GAME05

my last day of work tomorrow! hoo-rah. it was the most awful thing ever and i've finally cut that noose. what'll I do Monday morning? sleep until I'm tired no more. now full-time student, part-time poker player, and that's going to be a lot of fun. my student loan should be paid within a year of becoming employed. burned a cigarette hole in my good dress pants today, but i won't need dress pants again for a very long time. of course i hope not, but even if the Brewers got swept in the NLDS, i'd sure be happy they even made it.

speaking of poker, has anyone ever played at the casino in Wheeling, West Virginia? i'm probably headed there in two or three weeks. sadly, it's the closest poker-playing casino near me in North Carolina. It's six hours away and Tunica, Biloxi and AC are all nine hours.

did Snoopy finally shoot that guy down from his doghouse-plane or not? i like the Wisconsin names, they say a lot about what's important in the state and not just something generically scary or strong. are there many bears in Illinois?

if we lose in the playoffs, i can eventually deal with it. but if we lose to the Cubs, i'd never get over that.

i can't stand that everyone mispronounces Celtics.

i'm totally against it. we're not teetering on the brink of falling out of the WC lead, so the 1 or even 2 games that a productive Gamel might get us isn't going to make a tremendous difference. then consider that he might lose us 1-2 games with defensive errors and it's a wash. most every player will tell you that it's hard to keep any sort of rhythm when you're not playing every day. only if Gamel were on our playoff roster would i want him to get even semi-regular starts. but right now Hall needs the ABs to stay sharp and consistent--yeah, even if it's .230 consistent. but either way, he's only going to improve with regular ABs, and definitely not from sitting on the bench. he can PH and that's enough. the month of September during a WC race isn't the time to see if the dude can handle the 3b job for the future--that's for spring training or April.

"diet Coke" is the most awful of oxymorons.

well, there's always the occasional player who just doesn't want to play in New York. i can definitely see it both ways, that NY will absolutely be the top bidder for CC, but that Milwaukee will dump money on somebody if they get that extra money from making the playoffs--especially if they can get to the NLCS--we saw that with Detroit. that's the thing, though. apart from a pitcher, it's hard to see that there's giant holes on the offensive side unless we were to replace Cameron with somebody. we can say "get a LH bat", but who are we replacing?

it might be fun to set up a private Brewerfan.net table on one of the free sites and get some games going. i haven't set up an account yet, but i've heard the cash sites are still easy to get on. that basically you're prevented from entering your information online now, but now for most places you just have to call and give them your credit card number.

awesome that you're losing weight on the Wii Fit. that thing sure was a great idea. it's the perfect example that as long as you're moving around, it really doesn't matter what you're doing. like what Yoshii and Tristar mentioned, on my trimming phases, I'd also allow myself to cheat once a week. suddenly going healthy is tough, so it's sorta like a weekend from work if you can cheat just a little bit, and it really does make the rest of the week easier. Only thing for me is I couldn't keep any of the cheating food like ice cream in the house or I'd go crazy, but it was for going out or if McDonalds was about the only option for lunch. I'll second the whole grain comment. They tend to fill you up faster and also can take longer to digest, so you're full longer--stuff like brown rice instead of white. not to mention you just feel better from your system being clean. also, something as simple as measuring your waistline every 3-4 weeks (do it in the morning) can be a great motivator. it can sometimes be that if you muscle-build, that gain will offset your fat loss, and results just on a scale can be harder to see. there's nothing more motivating then to see when your efforts are working. or you can get a bodyfat calipers, but their accuracy can be marginal.

domestic pigs can go ferule in about three days once they get into the wild, which is pretty amazing. and they're super smart.

don't discount muscle-building. you burn 75% of your calories per day when you're sedentary, and more lean muscle will up the calories you burn per hour. that said, if you choose to build some muscle, do what Crew07 suggested and do some core exercises, ones like dips and pullups and squats that target a bunch of muscle groups at once. you don't have to join a gym to do those. the nice thing about whatever sort of exercise you choose, it will help to reduce your appetite, and you'll start to get full faster. it's not possible for most people, but if you can do 4-5 small meals per day instead of three bigger ones, that's also better. and don't skip breakfast, since it will help boost your metabolism throughout the day. i think you'll find once you start counting your calories and fat intake, that you won't have a terrible time at getting less than 2,000 calories per day. it's really not that hard to do the running math in your head through the day. pastas are great as long as you're exercising, replace the butter with olive oil, and cut the cheese and beer. catch the salads with low-fat dressing when you're out instead of the fried foods. i also cut out most all red meat (not that it's really terrible for you) for lean meats like skinless chicken and turkey. yeah, exercise isn't exactly critical, but it's definitely nice that you can go out and exercise for just a short bit and burn off all the calories you had from lunch. plus it helps in that you don't then have to get on such an extreme diet, which overall makes things easier to stick with for a long time rather than the temporary diets that don't work in the end.

i was really good at online tournaments of any size, but don't have the patience to stay off of cash tables, so i don't ever play online. live is different, though. i hesitate at saying i played professionally, but it was 90% of my income for, oh, about a year in the Madison area. though the past couple years the cops have started cracking down and a lot of the games are gone. i'm in North Carolina now. I go to school full-time, but am going to play poker for extra income whenever I can. it's kind of the middle of the desert for casinos around here, but I drive 5 hours to the Myrtle Beach area to play on a casino boat. been playing for about 8 years and have done fairly well. I don't get into the high-stakes stuff because i can't afford to lose that much, and i've found 1-2 NL to be right where I want--losses are about $300 and wins are about $1000.

i used to drive every so often between Madison and Denver, so went through Nebraska. if you trusted your alignment enough, you could almost put the car on cruise and take a nap once you're west of Lincoln. it's a thousand-mile drive and i'd do it by only ever stopping for gas. the troopers generally all park in the closed weigh stations, so i'd only slow down for those and the overhead cameras.

I think BAA can be deceiving, too. it'd take some more research, but i'd bet control-problem guys would have lower BAAs, just because players are probably les apt to swing at pitches and try to take the walk. but don't you think, though, that some pitching stats can be taken with a higher or lower value based on if he's a bullpen guy or starter? having a bullpen guy who's a groundball pitcher, for example, i see as far more valuable to come in and induce a DP than a starter.

thanks guys. it went pretty smoothly yesterday. two years at the worst job ever was probably two years too long. thanks for the encouragement.

thanks for the tips, i've been having that problem, too. been having the same thing with the forced ad at CBSSportsline. banner ads on the side i completely understand, but when a site resorts to covering up their editorial to force an ad upon you, that's typically when i stop visiting the site.

want to second that comment. i was all excited to listen to a game online at work, but XM doesn't offer the game channels online, only channel 175, which is baseball talk. if you'd just listen to it online, wouldn't MLB be the best subscription to get for Brewers games?

clearly, we need to get a petition going to get BTA or another knowledgeable bf.netter hired as Brewers beat writer for next season. mailbags with non-snarky, actual answers? that'd be awesome. now I suddenly wonder if Witrado knows what OBP is.

well, looks like i'm going to resign from my job tomorrow, so please everyone wish me the best. especially if you read Political Scene, you've no doubt heard me complain thoroughly about my job. it's reached the point that the bosses don't like my performance. i thought by working extra-hard i would change things, but it is certain to me that it's really a philosophical difference--i simply don't see what a proofreader should be seeing. *it should be noted that i'm an excellent editor, just a bad proofreader, and there is certainly a difference, so i've discovered. i had my hand slapped a month ago, and was told today that i'm somehow doing a worse job after that warning. what helps is i've always totally hated that job. i'm in an office with six other editors--no cubicles--and i haven't spoken a solitary word in two weeks, including "good morning" or "good night." this silence is quite typical. the good news: I've already been accepted to grad school. I'd planned on doing both, but now i will just take more credits and graduate a whole lot faster. yeah, extra debt, but i'll manage.

eh, i don't think it's a big deal. he has to answer a certain number and i'm sure is getting them done as fast as possible. why take the time to check for one or two errors? and i'm sure he counts on the copy editors to catch his spelling in his normal reporting. like bork, there doesn't seem to be much point in reading them. it's either questions that we've brought up here a week before or yet another person who's in love with TGJ and wants him up on the team.

my folks bought a second house in Scottsdale and are renting it out with a car. cost might be tough, but i'm really going to try to get there next March.

Huh? Nothing "moderate" about our winters. "those are some sexy Moon Boots you've got on!" "I love the way those icicles dance off your eyelashes." "you smell nice today. or is that just the yeast from the brewery?" i'll just presume this Mary Claire lady is a chubby-chaser and that's why she likes Milwaukee. fine by me.

Is this the "Official" random thoughts thread?

yikes. i'll take Bonds over Sheffield, i think. i almost wonder if Sheffield would boost attendence, people going to the park just to boo him. those are some bad memories we don't need revisited.