Bryan's Weblog of Stuff

The Mavs Look To Tie History Tonight
The Dallas Mavericks take on the Indiana Pacers tonight, in search of their 15th straight victory to start the season.

Dallas whipped the Detroit Pistons last night, for the 2nd time in less than 3 weeks, 102-82, to up their record to 14-0. Everyone thought that last night would be the night for the streak to end. Afterall, the Pistons were embarrassed by the Mavericks in early November, losing by 39 (largest lead was 52). The Pistons had three days off to get ready, they had their home crowd behind them, the had revenge as a motivating factor, yet they were missing one crucial element -- superior talent. Sure, the Pistons are one of the top teams in the East, and the East does seem to be in the midst of a resurgence, but they still aren't close to the best in the West. Here's hoping that these two teams meet again before the season is done ;-).

As far as tonight's game with the Pacers, this will be a tough test for the Mavericks. The Pacers own the league's second best record, but have yet to face a top team from the West. In fact, when facing any team with a winning percentage above .600, they have lost. They key tonight will be Indiana's shooting. They are one of the few teams in the league that can shoot over the top of the Mavericks' tough zone defense. Personally, I can't wait!

Good things come to those who wait, and damn am I glad that I stuck with this team through the 90's!

By Bryan at 10:57 AM , in Sports - Permalink
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By Bryan at 10:45 AM , in Family & Friends - Permalink
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Use It or Lose It
Due to a change in my employer's vacation policy, I must use all of my time off for 2002 before the end of the year, or I lose it. To most of you, this might not seem like a big deal, and really, it isn't, I just get a lot of time off in the final two months of the year.

Let's see, I've been back from Mexico for two weeks now, and already I am on my last day at work prior to another week off. Then it is back in the office for the first three weeks of December, and then so long 2002 - no more work until 2003. I don't know what to do with myself and this time off. I am typically not the type of person to take a week off unless I have plans to go somewhere. Being that I did just go to Mexico, it isn't likely I will be making another trip this year.

What's a guy to do? I could work on my weblog app (by the way, I need a name for it - it was metaBlog, but I don't know if I care for that, and lately I've used blog.NET, but still uncertain), it is way past time for completing that thing. I could probably get a ton of stuff done on it next week. But I just hate staying at home when I am off from work.

I could take my son somewhere. I don't know where. I'd love to go camping with him, but at 2 years 4 months, he is still a little young for enjoying that. We could go visit my mom, but she was just here with us for 5 days. I am going to Austin on Thursday (not sure if the trip will be made pre or post turkey) so that I can make the Texas vs. a&m game Friday morning. Even that leaves me empty. I could go down to Austin a few days early and just hang out. It's a great town for that.

Maybe a shitload of snow will fall between now and my next week off, the end of December. Then I can easily decide what to do - head to Breckenridge for a week of snowboarding. I haven't hit the slopes since winter 2000-2001, when I had my one and only ski-pass. I was so bummed about moving from Colorado back to Texas last Fall that I didn't have the heart to go riding this past winter.

Enough rambling, time to surf for something fun and exciting to do next week!

By Bryan at 10:31 AM , in In General - Permalink
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metaWeblog API and XML-RPC for .NET
I did notice that Charles Cook has an XML-RPC library for .NET that could greatly simpilify implementation of the server side of the MetaWeblog API version.
[Brian Graf's Weblog]

Charles Cook's XML-RPC library for .NET is indeed very handy. I was able to quickly and easily implement "pinging" of weblogs.com using it. I haven't done anything with the metaWeblog API (or Blogger API in .NET), but I bet it would be easy as well.

By Bryan at 4:14 PM , in Developer Stuff - Permalink
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Sports Crazy Friday Night
It would have been nice to have 3 TV's setup side by side - I had three big games running near concurrently tonight.

Here is the tally:

In the NBA: The Dallas Mavericks extended their season opening winning streak to 9 games and halted the Boston Celtics 6 game winning streak, 97-86.

In the NHL: The Dallas Stars stayed unbeaten at home and handed the Colorado Avalanche their first road loss with a 4-2 victory. Dallas leads the NHL in points with 26.

In Men's College Basketball: The 4th ranked Texas Longhorns (their highest ranking ever) opened their season against #16 Georgia in NYC at Coaches vs. Cancer Classic with a 77-71 victory.

So there you have it - 3 games, 3 big wins. Time to prepare for college football tomorrow.

By Bryan at 10:28 PM , in Sports - Permalink
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Hmm What Conferences Should I Attend?
It's time to start thinking about which conferences to go to in 2003.

I went to VSLive! in San Francisco this year, and am considering it again.

Where have you gone? Would you go back? What conference have you wanted to attend, but haven't?

By Bryan at 1:52 PM , in Developer Stuff - Permalink
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Back From Vacation
We survived our trip to Mexico. It was nice to get away for a few days. Though we missed Jacob, it was very relaxing to not concern ourselves with him for a week (thanks mom!). The resort was nice, but not great. We spent most of our time at the resort with just a trip into Playa Del Carmen for dinner and an all day excursion to the Mayan ruins at Chitzen Itza (pictures soon) taking us away from lazy beach/pool time.

I doubt that we'll be heading back to Mexico anytime soon. There are just too many other places that we can visit that are of greater interest to us.

By Bryan at 3:34 PM , in Family & Friends - Permalink
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Big Weekend in College Football
Several of the top teams in the land face what should be stiff challenges this weekend.

My rooting list:
Above all others, Texas Fight! (Texas at Nebraska) - Dating back to 1991, Nebraska has lost one game at home - that loss came at the hands of the Longhorns in 1998. Texas is 3-1 versus the Cornhuskers since the inception of the Big 12.

Colorado at ou - Bob Stoops has never beaten Colorado in his time at ou. After another horrible start, Colorado seems to have found their form, though I wouldn't give their recent victory over Texas Tech as much weight as the pollsters seem to have done. Go Buffs!

Minnesota at Ohio State - The Golden Gophers knocked off Ohio State on their last visit. It was the beginning of the end for John Cooper. Will it make a difference - will it inspire the Ohio State players that were around for that embarrassment? I hope not. I am rooting for the Gophers on this one.

Georgia at Florida - Is Georgia really a top five team, or have they attained their lofty placement simply because they remain unbeaten? Unfortunately, beating Florida won't reveal a lot about this Georgia team, as Florida is definitely in a down year. Nonetheless, go Gators!

Boston College and Notre Dame - I've been waiting all year for someone to knock the Irish from this inflated pedastal they're on. I don't know that this will be the week, but I hope that it is.

Pitt at Virginia Tech - It is looking more and more like Miami will reach their game against Virginia Tech undefeated. This means that I will be wanting Va. Tech to knock them off. But before I can wish for that, I need someone to knock off Va. Tech. Pitt gave Notre Dame a scare last week, and they beat Va. Tech last year. Go Pitt!

So there you have it - my rooting list for this weekend. While it is unlikely that all of the teams I am cheering for will win, there is a good chance that a couple of them could pull the upset, launching Texas back into the top 5. Yes, that is assuming Texas beats Nebraska - but I have faith. Afterall, it isn't like Texas will be trotting out a&m's wrecking crew ;-).

By Bryan at 12:38 PM , in Sports - Permalink
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