TRJ Weblog

A special day for the San Diego Padres who now have a firm grasp on the worst record in all of Major League Baseball! It took a real team effort to reach this milestone and it could not have happened to a more deserving organization. Congratulations and good luck in your efforts to hang on to the bottom spot for the rest of the season.

Last Saturday, I ventured to the Pine Valley Creek with my son in search of perhaps the last remaining native San Diego fresh water fish, the Stickleback. We hiked around a section of the creek beginning at the trail head of the Secret Canyon trail, located off of old Highway 80 between Pine Valley and Guatay. A really interesting area with a mix of chaparral scrub and live oak trees. This area escaped damage from the fires of 2003 and 2007 and is part of the Pine Creek Wilderness. This portion of the creek sits at about 4100 feet and you can easily tell the difference in the air up here compared to San Diego. Much cleaner and crisper. You can detect the various smells of the local vegetation as well as occasional presents left by local wildlife.

The stickleback is an interesting little fish that is not easy to spot unless you know what you are looking for. It is only about 1 1/2" long and well colored to blend in with the creek bottom. It manages to survive in this creek mainly because there are no other fish here, with the exception of a small trout population that was likely stocked in the creek long ago and managed to avoid being caught by fishermen. The creek also flows year round, which is pretty rare for much of San Diego. We walked about a mile along the creek and were able to spot the stickleback in sections of slower moving water in deeper pools. For the most part the creek was less than a foot deep, but we did run across some sections that appeared to be up to 6 feet deep, although nobody in our group was bold enough to stand at the bottom as I requested to determine the true depth.

This is probably one of the best times to visit the Pine Creek Wilderness. In another few weeks, it will likely be too warm and remain that way until November.

I admit I am not much of a golf fan. I used to play many years ago, but after having a couple of kids, I no longer have the time or the money to play. My wife on the other hand is a big golf fan, or more precisely a Tiger Woods fan. If Tiger Woods is playing and in contention, she can sit in front of the TV for 5+ hours watching a round of golf. If Tiger is not playing, the rest of the family can be assured of being spared of hours of some of the dullest TV imaginable. Watching baseball can be pretty boring too, but I don't think there is anything that can cure insomnia like sitting in front of the TV watching golf. Even my wife falls asleep watching golf and she claims to be interested! This weekend marked the first grand slam event of 2008, The Masters. I don't know if this was any more boring than any other golf tournament, but it certainly rated a 9 or 10 on the drool meeter. Everything happens so slowly, and there is so little action, I almost wish for rain or hecklers or something to liven things up. Speeding up play might make things more interesting. Maybe a 24 second shot for each shot, including putts? This would probably end Sergio Garcia's career. He is the Mike Hargrove of golfing. A human rain delay. One good thing about golf is that watching it on TV inspires me to get off my butt and do something. Do anything to get away from the boredom. I can go to the gym for a workout without my wife noticing I am gone. In fact, it is quite likely that she will still be asleep in front of the TV when I get home.

Here in San Diego, we are still tied to setting proxies to connect our browsers to the internet. I recently switched over to Firefox from Mozilla and have been having intermittent problems connecting to various sites. Most annoying was not being able to connect to blogs.sun.com! In the past, it seemed I could muck around with the settings, then connect to a site, then I would have to reset the proxies to connect to another site. Last week, I was having problems connecting to just about any site, so I opened a Service Desk ticket. I got my first experience with one of the new Service Desk Improvements, where they connect to your session via VNC in order to diagnose and hopefully fix your problem. Service Desk seems to take a lot of flak for just about anything they do or don't do, so I am pleased to report that I was very impressed by this latest effort.

I got a call back from a Technician within two hours of opening my ticket and he quickly explained what I needed to do to set up a VNC session for him to use. He checked my proxy settings and made a couple of changes, then went into my Firefox profile directory and deleted a few files. I wish I could tell you what they were, but I don't remember. He had me try to connect to the sites that were giving me problems and together we verified that everything was working. Total time spent was about 5 minutes. Typically for the type of problem I was having, I would have expected there to have been numerous e-mails and phone calls back and forth with me trying to explain the problem and then hoping the Technician knew what I was talking about, so he could give me something to try, which probably would not work, whereby we would start the process all over again.

This new service is quick and painless and it gives you a chance to give immediate feedback as to whether or not the problem is really fixed. It also clarifies to the Technician that the problem has been fixed and that the ticket can be closed as resolved. Good job!

I'll try to keep this short although I could write a volume ... Barry Bonds is about to break the MLB record for most home runs. Many are openly rooting against him because they say he is a cheater who used steroids. The record will be tainted since it was accomplished using performance enhancing drugs they say. In today's North County Times, San Diego Padres radio announcer Ted Leitner states that he does not want Bonds to break the home run record while he is announcing. From the North County Times article: "I have no enthusiasm, no desire whatsoever for this because I have eyes. No one does what he does in his 40s without some help," Leitner said in reference to persistent rumors that Bonds' late-career home-run binge has been fueled by steroid use. "Give me a break. This is a bastardization of history."

Leitner has also been the radio voice of the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers currently have two players on their roster that have enhanced their careers via steroids, Shawn Merriman and Luis Castillo. Merriman was busted for steroid use last year, and Castillo admitted to using steroids while in College. Apparently Leitner, and most sports fans have no problem, with these guys cheating. Seems a little hypocritical to me. Is Bonds now or was Bonds juiced? Very likely. Then again, how many other guys in baseball are juiced as well? How many pitchers that faced Bonds are using banned substances? Baseball does not really want to know. Do we?

This is news that I won't get tired of seeing. Jonathan Schwartz said this would happen and it did. Congrats to Jonathan and to all of us at Sun. A lot of people got so used to Sun losing money that they act surprised at each time Sun announces that they made a profit. Not sure how many more quarters of profitablity will it take to change the perception that Sun does not make money, but as long as we are making money, it is fine with me if folks still act surprised.

Sports franchises are notorious for hiring retread coaches/managers. Just today, Rick Adelman was named the "new" coach of the NBA Houston Rockets. He was previously fired or asked not to return by Portland, Golden State and Sacramento. He was the only candidate inteviewed by Houston. This does not sound like a very innovative way to do business. If Sun behaved the same way as the NBA, Jonathan Schwartz would have never had a chance to become CEO. Jeffrey Skilling would have had a better chance to be the new CEO, just because he has already served in that capacity before. Of course now he is serving a jail term, but he still has that CEO experience. I'm glad that Sun does not use the same hiring criteria for leadership as sports does, where it appears that it is more important to have experience as opposed to having any skill to be successful in your job.

Have not made an entry in a while. I have run across many topics I considered writing about, but started to realize that every single one of them involved some gripe I have about that topic. I'm hoping that my blog will be more than just a forum for me to vent about something I don't like, so I decided to wait until I could think of something to write about that was not totally negative. I have come to the conclusion that I must enjoy complaining a lot more than complimenting!

I completed the Power of Sun Survey and the Management Excellence Survey this week. I think it is best to do these surveys at a time when you are feeling pretty neutral overall and maybe at a time when you really had not planned on doing the survey. I was just going through my mail box and saw the note about the survey and just decided on the spur of the moment to go ahead and take it. I go back and forth on the surveys. Sometimes I think they can be really useful and sometimes I think they are just window dressing and a waste of time. Sun seems to be going more towards fewer fill in the bubble questions and more for filling in comments or context around your bubble answers. I think this is a good thing and kind of like the way that the requests for comments appears to depend on how you answered particular questions. In some ways they are calling your bluff. Let's say you answered a question like, "Would you recommend Sun" as "unlikely". In the old surveys you might have a place to make open ended comments at the end of the survey. Now, you are more likely to go to the next page to find a question like: Explain why your are unlikely to recommend Sun. Now you have to think or punt. Do I really feel that way? Why? Now that I know I should explain myself, maybe that really should not have been my original answer. Or, you might end up writing a novel about what you think is wrong with Sun. Either way, I think this is more helpful to Sun then just counting the number of bubbles filled in for questions and drawing conclusions from those alone.

My 14 year old daughter told me about surveys they give them at school. Some of them ask questions about whether or not they use drugs. She tells me that a lot of the kids don't take these very seriously and purposely put down answers that are far from the truth. She said one amusing question was at the end of a survey: "I have been truthful with my answers to this survey" True or False. She wonders who would fill out the survey making up answers then admit they were not being truthful with their answers? Having comments or context around certain questions can help determine how seriously someone is taking a survey. If I were to say I was unlikely to recommend Sun, and when asked why, left the comment blank, that could be telling. If I wrote a comment like, I would not recommend Sun because I don't like Jonathan's pony tail, that would also be telling. Telling someone that maybe I'm not taking the survey seriously or I have some serious hair issues. The latter might be closer to the truth. I'm jealous that Jonathan has enough hair to turn into a pony tail and I don't. :-(

In any case, I thought both the Power of Sun and Management Excellence surveys were worth taking. If you have anything to complain about Sun or if you want to say something nice, I would recommend participating in these surveys.

Finding good free agent pick ups in MLB is a lot more difficult than finding the bad ones. Pretty much every free agent signed looks like they were overpaid, so being overpaid becomes kind of relative. If the market rate for a stiff relief pitcher is $2.5 million per year, then signing a mediocre reliever for the same price might really be a relative bargain. I'll try to keep that in mind before declaring there were no good free agent signings! Listed in no particular order, the first name that pops up in my mind is Darin Erstad going to the White Sox for one year for $1 million. Sure, Erstad gets hurt every year and he is no longer the hitter he was a few years ago for Anaheim/LA Anaheim, but this is a case of a relative bargain. He can play outfield or firstbase. White Sox had a big hitting hole in center field last year, and Erstad can fill that role until he gets hurt. Also, since he is only signed for a year, if he does get hurt, it did not really cost the White Sox a lot in terms of dollars or long term committment. The Twins may have picked up a bargain in signing Ramon Ortiz for $3.1 million for a year. He has bounced around a bit after appearing to have a promising career with the Angels. With only a one year contract, this is not an especially high risk move for the Twins. If the Twins get 10 wins or more out of Ortiz, this will be a really good deal. Twins starting pitching is thin and Ortiz is a fairly low priced in today's market. Tampa Bay picked up Akinori Iwamura from Japan for $7.7 million for 3 years. Now I admit I am cheating here as I knew nothing about Iwamura before the season started, but noticed he is currently leading the AL in hitting after two weeks. Two weeks does not make a career, but it appears Iwamura has an everyday slot in Tampa Bay's lineup, so that makes him a pretty good deal. Cliff Floyd signed with the Cubs for 1 year at $3 million. Cubs made a lot of questionable moves, but in my opinion, this was not one of them. Floyd showed last season, he still has gas in the tank. Cubs also have some depth in the outfield, so Floyd is not really expected to play every day, but he is a more than adequate replacement should someone get hurt, like Soriano last night, or if Murton or Jones slumps badly. Floyd also give the Cubs a strong DH option during interleague play. Cardinals pick up Adam Kennedy for $10 million over 3 years. Cards did not like Belliard at second base and had a hole to fill in the off season. Kennedy has been a pretty decent fielding and hitting second baseman for quite a while with the Angels, so he fills a hole for the Cards at a relatively cheap price. Padres pick up Marcus Giles for one year at $3.75 million. This may be a stretch. I'm not a Giles fan and I think the Padres were moronic to trade Josh Barfield, but Giles is just a one year fill in and is the type of player the Padres like. That's about all I can come up with. This was really tough!

Every year, GMs outsmart themselves and often outbid themselves for overrated free agents. Scott Bora$$ is the master agent at convincing a GM that his client has another suitor, so if the GM really wants this guy, he better up his offer. The reality is that only one GM is bidding on the player and they end up outbidding themself and throwing away tons of money. Works out great for Bora$$ since he gets a piece of the contract, so the higher it is, the larger his share. This year was no exception. There were some truly awful moves in baseball this year. Here are some of the highlights or lowlights as the case may be. Giants sign Barry Zito for 7 years for $126 million. This can be filed in the "What on earth were they thinking?" category. The Giants GM must not take part in any Fantasy Leagues, because if he did, he would know that Zito would not only not rank as the top pitcher in baseball, he would not rank among the top 30 pitchers in baseball, so why would you pay him as though he was the top pitcher in baseball? This is insane. He is no Randy Johnson in his prime. If Zito is worth this much, then Johann Santana should be worth about $1 billion for 7 years. Giants also made a huge mistake in giving Zito 7 years. Have they not looked back at any previous long term pitching deals? What is Kevin Brown doing these days? He is not pitching, but still getting paid. Mike Hampton is having a fine career, having not lost a game in over a year. Oh that's right, he has not pitched in over a year and is out again this year. How is Denny Naegle doing these days? Boston Red Sox sign JD Drew for 5 years and $70 million. When he opted out of his LA Dodgers contract, the Dodgers could not show him the door fast enough. I think they might have been thinking about having a parade to welcome him out of Los Angeles. Another Bora$$ client. I seriously doubt there was a single team interested in signing Drew to such a ridiculous contract, but Bora$$ convinced the Red Sox that someone else was interested besides Theo Epstein. It appears that the Red Sox had second thoughts about signing Drew as they seemed to be looking for a medical reason to void the contract, but it was too late. As far as I know, Drew has never played an entire season and appears to not get along well with teammates and the media. It will only be a matter of time before the fans in Boston end up hating him just like the fans have everywhere else he has played. The interesting things is, Drew won't care what the fans think and won't care about how the team is doing. Royals sign Gil Meche for $55 million over 5 years. This is really going to turn KC into a contender? What it does do is suck up cash that the team could use to develop and keep younger talent. Florida is able to dismantle and rebuild in a matter of a year or two, but the Royals constantly go out and overpay mediocre or washed up players like Benito Santiago and Reggie Sanders, and now Meche. I would hate to be a KC fan, however it might be nice to be a baseball fan living in KC, as you could probably get cheap tickets on game day, sit anywhere you want and watch your favorite players pound hapless KC into submission. Angels sign Gary Mathews Jr. for 5 years at $10 million per year. I thought this was a bad move before Mathews' steroid scandal and still do. Mathews' non-denial denials, sure make him seem guilty of something. The guy has been a career journeyman player and suddenly has a good year in his free agent season? Classic red flag that the Angels ignored. Cubs made a series of questionable moves, led by picking up Alfonso Soriano for $136 million over 8 years. I have to root for this move to work, since I have Soriano on my Fantasy Team, but I'm not holding my breath. Soriano will hit homeruns and steal bases, but he has never impressed me as a clutch hitter with men on base and will likely not hit above .280, with a low on base percentage. Seems like he would be more suited to batting 7th than first, but who would pay their #7 hitter $136 million? Well, maybe the Cubs would do that. Cubs also pick up Jason Marquis for 3 years at $21 million. He got wins in St. Louis because they had some good teams, but he is not a very good pitcher. At least his contract is only 3 years. Cubs also pick up Ted Lilly for $40 million over 4 years. I think they would have been better off saving some of that money for Zambrano and using the rest on picking up a young pitcher from some place like KC for cheap. In the interst of equal time, I'll look for some free agent bargains for my next entry. Could be a very short entry. Play ball!

Follow up to my last entry on deciding if and when to buy a new iMac. I guess impatience outweighed procrastinating as I went ahead and ordered a refurbed 20" iMac last Tuesday from the Apple store. Free shipping was supposed to take 3-5 business days, so I was a little surprised that the iMac was delivered Friday morning. Set up was a breeze. Had to first move the old Blueberry iMac to a new, temporary location, then got the new machine up and running in maybe 10 minutes tops. In doing a little checking I found, to my surprise, that I was not sent the 20", 2.16 GHz, 250 GB hard drive that I ordered, but instead was sent a 20" with a 2.33 GHz processor and a 500 GB hard drive. A sweet, unexpected bonus.

I have been hearing grumblings from the family. They have been sharing my old Blueberry iMac for years. It appears that it may be a little bit slow and the 6 GB hard drive might be a little too small for the 21st century. So, I have been looking to buy a new iMac. I'm actually getting a decent tax refund, so I can afford to buy a new iMac now, but ... rumors are swirling that Leopard may be coming out in late March. Should I wait until Leopard comes out, so I don't have to pay extra to upgrade? On the other hand, is there really anything I need in Leopard that I should wait for? We don't do a lot of sophisticated computing at home. If I do wait, how much longer might it be until the next new and improved iMacs come out? Should I just wait for those? I could probably play the waiting game forever and I would end up never buying anything.

Always a tough call when to buy. As soon as you buy, you will find some reason to make you wish that you waited. The longer you wait, the more you wish you had just gone ahead and bought earlier. Circuits overloading! Can't handle the pressure! I'll just do what I'm best at. Procrastinate and decide later.