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Ramble Archive: 07.01.05 - 12.31.05
...from the cobwebs of my mindSELECT A DATE BELOW TO JUMP DIRECTLY TO THAT RAMBLE |
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| TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2005 |
 Happy Holidays! |
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I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. We went downstate for the Crider Family Xmas the weekend before last, and then up to Wisconsin for Xmas day with Kim's family. We had a great time in both places and it was nice to spend time with family.
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| Bears Clinch the Division |
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I have to say that the icing on the holiday cake was the Bears big win over Green Bay Xmas day to not only sweep the Bears-Packers series for this season, but also to clinch the NFC North division title.
It looks like the Bears get a bye on the first round of playoffs, which is a good thing, I suppose. Having a week off can sometimes come back to bite a team, but I guess we'll see. Maybe it'll give some of the injured players time to heal up.
The good news is, Xmas with Kim's family went without bloodshed. See, Kim's family are all die-hard Packers fans. I wouldn't call myself a die-hard Bears fan, but I am a fan, and so I was more than a bit concerned about spending the day up north with the Bears-Packers game that day.
But, thankfully, we enjoyed watching the game and there were no casualties. At least I enjoyed watching the game. Kim's mom did threaten my life at one point, but she was kidding. I think.
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| Archiving Content |
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Now that we're at the end of the year, I'll be archiving off the past six months of front page rambles, putting them in the archive section and starting new here on the front page. My intention is to do this right after the first of the year, but you know how I tend to get lazy updating the site, so we'll see.
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| TUESDAY, DECEMBER 06, 2005 |
| New Favorite Website |
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www.YouAreDumb.net
Here's a quote from the site's About This Site page...
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Dumbness is increasingly being seen as perfectly acceptable by society, from Forrest Gump to George W. Bush. Dumbness is rewarded. Not-dumbness is penalized. You Are Dumb is not just my own personal catharsis and rant-muscle workout routine, it's a chance to take a little territory back from the dumb. A noble cause, yes, but if each and every person who reads this feel a little better about being smarter, then I will have improved things for the entire half-dozen of you.
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I stumbled upon this website today, but I have to say it kicks arse! Not only does the author know how to turn a phrase, but he hits those 'stoopid' buttons that, when you read them, make you want to shake your head wondering why we all don't already understand it this way.
Basically, the gist of the site is this guy pointing out the plethora of obvious stupidities that exist in daily life, be it politics, movies or other popular culture, that tends to get lost in the deluge of info we all tend to get lost in.
What's really enjoyable, however, is not just that he points them out, but how he puts it all into focus. Much like Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, there's a biting wit that points out the obvious in a way I wish so much could be presented to the public along side all the of Republican and Democratic talking points that get spoon-fed by the mainstream media.
I'm so glad I found this site! Please check it out. If you're at all sick of the continuous stupidity that exists in our society, and even sicker that no one in the main stream media points it out, you will LOVE this site. Go. Now. Check it out!
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| TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2005 |
| Stinky Steinke!!! |
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Looks like Neddy slipped a redesign of his website under my radar, the turd. I like what he's done with the place. Only problem is, now I'm wanting to do a redesign of my site. I totally hate that. I worked my butt off on the current design. It's completely hard-coded in good ol' HTML, no CSS, PHP scripting, or anything else like that. UGH!
Not only did it take forever to work out the new website design, but then it took forever to modify my code generating database. See, a couple of years ago, I developed this database where I enter the text of these front-page rambles, click a button and it generates all the HTML code that I need to paste into the website page. Easy peasy. Oh, sure, there are third-party products out there that will do all this for me, but I wanted to develop the solution myself so it would do exactly what I wanted. I'm kinda anal that way. Go figure.
So, if I decide to change my website design, not only will I spend months on that, but then another couple of months modifying the database that generates the code. DOUBLE UGH!!
I am SO going to kick Ned's butt when he returns from Hawaii next week.
Anyhoo, I digress. Check out Ned's fantastic redesign here.
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| FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2005 |
| Ali has months to live |
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This is such very bad news. Per ThisIsLondon.com...
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Muhammad ALI may have just months to live, it has emerged yesterday. The 63-year-old boxing great, who has battled Parkinson's disease for 20 years, can no longer talk and is shutting himself away from those closest to him.
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As of the timing of this post, I haven't found any info regarding this on ESPN.com or the other major sports websites, which is crap. I mean, this is Muhammad Ali, dangit. One of THE most influential sports stars of all time. Get with the program, folks.
You can read the full story here: ThisIsLondon.com
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| New Beanz Meanz No Fartz |
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Now for some good news...
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Now a Cambridge boffin has developed fart-free varieties [of beans] to the relief of baked bean fans and their families everywhere.
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Check out the story here.
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| Convicted killer dons street clothes, escapes from jail |
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From the holy crap! department comes this...
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(CNN) -- A Texas death row inmate escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston on Thursday, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying identification indicating he worked in the attorney general's office, a sheriff's department spokesman said.
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Unbelievable. Read the full story here.
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| WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2005 |
| Holy Series Sweep, Batman! |
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Apparently the Baseball Gawds didn't hear me correctly when I mentioned "sweep" in my last blurb with regards to the Astros and White Sox. See, I was hoping for an Astros sweep of the Sox, but instead those crazy Gawds gave me a Sox sweep of the Astros.
We are now repainting the house in preparation for our move to the Yukon.
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| Paint By Numbers |
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Speaking of painting, we've been painting the house like crazy lately. My parents came up last weekend and helped us bang out most of the first floor. There's still plenty to be done but we're getting there. I'll see if I can get some before and after photos online when we're done.
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| Podcasting Good! |
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I've been listening to Podcasts like crazy lately. Mostly in the car to and from work. It's a nice way to keep my brain occupied during the commute in a way music or news radio can't. A friend of mine asked what I listen to, so here's a list, in no particular order...
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| FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2005 |
| Happy Friday! |
| White Sux. |
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I'm not going to go off on some huge rant here, but if the White Sox win the World Series, Kim and I are moving. I'm thinking the Yukon might be a safe bet to escape from the insufferable Sox fans. Our only hope is that the Houston Astros keep pitching well, figure out how to score a few more runs per game, and sweep the series. That would be nice.
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| There is nothing to fear but F.E.A.R. itself. |
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So, I started playing this new PC game last night called F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon). It's been billed as a supernatural first-person-shooter. It's the supernatural part that is really killer. I was a good boy last night and only played for a couple hours, but during that short time this game scared the crap outta me! I'm not kidding or exaggerating, either.
Wheras DOOM3 was all about going BOO every ten seconds, which tends to get real old real fast, F.E.A.R. is all about the creepy. And I do mean CREEPY! This thing is scarier than a lot of so-called horror movies I've seen over the past several years. Setting aside for a moment the obvious rip-off of the now-popular creepy, eight-year-old-girl-with-long-matted-dark-hair thing that movies and TV have been doing lately, the first time I saw the Alma character I very nearly crapped my pants. Sorry to be so blunt, but there you go.
The Artificial Intelligence in this game is fantastic as well. I will admit that I've gotten very lazy in my FPS gaming over the years, not worring about whether the baddies were going to flank me or otherwise do anything but stand there and let me shoot them. And, truth is, I got lazy because that's pretty much how the AI in FPS games has behaved over the years. Other than getting a little bit sneaky and ducking behind cover now and again, I generally never had to worry about a baddie circling around and coming up behind to pop me in the back of the head. Until now.
There I was, lazily shooting around a corner at five baddies in an office room full of boxes and desks - three of whom I'd put down with relative ease - when the fifth disappeared. At first I figured he'd ducked behind cover and was waiting for me to show myself, or maybe he'd taken off down the hallway, running away from me and toward the next room (both of which are fairly common AI tactics these days). Just as I'd finished that thought, however, to my utter amazement the fifth baddie had circled around, sneaking through several adjacent rooms, and was now chewing up my backside with 9mm automatic weapon fire. I wheeled around and quickly dispatched of this clever but soon-to-be-dead baddie, but in the end I was amazed at the ability of the AI and realized I had better kick my gaming up a notch or I was going to be toast.
So, to the gang at Monolith, the developers of F.E.A.R., I say very well done, and thank you for blending the FPS and horror gaming genres together so well.
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| FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005 |
| Happy Friday! |
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Below is a link to some wonderful storm photos I ran across today. Turns out the guy who took them is getting screwed because other people are sending them around and taking credit. Too bad. These are some great photos. Check them out here.
Boy, how'd you like to look out your livingroom window and see this coming your way? I think I'd just crap my pants then and there.
Doesn't the above photo look terrifyingly like this scene from Independence Day where one of the alien ships enters the Earth's atmosphere above New York?? YIKES!!
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| Meetings, Meetings, Meetings. |
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Boy, what a long week. We've had our quarterly management meetings this week, which means three days of up at 5:00am, home at 8:00pm. Brutal. Although, I did sleep in a bit on the second day and head in a bit later than I was supposed to. But that's only because I was up half the night finishing some training material I needed for the following day. Yeah, I know... I should have had it done way before. Screw you.
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| Me is a homeowner. |
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Looks like we're repainting the kitchen - again. Kim talked me into letting her repaint the kitchen from the obnoxious green she used several weeks ago, to a more subdued and less pain-inducing shade of green she picked out the other day. Truth is, she didn't exactly have to twist my arm, as I wasn't all that thrilled with the result of the first paint job, but I made her grovel nonetheless. Why? Because I'm just that mean of a person, that's why.
We're going to be doing a ton of painting over the next few weeks. We're pretty much doing the entire main floor, including the kitchen, bath and livingroom. My parents are coming up Halloween weekend to help out, which is pretty cool. Boy, I really laid it on thick with my dad to get him to come up. I felt bad afterwards, for like a minute or two, then that went away and now I'm all excited that my parents are coming up to help us paint. I just hope we don't end up at each other's throats. I guess you could say my dad and I both have the same level of patience - or lack thereof. Hopefully this won't end up like a Brady Bunch episode where we're all painting each other instead of the walls. Although, as part of the deal to let Kim repaint the kitchen, the cat is fair game for a fresh coat of neon green.
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| MONDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2005 |
| Happy Bday to Me! |
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So, I made out like a bandit on my birthday Friday. I got all kinds of great loot...
We went out for a nice dinner over the weekend, as well. We tried a new place in Crystal Lake called Porters Oyster Bar. The food, unfortunately, wasn't all that great. As far as the appetizers go, the ahi sashimi was excellent and the baked clams were okay, but neither of us were all that thrilled with our entrees. The small cow that was the sixteen ounces of rare prime rib I ordered was really bland, and so was Kim's filet and lobster tail. I only ended up eating about half my entree and doggy-bagging the rest, but overall it was a disappointment. An expensive disappointment, I might add.
It's especially disappointing as the restaurant itself is really nice. The ambiance and mood are great and it's an inviting environment. I guess one could make the argument that you don't go to a seafood place for steak, but I don't agree with that. If it's on the menu then it should be good. Besides, the lobster tail Kim had wasn't exactly bursting with flavor, either.
We also finally got around to spending some of our wedding gift cards and money over at Bed Bath & Beyond. We spent most of the wad on a killer Wusthof knife set, one of which I've been wanting for many years. The set wasn't cheap, but as I told Kim, if we take care of these things, they'll last forever. I think we may need formal knife training lest we chop our fingers off.
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| FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 |
| Road Rage-less. |
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Now that the kiddies are back in school, I seem to hit a ton of school buses on the way to work each morning. Having to stop every three minutes has killed my commute, increasing the morning time from 45 minutes to well over an hour. As such, my mindset when I get into work isn't the most, shall we say, productive. Or sane. Or stable. Or friendly. Basically, I'm a total prick when I get to work after these long commute. Yeah, I know - so what else is new, right? Funny.
The good news is, I've started getting into podcasting lately, and listening to them in the car on my iPod Mini has really made a huge difference. Listening to the PC Gamer podcast, for example, occupies my mind so much more than music or even talk radio. Which is odd, because the podcasts I've been listening to are basically talk radio that you just can't get on the radio. Go figure.
Another podcast I've been listening to is by Deranged Moose, or Roger Gillies as he's also known. A Mac guy from the Yukon - I kid you not, the freakin' Yukon! - I landed on his podcast in a huge list the other day. I think it was a combination of "Deranged Moose" and "Yukon". Something about that just struck me as interesting and I figured I just had to hear what this guy had to say. Turns out Roger's podcasts are intersting and funny. They can be somewhat awkward at times - sorry Roger! - but I think that's natural when a normal everyday Joe produces his own talk show. I know any podcast I put together would probably suck pretty bad. In the end, though, listening to Roger's podcasts occupy my mind in a good way and help get me through these horrible commutes.
I spoke with Neddy the other night about him and I doing our own podcast. It seems interesting and I think I'd really enjoy the technical aspect of producing a podcast more than actually blathering on about this-n-that. One thing I'm not sure of, however, is being comfortable with talking about different topics while dealing with the fear of reprocussions. I mean, if I start riffing on politics and religion, and my boss happens to come across my podcast, am I going to get my butt fired? Illinois is an at-will state, which means I can be canned "at will" for really no reason at all (aside from discriminition and the like), and you really have to be careful these days as there are all kinds of stories in the news about people getting fired for what they write on their websites. Seriously. And that's the last thing I need right now. Kim would totally kill me!
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| WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 |
| Rules of the Road. |
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So, I'm driving to work the other day and I come across a school bus heading in the opposite direction. Now that all the rugrats are back in school, I run into like fifty buses on my way to work. It literally takes me an additional 15 minutes to get to work each morning, which may not sound like a big deal, but that pushes my commute to over an hour in the morning. That's nothing compared to Kim, which is often an hour and a half, but the point is, school buses screw up my commute. But I digress.
As I said, I come across this school bus heading in the opposite direction, and I'm leading this pack of cars along Rt. 31 near South Elgin. The stretch of road I was on happened to be a total of four lanes - two each way - plus a middle turn lane. I was in my left lane, with several cars behind me, and there were several cars in the right lane next to me.
We were all sitting at a stop light as the bus approached on the other side coming at us, when it slowed to a stop about 500 feet on the other side of the intersection, with it's lights flashing and sign extended. The stop light turned green just as kids started boarding the bus, and all the cars on my side began pulling away through the intersection heading toward the bus.
The closer we got to the bus, the more the cars on my side of the road, going the same direction as I, began slowing down. It was obvious that all the cars on my side were going to stop, as cars are required to do when approaching a stopped school bus on certain types of roads. But, not me. I kept going. And as I did, the guy to the right of me flipped me off as I passed him, and several cars stopped behind the bus on the opposite side of the street actually did the same thing. I just laughed and kept going, giggling at their ignorance.
You see, in Illinois, the Rules of the Road state...
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You do not always need to stop when meeting a stopped school bus on a road-way with four or more lanes. You do not need to stop if you are traveling in the opposite direction of the bus, but you should drive cautiously.
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I know this rule because I'm sick of people stopping for buses when they don't need to, especially when it's during rush hour and I'm late for frackin' work!
So, to all you morons who flipped me off that morning (I'm sure you're all reading this), learn the rules of the road, because there's only a seven-day waiting period for hand guns and I hold a grudge.
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| FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2005 |
| Friday Fun! |
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For your Friday viewing pleasure, here's a great new Dilbert cartoon from Scott Adams: slinky
ENJOY!
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| FRIDAY, AUGUST 05, 2005 |
| And in other news, IT Gawds royally spank IT Manager |
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Man, this past week at work has really sucked. The IT Gawds must have been bored silly because they decided to use me as their chew-toy. I mean, if there was one theme to work this week, it was "hardware failure". We had laptops breaking down, we had Blackberries breaking down, we had electrical circuits failing, we had VPN failures and, last but not least, we had PRI (phone circuit) failures. It just sucked!
We had so many laptops and Blackberrys breaking down this week, we completely wiped out our backup stock. When the fifth laptop died this week, we had nothing to give the poor guy. Same with those frakin' Blackberries. We ran out of backup units to give to people. Just when we got one laptop fixed and back into the users' hands, which gave us one of the backup units to put back on the shelf, another laptop brokedown so we were back to zero. ARG!!
I'm guessing this is karma-based and the IT Gawds are finally getting around to smiting me for something I did in a past life. All I can say is, I can't wait to get out of here today and enjoy the weekend.
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| FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2005 |
| Friday Fun! |
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Check out the Hampster Dance! Dance you hamsters, dance!! There's sound on this link but it's completely work-safe.
Enjoy!!
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| WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2005 |
| Wedding Photos Online. |
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Well, we've finally gotten around to posting our wedding photos online. Okay, okay... I'VE finally gotten around to it. You can check out the photos here.
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| Spanked! |
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Boy, did the National League ever get spanked by the American League in last night's All-Star game. It was painful to watch. That's eight in a row for the AL. I'm waiting for the inevitable email from Neddy who's a White Sox fan.
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| TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2005 |
| Rambles Archived. |
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The ramble entries for the first half of 2006 have been archived. You can view them here (or click the ramble archive link at left). We're starting off blank again so that this front page will contain only archives for the second half of 2006. Once we hit the end of the year, I'll do this again.
Boy, time is just flying by!
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| Mid-summer Classic. |
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The Major League Baseball 2005 All-Star game is tonite. Am I excited? Yes and no. While I'm a fan of baseball, the All-Star game was always pretty boring to me. While my excitement level grew when The Powers That Be decided to give World Series home-field advantage to the winner of the All-Star game, I'm still sort of going "meh" on the whole thing.
The reason I'm not all giddy with excitement is because the All-Star game itself is stuck between two worlds. Fans can vote as many times as they want for their favorite players, and when the game was all about seeing the popular players on the field that was okay. But now that the outcome of the game actually matters, there should no longer be fan voting. Instead, players for the All-Star game should be automatically selected and limited to only the very best players in each division.
Case in point... up until recently, Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals was leading Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs in fan voting. Pujols was leading because he's a more well-known and popular player than Lee, despite the fact that he was behind Lee in nearly every performance category. Now, if I'm wanting to field the best team possible in order to win the game and give my division home-field advantage in the World Series, I'd want the best players possible selected for my team. But that almost didn't happen.
Thankfully, the fans pulled it out and Derrick Lee won the voting. And, as of today, he now leads all major performance categories over Pujols.
I guess my point is, enough with the fan voting for who gets included in the All-Star game. Now that the outcome means something, player selection should be automatic and based upon performance, not popularity. Make the game all about competition. I mean, if all the best players are on the field, the game will still have all kinds of star-power surrounding the event. Just make the focus on having the best players actually competing against each other to win that one game that determines home-field advantage in the Series. Until that happens, I'll continue to go "meh" about the whole thing.
One final comment about Lee versus Pujols... go visit their player pages and you tell me... which one looks like he's having more fun playing the game?
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| Attention Criders!
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Are you a CRIDER?
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