uruloki’s lair

Well, we have another contestant for victim of the week in the Sammy Sosa saga. Pedro Martinez, the perennially hurt pitcher for the BoSox, also thinks that ESPN is running anti-Sosa coverage since they are racist. It might be that he thinks he deserves the 1999 American League MVP or last year’s Cy Young. He doesn’t seem to think that it is permissible that voters each have their own individual criteria for their votes. (By the way, the ‘99 MVP? Ivan Rodriguez.) He claims that Peter Gammons of ESPN wanted Barry Zito to win the 2002 Cy Young since he is “cute, a white Caucasian.” Nice redundancy Pedro, but what Gammons actually said was that “Never before have voters been faced with a more difficult, conflicting Cy Young decision.” Nothing there except the review of the basic facts. Why doesn’t anyone admit the fact that Sosa screwed up, when it’s resolved everyone will be talking about something else, and he will continue to rake in millions in endorsements? Maybe if they quite trying to portray themselves as victims, they could enjoy the millions that the predominantly white fans of baseball continue to pour into their pockets on an annual basis.

Tags: Sports, Stupid people by uruloki
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So I am watching Sportscenter this morning, and they run a clip of Jose Canseco on Outside the Lines Nightly talking about the Sammy Sosa bat-corking incident. Of course, what are the first words out of his mouth? “This is an attack on minorities in general, and I’m really disgusted with it.” His belief is that the media has blown the bat corking thing out of proportion for Sosa when they wouldn’t have done so for a white athlete. Of course, to believe this, Canseco just has to completely ignore the whole issue of corking to be illegal in baseball. He also has to ignore the fact that by and large, baseball is a pretty boring sport at this time of the year, in the first third of the season. What else does the media have to report on besides an issue of this magnitude? Canseco needs to stop popping what ever pills he is currently taking so the delusions will go away. Sammy Sosa is one of the most recognizable (and marketable) athletes in baseball right now, which does not square with Canseco saying that he is not an “All-American name.” Baseball needs this kind of scrutiny since fans are coming to see talent on display and they shouldn’t have to wonder if the players are on steroids or using illegal equipment. Maybe Jose should take a hint from Mike Tyson and “Fade into Bolivia,” hopefully in silence.

Sammy did the right thing and apologized for the corked bat, and the investigation of his other 76 bats (by the way: why does ANYONE need 76 bats?) found them to be clean. However, this does not resolve the issue of the uncertainty now surrounding the rest of his accomplishments. You can find articles here, here, and here that highlight some of the new controversy that now surrounds Sosa. They are even talking about investigating the five bats in the Hall of Fame. Like he needed that after last year’s steroids debacle. The question I heard asked at first right after the apology was, “If it hadn’t broken, would he have come forward?” Unfortunately, I
do not think that is the case since Sosa is human, and humans tend not to point out mistakes they make if they are not caught. Sad, but true.

Tags: Sports, Stupid people by uruloki
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Well, that’s decided it: I have been playing around with POV-Ray for the last couple of hours, and I think I will stick with the freeware. It my be a little harder to produce what I want to, but in the end I will have more valuable skills. I love it when I save myself money.

Tags: Web site by uruloki
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Once again I am working on a revamp of the website, I don’t think I will ever be satisfied with what I have. This time, I am trying to develop my own graphics for the site. I am testing Xara 3D 5 and POV-Ray now, hopefully I should have some preliminary results soon.

Initial items in favor of Xara are the ability to export into Flash vector formats and create 3D screen savers. Also, if I purchase it, it includes the Webster 2 vector drawing package. A drawback is that it cost $49. blech

Hmm, I was doing more research and I found another product at Xara.com, WebStyle. This looks like it will do all of the stuff that I want it to (check out the examples), but it costs $69, even more than the 3D 5. I am going to have to examine POV-Ray and see if it will do, else I will probably come back to this.

Tags: Web site by uruloki
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So I was watching the “AFI’s 100 Years of Heroes and Villains” tonight, and Susan Sarandon comes on to talk about Humphrey Bogart’s role as a hero in Casablanca. I just kind of think it is rank hypocrisy for her to say anything about being a hero, since she doesn’t have a clue about what real valor and commitment to humanity is. This can best be shown by her attitude on the war in Iraq and her virulent, unthinking hatred of President Bush. Oh well, Hollywood has not ever really been interested in reality I suppose.

Tags: Entertainment, Stupid people by uruloki
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This is a test of the w.bloggar software and the Media Player 9 plugin.

Looks like it works. I just need to define what the format to use for the “media” class is in the stylesheet.

Tags: Web site by uruloki
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