Category: Life, the universe, and everything

Just random thoughts about life, the universe, and everything.

My 2013 MLB predictions

Baseball – quite possibly the greatest thing invented by humanity.

It’s that time of year. Lush green grass, clay-red warning track and infield, pristine white bases, sizzling hot dogs, icy slushies, the crack of wood. Baseball season.

And today’s opening day. Granted, there’s only one game today, but it counts. (Most teams’ first game of the season is tomorrow, April 1st.) Regardless, today is a great day for all baseball fans, including me.

Background info: there are 30 teams in the MLB (major league baseball), and each plays 162 games in the regular season. The teams are split into 6 divisions of 5 teams each. The teams in each division with the most wins, plus 4 wild-card teams, move on to the playoffs.

Many baseball fans and experts – including me – take this time to predict how many games each team will win this season, as well as which team will “win” their division. There are 2,430 games in the regular season, so we just concern ourselves with that for now. Playoff stuff comes later.

I’m a big baseball fan, so I figure this year I’ll chime in with my predictions and picks for who wins the division. I’m just a humble fan – not even close to an expert – so take my predictions with a grain of salt.

I’ve written down how I think each team will do (wins/losses), plus some analysis that’s loaded with baseball jargon. Avoid the analysis if you don’t know too much about baseball. Remember that the top team in every division (rank 1) gets to move on to the playoffs, so everyone is fighting for that spot.

And, without further ado, my predictions & picks.

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MLA template for Microsoft Word 2010

A screenshot of Word 2010 in MLA format.
Click this to download your free MLA Template for Word 2010

tl;dr – a free MLA format template for Word 2010A freely-downloadable "Download" button.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had more teachers than I’d can count who graded papers solely on how well you followed the proper format and not, you know, on that fluff they call ‘content.’

If you’re a student, chances are pretty good you have to write many, many papers – all in MLA format, a common format for papers, essays, and such. The MLA format was designed, I’d imagine, to regulate the look of all papers and to drive students crazy. There are tons of random rules and guidelines you have to know, such as:

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Follow the 2012 elections with the Google Politics election tracker

tl;dr -check out Google’s awesome political election tracker

I’m a political junkie, so I’m following this year’s Republican primary process with the fervor with which I, also a baseball fanatic, follow baseball – which is to say, very much. And the main things in election season to watch out for are the elections themselves – in this year’s case, each state’s primary in which the Republican candidates compete.

These elections are awesome, but to fully enjoy them I need stats. I need results. I need data. I need cool graphs. I need a great political tracker. So look what I found:

Google Politics Colorado Primary Result
Google Politics election tracker showing the results of the Colorado caucus (google.com/elections)
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My (free) Kindle reading list

Turns out there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such thing as a free book.

The cover of the Odyssey
Available for the low price of $0.00

I recently got a Kindle (the old kind, without a touch screen or 3G or a color screen or anything) for an internship I’m working on. I figured I’d get some books to read while I was at it (might as well use the Kindle for what it’s intended), so I opened up the Kindle Store on my Kindle and prepared to buy a few books.

The first book on my list was Homer’s Odyssey, which I’m currently reading in English class. I scrolled though some of the results looking for the cheapest copy. $12.50, $2.50, $0.00, $1.00, $2.00… hm, looks like I’ll get the $1 one… wait, what?!?

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A slightly radical proposal for schools

I’ve often been asked the question “If you could be king of the world for a day, what would you do?” First of all, I’d make myself king permanently, but that’s not the point. Here’s my slightly radical proposal that would be the second thing I’d do if I were king for a day.

I’m part of a club that takes out the recycling in our school in the morning. Let me tell you, we collect a lot of paper: if I collect the paper of maybe 15 rooms that haven’t had their paper collected in a few days, I can fill up a whole trash can. Not the small trash cans you have in your house, I mean ones as big as janitors use. That’s a lot.

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Seeing “Friday” in a different light

If you want a break from the tech talk…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month, you’ve probably heard of (and had the misfortune of listening to) Rebecca Black’s Friday. You know, that song with the 13-year-olds driving cars and the nasally teenager wondering where to sit? That one.

After a shocking experience (more about that later), I’ve had to start questioning why I (and pretty much everyone I know) hate the song. Breaking it down:

  • The lyrics are junk, but most pop songs have meaningless lyrics anyway.
  • The tune’s pretty catchy, no faults there.
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