It's new OTD time again, folks. In lieu of the usual OT fare of video games, books, making fun of celebrities and yuppies, etc. I've decided to go with a different theme for my occasional contribution to this wonderful site - home improvement.

This is a topic that has been the bane of my existence for the past month and a half, as I bought quite the clunker and am determined to make it livable on a budget. I won't go LLFB and detail every change I've made so far, but here are a couple things that I've done, and a longer list of neat stuff I'm looking to do.

Done -
* New kitchen cabinets
* Bedroom tear out, replacing wiring (drywall going up soon!)

Neat stuff that I may want to build/do in the future -
Catwalk on the ceiling - I don't even like the cat, but I think this would be awesome, especially the carpeted pole in the front room (maybe have the carpet removable so it can serve double duty without the rug burns)
Spray foam insulation - I can't do it now because of time constraints, but this is something I will be coming back to in the near term. It's the wave of the future, and it's not a flying car this time. R-Value of 21 for a 2x4 framed wall with built-in leak sealing and vapor barrier? Yes, please.

Normal projects in the pipeline -
Make a real front door
Built-in office desks and shelving
Tear down and rebuild shed
Replace deck/patio

Links to sites that I read about housing/remodeling/design -
http://diydiva.net/
http://www.inhabitat.com/
http://www.doityourself.com/

So, now comes the sharing portion of  the show. What things have you done to make your place more livable? Good ideas that maybe you don't see everywhere? Any questions about work you want to do? I know I have quite a bit of experience in roofing, siding, electrical, insulation and tree work. I'm sure there are other people here that know about other things as well.

As always, normal OTD rules apply - talk about whatever within the rules.

After visiting the Metrodome/Minneapolis and Miller Park/Milwaukee -

Metrodome - I've been there once and am going to miss it. The walk down to the seats is steep even on the lower level, and it's loud and echoey, but still one of the funner parks I've been in. Decent food, nothing special but good selection and quality. New park note - The area Target Field is in is windy as fuck. I would plan on not going to MIN for any trips until the nicest part of summer, or at least bring all your football gear. I put the o/u on snow-outs at 5 for the 2010 season.

Minneapolis - BUSES, TONS OF BUSES. I loved it. Low key, lots of hamster trails in the sky, nothing is outside (except see above). Good food, nice views, great city to walk around in. I heartily recommend the 8th St (Pub?), the Mac and Cheese was some of the best I've ever eaten, and I don't even like cheese.

Miller Park - Fuck you, Selig. I didn't think I could hate you any worse, but now I have to think of new, more painful ways to describe my hopes of your untimely death. 1. Milwaukee is a gem of a city, but you can't tell because the stadium is 10 miles out of the city center. 2. There is one bus that goes to the stadium, and it only runs every 20 mins on one small route that goes along one street. I had heard that you were putting it out so far to get the parking revenues, but for fuck's sake run more than one bus and one route. 3. The pleb's parking lot is about a mile and a half walk from the stadium, if you get there early. With no cover. Oh, and you walk into the ass end of the stadium. 4. Why the hell do the seats face the center fielder? Do you have some sort of agreement with the local chiropractor's association? There is no excuse, it is a baseball first stadium, fucking put the seats facing the correct direction.

On a lighter note, the stadium itself on the inside was nice, but not even in my top five. It had no notable food aside from every single stand having the same sausages and hot dogs. Oh, and for a state that prides itself on cheese, they use the same shitty cheese sauce in their nachos and fries as your local 7-11.

Milwaukee - Markets and festivals and little shops and cafes in corners. It's like a little slice of Toronto without the passport. I spent about 3 hours just walking the river and lake. If you can go there, do it. I'm going back next year if I can.

Here's my scorecard:

SEA OAK LAA TEX | MIN CHW DET CLE KC | TOR BOS NYY1 NYY2 BAL TB = 9/15

COL SF LAD ARI SD | MIL CHC PIT CIN STL HOU | NYM1 NYM2 PHI WAS ATL FLA = 6/17

Anyone else have any new stadiums they've visited? Any thoughts, good or bad?

As always, OT rules apply. Talk about whatever, minus the obvious.

I think it's about time for another one of these bad boys. Some topics for possible discussion:

• Post-Its are the most useful invention ever
  
• Gold chains on men - purely douchey or just a sign of ignorance?
• The origins of the apparently LL-exclusive phrase "Boned" (sorry Taylor)
• Where the fuck did the tags go? Update - There they are. WTF, SBN? You have to run the autotag to use them?
  
• Uses for dollar bills besides currency
• Voicemail should go the way of the dinosaur (Fuck you, Carl Everett)
  
• Good names for a cat (don't worry, I've covered the Chinese food names already abender20)
• As always, anything else your heart desires (and is in LL guidelines)

So we all saw that story about the umpire that called the RJ game for Dave Valle. Deadspin has a great write-up here.

Some background info (from SI):

So dominant was Johnson that before a game in 1993, the home plate umpire told Mariners catcher Dave Valle, "They don't even need you with Randy pitching."

"What are you talking about?" replied Valle, who would not name the ump.

"He's so good they don't need you. Let me call the pitches tonight."

"I let him call every pitch." recalls Valle, to whom the umpire whispered pitches under his breath.

An overpowering Johnson went the distance in a Mariners victory.

That put the list of potential umps at (Per Deadspin):

Jim McKean, vs. Boston, April 21 (Johnson's line: 4 hits, 0 ER, 8 strikeouts)
Tim Welke, vs. Cleveland, April 26 (7 hits, 3 ER, 7 strikeouts)
Dale Scott, at Oakland, May 16 (1 hit, 0 ER, 14 strikeouts)
Ken Kaiser, at Toronto, Aug. 20 (3 hits, 1 ER, 11 strikeouts)
Joe Brinkman, vs. Milwaukee, Sept. 5 (5 hits, 2 ER, 13 strikeouts)
Ed Hickox, vs. Texas, Sept. 21 (3 hits, 0 ER, 11 strikeouts)
Drew Coble, at Minnesota, Oct. 1 (9 hits, 2 ER, 7 strikeouts)

Today Valle was on the MLB channel on XM, and Kevin Kennedy got him to open up a little. Dave proclaimed that the umpire had called for about two innings, then they went on to a 4-1, 3 Hit, CG victory.

That means that we can now positively claim (as much as going by one man's statements can) that it was Ken Kaiser that called that game. I wonder if anyone will ask him for a comment?

Over this week, I added numbers 11, 12 and 13 (out of now 32) to my list of ballparks visited. Figured I'd share a few pictures and make an OT at the same time.

All the pictures (and more from the trip, should you be interested) are hosted on Flickr.

Progressive Field/Cleveland -

I didn't spend much time in Cleveland, but had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants in the area.

Comerica Park/Detroit -

Detroit was supposed to be another afternoon trip without much exploring, but I found the building above, and spent a good couple hours trying to find a way inside. I think it was a hospital before it was condemned, but no matter what it was it was fun to explore. Oh, yeah, there's my car for scale.

PNC Park/Pittsburgh -

Pitt was a lot of fun to walk around, even in the rain. The park is nice, easily the nicest of the three, and in the top five of the parks I've visited.

Summary & Discussion Topics

I've always been interested if anyone else on LL has done this sort of trip, and if so, how far are you?

This summer is going to be MIN/MIL, and maybe Chicago if I have the time. If anyone has been to any of these, is the Metrodome as bad/the same/better as other stadium based ballparks like McAfee and Skydome?

Whatever else anyone wants to talk about.

I figured today was a good day for a linky post, a little earlier than usual.

This is a poll for all those converted by LL to better beer drinkers. Remember these slogans from your cheaper days? (Note: That whole site is awesome, and I could easily link half the content) (Second Note: Can anyone beat 3:34 in the 50 Capitals Challenge?)

I've changed signs around before, but this is a masterpiece.

via media2.kxan.com

In fucked up news, some guy tried to cut the implants out of an ex-girlfriend. People are messed up.

In book news, I'm halfway through reading Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do, and I have to say it is excellent. He stays a little general for someone like myself that's read traffic and urban planning books before, but it's a great book to get someone hooked on the subject.

Not to start up this debate again, but according to traffic engineers, all you early mergers are doing it wrong (PDF). If there's traffic and a backup, late merging makes for more capacity and quicker traffic flow (because there's no queue jumpers disrupting the line, and everyone knows what to expect at the merge point).

I won't link to it because you can't find an article about it without politics, but the digital TV switchover is still on for Feb 17th. Does anyone out there still have a TV that's not hooked up to cable or satellite? If so, do you have one of the boxes or a digital TV? Neilsen says 10% of people won't have any access to TV after the switch, but I'm skeptical of that number.

With the coming of spring (actually the accumulation of too much shit), I've been bit by the cleaning bug. After 500$ made on Craigslist, and half a closet and a good chunk of the garage now clear to fill with more junk, I've turned my attention to the numerous bookshelves in my apartment with an eye on clearing them out to give myself a chance to use my Amazon gift cards to the fullest.

What does this mean for LL? An old-fashioned book discussion, of course. I'm going to use this opportunity to tell you about some of my most read items, list a few books I'm looking forward to reading, and I invite all of you to do the same.

Books I've read repeatedly, and urge you to as well:
1421-The Year China Discovered America
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Capitalism 3.0
Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776
I won't bore you with my many Fantasy/SciFi recommendations.

Books I'm looking forward to reading:
1434 (Followup to 1421)
Wikinomics
The Wisdom of Crowds
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

And finally, a couple interesting links I've found on our sister sites:
How the 40 Man Roster Works (From BCB)
Interesting NYTimes story on Risk Management (Orig Posted on BTB)

This heapin' helpin' of OT is served family style, so remember to use your serving utensils and don't double dip.

I know we have had the worst Christmas movie ever discussion before, and I'm not looking to open it back up, but the other night I saw the absolute worst animated hour of television in any genre. Apparently the heirs of Charles Schultz are content raping the corspe of his legacy by releasing movies after his death that make it look like he went senile in his old age.

Pre-empting Kevin's lack of BOTD postings, I'm throwing down the gauntlet:

This would be the mythical bacon cake, a cornbread cake with bacon bits, maple-based frosting, and of course the garnish on top. Beat that, faux-angryman.

Anyone else get "the talk" at work over the past few days? Not the birds and the bees of course, but the "Times are tough and you should feel indebted that we let you keep your jobs" talk. I got that Monday and it looks like an earthquake ran through my office. Many are scared for their jobs, but I for one am looking forward to my future career in the world of dirt farming with the rest of the plebs. Beats my nice cushy IT job and LL every morning before everyone shows up, right?

There looks to be a shortage of topics, since we appear to have burned through our weekly allotment of topics in yesterday's OTDOD.

We have to conserve topics for the rest of this week, so today's topics will be all about me and my trip. Any departure will get a stern (read: no) reprimand, which will be roundly ignored as you continue to talk about whatever the hell you want.

Topics for today include:

• What is there to do in a rural Mississippi casino besides gamble, drink, and selling electronics to hicks?
• Interesting things to do when you're on a plane for over 12 hours in the next week and a half.
  
• What is there to do in LV (for little to no money) besides strip clubs, gambling, drinking, and selling electronics to rich snobs?
• Does anyone want any pictures of anything in either of these places? Keep in mind, they have to be in running distance of the strip.
• Is there an app for BB that will let me participate in LL comment threads? Opera mobile crashes at the long-ass cookie that SBN tries to give you, the BB browser is more than useless, and neither let me log in.

For your viewing pleasure, today's OTDOD will be broadcast in glistening technicolor.

• I don't think we've had quite enough Rock Band Two discussion, so let's hear it. What's your favorite song? Insturment? How do you get it to download songs in the background like I've heard about?
• I'd like to open the floor to questions. There has been pretty good business for this in the past couple days, so why not make it official? Got any problems or questions about your computer, cooking, or just about anything? Let LL solve it*.
• I can't get to youtube videos here at work, so you'll just have to hum Ramblin' Rod's birthday theme (update: smile contest theme - thanks pdb) to yourself instead.
• iku iku is "I'm coming" in Japanese. Discuss.

Continue reading this post »