A Great Escape

I know that the calendar says today is Tuesday, but let's be honest for a moment, it's a Monday. The tasks are typical Monday fair, and the feeling of running in quicksand is distinctively Monday.

That being said, it was a great weekend. On Saturday Janika the twins and I hung out with Steve and Lori. We went out to breakfast at Norma's, looked at musical instruments at Murphy's Music, and then went to Silverlake Marina on Grapevine Lake. Steve and I both love to look at boats, and since we were in Grapevine we decided to go to Bass Pro and look at the boats there. While we were there I decided I wanted to look at the archery equipment.

You see, one of my fondest memories is saving up $12 to buy a bow and arrow set. Once I had managed to save up the money, my parents took me to the feed store to get a bale of hay to use as a target. I remember shooting it at the football field across the street, and being very proud of the accuracy I was able to produce. Sadly, once that bow was gone I didn't pick one up again seriously until this weekend.

We had been in Bass Pro looking around for a while when I headed over to the archery department, and started browsing through the bows and various accessories. I thought it would be fun to shoot as a hobby, and then use my bow for hunting as well. So I looked at bows, and then left the archery department to find the rest of my crew. They were in the clothing area, and Steve was trying on some very spiffy shirts. Janika was looking through the clearance racks, but I knew what I wanted, and I couldn't wear it.

As adeptly as possible I strung my fellow travelers over to the Archery department, and proceeded to pick up the bows that I had determined to be the best options for my goals. Matt, the associate who helped me, talked me through some of the finer points of modern compound bows. I settled on a Fred Bear Showdown, and they proceeded to adjust the sights, pull and all of the other bow dynamics for me. The gentlemen at Bass Pro were great. Not only did they set up my bow, they gave me some advice on proper form, and how to use the equipment I was buying.

The bow I bought had a front sight, a rear peep sight, and weird things like a "stabilizer" and a "whisker biscuit". I also had to buy a release, arrows, and a target. Once I had purchased all of this, (to the silent, peaceful resignation of my wife) we headed home. I was excited, and posted on Facebook that I had bought a bow. I was amazed at the speed in which the conversations started. My brother Matt has a very similar bow to mine, and we started talking shop. Soon he was posting videos of him shooting, and the bug became too much. I grabbed my gear and headed out to the back yard.

Honestly I was a little scared, it had been many moons since I had last fired a bow, and now I was dealing with a completely foreign sighting system, release system, and style of shooting than I had ever know. To amplify the new factor, I was shooting in my back yard. After a couple of shots I was in love. Using a release is almost a Zen experience compared to using your fingers. Add to that the sighting system, smoothness of pull, and balance of a modern compound bow and it was incredible. I continued shooting until my shoulders and back where sore from using muscles that hadn't seen work in years.

I love my family, and over the years regret that my relationship is not stronger with my closest (age wise) brother. The fact that there is something like this that we both thoroughly enjoy makes me hopeful for future days; Possible hunting trips, and getting together to enjoy a great sport together.

Mike

Go Green Death!

Volunteer soccer coach Michael Kinahan is a volunteer, and now he is coaching no longer. Why? As we all know if must have been a very malicious act to get him to resign his post. Was he a pervert? No. Was he abusive? No. He was funny, but not funny enough it seems to save his position.

Before the season began he wrote an e-mail to the parents of the precious snowflakes he was going to be coaching. It was an insane rant that would have had everyone cracking up, had Will Farrell done it. Alas, Michael has never been an SNL cast member. So instead of the standing ovation he deserves he got parents complaining to the league. So he resigned, and now these little snowflakes will get another coach. Will their new coach have the passion and love coaching that Michael had? We may never know. What we do know is that these little girls missed out on being coached by comic genius.

Here is the letter of death that Coach Kinahan wrote;

Congratulations on being selected for Team 7 (forest-green shirts) of the Scituate Soccer Club! My name is Michael, and I have been fortunate enough to be selected to coach what I know will be a wonderful group of young ladies.

Okay, here's the real deal: Team 7 will be called Green Death. We will only acknowledge "Team 7" for scheduling and disciplinary purposes. Green Death is not a team but a family (some say cult) that you belong to forever. We play fair at all times, but we play tough and physical soccer. We have some returning players who know the deal; for the others, I only expect 110 percent at every game and practice. We do not cater to superstars but prefer the gritty determination of journeymen who bring their lunch pail to work every week, chase every ball, and dig in corners like a Michael Vick pit bull.

Some say soccer at this age is about fun, and I completely agree. I believe, however, that winning is fun and losing is for losers. Ergo, we will strive for the W in each game. Although we may not win every game (excuse me, I just got a little nauseous), I expect us to fight for every loose ball and play every shift as if it were the finals of the World Cup. As I spent a good Saturday morning listening to the legal-liability BS, which included a thirty-minute dissertation on how we need to baby the kids and especially the refs, I was disgusted. The kids will run, they will fall, get bumps and bruises, even bleed a little. Big deal; it's good for them (but I do hope the other team is the one bleeding). If the refs can't handle a little criticism, then they should turn in their whistles. My heckling of the refs actually helps them develop as people. The political-correctness police are not welcome on my sidelines. America's youth are becoming fat, lazy, and noncompetitive because competition is viewed as "bad." I argue that competition is crucial to the evolution of our species and our survival in what has become an increasingly competitive global economy and dangerous world. Second-place trophies are nothing to be proud of. They serve only as a reminder that you missed your goal; their only purpose is as an inspiration to do that next set of reps. Don't animals eat what they kill? (And yes, someone actually kills the meat we eat—it isn't grown in plastic wrap.) And speaking of meat, I expect that the ladies be put on a diet of fish, undercooked red meat, and lots of veggies. No junk food. Protein shakes are encouraged, and while blood doping and HGH use is frowned upon, there is no testing policy. And at the risk of stating the obvious, blue slushies are for winners.

These are my views and not necessarily the views of the league (but they should be). I recognize that my school of thought may be an ideological shift from conventional norms. But it is imperative that we all fight the good fight, get involved now, and resist the urge to become sweatxedo-wearing yuppies who sit on the sidelines in L.L. Bean chairs sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-accinos while discussing reality TV and home decorating with other feeble-minded folks. I want to hear cheering, I want to hear encouragement, I want to get the team pumped up and know they are playing for something.

We are all cognizant of the soft bigotry that expects women, and especially little girls, to be dainty and submissive; I wholeheartedly reject such drivel. My overarching goal is to develop ladies who are confident and fearless, who will stand up for their beliefs and challenge the status quo. Girls who will kick ass and take names on the field, off the field, and throughout their lives. I want these girls to be winners in the game of life. Who's with me?

Go Green Death!

Amen…

My problem with Apple

I'm a geek, we all know that. I want the latest greatest machine, overflowing with hard drive space, memory, processing power and the latest GPUs (the more the better). I am also a fan of slick styling, remember looks cool is cool. There are few companies that have accomplished this last objective better than Apple. Their devices look like they were designed by the coolest aliens of all time, and their operating system is a great blend of functionality and fun. Someday Microsoft will start throwing in music editing software with their OS. However it is really hard for me to swallow the crap and what I think is getting really close to lies on their commercials. Every time I hear Justin Long start talking about how Macs don't get viruses, and are unlimitedly stable I want to throw my iPhone at the TV.

I know there is a perception that Windows machines are inherently weak and virus prone, but that is not the case. Let's say for a moment that you are writing a piece of malicious software that you want to use to wreak havoc on the computer community. Are you going to write that virus to attack 10% of the computers or 85%? The simple answer is that you are going to write it to the largest audience available, and that is why there are so many more viruses targeting Microsoft OSs than Macs. Even with their underdog status, there have been plenty of viruses that target Macs. One of the fun ones was called Oompa Loompa, and spread itself via AIM/iChat. The amazing thing is that no one seems to want to talk about this. If Macs were "immune" to viruses, then why do Symantec (and others) make a Mac version of AV software? The fact is that most Mac users are so pathetically incompetent on a computer that they wouldn't know they had a virus until it had almost shut them down.

On to stability, there are people who claim that Macs are more stable. They may be right, but for one very big reason. Mac writes the software, specs and sells the software, writes the drivers, and takes care of compatibility as one unit. On the other hand if you have a Windows machine, your Operating System is made by Microsoft, your chassis (read case) was made by one manufacturer, your video card, sound card, hard drive, hard drive controller, network adapter, and every other device that you have on your computer were made by someone else, and then all the drivers were made by other people too. Sure, HP, Dell, ect. take try and ensure driver compatibility, but three months from now if you update your network adapter driver, you may be hosed. Is that Microsoft's fault?

Well the truth is, maybe. You see it's really hard to tell. Microsoft wrote the kernel, and the GUI, but nVidia, Intel, HP, Dell, and thousands of other manufacturers wrote the drivers, and other software that you have running on that same system. So you have your choice; pay three times as much for a Mac, and you will get a system that is marginally more stable, and has less exposure to viruses, or buy a PC that will cost you a lot less, but may develop issues after software updates (very rarely in my experience), and of course a great AntiVirus will set you back $30/year.

I don't know what laptop I am going to buy my wife this month, but the more Mac commercials I see, the more likely it won't be a Mac.

Mike

Reverse Proxy and Me

I am starting to learn that I am not the big fan on Microsoft that I once was. I still don't think they are the great Satan like most Macophiles do, but am becoming frustrated by the number of security issues that are being discovered, and the patches that are required to fix those issues. Also, I wish that some of additional functionality would be included with different pieces of their software.

Currently I am addressing the lack of Reverse Proxy in IIS 6 (that is Internet Information Server 6 for the uninitiated). It seems like re-directing port 80 hits should be simple, yet it's not. I am going to have to utilize another piece of software, and while there are hundreds of options, it seems to be either open source or $1500 pre-packaged solution. Frustration runs deep in these veins.

Mike