series

Yanks v. Phils it is then. Aggravating no matter who wins, so really, I'm hoping for Phillies in a 7 game epic with Joe fucking Blanton as series MVP. I can see the complete game shutouts and super duper clutch home runs already. I haven't watched a single game yet this october, I don't figure to start now either. 'Tis a long ways til spring training.

Brain

Just a quick note: it is fucking weird studying the brain. Cause like I'm sitting here reading this shit yea? And it's telling me what my brain is doing. An then I stop to think about that, and then that is explainable too. It totally fucks with my head. The concept that you can use your brain to analyze your brain. Not even the concept, the reality that is. Just kind of a WTF moment I guess.

Maybe it's because I've no television but

does anyone else find this years playoffs to be utterly uncompelling/boring? I really don't care. I kinda dislike all the teams, so I really haven't got much incentive to watch. As long as the angles loose, I could care less who wins. I really fuckin hate the angels, but yankees? meh, they are the best team after all, dodgers are annoying but I've no real reason to root against them. And the phils are just kind of that other team, pretty boring team except for Utley. Oh defending champs thats what they are, still don really care about them.

Tangent, we got a new suite (...correct spelling?) mate. The old one was alrite I guess, some military korean american. Well watever hes gone, new one is some mexican dude, who like has a heavy accent. But the point is, from my perspective, he seems bulemic. He's not, I think at least, but he always in the bathroom making these throaty cough noises. Kinda disgusting. I think he just hocking lugies (.....spelling on both those words...) but who knows, maybe he puking his way to a beautiful figure. It not working for him tho, he's kind of a big dude. I mention this, btw, cause hes doing his coughing shit right now. Annoying, I know.

My roommates went home this weekend. Have I mentioned my roommates at all? 2 of em, a vietnamese one (I think) and a korean one. I don't talk to the viet one much, though this mostly has to do with thte fact that he is never around. He says he always studying, though if that is true hes gonna go insane before the quarter is done. The korean guy i get along with pretty well so far, so that's been cool. I miss not having the ability to go home, actually. Bah like a month and a half before I can go back. That's if I can get a ride back too. I have a Japanese test the Wednesday before thanksgiving! fucking retarded. I wanna finish muramasa. I wanna buy demons souls. I REALLY wanna buy demons souls. that game looks crazy. but alas, i am still stuck down here. can't complain tho, this place kicks the shit out of santa cruz so far.

Fowler Jump

Didn't see the game, but this highlight is hilarious/genius. I love moments like this. There really isn't too much room for creativity in baseball, for position players at least, so moments like this always come as a bit of a shock. I mean, Utley recovered pretty well for having just been hurdled, but Rollins was just like WTF, totally missed Utley's toss.

NO, Don't call me an Animal

So I bought my intro to psych text today. Did I mention I'm taking an intro psych course? Apparently it's required of ling majors here, I no understand such logics. But anyway I'm reading the intro here, and maybe this is simply me being a douche from a different major, but I can't help but pick out some flaws here. The one that just bugs me is assuming that studies on animals will give us better understanding of our own behavior. I'm not one of them animal rights people saying lab rats are protected under the bill of rights or anything, but simply assuming animals and humans have similar behavior patterns seems like an offly dangerous and tempting trap.

It always seems like people enojy thinking of themselves as animals. It justifies us in some way. Our actions are easily explained. "It was just an instinct" or something like that helps explain why we ate that extra peice of pie or whatever. You see it a lot in literature or stories too, likening characters to animals or beasts, there's this certain fascination with animalistic behavior.

So here is why it bugs me, and again it is probably because I'm just an ignorant asshole with a different perspective. We humans aren't animals, at least not in the behavioral sense. And yea, you probably saw this comming, but what makes us different is language, a means of expressing ourselves that is far far far and away more complicated than any other method an animal can utilize.

We have this ability to precisely convey our thoughts, and it allows us to coordinate with those that surround us. Yea we have basic instincts like, "I'm hungry therefore I will eat," but I'll just go out on a limb here and say that most of our normal behavior is somehow related to interaction with others. And I guess my point is that these ineteractions occur through complex language, something that really isn't quite fully understood in its own right. I guess it just feels like, if we watch a mouse run through a maze, we can note its behavior and whatnot and try and apply that to humans. But how does watching a mouse tell us anything about humans? We can study tactics used in the American Revolution (stand in an open field and shoot red dudes), but it really isn't applicable to modern warfare is it?

Perhaps that's a bad analogy, I realize more and more I suck at making my points clear, but what I am failing to say here is, and sorry if this is fucking elitist but it's how I feel, we are way more fucking complicated than animals, chiefly in our ability to communicate and organize so efficiently with each other. To try and find reason for our actions in an animal that has only a fraction of a fraction of our analytical mind power seems like folly.

OK, I'll take a step back, maybe there is similarities between us and field mice. Maybe we are just mere animals with egos that make us think we are above all else. But to just simply assume animal behavior can explain human behavior just sounds way to easy an answer to me, and just tells me someone wasn't taking their experiments seriously. Then again, I'm just a lazy college student mouthing off about the introduction to his lower level psych textbook, soley for the purpose of procrastination. I'm really finding this school thing difficult guys, I hope I make it through this year.

Progress!

So I got really bored today. I get bored most days, but today is Thursday, so I spend my time being bored waiting for new jump manga. I got bored enough, and bold enough, to go ahead and read the jump manga in Japanese, rather than wait around for the translations. And you know what? Not bad. Obviously most of it washed over my head, but I had a fairly solid grasp of what was happening plot wise, either through inference or actual understanding. For the record I just read the translations now, and its fucking awesome because they just confirm what I thought was going on. I kind of liked reading it in Japanese, it just sounds much cooler in the language it is meant to be in, re-reading in English made kind of corny. So I dunno, just a nice moment, my studying paying off a bit, and something I enjoy got a bit better.

Season Ends

So this season pretty much sucked. We went in with optimism, only to very quickly realize that our players fucking sucked. But that isn't to say this was the worst season ever, there are quite a few positives I would like to reflect upon, the first of which being:

1) Brett Anderson. Holy crap did I not see this coming. Dude is one year older than me, and he just straight dominated the league. Posted ~20% K-rate and a 6% BB-rate, along with a GB-rate over 50%. His slider is just an obscene pitch, and the fastball had velocity that was, for once, even better than advertised. Brett Anderson is awesome, and seriously guys, he has tons of time to get even better.

2) Andrew Bailey. Came even more out of nowhere than Anderson. And really, started out awesome and stayed awesome, pretty much striking out everyone. I expect he'll give up quite a few more homers next year, but still a very useful arm.

3) Mikel Wuertz. This guy was just godly coming out the pen...pretty much every day. I really can't understand how we didn't trade his ass at the deadline, some idiot had to have wanted to overpay for him. Next year hopefully...

4) Ryan Sweeney. Sweeney had a really good season. I hate on the guy a lot, (and I think deservedly so! He's a fucking giant with zero power) but he did throw up some insane fielding numbers this year, and once again hovered around league average with the bat. Really, he was one of the bigger positives this team has seen in a while, and if he can maintain this level of performance (glove probably regress quite a bit, but maybe the bat will improve?) he could be a part of our crowded outfield for a while. God that is a depressing thought. Though positive, this guy was throw in for swish. A throw in! Not a bad return, really.

5) Raj Davis. I really don't like raj davis. I don know why, his game is just incredibley annyoing to me. From the "stumble across homeplate" move he has whenever he takes a pitch or the "trip on the base cause I'm running so damn fast to the next base" move he always does, he just annoys me. So yea, he fluked himself into a good season, awesome it happened for us, kinda hoping he's a defensive replacement/pinch runner next season.

6) Gio Gonzalez. Gio struck out a shit load of guys this season. Seriously, he struck out a shit load. Yea he walked a shit load too, but holy crap can he strike guys out. Plus he was super unlucky this season! Watch as I defend Gio with the following numbers: .369 BABiP! 67.8% LOB%! 13.9% HR/FB! (he has a career 9.2% HR/FB as per minor leage splits) Alright his walk rate is fucking horrendous, but other than that Gio had a nice little half season in the bigs.

7) Kurt Suzuki. Kurt had a bit of a mixed season, but overrall could be a step in the right direction, development wise at least. He basically forgot how to take a walk, but learned how to hit the longball. His offensive value held about static from last year, I just hope next year the power stays and the walks return. Still, as he is, Kurt's an around league average bat at a premeium position. And from what I can gather, his defensive reputation seems to be fairly positive. That is definitely a positive, especially at the price he comes at.

8) Dallas Braden/Josh Outman. They were fairly awesome until they got hurt. Do I think they can continue what they were doing pre-injury? Heavans no, but they look like they could be decent backend starters, and cheap servicable pitching is always a welcome sight.

And that about wraps it up. Not going to list dissapointments because I don't think that list would ever end. As it stands now at the end of the season, A's are tied with the Padres and the Jays for 9th worst record (I think, just quickly glanced at the standings). I've no idea how that works out draft position wise, hopefully we get 9, but 11 isn't bad either I guess. If only we had pick 11 last year...Jemile Weeks better be fucking awesome. But overall a strange fucking year! Tons of questionable moves, what with acquireing Holliday, starting Cahill/Anderson, yo-yoing Gio/Eveland/Gallagher, at the start of the season I wondered if this was still the same front office. But over time it was clear this ball club still knows very well what it is doing, and I leave this losing season with, as always, quite a bit of optimism. Who knows! Next year could be the year!

YES

I've been hoping against hope this would happen. All bullpen game! Our pen is so fucking awesome, I always wondered if we could just like skip a Cahill start or somethin an just throw bailey an ziegler an wuertz for like, 3 innings. Not economical, but with like 5 games left who cares? It's like insta-win with the quality of arms we got! Should be fun I think, too bad I can't watch tho.