Author: King Tom

My First Quake

Growing up on an island in the Atlantic, I was used to certain weather patterns. Cold (but not too cold) winters, hot (but not too hot) summers and springs/falls of a decent length. Just about the only type of severe weather we would get was hurricanes. A tornado hit the island once, but I missed it as I was away on summer vacation.

I moved to Ohio 11 years ago and things are different.  Tornadoes are a seasonal thing.  There is no spring or fall, and I’ve complained several times before about the cold bleak winters.  But one thing I’ve never been subjected to in Ohio or out East was an earthquake.  Until today.

I was sitting in my office when I felt a rumble.  Because I’m up on the 17th floor, I thought it was the building settling or something. It wasn’t until my Tweet Deck started going crazy that I realized it may have been more than that (not to mention clicking on #earthquake froze up my Tweet Deck for an hour or so).

I’m not saying I’d want to go through another one, because I wouldn’t.  And I’m sure if I was closer, I would have felt a lot more than a rumble.  But at least I can say I survived my first earthquake.

King Tom2 Comments

One Year, Two Surgeries Later

This was Hope one year ago today:

It was a few minutes before the surgery to repair her cleft lip (the first of two surgeries she’s had in the last year).  The six-week recovery period after the surgery was a bit rough for Hope, The Civee and myself.  And her second surgery wasn’t any easier.  But Hope has come a long way.  Here she is earlier today:

There are two things I should say about this picture. First, it’s really tough to get a good picture of Hope- she’s always moving.  Second, she’s in a big bottle phase right now.  Not milk bottles, but bottles that The Civee or I use.  The other day, she grabbed a hold of a Fresca bottle and would not let go.  However, she did stand still for a few seconds:

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Stupid Checkout Questions and Banner-Style Receipts

The other day, The Civee and I stopped at a CVS on our way back home from a few hours at the park with Hope.  We had a drive ahead of us and wanted some drinks.  I stepped up to the register with four items- two drinks and two candy bars.  I answered in the negative to the standard CVS checkout question of whether or not I had the loyalty/friend/reward card/number/whatever.  But as I handed the clerk my debit card to pay, the following exchange happened:

Cashier (surprisingly animated for a question of this nature): Would you like to also purchase some hand sanitizer?

Me: Um…what? Why would you ask that?

Cashier (as surprised by my response as I was by his question): Um…we’re supposed to ask…?

Me: Well, it’s a stupid question. And no.

I was a bit surprised by the question.  All I wanted was to buy my drinks and candy bars and get out of there.  It’s bad enough to have to deal with the loyalty card question, but now they all but accuse me of being a dirty, unsanitary person simply because I don’t want to buy a tube filled with scented alcohol.

Are there any stores left where you can just walk up to a register, pay and leave?

And as if CVS wasn’t wasting enough of my time, it seems like they also like to waste paper.  Keep in mind, I had four items.  This was my receipt (I’ve enlisted some of Hope’s toys to give you an idea of the scale):

That receipt is more than a foot long.  I’m not sure whether to throw it out or to give it to a high school marching band so the drum majorettes have something to march behind for their homecoming parade.

The Civee says I should have been nicer to the clerk.  I say spontaneous, honest feedback is the best option in a situation like this. After all, I was the one who went in the store to get the drinks.

King Tom2 Comments

High Energy Physicists Finally Develop Something Worthwhile

Twenty years ago, the Internet was a text-only method of communication used mostly by academic types and those who were really into computers.  People shared files through FTP transfers and talked through e-mail and Usenet, which was a group of bulletin boards comprised of e-mail discussions.

Then, on August 6 1991, Tim Berners-Lee posted an item to the Usenet announcing the creation of the World Wide Web (or WorldWideWeb), a browser-based system to view hypertext.  Or, as he said:

The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any
information anywhere. … The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data,
news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other
areas, and having gateway servers for other data.

It was a few more years before graphics could be viewed alongside all the text. But pretty soon after that, the Web was everywhere, and the Internet was no longer the domain of academic types or those who were really into computers.  Even though I’d been online since ’92, it was still a few more years before I used the Web.

Things have certainly changed.  For instance, this blog is slightly more advanced (though not much more mature) than the hand-coded site I made in college.

So if you find yourself being productive (or wasting time) online, thank a high-energy physicist.

King Tom

Hope’s Favorite Night? Ribs Night

So far, Hope has been really good with food.  There have been only a few things she doesn’t like, including eggs, ketchup and barbecue sauce.  Hope will even refuse to eat Montgomery Inn sauce, which to The Civee, is like a knife through the heart, as every Cincinnatians blood is 1/16th Montgomery Inn sauce.

But we can now scratch barbecue sauce off the list of things Hope won’t eat.  Tonight, we were having ribs (along with corn and green beans) and before we knew it, Hope was dominating the ribs.  Midway through the meal, we got gutsy and offered her some barbecue sauce.  She tried it, her face lit up, and all she wanted was more sauce.

I should probably mention that I made the sauce.

I’ve made ribs several times over the past few summers.  Each time, I also made my own sauce.  While always good, each time before tonight, something was off.  Whether the sauce was too watery or the ribs the wrong consistency, I was never fully happy with the result.  Until tonight.  The sauce was perfect (despite me having to make a vinegar substitution) and even though they were a little charred on the outside, the meat on the ribs fell off the bone.  And, as I mentioned, Hope loved them.

I started cooking the ribs around 4:00 and we ended up eating around 7:15.  Both The Civee and I think Hope had more of our ribs than we did.  Thankfully, even though we (with Hope’s assistance) polished off the ribs, there’s a lot more sauce left over.

King Tom1 Comment

The Yankees’ Original Hideki

The summer of 1997 was one of the last in my life which I’d consider carefree. I was between my sophomore and junior years of college. Much like this summer, it was a hot and humid one.  I worked two jobs, one in a restaurant, and the other at King Classic’s lawfirm.  I went to a lot of Yankees games that summer (that year was the first we had the Sunday Plan) and I believe I caught most or part of every game I didn’t attend on TV or the radio.  Most days, I’d go to lunch with King Classic, and on the ride, we’d listen to whatever Yankees discussion was going on on WFAN.

That summer, the city was abuzz over Hideki Irabu, a Japanese pitcher hailed as that nation’s Roger Clemens.  Irabu’s NPB team had dealt him to the Padres, but Irabu would only play for one team- the Yankees.  He was acquired by the Yankees and expected to be the greatest pitcher ever.  Even though he was dominant in his first MLB start against Detroit, the proclaimed superstar stumbled, displaying a bad attitude and all-too hittable stuff.  Still, he had great marketing, selling out his first few starts and having a number of t-shirts on sale at the Stadium memorabilia stands (I still have two, although the Irabu poster I owned had to be thrown out due to water damage).

Irabu went back and forth from The Bronx to Columbus that summer, but actually made the Yankees’ starting rotation in 1998.

In the early months of ’98, Irabu was the teams’ most dependable starter. In a year where injuries threatened the team early on, he kept a sub-3.00 ERA through July, and didn’t get a loss until May 30.  It looked as if the Yankees had the pitcher they expected to get the year before. And unlike in ’97, where he seemed not to care, in 1998, he was pitching like he had something to prove.  Irabu even incited a bench-clearing brawl against the Blue Jays when he charged home plate after hitting Shannon Stewart with a pitch.

Starting in late ’98, Hideki turned back into a pumpkin and floundered throughout ’99 before being dealt away to Montreal, and then ending his career in Texas. Irabu attempted a comeback a few years ago, but it didn’t work out.

Irabu’s name was in the news today, and not for a good reason- the former Yankee was found dead in California.  You never like to read stories like that, especially when it turns out he left a family behind.

Sure, it’s a sad story, and I’m sorry for his family.  But ever since hearing the news earlier today, all I’ve been thinking about was a hot summer when my biggest concern was whether the Yankees would win that day.

King Tom7 Comments

Before the Spill

Hope is getting a lot better at doing things (well, some things) on her own.

Lately, she’s been working on drinking from a cup.  She’s finally got the two-hands thing down. And even though she spilled a little tonight, she now knows to slowly tilt the cup towards her, rather than just dumping the whole thing.

 

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Fußball Schadenfreude

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t care much for any level of football.  My feeling for the sport has evolved from apathy to distaste.  Which is kind of tough for me considering I’m one of the handful of people in my city who doesn’t pay attention to the local college team.

Growing up, I disliked football because the start of games meant that summer was nearing an end, as was baseball season (the Yankees didn’t have real postseason prospects until my junior year of high school) and it was time to go back to school.  And sure, now that I’m older (and the Yankees have gotten better), baseball season lasts longer and there’s more for me to do in the fall, yet I still don’t care much for the game.

Last week, someone mentioned that high school teams resumed practice recently and all I could feel was “oh great, here we go again.”  But then I realized that two factors might make this fall bearable: the labor issues in professional football, which may endanger the start of the season, and the corruption involving the college team, which will hamper how they do next season.  (I don’t pay much attention to news involving football, so I apologize if my news is wrong or out-of-date).

I’m sure that either of these two factors might make the fall miserable for some.  And for that, well, I’m kinda sorry.  But honestly, I don’t care.  I plan on watching baseball until late October (or early November, because the baseball season is nearly as long as the basketball season) and after that, I have a bunch of Yankees DVDs to keep me occupied until Spring Training.

King Tom

Bandwidth Hogging

On Saturday, it will have been three weeks since I got my new phone. One of the reasons I got it at this point was Verizon’s (then) impending switch to bandwidth caps for new customers. I signed up under the old plan and have an unlimited data plan.

I checked my usage today and I’m up to 1.8 GB of data used. The Incredible 2 is not one of those fancy 4G phones (and so far, I haven’t felt like I’m missing anything) so I’m not exactly streaming Netflix on it, but I am watching the occasional YouTube video, downloading a Weezer song here and there and listening to some online radio. Actually, listening to the radio is what’s been using most of that bandwidth.

Even if I have a lot of my own music on the phone, it still is entertaining to listen to something different. Back in college, I had one of the original versions of Real player and would listen to stations from around the world. Now, it’s pretty much the same thing, except through my phone.

Overall it’s nice to have something to get my money’s worth out of my data plan.

If you read this and you’re thinking, “it sounds like he’s writing this just to blog about something,” well, you’re mostly right.

King Tom