Tiger's Cut Streak Ends

Tiger Woods missed the cut yesterday.

The typical professional golf tournament is played over four rounds of golf, spread over four days. The first two rounds are played with a full field players, each posting scores against the golf course's par (usually 72). At the end of these two rounds, players at the bottom half of the scoring "miss the cut". When a player misses the cut, they do not play the last two rounds ("they miss the weekend") and they do not earn any prize money.

Tiger Woods doesn't need any more prize money. He makes more money off the course through endorsements. It's clear to even casual fans that Tiger's motivation does not come from money.

He last missed a cut in 1998. 1998! He has made the cut in 142 events prior to this week's event. Before this weekend, his closest rival in "cuts made" was Ernie Els, who has 20. Tiger has only ever missed the cut three times since he became a professional golfer in 1996. The last record holder was Byron Nelson at 113 cuts made. Tiger broke that mark in 2003.

"Days when you don't have it, you don't mail it in," Tiger said. "You give it everything you've got."

Records were made to be broken. But this record of Tiger's will probably stand the test of time, like all the other unapproachable records (Joe DiMaggio's hit streak, Eric Heiden's five gold medals). Tiger's streak represents an unparalleled competitive consistency, which is fitting for one of the greatest competitors of our time.

Mother's Day

At one mass on Mother's Day at St. James (where I used to go to church), the celebrant invited all the mothers to stand up to receive a special blessing. I was in the pews, and when the women stood up, I glanced all around the church. It struck me the women who were standing, and the women who were sitting. "Why was she sitting? I thought she was a mom." "I didn't know she had children?" These questions filled my head. How deeply personal it is to become a mother!

In the first five years of our marriage, I remember how often Jenn and I were asked when we were going to start having children. Jokingly of course. But Jenn has made me realize how incredibly personal that kind of question is, even in jest. Maybe it would have been better for the priest just to have announced a special blessing for the mothers, without making them stand up. Perhaps.

Random Thoughts

My brother pointed me to Darth Vader's BLOG. It is very funny! I wonder if Han Solo has a BLOG?

Danielle Aimee, whom I've posted about already [1] [2], shot 8-over 79 in the first round of her first LPGA event, the Michelob Ultra Open. The leaders Silvia Cavalleri and Catrin Nilsmark are both at 4-under 67. It's a tough start for Dani, but when I look at her score card, I see that she really had a tough front nine, then settled down on the back nine. She scored a birdie on the par-3 13th. That had to be a good boost!

I did finish The Boys of Winter last month. I'm ready for the movie now.

Big Break III: Congrats Danielle

Danielle won the Big Break III. I was rooting for her, and she managed to win! Congrats and good luck!

Big Break III

Tomorrow night is the Big Break III's final episode. This reality television show on The Golf Channel started with ten women, each hoping to win the ultimate prize: chances to play on the LPGA tour. The ten contestants have been whittled down to two finalists: Pamela Crikelair and Danielle Aimee. Their final will be match play golf.

No one on The Golf Channel's Discussion Board can quite believe how caught up we all have become in the fates of these ladies. The two ladies are very different from one another, on and off the golf course. Pam is a relative beginner with some excellent raw golf talent. Dani has played professionally in the lower tours. Heated discussions have broken out as the Pam and Dani camps have tried to defend their choices. I'm rooting for Dani, but more importantly, I'm rooting for a good match. It should be fun!

Slow Reader

My reading life has taken a detour since a job change (same company, new location) put me into a forty minute car commute. Now, instead of a forty-five minute bus and train commute, during which I plowed through the books, I now have a bunch of books languishing on my mantle. I read them, but in small bites only (a few pages a day). So what's on the mantle?

The Know-It-All is my bathroom book. In the morning, I'll take a seat (ahem) and I will read an entry or two from A.J. Jacobs' lively book. He's read the entire Britannica, and each 'entry' in his book is a summation of an entry in that famed encyclopedia. The book also serves as a memoir of sorts, and I am enjoying his witty takes on life.

The Brothers Karamazov is a book I had started just as I was getting the job transfer. However, the impetus for reading this book was planted way back in high school when I finally finished Crime and Punishment. The mood of Dostoevsky's masterpiece put me in such a reading trance that I didn't want to rush it. Even though my English class 'finished' the book (I must have skimmed it), I kept reading it right into summer vacation. I knew I wanted another experience like that. Fast forward almost twenty years later, and I'm reading this fascinating novel about "the brothers." And it's just as mesmerizing.

All Souls is a book that my wife finished earlier in the year, and she said "You've got to read this!" I read a few pages, got hooked, and am now scrambling to find time for it. It's Michael MacDonald's memoir of his Irish family living in "Southie" (a neighborhood in Boston) during the tumultuous 1970s. The forced busing conflict brought segregation to the forefront of his consciousness. He also tackles the rise of crime and drug use in his neighborhood. It's so far a great book about the inner city.

All of these books are taking a back-seat to The Boys of Winter, a stirring recollection of the 1980 United States men's hockey team and their "miracle on ice" at the Lake Placid Olympics. I received this as a birthday gift (thanks Mom) and it's a super work. I can still recall the rousing patriotism I felt when our team beat the Russians. But to this day, I had never read more than a few articles about that victory. This book dissects the Russian-United States game, much like my other favorite "single game" books, Nine Innings and Forty-Eight Minutes. This is a splendid book so far.

I don't mind reading slowly. But I hope by the end of the month I can report on finishing at least one of these books.

Taxes Made Easy

For almost ten years, we have paid a local accountant, Marie Kirchberger, to prepare our taxes. We pay in the hundreds of the dollars, but it's easily the best money we've ever spent. Every year around February, all we do is send her an envelope full of W-2s, 1099s, and other tax papers. By the end of March, she sends us an envelope containing completed federal and state tax forms. We don't even meet with her anymore, although we did those first few years. We correspond by phone and e-mail.

I used to feel that I had to do my own taxes. The first few tax seasons after college, I spent hours reading those big tax preparation guides. My eyes would always glaze over: standard deductions, alternative minimum tax, interest from savings versus investments. Figuring out these terms, and then figuring out the appropriate numbers for these terms always put me in an agitated state.

Jenn and I decided to get an accountant the first year after we moved into our house (1997). We didn't want to mess up our mortgage deductions. We went to Marie on a referral, and we've been with her ever since. And even though we've become more comfortable figuring out our own deductions, we're even more comfortable having her prepare the papers.

The crux of the matter is the the time value of money (or in this case, the money value of time). I guess I could buy tax preparation software, fire it up, enter the numbers, double check the figures, and then print out the forms (or file it electronically), but how many hours is that? How many moments will I have second-guessing myself? And isn't Project Greenlight on television tonight?

The amount of time I spent thinking about my taxes this year is about an hour. Certainly not more than an hour. Most of it was spent collecting stray tax papers (we get more organized about it every year) and tallying up checks we've made to charities.

On the eve of the nation's filing date, taxes are the furthest thing from my mind (except, of course, for this BLOG entry). Our forms were sent almost a month ago. I'm grateful for Marie, and that I can afford her fees. It's totally worth it. Thanks, Marie!

One Week Into My New Year

This day last week was my birthday. Thirty-seven. Thirty-seven!

Requiescat in Pace

Pope John Paul II has been referred to as a 'politician' in some of the broadcasts that I watched over the weekend. I disagree completely. The Pope is unlike any politician the world has ever known. Pope John Paul II has never wavered from the principles of his platform, a life-based platform that causes many American Catholics to treat Catholicism as a buffet: only take the parts you like.

I recognize in myself the way that I have casually treated my faith. When I started college, I drifted away from accepted church teachings. After a childhood of regular mass attendance, I attended church irregularly in college. I didn't see anything fundamentally wrong with birth control, premarital sex, a woman's right to choose, married priests, swearing, or same-sex marriage. I returned to regular mass attendance after getting married (1995) but since my church closed last Fall, my attendance has gone way down. I don't know whether my absence is more political protest or whether I was just "tired of the message."

The Pope of the Catholic Church since I was ten years old has never wavered from this message, the "Good News" of Jesus Christ, the message of life. His steadfastness comforted me. I reach for my faith because it is the only thing that I have ever known to "believe." I was raised a Catholic and I continue to declare myself a Catholic. I may be skeptical about my faith. I may be critical about my faith. I may be sullen about my faith. But I don't deny my faith.

This weekend begins a mourning period the world over. There are complex and well described rituals that must be followed in the coming days to handle the pope's funeral, the mourning, and, inevitably, the selection of a new pope. As a critical and curious Catholic, the rituals remind me of the man-made 'construction' of my faith. But the rituals will also allow me and the rest of the world to celebrate the life of a man who believed in Jesus Christ's message completely and utterly.

Happy Birthday, Mia!

Mia, my daughter, turned four today. All she knows is that there's lots of cake, presents and people saying Happy Birthday to her. She thinks Mom is 'five years old' and Dad is 'six'. She can say that she's not a baby, but she can still cry like one. Life with her has become 'routine', but when I let myself, I easily feel amazed that she is in my life.

Happy Birthday, Little Girl.

Counting Up the Words

I spent a few hours tinkering with TokeParser, a Perl module that parses HTML files. I wrote a small program to count every word in my old BLOG. Here are the top ten words:

     1  3400 the
    2  2518 I
    3  1848 to
    4  1806 a
    5  1430 of
    6  1349 and
    7  967 in
    8  802 was
    9  701 my
   10  699 that

So. I wrote 'the' 3400 times, and I wrote 'I' 2518 times.

I think I read somewhere that the most frequent word in any memoir or diary is "I". me appears in my list as the 30th word. I'll post the full list and program in a few days so that you too (with a little help from Perl) can count up the words in your web pages.

By the way, the grand total number of words from my old BLOG: 73404 (over 517 entries).

Bobby Short

Last month I was paying praise to the opening minutes of Woody Allen's Manhattan. Fast forward from 1979 to 1993, and Woody Allen again makes an impression on me with the movie Manhattan Murder Mystery.

Manhattan Murder Mystery's opening sequence features a New York in the evening, overhead shots capturing the brightness and vibrancy of the city below. We pan past familiar landmarks, guided by a distinctive voice performing "I Happen to Like New York" (a Cole Porter song). The shot ends with the viewer circling Madison Square Garden on a game night.

When I saw the movie with my wife many years ago, I was swept up by this song. The proud lyrics ("I like the city air, I like to drink of it") mesmerized me. It was everything I felt about New York City. I made a mental note to watch the credits. The name of the singer was easy to remember: Bobby Short.

I watched the movie a few other times, each time savoring the opening sequence. The performance isn't on a CD that I could find. I've since heard other performances of this song, but Mr. Short's is the one that I remember.

Bobby Short passed away today in New York. He was 80.

Napolean Dynamite

I watched Napolean Dynamite tonight. This is the first movie that I've watched in 2005. (The last movie I saw was Sideways on December 30, 2004.)

Uncle Rico in Napolean Dynamite asks "wouldn't it be great to go back in time, knowing what you know now?" Somehow, I don't think so. Of course, I've had failures and it would be great to go back to those moments and change what caused them. Of course, there are things I wish I could have done differently. I have regrets and I do get wistful. But dwelling on them to the point where going back in time becomes an obsession strikes me as insane.

In the movie, the lead character is constantly getting into absurd situations. He is socially inept and his lanky frame spotlights his awkwardness. But throughout the film, he's constantly wondering what he should do now.

We can't go back in time. The characters in the movie learn this (in a very comic way, I might add). The movie is a terrific reminder that living in the present is the best way to be living.

A New Look

Hey! Things look different! What's up? Why the change?

There are a few reasons.

1. I've been writing this BLOG for four years (since March 10, 2001). I've always toyed with the idea of changing the site design to something more stylish. Blogger has thoroughly modernized their templates since I last browsed their selection back in 2002. I wanted to use these newer templates. (This present style doesn't use any HTML tables!)

2. In April 2004, I decided to stop paying Tripod/Lycos, my former hosting site. With that decision came pop-up ads. I didn't mind the pop-ups, as I use Firefox to surf the Web (it blocks pop-ups). However, some have vocalized that the pop-ups were a surprise. I wanted to move to a pop-up-free host.

3. I like SDF, a public access UNIX host. Having my site here gives me the ability to interact with my BLOG's HTML pages in a programmatic manner and this excites me. (Yes, it does. For example, I can calculate my own word count and BLOG entry count, as well as test some simple HTML markup.)

OK. Back to your regular programming. Welcome to the new Rick's Ramblings. Same as the old Rick's Ramblings.

Part Two

Hello new BLOG. Same as the old BLOG.

The Big Break III

Tonight is The Big Break III, a reality television show on The Golf Channel. On the show, ten ladies compete in various golf-related contests. At the end of every show, one woman is eliminated, until two are left. These two then play a round of match play golf for the big prize, exemptions to select LPGA golf tournaments.

My favorite to win the whole thing, Jan Dowling, is still on the show. The discussion boards about the show are filled with posters making cases for each of the remaining women. As the series progresses, the stakes keep getting higher and higher. I'm not a regular fan of reality television, but I'm a fan of this particular show. Check it out!

Blogging About Children

Ayelet Waldman decided to end her BLOG. She appeared in a late January New York Times article about parents who BLOG about their children. When I finally visited her web page, I was surprised to read "The End."

In the article, she said: "Fundamentally children resent being placed at the heart of their parents' expression, and yet I still do it." Another parental blogger, Molly Jong-Fast, said "There comes that inevitable moment when parents who write about their children need to choose between their writing and their children's privacy and honor."

These words gave me pause. I used to write an online diary about my daughter Mia. And even though I've stopped, I still regularly post pictures of Mia. Now, after reading that article, I sometimes wonder if I should stop my picture site as well. I used to joke that I'd stop posting the pictures as soon as Mia herself asked me. The punchline was that this would happen around the time she was old enough to date.

So what I think I'll do is post fewer pictures for the upcoming year. And next year, when she goes to kindergarten, maybe I'll bow out from the picture site too.

Essential Software

My wife and I just bought a new computer from Dell. It took Jenn only minutes before she asked "Where's WinZip?" Here are the programs that I downloaded so that the new computer could be as helpful as the old one.

• WinZip
  
  How in the world is this not even installed with this new PC? My registration key for WinZip dates back to 1997!
  
  
• PuTTY
  
  I can't compute without a good terminal client. A terminal client allows me to access my UNIX machines, where I do nearly all of my professional and recreational computing. I have a registration for SecureCRT from VanDyke Software but PuTTY is free and quite fully-featured.
  
  
• Firefox
  
  What? Did you expect me to use Internet Explorer? Firefox is light and safe. It blocks pop ups. It has tabbed browsing. It has a whole bevy of cool plug-ins that make web programming much easier.
  
  
• TightVNC
  
  To access our old computer to migrate files off of it, I just plugged it into our router. Then from my new PC I ran the TightVNC client to access the TightVNC server running on my old PC. This software allowed us to run our old PC without a monitor!
  
  I am still impressed with this technology. When I learned about it a few years ago, I thought it was amazingly cool. Now, it's not only cool, it's useful too.
  

Rhapsody in Blue

George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was first performed on this day, February 12, 1924. I found my DVD of the Woody Allen movie Manhattan, and listened to this lovely piece of music.

I first heard Rhapsody in Blue when I was a kid. It was the signature music in those television commercials for United Airlines. When I saw Woody Allen's movie for the first time (on VHS), his use of this music to score the opening and the ending of his movie verges on sublime. The way he slowly pans through beautiful Manhattan using that clarinet "smear", and then rushes through the details of that big beautiful city with the full orchestra booming is for me one the most thrilling opening sequences in all of movies.

And Woody calls on it again at the end, Isaac and Tracy in an apartment lobby, a departure imminent. She needs to catch a plane. Full circle, don't you think?

Patriots Win Superbowl

Super Bowl XXXIX was a back-and-forth affair that had me frustrated and nervous all the way to the end. My muscles were taut from playacting the runs, fakes, tackles and throws. Every snap had me holding my breath. I paced and shadow boxed after every play. The New England Patriots were seven point favorites going into tonight's game: why couldn't they make it an easy one for the fans? I'll tell you why. The Philadelphia Eagles didn't want to be walked over. They wanted to climb the mountain, and knock off the reigning champions.

Fourth quarter. Philly controlled the ball and the clock, but they were down by ten. Down after down after first down after first down, and then they finally get a touch down, cutting the lead to three. With 1:48 left in the game, Pats needed to play mistake-free. They needed to keep the ball. They needed to eat up the clock. But it was three and out, and I was back to biting my fingernails.

The punt by Josh Miller was a master stroke, pinning the Eagles to their four yard line. Three futile throws by Donovan McNabb. And on his last throw, the Patriots' Rodney Harrison intercepted the ball with nine seconds remaining! Tom Brady takes the knee and it's over.

The Patriots are the Super Bowl champions again. Again! And Again! I've had the pleasure of blogging about their two previous Super Bowl victories on this BLOG. And you know what? Winning doesn't get boring!