Baseball Hall of Fame

This weekend, my brother & I took my baseball-loving father to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown as a belated Father's Day present.

As a fan myself, the biggest question I had going in was how they were going to address the performance enhancing issue. I soon got my answer because of how we choose to tour the museum (visiting the most recent stuff to the least recent). Maybe I should say that I got my answer by what they weren't showing.

On the contrary, they acknowledge the steroid issue by having a big exhibit of Hank Aaron, the former holder of the all-time home run record & generally agreed upon nonsteroid user. They acknowledge the various records (most home runs, most doubles, most games played, etc) & those that hold it. But other than that, no artifacts of tainted players. No special no-hitter balls, no bats, no uniform items, etc.

Conclusion: Steroid users have no place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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In other news...
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This here is my dear friend, Melanie, who is participating in my never-ending abandonment project (sometimes commonly referred to as "urbexing" or "urban decay"). Locations like these, I've learned to use them as much as you freakin' can because they WILL NOT be there indefinitely.



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Bait and Switch review

Just finished Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bait & Switch" .

The author goes on an undercover investigation to investigate & experience white-collar job hunting. Specifically trying to get a communications field & middle management sectors. The results are humorous & chilling at the same time.

Her conclusions are equally depressing. Actually landing a job (to say nothing about an interview) means being likable over results oriented, being a true-believer at the sacrifice of having an outside life (no hobbies or family life), & basically being a yes-man at the detriment to results.

Because SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many people are in this sector of the workforce trying to get back in, I encourage everyone to read it.


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In other news...
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This here is Ashley & her mom, participating in my Breast Cancer Awareness project while I was in Boston last summer.

Actually this was kinda the run-up to it (the building a rapport stage), the vision for BCA is more something like this. But still it was part of their journey & easily one of the most physically, mentally, & exhausting shoots I can remember doing.

Ashley's mom being a breast cancer survivor (2 weeks post-op at that) is one of the bravest people I've ever met. I am forever grateful for the oppurtunity in working w/ them both.



Feel free & comment away if you so desire.

Local Purse Snatching

Saw an interesting article in today's local newspaper.

http://poststar.com/news/local/article_be434480-700b-11df-852e-001cc4c002e0.html

There's something about this where its setting off my BS detector.

The red flags:

1. "The attacker was described as a thin black male, 6 feet to 6-feet-2 tall, wearing baggy black pants, a red shirt with a black logo and a red bandana on his head. He also reportedly had gold teeth and thin mustache or goatee."

Sounds like the stereotypical "big black" man, wearing "big black man" appearal, w/ gold teeth & facial hair to make him sound more menancing. Never mind the fact that Northern NY is hardly known for its ethnic diversity. Never mind the fact that that stretch of the bike trail isn't really near any residential areas (we'll get to that later).

2. "The incident happened shortly before 2 p.m." "the man jumped out of bushes and grabbed her purse"...Jumped out of the bushes during the middle of the day?"

Jumped out of the bushes in the middle of the day? Considering biketrail stretch has a nice straight away, the victims are saying that he lay in wait specifically for them?

3. "The woman and her boyfriend struggled with him, the man punching the woman -- who is battling breast cancer -- in the chest before he was able to rip the purse away and run off."

This is the most head-scratching part. Petty crimes like purse snatching are what's called "crimes of oppurtunity." You prep, you make your attempt, & get the heck outta there. You don't stick around & fight. To many things can go wrong.

It also makes me wonder what the heck the boyfriend was doing. Did he try & run after the perp?

4. "The couple continued walking on the bike path until they got to Maple Street, where they spotted a relative who they told about the alleged attack."

Admittedly, this is less of a red flag. In today's day & age of instant & portable communication devices like cell phones, between the two of them you'd think there'd be pretty good odds that they'd have one. Where they could report the incident near the scene of the crime. Apparently, that's not the case.

Though a purse-snatching by a "big black" man is plausible, there are so many concidences. To many things don't add up for it to smell right.

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In other news...
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This here is Rika doing the relationship w/ her boyfriend.

We were playing w/ the short span of late afternoon winter sunlight while we could.



Feel free to comment on whatever you like. It'd just be helpful if a first name was left in case I choose to reply (so I know who I'm addressing).