Once again, Gonzaga lets me down, and once again, I owe Lawrence $5.
Oh, well. There’s always the Cubs.
Archive for March, 2011
Zaged when I should have Ziged.
Sunday, March 20th, 2011Creature. Judgement. Butcher.
Friday, March 18th, 2011I generally don’t talk about my work here, but I’m making an exception in this case.
As of today, I am officially a Commvault 9 Certified Engineer (and also a Commvault 9 Certified System Administrator).
This almost certainly means nothing to anyone outside the world of data protection, but hey, it’s kind of a big deal to me.
Also, it gives me an excuse to embed this earworm from the 1980’s.
Random notes: March 18, 2011.
Friday, March 18th, 2011Obit watch: Ferlin Husky.
Shocked, shocked I am:
In other news, I have not been able to find a current execution date for Antoinette Frank.
Keeping with our trend this morning of depressing our readers:
Here is the Charity Navigator page for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Note the rating.
Raymond Davis update.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011We have previously noted and commented upon the case of Raymond Davis.
By way of various sources, we have learned that Mr. Davis has been released from custody in Pakistan and has left the country. Apparently, this took place after the payment of some sum of money (one source states $2.3 million) to the families of the two men Mr. Davis shot. The United States Government denies payment of any compensation to the families.
Poorly edited NYT article here. Better edited, but less detailed and buried deep in the website LAT article here. WP coverage, which seems to be the best overall, here.
How do you kill a ZunePony?
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011I had not originally planned to comment on this story, figuring that I would leave it up to Mr. ZunePony himself.
However, I was just mucking out the Akismet spam filter, and got to wondering; does this mean an end to the endless Zune/iPod comparison spam? Those of you with WordPress blogs and Akismet know what I’m talking about.
L’update Bell.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011As noted previously, the mayor and much of the city council of Bell lost the recall election.
Ah, but there’s a catch: the city of Bell is losing their shirts on this deal, but they’re looking for audiophiles who need high quality cassette tapes. has to certify the election results. Under ordinary circumstances, that would be a non-issue. But a judge has ordered three of the current city council members to stay at least 100 yards from City Hall, as well as ordering them not to conduct city business. So there’s nobody available to do the certification. The answer: special emergency legislation.
And what of Robert “Ratso” Rizzo? The latest news from his hearing on conflict of interest charges is that, as city administrator, he hired an engineering firm owned by Dennis Tarango to do various environmental studies. Tarango was also the city’s planning director. And, even better, Tarango and Ratso were business partners in a horse-racing venture.
Somebody’s going to get a great true crime book out of this.
Edited to add: Wow. Just wow. Google Books, making it possible to hattip references from the early 1980’s.
Invest in our company or we’ll shoot this dog.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011The LAT link above contains a great photo of Timothy Durham being perp-walked by two FBI agents. Also worthy of note:
Soy un perdedor.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011Overslept. Running behind. Quick note: Carlos Alvarez, mayor of Miami-Dade County, lost his recall election yesterday.
Voters favored removing the mayor by 88 percent to 12 percent.
Apparently, Mr. Alvarez managed to alienate people by raising property taxes 40 percent, while giving various county workers (including his “top aides”) raises. And his taxpayer-subsidized BMW didn’t help much.
Edited to add: The NYT article touches very briefly on this, but Commissioner Natacha Seijas also got kicked out of office. Here’s a longer article from the Miami Herald on Ms. Seijas and her loss. And here’s the Herald’s coverage of Mr. Alvarez and his loss.
(Hattip: Ace of Spades.)
Random notes: March 15, 2011.
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011The NYT has a long and interesting obit for Owsley Stanley, noted recreational chemist and sound engineer for the Grateful Dead (and others).
Well, okay, then.
Ditto. (By the way, Stanley died in a car accident.)
I kind of like Berkeley Breathed (much less so post-“Bloom County”, but still), so it doesn’t give me that much pleasure to note that “Mars Needs Moms” is being compared to “Ishtar” and “Pluto Nash”.
“Mars Needs Moms” is a 3-D movie, so that $6.9 million figure is with the higher 3-D ticket prices.
Good!
“…not necessarily narratively coherent.”
Monday, March 14th, 2011Today’s news from the “Spider-Man” front isn’t really news as such: Patrick Healy and Kevin Flynn in the NYT recap the troubled history of the musical.
Didn’t someone think it was a bad omen when the first producer literally had a stroke as they were about to sign the contract? (He died two days later.)
The full quote, for Lawrence:
The timeless, changeless ways of the HouChron.
Monday, March 14th, 2011Your annual slideshow (warning! Slideshow!) of rodeo food (warning! Slideshow!) is here.
Warning: this does include photos of the chocolate covered pickle and the pulled pork sundae. Also, did I mention that this is a slideshow?
(Wouldn’t fried beef jerky be kind of dry? Or is that the point; after eating a big plate of fried beef jerky, you really need one of those $12 beers?)
Gonzaga!
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Gonzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaga!
Now that the bracket is out, I’m once again picking Gonzaga to go all the way.
How can you not, really? Doesn’t the sound of the name stir something in your heart? Say it with me: “Gonzaga!”