by Matt | Apr 30, 2009 | Aggravation, Culture, Personal
This Swine Flu crap is making me laugh. Seriously. I’ve gotten, in the past 3 days, multiple emails from governement agencies (because we get internal emails here at work) telling people to really be careful about this. This is totally and completely blown out of proportion.
I’m typing this as my co-working, sitting 15 feet away, is on the phone CANCELING her trip to Mexico in JULY. It’s the top story on every major news outlet, the top result trending on every search engine and the most talked about subject around the water cooler.
Let me put this into perspective for you. As of this morning, according to CNN, 230 have confirmed cases of piggy flu, including 91 in the US. By comparison, between 50,000 and 70,000 people DIE every year from the NORMAL FLU. Don’t believe me, check the numbers. How about a statistic with closer numbers. Every DAY, 5,000 people are rear-ended in a car accident. Or how about 341 people, per day, are killed in a head on collision. There ya go. You have a better chance of being in a deadly head on collision today, than contracting the pig pox.
Of course, the news isn’t going to tell you that. They want you to panic. They want my co-worker to cancel her trip. They want to fill up ERs, drug stores and doctors offices. You know why? Because it makes for awesome news. Their ratings go through the roof. People who don’t normally watch the news or watch news exclusively are suddenly glued to the channel. They make a mint in advertising dollars. Why do you think that “coming up next” or “when we return” they’ll tell you something new? It’s all a tease, a game, a bunch of steaming BS.
I should probably mention, that of those 91 people in the US, 1 kid has died. One baby. That baby came up from Mexico the day before. So, there ya go. The poor kid who died is just another number in the expected 70,000 to be killed by flu this year. It sounds bad, 70,000 sounds like a bad number, but you just have to put it into perspective.
Drive safe.
by Matt | Apr 28, 2009 | Aggravation, Personal
I had decided to purchase the MLB.com “Gameday Audio Premium”. It’s $20 for the season. It includes the audio from all the radio stations, home and away, for all the games. It also includes the “Gameday” page with live box-scores, stats, pitch locations, etc. That was, until I read all this. On the website it lists the following:
- LISTEN to Every 2009 Regular Season and Postseason Game LIVE
- All Home & Select Away Feeds
That’s directly from the website. Notice the lack of “*” after those statements. Now read the fine print:
Regular Season Local Live Blackout: All live games on MLB.TV are subject to local blackouts. Such live games will be blacked out in each applicable Club’s home television territory (except for certain home television territories for which MLB.com may offer in-market subscription services). If a game is blacked out in an area, it is not available for live game viewing. Each game will be available 45 minutes after the conclusion of the game as an archived game (archived games are blackout free).
In addition, note:
- These blackout restrictions apply regardless of whether a Club is home or away and regardless of whether or not a game is televised in a Club’s home television territory..
- All live Toronto Blue Jays games are blacked out throughout the entire country of Canada.
- Additional teams may also be subject to blackout in parts of Canada based on their region.
- All live games will be blacked out in the U.S. territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands during the MLB regular season.
Regular Season Weekend U.S. National Live Blackout: Due to Major League Baseball exclusivities, live games occurring each Saturday with a scheduled start time after 1:10 PM ET or before 7:05 PM ET and each Sunday with a scheduled start time after 5:00 PM ET, will be blacked out in the United States (including the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Live Audio of such games is available as part of any MLB.TV subscription or as part of the MLB.com Gameday Audio Package. Each game will be available 45 minutes after the conclusion of the game as an archived game (archived games are blackout free).
That makes it sound like the people the shelled out for MLB.TV, the $110 per season bullshit, are STILL subject to blackouts in their areas. It also makes it sound like the GameDay Audio is still available. That sounded ok. The local market games, provided they’re on TV, are blacked out. Ok, I almost get that. Then, as I’m searching for clarification, I came upon this. Directly from the “Audio Help Forum”, someone had asked why their audio stream was unavailable.
“Nationwide blackouts are standard as the national broadcast networks own the rights. We put up the archives of the game 45 minutes after the games are done though.”
Blackouts INCLUDE THE FUCKING AUDIO.
I’m sorry, I just don’t understand. Please, someone at the MLB, help me to wrap my head around this. YOU ARE the governing body of the sport that I love. YOU alone have the power to grant radio and TV broadcast rights under the authority of the commissioner of baseball. You didn’t save any of those rights for yourself??? The MLB isn’t allowed to broadcast it’s own games? Seriously? What in the flying fuck is that about? I get that some teams have their own broadcast rights, but even then, they still have to be approved by YOU.
I simply don’t understand. If it’s a money thing, I don’t understand how this is making them more money. Or how by broadcasting ALL the games they would make less. If it’s an advertising thing and sponsors wouldn’t advertise at the park or on TV if you’re broadcasting the games elsewhere, then wouldn’t the subscription fee for the service cover that cost? If I’m watching on TV, I see visual ads plastered all over the park, I see ads in the TV broadcast, I heard ads in the radio broadcast. What exactly am I missing? Who’s getting screwed that you NEED to blackout a game?
You know what, I’m going to write the office of the commissioner. I have a legitimate question, and I’ve love a legitimate answer. I doubt I’ll get one, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
by Matt | Apr 17, 2009 | Personal, Tech, Travel, Web
A friend from church asked me last week how I was staying sane with all that was going on. I didn’t know how to reply at the time, but think at least part of the answer is in my messenger bag.
Last November, for our anniversary, my wife got me a really really nice messenger bag. Leather and ballistic nylon, with heavy duty hardware, magnetic closures and a really heavy duty strap. I really like it. I’ve been taking it to work with me every day since I got it.
Since we’ve been making frequent trips to hospitals and the in-laws, I’ve found a need to be prepared for just about anything. My current benchmark is to be prepared for a 48hr stay in a hospital waiting room. We’ve done the 48hr strait waiting game 3 times now, and each time I’m more and more prepared.
I thought perhaps it would be interesting to mention what I’ve got in my bag at the moment. Who knows, it could be enlightening.
Click for a larger image, with labels, but come back here for the explanations.
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by Matt | Apr 17, 2009 | Friends and Family, Personal
Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I’m sure most of you remember that my father-in-law was in the hospital last year with a very complicated bowel resection surgery. I haven’t really talked about it since, but it’s been ongoing since April of 2008. It’s now been an entire year and, provided his current surgery from last week was successful, he’ll need yet one more surgery in the near future to finally be done. His bowels have been operated on at least 8 times now, the actual number is hard to figure since there have been so many “minor” surgeries in between major ones.
Currently, he’s at home, trying to rest but going a little stir-crazy.
If that were the only thing going on we’d be lucky.
My mother-in-law, at some point around Christmas (no one is really sure), started acting strangely. In an ongoing debate as to what happened, multiple doctors have gone back and forth in between diagnoses of either a very large stroke or the onset of some form of dementia. Her reasoning and logic skills have taken a major step backwards while her motor skills, speech and daily functioning remain relatively untouched. She can do all the normal day to day things like get dressed, make food, watch TV, etc, but is unable to grasp higher concepts and trains of thought. She’s not disabled in any sort of way, she’s just dropped a few levels in maturity and reasoning. It’s like she’s a 12 year old trapped in a 50 year old’s body.
That’s creating quite a bit of stress for everyone, my wife especially. During the periods that my father-in-law is in the hospital, my mother-in-law is staying with us. At times it really is like taking care of a child. They don’t understand why things are a certain way. They get bits and pieces of conversations and become fixated by them. They can function, but with supervision. For example, everyone was doing their taxes the other day. She read a question from Turbo Tax that asked if she received a tax rebate last year. The fact that she didn’t and should have, in her mind, became the talking point for the next 5 days.
So, in between trips to the hospital, helping her at home, and trying to take care of ourselves, we’re also trying to help with the care for my wife’s grand-parents, both of whom are in a care facility the next town over. Things were going well with them, despite the early onset of Alsymers and the normal aging process (using a walker, being forgetful, etc). That was, until this week. The Grandmother, over Easter, seemed to be wheezing when she breathed so we decided we needed to take her to the doctor this week. Once they got to the appointment the doctor suggested we call an ambulance and take her to the ER because there was a possibility of congestive heart failure. So, rushing to the ER yesterday, and waiting until 2am to get a room at the hospital for observation, she’s now being monitored and tested. Early indications from blood work and CAT scans are positive but it’s still too early to rule anything out. We’ll find out more today.
So, three of my in-laws are suffering from some sort of medical ailments, all at the same time. We’re trying our best to help each of them out in their own right but it’s taking it’s toll, on Lauren especially.
I worry so much about her, especially about her getting run down and sick. She’s a giver, it’s one of her greatest strengths. She gives and gives and gives and tries to help everyone. It’s one of the things I love about her. Families are going to face some hard times every once in a while and it’s up to them to stick together and get through it. It’s what makes everyone stronger.
It just seems like it’s too much to handle sometimes. Her dad being sick was a large enough shock but now both her mom and her grandma are sick as well.
We’re trying our best. It’s all we can really do.
I love my wife so much, her family too, it’s hard to stay positive and keep their spirits up. I know we’ll get through all this, but I know it’s hard for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone an update. Take care,
Matt out.
by Matt | Apr 3, 2009 | Friends and Family, Games, Personal
Well, we had our fantasy baseball league’s draft last night. I got a number of the guys involved as well as my brother and my old man. We had a great draft and I think everyone ended up with some good players. The very first pick I made was for the entirety of the Boston Red Sox pitching staff. I have a pretty good feeling that this year they will be at least a very solid performer and at best pretty fucking fantastic. After that I was able to grab up Youk, Ortiz, and Hunter Pence, all guys I figure will have pretty big years. Not a bad lineup if I do say so myself. I’m a little weak at 3rd base and I don’t have a good backup catcher, but I think some trades could be made if needed to fill in the holes. I also picked up not only Jeter but Damon as well. I was planning on benching Damon, just on principle, but it looks like Ichiro will be on the DL for the first couple weeks, so he might get some play after all. Anyway, here’s the lineup.
by Matt | Apr 2, 2009 | Personal
As a rule, I don’t listen to the radio. Music radio, AM, FM, HD or XM. However, as a daily routine, I listen to the radio twice. Once, for a half-hour on my drive to work. I listen to Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio. It’s easily my favorite thing on the radio, regardless of time, station or genre. That’s a very short list by the way. On the way home, I usually listen to CDs or my MP3 player. Occasionally, just because I like to hear what the enemy is up to, I’ll listen to talk radio. Talk radio in Texas is only one thing: conservative. In order, the talk radio station plays Beck, Rush, Hannity, and a local guy, Micheal Berry. Berry isn’t so bad. He’s more of a rationalist that happens to be conservative rather than a conservative mouth piece.
The topic of conversation yesterday blew my mind. They were all talking about Harold Koh, former Dean of Yale Law and new Obama appointee. All the major conservative crazies and their associated networks were going out of their way to suggest that this guy Koh was 100% in favor of and planning the implementation of Sharia law in the US court system.
They made accusations that this guy has supported this for a long time, that he wanted to do it in our courts, that this was a huge problem, that the world was ending and that the sky was falling.
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