The World is Ever More Complicated - Artificial Intelligence is Another Way for All of Us to be Further Confused

    The more things simplify the more complicated it gets.

Demonize with Dirty; We Allow Ourselves to Hate and Persecute

    Dirty [fill in the blank]. We have heard terms of hate spewed and exploited over the centuries.

    Dirty [racial epithet]. Dirty [religious minority]. Dirty [sexual reference]. 

    Can we fill in all the expletives and terms? No, not all. But we can imagine many.

    Who you deem dirty?

    I guess thugs, criminals, drug users.

    Certainly terrorists, which is implied in the label.

    Assassins and murderers are the ones that do killing in dirty ways. Illegal, wrong, dirty.

 Bill Walton! Amazing Life! We are Grateful, Yes

    No intention to make the pun about the Grateful Dead, but perhaps Bill himself would appreciate the humor. I had a college roommate, named Patrick, who was family friends with the Walton family in Del Mar, California. The Waltons are certainly a famous and successful, an admirable group of people. The parents of Bill were good and unique, did a great job. I saw a special about Bill's life a year or so ago.

    Bill was a good example of American and human victory and achievement. He was, as the news reports are now touting, "one of a kind". 

    He went to UCLA and triumphed there, with perhaps the best coach of all-time, John Wooden. That was the end of that era in the 1970s. Then he won with the Trailblazers in Portland, and eventually the Larry Bird-led Celtics.

    I write this as the Pacers lose the Eastern Conference Finals to the Celtics, jobbed by the so-called referees who could not make the flagrant foul call when TJ McConnell of the Pacers was clobbered in the face by Jaylen Brown. AWFUL, officials. You had the benefit of instant replay review? EGREGIOUS and DESPICABLE, for a game that is supposed to be regulated. Garbage. Anyway, sorry, I digress. 

    Bill Walton did some tremendous broadcasting as a sportscaster. He was funny, enlightening, off-the-wall, entertaining. You had to love the guy. I did. I appreciated his weirdness and his brilliance.

    His Conference of Champions Pac-12 is now on its last legs, ironically as he has succumbed to cancer.

    Rock on, Crazy Bill. We loved you; you were great in so many senses. You were part and parcel of the excellence of life and what we are as humans. Frail yet incredibly strong. Funny yet wise.

    Walton, a giant in stature, character, achievement, and energy.

    Oh, the cosmic karma is flowing hard, tonight my brother!

    Rock on; we will be eternally grateful in life and in death, and into all the universe.

    Shaka, bra. Gonna catch some waves in your name.

 Hemingway Did Amazing Work

    The stories, the language, the themes, the prose, the dialogs.

    He was a master, and he locked in young.

    Some of us cannot or have not done it the same way. Obviously, he is unique, we are all our own.

    But some of us want to try. Perhaps we can do this; we can write. We can think. We can express.

 Memorial Day Weekend 2024

    Thinking about 1864 today. The second to last year of the War between the States, known as the War of Northern Aggression, or the U.S. Civil War. What to think of it this many years later?

    It was hard, it was necessary. The Southern States could not abide by the fact that the North was going to fight the lifestyle of slavery so entrenched in the states that would become Confederate. The war was inevitable, it seems, and the thousands of lives lost were sad and unfortunate consequences of the differences that men and boys would fight to their ends for. A United States or a divided republic. Well over half a million soldiers died.

    In Clarke County today we visited the Battle of Cool Springs, where 140 souls from both sides met their final fates. The oldest for the north was a 52-year-old, father of three. The oldest Rebel was a 48-year-old, father of six. The youngest victim was a 15-year-old, trying to retreat across the river. He drowned, and his body was never found.

    We as a family hoped that he simply disappeared and never came back. Lots of terrible things happened to a lot of people in that conflict. Wars are rarely easy or full of hope and success.

    This war established the emancipation of four million African descended enslaved people. It was needed, it was right for the people to be freed.

    Many died to see it so.

    We remember their sacrifices; we can imagine the heartache and the sorrow. It was a minor moment in the overall war and campaigns. Forgotten by most. Not these people, not today, not this weekend.

   We remember the lost soldiers and the families that they left behind.

    We as citizens and patriots remember and venerate the fallen heroes, and the ones who lost them. Families, friends, compatriots, comrades.

    We will not forget them.

    We thank them for their ultimate sacrifice; for most of us it was not in vain.

    Honored to see the place where 140 of you gave your lives. Sometimes I believe many of us do not value or try to give enough understanding what it means, what it meant, why we are blessed because of these past tragedies and events.

    We definitively need to learn from the past, appreciate the past, and learn to improve in the present and future.

    And always remember: freedom has never been free. There always is a cost paid by someone.

Home Run Greatness and Approaching Lifetime Greatness

    Since Babe Ruth and a generation later Hank Aaron, the top home run hitters have been some of the heroes of our time. How do they strike us? Barry Bonds, known for cheating; Albert Pujols did not, right? Alex Rodriguez did, a bit... Those are the top five all time.

    The major leagues currently have three players in the top 100 home run hitters all time. Two are playing in their prime of age, more or less, while one may be done and might not sniff any more big-league playing time. He is 40 years old and trying to make it back.

Giancarlo Stanton is 34; playing for a pretty good Yankees team. He should likely make top 40 this season, as long he stays healthy. He could make the 600s in the next few seasons, if things go right.

Trout is hurt once again, missing out on valuable playing time. He is two years younger than Stanton, Mike has had more plate appearances. Both have had significant injuries over the years.

54.

Giancarlo Stanton (15, 34)

415

6624

R

HR Log

76.

Mike Trout (14, 32)

378

6647

R

HR Log

91.

Joey Votto (17, 40)

356

8746

L

HR Log

Who is next? We have guys in the top two hundred all-time, to include a young Harper and Machado. Aaron Judge is right behind them, at the same age.

101.	José Bautista (15)	344	7244	R	HR Log
	Paul Goldschmidt (14, 36)	344	7851	R	HR Log
	Curtis Granderson (16)	344	8306	L	HR Log

118.	Nolan Arenado (12, 33)	328	6652	R	HR Log
	Shawn Green (15)	328	7963	L	HR Log
	Mo Vaughn (12)	328	6410	L	HR Log

121.

Freddie Freeman (15, 34)

326

8335

L

HR Log

130.	Jay Bruce (14)	319	6642	L	HR Log
	Cecil Fielder (13)	319	5939	R	HR Log
	Prince Fielder (12)	319	6853	L	HR Log
	Bryce Harper (13, 31)	319	6665	L	HR Log
134.	Manny Machado (13, 31)	318	7085	R	HR Log
	J.D. Martinez (14, 36)	318	6471	R	HR Log
	Roy Sievers (17)	318	7349	R	HR Log

147.

Carlos Santana (15, 38)

308

8370

B

HR Log

151.	Fred Lynn (17)	306	7923	L	HR Log
	Andrew McCutchen (16, 37)	306	8821	R	HR Log
	Richie Sexson (12)	306	5604	R	HR Log
	Rubén Sierra (20)	306	8782	B	HR Log

159.

Anthony Rizzo (14, 34)

302

7182

L

HR Log

202.	Dante Bichette (14)	274	6856	R	HR Log
	Aaron Judge (9, 32)	274	3860	R	HR Log

Goldschmidt is struggling so far this year at age 36. Could he play another four years? His body of work would suggest so, but some guys hit a wall at certain ages. Dale Murphy did. He stopped at 398 and could not reach 400. He said he felt he was done. He was age 37.

    J.D. Martinez, Santana, and McCutcheon are all in their late thirties. Rizzo is there with Freeman.

    Perhaps of all the guys on this current board, Aaron Judge might have the biggest ceiling to fill. He is 32, and has so much power...

    We shall see who adds the most this year, 2024. Judge has 17 so far, and Harper is doing better than normal but, but it is hard to stay up with Judge.

    These are the men who will look to push the top records in the next ten years. We shall see what 2024 will bring.

 Obsession versus Compulsion

    Sometimes they are fused, we know. Or we think that we know.

    What is the difference between them?

    One might be internally driven, but perhaps they are both in the brain.

    Then again, there are external physical factors than can compel us.

 Decades with Mom

    My first ten years

    You fed me, changed my sheets

    Not always easy, cleaning messes, wiping

    You organized my disorders, and tidied

    My world, my room, my toys and collections

    Like any mother, you loved me and let me roam

    

    Took me swimming, traveling, Cub Scouting

    Trips and beaches and family, friends

    Garage and yard sales

    Visiting teaching with elderly sisters

    Holidays and movies, rides and vacations

    My next ten years

    I grew from small and fast

    To big and slower

    Stronger, at times sick

    My mom watched me grow

    Change, move, learn

    

    She fed me regularly

    Home cooked meals 

    or food on the town

    Down back streets or alleys

    We went to the temple

    Church

    Watched shows in the home

    My third decade

    I was married

    My mom could visit

    But me to her, with

    Wife and children

    Was more common

    More meals 

    At holidays

    Holding grandbabies

    

    Going away

    As missionaries

    Example

    of service

    Acquiring jewelry 

    and selling wares

    Befriending folks

    of all classes

    My fourth decade

    Life brought work

    But pleasure to visit

    Still-- my mom, always 

    Pending, present, curious

    Sharing of life, family, food

    I talked from

    Afar, the 

    Diagnosis came 

    One more year

    and change

    into my fourth decade

    She survived 

    CANCER 

    when I was ten; this

    time it could 

    

    not relent

    So now it has

    been a decade, since

    Mom moved on

    

    A decade here without her

    Perhaps more decades to go

    Who is say when we will

    come and leaave?

    Come and go.

    Return to breathe 

    OR exhaust our last breath

    The decades are counted 

    Backwards and forth

    

    We look to God

    And live

    We receive from 

    Mother and grow

    I look 

    AROUND

    AND see

    Mother 

    and me

    Always 

    together

    Always 

    Eternal

    Always

    Forever

    Alive