Your parents warned you about me.

So, because I don't have a Tumblr and don't feel like setting one up, here is a cheat sheat guide for baseball.  Additional parts to this series will be posted as I have time/feel like it/get requests from people.

This is intended as a basic resource for those that need/want specific information about the game of baseball as it is played in the United States. I don't pretend to be an expert on this subject, nor am I proposing to cover the subject in its entirety. I will add further posts, and links to supplementary information as I can. If you find something that is inaccurate here, please let me know and I will correct it ASAP.

Part 1: The Basics

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So my friend Mike Boyce just wrote a children's book about homelessness for his BFA thesis, and is trying to raise money to get it published and into San Francisco schools. Economy of scale means that he needs a minimum number of orders to make it feasible to have it printed and bound.

I'll just quote him, because his own words say it best:

"San Francisco ... [p]roportionate to its population, ... has the most people living on the streets anywhere in the country. And the numbers are growing month by month.

As a social justice warrior, I wanted to help. I started by interviewing the many homeless who lived around my school. I asked them what was worst about being homeless, and heard over and over again that it was the way children looked at them. Surprised and moved by this, I then interviewed parents and asked how they talked about homelessness to their children. Surprised again, I heard that they simply didn’t talk about it, and if they encountered the homeless while out and about they would do their best to shield their children from those living on the streets. I then went to the Tenderloin Elementary School and found that a full ten percent of the students were homeless themselves.

I have written and illustrated two children’s books to explain homelessness and to create a dialogue about this growing community that affects us all. The books, targeted to children aged two to ten, are educational and uplifting. I have been going to schools and reading them to the students. They and their teachers love them, and that means the world to me.

... I start[ed] a crowd funding page so that I can get these books published and into the classrooms to help children and their parents understand what it means to be without a home. This is my passion.

Please help. It would be a great honor for me and the many homeless in San Francisco to have your support.

In solidarity,
Mike Boyce"

It's a beautiful book and very well done, so if you're interested, please go to his GoFundMe page to support the project.

Thanks, and please share around if you feel like supporting this!

So first Carrie Fisher, now Debbie Reynolds. Haven't we had to deal with enough?


I'm really hoping that this is the last major bad news we get this year, because I'm not sure that I can deal with much more of this crap.

for me, and probably for others, too.

So here's a thing for enchanted_jae that I found amusing. Because I don't have the patience for this and would fuck it up in about 2 seconds.

brian_champagne Fun nails

Arg! I cant get the video embed to work, so it'll just have to be a link. Damnit!

something from the UK at just after midnight on a Sunday, my time, is that it's already after eight on Monday morning there. So they're already working on processing my order and shipping it out same day, and it will get to me that much faster.

Ah, physics, you make shopping for my holiday outfits that much easier.

And I haven't had much sleep. I just wasn't tired. Then. Of course, now I'm ready for a solid 8 hours, but I must be getting on with things like I'm actually a normal human being.

I don't really feel like putting on pants, either. Do you think people would mind?

Eh, it's cold outside. Must cover up, then.

I went to the Physical Therapist last Monday and got the okay to start doing some actual work again, which made me extremely happy. I've been going nuts doing nothing all the time. I need to see how my neck and shoulder are healing, so actual work will be a good measuring stick by which to mark my progress.

I was in the studio for about seven hours today, trying to get some stuff done. I only did about four hours of actual work (and light work, at that), which is nothing, by my standards. And yet, I'm quite sore for doing so very little. How frustrating. I suppose that it is a good thing to know that I'm not yet ready to go back full time, no matter how good I feel when I'm not working. At least I can say that I'm trying.

Just for saras_girl, I'm posting a link to this story about the Lonely Lefty Snail.

It reminded me of the ever-charming Solomon. (If anyone hasn't read Helix, go do it! It's awesome!)

I just finished voting. It was an epically long ballot: 2 separate sheets, full on both the front and the back. It took me nearly an hour to actually finish the thing, but I did vote in every contest and on every measure and proposition on the ballot. Yay, me!

It might have gone faster, but I actually looked up the details of what the props and measures are supposed to do, and who's funding them. Yeah, I'm not impressed by out-of-state companies trying to maintain their profits at the expense of state's environment and its residents, and in direct opposition to the explicitly expressed will of those residents. Bite me. I suppose that we'll just have to be louder this time.

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I'm registered permanent absentee, which means that I get a ballot in the mail every election, which is good, as it gives me more time to go over things and I don't have to worry about taking time off work or school to go to a polling place on a Tuesday in November. Plus, I'm usually the person working at the polling place on that day.

I think that this is actually the first presidential election that I'm not working in since I turned 18. There's a thought. Let's hope that the current circus that is living in the USA doesn't devolve into absolute chaos once the results of this one are in, and that we come out of this with at least some respect from the international community still intact. And that's all I'm going to say on the matter, lest I start something here.

I will say, on a tangentially related note, that I am thoroughly sick of seeing and hearing all the political ads and campaign bullshit that is currently saturating every corner of media. I watch the news on mute and only read the crawl at the bottom of the screen until it's time for the sports and weather. I mute all commercials on principle, agree with them or no. I've even taken to avoiding my perennial standbys, SNL and The Daily Show, simply because, funny as they are, I can't take the strain. I have been watching @midnight, but only because I know that any mention of political crap will be followed by equal-opportunity or only-slightly-tangentially-related-to-the-original-topic jokes.

I will be so glad when this is over. I hope we all live through it.

Since I can't make anything else because of my shoulder, I'm rather chomping at the bit to do something productive. You know, besides organizing my room. I've never actually had the time to participate in NaNoWriMo before, and, since the opportunity seems to have presented itself, I may as well take advantage of it.

Now all I have to do is conceive of a plot, characters, and a setting, and do all the research so that I can set myself to flesh out a story come November 1st. Which is in nine days. Yeah. This is going to work out great.

Good lord, I really do have the most grandiose ideas sometimes. Wish me luck.