Month: May 2008

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Red Hot Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays have been on some streak here. In their past 9 games (6-3) they have only allowed12 runs in that stretch – that is a 1.33 ERA. They have won their past 5 even though this streak started off pretty badly. Here is the 9 game stretch:

4/26 – Royals – Loss – 1-2
4/27 – Royals – Won – 5-2
4/29 – Red Sox – Loss – 0-1
4/30 – Red Sox – Loss – 1-2
5/1 – Red Sox – Win – 3-0
5/2 – White Sox – Win – 2-0
5/3 – White Sox – Win – 5-2
5/4 – White Sox – Win – 4-3
5/5 – White Sox – Win – 1-0

In that stretch, take a look at the Jays starting pitching staff going 7-1 in the 9 games:

Roy Halladay (1-1): 16 IP and 1.13 ERA
Dustin McGowan (2-0): 14.2 IP and 0.63 ERA
AJ Burnett (1-0): 7.2 IP and 0 ERA
Shaun Marcum (1-1): 12.2 IP and 1.48 ERA
Jesse Litsch (2-0): 14.1 IP and 1.91

As if the starting pitching wasn’t impressive enough the bullpen has been even better. They have pitched 13.0 innings in the 9 game stretch allowing only ONE (1) earned run. In that stretch they have lost 1 game while picking up 6 saves. You can do that math (or I can do it for you) that is a 0.69 ERA.

Let’s keep all this in perspective. Yes the Jays have won 5 straight but they are still 16-17, 4 games back of Boston Red Sox and 1 of the Yankees. It is still only the 5th of May and playoffs start in October. There is a long ways to go but certainly if the pitching can keep things rolling (certainly you won’t expect a staff to keep a 1.3 ERA although that would be amazing), the Jays offense really needs to start clicking. They can’t afford to lose games 2-1 and 1-0 in the AL East. They Jays are currently 4-8 in one run games and 1-2 in extra innings which will need to improve if they Jays want to contend down the stretch.

Speaking of pitching and the AL East, it was nice to see Darrell Rasner who got roughed up in the first inning to settle down and shut out the Marines the rest of the way. He can provide the Yankee staff quite the boost if he can provide quality starts every now and then with Wang and Moose clicking. Also, keep an eye out for an absolute pitching dandy on Wednesday when Chien-Ming Wang (6.0 – 3.00 ERA) of the Yankees goes up against Cliff Lee (5.0 – 0.96 ERA) of the Indians. That is going to be just a great game.

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Touching Them All

I mentioned in an earlier post about the great sportsmanship by two girls playing Division II Softball who carried their opponent around the bases for her first and only home run in her career because she blew out her knee. The game was between Western Oregon and Central Washington and the girls involved are Sara Tucholsky along with Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman and second baseman Liz Wallace. Holtman is the career home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference where the two colleges compete.

Well here is the only known footage that exists of that game in a short segment put together by ESPN.

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Angry Brown… Horse? and Hal on Fox News

So yesterday was the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby and Big Brown just ran away from the field. I was around some Reading, Pennsylvania and totally missed the running but caught the race later. It was sad to hear when filly Eight Belles followed a sensational effort of her own to finish second by fracturing both ankles, falling to the track and being euthanized on the spot.

It’s certainly the fastest two minutes or so in sports and for those of you who did not get a chance to see it, i have attached it below. I know some people who say this is an awful sport and its understandable that they say it cause like me probably the only horse races they watch are the 3 major ones and certainly the news of Barbaro is still probably fresh in their minds. However, this seems like a really beautiful sport and honestly if I was bogged down in so many other things, I would probably watch more races.

In other news, Stevens Institute of Technology President Hal Raveche was on Fox News on the first of the month to talk about the struggling economy and what the foreign markets think of the falling dollar. He had interesting points which were countered by a professor from NYU and a couple of people from Fox News. He talks about innovation, preparing the students in his university for the world out there (coincidentally the arson incident is taking place about a week before when supposedly he was overseas.)

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Donate 12 Angry Men For A Good Cause

Edit (06/30/08): Greetings to all those visitors coming from MyFamily.com. It’s a pleasure to have a whole bunch of visitors being referred from there and if one of you want to leave a comment regarding what the reference between my blog post here and something on MyFamily.com is, I would greatly appreciate it.

Original Post (05/02/08): Usually following each semester, I place my books up on Amazon and I did just that this semester and I have sold about half of my stuff but this recent one caught my eye. This semester I had taken a class called Political Science II in which we read a book that almost everyone knows or has heard of before called “12 Angry Men“. When I put this book up for a sale, a High School teacher from Portola, California reached out saying her public school did not have the funding to purchase textbooks so it was up to the teachers to get the materials. She asked how many copies of this book I had available and if I would be willing to send them her way at a discount rate or even donate the book(s).

Personally, I have no problem donating my copy even though that is the only one I have. I sent my professor an email earlier today to see if he could ask the rest of our class if anyone else that book lying around, collecting dust with no purpose to send it my way and I would donate those as well. Certainly those of you who are reading this and if you have a copy of 12 Angry Men (see below for book specifications) and want to donate, please let me know. Also, I have added a Donate button via PayPal on the right side bar and all funds collected in the span that these books go out, will help subsidize the cost of the books and shipping.

I have also enclosed the email that i received earlier today.

Hi, I’m a high school English teacher at Portola High School in Portola, CA, and we will be reading/performing the play “12 Angry Men” this quarter. My school has no funds for purchasing any classroom materials, so it is up to me personally to purchase any materials I need in my classroom. I’m writing today to ask if you would be willing to give a discount (or donate!!!) for “12 Angry Men” for as many copies as you have available. I have 60 sophomores, but no more than 20 in a class, so I really only need a total of 20 copies. Can you let me know how many new and used copies you have and how much you’d be willing to sell them for? Thank you so much for your consideration.

Detailed Information:

  • Title: 12 Angry Men
  • Paperback: 96 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (August 29, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0143104403
  • ISBN-13: 978-0143104407

I have always been a fan of public education and since I was quite fortunate to have fantastic teachers in the 5 different public schools that I went to during my childhood, I am always willing to lend them a hand in anyway I can. I’m assuming the English teacher who contacted me wouldn’t mind so if anyone wants to donate the book directly, you can sent to the following address:

Viki Spain
Portola High School
155 Sixth Ave.
Portola, California 96122-9543

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Linguist Recruitment

So I received a partially handwritten letter from a Recruiting Specialist from Aegis (Mission Essential Personnel) who are a Federal Sub-Contractor for the US Military and “looking for individuals who are fluent in both Pashto and Dari to provide translation support to the US military in Afghanistan.” They are offering a starting package of $210,000 with benefits I was interested in “bridging critical communication gaps, as well as providing a tremendous service” to the armed forces. In addition, they are offering $2,000 for any individual I can refer to them from my contacts in the “Afghan-American” community.

You always hear about these things from the news or something online but rarely get something in the mail regarding. Now I don’t know a single word of Pashto or Dari so the decision for me is quite easy but I wonder how successful their recruiting efforts are especially in today’s waning economic days. They offer quite a salary with complete benefits… could be very enticing.

First thing I thought of when I read the name Aegis was the XBox Live arcade game called “Aegis Wings” that I played a lot with my buddies Joe and Chad but turns out that these guys have one of the bigger contracts in Iraq, nevermind Afghanistan. Except for that quote below, I can’t say I know much else about this company but I’ll be sure to keep an interest in them.

Aegis, one of the biggest security companies operating in Iraq. The company was recently awarded a £220 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government. Aegis conducts a number of security duties and helped with the collection of ballot papers in the country’s recent referendum. – Source

I have also included the contents of the entire letter below if anyone is interested in reading it.

LOOKING FOR PASHTO/DARI LINGUISTS

Hello,

My name is xxxxx xxxxxx and I work for a company called Aegis MEP. We are a Federal Sub-Contractor for the U.S. military and are searching for individuals who are fluent in both Pashto and Dari to provide translation support to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. This is an excellent opportunity for helping reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan by bridging critical communication gaps, as well as providing a tremendous service to our armed forces.

I wanted to inquire to see if you would be interested in working on a referral basis for any contacts that you have in the Afghan-American community that are interested in this opportunity. I can offer you $2,000 per individual that is hired. We offer a very competitive compensation package with pay starting at $210,000 per year with medical, dental and insurance benefits. We feel our employees are the focal point of continued success.

Please let me know if you are interested, and I can offer you more details regarding the position.