Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars

Building My First Holodeck

I'm taking the plunge! I'm going to gear up for VR and build a little VR studio in my new apartment. The core purchase for this will be an HTC Vive VR headset, pictured on the right below.

The Oculus Rift headset on the left and the HTC Vive are the main competitors in the early Holodeck market. Pricey toys! Oculus goes for about $700. Vive goes for $800! And, I'll have to buy a new PC with a powerful enough CPU and graphics card to run the VR software programs. Total investment of around $2,500.

Frankly, it's too early for the casual user to get into the consumer VR toys. The tech is still in its infancy. Best to wait a few more rounds. All the gadgets will function better and be cheaper in the future.

I'm getting in now because I'm thinking about becoming a content developer in the VR medium. Exactly what type of content I will develop... I haven't decided that yet. I want to find out early in the game what works and what doesn't.

I'm going with HTC Vive for simple reasons. The player in the VR space can stand up as well as sit down. That's because the system includes a couple of locator beams that define a play space in the user's room. I'll design a space in my new apartment to be used solely as a play space for my Holodeck.

As might be expected, the early leading content genres for VR headsets are porn, war and other type of shoot 'em up games, and environment building games, just as they were in the 2D environment of PCs. 

One of the reasons a casual user might want to wait a couple of years to get into the VR game is that not enough programming content has yet been built for the VR market.

As I said, I'm getting in early so that I can start to work out where I fit in as a developer. As with all tech innovations, particularly ones with great promise in the consumer market, there's a ton of money to be made in VR. 

I don't yet know how my skills fit in. I don't know what works and doesn't work.

After I move, I'll set up my own little Holodeck in my apartment and start answering these questions. 

Umpire Joe West, Cubs Lose Two!

On a night when the Cubs finally lost two games in a row, the announcers had to find something to talk about. They spent considerable time discussing Joe West, a legendary umpire. He's been umping in the National League since 1976. That would be 40 years. 

West has a couple of interesting sidelines. He's a recorded country singer, and has appeared as an opening act for Mickey Gillie and the late Merle Haggard. Below, the only video I could find of him. Don't quit your day job, Joe!

For the obvious reasons, he's known as Cowboy Joe.

West didn't get any love from the Cubs' hitters as they lost the second game of a double header to the San Diego Padres. Pretty wide strike zone, particularly on the inside corner for right handed hitters.

Cowboy Joe's other sideline is designing and selling umpiring protective gear. Looks like premium stuff. His stuff is endorsed by MLB and worn by 90% of MLB umps.

On his website, you'll find a couple of country CDs you can buy.

I got back up on the bicycle today and did 10 miles. Pretty easy ride. Coming back from illness is tricky for an old man. First thing to do is make sure you don't hurt yourself.

Opening Day! Mind Boggling Cubs' Collapses!

The Cubs are odds on favorites to win the World Series this year. The Lovable Losers open up the 2016 season tonight against the Anaheim Angels. This is a potentially historic season according to the Chicago Tribune. Not the first rodeo for this 66 year old Cubs' fan, so let me remind you of other great Cubs' teams that never won anything. Fergie Jenkins, starting pitcher on the '69 Cubs, comments on the fantastic collapse of that team:

The 2016 Cubs are definitely loaded. Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Jayson Hayward and Jon Lester are probably future Hall of Famers. The 1969 team was loaded too, with four future Hall of Famers... Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Ron Santo. That group never won even a division title. So, excuse me if I am not convinced that being "loaded" on paper guarantees championships.

Among the many explanations for the legendary Cub's collapse in 1969 is that Leo Durocher drove the team to exhaustion with his demanding old school managerial tactics. The 2016 club is supposed to be immune to this problem because manager Joe Maddon is such a laid back guy.

Excuse me for being a pessimist. I'm a lifelong Cubs' fan.

Memorable collapses in the 1984, 1989, 2007 and 2008 playoffs barely rate a mention, because none of those teams were expected to dominate or were full of future Hall of Famers. 

The other legendary playoff collapse occurred, of course, in 2003. Dusty Baker was manager of that team, and he's supposed to be the ultimate players' manager. He's back this year managing the Washington Nationals, and he's supposed to cure a toxic clubhouse environment that has undermined a star studded team.

Mark Pryor and Kerry Woods led what was purported to be an pitching staff for the ages in 2003. Two of the greatest pitching prospects ever to play for the Cubs, both flamed out in careers dramatically shortened by injury.

But, it was the Bartman game in the National League Championship game that typifies the more than century old futility of the Cubs. Poor Steve Bartman! That collapse was not at all his fault. No, the villain was Alex Gonzalez, the journeyman shortstop who botched an easy double play ball. Had he made that play, the Cubs probably would have finished off the Marlins and advanced to the World Series. Below, video of that fateful 8th inning that doomed the Cubs.

Gonzalez' stone cold choke on that double play ball occurs at the 1:32 mark. Pryor had induced none other than Miguel Cabrera to hit a ground ball. The roof caved in after that play.

So, I go into the 2016 season hoping for the best and dreading the worst. That's the karma of a lifelong Cubs' fan. I fully expect this team to win the Central Division, advance one or two rounds in the playoffs, and then blow it in some ignominiously memorable fashion. My old friend from the Earl of Old Town, Steve Goodman, had it right a long time ago. He was dying of cancer when he recorded this video.

My time on this earth is running out, Cubbies! My dad passed away without ever seeing the Cubs win the big one! 

I'll be heading home mid-summer to take in a game at Wrigley. Shit, I'll be satisfied if the Cubs win a game that I attend. That's been a pretty rare occurrence.

Go Cubs Go!

Wait Till Next Year... Again!

Four months until spring training! I'll probably subscribe to MLB.tv again. Just about all the games stream online for a $140 per year subscription. No commercials. I really like that. I followed the Cubs closely this year, because I could watch just about all their games.

I am not one of those patient, easy going loser Cubs' fans that the New York newspapers kept cackling about about during the National League Championship Series with the Mets. No, I was a mighty pissed Cubs' fan when the Lovable Losers were swept by the club's most bitter rival.

During the regular season, my day was built around the Cubs' game. That was my TV fix. Barely watched anything on cable. Streaming Netflix is my other source of TV entertainment. What a huge shift in delivery method! And everybody's doing it. At my girlfriend's house in suburban New Jersey, the demand for streaming data overwhelms the system during prime time.

Because of the internet, I of course follow my team all year round. The Cubs' MLB site keeps me up to date on the Top 30 Prospects. (Cubs' minor league system is loaded with position players. Minor league pitching won't start showing up in the majors until 2017.)  Bleed Cubbie Blue is a good blog for keeping up with the off season rumors about how the roster will be structured next year.

Was I satisfied with the Cub's progress this season? Yes and No. The problem here is that the opportunity to advance to the World Series happens when it happens and teams have to seize that opportunity. This year, the Losers got a shot and they didn't seize it. So, Cub's history hasn't changed in that aspect. But, the boys did win a Division Series against the Cards.

I'm already looking at the 2016 Wrigley calendar. The Mets are in Chicago in July 2016. Cardinals and Pirates in August. I'm thinking of making a trip West, perhaps continuing out to Colorado for a 420 holiday. Am I too old to try to do that on my Harley?

The daily Cubs' story in the Tribune will be on hiatus until free agent signings and trades start being announced. Everybody says the Cubs will be looking for one or two starting pitchers. Who will they get? Will Dexter Fowler be back? 

The Cubs will be worth watching just for the pleasure of observing Kris Bryant's development. I read a very optimistic prediction for his stats for next year... 37 HR, 130 RBI and a .305 batting average. I'll be surprised if he hits for that high average, but I'm down with the rest. I think that in the prime of his career Bryant might win a Triple Crown or two.

Joe Maddon has, I think, one more honeymoon year before the Chicago press turns bitchy. In 2016, the press will expect the team to win, and Maddon's "genius" designation will start to crumble... unless he can get the Cubs into the World Series.

I think the Cubs will be in the playoffs almost every year for the coming decade. Whether that translates into a World Series championship... who the hell knows?

How to be a Contemporary Outlaw

In response to several readers who questioned why an outlaw would pay his bills... well... My goal was not to outrage authority, hit the boss up the side of the head and bring attention to my outlaw status. My goal was freedom from the world of office politics and the independence to own my own time. My goal was to live like a man, the ultimate contemporary outlaw status.

Defying authority and poking it in the nose is an adolescent male notion of how to live an outlaw life. All that gets you is jail time and a relentless beating. I'm a hell of a lot smarter outlaw than that. I possessed top level tech skills from the time I left college.

Who is it that attempts to rob you of your freedom in the contemporary world of work? Who wants to force men into effeminacy and fagdom? Who drags you into the conference room for the ritual propaganda beatings? The fags and fag hags in HR... that's who! Along with their straight allies in management who kiss their asses in the hope for advancement.

Fighting these people directly only gives them hooks into you for playing their S&M games. Althouse, fag hag extraordinaire, is a brilliant S&M game player. Her blog is a daily recitation of how to play the fag hag S&M game in a corporate law firm or academic office. 

The road to freedom for the contemporary outlaw is invisibility, refusing to rise to the level of management, and being happy with making a good living and going home. That's the way of the contemporary outlaw. Fuck the obsession with status. Make money. Live like a man on your own terms. Own your own time and life.

That's precisely what I did. My tech skills were rare and employers had no choice but to employ me on my own terms... mostly as a freelancer, sometimes as a contractor. (I tried the full time job route. What a disaster! I fell into a pit of fag and fag hag S&M shit.) At one time in my career in NYC, I carried around the keys to 6 corporate law firms. Those firms paid me a 6 hour minimum to arrive at midnight, solve their tech problems and go home... quite often for only one hour of work. (At the height of my career, they sent a limo to pick me up and they sent me home in one, too!)

The managers kissed my ass when they were desperate for my services and got rid of me the moment they no longer needed me... which was fine by me. In NYC, there is always a next employer for a highly skilled tech gun slinger.

I played absolutely no role in office politics, thank God. I was a highly paid, invisible nobody. This left me free to live my life like a man, without kissing fag and fag hag ass.

At the end of my life, as a I enjoy a secure but hardly opulent retirement, I am celebrating an outlaw victory lap over fag hags like Althouse. The outlaw victory is not in destroying her fag hag S&M empire or waging a war to change the world. The outlaw victory is in controlling my own life and time. And living like a man.

I won. The preferred outcome for the contemporary outlaw is victory, not martyrdom. Martyrdom is for fools.

Cubs' Fan Awaits Soul Crushing Collapse

Great year so far for the Cubs. They are on a trajectory to win 92 games and qualify for a Wild Card one game playoff against the Pirates. Since I didn't expect them to contend until next year, it's all gravy. So, why am I expecting a dreadful end to the season?

Above, Cubs' third baseman, Ron Santo, watches a black cat walk by as he waits in the on deck circle during a game against the Mets in the old Shea Stadium in 1969.

Mets' fans remember 1969 as the year of the Miracle Mets of Tom Seaver vintage. Cubs' fans remember 1969 as the year the team lead the National League by 8-1/2 games in August and ended the season trailing the Mets by 8 games. The Cubs' collapse was epic. Nothing quite captures the voodoo spell that descended upon the Cubs than this pic of Santo.

A Cubs' team that featured four future Hall of Famers... Santo, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Ernie Banks, couldn't finish off a playoff run.

I was only 19 years old during that fateful season. Yet to come was Leon Durham's error on a routine grounder that deep sixed the 1984 Cubs' playoff team... caused by a Gatorade spill!

And, then there was the Bartman game in 2003! When I attended a game at Wrigley back in July, I asked one of the ushers to point out Steve Bartman's seat. He told me that everybody asks the same questions. Five outs away from a World Series appearance, all hell broke loose.

Me and the Cubs have a long history of living with catastrophic collapses.

So, what's the next chapter? I'll believe the curse is over when the Cubs record the final out in a World Series victory.

Maybe this year's team is different. Joe Maddon was hired precisely because he knows how to take the pressure off young players. Next year might be the Cubs' breakout. The pressure hasn't really descended yet on this team. That will bear down on them when they finally reach a National League Championship Series and play at Wrigley in front of a crowd that anticipates another dramatic collapse.

Visit to Renovated Wrigley

My box seats directly behind home plate in the second deck at Wrigley Field provided me with an incredible view of the playing field and the new video boards. I visited for the first time last Wednesday, and caught a great game between the Cards and Cubs. Unfortunately, the Cubbies blew the game in the top of the 9th inning, 6-5! Below, my view of the field.

Those new bleachers in left and right field change the stadium dramatically, too. They rise considerably higher than the old bleachers. With the addition of the video boards, Wrigley is now more enclosed. The park is no longer quite as open to views of the Gold Coast apartment buildings on the Near North Side.

So, do the video boards improve or detract from the fan experience at Wrigley?

The stage for the game is much more compressed and focused by this enclosure of the stadium by higher bleachers and video boards. For dramatic purposes, I think this renovation is a roaring success.

I think that the change is entirely positive. I'd brought along my iPad to follow the stats and player information during the game, but the iPad proved to be unnecessary. 

The left field video board provided individual player stats for batters and pitchers, and provided instant replay on questionable plays. Each time a batter walked up to the plate, a picture of his face along with his stats was displayed. Same for a new pitcher entering the game. With the instant replays, the fan receives all the basic info a TV watcher at home is used to getting.

In addition, the left field board relayed the type and velocity of each pitch. The Cards' pitcher, Michael Wacka, was a master of changing speeds. His fastball topped out at 98 mph, and his changeup bottomed out at 88 mph. Cub batters flailed comically at that changeup.

The right field board displayed each team's lineup as in a box score. At times, each player's batting average was displayed. At other times, his batting line for the current game was displayed, as in 1-2 (or "one for two"). The batting line for the next player up for both teams was highlighted in yellow... a great bit of info!

And, then there's the old iconic scoreboard in center field that displayed the line scores for every game in the majors, along with ball and strike counts and number of outs. However, that scoreboard doesn't display a composite score for the game! I had to calculate the game score by adding up the inning scores! Funny! None of the three outfield boards displayed the composite score, or the standard run, hits, errors line. All that info was displayed in a non-linear fashion on the centerfield board.

Very little crappy kids' video was displayed on the left field video board. On unfortunate exception was one of those animated "chase around the stadium" things, and that was awful. 

Most of the non-game related video was useful and informative. As the game began, a light rain was falling, so the TV weatherman did a bit on the upcoming weather forecast that was displayed on the left field board.

If only Pedro Strop had not thrown that batting practice fastball to Johnny Peralta, blowing the game for the Cubs, my experience at renovated Wrigley would have been all positive.

Cubs vs. Mets Commentary

Instead of reading all the angles of political commentary on today's controversy, I'm reading up on the minutia of the Cubs. With every major city daily online, I can follow the coverage of the Cubs as seen from the vantage point of the opposition. With the Mets at Wrigley this week, that means that the New York press is giving the Cubs heavy coverage.

The story for last night's game was pre-written... the opening of the completely new left field bleachers and the renovated center field bleachers. In the pic, you can see the new video board and the higher profile of the bleachers.

The New York Times led with a story about a blogger who is a long time season ticket holder in the bleachers. Here's Al Yellon's SB Nation page. Surprisingly, Yellon's page doesn't mention all the PR he got from the Times!

Kris Bryant "christened" the RF bleachers... that was the theme of just about all the press coverage of the Cubs' 4-3 victory over the Mets. 

The NY Post told the story, as expected, from the vantage point of Mets' homies. So, their story focused on the struggles of the Mets' young pitcher, Jacob deGrom, who gave up back to back homers to Bryant and Anthony Rizzo.

Yesterday, the Times published a nice pre-game story about Bryant's links to Ted Williams. His father actually encountered Williams as a hitting instructor in the Red Sox organization. (The Cubs are importing the entire ethos of the Sox organization under Theo Epstein.)

Kris Bryant seems to be all he was trumped up to be. The kid is probably the most exciting rookie to join the Cubs since Ernie Banks. Bryant has the tools to win a Triple Crown, and I predict that he will do that during his prime. Bryant will hit a lot of homers, drive in an astonishing number of runs and hit for high average once he is a fully mature player. He is driving in almost a run per game already! I see .340/40 HR/150 RBI numbers in his prime years! Really! The rookie drew two walks last night, in addition to his monster HR.

Starlin Castro would appear to be less secure in his future with the Cubs. Every time the Mets visit Wrigley, the Post plays up a possible Castro trade for a young Mets' pitcher story. They evidently like Castro's game a lot in New York and feel like he would flourish there. This, to me, is a damned good indication that the Cubs should keep the guy. He's a high average hitter and a very good, if a little erratic, shortstop. I wonder why the NY press is so fixed on this kid?

A new (and very useful) feature of Yahoo's baseball coverage is the "condensed game" video from yesterday's games. Go to the Cubs' (or any team's) "Team" page, and you'll find the condensed game video, which contains (I think) the replay videos compiled into a single video without voiceover or announcer comments. That's a little weird. I have a habit of falling asleep in the 8th inning of Cubs' games, so I often miss the ending of the game. The condensed game video replays the important stuff quickly.

See? Wasn't that better than obsessing over today's political controversy and outrage?

Softball is Tough Exercise

Remember my softball setup in my back yard? Well, I've devised quite the workout routine to build my skills so that I can be a useful member of a senior softball team. I'm vain! I can't go out there fumbling and bumbling!

I start by batting off the tee and hitting tossed balls into the net on the left. The batting tee in the pic didn't work (too narrow at the top to hold a softball) so I bought this very sturdy tee to replace it. After hitting off the tee both left and right handed, I move over to the rebound net on the right for 25 throws.

I mix the two exercises for about 40 minutes. It's quite a tough workout. In a couple of weeks, I'll move on to include sessions in the commercial softball batting cages at Jeto's amusement park in Kingston in my routine.

My softball workout is surprisingly demanding. Catching the ball on the rebound means jumping, stooping and quick reaction. For decades I sat at a desk in a rigid position. I am somewhat afraid to attempt the quick movements required to play this pseudo game of catch. The movements are random and impossible to anticipate, too. This requires giving up your body in a way I haven't done in decades.

The ball hits the ground and runs away from me, too, which means that I have to bend over to pick the damned this up. With 50 or 60 repetitions, this is itself demanding exercise.

Batting off the tee and hitting tossed balls requires explosive twisting of my entire body. The concepts of balance and spinal chord exercise from yoga come into play. I only have 6 softballs for batting off the tee, so once I've hit all 6 I have to go collect them. More bending and reaching.

After my first session, I hurt like hell, especially in my buttocks! That was an unexpected outcome! It took three sessions over a week for my body to adjust and cease aching. Of course, I also experienced that odd aching in the shoulder and arm from so much throwing.

I'm quite pleased with the depth of exercise that my softball workout provides. My skills are improving daily, too. Not too sure if I'll make it to the senior leagues this summer, but I will begin to hit the sandlot pickup games. I've already found a couple of partners for playing catch at the park.

Let's Play Two!

Wrigley Renovation Encloses Stadium

So much has been written about the loss of sight lines from the rooftops outside Wrigley that the bigger impact of the renovation has been little noticed... the enclosure of the bowl of the stadium from the viewpoint of the grandstands. Here's a screen capture from the video of last night's game with the Pirates.

You can see in this pic that the new concrete form of the expanded and heightened bleachers has been poured. Old Timers like me will also notice those openings at the top of the bleachers in left center field. These appear to be access openings for fans. I do not recall this feature existing in the old bleachers.

The view from the grandstands toward the outfield has been changed even more dramatically than the sightlines from the rooftops into the stadium. One of the odd features of pre-renovation Wrigley was that the skyline of the Gold Coast of the North Side stretched out like a huge panorama before people seated in the grandstands. 

Of course, you can't see that panorama in this pic because yesterday's game was played at night. In pre-renovation Wrigley, you could see the lights of the skyscraper apartment buildings along Lake Shore Drive and North Clark Street all the way to Evanston.

With the huge video board and the expanded bleachers closing off so much of the left field sightline from the perspective of the grandstand, Wrigley will become much more of an enclosed stadium bowl. From the perspective of theater, that means that Wrigley will become even more intimate, more like a self-contained studio or TV set.

I think that this must dramatically increase the pressure on the players from the crowd, which will have its eyes much more focused on the playing field. The video board is used mostly for presenting player at bat stats and replays.

This huge change in focus from within the stadium has not been much discussed. The bowl of the stadium will be much more of an enclosed space, with fewer outside structures visible beyond the outfield walls to distract the eyes of the crowd in the grandstands. From the standpoint of set design, this will have a huge and dynamic impact.

Wrigley Field is being changed in a very fundamental way in this renovation. The impact and consequences for players and spectators will only become apparent over time.