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Teaching Tracks
With due respect to Si Yuan Team's Master, his name is mentioned whenever reference is made to his inventions in the history of Chinese Medicine teachings. However, Si Yuan classes reflect our instructor's own understanding of what they learned from their Master.
Following their Master's path, Si Yuan Instructors aim at offering the most effective teachings in the acupuncture community.
While being trained by its Master to continue his mission, Si Yuan Team understood that many practitioners lack the hands-on experience to truly integrate the Balance Method with confidence in their own clinics. For this reason, Balance Method by Si Yuan offers two teaching tracks:
Core Foundations Track
The essential groundwork for treating all internal and external diseases. Designed for both beginning and advanced practitioners. Days 1 & 3 introduce new concepts and strategies, while Days 2 & 4 offer more hands-on demonstrations, practical ideas and fun ways to bring life to the Balance Method. All of the days are structured like workshops to put into practice the theory just learned. Practitioners will have the opportunity to needle each other under the guidance of the teacher and assistants. You may even be lucky enough to receive a treatment!
- Day 1: Clinical Wonders with Acupuncture 1,2,3
- Day 2: Clinical Wonders in Practice
- Day 3: Global Balance for Functional Disorders
- Day 4: Global Balance in Practice
Day 1: Clinical Wonders with Acupuncture 1,2,3
- Discover a logical Three-Step Strategy to immediately and effectively treat all localized symptoms such as pain, numbness, stiffness, tingling or burning sensations, etc.
- Understand the classical origin of Si Yuan Team's Master's famous 6 Systems which tie up 2,000 years of Chinese Medicine into a simple balancing pattern. You will be amazed how scattered concepts suddenly make sense!
- Learn the Golden Rules to make acupuncture work consistently.
Day 2: Clinical Wonders in Practice
- Learn the "Matrix Analysis Technique" to balance complications using a minimal number of meridians in your treatment.
- Countless real-life case studies and demonstrations ensure you will have analyzed the most common pain patterns seen in clinical practice.
- Some lucky participants will be invited to palpate Ashi points and insert needles under the teacher's supervision.
Day 3: Global Balance for Functional Disorders
- Apply the Taiji Dynamic Structure to treat functional diseases and whole-body pain.
- Practice different Four-Meridian Treatment Strategies for whole body issues such as allergic, digestive, cardiac, respiratory or uro-gynecological diseases.
- Convert Western medical diagnoses into correct acupuncture diagnoses for accurate treatments
- Discover Si Yuan Team's Master's famous and most effective point combinations.
Day 4: Global Balance in Practice
- Review and combine all the theory and demonstrations from the past three days.
- Utilize a simple and effective wisdom when approaching patients who simultaneously exhibit local and internal disorders.
- End the four-day series feeling no questions were left unanswered!
Advanced Track
Practitioners are eligible to take classes in this track when they have completed all four days of the Core Foundations.
However, dedicated students who have already integrated all teachings from the Core Foundations Track into clinical practice may also take offerings from this track.
The Advanced Track consists of a variety of courses to enhance your repertoire of treatments.
- Treating Zang-Fu disorders with Meridian Conversion Therapy (from Yi Jing Ba Gua)
- Balance the Five Elements (from Yi Jing Ba Gua) – Si Yuan's Master implementation
- Seasonal Balance (from Yi Jing Ba Gua)
- Strategy of Twelve Magical Points Si Yuan's Master implementation
- Smart Combos: How to integrate various Balance Method Strategies
- Balancing the 8 Extra + Scalp Acupuncture
Optional Clinic Observation : A minimum 3-hour shift is recommended per weekend (total of 9 hours). Note that all shift hours may be applied to the 40 hour Internship required for Upper Level Practitioner Balance Method certification.
For more information about Clinical Observation scheduling and requirements ONLY, please click here to send your specific questions.
The class offered varies in different cities. Please check the website for exact class dates and course titles in your desired city.
Treating Zang-Fu disorders with Meridian Conversion Therapy (from Yi Jing Ba Gua)
- Learn how to translate Zang-Fu and emotional diagnosis into a "Meridian Diagnosis" in order to devise the most effective treatments.
- Discover one of the most famous and effective Ba Gua Methods using only 2 needles to balance a whole meridian.
- Learn to recognize different body/constitutional types and their associated disorders.
- Achieve resolution of more complicated internal disorders such as insomnia, allergies, hormonal and mental conditions.
Balance the Five Elements (from Yi Jing Ba Gua) – Si Yuan's Master implementation.
- Uncover the true meaning of the "Five Interactions" as a dynamic active force.
- Discover Si Yuan Team's Master's invention and most advanced science applying the Five-Elements concept to Yi Jing hexagrams.
- Learn how to combine the power of the Balance Method and the essence of Five-Elements theory to sedate and tonify with a simple combination of points.
- Treat stubborn cases of both stagnation and deficiency. You will be guided through the most common Five Element imbalances seen in daily practice.
Seasonal Balance (from Yi Jing Ba Gua)
- Find out how to use the hexagram of the current season to balance the meridians.
- Learn an advanced system designed to address cyclical and seasonal disorders or any pathology triggered by a sudden event in the patient's life.
- Expand your treatment options for seasonal disorders such as allergies, joint & muscle pain and depression.
Strategy of Twelve Magical Points – Si Yuan's Master implementation.
- Discover Si Yuan Team's Master's amazing invention to treat difficult cases involving multiple internal and external disorders.
- Learn a logical yet simple technique to deeply balance and harmonize all the 12 meridians over the whole body using only 12 needles. You won't feel helpless anymore when your patient shows so many symptoms!
- Walk away with the ability to construct quick and effective treatments for chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, diabetes and other frequently seen pathologies.
- A dynamic class that changes every time because different case studies bring out fresh ideas.
Smart Combos: How to integrate various Balance Method Strategies
- This class was created by popular demand for advanced students who want to apply several of aspects of the Balance Method in one treatment.
- Understand HOW, WHEN and WHY to mix treatment strategies in clinical practice.
- Tie everything together as the perfect ending to the four-day intensive. Countless case studies and demos will clarify how to choose the best strategies in real-life scenarios.
Balancing the 8 Extra + Scalp Acupuncture
- Expand your knowledge of the Eight Extras in relation to Balance Method theory.
- Learn how to incorporate the Eight Extras to enhance the effectiveness of your treatments.
- Use Confluent points along with the Yin/Yang Balancing Dynamic for extraordinary results.
- Increase the effectiveness of your treatments by gaining new understanding of the uses of Scalp Acupuncture.
Balance Method Gong Fa 平衡功法
Also known as Qi Cultivation, Gongfa is self-care practice. We know that most illnesses start as mental, emotional, and physical stress that, if not discharged, becomes chronic. This epigenetic process produces diverse symptoms and sicknesses, but their root is imbalance. As a Balance Method practitioner, we always seek equilibrium. Our goal is regeneration rather than degeneration. The classical principles you learned in our Core Foundations Track (CFT), such as yinyang 陰陽, sixiang 四相, bagua 八卦, and yi 易 are not just philosophical abstractions. Besides applying them to acupuncture, you can directly embody them for greater awareness, wellness, relaxation, and efficacy both clinically and personally. Through the cumulative benefits of Gongfa on your mind, heart, and body, your best self emerges to affect your patients by positive example.
- For all practitionners, Gongfa is thus a practical complement with the following main benefits:
- Protects the practitioner from resonating with internal and external pathogenic influences from patients.
- Increases the practitioner's efficiency, effectiveness, and intuition for diagnosis and treatment.
- Helps practitioners keep balance, avoid exhaustion, and exert stronger positive presence on patients.
For acupuncturists, Gongfa more specifically optimizes results during the needling phase. Like Balance Method Acupuncture, Gongfa also utilizes a three-step process to deliberately apply the practitioner's intention, emotion, and action towards treatment results. Gongfa can be directly implemented by acupuncturists to upgrade their clinical work as well as prescribed to patients to enhance the stability of their acupuncture treatments.
Balance Method Gongfa is taught in the following formats:
- Balance Method Gongfa Introduction (2 to 4 Hours)
- Balance Method Gongfa Essentials (6 to 8 Hours)
- Balance Method Gongfa Fundamentals (16 Hours)
- Balance Method Gongfa Advanced (Variable)
Each Gongfa class is customized to attendees and may therefore vary. However, the following are selected sample topics:
- Build immunity against physical and psychological stressors
- Coordinate your limbs and torso to improve circulation flow
- Center and extend the power of your mind, heart, and body
- Use breath as a tool to tune the autonomic nervous system
- Develop a sense of your internal organs to keep homeostasis
- Sync your neuro-musculo-skeletal systems for aligned function
- Activate innate intelligence including your instinct and intuition
- Maintain calm while facing difficult patients or busy situations
Balance Method Bazi 平衡八字
Also known as The Three Essentials, Bazi is birth chart analysis. Traditionally, Chinese medicine and acupuncture assert the profound factor of timing on disease. Whereas Fengshui addresses and remedies negative aspects within your space and locale, Bazi determines when you, or your patients, are more susceptible to certain influences in your life progression. These can be related to the status of your body, finances, career, position, education, relationships, spirituality, and more. By laying out and reading the dynamics of your Bazi — literally, "eight characters" based on your year, month, day, time, and city of birth — you can find revealing patterns. For instance, you may identify your core strengths and weakness, your easiest months to start a family, your best periods to get returns on investments, your likelihood of creating meaningful partnerships, your chance of pursuing more education, and your probability towards gain or loss of power.
Bazi is taught in four levels of four days each. More information here.


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Tim Gebard and the Hitmen Play to Benefit Red Cross
After performing solo for a while, Tim Gebard began to find collaborators through open mic events such as the Rock n Roll Playdate. Now Gebard and his band, including his song Aaron, are preparing for their next big show, a benefit for the American Red Cross at Clifton Opera House. Tim Gebard and the Hitmen visited the WYSO studios for a live set on Kaleidoscope and spoke with host Juliet Fromholt about performing together and using music for the greater good.
Tim Gebard and the Hitmen will perform on October 19th at Clifton Opera House. All proceeds from the show will benefit the Greene and Clark County chapters of the American Red Cross.

subset: commoncrawl


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Prior to applying for a Business name or Company name, it is highly recommended that you ensure as much as possible, that your proposed name is not going to infringe upon any other organisations Trademark rights, by having some form of 'search' conducted.
Do not rely upon business registration or company registration to protect you......Trademark registration will! Trademark registration, if possible, will give you exclusive rights.
Business Name Registration in WA $190 (inclusive of GST, Professional fees and Government)
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Traditional Christmas colors with lots of sparkle!
These one of a kind ornaments range in length from 2 3/4" to 6 1/2". They are made from vintage and new beads, ornaments and jewelry components in a variety of materials including: glass, wood, bakelite, lucite, acrylic, plastic, resin, gold and silver-filled zinc, and sterling silver.
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If an ornament you like is marked as sold, please contact me. I have hundreds of ornaments not pictured here! I'm also happy to make custom orders.
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There's an article in the Metro section of Sunday's Times which may not have been included in the on-line edition. It reported on the contributions of selected celebrities to the various candidates. Ah, a very important dispatch. Clip it, save it. Hasn't the Times got more significant news to tell on the newspaper of record?
In any case, Alec Baldwin, the intellectual lightweight of the Hollywood left, gave $2,000 to Hillary Clinton. Out of loyalty, I suppose.
Donald Trump's eldest son donated $4,000 to Hillary and $4,600 to Guiliani, this contribution now counted in the "wasted" column.
Charles Dolan, chairman of Cablevision, and his son, James Dolan, each gave $4,600 to Clinton, although the father also contributed to Fred Thompson and John McCain. These donors are but another example of those whose contributions have nothing rational to do with their politics.
I don't know who Donny Deutsch is. But he gave $4,600 to Hillary and $4,500 to John Edwards.
The most intriguing contribution is the contribution from Rupert Murdoch. To Mrs. Clinton, at $2,300. But, as I pointed out a few days ago, his newspaper, the New York Post, endorsed Barack Obama.
Obama does not play all that well with the celebs. Congratulations to him.


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External Beam Radiotherapy for Retinoblastoma
- Failed local tumor control.
- Orbital disease.
- Germline retinoblastoma, because of the risk of inducing cancer.
- Age less than 1 year, because of the risk of facial deformity.
- The treatment is administered under sedation.
- Up to 25 small doses of radiation are given daily or every two days.
- Cataract.
- Cancer formation, if the patient has a germline mutation.
- Facial deformity, if the patient is less than 1 year old.
- Brain damage, which may affect the personality.


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Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Be the first SILive.com user to add photos or videos of American Legion
American Legion is located at 3045 Hobart St, Woodside, NY. This location is in the Woodside neighborhood. This business specializes in Military.


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Talking Travel, TBEX, and Tesla With Kim Mance
Kim Mance and I were recently panelists together at the NATJA convention talking about how blogs are valued and how to make one valuable. I tracked her down afterwards to expand on some of the things she mentioned there while telling her story and giving good advice. The only thing she couldn't answer was…what's taking them so long to announce the next TBEX dates and location? Sorry.
Most writers know you as the founder of the successful TBEX convention. Tell us how this now-huge travel bloggers conference got started and how your role in it evolved over the years.
I'm truly humbled and flattered by the first part of your statement because it was a total fluke. I was working very hard on launching Galavanting (see below), and happened to "meet" some really engaging, generous and cool travel people online during that time frame. At some point, I emailed six of them inviting them to stay at my place in Chicago during another larger and more broadly focused conference. One thing lead to another after a phone call from Debbie from Delicousbaby.com, and once we'd invited more folks to join, a deluge of travel bloggers sent RSVPs. I needed help. So I reached out to the Chicago Tourism Office, which was extremely helpful and from there, TBEX was born.
I'm not an event planner, and therefore never planned to plan events. It just happened. And that's why I still like TBEX so much. Travel writers and bloggers just can't help themselves. No matter how far and wide they traverse the globe, they always want to meet up with like minds.
But still, I was no event planner, and even with all the kumbaya, TBEX needed help. I was very relieved that Rick and the professionals took over in 2012 after New Media Expo acquired the TBEX events.
What is Galavanting all about and how did that get started?
Galavanting was born during a conversation with a wonderful woman in my office, Katy, while I was working in communications in Washington, DC. My young son had a relapse of spinal cord cancer, and I realized I needed to phase out of my high-pressure job and go freelance full time (I'd been writing a lot on the side), so I could work from hospitals and such. She and I chatted about what would be the thing I could be most passionate about would be. And how I could have the most ideas for going forward for freelance work. Travel always came in on top of the brainstorm pile of ideas. My first trip abroad was at the age of fourteen while volunteering on a church trip (I'd found a loophole in my Evangelical upbringing and could see other parts of the world if I pretended to want to evangelize it).
From there forward, Katy and I wrote ideas on those big poster sticky-notes on a wall, cataloging all the things we thought were missing in travel media for people like us: Brave, perceptive, non-trust fund women with an insatiable curiosity about the world. A few friends joined in on brainstorm sessions over a few months about what they'd like to see in travel media, then I got to work learning Dreamweaver software, HTML, CSS, etc… I worked on it full time for months, and we launched Galavanting to 15k visitors the first month. No matter the momentum now, it has steady traffic regardless of how often we post, so I take it we were on to something.
Who else have you written for in the past and what else are you working on now?
I started my writing after an invitation from Huffington Post in 2007, soon after their launch, and after getting featured on their homepage several times, got more confident to pitch paying editors. I've done things for a lot of outlets since then, mostly on the sheer bliss of ignorance and not knowing how hard it is to break into writing. Places like Babble, Marie Claire, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and even the Women's Policy Journal of Harvard (yep, that Harvard) have published me since I put my mind to it.
Pitch; think; think more; think better; be incisive: pitch again. Repeat.
Right now I'm doing a lot in freelance TV projects while working on a book of my own. It's an amazing leap from gaining an online following, but a natural leap (ugh, I sound like a douche with that statement, but it's true). In truth, I kind of feel like I don't work at all now, because it's all very fun and satisfying work. But I guess that's how you know you're doing the right thing — work doesn't feel like work: it feels like living. My entire goal has always been to influence travel media more into reality rather than platitudes or stereotypes, and broadcast media was a central goal to that end. So I feel like I'm fulfilling that now to some extent. Boy, I sure would [email protected]*%$ng like to be the female Anthony Bourdain though.
I've also joined a band in upstate New York, just south of Woodstock. I'm somehow become their lead singer, to complement their stellar skills as musicians. We're still in rehearsal mode, but I expect at least $14 from our first gig.
I guess I always follow my heart, regardless of the tip jar. The heart is much more passionate than the head, and seems to find resonance with others more readily than strategy. Yes, I'm kind of a hippie.
One great thing about being a writer is you can follow something that intrigues you and become an expert on it after a while. How did you get to be recognized as a Nikola Tesla expert and invited to a conference on him?
The great thing about being a travel writer sometimes means you can be a huge, huge nerd. An no matter how few people follow you to that nerdy place, there are enough. Enough to make an impact.
I got — and am still — obsessed with the turn-of-the-century inventor Nikola Tesla. He literally described a mobile phone in a 1906 New York Times interview during a time when you had to wind a crank and hope to reach an operator to place a call. The man was an eccentric and full of curiosity. Which is where I find my resonance: eccentric people who are effective and contribute to the greater good.
Anyway, after creating a Nikola Telsa tour by following his major places he lived and made inventions (Rural Croatia, NYC, Colorado Springs, Niagara Falls, Belgrade, Paris, and others), I got asked to speak at a conference about an upcoming science center dedicated to him on Long Island (the site of one of his laboratories), among other cool, nerdy things.
You never know what can happen when you get obsessed with something. And often, it can even be better than being invited to speak at a conference on your hero.
What are your main revenue streams and how do you see that changing in the next few years?
Originally I thought we'd make around $3,000 a month through advertising with Galavanting when launching it it 2008. There were spreadsheets. I was sure of it. But all through that time of launching the site, I funded it (and eating) through freelance writing for other publications. Galavanting didn't start turning a profit for years. And by profit, I mean, paying for fees to run the site and a salary for those working for it. Replacing an income – that's what I mean.
So, my income now is a huge mish-mash of things. It's partly freelance writing, partly the sale of TBEX, and a lot of freelance TV work. I don't think anyone should ever underestimate the power of their own expertise. Even if you just do it for the love of doing it, like I do, it often converts into people paying you to write or talk about your passion.
What advice would you give to a travel blogger #8,462 just starting out right now?
Be passionate. Not about getting traffic or ad revenue, or klout (cough, cough).
Be a person, not a bot. Be yourself. Create something you think is missing and do it in a very sensible way. Once you've isolated what it is you're excellent at doing, make a plan, but not a cynical one that makes you feel guilty (or you'll lose your creative edge). Use that smart plan to help get your take on things out into the world.
Know that: A) No one gives a crap unless you have a very specific angle that someone is interested in knowing, or knowing more about because they're as obsessed with the topic as you are. And B) There's no such as a million-dollar idea without a crapload of work behind it. Going out on your own is about 300% more difficult than being in an office cubical. It takes all you have to give. But as I said before, it doesn't even feel like work if you're doing what you love. It feels like more like you're cheating the system. If you're able to do that and eat and pay your bills, you're probably on the right track. If not, get a bar tending job and refocus your work until it does.
Kim Mance is a travel writer and a bit of a wisecracker.
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Tagged: Pittsburgh Pirates
4-24-12 PNC Park
This was the Pirates first game against the Rockies of the season, as the previous night had been rained out. I was looking forward to this game because 49 year old Jamie Moyer would be pitching for the Rockies, and I had purchased a ticket directly behind the Rockies dugout.
Batting practice got off to a slow start for me. In fact, I didn't snag anything for the first 20 minutes. After coming up short on three different balls, I ranged to my left on a Michael McKenry home run ball and caught it on the fly here:
It was a milestone ball as it was my #1,600th.
Later, I called out to Evan Meek, who tossed a ball in my direction. Fellow ballhawk Ian Weir, who was two rows in front of me had it tip off of his glove, and it bounced right to me.
Ball #3 was a clean catch on the fly of a Yamaico Navarro homer here:
My fourth ball of the Pirates BP was a ground rule double hit by light hitting infielder Josh Harrison near the foul pole:
That was it for the Pirates BP, as they wrapped things up shortly after 5.
When the Rockies began hitting, the pitchers still were warming up in right field, so there were no players to shag balls. I used this time to make their job a little easier by glove tricking ball #5.
Carlos Gonzalez wandered over and tossed about 9 balls into the stands. I was about to glove trick an easy ball when he began walking towards it. Since he was making an effort to retrieve it, I didn't use the glove trick, even though I could've quickly and easily snagged it and saved him the walk over. CarGo came over, picked the ball up, and handed it to me for ball #6.
Ball #7 was another simple glove trick in left.
When the pitchers finally made their way over, Rex Brothers tossed me ball #8, and motioned to me to give it to a little kid standing a few feet to my left, so I did.
Ball #9 was a foul ball hit by Troy Tulowitzki. He yanked it down the line into the lower seats. It was already like 5:35, and there were no fans over there. No one seemed to notice or care. So I ran over into foul ground and grabbed it.
I was on a hot streak. I had nine balls and Rockies BP was just getting underway. But, weirdly, I didn't snag anything else during batting practice, even though this was the crowd shortly before 6 PM at the end of BP:
Before the game started, I waited by the bullpen for Jamie Moyer to come out. There, I asked catching Coach Jerry Weinstein to toss up a ball that was sitting in the bullpen, and he obliged for ball #10.
I then watched Jamie Moyer toss 75 mph heaters:
And then watched him do it later, in the game from my seat.
This was my section:
And the view:
I was just a few rows behind where all the players enter the dugout when they run off the field. The location was perfect, because in the third inning, Casey McGehee chopped a ball in front of the plate that Chris Nelson fielded and threw to Todd Helton for the third out. When Helton ran off the field, he spotted me in my bright Rockies jersey and tossed me ball #11.
It had a nice dirt spot on it from where McGehee had pounded it into the ground. I also noticed a little bit of scuffing. Was Moyer doctoring the ball? Its tough to say, but he kept the Pirates off balance all night, pitching 6 innings and giving up 1 run. Not bad for a 49 year old.
The game itself was probably one of the more exciting ones of the year, as the lead exchanged leads several times in the late innings before the Pirates prevailed.
Here are today's baseballs:
Sweet spots:
2012 Stats:
Game: 11 balls
Season: 66 balls
Lifetime: 1,610 balls
Pittsburgh Pirates Season Ticket Design
I got my Pirates season tickets in the mail today.
I love how every spring I get so pumped when I see this package.
When I got home Amy said that a package was waiting for me at the door. She said she thought it was my season tickets. She proceeded to say that she's never seen me run so fast in her life.
I opened it up and laid out the contents. Three season ticket books, with 81 tickets each, for a grand total of 243 tickets, as well as a few inserts:
The inserts I just discarded, as I was most interested as to what was inside the season ticket books.
There was the all important season ticket holders card, that allows me into batting practice before the general public:
Then I started leafing through the book. The first page has season ticket holder and individual game pricing. Most frustrating – additional tickets cost $9 each, rather than $5 like it has always been in the past. (My season tickets cost $4.93 a ticket, I don't see why extras shouldn't cost the same amount.)
The next page features the Pirates schedule along with the Promotional Schedule.
The next pages outline the season ticket benefits along with the ticket exchange program. The Pirates have one of the best ticket exchange program, allowing fans to exchange tickets to 71 of the 81 home games.
But anyhow, the most important part is the tickets themselves and the ticket design. This year's design features four Pirates players in color, while the background is in gray.
Andrew McCutchen was first:
Then Joel Hanrahan:
Neil Walker:
and Jose Tabata:
I'm still not sure if I like the tickets or not. They seem rather dull. I don't know, I'd rate them as mediocre. Maybe they'll grow on me.
Here's a close up of one of McCutchen's tickets:
The package also contained a letter from president Frank Coonelly.
The letter reads:
Dear Erik,
While it has been a relatively mild winter here in Pittsburgh, even warmer weather and the 126th season of Pittsburgh Pirates baseball are both right around the corner. The beginning of Spring Training games in sunny Bradenton Florida means that Opening Day at PNC Park is less than one month away.
We are extremely excited to begin the 2012 season. Last season gave us all a taste of how electric PNC Park can be as we battled for the division lead through the end of July. Our team learned valuable lessons last season and is determined to execute at a championship level for 162 games in 2012. We are extremely happy that you will be part of the excitement and fun that together we will create at PNC Park in 2012.
Enclosed you will find your season tickets for the 2012 season, which is packed with great games and promotions. The season starts off with a bang as we host our in state rivals and Eastern Division Champion Philadelphia Phillies for a three game set beginning on Opening Day, Thursday April 5. The rest of the season features exciting matchups against our NL Central foes, including the defending World Series Champion St Louis Cardinlas and the Central Division Champion Milwaukee Brewers, and exciting interleague visits from the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, and Minnesota Twins. Plus, we also have some great promotions lined up, including an exciting Summer Concert Series featuring Boyz II Men, Daughtry, Styx, and Lifehouse.
On behalf of the entire Pirates organization, thank you for your dedication and support of Pirates baseball. I look forward to seeing you on Thursday April 5 at 1:35 PM as we officially get the 2012 season started.
Frank Coonelly
Pittsburgh Pirates
What do you all think of the ticket designs?
Are your team's better?
By the way, I also blogged about the season ticket design in 2011 and 2009. You can check out those entries by click the links on the corresponding year.
If you're looking for the shirt I'm giving away, I'll try and post it soon.
I'm busy playing with my daughter and watching the Buccos on MLBtv – and Matt Hague just went deep for the Buccos.
Opening Day is a month away!
2012 Pittsburgh Pirates Preview & Predictions
As many of you know, I am from Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Pirates are my team. As such, I've decided to dedicate an entire blog entry to their 2012 preview, rather than lumping them in with a division preview. In case you missed my division previews, you can read my AL East Preview, AL Central Preview, AL West and NL Central preview by clicking on the links provided.
I've decided to post this preview now, on the eve of the Pirates first grapefruit league game – tomorrow vs Toronto.
The Pirates were in first place in late July last year before everything fell apart. A blown call by Jerry Meals at the plate in the 19th inning of a game in Atlanta seemed to trigger a monumental collapse, as the Pirates finished the season with a 19-43 record.
The National League Central is a weaker division in 2012, having seen the departures of its two best hitters via free agency; Albert Pujols from the Cardinals to the Angels and Prince Fielder from the Brewers to the Tigers.
Let's see what the Pirates have heading into the season.
The catching position was a bit of a mess last year for the Pirates. They used EIGHT different catchers last year. Michael McKenry received the most at bats, but struggled by and large, hitting .222. Ryan Doumit, Chris Snyder, Jason Jaramillo, Dusty Brown, Eric Fryer, Matt Pagnozzi, and Wyatt Torregas also saw time at catcher in 2011.
To add stability, general manager Neil Huntington added catcher Rod Barajas during the offseason.
Barajas has been a durable major league catcher throughout his career and brings power to the table. His troublesome spot is hit batting average and on base percentage. On the whole, this is an upgrade over what the Pirates had last year.
The backup catcher job will probably go to Michael McKenry,
although Jake Fox was also signed during the offseason to be a viable option if McKenry falters or is injured.
Fox has seen time in the majors before, playing most recently with the Orioles last year. He is a career .237 hitter in the big leagues with 20 home runs in 489 at bats. He's got some power. He has also had years in the minor leagues where he's hit 21, 24, 25, and 31 home runs. He's got more pop, so I personally hope that he makes the team over McKenry, just from a batting practice perspective. I've seen the guy hit in BP in Baltimore. He does very well in BP. He can also play first base.
Last year at first base, the Pirates had Derrek Lee for the last two months, who took over for an inept Lyle Overbay, who was ultimately released. Lee broke his wrist and missed time, but did have a good month with the Pirates, hitting .337 with 7 homers in 101 at bats. The Pirates wanted him back, but Lee snubbed the city of Pittsburgh and turned down the Pirates arbitration offer, hoping to play for a 'better' team or get more money. He's still currently unemployed, which should please many Pirates fans.
So without Lee, the Pirates are turning to plan B. At first base this year, there will be a platoon situation with Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee.
Garrett Jones does very well against right handed pitching, but looks foolish against lefties, hitting just .147 against them in 2011.
When looking at the splits, McGehee, acquired by the Pirates for Jose Veras over the winter hit just .169 against lefties in 2011. That defies convential wisdom, since he is a right handed batter. In his career, he is a .261 hitter vs lefies, so hopefully '11 was an aberration.
Both Jones and McGehee are coming off of down years. McGehee hit .223 with 13 home runs last season. In 2009 he hit .301 with 16 homers, and .285 with 23 homers and 104 RBIs in 2010. He has reported to camp much lighter than last season, which could result in better athleticism and a better season.
Jones burst onto the scene in 2009 with 21 homers in 314 at bats and followed it up with another 21 homer season in 592 at bats in 2010. Last year he lost his way a bit, hitting 16 in 423 at bats. Hit batting average was also a career low .243.
My thoughts about this platoon? I think it's a slight upgrade over last year. Overbay was just terrible for the first three months of the season. If the Jones/McGehee tandem can hit .260/30/100 while they play the 1B position collectively – it'll be huge.
Neil Walker had a breakout year for the Pirates in 2011. He was one of the Pirates more consistent performers.
Third base was a major problem area for the Buccos last year. Pedro Alvarez, the Pirates #1 draft pick, and #2 overall was a complete bust. He looked completely lost at the plate and his season was a disaster. He was hurt with a strained quad, and then was demoted to the minors. The Pirates once envisioned Alvarez as a guy that could hit 30-40 homers by taking advantage of the short porch in right field at PNC Park. Alvarez certainly has the power – I've seen him launch bomb after bomb over the right field wall in batting practice, but has had problems mentally and with conditioning.
Last season the Pirates relied on Josh Harrison to fill the void at third while Alvarez was out. Harrison was a good replacement, but he is just that – a replacement level player.
During the offseason, the Pirates let Ronny Cedeno walk, disappointed that the shortstop never reached his full potential. Cedeno was often distracted and not always focused on the game. As a result, he often had lapses on both sides of the ball and often times found himself in the manager's doghouse.
Huntington signed Clint Barmes to take Cedeno's spot as the starting shortstop. Barmes is a sound defender and an okay hitter. He hit .244 last year with 12 homers – no where near his career high of 23 homers in 2009. However, 12 actually was his second best home run season. A lot of fans are expecting a lot of power from Barnes. I would advise them not to be too optimistic. If Barnes can give the Pirates .250 with 15 homers, we should all take it. By the way, Cedeno hit 2 homers with a .249 average last year, so Barmes represents a slight upgrade.
In the outfield, the Pirates are set in left field with Alex Presley in left, Andrew McCutchen in center, and Jose Tabata in right. The fourth outfielder position will go to Nate McLouth. Last year, the Pirates had Ryan Ludwick/Jose Tabata/Alex Presley in left for most of the season, and a failed Garrett Jones/Matt Diaz platoon in right field.
Presley will bring top of the order speed to the Pirates. He hit .298 last year and missed time with a thumb injury.
McCutchen is the face of the franchise. Last year he hit just .259 with 23 homers – perhaps pressing a bit to jump start the anemic offense. McCutchen has a new stance in 2011 – an open one – and hopes that it will help him stay on the ball better.
Jose Tabata was signed to a six year contract during the 2011 season despite playing just a year in the big leagues. Many fans question his age – he is listed as 23 – and power – career high in the big leagues is 4 (in the minors his best HR year was 8).
Nate McLouth will receive plenty of at bats as the team's fourth outfielder. He was an All Star for the Pirates in 2008 before being traded away for Charlie Morton, Gorkys Hernandez, and Jeff Locke (all of whom are still with the Pirates.) McLouth was awful in Atlanta. He hit .198 and .228 there with virtually no power. Even seeing him in batting practice was painful. It was like watching a high schooler hit.
The Pirates most important part of their team in regards to their success will be their starting pitching. Last season, the Pirates were in first place or in contention for much of the first half because their starting pitching was over achieving. The second half, the starting pitching crumbled, as did the Pirates season.
This year, the Pirates brought in AJ Burnett to be the ace. They are paying him $13 million over 2 seasons. Fans in Pittsburgh were excited. It's been a long time since we had a big name starting pitcher, even if Burnett had struggled a bit the last few seasons. Burnett's arrival was going to bump one of the Pirates pitchers from the rotation and create a competition for a rotation spot – likely between Kevin Correia and Jeff Karstens. However, it never happened, as Burnett bunted a ball off of his face, breaking an oribital bone.
He's now out for 8-12 weeks, and the Pirates don't expect him back until June. Terrible luck.
Without Burnett, the Pirates will look to another new starter in their rotation to help right the ship. Erik Bedard was brought in via free agency to give the Pirates depth. Bedard has had some success in his career, but is often injured. He's only pitched over 150 innings in his ten year career twice. Last season he went a combined 5-9 with a 3.62 ERA and 125 K's in 129 innings for the Mariners and Red Sox. He brings the strikeout to a rotation that often pitched to contact last year.
James McDonald was acquired two years ago from the Dodgers for Octavio Dotel. McDonald was 9-9 with a 4.21 ERA last year with 142 K's for the Pirates last year. He struggled at the outset of the season, but was one of the Pirates better starters late in the season. I think he is the most likely to have a breakout season in 2012.
Charlie Morton was a complete surprise in 2011. He was 2-12 with a 7.57 ERA in 2010. Last year, he was ace-like. He went 10-10 with a 3.83 ERA and induced ground ball after ground ball. He became nicknamed 'Ground Chuck.' He LED the National League in home run ratio – allowing just 0.3 homers per nine innings. Morton had hip surgery in the offseason, and is participating in Spring Training, but is a few days behind the other Pirates pitchers. It stands to reason that he likely will open the season with the club, but may start out as the team's fifth starter just as a precaution.
Jeff Karstens was another complete surprise last year. Karstens bounced back and forth between the bullpen and rotation in 2009 and 2010, posting losing records and ERA's of 5.42 and 4.92. When an injury to Ross Ohlendorf gave him a chance last year, Karstens ran with it. He never stopped. He was the Pirates ace last season, often among the top 5 in the National League in Earned Run Average. He finished up the season at 3.38. It will be very interesting to see what Karstens does to follow up his breakout campaign.
Kevin Correia was an All Star in 2011, but the completely tanked. He finished with a 4.79 ERA, but tanked it in the second half, becoming injured and posting a 7.23 ERA. He also could not perform at PNC Park. His ERA at home was 7.71 with a 2-8 record. To me, if Burnett would've stayed healthy, he was most likely to be demoted from the rotation to a long relief role in the bullpen. However, Correia gets a chance to prove that he belongs in April and May in 2012.
Brad Lincoln, the Pirates #1 pick in 2006 serves as insurance if a starter gets hurt. He has a minor league option left and will likely begin the season in the minors. I know hindsight is 20/20, but guess who was taken after Brad Lincoln in the draft? Clayton Kershaw, Tim Linecum, Max Scherzer, Ian Kennedy, and Chris Perez.
The bullpen looks pretty set. Joel Hanrahan will close games.
Evan Meek, returning from an injury in 2011, will likely be the set up man. Meek's injury hurt the team last year, as the team struggled to find someone to be successful in the set up role.
Chris Resop could serve as the 7th inning guy if he can be consistent. Rounding out the bullpen would be Jason Grilli, Daniel McCutchen, and Tony Watson. Daniel Moskos or Chris Leroux could also be in the mix.
The bullpen was very solid last year for the Bucs. It looks to be the same in 2012.
So now it's time for a prediction.
Taking into account the losses and using the stat WAR (wins above replacement):
Paul Maholm, Ronny Cedeno, Derrek Lee, Ryan Ludwick, Jose Veras, Xavier Paul, Matt Diaz and Ryan Doumit are attributed with 6.6 wins. Meaning that they were worth 6.7 wins more than a typical replacement player. Maholm was most valuable with a WAR of 2.6.
The Pirates have 6 new players:
AJ Burnett, Erik Bedard, Rod Barajas, Casey McGehee, Nate McLouth, and Clint Barmes . Those six are worth 7.1 wins. Clint Barmes was most valuable at 2.9 WAR in 2011. McGehee was -1.0. Burnett was worth 1.1, although he had a down year.
On paper, the Pirates look like they should go 73-89, a one win improvement from 2012.
That's not what you want to hear though. That's not what I want to hear. So, I'm going to get away from the stats and project that Andrew McCutchen improves over a bit of a junior slump, and that Evan Meek returns to his dominant 2010 self, and that Pedro Alvarez finally breaks out.
My prediction is 81-81, which will bring an end to 19 seasons of losing, and mark the Pirates first winning season since 1992.
2012 Statistical Projections (from baseball yearbook. Avg-HR-Rbi)
C Rod Barajas .233-21-63
1B Garrett Jones .247-18-66
2B Neil Walker .278-11-68
3B Pedro Alvarez .219-5-32 (Alvarez isn't even a starter in the BY projections)
3B Casey McGehee .243-16-74
SS Clint Barmes .253-14-5
LF Alex Presley .291-9-43
CF Andrew McCutchen .262-20-77
RF Jose Tabata .278-5-32
SP Jeff Karstens 10-12, 3.77 ERA, 177 IP, 110 K
SP Charlie Morton 9-13, 4.57 ERA, 167 IP, 130 K
SP James McDonald 10-12, 4.14 ERA, 185 IP, 159 K
SP Erik Bedard 6-8, 3.35 ERA, 116 IP, 115 K
SP Kevin Correia 10-10, 5.01 ERA, 147 IP, 92 K
SP AJ Burnett 12-12, 5.19 ERA, 186 IP, 163 K
RP Joel Hanrahan 2.81 ERA, 35 saves, 67 IP, 74 K
RP Evan Meek 2.54 ERA, 3 saves, 64 IP, 55 K
The season basically rests on if Alvarez can finally perform or not. No pressure Pedro.
What are your thoughts on how the Buccos will finish? I think they'll finish 4th.
There's only 34 days until opening day, and 1 day (TOMORROW) until the first broadcasted game on MLB TV (Yankees vs Phillies). And, just 2 more days to win this LA Dodgers shirt.
Piratefest Day 1
Amy, Olivia and I headed down to the David L Lawrence Convention Center on Friday for the season ticket holder only portion of Piratefest.
The general public would have to wait until Saturday and Sunday to attend. As an added perk, since I had paid for my three season tickets in full, I was granted early access at 4 PM, two and a half hours before the rest of the season ticket holders are allowed in.
Therefore, when 4PM came, we walked in, and the few season ticket holders that were paid in full flocked to the autograph lines and the clubhouse store to take advantage of their 40% off coupons. It made the hall eerily empty.
By the way, Jeff Karstens was working scanning our tickets:
And Andrew McCutchen, James McDonald, and Neil Walker were working passing out the calendars to fans:
Our first stop was the Pirates Clubhouse store.
There I purchased a Pirates 2011 style BP hat for $14 with the VIP shopping coupon that was sent to me. The second stop was the authenticated merchandise area. There were lots of game used jerseys, balls, bats, line up cards, etc there.
Some of the merchandise was rather pricey. An Andrew McCutchen game used road jersey?
I considered buying a Herbie Andrade game used jersey to hopefully get the guy to like me again after seeing me switch shirts to the visiting team, but $125 seemed too expensive.
I did end up buying some game used merchandise. First, I bought a bag of four game used baseballs:
The balls were in a grab bag. Each ball was game used and has an authentication sticker on it with a hologram. I got a ball from Opening Day 2008 in Atlanta, a ball from the 2008 home opener, a ball from 2011 when Joel Hanrahan set a save record, and a Garrett Jones RBI base hit baseball from June 20 2011 vs Indians. Pretty cool, they've got to be worth more than the $5 each that I paid. At worst I was planning on peeling off the stickers and giving them away as decoy balls throughout the 2012 season.
Also, there were lineup cards from every game from the 2011 season. They were all in chronological order, so I flipped through and bought one from the day Olivia was born. She was actually born as the game was going on!
So, it will get framed and hang in her bedroom. It was only $25 by the way, not too bad.
There was a large Christmas tree in the middle of the convention center, but besides that, there weren't many Christmas decorations. It was all black and gold everywhere.
We took advantage of the low crowds to head over to the MVP zone, which is a season ticket holder only area with short lines. There we got autographs from:
Daniel McCutchen and Michael McKenry.
McCutchen recognized me and asked how many balls McKenry had thrown me. I told him 'none.' I also told him he threw one to me in 2011, albeit by accident, as it was a random flip up into the stands in Cleveland.
There was Alex Presley and Kevin Correia:
and Clint Barmes, Jose Tabata and Chris Resop. Joel Hanrahan was at the table too, but bailed about two minutes before I got up to the table.
We also stopped by the 2012 Promotional booth, where many of the give aways from the coming year are on display. There was a wall of shirts from Free Shirt Fridays:
And a closer look at the 12 shirts that will be given away:
First is a plain looking white tee shirt that's kind of boring, followed by a rather sharp black shirt.
There is a camo Pirates logo shirt and a generic gray shirt.
Two weird design shirts, one of silhouettes of Pirates players past and present, and another silhouette of Andrew McCutchen on a white shirt:
A gold Pirates shirt, which is great for ballhawking because it makes you stand out, and a gray shirt with the Pittsburgh skyline on it, as seen from PNC Park:
Two really weird shirts for rappers:
And a Roberto Clemente shirt along with a snazzy gold Pirates shirt to conclude the season:
Other items were a Pirate Parrot doll and Pirates bowls:
A Joel Hanrahan bobblehead and Neil Walker mom and kid jerseys:
A Pirates umbrella:
A Pirates floatation device, sunglasses, and hat:
A kids necklace, visor, cooler bag, and gym bag:
The promotions didn't get me very excited. It seemed to be the same old stuff except with a different design. The Pirates gym bag and a couple of the shirts are the only promotions that I would be interested in actually keeping for myself.
Piratefest also features game shows that fans can participate in. There was deal or no deal, which is so boring because its old and the prizes have been the same for years:
And Jeopardy, which was painful to watch,
mainly because the three contestants were idiots.
The kid on the left didn't know Andrew McCutchen's number. I missed one question: Bob Friend let the league in what category in 1955? There was one other question I didn't know: What is the Minnesota Twins' mascot? Every other question I answered aloud to Amy correctly.
Before leaving at 6:40 pm, I played three games. I ended up winning free tickets on two of them. Not bad.
Piratefest is always something I look forward to every year, and its usually the same stuff every year, but it still breaks up the offseason a little bit and gets me looking forward to baseball again.
9-25-11 PNC Park
Today was my final game of the 2011 season at PNC Park. I attended with Olivia and Amy, and unfortunately, there wasn't any batting practice.
I was worried that I may get shut out because the Pirates players were to meet with fans at the gates, leaving me with just the Reds to get a ball off of.
At 11:30, when the main seating bowl opened, several Pirates were finishing some pre-game tossing before heading out to the gates to meet fans.
I was able to get Tony Watson's attention as I stood about six rows deep and he fired me a strike for ball #1 when he was finished throwing. Here he is a few seconds after tossing me a ball, walking towards some fans to sign autographs.
I've gotten a ball at all 78 games this season – thanks to Tony for extending that streak.
I then headed to the first base side and changed into my Reds gear as the Reds came out to stretch and throw.
When the Reds started throwing, I stood behind Matt Maloney and snagged two balls within a few minutes.
They were overthrows that I corralled here:
However, they were both given back to Maloney, as he needed them to warm up. The first I tossed back, and the second I glove flipped to him. He promised to give the ball back when he was done.
Even though I snagged two balls, it was the same ball on two different occasions, so I'm only going to count it as one ball. I've seen lots of ballhawks count similar snags as two, even here at PNC Park, but that's just padding your stats. You can't snag the same ball twice. Period. Even if you give it back and get it again.
Unfortunately, some teenager moved in and count another overthrow which took the ball that I was awaiting out of play. It meant that my ball #2 was given away to someone else. Oh well. It goes down in my stats as a snag from Jeremy Horst, one of the least accurate long tossers in the league.
Horst, Maloney and Bill Bray were playing catch, so after Horst finished he left, and Maloney moved to the outfield side to throw at a distance of 60 feet to Bill Bray.
When he was done, he tossed me a ball as a thank you for giving back two baseballs to him.
Olivia was getting a little bit fussy, so we decided to leave before the game even started. It's been a long season, so rather than being at the ballpark until 4:30, we found some other stuff to do without 28,000 other people.
On the way out, these Pirates players were at the gate:
That's Pedro Alvarez, Jared Hughes, Mark Strittmatter, Ray Searage, Jason Jaramillo, Ross Ohlendorf, and Jason Grilli from left to right. We didn't stop to talk or take pictures as there was a ridiculous line waiting to meet them.
Here are today's baseballs: (only 2 pictured because one was given away)
This will be my last game of the regular season. As for playoff games, you may remember last year I attended a Division Series game in Cincinnati. You'll have to stay tuned to see if I attend any playoff games this year…
Game: 3 balls (3 thrown)
Season: 422 balls (175 hit, 95 thrown, 88 device, 57 found)
Games: 78 games
Average: 5.41 per game
Career: 1,544 balls
Attendance: 28,758
9-24-11 PNC Park
Today was the last night game of the year, and Steve Miller Band was playing a concert after the game, so there would be a sell-out crowd on hand tonight. However, since there was some big cheerleading competition going on outside of PNC Park, there wasn't a large crowd for most of batting practice.
I came into the game needing seven balls to get 418 and make my 2011 campaign a top 5 all time ballhawking season. Sure, it isn't any close to the 544 I snagged last year, but its a small consolation prize.
Things got off really slowly for me, and I only snagged one ball within the first half hour of batting practice. That was a Pedro Alvarez opposite field home run that landed three rows back and took a giant hop into the upper bleachers, which I scrambled up the steps and grabbed.
My second ball of the day was glove tricked near the end of Pirates BP by the bullpen door.
Near the end of batting practice, things were going so poorly for me that I completely ditched left field and headed over into foul territory on the first base line as some Reds had come out to warm up.
There, I got who I think was Jared Burton to toss me ball #3 of the day after he finished his warm up tosses.
In the meantime, I noticed that Joey Votto was signing autographs near the dugout. I never ever go for autographs – I got only one other one this year – Ryan Vogelsong – but I figured that this was a former MVP and that his autograph was worth something. I got Votto to sign the sweet spot of a nice clean extra ball that I brought with me.
My fourth ball came a bit later as a pitcher airmailed Devin Mesoraco. I picked it up and offered it back, by holding it up, but they already had a second ball and picked up immediately where they left off as if they never even lost the ball, so I put it away in my bookbag.
My fifth ball came from Edinson Volquez, sort of. He caught the ball and rolled it towards the wall as if to get rid of it. I walked over and reached far over the railing and grabbed it. Then I held it up to see if Volquez or his teammates wanted it back. They could've cared less, as they were talking.
At 5:30, I searched the right field wall for Easter Eggs and found one.
It was ball #6 of the day, and #417 of the season, tying Nick Pelescak's 2010 mark.
I then returned to left field and got a toss up from Dave Sappelt.
He retrieved a ball from the wall and then tossed it up into the crowd. I was in the second row, and it was right to me, just over the heads in the front row, much to the dismay of some 20 year old in the front row.
My 8th and final ball of the day was a clean catch of a Brandon Phillips home run ball. I caught that one in the second row, and it caused some controversy with another fan. The ball ticked off the fan in the McCutchen jersey's glove and right into mine. It sounded like a foul tip being caught by the catcher.
Well, he thought I robbed him, even though I was a row behind him, and he kept giving me sour looks throughout the rest of BP, and talking to his friends and gesturing in my direction. Oh, and he's not a little kid despite his tiny frame (its tough to tell from that pic)- he's probably at least 20, and he already had a ball in his hand, so don't feel bad.
In the meantime, batting practice had become too crowded to have much range.
I finished up with 8 baseballs, and then went back to spend the evening with my family.
Today's baseballs:
Game: 8 balls (2 hit, 4 thrown, 1 device, 1 found)
Season: 419 balls (175 hit, 92 thrown, 88 device, 57 found)
Games: 77 games
Average: 5.44 per game
Career: 1,541 balls
Attendance: 37,388
9-23-11 PNC Park
This was the scene in PNC Park today:
It rained steadily all day, but let up around 3:30, which was good enough to wash out batting practice.
It definitely wasn't a good day for ballhawks. Before the rest of the stadium opened at 5:30, only one pair of pitchers threw. That's it. It was Bronson Arroyo and another Reds player. When they were done, they threw their baseballs into the stands – which were quickly retrieved and pocketed by ushers.
Luckily, an usher had found two baseballs in center field and tossed one to Ian Weir, who was closing in on his 100th lifetime baseball, and me. The ball was soaked, but it didn't matter – I was on the board.
There was a ball on the grass near the Reds dugout which was picked up by the head groundskeeper as the groundscrew took the tarp off the field. It was obviously soaked. He was pulling the tarp off of the infield with his co-workers and had the baseball in his other hand, looking at it.
Then he glanced up into the stands.
I was basically the only one around, and I was half way up in the lower seating bowl. I held up my glove. He threw the ball in my direction off balance, kind of like a third baseman throws a bunt that he is charging and picking up barehanded.
As a result the throw sailed over my head, but bounced right back to me and I caught it with my throwing hand.
The ball was soaked. I didn't care though.
I only stayed until 6PM. I was content with two baseballs. I only really came down to the stadium because I had 17 extra tickets and I just figured I'd get the shirts by getting the tickets scanned. Plus, I wanted to go be with Amy and Olivia!
Here are today's baseballs, soaked – they are staying in my garage:
Game: 2 balls (2 thrown)
Season: 411 balls (173 hit, 88 thrown, 87 device, 56 found)
Games: 76 games
Average: 5.41 per game
Career: 1,533 balls
Attendance: 23,642
9-13-11 PNC Park
There were two new bag checkers at the gate today and they made a huge fuss over the line. First, they made us all back up 15 feet, and then the gate supervisor in white and yellow started getting sarcastic with Ian and Nick because they weren't backed up an additional foot beyond his arbitrary line.
Anyhow, I got lucky and found three balls in left field today upon running in, and then quickly caught two home runs on the fly. The first was running to my right here:
And the other home run was caught in the front row after I climbed over two bleachers here:
I looked up at the clock. It was 5:01. I have quickly snagged five balls within the first minute. Surely I would reach double digits today.
After a few minutes of inactivity when a lefty was in the cage, I took a few minutes to write the numbers on those five balls before they got all confused.
With only myself, Ian Weir and Nick Pelescak actively competing for balls, and another low crowd, this were looking up.
However, I wouldn't snag another ball for over an hour.
That's how bad Cardinals BP was.
Since the Cardinals were so stingy with tossing up baseballs yesterday, when the Pirates left the field, I didn't even bother changing into my Cardinals shirt. I just threw on my Cardinals hat.
So, I made my way all over the place from 5:01-6:05 trying to snag balls. Center Field, Right Field, Left Field. I thought my streak of three games with at least 8 balls would be snapped. However, in the last group, I made a clean catch of a Tony Cruz home run here:
The tracked down another one of his home runs under neath the Rotunda for ball #7.
Finally, in his last round of cuts, I made yet another clean catch of yet another Tony Cruz home run ball for ball #8.
After batting practice, Amy, Olivia and I made our way over to the All You Can Eat Seats. I had never eaten there before, and since I was hungry I ate three hamburgers, a hot dog, and some popcorn before the game.
During the game we sat here:
But I didn't come close to snagging anything else.
Here are today's baseballs:
Oh, and after the game, my check engine light came on, putting in jeopardy my weekend trip unless I can find time to get it fixed between now and then.
Game: 8 balls (5 hit, 3 found)
Season: 398 balls (172 hit, 84 thrown, 87 device, 55 found)
Games: 73 games
Average: 5.45 per game
Career: 1,520 balls
Attendance: 16,544
Remaining games to reach goal of 413: 3 (maybe 4 if I do an away game this weekend)
Needed to reach goal: 15 (5.0 per game)
9-12-11 PNC Park
Amy pointed out that I forgot to mention that we attended a Renaissance Festival over the weekend. Here's a picture from that.
Shooting arrows was the highlight because I was surprisingly good at it. Anyone, this really doesn't tie in at all, unless I made some weird caption like, "Erik Jabs aims for 413 as the season winds down, to break his 2nd best single season mark."
The Cardinals are in town now and have been really stingy this year at tossing up baseballs, so I was going to need some luck today.
Upon running in, I spotted a ball in the front row. I ran over to snag it when out of no where a ticket seller who works at the windows on the first base side of the Honus Wagner statue shot out of his chair in the handicapped seats and raced down and grabbed the ball. He literally snatched it as I was closing in and not but five feet away from grabbing it. Nick Pelescak was right there too and might have grabbed it also. We both gave him a look like, "Are you serious?" He said he was going to give it to a little kid (even though he had already been there since God knows when and had a whole bag full of baseballs that he had already picked up from the hour of batting practice when there were no fans in the stadium). Nick started saying some stuff to him, and I'll try and get his name and picture tomorrow. Anyhow, that ball was kind of important because it would end up costing me my first double digit game since June.
I got my first ball of the day from Jason Jaramillo:
Then I went on a hit-ball snagging rampage from the end of the Pirates BP through the Cardinals BP. Every ball I snagged the rest of the day was a batted ball.
I caught a Pirates home run as I walked up the bleachers one after the other and made a pretty difficult clean catch here:
When the Cardinals came out, I snagged two Matt Holliday home runs within 20 second of one another. They may have been back to back.
One was a home run that landed on a staircase and stayed on the steps. I scrambled up the steps and grabbed it with my bare hand as another ballhawk reached for it a split second late with his glove.
The next pitch a ball landed about twelve rows up into the upper bleachers. I raced up and snagged it as a few other ballhawks raced after it
It happened up here:
Ok, I'll admit those two snags were kind of lucky.
My fifth ball of the day was a home run that I picked up after it bounced off a bleacher. A young ballhawk who was maybe 10 years old tried to rip it from my glove, so after I had possession of it I asked if he'd gotten a ball yet. Nick Pelescak standing nearby said, "Yeah he got one already," so the ultra aggressive young fan just walked away. There was a lot of random non-regulars there getting lots of baseballs today.
Ball #6 was really ridiculously lucky. A deep home run landed in the wheel chair section and as I was drifting over, it hit something and took a soft ricochet right at me. I snagged it immediately in the air. That was truly lucky.
I was later told by Nick that ball #6 was hit by Albert Pujols.
After spending an unsuccessful round in right field for a group of solely left handed hitters, I made my way back to left field and immediately snagged a ground rule double near the bullpen:
Immediately, I thought it would be pretty cool to get one more ball. I had gotten 8 balls on Saturday and Sunday, and wanted to continue that streak to three games.
By the way, look how EMPTY it was at 6 o'clock!
Anyhhow, ball #8 happened when Tony Cruz launched a deep fly ball that sailed way over my head. Realizing it was headed toward the rotunda. I just turned and ran underneath the rotunda, and when it started bouncing around the concourse, I tracked it down for ball #8.
For good measure, Cruz lifted another home run at the very end of batting practice that I caught right behind this lady's head.
Amy and I had club seats for today's game, but I didn't feel like staying, even though I was on 9 balls and only needed one more for double digits. I sold the seats after we left the park, and then we went and got dinner and I went to the gym. I felt it was a better usage of my time than running all over the ballpark trying for one more ball. Plus, we plan on staying at tomorrow's game as we have tickets in a section that I've never sat in before…
Here are today's baseballs:
Game: 9 balls (8 hit, 1 thrown)
Season: 390 balls (167 hit, 84 thrown, 87 device, 52 found)
Games: 72 games
Average: 5.42 per game
Career: 1,512 balls
Attendance: 13,278
Remaining games to reach goal of 413: 4 (maybe 5 if I do an away game next weekend)
Needed to reach goal: 23 (5.75 per game)
9-11-11 PNC Park #1,500
Sundays usually are rather uneventful. Typically, there isn't batting practice since its a day game that follows a night game. However, today was another lucky Sunday at PNC Park – both teams would take a full batting practice.
For the first half hour, fans aren't allowed to enter the seats. For whatever stupid reasoning, season ticket holders are allowed in from Monday-Saturday, but not Sundays. As a result, I stood behind section 141.
And got Ross Ohlendorf to toss me my first ball of the day.
Ohlendorf, a right handed pitcher, was wearing a glove on his right hand and throwing balls into the ball boy left handed. His toss to me was left handed and it just barely cleared the gate. Ross is the friendliest Pirates pitcher when it comes to toss-ups. I really hope he gets his season turned around so he can get some positive momentum going into next year.
Ross tossed up another ball that was right to me, but it hit the gate. An usher walked over and picked up the ball and pocketed it, right in front of six fans who were five feet from the ball.
At 11:30 when the stadium opened, rather than set up shop in left field, I went searching for easter eggs.
I found ball #2 in left field under a bleacher:
Ball #3 along the first base line in the handicapped seats:
And ball #4 a few feet away from my third ball.
I then realized that I was now on 1,499 career baseballs, so I made my way over to the Pirates dugout to try and get a player to toss me #1500. If you read this blog regularly, you may recall my 1,000th ball came last year in Cleveland via the glove trick.
The last Pirates group contained Matt Hague, Gorkys Hernandez, Jason Jaramillo, and Pedro Ciriaco. Once they finished their round, it marked the end of batting practice. On his way into the dugout, I called out to Pedro Ciriaco and asked if he minded tossing me a ball that was directly in his path as he approached. He obliged and flipped me a well worn filthy ball for #1,500.
Here it is:
After batting practice, Amy took this cheesy picture of me and the ball:
Anyhow, moments after I snagged that ball, the Marlins pitchers were finishing up their tosses down the right field line. I threw on my Marlins gear and headed over. It helped that I was *the* only fan there. Not even were any Pirates fans asking for balls. As a result, Clay Hensley threw me ball #6:
and Jose Ceda tossed me ball #7, even though he had seen me get one from Hensley. "You already got one," he said. "Yes," I replied, "it's up to you if you want to give me another one." Ceda stared at me awkwardly for a moment then threw me the ball.
At 12:00 I headed back to left field and caught a ground rule double off the bat of Jose Lopez here for ball #8.
By the way, there was a special 9-11 logo painted onto the field. Unless you're under 10 years old, I'm sure we all remember where we were on September 11th 2001. I was a junior in college at Washington & Jefferson and woke up hearing some bewilderment next door. "Those are people jumping from that building!" Someone was yelling. I turned on the TV and watched it all unfold.
Game: 8 balls (1 hit, 4 thrown, 3 found)
Season: 381 balls (159 hit, 83 thrown, 87 device, 52 found)
Games: 71 games
Career: 1,503 balls
Attendance: 19,071
Remaining games to reach goal of 413: 5 (maybe 6 if I do an away game next weekend)
Needed to reach goal: 32 (6.4 per game)


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The number of pages makes a difference to the costs.
As a quick way to calculate how many pages you are looking at – usually there are 250 words to a page.
Pricing – What's Involved
Typically book publishers list the options for you in different packages – you know $900 vs $9,000, but that can get confusing and it becomes hard to make an informed decision as much depends on your book, number of pages, whether there are photos and like, so we're taking a simpler and different approach.
There will be a base cost for any book, and then there's a menu of services that you may want to purchase over and above. A contract will be drawn up detailing exactly what is involved in each element of publishing your book, so there is no confusion over what we will or will not be doing for you.
We have provided a quick chart so you can work out for yourself roughly how much your book will be.
Obviously number of pages makes a difference. As a quick way to calculate how many pages you are looking at – usually there are 250 words to a page.
So divide your word count by 250, and then add six pages to include the content page, acknowledgements, publishing requirements, etc…
You've got the idea…
- You're not sure if you have a book
- You're not sure if your material will resonate.
- You've written your manuscript and need someone to read and look at it.
- You're almost there but you've hit a block or you are not sure of the order of your book.
Just Getting Started?
We will review your idea, contact you and set up a time to talk by phone. We can provide feedback about your book before you invest too much time and money and suggestions moving forward.
$200-500 depending on length of manuscript. A written report will be provided with suggestions of next steps.


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Serves: approx. 10
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: roughly 1 or 2 minutes per pancake
1 cup almond meal (or oatmeal)
2 eggs
1 scoop (or 1 sachet) of IsoWhey Ivory Coast Chocolate protein powder
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup (optional)
1/4 cup almond milk
pinch of salt
coconut oil for cooking
½ cup blueberries
2 tbs coconut yoghurt
Place all the ingredients a blender and pulse blend until smooth.
Grease a nonstick pan with coconut oil and turn your heat to medium/high.
Pour about a 2.5-inch wide puddle of batter. Delicately flip the pancake after about 25 seconds or when bubbles start to appear.
Top the pancakes with the coconut yoghurt and the blueberries. Enjoy!


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Death by cigarette: Author reflects on mom's addiction
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS
Writer Joe Konrath's mother had five strokes, two heart attacks and numerous other health problems, but she still didn't stop smoking. In fact, she kept smoking as long as she could before she died.
Laura Konrath's obituary in the Chicago Tribune drew widespread attention because her […]


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Spring has sprung, and Manitoba is breathing new life from every direction. The Forks is blooming with activities such Ring in Spring at our Visitor Information Centre and Agriculture in the City in The Forks Market. Every colour of the rainbow (especially green) come back to life for St. Patrick's Day while fresh flavours (perfect for spring and summer BBQ) are making an appearance at the 2nd annual #LoveLocalMB. Goodbye winter, hello tulips and crisp spring mornings. Here's what's hot this week in Manitoba…
Sample food and beverages from local artisans
March 19
Canad Inns Destination Centre Polo Park
Taste, celebrate and buy local at the 3rd annual #LoveLocalMB event! Savour some delicious delectables by a few of Manitoba's best food and beverage artisans while enjoying a fun and relaxing evening.
Drink the town green on St. Patrick's Day
March 17
Various locations
This St. Patrick's Day, do as the leprechauns would do and take a tour of the province's gold mines and awesome pubs! These mischief-makers are drawn to gold, lucky charms, rainbows and all things green, making Manitoba quite the destination for the Irish fairies. Here are our suggestions for a leprechaun's tour of Manitoba, complete with St. Paddy's Day pin ideas for this year's celebrations!
Watch and discuss films on human rights issues
March 19
West End Cultural Centre
Explore and discuss human rights concerns at the M21 Human Rights Film Festival, which highlights the United Nations' Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The festival features films such as One Gay City, Arctic Mosque and The Basketball Game.
Ring in spring with Travel Manitoba
March 18 to April 4
Visitor Information Centre, The Forks, Winnipeg
Ring in Spring with Travel Manitoba at the Visitor Information Centre in The Forks! Our brand new VIC will be decorated for the season with window paintings, flowers, bikes and more. Come by to check out displays from awesome tourist destinations across the province including FortWhyte Alive, Assiniboine Park Conservancy, Oak Hammock Marsh, Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Manitoba Museum. Demonstrations will take place March 19 and 20 from 10 am to 2 pm.
You won't want to miss the most exciting event of the week – an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt taking place March 26th from 10 am to 2 pm! Kids are invited to hop into the VIC to pick up their Easter Scavenger Hunt form and embark on an epic hunt around the historic Forks site. Find the Easter Eggs hidden in The Forks and bring your completed form back to the VIC for a delicious prize from Chocolatier Constance Popp and The Almond Tree. Those who complete the hunt will also be eligible to enter to win our special Travel Manitoba Easter Basket. Thank you, Easter Bunny!
Experience the culture of northern Manitoba
March 11 to 27
Various venues, Churchill
Watch the skies dance and experience the culture, history and heritage of northern Manitoba at Aurora Winterfest. This annual event showcases traditional winter activities like snowshoe racing, dog mushing, snow carving, and also features local artists showcasing their skills in performances such as Aboriginal drumming, fiddling, square-dancing and jigging. Other events include a pie smash, fireworks, Northern Lights Talent Show and Parks Canada Trek to Prince of Wales Fort "Spirit of the Northwinds" celebration.
Mush your heart out
Race begins March 17
Gillam to Churchill
This week, the dogs will be ready to run at the annual Hudson Bay Quest Sled Dog Race, which celebrates the history of the early fur traders. Dog teams will test their mettle through forest and tundra, following a 330 km course spanning the edge of Wapusk Park (home to the western Hudson Bay's polar bears) from Gillam to Churchill. A select section of the race is also run on the Churchill River.
Browse iconic cars from the past and present
March 18 to 20
RBC Convention Centre, Winnipeg
Rev up your engines, 'cause the 42nd annual Piston Ring World of Wheels returns this weekend! Enjoy three days filled with the finest Hot Rods, trucks and motorcycles – including the iconic VW Beetles, neon colours vehicles and more.
Tap into your childhood at a collectibles show
March 20
Various locations
Remember when getting a new comic book was the best thing ever? Maybe it still is. Head to the Holiday Inn Winnipeg Airport – Polo Park for the Winnipeg Comic & Collectible show, featuring tables of treasures from popular franchises such as Pokemon, Star Wars, Marvel and Lego. The Winnipeg Doll Extravaganza is taking place at the Viscount Gort Hotel, showcasing a great variety of dolls, teddy bears and dollhouse miniatures.
Set your sights to the stars
March 19
FortWhyte Alive
FortWhyte Alive's 8th Annual Astronomy Dinner and Show is back, combining celestial mythology with a unique dining experience. The candlelit buffet dinner is followed by a wander onto the lakeside patio to watch the stars of the night sky. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will share wisdom on the science of the universe.
Catch a community film fest
March 20
The Legion, The Pas
Catch a community celebration of Indigenous filmmaking and Northern Peoples at Storytellers Film Fest! The festival features a program of short- and feature-length films of interest to northern and First Nations people.
Get jazzy in Brandon
March 17 to 19
Various venues, Brandon
Enjoy some toe-tapping, smile-inducing music this week at the Brandon Jazz Festival! Originating in 1983, the festival is an educational forum where young musicians perform and receive feedback on their playing and singing from top professional musicians as well as educators from across Canada and the United States.
Fish 'til you drop in Falcon Lake
March 19
West side of Falcon Lake
Cast your line through the ice to try your hand at winning big at the at the 12th annual Falcon Lake Winter Fish-off. There's $40,000 in prizes to be won! Hot food and drinks will be served all day on the ice by Danny's Whole Hog.
Discover agriculture in the city
March 18 to 19
The Forks Market, Winnipeg
Touch and taste what's new in agriculture at Agriculture in the City. It's a FREE, three-day event that offers the public a chance to explore the vibrant and innovative world of agriculture and its impact on our lives and well-being. There are interactive displays and live demonstrations taking place daily.
Watch robotic creations be put to the test
March 19
Tec Voc High School, Winnipeg
Watch Manitoba's youngest mechanics, engineers, software designers, makers, and technicians put their robotic creations to the ultimate test at the Manitoba Robot Games. This friendly robotic competition pits students not only against each other, but against themselves. For months, teams of students have worked to design and build robots for their competition of choice. Admission is FREE.
Uncover the Myth of the Ostrich
March 9 to 26
Tom Hendry Warehouse, Winnipeg
Contrary to what the title of this play (or our feature image) might suggest, Myth of the Ostrich is not about an ostrich. The story begins with Pam arriving unannounced on single mom Holly's doorstep, eager to discuss their teenagers' blossoming romance. What follows is an unpredictable and bizarre afternoon and laugh-out-loud surprises. Vague much? Yes. But trust us when we say this play provides the perfect mix of comedy and wisdom.
Enter into a dynamic sonic experience at Cluster
March 12 to 20
Various locations
Contemporary art and sound come to a head at Cluster, one of Canada's most dynamic festivals of the arts. Artists gather at Cluster: New Music and Integrated Arts Festival to create, experiment and collaborate with the energy of converging artistic communities. Venues around Winnipeg host sonic experiences that will strike audiences in the heart and mind.
Be inspired by the women pioneers of aviation
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays | 2:00 pm
Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
It was during the romantic age of flight when women began to spread their wings and take to the sky. But the freedom women found in flight was not unlimited, as they could not yet make it a career. It took women pioneers of aviation more than 50 years to push open all of the career cockpit doors. Head to the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada to discover the first women who flew in war and those who even blasted off beyond our planet Earth.


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The Urban Co-Op is proud to be the first co-operative grocery store in Limerick - owned, controlled and operated by its members. We sell wholesome food at affordable prices and are operated by the community for the community. Our aim is to create a sustainable Limerick and we invite you to join us in making that a reality - The Urban Co-Op membership is open to everyone!
Initially, we began operating in July 2013 as a Buying Club, selling fruit and vegetables, bread and eggs. At present we have over 400 members and are quickly transitioning to a full service retail grocery store. Our product range has expanded to include non-perishable goods.
See more at About Co-operatives. A good introduction to Co-Ops is the Unicorn video.
All members should be aware that they are collectively involved in a socio-economic experiment; the first of its kind in Limerick.


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One of the main tools or techniques that we website designers use are the various social media networks. Actually, it's one of the mandatory relationships between website engineering and the most valuable of traffic, targeted organic traffic.
The targeted organic traffic has all the people who are not only interested in the subject of your website and business and most importantly, your company's name. That's called a Brand and you have to really work hard at establishing a brand and using it to your best advantage. When you've gotten to this stage of SEO and website engineering you're in the cat-bird seat as the old saying goes. That means you rule. To get there takes all sorts o tactics, techniques, strategies, creative content and more. There's no magic bullet that can make someone get targeted organic traffic, just smart work and some elbow grease.
Why is social media so important in this regard? Because social media has taken the place of gatherings like chat rooms and so on. People can gather round the watering hole and swap stories and sell goods and services. You don't use social media to spam, only to creatively and responsibly get more people to pay attention to their needs and realize that you're the person to provide what they need. Once you get them on the hook so they'll not only be repeat customers but also pull in other customers from friends and family. Good service and excellent products get a lot of good reviews and those reviews turn into traffic and sales.
The do's and don't are that you not make enemies for any reason whatsoever. Just one enemy can derail your marketing efforts for a long time. Any problems, unsatisfied customers, or even sabotage from competitors, handle things with cool and counter statistics. That"s why you keep tabs on the good reviews and social media friends that support you. Give out discounts if you can and let people feel like being your friend via social media gets them in on the inside track of goodies and freebies.
Your website has to accommodate social media formats. You can get plugins that will show your Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram posts. You can easily update your site with a cell phone with a few clicks of a mouse. You have to build up your social media presence. That means making friends and fans and even managing such things. Often webmasters will hire others to handle their social media campaigns. There are experts who get paid great money monitoring a client's site on Facebook and Twitter and answering any questions and handling any negative PR.
So the bottom line is you're going to have to make sure your website is social media friendly and I can do that here with just a few plugins and other tips and tricks. It'll be up to you to manage your social media presence but I can engineer your website so it can make the best of today's social media venues.


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My adopted Big Sis in Akita was heading home at the end of August, but before she went back, her sister was visiting for a few weeks. Last year, Big Sis had shown me pictures of a summer festival in which they smashed big wooden boat frames together to see which one would break first, and it sounded so much like something invented by a drunken engineer that I just had to go see it. The plan was that I would head up on Friday the 22nd, watch the boats get smashed on Saturday, and then head back on Monday to show Big Sis Senior the Izu area before she left on Thursday.
I went over to P. Rock on a rainy Thursday afternoon so I could get an early start on the seven-hour northward journey the next morning. Socks was still staying at E and Bugsy's place, but he was heading to Tokyo on Saturday afternoon to depart Japan for good. Socks had essentially been my best friend for over a year, and this was the last time we would see each other. He even woke up at 7:30 Friday morning to say goodbye.
As it turned out, I should have just taken the bus from The Village. What had begun as an irritatingly rainy day on Thursday had developed into a massive three-day rainstorm that shut down the entire Izu Peninsula by Friday. P. Rock was hit so badly that it warranted mention in the Globe and Mail.
When I arrived at the station on Friday morning, I was told that the train tracks had been washed out, the road north had been blocked by a landslide, and I couldn't even get back to The Village because that road was out as well. When I later found out that North America's eastern seaboard had also suffered an enormous power outage, I started to anticipate sightings of four men on pale horses.
I waited around for a few hours to see if anything would change, but in the end all I could do was call Big Sis, tell her I'd come on Saturday, and then head back to E and Bugsy's apartment to wait for Heavenly Fire to come down and smite the trapped Sinners of P. Rock.
I learned that if you tie your shoes to an electric fan, they can dry completely overnight.
I got going early the next morning and said my second set of final words to Socks, but nothing had changed at the station. I had no choice but to head back, defeated again. We headed out together at 12:30, as per Socks' original schedule. Just as we arrived, it was announced that there would be two trains heading north at 1:00.
And somewhere in the Middle East, a hairy old guy returned from the mountains with a stone tablet that read, "Eleven: Mike shalt accompany Socks when Socks doth exit the lands of Japan."
It was 7:00 by the time we got to Atami. The trip normally takes two hours, but we'd had to get off the train and wait for shuttle buses at two different points, each time standing in a line that filled an entire station. We got so tired of playing celebrity name games that we started singing campfire songs, occasionally punctuated by lines from the official group of the day, Rage Against the Machine.
"Bullet in the heeeeeeeead…"
Our mood was actually pretty positive.
I was still too late to catch the last train to Akita, so I called Big Sis to postpone yet again while we extorted accommodation from a friend of a friend in Tokyo.
By the time I got to Tokyo station at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, I was thinking it would have been faster to have ridden my bike to Akita. Then I met the additional fun of the northbound Shinkansen, which is fixed seating only, and which was sold out until 7:00… unless I bought a ticket for the luxury "Green Car" at a 25% fare hike. So I shelled out over $200 and said to hell with it.
With big seats, lots of leg room, cushy headrests, and free drinks from a girl who politely announced her presence every time she entered, the service was pretty nice. But the girl never seemed to be able to hear anything I said, while I could never make out what she said, so I just felt like an idiot as she continued to assume that the problem was that I didn't understand Japanese. For the first two hours, I had to listen as the one other gaijin at the back of the car chatted her up, full of resentment that (a) he looked even dorkier than me, and (b) he seemed to be succeeding. I quietly stewed in the sad reality that, even if I meet somebody nice, there isn't the slightest chance that they will live within four hours of my apartment.
Monday morning we went to the Sea of Japan, the coast of which was quite rocky and scenic. We also visited a Namahage museum, which bears explanation.
Namahage are a kind of Japanese demon typically depicted wearing traditional straw-thatched winter garb. They also carry a knife used for cutting the dead skin off lazy people who do nothing but sit in front of the fire all day. It has become tradition in some parts of Akita for adults to dress up as Namahage on New Year's Eve, putting on big demon masks before going door to door demanding to see the children of each house.
We saw a video of several such visits. The Namahage burst in with a deep, resonating moan, and proceed to track down the cowering children of the house, who cry, scream, and cling to the furniture or their parents or whatever they can grab onto as the Namahage try to carry them away. Then the Namahage ceremonially stomp a few times, sit down, drink saké the parents have prepared, and ask the terrified kids questions about their behaviour in the year. Then they stomp a few more times and leave.
They even had a demonstration of a Namahage visit in a traditional little house on the compound. They skipped the parts that involved grabbing children.
Big Sis Senior and I decided to head down to The Village on Tuesday, hoping to use her universal Japan Rail pass to scam me a free ticket. Unfortunately, the automatic gate spat my ticket back out right as she was trying to get on the train with her pass, so I got nailed. The ticket guy took me aside and politely explained that, while it might be different in other countries, I should understand that in Japan they were really quite strict about this sort of thing. So Big Sis Senior got on the train at 11:30, while in the fifteen minutes it took me to get back to the front of the line, everything had been sold out until 2:00. Then I had to ask the ticket guy to do me a favour and let me run down to tell Big Sis Senior I'd be two hours late.
I probably should've just gotten on that train and claimed ignorance.
I thought it took 3½ hours to get to Tokyo, but as it turned out, it was really 4¼, so I arrived too late for us to catch the last bus to The Village. I had just lined up a place to stay in Shizuoka when I realized it would still take three hours to get home from there, and if Big Sis Senior were leaving on Thursday, there would be little point in heading to The Village at all. So, as I'd pretty much had it with all things related to travel, we just took the train to P. Rock and I paid ¥7000 ($80) for the 30-minute cab ride to my apartment.
My travel itinerary would have looked something like this:
Time in Transit: 3 days
Time at Destination: 2 days
Total Time: 5 days
Total Cost: $500
Bitching License: Priceless
At least I managed to score us free tickets for the boat ride through the caves in Dogashima. Looks like my adult English classes hadn't been a waste after all.
One night as I was just about to go to bed, I looked over and saw that my backpack was being used as a big cushy chair by a spider the size of my fist. I chased him into my closet, from whence I could literally hear the tapping of his feet while I proceeded to remove every single item he might use for cover. When I lost sight of him, I determined that the best course of action was to shut the closet doors and refuse to open them again.
Two days later, I decided I would go in and find the spider and give the closet a proper cleaning while I was at it. So I opened up the cabinet under the sink and was immediately met by the Mega-Spider, who flew directly at me. Did I mention that as Japanese spiders get bigger, they get exponentially faster? I herded the thing toward the door as it pulled Matrix-style leaping and dangling manoeuvres before finally taking refuge in my shoe, which, after a moment's painful deliberation, I hurled outside. He vacated, I retrieved my footwear, and then I shut the door as fast as I could. If he comes back, I charge him rent.
Bugsy in P. Rock likes mega-spiders. He says they eat the cockroaches.
P. Rock is roughly 25 km from The Village, and about a quarter of that is uphill. This didn't matter to me until I started riding my bike there and back a few weeks ago. The key point is the tunnel in the middle, after which it's 16k of nearly uninterrupted downhill.
On Sunday last week I was trying to break my best time of 1:10, and once past the brutal ascent to the tunnel I just let the bike roll along at 30 km/h or so and started singing to myself like an idiot as usual. I decided to swing over into the bus stop area on a hairpin curve to let the cars behind me pass, but I'd forgotten that the bus area didn't really merge back into the road so much as it ended abruptly in a wall and an open drain. I tried to ease away from the rapidly approaching half-metre-wide, half-metre-deep concrete trough in front of me, but as it became clear that I wasn't going to make it I pulled on the rear brake and swerved a little to the right, with the result that my rear wheel skidded out from under me and I took a 20-foot pavement slide straight toward the drain. I stopped moving the instant my backside landed in the trough. I was still clinging to the underside of my bike, more than a little amazed that I wasn't dead.
I came out of it with a stiff neck, some scratches on my back, bruises on my right knee and hip, cuts on my left arm and road rash on my right, and a dime-sized chunk of skin missing from my right hand. My head, the only place where I was wearing any sort of protection, never even came close to the ground.
I dusted off, put the chain back on my bike, and arrived in P. Rock within 1:05.
There's something satisfying about going to the convenience store and paying for band-aids with a hand that's goopy with blood—especially when the clerk doesn't ask if you want a bag because it's obvious you're going to use them right away.
As I ascended the hill to E and Bugsy's apartment, my rear derailer fell off.
Then I had to get Bugsy to give me a lift all the way home the next day because they wouldn't let me on the bus with my bike. When I asked what other option I had, the bus people said I should use a shipping service.
So now my bike is in the shop and I'm getting about very slowly while trying to figure out what to do next year.
I'm thinking I should stop fooling around pretending I'm a teacher. It was fun, but it's really beginning to lose its appeal, and sadly, even my kids can't quite bring me out of the drudgery of the day-to-day. I've got to figure out what I want to do and what I need to do to get there.
I managed to get a 3-year visa, which is essentially a free ticket to do anything I want in Japan. I'm considering language school, but it's expensive, and I don't even know if that would qualify me to do anything I'd really want to do. I sometimes consider just moving to Tokyo and hanging out there doing odd jobs until my cash runs out.
Of course, none of this happens until April, but I have to decide soon.
October 2003


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Applications for Economic Education Grants of up to $750 each are now being accepted through Sept. 18, 2015. Click here for details.
Questions: Contact Jennifer at firstname.lastname@example.com. or 501-682-2462
Prepare now for the Stock Market Game program 2015-16.
- Trainings are scheduled throughout September; register here.
- Apply for funding through Donors Choose, the Arkansas Securities Department and/or the Donna K. Wright Scholarship program.
The Fall 2015 session runs Sept. 28 through Dec. 4, 2015.
Questions: Contact Marsha at email@example.com or 501-682-4350.


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I have a big editing job to do at the moment, and a smaller one. The smaller one is bugging me …. Or maybe I'm using it as an excuse not to move on to the bigger one. With the smaller one, I've quickly agreed the changes the editor wants, taken out a couple of sections he suggested, then in one case, made the surrounding text run more smoothly. There are some slight alterations he has suggested, though not demanded and I tend to agree with him, though the reason those items weren't there in the first place is because they are beyond the realms of my knowledge and I don't have the time to do the research at the moment- especially as we are now into the Christmas period.
But all of this seems trivial compared with the bigger edit I have been putting off for months. This is a YA novel, over 100,000 words long. What has been suggested is very similar to what an editor might suggest after you've got the text as perfect as you can.
I see there being three basic levels of editing:
1. Major structural change.
2. Strengthening of weaker parts and getting the balance right. This will involve sharpening up characters and removing parts that don't need to be there.
3. Checking flow and copy-editing.
I need to do something in all three areas.
Oh, well, best get down to it, I guess.
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Monday, 24 December 2007
Posted by Gill James at 14:18
Labels: balance, copy edit, editing, flow, strengthening, structural change
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