Although I do plan to prioritize writing to a level that allows me to do it daily, my day job and late-night baseball have kept me extremely busy recently.  (Pretty exciting about them Red Sox, eh?)

However, I would like to mention one thing I found humorous. A while back I wrote a middling review of a blog traffic-building product called Blogrush, commenting that the president of that company had written some pretty odd, very lengthy, rambling emails to his product users. My conclusion was that the jury was still out on the product.

Well, guess what. They kicked me out of their network. They did not cite my review as a reason, of course, but I suppose they didn’t have to–we’re grown-ups here; we both knew why they were doing it.

Road construction is on-going, by the way. The road in front of our house has been flattened dirt for a couple of weeks now, as the major work has moved to the other end of the street. Our driveway has been inaccessible since they started. Also, although the plan is for the road to get no wider and, if anything, narrower in places, they’ve removed quite a bit of yard from the front of our house. The plan is for about two more weeks of this, and then we’ll be done.

Road construction outside our house started in earnest today, and they did not mess around. The backhoe had not been there fifteen minutes before half the road in front of our house was rubble. It took them longer to get it off the truck than it did to destroy a large portion of road that had laid there for more than 50 years.

By the time I returned home from work this evening, it was too dark to photograph, but it appeared the blacktop was entirely gone. I parked around the corner and walked to the driveway, not noticing that that the first five feet of our drive way also had been removed. Nearly fell on my face.

Next step is to lower the street in front of our house by 11 inches. Once they do that, I think I’ll stop trying to get up the driveway in the dark.

There are games–losses, even–that you recall later with your head or your heart.  And then there are the games you remember with your stomach.  The Red Sox’s loss last night to the Cleveland Indians in game two of the American League Championship Series was one of those games.  It’s not that they lost, but how they lost.

The Red Sox had the lead twice, but their pitching was not able to hang onto it.  They also had their chances to win.  Kevin Youkilis fouled off 9 pitches before lining out to center field in the bottom of the ninth with the speedy Jacoby Ellsbury standing on second, waiting to score the winning run on a single.  In the bottom of the 10th, the Red Sox’s three best batters faced Cleveland’s worst reliever and went down in 15 pitches.

When Eric Gagne entered the game to pitch for Boston in the top of the 11th, I knew the Red Sox would not win.  I could feel it.  Gagne (to whom I maturely have started referring as Gag-me) once was a great closer but has been nothing short of disastrous for Boston.  Once again, he could not keep runners off the bases, and the first two runs of the 11th indeed were charged to Gagne, who picked up the loss.  Javier Lopez, however, gave up three runs, and Jon Lester surrendered two more.  By the time Gutierrez hit his three-run blast to put the Indians up by 7, I had retreated to a part of the house from which I still could hear the game but no longer could see it.

The series is tied 1-1 as it heads to Cleveland.  But if they want to move on, the Red Sox will have to get over a very tough loss pretty quickly.  And, with the entire bullpen spent from last night’s game, Daisuke Matsuzaka will need to show he is worth the $103 million the Red Sox paid for him when he takes the mound Monday.

At least it wasn’t the Yankees.

A simple snowflake
        appeared before my eyes.
I watched
        as it fell
        gently
        toward the Earth.

“How clean,”
        I thought.
“How pure.”
This little snowflake warmed my heart,
        and as I witnessed its delicate descent,
I smiled unconsciously.

When suddenly
        my heart felt a chill
        colder than the shredding winter wind.
“It’s like no other flake!”
        I screamed within my mind.
“It is entirely unique in its beauty,
        and there shall never again be one like it!
It is Nature’s Artwork,
        and it must be saved!”

I watched
        as the snowflake
        plunged faster and faster toward the ground,
        seemingly unaware of its pernicious fate.
To preserve this snowflake
        became my instant obsession.

Without thinking,
        I lunged for the precious,
        suicidal gem,
        reaching out with my gloved hand.
Inches above the cold Earth,
        I grasped the snowflake,
        closing it securely
        within my protective palm.

Slowly I opened my hand,
        revealing only a pathetic spot
        of moisture.

– Tim Brooks

The road in front of our house is being entirely rebuilt.  It’s only one block long, but it’s not a small task.  First, there’s a bend in the middle of the road.  Second, they need to repitch the road so that the center of the road (the center being the spot between the two ends) is higher and the ends are lower.  We live at one end of the road, so the road in front of our house is dropping by 11 inches.  In order to accommodate this, the city actually has to provide us with a new, more steeply sloped driveway.

I’ve put some “before” photos below.  You can click on them to see a larger image.

In order to preserve the character of the street, no sidewalks are going in.  To do so would require taking down fences, many trees, and at least one stone wall.  However, we are getting curbs and drainage and a small number of trees apparently will be coming down.

We’re told construction will take roughly six weeks, which would have them cutting the ribbon some time around Thanksgiving.  Our driveway is likely to be dirt for four weeks, and we’ll have a day or so that we cannot use it.  We’re just looking forward to no longer having a large lake at the bottom of our driveway after each rainfall.

I’ll provide scintillating updates as we go along.

When 17-year-old Danny Vinik arrived at the Red Sox play-off game Friday night, I doubt he was expecting that within a few hours every member of Red Sox Nation would know his name. Comparing Danny Vinik with Steve Bartman, however, is a contrast between the words famous and infamous.

In case you don’t recall, Steve Bartman was the Chicago Cubs fan who reached for a foul ball in game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series and succeeded only in knocking the ball away from Cubs outfielder Moises Alou, with Chicago just five outs away from the World Series. It is highly likely that Alou would have caught the ball for the second out of the inning had Bartman not interfered. Instead, the Florida Marlins went on to score 8 runs that inning, and the Cubs could not recover emotionally in Game 7. Although Steve Bartman–a life-time Cubs fan–did not cause Alex Gonzales’s highly costly error a few moments later on a ground ball that should have resulted in an inning-ending double-play, and Bartman himself did not permit 8 runs to score that inning, and Bartman certainly did not cause the Cubs to fall apart in Game 7 the next night, and never mind the fact that many other fans around him also were reaching for that foul ball, his interference did play into the outcome of the game.

The foul ball off Manny Ramirez’s bat that Danny Vinik caught on Friday night also prevented a second out. Anaheim catcher Jeff Mathis not only would have had the ball, but the images and replay suggest that Vinik practically took the ball out of Mathis glove. Ramirez ended up walking to load the bases, and the Red Sox tied the game moments later on Mike Lowell’s sacrifice fly–a hit that would have been the third out but for Vinik.

Bartman was given a police escort from Wrigley field that night in 2003, with boos, threats, drink cups, and food items showering down on him from his fellow Cub fans. Vinik, by contrast, was congratulated by all the fans around him, including Stephen King, who sat two rows behind him, and has received a tremendous amount of positive attention from the press. Bartman left the game broken-hearted. Vinik will get a heart-swelling thrill each time he looks at that baseball, which I’m sure he will keep forever.

Although Mathis was visibly angry after Vinik caught the ball just over his waiting glove, he knew there was not much he could say about it. The rule is pretty simple: if a fan reaches into the field of play and catches or touches the ball, it is fan interference; if the ball goes into the stands, however, the fans have as much right to the ball as the players.

Compare either of these plays to the catch made by Jeff Maier that helped the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles in the 1996 American League Championship Series. Maier actually reached into the field of play and caught a ball that was incorrectly ruled a home run. In that case, fan interference should have been called.

It would appear, however, the rule on fan interference is not universally accepted. A relative of mine (who happens to be a hopeless Cub fan) called the Vinik play an “immense shame” and a “travesty,” adding: “If the Boston fans are exulting, they should be ashamed of themselves. It’s consistent with our ‘win at any cost’ philosophy as a society.”

Frankly, I doubt even the Angels would agree with this. Their catcher Mathis called it a “good play.” “Those guys,” he said, “they’re good fans, and they’re always paying attention.” And Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, “when you’re reaching in there, all bets are off.”

Win at any cost? A bit of an overstatement, methinks. It’s not like the Red Sox unleashed a billion bugs, as the Cleveland Indians apparently did to thwart the New York Yankees.

It’s impossible to know what would have happened had Vinik not caught that ball. Lowell may have swung the bat differently had there been two outs, and anything could have happened over the next four innings. But it’s clear that Vinik did cause that moment of the game to change. Still, in 2003, we did not complain about the rules–we blamed Bartman for not thinking. And I must say, this Red Sox fan is certainly not ashamed of himself for being thrilled with Vinik’s catch. The fans are part of the game–any player will tell you that.

In four years, I’ll buy Vinik a drink.

As we both drifted
        aimlessly through life,
Our lives drifted
        together,
        touching,
For a short while.

We drifted on.
And without strategy or reason,
        the currents carried us
        in different directions.

Still,
        on occasion,
        we come together.
To remember yesterday.
To cherish today.
To sing of friendship.

You were my friend then,
        as you are my friend now.
Our lives have drifted
        apart.
But, oh,
        how I look forward
        to seeing you again.

– Tim Brooks

You have to wonder what has been going through this guy’s head.

First of all, I don’t care if he was seeking out some kind of physical airport pleasure. But let’s say he was and that the person in the other stall was receptive. What’s the next move? Does one person actually enter the stall of the other? As in, walk out of their stall and into the next stall? Bathroom stalls are not the most private of places. I cannot imagine it would not be obvious what was going on in there. Or does it all take place under the wall somehow? Perhaps I don’t need to know.

But there must be something that goes on, or the policeman would not have been assigned bathroom groping stake-out duty. (Do you think they request that?)

Then you listen to Craig’s story: the extremely wide stance that caused his foot to touch the foot of the person in the next stall over, the mysterious dropped toilet paper that he was reaching under the wall to retrieve, etc. When you listen to the tape (which, I am embarrassed to say, I have), he sounds like a kid trying to maneuver his way out of punishment for something the entire world knows that he did. (”It was broken when I got here.” “I think a Martian came into the kitchen and ate those cookies. Yeah, that’s it. A Martian.”) It’s just so … unbelievable.

In the end, he chooses to sign a guilty plea. Somehow, he seems to think by doing so, no one will find out about any of it. I wonder if he asked a lawyer about that. My guess is that he did not–he simply signed it, hoping it all would go away. Indeed, I don’t know of course, but I would venture to guess he told no one about this before it started to hit the press. You have to wonder when his wife learned about it.

Okay, so his initial strategy didn’t work out so well. Somehow–and your guess is as good as mine as to how such a thing could possibly happen–the fact that a United States Senator had pleaded guilty to soliciting sex in an airport men’s room became public information. Did he honestly think it would not?

Next good idea: challenge his own plea, claiming, among other things, that he was uninformed, that he was coerced, and that he was not given an opportunity to say in court that he was not guilty. (I like that one. He chose to mail in his signed plea complete with all kinds of waivers you would think a Senator would understand and then claims he did not have a chance to say he was not guilty in court and that the plea, therefore, is invalid. Makes you chuckle a little.) My favorite argument from Craig and his attorneys was that the “plea was not intelligently made.” I have to say, he may have a point there.

So now, having earlier promised to resign from the Senate if he could not get the plea withdrawn, he has reversed course, vowing to stay through next November. Does he really think this is going to serve the interest of the people of Idaho? All he is doing is fighting for his own reputation and causing a distraction to the United States Senate. It has become a personal quest, one that does not serve this country. Even as a Democrat, I get no satisfaction from this. There’s important work to be done, and Craig is in the way.

Personally, I do not believe Senator Craig should step down for the actions he took in that bathroom. I think he should step down for being too dumb to serve in the United States Senate. To have thought that he could hide this with a guilty plea; to make the argument that he only pleaded guilty so that he could hide it; to challenge the plea on the grounds that he was uninformed or that the plea was unintelligent; to change his mind and remain in the Senate despite the distraction he’s causing his own party as well as the rest of Congress; to think that he really can get the Senate Ethics panel to believe his story suddenly and clear his name–the man simply is not smart enough to hold such an important position.

But wait. Unintelligent people holding high office. Seems to ring a bell.

I had an epiphany the other day. It seems that every time I sit down to write something, I freeze in front of my computer, hands poised on the keys. I stare at the screen, searching for just the right words, just the right tone. Beginnings of sentences play though my head, and all those great language ideas I had while lying in bed or standing in the shower or driving to work seem to vanish. Vanish, actually, is the wrong word. They’re still there, but they hide like playful children. I can hear them giggling, and I know they’re there, but I cannot see them.

So the proverbial light bulb that came on over my head was that the words don’t have to be perfect when I first write them down. One of the beauties of writing is that unlike, say, brain surgery, you can go back over what you’ve done to get it right. In other words, your first swipe at it can be just a draft, a sketch with language. After getting the whole thought down, you then can start at the beginning, reshaping the words, filling the gaps.

Imagine if Leonardo da Vinci (also known in our house as Leonardo da Fishy thanks to The Muppet Show), working from the upper left hand corner, decided each brush stroke should be perfect and that he should not have to go back over any section he’s worked on. After a couple of hours, the Mona Lisa may have looked something like this:

In case you don’t recognize it, that’s the upper left corner of the Mona Lisa. Of course, he wouldn’t have painted the cracks and lines–those come with age. But you get the idea: the rest of the canvas would have been blank.

No, I’m guessing that da Vinci started by sketching a big oval for the face, then sketched in the eyes and lips, drew in the crossed hands, etc. In other words, rather than trying to create perfection from the very first brush stroke, he began with a draft and slowly refined it until it was perfect. As I hear tell, this da Vinci guy was pretty smart. Maybe he was on to something there.

Writing should be the same. Rather than attempting perfection from the first key stroke, writers (writers of any kind) should get the concepts down quickly and then go back over the words to refine the language. (In my case, this means stepping away from it for a while and returning later. Also, I tend to edit by reading out loud to see how the words sound.) When done this way, writing goes much faster.

I’m certain this is not news to some of you. I’m a perfectionist, however, and the concept of throwing words at the page and then going back to rearrange them simply had not dawned on me.

Shortly after I started this blog, I discovered BlogRush, a new product that purportedly helps send traffic to your blog. I must say, I have been very unimpressed so far. I am not issuing a verdict at this time, as they still may be able to pull it together, but so far … not so great.

The concept of BlogRush is that you create an account, select a category, and then put this Blogosphere widget on your site (look over on the right, below the Google ads). I selected Writing and Literature as my category, even though I easily could have selected any of several others. Your Blogosphere widget then will show links to five other blog entries from your category. The number of times you get to appear on other people’s Blogosphere widgets is based on a complex Syndication Credit formula, which itself appears to be based largely on your own site traffic. (How they make any money off all this is beyond me. I assume they’re hoping to corner a specific market so that Google will buy them.)

BlogRush, in theory, has this cool dashboard that shows you your information. So far, it’s never worked. Based on the emails I’ve received from founder John Reese, they encountered several problems after the launch, many caused by people trying to cheat the system. Imagine that–people trying to cheat the system. Who woulda thunk.

Mr. Reese has sent out a number of lengthy rambling emails discussing the issues they’ve had. Some of these emails have been rather … well, odd. The most recent one was a 2,484 word, 95 paragraph email that featured lots of emphatic asterisks, words and phrases in all-caps, and a nice peppering of exclamation points (or, as they say in England, exclamation marks). The email included passages like this:

So for all you cheaters that joined BlogRush and had your fun trying to siphon off some traffic, hopefully it was fun. And I’ll go ahead and make this statement right now… IF you were one of the people that has been cheating our network I’m going to give you ONE opportunity… quit now and we’ll pretend it never happened. I think that’s more than fair.

BUT… if you continue after this point, all bets are off. We WILL eventually discover what you’re doing, where you’re trying to send traffic, and we will prosecute you. I GUARANTEE IT. Sorry, but WE HAVE NO CHOICE NOW.

* If you’re one of our valued, HONEST users, I’m very sorry you even have to read stuff like that. I know it’s a waste of your time. Unfortunately, there are unethical people in this world that attempt to abuse and take advantage of others.

Kind of weird, huh? This appeared near the bottom of Page 3 of 6 if you pasted the email into MS Word. The email ends with this:

I’ll be in touch when I have more “news” to share. Thanks for reading this long letter. I had a lot to tell you about. :-)

(There’s that sideways smiley face again.)

To be honest, the whole letter was a waste of my time, although it did introduce me to BlogRush “flavors,” which means I can have that widget on the right over there show up in a variety of bright, cheery colors. (There are thirteen “flavors,” including Licorice–which is what I’m using–grape, chocolate, watermelon, and the always tasty aqua.)

There are other oddities as well. Along the bottom of the BlogRush Web site are some handy links to FAQs, terms, privacy, contact, help, etc. Once you log in, however, you automatically are redirected to your under-construction dashboard. Even if you try to get back to the home page, you can’t while you’re logged in. And the dashboard does not include these links. There is a help tab that has some of the information (on a page that currently has several broken images), but not all. So, the only way to get to the privacy statement or terms or the video on the home page is to sign out. Also, the Blogosphere widget on my site occasionally links me to sites that don’t include the Blogosphere widget on theirs. Maybe those are some of those cheaters we were warned about.

Like I said, I’m not giving up on this product yet, but I’m very close.