This is a bleary morning. The baseball playoffs are taking their toll on me.

My usual rooting interest, the Jays, once again failed to make the playoffs. Now, I’m used to that. They haven’t made the playoffs in 20 years. And that’s not really a knock on them. Baseball is not like basketball, football or hockey. It’s really hard to get into the playoffs. Most teams don’t.

But this year, I am not without a rooting interest. Two. The San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s have both made the playoffs. Both from the Bay, both representing NorCal.

So aside from everything else in my life that has changed, I also have to figure out what team I now support. And it’s a rollercoaster. I like them both.

Anyway, all that shit probably deserves its own post so . . .

On to the pellets:

WANTED: ROBOT PITCHER: Much like Mel Queen, the US Navy is attempting to develop a Robot pitcher.

CAN A ROBOT LEARN TO COOK?: Sex robots, cooking robots, sports robots . . . These are some of life’s more pleasant occupations. How about we get these robots to do some chores before they go play? Spoiled robot bastards.

The Top 10 Relationship Words That Aren’t Translatable Into English: But we do have a fifty different words for pork rinds. So, yeah, good going English.

The Paranoid-Critical Method:  “the spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectifications of delirious associations and interpretations.”

The Gollum Effect: If you missed it, an essay on how consumerism makes us into Gollum.

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND: GAY TALESE’S OFFICE: Since I now have my first office, workspace has been an interest. Gay Talese always is.

And in celebration of Oakland’s dramatic victory last night . . .