Wow. A New Look. *Gasp* Moving On.

Today's Mantra: I Hate Internet Explorer. The thing is too fragile for real-life browsing, but at work, it's all I got.

Changed shifts at work so I have to get there earlier and it's messed with my body clock. Used to get up at 0530 not have problems like this but now...it ain't fair. Some people can get up at 0430 and jog for miles and do some serious thinking at the same time. These people should either be (a) admired for their intestinal fortitude and serve as an example to us all on the joy of a fullfilled life, or (b) patted softly on the head and fed Cherry Garcia to slow them down. I'll pick (a).

While I adjust to the new work schedule, I cannot see my diet from where I'm standing, much less my shoes. I've fallen off the wagon and into the deep frier. For folks of my body type, "all you can eat" is as big a myth as "one size fits all." OK, I'll stop now, but I really do need an exercise buddy to inspire me through these low points.

And, paradoxically, I applied for a job at the university in the Big City which I have a decent chance of landing an interview. If I were to accept the position (after getting said interview, meeting the committee, going back for follow-ups, decide if the boss is good, etc.), then I'd have to get up earlier every day. On the flip side, the energy of the office and the $$$ would be worth it.

Got Bull Durham and, oy!, had completely forgotten how dirty that movie really is, but it does echo my love for baseball. I'm not an idiot or naive when it comes to the game, warts and all, but Annie Savoy and I see it the same way: it's a walking, hitting, catching American metaphor. And watching a good game is like, quoting the seer a la Sir Nuke, "It feels out there. I mean, it's a major rush. I mean, it feels radical in kind of a tubular sort of way, but most of all, it feels out there."

I don't generally buy baseball books because it's a game that reinvents itself every year. Folks have played the modern version for a hundred years but something new always happens. It's a cliche, but part of watching the game is the hope that you'll see something special: a no-hitter, four round-trippers by the same batter, a good fight. There's 162 regular season games involving thirty-something teams and every one is special. I'm sure it's different for the employees forced to go to every game, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for me.

While we're on the subject, BD got a few things wrong, according to Jeff Merron of ESPN. Here's the entire article. For the record, Mr. Merron says there are 108 stitches in a baseball. If you Google for the number of beads in a rosary, 108 is a common number (there are those who say there are 108 names of God) but there's no definitive, "written in stone" rule. Sort of like religion itself.

And the article quotes a literary scholar on Walt Whitman's best thoughts on the game:

"[Whitman's friend Horace] Traubel had told Whitman that baseball has become 'the hurrah game of the republic,' and Whitman says,

'That's beautiful: the hurrah game! Well -- it's our game: that's the chief fact in connection with it: America's game: has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere -- belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life.'"

How many days to spring training??!!