dead men tell no tales...

Perhaps.

Every once in a while, I stumble on a very cool domain name. I couldn't get the .com, but the .net is the next best thing, and the site at the .com is a piece of crap it appears, so no worries... there is already a blog called "Red White and Blog" at notatool.com but he appears to be a GOoPer... so fuck 'im.

posted by Steve  # 10:34 AM

I've finally decided to take the plunge and get off my old webhost. Because of this, images and CSS (hosted on my webspace) may soon look weeeeeird. It may also mean I will be switching from Blogger to WordPress in the near future, as my new host ( HostGator ) inlcudes so too-easy-for-words WordPress support, and WordPress has an "Import Blogger" function so I don't have to ditch a year's worth of posts. We'll see what happens.

Also figured out how to get the wedding site to look right in IE. Not that I should have had to completely change the way the site is built in order to get IE to display it right... but dammit... I like the design. Not done with it, but working on it.

posted by Steve  # 4:44 PM

I'm working on the wedding site. I'd probably be done if IE properly displayed PNG-24 Alpha Transparency. I may have to scrap my design because I'll never be happy with the way it looks in IE, and well, 75% of this blog's visitors use IE.

Shitty.

Get Firefox.

posted by Steve  # 5:19 PM

Jeremy Clay is the jerk who won my fantasy baseball league last year. Netted himself just south of $300 for his astute waiver wire pickups, his solid initial draft, and his ability to immerse himself in baseball news, rumors and stats, while at work, and to not get fired for it.

Now he's entered the world of the sportswriter. Or, sportsblogger, I suppose, with the creation of his new blog, Addicted to Fantasy. He already has up a very good treatise on the mechanics of a fantasy baseball draft. If you're into this sort of thing (and you all know I am), check him out. He's already secured himself a spot in my Bloglines... hopefully the good content will churn out regularly.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Jeremy!

posted by Steve  # 10:57 AM

Look at the little icons I got for the wedding website. Cute!

Yeah, I am actually working on the wedding site. More than a blog!

posted by Steve  # 5:06 PM

Welcome to Oakland

Details.

posted by Steve  # 3:33 PM

Chris Penn died. Holy crap.

posted by Steve  # 11:26 AM

Yes hun, I know.

So Disney bought Pixar. 7-ish billion dollars ($59 per share), Jobs becomes the single largest shareholder of the WDC, eclipsing Roy E. Disney, and Mr. Macintosh gets a spot on the Disney Board of Directors. John Lasseter, the former Disney animator and creative lead behind all of Pixar's hit films, becomes the head of Feature Animation. Pixar, as a division, apparently will continue to be headquartered up here in Emeryville and not moved to Burbank or Glendale.

Hopefully, with Jobs and Lasseter sticking around and in positions of incredible power in the company, the vast bulk of Pixar's incredibly talented story and animation people won't be jumping ship to DWA or Fox any time soon.

Bloomberg has more.

posted by Steve  # 4:17 PM

For better or worse, the boss will be out all day today, and I have just one email due today (still waiting for client approval). I actually have two due tomorrow... but one is approved and ready to go, the other is out for client approval... so I guess I can prep the Wednesday email...

What I'm basically saying is I have like an hour, maybe ninety minutes worth of work to do today, and with the big man out, it's less likely I'll have some new project to tackle. This kind of sucks.

Used my new shaver this morning, got me a Braun Activator 8585. I think it's the same thing Eric has, but can't be sure... it's a foil shaver, not a rotary blade shaver, and has this charging/cleaning stand. Very neat. Used it for the first time last night, and Heather thought my face and neck felt smoother than she'd ever felt before! Rock on! And it was more comfortable, quicker, and less messy than use a manual blade razor. Very happy so far.

There is a pimper version of the Activator apparently, the 8590, but I'm not sure of the differences. And, I'm happy with the price I paid... a quick glance at Google shows the Activator 8585 available online for anywhere from about $125 to $185... and I'm sure all those places charge shipping. I bought at the Target Greatland in San Ramon for $133 and change. So yeah, very happy with the price.

I'll probably come up with something to actually say later. Might post something in a political vein, maybe something baseball-related if there's anything to discuss besides the Coco Crisp trade, maybe something Disney-related if the deal for Pixar goes through today.

A political, baseball, Disney blog? With crap about shavers and orange-flavored dental products thrown in? Could anybody possibly want to read this?

posted by Steve  # 8:29 AM

1. Heather was right. Orange-flavored dental products are disgusting.
2. Listerine is good stuff. I have orange-flavored Listerine and it needs to be replaced with the old-school mint stuff, but even the orange junk makes my teeth feel oh-so-nice.
3. Even with an overtime win tonight, the Sharks are in deep. Deep as in 2 points ahead of dead last in their division, 10 points behind #2. Ouch.
4. The World Baseball Classic is going to be awesome. Everyone in the world... except people from the 14 other nations involved... should look forward to a star-studded USA vs. Dominican Republic final on Monday, March 20.
5. You should be drinking more water.

posted by Steve  # 5:39 PM

We stayed out way too late last night. Got home a little before 1am I suppose. I've been sick and stuck inside so long I just relished being out and chatting with people and everything.

When I got home, I plopped into bed and turned on the tube, which was still set where I had it in the morning... on ESPN. What was on, you ask? Oh not much... just a half-hour special dedicated to The Catch. Hell yes!

Interviews with basically everyone involved, including Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Randy Cross, Ronnie Lott, and Freddie Solomon, as well as crybaby whiners Danny White, Everson Walls, and other Cowgirls who were on the field that day.

I obviously don't remember watching The Catch live, though, like the Miracle On Ice two years earlier, and The Play 10 months later, I've been assured by my parents that my just-turned-3-years-old tush was planted on the couch next to them while we watched our Niners in the NFC title game that day. Nick, in utero at the time, was present but sadly missed the play.

58 seconds on the clock. Down by 6. 3rd and 3 on the Cowboys 6 yard line. Montana bootlegs to his right looking for Solomon, who's blanketed. Ed "Too Tall" Jones and cohorts are bearing down on Joe Cool, looking to sack him or knock him out of bounds, when The Greatest Quarterback Of All Time tosses a high pass to the back of the end zone, where, like magic, a leaping Dwight Clark appears out of seemingly nowhere, fingertips outstretched, and brings down the ball despite the wimping protest of a reaching Walls. Touchdown. The extra point is good, Niners lead 28-27, 51 seconds left.

Of course, the game didn't end there. There were 51 seconds left.

Cowgirls quarterback Danny White, hoping to lead his 'Girls to field goal range and the Super Bowl, completes a pass across the middle to what appears to be a wide-open receiver... until Eric Wright reaches out to horsecollar him and drop him down. Still out of field goal range, clock still ticking, the Cowgirls line up for another play.

A play on which White is pressured, hit, fumbles the ball, and with it, the dynasty of America's Team. It was the beginning of the greatness of the 49ers of the 1980s, and the end of the greatness of the Cowboys of the 1970s. A hell of a thing, it was.

There are times when people ask me why I like sports. Maybe some day I'll show them a tape of The Catch instead of trying to explain it. Now all I can hope for is that ESPN will show their tribute to The Play tonight. Sweet dreams, indeed.

posted by Steve  # 2:26 PM

So Fox today announced the formal cancellation of three sitcoms, Arrested Development, That 70's Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. I still can't decide whether this is news or not... basically everyone who's ever seen the show has seen this coming for Arrested for months now, including the show's creative team, who did a "Save Our Bluths" episode in which they "went to showtime" (i.e. put on a show) because The Bluth Company was in trouble. Showtime, of course, is one of the networks (along with ABC) interested in grabbing the Emmy Award-winning show and breathing new life into it.

The other two shows jumped the shark long ago. Eric Forman left Point Place, what, two seasons ago? And I didn't even realize Malcolm was still on with new episodes, it's become an ubiquitous part of almost every local station's syndicated lineup.

So really, no news, I supposed... to That 70's Show and Malcolm in the Middle, they'll get their series finales in May and will live on forever in syndication. And as for Arrested Development, they will go to a network that will hopefully know what to do with a show that is so funny, so topical, so self-aware as to be beyond description.

A fitting end in all three cases, then. Who needs Fox, anyway?

posted by Steve  # 10:23 AM

I'm not sure what other people see when they go to your blog, Daryl, but I get an all-white background with white or light-colored text. OMGWTF?

posted by Steve  # 9:56 AM

Daryl linked to the CLO blog today and so I visited. It looks like the footnote on item 2 needs updating... Perhaps the conference/summit/whathaveyou will occur in the summer?

posted by Steve  # 4:28 PM

New homes make me sick some times.

I'm tired of the mentality of slamming homes together to squeeze one extra lot out of a development. It's sad, really... I grew up in a great house, built some time in the 1960s or 70s I think (my parents bought in 1985, sold in 1999), on a quarter-acre lot. Sure, it was bigger (by some) than many (but not all) of our neighbors. We had a big enough front yard for a tree (later ripped out and replaced with a flower bed), enough grass to be a bitch to cut, and the house was at least 50 feet off the street.

The back yard had a deck with a hot tub, a little half-court (okay, more like a third-court) with a basketball hoop, a small swing set I outgrew quickly, and enough lawn to play soccer or football on until I was about thirteen. I'm not saying this to brag.

I sent an email this morning for a client, for a new home development in Lincoln, CA. The email boasted of "Generous 6,000 square foot lots." Tomorrow I will send another, for a different client, for new homes in Sunnyvale, CA, that mentions, as a feature, "lots of up to nearly 4,000 square feet."

Up to? Nearly? Damn. For a quick comparison, here's an image for you... forgive me, it's as close as Google Maps gets and I had to blow it up to draw on it...

That's my old house. 2747 Marsh Drive in San Ramon. Where I grew up, and where until 7 years ago, my family had called home for a decade and a half. The red box is our quarter-acre lot. The blue box is what 4,000 square feet looks like. It's not quite enough for our house, includes about 1/3 of the front yard, and only the deck in the back yard.

It's just sad. I had so many great memories in that back yard... and in friends' back yards, as well... Greg had a big one, so did Russ, and Sean... ah well. I guess somewhere along the line, home builders decided kids don't need yards, and it must be more cost-efficient to squeeze homes close enough to get that single extra lot, and put in a greenbelt or community park, then it is to give everyone another couple thousand square feet.

posted by Steve  # 2:17 PM

Which, I realize, is not the best excuse for not blogging. In some ways, I should have had more time... I took all of Monday off work and a chunk of yesterday, and I still don't feel 100%... but in reality, when I'm sick, the last place I want to be is on the intarwebs. Oh well.

Did the date headers for my posts going back to when I started doing them... and then did them for all of January. Now I just have to make sure I do February's headers before February actually arrives, and whatnot.

I'm wracking my brain trying to come up with something interesting to tell you all... outside, of course, of the fact that we've booked the location of the ceremony and reception for our wedding. The ceremony will be at the Lakeside Terrace, and the reception at the Lakeside Ballroom, at Blackhawk Country Club, Saturday, May 12, 2007. We're both extremely psyched, as are, I believe, our families. A great time shall be had by all, I assure you!

Baseball season, by the way, can't possibly start soon enough...

posted by Steve  # 11:51 AM

::sigh::

That, and for some reason, I can't cover up the Blogger bar like I used to be able to... the RSS Feed "ribbon" graphic still goes over it, but I was mightily struggling with some z-index issues that may or may not get fixed...

posted by Steve  # 5:01 PM

A 19-year-old entrepreneuer is spending $100,000 to go to Walt Disney World 6 days of every week this year, stay in their hotels, ride the rides, eat in the restuarants, buy stuff in the shops, etc.

He's living the dream. And documenting the hell out of it.

Follow Jupelo.

posted by Steve  # 4:36 PM

I am totally behind the times when it comes to Pandora, that "tell us what you like, we'll play you other stuff you might like" free internet app/service/Web2.0 yummyness. But I finally joined the game. Got off the bench I did.

So I have made a radio station on Pandora called "KSRP." The artists I originally gave it to start the station were The Polyphonic Spree, Sufjan Stevens, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Iron & Wine, and, to mix it up a bit, The Go! Team. It has since played excellent songs from those artists and Now It's Overhead, Ben Folds, The Flaming Lips, Paul Simon, Too Much Joy and others.

It has also played complete and utter crap from Bryan Adams, Oingo Boingo, Wilson Phillips, and Dream Street. I am training it still, obviously.

Pandora will tell you why it plays certain songs. Here's an example:

For Ben Folds - "Landed": because it features acoustic rock instrumentation, mild rhythmic syncopation, acoustic rhythm piano, extensive vamping and meandering melodic phrasing.

And another:

For Sufjan Stevens - "In The Devil's Territory": because it features folk roots, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, a vocal-centric aesthetic and acoustic rhythm guitars

So I guess that's the kind of stuff you might be able to expect on the station. Give it a try. Pandora is neat.

posted by Steve  # 1:53 PM

Listening To: Tegan & Sara
Walking with the Ghost
&
The Lovemakers
Is It Alright?

Just how busy? Well, while this is kind of a sad way to come to the realization that I have been busybusybusy... here it is.

I haven't been to DailyKos today. Not once. Haven't even read the feed.

I'm going crazy not knowing what is happening with the Alito hearings! Dammit!

I think I should take lunch. Go home, grab a nap or something.

posted by Steve  # 12:44 PM

Listening To: Sufjan Stevens
The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts

Apparently those "Blog-related resolutions" are going real well. Yeah.

Instead of posting every day, it's been days. Instead of getting those post date graphics done, I've not done that. So forth, and so on.

It has been busy at work... perhaps that has something to do with it. And, before last night, Heather and I had gone out on the town oh, we figure, about 16 days straight. Something like that. It's possible we hadn't stayed in since before Christmas (though I'm not sure of that). And of course, we stay in, and I have a huge project to finish up for work that... let's just say, wasn't quite the priority I was led to believe, but boy, Rob sure is glad to have something to "wave in front of the client today."

Yikes. There's five hours of home time down the drain.

Ok, good things... focus on the good things... the wedding planning is coming along. Heather has an appointment at 9am tomorrow to meet a coordinator at our favorite-venue-of-the-moment, and if it all works out, it sounds like we may book as early as next week (or this weekend, something like that). Booking would be great... it would lock the date in, and set a definite budget, and let us relax a little, for at least a few months, before we hit that 12-month mark and really have to bust ass.

Today marks the first anniversary of Heather and I dating. We're not doing anything huge... we have so much to do, really... but we are going out to a very nice dinner at Prima tonight. I was such a fan of the braised duck ravioli I had last time that I hope I enjoy whatever I get tonight. Then, tomorrow we're heading to Oliveto in Rockridge with Ian for some engagement-celebratin' type action. Actually, the main reason is he knows the chef and it will be awesome.

Then Friday I meet with Marsha to try to wrap up marshasforhair.com. After that, I'm not doing websites for anyone (well, besides friends) until I stop doing them at work all day. Lame.

More later, if the day doesn't drown me.

posted by Steve  # 9:06 AM

May 12, 2007

posted by Steve  # 6:03 PM

Texas 41, USC 38. One of the best football games I have ever seen, minus a couple terrible calls. Here's to next season

posted by Steve  # 9:48 PM

Texas gets away with another one... That was a catch!

posted by Steve  # 8:38 PM

I think Reggie read my last post... Everyone was just reminded why he's got the little bronze statue in his closet. 31-23 USC.

posted by Steve  # 8:32 PM

Was someone saying something about the Texas special teams? Good kicker there in Austin

posted by Steve  # 8:23 PM

LenDale White. Again. Reggie who?

posted by Steve  # 8:05 PM

And the Trojans take back the lead just as I finish dinner... LenDale White 4 yard run and a Mel's Graffiti Burger, respectively

posted by Steve  # 7:49 PM

USC FG to end the half, good momentum shift, but they need to TACKLE

posted by Steve  # 7:08 PM

If USC has decided to stop tackling, this game is over before the half ends. Terrible tackling, touchdown Texas

posted by Steve  # 6:53 PM

Texas just got away with murder on that VY pitch... Perhaps karma, and that missed PAT, will get them

posted by Steve  # 6:42 PM

Boy the momentum swings back to Texas with that excellent end zone interception. 6-ish minutes left in the half, no new scoring.

posted by Steve  # 6:35 PM

Good defense by the Trojans holds Texas to a FG

posted by Steve  # 6:23 PM

BONEHEAD attempt at a lateral by Bush results in a fumble and Texas ball, and that WILL come back to haunt USC.

posted by Steve  # 6:14 PM

End of the 1st quarter, 7-0 USC. And Texas doesn't look too hot yet. They'll heat up for sure...

posted by Steve  # 6:09 PM

UT fumbles a punt return, USC scores, then stuffs the'Horns on 4th and 1. Good start!

posted by Steve  # 5:45 PM

...and for the life of me, I can't come up with one statistical formula that separates the two teams, who are (if you've been living under a rock or just really don't give a crap) the University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Southern California Trojans. The game starts in about an hour, at which time the Men of Troy will be attempting to secure their third straight National Championship, and to do it, they're putting two Heisman Trophy winning teammates on the field.

Those last two things, they've never happened before.

My first stab was StatNorm, the College Football Statistical Normalizer, which, through a simple arithmetic formula, tries to get a picture of not just what a team's defense and offense has done, but what they've done compared with the other talent their opponents faced...

The Longhorn offense came out +169/+26, and the defense -89/-12... the Trojan offense was +202/+22, the defense -91/-11. The numbers themselves don't matter... what matters is that the average percentage of separation between the two teams in this system was something around 10% (when looking at just their defenses, this drops to 5%). That's essentially statistically irrelevant in this system, near as I can tell.

My second attempt, I've dubbed PLUMPS or the Plus-Minus Projection System. I admit, it's an extremely rudimentary system of "negatives" and "positives" in certain game situations, with results then averaged for a per-game number. I think I came up with it at lunch or something. Anyway, after running USC and Texas's seasons through PLUMPS, I came out with USC +6.92, Texas +6.75.

The numbers themselves don't mean anything, I know... but the difference is a measly 2.5%. What does this all mean?

I think it means that football is not as good a sport for stathounds like myself as baseball is.

Anyway, so what if I haven't found a statistically viable way to pick a winner in tonight's National Championship game? It's okay. I'll still be able to sleep at night. I think.

Oh, my prediction is USC 34 Texas 28. In OT.

Only 57 more days until Spring Training, thank god.

posted by Steve  # 4:00 PM

1. Post every day. Period. No exceptions, even weekends. If I have cell phone reception, I can blog. Stop dicking around!
2. Make the posts interesting. As in, much more interesting than this. For sheez.
3. Finish up the post date graphics... like, a-to-the-sap.
4. Find more good blogs to stick in the Blogroll. Clean out the ones I never visit. See if others who do not currently link to me, would.
5. Remind people to click on my Google ads. Smile nicely at anyone who does so.
6. PhoBlog more consistently, and with more content.
   1. Get a new phone with better-than-0.3 megapixel camera?
7. Get the Heather and Steve Get Married Blog off the ground. After all, the big day's only (something around) 16 months away!
8. Find cool new shit to integrate into this design, like the "Latest PhoBlog" feature. Resist urge to redesign completely. Stick it out with this design. I'm serious, goddammit!
9. Blog either more or less at work... I'm not sure which yet. Probably more.

Happy New Year everyone!

UPDATE 01/04 @ 9:18am - Resolution #4 is underway, as I have removed a bunch of blogs/sites I don't read, and have added Andy and Candice (Sinister Zen) to the Blogroll. Yay for beginning to start trying to take my resolutions seriously! (now... where is that gym card....)

posted by Steve  # 5:19 PM