This is what sports is all about!

I saw this post on a fantasy football website I visit regularly. Not sure what the rules are about posting an article in its entirety, so I'll post the link to the story instead, just to be on the safe side.

The story, from ESPN, is about a college girls softball game in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference between Western Oregon and Central Washington. Great story about how athletes are suppose to act...

Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship

Golf League - Week 1

I figured I'd keep track of my golf game here. I'm going to try to post how I did in my golf league, and see where I may be able to improve my game.

The course is Wolf Creek Golf Club in Adrian, MI. If they had a website, I'd link you to it.

Week 1 - Front Nine

Hole 1 - 378 yard Par 4
Bogied the hole. Drove good, but was just off the left side of the green with my iron shot. Was short on the chip to the hole and just missed the par putt.

Hole 2 - 481 yard Par 5
Birdie the hole. Had a HUGE drive, if I don't say so myself. Had about a 5 iron to the green and put it on the left side of the green. Had about a 20 footer for eagle, but missed it to the right. Had about a foot for the birdie. Best drive of the year so far. Wind did help some.

Hole 3 - 153 yard Par 3
Double bogied the hole. This hole is all downhill. Hit an 8 iron about 10 yards left of the hole. Didn't hit the chip shot as well as I would have liked, and left myself about a 20 footer for par and missed it long. Then missed the putt coming back. Ball rolled over the edge of the hole, but didn't fall in. Looks like my chipping needs some work.

Hole 4 - 298 yard Par 4
Not one of my favorite holes. Have to hit an iron off the tee as there is about a 30 foot difference in elevation between the fairway and the green above. Hit a good 4 iron to the base of the hill and was a little short of the green on my pitching wedge. Chipped up to a gimme par putt (less than a foot.)

Hole 5 - 316 yard Par 4
Dogleg left Par 4. If you can draw the ball around the corner, you can set yourself up for a nice birdie. I drew the ball around the corner and set myself up with a nice short 60 yard sand wedge chip to the green. Left the ball right of the hole, right on the cut between the fringe and the rough. Used my putter to hit the ball uphill and crushed it for some unknown reason and left the ball past the hole about 10 feet and missed the putt coming back. Another bogey.

Hole 6 - 157 yard Par 3
Wind is in my face so I should have taken an extra club, but didn't. Tee shot hit the front of the green but sucked back to the fringe. The pin is on the second tier at the back of the green. Chipped up, but short, and two putted for another bogey.

Hole 7 - 451 yard Par 5
This is a tough, dogleg left hole. A good tee shot has to go around or over a group of trees, and then the second shot to the green below, with a pond to the left and a couple of traps protecting the front of the green. Again, I had a huge drive (wind assisted) and had about a 6 iron to the green below. Pushed the iron to the right of the green. Chipped past the hole. My birdie putt stopped just to the right of the hole for a tap in par. Missed opportunity here.

Hole 8 - 362 yard Par 4
Another good drive and iron shot put me on the green, below the hole, about 20 feet. The putt is up hill, with, what should be, a break to the left. Of course, my putt didn't break and I end up with a par.

Hole 9 - 357 yard Par 4
Dogleg right with a pond on the right hand side to catch those who try to cut the corner. Right now, with a par on this hole, I can finish with a 40. My driving, to this point, has been good. I feel pretty confident. With that thought in my head, I put the tee in the ground, place the ball on top, waggle, and pop the ball up in the air about 30 yards, on the side of the hill to the right. Great! Now, the ball's a little above my feet, so I take a 7 iron just to get the ball in play, and I try to get a little trick and set up for a little bit of a fade/slice. I hit the ball on the toe of the club, and sent it almost perpendicular to where I was, about 20 yards over the hill, but in #7's fairway. I still haven't reached the pond, which I now have to cross with any chance of saving this hole. I got my 3 iron out and hit it smooth and put the ball into the fairway of the hole I'm supposed to be playing. Chip up and miss the bogey putt and have to settle for a double bogey 6, for a total of 42.

Had plenty of opportunities to make this a better round. My chipping got the better of me this week. Had some good chips, but most weren't close enough to give me a legitimate birdie or par chance. Hole #9 was one of those holes that I have every now and then, so I didn't let it bother me. I know I could have easily been below 40 for this round, and being my second time out playing this year, I'm pretty pleased.

Little League Baseball - First Scrimmage

Well, my son's first scrimmage was yesterday afternoon. After a week of sun and temps in the upper 60's and 70's, the weather turned a little chillier for our first scrimmage yesterday afternoon. It was windy, but sunny and about 60-65 degrees, depending on whether you were sitting in the sun or in the shade.

It's a machine pitch league full of mostly 2nd graders, some of which have never played organized baseball, and some that have been playing for a couple of years. The scrimmage went kind of fast (about an hour and a half), as each player, on each team, got, at most, 5 pitches, over three innings of play. My son had three hits and scored one run. I don't know what the final score was, but I don't believe score was being kept for this scrimmage. Not sure if the score will be kept for their games. Wasn't like this when I was playing little league. We ALL knew the score. But I digress.

It's funny to watch these kids play. The ages range from about 6 to 8 years old. When these kids are up to bat, you can tell which ones watch the pros and which ones don't, based on how they hold the bat and take their practice swings. As for when the kids take the field, well... let's just say that they are not taking cues from the pros. If the ball isn't hit directly to them, they are very hesitant to move from where they are standing, unless the coach (nicely) hollers at them to get the ball and throw it to the nearest base, which is a chore in some cases. I vaguely remember playing little league, but I'm sure I was just as hilarious as these kids are.

Games begin this Thursday. I don't think our team will be practicing (only had two practices before our scrimmage yesterday), as the fields are pretty much in use every night, so this will be fun to watch.

Move from our AS/400 to an HP Open System... are you kidding me?

I just got off the phone from someone at HP wanting to know if I was interested in moving from our AS/400 (I know... it's now call iSeries... but it will always be the AS/400 to me) to some kind of HP Open System server thing. To be honest, I didn't really pay too much attention to what she has trying to sell me. You would have to pry the AS/400 out of my cold, dead hands (after unhooking all the chains, saran wrap, duct tape, etc. that I've wrapped around me and the AS/400.) I just can't imaging moving to something as reliable and trustworthy as our AS/400. The thing NEVER goes down. We never have to reboot it to get something to "fix" some kind of issue.

I laughed when she first said something about moving to something else, but after a brief discussion with her, and letting her know that I have worked with the AS/400 for close to 20 years, and that moving to something else is not in my reality, she completely understood. At least she wasn't pushy and was able to take my "no, thank you" answer without trying to force the issue.

Granted, we only use the AS/400 for our JDE/Peoplesoft/Oracle installation of EnterpriseOne 8.10 ERP system and a custom app for one of our plants (using Websphere), moving even these two apps to something other than the AS/400 will not happen on my watch. No way... no how!

And that's all I have to say about that!

Time to empty my mind...

(this post was started about a month ago and I am just getting around to finishing it...)

Yes, it's been a long time since my last post. Blogging is not as easy as some of you make it seem. I've not been posting during the work day, as some have suggested, but by the time I get home from work, eat dinner with the family, mess around with the kids, get them settled for bed, I'm not much in a posting mood. Sure the ideas are still there, but I just don't feel like posting. Guess I need to work on that.

Now, to empty my mind to make room for more...

...I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I can no longer listen to any Led Zeppelin song without thinking of Jellyrolls on the Boardwalk at Disney and the two guys valiantly playing "The Immigrant Song" on the dueling pianos. Every time I hear Led Zeppelin, that's all I hear...

...I don't like it when bands use the name of an older band. Case in point... Artful Dodger. Granted, the band started in the 1970's. Today, Artful Dodger is still playing, but there is a group from England that goes by a similar name... The Artful Dodger (notice the difference... THE.) They bill themselves as successful UK Garage Band, but are now "storming the urban music scene." To me, it just doesn't seem right. I can't say that I've ever heard anything from the "new" THE Artful Dodger, as urban music and me don't quite click, but I do miss hearing the old Artful Dodger. I wish I could be in the Cleveland area on May 3, 2008, where the original Artful Dodger will be playing the Cleveland Agora Ballroom...

...I visit PlanetLotus every day and read all the blog headlines. If I find something interesting, I'll visit the blog and read the posting. Even if I don't find something interesting, I still find myself click on some of the posts, just to see what's going on in that particular blog. One day, I hope to find myself on PlanetLotus, but at the present time, I don't post enough to warrant a submission to the site, and I don't post anything Lotus Domino/Notes related here (at least not yet) to feel that I should be included on the site. I do click on the Twitter link, but sometimes I feel like I'm stalking people without them knowing. I guess I wish I had the time to mess with all this stuff, and to "fit in" with some of the people I've met at Lotusphere way back in January...

...Working in a two man IT department, supporting a little over 100 users, leaves little time for R&D. I wish I had the time to mess with stuff. I did purchase some Lotus Quickr licenses, but don't have a server to put them on. I've downloaded Lotus Domino 8.0.1, but haven't had the time to install it on a, as yet, non-existent, test server. I see a lot of talk about VMWare. I even went to an offsite presentation, put on by a local consulting company, where VMWare was discussed. I see value in bringing it in house, but neither I, nor our network admin, have the time to do anything about it right now....

... I like ellipses. I'm trying not to be obvious ...

... I just realized that my high school class did not have a 25th year reunion. We had one for the 20th, but the person who organized that one swore up and down she would not organize the 25th. I guess no one stepped up to do it. I did what I could to help for the 20th, although I no longer live in that area. We had a blast and it was fun to see everyone a little older. It's funny, though. Some people still hold grudges from high school and refused to even consider coming. I just don't understand that at all. I guess some people never grew up enough to let bygones be bygones. My wife has the same issue with some of her friends who won't attend their class reunion, due to grudges and pettiness from a long time ago...

... I am a LOST fan, but hate the fact that I have to wait another two or three weeks before we see the new episodes. I'm not sure I like the direction the show is going, but am hooked enough to stick with it and hope that things turn out better than what I am imagining. I have to say, I am real disappointed in John Locke... he just doesn't get it. Ben's playing him like a fiddle and he doesn't even see it. How many times is John going to be (mis)guided by Ben? ...

... It's finally Spring here. The weather's been nice enough to go outside and do some yard work. As much as I hate doing yard work, it does look nice when it's done...

... As it is Spring, the golf season has started. I went out for the first time last Sunday. Had to knock the cobwebs off the clubs, and check the shoes for spiders and other creepy crawlers. Went out with a couple of friends. Started off big, playing 18 holes my first time out. My driving left a lot to be desired, but my irons, short game, and putting were great. Started off par, chip-in birdie, and almost walked off the course because I don't want to ruin the rest of the golf season. finish with a 39-42 for my first time out. Can't complain about that! Our company golf league started this past Wednesday night. My driving game came back to me. My irons and short games were still there. All I had to do was par the last hole for a 38. I should have quit after the second hole on Sunday. I proceeded to pop the ball off the tee about 30 yards. Hit the ball off the toe on my next shot. I was probably no closer to the hole than I was two shots ago, when I was on the tee. I was able to get my third shot within a chip shot of the green, which I overshot the hole and had a long bogey putt coming back. Of course, I missed that and finished with a double bogey and a 40 for the nine holes. Still, it was good to be out playing again, and the weather was about as nice as we've ever had for the first night of league play. Sunny and warm, with a little wind, that got stronger towards the end of the round. I love this game!...

... My son (8) is playing little league baseball for the first time. He's never played organized ball before. He's had two practices, one without the machine and one with. He's done well so far, and will be playing in his first scrimmage this Sunday. It will be interesting to see how he does...

...Guess that's all I've got for now. I better post this before I forget about it again, and revisit it again in another month...