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30 June 2003

Official

That little piece of paper with those three initials on it finally came in the mail today.

Meaning it's official.

And no, until I got that piece of paper, I was still treating it as unofficial. One should never underestimate the ability of the University of Houston to screw things up administratively.

But I don't think anything can be screwed up at this point. I now feel free to have that "official" celebratory beer with Kuffner. Well, if he's still buying. :)

[Posted at 16:33 CST on 06/30/03] [Link]

More Redistricting

I appreciate the honesty here:

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, was chairwoman of the state Senate redistricting committee in 1991. She told a gathering in 1997 that the redistricting process "is not one of kindness. It is not one of sharing. It is a power grab."

That's the nature of the beast all right. Sit back, folks, this is going to be interesting.

Further down, the authors of the piece lament that so much redistricting has turned into incumbent protection. But it is a political process, and why should we expect otherwise from politicians? Indeed, so many of the same people who lament that redistricting is unfair incumbent protection also lament term limits initiatives intended to eradicate that problem.

It is a conundrum sometimes for idealists who wish to believe we live in a society that is good by nature, but instead discover it is more Hobbesian than they thought (but not more Hobbesian than the architects of our political system thought, interestingly enough). Perhaps, to go somewhat Randian, a check of premises is in order?

[Posted at 10:10 CST on 06/30/03] [Link]

29 June 2003

Texas Redistricting

Kuffner went to Houston's redistricting meeting and has posted more details than you'll be able to find from any of Houston's professional news services.

Well worth a read with your coffee.

[Posted at 13:08 CST on 06/29/03] [Link]

You Tell 'Em

One of many reasons we love Pineapple Girl (aside from the fact she's sweet and has excellent taste in music) is that she's passionate about things.

Usually it's silly liberal things (just giving ya a hard time), but here she's defending her gawd-given right as a Texan to drive her SUV and not feel guilty about it.

Oh, and this is interesting:

Have a gander at this. SUVs are taller than cars, obviously -- but they aren't usually very much longer or wider, thereby taking up all the surface area, like people assume. My Ford Explorer is 70.2 inches wide. A Honda Accord is 71.5 inches wide. Yet, that Accord qualifies for the "compact car" parking spaces, while the dastardly Explorer does not. Gah! How dare I park a vehicle that is actually slimmer than a Honda Accord in a compact space?

THAT is something to think about, hmm?

Readers of this space know that I just adore my Jeep Liberty. LOVE IT. And it actually takes up less space than many many cars (probably a little less than an Explorer, though I'm too lazy to look up exact dimensions). But since I'm a tool of Big Oil, I realize I'm not to be trusted on this topic. That's why I'm happy to point ya over to my friend on this one.

[Posted at 12:29 CST on 06/29/03] [Link]

The Retarded Comical

I cannot make any sense of this editorial in the Comical. Maybe some of the baboons in the Comical offices have been listening to audiobooks of Dickens? That's about as close as I can figure.

Callie sent it to me with these questions:

the lawsuits are good? the lawsuits are bad? the justice system is good?
the justice system is bad? the execs need to pay for their crimes
literally? the execs won't have enough money to pay for their crimes
literally? entities were right in penalizing enron? too many entities are
penalizing enron?

WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF THIS?

i guess there is no point. editiorials in the comical are basically
checklists that have no beginning, end, middle, or point.

True.

Personally, though, I like this sentence:

Complicated by the many criminal charges leveled and likely to be brought, lengthy discovery proceedings in the civil lawsuits has yet to begin.

Proceedings has yet to begin.

Brilliant.

Dickens would surely be proud.

[Posted at 00:28 CST on 06/29/03] [Link]

28 June 2003

Email

Okay, it seems I'm having more email troubles tonight. Things are bouncing for some unknown reason.

So, if you need to get something to me, please send it to: publiustx@yahoo.com

Sorry about the inconvenience.

(Update) The email should be working fine now. Our host did some upgrades tonight, which did something funny to my master control panel. Long story, seems fine now.

[Posted at 22:39 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

Not-So-Sweet Lou

I loved Lou Piniella when I was a kid watching baseball.

I loved all of those Yankees of that era -- Nettles and Guidry and Chambliss and Dent and, yes, Reggie.

Those guys were all men.

I don't know what to say about some of the angsty crybaby millionaires in MLB today:

"That was pretty intense words he was throwing out there yesterday. I was actually wondering if I would even be coming to the field today after that,'' Grieve said. "I don't know. I'm kind of scared to go approach the guy right now. I don't know what to say.''

Intense is when Jessica Lynch finds herself in an Iraqi hospital, not when your manager wonders why your head is stuck up your ass. Suck it up and play ball.

[Posted at 16:52 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

Aggies

Texas A&M is a fine institution of higher learning, and I like plenty of Aggies.

But some of the traditions are just a wee bit strange.

Like swatting each other on the ass with an axe handle in a barn.

What, you ask? Whited is surely confused! Maybe drunk. Maybe heatstroke (heatstruck?).

Nope.

Here ya go, from the Austin American-Statesman:

It was just after 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, when the first ax handle swung.

It took only a fraction of a second as that handle, wielded by a Texas A&M University junior, arced its way across a short distance to the buttocks of a sophomore, where its flat surface landed with a solid smack.

That brief moment set the stage for one of the largest disciplinary actions in the history of Texas A&M. Since then, 77 cadets from the university's elite cavalry unit have been singled out for punishment. Threats of criminal charges have been made. Now, a lawsuit is pending against the school on behalf of the cadets being disciplined.

That smack was the first of many that sounded that afternoon. A cascade of more than 300 others followed, as ax handles slapped against 27 backsides in the Parsons Mounted Cavalry hay barn.

No injuries were reported. No sophomore complained. The smacks themselves were not even particularly loud. Delivered as "half-swats" (with a swing that began at the waist) and muffled by the surrounding bales of hay, they barely sounded outside the barn.

Apparently, the university has decided this is an act of hazing, and is considering punishments. This action, of course, has produced the same response from hardcore Aggies as when the university decided it was probably not a good idea to allow unsurpervised, untrained students to build huge structures and set them on fire (because they might, you know, collapse and kill people):

"A&M has always been steeped in tradition," said John A. Adams, a historian and 1973 A&M graduate who has written several books on the history of the school.

"Most of it was military, and there's always been some hazing, but it was certainly not a secret.

"But I doubt if there'd be so much interest in this case if it didn't involve the Corps. There've always been those who were ready to take a shot at the Corps."

Ah yes, the world is always out to get the Aggie Cadet Corps. UT's Bevo probably had something to do with it.

Bizarre.

[Posted at 13:44 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

I Hate Leeches

In person, it seems Kate is not nearly so venomous as her blogging would have us believe.

She seems like a bit of a sweetheart, actually, and man, do leeches like her neighbor know how to take advantage.

Problem is, Kate wants to establish a boundary, assuming the neighbor is reasonable. But there's the bad assumption. The neighbor isn't reasonable, and there's probably no way to establish such a boundary as one might establish with a good, reasonable neighbor. The boundary, in this case, is almost certainly to be a "sorry, I can't help you" for a while. For a long while. Maybe forever.

Kev <--- feeling like a post-objectivist hardass today.

[Posted at 13:08 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

Slide

After a brief run of good baseball, the Astros' slide back to mediocrity continues.

At least Scott's happy with the outcome.

[Posted at 12:53 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

How Thoughtful

How pleasant of the strapping young man next door to allow his overweight mom the pleasure of carrying his moving boxes around in the Houston heat and humidity today.

Surely she needed the exercise, right?

Since dude has lived next door, I've wondered if he has any brain function above the minimal level required to feed and dress himself and park his car like a jackass. Anecdotal evidence accumulated over a few months suggests not.

(Update) Mom just took mop and cleaning equipment from the place of aforementioned jackass to her car. Because mom probably has nothing better to do on a saturday than clean up after her ingrate son.

[Posted at 11:33 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

Lovely

Police Chief Crime Lab and The Boy Who Would Be Mayor both are named in a new lawsuit related to the infamous K-Mart raids.

Excellent!

I can't imagine this suit having much success. but it does just warm the heart to see our city leaders achieving such great things.

[Posted at 01:51 CST on 06/28/03] [Link]

27 June 2003

Vacation Day

Thursdays like the one yesterday mandate taking a vacation day (which was much needed anyway, because the office was getting on my nerves) and regrouping....

So I'm much enjoying the time away from the office hanging at Kaveh Kanes, which may have the coldest A/C in town (sorry, Diedrich's Montrose, but you're close still). And nice wi-fi. And free iced tea/coffee of the day refills. Too easy, after catching a ride downtown with Callie (poor thing is actually WORKING today).

So, the Thursday night included:

Randy Rogers at a bizarre promotion at Blanco's that seemed highly disorganized. We thought we would have to bail in the middle of his set, but apparently he was asked to stop early. Unclear why. The band sounded great. I't's obvious they've been on the road a lot.

Many margaritas at Spanish Village for a birthday party. Powerful margaritas.

A brief stay at Last Concert Cafe, where the house band sucked, and the people outside in the dark corner smoking a bong creeped Callie out (I was oblivious because, well, I tend not to stare at creepy people in dark corners). Fortunately, we did not stay long (about five minutes).

A longer stay at the Firehouse, where we closed down the place, Callie hit the Jaeger machine, and Rodger Wilko played with lots of energy. There were no hippies in any dark corners spotted, nor any bongs.

We're planning a little more laid back night tonight, giving a friend who's in town and free a slightly more mellow look at the Bayou City.

[Posted at 15:50 CST on 06/27/03] [Link]

Alejandro Escovedo

I knew that Alejandro Escovedo had taken ill, and had seen info on a number of benefits.

I didn't realize just how sick he is, though, until my friend Dave forwarded this Rolling Stone piece.

Here's hoping for a complete recovery.

[Posted at 10:18 CST on 06/27/03] [Link]

26 June 2003

Guilty!

It took jurors less than an hour to find Chante Jawan Mallard guilty of murder.

Proof that sometimes, justice is served in Texas. Even when you kill someone with the excuse that you weren't in control of yourself after a night of pot, booze, and ecstasy.

I wonder if this would be an example of the "problem" that local Police Chief Crime Lab identified the other day -- you know, when prosecutors try to win their cases?

And finally, why is the man she killed referred to as "homeless" in almost every report I see? That adds little substance to the story, and the trial testimony indicated the man was a fairly upstanding citizen. So far as I know, nobody was suggesting he lived in the middle of the road in a box, thereby daring cars to strike him. So why the label? I mean, most reports don't refer to her as black motorist Chante Jawan Mallard. But now they can refer to her as convicted murderer Chante Jawan Mallard, I suppose.

[Posted at 16:47 CST on 06/26/03] [Link]

Huh?

John Derbyshire is kind of a refreshing throwback.

I mean, he used to call those online columns he wrote for NRO "blogs." And that was kind of funny, since he obviously couldn't tell a blog from his ass.

And today, he figures out that mp3s sound better than wavs:

A wise reader instructs me that an MP3 file gives FAR better sound reproduction than a WAV file. I tried it out and he is right. So now you can hear my rendition of "Where are the zeros of zeta of s?" in high fidelity. "'Tis said that swans sing before they die. / 'Twere better that some died before they sang."

Sorry, dude, but your columns were not blogs, and you've got the whole wav (1411 kbps) versus mp3 (some fraction of the last number) quality issue precisely backwards.

Here's a thought: it's no shame being technologically inept (lots of people are), but why broadcast it by writing as if you know what you are talking about?

(06-27-03 Update) Stu Greene emails me that Derb meant that mp3 would be of better quality than wave if the duration and filesize were the same. That's fair. He didn't say that in that post, but I presume that was covered in prior posts. Ah, context. In any case, may we recommend the LAME encoder for all Mr. Derbyshire's mp3 needs. :)

[Posted at 15:40 CST on 06/26/03] [Link]

Fun In The Neighborhood

A car was spotted driving the wrong way in Montrose last night, and apparently a high speed chase ensued, followed by a crash and arrests.

This would probably not be all that notable except Mayor Pothole had appointed the driver to an anti-gang task force. And that said driver was fired from the task force after testing positive for drugs.

Given Mayor Pothole's management style, I would say this charming man would be a prime candidate to head the police department if Police Chief Crime Lab submits his resignation prior to being fired by future Mayor Sanchez.

[Posted at 13:57 CST on 06/26/03] [Link]

San Marcos Invasion

The San Marcos bands invade Houston tonight.

The Randy Rogers Band is apparently playing Blanco's (it's listed on his website and was mentioned in his weekly email) as part of a 97.1 promotion. Except calling Blanco's last night to get a time seemed to produce surprise at the other end of the phone that the RRB was playing at all. Typical Blanco's. And 97.1 doesn't seem to have any useful info either. I have an email query out to try and clarify.

[Update: Randy's drummer says 5:30 pm at Blanco's -- very strange, it's the first event put on by 97.1 at Blanco's, and they're listing some Zydeco band. Sounds like that particular radio station is about as with it as Blanco's is when it comes to marketing and promotion. Retards. Anyway, I plan on catching RRB for a while before my evening commitment]

And

Rodger Wilko plays the Firehouse. I assume they will get started around 9:30, although it could be later.

I have a commitment that most likely will keep me away from both, although I might be free later in the evening and will most likely pop in to whichever one is still going.

[Posted at 07:56 CST on 06/26/03] [Link]

25 June 2003

Felicity

I had a mindless TV moment earlier and watched a show (rerun) for the first time.

Felicity.

I liked it.

Should I admit this?

[Posted at 20:01 CST on 06/25/03] [Link]

Hell. Frozen?

Something seems terribly wrong.

My hero Robb Walsh actually PRAISES a new Tilman Fertita restaurant (no, not the retarded Aquarium):

After years of eating shopping center steaks at Morton's, Palm and Capital Grille, I am astonished by the one-of-a-kind integrity of Vic & Anthony's. This isn't an Outback with social pretensions like the insipid Fleming's. This is a home-grown steakhouse that clearly outclasses the national cookie-cutter chains. And that's a huge step forward for the Houston restaurant scene.

"Maybe Tilman Fertitta has turned over a new leaf," I suggest to my skeptical friend. She agrees that Vic & Anthony's is better than the chains, but she isn't as ready to forgive Fertitta's past sins as I am.

"He hasn't done enough penance yet," she says.

Ha.

Still, you have to think Walsh is onto something here. It wouldn't take much to improve upon the national "premium" steakhouses if you're an enterprising restaurateur with deep pockets (like Fertita). And you really don't have to work that hard to beat Fleming's, from the sounds of things.

So I may have to go try this place one of these days.

[Posted at 17:47 CST on 06/25/03] [Link]

24 June 2003

Wow

The Rachel's CD I mentioned here arrived today.

It's very good. Highly recommended. The cello is especially beautiful (but then, that should almost go without saying).

[Posted at 22:47 CST on 06/24/03] [Link]

That's Our C.O. -- Cont'd

You think you've seen everything from Mayor Pothole's Administration....

And then his beleaguered and clueless police chief comes out lamenting the fact that prosecutors try to win their cases:

Criminal defendants in Texas are at the mercy of prosecutors in an unfair system that emphasizes winning rather than justice, Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford said Monday.

"Trial by ambush -- that is a Texas criminal justice problem," the embattled chief said.

[snip]

The chief also extended his support for changes to help balance a justice system that works in favor of prosecutors. He described the attitude in the district attorney's office as, "What can I do to win? Win, win, win."

Bradford used his prosecution on charges of aggravated perjury, which a judge threw out in January, as evidence of some of the problems in the system. The chief had been indicted on a charge that he had intentionally lied under oath about whether he had called a subordinate an obscenity.

Rare is the occasion (many can attest!) that anything political or legal leaves me speechless. Only now, hours after reading this, have I been able to write about it.

It's just astonishing to me that the Chief of Police in a major city is criticizing the adversarial criminal court system, or the fact that prosecutors try to win their cases!

Here, C.O. Let's take this one step at a time.

A D V E R S A R I A L

You arrest the bad guys.

The prosecutors try to put the bad guys in jail.

If you do your job right (i.e. if your crime lab isn't a goddamn national disgrace) , it makes their job much easier.

The bad guys have attorneys who argue THEIR side.

The prosecutors have to convince a JURY that the bad guys really ARE the bad guys, within a complex set of rules involving EVIDENCE and PROCEDURE.

Technicalities (i.e. botched crime lab work) are grounds for dismissal of evidence, which can lead to dismissal of CHARGES, thereby negating police work (and wasting taxpayer dollars). Furthermore, the bad guys can only be charged with the crime once (DOUBLE JEOPARDY). All of these things work to protect the bad guys while allowing the public interest to be served.

At the end of the process, our system is such that we believe JUSTICE has been served. Even in the case of police chiefs who (allegedly) perjure themselves and are later acquitted.

I cannot wait for Mayor Sanchez's first act of office, which will be to fire your retarded ass.

[Posted at 20:42 CST on 06/24/03] [Link]

Streets Of Sin

Not that you would know it from the man's woefully neglected website....

But apparently Joe Ely has finished work on a new CD.

Streets of Sin will be released on July 15. From the clips on Amazon, it sounds like he's gotten a bit away from the awesome Letter To Laredo Tex-Mex border sound and back more towards the Love and Danger sound. To the extent you can tell anything from a few short clips from a few songs.

This is excellent news. Joe Ely is one of the legendary alt-country/roots rock guys, but lately there's been way too much Flatlanders stuff and not enough Joe.

Not that the Flatlanders aren't good, but Joe is a friggin' rocker and hanging out with those guys singing folk/country tunes kind of puts Joe in slow motion.

So here's hoping he ditches the old farts and gets out with a badass band to support this album in a few weeks.

[Posted at 20:27 CST on 06/24/03] [Link]

23 June 2003

Venom

The best two sentences I've seen on any blog tonight are here.

I concur.

[Posted at 22:49 CST on 06/23/03] [Link]

Congrats

Congrats to Rice, for winning what I think is its first National Championship in any sport tonight at the College World Series.

As a testament to the strength of college baseball in Texas, the University of Texas won the national championship last year after losing the first game of the UT Super-Regional to Houston, and then going on to win that series.

This year, Houston beat Rice in the first game of the Rice Super-Regional only to lose the series AGAIN to the eventual National Champion.

That's some consolation to this Cougar fan, but we really do need to clue the NCAA in to the fact that there are several good programs in Texas, and it would be nice if they don't all knock each other out before Omaha.

Again, though, congrats to Rice. Wayne Graham had what may have been one of the most talented college baseball teams in history this year, and they got it done convincingly most of the season.

[Posted at 22:46 CST on 06/23/03] [Link]

More MT Stuff

For those who have been following the whole Movable Type licensing discussion going on over at Kathy's place (which I mentioned here a few days ago), there's been some related posts by Tweezerman and Den Beste (and an older one from Bennett).

Tweezerman's post is particularly good, because it raises questions about software licenses that attempt to reach too far (Bennett's post also deals with that topic). I agree that some of the provisions that the MT folks have stuck in their license probably would not hold up legally, and I also agree that the problematic language in the license itself is what must guide -- not what Ben or Mena or Anil might post on a message board somewhere to clarify.

Den Beste raises the question of selective enforcement of licensing terms. I don't necessarily agree with him that Movable Type is less polished than his preferred software, CityDesk (MT certainly is more robust in terms of features, and I've never suffered from any bugs in the software), but CityDesk is way ahead in terms of clarity of its license. Because MT's license is so unclear -- and because there are side arrangements to get around/clarify the ambiguities -- selective enforcement almost has to be the result. And THAT is one reason why I have no real desire to continue to use the software. Den Beste is right that those of us who do our own designs ARE choosing more than just software in a blog tool. And two things that drive me crazy about any community/clique are ambiguous rules and selective enforcement of rules. Grr.

What MT needs is not polish, but a reconsideration of its licensing program, and what the company hopes to accomplish through the same. I had a pleasant email exchange with Rick Ellis, the author of pMachine, earlier, on the topic of the inclusion of pMachine Free in the Fantastico Installer Script included on cpanel servers (b2 is also included, and I think postNuke may be as well). Rick seems happy with that arrangement, and maybe that's something for MT to consider because it really does make the install process pain free (so long as the server is well maintained). Because I honestly can't see how MT can insist that they will provide an individual user the software for free, but that nobody but the MT people can charge for installation. I understand not wanting to allow hosting services to offer pre-installed MT, but that's somewhat of a different matter. I think.

Anyway, I'll make another plug for Nucleus. It's open-source and it is free, but it's true that there are no "professionals" making a living by supporting it. Still, it has a strong support and development community, and for some folks, it might be a good solution. It will soon be in action here (along with trackback and linkback and other cool stuff, including comments, so you peeps can give me a rash of sh!t), and it's been working quite well over at Reductio Ad Absurdum.

Finally, the MT folks are soliciting input on their licensing. That's where the conversation about this should go, I guess, for those who are still interested.

(06-25-03 Update) There is additional discussion from BurningBird, who shares my doubts that the MT people could ever enforce the part of the license that does not allow for third-party paid installations of the software. Indeed, BB is willing to test that theory by offering $10 MT installs. And like me, Beth notes that some people and some firms seem to have secured special arrangements for themselves. And Beth points to this post, which raised weeks ago many of the same issues that bother me.

[Posted at 22:27 CST on 06/23/03] [Link]

All Redistricting All The Time

Houstonians must be very proud of Congressman Chris Bell's latest efforts to use his federal office to improve Houston.

Oh wait, he's let a personal squabble with Tom DeLay get in the way of actually doing his job:

With Republicans in control of the Legislature, DeLay began pushing a redistricting plan aimed at increasing the chances of electing up to seven Republicans to seats currently held by Texas Democrats.

Back in Washington, one member of Congress who took DeLay's plan personally was Houston Rep. Chris Bell, a freshman Democrat. Once he saw how the Republican redistricting plan would shift his Houston-area district several hundred miles away to South Texas, Bell stopped working with DeLay on a guided bus project as an alternative to a rail system for Houston.

"I think for the first time a lot of people got to see in a very close-up manner how Tom DeLay operates and how far he's willing to go," Bell said. "And all of a sudden it wasn't just inside baseball or some political action committee all happening under the radar. It was very high profile and people could see what he was up to."

Oh. So you stop working with the man on an entirely unrelated project that would benefit those who live in your House district?

Maybe the conniving slimeball (Bell, not DeLay) should have run off to take a vacation in Ardmore, OK with the rest of the whiners.

I hadn't considered that the DeLay redistricting plan would actually get rid of Mr. Bell. I may actually have to support it on purely personal grounds. :)

(06-24-03 Update) Oops, Kuffner pointed out to me that I had a bad link to the Chron article above. Now it should point to an article that DOES mention Mr. Bell. Sorry!

[Posted at 21:51 CST on 06/23/03] [Link]

A Surprise? Not Really

When I first heard there might be an effort afoot for the Texas legislature to engage in redistricting, I found it hard to take Cragg Hines's outrage seriously.

As I have noted, the current boundaries were set up by a federal court after the legislature failed to agree on boundaries.

That's a circumstance that bothers me.

So when there was talk of the legislature actually putting together a plan and voting on it, yes -- I found that prospect preferable. And still do, even after the Dem vacation in Ardmore, OK.

Furthermore, it's perfectly consistent with the constitutional design of the state.

Now, that's a different issue than whether or not the current drive to remake the boundaries is partisan, or driven by opportunism, or even driven by the desire of a certain House powerbroker from Sugar Land to expand the GOP majority. All of these things are probably true.

But you know what? The status quo is partisan too -- it reflects a Democrat Texas that no longer exists. I don't blame Dems for their own partisan redistricting over the last couple of decades, as Texas trended Republican. Indeed, it's consistent with the constitutional design of this state. The drawing of these boundaries is necessarily political in Texas. We do not have impartial boards to draw the lines like some places. Perhaps we should, but that is a different discussion.

Under the current design, I prefer the representative branch that is charged with the drawing of these boundaries to fulfill the constitutional responsibility to do so rather than pass that responsibility off to federal judges. The folks who are so upset that Tom DeLay (who at least is a federal elected official from Texas) is engaged in politicking in Texas seem completely unbothered to have federal unelected officials engaged in same. I have a problem with that, and I've consistently said so. And I'd like to think that I would be consistent on this whatever party was the out party.

Do I think Governor Perry or Tom DeLay or other politicians are as motivated by concerns of constitutional design as I am? No. I'm not naive. And no, I'm not surprised that the GOP state party chair argued against a redistricting session when Dems held the edge. Honestly, I would expect no less from the party chair, because her job is political. If I were state party chair, I'd probably be forced into the same argument -- and all sorts of Dems could call me a hypocrite and point to all the things I've written here! *shrug*

It seems me to the best approach for the Dems is not to complain about the crass partisanship of a constitutional design that encourages it, but to 1) defeat any DeLay plan outright, which probably could have been achieved via parliamentary maneuvers short of the Ardmore vacation, or 2) let the Republicans hang themselves by overreaching, as the Dems in Georgia did with their redistricting plan, or 3) work in good faith to come up with a compromise that enjoys wide support and mitigates Dem losses.

Yes, (3) might be unlikely, but maybe not, given the level of media support for the Dem vacation in Ardmore last session and the amount of pressure they are likely to exert in favor of a "fair" plan (whatever that Platonic ideal might be in real life).

(06-24-03 Update) While I'm correcting spelling errors, bad links, and other things I missed last night, I might add a (4) to the items above, and that is the argument that a special session is too expensive when the state is in a financial crunch. I don't think that addresses the substantive issues, but it's a reasonable position.

[Posted at 21:28 CST on 06/23/03] [Link]

PBR

I'm not the only one who has some fond memories of PBR.

Too cool.

(06-25-03 Update) The Conservative Observer uses PBR for "medicinal" purposes.

[Posted at 20:49 CST on 06/23/03] [Link]

22 June 2003

Not My Kind Of Float Trip

As CSS2 and floats go, Mozilla/NS can be a very unforgiving browser.

Very unforgiving, unless one remembers to clear one's floats.

Blar.

(06-23-03 Update) Of course, the fact that Mozilla is unforgiving finally led me tonight to figure out that my problem was actually a stupidly specified float in my stylesheet (I have a float:left declaration on a container div that shouldn't have had any such float). IE didn't mind, but IE is halfway retarded. Now, any browser 5+ should work, although I have no way of testing on a mac. Sorry.

[Posted at 22:43 CST on 06/22/03] [Link]

Dead End Angels

Look who has checked in at Number 24 on the Lone Star Music Top 25 this week:

The Dead End Angels.

Nice work, guys.

November is a fine debut effort. You alt-country fans should check it out, maybe listen to a few clips. My current favorites are Girl in Oklahoma (beautiful song) and Milk and Honey (listen to Rick's guitars on steroids).

[Posted at 09:02 CST on 06/22/03] [Link]

21 June 2003

The Power Of PBR

Back in the day (heh), when I was in college in Springfield, MO, the Honors College used to sponsor a canoe/camping trip twice a year in the beautiful Mark Twain Forest. I hardly ever missed those trips, and they were a hoot. A number of my old friends from those days still pack up every year for the Memorial Day Float Trip in OK.

Anyway, one of the beers of choice for those MO trips was Pabst Blue Ribbon. The stuff could always be found on sale VERY CHEAP, when iced down it tasted as good as the so-called premium domestic beers of the time (Bud, Coors, Miller), and it just did the job. No frills to be sure, but not nasty like comparably priced bargain beers (Milwaukee's Best, or gawd forbid, Schaeffer).

So, imagine my surprise when I see, courtesy of the Brothers Judd blog, a story in the New York Times Magazine on the comeback of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Way to go, PBR!

[Posted at 14:37 CST on 06/21/03] [Link]

Marcia Ball

There's a feature on Marcia Ball over at the Austin Chronicle.

I saw Ball play at the Satellite Lounge a few years ago, and it was a pretty cool show (though not really my kind of music).

[Posted at 13:28 CST on 06/21/03] [Link]

Pasty Astros

Interesting observation on the throwback Astros from Richard Connelly:

Every so often major-league baseball will try to lure fans in with a Roll-Back-the-Clock promotion, where teams dress up in uniforms from long ago. This particularly embarrasses players when the clock rolls back to the 1970s in Pittsburgh and the South Side of Chicago.

Houstonians, however, don't need to wait for any bogus, gimmicky event to get a taste of baseball nostalgia. Every day is throwback day at Minute Maid Park lately.

Look at the Astros' starting lineup: Jeff Bagwell, Jeff Kent, Adam Everett, Morgan Ensberg, Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Orlando Merced, Brad Ausmus and any of the starting rotation. Notice anything unusual? Take away Merced, the Pumpsie Green of Houston, and this group of starters is whiter than any team outside a Stanley Cup game. (Obscure baseball note: In July 1959, Pumpsie Green entered a game for the Boston Red Sox, the last major-league team to integrate.)

About 40 percent of major- leaguers are minority, with most of those being Hispanic. The Astros, though, look like a NASCAR crowd. Or maybe, since a disturbingly large proportion of the team is also old -- the injured-reserve list is going to get crowded in August, we're guessing -- they look more like a matinee crowd at a Jackie Mason show.

We're not saying anyone in Astros management is racist. We're just saying there's one heckuva 1940s vibe at the old ballpark these days.

Incidentally, Connelly, one of the best writers and critics in town, seems to have been relegated (scroll to the bottom) to an odd weekly-print version of what otherwise resembles a group blog in the Houston Press.

Proof that the Comical doesn't have a monopoly on media stupidity in this town. Connelly is much too great an asset to be treated this way. Maybe next, they can bury John Nova Lomax and Robb Walsh, and there won't be any reason to read the silly thing.

[Posted at 13:22 CST on 06/21/03] [Link]

Professor Crime Lab?

In this rambling mess of a column (that's our Comical!), I think Thom "Potted Plant" Marshall is criticizing Police Chief Crime Lab. Hard to say what exactly he is criticizing since he goes on and on about how inconvenienced he was by a less than informative press conference. Sorry, Thom, but sometimes journalists have to get off their ass, leave the office, sit through press conferences, talk to people, maybe make some phone calls and trips around town. That's how it works, buddy. It's called research.

But I digress.

Before I read Thom's sad column, I didn't know this bit of news, however:

Through the years Bradford has made no secret about his plan to one day move back to Louisiana and take a comparatively peaceful job, like maybe teaching at the college level.

Since Orlando Sanchez has promised to fire the idiot (the most decisive statement from any of the mayoral candidates), I'm hoping Police Chief Crime Lab gets to take up teaching in the Spring 2004 semester.

[Posted at 13:12 CST on 06/21/03] [Link]

Reality

Reality finally seems to have set in for Oklahoma State baseball:

Sources confirmed Friday that Anderson has moved to the forefront of athletic director Harry Birdwell's search, with Cal State Fullerton's George Horton and Houston's Rayner Noble no longer in the mix.

Birdwell and three other school officials met with Anderson in Kansas City, Mo., for an extensive interview Thursday. One source said a tour of the campus and Stillwater was possible this weekend.

Horton and Noble have withdrawn from consideration.

I can't speak about Horton, but as I pointed out several days ago, Rayner Noble was never IN the mix. And I seriously doubt Horton was a realistic candidate either.

Anderson seems more realistic -- a quality assistant at a big-time baseball program.

[Posted at 12:32 CST on 06/21/03] [Link]

20 June 2003

Email Weirdness

Okay, at least one friend has had some emails not get through to me lately, and mine to him are bouncing at the moment.

If you suspect I may not be getting your email for some reason, would you mind trying this backup (publiustx@yahoo.com) or hitting me on various chat services:

publiustx (yahoo and aim)
8767065 (icq)

Thanks!

[Posted at 22:47 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

Okie Blog

This is a very interesting Okie blog.

Not sure why I haven't seen it until just now, but will have to return to it.

But now, I'm off to the Firehouse for a Dub Miller show.

(Update) The Firehouse got nixed. When I show up at 10:00 pm and the parking is already full and extended across Fountainview, that's a good indicator that I should just turn around and head it home. Not in the mood for verminous crowds tonight.

[Posted at 21:50 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

Ouch!

My good Scottish friend Mr. Kellas (who will be paying a visit shortly) managed to do something similar once, I understand, but it involved vast quantities of liquor and some sort of badly aimed flaming drink (rather than any effort at self-immolation). Thankfully, there was no permanent, visible damage.

I don't think the poor SOB above can claim the same.

[Posted at 21:33 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

A Group Effort

It's good to know that when I miss a chance to beat up the Comical, Rob's got me covered.

And Owen too, for that matter.

[Posted at 20:57 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

Snip Free And Full Of Care

Even when dude tries to admit (via UPDATE) he might have jumped the gun and been overly harsh, he doesn't quite ADMIT it, does he?

In a post about being more careful and less snippy.

Impressive.

[Posted at 20:50 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

That Ain't Country

Oh. My. Gawd.

There's another soul in this world as unimpressed with Kenny Chesney as I am!

Check this out.

Thanks to Mr. Chaffin for the tip on this one.

[Posted at 19:23 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

Passing The Buck

Police Chief C.O. Bradford is going to make an outstanding mayor eventually, if his ability to pass the buck is any indicator.

Check out this explanation of his role in the ongoing police crime lab fiasco:

"When you look at the correspondence, you can see that I approved a plan of action," Bradford said. "Those things were not done. ... At some point in time, given the breadth and depth of an operation like this, I have to be able to rely on command staff members and other division commanders. I relied on my division managers. I relied on my assistant chief that these things were taken care of."

It's not my fault. I approved a study. Someone else was responsible.

Come to think of it, he sounds exactly like Mayor Pothole!

And since they are of comparable ineptitude, I'm beginning to think C.O. is eventually going to make a damn fine mayor.

[Posted at 19:16 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

Jeff Bagwell's Ailments

It sure would be nice to read good articles like this one about Jeff Bagwell in the Comical.

Unfortunately, there are no sportswriters at the Comical. So we have to turn to the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Interestingly, there's no mention at all of steroids in the article. Maybe it wouldn't be nice to bring up the topic, but you do have to wonder how a guy with Bagwell's tiny frame got so bulked up and lost so much of that mass over one offseason. Maybe it's the injury and lack of lifting. Maybe not.

In any case, it's a shame he's a crippled ballplayer at this point in his career. I hated watching Don Mattingly's last games as a Yankee (he was my model ballplayer as a kid, and it's awful his back cut his career), and I think Jeff Bagwell's last games are going to be just as sad because of his physical problems.

[Posted at 19:08 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

Bob Is The Man In Sooner Land

There was an interesting move in Sooner land yesterday.

Brent Rawls, who looked to be named starting quarterback after an impressive spring, instead was demoted to fourth on the depth chart, with the brittle Jason White named as starter.

It's an unusual move for Stoops, given his recent history of handling QBs. But it was surely intended to send a message to both Rawls (the guy who fell out of a pickup truck last year, like a damn idiot) and the rest of the team:

Stoops on Thursday didn’t talk in particulars, but he didn’t have to. This was a clear message. Not so much to Rawls as the rest of the Sooners: Work hard, do things our way, else you’ll bat cleanup on the depth chart.

Yep. He may be the most talented QB on the squad, but he will not get over on Bob Stoops, and he will not get in the way of the Stoops team concept.

Berry Tramel seems to question the move:

Now, OU’s viable QB options have gone from two to one. That’s never a good thing. The Sooner quarterback hopes all ride on White’s two rebuilt legs.

I like Tramel, but I think he's seriously underestimated to the two very talented young men who are beneath Jason White on the depth chart now.

Gawd, this period between the end of the NBA playoffs and the start of football is just depressing.

[Posted at 18:57 CST on 06/20/03] [Link]

19 June 2003

Our Comical

Callie sends me the following questions with regard to this typically retarded editorial in the Comical. Not sure why she doesn't post it on her blog, but here goes:

what exactly is the point of this? c.o. is bad? aguirre might've been innocent? the dna lab was badly managed? underlings seem to pay for c.o.'s incompetence?

what exactly is the comical trying to say? would it KILL someone at our venerable daily actually to come out and say that maybe c.o. should be fired? that he's a dumbass? that he's no chief of police?

To answer in order: 1) There's no way to know -- the Comical editorial page is as big a joke as the rest of the paper; 2) They can't say that, because when he's mayor there will be hell to pay; 3) Maybe; 4) Much like their coverage of Enron, they're just starting to get up to speed on the crime lab, months after the story made national newspapers -- check back in a few more months; 5) That's one way to interpret the Comical's seemingly deliberate imprecision; 6) See answer #1; 7) Apparently so -- although said death would pay immediate dividends in terms of editorial quality! 8) That's the conclusion most people draw; 9) Much like Mayor Pothole, he's no mere Chief of Police -- he's Mayoral Material!

I'm pleased I could clear all of this up.

Personally, though, I still haven't been able to parse the concluding paragraph:

Apparently, the public had been complaining for years about late-night crowds milling about the Kmart and adjoining parking lots to drink, use drugs and to watch and gamble on street racers. That's legitimate law enforcement problem that deserved a sensible law enforcement solution. The jury's verdict in Aguirre's case should not be taken as an excuse to deviate from such sensibility and responsibility.

It's almost as if the Comical is doing that experiment of giving 100 baboons a typewriter and seeing if eventually something comprehensible is churned out. Except they are paying humans to do this, and I think the baboons would be preferable.

[Posted at 22:45 CST on 06/19/03] [Link]

Make That Sandwich To Go

An 83 year-old woman blasted her car through a sandwich shop in town earlier today:

Police identified the driver as Leila Katherine Dobbs, 83, of Houston.

"She thought she hit the brake, but she hit the gas," said Houston police Officer O.B. Baldwin.

A witness said Dobbs, described as a regular customer of the shop, did not appear to hit the brakes of her Toyota Avalon before the vehicle plunged through the front glass window of the store in the strip shopping center.

Jason Fussell, 26, of Conroe, said he had just bought a sandwich and walked out of the shop when the woman's car drove by him.

"She was probably going 45 mph -- she never hit the brake," he said. Fussell helped the woman out of her wrecked car. He said she appeared disoriented and was physically shaking.

"She said, `What happened? Why is my car in there?'" Fussell said.

Because you're a goddamn idiot who should not be driving? *shrug* Just my guess.

Remember back in the 80s when this happened all the time? Old folks who shouldn't have been behind the wheel were stomping on the gas instead of the brake, and idiotic programs like 60 Minutes were convinced the automakers were producing cars that jumped into gear spontaneously and revved up to 50mph?!

I remember that, and always thought that Mike Wallace probably got tanked and had an experience or two with sudden acceleration syndrome. Maybe we could get him down to Houston to investigate this incident.

[Posted at 22:27 CST on 06/19/03] [Link]

May I Recommend Nucleus?

Kathy Kinsley just received an interesting bit of correspondence from the Movable Type people:

I just got a letter from MT about bloghouse. It says I'm in violation of their agreement for offering to install MT for people. I thought it was only if I charged for it that it was a problem. Sigh. Anyone know how to make this legal?

Kathy actually had the cool idea of providing hosting space and a setup of the FREE MT software at a reasonable price, so web neophytes could get off blogsh*t with a minimum of fuss.

I share Richard Bennett's reaction:

Yo, Ben, Mena, Anil, and Joi: are you people on drugs? Kathy is running an ISP, and she's encouraging people to use your software by setting it up for them. You shouldn't be upset about this, you should be happy, happy, dancing in the streets happy, crying for joy happy, tears streaming down your faces happy. But you're threatening her for encouraging people to use Movable Type? Hello?

It's crazy. But then, MT's become a big damn (commercial) deal of late, so maybe it was to be expected. And there may even be (stupidly misguided) concerns that Kathy's little enterprise would cut into TypePad (more of the big damn commercial deal, and one that is probably destined to turn into an overloaded piece of crap).

But it's not like there aren't good alternatives. Nucleus is a wonderful, open-source CMS that has been put together by a talented developer and is supported/extended by a growing community of users/developers. Plus, it produces dynamically generated pages because it's powered by a PHP-mySQL backend. In other words, it's circa 2003 -- as opposed to MT's perl-driven backend that produces static pages that just cry out, Vintage 2001 Warblogger!

That's not to say MT's no good, because it is good. I've used it here for a long time, and because it's so good, I haven't been in a huge hurry to complete the ongoing redesign here and get over to Nucleus (although I was in a hurry to do it for Reductio, which has benefitted greatly). But if it turns into a pain in the arse to use, there are plenty of alternatives (b2, pMachine, and drupal come to mind as well as Nucleus) that, in some ways, are more powerful anyway.

(06-20-03 Update) Okay, upon prompting from Anil Dash, I owe a clarification on the "overloaded piece of crap" comment above. All I mean by that is that hosted blog/journal services have had a tendency to get overloaded and become bogged down, despite the best efforts of their proprietors (and I meant to link to this post, where I do express some skepticism). I specifically have in mind LiveJournal, which has had some terrible growing pains. Ben and Mena Trott are very talented and smart people, and may be able to avoid those traps. I hope so. And I certainly don't mean to be at all critical of Movable Type, which is powerful software. I've made a couple of donations to the MT coffers, so that should speak volumes. But, there are alternatives, and the marketplace is competitive. All of us bloggers benefit from that.

[Posted at 21:51 CST on 06/19/03] [Link]

Tom Cruise...

is just strange.

But everyone knew that already.

[Posted at 21:26 CST on 06/19/03] [Link]

Ebay Rocks

I've sold a few things on Ebay in the last year.... but they were REAL things.

In contrast, check out this auction that Alex found.

[Posted at 20:41 CST on 06/19/03] [Link]

Slightly Off Target

The local alternative media rag has discovered technology that provides access to a plethora of news and views from all over the world.

Yet another sad article in which old media discovers the internet?

Err, actually no.

It's an even sadder article in which old media (i.e. a commercial weekly posing as an "alternative" rag) discovers shortwave radio.

The author spends way too much time celebrating the fact that all sorts of international news is available via shortwave (I guess he's not an internet news junkie like some of us). Unfortunately, the article misses a good opportunity more fully to explore a potential growth area for shortwave: the broadcast of music (which was once the great promise of the internet, until over-regulation stifled it).

[Posted at 08:49 CST on 06/19/03] [Link]

18 June 2003

That's Our C.O.

With a level of managerial ineptitude approaching Mayor Pothole's, I would say Police Chief Bradford is setting himself up for a successful mayoral run in a few years if Mayor Pothole's history is any kind of predictor.

Is there anything that works well in Mayor Pothole's administration? Anything at all?

[Posted at 23:48 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

Rachel's Is A Damned Odd Name

Launchcast keeps on serving me stuff from this CD, and it's just amazing.

I finally broke down and ordered the silly thing from Amazon.

What I've heard from Launchcast so far reminds me quite a bit of this music (which I highly recommend).

[Posted at 22:56 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

So You Wanna Be An Academic Political Scientist?

If so, Daniel Drezner points to this article about the discipline from the University of Chicago.

Fortunately, grad school in the discipline cured me of any desire to be a part of academia.

[Posted at 22:43 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

Muddy Waters Can Kiss My Ass

So, a venue in Dallas that hasn't paid Cindy in months for their bookings is apparently threatening to sue her because she wrote about it on TexasGigs.

Well, they can now add me to their little list of defendants who have committed the crime of exercising their First Amendment rights.

Maybe instead of threatening to sue one of the legitimately good promoters of live music in Dallas, though, MUDDY WATERS*** could actually live up to the agreements they make.

What a concept.

Dumbasses.

*** We would link to the idiots, but they have apparently broken their website. Kind of hard for people to come out to see shows at your place if they can't figure out WHO is gonne be there, and WHEN. Instead of threatening to sue Cindy, maybe they should hire her to fix their crap website. Nah, that would make too much sense.

[Posted at 22:03 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

Trillian

If you use Trillian as your Yahoo Messenger client, you may need to follow the advice posted here.

Apparently Yahoo made some changes to its server today that affected Trillian users (including me).

[Posted at 21:04 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

Delusional In Stillwater?

Oklahoma media just keep reporting that UH baseball coach Rayner Noble is a finalist for Oklahoma State's baseball head coaching position, along with Cal-State Fullerton's coach.

I've expressed amazement at the wishful thinking over Rayner Noble in private emails, but I'll express amazement publicly now. OSU had a fine baseball tradition under Gary Ward in the old Big Eight, back when OU occasionally had a good team and the rest of the conference couldn't beat a little league softball team. Even then, OSU didn't have great facilities. Now, with the addition of superior programs in Texas via the creation of the Big 12 and the emergence of Nebraska as a baseball power, OSU is a second-tier program in its conference in terms of recent performance, facilities, investment, and even geography (the Texas schools simply have a leg up in baseball, because of weather and proximity to talent and other Texas schools that can be scheduled for mid-week, RPI-boosting games).

So, why would Rayner Noble leave Houston and his situation for that?

He has better facilities in Houston (Cougar Field and the accompanying sports complex next door trump tired Reynolds Stadium). He has better financial support in Houston (thank you, John Moores!). He is a Texas guy. He is a Houston baseball All-American. And he has built a competitive program with a good reputation (which, incidentally, may be part of the reason UH got in the NCAA tourney this year with a worse record than OSU's).

The only advantage OSU holds is Gary Ward's tradition (which, frankly, is not the University of Texas's tradition -- hence UT's ability to go hire Augie Garrido) and a slightly stronger conference. Even on that last, the actual strength of the Big 12 in baseball, top to bottom, isn't that much greater than C-USA (5 Big 12 tourney teams this year, 4 C-USA tourney teams), although there is certainly a gap in prestige. And whatever slight advantage the Big 12 might have is negated by the fact that Houston can schedule stronger opponents mid-week and boost its RPI because of geographical location (Rice, A&M, Baylor, UT are all fixtures on the UH midweek schedule).

So, why does OSU think it can hire Rayner Noble away from home?

I could ask the same thing about a coach who's in a program that always seems to find a way to make it to the CWS (Fullerton), but I'll let the Fullerton baseball bloggers (if there are any) take up that topic.

I would advise OSU to look to the northeast a bit to Keith Guttin at SMSU, who always manages to have a competitive program, and made the CWS this year for the first time. Guttin has done it without much in the way of facilities, financial commitment, or geography so far, although he may not want to move once construction is finished on Hammons Field

[Posted at 20:54 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

Texas Redistricting

As expected, Texas Governor Rick Perry has finally called a legislative special session to address redistricting, which the Ardmore Demoncrats effectively scuttled during the regular session with their vacation:

"I believe duly elected officials, not federal judges, should be responsible for drawing district lines," Perry said in a letter to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Tom Craddick. "

So do I. And I've been saying it for a while now.

[Posted at 13:08 CST on 06/18/03] [Link]

17 June 2003

Wow

The Eagles put on a fine show (he says, after three and a half hours of music).

More tomorrow.

(06-18-03 Update)

What can I say? Even though I see a bunch of Texas/regional/indie artists and love the small venues they play, sometimes it's kinda cool to see a massively sponsored show by a bigtime band. And that Eagles show last night definitely qualified. From the huge screens all over the place to the massive array of lights to the incredible sound system. But most important, those guys still sound great. Yeah, maybe it was a little too choreographed and perfect, but hey, they're the Eagles -- people aren't there to hear sloppy versions of old favorites. I was pleased to see 'em do a lot of their solo stuff as well (though to Callie's chagrin, no End of the Innocence or New York Minute).

Anyway, we definitely got our money's worth. There was no opening band. The guys went on just a little past 8 pm, and took a short break (15-20 minutes? tops) about an hour and half into it. Then they came back and played until 11:30 -- either 4 or 5 encores (I lost track).

And back to getting our money's worth -- boy, did we ever! We nabbed our tix at below face value from a ticket broker yesterday, got to the venue, and were greeted in the nosebleed section by an usher asking people if they wanted an upgrade to the tickets. So we went from very high in the upper level as far back as you can go basically (section 202) to about 2/3 of the way around Compaq Center's ring (section 125), maybe 20 rows back. I've NEVER had concert tickets upgraded. I guess maybe there were extra promotional tickets. Anyway, that was VERY cool, and the seats were quite an improvement.

In all, a very good show, with very good fans. What a blast.

(06-18-03 Update 2) The Comical gives the previous night's show a thumbs up.

[Posted at 23:44 CST on 06/17/03] [Link]

Stereotypes

On the way home from work today, I got to the cop who is always directing traffic near Greenway Plaza on Richmond.

And the cop was eating a donut as he directed traffic. A big, sloppy jelly one.

Proof that stereotypes have a basis in reality.

[Posted at 18:46 CST on 06/17/03] [Link]

Down In Flames

Since the Moxie Wars have died down, I guess we can now turn to the battle going on over Right Thinking, where Lee has drawn the ire of not one, but both Olsens.

Now, that's not a terribly difficult thing to do, mind you, but the fact they just keep coming back for more pummelling makes it kind of fun to watch.

[Posted at 15:51 CST on 06/17/03] [Link]

Eagles

So, my boss came back raving about the Eagles concert at Compaq Center last night. Apparently they played two awesome sets (with a 30 minute break in the middle), no opening act, and sounded incredible.

Now, I tend to prefer small venues (as in Firehouse or Mucky Duck -- the downtown Verizon is a "big" venue to me), so Compaq Center isn't normally on my list of places to see people.

But I checked out a local ticket broker, and they're actually selling tickets to tonight's show BELOW COST at the moment. I guess they're trying to avoid being stuck with the tix. Anyway, I picked up some cheapie nosebleed seats, but I'm cool with that. There's not really a bad seat in that place (or should I say, for what I'm used to, every seat there is equally bad), and I'm paying less than the people who stood in line for tix.

I've never seen the Eagles, although like (most) everyone else my age, have long liked their music. It should be fun.

[Posted at 14:05 CST on 06/17/03] [Link]

16 June 2003

CWS

Rice just cleared the one hurdle I thought might give them trouble at the College World Series: Texas (the team that had their number last year).

Texas had the Rice pitcher on the ropes in the first inning, forcing him into 31 pitches with outstanding discipline at the plate. But they only scored two runs off of him, and had very little discipline at the plate the rest of the game. Consequently, he shut down Texas.

One thing I've noticed about Rice's starters this year is that they are not invincible -- but they're damn close, and you aren't going to get many chances. Your hitters have to have more discipline than most college hitters do to beat Rice, because their pitchers, in addition to having great stuff, will just throw junk balls all day as long as batters are going after 'em. It's hard enough to hit their best stuff when they're throwing strikes, but if your team is chasing bad balls, it's probably going to be a long day against Rice's starting pitching.

As a UH fan, I have some experience in this category (unfortunately). It's even tougher if the ump has an overly generous strike zone.

I don't see anyone beating Rice at this point, unless Wayne Graham and crew just have some sort of meltdown.

[Posted at 21:49 CST on 06/16/03] [Link]

Huh?

Isn't it an odd thing to be proud of walking out of a movie?

Take NRO's Richard Brookhiser, for example:

John, my wife and I saw Nemo last night. I was diverted, she agrees with you--she wanted to walk after five minutes. We are both great believers in walking out of movies. I'm proudest of having left The English Patient twenty minutes before the end.

Well, okay. I guess. Shall we clap for you? Or send you a cookie? Or what, exactly?

I'm actually loath to walk out of anything, that little incident at Anderson Fair a few weeks ago notwithstanding.

(Update) To elaborate -- while I can certainly understand why someone would walk out of a performance as a matter of principle on rare occasion, it's probably still not something to be proud of (in my view). I mean, it's okay to take pride in one's skills or achievements. But to take pride in the number of events one has walked out on just seems a bit odd to me.

That is all.

[Posted at 21:36 CST on 06/16/03] [Link]

Sugar Land

Ah, nothing like life in a master planned community, where every stone is red brick and every sign must be approved.

Thank goodness Montrose is a little more... disorganized.

(06-17-03 Update) Go read Alex, who has posted a beautiful entry on this general topic.

[Posted at 21:04 CST on 06/16/03] [Link]

15 June 2003

The Kuff Report

Kuffner attended a Democrat "Grassroots Political Conference" over at UH this weekend and has posted some pretty interesting stuff on local politics.

Of most interest to me is that Dick Murray is of the opinion that Chris Bell would have beaten either Mayor Pothole or Orlando Sanchez in a straight-up race last time. I think Professor Murray occasionally lets his personal preferences drive his interpretation (and I guess I can say that now that I'm finally done at that place), but who really knows? You vote the race that's presented to you. He also thinks Sanchez is the favorite this time, which isn't exactly rocket science, but that Sanchez has problems if it's a Sanchez/White runoff (won't happen if Turner is in the race).

But why am I carrying on like this? Go read about it firsthand.

[Posted at 23:25 CST on 06/15/03] [Link]

Texas Theme

I've been tinkering around with stylesheets and html and such over the weekend, and think I finally have come up with a theme for version 5 of this site. It's going to be a very Texas theme this time, and other than (probably over the top) Texas flourishes, very very simple.

Now I just have to see if the basic layout that tests out fine in IE6 will be okay in some other browsers. The first design was actually going to be a very complex thing fashioned out of CSS, but unfortunately, truly standards-compliant browsers like Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla 1.3 broke the darn thing, and there was no real workaround that didn't break things in other browsers. Blar.

And that's just the basic screen layout. I've done no real work on inline stuff like fonts and colors and sizes and all that crap. But the major goal is to create something that gives the user ultimate control -- especially over font size and scaling and even viewing method (which will all actually make the inline stuff much easier for me to deal with). I cringe every time I look at the absolute pixel sizes on the current design for this site (but, in my defense, it's an OLD design, and was my first effort to learn CSS and go table-less when few people were doing it -- hence, my #69 at the old list of table-less sites, which now has hundreds of sites listed).

Anyway, progress.... slow as it may be. And once that stuff's done, then it will be time to port over to a new back end powered by Nucleus, with comments and other fun stuff.

[Posted at 21:09 CST on 06/15/03] [Link]

The Countdown Continues

Sometimes, it's just too easy:

Silva, the mayor's aide, said "we'll find out right away" why the lights aren't on and why other problems persist.

Ah, the Comical.

Since they endorsed Mayor Pothole (twice in the last election, which was a referendum on his ineptitutde), I wouldn't expect THEM to get to the bottom why other problems persist.

Thankfully, we're down to only a few months left of the stupid SOB.

[Posted at 19:19 CST on 06/15/03] [Link]

Have You Called Your Dad Today?

A Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there.

[Posted at 15:10 CST on 06/15/03] [Link]

14 June 2003

A Moxie Moment

Hey, there's another Reductio Ad Absurdum out there.

Maybe I could have a Moxie tantrum over it?

Actually, I think it's cool. Too bad I can't understand a damn bit of it.

[Posted at 16:45 CST on 06/14/03] [Link]

Lee Brown's America -- The Final Months

Did I mention earlier that I wish Mayor Pothole would hurry up and take that job at Rice?

Yes, I think I did.

I suspect the Houston Fire Department will be glad to see the SOB go too.

Of course, they largely supported Orlando Sanchez in the last election, so they shouldn't be surprised they haven't fared as well as HPD since then.

[Posted at 16:35 CST on 06/14/03] [Link]