-- e-mail from Mike Schmidt to the Phillies, 1 week before the end of the regular season.
And now:
10.30.2008
2008 World Champions
"One pitch, one at bat, one play, one situation, think 'small' and 'big' things result, tough at-bats, lots of walks, stay up the middle with men on base, whatever it takes to 'keep the line moving' on offense, 27 outs on defense, the Mets know you're better than they are. They remember last year. You guys are never out of a game. Welcome the challenge that confronts you this weekend. You are the stars. Good luck. #20."
-- e-mail from Mike Schmidt to the Phillies, 1 week before the end of the regular season.
And now:
-- e-mail from Mike Schmidt to the Phillies, 1 week before the end of the regular season.
And now:
10.27.2008
27 Outs Away
So most of you should know that I'm a big baseball fan. Most of you should know that I'm a big Phillies fan. But what most of you don't know is what this feels like. Watching your baseball team in the World Series is a completely indescribable experience.
Ok, Asher whatever you say you nut. But it's very hard to really describe. I'll try and explain. So I played baseball when I was kid. My first team went undefeated, but we lost in the 1st round of the playoffs. I played in middle school and into high school. I think the sport itself is more pure than any other sport, and is the most mentally and physically challenging sport out there now. Maybe next to Australian Football.
So I grow up knowing baseball, watching baseball, and went up to see Phillies games in high school, just because my dad was from Philly so I decided they were my team. Bought a hat, and followed them ever since.
The players playing now, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, all came up through the Philadelphia organization. That means they were brought in to the team as AA and AAA players, were groomed in our system and stayed with us into the beginnings of their careers. I've watched these guys grow over the years. I remember Chase Utleys first game and understanding that he would be our future. I remember watching a AAA Cole Hamels game highlights because he was our big prospect.
You go season in and season out taking strides and making moves to get better a little bit at a time. Watching losing seasons and rookies learning the game. Watch vets play through their careers. For 162 games, from April to September, waiting to see if they make the playoffs.
And well...once they make the playoffs, once Shane Victorino hits his first career grand slam against the best pitcher in the NL, once 40 year old Matt Stairs comes off the bench and belts a 2 run home run in the top of the 8th in a tied ball game, once Carlos Ruiz is a hero with a 45 foot dribbler down the line in the bottom of the 9th...once all that happens.
All that's left is game 5. At home. With our ace on the mound.
Ok, Asher whatever you say you nut. But it's very hard to really describe. I'll try and explain. So I played baseball when I was kid. My first team went undefeated, but we lost in the 1st round of the playoffs. I played in middle school and into high school. I think the sport itself is more pure than any other sport, and is the most mentally and physically challenging sport out there now. Maybe next to Australian Football.
So I grow up knowing baseball, watching baseball, and went up to see Phillies games in high school, just because my dad was from Philly so I decided they were my team. Bought a hat, and followed them ever since.
The players playing now, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, all came up through the Philadelphia organization. That means they were brought in to the team as AA and AAA players, were groomed in our system and stayed with us into the beginnings of their careers. I've watched these guys grow over the years. I remember Chase Utleys first game and understanding that he would be our future. I remember watching a AAA Cole Hamels game highlights because he was our big prospect.
You go season in and season out taking strides and making moves to get better a little bit at a time. Watching losing seasons and rookies learning the game. Watch vets play through their careers. For 162 games, from April to September, waiting to see if they make the playoffs.
And well...once they make the playoffs, once Shane Victorino hits his first career grand slam against the best pitcher in the NL, once 40 year old Matt Stairs comes off the bench and belts a 2 run home run in the top of the 8th in a tied ball game, once Carlos Ruiz is a hero with a 45 foot dribbler down the line in the bottom of the 9th...once all that happens.
All that's left is game 5. At home. With our ace on the mound.
10.16.2008
Tonight's Menu
Eggplant Parmesean with Ziti pasta and tomato sauce. Spiced to cook. Diced tomatoes, chopped garlic, black pepper, red pepper, cayene pepper.
Ladies, if you're looking for a stay at home husband, my resume is expanding.
Ladies, if you're looking for a stay at home husband, my resume is expanding.
10.15.2008
Top Meals of all time
One perk of being unemployed is that I can spend time refining my domestic skills. Such as cooking. Brandon and I have made commitments to learn to being above average cooks, and so far so good.
When I came back to NY from home I came up here with a cooler filled with meats. Chicken, some meat pasta sauce, a whole frozen chicken and 2 1/2 pounds of salmon. So I've been planning out some recipes.
Tonight's menu was so delicious, it got me thinking about some of my top all time meals.
Let me try and explain tonight's experience:
Honey-Cajun Fried Chicken + Phillie's game - 2 boneless thighs and 2 chicken legs. I marinated the chicken with honey and garlic seasoning, and let it sit for about an hour. I made a flour mix with cayene pepper, lemon pepper, red pepper and black pepper. Then it was just a matter of pan frying them in some nice oil.
Add a whole sweet potato, coated with brown sugar, and a bowl of peas and corn, with some garlic seasoning, and you have a spectacular meal.
Now add in Game 5 of the NLCS. As I take a sweet and spicy and so delicious bite into a thigh, Jimmy Rollins hits a lead off home run. The game is still going on, but the Phillies winning their first NL Pennant since 1993 would make this arguably tops on the following list.
Top Meals of All Time:
1. Shwarma, hummus, salad, pita, no plates - A couple summers ago I went on my Birthright trip. Perhaps my favorite night was the night we spent in a Bedouin camp. Sitting on the ground, using your pita as a plate and filling it with the most tender, succulent beef/lamb, with the eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus. 2 of them later, and spending the rest of the night smoking hukkah with Bedouins making conversation in a combination of Hebrew and English, one of the best nights I've ever had.
2. Big Mac, it's a big deal for me - I keep Kosher. I always have. This basically means I don't eat meat in fast food. So I've spent my entire life eating fish sandwiches at McDonalds, bean burritos at Taco Bell and tuna at Subway. But in Israel, all meat is Kosher, thus, McDonalds is kosher. I've had 2 Big Macs in my time so far, and they are amazing. There really is no greater pleasure than ordering a Big Mac with a large Coke. I thoroughly enjoy it and will do so in the future.
3. Yom Kippur break fast, 8th grade - The more I think about this, the more I realize most of these meals will be somehow religion based, thus proving that Jews are all about food. Anyway, after Yom Kippur (the holiest day of the Jewish year) you eat a light meal, because you've been fasting all day. This meals bagels, blintzes, maybe fish. But when you're 13 and you're fasting for the first time, you don't realize why this is. I had bagels with white fish, cheese blintzes, cookies, cake...and I felt fantastic...until the day after. The easiest way to learn how to eat after a fast is to remember that stomach ache of the next day. I still remember those blintzes being the best I've ever had...at least at the time.
4. First meal as a college graduate - Ben's Deli, right after the Tisch graduation. This meal had the added bonus of being with the Schuldbergs, a nice delight and fun experience of being there for their first Ben's experience. Ben's has outdone the 2nd Ave. Deli in my family's eyes over the years between portion size, price and quality of meat. To celebrate being a real person, I had the following: a pastrami burger with fries. That would be a giant hamburger topped with hot pastrami. It's as good and fattening and filling as it sounds. After that meal, I felt like a real person.
The Phillies are winning 3-0 at the current moment, making this current meal very popular.
Go Phillies.
When I came back to NY from home I came up here with a cooler filled with meats. Chicken, some meat pasta sauce, a whole frozen chicken and 2 1/2 pounds of salmon. So I've been planning out some recipes.
Tonight's menu was so delicious, it got me thinking about some of my top all time meals.
Let me try and explain tonight's experience:
Honey-Cajun Fried Chicken + Phillie's game - 2 boneless thighs and 2 chicken legs. I marinated the chicken with honey and garlic seasoning, and let it sit for about an hour. I made a flour mix with cayene pepper, lemon pepper, red pepper and black pepper. Then it was just a matter of pan frying them in some nice oil.
Add a whole sweet potato, coated with brown sugar, and a bowl of peas and corn, with some garlic seasoning, and you have a spectacular meal.
Now add in Game 5 of the NLCS. As I take a sweet and spicy and so delicious bite into a thigh, Jimmy Rollins hits a lead off home run. The game is still going on, but the Phillies winning their first NL Pennant since 1993 would make this arguably tops on the following list.
Top Meals of All Time:
1. Shwarma, hummus, salad, pita, no plates - A couple summers ago I went on my Birthright trip. Perhaps my favorite night was the night we spent in a Bedouin camp. Sitting on the ground, using your pita as a plate and filling it with the most tender, succulent beef/lamb, with the eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus. 2 of them later, and spending the rest of the night smoking hukkah with Bedouins making conversation in a combination of Hebrew and English, one of the best nights I've ever had.
2. Big Mac, it's a big deal for me - I keep Kosher. I always have. This basically means I don't eat meat in fast food. So I've spent my entire life eating fish sandwiches at McDonalds, bean burritos at Taco Bell and tuna at Subway. But in Israel, all meat is Kosher, thus, McDonalds is kosher. I've had 2 Big Macs in my time so far, and they are amazing. There really is no greater pleasure than ordering a Big Mac with a large Coke. I thoroughly enjoy it and will do so in the future.
3. Yom Kippur break fast, 8th grade - The more I think about this, the more I realize most of these meals will be somehow religion based, thus proving that Jews are all about food. Anyway, after Yom Kippur (the holiest day of the Jewish year) you eat a light meal, because you've been fasting all day. This meals bagels, blintzes, maybe fish. But when you're 13 and you're fasting for the first time, you don't realize why this is. I had bagels with white fish, cheese blintzes, cookies, cake...and I felt fantastic...until the day after. The easiest way to learn how to eat after a fast is to remember that stomach ache of the next day. I still remember those blintzes being the best I've ever had...at least at the time.
4. First meal as a college graduate - Ben's Deli, right after the Tisch graduation. This meal had the added bonus of being with the Schuldbergs, a nice delight and fun experience of being there for their first Ben's experience. Ben's has outdone the 2nd Ave. Deli in my family's eyes over the years between portion size, price and quality of meat. To celebrate being a real person, I had the following: a pastrami burger with fries. That would be a giant hamburger topped with hot pastrami. It's as good and fattening and filling as it sounds. After that meal, I felt like a real person.
The Phillies are winning 3-0 at the current moment, making this current meal very popular.
Go Phillies.
10.07.2008
Wayne/Bartlett '08
Apparently this year is an election year. I've gone back and forth about the candidates, policies, it's so much fun. I've developed a sort of bipartisanship with politics recently and I've been trying to decide if I should vote.
Before some of you jump on me and stab me with your Obama pins, I challenge most people to actually know who they're voting for before they vote for them. I'm all for universal health care, but money doesn't appear out of no where. Where's it come from? The upper class tax cuts? What's that mean? I have yet to hear someone explain to me, or any media station, HOW anyone will fix the economy. I watched about half an hour of tonight's debate before both my mom and I were like, ok they're both done saying new things, let's watch House.
Putting policy aside, I think Obama is a better candidate for our country in terms of confidence. America needs someone to be confident in before anything else. We need a reason to buy a Ford and stop buying Chinese stock. I think people will rally around Obama sooner than they will rally around Mcain. Does that mean one is a better leader than the other? I don't know.
Then when you look at the VP race...well, all goes out the window. Biden is a solid candidate who can't get a sentence out and Palin can't finish a sentence without winking. And you really have to picture either of them as President. Mcain is 72 and I'll be the first to say it, Obama is black. Both of them are just as likely, in my mind, to not finish out their presidency. Do you want 4 years of Biden/Pelosi? Palin/Pelosi? I think the latter has a nice ring to it, just for comedy's sake.
Either way, I have until next Tuesday to register to vote. I'm not registered, nope. Didn't vote last election, so I guess you can blame me for single handedly keeping Bush in office. Yeah yeah yeah. If everyone went by the theory that their 1 vote didn't matter then no one would vote. But the truth is, that's not going to happen. I could not vote and no one would know the difference. Maryland would still stay democratic and everyone's lives would go on.
I'll go to the DMV tomorrow and register. But I don't know if I'm still voting. How's the write in for Bruce Wayne sound? Or Jeb Bartlett? Or Bill Pullman from Independence Day.
Before some of you jump on me and stab me with your Obama pins, I challenge most people to actually know who they're voting for before they vote for them. I'm all for universal health care, but money doesn't appear out of no where. Where's it come from? The upper class tax cuts? What's that mean? I have yet to hear someone explain to me, or any media station, HOW anyone will fix the economy. I watched about half an hour of tonight's debate before both my mom and I were like, ok they're both done saying new things, let's watch House.
Putting policy aside, I think Obama is a better candidate for our country in terms of confidence. America needs someone to be confident in before anything else. We need a reason to buy a Ford and stop buying Chinese stock. I think people will rally around Obama sooner than they will rally around Mcain. Does that mean one is a better leader than the other? I don't know.
Then when you look at the VP race...well, all goes out the window. Biden is a solid candidate who can't get a sentence out and Palin can't finish a sentence without winking. And you really have to picture either of them as President. Mcain is 72 and I'll be the first to say it, Obama is black. Both of them are just as likely, in my mind, to not finish out their presidency. Do you want 4 years of Biden/Pelosi? Palin/Pelosi? I think the latter has a nice ring to it, just for comedy's sake.
Either way, I have until next Tuesday to register to vote. I'm not registered, nope. Didn't vote last election, so I guess you can blame me for single handedly keeping Bush in office. Yeah yeah yeah. If everyone went by the theory that their 1 vote didn't matter then no one would vote. But the truth is, that's not going to happen. I could not vote and no one would know the difference. Maryland would still stay democratic and everyone's lives would go on.
I'll go to the DMV tomorrow and register. But I don't know if I'm still voting. How's the write in for Bruce Wayne sound? Or Jeb Bartlett? Or Bill Pullman from Independence Day.
There's only 1 October
Today is a day that I will break boundaries. I, Asher Novek, am blogging from a bus. That's right, I'm on a bus, online, also playing online poker, and posting on my blog. Technology is such that busses now come fully equipped with Wifi. And very comfortable leather seats.
But I'm not here to promote the Bolt Bus (service to DC for under 20 dollars!). I'm not really sure why I'm here, but in the mean time, I'll just update a bit on what's going on.
Most important, I have moved back up to New York. I moved up because I had a really cheap apartment opportunity and a couple of job offer. Within 3 days of moving up to NY, I lost all of them.
There was some miscommunication between the landlord and the other room mates. Here's how the conversation went down
Me: Hi, I'm Asher, I'm going to be living here now.
Tony (old and Italian): You can't live here.
Me: What? Rachel's been talking to you for weeks about me coming here...
Tony: No.
Me: Um, her dad talked to you last week about this...
Tony: No.
Me: I'm sorry, is there something you want me to do?
Tony: No.
Me: Do you want me to run a credit check?
Tony: No.
Me: Raise the rent?
Tony: No.
Me: Any reason at all why you're saying no?
Tony: No.
So I spent the next few days scrambling for a place and luck would have it that Brandon has an extra room, sort of. So I've moved in to his dining room, which ironically has more space than the other room I would be living in, and will be paying the same for rent. Plus, he brought up his old Super Nintendo, and we're going through all the classics. Donkey Kong Country is up now, Mario next.
Job wise, I was going to go back and work with Ed over at Technicolor, but because of a looming actor's strike they've had to cut back on personelle because no one's shooting features right now. So I'm sort of hanging out, waiting for them to get work in for me to help them out on.
Basically, I'm just living in NY, earning my keep playing poker online and as Dustin always tells me, just living the American dream.
I have October fully paid for and I still have money left for food, so I'll explore some more employment opportunities and enjoy NY. The way I see if, I worked for 16 years of my life, and really worked my ass off the final 2 years of college, so a few months of lounging is ok. Plus, Brandon and I are making each other write, so I'm not being completely useless.
So for now, I'm grinding the 6.50 Turbos on Full Tilt, writing my screenplay and waiting to hear about my grants.
Ta for now, and have an easy Yom Kippur
But I'm not here to promote the Bolt Bus (service to DC for under 20 dollars!). I'm not really sure why I'm here, but in the mean time, I'll just update a bit on what's going on.
Most important, I have moved back up to New York. I moved up because I had a really cheap apartment opportunity and a couple of job offer. Within 3 days of moving up to NY, I lost all of them.
There was some miscommunication between the landlord and the other room mates. Here's how the conversation went down
Me: Hi, I'm Asher, I'm going to be living here now.
Tony (old and Italian): You can't live here.
Me: What? Rachel's been talking to you for weeks about me coming here...
Tony: No.
Me: Um, her dad talked to you last week about this...
Tony: No.
Me: I'm sorry, is there something you want me to do?
Tony: No.
Me: Do you want me to run a credit check?
Tony: No.
Me: Raise the rent?
Tony: No.
Me: Any reason at all why you're saying no?
Tony: No.
So I spent the next few days scrambling for a place and luck would have it that Brandon has an extra room, sort of. So I've moved in to his dining room, which ironically has more space than the other room I would be living in, and will be paying the same for rent. Plus, he brought up his old Super Nintendo, and we're going through all the classics. Donkey Kong Country is up now, Mario next.
Job wise, I was going to go back and work with Ed over at Technicolor, but because of a looming actor's strike they've had to cut back on personelle because no one's shooting features right now. So I'm sort of hanging out, waiting for them to get work in for me to help them out on.
Basically, I'm just living in NY, earning my keep playing poker online and as Dustin always tells me, just living the American dream.
I have October fully paid for and I still have money left for food, so I'll explore some more employment opportunities and enjoy NY. The way I see if, I worked for 16 years of my life, and really worked my ass off the final 2 years of college, so a few months of lounging is ok. Plus, Brandon and I are making each other write, so I'm not being completely useless.
So for now, I'm grinding the 6.50 Turbos on Full Tilt, writing my screenplay and waiting to hear about my grants.
Ta for now, and have an easy Yom Kippur
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