This is an interesting analysis on the electability of Hillary.  Personally I am rooting for her to get the nomination.  When 45% of Americans say they will vote for anyone but Hillary, that is quite promising for Fred!

Hey I’m back! Its been a while I know, but for those who still check in now and then here are a few things:

First of all happy fourth of July! Its glorious to be American and we should all appreciate the risk, dedication, and sacrifice it took to sign the declaration of independence and officially make America the land of the free.

As many of you know I am in MA for the week for work and went to see a Red Sox game last night with Jillian. It was a great experience, almost unreal, and it was a learning experience too. I would like to say that it was like returning home, but it really felt more like an introduction. Its been so long since I was last at Fenway that it felt like my first game and my first day as a fan. Sweet Caroline!

Here are some links:

NC State was endowed with $2 million to promote capitalism. Wouldn’t surprise me if UNC countered with some socialism.

Tom O’Brien has been very successful recruiting, not for this comming year, but for the next years football season. Sounds like he is putting a good program together.

The Swiss won the America’s cup over New Zealand, 5-2. I am kind if disappointed because New Zealand was dominant coming into the Americas cup, and it just doesn’t seem right for Sailings most esteemed trophy to be held for another four years by a landlocked country.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9428163

Yesterday the Mets beat the cardinals (something that should have happened about 5 months ago) to open the baseball season. Today the rest of the league begins games. The day has finally arrived! GO RED SOX!

http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/911myths/4213805.html

Last night we had the draft for our fantasy baseball league and this is the team that I picked:

• C: Victor Martinez
• 1B: David Ortiz
• 2B: Tadahito Iguchi
• SS: Miguel Tajada
• 3B: Hank Blalock
• OF: Vladamir Guerrero
• OF: Corey Patterson
• OF: JD Drew
• Util: Jim Thome
• Bench: Frank Thomas
• Bench: Curtis Granderson
• Bench: Ty Wingginton

• SP: Jake Peavy
• SP: CC Sabathia
• SP: Jason Schmidt
• SP: Nate Robertson
• SP: Ian Snell
• RP: Billy Wagner
• RP: Jorge Julio
• Bench: Brad Penny
• Bench: Adam Wainwright
• Bench: Ryan Dempster

Overall I am happy with the draft. The league is tilted in favor of power hitting more then speed and I definitely got more power. 2B and 3B are a little weak and I have two DHes, and I can only play one. However I anticipate that trades will come. I wouldn’t mind trading Thome or Thomas for some speed in the outfield or at 2B. We’ll see how things go but as of now I am pretty excited!

I have been busy lately and not very inspired which is why I haven’t written much. Here are a few things:

• At the Raleigh REI garage sale I got a hammock with a mosquitoe net that packs up super small and will be really nice in the summer for backpacking on sunny weekends since I’ll be able to leave my tent and sleeping pad and still wont have to worry about bugs. I also got Ian a LED head lamp (absolute backpacking necessity) and got dad a new backpack. All great deals.
• The fantasy draft for my fantasy baseball league is tonight and I am too excited. Its the first year of a three year keeper league so that adds a new element, and things should be really interesting. I hate the pressure of not knowing what kind of team you are going to end up with but I love the excitement of the draft. Once its over then it’ll be a relief to at least know who I have to work with this year.
• We are planning a backpacking trip for next weekend that should be a lot of fun. James Ian and I are going with mom out to shining rock. We are all geared up and ready to go and just need some nice weather. Shining rock is so beautiful year round and should be even more so in the spring.
• I am very excited for baseball season to start next week. The Red Sox are looking good, with their one major question mark answered, moving Papelbon into bullpen as the closer. The rest of the guys in the pen should be great, and Taverez should be ok holding down the fifth spot in the rotation until Lester is ready to start. One guy that has been great this spring is Devern Hansack. Some are saying he could take over the role of closer by the end of the season and allow papelbon to move back into the rotation. Lester could then fill in for any injuries to starters down the road. You can never have too much pitching.
• NC State baseball is doing well this year too. They have won their last two ACC series, both two games to one, over VT and WF, after losing their opening ACC series one games to two. I would like it better if they were sweeping series, but the ACC is very good and winning series is doing very well. The greatest thing about the win over WF is the emergence of Jimmy Gillheeney as a dominant starter. He is only a freshman, but against Wake forest he pitched 5 and 2/3 three hit innings with nine Ks. Pretty awesome, and its nice to know he’ll be sticking around for the next two years. NC States series this weekend is at Boston College.

Tuesday I went down to NC State to recruit for EMC with some other folks from RTP and at the end of our time there one of the people from NC State gave me a couple of tickets to see the Carolina Hurricanes play hockey tonight. I have followed the hurricanes somewhat since they moved to NC and got excited last year when they won the stanley cup, but I have never been to a game before. Back when we first moved to NC, before the Hurricanes came, there was the Raleigh Capitals, a minor league team, and dad used to take James and I to games, so I asked dad to come out to the game with me, and we had a blast.

Its the stretch run to the playoffs now, with 8 games left, and the Canes were tied with two other teams for the last spot in the playoffs, so this game did mean something, and they were able to pull off a come from behind 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals. I was pretty surprised at how crowded it was, at about 85 to 90 full all the time, and it was pretty noisy, especially in the third period when we scored two goals to take the lead.

I would definitely enjoy going to more hockey games there in the future, though not sure I would pay the $55 a ticket that we would have needed for tonights game. They specialize in barbecue and it will be some time before I forget the barbecue nacho chips I enjoyed for dinner. Overall a great experience and a lot of fun for both dad and I.

Here is an awesome blog about the launch of a rocket from California, to 200 miles above the earth, by a private corporation called spaceX. Its pretty awesome and I see it as the future of space exploration. So far most of space exploration has been done by governments, and governments aren’t known for being the most efficient and cost effective about projects like this and aren’t known for being great at driving down costs. However competing businesses will make space exploration more and more attainable and less and less expensive.

On the video in the article you can see live footage of the entire launch and footage from a cameras on the rocket looking back down towards earth. Its absolutely amazing to watch it get 200 miles into space in just over 5 minutes and see the curve of the earth come into view in the upper left hand corner of the camera. The video ends when they lost contact with it and they believe that the second stage malfunctioned and the rocket lost its stability. However it is considered a great success because its first stage separated successfully, which is what most people were worried would fail. There is a second video on the blog from their first attempt, when the rocket flew for a few seconds and then crashed into the ocean.

They had the garage sale in Durham this morning and boy did we make out. I personally didn’t get much. Just a pair of nice shoes that can replace my current pair that is getting really worn out. But this time I brought others with me, and they all walked out with piles of booty. We got three backpacks, two from the garage sale for $30 and $50 and one full price. They got shoes, clothes, and Melissa got a nice down sleeping bag that was only like $8 because it has a tear in it that mom will easily be able to fix. Its pretty awesome that we were able to get what we did because we are planning some trips with them for later this spring and they will now be geared up and ready to go.

The backpack we got full price was an Osprey Ariel that James, Melissa, and I got for mom. She really likes my Osprey Aether, and the Ariel is the womans version of that. She tried it on with weight and it was love at first sight. If she was excited to go backpacking before she is really stoked now.

I also enjoyed a double header that the pack played against VT in baseball at the Doak this afternoon. Their game yesterday was rained out, so they played two today, and I went to one whole game and stayed for an inning of the second. We won the first 12-8 and the second 5-2 and as usual it was great baseball. Here are some pics I took: