Baseball Update: One loses track of all the moves that the Yankees are making these days ... now they have Aaron Boone at third, Ventura went to the Dodgers (sorry Robin), and Gabe White also came over from the Reds (he's a good, if currently hurt, reliever). Recently, troublesome Mondesi was sent out (it is nice in a way that ball players have the pride to be upset when they feel they are being underplayed or not treated fairly, but given his mixed performance, such players also have some nerve complaining ... like "poor baby") and yet another outfielder came. Meanwhile, the Mets got rid of some more veterans, including Lloyd, who went to Kansas City. Sadly, Kansas City just got swepted by the White Sox, so are but two games (in the loss column) separated ... there is still a long way to go, and I fear that the Sox's recent surge might mean they will be the Central winner. Deserved, if they can do it, but sad in a way ... maybe, like the Twins, a late drop-off will still be followed by a great year. I don't know though ... I think the KC owners want to have an excuse to cut payroll and so forth.

You Can Count On Me ... but not universal fate: I recently saw the DVD version of a favorite movie of mine, You Can Count On Me, in which Laura Linney is excellent and pretty hot (a crude comment perhaps, but every time I watch it, I am reminded about how cute and sexy she looks in the film ... in fact, she looks much better in this film than in various other roles she played). I am starting to get DVDs out just to listen to the commentary (this one also had a sort of promotional set of interviews with the cast as well), and being a bit of a film nerd (geek?), I continue to love this sort of thing.

The writer/director made a comment early on that helped me admire his point of view ... he does not believe in any overreaching "purpose" to the world or any particular "reason" why two people meet and fall in love. It's not like it is some question of fate or anything, just a combination of little things, which seems to be a pretty common sense view. It annoys me, for instance, that Jamie on Mad About You has this in my view egotistical view that somehow her love and marriage with Paul is unique ... they in particular, it seems, were "meant" to be in a way that others were not. Nice idea, but I don't think it's true. It might be true that the couple has any number of traits, life experiences, and so on that makes their match more ideal than many others. I do not know if that is true as compared to both of them being somewhat full of themselves in regard of their own self importance ... a theme that the show at times jokes about.

The director also notes that perhaps, who knows, there might be some universial purpose. Such a purpose is far above his cognizance (my word, so don't blame him, if it is used badly) though, and I'm willing to agree with that. There are things we don't understand. On the other hand, I just do not see much evidence of some overreaching fate or some anthropomorphized version of the concept of good/creation/life that many call "God." The use of such a problematic concept to explain life's mysteries or because it provides some solace (I guess some celestial Easter Bunny can serve a similiar purpose without all the shit "God" leads to) does not work for me. This does not mean life has no meaning ... there are rhymes and reason to our lives, and we can benefit from even the bad parts of it. I don't think this means the bad stuff was somehow "necessary" or anything though, and I find unreasoned leaps of faith as cheating. For if we don't use reason, why be human at all? Walking upright is great and all, but it's not something be that proud of.