New theories of relativity

Now and again I get the feeling
Well if I don't win, I'm a gonna break even
Rescue me, should I go wrong
If I dig too deep, if I stay too long
-- Tom Petty

We have learned a lot about losing from the Royals. But everything we learned about losing we learned way back when the Royals were good. The Chris Chambliss home run was our first real lesson in losing and heartbreak. Even in 1985, after going down three games to one against the Blue Jays and Cardinals, we weren't all that concerned with winning. We just desperately didn't want to lose again, and winning came as a huge surprise and a great relief. This attitude/mentality has come to inform and define our life. It's an old world way to go, and we are fine with it. It makes us tragically funny, and we know that we can make a living off it, in part, so to speak, such as it is, and whatnot. Sometimes we feel a lot like Woody Allen.

So can the Royals win this season, or at least resemble a team that is, you know, CAPABLE of breaking our hearts? We actually don't see why not.

OK. So the AL Central is down, and now we're slouching toward optimism. It's a key ingrediant for getting your heart broken.

Does any team in the AL Central have a superior rotation to the Royals? Seriously.

Sure, there are a few potential warts in the lineup. But a lot of those guys could play for a serious contender.

And we have Soria!

Now onto a non-Royals related rant. People with advanced degrees in academia are mostly insufferable. They play around with ideas that don't actually work, aren't very curious about the big picture, and then they try to hide behind language that only obscures the fact (or illustrates the fact) that their not-so brilliant ideas are totally meaningless to everyone but a few of their colleagues. Here are some academic titles for real research proposals that have actually been FUNDED.

EFRI-RESIN: A Multi-Scale Design and Control Framework for Dynamically Coupled Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructures with Applications to Vehicle-to-Grid Integration

Maintain and Run Web Database for NSF FSP-IUCRC

Impacts of Acid Mine Drainage of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Cycling in Receiving Streams

Inter-American Materials Collaboration (CIAM): Stability, Durability and Crystallization of Iron Phosphate Glasses

Corrosion Finishing/Coating Systems for DOD Metallic Substrates Based on Non-Chromate Inhibitors and UV Curable, Zero VOC Materials

Multi Laser Beam Open Atmosphere Surface Coating Techniques Based on Precursor Excitation, Photodissociation and Controlled Cooling

Sure, some of these projects might have real merit. But who would ever be able to tell? This is one reason why taxpayers and legislators aren't always thrilled about supporting higher education, which is a real shame.

P.S. We are scrapping the morning music project, just like we scrap most of the half-baked ideas on this blog, which exists almost entirely to amusue us (me). But the reason we are scrapping this project is because we've already gotten to the bottom of it. The songs are all songs that we've heard recently but didn't actively listen to. That explains why most of them are bad songs. We are ignoring the songs, but our subconscious is filing them away in case we need them for something. While we sleep, our subconscious retrieves the songs one by one and pops them into our conscious brain just as we are waking up, just as an FYI.