caffeineslug.com

More azsolo2.com

I didn't get started until late, like after 10:30, but I'm pleased with the progress I made last night. The main admin page is here. In my previous post I mentioned the ability to add event information, but last night I added the ability to change event info, or delete it completely. Both of those functions seem to work ok. :-)

The more public page is the schedule . Last night I added a filter for the events, so you can choose to look at all events, or only one region's events. I realize that I don't list region on the schedule itself, and I really need to do that. ;-)

Anyway, a lot of the primary functionality of the program is done now, IMO. It needs to look better, and eventually accept more data to generate event details pages, but for now I'm pleased with how it has turned out.

azsolo2.com development

Working on the revised azsolo2.com site, one thing we wanted was a section that lists the date of the next event for each region in AZ. Easy, right? Well, that has basically turned into what will hopefully be a full event schedule and details app, where someone can add/edit/remove event information through a web interface, rather than manually updating and uploading HTML files. Given that our event details pages are essentially the same each month, I don't think it should be that difficult. I created functional pages to add event information (but not details) and display the current list of upcoming events, but they're certainly not pretty yet. ;-)

IF it goes according to plan, the display page linked above would eventually replace the current schedule, and details pages would be auto-generated based on some additional input (like event chair, special event, run order, etc.).

This is the current outline for the new site. The calendar will probably be eliminated, leaving just the upcoming events. The weather will most likely just be links, that should be easy. "Most recent forum posts", that one is interesting. With the current forum software we have, I think I can only get the most recent posts from one forum, not the most recent from all of the collective forums, but I'm still looking in to that. Might have to leave that feature out for now. The photo in the center will be smaller. The site search currently works, and the drop-down menus just need their links to be fixed. Most of my work right now though is going into the scheduling thing, which should be nice if I can actually make it work. :-P

Golf, good and bad

Went to work a bit early, left a bit early, went golfing! Went to Ken McDonald, and I started out getting stuck behind the Marcos de Niza high school golf team, so I had to wait on pretty much every shot. Ugh. Driving on the front nine was horrible. First hole, I land it on the 2nd tee. Second hole, on the first tee. Third hole, on the 9th fairway. Fifth hole, on the 8th fairway. Bah! I didn't hit a single fairway on the front side, and I only hit one green. Add a couple 3-putts, and I ended up with a solidly-mediocre 43 on that side.

The back side was a completely different story. The Marcos team left, and one guy in my group left, so I hopped on the cart with the last remaining player in the group, and I think we played the back nine in about an hour. I decide to start taking my 2-iron off the tee, and I'm hitting it really well. Tenth hole, I catch a downward slope for a 300-yard 2-iron drive. :-D Eleven is the 578-yard par 5; I hit a bad drive but manage to birdie with a good pitch to about 4 feet on my 3rd shot. The par 3's on the back nine were both good, my tee shots were solid. Birdied one of them. The 2-iron finally let me down on the last hole, where I was even par on the back nine going into 18, and I needed a par to shoot a 79. Ended up making a 12-foot putt for bogey, finished with a 37 on that side, and an 80 for the round.

As bad as I was driving the ball, that shows how forgiving Ken McDonald is. Any other course and I would have hit 4 balls out of bounds on the front nine, turning my 80 into an 88. Finished the round in a little over 3 hours, and my new golf shoes were way more comfortable than the old pair. :-)

The Neon moves

Put the intake back on the Neon yesterday, started it up, drove it around the block. Power seemed to be fine, the car got up to temp and the needle never moved after that. I let it run for a minute or so while checking for leaks, didn't really see any, and nothing was dripping on the floor, so that's promising. At least I can drive it now, as I won't be able to leave it parked in the garage any more.

Spent some time cleaning up the garage last night too, it was becoming a bit of a mess after working on both the Neon and Integra a fair amount in the last few weeks. Lots of trash, random nuts and bolts...I think I found about 4 bolts that probably came off the Neon at some point, but didn't make it back on. ;-) I actually have some surface area back now, that's nice. I have way too many Neon parts in general sitting around, that's for sure. :-P I forgot that I added a whole box of engine parts to the collection!

A couple phone pics

First, I bought Super Scrabble a couple weeks ago, and the other night I was playing a game of it against Evan. About halfway through the game, I finally had my first turn ever where I used all of my letters in one shot - and with a Q on a triple word score, no less! I received 113 points for it, and thought it was deserving of a picture.

Second, I took a pic from my round yesterday on that really long par 3. It's kind of hard to make stuff out unless you've played there and know what to look for, I think. This is standing on the blue tee box (that I didn't even know existed). The very back of the regular tee box is in line with that bridge on the left, showing how much further back the tees were, and the green is way off in the distance. And it's a par 3!

All over the place

That describes my golf game yesterday afternoon at Ken McDonald. I was thinking I'd just play 9 holes, but it went so quickly, my group was able to get in 17 before it was just too dark to continue. The only thing that really worked for me on any level was my driver, and even then, it was only the distance. I only hit 2 fairways and 3 greens all day, and I could rarely chip/pitch the ball close enough for a one-putt, so it was pretty much bogey golf all around. If you figure I probably would have bogeyed the last hole, I'd end up with an 87.

One interesting thing, it looks like some group in front of us (probably a HS golf team) moved a lot of the blue tee boxes as far back as they could, including the use of optional boxes, so some holes were playing a lot longer. One par 3 normally played about 180, yesterday it was more like 240. :-0 I'd say the course overall was playing closer to 7000 yards, about 250 more than normal.

Hmm...any highlights? There were certainly plenty of bad shots I can talk about, like the worst layup in history on the 3rd hole. I put my drive in the wrong fairway on the par 5, so I figure I'll lay up with a 7-iron to the correct fairway. Unfortunately I was about a club short, and I ended up about 3 feet short of a tree right between my ball and the green.

My driving distance was big, sometimes that alone was keeping me out of the fairways. Nearly every drive was 300+, and some holes that was probably more harm than good. There are a good number of par 4's under 400 yards there, so I was leaving myself half-wedge shots into the green - not the easiest, when you haven't played much recently. On one par 4 my drive drifted a bit right, and I hit about halfway up the trunk of a 40' palm tree that was about 300 yards from the tee...that was a nice solid drive. ;-) So even if I wasn't hitting the straightest, it was fun to hit it a long ways again. The shots will straighten out as I play more.

Like I said, 17 holes. I haven't walked a round in a while, and I don't think my shoes are up for it anymore. I'm pretty sure I bought them when I was in high school, and they're about worn through, so those might need to be replaced. Only took us a little over 3 hours to get around the course, including 4 holes where we had to wait on each tee, and that was without a cart. Even better, it only cost $6. Pretty good way to spend the afternoon.

HD golf and Tivo (unrelated)

I probably watched about 8 hours of the PGA Championship over the weekend, being on CBS in HD (well that, and I like golf). Not all of the cameras were HD, and it wasn't necessarily the best HD, but it still looked pretty nice. ;-)

Also, it looks like you can now send videos to your tivo! People always asked me if this was possible, and now that it is, I'm wondering what videos I'd want to watch. The best application I can imagine would be downloaded tv shows, but I don't do that, so I don't know. :-P

More poker income

Not much, but it's there. ;-) Played again a bit on Friday night with some friends. Started with seven people I think it was, I made it down to the last three, but I was low on cash. I was dealt two pairs in a row, couldn't really do anything with them though. Next hand I was dealt another pair, this time 4's. I don't remember how it happened, but I think I went all in trying to get blinds or something. :-P Mason called, had nothing, and I won with my 4's. The next hand, Mason immediately puts me all in again, and I gladly called, as I was dealt a pair of aces. :-D

Of course, I think I was out about two hands later, but I still won $16 on a $10 buy-in, and I think I'm in the black out of all the games I've played thus far (maybe 5 or 6).

I wish I could forget

...what sodas used to taste like. (see the end of this post for background) But no, I still see soda coming out of the fountain, remembering how good it should taste, then I take a sip, and...nothing. Worthless. Bah.

The weather also hasn't helped my laziness any. The Neon has coolant in it again, but I'm an intake away from driving it around the block and checking for leaks. It's bad enough that the afternoon sun makes it pretty hot in the garage, but the increased humidity lately really kills any motivation to work in there. Five minutes and you're soaked. Sweat drips on everything. I'd consider a portable evap cooler or a/c unit, but then I'd have to close my garage door, and that's my only source of light. ;-) Garages with one outlet and no lights are awesome.

What the...golf?

Yes, I actually played golf again on Saturday, this time with Lee and Shaun at Dobson Ranch in Mesa. $20 with a cart on a Saturday morning, tough to beat that. Other than a trip to the driving range earlier in the week, I hadn't played in several months, and it showed. The first hole was a good indication, with my drive nailing a tree about 30 yards out, shooting straight across the fairway, and ending up in the rough next to the 9th green. Solid start.

The front nine in general wasn't so hot. Really, it wasn't the entire front nine, just the par 5's. Being a fairly long hitter, those are usually my best holes, but not that morning. I was +8 on the par 5's on the front nine, +10 on the side for a 47 (so +2 for the other 6 holes, not bad).

The back nine was better, but I still had some difficulties. I put two balls out of bounds (had one OB on the front as well), but my driving was a little better. As it turns out, I just needed to swing a lot harder, and that fixed everything. The first par 5 on the back is 488 yards, I cut the corner around some trees and had 175 to the center of the green. I put it on, and after a horrible first put, made about an 8ft putt for my only birdie of the day. After the 14th hole I realized I had to play the last four holes in +1 or better to break 90. I never play those holes well, but this time I finally did, and in fact I missed some really good chances. On 15 I hid a sand wedge to about 5 feet, missed the birdie putt. On 16 I was on in two, and 3-putted from about 25 feet, so there was my one bogey. 17 was a 190-yard par 3, and I hit my best-feeling iron shot of the day, a 5 iron that was headed right at the pin. Finished about 6 feet away, again missed the birdie. 18th hole, 490 yard straight par 5. I take a big swing and hit it perfect, leaving me 160 yards to the green. I kind of chunk my 8 iron, but I'm still on, leaving about 25 feet for eagle. I manage to 3-putt that one, for another par. So I did finish with my 89, but I had 3 great birdie chances in the last 4 holes, I lost 6 shots to out-of-bounds penalties, and the +8 on the front 9 par 5's really hurt. Other than that though, not bad. ;-)

Thought I'd mention Lee's round, just becuase of its general nature. He somehow managed a great round through 14 holes, I think he was only 3 over. Played the last four with double, double, double, birdie, for an 80. Ouch.

Integra page update

Since I added a few new parts this year, I decided to update the page with details about my car. It had gone quite a while without edits. ;-)

This afternoon I replaced my radiator, and a few weeks ago I replaced my clutch slave cylinder. It's an interesting time for me, as I've had the car long enough that I'm now replacing parts that I've already replaced once before, at some point in the past. I remember the first time those two parts failed me, both situations being worse than this time, when I could nurse the car around until it was ready for repair.

Overall though, the car has been good, as I've added 70k to it over 7 years this month, and other than regular maintenance, I haven't seen that many expenses to speak of. Consider that the car has been autocrossed for a good 5 years, and that's not bad at all.

I know it will have to happen eventually, but it will be a tough car to replace. :-(

Captain, where be the posts?

Yarrr, at the bottom of the sea, where the rest of ye shall be if ya keep asking!

But really, there's no excuse for not posting in what, almost 2 weeks now? Lame. I don't even remember what happened last week, and it obviously wasn't documented here, so I guess nothing happened. ;-) This week, however, I still remember stuff. :-P

My radiator puked a bit on Sunday, prompting an order from Radiator Barn, which showed up yesterday. The box had about a half dozen holes in it, including one nice big gash, but I called the company today, and they said install it anyway. There's no clear damage, so if it works, then great. I'd rather not wait around for another one, and they'll still send me a new one if it turns out that this was damaged in shipping.

Replaced the power window motor in Evan's car this weekend too, and my only comment is that my garage is HOT. As the afternoon sun creeps further and further into the garage (and you wish you had pulled the car in more), the motivation to finish gets that much greater.

Busted out the Dreamcast a couple days ago. Spent the first couple days with the disc of NES games, playing Castlevania and Super Dodge Ball. Last night, played some Chu Chu Rocket and Jet Grind Radio, both a lot of fun. That system was a bargain at $25. :-D