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We had our first church softball league scrimmage yesterday. It was the first time I’d played an organized game of softball since junior high (excepting one game at the Computer Science picnic, which was marginally organized, and everyone playing was a geek, except for their signifigant others). We were thoroughly womped; the game was definitely a learning experience:

* I love playing this game for fun; though I hate watching baseball on TV, there’s so much more going on in the “slow” moments if you’re actually playing. What do I do if the ball comes to me? If the ball goes to the left fielder? Where are the force outs at?
* I don’t like playing the game with ultra-competitive people, or at least those who can’t tone down their competitiveness to the appropriate level. There always seem to be a few, even in a “non-competitive” co-ed league. The competition aspect always seems to subvert and dominate the Christian fellowship aspect.

Right now, there is tenison between those two bullet points. I had fun, but not nearly as much fun as I could have had.

written by Kyle

Watch a geek next time you see one encountering an electronic device he/she can’t figure out. It’s fun. They get flustered, frustrated that they can run a Unix server but can’t operate a microwave. It should be an especially empowering experience for the non-geek who feels the same way (flustered and frustrated) about a computer.

written by Kyle

Clearly I’m posting too late. But there’s a story behind it. Yes, I was staying up too late for a work night. It was about midnight and I was wrapping up some design work, when I heard a sickening “SCREEEE-crunch!”. It was faint and rather surreal, so I sat there a few moments processing what I’d just heard.

It definitely sounded like a car crash.

Yup, nothing else really made that sound.

Should I just ignore it and go to bed?

No–what if someone was hurt?

So I woke Kelly up and explained what had just happened (I had to explain seven or eight times before the sleep melted away). I wanted Kelly with since I had no medical training. We got dressed and took off in the car, looking for the accident. The sound was faint, so I assumed it was down by the Sugar Bowl, a section of road with a slick S-curve.

We didn’t make it to the Sugar Bowl–the accident was right around the corner. A car had barrelled through a phone junction box and into the concrete porch of a house. Everyone seemed to be OK… except for the smell of alcohol, the stumbling, the lack of coherence and the desperation to get away.

The elderly couple in the house were clearly shaken; they retreated back into the house while we watched the two college-aged boys until the cops came. I took the keys at the first opportunity (not that it did much, since their car was going nowhere); unable to find his keys the driver came up with a brilliant plan B.

He removed his license plate and beat a hasty retreat with his friend as I yelled after them that they were only making it worse (I had already memorized the license plate number and Kelly had passed it along to the 911 operator on her cell phone). About then the cops rolled around, easily snagging the very intoxicated driver, with license plate in hand.

Last we knew, the passenger (who was not obviously drunk) was on the run. Speaking from experience, I can say that running from the cops is extremely stupid, even when you’ve done nothing wrong and are stone sober (that’s a story for another day). We gave our statement to the cop and then took his advice to go home and warm up.

Between the out-of-gas gentleman I stopped to help on I-96 (who was heading the wrong way to visit his father, couldn’t remember his father’s number, and continued to insist he “just had to get movin’ again”) and this latest incident, I’ve had a rash of run-ins with drunk drivers. Both were lucky in my estimation; no lives were lost due to their stupid decisions. It may sound corny or cheesy, but please don’t drink and drive.

written by Kyle

Ella is growing like a weed. I took her to the vet yesterday and she has doubled in size. She is now 16 lbs. Still healthy and still barking at me. She has already started to tame down a bit. At 10 weeks she knows her name and will respond to “come” and will sit on command. Alex is still alive and I think he likes Ella. Alex tends to egg Ella on at times by jumping at her. It is very funny to watch the two of them play. Ella has also been having lots of fun playing with Meggie, my parents lab. Ella’s favorite thing to do is chase and bite at Meggie. Kyle and I are both really enjoying having a puppy.

written by Kelly

Awhile back, a small company called Foveon introduced a brand new type of imaging chip, the “X3″:http://www.foveon.com/X3_tech.html. The X3 was revolutionary for the digital photography world because it “sees” a scene in the same way as traditional film. For the first time, digital photography would be on equal footing with traditional film; perhaps even better.

The problem is that many of the camera manufacturers make their own imaging chips, and it’s a very lucrative business for them. Consequently, they’ve been galacially slow in adopting Foveon’s chip. To date, only two cameras, “Sigma’s SD10″:http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/Cameras_sd10.htm (”Digital Photography’s review”:http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigmasd10/) and “Polaroid’s x530″:http://www.polaroid-digital.com/x530/ (”Digital Photography’s preview”:http://www.dpreview.com/news/0402/04020909polaroidx530.asp) have included the chip.

Profit stifles innovation and the consumer loses out. Not that this if the first time it has happened, it is just very frustrating to get stuck with inferior technology.

written by Kyle

“Happy Mother’s Day!”:/mothers_day.mov

written by Kyle