Welcome to idiotville. I was planning on fasting today to prep for tomorrow’s colonoscopy. Great idea except that the appointment is for Thursday. I never got my call telling me how to prep. I called today and found out that I need someone to take me home from the procedure. I’m now scrambling to find someone. I just did. I was anxious before I started asking. I’m more anxious now. Now about the procedure, I find that interesting, about the asking for the ride. I still feel the tightness in my chest. Good thing I have good friends.
I was good and prepared the gallon of polyethylene glycol I have to drink tomorrow and put it in the fridge. It’s more palatable when cold. It’s not very palatable then. I’ll write about the prep tomorrow. Today I can write about what I did last night.
Last night I went to the Knick game with Alan. They were playing the Washington Wizards. The team would be much cooler if they had long white beards and wore robes. In The Lord of the Rings it says that there were five wizards, exactly the right amount for a basketball team. Coincidence? I think not. Gandalf was the point guard. Saruman the ball hog wing. Radegast the Brown the reliable and quiet power forward. The two unnamed blue wizards filled out the team. This paragraph sums up a great deal of what it means to be me.
The game was good. The Knicks were underdogs but broke out to a lead in the first half, getting as large as 11 points. In the second half things reverted to the mean. The Wizards dominated until they had an 11-point lead. Then in the last minute and a half the Knicks stormed back, cutting the lead to three. The Wizards put the game away with a 3-point shot to take a 110-104 lead. Alan and I predict the score before the game starts. We compete, a game within the game. Whoever gets closer wins. The first criterion is getting the team right, then the margin of victory, then the combined score. As the game winded down Alan got excited. He revealed that he predicted 110-104. If you get the score exact it counts as a double win! With seconds to go the Knicks launched a three and it went in, final score 110-107. I predicted 115-111, so I won! It went down to the wire, an exciting game. Alan was crestfallen. I resisted doing a victory dance. I’m a gracious winner.
I often get frustrated reading what people say online. So much is irrational or unfactual. When I said that on Facebook some people responded as if I called anyone that disagrees with me irrational, which is irrational. Anyone that follows me at all knows I criticize the reasoning of people who agree with my politics more than those who disagree. I want my side to do the right thing. I find discussing baseball even harder than politics. So many people talk as if the statistical revolution never happened. It’s like discussing physics with someone that argues with Aristotelean models. When that happens I just stop arguing. I just read someone who said that Reggie Smith was a better hitter than Carl Yastrzemski from 1968-1973. I checked the stats, Yaz was better at HR, RBIs, OPS+ and offensive WAR. By both trad and new stats Yaz was better. Why would somebody say the contrary? He didn’t think it necessary to check the facts. Update. He responded that he didn’t compare Smith to Yaz. Here’s his exact words; “He was as good if not a better hitter than Yaz from 68-73.” That’s how Trump got elected. I’m not joking. Saying you didn’t say what you did when confronted is exactly what Trump does. It is that kind of not reasoning that did it. It’s why I fight so hard against that mode of thought, or non-thought, even if I agree with the opinion. Your gut feeling is just another way of saying prejudice. Like the way I started and ending by talking about guts?
Wise Madness 