June 9, 2005

        Busy, busy. A long time without posting because our only working computer was on vacation (with my wife) in Arizona for three weeks. Since the last post at the end of April, I've changed jobs (back to King County), seen four movies (Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Star Wars III, The Interpreter, and Madagascar), and worked a lot of Mariners games. One-third of the way into the season, the Mariners are starting to show some positive consistency and that's a welcome sight. Working games with a mostly empty stadium hasn't been as much fun as the sold-out games. I'm hoping to get those reviews up on the movie side sometime this week, but I'm working Saturday, so we'll see how fast I can get something going.

April 30, 2005

      The first month of the 2005 baseball season is almost over and the Mariners are hanging in there, despite a slow start from every hitter except Ichiro and Winn. Hopefully, they can keep this going for a while longer than last year. There are a few more baseball pages posted over in that area. Our 2000 road-trip is next on my list.
        On the movie side, things are still fairly slow. We saw Ocean's Twelve, but that was about it for April in theatres. We're hoping to see Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy today. I could almost consider reading the five-book trilogy a life-changing event. Hopefully, I can remember to bring a towel.

April 3, 2005

        Spring training is officially over for the Seattle Mariners and I hope they're ready. I'm not worried at all about their 13-16 record -- as the long as the recent pattern holds. Since 1993, a losing spring has turned into a winning season and a winning spring has turned into a losing season. I have no idea why, but it's been that way for the past 12 seasons and I'll take whatever I can find that will allow me to cling to some hope that 2005 will be better than 2004.
        On the movie side, things are still fairly slow, but I did manage to see Miss Congeniality 2. It wasn't real high on my list and I still haven't seen the first movie all the way through, but it's slim pickings these days while the major studios are gearing up for the summer movie season. I did finally see Bicentennial Man on DVD and the timing couldn't have been better, given the recent news stories involving Terri Schiavo and Pope John Paul II. I can completely understand why Robin Williams picked this role and I hope there are more Oscars ahead for him someday.
        I don't want to spend much time on the Schiavo and pope stories, but I couldn't help but wonder if there's some hidden cosmic message in the timing of both of them passing away so close together. They both seemed to go when it was their time (I believe Schiavo had been gone for a while before the tube was pulled). I've never been a religious person in any sense of the word, but I find myself squarely on the side of hoping all three branches of government stay out of my life when it comes to the way in which I may choose to die someday. I hope the more religious people out there can find it in their hearts to give Terri's survivors some peace.
        As for the pope, I find myself wishing I'd met the guy. I don't know what I would've said to him -- maybe something like "Hey, nice hat," but I wish there were more people that tried to communicate or connect or understand people from all walks of life like John Paul II did. The guy spoke eight languages and had traveled to over 100 countries. I don't agree with a lot of things he's said or done over the past 26+ years, but he seemed to be a very good representative of his position.