I am now a Detroit Tigers fan. Every year, there are two sporting events I try hard not to care too much about. The first would be the basketball matchups between Carolina and Duke. No matter how rational, calm, and collected I pretend to be, I will be yelling obscenities at my TV within 2 minutes of tipoff. The other is the Yankees in the playoffs. I don't just hate the Yankees in some innoccuous "oh, it's just sports" sort of way. I actually hate the entire organization, from top to bottom. Though I am on record as a person who respects Derek Jeter, I have yet to wish a good thing upon him. I dream of a baseball world in which the Yankees do not exist, or at least one in which they are mediocre for 9 straight years, only to have more steroid accusations pointed at them than any other team. Every modicum of success that the Yankees enjoy is an affront to the idea of competitive sports.

Just booked a campsite at Yosemite for next weekend- they'll even let us build campfires. That will certainly be a nice getaway from the world of papers, people who are way too anxious about papers, and my thesis research. Also, apparently a strange thing is happening up there. The leaves are said to change colors, and the air becomes crisp, and cooler than it has been for the last few months. I think they call it "autumn." I'll not complain about Bay Area weather in its sunny, temperant constancy, but I will be happy to experience fall.

The new version of iTunes supports gapless playback. As a fan of noodly hippy music, this makes the segues in the long jams I love so much seamless again. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

If you get an email from my brother, do not open it. It may be pterodactyl porn.