Congratulations to the 2005 Saint Louis Cardinals for winning the National League Central Division, and advancing (again) to post-season play. Woot!

Oh man, is it football weather outside! 57 at 8:30, getting up into the seventies today. There’s a welcome fall chill on the air, yet the sun is bright and warm on your face. If I wasn’t pumped about tailgating/football before today, I am now.

I guess I’m not the only one. Last week, we got a MASSMAIL that, once again, to thank the university community for its dedicated service in this dismal financial period when real compensation is “hard,” the university admins are giving staff two tickets to the football home opener. A game over Labor Day weekend that no one is going to go to anyway. With a brand new coach after a pitiful season last year. Gee, thanks guys. I’d rather have had Friday afternoon off. But Cantor never did such things for us, so I still think Dick Her Man is a-okay.

Sometimes he makes me laugh, especially with today’sm ASSMAIL about the chief, included below for those who can’t look them up. Ah, politics… the art of saying something without saying anything at all…

Dear Members of the University Community,

The Presidents and Chancellors on the Executive Committee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association recently adopted a new policy to “prohibit NCAA colleges and universities from displaying hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery at any of the 88 NCAA championships.” As those of you in the University of Illinois community know, we have been debating and discussing the Chief Illiniwek issue for many years now. The Board of Trustees has been actively engaged in addressing the matter and 18 months go set about an effort to reach a consensus solution to the issue. The Board is now considering what response it will take to the University being included on the NCAA list of schools with imagery deemed “hostile and abusive.”

To those who honor and revere the Chief, these harsh words will seem a terrible distortion. To some of those who oppose the Chief, these harsh words will ring true. The NCAA recommendations also seem to argue that the very names “Illini” and “Fighting Illini” are themselves hostile and abusive references. I believe that this is an unwarranted extension of the debate. We are evaluating the NCAA recommendations now and will seek all necessary clarification in what appear to be ambiguities in the decision. In the meantime, no change is being made in the use of the terms “Illini” or “Fighting Illini” or in the Chief Illiniwek tradition.

The University of Illinois is dedicated to an environment of respect and dignity for all individuals. Exactly what that means, of course, is the nub of our long debate. As a great university, we cannot shrink from freewheeling debate. That commitment is at the core of our mission, the core of our nation’s value of free speech, and the core of our national character. Yet let us acknowledge that our varying beliefs about the Chief are sincere matters of the heart and the head, and let us resolve to continue to work respectfully across our differences to find common ground.

Very truly yours,

Richard Herman
Chancellor

This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

I’m not sure why Wally or Josh haven’t posted this first, but DIA released the 2005-06 Men’s Illini basketball schedule (FightingIllini.com link.) I’ll echo a few others criticisms that the pre-season games at the Assembly Hall are lacking. There isn’t a Duke or Wake Forest to get us pumped up early like we’ve had in the last few years. Oregon will be fun, but Georgetown just doesn’t scare me. Arkansas-Little Rock will be tough.

Not that I would trade in my season tickets or anything. Only one stab at Wisconsin this year, and it’s on the road on a weekday (boo. One of these years I’ll make it up there for a weekend Illini basketball game.) We get Iowa away and at home, for our home closer/senior night.

Now, I know we’re two weeks away from football, and I’m looking forward to a fresh start there. But part of me knows basketball is only a few months away, and that makes me pumped!

So many things to blog about – I’ll try to keep this short so that my mind doesn’t wander and you don’t get bored.

When I drive home tonight, my car will go over 36,000 miles. 36 is a nothing birthday for humans (and is just over 5 birthdays in dog years,) but for a car that’s pretty important. That’s when my standard warranty expires. I hope 36 is not like the human big 4-0 where everything gets a little harder than it was in the 30s, and you need to see the doctor more. I’m thinking it’s more like an 18th or 21st birthday … the car has finally “come of age” and it’s time for it to shine. I think for the Maxima’s birthday, I’ll clean all the dead bugs off the front of it.

Went to Chicagoland this weekend and saw my first minor league baseball game with Tony and the gang. I had a great time. mLB (note the captialization) is more about the event than the game. It reminded me of college ball the way they do promotions and give aways and stunts and events during inning breaks. We had good seats down the first base line that cost $8 – similar tickets would have been $40+ at a MLB game. There were ice cold Budwisers, mounds of sunflower seeds, sunny breezes and sunsets, and baseball. Awsome. To top it off, it was firework night so there was a firework show after the game — and the Jesse White tumblers did a post-game performance too. Now, if they would have had flyball, it would have been almost perfect!

I’ve been consumed with the idea of submitting a Google Summer of Code project. If you’re accepted, and finish the project by fall as judged by the mentors and Google, they pay you $4500. This will be the second time in 6 months I’ve been approached about paid development for community projects, and I’m still kinda kicking myself for turning down the first. I need the money, and I’m interested in the work, and it can only help my resume and experience, so I’m tempted to try. I just need to pick a project. Wordpress? Gallery? Jabber? More on this later as my brain cranks it out.

Four day week this week, as I’m home Friday for Mom’s birthday. Hope your week is short too!

New pictures from the baseball game on Saturday and Winston on Flickr. http://flickr.com/photos/trombonekenny/

Andy Katz predicts Illinois 2005-2006 to be #24 in the pre-pre-pre-pre-PRE-season top 25. Link

Imagine the shock on my face when I was scrolling down the page, and had to keep scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling to find Illinois. I really haven’t given any thought to next season, although I did walk by Warren Carter (….warren carter *clap, clap, clap*) on the way back from lunch today. I can probably think of 10 or so teams that would give us a run…. but 23? I don’t think so.

Maybe Jon should have used that Catsup bottle at the Hard Rock.

While looking for a book online on tips and tricks to getting the most from ipod/itunes, I found out Champaign is getting a new library. And, apparently, my sales and telecommunication taxes are going up to pay for it. Which, I presume, means I voted for it (and I probably would have,) but I don’t recall doing that. So, whoa, new library. It’s a good thing – I’m always surprised when I go in the main CPL how small it is. They’re going the Busch stadium route of building it right next to the existing one, and then imploding the old one. Look for construction to start soon and end in 2007.

And you thought this post was going to be about basketball, didn’t you?

It’s cool to wake up and find you got an email from the Fighting Illini men’s basketball head coach:

The team and I want to thank you for your fantastic support. Your enthusiasm has energized everyone connected with our program.

We’re going to go all out for you as this memorable season draws to a close and hope you continue to cheer us on through our remaining games.

The players and I are committed to representing our campus and our community with honor and pride. We know you are, too.

We ask your help in ensuring that whatever celebrations may take place at the end of the season be safe and enjoyable for everyone.

We’re in the national spotlight now, and this is a rare opportunity for all of us to show what an extraordinary campus and community we share.

Thank you,
Head Coach Bruce Weber
and the members of your Fighting Illini basketball team

In other words, don’t burn down campus.

Whenever Flickr is down, they pop up a message stating they’re having a massage (for those that don’t speak geek,) and then qualify for those of us who grok webhosting. Their blog mentions how getting bought by Yahoo doesn’t save you from hard drive damage. I think that’s about right.

I also ran across funny video about tape failures, which I understood. I’m really coaxing a few more hours of life out of an old tape library at work, and I never know when it’s going to go up in flames. We don’t do off-site backups, but we have two honkin’ big fireproof safes in different rooms in the building, so things like leaky pipes or 3000 degree rooms doesn’t scare me … I just need to remember to close and lock them before I leave for the day.

These links are me practicing my philosophy that if I try to blog about everything I’m doing, and fall behind, I never will get caught up and I’ll miss posting about the good stuff that currently is happening. I think it’s enough right now to say it’s March, there’s championship basketball going on, the Illini are still playing, and life is good. I was at the first and second round games in Indianapolis last weekend. I’m going to the sweet sixteen and elite eight games in Chicago this weekend. I’m going to Saint Louis next weekend and am going to try to score tickets to the Final Four games. I have to admit it seems like a little over-the-edge fan-dom, but our team, this season, this schedule, these locations… all of them have the chance to be really good to the Illini-nation, and I’m going to enjoy the heck out of it while I can.

In other quicky news, this is the first post (I think) typed from my new computer. It sure is FAST! I’m still installing things, and soon I’ll move the data over from the old system (and make backups of it to DVDR or CDR.) The dnetc on this machine is screaming away. My only complaint/obstacle is the keyboard. I bought one of those split ergonomical keyboards and my wpm speed has dropped a little while I learn new finger positions for some keys. I’ll get better.

I officially accepted the grad school offer, so I’m on for fall. I register in about a month; I need to get assigned and meet with my advisor before then.

I’ve been on allergy medicine for about a month, and besides a nagging cold that hasn’t gone away (especially with the last few weekends I’ve had,) I’m feeling much better quality-of-life-wise than before the allergy meds.

The DVR box from my cable company died this week, and took all the shows I hadn’t watched on it with it. I’m not too worried, because Lost and ALIAS are going to be on DVD before too long anyway.

Ummmm, what else? Gas prices suck, and some of the doomsdays stuff I’ve been reading leads me to think it might never get cheaper. I guess the next car will be a hybrid. Speaking of cars, I’m trying to get everything wrong with it looked at before it rolls over 36,000 miles (probably before the end of the year.) Next week, the radio is getting replaced.

The blogspace has been buzzing about Terri Schiavo and who gets to determine if she can be euthanized or not. I’m really torn on this – everytime I hear something new I don’t know what to think, and I can understand why this is a hard decision for the family, courts, even legislators. I already feel I should have a will drawn up with the house and everything. When I have that done, I think I’ll get a living will and medical power of attorney as well. I’m not sure yet if I’d want to live or die in Schiavo’s state, but I certainly wouldn’t want this much attention, or cause that much strife for my family.

But that’s sad stuff. On to good, happy stuff, like Illinois basketball in Chicago. Wheeee!

I’ll let the sports websites recap the Illini’s amazing regular season, which ended today. We were responsible for more records broken and streaks shattered than I could have dreamed possible back in November. I knew we were good, but we’re damn good, and it’s been a lot of fun being an Illini fan this year.

Twenty-nine and one is respectful. The loss today, our first in a long, long time is a little sad considering we could have gone perfect. But the loss won’t hurt us. We should still be #1 ranked tomorrow (although I doubt with all the votes,) and we still won the Big Ten outright and will have the #1 seed in the BigTen tourney this coming weekend. We will still be a #1 seed on Selection Sunday (just seven days away!) and we’ll roll all the way through Indy, Chicago, and St. Louis. I leave you with Coach Weber:

“Being undefeated was never one of our goals, it just kind of snuck in there,” said Weber. “We’ll learn from this and move on. The next stretch is the most important of the year. That’s what people are going to remember.

“The way I look at it, you’re going to lose sometime. Better to lose now than three weeks from now.”