Inertia is a powerful thing. This site, which has been stationary, has tended to stay stationary — until acted upon by me, an outside source.
I got kicked out of my municipal league softball game today. After getting hit with a thrown ball beating out a groundball to first, I goaded the umpire into doing so. (I was out at second after making the mistake of rounding first, instead of — as I would normally do — simply continuing through the bag at first, thereby assuring my being safe.) I do think it’s ridiculous that a thrown ball is still live after hitting me, the baserunner.
I didn’t swear or anything; I just demanded to see the rule. I actually wanted to see whether I could get thrown out or not. It’s probably more reprehensible that I knew what I was doing — I didn’t actually lose control. Consequently, I felt guilty (almost immediately) and apologized to the umpire after the game. He explained that the rules instruct him to report me to the league and keep me out of the following week’s game. He was nice enough not to enforce that rule.
My friend Bryan helped build a trebuchet a couple weeks ago. It wasn’t this one, but it must have been similar. Silly me. I thought Trebuchet was a font.