Mark it, Dude ... Having a pretty good day today. Against all odds (Phil Collins) and for no reason whatsoever, I'm letting it all pass through me. Just thought you oughta know (Alanis Morissette).  ¶ 12:36 PM 0 comments

  Careening Toward the Apocalypse, Part II - T-Ball I honestly do not know what to say.

PITTSBURGH -- A T-ball coach allegedly paid one of his players $25 to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate so he wouldn't have to put the boy in the game, police said Friday.

Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, is accused of offering one of his players the money to hit the boy in the head with a baseball, police said. Witnesses told police Downs didn't want the boy to play in the game because of his disability.

Police said the boy was hit in the head and in the groin with a baseball just before a game and did not play.

"The coach was very competitive," state police trooper Thomas B. Broadwater said. "He wanted to win."

Downs has an unpublished telephone number and could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.

He was arrested and arraigned Friday on charges including criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault and corruption of minors. He was released from jail on an unsecured bond.

The alleged assault happened June 27 in North Union Township, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, authorities said.

The boy's mother asked state police to investigate her son's injuries because she suspected Downs wanted to keep the boy off the field, despite a league rule that required each player to participate in three innings a game, Broadwater said.

Eric Forsythe, the president of the R.W. Clark Youth Baseball League, said Downs had two daughters on the T-ball team.

League organizers investigated accusations against Downs before the T-ball season ended earlier this month but could not prove that he did anything wrong. If Downs is convicted of any crime, he won't be allowed to be a coach next year, Forsythe said. The league is not affiliated with Little League International.  ¶ 10:41 AM 5 comments

  Battery Failure When I got back from Colorado on Saturday, there was a stack of mail a mile high. Most of it was junk, but there were a couple of meaningful pieces in there. One of which was a notification that I could qualify for something free from Apple. It seems that the Third Generation iPods (3G from here on out) have a shitty battery. Now, I could have told them that a long time ago, but fortunately for me, there are some folks out there who are a lot more litigious than I am and took it to the man.

So, right now, I'm following the prescribed "Battery Failure" test that they outlined in the paperwork they sent me. And, much like the average IT person's first line of defense against a computer that won't work -- turning it off and then back on again -- all Apple really has you do is charge up your battery, push play and then wait until it conks out. For the 3G iPod, if it conks out in four hours or less, bam! I get $50 bucks from Apple or a new iPod. (They actually mean refurbished, bastards.) The problem is that there are all these disclaimers on how, when and where you can use the $50 store credit. No iTunes music, no small items since you get no change. Luckily we have an Apple Store here in town. Maybe I'll buy a really bloddy video game and then make a stink about it to the media when it rots my brain.

Anyway, so far, the Allman Brothers song, "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" has been repeatedly playing for 26:47. As I write this, I realize how apropros that song is, as I actually am wasting time. And I wasn't trying to be ironic either, my first play list is Allman Brothers and the first song starts with A. Funny how that shit works sometimes.

I think I'm gonna have a case, though. After just 31:38 of battery action, I'm already down a bar.

Drain baby, drain!  ¶ 2:46 PM 8 comments