Blogs
When I have spare time, I'll write in my blogs. Here's a list of them, along with the latest posts from each.
The Boys in Bergen
September 9, 2016
After a quick train through the last bit of fjordland, we were in Bergen. As the second largest city in Norway, it’s a pretty good size, and there’s a good energy here. The tourists are almost exclusively Japanese, English, and German.
The Fjordlands of Norway
September 8, 2016
Our early morning train took us west from Oslo. The first part of the trip was nothing special, with suburbs giving way to the occasional lake. But eventually, the mountains turned into giant boulder piles stained green by lichen, forests got denser, views became more majestic. We’d spend a few…
Oslo: The A-Team Reunited
September 6, 2016
Emerging from Oslo Central Station, the streets were filled with people who were smiling, laughing, going places. Street performers played music and danced on flattened cardboard boxes. Norwegian flags hung from buildings. Homeless people sitting on either side of the pedestrian streets. There is an energy here that Stockholm didn’t…
Tenet
February 23, 2021
Classic Nolan fare, with a clever, mind-bending, intense story, polished lighting, photography, and editing, seamless and impossible effects, and a heavy, droning score. I think I’m with most people when I say that the story was hard to follow. There are so many things happening to so many people in…
Wonder Woman 1984
February 19, 2021
Jenkins and Gadot did an admirable job with the first one, but they both lost a lot of cred here. The story is an absolute mess, to the point that it’s hard to care about any of the characters. Pascal does his best, but his character… grants wishes? That what…
The Lighthouse
January 22, 2021
Beautiful, but very weird. What you’d expect from an art film. As a period piece, it’s exceptional. Sets, costumes, the beautiful photography, pacing, and performances all seem truly authentic. Really great historical flavor. The magical combination of suspense, madness, and creepy birds is reminiscent of Hitchcock. The simple framing, moments…
Game 7 of the 2019 World Series: A Live Blog
October 31, 2019
We’re here. Game 7 of the World Series. The Washington Nationals have defied all odds to get here. They weren’t even supposed to make it to the playoffs, let alone the World Series. Along the way, they trailed in and eventually won all 4 playoff elimination games they’ve been in,…
Odds of Winning the Division
August 16, 2019
We’re now in the home stretch of the my baseball simulation league season, and I thought it might be fun to try to run some numbers to see what the odds are for each team to win their division.
Bunting into the Shift
March 26, 2019
With more frequent and more extreme shifts appearing every season, I see lefty batters pull the ball right into someone’s glove while the 3B bag sits there, sad and alone. I keep asking myself… Why don’t players bunt into the shift? It seems to me that if players could effectively…
1991 Topps #15 – Von Hayes
September 16, 2013
The Card The 1991 Topps set was an attempt to be a little bit more minimalist and refined with its design, which was the trend in the early 90’s. An anniversary emblem adorned the front and back of every card, but other than that, it was just another very mediocre…
1990 Leaf #180 – Albert Belle
September 5, 2013
The Card Donruss used the Leaf brand from 1985 to 1988 for cards distributed in Canada. Despite their relative rarity and the fact they were almost visually identical, Leaf cards were even less desirable (if that’s even possible) than the standard Donruss offering. In 1990, Leaf was rebranded as an…
1990 Topps #162 – Todd Zeile
September 4, 2013
The Card The 1990 Topps set was a hideous abortion of secondary colors, halftone gradients, and squares. Topps tried real hard to cram the trendiest design elements into a single layout and succeeded in making one of the ugliest sets of the decade. It didn’t help that most of the…