Dylan Charles's Blog, page 27

Zombies, Run!: First Mission Review

I used to run occasionally, but that was a year ago and the most I've done since then is to stare at my running shoes before quickly throwing a towel over them to hide my secret shame.

So keep that in mind as I review the first mission of Zombies, Run!.

As I mentioned before, the beginning of the mission has a three minute introduction in which there is no running. If you're anything like me and you want to stay grounded in the game's universe, I recommend using this as a warm-up period. Do...

Last Season

At times, I feel like I've crashed a funeral. Every article I read about this upcoming season, there are the same words whispered over and over again in somber tones.

"The collapse" "Last September" "2011″

It's a spooky repetition. There's a shadow over the start of this season and for someone who's just now entering the story, it's ominous. I hear snippets of information. Players talking about those dark times. Hanging their heads. Others are angry. There are those who aren't there anymore...

Zombies, Run!: First Impression

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that at one point, I was doing some running. You might also remember that I stopped talking about it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that running bores the absolute dogs out of me. I can't keep doing it every day or every other day without some kind of constant impetus and my own good health is not enough of one.

So I got excited when I heard about Zombies, Run!. It's an app for the iPod and the iPhone (scheduled for...

Gone Away Past

The past is, as far as we know, a thing lost to us.

We've captured it in our memories; wrapped it in a gauzey, filtered tangle of emotion and condemned it to perpetual nostalgia. What once was better than it ever will be.

You take a good long look at the way things were and you can find the principles, the matter-of-fact rightness of the world. Everything was as it should be. It's a comfortable familiarity that cannot brook even the slightest bit of deviation. When we look back, it's a known...

The Hellion

There are players where it's almost impossible to see them as anything but legendary: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig. Even in their flaws, they're almost more than human; Babe Ruth's love of excess and Ted Williams' temper.

There is one player who goes beyond legend though, in every way. Ty Cobb set almost 120 records, plenty of which are still unbroken almost a century later. He was the best at bat. He was the best on base. He was the best in the field. He was ferocious, relentless...

The Park

One of the most surprising things that I've read through-out my spring training, was that, prior to Henry, Werner and Lucchino buying the team, there was a lot of talk about abandoning Fenway and building a new park elsewhere.

To me, even before I started my whole Baseball Project, this was unthinkable. Leave Fenway? But…it's Fenway! It's one of those places people think of when you say, "baseball." It's been around almost as long as the Red Sox have been around. It's been the home to Babe...

Making a Sandwich

To some, a sandwich is a quick and easy lunch. Put something between two slices of bread and bam, you're ready to go.

Those people should never be trusted, either inside the kitchen or out.

The Sandwich is something that can rise above and beyond its ingredients. In no situation is the term "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" more applicable. To make a Sandwich right, you have to work at it. It takes preparation. Time. And the willingness to get your hands dirty.

There is no...

The Obsession

I've started to mentally break up The Baseball Project into segments. The first segment is, obviously, Spring Training. For the last few weeks, I've read, watched, absorbed and analyzed nothing but baseball. I've watched Ken Burns Baseball. I've read baseball books about the various players. I've read articles about the up-coming season. I've even started watching this TV show from the early '90′s called "Talking Baseball"

Every bit of free time I have has become devoted to baseball, in one...

The Numbers

.406 56 714 1.82 511 61 73

I knew there were numbers in Baseball. That's kind of Baseball's thing. It even has its own math associated with it. But, holy moley, I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed.

For the pitcher alone there are dozens of stats that you can follow. There's the pitcher's ERA (Earned Run Average), which measures how many runs he lets in per inning played. Simple enough. BUT, there's the Adjusted ERA (or ERA+), which measures the pitcher's performance based on the ballpark h...

The Hat

As part of my baseball learnin', I wanted to buy something that would mark me as a fan of the Red Sox. You can't really call yourself a fan until you wander around with a clear label identifying yourself as such. That way, if you see someone wearing a, say, Yankees cap, you can loudly yell, "Yoah grandmothah sucks wicked eggs, ya hoosier!" and then the game is afoot and then there will be a tussle!

I decided on a hat, because I don't really want to have to wear a parka all through Summer to...