. Maybe not 30-second intervals, maybe 15-20 minute intervals. Keep the 2 minute break. Drink copious amounts of water during the break. Stretch and keep loose. Hopefully walk away from the experience without the same sort of pain I had in my quads after the first HIIT session.

    Last Monday, I started the exercise bootcamp. After putting it off for a couple of weeks, I finally went. I’ve been losing a decent amount of weight through diet alone, but the exercise is the missing piece in the plans my doctor and I have been discussing.

    So I show up in sweats and a couple of shirts I’d eventually sweat through, ready to jump back into exercising after a long, very long layoff. (I paid the first month’s membership fee and a joiner fee just before the bootcamp and I was not about to back out after that). And after just a few minutes, my whole body felt the layoff. Stiffness, soreness, exhaustion.

    And after the 45 minutes of kicks, squats, planks, step ups/step downs and other maneuvers, all meant to kick and shrink your ass, mine was indeed thoroughly kicked. Towards the end of it, I kept reminding myself to just finish, it would get easier, and it was all a part of a larger plan. That didn’t stop me from questioning, as I left, whether I’d just rather keep the damn weight so that I wouldn’t again feel like I was going to die, but it did also convince me as the pain subsided, that I was definitely going back the next Monday. That it wouldn’t be as bad. And certainly not as bad as checking out too young.

    All in all, I’d still rather be dancing, because at least then, I was learning something I might be able to create some art out of. Or perhaps not.

    But it is still always about the art and the art is getting better after 3 weeks of the writing bootcamp. The soreness of struggling through 300 words a day has subsided. I’m rocking through those words and writing others, even as I’m doing it after I come home from my day job. That was always an issue before. Not as much now. I just hope to keep up this momentum once it all ends in a couple of weeks (I should have signed up for the 10 week one).

    Monday, my barber’s wife was at the gym and asked me if I was bothered by being the only guy in the exercise room besides the instructor. Nope. I was just there to work and hopefully do something that might help save my life. The desire to go on was more powerful than too much worry about looking stupid, which I figured was going to happen anyway. Besides, being in there with so many all working hard, working through the pain and the exhaustion, was inspiring. Those women fought for it. Wasn’t no BS in there. No showing off.

    It’s the same with the writing bootcamp. I’m the only guy in that class, too. And the women in there are churning out some badass pages of essay and memoir. All the good stuff. Classically styled work. Experimental forms. Fun reads. Reads that hurt. Reads that make you question how you look at things you thought you had a good bead on. It’s a blast. And the writing is coming on a daily basis. I don’t know how much the folks in there are sweating, but they’re fighting for it just like the exercise room.

    Sunday has certainly been a day of rest (then again, so was yesterday), but tomorrow, it’s back to the grind, both at the gym and the keyboard. Doing both to live, to keep on going. And getting just enough inspiration to help me decide to keep hitting the finish line.

  • Opening Day Came and Went

    I wanted to talk about Jake Arrieta and the Cubs. It was late for me, but still early for my father. Especially since he had retired and no longer left home in the dead of night to beat the L.A. traffic to work.

    I wanted to talk about the buzzer beater that had just happened, what he thought of his Angels’ chances this season. If he thought the O’s had enough pitching to make it to the postseason, if he thought the Mets could get back to the Series this year.

    We probably wouldn’t have agreed on any of it. We didn’t agree on much sportswise. The only thing I can remember us finding total common ground on recently was whether Andrew Luck would become a top-five QB in the NFL. And even then, his thoughts were twinged with some excitement as Luck was on his team. I didn’t care much for that. Despite the independence he’d instilled in me, part of me always wanted to be able to say that I rooted for the same teams as my father; that we he had shared that, even if he hadn’t passed it down to me.

    I was ready to call. The impulse doesn’t immediately leave. Even when it’s almost been a year since he’s passed on. Sometimes, I need to call my father.

    #

    I did call on my birthday. Out of habit. Muscle memory, perhaps. The phone still rang. Nobody answered it, obviously. At some later point, I texted him. Just needed to say I missed him.

    I wasn’t there when he died. Nor was I there when my sister buried him. We had a small, memorial get-together back in Baltimore. But with no ceremony, no artifact, not even the closing of a casket, the finality didn’t feel as final.

    #

    I shared baseball with my mother. I lived with my mother, so she shuttled me to practices and games. Ran me up and down the highway looking for the right black and orange cleats or 32” Easton aluminum bat. She learned how to keep a baseball scorecard. Until she couldn’t do any of those things anymore.

    Back in California, my father got game recaps. Mailed copies of the player pictures they made like little baseball cards.

    We never even talked much baseball until I reconnected with him.

    #

    He bought me a whiffle ball set for my 5th or 6th birthday, the summer I spent out there with him, his fiancee, and my sisters. It came with a little, blue hat. I told him I wasn’t going to become a Dodgers fan. I loved the Orioles and besides, my mother would be mad. He said he didn’t want me to. He wouldn’t explain to me until later years how loathsome he found the Dodgers. After the 1988 World Series, we agreed on that.

    That summer, whenever we played any games, we’d take on the persona of a player we admired. He had a badminton set in his tiny back yard, but we didn’t know any famous people who played badminton, so we substituted tennis players. He called out that he was Jimmy Connors. I was John McEnroe (not a bad choice considering how pissed I got when I was losing). My younger sister, Kellee, was too young to know anybody, so I tried to assign her Martina Navratilova. My father said she should be Billie Jean King.

    When we played with the whiffle ball set, I was Eddie Murray. Eddie was Mr. Oriole to me. My dad was Reggie Jackson, who had left the East Coast for California around the time my father did.

    We hit balls towards the house. I wanted to hit one over the roof and into the pool in the back yard. Perhaps I dreamed I had a little Frank Robinson in me, too.

    That was the only time my father got to see me play.

    #

    Since we reconnected, calling on these nights became a habit: opening day for the O’s. Sometime on the first Sunday of NFL football. Sometime during each O’s/Angels series. The day of Ray Lewis’ last home game was fun (mostly since the Ravens had put a hurting on Indianapolis in Baltimore, always a welcome occasion). He still wouldn’t let me recruit him to Baltimore’s new team from the team carrying the name of its old one.

    #

    I wanted to say “I told you so” about the Rams moving back to L.A. He swore no team would ever return there. Everybody there was a fan of some other team, he’d insist for years, whenever we’d talk about it. I told him that wouldn’t matter, the NFL would stick a team there. Probably the Rams or the Raiders.

    I would have called and lorded my moment over him and we would have had a good laugh. I would have asked him how his golf was going and if he was finally ready to buy himself the new computer he’d been talking about. He would have asked me how my aunt was and if I’d been eating right. We would have talked at the next big moment.

    When I was younger, I used to be sad about how much we’d missed, the things we hadn’t shared. Now it’s the big moments. I know they’ll come. The Mets may win the Series this year. The O’s aren’t too bad, either.

  • Back From Outer Space

    I guess after not posting for a month, posting today would seem like a late April Fool’s joke. No such intent. No, I just took an unscheduled break from blogging and some of my other writing.

    Call it writer’s block or not, depending on whether you believe in it or you don’t, sometimes a writer can go through a rough or fallow patch and output dwindles. For one reason or another.

    Fortunately, my online class started this past Monday and I’ve been writing like mad since last week. One big thing I’ve learned about myself is I write well under deadline. I’ve also regained more of the sense of fun I used to have writing. I even managed to scrawl a couple of fresh, first draft poems.

    I’ve also journalled more this past week than usual. I had been confining my journalling to first thing in the morning. Now, I’m writing in my journal in the evenings and at work when I’m taking a lunch break. Which is good because my writing is a small slice of nirvana in the work-a-day cycle I’m in.

    —

    Five (other) things since I’ve last posted:

    1.

    It’s baseball season again. Thank God. O’s won this evening on a walk-off single by Matt Wieters. If he keeps it up, he may get that $30M contract for the Yankees this fall after all.

    Opening night with the Mets wasn’t as good. In fact, it was like the World Series never ended. It had all the elements:

    1. A Mets fielding error that leads to a run(s)
    2. Harvey struggling immediately after the error
    3. Met inability to hit Royals pitching
    4. Mets coming back to within one run late
    5. Royals winning in the end

    Thor will be back on the mound tomorrow, so hopefully there will be a better outcome. And if not, it’s all good. The Mets will open their 2016 home campaign vs. the Phillies this weekend.

    2.

    Read a really good article just today about Oriole Park at Camden Yards, with pictures of some of the early renditions of the ballpark. They were tossing around the idea for a multipurpose stadium at Port Covington as well other ideas. One of those is from the 70s. Wonder how things would have gone had they built that multipurpose stadium.

    I am happy with the stadium(s) we ended up getting; unfortunately, the processes to get them done were painful for a lot of sports fans.

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-camden-yards-0404-20160404-story.html

    3.

    I’ve been watching college basketball, still. Not as much since the Maryland women got upset by Washington and the men ran into the Jayhawks, though.

    I am getting sick of these Kansas/Kansas City teams beating my favorite teams. Royals will host the O’s in a few weeks. Hoping for the right outcome, the outcome of the birds winning.

    4.

    Looks like the mayoral race back home has become a two-person race between Sheila Dixon and Catherine Pugh. I expected Dixon to have a larger lead this close to the primary with Pugh still in 2nd. It may come down to the wire. Deray is around but in the pack with the others. He undoubtedly has access to a lot of money, but Ms. Dixon, for certain, started off with more people.

    The general election should be far less interesting. Part of me hopes that one or two of the people in the Democratic primary decide to make a go as an independent in the general election.

    5.

    I’ve been accepted to a writers’ conference later this summer. Still have applications out for two more.

  • Five Things – 11 February 2016

    1

    My Chromebook is back to life.

    I ordered a new screen, but the one I received didn’t work. So, I had to order another one and send back the original. The second one worked, fortunately. Since I’d already taken apart the machine by the time it got here, all I had to do was connect the new screen, screw it in place, put the bezel back on the machine. Back in business.

    Easy for me to say, some of my coworkers might think if they’re reading this. But here’s more or less what I did:

    Just follow the video and you’re cool. You don’t have to have been working in IT forever to do this. And it doesn’t take long.

    And it’s definitely worth it. I use my Chromebook most often to write –I’m writing this on it– because of the really nice keyboard. I’m still getting often between 6-7 hours of usage from it when I’m not watching video (I will watch video on it while it’s charging because I’m obviously not killing the battery).

    2.

    Reading and very much enjoying Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy. So far, I’ve learned I’m too serious in my writing. I need to have more fun, write longer about more fun topics. It’s not life and death. It’s just life.

    3.

    Supposed to be really cold over the next few days.

    4.

    Last night, the talking heads on MLB Network were discussing the exit velocity of balls batted by various players around the league. Looks like MLB Network is full-on sabermetrics. Which is cool and I’ll be playing the home game this spring and summer, but I need to remember to turn it off sometimes and just enjoy the games.

    Watching a full baseball game is still a great pleasure. Always has been. Never changed. But I can’t talk baseball with just anybody anymore. I’ve met a few folks who only want to dig so deeply into the stats and their arguments that I wonder if they actually enjoy baseball or really enjoy statistics or argumentation and their chosen outlet for those is baseball.

    It’s cool if that’s their thing. I just don’t share their passion. As much as we can look into every stat to discern what we think might have happened or what might happen (and it is often fun, just not all the time), I enjoy the poetry and drama and spectacle of baseball as much. People who understand and appreciate those, as well as the numbers, are the people I want share baseball with now and in the future. Otherwise, the joy of baseball quickly leaves.

    5.

    I’m working on a short piece about Earth, Wind, and Fire, and how their music has been part of my life. Obviously related to the recent passing of Maurice White, the band’s co-founder.

  • Five Things – 4 February 2016

    1.

    And calamity befalls my poor Chromebook again. I opened up my little workhorse machine to do this exact entry and again, the screen was cracked. And again, I have no clue how it happened. So, just as I did just before Christmas, I ordered a replacement, which will be here in a few days, and I’ll fix the thing. Fortunately, it’s very easy. There are a couple of videos that show how to repair the thing. Easy.

    In the meantime, the things that I want to write are delayed a day or so, now. I’m just glad I had other options available at the ready.

    2.

    There was a time when I wouldn’t even have a thought of replacing a laptop screen. I broke my older HP’s screen circa 2009. I left it laying next to me when I went to sleep and rolled on top of it. I had to send it back to get them to put a new screen on.  

    When I got it back, the machine back, the screen was still acting up. I had to send it back a second time. That time, they replaced the motherboard and the screen. Never have had another problem with it, but all that back and forth was frustrating.

    I even went and got a new set of computer tools for the job.

    3.

    They’re calling for snow for next week. Done with it.

    4.

    Yay, it’s Black History Month. Back in the day, this was the very time of year that we’d learn about Dr. King and if we were lucky, Malcolm X. Not that we got lucky often. But we’d learn about some other fine folks in between, so it wasn’t all bad.

    We had Great Blacks in Wax back then, but not the Reginald Lewis Museum. That would come much later. This generation’s school kids will have the National African American History Museum by the end of the year, which is great.

    However, I have a proposal.

    Let’s not study any Black history. Let’s not let another February go by with kids and young people learning that racism and inequality are things of the past when they’re still present these days.

    Okay, maybe that’s too much. Sure, spend a lesson on the I Have A Dream speech, but In addition, have conversations around situations like Ferguson and the Laquan McDonald and Freddie Gray killings. Have a conversation about the two Baltimores (and no, neither of them is one from the Wire. I’m talking about the real thing). I’m not the only one that refers to the “Real” Baltimore as being the one outside of the Inner Harbor.

    Progress has been made, for sure. But there is still a way to go. Have a conversation about where we go from here because looking back into the past and thinking the conditions that people like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin and Audre Lorde and Angela Davis lived through and fought have not entirely abated.

    5.

    Super Sunday is in a few days. It’s cool. I’m looking forward to baseball season.

  • Vote Deray?

    Perhaps the biggest news story coming out of Baltimore in the last 24 hours is the last-minute entry of human rights activist Deray Mckesson into the race for Mayor of Baltimore. Deray joins an already crowded race of nearly 30 candidates (it’s a high number, but most of them never had any shot anyway) seeking to succeed Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is not running for re-election. The Baltimore Sun quickly reported his filing and reaction came in just as quickly.

    The tone of response online was generally positive, especially from people outside of Baltimore. Among locals, sentiments ranged from surprise and increased interest in what’s now a much more fascinating campaign, to some less positive feelings, particularly as I understand it, among those who have been active locally as Deray has been active more on the national stage.

    Also, quite a few folks were questioning whether Deray actually had fulfilled the residency requirement for running. The news generally shows him working and demonstrating in one place or another at any given time. The Baltimore Sun reported today, though, that he’s been living in North Baltimore for the last several months.

    Regardless of any criticism, the race now will find itself under a larger national lens with Deray’s entry.

    ***

    Hit The Ground Running

    Anybody living in or from Baltimore knows that with so many voters registered Democrat in the City, that party’s primary usually determines the winner of the November general election. Deray is running as a Democrat, which puts him against the other dozen or so hopefuls, including former Mayor Sheila Dixon. That election is April 26, 81 days from now.

    Eighty one days to overcome Sheila Dixon’s comfortable lead in the polls.

    To put it in perspective, local businessman David Warnock is trailing badly, even as he’s loaned his campaign close to a million dollars. Whatever money Deray may be able to bring in to compliment his sizable online following, his chances will rest on convincing the probable 21% of current undecideds as well as a probably unknown number of unregistered voters to sign up, the latter before the April 5 deadline. As it stands right now, Ms. Dixon is leading in the key demo of older black women voters, people who are probably much more familiar with her than Mr. Mckesson, regardless of his larger national following.

    ***

    Who’s on the Team?

    Another interesting issue I saw being discussed is who’s on his team. The Sun and Guardian have both reported that fellow activist Johnetta Elzie (a powerhouse herself) is moving to Baltimore to work on his campaign. I can’t help but think the local activists I hear already weren’t happy, weren’t thrilled with another high profile activist —one who is definitely not from Baltimore— coming into their turf.

    Don’t count out our provincial attitudes. Deray, who even mentioned growing up listening to Miss Tony on 92Q in his statement, has been a powerhouse nationally. But I’m sure he’ll still be painted as a carpetbagger, especially by people who have been working on issues locally, if his campaign starts with much more out-of-town support than local support.

    For the record, I grew up listening to V-103 and then 92Q. Frank Ski.

    ***


    Where is the Downtown money going?

    People who know Baltimore solely from watching on TV or reading poverty porn might not get that Baltimore isn’t entirely poor. The segregated parts of Baltimore certainly are, but that doesn’t go for the City as a whole. The City is base to quite a few rich people. Outside folks have probably watched Peter Angelos’ Baltimore Orioles or worn clothing made by Kevin Plank’s Under Armour. But it’s the people most outsiders have never heard of who have the deep pockets that make things move in the Harbor City.

    Or in other words: real estate developers exert a lot of influence in Baltimore.

    Last election cycle, a bunch of those sweet developer campaign dollars went to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

    Regardless of how much he brings to the table (and so far, it’s a bunch), Deray’s running where there’s a huge machine in place. He’s not going to get far without fealty to, detente with, or a fight from Downtown developers (then again, neither would any of the other candidates). If they feel they’ll lose money or power from his being elected, expect a mess, regardless of how the elections turn out.

    ***

    It’s going to be an interesting 81 days until the primary.

    Can the local guy who made good outside really come back and be given a chance to lead? Or will his candidacy ultimately be about raising issues and pushing the next person in the job to make the changes the real Baltimore (outside of the Harbor) needs?

    Has Baltimore really forgiven the former Mayor?

    Will we see the real emergence of a new political family dynasty?

    Will this family’s legacy of public service continue at 100 North Holliday?

    Where will Downtown’s elite continue to throw their support?

  • Five Things – 28 January 2016

    1.

    Well, there’s this.

    If this is how things are going to be, I want to at least play Father Flynn in Doubt.

    Thankfully, there’s this:

    2.

    I was ready for baseball season before the Mets re-signed Yoenis Cespedes.

    My hope is that the Mets are this year’s Royals. Year before last, the Royals lost a grueling series vs the Giants and Madison Bumgartner. Last year, with a year of postseason experience behind them, they came back to the postseason and finished. They really have to win it all before it’s time for all the young pitchers to get huge contracts. They will get them, but they won’t all be getting them from the Mets.

    3.

    On this date in 2001, the Baltimore Ravens won their first Super Bowl. I actually watched the game in Giants territory, so the celebration was muted until I got on the train back to Baltimore. I was ready to begin celebrating at halftime and after the Jermaine Lewis TD return.

    That game, that season, especially with the accomplishments of the defense, are what began the mystique of the Ravens in Baltimore. It helped begin to put into the past another product of the NFL’s often cutthroat and shameful relocation process — it began to heal the anger from the 1984 event that would eventually lead to Baltimore being represented by the Ravens. These days, talk to younger fans and much of the passionate anger is directed towards teams like the Steelers and the Patriots. These are feelings borne of events that have taken place on the field, not because of shady back room dealings, which is how it should be.

    Those of us older fans, who knows? I still talk to people about the original Gino’s and the old Golden Arm Restaurant on York Road. When I sing the fight song at Ravens games, I sing it with both the original Colts and updated Ravens lyrics. Plus, I’m planning on buying this one of these days.

    4.

    On this date in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke up over Cape Canaveral. We watched at school like many other school children in the country. Even at that age, I could feel hope and excitement people all over felt because of STS-51. And in the aftermath, the pain and confusion and in some ways, the uncertainty.

    It’s one of those events like the 9/11 and the 2008 Presidential Election Night that sticks with me and probably in the minds of many who experienced them.

    5.

    Found this the other day. Had to share.

  • Innocence

    A writer can’t be too negative. You have to have a little bit of innocence to be a good writer. Whatever you have to do to preserve that innocence-the “is that so?” element—you should do it. You can’t be someone who knows everything-“been there, done that.” If you know every­ thing you shouldn’t be a writer. You should be God.

    – James McBride.

    http://electricliterature.com/james-mcbride-explains-why-he-writes-memoir/

    #

    My day job is in IT. When I’m there, I have to have the opposite mindset. The job is generally about fixing. Like a plumber has to know how all the pipes work and how the toilet works and how his tools work, I have to know how the servers work and how the thin clients work and any number of other systems that people in the organization I work for may use during the course of a day. Or I have to know how to find out how things work. My coworkers come to my desk or call me needing help and I have to know how to.

    It’s an ironic position to be in, in a world where most information is a few clicks or taps away. But still, it’s not a place for the sort of exploration I do in my non-work hours.

    That’s been my writing life — being often in two mindsets.

    I love exploring, discovering. As much as I’ve often enjoyed knowing, being right or accurate about things, arguing points, etc., discovering and learning are much more satisfying. It’s why I love the classic essay so much — meandering, running, ambling, getting to understanding (the lyric essay even more). Not just having the quick-witted comeback for the moment.

    That latter sense manifests itself in my writing as a desire to write exactly what I think people would want to read. In being frustrated when I don’t know exactly what I want to say, or perhaps, what I should say. But when I ask myself what I truly think about a thing or an event or what does a thing or an event remind me of and still give myself the space to say at first that I don’t know and go from there (and be okay with not immediately finding a destination), things usually flow better.

    When I get home from work, the issue is turning off the mind that has to know in favor of the mind that wants to find out. Sometimes … perhaps often, it’s a struggle, but I’m learning and keeping my hands moving as much as I can.

  • Five Things – 24 January 2016

    Five Things – 24 January 2016

    Didn’t do a Five Things the past couple of weeks. Lots of reasons I could use as excuses, but in the end, I didn’t make the decision to sit down and do them. But we need to move on, so a special weekend Five Things.

    1.

    I hate snow. I could never overstate how much I hate snow and this weekend, we have #Blizzard2016 all over the east coast. Back home, the word is snow plows might not get to most places until sometime Monday. In some places in my neck of the woods, we might be lucky to see a plow at all. One of those winters, there simply was no plowing done by local government. None. I was anticipating having a 3 day weekend, but since I won’t, I won’t be going outside and frolicking like this guy:

    That is, however, how I plan to act when I get into a pool this summer and if the Ravens win the Super Bowl a year from now. Perhaps even if it does snow.

    2.

    I was listening to Mike Francesa on Friday afternoon and he remarked that the news stations love snow. Snow gets viewers and listeners tuned in. People hear snow and they panic and they get glued to information.

    As usual, I fell victim to the hype and watched a bunch of snow coverage — lots of local news, CNN, and AccuWeather, since FiOS doesn’t have the Weather Channel anymore. I miss Weather Channel. AccuWeather isn’t as good. They’re just a continuous loop of the same exact information, with a different meteorologist reading it, over and over again. At least Weather Channel breaks things up with people stationed locally to show how things are on the ground.

    I was wondering what was missing with this storm and it was Jim Cantore. I didn’t get to see where the world was ending from, as I wasn’t able to see where Jim Cantore was. CNN was down at the Jersey Shore and they got some shots of local flooding there, to satisfy the storm porn fix. Fortunately, they only had some beach erosion there and no loss of life.

    This video from Ocean City, NJ was worth a 5 on the Winter Storm Porn-O-Meter.

    I can’t find the video from the police car. In that one, the water sloshing up onto the windshield gives it an 8.

    3.

    No thundersnow. Forecasters had said to expect some, but I either missed it or it never materialized. That was the only part of the storm I was looking forward to. I talk about my love of thundersnow in a post from last year.

    4.

    Often on sale on Groupon is the Nexus 7 (2013) Wi-Fi. I have the 2012 version of the slate, which will no longer be receiving any more OS upgrades, just security updates. The 2013 version has better hardware, is already on Marshmallow and with it priced low, it’s seemed like a good buy.

    However, I haven’t pulled the trigger.

    Just before #Blizzard2016, I was pretty much set to order one; then I decided I wanted the 4G/LTE variant. I figured if the power went off, it was good to have another device that didn’t require Wi-Fi to get online. Hurricane Sandy drives that decision-making. During Sandy, I had no Wi-Fi and I had to use the relatively weak signal from my phone to stay connected. I’d rather hedge my bets and be able to use either.

    The LTE version is around $50-$100 more than the Wi-Fi only version, on par with newer, albeit, less impressive tablets in cost. Still, the 2013 Nexus holds its own in terms of hardware, except against higher priced Samsung tablets, too. But are those Samsung devices running the latest version of Android?

    Regardless of how enticing the price and value are, 2013 is 3 years ago and I keep reading that Marshmallow is the end of the line for updates for this slate. Unlike the 2012, which I’m still using, the 2013 would likely be a shorter relationship, maybe even just a year. Rumors say Google will be releasing a refreshed Nexus 7 this year.

    I wish the NVidia Shield K1 had LTE.

    5.

    Unexpected things on championship Sunday. I thought the Cardinals/Panthers game would be much closer. Thought the Patriots would beat the Broncos pretty easily.

    But Cam and the Panthers offense had their way with the Cardinals defense. DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller played most of the game in the Pats backfield. Reminded me of Super Bowl 42, how much they stayed in Brady’s face.

    I do fall into the “anybody but the Patriots” camp, with some caveats (Steelers and Indy didn’t make me have to think about it), so I’m happy no matter who wins the game. But I am pulling for Cam and the Panthers. Cam has gotten a lot of undue criticism for his style of play, his celebrations, and any other bullshit some people have seen fit to say. And we know why this nonsense has come his way. So I’m happy to see him shut up his detractors in the biggest game of the year.

    Also, for what it’s worth, as a Ravens fan, I do owe a debt of gratitude to Panthers owner Jerry Richardson. As part of the 20th Anniversary of the Ravens, WBAL Radio interviewed former Maryland Stadium Authority head John Moag, who discusses the role Jerry Richardson played in Baltimore landing another NFL team.

    According to Moag, Richardson mentored him, got him into the room, and helped guide him through the process, with the end result being the Baltimore Ravens.

    Also, once upon a time, Jerry Richardson played for the Baltimore Colts and when you’ve played for the Baltimore Colts, you’re always remembered in Baltimore. He didn’t have a long Colts career, but that tends not to matter. He played in Baltimore and that’s often enough for us to love you. That he would later help us get a new team, means he’ll always have some appreciation in the Land of Pleasant Living (at least among those of us in the know what role he played for us).

    Even if he’s more known for owning the Panthers. And for dabbing in the locker room.

  • Five Things – 7 January 2016

    No, I did not do any of these posts in December. At first, I was just taking a break after November. November was a crazy month. I did a lot of writing. I’m proud of myself for working so much, but I did need a breather. But then …

    1.
    I was hospitalized for a staph infection. The doctors did throw some terrifying scenarios at me as soon as I got there, but I did indeed survive and without having to be cut open. I’m very grateful. The last thing I wanted was to be put under and cut up, no matter how many painkillers would have been available had they decided to perform surgery.

    Being somewhere without access to pen and paper or a laptop or any computer with a keyboard for a few days really sucked. I was happy to get out of there and get back to work. I was close to asking a friend to sneak in a bootable Linux flash drive so I could use one of the hospital computers. It was touch and go. I was getting pretty desperate for a text editor. If I’m concerned I might be hospitalized again, I’m carrying a bag with writing materials and my Chromebook that day.

    Still, it wasn’t a wholly bad experience. I got over my fear of needles. They took blood so often and gave me so much antibiotic that I began to become used to it. No brownie points for this, though, as I hope to never go through this again.

    Oh and they had some excellent tomato soup. I hated tomato soup when I went in, but now, I love the stuff. I’m a changed man.

    2.

    After telling myself for probably the last 8 or so years that I’d finally begin to regularly watch basketball, I finally am. I’m catching most of the Maryland Terrapin womens’ games and when I can’t, I’m following online. I still don’t know entirely what terms like “off the dribble” mean or entirely what a point guard does, but I’m learning. It’s a process. I won’t become John Edgar Wideman or anything, but it’s pretty fun. Winning helps, too. I say this with no shame.

    3.

    I’m happy to see Mike Piazza finally make the Hall of Fame. Looking back, he had some impressive accomplishments, especially in light of so many of his contemporaries being linked to steroids. I’m hoping I can go up to Cooperstown for the induction. As a long-term Mets fan, the only thing that could have made this sweeter would be the Mets having won the Series last year.

    4.

    I’m not even mad about the Ravens 5-11 record. And not just because they beat the Steelers twice and nearly ruined their playoff chances. Injuries obliterated this season. But Joe is already doing his best to get back next year, Suggs wants back and Steve Smith isn’t retiring now after all. The Ravens will be fine. I’m just kicking back and watching the playoffs and getting ready for baseball, now.

    5.

    Governor Larry Hogan is pledging a few hundred million bucks to tear down vacant houses in Baltimore and replace them with new development. This is a huge thing. I just hope it doesn’t end up only gentrifying these neighborhoods and meaning that the people who live there and most need the help now won’t get it. If this is followed up in the next year or so with a commitment to a real Red Line alternative other than buses, it probably will end up helping those who need the help now in these neighborhoods.