UK STILL has a football team

We are ranked eighth in the AP and USA Today polls, mostly because everyone other ranked (or formerly ranked) team in the country stinks (right, Jeff?).

Does UK have a serious chance at the BCS Championship game? Probably not. We shouldn't be outranking Florida, that's for sure. Not unless we beat them, at least.

The SEC is just murder on football teams. Florida, UK, and LSU could beat each other fairly consistently, but could take any other team in the country on any given night. UK could even have trouble with Tennessee at the end of the season (and boy, is that a turnaround). I don't think any SEC team will be able to go unbeaten to get to the BCS championship, and with things as squirrelly as they are this year, that could be the only thing that puts a team in.

It's just amazing that we've gone from the cellar of the SEC to a reasonable chance at a real bowl and an outside chance of BCS contention. Yes, it may have taken a weak year nationally to do it, but whatever it takes. :)

Did you know that UK has a football team?

Last night, they set themselves well on the path to top-25 excellence. Now if they can just keep marching that way....

My grandfather is in surgery now.

Yesterday, my grandfather went to the surgeon to find out when the surgery would occur. They ended up scheduling it for today.

He went into surgery at 12:50PM EDT. They expect that he'll be in ICU overnight, and longer if the surgery requires.

Please pray that he loses as little of his lung as is required for the cancer, and that it hasn't spread.

Update: 9/12 21:50: My grandfather is resting comfortably (albeit a bit groggy from the pain medicine). They removed the upper lobe of his right lung (about 40% of the lung), but as long as the lymph nodes are clear they will not recommend any chemotherapy.

Something new every day

For the last couple of days, my iMac G5 at work has been powering itself off randomly. It's been very dependable ever since the motherboard replacement to fix the bad video that the first generaton iMac G5s suffered, so to see it appearantly eating a power supply was disappointing. Resetting the SMU and the PMNU didn't help, and it died in the middle of the test CD run (so it wasn't software).

Then, I found a page that said to change power cords. Appearantly the power supply in them is very sensitive, and if the cord isn't pushed in 100%, or if there are problems with the cord, the machine can randomly shut off. I dragged an ugly (but heavy-duty) black cord out of the desk, and switched it after the last power-off. No more problems.

Apple's stock cord is sitting in my trash can, cut in three pieces, (NEVER leave a bad cord intact; someone will want to use it again.) and my iMac is happy. Hopefully, that's the only problem and my iMac can keep humming along happily.

Upda te: It wasn't the power cord. The power supply is dying. Fortunately, my employer bought AppleCare, so the repairman will be there in a day or two.

Request for Prayer

My grandfather went last Friday to have a biopsy on a suspected lung tumor. The doctor is preparing us for operable lung cancer, and there were some slight hints that he might even avoid chemo if the cancer is large cell. I'd love for the lump to be non-malignant, or even not even cancerous. It'd be a wonderful miracle to use to witness to him. Otherwise, healing would be nice.

Update: The lump is definitely cancer, but as long as it hasn't spread to the lymph nodes, they think it can be treated with surgery only. This is certainly a blessing in a rough situation.

A hero died yesterday

(Hat tip to Captain's Quarters) Richard Jewell died yesterday, probably due to complications from diabetes.

IMHO, the FBI agent and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter(s) who leaked that he was a suspect should be given a fair trial for murder and then hanged. Jewell put himself in harm's way for hundreds of people and saved all but one of them. Because he was a "bubba" who lived with his mother, he had to be a psychopath who did the bombing. Some FBI agent had to be Deep Throat, and some Atlanta reporter had to be Woodward.

Richard Jewell didn't deserve what he got for his troubles.

A few things broke

The web server didn't like the storms Thursday. The DSL line didn't either, and I noticed that first.

Be patient, I'm working on it.

Wonderful news ahead of church

Wonderful news for my fellow Kentucky blogger, Jeff of Think Sink. The tumor found in his mother's brain was really just an abscess. She is expected to make a full and complete recovery.

Jeff, know that you, your wife-to-be, and your mother are still in our prayers.

---

(EDIT: No, I can't spell "church". Yes, I fixed the title)

Breaking News: Nifong Disbarred

Too bad the State Bar couldn't throw him in jail.

The Death of the Republican Party?

The bloggers have turned. LaShawn Barber, the Captain (of Captain's Quarters), Heading Right (seconded, and again, and again), Peggy Noonan, and even Karol over at Alarming News are stirred up.

I voted for George Bush because I believed that, as non-conservative he is, John Kerry was worse. If it weren't for the judges (and conservatives had t o scream to stop Meyers), I would completely repent. As it is, John Kerry couldn't have been much worse.

We have a government that is bankrupt, a currency that's two or three steps away from toilet-paper hyperinflation, and an economy that is pushed against the wall by predatory undercutting by China and India. We don't need No Child Left Behind 2, Amnesty 2, or the Lizard Queen (a.k.a. Hillary).

King George had the perfect opportunity to do a drastic government overhaul at 9/11. He could have said "the Federal Government needs to defend us. We're building a fence at the borders, we're sending illegals home PERIOD, and we're going to focus on getting ourselves out of debt, off of oil, and getting competative overseas. The states will have to do roads, schools, and welfare, but the Federal Government is going to lower taxes enough to pay for it."

Did even one of these happen? No. Dr. Paul might do this, and Mr. Huckabee comes the closest after him. Otherwise, the rest ( Democrats and Republicans alike) sound just like Roman senators arguing about which circus to change while the Visigoths are at the city walls.

A pox upon all their houses.

The local hawk

I've been noticing a hawk or falcon operating from around campus for several weeks now. Last week, Number One Son noticed the hawk resting on one of the antenna atop the Patterson Office Tower.

I was walking into work, and I noticed him flying around one tree. It seems that he is in fact a she, and she has two chicks in a nest near the Main Building.

I'm still working on pictures. Give me a bit of time. :)

Why C isn't anything special

Slashdot had an article commenting about the Top 10 Dead (or Dying) Computer skills article in Computerworld. It's little surprise that no one is paying for Cobol skills. People have had 7 years to get rid of Cobol and their mainframes, and those who aren't are planning to train in-house anyway.

I am just surprised that people are surprised that no one is paying a premium for C skills. My first CS class was a FORTRAN and C class (programming for Engineers), and my first "real" CS class was Pascal. After the first classes, we didn't use anything but C or C++ for any serious projects. It wasn't until I started to leave that Java was even introduced.

Programming C is like a carpender hammering nails: some things should just come standard. No programmer in 2007 should NOT know C.

Thanks for your prayers -- and a call for donations.

A few days in prayer have helped a lot. Milady is feeling better now, and the neighborhood seems to be more under control. Now, I just have to convince the family that riding to Mississippi in a passenger van for a junior high mission trip is just as good as riding in a tour bus. NOT! ;)

Our church still has to raise $800 (out of $1000) to fund our gas bill, or the kids will have to pay for the gas themselves (they're already paying $250 each for food and lodging). The Church is accepting Shell gas cards or cash to pay for the gift cards. If you'd like to donate, let me know by Email, and I'll let you know how you can donate on-line so that the money goes straight to the Church and to the Gas fund.

Please pray for us

It's been a rough couple of days at the Packrat household. Please pray for us, especially Milady, as we work through a couple of decisions.

Overheard at the Shriner's Circus Last Night

"Noble Lumpkin, this is the Illustrious Potentate". No, wait, that was another event. ;)

My brother-in-law is a Shriner, and he buys us tickets to the Shriners Circus every year. This year, we packed ourselves and the next door neighbors, and went to see the show.

About halfway through, one of the clowns came by, selling "Clown of the Year" pins as a fundraiser for the local Shriner's Hospital. I would have bought one myself, but I was down to 2 dollars from all of the Cokes, Nachos, and cotton candy I bought for myself the kids. While he's turned to me, Little Miss sneaks up on his other side.

Clown: "Would you like to buy a Clown of the Year pin? It's only 4 dollars."

Me: "No thank you"

*clown turns, face to face with Little Miss*

Little Miss: "I'd like 4 dollars."

Clown: *dramatic pause* She doesn't miss much, does she?

It took me 5 minutes to quit laughing.

I had a really good post yesterday, but it's gone now

And there's nothing anyone can say to prove me wrong... :)

Give me a while, and I'll have something good up.

I watched the Republican debates last night

Really, Milady watched the debates and I sat with her. Ron Paul has my support, not that it'll do him a lot of good. Mr. Huckabee surprised me with being such a state's rights guy, so I guess he would do.

Otherwise, I stand by my earlier ideas that it's just way too early for me to care.

Dreaming of trains

My great-uncle called me Saturday. Appearantly, he had just read the article about Peak Oil off of the Internet. As I've mentioned sometimes before on this blog, my whole family has a strong pessimistic streak running through their psyche. I have to fight it some myself.

The last couple of nights have had some rough sleep. Tuesday, I remember waking up around 1AM and going to the computer, and very little else. The rest of the night, I dreamed of trainyards.

I've found myself growing more optimistic in general as I've gotten older. I've seen the predictions of the false End Times prophets ("this means we have to be in the last couple of years, because X is about to happen") fail to pan out. I lived through the end of Cold War and the Clinton Administration. God willing, I'll even survive GWB.

As I've told Number 1 Son, Iran isn't going to nuke Israel. The Bible says it won't happen. We aren't going to starve in the cold when oil runs out, because God said not to worry about food and water, that He would provide everything we need. And if He doesn't protect us from something, we still win by losing.

I'm not afraid of what comes up, even if what is coming up is bad. "Cheer up, the worst is yet to come!" And then He is coming.

Give this man a Nobel Prize for Economics

Not really, but kcbrown on Slashdot wrote a comment, "Expand or Die?" that summarizes my own thoughts on expansion at all costs:

It used to be that you could keep a company going simply by consistenly producing good products for a good price and a reasonable profit. As long as the products and the price both remained good, people would buy the products and the profits would keep coming in. Obviously the products would have to be refined over time as the needs of the customer base changed, but this fundamental approach is sound.

Back before the world reinvented fiat paper money, companies didn't go up a lot. Unless you could help start a new company that would make a new market (like AT&T or IBM), you got money when that company made a good dividend and gave it back to you, the stockholder.

The concept that HP, the company that made good computers and excellent printers is better off than HP, the maker of junk computers and worse inkjets, is rediculous.

There is nothing wrong with Good Enough.

Are you still able to cry?

I've heard the Blue Man Group's Exhibit 13 several times while listening to my CD The Complex. However, I just found the link to the video. Sometime life and The Enemy conspire to make one's heart hard, but occasionally things peak back in.

Can you still cry over it? Should you?