Archives for June 2002

metaBlog

Posted on 6/28/2002 to Developer Stuff

My new weblog tool, metaBlog should be ready for it's first beta release sometime today. (fingers-crossed).

The initial beta is going to be limited, so please email if you'd like to try it out. (You'll need ASP.NET and SQL Server).


.NET Weblog Tool

Posted on 6/25/2002 to Developer Stuff

I am building a weblog tool in ASP.NET. It is called metaBlog (tenatively). It is not yet ready for distribution, but you can follow its progress at metaApps.com.

Texas Wins National Title In Baseball

Posted on 6/22/2002 to Sports

The Texas Longhorns topped South Carolina 12-6 to win their 5th National Championship in baseball.

The excitement started right off the bat as the Gamecocks loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the first inning, but Texas ace, Justin Simmons escaped the inning allowing just one run. The Texas offense came right back, putting 3 runs on the board in their half of the first inning. Both teams added another run in the second, and then things settled down for a couple of innings.

Then in the fifth, Chris Carmichael, startig for the first time in a month, homered to right with two men on. Texas later added another run, making the score 8-2 heading into the seventh.

The wheels began coming off for Texas, as the Gamecocks continued their late inning heroics by scoring two runs each in the 7th and 8th innings, bringing them to within 2 runs at 8-6. Once again, the Texas offense rolled up at just the right time, adding 4 runs of their own in the bottom of the eighth. Huston Street closed out the game to become the first CWS player to earn 4 saves. Street was also name MVP of the tournament.


Texas Advances To CWS Championship Game

Posted on 6/21/2002 to Sports

The Texas Longhorns topped Stanford to move to within one win of their first national title in baseball since 1983.

Texas awaits the winner of South Carolina and Clemson.


Netflix Opening 10 New Distribution Centers

Posted on 6/20/2002 to In General

Netflix cranks up DVD distribution With 10 new distribution centers opening throughout the country, the online DVD-rental company believes it has the capacity to handle up to 1 million orders a day. [CNET News.com]

I have been using Netflix since last October and generally love it. Shipment times have been good for the most part, with most CD's arriving within 3 days of shipping. Hopefully this will cut times to 1-2 days.

Message for Netflix: How about an alert via email whenever my queue gets low, or heaven forbid empty?


No More AOL/AIM

Posted on 6/18/2002 to In General

Due to recent remarks by Ted Turner, equating Israel with terrorists, I will no longer be using AOL products, including AIM.

Bleary-Eyed

Posted on 6/17/2002 to Sports

I did it again. For the second Monday in a row, I was up at 1:30 AM CST watching the USA in the World Cup. This one was against Mexico.

I might have mentioned this once before - I am not a big soccer fan. I am an occasional fan who understands the importance of this event on the international stage. But more than that, I am an American. So I stayed up late, and what do you know...I couldn't have asked for a better reward than what the team provided, a 2-0 victory over Mexico.

Being a football fan, I am always weary of "prevent defenses", they always seem to give up more than the regular defense. However, in this match they got it right. In what ended up being a brilliant strategical move, the US focused on defense, and waited patiently for opportunities to present themselves. When the time came, they took advantage. By the later stages of the game, Mexico had worn down completely from trying to apply so much pressure for most of the game. They seemed to play right into the hands of the USA. Of course, none of this would have been possible without another amazing effort by Friedel. I'll say it again - amazing.

Next up Germany. This one starts at 6:30 AM locally, so I will get a bit more sleep.


Happy Father's Day

Posted on 6/16/2002 to Family & Friends

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there.

U.S. Moves On Despite Thumping By Poland

Posted on 6/14/2002 to Sports

South Korea bailed out the U.S. soccer team today. People will say that the U.S. backed into the next round. I wonder what Portugal, France, or Argentina give to be in our shoes?

The more I watch these World Cup games, the more it seems like winning isn't the real objective, at least not in this round. The objective here is to survive, and the US team has done just that. Sure, it might all be over soon, but until then...

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!


Wildfires

Posted on 6/12/2002 to In General

By now, you've heard about the wildfires raging in Colorado, specifically the Hayman fire. This time last year, we lived south of Denver in Castle Rock, which last I checked was on the edge of the evacuation area. For the first time since having to leave Colorado, I am glad to not be there.

World Cup and College World Series

Posted on 6/10/2002 to Sports

I was determined to watch the whole US vs. Korea game, and watch it I did. I stayed up until after 3:30 AM to catch the whole game. Boy am I tired today.

I was thrilled to see that the Texas Longhorns have moved on from the Super Regionals to the College World Series. Hopefully it will not be 2 losses and out as it was with their last visit. My one concern is the performance, or lack thereof, of Justin Simmons, the Longhorns regular season ace. He is just not been the same since getting hammered by tamu in the opening game of the Big 12 tourney.


ΣΕΧ Or Sigma Epsilon Chi

Posted on 6/5/2002 to In General

Did you know that I once started a franternity with several friends while I was attending the University of Texas? It's name was ΣΕΧ. We even registered with the University as a service organization, which required a meeting with the Dean of something or other.

Too bad it didn't last.


Google, Soccer, Radio Userland, and American

Posted on 6/2/2002 to Sports

Soccer, weblog, american led someone to my Radio Userland based site that has been up for only a day or two.

Now I know how to draw people to my site ;-).