The following things are awesome today:
1. Terry Stotts finally got fired.
2. Here is the picture of Terry Stotts used on ESPN.com in reference to the story:
Delicious.
Don't Go Nuts – Or Corn
Interesting story via the AP about the benefits and drawbacks of ethanol.
If you’ve only heard/watched the most popular media sound bites, you may be inclined to think that corn-based ethanol is some sort of silver bullet for American oil dependence. That’s simply not the case, and this brief article goes in to some of that…
Report on the Basketballs and Whatnot
My basketball team had its regular-season-doubleheader-finale last night– we were supposed to have this 2-fer evening early in February, but a snow day @ Fond du Lac pushed it back to the “make-up week.”
Last week Monday, we got killed by the best team in our division, by something like 25 points. I mean, we were annihilated. We turned the ball over a LOT, and they must’ve scored 15-18 points on transition turnovers. It was pretty sad. By the last 5 minutes we were just chucking up 3s to try to get back in the game.
With that performance in mind, I fully expected to have a rough go of it playing two games in one night. But it was actually probably our best week of the season. We beat the “kids” in our first game (this team of all 19- and 20-yr-olds, a lot of them former students of my teacher peeps on the team), putting our season record against them at 1-2.
In our second game, we played that best team again, and it was a really close, hard-fought match all the way through. The difference, once again, was a couple stupid turnovers down the stretch in the first half that let them turn a 3-point deficit into a 3-point lead. They ended up winning by 3. We had a chance to take a 1-point lead with about 20 seconds to go, but the shot rimmed out. We missed a 3 at the buzzer that would’ve sent us to OT.
So it was a pretty good last night of hoops– come to find out it wasn’t actually the last night. Apparently, all 5 teams qualify for the “playoffs,” so we have play the kids again next week, and if we win that, we play the #1 team again the following week. There is at least one, and at most three weeks to go.
In my review of how that season went, I guess I wish our team would’ve had more time to sort of “get to know each other,” and play together more often. I think we could’ve been more successful if that were the case. I also feel I could’ve shook some more rust off my game personally if we practiced, or something.
I don’t really anticipate playing in an organized league for any sport again, but it was definitely interesting to try it as an adult and just see what that’s like (it’s like high school, but just hurts more).
When They Come to Understand Ethics, Someone Will Have to Answer
Got a link to a story from the BBC yesterday via Dave Schrubbe:
“The ethical dilemmas of robotics”.
Interesting stuff.
Have a good weekend.
Prepare for Your Weekend!!
First of all, I need to mention that THE NORDIC MOUNTAIN PEOPLE FOUND MY DAMN CAR KEY. HOLY LIVING CRAP. With that in mind, Michelle and I may make another run over there on Sunday if the weather’s OK. You wanna go?
Anyway, then last week I was listening the Brewers in spring training, and getting excited about the new baseball season, and I let my temptations get the best of me– I dug out my copy of the last MLB baseball game that EA Sports released (MVP Baseball 2005), which is not a particularly fantastic game, but it does let one run a “franchise” for up to 150 years, so I played the game this week. I played it too much, as usual (with the sports games in particular).
But, I had my fun, and now I’ve returned the CDs to my drawer at work, and it’s back to business at the homestead. Michelle is “staying in” this evening since she has to be up early for a cheer competition tomorrow, and that suits me just fine, since I was thinking of staying at home tonight anyway. Here’s my list of things I want or need to get done on Friday night:
– clean up all laundry
– clean up all dishes
– pick up the junk laying around the living room
– sort out/through ski clothing
– watch and return the current Netflixs
– scan in and shred some bills from the last month or so
– devise a plan for the balance of the weekend
There is a Bucks game on Saturday, and I haven’t been to the BC for one of those in almost 2 years. Is that right? I should ask Schneider, he’s great with calendars…
Oh, one other thing I think I’ll do, just to practice the technique, is to straight-euro-lace another pair or two of my shoes. It was the first hit on the Googles, so not a major “find” by any means, but I think this page is pretty neat. What are you doing with the Internet that’s useful or cool?
Finally, soloshootsfirst made me change my password today for the first time. Who knew? I hope I remember the new one…
And Then It Was Thursday
Last evening, I missed LOST, but I doubt there was much to write home about.
Instead, Michelle drove up because she really wanted to go skiing on what very well might be the last cold week of the winter. We took a ride over to Mt. Morris and Nordic Mountain. It was pretty nice, without a lot of people, several runs open, and some fresh snow from the day before.
This was my second ski trip ever, but I impressed myself by actually advancing a little in a relatively short period of time. I think properly-fitting boots and thinking through how skiing should work were a big help (and that’s not to mention my very sexy ski instructor).
We had gone down a number runs by 8:30, and for some reason I patted myself down at that moment, because I had my phone, my ID, and my car key all in pockets inside my jacket.
As it turns out, it was right about then that I realized the car key was no longer present. I didn’t freak out too much– felt really stupid, more than anything. I don’t know why keeping something important in a pocket that doesn’t zip or button closed seemed like a good idea when we first got there, but…
I also felt sort of bad about ruining that last hour that was had on the hill for Michelle– I know this was probably the only chance she was going to get to ski this year, and she had been spending the majority of the night babysitting me on the way down each run.
So between about 8:40 and 9:25, I was fumbling around in the snow in the one spot that I really took a digger earlier in the night, to no avail. Michelle gave the heads-up to the staff people, and one of the patrol dudes came out and ran his poles around in the snow with us a little. One of them tried to be optimistic, saying maybe the groomer would pick it up the next day, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
How did we get home, you ask? I’m lucky that I have a network of reliable friends who know that I’m a douschebag here in Oshkosh. Dave Schrubbe ran over to my house to open the door and retrieve my extra car key, and then Joe and April drove out to meet us there so we could get back home. This, and Joe had a paper to write for today, too. I didn’t realize that when I asked if they could help us out…
When all was said and done, we were asleep by about midnight, which probably wasn’t that much later than we usually would’ve gone to bed. My shoulders and ankles are a little more sore than usual, but, all things considered, we coasted into Thursday no worse for wear.
The Continuing Downtown Renaissance
From a news brief on the Urinal-Sentinel:
The building also will have an Aloft Hotel. The new Aloft brand, owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., markets itself as a stylish hotel with a “hip, urban attitude.”
Oooh! Snap! What I love about it is that it’s “fresh” and “in-your-face,” kind of like Poochie.
Maybe they could get Poochie to do some hip and trendy advertising..!
Weirdos
There’s a freakshow in my neighborhood who thinks that his walk to class is a never-ending audition for American Idol. Seriously, 3 out of this last five days now, I have encountered this fellow that sings AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS as he walks down the street.
I’m all for letting the world know that you’re happy and you know it– good feelings usually make people feel good, and they should be shared.
Excessively good feelings, or feelings expressed in excessively strange ways, make you look like a nutbar.
Do you have any thoughts on why institutions of higher learning seem to attract the most looneys? Is it the free money, cute girls, and cafeteria food? Please, if you know– enlighten me…
Minor Miracles
Michelle and I got home from E.R. yesterday afternoon, and my laptop started back up like it wasn’t no thing. The hardware successfully PASSED all the system diagnostics.
I don’t get it, but I’ll take it.
Today’s walk to work was treacherous. There was about 2 inches of ice on top of the sidewalk pretty much all the way in. I was thankful to make it to work without falling once.
Then I opened the Internets this morning to find that Ahman Green now plays for the Houston Texans. Does anyone know if Randy Moss has ever run for 1,000 yards?
Preventable Accidents
Well, I suppose any accident is preventable, right? That would be the nature of an “accident,” wouldn’t you say? If someone could see it coming, then there would be a plan to prevent it.
Anyway…
Last night, I must have whacked a glass of water off my nightstand in my sleep. Most of it went in a shoe. Some of it went in my laptop, which I had set on the floor after I decided to go to sleep. I haven’t completed the troubleshooting and diagnosis of the resulting issues, but odds seem good that the lappy is boned. That is, screwed. I.E., “got a sleeper booked on the F-train.”
I’ve broken my fair share of laptops in my time, and while each incident caused me to hate myself a little bit, I have to admit that I’ve learned something from each of them. Here is a short list:
– Be very careful when drinking ANYTHING around your computer.
– Your laptop is not an old-timey console radio; hitting it will not help.
– The shock protection was tested at the factory. It’s not designed for home-testing.
– If you put your laptop on the floor, be awake the whole time it’s there. Otherwise, find a table, desk, or countertop.
– Keep unattended liquids away from ALL of your electronic devices.
So that’s where I’m at. I’m sure Mundschau is willing to help me out to be sure the lappy is indeed (once again) toast, but it’s depressing either way.
Car accidents are also easier to prevent is you exercise a lot of caution, so it remains to be seen whether or not Michelle and I will make it up north today. My gut tell me that we’ll probably be OK, since Hwy 45 is a major thoroughfare all the way up. Maybe an alternative would be to take Hwy 10 straight over to 51; you think that might be plowed better? Hmm…
Enjoy your weekend; I’ll try to post something from the Northwoods.