But were there unintended consequences? The idea of making a change with a positive goal in mind, but inadvertently affecting something else in a negative way…it absolutely fascinates me. Seeing those no texting signs got me thinking. Back in the day, before the “no cell phones while driving” law, if people wanted to communicate with someone, they probably called them. After the law though, what did most people do?

(For this next segment, I have zero evidence of any kind, but I’m probably right.)

Most people did not go out and buy a hands-free ear piece.
Most people have stopped talking on the phone while they drive (good job law!)

So what do people do now? They text. It is very likely that texting while driving has increased as a result of the law. And that is much worse than talking on a cell phone. I would much rather people have their eyes on the road and be somewhat distracted mentally than looking down at their phone for seconds at a time.

I don’t have any proof, but it is quite possible that an unintended consequence has actually lead to more accidents.

I’m shooting for three straight months of 20+ miles. This month I’ve tweaked my form, and I think it will really increase my speeds. I’m ramping up my mile count, but at about 2-3 mins faster per mile. I’m on my phone right now, but there’s an awesome video I will share with some great instruction.

The more I run and the more I learn, the more I realize that running can be much more than just throwing on any random pair of shoes and running down the street. Focusing on good form and practing the discipline to do it regularly is a huge part. And best of all, being in shape just feels good.

Watch out 400….I’m coming for you.

I’ve never had a very extended period of really good running. I actually did 34 miles last January, but then I tweaked my back, and before I knew it we were moving and everything was screwed up!

Two months of 20+ is nice. I’d like to see something like 6+ months of 20+…heck, even 30+. Out of curiosity, I did some checking on marathon times to see how I’d place in the LA Marathon (I checked Boston…but apparently you have to qualify, and you have to be FAST). I am not fast. To run 5 today, I purposely ran at about 70-80%, and did just under a 12 min/mile pace. Surprisingly though, if I could keep that up for 26.2 miles, that would put me right about in the middle of the entire marathon…a lot better than I would have thought. I don’t think I’m anywhere near ready for a marathon though. Some sustained running for several months will be a good start. For whatever reason I’ve never been able to. First it was my back, then moving, then baby…but no excuses now!

I’ve been off caffeine since Sunday, so that’s a good step for me. It seems once I start drinking coffee, I need it everyday, and I feel all out of wack after a while. So no coffee…more milk and water!

Our new house is not only closer to the Angels (one of the factors in me switching allegiances), but it’s also much closer to Cal State Long Beach. Last month I decided it would be fun to go to some Dirtbags game. After a look at the prices, a full season (28 home games) costs the same as about 11 individual games…so I went for it and purchased season tickets. There’s also some strange pleasure in saying “I have season tickets,” haha.

This was opening weekend, and the Dirtbags faced off against The VCU Rams (Virginia Commonwealth University). On Friday I took Luke. I’ve got four seats…but taking the baby isn’t very easy, so for the three of us to go means leaving the baby with grandparents. So Luke and I went together, to our first real baseball game! We got some mini hot dogs and a sprite. He informed me that every time I took a drink he had to take a drink. He lasted into the 7th inning. Luckily we missed the Dirtbags give up 4 runs in the 9th to lose, but in the future I think we’ll go late so we can see through the end.

Saturday Stacie and I went and left the kids with the grandparents. Lorelai has started taking a bottle, so we can finally go out! The Dirtbags were looking for redemption, and they won it in a nail-biter. 7-6. It was nice going out with the wifey.

Today I got to go with my Dad and brother, my first day game. Weather was really nice, and the Dirtbags had VCU’s number again. They won 3-2 on some exciting scoring plays and some great pitching. Twice a runner scored from first on doubles down the third base line, and they also scored on a suicide squeeze.

I bought tickets right behind the third base dugout. There are people around us that have probably been coming to games for decades. There’s a good mix of older people and college age kids. Some people like to yell out, but so far it’s all been clean. “Throw him a meatball 1 – 9!” There’s not a bad seat in the house, and for the price, you get to see some pretty good baseball. I know I won’t make it to all 28 home games, but I’d like to go to as many as possible. Following a brand new team means there are a LOT of new players to follow, and just like a good season of Survivor, a team is a lot more fun to follow when you recognize the people playing.

Maybe this will spur me to get back into blogging more. My blog has always been very random…my thoughts on politics, video games, kids, family, sports, etc. Whatever interests me. I’m not sure there’s any one thing though that I could start a blog about. I love video games, but I only get to play a few times a week. I love baseball, but does anyone need another blog about the Angels? (and would anyone read one about the Dirtbags?) I love minimalist running, but I love doing it more than writing/researching about it. Politics constantly interests me, but it’s not something I want to write about. If there’s any one topic I could probably write about with great frequency, it would probably be about being a dad.

But the Blarg has never been about any one topic…it’s always been a mish-mash of posts about me, and the random thoughts that come out of my head.  I’m not sure I can see it being anything else.

Would hate to see the blarg go the way of the dodo…but I wouldn’t miss it near as much as I would have five years ago.

First impressions. It’s small. In a way, it almost seems hard to hold on to, though I’m sure I’ll get used to that. Screen on the back is big and awesome! So it’s smaller, yet bigger.

My only test subject needs a haircut.

Planning to do a quick shoot out versus the old D50 before it gets put on eBay. Love that it works with my SB-400 flash, and I love my brother’s fixed lens (think I need one), which I’ve already forgotten the name of.

Every new day at the new house feels a little more like home. When we need something, we generally know where to find it. We can successfully wake up in the morning and get to work on time. And the dog is finally starting to behave. A few notes…

For the techie folk…I finally settled on a TV (3rd model, 4th overall). I must be the pickiest person in the world when it comes to TVs. Originally I had a 40″ LED by TCL (same cheap brand as my 32″ bedroom TV I like). It had a Samsung panel, and looked awesome, but then I tried playing games on it. The input lag was terrible, and it had no game mode. So that got returned to Wal-Mart. Next up was another TCL, but the 40″ version of my 32″ bedroom TV. Everything about it was just like the 32″ (good gaming, good picture), but it had terrible flashlighting in the upper corners. I didn’t see anyone else complain about this on Amazon, so I even tried a second set. Same exact problem. So they both went back. Finally went for a 42″ LG at Walmart, and we’ve got a winner. Nice picture, no input lag, no flashlighting, and cheap. Good deal.

Another thing we’ve been dealing with is a barking dog. Ours. We built her this awesome kennel, but whenever we leave, it’s bark city. It’s hard to say, but it looks like she was barking non-stop from when we’d leave for work until we got home. I tried everything possible. I watched the Dog Whisperer, read stuff online, and tried it all. Last weekend a neighbor behind us left a note about it, and we were at our wit’s end. We started reading online about some of the no bark collars, and we came across one that had unbelievable reviews. The SportDOG Rechargeable NoBark 10R. This thing is amazing. It’s a shock collar…but it’s about as smart as they can be. It requires both sound AND vibration for it to go off, so your dog doesn’t get shocked because of some nearby sound. The first thing I did was try it on myself! I had to get pretty darn loud for it to even trigger, which I like. That means she’s only getting corrected if she ramps it up. And it didn’t hurt. I think a better way to describe it is I was “extremely startled.” And the first time I put it on the dog, it worked. Took her about 15 mins in her kennel to start barking, and it didn’t go off at first. But then she ramped it up to full blast, and zap. She got startled. Ten seconds later she did it again. After that 2nd zap, I don’t think she’s barked in there once. Not even a whimper. She just sits quietly and CALMLY. She’s a totally different dog…it’s amazing. To anyone that thinks it’s not humane…it’s 100x more humane that letting her bark for 8 hours in a row. We are very excited about this.

Sadly, I haven’t had any time to play videogames, so I’ll have to find a way to rectify that. Even for little spurts at a time. I watched 20 mins of Skyrim this morning, and it looked awesome. I’ve jogged twice in the last week, so that’s a good improvement also. I’m sure at some point we’ll have a housewarming party of some kind, but no plans as of yet.

First an update on the Angels. All summer I’ve been wearing my new Angels hat. It was sort of my way of getting comfortable with the idea of being an Angels fan. The more I’ve worn it, the more “normal” it seems. A few days ago I went to my first baseball game of the year, and it was an Angels game. Tonight I’m going to my second game of the year, and it is also an Angels game. Two nights ago I watched Trumbo hit a walk-off home run. Last night I watched the future of the Angels get promoted to the bigs. I can probably only name half the players still (I admit, the bullpen is hard), but when I watched the game last night, I was rooting for the Angels. It’s still a little weird, but it feels good.

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve spent the first three weeks of this month moving in. How on earth do people move with “regular” jobs? I’ve had three weeks of zero work to move stuff, unpack, and the house still isn’t quite in order. I can’t imagine getting off work at 6pm every night, and then trying to unpack.

So speaking of the new house…we love it. It’s absolutely what we thought it would be. Quiet, friendly, kept up. Those are the words that spring to mind. We’ve met as many neighbors in three weeks as we had in six years at the old place. There are only a handful of boxes left to be dealt with (oh, and then there’s the garage, haha). We’ve been checking out local eateries. We’ve spent 30 years in the same spot…so moving somewhere else gives us a whole new area to check out. To say we’re happy with the move would be an understatement. It was a lot of work and stress in a few short months, but the payoff will be worth it.

Sadly there are just a few short weeks until school starts. I won’t complain too much though, because the amount of time I have left to lament the end of summer is equivalent to what most people get all year.

Mike Piazza.

He’s why I became a Dodgers fan. I always thought that if I’d paid attention to baseball in ’88 when the Dodgers won it all, I might have skipped the Oakland phase altogether. But it was a pack of 1992 Bowman, and a Piazza rookie card that started my love of the Dodgers. I watched him win the ROY (followed by Mondesi, Nomo, and Hollandsworth), and I was well on my way to being a dedicated Dodgers fan.

For nearly 20 years (wow, that’s a long time), I stuck with the Dodgers regardless of whether they won or lost. There were lots of great moments, and even some playoffs, but success didn’t matter, I was a fan. My greatest memory is being there for Fernando’s no-hitter, on my birthday. The last few years especially had been great watching guys come up through the farm system and produce.

But something that has nagged at me for a while is the experience of going to a game. I used to go to multiple games a year when I was younger, and for the most part I enjoy myself when I go, but over the last 10 years that feeling has slowly been changing. My experience has been that the crowd at Dodger stadium is getting increasingly obnoxious, ghetto, intimidating…however you’d like to describe it. And for the most part, I put up with it. I’d go with some friends, and if we happened to get some drunk idiots behind us, we’d suffer through it.

But then I had a son.

This is where I see a big divergence in opinions. There is no way I would take my son to a Dodgers game. Maybe if I had $500 seats, and I knew the people around me would be nice, but the $50 seats have become a total crapshoot. I’ve found that people with kids absolutely know what I’m talking about, and people without don’t see the big deal. Yes, I’m generalizing all the opinions I’ve heard, but that’s been the common theme.

As a dad who wants to take his son to baseball games growing up, I’m now faced with a dilemma. The team I’ve grown up rooting for is in a crappy part of town, with a crowd that is becoming increasingly like a Raiders game (and from what I’ve heard, I wouldn’t take my son to one of those either). I’ve had to make one of hardest decisions of my adult life.

I am divorcing the Dodgers.

I’ve never gotten divorced, and never will, but I imagine this is exactly what a real divorce feels like. I don’t want to do it. I have all these great memories of a wonderful relationship we used to have…but things have changed. I’m not even sure it’s anyone’s fault. It’s almost natural considering the Dodgers location, and changing demographics over the years. When everything around you is turning into a ghetto, don’t be surprised when the seedier parts of society start dominating the attendance at games.

So for that reason alone, I don’t blame the Dodgers as an organization. I don’t even care about the McCourts…they’re an owner, and they will be gone someday. It’s not even the players fault. There are a ton of crappy guys on this years team that I could use as a scapegoat for why I’m leaving, but that’s part of being a fan. You root for the team through thick and thin, winning or losing.

But I will not take my son to a game. Maybe someday when he’s older I’ll take him to a game to show him the stadium I grew up in. But for his sake, and mine, I am changing my allegiance.

I am now an Angels fan.

This is not an easy decision. I have nothing against the Angels (except the DH), but changing the team you root for is the strangest feeling. I don’t know that many of the players, I’m not used to their announcers, and I don’t know their history. But I’ve been to games there, and it is night and day compared to Dodger stadium. Is the crowd perfect? Of course not, but I would feel comfortable taking my three year old son to a game now.

I’m still very much in transition. I bought an Angels hat (old school one with lots of blue), and I’ve been wearing it everyday. It’s helping me get used to things…slowly. I’m excited about some of the young players on the Angels that I will hopefully be able to follow for a while.

Over time, it will start to feel like my team.