I thought the Indians were not in the Postseason

So I have been watching some October baseball and did not know that the Cleveland Indians - my favorite team - was in the postseason... well, not really, but one could get confused. If you can remember, the Indians were 1 win away from the World Series in 2007, with a stacked lineup and 2 Cy Young Award candidates (CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona.... Sabathia ended up winning and another Indian, Cliff Lee would go on to win it the year after). Well, they lost and over the last two seasons ended up selling players like it was 3pm in the afternoon on a Saturday garage sale... (aka you just try to sell things for a dollar, so you don't have to find somewhere to place the junk)

So what's my point? Well every game that I watch this October, there are some Indians from that team making key plays. They are:

CC Sabathia (Yankee)--- finally had a quality win in the postseason because boy did he lay some eggs in 07.

Cliff Lee (Philly)--- dominated the Rockies twice

Ben Francisco (Philly)--- just made an awesome diving catch tonight

Rafael Betancourt (Rockies)--- came in the game in pressure situations twice and shut the Phillies down.

Casey Blake (Dodgers)--- didn't see many of their games, but seemed to be up in key situtaions

Victor Martinez (BoSox)--- guessing he didn't have much of an impact since they got swept.

Anyways, this is my way of moping, since my team now sucks, and all of our good players are doing well elsewhere.

Happy Meal!

So I have this theory that anytime you are shocked (or full of some emotion) in response to someone else's actions.... you just say, "Jeez, its not a happy meal!"

I know this is confusing, when you read it like this... but listen through a few examples because I haven't found an instance where I truly couldn't use it. Yet at the same time, no one understands my 'theory' so I'm either crazy or extraordinary. Here are some examples, which I'm making up on the spot.

EX 1: Someone is washing the window with the squeegee thing at the gas station and does it all hurriedly, leaving smudges... I roll down the window and say " Jeez, its not a happy meal!", meaning that you can't just rush the window cleaning and expect a good job like you could in the devouring of a happy meal.

EX 2: Someone wins a free coke from one of those under the bottle cap promotions and exudes exhilaration beyond a normal point of excitement. Once they calm down, I say "Jeez, its not a happy meal!" meaning that I have never seen excitement as such since I saw a kid jump fo rjoy over the toy inside the happy meal.

EX 3: A couple is walking down the street when someone cuts right in between them (rudely) and continues on without saying 'sorry' or anything like that. A person either yells out to the 'cutter' or says to the other "Jeez, its not a happy meal!" meaning that its not like you are bullying through a crowded line at McDonalds to get my happy meal. A simple 'pardon me' or walk around would suffice.

(All of these were hypothetical... I'm sorry that I use a McDonald's reference in this theory.)

My Rileyisms have been doubted before, but one's such as 'delicious' and 'old man winter' among many latched on, until they were being used daily... while I don't expect the same for this one, I had to defend it with some case examples :)

Kickball

So I recently played co-ed kickball with Heather (and her work peeps)..... had 4 hits out of like 7 at bats (its harder than you think when there is 10 people fielding) and made some ridiculous running plays. I dodged 2 throws within 4 seconds, impressing many spectators... but I digress. There are 2 points I need to make about this game.

First, the correct play in Kickball is to just bunt, aka kick the ball like 3 feet down the line. Everybody (even slow people) who did this got to first base, because no one is allowed in this space... so the catcher, pitcher, and 3B have to chase it down and make a barehanded across the field throw to the 1B with a ball that you can't grip, nor throw accurately more than 15-20 feet. Thus, if I can successfully bunt it without popping it up (which I was 1 of 2 in my attempts), I can score from 1st on the next play because its hard to field and throw the ball... and if needed, I only have to dodge 1 ball.

Second, the game is really easy for anyone to pick up... making it funny to watch people who think they are athletic, when in reality they probably are not. Why is this funny to me? Because a few people were so into the game that trash talking came about... some trash talking and some tempers in kickball... YES! That's what I'm talking about.

The ease of playing this game (for everyone, not me) is making me think of other universal games/sports that anyone can play.... but the only one I can think of is frisbee... and maybe soccer. But Kickball, I think, is the easiest to pick up and play well right away.

Still, I had a lot of fun and am doing it again this Tuesday!

PS Heather played really well too... she had more catches than me and got on base 3 times.... impressive.

Running Wild

This morning I was doing my daily perusal of ESPN and found a headline titled, 'Utah Golfer nets $1M with hole-in-one'. Naturally, I had to look because its the home state, but what is most awesome about this video is his reaction after the shot. This would most likely be the exact same reaction that I would have, either as the golfer or as his buddy. It made me laugh!

Click link above for video... if that doesn't work, cut and paste http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4484181

My Take on Kanye and Michael

So there has been a lot of episodes lately concerning 'celebrities' and their civility in the eye of the public. Serena yelled profanities at a ballgirl, Congressman Joe Wilson called Obama's comment a 'lie' (what an idiot), Kanye rudely prances on stage and ruins Swift's moment, and Michael Jordan gave probably the most 'unclassy' speech of the 5 inducted. Let me go ahead and take a moment to consider 2 of these episodes.

Jordan is arguably the best basketball player to step on the court and Kanye is arguably the best hip hop artist currently on the scene (although Jay-Z's re-return may negate this). Let's take Jordan's speech first. The other 4 Hall-of-Fame inductees (Robinson, Sloan, Stockton, and Stringer) gave the most classiest, graceful, 'we're undeserving of this honor', 'so many people are responsible for getting me here', speeches I've heard. Hoping for much of the same from Jordan, he got to the podium (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/michael-jordan-hall-of-fa_n_287875.html) and explained why he became the best player in the world... his internal competitive drive. He then made references to several players/instances which 'fueled his fire' for being better than everyone. There was a certain arrogance present in his speech that may have turned people off, but for those who knew him, that is Jordan.... Pause

As for Kanye, you have seen his rants and raves. He is the self-acclaimed best in the business at what he does. He has wrote "When someone is strong enough to believe in something only they believe in, people are going to call them crazy... sometimes crazy is a label that the average put on the exceptional." He is never embarrased at proclaiming his greatness.... Pause

My point in discussing this, is that it seems like to be the 'best,' one has to be arrogant. For how can you be the best, when you don't think (or possibly conceive) you are the best.... and compete against all others who are in your way. Both Kanye and Jordan's (and most likely Serena's, which is obvious in her dominance over the more endearing, loving Venus) actions are rooted in this thought pattern.... when I was in Jr High and High School, I often thought (but didn't yell it from the mountain) I was the best student in the school, and it seemed to work out for me. But is the arrogance, and the potential 'fall-out' (in terms of people subjugated, loneliness, etc), worth the excellence attained? Instead of competitive, self-interest, can we move to a world where cooperation leads to excellence? The importance of this question resonates in our endeavor towards sustainable cities/communities (that's right, I just tied in sustainability to this discussion).

Earning 'man' points

About a week and half ago, I got the distinct feeling of 'manliness' that I typically don't get in my daily life (riding my bike to school, attending classes, reading books, and writing papers). As a part of my GK-12 fellowship, we are visting schools from around the valley and presenting our vision of what a 'sustainable school' could/should look like. As of right now, it is in its infancy stage, but we are slowly puttting together a framework in which high schools can begin to implement sustainable change in their curriculum, campus, and community. But that is not the point of this story....

On our way to the school (about 40 min into our drive), the 4 of us in the car start to hear the infamous 'flat tire' noise (although it didn't pop or explode, like I've heard in others). To put it bluntly as possible (and not stereotypically), the girl driving did not know what to do (and she admits it to the day). We tell her to put the hazards on and pull over to the right. She doesn't know where the hazards are on her dashboard and she starts to signal left . . . hmmm

We pull over on the freeway and it looks flat and feels cushy. Not a good sign. We get to the gas station and there is no noticeable gash or 'object' poking out, so our advisors (faculty) suggest putting air in it and just getting to the school. They are adamant about us getting there on time, and even suggest putting everyone in the other car... my mind was racing with some profanities, because they wanted us to risk life to get to this meeting on time. Because they were being idiots, and I know the driver did not know how to do this, I stayed behind.

In dress clothes, and 110F heat, I jacked the car, took the very tight lugnuts off, and fastened the doughnut on all by myself (it had been since I was 16 that I changed a tire). During this endeavor, I was sweating like Patrick Ewing (check out pic, .... this picture was probably taken when Ewing just entered the game... its like a watefall down the face) and my hands were black., but I somehow didn't dirty my dress clothes....

In the end, we were late 20 minutes, the tire was severely gashed on the inside, and I got my 'manliness' in, that is so lacking in the academic life.

School of Sustainability Interview

The School of Sustainability recently contacted all the grad students to do a very introductory video in which we answer 3 questions on sustainability. They are then going to show the video to the undergrad intro class, so that they can start to see what we are all doing and what we think of the program. I am trying to embed it into the blog post, but I am unsuccessful....

Here are 2 links that will get you to my interview... if you are real bored, you can watch all my classmates too :)

http://vimeo.com/6370178

http://vimeo.com/channels/57245