Being a Chicago Cubs fan March and April are the most optimistic months of the year. For obvious reasons, the rest of the year pales in comparison. Last year was a bit different though, the Cubs actually put it together in September and gave us something to cheer about in the fall. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't even get a win in the playoffs. Our pitching couldn't hold up and we couldn't buy a hit during the Diamondback series. But here we are a day before the season starts with the same optimism that we saw in 1985, 1990, 1999 and 2004. Of course, these are the seasons that followed Cub playoff appearances and each of these seasons they finished under .500. (2004 was the only post playoff season since '46 that had an above .500 season. They had a quite respectable 89-73 but still finished sixteen games back.) But it looks like the optimism isn't just in Wrigleyville. Sports Illustrated has the Cubs going to the World Series. Seventeen out of nineteen ESPN experts have the Cubs at least winning the Central. Even a Miami Herald reporter has them winning the World Series. It's been hard for me not to get excited about this season so I'm entering Opening Day more cautious than optimistic. Let's call it cautiously optimistic. Let's face it this team, us fans, and all of Chicago needs a World Series Championship. It's been 99 years and counting lets end it this year. Go Cubs.
Bonus Link: Jim Caple: Is This Finally the Cubs' year?
I know this is a bit sacrilegious but I couldn't help posting this. There have been lolcats in pictures and lolcats in code. Now, they have their own translation of the bible. Of course I use the word translation loosely. It seems that a group of people have collaborated over the internet to translate the Bible into lolcat. Since the project inception sometime last year they are now 60% completed. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about here is one of my favorite verses 1 Corinthians 13 in lolcat.
1 iff i talkd wif teh tungz of manz n angylz, n duzzn haz luff, i are becom liek teh human, knockin down all teh potz n panz frm teh shelf, srsly.2 iff i haz powarz of liek tellin the futurez an if i has access to teh internets, an i gotz all teh missteriez an all teh knowingz an all teh faithz, enuff 2 taek all teh mowntanz awayz, an i duzzn haz luff, i gotz nuffink.3 an evn iff i givez all mai stuffz awai, n iff i delivur mai bodiz to b burnded up, and i duzzn haz luff, i gotz nuffink.
4 Luv is pashient n kind, luv haz no jelusniss or showin offz, luv no is stuck-up5 or r00dz. Luv no insistzes on doin it rite, itz not pisst off alla tiem or rezentflufflele.6 Luv izzn all happiez about doin it wrong, but is happiez about teh truthz.7 Luv putz up wiht all teh stuffz, beelivez all teh stuffz, hoepz for all teh stuffz. Luv putz up wiht all teh stuffz... i sed that areddy?
8 Luv no haz endingz. Tellin the futurez, tungz, an alla stuffz u know wil die.9 We haz knowingz a bit, an we haz profacy a bit. We no haz two much tho.10 O, wait. Win teh perfict coemz, teh not perfict will dyez, lolol.11 Wen i wuz a kitten, i meweded leik a kitten, thinkded liek a kittenz, an I chazed strings liek a kittenz. Wen i wuz becomez a cat, i NO WANT kitten waiz ne moar.12 For nao we see in teh foggy mirorr like when teh human gets out of teh shower, but tehn we see faec tow faec. Nao i haz knowingz just a bit, tehn i will haz all teh knowingz, as i haz been knownz.
13 Nao faithz an hoepz an luvz r hear, theses threes, but teh bestest iz teh luv. srsly.
Ya, I wish I was kidding. I think I'm going to stick to the NIV...you probably should too.
Jack and the boys did it. In a previous post I mentioned how I would love for the Canes to win just one in the NCAA tournament. Well, they did just that. He lit up the second half with thirty-two and thirty-eight overall for a career high. This was a huge game for a young basketball team. This morning as I read the paper about the game when I noticed something...his shoes. McClutch was wearing the best Jordans ever made, the Air Jordan V. I have so many fond memories of playing ball as a sophomore in those shoes. Long after they disintegrated I still wore the laces in my bowling shoes. A few years back I bought a pair (Nike re-released the Jordan V's) that I've only worn once; during the playoffs of a church league. We lost. Jack didn't. Keep it up Jack against Texas on Easter. Prove to 'em that it isn't the shoes.
When I was a kid I love G.I. Joe. I had the figures, read the comic and watched the cartoon. So when this shows up in my Google Reader via /Film I just had to post it.
How awesome does Ray Park aka Darth Maul look as Snake Eyes? My mind has just been blown.
I'm still in shock. After a horrid start to the ACC season the University of Miami basketball team is back in the NCAA tourney. My only expectation is that they win one. Just beat St. Mary's and chalk up the learning experience. If you win more great! I'll love every second. Personally, I sometimes have a tough time watching UM B-Ball. During my time at UM I had a great affinity towards the team. We went to a bunch of games and occasionally played some pick-up with some of the guys (and gals) on the team. When Coach Clark left I was disappointed but when Michael Jordan knocks on your door you answer it. Then came Perry Clark and destroyed everything that Coach Clark built. Here's my Perry Clark story. I saw Perry Clark in a Barnes and Noble one day in the Gables. I soooo wanted to tell him that I appreciated the way he destroyed a team that I loved. But of course I didn't have enough guts to do it so I just left. When the Perry Clark experiment was over Frank Haith came in picked up the pieces and began to build. He's built a tough little team and hopefully they can make some noise this weekend. Good luck guys make the U proud.
For an in depth look at the Canes during this tourney see the All Canes blog.
As I get Jorriss.com back to a working state by adding the del.icio.us links, book links, Google ads, etc. I looked into getting a better post editor than the one built into Community Server. After not much searching I found this article entitled "How can I publish to my blog offline?" It discusses the MetaWeblog API that Community Server uses and links to a tool called Windows Live Writer. Windows Live Writer is a Microsoft application that is specifically designed to allow bloggers to construct, modify and publish blog posts. One of the things that I like about it is you can view the blog post in the style that it will look on the web. It also uploads the pics that you use in the post seamlessly to the blog site. It also supports plug-ins that developers can create to automate common blogging tasks such as inserting a video, a map or a Flickr image. I've been very impressed with the tool and I'm looking forward to using it more.
The other tool that I found was Copy Source As HTML. I'll be using this on Jorriss.net when I have to copy source code from Visual Studio into a post. I used a tool similar to this before and it really helps with putting the source code in a readable format.
Take a look. This pic is probably a fake. Created by someone and placed on the internet to show an "ironic" view of the Church. This is what the world thinks of Christians. Unreasonable. Unintelligent. Blinded. Unwilling to use their minds and view "reality". But is reason truly at odds with faith or can we have a "reasonable" faith? I sometimes wonder how some people like C.S. Lewis and Josh McDowell, both skeptics of Christianity, became Christians unless they were presented with a reasonable argument for Christianity. I believe that I do have a "reasonable" faith. Christianity should be easy to disprove. Prove that Christ didn't fulfill any one of the 333 Messianic prophesies. Prove that he didn't die on the cross. Prove that he didn't rise from the dead. Sounds simple. But in over 2,000 years no one has been able to do so. So how do we change this image of being "unreasonable"? I think it's by showing respect and love, one person at a time.
I'm back. It's been a long time since my last post. Since then Alexa is 1.5 times older, I've been promoted at work, I've gotten more involved at church and I'm busier than ever. I did have a good logical reason why I stopped blogging but I'm going to save that for later. I've also been able to move the blog from .Text to Community Server thanks to Kevin Harder and his migration tool. I was able to move web hosts as well. I'm still going to keep the personal stuff on Jorriss.com and the technical stuff at Jorriss.net. The design of the blogs will also be changing over the next few months. Frankly, I have no idea what it's going to look like. Maybe J can help. Anyways brace yourself kids...I'm back.