Let's Go Card-nals!

What a game! What a team! Go Cards!

Yes, for those of you new to following asisaid (now simulcasting on Facebook), I usually have to make my once-a-year sporting comments during the post season (2004 [1 | 2 | 3 | 4], 2005)… and here it is again. I am admittedly spoiled by the luxury that the Cardinals are usually in the post season, of course. Cardinal Nation is excited right now, folks. We've got out boys back in the World Series for the second time in two years and with an amazing first game! 7-2, for those who somehow missed it.

Anthony Reyes really pitched an amazing game in his perfectly ironed cap and long socks. How appropriate: the underdog team (we're always the underdogs, aren't we?) wins the first game of the series we weren't suppose to make it to using a “sacrificial lamb” pitcher. Wooohoo! I say it is time for the Cards to regain the title of World Series champs. La Russa has managed to keep the team's momentum going at an amazing rate for years now, but has not yet returned to the Cards the title we last held in 1982. Let's Go Cardinals!

I might not be the typical sports following type guy, but how can I not love baseball with a team like the Cardinals?

Nameless, Part I

I have a funny mind. I can remember frequently bizarre details, or the dates of things I did, but on the other hand, can easily forget that I meant to update this or that web page tonight or, often far worse, someone's name. That strikes me today, as — depending on whether you choose to count the anniversary of a day by the day of the week or the date — a particularly vivid day occurred two years ago the Friday of this week, today, or, really, two years ago Wednesday. I can say that somehow without looking back on the calendar. I just know innately that it was two years ago. It isn't that the date is stuck in my head, I just remember. How odd.

For some reason, I have the urge to write out the “story” of that day, so I shall.

It was a warm, crisp autumn Friday in October. I got up earlier than usual and cleaned up my car a bit. My cousin, Amelia, was coming over to go with me to Lindenwood so that she could get a taste of the university. Amelia was in her senior year at Lutheran High at the time; originally we had planned to do this little tour and “class sit in” the semester before, but the plans had just not come together — that was just as well, as the classes the previous semester would not have proved nearly as interesting for her to sit in. Regardless, it to be this day and not some other one. I don't think she was really considering going to any other school still at the time, so perhaps the purpose of giving her a taste of LU wasn't as useful as it would have been before, but the main thing was that it promised to be a fun day.

When she arrived, we hopped into my Jeep and headed off. I thoroughly confused her as I cut through the various back roads I take to avoid the traffic of Highway 94 in the morning. We chatted about various subjects, including the upcoming presidential election. We arrived several hours before the first of my two Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes. I pulled into the parking lot of St. Charles Presbyterian, turned the wrong way and tried to maneuver into a parking spot, but ultimately had to back out carefully and come around the right direction.

We talked as we walked up the hill to the campus and I began a tour of the various buildings. I believe we walked through Butler Hall — the professors' offices — first, wound around and back out the basement, went through Roemer, peeked into Butler Library, then Young, and into the dark (and often ignored) Memorial Arts Building, that houses the business faculty. We went to the drab downstairs, because I wanted to introduce Amelia to Dr. Chilton, who is a friend and mentor of mine, but his door was shut all the way and I presumed he wasn't there (I later found out he was).

At that point we wandered over to the Spellmann Center to eat lunch. It was just before 11:00 and we were to meet my cousin's friend Maggie, who had just started at LU. We came down the stairs and Maggie came up and introductions were made. I'm not quite sure the reason, but we stayed outside the cafeteria for a few minutes. I remember leaning against the cool of the exterior facing wall of the building as we talked. I asked Maggie about what classes she was taking, and if I recall correctly, she was in a World Religions class with Dr. Mason.

We entered the cafeteria when one of my professors from the semester before, Dr. Stein was walking over to get a tray. I introduced my cousin to him. My English advisor, Dr. Hickenlooper also walked by and I introduced Amelia to him. I seem to remember introducing my cousin to Dr. Chilton, whom I mentioned a few moments ago, too, but can't say for sure — which is odd, given that I can remember the other details. The cafeteria was extremely sparse feeling that day, it was almost as if there were a few professors there just so I could introduce them to my cousin and that was it. I'm sure there were some students milling around, but I can't recall that at all.

The menu included baked fish, broccoli, and baked potatoes in the “homestyle” section of the cafeteria. I got all three, and, I think, a salad as well. Amelia and Maggie had gone to other sections to get food and I met back up with Amelia on the way in to the cafeteria.

I'll continue on this story tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly why; hopefully it won't prove too uninteresting.

Go. Cards. Go.

That's all that needs to be said right now. It's 1-1 in the 8th inning.

Update (10:20 CDT): Make that 3-1 in the 9th. Slam-a-lama-ding-dong. GO CARDS!

Update (10:37 CDT): Please strike out the last Met. Please?

Tired.

I feel exhausted tonight, for the second night in a row. The funny thing is I slept very good last night and had a mostly peaceful day today. I guess I'm just running behind on energy. More tomorrow.

Force of Good

Volkswagen has a savvy marketing department to say the least. A few months after my parents purchased their Passat, which features a special slot to hold an umbrella, an umbrella arrived in the mail as a free gift from VW. It was the kind of thing that added a new surprise to a car that was several months old already.

Apparently, VW must do this for all of their cars. The other day I received a colorful little box from the company. In keeping with the company's theme that the New Beetle is a “Force of Good,” they gave me a Force of Good kit. It has handy things for “doing good,” such as bandages, floss, a pen (that can be lent in a pinch) and hand sanitizer. Yeah, it's nothing major, but it is kind of fun, and a nifty “owner loyalty” idea.

It makes me feel like, well, doing some good.

That's odd...

Two years ago this month, I purchased an invoicing system for my company. The idea was that it would automatically bill my clients monthly, quarterly, etc. and then I could just sit back and collect the money. Well, not really: I still have to provide service, after all!

Unfortunately, I found that just like my previous invoicing system, the new one was hardly the ideal of automation. WHMAP, as it is known, ties into my hosting control panel nicely, but it didn't ever send out the bills automatically. It would generate them and then they would sit there until I went in and manually selected each one and told it to send. So much for efficiency.

So, a few months ago I decided to get a new system. I tried out a couple, researched even more (including some I passed up when I bought WHMAP), and decided on ClientExec. I really like CE's better tie in with PayPal (even without using subscriptions, the process can remain totally self service for the client: the client logs in, clicks “pay now” and it processes the payment and marks the invoice paid); moreover, the new system attaches the invoice to the e-mail it sends to the client rather than sending a message that tells my clients to login to read their new invoice. I also like that CE has a built in helpdesk system so that I can provide my clients with support and billing in one convenient location.

So what's odd? Tonight I went out to the mailbox and had a payment from a client. The invoice was enclosed with the payment. Guess what? The invoice wasn't from CE. WHMAP finally remembered to send an invoice!

Not Likely to Make Penguins My Friends

Don't think I've given up on GNU/Linux when you read my latest piece on OFB, I do intend to highlight some good things about Linux in coming weeks. Nevertheless, this must be said:

Those of us observing GNU/Linux over the past decade have spent so much time talking about how “next year is Linux’s year on the desktop” that it has become more of a humorous cliché than a useful statement. Nevertheless, while every year the Penguin has disappointed us in not quite readying itself to compete against Apple and Microsoft’s systems, at least in the small office and home office market, we can always cling to the eternal hope: next year. Or can we?

Let's Polka!

My family usually has a few parties each year, and often times we'll have a theme of some sort. Today, my mother put on an amazing little Root Beer/Oktoberfest party for us. As part of that, we had lots of polka music, and I learned how to polka. By the end of the night, my cousin Amelia and I managed to polka across the house — and not break anything in the process!

The party, being an Oktoberfest party, had beer (of the rooty sort). It wasn't just a root beer party, but a root beer tasting party. Using blind taste testing, all of us tried nine different types of root beer and rated them. I, along with about half of the others, unknowingly picked A&W as my favorite, over more exotic ones, such as “Virgil's” and “Sparky's.” A&W was the only one that we had not purchased at Straub's, an “up market” little grocery chain that we went to specifically to get root beer. I also found St. Louis hometown Fitz's and Route 66 rootbeer to be quite good. Some of the others weren't very good at all. One, I think it may have been the Virgil's, tasted like cough syrup, for instance.

Quite a night, at any rate.

TQ: Pop Culture

In this week's TQ from Mark, we consider important issues of pop culture:

1. 42 or 2001

42, of course. It is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

2. 33, 32 or 23

No idea.

3. ET or AI

Is that maybe “Alf”? If so, then Alf. If not, I'm not sure.

4. Yacko, Wakko, and Dot or Bugs, Daffy and Porky

Bugs, Daffy and Porky.

5. T1, T2, or T3

I do not believe I've ever seen an entire Terminator (though I've seen parts of at least T1 and T2).

6. Captain Picard, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, or Commander Jeffrey Sinclair

Who else but Captain Picard? Who else can “make it so”?

7. TRL or Headbangers Ball

No idea.

8. Beavis and Butthead or Itchy and Scratchy

Itchy and Scratchy.

9. Harry or Frodo

Probably Harry, although I'm just getting to know Frodo.

Extra credit:

vi, emacs or pico

Pico. Vi is evil; and, I want a text editor, not an operating system, so Emacs is out.

Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).

Withdrawn

I need to get away from distractions for awhile. I have written previously about my desire to write some larger works. Specifically, in October 2004, I wrote that I wanted to write a play and a non-fiction book, among other things. Since then, I have written one very brief and one somewhat longer play (the latter successfully adhering to the Unities, too.). That was a good start, but I have learned a lot since then (and through the experience of writing those works) and I think I know how to write a drama that is quite a bit better than my first attempts. I just need some free time.

Similarly, I have a much better perspective on book writing now. Although I've not even come close to writing a book, I do know clearly what I want to write about and my specific points. I have a lot of the chapters drawn out, so all that I need is time to do research and figure out the best way to explain the points. I'll tip my hat just a bit: the book will be on theology, but aimed at those who don't spend all their time studying theology. Again, I just need some free time.

What I really need is a free multi-day stay down at Big Cedar, on Table Rock Lake, so that I could just spend some time writing my thoughts and doing other writerly things. I need to ditch cell phones and e-mail for a few days too (well, as a sysadmin, I can't really do that, but I can at least limit my contact with such infernal devices).

One of these days.