the tenth letter of the alphabet

I think it is safe to say most technology company CEO’s send email like this…

 http://gizmodo.com/5019516/classic-clips-bill-gates-chews-out-microsoft-over-xp

A lot of people wonder why people give their software away.  Well my girlfriend and I took her nieces and nephew to Gattiland (an Uncle Bob’s Funorama full of games and marginal pizza) for fun times a few weeks ago.  In the average arcade what should I find?  Tux Racer!!!  While I could tell you about it I might as well save myself the time…

Anyway it was one of the main reasons I ran Mandrake Linux a long time ago (late 90’s?) and now it is packaged up at an Arcade!  Sweet!

You got traded…

It is my off season.  A time for healing and forgetting how sore I am on Wednesday mornings.  You see I am the second baseman for “The Posse”, a Tuesday night Men’s Low Williamson County softball team.  Having just finished our most successful season ever (5-3) I reflect on our success.  There was the 21-6 victory two weeks ago in which I think every member of our team scored.  This season we suffered only one casualty (Rod hurt his knee…again) outside of the normal aches and pains Advil and Aleve address.  Our biggest accomplishment was starting to play as a team and bring most of our players up to an ability to throw AND catch.  Crazy I know.  The latter accomplishment is unique in our league, which judging by the pre and post game prayers on the diamond is 95% church teams (ours being the standout).  Sporting shirts with bible verses on them doesn’t lend them an edge and in fact appears to be a detractor.  I picture the church bulletin now “Men’s Softball - Tuesday nights - All Welcome”.  Invariably the result is 1 or 2 guys that sign up by accident.  At least I figure it is an accident because they bring their kid’s teeball glove and wear jeans.  Yes I get the point…it is the low skill league and my team definitely belongs.  However, all teams are trying to win.  Some get a ringer for a pitcher who spins the ball viciously through the air. Others get 18 year old high school baseball players (who always over swing) to spruce up their batting.  Anything in the name of winning…except addressing that which hurts their team the most…the guy in blue jeans.  He can’t throw, is more likely to hit into a double play than to catch that which is thrown at him and WON’T quit with his “chatter”.  Two outs, guy on third?  He yells “Play’s at home!”.  Brilliant!  Clearly there is no natural selection in church league softball.

I frequently get asked what I do at work…not so much specifically my job title but what I actually do…

Simply put, with my teams we make sure this doesn’t happen…

Saturday after 18 our home loop, a couple of buddies and I headed out to a new resort course in east Austin (Bastrop if you want to get technical). The course, Wolfdancer at Hyatt Lost Pines, features lighting fast greens, fantasy sculpted bunkers and stupendous hillcountry views. As we worked our way through the track, playing no-carry skins and individual nassau matches we started to wonder if the course could be any harder. Sure we were playing the back tees and there was “a little” breeze. But it was giving us all we could handle. Little did we know there was more in store. You see, after 12 holes I felt as if the wolf had pwned me. It was supposed to be the other way around. At 17 tee I was demoralized. At one point in the backside I was 1 under…at 17 tee I was 7 over. Following one of my buddies I teed my ball on the 215 yard into the wind par 3 planning to cut the ball to the back right pin. As I addressed the ball my playing partner called me off. “Hold”. Hmmm…interesting. I backed off the ball and saw a figure emerge from the trees green side. Seemingly sheepishly the individual retreated towards the jogging path in the trees. Then, as I addressed the ball again, darted out of trees and onto the green. His target was unknown and as Kevin, my playing partner stated, 10 guesses at the situation wouldn’t have predicted the next move. Reaching the flagstick, we see our course modifier pull the pin and take off with it into the trees. Moments later a outboard motor comes to life and down the Colorado river below us we see two lowlifes motor off with our target. After the commotion settled it was my turn to play again…only I had to guess where to hit the ball.