December 2007 Archives

31 December 2007

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

We're planning a quiet evening in tonight, as I'm flying tomorrow (and flying doesn't seem like a good idea hung over, now does it?).

I *was* able to take advantage of that crazy 70-degree weather to grill some nice Angus filet mignon earlier, with the requisite red wine and Greek salad (no lettuce, the Greek way!). A piece of Pappas cheesecake will follow later, and of course the required bubbly closer to midnight. Not bad for a laid-back evening. Not bad at all.

Be safe, everyone!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/07 20:08 | Other | Technorati | Comments (5)

29 December 2007

Have you backed up your blog today?

Hosting Matters had another hardware failure on the server that hosts blogHOUSTON a few days ago.

As a result of their dead hard drive and one faulty backup, they had to restore an older backup, and a few days' worth of data was lost.

Since that's the second time such data loss has happened, that meant it was time to investigate backup solutions (and maybe, eventually, a new host), so that I'll have some confidence in having a backup no more than 24 hours old if things crash again. Of course, playing with scripts takes away from posting time at a time when travel, work, and Cougar athletics events are all keeping me occupied, but hey -- stuff happens, and rarely happens at convenient times.

As it turns out, this guy has a very helpful page for people who run sites powered by mySQL databases and want a fairly automated backup system. I was able to modify his script to back up two databases (the weblog and the forum) each day via a cron job, and to email the files to a gmail account set up specifically for that purpose. So that *should* ensure that I always have a backup no older than 24 hours. Maybe. Like I said, stuff sometimes happens.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/07 22:14 | Tech | Technorati | Comments (0)

Perfect

Callie and I watched Pushing Daisies a couple of nights ago.

It's a quirky odd show. But that wasn't my first thought. My first thought was, "the narrator is the Walgreens dude."

And sure enough, the narrator for that show IS the dude in the following ads (which are also odd, and kind of creepy).

Please leave your thoughts on Jim Dale and the Walgreens ads.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/07 01:09 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

28 December 2007

Great day for a bowl game!

It's a beautiful day for a bowl game in Houston.

UH and TCU kick off the Texas Bowl at 7pm tonight.

Before heading down on the Danger Train, margaritas and grub at Cabo would seem to be in order.

I hope the people at Reliant have the roof open for the game this evening.

UPDATE: Despite it being a great day for a bowl game, a great bowl game did not transpire. Boy, that was some suck.

I am so ready for the Kevlar era of UH football to get underway, now that the high school coaching era has officially ended. Good effing riddance.

Oh, and the roof wasn't open at Reliant. Retarded. Why did we spend the extra money building a retractable roof stadium when the roof is NEVER open. Nice.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/07 15:22 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)

27 December 2007

Radio excellence

Ken Hoffman was kind enough to let me hang out for a while today during his show on 1560-KGOW.

The live guest today was none other than Cowboy Bill Lamza.

Now THAT was entertainment (although I didn't get to hear any bleeps, which was a little disappointing).

Sadly, I had to get back to work before the armwrestling between Raheel and Kyle, so I missed that bit of radio excellence.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/07 13:29 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)

25 December 2007

Egg Nogg calamity

There was no egg nogg to be found on Christmas Eve in Pawhuska OR Bartlesville.

Not even at Braums, a dairy.

Despite this calamity, we've managed to have a Merry Christmas. Here's hoping everyone enjoys the holiday. Be especially merry if you located Egg Nogg! :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/25/07 09:16 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)

22 December 2007

Winter!

There was a chance of precipitation today in Pawhuska. Obviously, there was precipitation!

Oh, and I updated my stylesheet so I can display 500 pixel-width flickr photos more easily. You should hit refresh on your browser so everything will look right. Let me know if for some reason it still doesn't look right.

UPDATE (12-23-2007): Here is the winter scene today. Temps are headed up today, so it's likely most of the snow will be gone by tonight.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/07 21:35 | Other | Technorati | Comments (4)

21 December 2007

Ho Ho Ho

I'm now in Oklahoma for a little holiday cheer.

It looks to be a fairly busy trip this time, so the little posting I do here these days is likely to be even more limited.

So, Merry Christmas in advance to everyone! Posting will resume.... sometime.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/21/07 10:03 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

19 December 2007

Roger, then and later

On his Feeding the Monster blog, Seth Mnookin posts links to photos of Roger Clemens in an Astros uniform, versus early in his career with the Red Sox. I've combined those images into one for purposes of comparison:

Photos don't say anything about how Roger's transformation (which seems much like the transformation of Barry Bonds) took place, of course.*

* The PubliusTX.net reader representative advised us to add that disclaimer, lest Mr. Clemens' high-priced legal/PR reps decide the blog was somehow defaming the incredibly transformed pitcher.

UPDATE: Pallilo posts this amusing photoshop.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/07 09:55 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)

18 December 2007

Good travel advice

If you're flying over the holidays, or any time really, this advice posted today at Upgrade: Travel Better is worth heeding.

It will break no new ground for anybody who flies very often, but it's still useful for the majority of travelers who don't (and may find themselves delayed, frustrated, and not sure what to do about it).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/07 09:51 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (2)

14 December 2007

Mack punked by Stoops again?

So, as noted previously re: the UH coaching search, at one point Dave Maggard had narrowed the list to Mike Haywood and Jack Pardee.

Haywood had the support of UT's Mack Brown (and Vince Young).

But Michael Murphy indicates in his blog comments that a phone call from Bob Stoops to Dave Maggard put Kevin Sumlin back in the running for the UH job.

Did Bob Stoops punk Mack Brown again? :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/07 10:34 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)

13 December 2007

Comets, WNBA are circling the drain

The spin coming from the Houston Comets on their upcoming move is amusing:

The Comets will leave Toyota Center and play their 2008 home games at the smaller but cozy Reliant Arena.

Comets owner Hilton Koch signed a contract with Reliant earlier this week.

"We are very excited that Reliant Arena will be the new home for the (Comets)," Koch said. "As an organization, our goal is to provide Comets fans with a phenomenal in-arena experience while at the same time maximizing the team's long-term growth potential.

"Reliant Arena's smaller venue (capacity 5,800) will be a great setting for our boisterous fans and will help create a powerful home-court advantage."

That's the press-release perspective.

Reality is this: The Comets and the WNBA are an inferior product that few people want to watch, and they are moving from a top-notch NBA arena (an attraction in itself, really) to what is effectively a rat trap in an undesirable part of town.

How much longer will the league or the franchise survive?

Crossposted to Bad Sports, and appropriately so, because this is truly about some Bad Sports

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 22:02 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (4)

Twists and turns in UH coaching search

Tuesday, word trickled out from UH that Dave Maggard had narrowed the coaching search to Mike Haywood and Jack Pardee.

By Wednesday afternoon, KBME-790 was reporting that the list wasn't so narrow after all, that TU offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was not completely out of the running.

Later Wednesday, the Chron's Michael Murphy and KRIV-26's Mark Berman were reporting that Haywood was out, and OU co-offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin was back in the mix, along with Pardee.

Haywood may be the next great thing, but I'm not sad that he's out. He's been on several elite staffs and has a reputation as a recruiter, but it seems like he's mainly been a position coach (Charlie Weis is generally thought to run the offense at Notre Dame). That's a gamble, although he could well turn out to be an excellent head coach (think of a certain tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys who became a successful head man at Oklahoma State, and then moved on to his current job at LSU).

I've warmed to the idea of Pardee a little bit, aside from the notion of David Klingler as offensive coordinator. It just doesn't seem like a good idea for a guy with no college coaching experience to be named offensive coordinator at a program with aspirations. If that's part of the deal, then I hope Maggard goes with another option.

The Sooner fan in me really likes the Sumlin pick, though. The guy enjoyed success running A&M's offense. And even though Kevin Wilson is truly in charge of Oklahoma's offense, Sumlin is, by all accounts, heavily involved. He's been around some very good coaches and should be able to put together a quality staff (and he already knows UH's strength and conditioning coach well, from their time together at Oklahoma, so he's not coming in to CUSA and UH totally blind). He's supposed to be a good recruiter, and supposed to be an energy guy. UH needs those things.

So, yesterday's news that Haywood was out and Malzahn/Sumlin might be back in certainly cheered me a bit. And hey, if Sumlin gets it, we can have Oklahoma/Oklahoma State proxy wars in CUSA between UH and Southern Miss (which just hired Oklahoma State's offensive coordinator)!

UPDATE: Put it in the bank -- Murph says Sumlin is the guy. Boomer Cougar, anyone? :)

Crossposted to Bad Sports

BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 08:56 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)

11 December 2007

Andre and Erin

Ethan passes along this bit of hilarity at the expense of former Coog and current broadcaster Andre Ware.

Too damn funny.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/07 23:50 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)

09 December 2007

Need a MicroSD card?

Anybody need a 1GB MicroSD card?

If so and you are new to Google Checkout, you can get one for free in most states.

Details are here.

MicroSD cards fit quite a number of smartphones, including the HTC Mogul, TMobile Dash, and Palm Centro.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/09/07 13:11 | Tech | Technorati | Comments (2)

05 December 2007

The madness of King Dave?

The news yesterday that UH is seriously considering Jack Pardee (think ancient!) as head coach and David Klingler (of no college coaching experience) as offensive coordinator officially marked the descent of the UH coaching search into Silly Land.

Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), the move seems popular on CoogFans. Here is a sentence actually seen on that fine forum (and the poster was not joking):

I have no problem with Pardee because he is a proven winner, and with his age he will relate to most of our fanbase.

Here's the email I sent to a few friends about the comment:

Bring back a corpse who's been out of coaching years because most of our fanbase need wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen to make it to games?

There's something for the marketing dept to work with. Hell, maybe we can swing a marketing deal with Viagra!

But Callie beat me with her response:

So, if Pardee goes 0-11 for the season, that'll be fine because he can talk
with the "fanbase" about what he uses for his achy joints?

I think a coach who can relate to x's and o's is more desirable than a coach who knows the ins and outs of the Medicare system. They're not mutually exclusive, by any means. But I've never really cared if I have anything in common with a coach. Why does that even matter?

No wonder I haven't seen Maggard at any of the basketball games lately. I bet he's sick to death of this type of advice.

For a while, there was talk that proven head coaches like Jeff Bower and Chan Gailey might be interested in the job. I hear that former Iowa State head man Dan McCarney would be interested. Any of those three guys would be credible hires, if Maggard decides he wants a former head coach with a record of winning.

Likewise, the offensive coordinators whose names have popped up (Haywood at Notre Dame, Malzahn at Tulsa, Fedora at Oklahoma State) would be credible hires with strengths (Haywood has ties to Houston, Malzahn knows the conference and runs a high-octane offense, Fedora has ties to Texas and runs a high-octane offense at a BCS program that is clearly second in its own state to a storied program).

But a fossil who's been out of coaching for a decade who promises to bring in as offensive coordinator a guy who hasn't coached?

While we're living in Silly Land, why not also ring up The Bootlegger's Boy for the head job, and that Bed and Breakfast guy who ran the Raiders offense last year for OC?

One has to hope the new UH chancellor/president, who has been around a real football program that's on the rise, will veto this latest proposal from Silly Land, and King Dave will get on about the business of replacing Art Briles.

UPDATE: One of UH's conference rivals is interviewing a guy (Larry Fedora) with Texas ties and an innovative offense -- a guy who isn't on Medicare. UH should be after this guy -- and he should prefer UH, because UH has more potential.

UPDATE 2: To be fair, here's a thread on CoogFans that speculates on the coaching staff Pardee might be putting together. They are some guys with experience, and probably won't treat the job as a stepping stone. There is something to be said for both, although this route isn't my preference.

Crossposted to Bad Sports

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/07 15:39 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (4)

04 December 2007

Not living his best life now

Struggling Carr demoted to protect him from booing fans (AP)

Carolina Panthers coach John Fox said Monday he still believes in struggling quarterback David Carr, a day after he demoted him to third-string in a win over San Francisco.

Fox said the biggest reason Carr was the emergency No. 3 quarterback behind 44-year-old Vinny Testaverde and undrafted rookie Matt Moore was to protect him from the Panthers’ booing fans, who turned on Carr a week earlier in a loss to New Orleans.

“I don’t know if I wanted to expose him here at home,” Fox said. “We’ll kind of weigh that as we move forward. Anytime you don’t have success it has an effect on you mentally.”

If that's true, he must be in a persistent vegetative state by now.

Watching him stare down receivers and never learn how to read NFL defenses while with the Texans leads us to believe he's been in a PVS for quite some time now.

And if John Fox is fired after the season (likely), Carr will have played a part in two NFL coaches being fired over the span of three seasons. That's pretty good.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/07 12:45 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)

03 December 2007

Special expertise

New patch could protect travelers from diarrhea (Christi Meyers, KTRK-13 News)

"This band aid looking thing goes on your arm," explained Dr. Herbert DuPont, Director of the UT Center for Infectious Diseases.

Dr. DuPont is a world expert on diarrhea. He has tested 20 medicines and vaccines against diarrhea. His international study showed the vaccine patch prevented diarrhea 75% of the time. And the 25% who still got sick, had a much shorter and milder illness. Here's how it works.

I think that is the first time I have ever seen anyone described as a "world expert on diarrhea."

It's good to know there are experts, though.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/07 21:51 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)

01 December 2007

Boomer! (Or, Big 12 Wrap: Championship Edition)

It's time for the last Big 12 Wrap of the year, and even though I try to keep them objective, I have to admit the Sooner fan in me is ecstatic over the Big 12 title game tonight.

The Sooners dominated the second half of the game, turning in what was probably their best one-half performance of the season, to flip a 14-14 game at halftime into a rout.

And they did it against an outstanding #1 ranked Missouri team that, in my opinion, played the best football in the Big 12 over the course of the entire season (slightly edging the Sooners). Unfortunately for Mizzou, they didn't play like the best team in the Big 12 in two games -- both against Oklahoma.

I missed the first half because I was watching UH basketball (another good performance, to another nearly empty building -- very disappointing and hard to understand) cruise to another win. So that was cool. And the BCS officially blew up tonight. That's pretty cool too. Win, win, win!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/07 23:22 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (4)

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