the blogs of melvinism

2007-10-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

2007-09-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

so i'm driving along in estes park and the locals are in traffic-not often you see about a dozen of these on the side of the road.

2007-08-16T13:18:00.001-07:00

2007-08-12T06:57:00.001-07:00

ok, not my thing . . .

2007-08-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 08 august 2007.

so bonds hits the record-tying hr saturday. and the record-breaking hr yesterday. and one more today. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

what shouldn't take a line in my blog is the dodgers losing streak. dodgers stink. like tilapia. . . at this rate, they'll never ever win another game again . . .

2007-08-03T09:49:00.001-07:00

today is friday 03 august 2007.

just back from san diego. wild trip. toured the city, caught the coronado ferry, went to seaport village, sat in a wild outdoor organ concert, went to la jolla and found native sea life in their habitat in a tide pool, went to the san diego zoo and told the hippo/rhino joke to the bus tour driver (she didn't get it), went to see some fragments of the dead sea scrolls at balboa park, went to see centerfielder of the dbacks rob the padres of a grand slam near the kiddie sand pit in center field, saw some remnants of sea life at another beach on coronado, and finally had some filipino found that even i wouldn't touch. whirlwind trip. even caught the slumping dodgers get beat by the even more slumping barry bonds on the way back from san diego . . . yeah it was fun.

and to all the giants fans out there--barry ain't making to records in dodger stadium. 'nuf said!

2007-07-27T21:29:00.001-07:00

today is friday 27 july 2007.

would be at the rockies/dodger games . . . except for rain. i even have a ticket--but i guess it'll be good in september.

rain delays are miserable at baseball games. at baseball games and at airports--simply miserable.

for all you trekkies--a new star trek movie? so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

and tour de france. i tell you--that black labrador that got run over by the bikers was on steroids. and other golden lab that that destroyed the front wheel was on steroids. the poor scared pups just walked away--the bikers, well you can says they got a good case of road rash . . . i'd never want to get on a bike again!

2007-07-26T18:43:00.001-07:00

2007-07-25T10:03:00.001-07:00

2007-07-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

2007-07-22T21:39:00.001-07:00

today is 22 july 2007. agian.

sports quotes that deserve a line in my blog.

jay cutler, quarterback for the broncos. sports announcer says he'll carry the broncos for the next decade. doesn't he have only 5 games under his belt. maybe too presumptuous?

yesterday's dodger/mets game. talking about dodger reliever jonathan broxton--a big boy. six feet four inches and listed at a conservative 240 pounds, one commentator said everything about was big. big legs, big bottom. maybe too personal?

and finally, on the stat that catcher russell martin has gunned down 39% percent of would-be base stealers. commentator said that's almost 40%. maybe too perceptive?

2007-07-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 22 july 2007.

sports edition blog . . .

so yesterday on free fox, the dodgers/mets game got interrupted with the barry bonds at-bats . . . kinda irritating, except for the fact that bonds did nothing. except hit weakly to the pitcher . . . got a walk . . . got a strikeout--then cutting into the at-bats isn't too bad. i'd rather miss a few commercials to see bonds strikeout any day!

so he's two away from the record. what would happen if bonds couldn't hit two or three homeurns back in san fran this week against the braves or marlins? suppose he had to make the series to los angeles at the end of july and try to break the homerun record there? do you think anyone in los angeles is really going to care?

or even better--he ends up like fred mcgriff who was 5 from 500 homeruns . . . suppose bonds gets injured. career ending . . .

off to other things.

so to hadji's contemplations--is golf really a sport? let's extend that--is fishing a sport? or race car driving? or bowling.

i guess that got me wondering--someone is suggesting that golf players be tested for steroids . . . makes you kinda wonder. would taking steroids really help you put a ball in a hole, catch more fish, or drive faster?

and then the great debate. the dodgers come to town this week. and it's your anniversary . . . what to do. what to do . . . 8-b

2007-07-16T11:55:00.001-07:00

2007-07-16T08:17:00.001-07:00

today is monday 16 july 2007.

this year is the year of baseball milestones. like bonds possibly breaking the hr record.

and pitchers like clemens getting 350 wins. and glavine hitting 300.

like the dodgers drawing 175,000,000 fans.

and who can forget-the phillies losing 10,000 . . . that's alot of bad, bad, bad years in the city of brotherly shove.

2007-07-14T11:02:00.001-07:00

today is saturday 14 july 2007.

above is micro sd card. it's small. it's usually used in cell phones--like my tmobile dash.

and sd slots have springs to help eject the card. the tmobile dash is no different.

just be careful. else the micro sd card will fly. like mine did. and if it does--hopefully you'll have an easy time finding the micro sd card.

2007-07-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

today is friday 13 july 2007.

yeah, friday the 13th. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

all star game on tuesday . . . i'm sure the players need the break, but this time of year, getting through 4 days of no-dodger-baseball is killer!

barry bonds saga starts up again. some of the papers say he should get the homerun record at home in san fran. i hope not--the dodgers are playing in the city by the bay this weekend. fine with me if bonds gets his record when the giants come back home--in two week after the dodger series they hit the road. he can get his homerun record in wrigley against the poor cubbies. all i know is the dodgers don't need to be on the wrong side of the highlight reel.

by the way, this just in. mark cuban can't be serious about buying the cubs? i guess another jerk in baseball is nothing new . . .

for environmental concerns--the south platte river is unsafe for swimming. bad the e-coli levels are high. so high that when 100,000 gallons of sewage was spilled, it barely made a dent in the e-coli levels. i'm never getting in a river here in colorado again!

and be proud--the charisian presence sat through all six star wars episodes in a week. the second episode (the new one) is the one with all the dumb mushy scenes. might as well be sitting through some chick flick. or at least warn me not to watch after eating. the third one was pretty intense--still parts are slow. but i guess i still like return of the jedi best above all.

2007-07-11T10:40:00.001-07:00

today is wednesday 11 july 2007.

all star game last night. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. actually ichiro's inside the park homerun was pretty wild.

my bet though is eric byrnes of the dbacks is going to get railed on for letting his bulldog swim in mccovey cove.

iphone came out a few weeks ago. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. too bad it actually isn't too good of a phone.

phone blogging is taking shape. . . today's post was from phone to blogger!

2007-07-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 01 july 2007.

tomorrow is a day of melvinism . . . a time to celebrate when i left the university. quietly.

the colorado rockies are something else. they win the series against the red sox. and sweep the yankees. and then get swept in toronto. and then swept by the cubbies. and lost the series in houston . . . yeah, after the yanks, lost nine of ten. four of the loses were in the bottom of the ninth. frustrating.

the dodgers killed the dbacks in three of four. then turn around to get killed by padres two of three. no first place--and no beard in the meanwhile.

the iphone came out friday. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

the safari browser came out a few weeks earlier. also so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

aside from that, nothing really going on.

2007-06-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

today is friday 08 june 2007.

haven't blogged in a month. nothing really going on.

except maybe the beard thing . . . if the dodgers remain in first, then the charisian presence has allowed me to grow a beard. or a goatee. or a lambchops. but alas--the dodgers get killed in san diego. so the dodgers lose first place, and i lose whatever facial hair is growing . . .

also got a new cell phone thingy . . . tmobile dash is hip. windows mobile 6 is much more stable than previous pocketpc versions. also wifi on dash is cool. bluetooth works on dash, but bluetooth doesn't work on pc--so wireless sync don't happen. plays mp3s. connects with outlook. able to send text messages and e-mail with tiny keyboard on device--and it even makes calls!

cell phone commercials are still funny . . . especially the cingular ones. kids in las vegas calling parents--"hey mom, we're in vegas." mom asks, "you're not getting married are you?" and the signal goes dead . . . that's funny.

aside from that, nothing really going on.

2007-05-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 13 may 2007.

ok. haven't blogged in a month. nothing really going on, and nothing is really exciting that it's taking a line in my blog.

dodgers remain in first. i tell you--first in the division this year. brad penny is all-star. at least until the all-star game. but after that, derek lowe will carry the team.

barry bonds in colorado this weekend. so on news4colorado.com--Q: why does the media talk about bonds so much. A: because we got nothing else to talk about (the rockies stink). at least parking is cheap.

yeah, the rockies stink. and stink bad right now. so tonight they trade disgruntled korean pitcher bk kim for a marlins pitcher that just lost a game with walk-off grand slam. smart move.

commercials that are funny: the cell phone ones are especially funny.

like the t-mobile one about the 5 favorites. the kid names his sister's five friends on his 5 favorites. sister freaks out. dad says to daughter "maybe you should get uglier friends."

or the cingular ones where the signal cuts out. 1) when the lady tells her boss that she should be promoted to manager 2) the one when girl gets flowers from her boyfriend and is on a call with her friend why she got flowers (surely no problems, right?) 3) guy calls this girl after a date and sees if there was chemistry between the two. those are funny.

the frontier airlines commercial are pretty funny too. the baggage handler one is funny. "sultan of the suitcase. brahman of the briefcase." wild.

so the other day i'm upgrading a computer from xp home to xp pro. seemingly innocuous. until ie 7 corrupts the whole activation process--the activation screen doesn't come up. xp pro is needed for some specialized software and reinstalling was not an option. alas--many hours of thinking and research and fifteen minutes behind the computer got me success--and just a little over two weeks to go before the whole activation mess would really create a big mess.

so i was starting to get use the opera browser. i liked the speed dial feature where you get a thumbnail for nine webpages--click and you're there. the other day, i browse firefox extensions and speed dial is already copied! like little caesars pizza--copy what everyone else does.

but hadj did note--little caesars is the pioneer of the $5 pizza. now everyone finds a way to offer $5 pizza.

ok. i admit, i'm turning more green. whole foods is pretty wild. and i started getting those compact florescent bulbs (they have a funky shape and funky color light--but supposedly it's cheaper to operate).

'nuf for now.

2007-04-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 08 april 2007.

i'm dreaming of a white easter? yes, it snowed here today.

new math at kfc. so i hand the cashier a coupon for $2.99 two chicken meal. my visa gets charged for $2.56. i don't get it.

the dodgers killed the giants this weekend. giants haven't beat the dodgers at their home park since last august. by the way, what do the giants call their park? wasn't it pac bell park. until it became sbc park. until it became cingular park. until it became at and t park? it doesn't matter--the giants stink whatever you call their home field.

hala time--pastor calling out his flabby-armed mom. find the podcast!

2007-03-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 27 march 2007.

spring break . . . and on my schedule--absolutely nothing! reinstalled suse 10.1--had some annoyances from the the last reinstall, namely mplayer not working, yast not installing packages, etc. got everything running in about 24 hours this time.

aside from that, nothing really going on.

2007-03-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

today is monday 12 march 2007.

so yesterday was the day we're supposed to set clocks ahead an hour. a few questions . . . like why is the ms outlook fix 8mb? can we say bloated? why did frontier airlines have a near meltdown--flights were incorrectly scheduled, but guess what--an hour.

how about the fix that is bound not to crash anything? instead of dealing with all the headaches with auto update--why don't we just check the time and make necessary adjustments? life is so complicated for some . . .

colorado symphony hip yesterday. and no, no problems starting on time. dvorak symphony 6 was pretty hip. so was marin alsop conducting. so was fill-in pianist chris o'rielly filling in for the injured jeffrey kahane--though the kahane (current conductor)/alsop (conductor laureate) pairing with would have been indeed hip.

before the concert, a bunch of cellos played in the lobby. kinda weird--i think they were a group of six cellos playing arranged rock songs. again--on cellos nonetheless.

so throughout the concert my phone is buzzing with spring training scores. not that i don't like baseball--but i really don't care about results that don't mean a thing.

so it's the 12th day of march. and no snow flakes in sight. march the snowiest month of the year--right.

2007-02-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

today is wednesday 21 february 2007.

the snow has stopped. and except for piles, the snow is off the ground after 60+ days back to 21 dec with the first blizzard. snow expected fri.

aside from that nothing really going on.

and this thing above . . . it's a mascot for the aaa dodger team in las vegas. yeah, weird.

2007-01-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

today is monday 29 january 2007.

so vista comes out tomorrow. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

actually i might be getting a copy. somewhere in the tubes, you can watch three vista videos and you could get a copy of vista business. i got the videos running, and an e-mail said vista is on her way . . . time will tell whether this is for real or not.

most scathing review--from cnet.com . . . vista is $200 win xp service pack. ouch.

on to snow . . . and yes it did snow for yet another weekend here in denver. six of six. we haven't seen the ground for 30+ days now. and there is more to come!

cbs4denver.com highlights the best ice ruts and pot holes in the city. it's pretty bad when the ups trucks disappear.

wild snow story--some guy went down red rocks amphitheatre on skis when the snow was three feet deep. only to be arrested by denver police for trespassing.

todd helton of the rockies was rumored to be headed to bean town. so how does this work--the rockies get a bunch of players, the red sox get helton and 8+ million. baseball economics is a mess.

2007-01-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

today is friday 05 january 2006.

no school today. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. no school because of snow. snow is hip. snow is cool. but the snow from the first blizzard (before Christmas)hasn't totally melted . . . and snow is slowly becoming the new "four letter word" around here.

and yes, more snow expected next week . . .

2006-12-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

today is thursday 28 december 2006.

back from hawaii . . . nothing wild in hawaii. much chicken katsu. much malasadas. went to the arizona memorial--been over twenty years since i was there. battleship missouri was pretty hip too. cable tv was hip. and so was playing with orbit the fat dog. even went fishing--but it was too easy when you're pulling something up on every cast!

not hip is wifi--none free. and no, mcdonald's doesn't have free wifi. look it up on your free wifi diretory--no panera breads, no atlanta bread companies in hawaii. only obscure little coffee shops that where unexpectedly closed or were on the other side of the island. and nearly 90% of the free wifi was in waikiki--and why would i want to spend my time there? finally found an internet cafe in haleiwa--the town was busy as surf in the 'hood hit 10 feet that day. with a nice day in hawaii--why would i want to spend my time there?

got back to denver to a mess. the last blizzard left tons of snow. thought about changing flights--but the weather forecasters were saying blizzard #2 was on her way (snow is already falling as i blog). the parking lot at denver international airport was a mess--the car though was dry though. the charisian presence would have been happy seeing her car plow through the snowbanks in the parking lot. it was pretty ugly.

the newscasters were out in dia looking at the piling snow. piling luggage. piling angry passengers. and it doesn't get better as the bad weather team from weather.com piling into the mile high city.

and grocery stores--i could've sworn there was a imminent nuclear attack. or maybe i was back in the south. milk gone. bread gone. cheese gone. everything gone--except crazy people in the store!

had to go to longs drugs before i headed to honolulu international airport tuesday. got me a tub of arare--tastes good, but gives you bad breath for days. also found fireworks. i guess in honolulu, paperless firecrackers are the rage. fires with the same explosive power (sorta), same pop (sorta), but less mess (no lie). and the $25 dollars normally spent on getting a firecracker permit could be spent on getting more paperless firecrackers.

and finally on cable tv--the rage is cesar milan and his show on the national geographic channel called "dog whisperer." a dog psychologist with pretty interesting ideas, try using the google with his name sometime. the charisian presence tried cesar's "exercise, discipline, affection" techniques on the pit bull and orbit. we got through the exercise and discipline parts--orbit seems to like charisian presence more than me. 8-( but the pit bull we'll need to work on a little more--he just started barking.

2006-12-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

today is monday 11 december 2006. a day of melvinism!

the jay cutler experiment is starting to become a nightmare for the broncos. they got beat 20-48 against the chargers. not that i really care--but there was so much promise for this bronco team. until about a month ago when they quit winning games . . .

adobe acrobat 8 came out last week. i'm not a real adobe fan--but this reader does load up much faster than version 7--just as fast as the free foxit pdf reader . . . but it take 100+ mb on my hd--yep, that's 25 times more than foxit.

on the lighter side. barney the white house dog has a Christmas video out. why an American president has a Scottish dog is still a mystery to me . . .why not get an American pit bull? scare off foreigners in the white house?

2006-12-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

today is saturday 02 december 2006.

snowing here in denver. that weather system that rolled in on wed/thu was pretty wild. extended from seattle to boston.

so the midwest was a mess. why do they get all this national news coverage, and denver gets nothing. we got the same system . . .

jay cutler is starting qb for the broncos tomorrow. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. the news has been covering this to the point of nausea.

some of the cingular ads have been funny. like the one where the guy calls his girlfriend and tells her all kinds of lovey-dovey stuff. the guy doesn't get a response back because of dead signal . . . so he starts to wonder. that's funny.

the charisian presence played in a lakewood symphony orchestra concert thursday. lord of the rings symphony was pretty wild. guest conductor also included some copland pieces.

the guest conductor shared some of his experience of playing copland back in the late 70's. at that time he was conducting a youth orchestra in texas. so good was this youth orchestra that copland (who was still alive) flew in to see them. the kids were not real impressed . . . the conductor noted hearing whispers "yeah, we'll play for the old guy(!)" . . .

the guest conductor was also chided by copland himself. "you're taking this music too fast--who do you think you are? leonard bernstein?(!)"

back to lovey-dovey stuff. there was a story on cbs4denver.com concerning germs in the mouth. particularly germs in the mouth of humans compared to the germs in the mouth of dogs. human mouths have nasty germs life staph infection. germs in the mouths of dogs however have nothing that is dangerous to humans. so in theory it is better to kiss a dog than kiss a human. so let orbit lick away!

2006-11-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

2006-11-19T21:08:00.000-08:00

today is sunday 19 november 2006.

turkey day thursday . . . got a turkey rub from crate and barrel. should be hip.

tried a two layer pumpkin creme cheese pie yesterday. for some reason, mine didn't end up like the photo on readycrust.com.

friday is black friday. and no i'm not getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go to circuit city.

talking of circuit city. went there on saturday . . . some guy was outside with a blanket waiting for wii. the wii crowds much more subdued than the playstation crowd. last week's playstation people getting shot for a game console--you gotta be kidding me.

bill mueller of the dodgers joins the front-office. no big deal . . . until you see his salary. no kidding--4.5 mil. no joke. i guess mueller was to get the money from the dodgers whether he played or not. i guess it beats sitting on the bench.

2006-11-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

today is sunday 05 november 2006.

yesterday i voted. absentee voting--i don't see the point of standing in line anywhere . . .

i thought electronic voting was hip. until i hear the cnet people just ripping it. namely the fact that for much of the country, voting machines are in the alpha stage. yeah, i'm all for electronic stuff--but i do agree with the cnet people that better backup/redundant systems would have been better. another plus for absentee voting.

not that i really care--but why do we vote for county coroner?

and the politicians have it all wrong with technology . . . just use the google to look for things in the tubes.

2006-10-31T19:15:00.000-08:00

today is 31 october 2006.

yes, i did go to chipotle tonight . . . but not dressed as burrito though. it was pretty wild. all the high school kids were out. as far as halloween parties go, chipotle was throwing a pretty wild one.

windows media player 11 came out of beta today. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

what i don't get is when you install stuff like winamp or firefox, things go smooth. but when you install the ms equivalents you have to restart your computer.

mlb free agency is starting . . . bonds is a free agent. and no i don't think the dodgers have any use for an aging, steroid-taking, has-been slugger. garciapara of the dodgers also is a free agent. should be interesting.

aside from that, nothing really going on.

2006-10-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 26 october 2006.

blizzard conditions here in denver. and no, we didn't get a snow day out out it. it probably did snow 6+ inches here. unfortunately only one inch stuck.

told mom about the blizzard. she wondered if it bit anyone. wait a minute--we have a blizzard, not a lizard! cell phones only so good . . .

on the web front--if you're looking for airfares, try kayak.com . . . kayak searches multiple airline/travel website. found tickets to the homeland this way. real hip

bruce bochy manager of padres is thinking of managing the giants. evil!

world series going on. go whoever.

aside from that, nothing going on.

2006-10-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

today is monday 23 october 2006.

the tigers and cardinals . . . one big surprise--the number of former rockies . . . like belliard, preston wilson, neifi perez, gary bennett . . . had the rockies kept all these guys--maybe the rocks would make it to the world series.

maybe if the dodgers kept all their players--the dodgers could have ended up like the mets and not been beat by them.

last week ie7 came out. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

tomorrow firefox 2 comes out. so cool that i downloaded my copy today (real thrilled that half my extensions broke) . . . oh well, didn't need them anyway. one cool feature--built in spell checker so as i blog along (like i'm doing now), it's checking my spelling as i type. hip!

turkey time is coming up. and this year, i might be thinking about doing a ham. yes indeed. why not?

first pumpkin pie friday. it was pretty hip.

and talking to my mom--our new topic of conversation is jello. so if you have a favorite jello recipe, let me know and i'll try it!

2006-10-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 19 october 2006.

yesterday i had the eight graders in class. interesting conversations . . .

one girl who is chinese kept arguing how american chinese food really isn't chinese. and she wasn't amused--so we kept listing our favorite items . . . "so sesame chicken isn't chinese"--chinese girl's reaction "no!" how about "crab cheese wontons." "no!" "what about that stuff from panda express--the orange chicken!" "no! no! no!" i think we might have insulted her with the panda express statement.

i told the class about my experience with indian food . . . how i tried this yogurt stuff that nearly burned my mouth off . . . the indian student laughed. "that's not even hot." right.

then i mentioned bul-gogi (a korean dish). the exchange student from korea said she really liked it. when her classmates asked for a description of the dish, the exchange student said "it's like beef." then i said--"no you can't say that! it is beef! it's not like beef!"

then they asked me what hawaiian food was like. so i described sticking hot lava rocks in a pig cooking it from the inside out. so i showed a picture of the pig from the hawaii reception. korean girl's reaction "nasty!" that was funny--so kim chee isn't nasty?

halloween is coming up. so get your foil ready to go to chipotle dressed as a burrito to get yourself a free burrito. my suggestion--use a first aid blanket.

the cardinals beat the mets. comes down to bottom of the ninth with bases loaded--mets down by two runs with their number three hitter at bat--to go down in on a called strike three . . .

not real thrilled either the cards or tigers--but it is the world series. and the tommy lasorda commercials compels me to watch . . .

2006-10-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

today is monday 16 october 2006.

earthquake hit hawaii yesterday. my people on oahu felt the tremors three hundred miles away. no damage done--mom spent more time talking about a jello recipe than earthquake damage last night . . .

funny seeing the tourist fend for their own in waikiki . . . this takes a line in my blog.

the detroit tigers in the world series. still rubs me the wrong way that jimmy leland is the manager of the tigers--still annoys me that he quit the rockies because "he lost heart" . . . right.

some kid asks me today if i saw the game last night. i said of course i did--the mets obliterated the cards. that wasn't the game he was referring to (broncos/raiders is what everyone else was watching) . . . unfortunately, it's pretty bad when a first baseman scores nearly as much as the bronco recievers/kickers.

2006-10-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

today is 09 october 2006.

tonight it might snow . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

last night i thought i was going to come home from church, and watch the dodgers. but alas the blue men ran out of miracles--as well has hits, runs, and pitching . . . next year, they'll take third. if they ever make it to the post-season, they'll never ever win again. yet another fearless prediction.

2006-10-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

today is saturday 07 october 2006.

teachers conference yesterday . . . actually won something. books from bob wood and thurmond wisdom. the charisian presence won $25 from hobby lobby (though she wasn't there) . . . and last but not least--a sandisk sansa 2 gb mp3 player. everyone thought i already had a device like that--funny the looks i got when i told people that an mp3 player is something i didn't have.

embarrased to admit it took nearly an hour and a half to get it connected to meatloaf--i think it's the windows media player 11 beta that was giving fits . . . and then i have to go back and fix all the id tags--not fun.

fearless prediction--either the dodgers with maddux get killed later today . . . or we'll be playing until the end of the world series . . .

2006-10-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 05 october 2006.

xubuntu finally runs as a virtual machine in meatloaf my win xp machine. i would switch electron to use xubuntu--but i'm too much of a chicken . . . a machine that is running fine should remain a machine that runs fine. suse 10.1 seems to be much, much more complex than any flavour of ubuntu. plus i don't know if i can get ndiswrapper to work. or samba. or firefox for that matter.

the dodgers are in new york . . . another loss. the streaky dodgers are again losing--after winning seven to finish the season. so who knows--maybe they'll come back to win the next three--or they're really cursed and they'll never ever win another post-season game again.

2006-09-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

today is friday 29 september 2006.

three days of dodgers in denver . . . it was pretty wild. thursday blue flu game was especially wild. sixteen pitchers, seventeen walks, thirty-three hits, thirty runs--it was a typical coors field game. wild. no peanut wounds this time.

pep rally today in school . . . cheering is like bad Christian rap.

aside that nothing really going on.

2006-09-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 24 september 2006.

the dodgers won today in the possibly the last game in dodger stadium this year. a game and half behind padres in the division, a half game behind the phillies in the wild card. the last week of the season--and the la times say the dodgers don't control their destiny. the padres draw the cardinals and the d-backs. the phils draw houston for a makeup game, the nationals and the marlins. the dodgers draw the rockies and the giants. could be an interesting week.

the dodgers come to denver this week . . . the big pitchers--maddux, lowe, and penny--it'll be interesting. by the way, the rockiie killers this year are the dodgers.

to the weekend project on linux--virtualization! on meatloaf, got brower appliance from vmware working--in essence a watered down ubuntu with firefox. don't get me wrong, i tried a few before i settled with the browser appliance. ndsl was ok. backtrack would've been hip--but no network is not hip. full ubuntu worked fine--but it weighed in at 3gb. but hip and secure is virtualization!

2006-09-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 21 september 2006.

the dodgers/padres game on monday was truly wild. dodgers down 9-5 bottom of the ninth--then kent, drew, russell, and anderson all homer. the padres score another in the top of the tenth, and garciapara homers with lofton on second to win the game. amazing.

only to get to tuesday, where the dodgers lost to the lowly pirates. ditto wednesday. looks like they'll win today though.

matt holliday of the rockies has been hitting some monster shots at coors field. when he's hitting the concourse in left--either he's seeing the ball good, or he's angry that the giants pitchers were intentionally beaning him throughout this last series.

so the charisian presence and i go to a thai place for dinner. she starts sneezing . . . she asks if there's a cat around. i wonder if there was a cat around. hmmm . . .

2006-09-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 17 september 2006.

new on the linux experience world . . . updating firefox. seems innocuous enough--moving from 1.5.0.6 to 1.5.0.7 shouldn't be a big deal. and it wasn't--until you figure out that your extensions aren't working right in the update. and trying to get back to 1.5.0.6 wasn't as easy as it should have been.

to baseball . . . the padres/dodgers have had a jekyll and hyde-like series. fri, maddux of the dodgers has a no-hitter to the sixth, leaves in the seventh with a one-hitter tossing 68 pitches. the dodgers beat the padres for the first time at home this season. sat--three dodgers pitchers allow 11 runs after two innings (yeah it was ugly). today the padres win with a soft shot to right in the top of the ninth. one more time tomorrow--and we'll see if the padres can hold on to first place . . . they only have to beat the dodgers in one more game (they've already done in what--all but 3 or 4 times in 17 meetings this season?).

it's gotten cold quick here in colorado . . . hit the thirties this morning. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

2006-09-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 10 september 2006.

the nl race comes down to this week i believe. the dodger's schedule is the cubs midweek and padres end of the week. the padres face the reds and then the dodgers. the giants face the rockies and then the cardinals. so if the dodgers keep winning, the padres and the giants lose--the dodgers take the division. if not--we're all tied up, and i start taking alka-seltzer.

i just noticed i got my copland collection is pretty hip. i have two two-disk sets and one three disk set that more or less has his most important stuff from 1922 to 1971. that part takes up about 700 mb of space.

and in case you're wondering what electron the linux jukebox holds--about 24.5 gb worth of mp3 and wma files.

katie couric is showing up everywhere . . . she's even on my google page.

in my computer world . . . starting to use the kerio personal firewall. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. also starting to use virtual dimension--allows for multiple desktops. yeah it's been in the linux world forever, and only recently does windows use it. also got sanboxie--a sandbox program.

that asian fusion place that took over first asian is pretty hip. trendy, hip, and pricier. but it is nice.

oktoberfest this week in colorado. maybe i'll see pastor there listening to "sanctified polka."

2006-09-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

today is saturday 09 september 2006.

i think i'm finally happy with electron the old toshiba that never wants to die. the extra 128 mb of ram and 40 gb hd makes it a fairly cool jukebox/web surf computer with suse 10.1. i might as well forget about truecrypt working . . . i finally figured out that it was command line only (gotta love linux) . . .

i don't normally blog about football . . . but what is up with dan hawkins, hawk love, and the university of colorado football team. two loses to start the season--one against montana state (who lost to chadron state . . . tell me which state chadron is in!) and then today against their in-state rivals colorado state. people up in boulder can't be happy.

the rockies fans have more or less given up on the season. rain . . . out of contention . . . all this adds to dismal attendance. which is good--because $2 parking will be availabe when the dodgers come at the end of the month . . . and maybe $2 parking will be here again next year.

the dodgers got shutout by the mets thur, shutout the mets fri, and today lose by one run. the la times reported that the dodgers might be headed to three extra games in october and then a long winter. if they win the division, the dodgers draw the mets--which everyone is saying the mets are simply overplaying the dodgers. if the dodgers lose the division and take the wild card--they draw the cardinals of which they've lost seven of seven this year.

so to hadj, i say the dodgers will never ever win the division again. and i say the dodgers will never ever win a post-season game again! maybe this will be another of those great curses in baseball.

2006-09-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

today is monday 04 september 2006.

return from wyoming! wedding this weekend--the last of four straight wedding weekends . . . took off from the back to school retreat all the way to cody (about a hundred miles from yellowstone)--the nine hour trip was near non-eventfull. except i'm not used to taking trips this long anymore (gone are the days of the trips to atlanta and washington, dc). wild stuff . . . you can find photos here at inbox.

so i get to casper . . . i go to get something to eat . . . and the lady asks "you're not from here are you?" really, in cowboy country i wonder what i did to make her think that . . .

many animals on the road . . . jack rabbits move pretty fast . . . but, speeding corolla moved maybe just a little faster.

and cows . . . a plethora of cows. i think someone told me there were more people here in lakewood than in wyoming. i think there's more cows than people in wyoming.

back to life in denver where there's dsl, wifi, and digital wireless phone reception . . . suse 10.1 is hip. got a 40 gb hd that was on the scrapheap . . . gives more new life to electron the old toshiba computer. the added space now makes electron a jukebox--starting the slow process of moving gigabytes worth of mp3s. hip, indeed.

but i promise you--i wouldn't know how to do if i had to redo it again. significant changes from 10.0 to 10.1 . . . it's always brand new to me. but yes, the wireless with wpa works. so does firefox with my favorite extensions and themes and streaming audio with mplayer. and amarok the audioplayer should play all the wma and mp3s in my collection. maybe i'll try to even get truecrypt to work . . .

the dodgers remain in first place. they took two of three from the struggling rockies. i think the rest of the division is finally starting to fall apart.

2006-08-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 24 august 2006.

the dodgers stink. they'll never win another game. they got swept by the padres. they were 4 games up in first. by the weekend, they could be two games out in second . . .

i'm just writing that to break the jinx. last time the dodgers got swept by the padres (last month), i said they were not going to win another game again. then they went on a 17-1 streak.

and lastly--pluto is no longer a planet. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

2006-08-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

today is monday 21 august 2006.

got gas in my car today. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. i get irritated when my corolla takes more than $20 . . . but then i remember that whoever was at the pump before me pulled out $80(!) of gas, so i don't feel so bad.

the dodgers will probably lose tonight . . . it gets irritating when students tell me that the dodgers got beat by colorado--but when my sister (who lives in san diego) calls to rub in out the padres beat the dodgers--that's more than annoying.

i read through the teacher's manual tonight. it was half-way fun reading. especially the emergency procedures--procedures for fire, bomb-threats, etc.

but one they forgot . . . snakes in the classrom!

2006-08-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 20 august 2006.

after san francisco, the charisian prsence and i have changed our diet to include more garlic, crepes, and thai food. so last night we tried a local thai take-out. the charisian presence's response--the food was spicy and good to go!

today, pastor took some play-doh as on object lesson in his sermon in jeremiah. he then said we can make a snake. great--pastor is getting into this too . . . snakes in the pulpit!

the dodgers continue their slaughter on the national league west. they took two of three from san fran this week. if they can can two of three from the next two series--san diego and aridzona--then the dodgers look are in good position to keep whipping up on the div in september. by next weekend, if they may well be 5 to 10 games ahead of the rest pack.

or i may have just jinxed them, and they could fall to third . . . wait and see!

2006-08-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

today is friday 18 august 2006.

in-service next week. means school starts soon.

to add injury to insult--to the students, lesson plans are listed at silverstate-mrc.blogspot.com. two weeks are already planned out.

so katie couric goes around the country and finds that people want a one-hour national news at night. so local news goes on at 6:30 in september to appease katie. i guess that entertainment show goes out. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

so this katie couric thing makes me wonder--will she be "dead-puppy serious" like the rest of the evening news people. or she'll laugh at everyone with a monocle?

snakes on a plane came out last night. so thrilling this takes a line in my blog.

i was thinking--if this were to happen in hawaii . . . if a plane full of snakes was headed to hawaii, would it be treated with more or less intensity with a security threat? snakes in hawaii could be an ugly thing . . .

and the streaking dodgers are headed up to the bay. talk of rivalries--the yankess are up in bean town . . . playng 5 games in 4 days. that's baseball!

2006-08-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 17 august 2006.

my redo of my suse linux machine on electron is done. frustrating--you can ./configure, make, and make install some applications and they still won't work unless you yast the rpm. if this sounds foreign--trust you me, sometimes it's almost easier looking at the german icons.

but i did get it working. with wifi and wpa. with samba, and it does share files both ways with windows xp. and it even does stream audio. it's pretty wild.

funny what gets bob scheaffer on the cbs news laughing. on the final story about pluto being a planet, scheaffer who normally has a "serious as dead puppies" look was cracking up commenting "who wears a monocle these days."

and alas for today, the dodgers got beat up pretty bad. 15-4 bad. it was ugly.

2006-08-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

today is 12 august 2006.

fox game of the week . . . dodgers killing the giants. yep, it was good. wilson benemit in the lineup--means the dodgers win. you tell me of any better positive correlation than this. benemit starting for the dodgers--13 for 13. when he takes the day off, the dodgers are 0-1. someone needs to tell grady little not to jinx the team!

computer tragedy of the week . . . accidental deletion. sad, yet true--this did happen to me. on my linux machine nonetheless. one directory was of particular grief--photographs from jan to aug . . . the only thing i didn't have backups for was about a dozen directories full of jpgs.

i googled if there was anyway of remedy this--i guess the reiser file system that suse uses has no undelete--and is particularly difficult to restore. but there's was something on google that allowed me to try to rebuild some directory tree . . . or something like that. (i really didn't have a clue what i was doing). anyway, i switched to knoppix to help rescue the data.

anyway, i'm on electron the old toshiba running knoppix live cd, and i've got the old hd mounted. i'm starting to see the data--but konquerer (the linux equivalent of windows explorer) won't let me touch the recovery files unless i was logged in as root.

no problem . . . but logging in as root switched konquerer to german. no lie. at least the icons were still understandable. i had to laugh. i lost data--so the time of crying was over.

needless to say, i did recover most of the photos--about 90% of them. good enough for me.

by the way, inbox.com has massive storage. i'm using it now for photo sharing. Click here to see photos!

2006-08-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 08 august 2006.

primary elections in colorado. so exciting, this takes a line in my blog.

i hate to say this--but it was kinda pointles . . . instructions read "vote for one"--but there's only one candidate on the list. gotta love one republican on tv--it was nice going uncontested in the primary. save money for november.

the dodgers have one 10 straight. hard to believe. hadj tells me not say a thing--else i could jinx them.

snakes on a plane coming out soon. which might spur a flurry of homemade virus-videos . . . like snakes on rtd (denver mass transit); snakes on muni, bart, and samtran (san fran mass transit; snakes in the corolla (melvinistic transit); or even snakes in the sentra (charisian transit) . . .

or worse for the spiders in the sentra--that would be spooky!

even more spooky--a black bear spoted in denver. at mineral and santa fe . . . wait a minute, that's near densem. that's a piece away from the foothills. scary.

2006-08-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 06 august 2006.

to floyd landis. i'm watching the news, and the racing community has more or less been behind him. to counterpoint, one lady on the news said "if the menonite racer does it [take drugs], they [all racers] must be doing it." so all of a sudden the menonites are the truly holy ones? so am i better off that i cut my phone line [but heathen because i have a wireless phone?]

the grilled stuffed burritos at taco bell may not be good to go anymore. nutra grain bars may be the thing that's good to go--supposedly they trade-marked that phrase.

the charisian presense's favorite chinese restuarant closed. tragic indeed. i wondered if they closed to renovate--and to become a fusion place. so we drove by it yesterday just to make sure it was gone. then and lo and behold, first asian will soon become 101 asian fusion . . . no lie!

the broncos will soon have a license plate here in colorado. cbs4denver news recently hired former bronco reggie rivers as a sports reporter. vic lombardi the other sports reporter said reggie already had a bronco plate--"has been" . . . ouch.

so i go to san fran about a week ago thinking the dodgers will never win a game again. how things have changed--sweeps in washington, cincinnati, and florida. nine straight wins--i don't think they'll lose again!

i used to be wanting to get a removable hard drive. but i was at the apple store in san fran, picked one up . . . and about dropped it. good thing it wasn't hold data. or better yet, it wasn't holding my data.

coming back from san fran, i have two new cooking skills--making crepes and roasting garlic. but not at the same time--that would be weird.

2006-08-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 02 august 2006.

so i check the wild west standing. when i got back from san fran, the dodgers were in last place. today they start the day in third. wild.

while flying, i thought it would be wild if all of a sudden snakes jumped out of the overhead bins . . . i guess someone is coming out with that movie in a few weeks. don't plan on seeing it--i just saw the ads in san fran. plus watching the wild west nl standing is much more fun.

the charisian presence was finally brave enough to eat something from fisherman's warf on saturday. fish and chips were good. but nowhere as good as calamari! and why do we call it calamari--just market it as squid!

next time in the san fran area--maybe i'll go to the garlic festival in gilroy.

all of a sudden the angels and the dodgers are streaking . . . wild this time of year.

2006-08-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 01 august 2006.

return from san francisco . . .

i was supposed to get a hyundai accent. the hertz lady said we're taking the mustang instead.

san francisco orchestra performing at the davies symphony hall. michael tilson thomas is the normal conductor, but edwin outwater led the all-beethoven performance. orli shaham took part in the piano concerto. and notice the second violins are switched with the cellos.

muir woods was just a quick hop across the golden gate bridge. rising to over 300 feet, the redwoods are simply amazing.

had the dodgers kept losing, i think i might have to switch allegiances . . . and no i don't know what to think about the lugo/maddux trades.

when it's foggy in san francisco, everything looks the same. but when it's not--you get some pretty spectacular views.

2006-07-27T07:14:00.001-07:00

today is thursday 27 july 2006.

in the la times, the writers reports that the dodgers were in first place 20 days ago. some of the dodgers feel like they could still be in first place 20 days from now.

are you kidding me--the way the dodgers are playing . . . they'll never ever win a game again!

but it could be worse . . . the dodgers could be in the al central. the white sox and twins are tied for second in that division 12 games above .500 . . . yet 8.5 games behind detroit. rough.

in a bizarre twist of animals . . . in greeley a dog, a cat, and a llama got into a fight. news4colorado.com has sketchy details. the cat died, the llama was put to sleep, and the dogs (unfortunately pit bulls) are the "bad dogs" in this encounter.

in hawaii. bad news abounds. a tropical storm is coming. and yes, it is that time of year--for many it's the first day back to school.

2006-07-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

today is friday 21 july 2006.

nothing wild going on. a week until i head to san francisco. went to some chinese place yesterday that the charisian presence would have hated--i forgot how boney duck can get. fake cows are populating the streets of denver. it's also hot here like the rest of the country. the taco bell grilled spiced whatever is good to go. and the dodgers stink so bad i wouldn't even want hadj to be associated with them right now.

2006-07-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

today is 15 july 2006.

today's game of the week had one of my favourite teams as the giants faced the phillies. no the giants are not my favorites--but anyone who mercilessly beats the orange and black men is! the game dragged, and fortunately for giants fans the beating was just a tad short of four hours.

the dodgers lost in extra innings again today (the second time this week in bonus time this week). so now the dodgers and giants are tied for second three games back. the d-backs and rockies tie for last at four games back. that leaves the padres on top.

in the summer heat, i've dabbled with new recipes. cool ones at that . . . my salad dressing of choice is mixing two parts olive oil, one part of balsamic vinegar, spicy mustard, honey, and minced garlic.

then there's the old stanby--the starbucks like frapuccino. two cups ice; three-fourth cups milk and double strength coffee; and about two table spoons of sugar, chocalate syrup and/or caramel. blend together and save handing the barista about $4.

in the computer world, for some strange reason computers inside of wifimelvinism can now share files . . . don't ask what happened--i just know i can move stuff betwen meatloaf and electron (which runs suse) . . . all this without hamachi. hamachi is hip, and i can still share files with my school computer . . . with hamachi, i can even send print jobs while here in the apartment.

in case you ever went to silverstate-mrc.blogspot.com (my school assignment site), yesterday's posting was correct. passed out semester exams and pizza . . . now on to my vacation.

which i guess i might have to add 29 july as the third day of melvinism. busy last year with wedding stuff. not as busy this year. but me and the charisian presence are headed back to san francisco. too bad the giants are out of town. 8-b . . . but when we do go to fisherman's warf, i will look a crab in the eye right before he becomes my lunch.

2006-07-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

today is 14 july 2006.

last day of summer school . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog . . . now to summer vacation.

it's hot out here in denver . . . triple digits for the next few days . . .

i was watching the commercials for a show next season on cbs. jericho is about a nuclear attack--finally a show where new york or los angeles is being destroyed. but bye-bye denver and atlanta.

aside from that, nothing really going on . . .

2006-07-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 11 july 2006.

the mlb all-star game is tonight. haven't seen one of those in a while it seems. it's not like baseball went away--it's just that baseball isn't the hip dating thing usually. i was telling the charisian presence it's actually nice being married--i get baseball back. 8-b . . .

brad penny of the dodgers starts for the national league. wild he follows a long line of other dodger greats who started the all-star game like koufax, drysdale, sutton, venezuela, and nomo.

project (irration) that i'm working on . . . hamachi and samba shares. goal in life is to get get p2p file sharing across the internet using meatloaf and electron. i can transfer files from electron, but i have no control from meatloaf . . . keep working on it.

2006-07-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

today is saturday 08 july 2006.

the national league wild west comes to the middle of the season with every team at some point of the season sitting at the top and bottom. a stat on mlb game of the week showed how each team spent anywhere from 2 weeks to about a month in first. that's wild. the consensus is whoever gets a good winning streak will win the division. anyone slumping badly is doomed.

the dodgers, though they were on last week and this week, have been killed in these saturday games.

so we got our home phone line cut the other day. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

after we cut our phone line, i decided to cut netscape.com . . . who needs dial-up now? netscape being part of aol, i figured they would fight to keep me subscribed. i didn't want to end up like that guy who spent half-an-hour trying to cancel his account. with cell phone in hand, and limited time--i went to battle the customer service representative. well, i think the guy couldn't argue with my reason for giving up netscape. it was too easy . . .

well, the day i've dreaded had come--since high school i've had a set of kenwood earbuds that had unparalleled clarity . . . so hip, i bought at least three sets. one set i remember losing while changing planes at the dallas airport. one set had the wires chewed by a friend's cat (i am forgiving, and me and the owner of the cat are still friends). and the last set stopped working yesterday. at least one side stopped working.

throughout the years, i've tried various types of headphones. and i've not liked a set as much as my kenwood earbuds. i even have a sennheiser hd497, but i still liked the kenwoods more. after some research, i settled on a set of sennheiser mx550s . . . and after playing around all day with equalizer settings, i think they almost like the kenwoods. almost . . .

2006-06-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

today is friday 30 june 2006.

the nl wild west . . . right now padres up by one. los angeles, colorado, and san fran all tied at second one game behind, and aridzona in last four games out . . . still a close division.

ie 7 beta 3 came out yesterday. so exciting this takes a line in my blog. i think i might keep it . . . it has anti-phising built in. and mcafee works with this beta, but ie does seem a little slower.

aside from that, nothing really going on . . .

2006-06-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 29 june 2006.

dodgers stink. the rockies are tied for second . . . and the giants are a half-game behind in the third. the nl west is a mess.

mlb all star voting ends today. this is so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

listening to the tech blogs, i guess there's a new game circulating. two people jump up and down, and on a given jump they face each other as either a bear, pirate, or ninja. bears eat pirates, pirates slice ninjas, and ninjas karate kick bears . . . like paper-scissors-rocks (or in hawaii we call this jan-ken-po) . . .

and no in algebra 1 summer school we don't play bears, pirates, ninjas . . . we play baseball of the ping pong variety. and yes the students are not liking the fastball-fastball-knuckleball sequence. the fastball was indeed on fire today. until the ball cracked and we were done . . .

yeah, i hate to say this . . . in my old age, my arm hurts after pitching. 8-b good thing hadj isn't here--he might be as cruel as the minnesota fans of late . . .

2006-06-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 28 june 2006.

another kinda blah day . . . csi new york is probably a rerun. kinda hot here in denver. and nothing really wild for lunch or dinner--though meatloaf (like lasagne) is better leftover than right out of the oven.

salt and vinegar chips are pretty strong. at the last rockies game, the people in our section called them the "chips of death."

also at the last rockies game, i saw the charisian presence's former neighbor selling tickets and got in some chit chat. the guys i was with was a little concerned--"dude, you come to so many of these games you know the people at the ticket window?"

the nl west is nothing but blah except if the dodgers lose (which they did again last night). i hear it when the dodgers lose--but the minnesotans here have been actually kind . . . i get a text message or two to remind me of the drubbing the dodgers endured this week. and i guess people can bring their brooms to the metrodome later today.

on the computer front, i finally got a juice podcast receiver working on my system. been listening to some tech stuff from cnet.com and some classical music stuff--but i'm open to suggestions.

on the tech front, the dsl line gets a work out at night running encrypted, remote backups from mozy.com . . . if you don't have a method of backing up data--consider using mozy.com.

and finally, encryption is something else. the things you can do with truecrypt is really, really wild. and gpg is wild also.

2006-06-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 21 june 2006.

quote from netscape.com worthy of republishing . . . in referring to cats, "They're lazy, disobedient and they sleep more than most postal workers, yet cats have been worshipped by societies dating back to antiquity. Unlike dogs (man's true best friend), cats are flea-ridden, hairball-coughing ingrates that would just as soon claw your eyes out as acknowledge you. It's little wonder that James Bond villains were seldom without one. Granted, they're independent and relatively low-maintenance, but it's difficult to respect a creature whose chief selling point is that it defecates in a box. Let's face it; you know something stinks when people routinely give it away for free."

the oakland a's have come to denver and have their offense die. in two games, a total of 8 hits and no runs. no kidding. the team that was ridding a 10-game winning streak has yet to score here.

the miami heat won the nba finals last night. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

the dodgers fell from first after the padres won and the dodgers lost their fourth straight. in the nl wild west, every team except san fran has touched first place . . . that's too bad for san fran. 8-b

2006-06-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 20 june 2006.

so the dodgers don't play, so i figured not to go to www.dodgers.com yesterday to help reduce anxiety. i look it up today to see who's pitching, and i glance at the standings and notice the d-backs are not in second place anymore . . . how the mess did the padres climb to tie the dodgers to lead the division!

the stanley cup was last night. this is so exciting this takes a line in my blog. like anyone in raleigh really cared? i remember going to the greenville growl (minor league hockey) a few years ago . . . the growl had to put hockey terms in the program so that people could figure out what was going on. the huricane's winning is almost an insult i would figure--it's like atlantans boasting of their snow storm to guys in duluth . . . out of place.

the oakland a's had a 10 game winning streak. the rockies were just swept in st. louis. never would've figured the rox were going to kill the a's 7-0 last night . . . but perhaps oaklanders don't like the altitude.

so i'm teaching inequalities in algebra 1 yesterday. i draw a bunch of greater-than and less-than signs. the kids elaborate on their greater-than and less-than signs . . . soon these mathematical figures become pac-man . . . and then fish . . . one turns into a clam. one kid tells me he made a nice clam--produces pearls . . . wait a minute, oysters have pearls . . . coloradans and sealife is like carolina and hockey--out of place.

2006-06-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

today is monday 19 june 2006.

nothing really going on, kinda a blah day . . . dodgers are off . . . miami csi is probably a rerun . . . we're having leftovers for dinner . . . no new software/hardware installs . . . so nothing really going on today . . .

the dodgers get a day off after the roadtrip . . . of nine games, they win two. and yet they lead the division? tough week for the nl west.

2006-06-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

today is friday 16 june 2006.

so microsoft officially pulls the plug on windows 98 and me . . . no more updates, and one magazine write that all win 98 and me users are left alone in the world to fend for themselves . . .

then this same author says it's like ford building a defective vehicle . . . for the first couple of years ford says it's ok to fix . . . and then they stop. consumers would never go for that--so why do they put up with it with windows . . .

my advice to those using win 98 and me--take your old system and move to linux! think of the possibilities . . . no more windows updates, no more blue screens of death, no square windows--you even get a choice of penguin, lizard, or even a puppy logo if you want!

the wild west is wild indeed. this week, the dodgers remain in first, then the d-backs a game behind, followed by the padres, giants, and rox. the rox by the way swept the nationals in washington, got two games above 500, and are two games behind front running dodgers.

worse case scenerio this weekend--dodgers lose all their games, rox win all their games, and rox go back to first . . . but the rox will have to get through st. louis. but the team that might have the advantage this weekend--the padres, as they fast the lowly angels.

2006-06-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

today is sunday 04 june 2006.

yeah, teaching algebra 1 is wild . . . question number 27 on friday's test is name the property for -8(-5+3)=(-8)(-5)+(-8)(3) . . . best answer is "divination." of course it is.

another mystical thing is the national league west . . . so this week, arizona and the dodgers are still streaking, and the rockies are slowly fading away. the rox have fallen to last, one game below .500 . . . my prediction of 96 games is fading like a vegetation in the colorado heat. at this rate, the rox may win 75.

the dodgers are a different story. i'm listening to vin scully, and the big difference this year is all the guys contributing like ethier, aybar, and guzman--they have risen from the minors and done well in the majors.

hadj has an interesting take on the single servings of twinkies . . . should we call them just a twinkie because they are now alone . . . more pressing problem is the ding dong . . . and what about them ho ho(s)? this is problematic.

the dodgers are coming back to colorado this week . . . so all those wanting to come to the game--meet me at 6:00!

2006-05-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 24 may 2006.

end of school . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog . . .

what is exciting is the nl west race . . . the d-backs need to lose, the dodgers need to win so that the dodgers take first. this scenerio is unlikely, but who knows what will happen. two weeks ago, the padres were streaking to first. now they're last. the only team not to make a run at first is the giants. too bad for the giants. yeah, i really care about the giants . . .

a team that stinks and stinks bad right now is the angels from anaheim . . . or rather the angels from los angeles. doesn't matter--send them back to wherever they got their losing streak from and get us back the team that's been making it to the post-season these last few years. . .

it's interesting to see where former dodgers end up . . . like in the day when konerko used to be a dodger, now he's the captain of the white sox. jim tracy was interesting--the former dodger manager brought his losing record with him to pittsburgh.

talking about the white sox--what about the play with michael barrett getting creamed at the plate by a j pierzynski . . . barrett's punch to pierzynski's head was exactly was pierzynski deserved . . .

talking about michael barrett--the name reminded me of another michael barrett--aka the seminary prof now at geneva reformed . . . went to sermonaudio.com to listen--love the line by barrett "the other day i went to a clemson football game. i was out of my element." you don't say . . . 8-b

2006-05-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 23 may 2006.

the wild west is indeed wild . . . so a week ago the dodgers stunk and in last place. had arizona lost last night, the dodgers would be tied first with colorado. the d-backs are on the surge, and the padres who caught a wave is now on the verge of wiping out. wild west indeed.

semester exams this week. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

2006-05-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 18 may 2006.

yesterday was "blue flu" day . . . the battle scars from my $1 bag of peanuts can be found at here. you can stop with the jokes--it's already humiliating to be one of the whitest in my family already.

i made two of three games--the two that dodgers won. tuesday night i would've gone, except this warrior was fighting a 100 degree fever instead of crowds at coors field . . . but i was well enough to make it yesterday.

many questions about the dodgers . . . so is baez or saito closing games these days? so what up with all the minor leagers--will some of them (like willy aybar) amount to anything? he wiffed pretty good yesterday. are the "old" guys lofton and kent really wearing out quicker than we had hoped, or was the altitude too much?

many questions about the rockies--will jennings pull it through tough situations again (100+ pitch count, two on, two outs--only to let garciapara of the dodgers get to him)? can the bullpen actually be good? will the rockies ever get their hitting stroke back?

many questions about baseball . . . the humidor has had a remarkable effect at coors field. runs have dropped dramatically. i went to three games--and the most a team scored was five runs. it seems the days of football-like scores and homers flying like pidgeons are done. rumor has it that balls are being left in the 70-degree 50 percent humidity locker even longer these days, hence the "more normal" baseball at coors.

i suggest baseball make a few changes to keep it exciting . . . like keeping all the balls (for all of major league baseball) in colorado without a humidor and then shipping out the balls to various ballparks before games. it'd be great if an "old coors field" game were played everywhere. and get a designated hitter for everyone--not just the american league. and shorten the fences--maybe 310 in the corner and 360 in the middle. this means the fields at coors would 35-40 feet shorter. and then maybe yesterday we would've gotten say 6 home runs instead of 1 . . .

2006-05-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

today is monday 08 may 2006.

went to see the rox beat up the 'stros the other day at coors field. wild game--jennings of the rox gets a complete game shutout.

and burke of the 'stros runs full speed to the outfield fence--that was worth the $4 admission price. cf preston wilson makes sure burke had the ball before finding out burke separated his shoulder. but it was nice seeing the whole team coming out to right field to check on their fallen teammate.

sitting up in the rock pile with italian sausages, salt and vinegar chips, peanuts, brownies, cookies, and a coke . . . plus freezing in the unpredictable colorado weather--i can't imagine why the charisian presence would ever want to skip this much fun!

jimmy deyoung in church yesterday for a prophecy conference. someone where america was in the future times. someone tried to convince dr. deyoung that america was going to join israel. see--jer-USA-lem . . . wow.

i was thinking yesterday in church (ok, my mind wonders sometimes when i'm waiting to take offerings) . . . if the rockies are six games above .500 now--i came up with the prediction with a 95 wins by the end of the season. actually we checked the numbers in advanced math--i was wrong. the rockies are projected to win 96 games if they continue this pace . . . 90 usually wins the division.

the dodgers swept milwaukee--but after the lost every other game during the week. both los angeles teams actually stunk last week. good thing i can switch back and forth from the dodgers/angels.

of course, if the los angles teams keep doing bad--i just call them hadji's dodgers/angels and root for the rockies . . .

it's flipped around for hockey though . . . the mighty ducks are killing the avalanche. scoring is 8-0 ducks in two games . . . ugly.

2006-05-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

today is friday 05 may 2006.

the d-backs and the rockies are at the top of the national league wild west. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

josh fogg of the rockies needs to get on another winning streak . . . and grow them chops!

the dodgers have sunk to new low--last place. who knows--maybe my prediction of third place was wrong. maybe they'll take fifth. tough week for los angeles baseball--between the two teams, only one win in ten games.

hadji's household increased by one this week . . . send him a congratulatory e-mail. i'd send some cigars, but that's another thing that baptist don't do (along with dancing and playing percussion). maybe rolos will work . . .

foggy here in denver . . . but no snow.

mom and dad went back to hawaii this week . . . and yes, orbit is a fat dog.

reading honoulu news is a trip . . . this week--how lychee can thrive in your own yard.

2006-04-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

today is saturday 29 april 2006.

the rockies are at the top of the division . . . gone are the days of the heavy hitters . . . like ellis burke, dante bichette, vinny castilla . . . and yes, the rox are still winning without helton in the lineup. they may end up taking the division . . .

the dodgers won last night. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

what i don't get is the giants--how can barry bonds not be playing--yet still lead in mvp voting? people--think!

part of hawaiian culture--www.spamjamhawaii.com. i've never made it to one of these, but it does look like a lot of fun. our cousins in minnesota who slaughter the spam would be proud!

lastly but not leastly . . . be sure to turn program your vcr to this weeks's wheel of fortune . . . we were there for the thurs and fri tapings.

2006-04-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

today is 23 april 2006.

my linux adventure continues . . . i actually got rid of my three-boot system--there is probably a reason why some distros remain on one cd . . . anyway--settled with suse instead of fedora. main advantage is i don't have to pay linuxant for the driver for the wifi card. yes, even wifi works now . . . and yes with wpa to boot.

the dodgers go garciapara yesterday. what i don't get is they lose brazoban, they go with 11 pitchers instead of 12, and then their era seems be cut in half now.

the rockies won today. i tell you--the rockies are going to take the division.

but of course i said the dodgers were going to take the division last year about this time into the season. and the dodgers stunk afterwards . . .

went by a fire station the other day and saw their mailbox painted with flames. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

2006-04-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

today is thursday 20 april 2006.

the dodgers are second to last. so exciting this takes a line in my blog . . . part of their woes--they haven't wont a series yet this year . . . but maybe this weekend they'll take the series. they face the d-backs, who is in last place.

the rockies need an enemy. the dodgers/giants rivalry makes going to those games hip. kansas city is in a different league from they rockies so they can't be the enemy. i say fight with san diego. martin of the rockies beaning giles in the behind the other day was kinda funny. but giles deserved it for sliding into the rockies cather the night previous.

my linux adventure continues . . . today i actually got 3 flavours of linux running on electron. but i can boot to only two of them right now 8-b . . . one thing i've found out about linux is it seems everything is developmental project--from installing wifi to realaudio.

the charisian presence doesn't seem to mind the linux hobby. she says it's better than riding a motorcycle or bringing home bugs.

2006-04-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

today is wednesday 12 april 2006.

the dodgers are 4-4. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

the rockies have been road warriors--they look like a decent team . . . parking prices are going to shoot up like gas prices.

observation in life yesterday . . . i eat spam. i eat seaweed. but i don't pickles. i won't touch pickles--and not it's not going to be the 4th p, or 5th p, or whatever number p we're on as far as tenets of melvinism.

doing constructions in geometry . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

mom and dad are off to san diego again . . . and yes this is when orbit gains weight--it's all the extra food the orbit-sitters feed her.

2006-04-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

today is tuesday 4 april 2006.

ok--the melvinists are too smart . . . they can spot an april fool's joke a mile away . . . maybe too obvious . . . maybe i'll make a poll--what gave it away? the cat or cheering for the braves?

yesterday the dodgers started their season . . . so exciting . . . we've got a centerfielder and maybe a first baseman on the disabled list (already) . . . i'm not trying to be a dork--but how does these dodgers a greater improvement from last year's dodgers? we've got more on the dl to start?

the rockies won in the bottom of the 11th yesterday . . . they also won opening day last year with a homerun in the bottom of the 9th . . . if history holds--the rockies will drop a series of games (they lost eight in a row after opening day), and parking around the stadium will continue to be cheap because no one goes to the games.

yeah, pastor asked me on sunday if baseball was starting this week . . . then he asked the charisian presence what plans she's made or hobbies she's going to take up for the next seven months . . .

yet i think baseball has too short of a season . . . extend a month or two--on both ends of the season . . . personally i think it'd be great to have the world series around thanksgiving, give the guys a december to celebrate the holidays and start training games shortly after new years . . .

on another note--don't ask me what happened to ucla in the ncaa final . . . but i did better than most--how many even picked ucla or florida in thier final four?

2006-04-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

today is saturday 01 april 2006.

i was thinking last night--the dodgers had their worst season last year . . . so i'm deciding to follow a baseball dynasty. seeing as i followed the atlanta braves for a good while during college--i think i need to return to my past . . . go braves!

also, seeing as i can't have a dog here in the apartment, i thought about getting a cat. this could have some advantages. cats are cleaner. cats are less maintenance. and cats you don't have to play with as often.

i've been reading on the internet about how a vegetable diet could increase healthiness. so bye-bye meat in my diet.

and finally, playing with this linux system has been pretty fun. so i think i'm switching all my computers to run fedora core.

more later . . .

2006-03-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

today is thursday 30 march 2006.

i have finally come to a major breakthrough . . . this is the day i finally have a working linux system! after about a half dozen installs of ubuntu and fedora, my old computer electron is finally up to speed . . . connected to the internet . . . and even using wpa! to say the least, this process has been nothing short of easy . . . but it works. it's hip. and it gets me a working system for which i can learn linux . . . i must give credit to linuxant for help with the drivers--a life saver to say the least . . .

other spring break happenings--sultan meatballs was the dinner hit . . . and this morning i made a pretty mean omelette bake. the charisian presence has been practicing and studying and spending time with frieds this spring break . . . as for me i spent much more time with electron than i had ever hoped or wanted . . .

on to baseball . . . start of season next week . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog . . .

2006-03-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

today is saturday 25 march 2006.

spring break . . . nothing really planned . . . went to watch the wheel of fortune taping last night. pretty exciting. actually a little more exciting than watching the rockies. some wheel fans are rabid!

ucla moved past gonzaga . . . maybe my prediction of them winning it all wasn't too far off base . . .

major goal for spring break . . . get linux working on extra notebook . . . got ubuntu almost loaded up . . . we'll see how this adventure goes!

2006-03-20T17:56:00.000-08:00

today is monday 20 march 2006.

no snow day today. a disappoinment . . . i guess i would be freaked out going to school with nothing ready to teach--but it wasn't like the student were ready to soap up info either . . .

the discount tire up on kipling burned down a few weeks ago . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

alfonso soriano refuses to play left field for the nationals . . . so this guy gets paid 10 million, is an all-star infielder, and refuses to play a different position? what is wrong with this guy? i'd be happy just walking on the field . . . i guess you can add him to same jerk-list with bonds.

today on the news . . . todd helton says the rockies should take the national league west. the sports reporter says if the rockies have a winning season, they should be happy. leave it to the anchorman to mention that if you have a winning season in the national league west, you should win the division . . . oh, yeah we forgot.

even the dodgers have a chance . . . maybe because we do have an infielder that's willing to change positions . . .

2006-03-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

today is saturday 18 march 2006.

big snow expected for monday here in denver . . . need to go to the store later and stock up on bread and milk . . . ok, just kidding.

the ncaa tournament is here . . . and don't ask why i keep picking ucla and wisconsin.

the charisian presence has banned us going to dennys . . . get a meal, get shot. what a deal.

the cacs competition was thursday. i actually got to miss to go to a wifi security seminar. it was pretty cool. and the yagi sniper antenna is pretty wild (and for people with too much time on their hands). it was pretty cool (especially the intro to ms visual basic script worm edition).

friday was festival. i usually enjoy festival. the choir pieces were rousing. which bring an important consideration about the bands . . . we know baptists can't dance. so what stops them from playing percussion?

2006-03-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

today is tuesday 07 march 2006.

baseball season coming up. someone told me that the rockies had no apparent holes in their lineup--who are they kidding?

the dodgers don't look too shabby . . . but again, expect third place and we won't get our hopes up . . . i see it this way, as long as we score more than the opponents, then the dodgers win. (no duh) . . . time will tell whether this will take place.

bonds is in the news again . . . supposedly someone from the san francisco chronicles has proof of steroid use . . . maybe i'm naive, but how does a player take such a big jump in stats all of a sudden . . .

on a sadder note, kirby puckett passed away yesterday . . . a classy fellow the puck was . . . better than the idiots like bonds and albert belle that baseball has to put up with these days.

2006-02-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

today is sunday 26 february 2006.

winter olympics just finished . . . pretty wild. a couple of things . . . 1) the figure skating commentators were brutal. and pretty hyper. 2) talk about hyper . . . the skeleton/bobsled guys were hyper too . . . "and blah-blah is making it around the turn, and it's another course record!" . . . gets old after the 10th "course record" in a row . . . 3) american on skis is disaster . . . what the mess happened to bode miller? all talk. 4) relay speed skating is crazy . . . 5) not only where the figure skating commentators brutal and hyper . . . some of the comments made no sense. nothing against scott hamilton--but talking about shizuka arakawa, what the mess did he mean by saying "the world has changed, but she hasn't . . " i guess his cohorts didn't get what was going on either as silence the space of a half-minute followed.

aside from that nothing really going on . . .

2006-02-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

today is 19 february 2006.

barry bonds announced his retired for the end of the season . . . this is so exciting this takes a line in my blog . . . i'm no fan of bonds, so i'm not grieving over this.

you thought simon on american idol was a tough critic--you need to listen to the commentary on the winter olympics figure skating. simply brutal.

and don't start any rumors. i'm not a fan of figure skating (the charisian presence loves that stuff though) . . .

pastor's sermon was funny this morning on 1 peter 3. charisian presence noted she heard more about the heinze household than she had ever wanted to know (pastor much about his family) . . . pastor mentioned how some guys have gun and knife collection--charisian presence noted she liked that i just mess with wifi and encryption for my hobies.

the nba all-star game is soon. this is so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

below freezing whether this weekend. cold.

2006-02-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

today is friday 17 february 2006 . . .

it's -5 degrees outsides . . . windy . . . snowy . . . and what's on my mind--baseball! yes indeed, it's that time of year!

yeah, blue flu day is coming . . . hopefully it'll be better than last blue flu day . . . a wet, 36 degree game can be only so fun . . . when the dodgers were getting killed, it was a merciful thing to call the game after six.

what frightened me was talks of sosa coming to the rockies . . . but i guess we don't have to worry about that any more . . .

and yes, i do hope the rockies do as well as last year (a very horrible season for them) . . . parking in downtown is much cheaper this way. 8-b

2006-02-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

today is wednesday 15 february 2006.

so lou ferigno is a sheriff in california . . . the same state where you have the terminator as governor you get the incredible hulk stopping you for trafic violations.

the dodgers start spring training this week. this is so exciting this takes a line in my blog. third place if anything. actually, they could do worse if 1) jd drew isn't healthy 2) jose cruz has a bad year in the outfield 3) jason werth never comes back from injuries 4) kenny lofton is too old to play center field 5) bill mueller forgets to play third 6) furcal doesn't do better than izturis at short (and izturis is injured!) 7) kent falls off his truck and breaks a wrist again 8) garciaparra never really learns how to play first 9) sandy alomar spits on another ump and has the longest suspension ever so he never backs up dionar navarro 10) all six starters never get past the third inning ever 11) or eric gagne decides to play hockey instead of baseball . . .

westminster dog show yesterday . . . a bull terror named rufus wins. i remember one year a newfy barked and won the show. rufus's claim to fame is his egg-shaped head . . .

aside from that, nothing really going on . . .

2006-02-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

today is saturday 11 february 2006.

the geometry kids were getting balistic on me when i told them the rules about tuesday's events . . . no red. nothing with hearts. etc. told them we don't give special days to saints. told them that naked babies with weapons was not allowed and disturbing.

aside from that nothing really going on.

2006-01-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

the charisian presence with a vicious bear footrest--this is the real reason caribou coffee is hipper than starbucks . . .

2006-01-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

today is saturday 28 january 2006.

i guess i never mentioned that when i was back in hawaii, nephew learned a very disturbing phrase. he'd come to me and say "i take orbit!" who taught that kid that!

another bit of disturbing hawaii news . . . the humuhumunukunukuapua'a is not the state fish of hawaii. seems that back in 1984, hawaii was polled about a state fish and the humuhumu won. however, because of method of polling, the humuhumu won the state fish designation for just 5 years. so get to your local state representatives (if you're from hawaii) and tell them to ratify hb1982.

that petsmart commercial about the wienie dog chewing on the wienie dog stuffed animal is kinda disturbing . . .

the broncos lost last week. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

and lastly but not leastly, happy chinese new year to all!

2006-01-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

today is sunday 22 january 2006.

the broncos lost today. so exciting this takes a line in my blog.

actually, this is a relief to some . . . all week long the kiddies were getting scared my hair would grow until the fall. probably the charisian presence would have made me cut my hair anyway because of the hideousness of the look. i was actually going to try to have that wild hair cut like jimmy deyoung (the Biblical archaeologist). but i guess this was not meant to be.

now i have to thinkg of a reason to grow my lamb chops . . .

but i must say, the broncos/steelers game was pretty trippy. the denver post was right on track this morning--this is a whole lot more exciting that any rockies/pirates matchup.

2006-01-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

today is monday 16 january 2005.

so the other day i'm in the teacher workroom and i peek in the fridge. "cool, food." so i offer some food (of unknown residence in the fridge) to the teacher's aides--"try some and let me know if it's still good, then i'll have some." first time i've seen a teenager turn down food.

bronco fever hits denver. last week the broncos were underdogs. now the guys in vegas are placing their bets for the broncos to take the superbowl.

can't say this isn't exciting. beats following the rockies (or the dodgers for that matter). kinda thinking about jumping on the bandwagon . . . so i'm sitting in church yesterday (yes, this was in the middle of the sermon when this idea hit)--maybe i won't cut my hair until the broncos lose . . . could be problem if the broncos take the superbowl.

2006-01-15T22:46:00.000-08:00

today is sunday 15 january 2005.

broncos won yesterday . . . so exciting this takes a line in my blog. it was kinda funny--i walked into king soopers yesterday wearing a dodger shirt and a dodger jacket. out of place to say the least--everyone else was decked out in bronco stuff.

crazy website. www.fliptomexico.com.

getting meatloaf(computer) ready for action has been pretty wild. wifi problems seem to be the trickiest thing so far . . . so sometimes the router seems to go dead, sometimes the winsocks go dead. what i don't get is how the sound goes dead with wifi . . . wild stuff . . . bluetooth hasn't worked properly yet either--but bluetooth can wait.

baseball starts in about a month . . . don't know what to expect from the dodgers--maybe third place?

2006-01-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

today is friday 06 january 2006.

about a week after i get meatloaf (new computer), i am glad to say that i'm finally all set up. really my first time to work with win xp (don't ask), and all the updated software is hip indeed.

did i ever mention my run-in with dell? when i detached a motorola cell phone to mendellssohn (the computer of the charisian presence), the mother board fried. an hour phone call had me removing the hd, memory, etc.--conclusion was to send it in. apparently nobody at dell speaks unaccented english (everyone is from the south or india). she took my address as "w darkness ave" instead of "w dartmouth ave". so when the box didn't arrive on the 16th as the technician mentioned, i made e-mail inquiries (all of which were replied to within 6 hours). ended up dell did send the box, but to some unknown address.

so monday the 19th i head over to dhl to get the box, pack the sick computer in the box, and send her on her way. we're off to hawaii on the 20th. the 28th we get back--but no computer in sight.

so i call dell, and they tell me their memphis facility got mendellssohn on the 21st. but because of Christmas orders, expect delays up to two weeks. i didn't believe the guy, so i called again friday. the guy said he'll talk to his supervisor and call me back within the hour. actually i didn't get a call from dell, but one from dhl instead. the computer was sitting at the denver west facility and would be home within the hour. so all ends well with mendellssohn . . .

as far as the trip to hawaii--i'll need to post photos sometime. the charisian presence liked banyan trees for some strange reason . . . and yes, orbit is still a fat dog.

dodgers are making changes galore. jae seo looks like he'll be in the rotation. the garciaparra move is curious. who knows--maybe they won't take third place next year.

2006-01-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

today is sunday 01 january 2006.

so i'm thinking of what went on this last year--everything short of nothing. only april, october, and november were pretty calm.

got back from hawaii on thursday. actually ran out of time. next time i go to hawaii i'll eat saimin from shiro's saimin haven. next time i go to hawaii i'll stop by leonard's malasadas and espresso. next time i go to hawaii i'll stop by pearl harbor. next time i'm in hawaii i'll play with orbit more. next time i go to hawaii i'll actually stop at l and l. next time i got to hawaii i'll stop at zippys. next time i go to hawaii i'll stop for some korean food.

sounds like i did nothing--actually taking the charisian presence back to the homeland was a trip. kid her about the pretty trees which she kept taking a pictures of--i laughed because it was just a banana tree.

we did much sight seeing. and it gave me a chance to show off my homeland--this gave me a chance to connect back with my people.

and orbit is still a fat dog. and scared of the charisian presence to boot.

i finally got a new computer. the charisian presence was getting on my case because i spent more time looking for a computer than an engagement ring (and yes the ring did cost more than the computer). she also reminded me that she spent less time looking for a wedding dress for herself . . .

you gotta love getting a new machine and setting it up--actually i hate it. so i got my box of cds friday and i'm off installing and installing and installing.

specs--toshiba m55-3292. pentium m 730, 512 mb mem, 60 gig hd (yeah, i know it's small--but this does have dvd writer). a red cover to boot . . .

yeah and the hard part was finding her a name--meatloaf. i thought if i got a dog tomorrow what her name would be, so meatlof it is!

2005-12-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

today is 17 december 2005.

point your browser here to see exciting turkey frying video . . . notice the snow. notice the fire extinguisher. notice the extra protection . . . needless to say, this shouldn't be attempted at home unless you really feel comfortable doing it. this scares the living daylights out of me . . .

colorado Christmas last night was pretty hip . . . point your browser here if you want to catch a glimpse.

did the dumb thing to the charisian presence's computer--pulled a usb cable out i guess at the wrong time. mendellsohn didn't like it--now i'm playing e-mail tag with tech support in india while the guys in texas are telling me something else . . . we'll see what happens . . .

the dodgers are trying to nomar garciapara . . . great. after we get him we gotta figure out where to put him . . .

remember a few years ago the dodgers needed a bat so tried dante bichette. the dodgers put him at first, and the dodgers found out what colorado fans already knew--he can hit, but he can't catch. but part of the lesson was learned, bichette was never put out in the outfield. regardless, bichette retired.

anyway, the plan is to have bill mueller at third, furcal at ss, kent and then izturis (when he gets back) at second, and garciapara/saenze/choi and then kent (when izturis takes second) at first . . . the outfield is perilous . . . werth is somewhere, so is ledee. but milton bradley is gone to oakland and grabowski to japan . . . who knows what will happen next . . .