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Chatwood should be the current closer for the @Cubs until Kimbrel gets back. He clearly has the best arm in the pen.
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Go Cubs Go
The Chicago Cubs have one of the best home records and one of the worst road records, and they have the best run differential in their division. People seem to be scratching their head over how the same team can be so good at home and so bad on the road. The problem is not the hitting, although they could be more consistent. To me the problem is the bullpen, they are giving up too many runs in the 6 thru 9th innings. Nobody in the pen is reliable.
Twenty years ago the bullpen wasn’t so important because starting pitchers pitched more innings and more often completed games. Now, starting pitchers are only expected to pitch six innings and that means you got have more pitching than ever before.
The Cubs overall pitching staff is not good enough. You might see an uptick in performance if they make the playoffs because the starters tend to go longer and you tend to narrow the pen down to a handful of pitchers, but I don’t expect the Cubs to get beyond be first round if they do make the playoffs.
I don’t know what specific things the Cubs need to do for next year. I don’t think the problem is with the managing or coaching, it seems to point to the talent in pitching. Lester and Hamel will be a year older and there doesn’t appear to be any replacements coming from the minors. The window on the talent the Cubs do have is getting smaller and it will be a shame if they only make it to one World Series.
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At the bottom of this page are links to pages that describe all of the new items introduced in each of the Android Q betas. After a few days of use, I am can say that I like the gesture navigation, particularly the back navigation. My one wish is that they added a swipe down gesture that works within the middle of the screen, because swiping down from the very top is the one gesture that for me requires two hands.
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We appear to be within a few weeks of Google flipping the bit on Android Q that turns it in to Android 10, so I have installed Q on my Pixel 2. Enabled dark mode and navigation gestures. So far do not see any problems.
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On Our Twenty Third Wedding Anniversary
Each year we try to celebrate our wedding anniversary on vacation to spend time together. This year we traveled to Marquette, Michigan, stayed at the Landmark Inn, took a tour of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Munising, and then on our way back spent an evening at Headlands International Dark Sky Park near Mackinaw City.
Here are pictures that we took during the trip:
I defintely recommend all three venues. Pictured Rocks might be the closest thing I’ve seen to the Grand Canyon east of the Mississippi. The Dark Sky Park is a great place for star gazing, just be sure the moon isn’t too bright and you have clear skies.
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This happened at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore two days after our tour. You will see several kayaks along the water, there were 20 in total with none of them injured. Here is a news report of the event.
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One of the many pictures I took at Pictured Rocks. I can’t get over the color of the Lake Superior water and of the rocks.
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Without Google Night Sight
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About last night
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Art by @LakeSuperior
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On the road again
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During Presidential elections we hear a lot about the plans the candidates have for what they will do if elected. We want the candidates to have plans and we need to hear what they are, but we also tend to obsess over them a bit too much because for the most part they don’t have direct control over their implementation.
A President needs to get Congress to pass legislation to implement his or her plans. Consequently we gauge their potential success of whether the President’s party has a majority in the House and Senate. Reality is that this rarely happens, and even so there may be members of the President’s own party who don’t agree, therefore what we need to evaluate is how persuasive a candidate is and whether they can lead compromise.
Unfortunately, we really tend to think of our candidates as dictators and that has manifested in Donald Trump. The founders did not intend Presidents to have such power, the representative republic they established vested Congress with job of governing by representing the citizens (House) and the states (Senate). In fact, through the electoral college, the Congress was intended to ultimately decide who is President.
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Set them free from being white.
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. - Galations 3:23-28
Too radical? Perhaps so for religions and countries birthed by Anglo-Saxons. If you call yourself a Christian, how do you imagine the Kingdom of God that Jesus constantly talked about looks like? Being one in Christ does NOT mean we are all the same like #AllLivesMatter. Being one in Christ means we see Christ in everyone and everything through our different skin colors, nationalities, and genders.
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compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (such as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal
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A year ago today Android 9 (Pie) was released. I assume that Android 10 (Q) cannot be far away. I am surprised by how little information I’ve seen about Android Q.
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Take a moment today to contemplate that you are, we all are, human beings. Like me, you probably think of yourself as human and overlooking the “being” part, but it is equally important and true.
Ego-generated emotions are derived from the mind’s identification with external factors which are, of course, all unstable and liable to change at any moment. The deeper emotions are not really emotions at all but states of Being. Emotions exist within the realm of opposites. States of Being can be obscured, but they have no opposite. - Eckhart Tolle
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The party of Reagan has gone from the Brady bill to total paralysis. It’s the party of “no” and completely void of leadership. So afraid of change that might lead to unintended consequences that it rather do nothing. You can keep wishing you were living in the 1950s or you could open your eyes and start living in the now.
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Saw another set of ducklings on my walk last night.
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Said last year: True originalists understand that the founders did not build a Presidency, they built a Congress. The problem is that for the last 100 years Congress has been about building a Presidency.
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Many fans were wondering if the Cubs were going to make a big splash at the trade deadline–and did they ever. The Cubs have done the unthinkable and acquired the best player in baseball but at a steep cost: Wrigley Field.
Source: Cubs acquire Mike Trout for entirety of Wrigley Field and a player to be named later – The Heckler
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Oscar Mayer hot dog ice cream sandwich is both real and terrifying - CNET Amanda Kooser,
Candied hot dog bits + hot dog sweet cream + spicy Dijon gelato + cookie bun. Is this heaven or hell?
Hell
Source: Oscar Mayer hot dog ice cream sandwich is both real and terrifying - CNET
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You don’t suppose that doing nothing to address the data security issues we learned from the 2016 election is a backup plan if Trump loses in 2020? Can you believe that if he lost Trump wouldn’t try to declare the election was rigged and use as evidence the Mueller report?
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Yellow mustard flavored ice cream. No thank you!
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FTC says to not expect that $125 from the Equifax settlement. Only $31m was set aside so, the more asking for a piece the smaller the size. What did they expect? The credit monitoring thing is just a way for Equifax to profit off the event, so that shouldn’t be an option. Besides, with so many breaches already taking place I already have several forms of monitoring in place.
Perhaps the fine should have been larger… you know, a real penalty.
Oh, and dear FTC… let’s do something real like replacing Social Security Numbers with something more secure.
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WALTR 2 looks useful if you need to directly share files between a computer, particularly Windows, and an iOS device. I store files on iCloud so that helps sharing between iOS and MacOS devices.
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