October 2001 archives

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Wednesday, October 31, 2001

And so it begins

For a long time, I've wanted to do a full-blown college football tradition site. One that took all the stuff that I've done so far (fight songs, rivalries, kickoff chants) and added tons more information.

Basically, I want something that people who love college football tradition could get lost in for a few hours. That's the goal.

Well, the time is starting now. I'm starting to put together a college football tradition site. It will incorporate the features I've developed so far, as well as adding new information on lots of other topics.

This is a massive undertaking, to say the very least. But it's one that I'm really interested in working on.

Anyway, there's a new feature there already, school colors. While all it does now is give the official colors of all the division I-A schools, in time it will have the stories behind how the colors were chosen.

Look for more there in time. And I've put a permanent link to the tradition site on my front page.

Monday, October 29, 2001

Red Alert!

So I've found something new to pass the time: Command & Conquer. Ricky has let me borrow one of the discs to play around with, and I have found myself engaged in virtual battle for much of today. And proving to myself that I would not make a very good general.

Friday, October 26, 2001

Double your fun

Ah, grandparents. My grandfather is something of a kidder. He's always trying to push your buttons if he can, and he's pretty quick-witted.

The other day, he bought one of those Sam's-sized bags of Dubble Bubble bubble gum. You know, the pink, cylindrical gum that loses its flavor in about thirteen seconds? Anyway, he had a couple of pieces in his mouth, and they got stuck. He couldn't get his mouth open enough to get them out.

As he tried to remove the gum, I joked that it was the first thing that I had ever heard of that could keep his mouth shut. I haven't heard my grandmother laugh that hard in a long time. :)

Thursday, October 25, 2001

Thoughts going into the bye week

In no particular order of importance, just based on things that I'm thinking about right now:

• Fall foliage is God's answer to fireworks. A much better answer, I think.
• One of the advantages of being unemployed is getting to learn so much new stuff. I've been learning XML and Javascript, and I'm actually helping Mozilla along by testing it some.
• The previous statement is not an indicator that I enjoy being unemployed.
• One of life's certainties: when rounding a steep curve or crossing a narrow bridge, there will be a car coming in the opposite direction, passing you at the most dangerous point.
• I think that God's lesson to me this fall has been patience. I'm pretty sure of this, actually.
• Alabama is a much better 3-4 team this year than last year, if that makes any sense.
• I miss my friends.

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Reason #257 that I am a geek

I picked up a copy of The XML Bible on Monday. It's a comprehensive book on XML and everything that goes with it. It's about 1200 pages altogether.

I've already read 250 pages of it.

Some people devour mystery novels. Some people like romances. Other people just enjoy the classics.

I apparently think that a computer language book qualifies as a page-turner. Could I be any geekier?

Monday, October 22, 2001

News flash

Command Alkon called me this afternoon and wants me to come in for an interview on Thursday. They are a technology company, and they're located in Birmingham! <Phoebe>So, yay!</Phoebe>

This serves well to balance out the bad news of this morning...

"It's not you, it's me"

From an e-mail from Hewitt received just now:

Unfortunately, we will not be continuing the interview process at this time. This decision should not be interpreted as a negative reflection upon your accomplishments, but rather the result of our particular needs.

Uh, huh. Sure. In our communication class in the MBA program, we learned how to write letters to soften the blow in certain circumstances, "ding letters" being one. Once you've written a couple, you start figuring out just how half-hearted they can sound. They've always got that "It's not you, it's me" feeling to them.

Somehow I can't help but believe that it is actually me.

Friday, October 19, 2001

New UA football facts

A new edition of UA Football Facts is online, highlighting (or is that lowlighting) the Ole Miss game and previewing tomorrow's big game against Tennessee.

Version 7.5

A very minor change to the front page...the somewhat space-wasting borders around menus have been replaced with colored, condensed headers.

Of course, this doesn't work properly in Netscape 4. However, it does seem to avoid crashing the browser, so my Javascript detector is now no longer needed. Maybe I got lucky and this made AOL's browser work again too.

There's also a version of the front page with collapsing menus which I like the look of. The problem is that in Netscape 6 or Mozilla, switching to the "Flannel" or "Fall Foliage" themes occasionally results in the background image covering everything else. Oh well. I guess I'll just file a bug and move on with life...

Thursday, October 18, 2001

Interview week is now over

Well, now we play the waiting game. The interview with Hewitt went well enough, I suppose, but who knows? I'm supposed to hear something from them sometime next week. If I get a thumbs-up, the pressing on... nationwide tour will be making a stop in Atlanta sometime this November.

My friend Ginny has told me that this page doesn't show up in AOL's browser for some reason. Grr. I'm starting to wonder if I might just go to something much simpler in version 8 of pressing on...

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Well, that makes me feel loved

I just received an e-mail from my financial advisor. At least, that's what the "From:" field tells me: "Your Financial Advisor".

That's great. I didn't even know that I had one...but then, I guess they'd be a better financial advisor if they knew that I didn't have any finances to give me advice about.

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

so I'm back

The interview was very short. It only took about 15 minutes. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Oh well. I'll know something in November...

I went by the BCM after the interview, but no one was around. Anybody going to be there Thursday around noon? I've got my other interview at 11:30 on Thursday, and I'd like to see some people...

Sunday, October 14, 2001

fresh from the depths of my mind

A new insane thought, anti-time.

anti-time

I'm pretty sure that there's a temporal anomaly in the vicinity of my grandparents' microwave. Setting a Hot Pocket for 2:30 results in a cook time of around 5 minutes, it seems.

I thought about flooding the region with an inverse tachion pulse, but then I remembered that my life isn't like Star Trek.

Friday, October 12, 2001

Football facts, collapsing menus, and interviews

To begin with, this week's edition of UA Football Facts is online.

Also, the first step in a slightly new look for the front page: the menus on the right side collapse and expand, for a somewhat cleaner look (in my opinion). This probably won't work in Netscape 4, and may even crash the browser. I haven't implemented this yet on the front page because I want your opinions. Yes, you matter here at pressing on! :)

Finishing up, I've got a couple of interviews next week! One's with Regions on Tuesday, the other is with Hewitt Associates on Thursday. Both are on campus.

Thursday, October 11, 2001

For Netscape 4 users

I've added a JavaScript to the front page to redirect you to a more Netscape 4-friendly page. Hopefully, this will stop the browser from crashing for no good reason.

Still, are you sure that you don't want to upgrade? :)

Thursday, October 4, 2001

UA Football Facts

After a week break, the Arkansas and South Carolina editions of UA Football Facts are online.

Wednesday, October 3, 2001

fun driving in Birmingham, part 2

A while back, I told you about my drive on Grants Mill Road and Highway 119 towards Pelham. The other day, I decided to go the other way on 119 and see where that took me. Then I decided to go on Rex Lake Road off of Grants Mill.

I believe that I've found my new fall drive.

I said earlier that the drive on Grants Mill is hilly and twisty. At times, you kind of feel like you're on a roller coaster in a car. At one point, the curve is so steep that the recommended speed is 10 m.p.h. And I was right. It looks pretty amazing in fall, especially over the narrow bridge that you cross just before you reach Highway 119.

Making a left on 119, you find some amazing stuff. I had no idea there were so many riding acadamies on this road. I must have passed at least four stables. There are some great views of yellow-green fields with lots of mountainous, deciduous areas as a background. There are a couple of times that the road itself vanishes into leaves of gold, and you're in one of the best fall sceneries not found in New England.

I made it to Leeds somewhere, turned around, and came back. Coming back towards home on Grants Mill Road, I decided to turn onto Rex Lake Road. I had a feeling that this would also be a fun road to drive. I wasn't disappointed.

This section of road had times that made you think of those Goodyear commercials where the tires have to be "validated" before you can drive on the road you select. The speed limit is 45-55 miles an hour, and you're going through some relatively curved roads. It's a great drive.

I made it all the way to the end of the road and found myself intersecting with a road that connected almost immediately to I-20. I had no idea how far away from my normal exit I was.

I had made it to Leeds again, at least 10 miles from Grants Mill. I got on the interstate and headed for home.

There's a reason that Paul Fussell called interstates "conduits of the middle-class". Interstates are designed to get you to your destination as quickly as possible. If you see something along the way, so much the better, but that's not the original intent of them. They're not nearly as fun to drive as the back roads, with their farms and lakes and fall colors. When you're not rushing to your next stop, take a drive on a back road or two and you'll see what I mean.

all I need, indeed

AOL's current promotion is 1000 free hours. Sounds great, until you realize that it's only over 45 days. A little basic math tells you that this works out to 22.2 hours per day. Isn't this just a little overkill?

new insane thought

This one is pretty lucid, in my opinion...

Tuesday, October 2, 2001

SEC Football Facts

I can't determine yet whether or not I want to start doing this as a new feature or not. The gathering of data wouldn't be that difficult, but it'd just be another thing to keep up with. So for a potential taste of the future, here's an impromptu edition of SEC Football Facts, which gives some information on all the teams in the SEC and who they're playing.

This is Alabama's first meeting against UTEP. It will be the Tide's 113^th different opponent. More about Alabama later this week in UA Football Facts.

Arkansas will be playing Weber State, a game that was scheduled this year after its originally scheduled game with North Texas wasn't rescheduled. Arkansas has never played the Wildcats, but are 1-1 all-time versus I-AA schools (a win over Southwest Missouri State last year and a loss to the Citadel in 1992).

Auburn is trying to break a four-game losing streak against Mississippi State. That's MSU's longest winning streak against the Tigers since 1941-48, a span of 7 games. The Tigers are 22-5 against Mississippi State when they play at home. Auburn has 50 wins against Mississippi State, tying them with another set of Bulldogs (Georgia's) as the team Auburn holds the most victories against.

Florida and LSU will tangle for the 48th time. Florida holds a 25-19-3 series edge, and has won twelve of the last thirteen. The last LSU win in the series was the 28-21 upset of the then #1 Gators in 1997.

Georgia and Tennessee have played 30 times previously, with the series standing 17-11-2 in Tennessee's favor. Georgia broke a nine-game losing streak to the Volunteers last year with a 21-10 decision. The Dawgs are only 5-9-1 in Knoxville, though.

Kentucky and South Carolina play for the 13th time, with the Wildcats holding a slight 6-5-1 edge. Kentucky has only scored two more points than the Gamecocks in this series (251-249). The series is 5-4 in UK's favor since Carolina joined the SEC in 1992.

Ole Miss faces a consistently overmatched Arkansas State team this weekend. The Rebels hold a decisive 16-1-2 advantage in this series, with the Indians' only win coming in 1915. Every game in this series has been played in Oxford. The closest Arkansas State has come in the past five meetings is 13 points in 1998.

Vandy plays Louisville this weekend. Louisville holds the distinction in Vandy's record book as the only school other than Birmingham-Southern that has played Vandy at least three times and never scored. Vandy holds a 2-0-1 series edge, but the last time that the teams played was in 1974.

I'd say this is a big game

This Saturday, Long Beach Poly High School hosts Concord De La Salle High School in a football game. Tickets are going fast. There's a good reason.

Long Beach Poly is ranked #1 in the nation in USA Today's high school football poll. Concord De La Salle is #2.

Oh, yeah, by the way...Concord De La Salle hasn't lost a game since 1991.

That's right. 1991. They've won 116 games in a row. That's a national record. They've had nine straight undefeated seasons. That's a national record. Their coach has a lifetime 94.7% winning percentage. That's a national record.

Hey everyone!

I'm back! Here's an update on things: to begin with, my grandmother is doing better now. Her arm still hurts (that's what was wrong with her), but she feels somewhat better and is out of the hospital.

As loyal readers know, nothing got updated last week at all. I didn't even check my e-mail during the last part of the week because I couldn't get online. Something was wrong with my dial-up service provider. (One more reason I need to have a cable modem.) UA Football Facts hasn't been updated in a while; I will do that for both the Arkansas and South Carolina games later this week. I didn't do picks last week either. I'm discontinuing them entirely just because I don't think anyone really cares. :)

The job hunt is slowly progressing. Some contacts have been made, and some opportunities look to be coming, but I haven't gotten the all-important interview yet. Stay tuned.

Fall is almost here. The weather hasn't completely turned cold yet. But I did wear flannel yesterday for the first time since last winter. It's almost Flannel Quest time, Ricky...can you feel it?

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