Facebook grows again

Facebook has a new thing they are doing. They have put out a set of general software writing materials (aka programming) that allows facebook users to write their on programs. Some are web-based, others are actual desktop programs. There aren't many up yet, but I played with a few. Reviews are as follows:

Best Program: Pickdee
This program allows you to pick up to 23 college football games, or the full NFL slate each week, and will keep a running points total of the facebook community. The downside is that you have to pick the winner, and the spread. That requires a little research. I find that BoDog.com has pretty good lines, but some of the games you have to pick are not available (due to injury etc.) so you have to make up a spread without any knowledge.

Most Dangerous Program: Shallowfriend
This program is web based, and asks you to vote on peoples profile pictures in a "hot or not" style. This could lead to some suicides, or some people dressing in a manner that is wholly inappropriate. It is also addictive, and the more of us that join, the more fun it will be. When you see that sexy guy on the rope swing, remember to vote "9". We don't want you voting "10" and looking fake.

Worst Program: Grub101
This program is supposed to provide menus, hours, locations, reviews, etc. of restaurant around our campus. The problem is that not a single entry has been made in most places. If you are interested in being the one to build the library for your school, its a cool thing, and would be a great service to all of us who eat three to five times a day. Otherwise its a total waste of time, and I will continue to use KnoxMenus

Worth a Look: Vote
This site allows you to create and participate in polls from facebook users. I started one asking who will win the NC in College Football this year. It is open until Midnight Central Halloween. You should all vote in it. And vote for Alabama, since they are clearly the favorite this year to win the National Title. ROLL TIDE!

This is all still very new, and there will be great expansion in this database I'm sure. If you are curious about where to find this, at the very bottom of facebook there is a link that says blog which will take you to the facebook staff blog. Its pretty interesting, but down at the bottom, you will see the article regarding software design. Click the link for "product database" to get the full list of programs and web-based "time wasters"

Stay Tuned...

I'm not sure how I feel about this...

So Facebook is now connected to this blog. And I blog over here at S.P.AD, which is then attached to my profile on facebook. On one hand I'm happy to have the traffic, as I know hundreds of people view my facebook profile everyday (to see my smiling face), but on the other hand, I feel enormous pressure in my writing. I felt like my 5 months of blogging last year was pretty good. It was humorous, thoughful, etc. I don't know if I can live up to all that. We will see!

It feels good to be back in school, and blogging. Life is a little strange for me right now, but not bad. Its different, and an adjustment. I worked out for about 90 minutes today and then took a nap, and now my arms are entirely dead. I'm going to try to get dressed and go to Benchmark now.

Stay Tuned...

School is back baby!

Call me crazy, but I love being a student. Thats why I'm going to med school after law school. That and the paycheck will be crazy when I graduate.

Med School you say? Are you crazy JMay? YES I am, but that has nothing to do with this, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't bring it up. I'll be 29 when I graduate, if I go straight through, and I have no intention of practicing medicine. I won't do all the "residency" so to speak, but rather use the M.D./J.D. to practice Medical Malpractice law (representing the doctors of course, trying to help the ever growing health-care insurance problem).

It will be awesome.

God I love school...

Now I have to go read 130 pages before my first day of 2L...

Thats right 2L

2L

2L...

Has a nice ring huh?



Stay Tuned...

Picture for a Smile...

Stay Tuned...

Its Opening Day!

At 4:10pm Eastern Standard Time, Tim Hudson will take the mound, and the Atlanta Braves will begin their march to a 15th consecutive division title.

I know the Mets look good.

I know the Braves look young (and old)...

Time will tell.

If McCann, Francoer, and Langerhans can hit, and Boyer, McBride, Davies, and James can pitch, we're going to be okay.

Hudson and Smoltz at the top of the rotation is ++, followed by Horatio Ramierez, Kyle Davies, and Jorge Sosa will be adequate.

It will be interesting to see how Marcus Giles handles leading off. He is not a base stealer, but he hits a lot of doubles, which is just as good as a walk & steal, or single & steal.

The other cog of interest is Edgar Renteria. How does he fit into the middle infield? Do he and Giles have the same chemistry that Giles and Furcal had? Does he make 30 errors or 12? Does he hit .274 with 76 rbis or does hit hit .310 with 100 runs/rbis?

Does Roger McDowell have what it takes to fill Leo's shoes in the pitching coach role? The young guys have really taken to him, partially because they were all so intimidated by Leo. Smoltz and the other veterans seem to have a respect for Leo, while also expressing excitement about getting some fresh ideas. One thing is for sure, you can still expect plenty of "low and away" from the Braves staff this year.

Perhaps the biggest issue is who closes games. Does Chris Reitsma have what it takes to be a MLB closer? We've seen some pretty random guys step up and have great years in that role in the past. Look at Todd Jones in Florida last year. If not, we have the luxory of at least two guys who could step up and do that job. Oscar Villareal, who will start the season as the Braves top set-up man, and Joey Devine, who will start the year at AAA Richmond. Don't expect him to be there long. Also of note in the bullpen, John Thompson has made the move down to being a reliever. He has had some elbow pains, and for all we know, this could be the next Dennis Eckersly (or John Smoltz), a starter who makes a great transition to closing baseball games. Thompson has said that he likes the idea of relif work, because he can throw at full strength for shorter periods of time, and focus on getting just the outs he needs, instead of pitch counts. Sounds like a candidate to get a chance at closing if Reitsma gets hurt, or can't perform.

Off the bench, we've got the relaible bats of Wilson Bettimet (S), Pete Orr (L), Brian Jordan (R), Todd Pratt (R), and Matt Diaz (R). Diaz and Jones will platton at 1st base with Adam Laroche. Laroche should get his first opporunity to play every day this year, beacuse he has shown an improved ability to hit lefties. Orr and Betimet will fill gaps at 3B, SS, and 2B, while all 5 are capable of playing the outfield.

Of course you know what you'll get from the Jones boys. A combination of at least 50 HR, 200 RBI, 200 Runs, 20 SB, and outstanding defense. Not bad for a group of old men (Chipper is 34, Andruw is 28).

Lineup:
1. Marcus Giles - 2B
2. Edgar Renteria - SS
3. Chipper Jones - 3B
4. Andruw Jones - CF
5. Jeff Francouer - RF
6. Adam LaRoche -1B
7. Brian McCann - C
8. Ryan Langerhans - LF

Rotation:
1. Tim Hudson
2. John Smoltz
3. Horatio Ramierez
4. Kyle Davies
5. Jorge Sosa

Bullpen:
Makay McBride (R)
Chuck James (L)
Mike Remlinger (L)
Oscar Villareal (R)
Chris Reitsma (R)
Lance Cormier (R)
John Tompson (R)
Blaine Boyer (R)

Bench:
Wilson Betiment - Utility Infielder
Pete Orr - Utility Infielder/Emergency Catcher
Matt Diaz - Utility Outfielder
Todd Pratt - Catcher/First Base
Brian Jordan - Utility Outfielder/First Base

Three games in LA, then three games in SF, then its home next monday to start our regular season.

Stay Tuned...

British People...

I have to say, while I really like their sense of humor (see also: Shaun of the Dead), British people kind of suck.

They are snotty.

They are stuffy.

They are not attractive (well, except the Indian girls, and Gemma).

And the service industry is awful.

I've never seen a server tell a patron that the steak was cooked correctly, and generally refuse to fix it.

We decided that while over in Europe, we ought to have at least one really nice meal. In the Camdon district of London, there is a very fancy restaurant that runs a special for 1/2 price entrees on Monday. How convenient, its Monday!

We are pretty excited, because with the prices being 1/2 off, the menu price basically represents the price in U.S. Dollars.

I was excited because I haven't had a good steak since my last trip to Memphis. I've got mad cow fears, but, we all have to die sometime, and I'm going to take my chances.

"I'll take the 8 oz filet, medium, with the smashed potatoes"

"Wait...Lets make it the 12 oz, what the hell"

The steak comes out, and it is WELL-DONE! I mean it was charred, and tough.

I was pissed, because its not every day I spend 13£ on a steak (that's about $25)...

She was kind enough to take it back, and fix it.

Jantzen wasn't so lucky. He works in steak restaurant, and he ordered his medium-rare. It was medium-well, at best.

He mentioned to the server that it was not correctly cooked, and that he'd like to try again.

"No, that is medium-rare." - Server

"No, I work in a steak house, this is Medium-well." - Jantzen

"I'm sorry that's how we cook it here." - Server (who then walks away)

The problem there is that the servers don't rely on tips for their income. They are paid much better hourly wages, and then get only nominal tips.

The woman tacked 10% on our ticket, before the half-price discount.

That is some nerve.

Moral of the story...

British people are rude, and their food sucks.

Thank god for their sense of humor, or they'd be a waste of an island.

Stay Tuned...

Amsterdam is the strangest place ever...2

So, Jantzen says "Great, now this guy is going to go outside and tell all his bum friends to take our stuff." Now I'm on-guard. Im clutching my bags, looking over my shoulder, and generally being paranoid. I know, you're thinking "Its Amsterdam, he's paranoid...stupid stoner..." but I swear, we hadn't even made it to the hotel, not to mention a coffee shop. This is pure paranoia, and not unfounded.

After 20 minutes of walking around the station, we finally got our tickets (a 10 Euro 48-hour tram pass) and catch the 1, 2, or 5 south towards Leidesplein. We get there, and find the Marnix Hotel. I dont know what it is about europe, maybe its a lack of space, but every set of stairs I went up/down in Amsterdam was like 4 inches wide. Its bizzare. i was excited at the Atlanta Airport when i could fit my entire foot on the stair!

We get to the desk, and sure enough, the credit card machine is broken, and that means we cant pay for our room, and we have to get E246 (roughly$343) in cash. We tell them we will take care of it in the next day or two, but we need to put our stuff in our room and get lunch, etc. They give us a room key (#100) and we head down the hall to the room. Much to our suprise when we open the door, there are two asian people in there making the beds. No big deal, cleaning crew, I get it. The thing that was confusing was that some guys bags were still in there. That was weird.

So we had to put our luggage in the closet next to the desk until the room was empty, and set off to get lunch.

Jantzen and I headed across the street to "Crush" the coffeeshop closest to our hotel. The weird thing about the people in Amsterdam is that either they speak perfect english (enough to convince you they are American) or they dont speak it all (because they are Moroccan) but will pretend to understand every word you said, and give you rude, abrupt answers.

The "bartender" at the Crush was the second.

He sat, and nodded along while we talked to him, said yes and no when appropriate, and then was clearly lost when we asked an open-ended question like "how much is it to use the internet." It was his answer to this question that set me off. "Three Euro per hour." Okay, thats fine, I don't care...BUT WAIT, there is a sign behind his head that says "Internet, 2 Euro per hour." That Moraccan Bastard! Why is everyone trying to screw me here? Whats the deal!

To make things worse, The worst thing that could possibly be on TV was on...Clueless, the Series. That is just uncool. So Janzten goes to the weird Moraccan and says "Would you mind changing the channel" and the guy doesnt' get it. Jantzen points at the TV, and the guy picks up the remote. Jantzen reached for it, and the guy is like "No, I use remote" and put on Football (soccer). Thats alright with me. Then he mutes it and puts on Bob Marley. I couldn't belive it. I know, I know, we're American, and we're in Amsterdam, and we're at the Coffeeshop, but I mean, that doesn't really mean I want to listen to Marley. I'd have prefered to listen to the damn match...

Then it just got bizzare...

This woman was kind of stalking around the cafe, and went into the bathroom. She looked American, dressed like us, etc. She came out of the bathroom and came right to us. Started asking us all these questions about where we were from, staying, what we were doing, etc. I tried my best not to give her information, but for some weird reason, every time I opened my mouth, some critical piece of information about our trip would fall out of my mouth. It was embarassing. She could have said "what time is it?" and I'd have said "We're staying at the Marnix Hotel Room 100." I couldn't believe it. The other thing is that she wasn't even an American. She tried to convince us she was, but then when we tried to have a conversation about some specifics, she got weird. The Dutch love to pretend to be American, its like they enjoy fucking with us...

Jantzen and I were both very uncomfortable in Amsterdam at this point, and decide to leave the Crush and go get food.

We step outside, and begin to walk back towards Leidsplien (the square near our house) where all the restruants are located. We are walking about 200 yards down the road, and come to the first canal we have to cross. As we are crossing the bridge, there are literally hundreds of pidgeons flying around above my head. I looked at Jantzen and I said "I'm going to get shit on" he thought it was funny. I said again "No, seriously, the way today has gone. I'm going to get shit on by a bird." he laughs again, "no you wont, lets go." Again, I say "I'm going to get shit on by a damn bird!" We both laugh, and keep walking. We get about halfway down the next block, and I look down...

SURE ENOUGH, I GOT SHIT ON BY A BIRD!

Thats what our trip to Amsterdam was like...

I got shit on by a bird

It got better.

Much better.

But that first half-day was insane.

Stay Tuned...