February 2007 Archives

28 February 2007

The Texans: Redefining suck

Today, the woeful Houston Texans announced the first of what will likely be many roster cuts.

Some quick thoughts are posted to Bad Sports.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/28/07 20:22 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)

26 February 2007

Back

We're back in town after a quick getaway to the Tulsa area via one of those cheap Continental weekend specials.

I tossed up a few photos on Flickr from the journey.

Obviously, we managed to take in a Tulsa basketball game in their lovely Reynolds Center (thanks to my old bud Dave).

That's a nice new facility. Beautiful Diamondvision scoreboard, shiny concourses, monitors with stats on the concourses, radio broadcast of the game pumped into the restrooms, sound that works (there is no sound in half of Hofheinz these days), stocked refreshment stands (Hofheinz was "out" of popcorn at the start of a game recently, but they were issuing "rain checks" for later in the game -- I kid not).

Houston really must spend some money on dilapidated Hofheinz if they want to keep up in CUSA. I like a lot about the arena, but it's in desperate need of some updates.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/26/07 21:03 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

21 February 2007

Chron.com launches Cancer Diva blog

I posted about this on the Houston blog, but I thought I'd also post a link here too.

Chron.com launched a new blog today: Cancer Diva.

It's written by a Chron staffer who's been diagnosed with terminal cancer. If the first couple of posts are any indication, this lady has quite a sense of life. I think it's going to be a pretty interesting read.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/21/07 16:44 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

17 February 2007

Italian in Houston?

Two neat Italian finds over the last few weeks to share:

Craiganale's, in midtown
Alison Cook has been recommending this newish place on her blog. We got in on the last weekend of BYOB (apparently they've now acquired their liquor license, and will be offering a limited wine selection that is inferior to anything I would bring to the place *sigh*). Ah well, the marinara sauce is good and so is the calamari. It's an intimate, relatively inexpensive place that doesn't take things too seriously. Definitely nice to have in the neighborhood.

Buon Appetito, near the Med Center
Many Italian joints in Houston are totally lacking in character. Not this place (or Craiganale's)! It's a quirky two-story home converted to a restaurant -- meaning multiple closed-off, intimate rooms. Throw in the old guy roaming with a guitar singing romantic tunes, relatively cheap red wine, and great marinara, and you've got a pretty good combination. The lasagna on my last visit didn't do much for me, but the restaurant serves up the best marinara (and calamari) I've had in Houston. I'm thinking the linguine pescatore for next time...

What are your recommendations for Italian in Houston (please don't say Carrabbas, or I will mock you)?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/07 23:21 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (6)

A Son Volt Houston date

I just clicked over on the Son Volt tour dates and discovered that Farrar and Crew have a Houston date.

May 6, Continental Club, right here in the Midtown Ghetto.

That should be pretty sweet.

Of course, Houston will turn out poorly for the show -- and will likely talk through it, which I don't think will go over very well with Mr. Farrar.

I'll probably catch the band in some other venues to get a better experience. But it's kind of cool to know I can walk to a Son Volt show in May.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/17/07 22:40 | Music | Technorati | Comments (4)

16 February 2007

Ahead of the curve

Many license plate frames illegal: Court ruling gives police power to stop cars with partially obscured plates (Chuck Lindell, Austin American-Statesman)

Texans who unintentionally cover even a small portion of their car's license plate can be stopped by police, ticketed and perhaps arrested for the offense, the state's highest criminal court ruled Wednesday.

The 8-1 decision left three Court of Criminal Appeals judges holding their noses — proclaiming the statute "uncommonly bad," but acknowledging that the letter of the law prohibits drivers from encasing their license plate in a frame that obscures the state name, state nickname or even portions of the artwork.

Unfortunately, the law as written unintentionally endangers civil liberties, Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in an opinion that, while siding with the majority, raises concerns about the ruling's impact.

"It is a 'gotcha' law because it allows the police to arbitrarily stop, ticket, arrest and search any person who is driving a car whose license plate frame covers up any portion of that plate's design," Cochran wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Tom Price and Cheryl Johnson. "Look around you — the vast majority of drivers on Texas roads and highways can be stopped and arrested at any given moment."

Still, Cochran wrote, under a law revised in 2003, "it is a crime . . . if that frame obscures even the tiniest bit of the doo-dad design details of the standard-issue Texas license plate."

I hate the subheadline for this story, because it's not the court that bestowed this power on police, but our state legislature.

In any case, readers of this little blog knew a long time ago that it would be a wise idea to remove their license plate brackets.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/07 10:34 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (1)

14 February 2007

There's a reason I call it Halloween

Truck barrels into Valentine's tent, injuring 4 (KHOU-11 News)

An accident Wednesday morning left some hearts broken at a tent in front of a Salvation Army store.

Almost nothing could be saved.

Apparently small white car ran into a truck, pushing it into a tent selling teddy bears, flowers and other Valentine's Day gifts.

"The truck just lost control, barreling into the area here," one worker said.

Then the truck caught fire under the tent, spreading it through the stand.

Both drivers and two people inside the tent were transported to the hospital for their injuries.

Relatives stopped by help clean up, but most of what was there wasn't salvageable.

Unbelievable.

I used to lock the doors on Halloween and refuse to go out because nothing good happens on Halloween.

As described on Bad Sports (appropriate, no?) I did take in a basketball game tonight. Thankfully, nobody ran into Hofheinz and caused it to burn down. Although that might provide the nitwits some incentive to get their sound system working!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/07 22:46 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)

NCAA abandons stupid clock rules (updated)

College football scraps speed-up rule (Brian Davis, Dallas Morning News)

Instant replay won't see any major changes this fall, but the NCAA football rules committee went back to the drawing board in its attempt to shorten games.

Last year, the committee voted to start the game clock on the change of possession instead of waiting for the snap. The change shaved minutes off an average game. But Rule 3-2-5-e also meant an average of six fewer plays per game than the previous season.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said it was the "stupidest rule to come out in a significantly long time." A Web site even cropped up.

Mike Clark, the football rules committee chairman, announced a series of changes Wednesday that address dead time during a game while giving the offense more opportunities.

Starting this fall, the clock will begin on the snap — just as it did every year before 2006. Timeouts called by teams will be 30 seconds long instead of 65 seconds. The play clock will be only 15 seconds after a TV timeout.

[snip]

The NCAA will adopt a NFL style of timing methods for the play clock starting in 2008, the committee announced. The play clock will be 40 seconds and will start at the end of the previous play.

The rules changes re: the clock for the 2006 season were just mind-boggling in their stupidity. It's a little surprising that the NCAA actually admitted as much by switching back. It's less surprising that they have switched back for 2007 but will change yet again in 2008 (to NFL rules). Why not just change to those rules in 2007? (Probably because that would make way too much sense for the NCAA).

UPDATE: The AP reports that there is still a bit more hoop jumping required before the changes become official.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/07 15:19 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

As some readers may recall, my friend Laura renamed this fine holiday Halloween ages ago.

She's now living in Greece happily married and probably doesn't even remember, but the tradition lives on.

Have a good day.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/07 08:43 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

12 February 2007

Wade Phillips can raid his old staff now

Chargers fire Schottenheimer as coach (AP)

SAN DIEGO — Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer was fired Monday night in a shocking move by team president Dean Spanos, who cited a "dysfunctional situation" between the coach and general manager A.J. Smith.

Less than a month after San Diego's NFL-best 14-2 season was wrecked in a home playoff loss to New England, Spanos cited the exodus of both coordinators and other assistants in firing Schottenheimer. The coach had a year left on his contract and will be owed more than $3 million.

I can't say I saw that one coming.

It's a tough deal to go 14-2, get a vote of confidence from your owner, and THEN get fired.

But after watching Jerruh fire Jimmuh after winning a Super Bowl, I am surprised by nothing in today's NFL.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/12/07 21:54 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (2)

10 February 2007

Turning humor into tedium

Cramer vs. Cramer vs. Blodget (Dan Mitchell, NY Times)

“The Office” achieved success thanks largely to its devotion to inappropriate workplace behavior. But a real office would find itself in trouble. Julie Elgar, a labor and employment lawyer with Ford & Harrison in Atlanta, keeps a log of the litigation exposure presented by each episode on her blog, “That’s What She Said” (hrheroblogs.com). A recent episode, “Sexual Harassment,” opened the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company to $700,000 in potential liability, she estimated. “It would be pretty safe to say,” she wrote, “that any time a company’s regional manager asks a female employee to act out a lesbian love scene during its anti-harassment training, you have problems.”

Talk about sucking the fun out of a great comedy by belaboring the obvious.

Gawd, that's the anal sort of corporate behavior that "The Office" frequently skewers!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/10/07 13:44 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

Quero toolbar for IE 7

In the latest issue of PC World, I discovered an extension that makes the horrid new interface of IE 7 much more tolerable: The Quero Toolbar.

A lot of people will probably discover Quero for its ad-blocking capabilities, but it restores more of an IE 6 feel to the IE 7 user interface (which Microsoft absolutely botched), and even gives it a little of the feel of Firefox (although Firefox is much more customizable).

I don't much use IE, but there are those occasional sites that still work best in IE (or, in the case of several newly redesigned services at work, ONLY in IE and not Firefox -- obviously, nobody consulted me on this). So for those instances when IE is a must, this little toolbar is handy.

(Screenshot of my IE 7, with Quero toolbar installed)

One great hint from PC World:

After installing the toolbar, choose Hide standard address/navigation bar under the Appearance option.

You don't need the standard nav bar, as the Quero query box doubles as the nav box too (as the screenshot above illustrates). Very economical use of valuable screen space (why others can get it so right and the MS people can't get UIs right after all these years just boggles the mind).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/10/07 13:00 | Tech | Technorati | Comments (1)

08 February 2007

Son of Bum

Well, how about that -- Jerry actually hired Wade Phillips today.

I thought it was going to be Norv Turner.

I'm okay with Phillips (not that Jerry consulted me or anything). If he can keep that defense from collapsing again in December/January like it did under Parcells, he might have a pretty decent team on his hands.

I still think he should wear a cowboy hat on the sidelines, though, like Bum.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/07 23:12 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (0)

05 February 2007

A (less-than)Super Bowl Sunday (updated)

Callie and I had an exciting Super Bowl Sunday, and didn't even manage to watch any of the big football game.

As most of the hardcore readers here are aware, Callie is an asthmatic, and so it's always tricky when she comes down with any kind of respiratory infection or cold.

Like she did on Friday.

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