Cheapskates

I'm reading "Hocus Pocus" by Kurt Vonnegut right now. This passage caught my eye:

Bergeron’s epitaph for the planet, I remember, which he said should be carved in big letters in a wall of the Grand Canyon for the flying-saucer people to find, was this:

WE COULD HAVE SAVED IT
BUT WE WERE TOO DOGGONE CHEAP

Only he didn’t say “doggone.”

That's the problem with us. We're too fucking cheap to save ourselves. It wouldn't be that hard to stop catastrophes like global warming, but people don't want to pay for it.

And those of us who ARE willing to make sacrifices are obstructed by lazy apathetic stupid cheapskates. Many of them are called "Congressmen" and "Senators" and "President Bush" and so on.

But no worries, everything will fix itself, right?

songs + john lennon

Songs I like right now:

Ten Years After - I'd Love to Change the World
Immortal Technique - Land of the Gun
Ryan Adams - To Be Young
Bob Dylan - Positively Fourth Street
AC DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

And I want to start listening to John Lennon's solo material dated between 1968 and 1971. I just saw the documentary that just came out (The U.S. vs John Lennon). Great soundtrack, and holy shit was his life crazy at that point. I wonder what he put into that music.

Great film. Go see it. Now Playing.

N.L.D.S.

It’s October 3rd and I’m writing about San Diego Padres baseball.

Yessss!

It’s playoff time.

So why are we here? I mean, we're the Paaaadres! We're not supposed to go to the plaaaayoffs! We're supposed to lose 90 games every year. That's how the world knows hell hasn't frozen over.

Nah, not anymore. Not in the KevinTowers-BruceBochy-JohnMoores era. For the first time in Padres history, we're making consecutive postseason appearances.

Good starting pitching + best bullpen in baseball + great defense + weak NL West + juuuust enough hitting = recipe for a division championship.

So we get to play the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League Division Series. As I write, they’re just underway at Petco Park.

A three man starting rotation of Peavy-Young-Wells ain’t easy to beat. If the three starters simply do what’s expected of them, and the bats don’t go quiet, we should be able to pull through. The Cards aren’t easy to beat, but neither are the Padres.

It’s not like last year when we went in knowing we were totally outgunned. We limped into the playoffs with a mediocre record of 82-80... and got swept in the first round by the same St. Louis Cardinals we’re facing today.

Actually, the Cardinals of this year are quite different. Their bullpen is weaker and they’ve been plagued by injuries all year. Their hitters are still dangerous, but they barely won their division, posting a lackluster 83-79 record.

This time, the Pads go in confident. We had to fight for our playoff spot, so we’ve come into October with a lot of momentum, going 19-9 in September to win the division with a respectable 88-74 record. We’re hitting well lately and the pitching has been fiiiiiine.

Way to enter the postseason.

There was a rally on Monday at Petco, where about 5,500 fans showed up to celebrate winning the division title. Winning the division is nice, but the players want more.

Catcher Josh Bard was also on hand for Rally Monday and had some assuring words for San Diego fans in response to those that felt the Padres might just be glad to be making a postseason appearance.

"I know that there's 25 guys in that clubhouse that aren't just happy to be here," Bard said.

Sounds about right to me.

Jake Peavy just struck out Albert Pujols for the third out in the top of the first inning.

Rad.

Go Padres.

fall

I woke up this morning and it was raining.

Fall's here.

I loved the summer but I missed the rain.