Mark Freedman’s Blog

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Yes, what he did was inexcusable, and you may not think much of him as a person, but as a baseball player there are few who played the game harder and with more enthusiasm than Pete Rose.

I had the privilege of meeting him (read: buying his autograph) last weekend in Las Vegas. I’ve never done that before, much less cared about ever getting autographs, but I also never had the opportunity to meet someone of Pete Rose’s stature before. I was at a couple of his career highlight games, so that added to the aura. Of course, when you’re a Mets fan, and attend dozens of games each year in the late 1970s, you get a larger opportunity to see the opposition reach career milestones against your team. I was there when he tied Tommy Holmes’s National League hitting streak record of 37 games on his way to his 44 game streak in 1978. I was also there when he hit three homers in a game.

My father worked for a time in Vegas, and actually met Pete Rose about a dozen times. He doesn’t think much of him at all, and considers him surly. Maybe because it was the end of his day of signing and posing and he was more relaxed, but he was quite nice and jovial with me as we discussed where I lived and my wife’s camera, and we had a few laughs.

Pete always loved and appreciated the game he played. I’ll always remember his positive comments about being part of one of the greatest games in history, although his Reds lost that game 6 to the Red Sox in the 1975 World Series.

As a man, perhaps he doesn’t deserve entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but as a player, he certainly does.

I haven’t posted for a while, partly because I was a bit troubled about the variety of unrelated topics I had under a single blog, and wanted to be ready to commit to splitting them under separate blogs before posting again.

Over the next several weeks, I plan on splitting this into three separate blogs. This one will remain as a personal blog, where I’ll post general observations about life, and articles about personal growth.

I will have a separate blog under CoolTechU.com, which will contain technical articles about .NET and other related topics.

I will also have a separate blog under U2BloodRedSky.com, which will contain articles about U2 live recordings and collecting, and music topics in general.

I’ll post next, when this is complete.

I am constantly amazed why e-mail hoaxes still work, even to this day. Haven’t we been warned for several years now to look for the obvious signs of an Internet hoax? Haven’t we’ve been informed of sites like www.snopes.com and www.hoax-slayer.com? Then why, oh why do people continue to pass around such garbage?

Human nature. People get excited or intrigued by an interesting e-mail, and due to what — the gossip gene? — they send it out to all their friends, aquaintances, and even strangers in their address book to share this exciting news. Seriously, it is understandable, being a human being myself (or so they say).

But, please, people — please check these sites BEFORE sending it out to the world. And look for the tell tale signs of a hoax — large letters, some text in color, and outrageous statements, such as — “This won’t happen again in our lifetimes!”, or “Send this to all of your friends and family!”. Those are glaring hints that this is a hoax.

I never trust anything sent to me with a long list of recipients (another thing — please do NOT include every recipient of your “spam” in the “To” or “CC” fields. Sent it only to yourself, and place all other addresses in the “BCC” field so that you aren’t giving out everyone’s e-mail address to everyone else). I have learned to never trust any such messages, and always check these sites (and do a newsgroup search) before passing any such e-mails around. Even then, I often play it safe and don’t send these e-mails around.

Like you care…

Well, I do, so here goes…

I’m a pretty successful Software Architect.

I’m a good father to a wonderful, smart, beautiful daughter.

I’m a good husband to a wonderful, smart, beautiful artist.

I’m a bad guitar player (but definitely getting better).

I’ve been very happily married for over 20 years, and we’re still on our honeymoon.

I’m completely open-minded, yet conservative.

I’m a huge music lover. Some people think I’d win at Rock & Roll Jeopardy. That tells me that I know way too much trivia.

I’m the world’s biggest U2 fan. Along with all the others.

I’m a huge baseball fan.

I judge people WAY too much.

I judge myself more than anyone.

I’m WAY too opinionated.

Too bleeping bad.

I’m happy.

I’m VERY moody.

I have a bad temper.

I have a lot of patience.

I’m very quiet.

I talk WAY too much.

I am SO DAMN annoying.

I love people.

I hate people.

I do NOT want the spotlight on me.

Look at me.

Like most of us, I’m a paradox.

Deal.

I am talking to myself. Welcome to my world…

I decided a long time ago that I would not have a blog until I had something to say. I still have nothing to say…

Except to myself.

You see, this blog is for me. I do have a hell of a lot to say. I just don’t know if you will find any of it interesting. I’m sure there may be some stuff I spout out that you’ll find interesting, but this blog is still mainly for me.

I have read and heard over and over how keeping a journal will help me reach my goals. So this is it. This is that journal. To myself. If you want to eavesdrop, be my guest. No apologies. If you decide to read, don’t complain to me.

This is for me.

Of course, it makes it more fun, and maybe therapeutic if you read my blog. But, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I can be funny. But usually that comes through in conversation. I’m not sure if it will come through in my writing. So if you get bored, tough luck. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I’m in my early 40s. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve lived maybe 1/4 of my life. Yeah, I expect to live well beyond 150. I feel that I’ve accomplished maybe 1/4 of all I will accomplish in my lifetime. Don’t take this the wrong way — actually, I don’t really care if you take this the wrong way — but I strongly feel that I will help change the world for the better. How, I’m not sure just yet. I do have an inkling of an idea, but exactly how it will manifest itself remains to be seen.

I see this blog as one of my tools to get myself to the next level. No, I do not believe that this blog will make me "famous", or anything. But I DO think it will help me organize my thoughts and feelings, and give me a kick in the ass.

I’ve said enough for one post. I just want to end this post by saying, I do NOT think that I’m more special than anyone else — I think EVERYONE is incredibly special, and we can all change the world for the better. It’s just that very few people actually really try.

I intend to try.