Those who have followed and cared, have noticed I’ve changed hosts a few times over the years. Most of the time due to changing technical interests, whether it be Java/JSP, or PHP, or ASP.NET. Well, this time I was also looking to reduce my monthly cost, especially since I have too much of a package right now for my needs, and since I run a PHP-based blog, it was a perfect time to find a Linux-based host, as they’re usually cheaper.

I did much, much research, as there are some out there that are really overselling their servers. They give you tons of space and bandwidth for about $4. Which is fine until their servers get overloaded.

So, ignoring my own advice, I went with one of them. 🙂 Actually I picked this one because they are running a special for their 7th anniversary, $9.24 FOR ONE YEAR! Yes, unbelievable, for less than 10 bucks, I’m willing to try them, as they actually got good reviews for being a potential overseller; they seemed to have very good uptime.

I’ll have more details later, to provide a link for you guys, as I think I can get some referral money for it 🙂 I’ll also provide the ‘non-referral’ link for the non-charitable folk…

This time I’m stepping ever farther back, to my high school. For some reason I was surfing and went to my town’s homepage, which normally is pretty boring, considering it was a small town of 4000 in Illinois.

But I just died when I saw one of the articles, for this year’s school officers. Just scroll down that page slowly….slowly….slowly….

An Insider article on ESPN looks at the growing incidents with fans and players at ballparks. Not much new here, players think fans are out-of-hand, because they have nothing to lose, etc. Whereas in reality there is something to lose, for example the season tix the Boston fan lost in the Sheffield incident.

I’m not saying fans are not to blame; society as a whole has become celebrity-awestruck and also feel more interaction with players due to today’s increased communication capabilities. I mean how hard is it to chat with one of your favorite players in some online chat, or see the inside of their Crib, etc.? Every athlete gets involved in some way, shape, or form each year. Some genuine, giving back to the fans, others just to keep their celebrity status going…

The reason fans never caused problems before (when I was growing up) was that disconnect. No matter how big a fan you were, there was still little you knew outside of the game; when the game was over, the athlete got in his car and drove away, and you didn’t know much else about them. Now we know everything, mainly due to the media and corporate greed that fuel this machine, but admittedly due to fan interest; with no demand, supply slows down. I myself still enjoy some of the programs, but the problem is not all fans can still keep the disconnect and respect the players’ privacy.

So I do get sick of the players pointing fingers. It’s everyone’s fault.

But what I found funny in this article was one player’s analogy:

“We’re supposed to hold back, which can be tough sometimes,” said [the player]. “If you’re working at a computer store and some guy comes in and grabs you while you’re selling computers, you might be apt to hit him. It’s a natural reaction.”

Wha? That’ll relate well to the fans…I had to chuckle at the first analogy that came to his head, apparently alot of people work at computer stores 😀

I’m sick of athletes thinking we should applaud them for restraining themselves. The problem is they usually react on the offensive, not to just defend themselves. Need I bring up the NBA; defending yourself is a natural reaction, but not going into the stands…that’s where I have the biggest problem sympathizing with athletes.

An apparent security vulnerability was fixed yesterday in WordPress. You can either copy over the new installation for 1.5.1.2 or make a 1-line modification to one of the files. See the link for details.

The lottery drawing was last nite, and somehow Milwaukee moved up to steal the first pick. This year was a little different, in that they only drew for the top 3 seeds. 1-14 got entries/ping pong balls, but they only chose the top 3. The rest of the teams that weren’t picked were then ordered by worst record similar to the playoff teams’ seeding. Portland and Milwaukee moved up, while Charlotte was one of the teams disappointed.

On an Illini slant, Deron is slated to go at #5 to Charlotte in the latest ESPN mock draft. I didn’t think Charlotte needed a point that badly over other needs; as long as he gets a solid start wherever he goes. I really hope he falls to Utah at #6 as we all know how that team values point guards.

Related to Dee Brown: yes, he declared a few weeks back, and there’s been conflicting information from him and the Illini coaches on how serious he is. He hasn’t hired an agent, and the coaches say he gave them a 99% probability of coming back. But his news conference had a much different tone. I hope it’s Dee just running his mouth a little, trying to give the impression that he’s serious about the draft to get the best possible read on where he’d go in the draft. I highly doubt he’ll make it to the first-round, though, given his size and lack of point-guard experience. I mean he has alot especially running the point when Deron was on the bench, etc., but he’s not in the same league as a Deron Williams in that aspect right now. And point is the only place he’ll fit into the NBA at. I would not understand if he decides to stay in if projected as a second-round pick. Why not stay in school one more year, run the point, and improve to hopefully a first-round? I mean there’s no risk involved; whether you stay or go, if you have a bad year next year, you’ll be ‘out of a job’ regardless, as a 2nd-round pick needs to show great progress to have a serious future and get playing time to progress.

Just my 2 cents…I bank on Dee coming back, 90% probability IMHO

And so would my Grandpa…an Illinois man caught a 124-lb catfish the other day. Do you realize how big this is? They say analogous to the size of a 6th grader. Amazing!

My Grandpa used to have a smokehouse growing up, he ran his own fish market, with fresh fish and smoked fish. Smoked carp was huge, as we lived on the Mississippi River. Smoke catfish was good as well…hmmm, that fish would be a hella lot of meat!

UPDATE: For the sake of being PC, I removed my analogy (which was somewhat poor to start with) from above: ‘I mean for some women they’d be called ‘overweight’ at that weight.’. I was informed (not admonished) that the comment could be misconstrued, and I want to make sure I don’t lose the large female audience I’m sure flocks to the interesting comments I have to make here 🙂

You saw it coming, now Google has added portal capability to its main search page. It of course is their movement in the direction of My Yahoo!, which I currently use, but am a little unhappy with due to browser issues in their code.

The coolest feature I’ve noticed so far: drag and drop of modules; just pick up the email ‘section’ and drag it where you want it. Even works in Opera! Thankfully they’re starting to write cross-browser code from the get-go. Now all they need is a calendar and I would switch in a heartbeat…

Now I don’t mean this to be inhumane or insensitive or graphic, so take this with an anecdotal grain of salt, and if you can’t handle dog vs. rabbit stories, please refrain from reading on…my dog is a rather good, trained dog, albeit we weren’t the ones who trained him; the previous owners were horrible for letting him become a stray, but we thank them for this at least. One thing I know is that when we let him out to do his business, he’ll come back to the door when done. So depending on what business is going on, it could be a few minutes.

Monday nite The Wife let the dog out and when I went to open the door to let him back in, he didn’t come. Our door is somewhat squeaky, and he can hear it across the yard; so after waiting a couple more minutes, The Wife walks out and calls him in.

Well, yesterday morning when I woke up, I suddenly remembered ‘the golden rule’: back door opening == dog comes to door. When the same thing happened that morning, I walked out and noticed he was rootin’ around in the corner of the yard, where there’s rock/mulch edging, some bushes, etc. He would look at me, then look back. So when I walked out to the spot, I suddenly discovered his new ‘distraction’; it seems the local bunnies decided to lay their latest nest in our backyard. I am now convinced rabbits are not the brightest animals on earth, as my dog has already killed 2 of them before this, his scent is absolutely everywhere, yet they decided to put the nest under a thin layer of mulch.

Needless to say, Calvin had pretty much had his way with all 6 of them. He’s very good about it, though, I mean he will kill them and leave them there, perhaps toss them in the air like a toy (or prize) if we don’t see him quick enough (we try to stop this latter thing from happening at the least). But he doesn’t eat them, etc. I wouldn’t allow that. But given there are tons of rabbits in this city, and the damage they cause, I have no problem with him guarding the back yard this way.

Anyway, there were a couple still somewhat alive, so I placed them out back by the garage where I knew the rabbits frequented as well, they could do as they want. Just so you don’t think I’m out back with a BB gun-mentality waiting for the latest prey to enter our ‘hunting grounds’. I see it as a fact of nature and deal with it.