Monthly Archives: June 2008

June 12 of 12

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What better way to kick off Friday the 13th than with 12 of 12.

My life’s pretty quiet now.  Translation: I’m bored out of my mind.  I didn’t leave the apartment yesterday (again), so several pics are of the TV screen.  God I love TV.

10:02am – Amy and I are trying to live a more eco-friendly, organic lifestyle, so she recommended this organic peanut butter.  I did a side-by-side taste test and the results are in: the MaraNatha peanut butter is delicious.  It tastes freshly homemade.  Amazing.

10:22am – They’re doing some renovations and repairs around the apartment complex, so I didn’t have water to wash my dish.  So to pass the time…

10:23am – I continued my Seinfeld-watching.

10:48am – As you can see, I’m making progress, moving on to the second disc of the penultimate season.

11:15am – I get an email saying that my dissertation has been approved by the Office of Graduate Studies and will posted online.  Horray!

11:23am – As I continue my morning online routine, I request official copies of my transcripts from my three schools.  Northwestern is the only school that has my mail a request form in by snail mail (thereby slowing the process).  Thanks to Loyola for sending transcripts for free.

11:24am – The transcripts I requested from LUC, NU, and FSU are all going to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UMass Lowell.  It’s part of the “making-my-hire-official” process.

12:47pm – Givin’ Oreo some love.  She loves those nubby gloves I got.

2:25pm – WGN celebrated its 60th year of broadcasting Cubs baseball with a “throwback game,” which featured both teams wearing 1948-style uniforms and a black-and-white telecast complete with graphics of yesteryear (just for the first two innings).

8:10pm – I cooked dinner for myself, which is a rarity these days.  It looked better in person, and it tasted even better.

9:52pm – The way I see it, since I was feeling domestic, why not continue the trend?  Iactually washed my dishes.  Recognize the hat?

10:31pm – 2nd place in the 100cc Special Cup in MarioKart Wii.  I was leading the standings until the final race.  Two words for you: Rainbow.  Road.  God I hate that course.

Different FROM

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English is a quirky language, one of the most difficult to master simply because there are so many rules and an equal number of exceptions to those rules.  To be sure, no one follows all the rules all of the time, but being a grammatical purist, I try my best to uphold as many of the rules as I know.  The way I see it, everyday English has deteriorated because of sheer laziness, or because the correct grammar “doesn’t sound right.”  Many of the commonly broken rules in everyday English can be corrected easily with just a little bit of effort.

Here’s a phrase I hear uttered just about every day that makes my skin crawl: “different than.”  I can safely bet that 99% of Americans don’t know that that phrase is wrong and it drives me crazy.  When juxtaposing two or more things using the adjective “different,” the word “FROM” should be used, not “than.”  The reason?  “Different” is the adjective form of the verb “differ,” as in “A differs FROM B.”  So, it stands to reason that when using the adjective (or adverb) form of the verb, we need to use the same modifier.  “The color red is different FROM the color blue.”  Or, “The Cubs are playing differently this year from last year.”  One thing doesn’t differ THAN another thing; it differs FROM it.  See: easy correction.

Remember: Different from.

It shouldn’t matter

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The presidential primary season is finally over.  Whew.  It was exhausting and tiresome and redundant.  Obama vs. Clinton.  Clinton vs. Obama.  Oy.  Now the country turns its attention to the general election in November, a heavyweight battle mainly between Barack Obama and John McCain.  The economy.  The environment.  The “war.”  In the coming weeks and months, there is sure to be a slew of articles and programs outlining and detailing these crucial issues as the campaign ramps up and voters try to decide the next person who runs the country.

Keeping this in mind, I’m shocked at CNN.com, and not in the good way.  With issues like skyrocketing gas and oil prices and a weakening dollar, the news channel chooses to run an article that questions whether Barack Obama is black or biracial.  It’s a short piece that describes the “trouble” Obama and others have in identifying their racial identity.  OK, in fairness, it is remarkable that a minority man is running for president; it’s about freakin’ time.  But the shocking part of the article, to me, is the very last paragraph, in which Michaela Angela Davis (who?) says that “it’s a step in the right direction that we are even having this discussion at all.” 

Really?  Seriously?? 

To the contrary, Ms. Davis, a step in the right direction would be NOT having this discussion at all.  Progress would be focusing on the real governmental issues, not continually dwelling on race or gender or sexual preference or religion.  Those things shouldn’t matter when it comes to electing our next president, or anyone for that matter.  So Obama is part black, part white.  So what?  Hillary Clinton is a woman.  So what?  The only reason those qualifiers matter is that never before in the history of this country has a non-white man ever been elected to the Oval Office.  It’s important and I get that.  But it’s a tired non-issue; let’s please move on.  We should be past the point where gender, race, religion, and sexual preference in the political world are remarkable attributes.  The way I see it, progress already has been made simply for the fact that Obama and Clinton (both minorities in the political world) ran such a tightly contested primary.  And now that those primaries are over, let’s concentrate on what really matters.

You want progress?  How about NOT talking about Obama’s racial identity for once.  Now THAT is a fresh idea.

Team MVP

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Yup, it’s another Cubs update.  But, what can you expect?  Not only are the Cubs in first place in the NL Central, not only do they have the best record in the National League, they have the best record in all the majors.  And I learned yesterday that the last time that happened was 1908, the last year the Cubs won the World Series.  Exactly a century ago for the North Siders.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  I dunno…I’m just sayin’.

Anyway, my two favorite players on the Cubs are first baseman Derrek Lee and right-handed setup man Carlos Marmol (MARMOL!!)  Lee is the best defensive first baseman in professional baseball and a pretty darn good hitter, too, despite his recent struggles. He’s a career .282 hitter with a career OPS  or .870, plus he’s a three-time Gold Glove winner.  Go ahead, find me another active first baseman who can field better than D-Lee, I dare you.  And Marmol?  He’s only turned into the one of the most (if not THE most) dominant reliever in the majors, with a high-90’s fastball and a slider that’s just filthy.  Stupid filthy.  In 29 games this year, he’s struck out 54 batters while only walking 12 in 36 innings and posting a miniscule 1.75 ERA and leading he majors in holds.  As Mike and I have been saying for about a year now, Marmol is the next great closer.

The way I see it, despite the contributions of Lee and Marmol, which have been tremendous, the Cubs’ MVP thus far has been rookie catcher Geovany Soto.  Let’s start with the numbers: in 53 games, he’s batting .296 with 9 HRs, 38 RBI, and 19 doubles, along with a .942 OPS, all of which place him at or near the top among rookies and catchers.  Not to mention that he calls a great game, works well with Cubs’ pitchers, and has the ability to throw out runners (he’s caught 11 of 24 would-be base-stealers).  And he’s done all of this from the bottom half of the batting order, starting the season in the #7 spot and recently moving up to the 5-hole.  Keep your eyes on Soto; he’s a superstar in the making.  Remember this folks, you heard it here first: Soto will be this year’s Rookie of the Year (with Fukudome coming in second).

(Cast your votes for the MLB All-Stars.  Vote now and vote often, up to 25 times.  Needless to say, I’ve already voted for Lee at first and Soto behind the plate, and I wrote in Carlos Marmol.)