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July 31, 2002

   Update time, if only to squeeze one in before August rolls around.  I'm inching ever closer to 20, that magical age at which you cannot legally do anything you could not do at 19 - or at 18 for that matter - and so all you do is feel older.  Ya-hoo.  Buy me a present, it'll make me feel better.

    Time for another Ebay rant.  I've been talking to Drew a lot online, but the amusing thing is that, recently, most of the context in which I talk to him a) takes place between the hours of midnight and four am Eastern Daylight Time, and b) almost exclusively involves Ebay and products - pretty much unanimously baseball cards - listed thereon.  Conversations, then, run something like this:
    Me: So did you get anything today?
    Drew: No.  How does it take eight days to send something when you've paid with PayPal?
    Me: Seriously.
    Drew: This card is awesome: [sends me a link to a Barry Bonds autograph or Sammy Sosa bat card]
    Me: Sweet.  A little out of my price range, though.
    Drew: Yeah.  It's my dream to own this card: [sends me a link to a totally amazing card that neither of us will own if we live to be 100, like a 1/1 bat barrel card or the bat from Babe Ruth's last game]
    Me: Awesome.  I know you want this: [I send him a link to some sort of Twins memorabilia card]
    Drew: Yeah, but I just got a jersey/bat/ball/game-used hemoglobin card of [name a Twins player]
    Me: Sweet.
This basically repeats for the rest of the night.  We both scrounge around Ebay, looking for cards within our price range [read: not very much money at all, particularly at this point] that are cool - in other words, looking for major coups.  In a couple weeks of Ebay addiction, I have learned at least the following things about the sports card trade on it:
    * You will never be able to get a hobby box for $15 or less, which is too bad because that's your maximum.  Accordingly, you should bid that much on any hobby box you see currently going for less, since you'll never win it anyway and they're always worth more than that.
    * People besides you know when a card or box is marked way down from its normally accepted value, so don't expect to win it.
    * Not even if you're leading with less than a day to go.
    * Amazingly, you are not the only person who wants a Dez White Authentix jersey card, though you are apparently the only person willing to pay $3.75 for one.  [Though this applies specifically to a recent auction I won, feel free to apply it to others by substituting in the name of your product.  In some cases someone will want it more than you to the point that they'll bid into a region you wouldn't go if you were bidding on your life, in which case alter it to read: "Not only are you not the only person who wants (name of card), there are people stupider and more reckless with money than you out there."]
    * While it's tempting to think that the sheer quantity of things on Ebay should let some things slip through the cracks at low cost, it's never the stuff you really want, particularly because Ebay's search functions are pretty sophisticated.
    * The healthiest thing you can do is to stick by your pre-determined maximum bid and not sweat it when you get outbid.
    I had to learn that last one, though not following it initially served me in good stead - I got a box of Upper Deck Series 2 (retail, unfortunately, but hobbies go for three times as much) for 11.95, when I had led at 9.95 for most of the way and a guy tried to snipe me.  Since then, though, I've won enough things that I don't worry about it anymore - I still get kind of annoyed whenever I get outbid, but I really don't let it get me down.  If I wanted it that much, after all, I would have set a higher max, right?
    One of my more amusing pursuits on Ebay, though, is really "act as Drew's search function."  Drew has a pretty slow modem - it ain't DSL, at any rate - so at various points he'll mention "I wonder if such and such a card is up there," at which point I go off and find it for him.  Keeps me from looking for stuff for me, anyway, which can't be bad.  Drew, on the other hand, has already announced his intention to "receive a steady stream of presents for the rest of the summer," which is made funnier by the fact that at the current rate, they'll all arrive at once on September 21.
    As for my own stuff, I've got three things currently in transit (at least according to the sellers, who I have no reason not to believe at the moment), plus three more things in the chute.  Money.  Saves me a trip to the card store, as the nearest one is in Livingston (where, sickeningly, there are two within three blocks of each other).  It's also easier to find things on Ebay and more possible to get them for discounts, though at least at the card store a) you can be absolutely sure of what you're getting and its condition, and b) I've never gone to the counter in the card store, put down five dollars for the card, and just as the guy was about to take the money, have someone run up to the register, throw down $5.50, grab the card out of my hands, and run out the door.

July 30, 2002

   Of course, it's probably a tad early for this, but why not.  With preseason coming up, it's time to announce the 2002 Rob v. Dave Picks Extravaganza.  The series is tied at one, and who knows how many more years this can last, so this year is huge.  Or maybe I'm just claiming it is to get you to read it with something bordering on interest.  At any rate, the 2002 NFL season schedules are up at Picks Central, which will be modified on a week-by-week basis to show our picks for said week, and records for the season, and blah blah blah.  Maybe I'll put a running total on the index page this time, just so it isn't quite so buried.  That's actually such a good idea I'm somewhat embarrassed for never having thought of it before.

July 29, 2002

   For anyone who's been missing new updates in the Dreams section, it's not because I haven't been dreaming, it's because I haven't really been remembering much for more than two minutes after I wake up, if that.  But I managed to hang on to a reasonable amount this morning, though as usual I can't do its detail any justice, particularly the look of the ocean waves, which was pretty majestic.

July 28, 2002

   Rick Sutcliffe was wondering on Sunday Night Baseball why the Cubs, with their starting pitching and the hitting talent they should have, failed to seriously contend this year.  The Cubs then answered his question, scoring nine runs and losing.  Part of it was sketchy managing - pulling Matt Clement on 81 pitches just because a fielding error behind him had scored a run - part of it sketchy fielding - well, the error, which really was two bad plays leading to the run - but most of it was sketchy bullpen.  After getting out of the sixth with a 6-4 lead (it had been 6-0 going in), the Cubs scored three more runs, leading 9-4 going into the bottom of the ninth.  Gordon and Alfonseca then combined to give up six runs, including a walk-off home run to Edgar "When the Fuck Do I Ever Hit Home Runs?" Renteria.  Give me a fucking break.   What a complete joke.  These are not one but two alleged marquee closers, and they combine to give up six runs.  When you're working with two closers, this shouldn't ever happen.  Okay, it's not like Trevor Hoffman and Robb Nen (I refuse to list Mariano Rivera; anyway, he's sucked lately) were the two closers, but still.   Each of these guys has had a 30-save season, I'm sure of that; Alfonseca's had 40-plus and led the NL a couple years ago.  Sure, he's blown some in his day, but not like this.  Not like this.  Goddammit.  (Incidentally, anyone who brings this up, particularly to try and rub it in, will be immediately killed.)

July 23, 2002

   So, I just got back from Pennsylvania, where I was playing golf.  Yes, golf.  Monday I went to the driving range, found an amazing gaping hole in my swing (well, one of them), changed it, and hit the ball much better, though not all that far.  So my dad was like "Let's go to Blue Bell and play golf on Tuesday" and I'm like "Uh... okay."  Considering I hadn't picked up a club in the previous three years (at least), and hadn't played this course in four (when the nines were reversed and #1 - now #10 - was a par 4 instead of a par 3, and there were only four sets of tees instead of six, and etc.), I played pretty well, particularly for the first ten holes.  However, on the final eight holes I hit about six or seven good shots total, and two of them were putts, which totally figures.  (After having an impossible and generally frustrating time getting to the green on #14, I - obviously - holed my putt from 30 feet, saving single digits, and even then only because of mulligans.)  Scores below, because I hate you.   My score up top, par at the bottom, although if you couldn't figure that out yourself, don't ever play golf, because I can tell you right now that the lack of par-eights will come as a rude awakening to you.

    Anyway, in case it's not obvious, I sort of ran out of steam on the back nine (did the fact that the only score lower than eight I carded on the last six holes came on a par three tip you off?), which I guess is only to be expected after a three-plus-year layoff.  Anyway, I did have some particularly nice holes in the bunch, including eight (my home hole, so that was nice), and especially ten, which would you believe was my first ever score of par?  That's right.  I'd birdied twice (#12, now #3 - in my infamous round of 102, which I am likely to mention in any conversation about personal golf games, and multiple times at that - and #10, now #1, which was the first one I ever carded), but never actually hit par on the nose.  I wasn't far from it a few other times today (#8 was pretty close, and so were #1 and #6), but oh well.  I actually could have birdied ten as I was, astonishingly, on the green in one after a nice five-wood, but let's not get greedy.
    Basically this round was a tune-up to see just how out of shape my game really was.  The answer is, not nearly as much as you'd think, but - naturally - "needs work."  We'll see how it comes along the rest of the summer, if indeed I actually do any significant amount of playing not in the presence of Ric and Chong from here on out.

July 22, 2002

   You know what I'm going to start?  The BigFlax.com dating service.  Unlike a normal dating service, though, this one wouldn't be to help a lot of people find dates; it would only be to help me find a date.  Girls would be encouraged to submit their information, and then I could sift through them and pick out the best candidates, thereby, if nothing else, saving me from spending just about every night at home.
    (Disclaimer: I'm joking, particularly if this either offends you or makes me look really stupid.  However, if the prospect of this intrigues you, I'm completely serious, I'm a Virgo, and I enjoy long walks on the beach.)

July 21, 2002

   I just think I should save this for posterity: I was about to put a big IM on the IMs page, when my AIM crashed, thereby causing me to lose the whole thing.  And because I like fostering suite discord, I will subsequently inform you that it was Drew's IM and Marc caused the crashing.  Take that, Hiznarc!

July 20, 2002

   I should probably be cursing Drew's name for reintroducing me to Ebay.  After he told me about a Doug Mientkiewicz card he was bidding on, I went over there, and have been somewhat sucked in.  The weird thing is that the most fun parts of Ebay do not involve winning auctions.  They are:
    1) Completely screwing other people.  This may sound "petty" or "evil," but I don't mean going there just to do it.  The key is when you show up at an auction that someone's winning with a relatively low bid and you get them into a bidding war that they eventually have to snipe to win, at three times what they would have paid.  This happened to me on an autographed insert card that I was going after.  I come and the guy's at like 10.50 or thereabouts.  I set a maximum of 20 and take the lead.  Down the stretch we end up getting into a big-time back-and-forth which, to my initial annoyance, he wins by sniping me at 31.00 with 17 seconds left, not leaving me enough time to hit 32.00.   At first I was pissed, but then it occurred to me - I just made this guy pay 31.00 for something he probably felt pretty good about getting for no more than half that just a day before.  Plus I wasn't sure I really wanted it at 32.00.  In another case I was bidding on a gold, graded 9 rookie card (that I already have a regular of), the initial bid for which was quite low.  I set a max of 11.00, led for a while, then got outbid.  Rather than leave without a total fight, though (I was mostly in the auction to see if I could get the card for such an obscenely low price relative to its commonly accepted value), I bid the guy up four bucks so he ended up at 15.50 instead of 11.50, where I could easily have left him.  Of course, this could backfire, so never try to bid people up in auctions where you're not actually willing to pay the maximum you set - i.e. like I said before, you don't do this for fun, it just ends up happening.  It does turn out fun when it happens, though.
    2) The logical dilemma that is "buy it now or don't."   In most auctions (incidentally, don't let "most auctions" suggest that I'm bidding on like 80,000 things - it's more like four or five) concerning autographs, I like to set a 20.00 maximum, at least at first.  So how do you treat something like this: I'm currently watching an autographed helmet (I won't mention the player lest I somehow get screwed) with an opening set at 9.95.  Now, no one's bid on it yet, so the "buy it now" option is open at 19.95.  So I could just buy it for 20 bucks (plus 4 or 5 shipping), or I could set that as a maximum and try to get it for ten or fifteen.  But that could well backfire, because I could end up paying more than 20 for it if I get bid up (or not winning it at all, of course).  It's agonizing, but it's also interesting, although probably more so to math whizzes who can calculate the relative benefits and odds behind each deal.  Eh.

July 19, 2002

   Wait a second... did I just update the Movies to See page?  I believe I did!  Amazing.  We're dealing with August here, mostly because I wanted to complain.  Oh, there ain't much out there, believe you me.

July 18, 2002

   So I've been thinking - what if you want to know what I gave a movie but don't want to read the review for fear that it might give something away?  Before now, that was a risk you'd just have to take.   But after Rich's query as to my grade of Thirteen Conversations without wanting to read the review (he was sufficiently chastened by yesterday's update), maybe it'd be nice to have a place where all the grades were written down.  Of course, there are the capsules.  But those still do talk about the movie, and let's face it, no one reads them anyway.   Before I do this, though, I'd like your input - post it in the forum, maybe - on the following question:
    Where should Flax put the grades of movies so you can just see them and not anything else about the film?
   a) Next to the title on the reviews page.
    b) In a chronological list on their own page.
    c) There's absolutely no point in doing this.  Stop pretending shit like this qualifies as new content.
God, you don't have to be so mean!  But if (c) is the answer, let me know, just maybe in nicer words.

July 17, 2002

   Fair warning: if you plan on seeing Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, you might want to hold off on my review, as I talk about it at lengths that could conceivably "ruin" the movie for you.  Not that the film holds any great surprises, particularly not if you've seen the trailer (not that it's a giveaway trailer like so many currently are, but alert viewers will be able to figure out the movie's one real, albeit short-lived, "mystery" if they've seen the trailer going in), but I discuss the film from start to finish, which might bother anyone who doesn't like knowing what's up going into the theater.  Of course, if you're not planning on seeing the film, the review is pretty much a moot point short of just liking to read reviews, because you're not looking for a recommendation or anything.  So really, the review is best read by people who have seen the film, which given its relatively limited release probably isn't many of you.  All the same, I rather like this review - though it gives everything away, I think it discusses the film's issues about as well as I ever have.  (At any rate, compare it to old reviews where I'm like, "This film was awesome" and essentially leave it at that.)

July 15, 2002

   I was talking to my dad about Road to Perdition, which everyone I've talked to has had basically the same feelings about: well-made, but not particularly special.  We made particular reference to it as a movie that you wouldn't see more than once (certainly not in theaters), which made us think about the movies we'd actually seen multiple times in theatrical release.  My dad has only seen (or at least only remembers) one movie more than once in the theater: High Fidelity, which he saw twice, once with my mom and once with my sister.  I was trying to work out my list, which is slightly longer.
    Dumb and Dumber - I saw it one day, then my sister wanted to go see it, so I went with her the next day, because this was what, 1995, and she would have been a bit young to see it by herself.
    Star Wars Episode I - Regardless of what I think of it now, when this came out I really liked it.  I went by myself and that somehow talked my dad into seeing it with me a few days later.
    X-Men - Saw it once when I got back from Australia, then actually saw it later that night with Owen and Bisberg.  Still the only movie I've seen twice in one day, because, generally speaking, I am not a complete freak.
    Memento - I forget the exact configurations.  I saw it with one group one day, and I think I saw it again the next day, maybe just with Chris.   But I know I saw it twice.
    Star Wars Episode II - Set a new record as it's the only movie I've seen three times in the theater.  Once on opening night, then again a couple days later with Rich and Chris, then with Rich at the digital theater in Skokie.   All that and yet I may not even buy the DVD, because despite backing off my initial disappointment a bit, I'm still not the biggest fan.
    I can't remember any more, and there may well not be any more.  I don't often see movies twice in the theater, because why?  I can just buy them on DVD and watch them a thousand times for just two to three times the cost of a standard movie ticket.

July 15, 2002

   I don't even know how this stuff happens, but here go two more Lost Quotes.  They're the first two on the 2000-2001 Prof Quotes page, both from Scott Curtis.  How I even stumbled onto these is a fluke in and of itself; how I missed them in the first place when I was transcribing from my quotes is a bigger question.

    And here's another one, a new Witte quote (at the top), because evidently I am a complete moron who cannot read.

July 14, 2002

   It's getting really hard to rate movies these days.  So many movies I see, I think, "You know, it was good in a lot of ways, and yet it really didn't make me feel anything."  I guess that's what grades between A- and B- are for - varying degrees of uncertainty.   Because A+/A movies are clearly good, and C+ or lower are clearly bad.  Those I had feelings about.  Anyway, in case you haven't yet figured out what I'm going to say about Road to Perdition, the review is here.

July 12, 2002

   See, now I'm pissed.  I just finished the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, which ended up being a very inaccurate name for the five Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, and I'm really kind of pissed off.  (More on this, or possibly less, on my summer book reviews page.)   Why, you ask?
    I had finished So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth book.  I liked that book.  It's probably not the cleverest in the series and it's not the funniest, but it's definitely the sweetest.  After getting shit on for years, Arthur ends up back on Earth, and he meets his soulmate in Fenchurch, and they find out that the dolphins saved Earth for them (or immediately replaced it from another dimension, whatever), and they go and see God's Final Message to His Creation.  They see it, and the book ends with what I thought was a nice line of prose.
    Then Mostly Harmless starts, which if I'm not mistaken was written several years later.  Adams appears to have decided in the interval that he absolutely hates Arthur, so he has Fenchurch disappear in one sentence and tosses Arthur around several miserable planets.  Arthur finally ends up as Sandwich Maker on Lamuella, unaccountably enjoys it, and then has Trillian show up with his daughter.
    This is so completely fucked up.  I was already pissed that Fenchurch had disappeared, but I figured, maybe she'll turn up eventually.  Not so.   I don't feel like I'm ruining anything when I say that in fact Fenchurch never returns.  This really pissed me off.  Then the whole daughter thing - and Arthur's daughter is a complete brat, whom Trillian only had using random DNA donation, hence her name Random, only it wasn't random because Arthur ended up being the only species match in the DNA pool.  Guh.  Meanwhile Ford finds out that the Guide has been taken over by the Vogons, in an only moderately interesting subplot.
    I won't "ruin it," except that if you've read the first four and haven't read this, or if you're planning on reading them all, it would benefit you to skip Mostly Harmless.  I'll tell you what happens if you really want to know, but trust me, you won't miss much.  The ending is about the only clever part in the whole book, and it's also finally, completely, morbidly depressing.  I have had more fun in the dentist's chair than I had reading this book.  I guess Adams wanted to offer the sort of finality that maybe he thought So Long didn't, but is it too much to ask for happy finality?  He must really have hated his characters to finish their story like this.

July 9, 2002

   New movie review up.   Because I can see possible "controversy" arising from the content of the review versus its final grade, I thought I should address the whole "grade inflation" issue once and for all.
    Here is the grading scale I tend to operate on:
    A+/A = Liked it a lot, not many problems.
    A-/B+ = Liked it a fair amount, some minor issues.
    B/B- = Kinda mediocre.  If it was a B then it was still pretty entertaining; B- less so.
    C+/C/C-/D+/D/D-/F = Not so good.  These are really varying degrees of bad, ranging from "not very good" to "just plain bad" to "freakin' terrible."
    You see this as "grade inflation."  Well, maybe so, but it's not my fault.  I think grades in school have changed to a point recently where the "average grade" has gone from what you'd think it was supposed to be - a C - to somewhere in the B range, which is more how I view it.  An "average" movie from me will tend to get a B.  It's not like this is uncommon in movie reviewing.  Wouldn't you think an "average" movie would get two stars out of four?  Yet the grade for such movies tends to be two and a half, sometimes three.  All this is a roundabout way of saying I've been affected by the mainstream.  That's right, just like some idiot who shoots up an office building, I'm blaming my troubles on society.  That's just the way things work when I'm trying to dodge criticism from you people.
    Hopefully with this out in the open at least you'll see the motivation, and even if it looks like grade inflation to you, you'll be able to figure out why the review may not always seem to gel with the grade.

July 7, 2002

   I thought I should inform everyone that, much like Lewis Black, I have discovered the end of the universe.  But for me it wasn't in Houston.  It was in New York City.
    I know, I was surprised too.
    On the northeast corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue, in Manhattan, there sits a Starbucks.  And across from that Starbucks, on the southeast corner of the intersection, there sits... another Starbucks.
    And that, my friends, is the end of the universe.
    People ask me, how do I know it's the end of the universe?  I say, go there.  Stand between the Starbucks.  Look at your watch - time stands still.
    I stood there, looking at the Starbucks, and I thought to myself, "When I turn around, there can't possibly be a Starbucks behind me."  So I turned, expecting to see a McDonald's, or a Duane Reade, or maybe a Gap.
    BUT IT WAS ANOTHER STARBUCKS!!!
   People say, do we have too many Starbucks?  Now we know.  Yes.   When you build a Starbucks across from a Starbucks, the game is over.  You can build no more.

July 7, 2002

   In the three days (it's only barely the seventh) since I last updated, the heat went away and today it was quite pleasant, thank you, for another trip 'round the big city.  This time starting at the bottom of Central Park, where we ended last time.  Quick synopsis in always-convenient bullet soundbites:
    * More annoying kids on the train out.  How does this always happen to me?  This time instead of the name whined being "Mommy," it was "Great Uncle John," and it was like five kids instead of two.   Kill me now.  At least they didn't end up in my car on the way back.   Also, why is the Midtown Direct so goddamn full at noon on a Saturday?  I mean, I guess, but damn, I mean full.
    * My ability to get lost in large public areas is quite embarrassing.   One wrong turn and suddenly we're heading in the complete opposite direction we thought we were in the park, without even realizing it until suddenly we stumble upon Strawberry Fields.  "Oh, wait a second, we used to be north of this."   Even I knew that one.  So we ended up heading down to the zoo, which was the eventual plan anyway.
    * The zoo isn't big, but it's not uncool.  The sea lions were pretty awesome at feeding time, and before (as they kept coming out of the water impatiently and barking, like irate customers wondering why their fish hasn't arrived yet).  Other than that, it was kind of standard fare - the otter was cute, though he seemed to insist on licking himself for part of the time we were there; the penguins were cool; and the Victoria crowned pigeon (or something like that) and scarlet ibis were neat-looking.  There was some other moderately interesting stuff, but I either forget or don't feel like typing it.
    * The Roosevelt Island tram is so weird.  Can you believe there's no other way to get from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island without first going through Queens?  Not like there's much to see on Rosie, and we were like two of four people who were just in it for the trip.  I couldn't help but think of Spider-Man, of course.  Fortunately no green guy cut the cable and dropped us, though if he had there's no doubt in my mind that a bunch of New Yorkers with cans would have come to our aid from the Queensboro.
    * Then came more walking.  Down to the UN, which somehow was not stunningly cool close up.  None of the flags were out, which was disappointing, because then I could have named every country while Shannon suppressed her gag reflex.
    * I actually went into ESPNZone this time, which pretty much satisfied my desire to go into ESPNZone.  Even though I was now determined to make her go inside, I'm not such a jerk that I'd have made her stick around while I watched the Cubs blow their 3-0 lead (which amazingly they did not do).
    * Aside from that it was mostly walking and talking, so I'll spare you further details.  Let me merely add that under no circumstances should you ever purchase "Aquafina Essentials."  It doesn't have enough sugar to not suck, but it also has too much sugar to not suck.  In other words, it sucks, and tastes god awful.  Even though it only costs 54 cents at Duane Reade, and that's with sales tax, it's not worth it.

July 3, 2002

   The air conditioning is finally on throughout the house.  Good timing - right now (3:45 pm) it's 99 degrees - ninety-nine - with a heat index of 106.  Yeah!  Of course, there's no A/C on the second floor, which is only where I, you know, sleep, and shower.  Oh, it's real easy to get dry in temperatures like that, with the humidity and all.  Wait, did I say it was?   Because I meant it wasn't.  Fortunately I spend almost no time on the second floor during the day, unless it's going between the first and third floors.
    New dream entry.   This one also has real places depicted with a fractured sense of space, but then I can only recall one dream in the time I've been writing them down that didn't.  If you're wondering why there haven't been more dreams lately (Chris), it's not because there haven't, it's because the dreams have really been too vivid and detailed to write down accurately.  Plus I've been tending to forget them quicker.  I'll try to work on that - I kind of like seeing them down just because it's a hard copy of the weirdness that is my subconscious.
    My latest project: we have a family thing we call the "Funny Book" wherein my mom wrote down all the amusing things my sister and I said as little kids.  Perhaps this sounds like it would be incredibly stupid to anyone outside the family.  Well, it's possible.  I'll let you be the judge, as I plan on culling the finest gems and mounting a little site about them on here.  It'll give my sister something to do when she's online, if nothing else.

July 2, 2002

   If I can sweat without moving, it is officially too hot.   Right now it's 94 with a heat index of 102.  102!  And I'm on the third floor, and heat rises.  I've turned the A/C back on, but it'll take a little bit to cool down, as we've been away for a couple days.  News missed while I was in Pennsylvania:
    * Brazil won the World Cup.  Yeah, they've won it a lot (five times now), but it's better than Germany, who had also won it a lot.  Sort of like if the NBA Finals had been Celtics-Lakers (and despite the fact that they have more titles historically, I would've been pulling for the Celtics, just as here).  My dad really didn't like Germany after the U.S. game (I wasn't quite as pissed as he), so he was cheering for Brazil pretty loudly and referred to Ronaldo at least 37 times as "the best player in the world" and various other compliments.  Which he probably is, scoring 8 goals in the World Cup and tying Pele having only played in two Cups (though Pele really only played in two if you consider the injury setbacks in '62, though Brazil won anyway, and '66).  At least Oliver Kahn (whom my dad dubbed "Chewbacca") finally looked fallible.  It wasn't a great game, but it was better than '94 at any rate.
    * Uh, I guess that's about it.  Pennsylvania isn't exactly a news-making machine.  We played mini golf last night - I came apart on the back nine and tied for second with my mom at +13, while my dad won going away at +3.  (My sister was +16.)  Just to show you how ludicrous mini golf greens can switch an entire round, I calculated me vs. my dad and my mom vs. Marian in match play.  Dad only beat me 3 and 2 (and I was 1 up after nine holes), and my mom beat Marian 1 up by winning the last hole - this after Marian had been 4 up at one point on the back nine.
    So I'm something of a mini golf nerd, yes?  Anyway, I have a really great idea - actually, several.
    1. Mini Golf Road Trip.  Just off the top of my head, I can think of seven mini golf sites (and a total of at least nine courses) around here and in Pennsylvania.  Ric and Chong want to do a golf road trip, why not a mini golf road trip?
    2. Mini Golf Tournament à la Pebble Beach.  Isn't Pebble Beach the one where they play like four different courses?  Ric can correct me if I'm wrong.  Tell me this wouldn't work.  Get three or four people, and drive around Pennsylvania (where there are more courses I know of) and play four different courses.   Lowest total wins.
    3. Mini Golf Match Play.  You have no idea how fun this is.   Unlike in regular mini golf, where one bad hole of putting can knock you several strokes off the pace quickly, you can't lose more than one on any hole, making it easier to make up ground if you get your shit together.  You might say, what if someone runs away with it, negating the last few holes?  Well, play the last few holes just for the hell of it.  Still, this is way more fun that it might sound, in my opinion.
    Any other mini golf lovers out there?  It'd be nice to play against someone aside from my family every now and then.  Maybe I can get Ric and Chong to play when they come out here.

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This page last updated: Thursday, August 01, 2002 12:11:40 AM