ASU Wins
People have said the PAC-10 was overrated this year in football, but they are now 2-0 in their bowls with ASU's win over Rutgers. Granted, the real three are yet to come, but it does look good for the m being the best conference in the NCAA. You usually hear SEC or Big 10 winning such a prize, it's nice to see a change.
ASU ends the season with 5 losses, 4 of them to teams that were in the top 10 at some point in the season. That's while having a huge number of players on the bench or playing with broken bones. The transfers they're getting as well as the returning healthy players should make them a really good team next year. It will probably be between them and Cal for the top of the PAC-10 (assuming health).
It will be interesting to see who the quarterback is.. The red shirt freshman who finished off the season (Carpenter) has the second highest QB ranking in the NCAA behind Vince Young of Texas. Keller is more of a leader and prior to his injury only had 2 interceptions, just as Carpenter had in the same number of games. Needless to say, there will be depth at the position no matter who they pick.
Anyways, ASU wins, although it was disappointing to see them win the Insight bowl when they should have been going to something better, considering how they started the season.
enough soap boxes, christmas, and getting things done
Why the hell does anyone (even me?) want to read me rant about the Yankees and George W Bush anymore?! Time to step off the soap box.
On the other hand I should clarify on the whole famous people part. I am bothered by the public paying attention to them and the press reporting on them. Obviously they should be able to speak about whatever they want, it just shouldn't be news.
So it's Christmas.. I really enjoy this time of year. The weather is beautiful in the desert, people are friendlier, and I take some time off work. I got a bunch of various things for Christmas.. the highlights being a new work bag and a bunch of stuff to continue the bathroom's decorating from Lori and a knife set, new dishes, and poker chips from my parents. My brother got me a vintage Monopoly game, and I got various other things from Lori and my parents.
It's been a great couple days with everyone, but back to reality now. Last week I got a bunch of stuff done around the house. I finally got coax run to my office for cox, a new garage door opener installed, expense reports finished, and installed various new things in the downstairs bathroom. I also got the house cleaned and carpets cleaned while pulling weeds from the front yard and cleaning up the garage. Needless to say I've been busy.
More things need to be completed this week, but I've already made a significant dent in the to do list.
I hope everyone else had a great week as well!
damon is a yankee
I'm not sure I need to say more than that. He does look funny with his hair cut after the last few years.. Did I mention how much I hate the Yankees?
nazis and bush
WARNING: political rant to follow.
While the overly psychotic leftists will compare George Bush to Adolf Hitler, they are obviously off the deep end if they think there is any real comparison. There are some small comparisons of the reasonings, propaganda, and misinformation about invading Iraq that compare to invading Poland, but that's about where it ends. If you've ever compared Bush to Hitler with a straight face, maybe you should read about the holocaust.
Anyways. I thought this was kind of funny;
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AUSTRIA_HITLER_OATH?SITE=MNROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
The guy puts an oath to Hitler on his phone in 2004 and is given prison time for it.
So what the hell does this have to do with George W. Bush you might ask?
Well, one of the biggest pet peeves of mine have been the people that think you can't criticize a war or a president. I understand there is a limit to it, as the propaganda was used in POW camps in Korea and more widely Vietnam. Despite keeping the wild criticizing in check, I bet some people would like you to go to jail for even uttering the mention of it. While I can't relate that to the president directly, his advisors have helped along the right wing propaganda that has helped grow that attitude. Remember the Dixie Chicks? Not that some useless entertainers saying anything about politics should have any bearing on anything anywhere, but these poor women spoke their mind and got chastised for it. All they did was give an opinion.. What made their opinion wrong and yours right?
On a side note, if I see another Baldwin or Bono press release about politics I think I'm going to become Republican just to piss them off. Who really cares what these people think? I mean honestly.. I want to know about Bono's new song or
Alright back on track.. So if you read that story and thought "wow, I'm glad I live in the good old USA where that wouldn't happen", think again. There are people that would love to make that happen. Hell, it has happened for that matter. Remember the McCarthy Hearings in the '50s, witch hunting for Communists?
Well, maybe we've learned from it all.. but then again, maybe not. Personally I'm glad I live in a country where this t-shirt is perfectly legal;
Check out http://www.tshirthell.com/ for more gems like that one.
That concludes my political ranting for today, and long live free speech.i could drive a hummer
After all the crap I talk about the H2 and H3, it's pretty amazing to hear me say this.. I could drive a Hummer.
Check out this concept truck they've got;
I really like the look of it.
Could Hummer come out with something not completely pointless? We shall see.
not food poisoning
Well, being sick sucks. I don't think I've had a real stomach illness in at least 8 years. They are few and far between for me. Unfortunately, I have one now.
It all started Saturday night. when I cooked dinner for Lori, and within about two hours knew something was seriously wrong with my stomach. I had hoped it was just indegestion or something stupid, and kept it to myself. About two hours later however, I knew it was something worse. From about midnight until about 6am I did not sleep, and was in some of the worst pain I've had in a long time. Every last ounce of food and water was rejected, and I lay there in a pile of cold sweat and pain. After that things got better.
Lori took care of me Sunday, while I still had stomach pains, a horrendous headache, and a fever as high as 101.4, I was functioning. I was sure to stay away from her for the most part so she didn't get sick. Monday I stayed home from work, but still felt pretty good in the scheme of things. I read some email, did a little bit of work, and hung out around the house. Lori came over after work, and we went out and did some Christmas shopping. I was feeling pretty good. At this point, it was 48 hours after the initial pains and I felt 85%, I was convinced I was getting over the final stages of food poisoning.
So Lori was home by 10pm, and I was still awake at about 3am. My stomach was bothering me and I could not fall asleep. It would be alright though I told myself, it was just indigestion from dinner.
I was wrong. I woke up at about 6am with bad pain in my stomach again. Lori called to wake me up at 7am like I'd asked her the night before, only to reveal she had been having the same problems since 2am. So not only did I diagnose wrong, but I infected her.
So I'm on day two of staying home from work, on what was supposed to be a three day work week, with me having the rest of the year off. I have three things to accomplish before I can go on vacation, let's hope I can get them done by Friday.
Lori hasn't called me back, and I'm considering driving over to check up on her.. Except I don't want to wake her, if she is actually successfully sleeping. If I don't hear from her by late afternoon I'll head over with some water and easy to eat food.
So; I've got Lori sick, I suck; My vacation is starting late, that sucks; and I'm sick, it sucks.
cool device
These things are self charging smoke detectors that go in between the light socket and light bulb. Pretty good idea. They just need to make it have a smaller profile so it will fit in more places.
http://www.firststreetonline.com/product.jsp?id=38226
my own webhosting
So some of you probably noticed my website has been down the last few days. The server that actually hosts www.mikeb.org died, and is in need of parts. There is nothing I can do about it since it is owned by some friends and stored in a place I have no access to. I hate depending on other people for my website/email, so I've gone out and bought my own "virtual server" finally.
I depend on two servers for backup DNS/email, but the primary DNS/email/web is done by my own stuff now. For the technically inclined, it's a FreeBSD jail that I'm using. I'm buying it from JVDS (http://www.jvds.com) for $15/month.
So. I'll give this offer to those that are reading. If you'd like a more reliable method of hosting DNS/web/email/etc.. let me know. We can talk about specifics, and whether I can do it for free or not =). And anyone who already does their own stuff that wants backup DNS/MX, let me know.
So, long story short, my website is more reliable now.
the coolest thing EVER
My Christmas lights suck, because they can't do this;
http://media.engadget.com/videos/lights.wmv
airport security gets wise
On 9/11/01 a group of guys hijacked planes with box cutters and crashed them, killing a bunch of people. The logical response was to make sure they couldn't get control of the plane. They did that with bullet proof locked doors on planes. You can hold the whole plane hostage and still not get through those doors.
Then they took an illogical step and made sure you couldn't bring nail clippers and finger nail scissors on the plane. There are sharper and more dangerous objects than those things that can be obtained and get right through security (porcelain and molded plastic knives come to mind). I can buy a 4" porcelain knife and never get stopped, but can't bring a 3/4" pair of scissor on. Really smart.
So anyways, they're finally changing that. They realize that the damage someone can do with fingernail scissors is very minimal. You can't crash a plane with it. It's time to focus on explosives and other higher yield weapons.
Now.. they're doing something else they hadn't been ridiculed too much for. That's right, the government taking pre-emptive action that actually makes sense.
Ok, now that you've caught your breath. They're going to randomly change security procedures. This will slow down security, or raise costs to hire extra employees. On the other hand it will be far more secure. One day you plan on blowing up the plane with rubber soled shoes full of explosives, well they're checking shoes that day. The next you plan another method, well they're doing more active bag searches that day. The next, the dogs are out doing sniffing. It makes planning an attack much harder when things are not routine.
So I say, good job on this one. There is always room for improvement, and they're actually making some.