Mario Kart- Circuit #2

 

Mario Kart- Circuit #1

 Super Mario Kart

150 CC Circuit- hard COM

6 courses

Red Birdo

Cyber Slick

1. Water Park*- 2nd
2. Ice Ice Outpost*- 5th (blew it in last lap)
3. Rome Avanti*- 4th 
4. Sunshine Airport*- 1st!
5. Mute City*- 3rd
6. Big Blue*- 3rd (faltered in home stretch)

Finished 3rd overall
*Circuit Debut

Notes: Went with F-Zero for ending. Rome Avanti is fun.

Post-Series- vs Hot Rods

 The RiverDogs win their series against Huntsville.

Record: now 51-40

Position: 3 games out of first place

Standing: #3 seed

Current matchups:

Salt Lake City vs Little Rock

Indy vs OKC (hah!)

Wichita vs Charleston

VA Beach vs Dubuque

Charleston River Dogs vs Huntsville Hot Rods

Notables in the 3 game series:

Left handed relief pitcher Kyle Sand made his big-league debut in game one, providing 1+ needed innings to aid a tired bullpen.

Updates to the tiebreakers:

The last two series will be pivotal in the tiebreaker standings, which is why those games will be played out. Just one win against Dubuque will clinch that tiebreaker, while two wins would do it against Little Rock. The Naturals have won seven in a row to storm up the standings. We'll have an updated playoff picture after the Hot Rods series is done.

Nationwide Baseball League and the Charleston RiverDogs

We're nearing the end of the first regular season of the Nationwide Baseball League.

Format:

NBL has 20 teams in a single league. The league starts in the 2015 season.

Eight teams will make the playoffs, with three seven-game series deciding the champion. 

Our team is the Charleston RiverDogs.

At this point, the RDs are 49-39 and in fourth place in the league, behind Little Rock, OKC and VA Beach.

If the season were to end today, the RDs would be taking on the Wichita Drillers in the playoffs.

Rotation:

Jesus Jimenez

Travis Mitchell

Jeremy Turner

Aubrey Ashton

Joel Hill

The rotation is kind of shaky. There's no ace at this point. Sergio Pintor went out for the year, but he was no ace either

Bullpen:

High Leverage:

Jeff Harrington (CL)- has been solid all season

Javier Banda (SU)- had a ridiculously good start to the season and has remained solid.

Cody Farley (SU)- solid lefty setup.

Middle Relief:

Eric Rushing- probably the most trusted of everyone else.

Mike Holden

Juan Jurado- has been extended for two more seasons

Jonathan de la Garza

Long Relief:

Rico Castro- swapped spots with Travis Mitchell and has been shaky

Starting Lineup:

LF Antonio Moreau- has been a good table setter all year

CF David Cooley- similar to Moreau but with a little more pop

2B Willie Rodriguez- the team's "superstar" who is likely to be elsewhere next season

RF John Hess- breakout star of the season, extended for another two seasons

C Jamie Giglio- solid hitting catcher

1B Mike Frederick- another solid hitter and really good defender

SS Shun Nakano- struggled earlier in the season but seems to be heating up at the right time.

3B Josiah Gordon- decent hitting 3B.

Bench:

IF Nick Tomaso- pretty good pinch hitter

IF Edwin Validivia- kind of far down on the food chain as far as subs go

2B Danny Estrella- Has seen more time at 1B when Mike Frederick gets tired. Has a little pop.

C Manny Bello- backup catcher, not great hitter

OF Matt McKenna- Hasn't seen a lot of action. Speed off the bench.

OF Demetrius Butler- Supposed to have power off the bench, haven't seen much of it.

Herbie Hancock #5- Maiden Voyage

 

Herbie Hancock-
Maiden Voyage:
Maiden Voyage: already knew I liked. Classic.

Eye of The Hurricane: the trumpet, the trumpet. Trumpet sound. Ok though.

Little One: chill tune, saxophone-led, which is a first.

Survival of the Fittest: fast-paced, frisky tune. 10 mins but keeps the interest.

Dolphin Dance: chill 9 min tune

Personnel

• Herbie Hancock – piano
• Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
• George Coleman – tenor saxophone
• Ron Carter – bass
• Tony Williams – drums

Happy Go Lucky, Fourth of July

I don't know why, but this fourth of July has brought out the anxiety in me. I get the anxiety every year going up to John's Lake. It's just a lot of people. They're all family, of course, but a crowd is a crowd no matter what. And they're a good-natured group, but there's always a little bit of kidding around and stuff that isn't my favorite. 

Maybe (and I'm just venting here) it's just the feeling that I've already had too much family time this summer. As soon as they got off school, they had a five day weekend. Then two days of summer school, then five more days on a trip to the Dells. 

Maybe it's the fact that Naomi is sometimes floating off in her own world and not paying attention to us. Levi's followed directions better and is more agreeable. He's actually a funny kid sometimes and the two of them are so innocent. Sure, they drive each other crazy sometimes, but they also have a loving relationship. They both want to do things together, but they can both be independent. That's unlike my brother and I, where I just wanted to read and be alone and have my space, while Steven did very much not want to be alone.

I still want to be alone sometimes. Sarah goes off to her book clubs, etc. She seems to think me wanting to do stuff by myself is weird, but I feel surrounded every day by them. Could I use a friend? Maybe. I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to drop my guard and accept that kind of attention. Maybe something to work on. Lots of maybes in this post.

Why do you live in the Northeast?

Post-Script:

I had an amazing weekend. I decided once I got up there that I would just be as friendly as possible and say hi to everyone and ask how they were doing. There were some slow moments where I was slightly bored, but it's such a loving group of people. The only person who bothered me at all was Ryan, who is just a doof, but everyone seems to know he's a doof. Loved the badminton with Abby, Ben, Greg and Violet. Bananagrams on Sunday with Sarah, Stacy, Linda and Steve. I get what people mean when they say they watch through their kids' eyes. Watching Levi and Naomi watch the fireworks was great, and they were so enthusiastic about tubing and other things. No kayaking this year, but something to watch for next year. I had a hard time falling asleep last night just because it seemed so quiet.

Herbie Hancock #3- Inventions and Dimensions

 

Going into this, if I remember correctly, I wasn't a huge fan of this percussion-based album.

• Herbie Hancock – piano
• Paul Chambers – bass
• Willie Bobo – drums, timbales
• Osvaldo "Chihuahua" Martinez – percussion (not on track 5)

Succotash: sometimes seems like Herbie's throwing stuff on the wall. Not quite "experimental", but him and just percussion and bass. Just kinda...dull.

Triangle: More of a straight-ahead jazz tune mostly, kind of enjoyable, but meandering as well, and at points, HH seems to just get stuck on a note.

Jack Rabbit: Ok. Again, HH seems to get stuck on a note/pattern.

Mimosa:  still kind of pokey.

A Jump Ahead: More my speed.

Album rating:  NGB, at least for me.

Album rankings so far:
1. My Point of View
2. Takin' Off
3. Inventions and Dimensions

Herbie Hancock #2- My Point of View

 

Herbie- Piano

Donald Byrd- Trumpet

Grachan Moncur III- trombone

Hank Mobley- tenor sax

Grant Green- guitar

Chuck Israels- Bass

Tony Williams- drums

Blind Man, Blind Man- OK, kind of repetitive

A Tribute to Someone- liked this one

King Cobra- liked the propulsive nature of the piano in this one

The Pleasure Is Mine- kind of like this one, nice and mellow

And What If I Don't Know- OK, like the guitar

Three out of five distinct songs isn't bad. 

I rate this one AAA.

Herbie Hancock #1- Takin' Off

I'm going to listen to every album by Herbie Hancock this summer. Today, the first album, Takin' Off.

Freddie Hubbard- trumpet

Dexter Gordon- tenor sax

Butch Warren- double bass

Billy Higgins-drums

Herbie-piano

Watermelon Man- enjoyed more than before.

Three Bags Full- this one didn't really stick for me like it did previously.

Empty Pockets- nice, gentle, mellow shuffle.

The Maze- another nice, calm song

Driftin'- OK. Like TBF, don't hate it but don't get excited for it, although it does get nice after about three and a half minutes, so kind of half like it.

Alone and I- a lightly treading snoozer, although jazz enthusiasts probably don't see it that way.

Watermelon Man (alternate)- I'm not too crazy about the alternate takes. Nice solo by Gordon, which I think is the difference.

Three Bags Full (alternate)- eh. Neither love nor hate.

Empty Pockets (alternate)- I like the original and this one is nice too.

For my own enjoyment, I'm going to use my rating system:

Very solid

Solid

AAA (all right, all right, all right)

NGB (not great, Bob)

This one rates AAA. Three songs that I'd like to listen to again, two that I don't hate and Alone and I, which I don't love but don't hate.

I'll get the album if it makes more sense to buy the whole thing, otherwise just the three songs.