“We want Gagne!”
It was the top of the 9th, and the Dodgers had been up 7-0. But reliever Tim Hamulack had just given up two runs.
“We want Gagne!”
The fans wanted to see their hero, Mr. Game Over, who was available for the first time this year after coming off the DL yesterday.
“We want Gagne!”
A figure appeared in the bullpen, standing up, walking to the mound, preparing to warm up. The crowd cheered.
“We want Gagne!”
Alas, it was not to be. Hamulack managed to close out the game and Eric Gagne never took the ball. Too bad; it would have been nice to see him pitch and to see what kind of intro he gets.
I went to Dodger Stadium last night to see the Dodgers-Phillies game after getting a tip from one of the JPLers that tonight’s game is sold out (bobble head night). Gavin decided he’d rather go to the EDL team happy hour, but I’m feeling anti-social this week, and didn’t want to miss my 16th stadium. Off I went, alone.
Dodger Stadium is fairly old, but beautifully located on top of a hill just north of downtown. From one side of the stadium there is a lovely view of LA’s few skyscrapers, and the smog last night actually wasn’t too bad. For dinner I had to have a Dodger dog, to which I added garlic fries. I don’t know what I was thinking; my stomach hurt for the rest of the game. I haven’t paid much attention to the Dodgers this year and didn’t realize that they actually have a pretty good team put together. Nomar Garciaparra (who apparently moved to 1st base), Raphael Furcal (shortstop, so he’s the reason Nomar moved), JD Drew, and Jeff Kent, who unfortunately just went on the DL as Gagne came off it.
My only real disappointment was that I wasn’t allowed to go down to the lower level of the stadium. My ticket was for the upper deck along the first base side, and ushers stopped me both of the times I tried to sneak down the stairs in an effort to make my ballpark tour complete. Sigh. Oh well.
This morning Gavin and I went to the last bit of the first Mars Science Laboratory landing site workshop, the gathering of scientists taking the first steps towards choosing a landing site for MSL. They ended up ranking about 40 sites in a surprisingly democratic voting process, each of which will now be imaged by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter after it reaches its mapping orbit in November.
After that, we went to a talk given by a high-up in the Mars program office about the difficulty of landing humans on Mars. It’s funny — until today I don’t think even I realized how tough it’s going to be to get humans down to the surface. There’s so little atmosphere, and humans are so fragile. Oh, humans and their inability to withstand more than a few g’s of deceleration!
I don’t really know what’s on tap for the weekend. At the moment, I am completely meeting’ed out but still have 2 hours to go before I’m done for the day. There’s yet another happy hour tonight but I’m feeling 1) anti-social, 2) headachey, and 3) just plain tired. Gavin’s been talking about hiking tomorrow, but I’m being completely apathetic. I don’t feel all that great, but maybe I’ll feel more chipper tomorrow.
Everyone here at JPL has a laptop, and carries it around under their arm like college students in the ’50s carried textbooks. They take them to meetings, where there is always wireless internet. I would argue that being able to take their computer with them makes them more productive. I would also argue that it means no one is ever truly paying attention. Interesting.
The laptop phenomenon has been noticed in the med school as well….
I watched the Dodgers game on my MLB pass last night. Gagne pitched the ninth in an 8-6 loss to Philly. The crowd went nuts. He allowed two baserunners, but no runs. I think he was clocked at 94. And I got to listen to Vin Scully, probably the only man that can handle the booth by himself. I love listening to him do a game.
It’s the same at Bl*ue as well. Laptops everywhere, and especially at meetings. And ESPECIALLY at all-day meetings. People just work through the meetings.
I think in meetings with more than 5 people it’s appropriate. Most of what happens in the meeting is not going to apply to everyone so you might as well get something done while you’re waiting for the part that does apply to you.
I carry around my laptops to most my meetings. I take all my notes on the laptop. Then they are easier to store, review, email, etc.
I don’t believe I have an attention issue though. I think the attention issue is VERY true of Blackberry users though.
A few g’s? I’ve heard you *only* need about 70 g’s to cause severe damage to the typical male. Less for the girls and even less for children. Sounds like an interesting problem to solve!