Dialate Your Mind...

Every day I become increasingly aware of how my mind is getting polluted with more and more garbage information - sports anecdotes, useless "health" info, articles about a woman leaving her dog on a helicopter. Meanwhile, important information about the world slips by. The blame falls partially on me, but also partially on our media outlets and our "information" age. Yes, this is another "where is the world going" post.

For the last 4 nights I have found myself up around 3AM pouring over online newspapers and digging through baseball box scores instead of sleeping. What is my problem? I think I have serious case of Information Overload Addiction. I may be the first to officially issue this as a diagnosis, though my guess is that it affects millions. There is just so much information out there that it is clouding my mind, while at the same time addicting me to seeking out more. Why? Maybe simply because I can. At times there are a few things that I want to look up but when I get my browser window open I sit there blankly trying to remember what piece of information I was hunting down. This is a major problem, mostly because most of that stuff is relatively meaningless in the first place and doesn't enhance my life in any way. It just fills space in my brain pushing out space that important things could be occupying. In real terms our brains can hold all the info we can come across, but in reality, storing so much stupid information clouds up the mind and can prohibit us from getting back to thinking about things that really do matter.

The quality of information on the web is not good. For someone like myself who generally doesn't read the paper anymore, the web is my source of info. In my opinion the MTV generation has already won on the web though. More and more I just find headlines or quick blurbs of information that really do nothing other than breifly mention an issue. Am I then, "informed" on said issue? No, definitely not. But having read the short paragraph that briefly identifies a topic, I feel somewhat informed because now I know it exists. This is a dangerous problem for me, and millions like me. I think it can lead to a quasi-ignorance of my own ingnorance while thinking I have knowledge. Very dangerous (and likely similar to how our last president got elected). If all I find at first and all I can quickly get (yes I have the option to dig deeper for more info if I want) is short hits on topics, I am losing out. I am keeping uninformed under the guise of being informed. Probably the worst position I can be in. And I am not alone, I fear that much of the world is joining me (or I them) in this state.

Perhaps what we need is better ways to filter information. How many times have you searched for something online, only to see another link or ad and get "lost" in another direction, forgetting your original purpose? I'm not saying this is always bad, but for most web users the answer is every day. In reality though, that is not the answer. The answer is to get access to better information and eliminate all the stupid, useless info clouding our minds. We have such unprecidented access to information right now, how can we use this better?

I'm left wondering what does it all matter? What is access to this information doing for me? Is it enhancing my life? The world? Is the on-demand society we are creating/have created a better place than the one we left behind? I think not...

More to come on this...

On the brink...

Of course there are many more important things to discuss right now, and I intend to get to some of them before too much longer. However, this morning Mr. Barry Bonds and the chase to tie Babe Ruth is kicking around my cranium. Bonds, clearly feeling the pressure of chasing Ruth's ghost, hasn't homered in something like 10 games. It makes me hope maybe he never will tie the Babe, but I know at some point he will tie and pass Ruth.

Let us first look at Ruth's feat. Ruth is, well Ruth. In an era where no one else was hitting 30 homers, this guy was popping 60, eating 6 hot dogs before and after games, drinking heavily after games, and chasing dozens of women at the same time. Unless you are going to suggest that obesity, borderline alcoholism, and philandering help you play ball, there is no question about the merits of his accomplishments. His best baseball run was a five years stretch from age 25 to age 29.

Now let's look at Bonds. A great player, quick, strong fielding, and a great all fields hitter. He was an MVP with the Pirates in 90 and 92. Before 1999 he averaged .290 with 32 homers and 93 RBIs a year. Apparently though, that wasn't enough. He went into the offseason with the Giants in 98 a normal sized guy with an aging body. He came back for spring training in 99 having gained 20 pounds of pure muscle. So in 99, at the age his father had to retire because his body couldn't do it any longer, he took off. No one in baseball history has had as productive a run as he has from age 35 to 40. It's simply unheard of. Players, even many the good ones, used to be done by 36 or 37. Since 2000 he has averaged .341 with 52 homers and 120 RBIs. He is now continuing to play at age 42! This kind of production this late in a career is simply unheard of.

I read "Game of Shahows", and despite what Bay Area residents say, it was far from a smear campaign. It was a very thorough, very well documented, analysis of BALCO scandal that Bonds was a part of.

Bonds, other steroid users, and baseball, hide behind the fact that there were no rules against steroids at the time. Which is fine for the rules of baseball I guess - even though they now have some strange hush-hush investigation going on. But fans everywhere have spoken decisively on this one. The only place where Bonds is not villified is San Francisco where people just don't get it. At first the view was "Barry didn't cheat", then simultaneous books came out detailing Bonds and other athletes steriod usage and involvement. The line changed to, "the authors are just out to make money." Completely ridiculous if you read the books. The best part is that for his entire stay in San Francisco Bonds has been surly, rude, and at times abusive of the fans. He won't even sign autographs for kids. Hey, I'm not saying he has to love the fans, but he doesn't even behave decently to people. Yet he gets cheered repeatedly.

The rest of the country doesn't care... actually that's not true, the rest of the baseball fans in the country do care. They actively want him not to make it. I am in this group. From my view he's always been a jerk to everyone and he's the biggest cheat in the history of the game. The fact that he has denied steroid use for years but sued the book publishers for royalties only (nothing related to the content of the book) is basically an admittance of everything in the book.

Contrast Bonds with Jason Giami (pictured next to Bonds on the book cover) who admitted steroid use, (had a weird chest tumor and all kinds of problems develop shortly after) struggled through the criticism for a year or two, but stayed out of the spotlight and quietly rebuilt his career.

Looking back it once again makes me think that the Canseco book had a lot more truth than anyone wanted to admit. It's a shame that Bonds won't face the wrath of Fenway this season, but it looks like the rest of the league is making him know what baseball fans everywhere think.

So if anyone is still reading, the question becomes not did Bonds cheat, but what do we do about it and how do we prevent cheaters in the future and protect records from the cheats? There's an interesting theory here. I'm not sure what the answer is, but to sports fans, the homerun record is one of the most sacred out there and it's a shame to see it trampled on by the likes of Bonds...

Hotel Cali Flies Again...

Hotel Cali is returning from a long hiatus. Frauds and cheats going for homerun records, Presidents trying to run roughsod over congress, red sox vs yankees. There is too much going on not to ramp it back up... new posts coming soon....