Juicy Bits

mii need wii friends :)

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 17:19:02 GMT

Does anyone want to be my Wii friend?

3906 1037 8916 2410

My home has no windows.

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:55:45 GMT

I just realized tonight that I don't have a windows box anywhere in my house. I think the closest thing I've got is an old w2k disk hanging around here something. It's really a pleasant experience until you have to test code in windows. I'm sure you all know how that feels.

Good night.

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 01:11:50 GMT

uhm... we bought a house today.

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:39:43 GMT

I bought the clubs! I sold some camera equipment on ebay to cover the cost. Simply trading one toy for another, so don't try to make me feel guilty people! The clubs are about 1.25 ounces heavier than my Cobras. I was struggling to get a comfortable distance out of them, but I believe I solved that problem last night. Since the shafts are stiffer I can swing the clubs faster and still make good contact with the ball. I just had to figure out some of the ways that I had been holding back on my Cobras. The solution: allow my wrists to hinge more fully and really dig my back foot in on the down swing.

My distances are still about 5 yards off what they were. My Cobras (along with most "game improvement" clubs) strengthen the lofts by 2 or 3 degrees more than my Titleists!

All I need to do now is replace my woods (eventually) and I'll have golf clubs that are all my own. woot!

Golf Clubs

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:16:47 GMT

Well, I found a great set of irons yesterday for almost half-price! The only thing wrong with them is they have fingerprints on them, they are demo clubs. They are Titleist 735 CM forged clubs. They progress from blades to cavity-backs as the clubs get harder to hit.

Now, how can I make a quick 400 quid?

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:10:54 GMT

Whew, ok golf is back on. Just in time to see Tiger shank it royally. All is ok with the world again.

Damned Soccer!

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:03:01 GMT

How does soccer preempt the Western Open? Sure, you might think watching golf is boring, but no way is it more boring than soccer. Damn you ABC!

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 02:09:52 GMT

I just bought an Ogio Grom golf bag. It rocks, I'm playing 18 holes with it tomorrow. I'm selling my old stand bag, which is a 13 year old Sun Mountain stand bag. It has two straps so you can wear it like a backpack. I'll part ways with it for $10. Otherwise it goes to GoodWill, St. Vinnie's, etc.

Another golf note, I was crushing the $1.05 Pinnacle Exception past the $3.00 Nike One Platinum today. The Pinnacle Exception felt really nice when chipping and putting too! I'm done spending $3 per ball for now.

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 17:30:44 GMT

Just in case you where wondering. It's ok for the doctor to cancel your appointment 5 minutes before it starts. It's not ok for you to cancel your doctor appointment 5 minutes before it starts. It would be nice if doctors could extend the same courtesy to their patients that they expect to recieve.

Of course I'm totally arrogant to think that my time and schedule is more important than a Doctors. I should send them an invoice and see if they pay it.

Wolfmother

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 04:42:09 GMT

A Letterman rerun with musical guest Wolfmother is on. Wolfmother has got the rock'n'roll. It is really great to hear a band kick this much ass again. Go listen http://www.myspace.com/wolfmother . I'd give my eyes and half my teeth to play in a band that sounds that good.

NoMeansNo

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 03:35:53 GMT

NoMeansNo will be touring the U.S. again this year. It appears their Midwest sweep will take place between September 18th through the 20th. I wanna rock over Minneapolis, rock over Madison and rock over Chicago. Slim fast give us a week, we take off the fat! I've never followed a band before, I figure I should do it before I'm 30.

Yawn

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 02:20:56 GMT

I really am a very patriotic person. I'm just celebrating the 4th of July differently than my neighbors. They are outside setting fire to black powder filled cardboard tubes. I am reading a book about applying the Rational Unified Process to software projects. It's my way of sticking it to the British.

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 05:42:10 GMT

I think I'll write little book reports from time to time. This summer I purchased Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons" book to help me with my golf game. I had heard good things about the book and I had already read "Power Golf" which my Grandpa gave me as a teenager.

The main premise of the book is that if you keep practicing several core fundamentals you will improve tremendously over the course of a season. Hogan practically promises that even the average dub will be breaking 80 with some hard work.

The first fundamental is the grip, of course. He teaches the overlapping or Vardon grip. The book states the importance of the grip as the conduit that allows the club to become an extension of your arms. I've tried very hard to implement the grip as taught in the book. My grip now feels more neutral and secure. I feel more confident over the ball mostly due to the grip change.

The second fundamental is posture. He discusses altering the stance width based on club link and sells the idea that the ball is positioned rather consistently inside the left heel. The ball position was something I had to be sold on. I've always moved the ball around in my stance based on the club selection. The swing changes I've made since reading the book have made my transition to a more consistent ball position easier for some reason. I now keep the ball just inside my left heal on almost all shots. Hogan's knee and leg setup has helped me become more stable throughout my swing. The other major position I learned was getting my elbows to point to my hips. I have to say that this was an awkward position at first but now I attribute much of my ability to swing hard confidently at the ball to this change. Hogan then leads us to the penultimate fundamental, the back-swing.

Hogan goes into great depth about his discovery of the swing plane. He feels that visualizing a plate of glass wrapped around your neck and resting on the ground at the ball has helped him greatly. Hogan discusses the waggle and how it is more important than the uninitiated might realize. I've read in other books that the main purpose of the waggle is to help you relax any tension from your hands and body. Hogan feels that more importantly it provides you with a sneak preview of the upcoming swing. He goes into discussion about the one-step take-away where your hands arms and shoulders practically start back at once (he states that the hands start a fraction of a second before the arms, which start a fraction of a second before the shoulders, etc). After Hogan reaches the top of the back swing, he moves on to the final fundamental, the forward swing.

Hogan again goes into great depth about the mechanics that the body must perform in order to successfully finish off the swing. He feels that if you've done everything correctly to this point, it's almost impossible to screw the rest of the swing up. Hogan puts great emphasis on starting the forward swing with the hips. The other really interesting part of Hogan's lesson is when he discusses the pronation of the wrists in order to make the appropriate downward blow to the golf ball. I've never been too conscious of any wrist pronation, but I've noticed that my iron shots are much crisper when my wrists behave as Hogan describes. Hogan wraps up with an excellent overview of the book.

Hogan's overview at the end of the book could be read daily until his teachings are truly ingrained in your head. I've read the book twice but have gone back to the overview several more times. I wouldn't recommend going to the overview without reading the entire book cover to cover first. The devil is in the details after all. This final chapter conveniently reprints most of the illustrations used throughout the early chapters to help you visualize the concepts taught.

I've read nearly a dozen golf books now and most if not all are more modern and current the Hogan's "Five Lessons" book. As modern as many of the books may be, none of them have been more valuable to me in my game. I've made great strides in my ability to strike the ball, especially my iron shots. I had always had trouble hitting longer clubs off the turf, but now I swing my 3 wood through 4 iron with great confidence off the turf. The text is succinct, yet chalked full with an amazing amount of detail. The illustrations are really the icing on the cake. The images in the book will really solidify Hogan's concepts for you. If you read one golf instruction book, look no further than "Five Lessons".

First Post

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 18:11:26 GMT

Well, nothing exciting to say except that this is my first post. I've been working on all things golf and enterprisey application development and design. I'll be sure to write all the exquisite details about those fine topics shortly. I can't promise to keep up with this much... as many are "lovers, not fighters" I'm something more like a "reader, not a writer".

Ok, one exciting thing. I went to see Don Caballero last Sunday night. If you haven't heard the band, they have a very instrumental, rhythmic, hard edged sound. They had to have an audience of like 20 people on Sunday night, I guess that's a rough night for gigs in Madison. I do like getting out to shows in Madison, it makes me feel like a kid again.