Cows may come and cows may go, but the bull around here…
I’ve just had a subscriber submit a comment, and unfortunately I am unable to approve it. The subscriber is from Russia, and his submission was in Russian using the Cyrillic alphabet. This unfortunately forces me to adopt the following rule:
All submissions must be in English using the modern Latin/Roman alphabet to be approved.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
The mail system is now operational again.
It sure as hell took long enough! I FINALLY got around to upgrading the server hardware, and in the process upgraded the software as well, with updated versions of just about everything. The hardest part was remembering what all the hell I did to get the old system working, and there are a few things here that still need a little tweaking. But the blog is back up, and I hope to have everything back to normal by the weekend.
See you soon!
What the hell happened? I know sports is supposed to be exciting, but when things don’t go the way they’re supposed to, it can also be infuriating!
First, if any of you watched the France vs. Ireland soccer match (and even if you didn’t), you undoubtedly know by now about the “handball seen ’round the world”. Replayed over and over on virtually every sports media outlet in the world, we all saw Thierry Henry blatantly and seemingly deliberately handle the ball before kicking it over to William Gallas, who headed it in past Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given. Given MIGHT have had a chance to prevent that goal, but as the video showed, he was too busy screaming at the official about the handball to focus on his primary task. But leading up to the play was the fact that there was not one, but TWO France players offside when the ball was played into the box, an obvious call also missed by the linesmen. Afterward, Henry even admitted to handling the ball, and “acknowledged” there should be a replay. Of course, he said this KNOWING that the decision would not be overturned. More fuel for the conspiracy theory fires? Maybe. After all, the match was played in France. But in the end, Given needs to share some of the blame as well, because he took his attention off the ball to scream about Henry’s handball, and that contributed to Ireland’s failure to qualify for World Cup 2010.
Second (and maybe third?), back here in the states, I can see TWO major college football coaches who will most likely find themselves seeking other employment by the end of the year. The first one is obvious, Charlie Weis of Notre Dame. After losing to Navy for the second time in three seasons, then to UConn (on ND’s “Senior Day”, no less), it’s a wonder that ND is still listed as “bowl eligible”. Which bowl would take ‘em? The Toilet Bowl? Even THAT possibility may get flushed after next week, when they play Stanford.
Also on the coaching hotseat (if he’s not, he SHOULD be) is Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez. After two disastrous seasons, plus an ongoing NCAA investigation over workout time limits, it’s almost inconceivable that the Maize and Blue would hang onto him for another year. Rodriguez says he’ll be back next season, but with AD Bill Martin retiring, all bets are off on that one.
As someone who “bleeds scarlet and grey”, you’d think that I could care less about what happens at what Woody called “that place up North”. But living down here in Florida, I have a few friends from up there, and I can definitely feel their pain. I absolutely LOVE it when my Buckeyes beat the crap out of ‘em, but honestly, Wolverine fans deserve a lot better than this.
After a long hiatus, I’m somewhat back. The internet connection issues are for the most part behind me, and I’m slowly starting to settle into a better routine.
I will be reconfiguring the system over the next couple of weeks, so if you have the blog bookmarked (http://www.lenardspencer.com/blog), please drop the /blog part, because this will become my main page, and will sport a completely different look.
Oh, and before I forget, I’d like to introduce you to Uncle Leeroy. He’s that one relative we have who lives on the other side of the tracks. We love him to death, but more often than not we’re almost embarrassed to claim him as a relative. He’s playing with a full deck, he just marked the hell out of the cards. You’ll be able to catch his blog over at http://www.uncleleeroy.net. If the link isn’t live yet, check back in a couple of hours.
See you on the other side…
UPDATE: Uncle Leeroy’s blog is now live. Go check him out.
I was going to post something about my Orlando Magic getting uncerimoniously dumped in 5 games in the finals, but I have had other problems. Namely, my cable provider. I had to have another service call about my abyssmal internet service, and this guy seemed to at least have half a clue about what I’ve been dealing with. Come to find out my connection HAS been monitored because of the problems, and I found out that I only have 96% uptime on the connection. That means 4% down. That means my internet is DOWN for an average of an HOUR a day, which when you’re running a web server is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They are monitoring it much more closely this weekend, and Monday is the day of truth. If they don’t fix it this time, I will be taking ALL my service (internet AND cable TV) and going back to AT&T. Meanwhile, I’m debating on whether or not to continue this blog, because I just don’t have the fire to do it any more.
It’s been fun, but right now it’s a pain in the ass. I’ll be back when things get fun again.
I’m sure at least SOME of you watched the Cavaliers-Magic game last night. Being a born-and-raised Buckeye living in the Orlando area for the last 22 years, this series had a special interest for me. Not only is it (I want to say ‘ironic’ here, but I’m not sure that’s the right word) that the team with the best regular-season in the NBA will be watching the finals instead of playing in them, but maybe almost inconcievable? After all, They had gone through the first two rounds without a loss, sweeping aside Detroit and Atlanta in 4 games each. They also had the regular-season MVP (LeBron) AND the Coach of the Year (Mike Brown), so it should have been a lock, right? I don’t think so. The Magic beat the Cavs 2 out of 3 in the regular season, including the Cavs’ worst loss of the season (by 29 points on April 3rd in Orlando). Granted, they had just played the night before (losing to the Wizards in Washington), so in their defense they were a tired team.
But back to last night. Lebron’s frustration came out early last night. First, after a respectable first quarter, he was held scoreless in the second. In the second half, he was even missing free throws. After the game, he wouldn’t talk to anybody, not even the reporters. He just dressed out, put on his headphones, and made a beeline for the team bus, undoubtedly to just sit and stew. I’m sure he’ll be hearing from the NBA over that, but can you really blame him? He as a lot to think about, espcially now since he’ll be watching the finals instead of playing.
What will he be thinking about? First, there’s his future with the Cavs. He has one more locked-in season on his contract. After that, the most persistent rumor still has him bailing for New York. If not for salary-cap issues, just about ANY team would be more than delighted to have him on their roster. But that’s a full year in the future. Right now, he needs some help on the floor, so the pressure is pretty much on GM (and former Cavs player) Danny Ferry to get LeBron some more help. First, I see some REAL problems in the middle. Other than Anderson Varejao with 4 years in the NBA, all their centers have at least 10 years. Varejao just finished the second year of a 3-year contract, and can opt out after this season. With Joe Smith becoming a free agent after this season and the distinct possibility of Ben Wallace retiring due to his age and ongoing health issues, their depth pool at center may be getting real shallow real fast. At the guard positions, it looks even worse. Mo Williams is a definite keeper, and Delonte West is not all that bad despite showing some inconsistency, but that’s about it. There is really nobody there who could adequately fill in if either of them got hurt. But on the upside, losing some of these players could free up some cap room so they can make some better acquisitions.
I still remember the ever-so-painful Ted Stepien days of the “Cadavaliers” of the early 80’s, and I am not only thrilled to see what they’ve become today, but I also wouldn’t wish the debacle of the Stepien days on ANY team. Not only do I hope that LeBron stays in Cleveland, but also that Danny Ferry can deliver a better supporting cast and give him more reason TO stay. Like, maybe a title?
Despite the work done over the weekend, we were still experiencing a lot of connection loss. We had to call again and get another tech out to check some other things. Today’s tech did some more thorough checks, and finally determined two things.
1. The modem/router was bad. Easy fix, just swap the thing out. That solved the immediate problem with constantly losing connection.
2. The main branch for our entire BLOCK is deteriorating. Not so easy fix, it means they will have a crew out in the next couple of weeks to replace the branch. I think we can live without service for part of a day if it means better service in the end.
Meanwhile, the current connection now seems MUCH more stable with the new modem. As always, if you have any problems accessing the site, just shoot an email to lenard-at-lenardspencer.com and I’ll fix it as quick as I can.
Everyone please remember our fallen military personnel who paid the ultimate price so we can live in this wonderful country of ours. We should never forget them, lest their sacrifice be in vain.
The new internet connection was working, but not at 100%. I had been having trouble with sporadic dropouts which only got worse over the weekend, culminating with a total loss today. I called the cable company, and they managed to work me in for today, saying they could have a tech out, but could not guarantee a time. When he arrived and checked out the installation, he saw several issues. First, the power supply installed by the contractor had failed, and I had replaced it with the power supply from a cable modem I had in the box but couldn’t use with this installation. It turned out to be inadequate to drive the larger modem, and it was also on the verge of failure. The tech supplied a much beefier supply, which he said should have been supplied in the first place. After that was resolved, he then found loose terminations at the splitter in the attic. After correcting that, and making some final checks outside, everything appears to be fine. Not only am I not having any more dropouts, but the cable TV (both digital and analog) are much cleaner as well. Thanks guys!
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