Terrible Announcing

This is a great time of the year for sports.  Baseball and racing seasons are beginning after long off seasons, and NBA and hockey playoffs are underway.  Admittedly I am much less interested in the basketball playoffs this year as the Pacers are sitting at home, but I am still tuning in a bit in-between Cards games and hockey.  Every sport has its share of bad announcers, but basketball (both college and pro) has by far the most.  There are far too many former players announcing games these days that quite frankly just are not any good.  This is unfortunate because it makes the games almost unwatchable.  Reggie Miller is a prime example.  Reggie, who as a Pacers fan, I loved as a player, is not a very good announcer.  This all came to the surface this afternoon when I was discussing with a co-worker how much better hockey announcers are compared to basketball announcers.  Then I came across this post on Durden, with the following video.



Imagine having to listen to this and similar commentary for an entire game.  I think I would rather watch April baseball.

Update On Spring 2015 Outdoor Projects

With the spring season here our annual spring outdoor projects have begun.  It's hard to believe this will be the third summer we've been in our house.  The first spring we were busy moving in and getting settled, and last spring we were busy with two infants.  Obviously we're still busy with the kids but this year is setting up to be the most productive season yet.  As the kids get a bit older it becomes a little easier (with planned coordination), especially if we can get help from my parents.

Thus far, I was able to get our outdoor lights working with help from a friend, so that project is finished unless I decide to add more lights in the future.  This is something I might do once we work on our landscaping situation some more.  We started this project last year by bringing in new mulch and removing a large tree that had died and a large bush that we thought was too large for the area.  This year, Sarah and Auntie have been working hard coordinating a plan to advance our front landscaping.  After much discussion I think they've been able to come up with a plan that hopefully we can put into effect in the upcoming weeks.  Additionally, we were able to get some outdoor furniture for our sunroom as well this year.

Lastly, I placed crab grass killer and early grass feed on the yard a few weeks ago.  I've noticed some dandelions appear over the past week so I am planning on spraying a broad leaf herbicide on the yard in the near future.  However, due to work requirements, kid requirements, and frequent rain that interferes with the few available times I have to mow the lawn, we've decided to have a service mow it for me during the spring and early summer seasons.  I'll likely take over after that.  Part of me feels defeated as the yard is supposed to be my domain, but the reality is that there is only so much time in the week to divide all responsibilities.  I will say, the yard looks much, much nicer this year compared to last spring.  Much fuller, greener, and less weeds.

My goal is to have these projects finished before Memorial day weekend when I have the race crew over.  Historically over the past two years we were mostly able to finish our spring projects by then.  I've already begun thinking of projects for upcoming years, including updating our backyard landscaping and enlarging our patio in the backyard.  There is always something that could be done.  I try not to let things drive me crazy and take the projects one season at a time.

Firefox, You're On Probation

I first discovered Firefox over ten years ago while doing my computer science training in Linux systems and I've been using it ever since.  I found it to be fast and innovative and have even donated to the Mozilla foundation in the form of buying a T-shirt.

Just like many other large companies, the company I work for uses a shockingly old version of Internet Explorer as the default browser.  So old, in fact, that some versions they use don't even have tabbed browsing, a feature that has been available for at least 10 years.  Internet Explorer is admittedly better than it used to be, but using an old version in today's internet environment is brutal.  I have 3-4 computers that I use frequently at work and have downloaded Firefox on all of them to use as the primary browser.  Then a couple of weeks ago an annoying thing happened.  Every search on a secure site (including Google, UpToDate, and many others) started giving me security certificate warnings.  I could bypass the warning but that requires a handful of clicks, which becomes quite bothersome after awhile.  I assumed this had to do with network settings at work because I've never had this issue at home.  I refuse to use an old version of IE, so I downloaded Chrome as a substitute.  This is the first time I've ever used Chrome, and it is freaky fast, to borrow Jimmy John's line.  It is noticeably quicker than Firefox.  An adequate substitute, to say the least.

I've been using Mac OS full time since October and have been using Firefox since day one without any trouble.  Then a couple of weeks ago my browser started to get quite sluggish.  Some sights would scroll slowly, some sights would never stop loading, some sites would respond to keyboard input slowly, and others would cause temporary lock-ups.  I restarted the browser which seemed to fix things, but only temporarily.  I ran a diagnostic check which came back OK.  I'm not sure what happened (OS change? Flash update? etc.) but the bottom line is that browsing has become somewhat frustrating.  Then I did what would have been unthinkable for me in the past - I downloaded Chrome for my Mac.  I haven't switched, but it is ready to go if I decide to switch.  I'm really hoping something happens to fix the problem - an update or something.  But if things don't correct, I might be forced to jump ship.

EDIT: Interestingly, as I was putting the finishing touches on this post I found this story which may be related to my issues at work.

March Dumbness

This story is over a decade old at this point, but I still hate class basketball.  The reason I bring it up now is because one of our rivals from high school made it to the state finals this year, and apparently because of their recent success in the class tournament they are being moved up to the next highest class next year.  I believe this is a new(er) rule as I've never heard of this until this past week.  Apparently the rationale is that since they have had such success in their current class they should be moved up to the next class so they can face better competition next year.  This makes sense on the surface, but the problem that I have with this rule is that we already had a system in place where a team would face increasingly better competition with each round of the tournament.  It was called a one class system.  The only reason why this "issue" even exists is because people went and screwed with something that was perfect as it was.  What's really sad is that I am one of the youngest generations of people who even remember the one class tournament.  Pretty much everyone younger than me grew up with the multi-class system and don't even know they should question it because it is all they've ever known.  I still think it sucks.  I won't miss any sleep over it, however.  I haven't paid any attention to high school basketball since I graduated from high school.

The Indycar season kicked off today with a mostly uneventful race in St. Petersburg, FL.  The early story for me has to be the question of can anyone challenge Penske this year?  Kanaan managed a podium, but otherwise the Penske team dominated this weekend.  I think it will be an ongoing struggle throughout the season, much like the field versus Mercedes in F1.  Glad to see Ferrari take the fight to them this weekend in Malaysia for the win.  That should spice things up a bit.

What, For Free?

If I had to list my favorite type of music, I would say rock or alternative or whatever label you want to apply to a small group of guys who play guitar and drums and occasionally piano.  I have some artists that I like and listen to who fall out the traditional rock band realm, music I call "guilty pleasures." Most of these artists I don't go out of my way to listen to, but at the same time if they're on the radio or TV I won't change the channel either.  Probably my favorite artist that falls in this category is Rihanna.  I don't even try to hide this guilty pleasure.  I'll tell anyone who will listen that I am a fan of her work.  I think her music is catchy and fun to rock out to.  Anyway, I've kind of been waiting for her to come to our city for a concert while on tour (I'd fit right in for that crowd, right?). Then to my surprise it was announced she would be coming near by.  Not on tour, but instead as part of a promotional concert for free.  I briefly thought about going, but the more I thought of the logistics of such an event the more I thought it probably wouldn't be worth it, and I have since decided not to go. 

How could something free not be worth the trouble?  For starters, the concert is being played in an open field setting where essentially they could pack people in like cattle for the show.  Secondly, she is playing in a concert with several other people and there is no schedule (at least none that I'm aware of), so I would have to potentially sit through a day long concert just waiting for her to go on stage.  Thirdly, I'm guessing you get what you pay for and I am half expecting her to perform just a few songs before they move on to the next act.  You know what?  I'll pass on this despite being a big fan.  I would rather buy my $100 ticket to (a) get a reserved seat, (b) not have to listen to hours of other acts I don't care about, and (c) ensure I get to see a decent show.  I am starting to get old and grumpy.

Outdoor Illumination

Now that we've officially started spring (despite forecast of snow tomorrow), I've come up with a list of a few small projects to work on for the outside of the house, which is mostly my domain.  One of which is adding outdoor lighting for the mulch and house.  Luckily for me, the previous owners had two low volt transformers already installed and wired.  The problem is the current lights don't work.  A friend of mine came over last weekend with a volt meter and we determined that the wires appear to be conducting electricity fine, so it must be the fixtures themselves that aren't working.  Or it could be the bulbs, but to be honest they only had a few fixtures and they looked rusted/corroded, so I decided to replace the few fixtures they had.  So Saturday I went to Lowes and bought three LED light fixtures.  I'm a rookie at this type of project so I wasn't sure exactly what to get in terms of strength of light.  So with that being said I only opened one of the fixtures.  It has a clamp that attaches to the wire from the transformer, transmitting power from the wire to the light.  Should be simple enough.  However, when I connected the light nothing happened.  I played with the timer and switches on the transformer for a while and still couldn't get the light to work.  Then it was time to feed the kids and put them to bed.  Then it was getting dark so I had to delay the project for another day.  Having two young kids definitely can throw a wrench into any plan.  Some people online were saying sometimes you have to disconnect the clamp and re-connect it somewhere else in order to get rid of a possible bad connection.  I didn't have time to do that yet but it is next on my list of problem solving solutions.  Hopefully I can get it to work because I do think it makes the house and yard look nice at night.  Plus it adds some security as well.

Jeremy Clarkson Cannot Be Replaced

Love him or hate him, you cannot replace Jeremy Clarkson.  You just can't.  That experiment has actually been tried here in America and was called American Top Gear and was awful.  Despite being essentially the same show, it was unwatchable.  The reason?  Different hosts.  And it's not just Clarkson.  Hammond and Captain Slow are pretty much irreplaceable too.  It would be like replacing Bob or Tom. It's just not the same.  So I hope the BBC and Clarkson can resolve their fight soon.  I'm already ready to see new episodes of the best car show ever.

Staying with car news, the FIA F1 season kicked off this past weekend in Albert Park in Australia.  I think several things can be taken away from this race (and really, they were mostly apparent after qualification).

• Sadly, Mercedes AMG is the run away favorite to win the constructor's championship again, and one of their drivers will win the driver's championship as well.  It will be a fight for who finishes #1 but there are only two people in that race and they both drive for Mercedes AMG.  I say sadly not because I don't like the team, but because I'd like to see 4-5 drivers really fight for number one.  
• While Mercedes AMG is the clear #1, several other teams, including some of the lower level teams like Sauber seem to be much more competitive than in recent years past.  This could be a fluke, and time will tell, but I hope it is not.  While #1 is pretty much locked up, the other top spots in the field I think are wide open at this point.
• Infiniti Red Bull seem to have taken a step backwards while Ferrari has taken a step forwards.  I think overall this is good for the sport.
• Several rookies had impressive qualifying and racing finishes.  If this keeps up it will be the most impressive rookie class I've seen in F1 in my >10 years of watching.
• The attrition rate in the first race was atrocious.  Only half the cars that were supposed to start finished the race.  This cannot continue in any such fashion for the season to remain interesting or relevant.  It looked a bit like amateur hour, which is a tough pill to swallow with the high budgets carried by F1 teams.