10.29.2003

BACK!
Razonia and I just returned from our vacation in Key West. It was an excellent vacation and we got lots of rest and relaxation with a heavy emphasis on relaxation. We stayed with my father and stepmom, which was great because we hadn't all been together since Razonia and I's wedding. I saw dad last summer for a Jimmy Buffet concert, but Razonia hadn't seen either of them and I hadn't seen Margo since the wedding, which was two years ago next month. Anyway, while we were visiting, we went to Fantasy Fest, which was NOT an accident, by the way. Wow, was it nuts! The photographic evidence of the chaotic, rambunctious partying may be seen on my moblog page. Other than a big swollen elbow during the entire trip, it was a perfect visit. Yeah...somehow I may have gotten bursitis in my elbow, but no one can ever figure it out. But, it's mostly better now thanks to a few meds and lots of the afformentioned rest and relaxation.

Lessee....oh yeah, I got a new wireless card for my laptop tonight, finally. So far it sucks. I'm about 20 feet from the router, and it fluctuates between Very Low reception and Very Good. But, with no reliability, of course. Ugh. Avoid D-Link. I tried calling their tech support line, and it HANGS UP ON YOU. Yay D-Link. Bunch of buggery bastards.....*sigh* Okay....that's it for now.

10.19.2003

Ouch
So I've done something to my back, and I don't know what it is. It's really annoying when you have back problems, because doing even the simplest thing, like putting on your sneakers, becomes a really painful event. After Friday night, when I covered a football game for the newspaper, I got home and my back was driving me nuts. I don't know if it was something I did earlier in the day working my other job at Nextel, or if it was something I did at the game, but all day I sat in backless chairs, and my workday was basically 8am to midnight, so it isn't unimaginable that I did it somewhere over the day. Anyway...it sucks. I'm in pain, and I don't have a comfortable office.

I leave for Fantasy Fest in Key West on Wednesday, and I'm REALLY looking forward to it! Be sure to watch my moblog for what are bound to be some very compelling pictures.

10.15.2003

Suddenly I feel like Charlie Brown...
...When Lucy VanPelt offers to hold the football for him so he can kick it. All Charlie Brown wants to do is kick that football. Every year he wants to kick it, and every year the only person willing to hold it for him is Lucy. So every year Charlie becomes the optimist. "So she pulled it away from me last year," he thinks. "There's no way she's cruel enough to do it again this year." Sure she's pulled it away every year for the past 50 years, but there's NO way she could be mean enough to do it again."

The Cubs' fans are Charlie Brown and the Cubs (though perhaps unintentionally) are Lucy Van Pelt. EVERY year the hope springs eternal. Every year the fans think they're going to kick that football (or, make it to the World Series). And EVERY year the Cubs pull away that football at the last minute, and we're ass over teakettle in the air, cursing their name, missing it once again. But I swear to you folks, I SWEAR... this time I felt football on my toe.

I REFUSE to blame the fan in the eighth inning of Game 6, Steve what's-his-name (though, as a Cubbie, I'm sure I'll know his name all too well by the start of next season). I REFUSE to blame Alex Gonzalez for the ATROCIOUS error he committed in the same inning. I REFUSE to blame Kerry Wood for letting a 5-3 lead in Game 7 turn into a 7-5 short coming. I blame the entity as a whole. I blame the Cubs for not finding the passion when it counted. For not coming up with the extra grit it takes to make a comeback work. And I blame myself for hoping against hope yet another year. But I swear this time, I felt the football.
Hopes Are Dashed...
All hopes of the Cubs wrapping up the series against the Marlins Tuesday night were dashed with a series of bad luck. The Cubs took a 3-0 lead into the top of the 8th inning, only to see the Marlins come back and score 8 runs, and hold on to win 8-3. It all started with a fan's bad decision (yes, I know that's editorializing, but I'm not writing for the newspaper here...I'll bloody well be emotional and editorial if I choose!) to get a souvenir. It was a souvenir that would have been happily given to him, I'm sure, if he had just let Moises Alou CATCH the damn ball first! It wasn't ruled fan interference, but I'm not sure how it avoided that distinction. From all the views that cameras allotted, it seemed to me that the fan's hand was CLEARLY over the railing, even if just by a fingers-width. From there, it only went downhill. Alex Gonzalez turned a very routine play into a horrible error. That's all that the Marlins needed. They were able to jump on the demoralized Cub pitching and defense, and rack up all the runs they needed. GRRRRR....So, there's now a game 7 to be played Wednesday night. Go Cubbies!!

10.12.2003

Drawing The Line...
Last night my wife, her uncle (who is actually only a year older than her, so it's almost more like a brother), a few of his friends from work and I went to Odessa to go see an Aerosmith tribute band called Draw The Line. We didn't get there until late because I had to cover a hockey game for the paper, which was another ordeal in itself. Many troubles sending in the story. But, all was well that ended well, and we eventually got there at about midnight and were able to see them play for about 2 hours. I was pretty blown away. I've seen Aerosmith twice, and these guys sounded so closely to them, that if you weren't looking you'd swear you were listening to Aerosmith. And, the singer looked enough like Steven Tyler that even the look was passable at most times. Definitely the best tribute band I've ever seen!

Check out some photos from the show on my moblog page.

10.10.2003

Here we go with the sports again...
There's a big weekend ahead of me. Not to emerge myself into the sports thing again, but it's an everyday fact of life when you're a sports reporter such as myself. I have several newspaper assignments this weekend, but I have the least of the big sports headlines. The biggest of them all is the University of Texas/Oklahoma University game. My boss, being an ex-UT player, has a very vested interest in the game. I'm working this weekend and won't be able to watch the game, but I'm sure it's going to be one hell of a brew-hah-hah. Then there's the NFL games on Sunday. My Houston Texans. take on the Tennessee Titans and I'll be routing for the Philadelphia Eagles to dismantle those crappy Dallas Cowboys.

So anyhoo. That's the extent of my fun this weekend. That's a sports-filled weekend, but it'll do for now.

10.08.2003

Tired and Frustrated...
I'm so damn frustrated right now...I've been sitting here trying to figure out HTML code, when I know as much as your average 8 year old. Probably less. So, I'm looking at the code to this page, trying to figure out how to take the pinkish/coral type color at the top of the page (which in my opinion looks really hideous), and I can NOT find it anywhere in the code. If anyone knows what that is listed as, please let me know. I think I've changed about every color in the page other than that one, but for some reason that one never changed. Ugh.

I'm going to bed...get my obligatory 5 hours of sleep and do the 11 hour work day tomorrow. Man. But yay! The 2003-04 NHL season starts in a little less than 18 hours!!

10.07.2003

Sprint? More like....walk...er sumthin....
My phone is starting to piss me off. All I'm asking is that Sprint give me the services I pay for...and so tonight I go to add some photos to my moblog and I get this message: Vision Service Not Available. I wonder what they'd say if I told them my payment for the month wasn't available. Not that such an approach would work. When a company's got legal access to your credit record, they kind of have you by the proverbial "short and curlies".

So, I'll stop my whining about that. But, as soon as I do have access, the moblog will be updated with some cool pics. I'm learning more and more about how to post out there, but I still have a lot to learn. There's some great moblogs out there, and just looking through them I get inspired. Right now, most of my pics are these esoteric, random shots of different things. I kind of like the idea of not having a topic, and just shooting things in my life. There's some wacky crap out there....
blah blah blah...
It's pretty quiet tonight, which I suppose is a good thing. It seems the older I get, the less time I have to just sit and relax. Less and less time that isn't scheduled for one activity or another. Even if it is a recreational activity, it's still on a schedule. Tonight, I've just sat and watched the Cubs game and jogged around the internet. I need to find a good book about learning Windows XP and PC's in general. I've spent so many years on a Mac, eschewing Microsoft's products in favor of ones that are easier to use and understand, that I've got very little more than an average education on a PC. If anyone has any ideas, drop me an email....
There are only 25 letters in the alphabet....
..because I can't seem to find z's anywhere. Seriously. When did I develop such a difficult problem sleeping in a normal fashion? I haven't gone to bed before midnight more than a dozen times since I turned 18. I'm 29...do the math. That's kinda f**ked up, don't ya think? Well, here it is creeping slowly closer to 1:30 in the morning. That means I won't be asleep much before 2 a.m. Then, I'll be up at 7 a.m. Is it wrong that I'm viewing 5 hours of sleep as a decent nights sleep? 3.5 hours or so last night...5 hours tonight...that's like one good night's sleep spread over two nights. Ugh. I'm off to work on my ABC's....

10.06.2003

Dare I hope...?
Tonight the Red Sox beat the Oakland A's to advance to the American League Championship. To me, the dream match up in the World Series would be the Chicago Cubs and the Red Sox. The Sox last won in 1918. The Cubs haven't been to a World Series since the last time they won one, and that was 95 years ago. No matter what team wins in that matchup, how terrific a story would that be?

Tonight was fun - regardless of the outcome of the game, I spent time watching it with some friends, and that's always fun for me. I realize that I've started out these posts rather sports-centric, but it really isn't my entire life.

I finally got my Moblog up and running tonight. I tried posting the pics last night, but for some reason my Sprint phone didn't want to cooperate with me. Finally, tonight, it did. I've got a pic of my dog, Hunter, on the couch along with some other oddities I've found while out and about. There's also a pic of my favorite beer/beer label, Shiner. Ahhh, Shiner, how I love thee....

Ooooh. Go to this site. Go now. Most of the site is good, but you shouldn't wait another minute before getting to see the Wit and Wisdom of StrongBad and his emails.

That's all I'm feelng right now. I think I hear a cold Shiner calling my name....
The Monkey came back...he wouldn't stay away...he was sitting on the porch the very next day...
So I felt the need to post again. I'm not sure why. I guess it's just the novelty of something...well...new. Here are a few reasons I'm happy tonight.

1. A brand spankin' new laptop humming under my fingers.
2. The Cubs won their first post-season series in 95 years.
3. The NHL season starts in just a little more than 64 hours. Go Stars!!
4. I get to start covering the team I write about, the Odessa Jackalopes, in just about a week.

Things are good. Looking to get better yet, but things are good.

10.05.2003

So here's where it starts. Every journey begins with just a few steps, it's been said, and so I'm going to start walking down this road. I've been reading about "blogs" for months now, and even have friends who have started them, but I've been hesitant about starting my own. I'm not sure why - I guess part of it is just that I feel, as many people do, that no one will be interested in reading what I have to say. Well, I'm hoping that won't be true. I'll do my best not to prattle on and let things get stale and too "inside".

Here's a bit about me (without getting TOO specific): I'm 29 years old, I live in Texas and I write for a local newspaper in the Sports department. Hockey is my specialty and my love, but not my only sports interest. I work for a cell phone company to help pay the bills also. I'm married (no kids) and have a couple of animals. You will be able to see them on my moblog page before long. Until then, you'll just have to wonder....