Posts in the “personal” category

Today I learned about Empathy Deficit Disorder (EDD) from this article:

• They jump fast into criticizing others without putting themselves in other people’s shoes.
• They seem to be cold or just out of touch for people that are suffering or are less fortunate.
• They believe 100% in the rightness of their own ideas and/or beliefs, and judge anyone who does not hold their beliefs as wrong, ignorant or stupid.
• They have trouble feeling happy for others.
• They have trouble making or keeping friends.
• They have trouble getting along with family members.
• They feel entitled to receiving favors and use you to serve their needs without showing appreciation. They will even get offended if they don’t get their way.
• They do or say something that hurts a friend or a loved one, and tend to blame his/her actions on them. They truly believe that the fault is in the person receiving the hurt because they reacted poorly, were rude or were oversensitive.

I noticed yesterday that the Cubs’ Tyler Chatwood has a forkball changeup grip. The ball spins with a backspin and not a topspin, so it’s not really a split-finger fastball like Bruce Sutter, but it does a great job of taking some MPH off of his pitch.

The Chicago Cubs won their game today in 11 innings and ended with a social distance celebration.

During one start in my high school baseball career I decided to use a windup like Steve Rogers, as shown in this YouTube video. I found that with this windup I couldn’t throw as hard as I normally did, but with that arm angle I had better movement on my fastball, which was sinking a little bit.

My dad hadn’t been to any of my games in a while, but he came to this one, and after a while he started yelling, “C’mon, throw the ball,” meaning that I should throw it harder. That pissed me off in part because our relationship was strained, and also because he hadn’t been to any games, so why should he care?

After he said it again, a very nice man in the stands named Mr. Munoz told him to be quiet, that I knew what I was doing. After all, the other team hadn’t scored, had they? After that my dad stayed quiet. I don’t know Mr. Munoz’ first name, but his son Oscar was really nice and a great baseball player, and as I thought of this today I just wanted to thank Mr. Munoz for that day.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks throwing a sinker (sinking fastball) and changeup.

“My vision is ordinarily limited to the catcher,” he says. “A man on base is merely a variable. I see the batter only dimly outlined. I don't care if it's Henry Aaron or Dal Maxvill up there. Either can hurt you, but neither can if I'm doing my job.”

~ a quote from Steve Carlton from this si.com article

As a brief update, surgical procedure #1 of July, 2020 will be taking place this Wednesday (the 15th), so you may not hear from me for a few days.

I was just doing some work on my One Man’s Alaska website, and noticed that hundreds of people every month visit my page about Zeus over there. He was a very special dog, and I’m glad if more people can learn about him, and the effect that an animal can have on a person’s life.

In 1971 — years before Jaws and Close Encounters — Steven Spielberg directed the first episode of the Columbo tv series. In 1974 they paid this little homage to him: Stephen Spelberg, “boy genius.” Here’s a link to that Columbo episode. I assume that Marshall Cahill in that episode is a not-so-subtle reference to a John Wayne movie from the previous year.

As I’m packing to move soon, this photo shows ~1/2 of my medical records/bills, primarily from 2013-17. I hope you never have a health problem like what I went through, but an important “lesson learned” is that there are specialists and then there are specialists.

The short story goes like this: My PCP sent me to an endocrinologist who ran a bunch of blood tests and three MRIs (including one MRI just four days after an angiogram, and walking immediately after an angiogram hurts like a son of a gun), looking for a rare and potentially tumor (a paraganglioma or pheochromocytoma, which have a 10% mortality rate).

Coming from a family of lucid dreamers and sleepwalkers, this is funny.

With the exception of our first dog, my wife and I always had Siberian Huskies. I can tell you firsthand that they like bones, big bones.

In honor of watching a Sherlock Holmes episode last night (the Jeremy Brett version).

A good quote from Harold Ramis about the characters in his movies.

During a summer many, many moons ago, I helped to build the bookshelves (“stacks”) in a library at Texas A&M University. I don’t remember its name, but the building was related to the animal/veterinary sciences program there.

My lasting memory of that project is that one of my coworkers would sing this song every day, “Hush, hush, keep it down now, voices carry.”

“When the soul becomes the warrior, all fear melts, as the snowflake that falls upon your hand.”

~ from the Kung Fu tv series

I don’t know if Twin Peaks ever makes me laugh, but it often makes me smile.

From the movie, I Hate Valentine’s Day. :)

One thing I learned on vacation this week: It doesn’t hurt to ask for the “biggie” hotel room. Turns out they had a really nice discount on this nice size suite, which was much more comfortable than the usual little hotel room. (This room is a “mini suite” at The Lodge at Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. From March, 2015.)

I’m a fan of many Tom Hanks movies, and I’m also a fan of his comments in regards to COVID-19:

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with COVID-19. The idea of doing one’s part, though, should be so simple: Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands,” Hanks told host Hoda Kotb. “That alone means you are contributing to the betterment of your house, your work, your town, your society as a whole. And it’s such a small thing. ... It’s a mystery to me how somehow that has been wiped out of what should be ingrained in the behavior of us all.”