DAILY DOSE: "My Chemical Left Me a Beautiful Disaster"

On my way out of the office to go to an interview yesterday, I asked Barb, my boss, if she had any good advice for me, to which she replied, “Yeah, take two pitches and hit it to right.”

She then followed it up with some actual interview-relevant advice, but I couldn’t help think about how well “take two pitches and hit to right” pretty much just rings true for everything. For those of you not baseball-inclined, I’ll explain. When you’ve got two strikes on you, the best thing to do is choke-up on the bat, keep your weight back, and look for an offspeed pitch to hit the “other way” (for a right-hander: right field). This way, you won’t get fooled by a curveball and strike out. And even if he brings a fastball, you’ll probably foul it off, or just be late and hit it to right anyhow. It’s Contact Hitting 101 (that Jeff Bagwell used to perfection to break Ollie’s no-hitter the other day). So it got me thinking, “Maybe it’s true, maybe the best advice is to sit back, kind of let things come to you, and just drive the ball the other way.” Now, I’m not sure what “the ball” is, and I suppose it changes with whatever situation you’re in, but I like the analogy. I have a tendency (I’m sure you’ll be surprised to know) to rush into situations melodramatically with my emotions clearly on my sleeve, and blowing whatever sort of advantage I had. Clearly, I need to sit back, and let at bats develop, until I can just find a pitch to hit.

..but there is the fact that my batting average dropped about 300 points when I tried to start hitting that way in HS/College. The only time I’ve been a good hitter was when I was aggressive. So I suppose the lesson here is, “I have no idea what I’m talking about.” I still think it’s good advice though. I just have to figure out how to actually apply it to life. Your thoughts/suggestions are more than welcome.

Two Links today. The first is from Elise, and features exploding amphibians. She finds the weirdest stuff online.

Now, if combustible toads aren’t your forte, I ask you, who wants to get fired? (or, in Lauren’s case: Fail Finals) Head to the Link of the Day and play GAMES! GAMES, I SAY, GAMES!!! (allow me to recommend “Digger” which I had on my PC back in the late 80s! Adina, Gooder and I would play this like, every day. I’m pretty sure I held the house record, for even then I was the Gaming Pro!) Actually, this site is kind of a letdown. I’ve been trying to find “Odell Lake” online, but no one seems to have it. Anybody remember that game from grade school? What about the Charlie Brown typing/baseball game? Interestingly- I found a walkthrough to the Oregon Trail online today. Apparently, games created for 10 year olds to learn about history now require Cheats… back in MY DAY we died of cholera like normal people, left crass remarks on our gravestone, and forded our way to Fort Walla Walla. Kids these days… And while we’re on the topic of Aple //e games, does anyone have a copy of Where in the USA is Carmen SanDiego? I would LOVE to have that… I almost beat it in the fourth grade, making the grade of "Super Sleuth," but was never able to catch Carmen before the end of the schoolyear. For the record- no one in class was better than me (because I am a MEGA-NERD).

That’s about it for today. After work, it’s back home to my NEW/USED MONITOR! That doesn’t suck like my old one, to write my Captain Kirk paper. Also, thanks to AliMac for telling me all about the LimeWire pirating software! Thanks to her, I was finally able to download some more Keane and some Anna Nalick. Anna should be my next ex-girlfriend. She’s the protypical Adam-Girl, sings melodramatic songs (that I like) and is cutetimesten. Her song, “Catalyst” is YOUR Song of the Day, because she strangely mentions a “beautiful disaster,” which was a concept I ran across on the net a few months ago, have been meaning to talk about, and haven’t. If Iwere one to believe in fate (which I’m not) I’d be pretty sure we’re engaged.

Just to sum up how all-over-the-place this DOSE has been, I leave yinz with this declaration:
Double-chocolate (half milk/half dark) Hershey’s Kisses are FAN-tastic. They’re not Caramel Kiss AMAZING, but they’re close. There ain’t nuthin’ like the Caramel Kiss.

be good to each other,

-apk