Amazing Race! Wooot!!
Just when I thought I would be mostly bored with patches of uninterested through this off-season!, it’s the return of the Emmy-winning Amazing Race on November 16th! Best show on television*! I’m totally psyched, and dearly hope that they move back from the Fear Factor-style eating contests etc they got into last time. I also hope they recruited people who actually want to be on the show and do well, rather than (say) advertise their taco stand for a couple episodes and then quit when it gets rough.
For your convenience, here’s your short guide to this year’s teams and where they fit on the Amazing Team Slotting, TAR6 team (TAR5 equivalent)
—
Married couple: Jonathan/Victoria (Chip/Kim)
Beautiful people dating 1: Freddy/Kendra (Colin/Christie)
Beautiful people dating 2: Hayden/Aaron (Brandon/Nicole)
Best friends: Avi/Joe aaand Meridth/Maria (Linda/Karen)
Siblings, women: Lena/Kristy(Kami/Karli)
Siblings, men: n/a (Lance/Marshall)
One non-standard contestant: Lori/Bolo (Mirna/Charla)
Older couple: Don/Mary Jean (Bob/Joyce)
Father/Daughter: Gus/Hera (Jim/Marsha)
Dating with twist: Kris/Jon (Alison/Donny, Alison sort of cuckolded Donny on a Big Brother)
Dating with broken relationship: Adam/Rebecca (Dennis/Erika)
Also, I know you have to look good on television, but I’d much rather have some normal dudes who are funny and smart than all these models/beauty pageant contestants every year.
Costumes
I’m not picky about these things. I went as a baseball player year after year. And I think it’s important to teach kids that they can satisfy their sugar craving through implied blackmail.
But this year, in my new digs, we’ve seen a lot more trick-or-treaters of the “sullen teen with jeans and backwards-cap” costume.
If you’re going to trick or treat late into life, I’m okay with that. But put some effort into it, please. When I answer the door in a hooded sweatshirt and messed-up hair because I’ve been at the keyboard all day and my haggard writer costume is better than whatever they have on, it’s embarassing for us both.
Whooosh
I’m back. Got sick there, sorry. Expectations guide to Hargrove up tonight, hopefully. Also, today’s my brother’s birthday — whooo! Good job on living another year there, Craig.
In more Mariner related news, tomorrow is the birthday of one Ichiro!
Nature of argumentation
or, why comments are a headache
The U.S.S. Mariner’s been a long discussion between Dave, Jason, me, and our readers. It happened first through email and now continues also in the comments sections. It’s the discussion of a sports team, and baseball in general, but really, it’s been a long and (I think) productive argument about difference facets of the team.
This is going to sound overly simple, but argumentation is about making claims.
“Rich Aurilia for Guillen is, on balance, a slight upgrade.”
Then you advance arguments for this claim.
“… it seems likely that he’ll offer a little more offense than Guillen, while still playing decent defense. The reason I’m worried, though…”
I have enjoyed little more than some of the discussions USSM has had on some of these topics. They often range into the unconsidered and provide a naunced background to the debate.
That’s what I’m interested in. I don’t care if you think I’m smart, or stupid, or if you think we’re tools of the establishment or the forces of enlightenment. Further, I don’t care if you think someone else posting on the site is so dim it makes you want to scream.
I write this because response to some of our stuff has sparked a particular kind of discussion that I’m not interested in. When I post to say “More Gillick-administration figures depart, the remaking of the team’s front office to Bavasi’s specs continues.” That’s a claim, and so:
“That’s not true, some turnover is normal in a front office, especially after a season like this” is an interesting counter-argument.
“Comment #2 is dumb because that person previously argued this other thing” is not.
Here would be my gold standard for comments, and I first admit that I have not, in responding to others, failed to meet it:
Would someone only interested in the claim and counter-claims find this enlightening?
Rose and wrongness
I realized something today, as I sorted through a stack of email from people mad about my answer to a Pete Rose related question I answered in a chat.
I can see why people think I was wrong and should fess up. I’ve been so caught up in the long slide towards having parts of it proven correct that I missed it. It’s more complicated but at its heart, there’s a crucial assertion in the original story that I now think was wrong.
Me vs Ichiro!
For the first time since I took semi-organized baseball back up over softball, I had more hits tonight than Ichiro! (1-2, 1 HBP, 1 BB, 1R) and got to catch a couple of innings too. I know, it’s lame, but it was the last game of the year and I finally got some good hacks in, played some catcher and only made, uh, one really bad throw… I’m a happy dude tonight.
And I’m hella sore this morning — it was just over 50 last night, and that ball snaps in your hand when it’s that cold, blocking the ball hurts, and, uh, I got my gong rung once (folks, don’t catch without serious equipment, that’s my public service message for you)… and this morning I’m dying.
I have no idea how Pat Borders, or even Dan Wilson do this for so long: catching hurts.
More techie help
Last time I asked for help on something like this, we got swamped with emails. You guys rock. This one’s a bit more complex, but hopefully one of you guys will be able to help me out, as my company’s helpdesk has refused to support this problem.
Here’s the basic lowdown: I’m having issues with WEP encryption and my Cisco Aironet wireless card despite the system showing a connection (using Win2K). If anyone out there is a VPN-wireless network guru and wants to lend me some help so I can actually work without heading into the office tomorrow, that’d be fantasic. Email me or respond to the more details post in the comments.
Update: In typical USSM readership response time, it took you guys about two hours to diagnose and fix the problem. Satori, you’re the man.
Fall of AT&T Wireless
You may already know that I spent over five years working at AT&T Wireless, and have some strong opinions on how the company managed to destroy itself. The Seattle PI has a long, insightful article on this today, which is the best piece I’ve seen written on it so far. It’s particularly good on the cultural and leadership issues that infected everything about the company. John Zeglis was paid many, many millions for the utter incompetence that destroyed AWS, and will receive tens of millions more when they snuff the candle. I think of this every time someone tells me that baseball players are overpaid.
Off-topic ranting off-site
After the whole Transformers thing, and considering the problem of topicality in general, I’ve posted my latest thing on debate and belief (about how weird it is to see unreasonable opinion arise out of complicated questions, w/r/t this week’s CBS report) elsewhere. However in extending on my point about how the stathead debate uses a particular kind of triple-attack that generates hostility, I’ve moved off baseball entirely, so I moved the piece off. I don’t know if this is going to be the start anything.
I mentioned in the Transformers post that I was opposed to posting it and allowed myself to be talked into it. I’m still not sure that was the right choice. I think fundamentally there’s a point where off-topic stuff interferes with on-topic stuff (I could write a long story about why I have an emotional reaction to the word ‘interfere’ for instance).
I want people to read USSM because they think we’ve got something interesting to say about the Mariners. I think some amount of short off-topic rambling is perfectly fine (“I’m not posting because my computer’s on fire”). I also think it’s cool for us toss in random stuff while talking about something M’s related. If my criticism of the Mariners is tied into my larger concerns about the state of Seattle politics, that seems fine to me.
But I’m worried, probably more than is reasonable, that someone’s going to come by because they heard there was good M’s discussion here, and be turned off because I’m rambling about how Robotech was the best childhood cartoon I got to see, or… or whatever. There are blogs I actively avoid because the posts run:
Pinstriped Bible: Sheffield greatest RH power bat in Yankees history
Bush 0wn5 Kerry: 40 point lead in latest poll by NRA
Crazed man bites dog, voted Democrat in 2000
Where I think “that’s an interesting baseball point… you’re clearly wrong, that poll was discredited.. what does that have to do with anything?”
However… true objectivity is a myth. As much as I try to keep any post on an even keel, my conclusions are the product of reasoning and perceptions that are tinted by my belief and background. It’s reasonable for someone reading a long piece on how I think the Mariners abuse the public trust to know that I oppose public stadiums in general, that I hold certain views about what the government should be involved in anyway, and sports isn’t on that list. Or that my criticisms of local media and their coverage of the team comes from a larger belief in the ills of modern journalism and beyond that, media consolidation. Without putting up a brief bio with “relevant political and social views” the only way that a reader would learn any of that would the off-topic stuff.
Maybe then it’s worthwhile to provide a background. If you think I’m a nut to worry about media consolidation, maybe you’d decide what I had to say about the Mariners wasn’t worth your attention. It’s exactly the choice I’ve made with other sites: if your posts are examples of your thought process, then I can at least tell from them that you’re not open to debate, much less the complexities good analysis requires.
And now I’ve produced an off-topic rant of exactly the sort I’m worried about.
I don’t know. I’ll leave commenting open, or you can drop me a line.
Derek and Jonah on the Transformers
I’m posting this because Jonah swears it’s hilarious and people will get a kick out of it. So I had a brief argument in which I argued against posting this, because I don’t want to be Simmons, and Jonah said I should go ahead and do it, and if reaction’s bad, I can delete it. Well, he didn’t say I could delete it.
Or you can skip ahead to the next normal USSM posting.
(Jonah makes a reference to Megatron in an email about something else)
Derek:
I always thought Megatron and Shockwave were ridiculously bad-ass compared to the Autobots, though clearly the size issue (huge robots compacting into guns) was unbelievable, even compared to the other robot/item size issues
Optimus Prime:
18-wheeler, low acceleration, poor handling, can haul cargo oorrr…
prissy leader robot guy who seems content with no vision on how to win warMegatron:
Gun or
Psychotic meglamaniac with new plan every weekWhich of those should be the more effective in a quest for world domination?
Jonah:
I’m with you on Megatron, but Soundwave? Sure he was really big, but he changed into a Sony tape deck for gosh sakes! It became even more implausible when the Autobots decided to integrate a loaded AIWA sound system (Blaster) as Soundwave’s supposed rival. All we needed was a breakdancing throwdown between Starscream and Bumblebee and you could have called it Breakin’ 3, Cybertron boogaloo.
Derek:
Shockwave, the big purple laser blaster who took over for Megatron.
Though Soundwave was also cool: she could birth those cassettes that turned into other robots. It was the only female robot, though they never really got into that aspect of things.
Jonah:
Oh good point about the cassettes…Laserbeak, Ravage…that was key–the Autobots HATED Laserbeak. You’re right about Shockwave. Seemed a waste to maroon him on Cybertron and only break him out for key confrontations. I’d have relegated Astrotrain or some other benchwarmer to Cybertron and chucked Shockwave right into the starting rotation.
Derek:
Oh, let’s not even get into the whole Cybertron/Earth thing. It’s
ridiculous that having Cybertron for a possible setting that the show was
*better* centered on Earth.Also, that there were only two planets available, and that the Earth was
the only place they could produce Energon cubes.
Jonah:
Wow, I never really pondered that re: the energon cubes, or why Cybertron was the only other planet of note. I guess you just take certain things for granted when you’re 10.
Another thing that got me: In the episode where Beachcomber discovered Electrum, that golden liquid that’s presumably magic urine that makes you invulnerable to attack–if he knew what Electrum was, doesn’t it stand to reason that it exists somewhere? Since it makes you absolutely invulnerable, why wouldn’t both the Autobots and especially the Decepticons spend every episode looking for a source of electrum, given they’d win the war in a walk if they could find it? Just because one pond full of it was blown up somewhere in Ohio or wherever they were supposed to be doesn’t mean more doesn’t exist.
Derek:
The Electrum thing ranks with Lex Luthor’s discarding of the crystal-that-kills-Superfriends during the greatest/worst episode of Challenge of the Superfriends ever.
Jonah:
So did the Autobots essntially stay on Earth, instead of returning to Cybertron, because they were out of energy, or because they wanted to prevent the Decepticons from getting all of Earth’s energy, which would presumably enabled them to win the war and conquer the galaxy? Or were the Autobots just big fans of the Big Mac?
Derek:
Well, as you’ll recall, they land on earth because they’re on this ship
duking it out in Cybertron orbit, then it goes out of control and lands on Earth. The Decepticons decide to take it over, the Autobots oppose this takeover. Repairing the ship initially isn’t even an option.However, I find the Autobots’ view short-sighted. Both sides need energy to survive, and much more of it to sway the course of war on Cybertron. The Decepticons take an aggressive approach to the problem, and considering how easy it is to hold up a gas station and turn that into energon cubes, it’d be pretty easy for them to prey on rural America for their own supplies, and then plan out from there. The Autobots are
good-hearted, for whatever programming flaw, and also decide to remain concealed from humanity.Think about the scope of that idiotic decision, by the way.
Decepticons: don’t care if humans know they exist, though it’s easier to operate on the down-low they make no attempts at operational security and terrorize people all the time, thus instilling terror of giant robots who steal your energyAutobots: don’t want humans to know they exist, though they sometimes have to fight Decepticons openly, they immediately run off, thus instilling fear of giant robots who steal your energy and for no reason then fight each other with massive laser weapons that wreck widescale devestation.
Seriously, Optimus: the word will get out pretty quickly. Get ahead of the news, announce your presence like you’re Interpol for giant robot civilizations, ally with the UN to get access to world police organizations and funding, and suddenly you’re the good guys, you can help countries harden their infrastructure against attack and develop early-warning systems, etc. This forces the Decepticons to more and more
desperate attacks at the periphery, and soon they’re allied with North Korea and you get to wipe them out in set battles, rather than chasing them around the Urals all the time.As an aside, that was my plan for the *Decepticons* to take over the planet, by announcing themselves as the good guys and then framing the autobots for energy thefts.
Jonah:
Here’s another question: Why the hell didn’t the Autobots just sic Omega Supreme on the Decpticons and wipe ’em out once and for all? Geez, that guy was like 3 Devastators.
Derek:
They’re like the British when they had the chance to assasinate Hitler… they decided it wouldn’t be sporting.
Jonah:
Yeah…better to finesse ’em with a pansy VW Bug and a dunebuggy instead. Geez, even Grimlock could have hatched better plans than Optimus did.
Derek:
Optimus: Autobots, roll out!
Grimlock: Me Grimlock say plan stupid! Listen to Grimlock!
Optimus: No, don’t! We’ve got to get on the road so we can get to the hydroelectric dam.
Grimlock: Optimus dummy! Me Grimlock go to army base! Dinobots steal big nukes, drop on dam! Decepticons go boom! Ha ha ha ha!
Optimus: Blowing up that dam will release a flood of water that will destroy the town. Come on, we’ve got to go beat traffic, since only you Dinobots and Skyfire can fly.
Grimlock: Bomb vaporize water! No harm to humans!
Jazz: Heyyyyyy, uh, Optimus, this isn’t a bad idea, riiiiight?
Optimus: What about the thousands of people who depend on the free electric power of the dam?
Grimlock: We autobots rebuild dam better! Take us two days! Me Grimlock
design new generator! Twice as much free power for hu-mans!
Optimus: But stealing is wrong.
Grimlock: Stealing not so bad! Decepticons worse! Net good for universe!
Optimus: We Autobots will never steal, no matter how large the potential gain.
Grimlock: Me Grimlock laugh at moral absolutes! Ha ha ha! You Optimus thank Grimlock Grimlock destroy Decepticons and we go back to Cybertron heros.
Optimus: Nope, sorry. If I have to fight the Decepticons by myself, then
so be it!
(whirrr….)
Jazz: Soo heeyyyyy, Grimlock, I was thinking.
Grimlock: Grimlock listening.
Jazz: How many Decepticons would we wipe out, seeeeeeeeee?
Grimlock: Grimlock understand. Noble sacrifice of Optimus not be forgotten. Dinobots — we get bomb now!