Looking back at this article from 6 months ago feels like the right thing to happen today as basketball season continues its ramp-up for the 2022-2023 season. Specifically, I think this section - How is Ben Jacobson handling the transfers of AJ Green, Noah Carter? in this story - Shaking up the UNI men's basketball roster - is worth re-reading.
Showing posts with label UNI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UNI. Show all posts
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Not Sure I will See a Panther Football Game
For the first time since 2015, I'm uncertain when I will sit in the UNI-Dome for a football game.
I was not in the UNI-Dome in Fall 2020 because the season was delayed to Spring 2021.
When UNI played their Spring 2021 games, I didn't attend a single game in the UNI-Dome. Instead, the only time I was in the UNI-Dome in 2021 was on Friday, May 7, when Alex graduated from UNI with his MIS degree.
Thus, taking into account that I no longer pay tuition for a child at UNI, I don't know what my future looks like for UNI football.
I certainly hope they are successful in Fall 2021 and rebound from a disappointing 3-4 season. Here's some additional information https://www.thegazette.com/panther-football/uni-football-picked-5th-in-mvfc-preseason-poll
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Both Big Ten and UNI Football Canceled for Fall 2020
Yesterday, this news came to be: Big Ten football canceled for fall; no games for 2020 season.
It follows news late last week that UNI football is cancelled for the Fall 2020 season and might return for a Spring 2021 season, though no schedule information has been released. This will be Alex's senior year at UNI. The UNI football games have been part of our Fall tradition for the last 5 years, when Megan began as a freshman. It will be very strange to not be travelling to Cedar Falls to see a football game in the UNI-Dome.
It follows news late last week that UNI football is cancelled for the Fall 2020 season and might return for a Spring 2021 season, though no schedule information has been released. This will be Alex's senior year at UNI. The UNI football games have been part of our Fall tradition for the last 5 years, when Megan began as a freshman. It will be very strange to not be travelling to Cedar Falls to see a football game in the UNI-Dome.
Monday, December 9, 2019
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
I made the paper!
Thursday, May 9, 2019
I Was Active!
I didn't walk as much as I should have from when I woke up until 2 PM yesterday - I had ~5000 steps. As you can see, after 2 PM, my day picked up. I went home to talk to a fence company about an estimate to replace the fence in our backyard (actually, our neighbor's fence), then came back to work for ~15 minutes, then left to pick up Karen by 3:30. I drove from UIHC to our house, then left our house for Cedar Falls in the Ford F-150. I stopped at the Center Point gas station and purchased an ice cream sandwich - called "Big Bopper" - and two Mountain Dews - 1 a Live Wire (orange), the other a Pitch Black (dark). When I reached Cedar Falls, I coordinated with both Alex & Megan as to where to meet me with their stuff. We loaded the back of the Ford F-150 and, by 7 PM, I was back on the road for North Liberty. I stopped at the McDonald's in Evansdale and purchased a double quarter pounder sandwich with fries and a Coke, which I ate as I drove southbound on I-380. When I reached our house, Karen was not home. I unloaded the Ford F-150 and put their stuff in the living room until the entire F-150 was unloaded. Then I changed into shorts because I was already hot and feeling like I was going to sweat. The next phase of the night involved carrying their stuff up to the third level of our house, which is where their bedrooms are located. It was only after I had already walked up and down the stairs several trips that I noticed the bowl of jelly beans on our sofa table. It occurred to me that even though it felt like I had walked up and down the steps a zillion times, I know I did not actually walk up and down the steps that many times. It occurred to me that, in the future, I plan to place a second bowl next to the bowl of jelly beans and, when I am moving a large quantity of stuff up third level of our house, which is where their bedrooms are located to the returning from a trip upstairs, I will put a jelly bean in this second bowl as a tally. I know that I did not walk up and down the steps a zillion times, but it sure felt like it! A more realistic guess would be 25 trips up and down the steps. After all of their stuff was completely on the third level of our house, which is where their bedrooms are located, I took a shower. I wasn't dripping in sweat, but I knew I needed a shower. Shortly after I was dressed, Karen came home. I folded the laundry that was in the dryer and put that away. By then it was 10:10 PM. I could have sat down to watch the new with Karen, but I decided to take two Melontonin and go to bed.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Monday, March 11, 2019
Friday, December 14, 2018
Last in the series until ...?
Alex and Hannah, but not Megan, Karen or I, are going to this on Saturday in Des Moines: Iowa vs. UNI men's basketball: The end is nigh Saturday's showdown in Des Moines is last in the series until ...?
Saturday, October 6, 2018
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Circle the Date - December 15, 2018!
I'm betting I will be in Des Moines, IA, on Saturday, December 15, 2018. I think I read that this will be the last time for the Hy-Vee Classic so it's unlikely this game will happen again.
Friday, December 8, 2017
Damnit! and AWESOME
- This is the reason for the "damnit" in the title of this post: Lindell Wigginton provides boost Iowa State needed to get past Iowa Freshman scores game-high 24 points in 84-78 win
- This is the reason for the "AWESOME" in the title of this post: UNI makes clutch plays late to hold off UT Arlington, 62-58 After long drought, Panthers heat up down the stretch for key win
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Mind-Blowing
I created a MS-DOS batch file that creates a .zip file of each folder in a directory structure. It is the most awesome & coolest code I've ever assembled. I don't really consider myself a programmer or a coder - I'm a code assembler. I get an idea for what I want to do and use Google.com because I do not have the training / education to write original code. I rely on the work done by others to read sites like the following to create what I want:
And here's the funny thing - following the above steps does not create a backup - it creates .zip files and a 'snapshot' but those .zip files need to be moved to a different external hard drive or to the Cloud or someplace else in order to have an authentic backup.
Now that the DOS batch file is complete, I see this in my b:\music_shell folder:
I am also using a DOS batch file for my RoboHelp projects.
- http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/46711-63-solved-batch-file-commands-executed
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18180060/how-to-zip-a-file-using-cmd-line
- https://superuser.com/questions/993083/create-multiple-zip-files?rq=1
- Download http://www.7-zip.org/
- Install 7-zip – you can install it on your external hard drive, if you want (that’s what I did).
- On your laptop, right-click on the Desktop and from the menu that pops up, select New > Text Document.
- After Notepad opens, paste the following text in the Notepad window:
for /d %%X in (*) do "b:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5 –tzip
- You will need to replace the path in quotes with the path to where you installed. If you install to your external hard drive and it’s your “E” drive, you would have this text:
- for /d %%X in (*) do "e:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a "%%X.zip" "%%X\" -mx=5 –tzip
- Save the file as zipall.bat.
- On the Desktop, select the file, right-click, and select Copy.
- Find a folder that has many sub-folders in it. I used my b:\music_shell folder which has 38 folders.
- Double-click the zipall.bat.
- A DOS window will open that it looks like this:
- Ignore the warning: WARNING: The system cannot find the file specified. ûtzip
- As it processes, you will start to see a .zip file for each folder:
- It will run for a long time. You will not want to be making changes to the files in the folder you are running this in because then you won’t really have a good backup of it.
And here's the funny thing - following the above steps does not create a backup - it creates .zip files and a 'snapshot' but those .zip files need to be moved to a different external hard drive or to the Cloud or someplace else in order to have an authentic backup.
Now that the DOS batch file is complete, I see this in my b:\music_shell folder:
I am also using a DOS batch file for my RoboHelp projects.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
The Hawks & Panthers & Cyclones are in Action
In two short days, the 2017 football season will kick off. I will be going to 4 UNI football games in the UNI-Dome (missing 1 due to a wedding in Dubuque) and zero Iowa Hawkeye games. Of course, yes, I will watch the Hawkeyes play on TV whenever I can.
- The Iowa football team plays @ Kinnick Stadium on Saturday @ 11 AM. I hope to find someone in Elkader watching the game - perhaps Jim R (our neighbor) will have it on.
- The UNI football team plays @ Ames on Saturday @ 7 PM.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Aced It!
Yesterday, Wednesday, August 16, 2017, was an amazing day. Karen, the kids, and I left North Liberty at 7:07 AM for Cedar Falls in 3 vehicles. I drove the Ford, Megan drove her Nissan Sentra (with Alex as navigator extraordinaire), and Karen drove a 2018 Chevy Traverse. It is a $46000ish vehicle that Billion Auto loaned to us while they work on the air conditioner of our Chevy Equinox.
But that's a story for another post.
When we arrived in Cedar Falls, we unloaded all three vehicles. I was happy and somewhat surprised to see the UNI men's basketball coach - Ben Jacobsen - and several of the members of the team helping with the moving in process.
We worked until noon, which is when I was back in the Ford and heading back to my job. I had a meeting at 4 that was very crucial to the work I've been doing since I started here. It was with my manager's manager and a couple of other senior leadership team members and an IT audit firm. Let me be blunt: I crushed it! I gave a brief demo of my RoboHelp project and talked about how I am doing my work, how I have the disaster recovery plan split into five phases, about how I am linking to PDF files and Excel files instead of converting them to another format, about how there is an index in the browser-based help, about how we are leveraging existing documentation that other teams create / maintain to create the documentation, about how a driving principle is to not have two versions of the content (one that is in the DR doc and one that the server teams use on a daily basis), and about how there are placeholders for the critical systems that are assigned priorities 2 through 4 (I have been focusing on the 16 priority 1 systems).
When describing the meeting to my friend Matthew, he said the phrase "professional vindication" which I really like. I have always been fully supported by my co-workers in the approach to my work, but to hear someone from outside the organization say, "You are on the right path" raises my stock and my value. I walked out of the meeting higher than a kite! But I refuse to rest on my laurels - there is a lot of work to be done...
But that's a story for another post.
When we arrived in Cedar Falls, we unloaded all three vehicles. I was happy and somewhat surprised to see the UNI men's basketball coach - Ben Jacobsen - and several of the members of the team helping with the moving in process.
We worked until noon, which is when I was back in the Ford and heading back to my job. I had a meeting at 4 that was very crucial to the work I've been doing since I started here. It was with my manager's manager and a couple of other senior leadership team members and an IT audit firm. Let me be blunt: I crushed it! I gave a brief demo of my RoboHelp project and talked about how I am doing my work, how I have the disaster recovery plan split into five phases, about how I am linking to PDF files and Excel files instead of converting them to another format, about how there is an index in the browser-based help, about how we are leveraging existing documentation that other teams create / maintain to create the documentation, about how a driving principle is to not have two versions of the content (one that is in the DR doc and one that the server teams use on a daily basis), and about how there are placeholders for the critical systems that are assigned priorities 2 through 4 (I have been focusing on the 16 priority 1 systems).
When describing the meeting to my friend Matthew, he said the phrase "professional vindication" which I really like. I have always been fully supported by my co-workers in the approach to my work, but to hear someone from outside the organization say, "You are on the right path" raises my stock and my value. I walked out of the meeting higher than a kite! But I refuse to rest on my laurels - there is a lot of work to be done...
Monday, August 7, 2017
Most Definitely
Yes, I was on vacation from work (and this blog) from Saturday, July 29th until arriving home back in North Liberty yesterday. I most definitely had a good vacation and, at the same time, I am glad to be back at work.
At work, I have a lot to complete between today and next Tuesday, August 15th. I need to get my disaster recovery project 'ready' for the IT Audit on Wednesday, August 16th.
Actually, that day is going to be nuts. We are getting up "early" to take the kids' things to UNI. I will help unload the big stuff and then return home in time for the IT Audit meeting at 4 PM. It's going to be nuts.
Of all the things that I did or thought or found out during vacation, the most emotional was reconnecting with Ken Schmitt. I talked to Tim, his cousin, at Karen's class reunion on Saturday night. I had not been able to find him on Facebook and I didn't have an email address or physical address for him. Thus, I asked Tim about him at the reunion. Tim is Ken's Facebook friend and pulled up his page. I sent him a "Friend Request" which he accepted and now we've messaged each other. As you may or may not recall, Ken was the guitarist in Assume, my first basement band. He moved from Cedar Rapids in 1994 - the last time I remember speaking to him was in my basement in our first house in North Liberty. I missed talking to him and am really happy that we've reconnected.
At work, I have a lot to complete between today and next Tuesday, August 15th. I need to get my disaster recovery project 'ready' for the IT Audit on Wednesday, August 16th.
Actually, that day is going to be nuts. We are getting up "early" to take the kids' things to UNI. I will help unload the big stuff and then return home in time for the IT Audit meeting at 4 PM. It's going to be nuts.
Of all the things that I did or thought or found out during vacation, the most emotional was reconnecting with Ken Schmitt. I talked to Tim, his cousin, at Karen's class reunion on Saturday night. I had not been able to find him on Facebook and I didn't have an email address or physical address for him. Thus, I asked Tim about him at the reunion. Tim is Ken's Facebook friend and pulled up his page. I sent him a "Friend Request" which he accepted and now we've messaged each other. As you may or may not recall, Ken was the guitarist in Assume, my first basement band. He moved from Cedar Rapids in 1994 - the last time I remember speaking to him was in my basement in our first house in North Liberty. I missed talking to him and am really happy that we've reconnected.
Friday, March 31, 2017
Am I in a Dying Career
I heard on Rock 108 this morning that UNI men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson has agreed to a 2 year-extension. He will now be the UNI men's basketball coach until 2027 - the next decade! When I heard that and after I read this article - Software technical writing is a dying career (but here’s what writers can do to stay in the software game) - it made me think about what I will be doing in a decade. I sincerely hope and pray that I am still a technical writer. If it holds true and I work as a technical writer on 2/10/2027, my career will have spanned 32 years as 2/10/1995, the day I was hired at Network Data Processing (NDP) in Cedar Rapids will always be used as my 'beginning date' of this journey I'm on right now. I will be 20887 days (57 years, 2 months, 6 days) old. Megan will be 30; Alex will be 28.
Live long and prosper!
Live long and prosper!
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Those Noises You Hear were Joy
Major events caused joy for me yesterday.
- The process of copying all of the files off of the MyCloud drive completed. I reset the MyCloud drive and am now now copying files back to it. It was 255 days ago when I had my most recent EHD crash so I've been working on this project for that number of days. It feels really good to be making progress.
- Megan and I went to see "Star Wars: Rogue One" yesterday. We both really liked it. I thought it was a good story and I didn't care about the fact that I knew how the movie would end. I am walking a tightrope of revealing spoilers but I think I can safely say that when Episode IV begins, you know where a certain character is located. This movie ends at that same location and you see one of the characters. However, there are two characters that were also there that we briefly see in another setting. I think one small tweak I would make would be to show that all three characters are where they were when Episode IV begins.
- The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team demolished the UNI Panthers men's basketball team. I will cheer for UNI when they play anyone but Iowa in the same way I will cheer for ISU when they play anyone but Iowa. The reason why their victory was joyous is it was the second game in a row when the team played defense (according to the game summaries) which will be crucial when the Big Ten season begins in early January. I heard one TV analyst state that the Big Ten is going to be competitive from top to bottom.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Tooling
There's a lot of talk about Tool putting out a new album - I think they sound great here.
Maybe there could be a co-headlining Metallica / Tool gig at Kinnick Stadium or the UNI-Dome?!?
Maybe there could be a co-headlining Metallica / Tool gig at Kinnick Stadium or the UNI-Dome?!?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)