We had talked about getting together on the 18th, next Saturday to go hiking/walking at Garin Park in Hayward. At this time it is totally unclear if the Mister and I will be able to attend. This doesn't mean that you all can't go on along without us. J14 and a couple others are familiar with either the park or reading trail maps.

I don't feel like I can wait any longer to discuss the weekend, and maybe everybody has even forgotten about it by now. So it might not even matter! And we should just reschedule.

By way of brief explanation: For us 2012 has decided to continue the downward spiral of 2011. Now it is my turn to have medical problems and Kaiser apparently is really into "patient frustration" this month. Maybe it's a new marketing scheme. "Kaiser Permanente: sit by your phone for a week and work yourself into a tizzy." It's nothing to worry about, you'll either need a total hysterectomy or an aspirin, but we can't quite figure out which. "Hey, I know! Let's run another test!!!"

So we've no idea what to plan for tonight, let alone next weekend and waiting until next Friday to make a decision would be rather inconsiderate to those few of you who even remembered that this was a thing.

Please organize yourselves in the comments section. Time, meeting place (I'd suggest the big red barn at the visitors center) whatever. Preferred change of venue, or date... have at it!

Stolen from

Denver SBNation

cuz I needed 75 words FAST

Thursday night at 8 PM ET, the NHL All-Star Player Fantasy Draft takes place with team captains D Zdeno Chara and RW Daniel Alfredsson -- of the blue and red teams respectively -- selecting from a pool of 100 All-Stars for the 2012 NHL All-Star Games.

This is the second year the league will conduct its NHL player draft, and with the new format, the fans vote in six players to join the pool of All-Stars who are otherwise selected by the league. The All-Stars then vote among themselves to elect two captains, who then pick the rosters for the All-Star Game and Skills Competition in a fantasy draft.

We talked about doing this last year, and it just never got going so we'll give it another try.

The Mister and I are going to hike at Garin Regional Park on Saturday February 18th 2012 (This could be a 3 day weekend for many of you.) We chose Saturday because Val's isn't open on Sundays.

Sometime in the morning, but not ridiculously early 10? 10:30 ish? Time to be determined more specifically as we get closer to the day. We'll meet at the Big Red Barn- potty area.

Directions and details at the link. Parking is $5

This park has many options, we can do flat, hilly, climby, short or long distances, depending on the abilities and health of the people who decide to participate. If you're an experienced hiker and/or in good shape stick some extra waterbottles in your back pack to increase the challenge!

Afterwards whoever has the time and the inclination can head on over to Val's Burger's (2115 Kelly St in Hayward, on the way to Castro Valley) for dinner or a snack.

Anybody interested?

Spring break might be a good time to plan another such "event" any thoughts?

Also, please help this post stay on the front page by lending a rec... thanks

Here is the post from last year if you want to see how you did...

We managed to accomplish nothing on our list. Maybe in a fit of oppositional defiant disorder directed at the universe in general our list should be things we hope not to accomplish: In 2012 we will NOT win a million dollars, I will not get anything published and the cat will not accidentally dig up an old shoebox full of IBM stock from the '40's in the back yard. That should cover it.

I do have some projects I'll be working on. Every week I'm going to do something poemy: cinquain, limerick, haiku something short...hopefully one of each a week, but I'm not going to get greedy. I've also got a rune art collage thing I'm going to be playing around with.

For those of you who missed out on the November NaNoWriMo there are camp NaNos coming up in the summer. June & August I think. July would have fit around school schedules better but... we'll cross that creek when get to it.

So what's up with you?

Teachers and students have new semesters starting soon, what are you taking/teaching?

What are you looking forward to in 2012?

or

How will you spend New Years Eve? Any recipes to share?

I was going to do this way earlier... but then, I was thinking "Why bother? There's almost nobody here this time of year" so I decided not to, but then the whole Simon and Garfunkel thing in the Volquez trade post got me thinking maybe I should go ahead and do it....

If there is one thing this place excels at [besides bitching about the Giants] it's song parodies. So, put those creative talents to use reworking a holiday tune, or two.

Since I'm not teaching I've kind of lost track of the fact that it's getting very close to that time of year, I keep thinking it's still August/Septemberish.

So let's see...

Hanukkah begins at sunset on Tuesday, December 20

The Winter Solstice is Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas, Kwanzaa, Festivus etc etc

So what's on your holiday wish list?

Around here our holiday list is pretty short:

• Better health
• Better jobs
• Better living environment
• Better decision making for the Giants management team
• Something something Sharks while we're at it
• And apparently a cd/dvd drive/burner cuz mine just died.

At least you had all better be on, or close to, your final chapter. 

We are almost out of time!! !!! Panic!!! !!! [no not him]

 I am at 38,000 and hopefully will be at 40 - 42,000 by the end of the weekend.  We shall see. It is definitely horrible.  LoL If I ever do this again I am going to have a very different game plan!

If nothing else the push to the end of this will keep me distracted from the job hunting, interviewing, and cover letter writing fun.

So how is your story / mass of words coming along? Are you going to make it?

Well it's the National Novel Writing Month halfway point, more or less.. How's it going?

I'm waaaaay behind where I wanted to be! Stupid life stuff.

I've only got 16,000 words at the moment.  Which is what? Almost but not quite a third of the way through?  Ugh.

So, let us know how you are doing, if you want to share anything you've written feel free to do so in the comments.

If I do this next year I'm going to do something where I can insert a lot of  poetry / song lyricky type stuff.  This "end of the world, people are all poop-heads and we're all doomed"  fictionalized diatribe isn't giving me much room for that sort of  padding!

Fall finally decided to show up this week.  It was 39˚ this morning when I took my walk at 8:00 am brrr!

Please feel free to post your favorite fall recipes below.  It might help people if you include how easy or difficult the recipe is based on stuff like prep time and cooking skills needed.

Oh, and if you have any weird ingredients in your recipe give people a general idea of where they might be able to find those items. 

National Novel Writing Month

I've been thinking about doing this for several years now, and well, this year seems like a good time.  I'll either write a novel, or get a fulltime job offer Nov 2 making it impossible to write a novel so it's win win!

From the website:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Sooooooo, anybody interested?

I double-dog dare ya!!

Wow, it's almost Halloween! Just cut and paste the questions below with your answers. If anybody is struggling trying to think of a costume give us a general idea of what you're wanting [NSFW / SFW (or school)  scary/funny/theme price range...]  I don't think there's a more creative bunch anywhere on the internet.  If you want to dress up as a quark, somebody here will have an idea of how to go about doing it.

The best Halloween candy:

The worst Halloween candy:

Best costume you've ever seen  or worn:

Favorite Halloween movie/special:

Favorite Halloween music:

Season's readings:

And finally... are you dressing up this year and if so... as what?

bannedbooksweek

Sept 24 - Oct 1 is Banned Books Week

Some lists of books are here

1990-1999

and here

2000-2009

I'm surprised to see "And Tango Makes Three" on the list.  The book is based upon the real story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins who took care of a fertilized egg and raised themselves a baby penguin.   The horrors!!!

What banned books have you read?  What's your favorite? And what books should be banned?

A beat LA image thread is kind of a traditional thing ... however; since the Giants are... kinda like up poo-poo creek without a didy we may as well go for some extra "In this Thing" mojo at the same time.

Lincecum hasn't beaten Kershaw yet this season... but how much you wanna bet ole Bighead trots out the same "All lefty, all suck, all the time" lineup tonight?  From MLB via Grant_me_mercy:

Tim Lincecum, who’s winless in three starts this year against the Dodgers ace despite recording an 0.82 ERA (two earned runs in 22 innings) in those games.

So CLEARLY it's Timmy's fault and NOT the lineup... now if you'll excuse me, while you post your BEAT LA / "In this Thing" images....  I need to go find that left over Valium...

Help your fellow McCoven out by sharing some, family friendly, things to do after the game turns sour, so you know... like, after the 3rd inning.

The 3 artists currently getting the most play on your musical device? 

What dvd is in your dvd player (or netflix cue or your equivalent)?

Best app?

Best Twitter  feed?

What video game(s) are you playing?

What books are you reading?

And here's a template :

3 artists:

Dvd/Netflix:

App:

Twitter:

Video game:

Books:

Wow, it's already that time, heck for many of you it's way past that time!

For the Students:

What's your school?

What's your major, if any?

What year?

Extracurricular Activities?

Class you are most/least looking forward to this term?

 For the Teachers:

Grade/Age/Subject?

Years to Retirement?

Any coaching or extra curricular clubs/activities?

In General:

Help the n00bs out with a campus hint.  Best parking, cleanest bathrooms, closest coffee etc...

(geez sometimes getting to 75 words is a strain on the brain!)

We (Mr. Merope and myself) were talking, in the car,  on the drive home from McCovey's about people we wished had Twitter accounts.

There are two people I wish had lived to participate in the Twitters:

Douglas Adams and Carl Sagan

We thought  Charles Darwin on the Beagle and maybe one of those ancient Greek philosopher types would be interesting...

I will not divulge our whole list here cuz that is what I am going to ask you.

What historical, cultural, etc etc type of person would have been an interesting Tweeter?

Reservations have been made:

Saturday August 20th at 4:00pm

McCovey's Restaurant in Walnut Creek

The reservation is for 25. It is a public place so even if you weren't included in the original head count  you can still attend and say  "My goodness!!!! Imagine meeting YOU here!!"

It would be GREAT to have a few others there a little bit early: the wait staff seems antsy about empty tables...on the weekend...at 4pm...and I get kinda tired of saying "No really, more people are coming!" 

As always if you have any extra Giants related give away items: bring them.  Maybe you can exchange that  foam beard for a K sign.

I was just looking at a smallish box of books I was going to drop off at Goodwill.... any interest in doing a book exchange sorta thing?

Since there have been a few episodes of SBN wonkiness lately [and a lot of new members]  I thought I'd repost this.  I'll try to remember to be in the chat room more often.

IRC is real time live chat.  No graphics though, except ascii art, which for some people may be a good thing.

For those of you that are IRC savvy it's #TheCove on Dalnet

For the non IRC crowd here's a basic how-to:
1. To reach Dalnet you will need an IRC client. The most popular ones are: 
PC - mIRC 
Mac - XChat Aqua, Colloquy, or Ircle 
Linux - XChat or BitchX
2. Choose a nick name
3. Find the "servers" or "connections" menu. Make sure you select a Dalnet server. 
I use swiftco.wa.us.dal.net
4. Once you are on the network type /join #TheCove
That's it.

Some IRC primers can be found:
http://www.mirc.com/ircintro.html
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html

Okay, so, the date will be August 20th.  Giants v. Disastros.  4:00pm.  As we actually have a real birthday on that date maybe we won't get the weird looks that we got last year when we celebrated Barry Bonds' birthday.  Ha! Who am I kidding.... Hopefully this year will be a little less ummmm, ahem, weird.

Anyways...

The restaurant's website is here http://www.mccoveys.com/   in case you need directions, or you need to see the menu. 

What I need now is a count: who and how many.   

Sometime next week I'll call and make the reservation.

After a quick, loose count I think we're at about 16ish.  I'll leave this up 'til the end of the weekend and make a reservation for either 15 or 20 depending...

It's time to plan the  4th "annual" McCoven Meetup at McCovey's.  (I still don't think something's officially an annual event until you've done it 5 times.)

http://www.mccoveys.com/

Our limited choices for this season's meetup are either:

Saturday August 13th at 4:10 vs the Marlins

or

Saturday August 20th at 4:05 vs the Astros

There are two possible dates in September, but then we lose all the youngins to college. 

So the first question is which date works better for people? 

[Yes I know a poll would seem to make sense for this.. but  people who have no intention of attending vote and screw everything up: see 2009]

What say you all?

August 13th

August 20th

I usually post this link once a season and after listening to what passed for broadcasting tonight on ESPN it occurred to me that I hadn't posted it yet this season.  (With these notes maybe the ESPN announcers could have actually talked a little bit about the players in the game they were watching.)  Anyway, via this URL you can access the MLB press notes for every team, for every game.

MLB Press Pass

It's fun to read the notes and then listen to Kruk, Kuip, Jon, and Dave.  A lot of their interesting little tidbits come from the press notes.

Back in the fall we had a back to school thread, so we might as well bring this around to its conclusion.

Where and or what are you graduating from?

If applicable, with a degree in what?

And what are you going to be doing next?  High school?  Undergrad work?  Grad work?  Real-world work?

Will you be moving away to some strange and mysterious place to reach your goals?

Any advice for those following in your footsteps?

And finally

CONGRATULATIONS YOU MADE IT!!!