Cursed To First - Sox and Pats forever.

Class A Photos

Sundown
Originally uploaded by ConfessionalPoet.

Photos from my trip to see the Lowell Spinners play the Staten Island Yankees in the final game of their season last night are here.

Philosophy

I am struggling to come up with anything whatsoever to say about the Red Sox right now. It's sad--I should be able to talk about them just as well when they're losing as when they're winning most of their games--but I just don't know what to write right now. In the name of appreciating the little things, I did find it heartwarming to hear the story of Carlos Pena--he even had a big grin on his face in the middle of the game the other night, while taking a lead off first base.

Edw. sent me in the direction yesterday of Troy Aikman's remarks when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, saying I'd appreciate the way they were written (he was right). What stuck out to me the most was the quote:

In closing, I'd like to share something that a close friend used to tell me back when I was playing. He'd say this when times were tough, maybe we'd lost a close game, I'd thrown the deciding interception or the grind and the rigors of the season were beginning to take their toll on me. What Norv Turner would say was this:

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that these are the jobs we've always dreamed of having. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that these are the jobs we've always dreamed of having.

But anyway. Since I don't have much more substantial than that to offer today, I thought I'd officially cop out with an open thread. And my open thread question, asked for many reasons but some of them having to do with the Red Sox of late, is: Do you believe in fate? That everything happens for a reason? Or is it all just random molecules crashing together?

Discuss.

Photos Up

Scene
Originally uploaded by ConfessionalPoet.

Set from Tuesday night's game starts here.

Game Photos

Mike Lowell's Grand Slam
Originally uploaded by ConfessionalPoet.

Flickr photoset located here.

A great birthday present

P1010025
Originally uploaded by ConfessionalPoet.

...from my parents, who SOMEHOW managed to figure out from MONTHS of reminders that I'd probably rather like a Papelbon away jersey. I don't know why I wanted it to be a road jersey, but I did. Anyway, I'm a spoilt brat so I got it.

Hey guess what! Another sports blog plagiarizer!

This brainless wonder appears to have stolen most of his content from Deadspin, which takes some SERIOUS balls, since Deadspin is owned by Gawker media and gets so many hits per day its servers sometimes crash.

I guess the guy figures they won't miss a few of them, or a few of the bucks he's making off THEIR content via his advertisers (and as for those advertisers...my disgust leaves me speechless).

Check out his astonishing email exchange with an MVN blogger, in which he justifies ripping off Deadspin because they "voluntarily" put out an RSS feed of their content--and all he's doing is "syndicating" them. He even ripped off a post about how his blog is "filthy and stealing".

What a douchebag. I hope he gets sued.

Plagiarists suck

UPDATE: As of 9:45 am EST on 4/17, the site has been taken down. The message where the site used to be says it's been removed by its owner--not sure whether that means the actual coward involved belatedly did the right thing or if Xanga did it for her, but really, who cares. Now I just have to hope she isn't idiotic enough to start up again under a new name. To guard against that possibility (and the possibility of anyone else plagiarizing me) I will be Googling my own posts weekly from now on.  I am not kidding about this--I take my writing seriously, and I take something like this personally. If you are doing something like this yourself, be smart and delete the posts, because as this shows, we will find you. *I* will find you. And you'll meet with embarrassing social and legal ramifications--that is a promise.

The "blogger" in question here never did get up the guts to respond to my messages to her--I only wish I could get in touch with her face to face. I've got plenty to say...So if she's out there reading this: I hope you seriously think about what you've done. I hope any real life friends you have learned what a fake you are from this. I hope you're impacted by this far more than I have been. I want you to be punished, quite frankly. If there were a way to ban you personally from the Internet for life, I would see that it was done.

______________________________________

Original post, preserved for posterity:

Alert reader Julia brought this crap to my attention.

I wonder, what's the point of having a blog if you can't even write your own original content for it? And why would you not even bother to change the dates? Every post she's stolen from me is dated either on or after the date it appears on this blog. Why would you think you wouldn't get caught?

Oh well. I guess if you're stupid enough to steal someone else's content for your blog, you're stupid enough not to do it right. Which I guess is our saving grace here.

Anyway, I post this not just because I think she deserves to be publicly embarrassed, but because not all of the posts there are mine (just most of them).

For the record, here's the evidence.

This blog, March 22.
Her blog, March 23.

This blog, February 27.
Her blog, February 28.

This blog, Jan. 31.
Her blog, Feb. 2.

This blog, Jan. 28.
Her blog, Jan. 29.

This blog, Jan. 12, 13 and 14.
Her blog, Jan. 14.

This blog, Dec. 22.
Her blog, Dec. 23.

This blog, Dec. 19.
Her blog, Dec. 19.

This blog, Dec. 14.
Her blog, Dec. 16.

My blog, Nov. 29.
Her blog, Nov. 30.

My blog, Nov. 28.
Her blog, Nov. 28.

My blog, Oct. 27.
Her blog, Nov. freakin' first.

Of all things, Chicks Talk football, Sept. 27.
Her blog, Oct. 3.

Chicks Talk Football, Sept. 21.
Her blog, almost a week later.

My blog, Sept. 8.
Her blog, Sept. 8.

My blog (joint post with Kristen) August 13.
Her blog, Aug. 17.

Stolen from Kristen:

Kristen's blog, Feb. 6.
Her blog, Feb. 6.

Kristen's blog, Feb. 5.
Her blog, Feb. 5.

Kristen's blog, Jan. 22.
Her blog, Jan. 25.

Kristen's blog, Jan. 15.
Her blog, Jan 15.

Kristen's blog, Jan. 11.
Her blog, Jan. 11.

Kristen's blog, Jan. 8.
Her blog, Jan. 9.

Stolen from Surviving Grady:

Their post, Feb. 27.
Her post, Feb. 27.

Their post, Feb. 11.
Her post, Feb. 11.

Their post, Feb. 7.
Her post, Feb. 7.

And finally, this one was kind of a combo plagiarism of their post and one of mine, actually a trifecta of sorts with a link back to another ripped-off post and a reference to "my Imaginary Baseball World". That's some balls there, huh?

It's not just that she stole more than a dozen posts from me and about a half dozen from Kristen and some more from SG and Jere (and a couple from Amy's now-deleted blog). It's that these are the only posts on her site. I'd venture to guess she has no original content over there whatsoever.

I have to admit, I don't get it.

But one thing is clear: this blog is protected under a Creative Commons License. If you scroll down on the right-hand sidebar, you'll see it. I have reported her to Xanga (as have Kristen and Mer) and am in the process of reporting her to her ISP. This has been picked up by Universal Hub, now, also--the word is spreading.

Go ahead and plagiarize THIS post, bitch.

Unrepentant photo ho

I am rapidly becoming a photo geek. Just tonight I was at Circuit City cautiously, yet lovingly brushing my fingertips over an Olympus SLR with some ridiculous amount of zoom that retailed for a cool $1199. I'm feeling the itch for a truly exorbitant camera now, and nowhere do I feel my current equipment is inadequate more than at the ballpark.

It's strange--I've always loved looking at photos, and now I'm getting into taking them more and more, but I'm also starting to feel a deep competitive drive when it comes to photography--great photos by others are things I admire, but they also make me seethe with jealousy and itch for that top of the line camera that much more. I find myself wanting to keep up, wanting to get to that level, more so than I probably feel about any other activity currently in my life.

I feel especially inadequate now that I've seen Sam's latest photos from the Michigan / Ohio State baseball game. Unbelievable stuff. Go have a look if you're a photo geek like me, or if you just want to see some photos that capture some of the elemental beauties of baseball.

My Kingdom for a Telephoto Lens

My photos from this week, such as they are with only 8x optical zoom, are here.

TGIF

Well, folks, I'm off on one of my fantastic adventures. Much as this sucks, I am going to miss Opening Day, and no, there was no way I could get out of it. I will make every effort I can to post, but can't make any promises. I will, however, have some souvenirs to share when I get back.

I tried to get you a babysitter, but that fell through, so I had to call in a favor with Mr. Varitek. Mr. Varitek will be monitoring your activities while I am gone, so no funny stuff. Got it? While I'm gone, Mr. Varitek is the boss.

You in the back. Don't think Mr. Varitek doesn't see you.