Beep Baseball #3

After get out butts handed to us in May, we decided to take the field again against the Stockton Stingrays! Same result. We got beat. But this time, we hit much better.

Some more pics here.

It's Been A While

My “place” on the web has been pretty quiet lately. Not surprisingly, visits to the site have gone down by quite a bit (except the everyday searches for Blackie Lawless’s daughter). The lack of posts here, one of the longest gaps in all the years I’ve kept the blog alive, is due to the software I use.

Years ago, after using FrontPage to manually update my site, I moved to RapidWeaver for Mac. I loved the software and recommended it to anyone that would listen to me.

After many problems with my RapidWeaver on this site, our daughter’s and our family podcast, it just became too much work to update the site. Then, the comment system used in the application, Haloscan, went out of business. The comments were moved to Echo but that service leaves a lot to be desired. It mixed up comments between this site and Makenzy’s and made it difficult to find out on what post comments were made.

I would prefer to use WordPress, a platform I have become much more comfortable. Being able to update via my iPhone and from any computer is very appealing. With 1000s of themes available and tons of custimization options, WordPress is my favorite blogging service.

Sadly, though, moving to WordPress will take a considerable amount of time and effort. I wish there was a magic wand to move this site to WP but there are some obstacles:

- mattbeckwith.com is hosted on a Windows machine (my host’s, not mine) that won’t support WP - with my current hosting service, I have to move this domain to a Linux box (and boy, I’d love to) - I have more than 75,000 files / 300GB+ of data to pull down before moving - there is no utility to convert my blog posts to a format that I can import into WordPress

So, I’m not sure when, if ever, I’ll move this site over to WordPress, but I am going to start writing more.

Stockton Stingrays Golf Tournament

This year, we brought 2 foursomes to the annual Stockton Stingrays golf tournament. With the Lyons closure, this year the tourney was held at Oakmoore Golf Course. The players

The Stingrays don't play golf, but they do drive the carts :-)

We took last and second-to-last place. But, with best-ball, we still did very well!

More pictures.

Beep Baseball

Today, we took the field again to challenge the Stockton Stingrays in a game of beep baseball (also known as blind baseball).

The game is similar to America's favorite pastime. All players,except the pitcher and catcher, wear blindfolds. Also, the pitcher and catcher are offensive, not defensive, players. The pitcher counts down the underhand pitch and tries to time, and place, the pitch based on the batter.

The batter gets 4 strikes and 1 ball (a non swing). If the ball is hit, they must run to toward first or third base, depending on which one starts to buzz. The batter must run and touch the base before a defensive player grabs the ball, maintaining control, and holds it away from their body.

We lost again this year. And we even hit without blindfolds during our last at-bat.

Playing against these blind athletes is amazing. Being sighted, I can't help but overly rely on my vision, so playing with blindfolds is challenging to say the least.

More pictures here.

Next time, Stingrays, next time!

The iPad has landed!

Just as promised, the fine folks at UPS delivered my iPad yesterday. I had been a little worried the last few days since the UPS site still showed my iPad in China as late as yesterday.

After a couple of Google searches (and a few Topeka searches) over the last few days I realized there were many other iPads "stuck in China". A quick search on Twitter led me to @ThomasAtUPS who must've been the hardest working person on Twitter! He responded to tons of questions from soon-to-be iPad owners. @ThomasAtUPS assured me my iPad would be delivered today. Well, actually, he Tweeted it to everyone.

I had the iPad shipped to my mailing address, which just happens to be a friendly local UPS store. On an unrelated note, we have done business with Jason and his crew for 15 years, back when it was Mail Boxes Etc. - we love these guys, they really understand customer service! Ok, now back to the iPad story.

First I went to Best Buy and met Arvin who gave us a great demo of the device. We also ran into friend of the show, Tom Moccia from BuyMeAniPhone.com who was there picking up a couple of iPads.

A couple of hours later the iPad was in hand.

First let me say; physically, the iPad truly is like nothing else I've ever held. It was heavier than I imagined it would be, which I was happy about. No one wants light and wimpy tech toys! Now, I know I'm a fan boy, but seriously, it just feels right (extra cheese points if you read that in Johnny Ive's voice... even more extra cheese points if you know who Johnny Ive is).

The first thing I did was open Photos. Nice UI! Then I went to Safari. I wanted to know what it felt like to touch the internet. It felt amazing. This unique way of browser interaction transcends the iPhone experience. It just makes sense.

I could go on and one. If you're still here, though, it might be easier to just watch the video.

After only using it for a few minutes, I can say that it is awesome!

Originally, I said I would have preferred something more like desktop Mac OS X, with Finder, but, I wanted this just for casual surfing and e-mail... a tasks that it performs incredibly well! So far, the only thing I don't love is the presentation of Mail while in portrait mode. I would prefer to not have an individual message shown when I open the application.

Crappy first-generation? No way! While I'm sure the next version of the iPad will be amazing, I am glad I bought the first. The web surfing is awesome. The iPad apps (like ABC, Twitteriffic, Words with Friends HD) are all great. Games from the iPhone (Tetris, Traffic Rush, Demonless) are a lot more fun on the large screen! And the speed. This thing screams from app to app. I don't care about it's lack of true multi-tasking, apps nearly all open where you last left them.

Happy Easter!

Valentines Day 2010

For Valentine's Day we decided to take a drive up to Murphy's and Big Trees.

Check out the rest of the pics here.

Pay For News?

Today, our local newspaper, The Record, announced it would begin charging for on-line access. There was quite a stir on Twitter after the announcement. Some on the local Twitter scene thought that this would spell the end for the Record. And it seems as if some would be happy to see the Record fail.

I’m going to go out on a limb and, much to the chagrin of some of my friends, agree with the decision to start charging. While I recognize that this presents a unique opportunity for bloggers, podcasters and other media junkies to share their work I think we need to help local newspapers survive. Local blogger, Bill Ries-Knight said it best today:

“I'm just sayin... Who will be the gatherer of news if the Local Newspaper is gone? Who'll be there @ 2am when the bullets have been flying?” - @Steelhoof

In September, I sat down with Michael Fitzgerald, metro columnist for the Record and, of course, the subject of blogging and the internet came up. He made a compelling case why a community needs a professional news organization. He spoke about a local blogger named Chocolate who anonymously blogged about issues related to Stockton Unified School District. Chocolate turned out to be the former principle of Stagg High School.

“She’s concealing the fact that she’s a disgruntled ex-employee. Now, some of her information was accurate and some of her opinions are valid... but wouldn’t you like to know that this person has an axe to grind... Finally, the newsroom is full of trained, talented, seasoned professionals. They filter out a lot of BS. The internet just puts it out there.” - Michael Fitzgerald

The “news” may be free, but the reporting of it shouldn’t be. Like a retail transaction, value should be traded for value. I am happy to pay for the talents of the people that work at the Record.

This does seem like a slippery slope. Hopefully the Record understands the potential impact of charging for online content. Of course, this could go terribly wrong. Subscribers could run for the hills and the Record could be left with fewer eyeballs to attract fewer advertisers with tightening budgets. But then again, it could turn out just fine.

Is there room in this community for the likes of Reclaiming the Title, RodsRants, Brewery33 and Podcast Stockton? Absolutely! And we need more voices. We also need newspapers, radio and TV stations... with the resources to help us tell the stories. As I strive to become more involved with telling the stories of Stockton I hope organizations like the Record will continue to be here. We need Michael Fitzgerald, Daniel Thigpen, Christian Burkin, David Siders, Tara Cuslidge and Ian Hill.

“... do you seriously think that many people will pay for online paper? Especially enough to save a sinking ship...” - @BREWERY33

Will I pay for online Recordnet access? Yes.

Is it absurd?

Well, perhaps to some it is. I remember when I was a child and the concept of paying for a bottle of water was absurd. As of a few years ago, Americans were spending $15 Billion a year on bottled water. Don’t judge me for giving $40 a year to the Record.

My Grandmother

In early November, Mimi, my Grandmother, had a stroke. She was taken to David Grant Hospital at Travis AFB where she was taken excellent care of for nine days. The doctors told my Aunts that she can no longer live alone. For a woman as strong willed as Mimi, this was not going to be easy. After a week or so at the convalescent home where her husband is she moved to Lodi to live with my Aunt and her family. Today, I went to visit Mimi. When I walked through Hope’s house Mimi was reading through Christmas cards and get well letters. She was looking at pictures and asking me to identify family members.

The stroke has had some affect on her memory. It is sad to think that she may not remember who I am, but it must be scary for her to be going through this. After a few minutes of talking with her I could tell she remembered who I was. She talked about my “beautiful” wife, our “tall” daughter and the one with the “red hair”. Those descriptions were all I needed to know she knew exactly who I was. Of course, she kept looking at me and calling me her “handsome”, a name she has called me for many years (no cracks about her eyes going bad... she can see just fine).

After spending some time just talking with Mimi and going through her speech therapy excersizes, my Aunt Hope mentioned that she had started speaking Italian. Mimi’s parents were born in Italy and they all spoke Italian as children. She hasn’t spoken Italian (except for the random single word) in at least 50 years. I asked her to speak to me in Italian and to my amazement, she just flipped the switch in her brain and speaking in beautiful Italian.

The stroke has also really affected her ability to speak. She in understandable but sometimes the wrong word comes out. The doctors told my Aunt that the stroke likely unlocked that part of her memory.

The thirty minutes I spent with Mimi was amazing. I had such a wonderful time with her. I hardly understood any of the Italian but hearing her speak it brought tears to my eyes.

In the middle of our conversation I pulled out my iPhone and recorded it.

Listen here.

Mimi and Matt - Thanksgiving 2008

I love you Mimi.

Family is Forever!

Snow In Stockton!

It snowed in Stockton today. Wow.

Thanksgiving Day Run Walk Against Hunger

This morning, Emily and I got up early to participate in the 5th Annual Run and Walk Against Hunger, supporting the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton / San Joaquin.

We got there early to register and even by 7:00 there was a sizable crowd. It was pretty cold out, but the skies were clear. Emily and I registered and went back to the car to warm up. By 7:30 the crowd was growing and by 8:00, nearly 4,000 people were assembled at Banner Island Ballpark for the event. We finally got a chance to meet Adriana Brogger and JT Valencia and talk about some cool ideas for the Stockton media scene.

We met up with our friend Rod Villagomez from RodsRants.com. With the crew from DRTV, Rod was doing a live broadcast from the walk. Complete with a contraption attached to something that resembled a heavy-duty weight lifting belt, he was able to “rodcast” live video during the 3.1 mile walk. Having spent a little time with Rod during his 24 hour Rant-a-Thon a few weeks back I can tell you that the 1 hour walk / broadcast was more physically challenging!

The walk took us down Fremont Street to Center Street and then down Weber Avenue. We turned around at the I-5 overpass and then walked back through the marina and then through McLeod Park. Since we opted for the walk instead of the run, I was able to bring my camera. It was a perfect fall day to take some pictures of beautiful downtown Stockton.

Check out the rest of the pics here.