Christmas 2008

Presents are great, because it's like this tangible thing that you can point to and say, "Hey man, I love you, this many dollars worth" - Michael Scott, The Office

I don't exactly agree with Michael, but that's funny. Presents are more about the thought and just how simply awesome they are.

My brother got me the much anticipated "The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac" book from the Free Darko guys. It is awesome. The illustrations alone are enough to warrant getting it. It could function solely as a coffee table book just fine, but it's immensely more than that. The insights and perspectives on individual players and their styles is brilliant, and I'm only maybe 1/8th through it.

One of my gifts really made me feel like a kid again because it was a big box that was wrapped. When I picked it up I just felt like I was four years old or so because of the ratio of size of box to size of me. When I unwrapped it, I discovered this

It's a 19-inch widescreen LCD computer monitor. I've been wanting a new monitor for a while because mine was old and huge (yes, I had a big projection monitor rather than a flatscreen). The funny part about this is that this was basically stored under my desk at work for at least 2-3 weeks without me ever realizing it. I knew it was under the desk, I saw it, but I never put the pieces together and thought it could be for me. I thought our company was just storing a couple monitors there. Well, my mother, with the help of our IT guys, found a great deal for these (my brother received one too) and there they were. The thing kicks ass by the way. I didn't fully appreciate the fact that I needed a new one, until I got one. This is a massive improvement.

The best set of gifts had to be the beers and beer glasses. My dad, through the help of my brother got me the Duvel gift set, consisting of the four small Duvel bottles and the elegant tulip glass, and also the bottle of Brother Thelonious. My brother and his girlfriend Laura got me the two nice Chimay glasses. It doesn't get much better than Belgian beer served properly. The previous night with Christmas Eve dinner I had a bottle of Delirium Nocturnum

The World's Largest Pipe Organ

My brother and I have often talked about the new Marlins baseball stadium (if it ever gets built) and what unique attraction it should have. Every new baseball stadium these days has something that has never seen before. Camden Yards in Baltimore was the first new park to be modeled more retro style rather than modern or simple. Minute Maid Park in Houston built a hill in centerfield between the warning track and the wall and the flag pole is also on the hill. (side note: I just realized how bizarre that would have been when whoever thought of that had to suggest it to the higher-ups). It also has a train track beyond the left field seats. Speaking of left field seats, in Milwaukee, there is a long spiral slide that the mascot slides down after every Brewer home run.

Anyway, our idea for the Marlins park is to build the world's largest pipe organ right beyond the center field fence for the stadium organist. The stadium organist is becoming a lost art these days when batters and pitchers have cued entrance music (which usually sucks) and other football style stadium anthems are played during breaks in action. It's a travesty. There is nothing better at a ballgame than seeing the opposing pitcher go to a 3-0 count and hearing the organ player start the slow chromatic theme before the familiar "Charge!" I know, logistics would be an issue. This idea is only 50% sincere, but it would be amazing.

So last night when I'm checking my latest YouTube subcriptions, what is the first video listed? "The World's Biggest Pipe Organ" from CBS. I chuckled and immediately hit play. Basicallly there is a Macy's in Philadelphia where the organ was built into the building when it was built (redundant?). Take a look...



It's pretty cool actually, and I'm sure the video doesn't do justice to what it's like to hear a massive pipe organ like that. It rumbles your insides. It's awesome. I don't think the Marlins are on the same wavelength as my brother and I but at least now I know where to go if I did want to hear the biggest pipe organ in the world. Do you think that virtuoso can play me some "Take Me Out to the Ballgame?"

Update: Here is another they video they posted...

Bad Footballers

I always find it rather amusing when superstar athletes make bad plays or have a poor showing. The majority of the time I notice this when watching golf. Every once in a while, someone will hit a horrible shot, and I'll think to myself, "Wow, that looks like when David (my brother) and I played"

Well the feeling of schadenfreude was in full effect for this week's UEFA Champions League semifinal first leg matches. On Tuesday, Liverpool were hosting Chelsea and took a 1-0 lead late in the first half. In the second half Chelsea searched for an equalizer but could never find one, that is until the fifth minute of added time (think bottom of the ninth, two outs, two strikes) when Salomon Kalou crossed the ball in front of goal and John Arne Riise got low, met the ball, and magnificently headed it into the goal. The problem, Riise plays for Liverpool. His fantastic strike was delivered past his goalkeeper and into his net, giving Chelsea the tying goal (and it's an away goal, which will affect the tiebreaker if the aggregate is tied after the second leg). You can get killed in South America for doing something like that. Luckily he lives in Europe, and he does have the second leg next week to redeem himself.



Finishing a close second for embarrassment of the week was Cristiano Ronaldo. He and Manchester United were in Barcelona for their semifinal first leg. Before I say what happened, know that Ronaldo is one of the top three players in the world right now, and without question the player of this season. He has scored 37 goals in all competitions (think 40+ TD passes) and just about everything he has kicked or headed as wound up in the net. Well in the third minute of Wednesday's match, United were awarded a penalty kick. These are made about 90% of the time because keepers really stand no chance of stopping a shot from 12 yards. They must guess a direction, dive that way, hope the ball is kicked that way, and still be able to catch it or palm it away. As the kick taker, you just need to kick the ball on target with any sort of power and accuracy and hope its not one of the 10% that are amazingly saved by the keeper. Well, Ronaldo forgot about that whole on target part, as his kick grazed the outside of the post and was no good. Did I mention there were more than 90,000 fans of Barcelona cheering as if they won the competition after he missed it? Brilliant.

Intro

Hello. I am Ted. This is my blog. If you are reading this, then you probably know who I am already so I won't bother going through a life story. If you don't know me and were looking to read a post about my life story, I'm sorry.

Topics that I may discuss here on the blog will generally fall into one of the following categories.

• Things I Like: I will probably do a segment entitled, "Ted is Grateful For ____." Clever, I know, because of the name of this blog. By the way, I can't take full credit for the name. It was actually suggested to me by a friend who thought I should have a one man band, and call myself "The Grateful Ted."
  
• Things I Don't Like: I don't know if these posts will have a clever title, but they will be informative none the less. Most likely I will rant about my pet peeves, which everyone loves to hear about.
• Random Thoughts: There may be a lot of these.

I will begin regular posting tomorrow. Enjoy.