Anything is Possible

So I guess it's true after all, anything is possible. I refer of course to the comments that Stephen Ames made prior to his World Match Play match earlier this year against Tiger Woods, a match in which he was most definitely trounced. Ames won the Players Championship today and one would have to admit that this indicates he was able to bounce back from the "lesson" that the much younger Woods was able to teach him.

Honestly, I thought that whole thing was silly when it happened and, as they are known to do (especially when Tiger is involved), the media managed to make a bit of a mountain out of a mole hill. While he probably didn't put things as eloquently as some of the more seasoned members of the media tent, the fact is Ames was right. Anything can happen, especially in the game of golf, and even more especially in match play. Sure, Ames' comments lit a fire under Tiger the likes of which probably haven't been seen before or since, but it's also a fact that Tiger got knocked out of the Match Play a couple of days later. Anything is possible. UConn got beat by George Mason. Anything is possible. In sports and in life, anything is possible.

Mac Update

I absolutely love my new Mac Mini so far. It does take a little getting used to. The mouse movements are, for lack of a better word, a little "muddy". Thankfully, I found a nice little program called Steermouse via a post on Plastic Bugs. Other than that little hiccup, I would have to say that working on a Mac (compared to Windows) is an exercise in elegance. Everything about it OSX seems to have been put together with 'user experience' in mind. This is no surprise to me, being an iPod user. The iPod user experience is second to none in my opinion.

Next to OSX, Windows feels more of a tool. OSX is an experience. Admittedly, this is from someone who's Windows experience is now old news, but I think I would be safe in saying that someone who switched from OSX to Windows would not come to the reverse conclusion.

I will say that my experience with Front Row has not been all that I expected. I'm still having some troubles getting it to talk to my Windows machine, as my plan was to be able to stream content from my main box with more drive space (Windows) to my Mac Mini. I'm sure this is just some setting that I'm not seeing, and truthfully, I've not taken the time to try to figure it out. I purchased the Mini as a computer first and media center second, so right now Front Row is not a big priority.

All in all, I am very happy with my purchase. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a few things I still have to do that are Windows specific, I'd probably get rid of my Windows box altogether and make the Mini my full time PC.

Taking the Plunge

Well, I've finally gone and done it. I've been waiting and waiting, and with today's announcement of new Intel-based Mac Minis, I have taken the plunge and placed my order. I look forward to my first real foray into the world of Apple and, more specifically, Macs. I have to admit that I've been an Apple fanboy for a while now, which might seem odd to some, seeing as how I just admitted that this new purchase will be my first Mac. But with all I have read and heard over the last couple of years, and with my love of all things iPod, I just like the company and have wanted to experience Macs for a while, in all their glory.

I kicked around the idea of a MacBook Pro for a while, but finally decided that with my plan to use it as a part-time computer, coupled with my bank account cringing at the thought of shelling out $2,000+ for a laptop, I decided the Mini would be the best choice for me... at least for now. So anyway, hopefully I will be posting my review of my new toy sometime in the next couple of weeks.

X-Outs

There's an interesting FAQ over at About.com Golf on X-Out golf balls. I have used X-Outs on many occasions, mostly as a practice ball, but sometimes in a friendly competition with my friends. Most of the time X-Outs only have cosmetic defects which truthfully, I usually can't find anyway. I think they are a great way to get the performance of a higher priced ball at a discount price.

Holmes Wins FBR

As a Kentuckian, it was great to see J.B. Holmes win the FBR Open this week. I have to admit that I haven't been following his career as much as I should. My boss and I almost went to the Southern Farm Bureau last year just to see J.B. play, but it's a pretty long trip and we ended up not being able to make it. At the time, I barely knew who he was, if at all. I just hope that he will be able to deal with his new success and recognition and take it all in stride. I wouldn't be surprised if his phone is ringing off the hook today with supposed swing gurus calling to tell him they can "fix" his swing. Just because he can stripe it down the middle 350 yards doesn't mean anything, because you know, his swing doesn't look like Adam Scott's.

Vijay, My Idol

The more I learn about and observe Vijay Singh, the more I like the guy. As a matter of fact, I think he's the person I'm going to try to pattern my golf after this season. A lot has been made of his incredible work ethic, but I have really been noticing it the past couple of weeks. I mean, he's in his 40's and looks and swings like he's in his 30's. He's not the prototype for the "popular" player on tour, but I think he should be the prototype for anyone out there who wants to improve their game. I just wish he could putt.

The Chinese Invented Golf- in 945 A.D.

So this is kind of cool and off the wall. Apparently the Chinese are claiming that they, in fact, are the birthplace of golf and that it was exported to Europe via Mongolian travellers during the late Middle Ages.

read more | digg story

Why iPod?

I was just reading an interesting post on digg on why all of the supposed iPod killers out there haven't been able to actually kill the iPod. A lot of people have a lot of opinions on the subject, so I figured I might as well give mine too.

While it's arguable that the iPod is still the best player on the market, the fact is that the iPod is a freight train that was started several years back when the iPod first debuted. Back then, I'd say it was definitely the best player out and a breath of fresh air in a market that was just getting off the ground. It was a player that could be used on a Mac and was made by a company that had an underground cult following, and oh by the way, it was a great little device with a great interface and was easy to use.

Fast forward a couple of years and here I am looking for another mp3 player. I had owned several by now, including one of the first CD-based players, and I was looking for something with a little bit more storage than my current Smartmedia-based Rio would allow. I did the research and the iPod topped the list of what I wanted and had the biggest choice of accessories (by now the freight train was rolling down the track), so that's what I got. And I couldn't have been happier. By that time, I had owned and sold probably 5 different types of mp3 players and the iPod was the best one I had ever used, bar none.

Fast forward another couple of years, I'm ready to upgrade, and the iPod with video hits the market. At this point, I don't even do any research. I already know that I love the iPod and so I buy the iPod with video without a second thought. I don't take time to look at the iRivers or the Creatives of the world. I'm faithful to a player that I know will give me the functionality that I want and I stick with it. It's got nothing to do with fashion or being hip. It's loyalty, simple as that.

While the iPod may or may not still be the best player out there with the most features out of the box, I think there are a lot more people out there like me who fell in love with the iPod several years back when it definitely was the best, and now it's just a matter of brand loyalty when we're ready to upgrade. Sure, there are no doubt a lot of people out there who buy the iPod because "everyone who's anyone has an iPod", but I don't have the kind of money to throw away on something just because it's popular. I buy it because it works, and that's what the iPod does... it just works.

Just My Luck

Question: What could be worse than getting a new driver delivered to you on a day when it's raining?

Answer: Waking up the next morning to find about an inch of snow on the ground!!

Creative's Version Of "Podcast"

I saw this a few days ago on Digg, and now it's showing up on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Apparently everyone is snickering about Creative's attempt at rewriting history by saying that the term "podcast" stands for "Personal On Demand Broadcast". While I agree that this is somewhat lame in it's execution, I actually like the new "definition".

I like the term podcast, I don't think it's going anywhere, but I'm sure a lot of people don't realize that most podcasts can be played on any old mp3 player. And while the term may have been coined with the iPod in mind, the fact is that Apple doesn't own the word, nor do they own podcasts... so why not come up with a definition that is a little bit more all-inclusive?

MacWorld Tomorrow

So everyone is all a buzz over what the big announcements will be tomorrow at the big keynote when MacWorld kicks off tomorrow. I have to say, I have never owned a Mac of any kind. The closest I have come to Apple products is current ownage of 4 iPods (yeah, I know, I have to get off my lazy butt and sell a couple). But even I am excited about what's next for the little company that could.

I have been kicking around the idea of getting a Mac Mini for a while now, but when I heard that they were going to be switching to Intel a few months back, I decided to wait. Rumors have been floating for a while that the first MacIntels might be introduced this week, roughly 6 months ahead of the schedule that Steve Jobs laid out originally. I think it's possible, and it's at least probable that there will be a working prototype at the event this week, with a promise of it's release in the spring.

Other rumors suggest an update of something in the iPod family, with (in my opinion) an update in the Shuffle line the most likely. The Nano is barely 6 months old and the big daddy, the iPod with Video is even younger. The Shuffle is easily the oldest in the group, and the one most in need of an overhaul. If they want to keep the "no screen, life is random" concept with the Shuffle, I'm not sure what they can do with it that will be that big of a deal, though. Maybe smaller, maybe thinner, maybe cheaper... who knows? I don't think they will go with a 2GB Shuffle and have it be at the same capacity as the smallest Nano, unless they drop the 2GB Nano and go with a 4GB and 8GB version. That's possible I guess. But in my opinion, 2GB is a little too much storage for a device with no screen.

I guess we'll all find out tomorrow. If they do introduce Intel-based laptops... my credit card is probably going to take a little beating in the near future.

Resolutions

So like 90% of the rest of the free world today, I have resolutions. Sometimes I do pretty well with my resolutions, but most of the time, like probably 90% of the resolution makers, I fail. I decided this year I would try something a little different by actually writing down my resolutions, and just now I decided to make it even more real by posting it on this blog. Now, I don't know if anyone besides me actually reads this thing, but it's still a bit more significant to me to do it this way than burying my resolutions in some text file in My Documents.

1. Finally lose the weight. Been trying for years and it always comes back. I want to be able to finally finish the "weight loss" chapter of my life and move on to something else.
2. Spend more time playing golf and trying to improve my handicap. I've been stuck at the 18-20 mark for over 10 years. It's time to move on. My goal for this year: get to the 12-15 range.
3. Also in relation to golf, take time to find some new competition, maybe by entering a few tourmaments even though I know I don't have a chance to win, or maybe playing in a few of the weekly scrambles. Nothing can improve your game like some good competition.
4. Manage my money better. Stop adding stuff to my credit cards and start paying them down a little. Stop being lazy and sell some of my old junk on eBay and use the money to pay off a bill or two.
5. Stop being a Kotex. It's time to take my life back.
   

AllPeers for Firefox

So apparently someone is working on what will essentially be a P2P Firefox extension called AllPeers. At first glance, it looks like a nice little tool and I'm sure I'll be giving it a test drive once it comes out. I have to admit though, while I enjoy all the great Firefox extensions out there, and this one seems to be right up there with the best of them, I'm afraid the "peers" or "P2P" monikor will end up sullying Firefox's name to those out there not in the know. It doesn't help that apparently AllPeers will have a bittorrent client built into it.

Firefox has been slowly gaining on IE in terms of popularity. Folks are finally beginning to realize that it helps cut down on spyware and is just an overall better browser. I would hate to see it's popularity diminished because the uninformed masses start thinking of it as the next Napster or Kazaa.

Performancing For Firefox

I have been looking for a good, simple blogging tool for a long while now. Blogger's editor is fine, but sometimes it's a pain to have to go login to the site in order to add in something. I'm currenty working with a Firefox extension called Performancing For Firefox, and it might just be what I have been looking for. It's got a nice, simple looking interface, and I guess we'll see how it looks one I post to this page. I have used similar tools in the past, and they have always left something or another to be desired. If this works... well, I'll be happy.

Local Boy Makes Good

OK, so John Holmes isn't exactly a local, but he is from my home state of Kentucky, so it was great to see him dominate in Q-School this past week. I think he's got a bright future ahead of him. I was also glad to see Bill Haas get his card, although he seemed to have tried really hard to not get it.

Winter Rules

With winter upon us, I thought I would be interesting to talk a little bit about what most golfers like to call "winter rules". As most of us know, the terms winter rules refers to being allowed to improve your lie in less than optimum conditions, mostly brought on by winter weather. Barren areas of the fairway are what we mostly see, and it's reasonable to assume that one might be able to improve his lie if he ends up in one of these areas.

Personally, I don't like to play by winter rules, but if I'm in a group that is recognizing winter rules, I am perfectly willing to take every advantage I am allowed. I like to go by the concept of "fair for one, fair for all", meaning basically that anyone can have bad luck, anyone can have good luck, no matter what the season. I don't get any breaks for landing in a divot in the summer, so why should I get one for landing in a bare spot in the winter? I do make an exception to this line of thinking, however, in that if a person or his equipment might be injured or damaged because of a certain shot (tree root, rock, etc.), I am perfectly willing to let them improve their lie. I don't follow this rule just because of the season. I will do this any time of year.

Here's a great article explaining what a lot of us probably don't know about winter rules.

Skins Game Today

Looks like the annual Skins Game is starting today, and I have to say, I'm looking forward to it. First you have the best player in the world, Tiger Woods, then you have the most prolific Skins winner in history, Fred Couples. But perhaps the most interesting is the final two participants, Annika Sorenstam and Fred Funk, or as I like to call him, The Funker. Apparently, Tiger has been ribbing the Funker that Annika might outdrive him at some point and that he'll never live it down if she does. I wouldn't worry about it if I were him. I mean, she probably will outdrive him at some point, but he can always bring up the fact that he's got a Players title and she doesn't.

Tiger 360

This is a couple of weeks old, but with the release of the Xbox 360 in a couple of weeks, I thought somebody might be interested in some videos of the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 for the new console. I'm pretty excited about the 360's release, even though I probably won't be buying one for a while... that is unless I get a boatload of gift cards or money for Christmas.

I've not really done a lot of research on it, but popular opinion is that you'll be out in the neighborhood of at least $500 to get a decent version of the system (including accessories, games, et cetera). I'm not saying I haven't blown that kind of cash before on something frivolous, but until some more games come out that interest me, I'll probably hold off for a while.

My, How Time Flies

Looks like the Golf Channel is already gearing up for the next installment of their successful Big Break franchise. The Big Break V: Hawaii debuts in February and looks like it's the ladies' turn again. According to About Golf, this crop of ladies might be the best yet, in terms of credentials, of any of the Big Break series. They've got several Futures Tour (the ladies' version of the Nationwide Tour) members, as well as a few who have won major amateur titles. Sadly, Michelle Wie isn't on the list.

Across The Pond

I have enjoyed The Big Break since it's inception a few years back. For those not in the know, it's basically a golf-based game show where the winner gets a shot at playing in a professional event. Past seasons have included spots in Canadian Tour, Nationwide Tour and LPGA Tour events, while this season features a spot in a European Tour event.

This, of course, leads to the format change for this season. In previous seasons, all players have played individually from the start of the show, with the final two going head-to-head in an 18 hole match play finale. This season, with the show taking place in Europe, they have decided to take the show to the next level and add a Ryder Cup, or probably more accurately, a Survivor-type element to the game.

Two teams, USA and Europe, go head to head each week in what they call an immunity challenge, with the losing team going on to an elimination challenge, or tribal council in Survivor terms. The difference here from Survivor is that you don't get to vote someone off. Players are elimintated if they lose the challenge, simple as that.

So far this season has been pretty decent. I do find myself pulling for Team USA, even though the team part of the show is just a gimmick and doesn't really mean anything as far as the ultimate goal of the show. At the same time, I do like some of the Europeans and would like to see them advance just as much as I want to see the Americans advance.

My current favorites are Randall from the Americans and Marty from the Europeans, with American T.J. not far behind. Unfortunately, I don't see any of them making it to the finale. If I was a betting man, I would go with American Paul and European Warren to go all the way. They are both seasoned veterans who seem to know that flash doesn't necessarily always get it done. Although neither is my favorite character, I think if it does come down to the two team captains in a head-to-head match play finale, it will be fun to watch. I currently don't see any weaknesses in either of their games and that should make for a good match to watch.

On a side note, I think I might be enjoying The Big Break: All Access show a little bit better than the regular series. It comes on Wednesday nights and is basically a behind the scenes recap of the Tuesday night episode. It's nice to see what goes on behind the cameras and that the things we see on these reality shows don't happen as "naturally" as we might initially think.

Missed Opportunity

Dunlop missed the boat on this one. If they had been able to get a hold of this technology, they could have had the 'High Tech Redneck'.

Extra! Extra!! Get you free iPod Nanos here!!!

The Wie Situation

Reading this article on the Michelle Wie disqualification this weekend got me to thinking about an issue that I've discussed with my golfing buddies several times:

Should spectators be allowed to call players on rules violations?

As far as someone being allowed to call in because they see an infraction on TV, my vote would be no. My reasoning is simple. Every player can not be seen by the cameras. Tiger Woods, for example, has a lot more camera time than any other player on the tour. Phil Mickelson might make the same rules boo boo as Tiger, but since they never show Phil on TV, he would get away with it where Tiger might not. It's not fair to Tiger, and unless every player's every shot could be seen, I think it should not be allowed.

Allowing spectators at the event to call rules violations might be a little different, but you still get back to the fact that the popular players have a lot bigger gallery than the less popular ones, and therefore there are more eyes on them judging their every move. Mr. Bamberger couldn't see whether Natalie Gulbis made the same mistake as Michelle, because his eyes were trained on Michelle Wie. That's not fair to Michelle.

What does concern me about this whole situation is that apparently Mr. Bamberger (who seems to have been made the villian in this story) did approach Michelle about the possible rules violation after Saturday's third round...

"He questioned her about it after the round. He slept on it Saturday night. Still bothered, he brought it to the attention of rules officials on Sunday."

Yet we didn't hear anything about it until after the final round on Sunday. Everything I've read or heard about this incident seems to have glossed over this fact and it disturbs me a little bit. I'm wondering if Michelle had been approached about it, why didn't she mention it to a rules official herself? Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Michelle or her team had bad intentions. She probably just didn't think there was a problem and that this strange reporter was just trying to stir up trouble. It's just something that's not clear to me and I would like to know why she didn't question it more than she apparently did.

In the end, the rules are the rules, and they handled this situation according to them. Should the rules be changed? I don't know, but I do think they need to at least be looked at for the future.

Extra! Extra!! Get your free iPod Nanos here!!!

Long Time Coming

Here's a cool story about the longest ever recorded Hole-In-One... 1 hour, 4 seconds to be exact. Something about the tee and the green being in different time zones. Anyway, I thought it was a cool story, and a nice piece of trivia.

Extra! Extra!! Get your free iPod Nanos here!!!

Rescue Review

Well, as indicated by my In The Bag section to your right, I have recently added a couple of rescue/hybrid clubs to my bag. I figured after a couple of years of hype, I may as well give them a try. I must say, so far I am pleasantly surprised. When the rescue/hybrid fad hit, I looked at it as just that, a fad. I figured, what do these things have that a good fairway wood doesn't? I also bought into the theory that if you couldn't hit a decent long iron, you weren't really a golfer. The last thought might be true, but I don't buy it anymore.

The first thing I noticed about them is that I can absolutely hammer them off the tee. Of course, they're not a driver or 3 wood, but they definitely go longer (for me) than a 3 or 4 iron, which is what they're supposed to be replacing. And while I had some control issues with them the first couple of rounds, they still give me more control than I would have on a day when my driver or 3 wood leaves me, and with acceptable distance too.

Secondly, out of the rough they are a dream. I don't know what it is about them, but they will smoke out of the rough where the same shot with a 4 iron would get you maybe 3/4 of your normal distance. Used to if I found myself in some of the bermuda rough that we have at my home course, I would pull out a 7 iron and not give it a second thought. Now I will be giving it a second thought.

Finally, I messed around a little with some off-the-green "putts" with, again, amazing results. I had previously practiced the same shot with a 7 wood with acceptable results. I don't know what it is about these rescue clubs, but they seem to give me much more control than the 7 wood.

I know some of this can be attributed to the "new club confidence" factor. Obviously, I will have to get some more rounds in before making them a permanent part of my bag. For now, though, I am very pleased with my results.

Texas Golf Made Easy

I've always been a little partial to Texas golf, which is strange because I'm not from anywhere near Texas. But ever since reading Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, I've had an interest in following all of the Texas golfers: Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Roy McAvoy, all of those dudes. Well, imagine my happiness to discover the Texas Golf Blog, a blog about, you guessed it, golf in Texas. I highly recommend checking it out. There's some great insight and news on Texas golf, and just plain old golf in general.

USGA To Allow Rangefinders

I've been meaning to post about this for a few days now, but I've been kind of lazy. Apparently, the USGA has decided to make a huge amendment to one of their rules, allowing electronic rangefinders to be used in tournament play. Rangefinders have been used for years by amateurs, but until now, have never been allowed during tournament play. The new rule doesn't allow rangefinders across the board, but does allow clubs to make rangefinders legal via their own local rule.

I think this is a move in the right direction, and a move into the 21st century for the USGA. As I have stated before, PGA Tour Pros have essentially the same information fed to them from their caddies from week to week, and I think I should be allowed the same information, even though my local club doesn't have caddies.

Tiger Woods On Xbox 360

I just found some screenshots of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 on the Xbox 360. They look pretty good. I just hope they don't get too enthralled with the looks off all these new games on the new systems and remember the gameplay aspect.

We're All Spoiled

I just had a thought with regards to how pampered and spoiled we have become in today's society. I was just looking on my desk and admiring how small my iPod Shuffle is and got to thinking about how it's neat and all that it's so compact, but like many others, I wished it had some sort of display. Then it hit me. Back in the day, back when I was in high school in the 80's, my portable CD player, which was huge by comparison, didn't have any real display to speak of either. Sure, you could tell on the little digital readout what track was playing, but for it to display the actual track name wasn't even something that was considered. Now, I understand that CD's didn't have near as many tracks to have to keep up with and therefore it was easier to remember which track was which, but my point is that today people (even me) seem to get caught up in criticizing what something doesn't have, rather than appreciating what we do have.

Wie Turning Pro Soon?

It's been going around for months that Michelle Wie will turn pro after her 16th birthday next month. Looks like there is more evidence now. Juli Inkster's (now former) caddie Greg Johnston, who has caddied for Wie in the past when Juli was taking a week off, is going to be taking over as full-time caddie for Wie. I don't know if Wie's turning pro was supposed to be a big secret or not, but if it was, it seems to me letting the caddie announce his intentions a month early is not a good way to keep up the suspense.

Much Love To The Fox

I love Firefox. I think it is teh shiz, if you know what I mean. One of it's greatest assets is the many extensions that it offers. I remember reading an article a while back which stated that Opera was better, because most of Firefox's essential extensions were just automatically built into Opera from the get go. Opera may indeed be better. I can't say because I haven't ever used it, but in my opinion the sheer barebonesedness (I know, not a word) of Firefox is what makes it so great. Some of the "essential" extensions listed in the article that I read are not ones that are essential to me. I don't want someone else deciding for me what extensions, or features, I need in a browser.

That being said, you need these two extensions: Save Link in Folder and Save Image in Folder. They are essential.

Shameless Plug

Ok, I'm going to give this a shot. For anyone interested in a "free" iPod Nano, please click on the link below and at least check out the offer. From all of the research I've done, this company is legit and does give out free items, as long as you jump through their hoops. You just need to sign up for one of their offers, get 6 friends to do the same, and you get your free Nano. I've never tried one of these things, but figured it was worth a few bucks and a little time to see what happens. Would you please be my friend?

http://www.ipodnanos4free.com/default.aspx?r=470544

Floaters Explained

This Wiki entry explains what those things are, where they came from, and (most importantly) confirm that your aren't "seeing things".

Hopefully this also will explain why I keep seeing Boomer from Battlestar Galactica floating around in front of me. Heh.

read more | digg story

The New iPod Nano Is Here

Well, looks like the big announcement from Apple today didn't go anything like I had hoped. No bigger Shuffle, no flash Mini... well, that's not entirely accurate I guess. Looks like the big Shuffle and the flash Mini are the same thing, namely the iPod Nano. Apple decided to introduce the 2GB and 4GB flash player, which will take the place of the iPod Mini in the lineup, and will sport benefits of both the Shuffle (flash-based) and the Mini (screen). It's a neat looking little unit, but I have to be honest that I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for something to help drive down the price of the Shuffle, but instead it looks like all we got was a replacement for the Mini.

MP3 Players Can Cause Hearing Loss?

Leave it to the New York Times to post something like this. Apparently some dudes over at Harvard Medical School have discovered that in-ear headphones produce higher output levels than traditional headphones. Thing is, headphones have been around a lot longer than MP3 players, so I don't think I would blame the MP3 players specifically. Heck, now that I think about it, I wouldn't even blame the headphones. I'd blame the people who have their volume too loud.

Red Cross Katrina Dog Ears For Your Website

Brian Alvey created these very cool and easy to install "dog ears" for your blog/website... you can install them quickly--just please download the images to your own server so Brian's server doesn't get jammed up.

Obviously I have added this to the top right corner of my site. Just click and donate whatever you can. Also, thanks to the folks at Extrabigfoot and TheJosher for volunteering to help host the image.

read more | digg story

Have I Lost Interest?

Obviously, I've not been posting a lot of golf-related stuff of late. I think the reason is that there's not a lot going on in the world of pro golf right now, and neither is a lot going on in my own personal quest to become a better golfer.

After the majors, I guess the next big thing that peaks my interest is going to be the Presidents Cup coming up at the end of the month. It's not surprise that the USA vs. the International Team is not as big to me as the Ryder Cup. It just doesn't have as much history to it yet, even though the players on the International team are usually more familiar to me than the European team of the Ryder Cup. Also, after last year's debacle, I hesitate to get too worked up about it, lest I become sorely dissapointed again.

On my own personal front, I've just not been into the game that much this season. I don't know why. It just seems like I go through these phases where I either don't have time or just don't care about it that much. Next year I might play every day, but I've pretty much given up on this season. It's funny, because earlier this year I shot the best round I've had in several years, but still didn't have any real desire to go back out and build on it.

One other interesting thing that I'm looking forward to is the Big Break IV on the Golf Channel. Looks like they're going to go for some kind of Ryder Cup feel with a USA vs. Europe thing. It will be interesting I think. I just hope I don't end up disliking everyone on the US team.

Enough With The Shuffle Already!!

A few days ago I posted about some issues I had with my iPod Shuffle. Thanks to some suggestions from Erik at The Sand Trap (thanks, Erik!) and this page, I think I'm finally working things out a little bit. My favorite feature, which I'd noticed before but hadn't tried, is the option to "keep this iPod in the source list". Basically, it keeps a little image of my Shuffle contents in iTunes even when it's not connected. This way I can edit the contents any way I want and my Shuffle will be updated with that list whenever I connect it.

By the way, the White Stripes rock.

Flash Mini & More Shuffle

According to this article, Apple will shortly upgrade its iPod Mini line with color screens and flash memory, and its iPod Shuffle line with increased storage capacity. For anyone thinking about buying a Mini or a Shuffle, you might want to wait until after this announcement. I was thinking of upgrading my Shuffle to a 1GB model, but after reading this article, I think I'll wait. If a 2GB Shuffle is released, the 1GB model will almost certainly drop in price.

read more | digg story

Logitech’s Latest Harmony, The 520

I love Logitech's Harmony remotes. I've got one of the cheaper models, the 659 I think. Looks like they're going away from the peanut look with this new one.

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Yahoo! Domains Only $1.99/year

Yahoo is currently offering domain names for $1.99/year or $9.95 for 5 years. Hurry while this offer lasts!

I have taken advantage of this deal to register rubofthegreen.org and it is now pointing to this website. For anyone interested in registering their own domain, this deal expires September 2nd at 11:59 PST.

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Starry Night 1.5 Gigapixel Image!

This is pretty cool.

This image is a photomosaic of the famous painting 'Starry Night'. The image is made with over 210.000 tiny photographs and a total size of over 1.500.000.000 points in other words it is a 1.5 Gigapixel Image. Click over the image (Zoom In) until you start to see the tiny images.

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Avoiding & Removing Spyware

This looks like a nice little article for helping to prevent my current most hated aspect of Windows-based PC's... the dreaded spyware!

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Shuffle Woes

I purchased myself an iPod Shuffle a couple of months back and have been using it off and on, mostly when I go to play golf and want something light to carry around with me to listen to various podcasts, music or whatever. I have to say, it sounds great and is very small and handy, but it's also got some serious issues.

First off, with my other iPod, I have the choice upon plugging it into my computer on whether or not to auto-sync or not. With the Shuffle, I don't have the choice. It syncs, and syncs, and syncs. So sometimes I end up having to wait for it to copy a bunch of unwanted music, eraseit, and drag what I really want to it manually.

Secondly, I know life is random, but I tend to want to listen to things in the order that I have set them up. For some reason, the Shuffle sometimes doesn't want to play my playlist in the order in which I had it on my computer. Maybe I'm not doing something right, I don't know. I
guess I need to research it more.

And lastly, the darn thing doesn't seem to want to plug into my front usb connector, so I have to use a usb extension cable that I have run from the back of my pc. Annoying. I'm currently looking into getting a new lcd monitor with a built in usb hub, so hopefully that will solve
that problem.

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free. This thing drives me nuts sometimes.

Asterisk@Home (v1.3) Review

With the costs for VoIP coming down, the acceptance of personal use of Vonage et al. for home phones rising, and open source projects becoming more capable, Asterisk is at the cutting edge of a new breed of PBX-replacement products for small and medium business.

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Golf GPS 'Caddy' System

The new 'Caddy' system can be clipped to a belt or golf bag and will provide exact read-outs of distances to bunkers, ponds and greens. Uses gps technology. Not sure what's so special about this thing, as I've been seeing Peter Jacobson push the Sky Caddy on the Golf Channel for weeks.

My thoughts on this are probably not the most traditional. I can't afford a real life caddy, and even if I could, not many courses around these parts even offer caddies. So I don't see anything wrong with using technology to basically give me the same advantages that tour pros get. As long as everyone else has the same technology available to them, I don't see anything wrong with it.

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Mars Lander found?

An imaging specialist thinks he may have found the Sars lander, Spirit, that crased in 1999 due to rocket failure 130 ft. above Martian surface.

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Google Talk

So Google released it's much anticipated IM service today, dubbed Google Talk. I've been using it this morning and so far, I have to say I like it. As one would expect of Google, it's small, simple and bloatless. It does what you want it to do and seems to do it well.

Also, and this is my favorite part, it uses the open source Jabber protocol, which means you don't have to use the Google Talk client at all, you can use other clients out there that support Jabber. That's always been my beef with IM services... being tied to a certain client. It's like having to use a GE phone to talk to someone on another GE phone. Of course, you do have to have a Gmail account, but who doesn't have one of those nowadays?

Validation

I've often wondered, and unfortunately I'll never know for sure, if winning one's second major was more difficult than the first. Phil Mickelson won his second today, ridding himself of the title "Best Player Lucky Enough To Win Only One Major".

Validation is the word that comes to my mind. Proof that you're as good as everyone thinks you are and that you can get it done at crunch time. The thing is, and what's great about the game of golf, I can kind of know how it feels too, by dropping a 20 footer on the 18th hole on a Sunday afternoon at my local club tournament. Golf doesn't know that I'm not a pro playing for millions of dollars, and neither does my heart.

Props to Phil. If I'd known predicting Tiger to win would produce these results, I'd have started doing it a long time ago.

What Is It With Me?

Ok, so I guess I'm a jinx or something. No sooner do I predict Tiger to win the PGA handily, and he decides to barely make the cut. Not that he can't come back and win the thing, but something is telling me that this golf course is going to be hard for anyone to make up a lot of ground... especially for someone like Tiger, who likes to eat par 5's for lunch. They're basically playing several par 5's on this course, but only two of them have that designation on the score card.

It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend. I think Tiger can still pull it together and have a respectable showing, but unless the entire rest-of-the-field collapses, he's going to have a big crowd to push through in order to get the job done.

(There, maybe that will lift the curse...)

Who Will Get 2nd?

With the way he's been playing in the majors this season, as far as I'm concerned, it's a foregone concusion that Tiger will take the PGA this week. So I'm wondering who will finish 2nd? Or, if you want, who has the best chance at the upset?

We all know if Vijay can make a putt, he's probably got the best chance of the lot, and with Retief's win yesterday, he's probably gained a little confidence back. As for a wildcard, I've not been following golf very much lately, so I would have no idea... maybe Roy McAvoy?

This One Deserves A Pic

Can't believe I missed this one. Apparently June 27th was Bugs Bunny's birthday. Bugs is what Saturday mornings were all about when I was growing up, not Saved By The Bell or Power Puff Girls or whatever the heck the cool kids are watching nowadays. Of course, now all of the good parts of the Looney Toons cartoons have been edited out because someone out there thinks that kids aren't smart enough to realize that if you hit somebody over the head with an anvil in real life that it will hurt them, but I guess it's ok for them to think that you can fly around like the freaking Power Rangers or you can have battles with other people using little animals that you carry around in your pocket or...

Dreams Are Weird

So I had this dream last night. It started our like your normal, run of the mill end of the world dream. There was this big war going on and my family and I were running around scared to death, trying to figure out what we could do to survive armageddon. We tried hiding underground, bit that didn't work. Then for some reason, we tried hiding in a cave that was built into the side of a cliff. That didn't work either.

So we decided to try to catch a ride on this spaceship that we learned was leaving Earth, headed to find another suitable planet for the human race. For some reason, none of us were surprised to learn that we had a spaceship worthy of hopping from planet to planet.

Anyway, here's the really weird part. Once we found a planet (which we gave a really cool name, but I can't remember it at the moment), I was chilling out on the surface, checking out the purple grass, talking to Luke Skywalker, when I learned that... get ready for this.. Jack Nicklaus is Luke Skywalker's father.

Now, before all the Golden Bear fans out there go off on me, I'm not saying that Jack was Darth Vader. To the contrary. Luke wasn't even a Jedi Knight. He was a golfer, and a damn good one. The next big thing even. Jack was busy designing courses for our new planet (which had green grass, strangely), while his son Luke was dominating the interstellar PGA.

I played golf in unseasonably hot weather yesterday. I think it got to me more than I thought it did.

Nerd Post Of The Day

Personally, I thought Enterprise was a great show, but apparently most of the world didn't agree with me. Over on TrekWeb they're reporting that a "panel of experts" (does that sound a little weird to anyone but me?) stated that the reason Enterprise didn't cut it was because it wasn't as gritty as the new Battlestar Galactica.

While I agree that the new Treks (not just Enterprise) had strayed from the original premise of the morality play and had turned into more sci-fi than story, I don't agree with that being the reason it failed. I'm by no means a Star Trek "expert", but my opinion on why Enterprise failed is a lot simpler: Everyone was just tired of the whole Star Trek universe by the time Enterprise came along.

Rant over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Disposable PC?

I just came across this article about a guy who threw away his PC rather than have to continue to deal with the spyware that was getting on it. I know I have previously let my frustrations be known on the spyware issue, but this is a little extreme. It's still damn funny, though.

I can't help but wonder how many people have done this that we've not heard about. I would imagine folks who aren't aware of spyware and what it can do to your system have been known to chuck their PC's and buy new ones, unaware that unless they take measures to prevent it, the new PC will end up in the same shape sooner or later.

Tiger vs. Jack

There's a poll on the About Golf forums right now posing the question, will Tiger Woods break Jack Nicklaus' record for most major championships? My vote is yes.

In my lifetime, I have never seen anyone as tough as Tiger on the golf course. When Tiger has a lead, you might as well wrap it up, because if there's one thing Tiger Woods knows how to do, it's play within himself. He just doesn't make mistakes. He knows everyone else has to come and get him, and as long as he does what he knows he can do, he's going to be tough to catch. There aren't many tour pros out there who have the same kind of discipline. Those who do have probably learned it from a sports psycologist. For Tiger, it comes naturally.

Tiger also has one more advantage over Jack. He has a goal to shoot for. If Jack had had someone to chase who had 25 major wins, he might have gotten 26.

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

I remember several years back, back when Phil Mickelson was still the Best Player Yet To Win A Major, I asked a friend if he would rather have that title with, say 20 wins, or would he rather have the title of Best Player ONLY To Win A Major. He chose the latter.

I'm not sure I agree. I guess I wouldn't refuse either one, but given the choice, I think I'd go with the 20 wins. I mean, in 30 years, who thinks Ben Curtis will be remembered any better than Sergio Garcia if Ben doesn't get another win and Sergio never gets his Major?

I'm pretty sure Ben is a frequent visitor to this blog, so I hope he doesn't get mad about this post. I don't mean anything by it. He just came to mind because of the British Open being played this week. I personally hope Ben gets his 20 wins to go along with his British Open title.

Oh, and I hope Sergio gets his Major title, too.

Ask & You Shall Receive

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about how I had gotten into listening to podcasts and that I wanted to find a good golf-related podcast to listen to while on the course. Enter The Golf Show, an Austrailian-based podcast that covers just about everything you can think of in the world of golf.

They've had only 4 shows so far, and I'm currently on episode 3. In the three, I have listened to topics such as tour news (from ALL world tours), tournament reviews and previews, course reviews and the ins and outs of course photography. Pretty much everything you could ask for.

It's definitely worth checking out.

Death Of A Floppy

When exactly did the floppy die? Is it even really dead yet? We still use Sony Mavica cameras where I work. It's only a matter of time, though. I've heard rumblings of our Sonys getting replaced sooner than later. For my part, personally, the floppy is gone. I don't even have a floppy drive in my home PC, and haven't had a reason for one.

I'd say, for me anyway, the final demise of the floppy came with the popularity and affordability of USB flash drives. Recordable CD's put up a good fight, but even now they're still not as convenient as floppies for everyday use. But USB drives are just as convenient, even moreso when you consider the amount of storage available.

So here's to the floppy disk. You have been a good friend. I will remember you fondly.

Ah, The Good Old Days

Here's a very interesting article I found via the Sand Trap. Apparently some dude pitted the modern Pro-V against some balls that were (supposedly) manufactured to 1985 specs in a 9 hole match. Needless to say, the Pro-V dusted the '85 ball, with (in some cases) 100 yard differences off the tees and 2 to 3 club differences on approach shots. That's pretty crazy if you think about it. Everyone knows that the modern golf ball goes farther than balls from 20 years ago, but I never really thought that there was that much of a difference. Now I understand the position that distance is out of control and that the golf ball is the easiest way to control it, but I also don't want to have to tee off with a featherie the next time I'm at my home course.

Anyway, I won't go too much into it here, because the Sand Trap and Guardian Unlimited deserve a few hits too, but for anyone out there with any interest at all in the distance debate, this article is a must read.

Links Courses Defined

Nice article at About.com on what makes a true links course.

Want Myself A Mac Mini

Well, actually I'd like to have a "big time" Mac, a "grown up" Mac, or whatever it should be called. The problem is, I can't afford one. But the Mac Mini is something I think I could swing, as long as my credit card company agreed with me.

I've been shopping for one on eBay for about 3 weeks now, but unfortunately I'm having trouble finding someone who's willing to agree with me on what I want to pay.

Why do I want a Mac? Heck, I don't know. Why do I want anything that I want? No reason, really. I just want it. I've been hearing about how great they are for a while now, and I guess I'd just like to find out for myself. Also, as mentioned earlier, I'm sick and tired of spyware, viruses and the like.

Trouble is, I don't know anything about Macs. I don't know what to look for in regards to processor speed, RAM and those types of things. As with Windows-based PC's, I assume bigger is better, but other than that, I'm clueless. I looked at the low-end Mac Mini at Best Buy the other day, and it felt kind of slow to me. I went back a few days later and they had the 1.42 Ghz model out and it seemed a lot better. Was it $100 better though? I don't know.

Anyway, if anyone out there has any knowledge they'd like to share, feel free.

First Name Basis

It's something to be said, to be a golfer and be on a first name basis with millions of fans. Arnie, Tiger, Freddie, Phil, Vijay, Annika... but possibly the greatest first name ever, Jack, will be playing in his last British Open this week, not to mention his final Major.

Golf has changed over the years. Back in Jack's day, you played and you played a lot. You played like Vijay because you had to if you wanted to make a living as a touring pro. Jack was probably the first to totally gear his game for the Majors. But heck, he was Jack Nicklaus, it was understandable. Nowadays, with millions in prize money and endorsements, it seems even if you've just won a tournament or two, you're expected to turn yourself into a Major golfer. You gear your game to try to peak at the right times of the year. The smaller events don't matter anymore. Sure, you play in some of the smaller tournaments, but only the "big" small ones. I think it hurts the game a little. But then again, if I had the talent, I might do the same thing.

I also think that it takes away from the ability to get to know some of these younger players on a first name basis. Sure, some of them are known... Phil and Vijay as I mentioned earlier, and Ernie and Sergio for sure. For the most part though, everyone seems to be known by their logos, and not their games OR their names.

Back Across The Pond For A Week

So here we go; The British Open, the Open Championship. I've previously let my opinion be known on that subject, but whatever you want to call it, the third Major of the year is upon us.

I'll have to be honest in saying that this one has kind of sneaked up on me. I hadn't really remembered that the British was this week until my Dad mentioned it to me yesterday. I've not been following, or playing golf that much the past couple of weeks, for whatever reason.

What's my prediction, you ask? I'm not sure. It's hard to call this year. From what I understand, St. Andrews is more of a long ballers' course, at least moreso than some of the others in the rotation. It seems to be a little more open, which I guess means the big hitters can fly it all over Creation and still manage to get out of the hole alive. Witness John Daly, and Tiger Woods. In the same vein, everyone who reads this blog knows I'm a big fan of "The Mick", so as far as who I'll be rooting for, Phil tops the list.

Something in my gut is telling me that this time a European is going to walk away with the Claret Jug. The Europeans are all just playing too well and are too comfortable with the style to not make some kind of an impact. Padraig? ..Maybe. Sergio? ..Possible, but I don't see it. Darren Clarke? ..Hey, I think that's it! That's who I'm going to go with. I'm picking Darren Clarke to win the Open, the British Open.

Birdies & Bogies

Birdie Kim wins the Open, Bogey Jim loses at Westchester. I jest, of course, but it is funny that a player who has yet to make much of a splash on the LPGA Tour wins with a miracle birdie on the final hole, while a player who is known for his steady play loses with two bogies coming down the stretch.

Props to Birdie Kim.

Incredi-Ball

But... I can do this without having to buy any special equipment.

Moore Or Less?

I just read a great article on The Sand Trap about Ryan Moore and his turning professional this week. The question posed is whether Moore will go the way of past U.S. Amateur greats like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, or will his career fizzle like David Gossett and Matt Kuchar.

Back in the early 90's I was a huge NBA fan, and came to the conclusion back then that, as it relates to the NBA draft, any of the top 10 picks could end up being the next Michael Jordan. It didn't really matter whether you were the 1st pick or the 10th pick, as long as the desire was there to improve yourself and make it to the upper echelon of the league.

I think the same could be said for the PGA Tour. Some of these guys coming out are content with just making a living on tour, but if you want to work hard and really put yourself in contention from week to week, there is room there for you to do so. So I don't think the question is whether or not Ryan Moore has the talent to get there, it's whether or not he has the desire to be in the thick of things come Sunday afternoon. For that, we'll have to wait and see.

Campbell Wins U.S. Open

It was good to see Michael Campbell win one of the big ones yesterday. Obviously he played better than anyone else all week, but I thought in particular he had the best round of any of the leaders yesterday. On a day when everyone else was having trainwrecks, Campbell held it together and managed to play steady golf for 18 holes.

I know I've stated before that I don't like it when a 'nobody' wins a big event like a Major, but Michael Campbell is far from a nobody to me, and I'm sure the same goes for anybody who has been following the game for a while. Campbell is a superstar on the world stage who has just had some bad luck in his life. It's nice to see all his hard work and perseverence has finally paid off.

A New Obsession

Ok, I'm going to admit it. I have a new obsession, and it's called podcasting. No, I don't have a podcast. I have become obsessed with listening to podcasts. I have always liked to listen to talk radio, and also to bring some tunes, talk, or whatever with me when I'm playing alone on the golf course. And before anyone asks... no, I don't have a boombox strapped to the back of my cart. I have headphones.

Anyway, podcasts seem to fit well with me. Mainstream music is not all that great to me right now, and TechTV is gone, so I can't get any good tech content on TV. But I can download some good tech-related audio and maybe find some good independent tunes (not really found any good music podcasts yet, but I won't get into that right now) via podcasts.

Now, from the searching I've done, there seems to be a very small percentage of podcasts out there that are actually good, but there also seems to be something out there for almost anyone. I say 'almost' because I have yet to find a podcast relating to golf. It would seem that there is a lot to talk about with the sport. There's always tournament news, instruction, or maybe even dedicate each show to one specific golfer. I don't know. I'm not a producer or anything. I'd just like to be able to listen to golf while I'm playing golf.

For anyone interested in podcasting, there are several sites out there where you can find out what you need to know. My current favorite is Podcast Alley.

Site Update

The 'Sites I Visit' section has been updated with a new site I have found called The Sand Trap. I'm always looking for good golf blogs, and this one seems to fit the bill. It has a nice, clean look to it, and appears to have a good-sized staff to help keep the site updated often. Anyway, check it out... The Sand Trap. It's my new favorite.

This Is Sort Of Ridiculous

Watching the Golf Channel last night, they showed a package of Payne Stewart and Phil Mickelson's play coming down the stretch at Pinehurst in 1999. Then they went to an excerpt of Phil's press conference from Tuesday, I guess. Anyway, during the press conference, the Golf Channel was showing little graphics at the bottom of the screen such as "Lost to Payne Stewart at Pinehurst in 1999"... relevant to the situation, right? I mean, the event this week is at the same location, and Phil came in second in that particular event.

But the one that really got me was "Lost by 3 strokes to Tiger Woods in 2002 U.S. Open"... huh? What does that have to do with anything? If they want to show something of that nature that might have some relevance, why not say "Lost to Retief Goosen in 2004 U.S. Open"? At least that was the most recent U.S. Open.

Why pull 2002 out of a hat? Maybe because that was the last time Tiger won. Why not just put a graphic at the bottom of the screen and leave it on there 24 hours a day that says "Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open in 2002"? You really just want Tiger's name to show up somewhere on the screen anyway. Why try to disguise it by pretending it has some relevance to anything to do with this week?

I know one thing. The next time I see Tiger interviewed, I fully expect to see a graphic that says "Lost by 10 strokes to Jim Furyk in 2003 U.S. Open". Think I will? Me neither.

This Game Drives Me Nuts!!

Just when I'm ready to give up this stupid game, something happens to pull me back in. I played Sunday morning, had to play the back nine first, and had a horrible 9 holes... probably my worst of the year. I almost quit, but decided I'd go ahead and play the front nine. And of course, I had my BEST nine of the year.

How many times does this happen? Most of the time for me, it's reversed. A good front and bad back. I must say, if it has to happen, I much prefer to go home remembering a good nine. What I have to take from it is that, with the good nine, I know I'm capable of good things. No, it's not that I was just playing above my talent level. That's not possible. It's not that I was getting lucky bounces. I simply played a solid nine holes. The problem is that most of the time I'm playing below my talent level.

I've been working on improving my short game, as I've mentioned in earlier posts. While I've not made any major progress, I have been able to work on improving my technique, which has improved my ball contact. I'm still going to have to work on distance control, but with the improved fundamentals, I at least have more confidence in my ability to get the ball on the green from inside 50 yards. Naturally, that takes a little pressure off the other parts of my game and I think that's what directly lead to my improved scoring on the front nine Sunday.

What about the bad back nine? Well, I think I was just concentrating too much on technique and not enough on scoring. "Stick with the swing that brung ya" is what Harvey Penick says, and leave the practice for the practice range.

U.S. Open Coverage

With the U.S. Open starting this Thursday, I'd say I'll be spending most of my time at home this week on The Golf Channel. I think the "Live From..." coverage begins tonight, with Kraig Kann and the krew telling every story worth telling this week, and probably making up a few along the way. They're all very knowledgable, and I love hearing them go back and forth with pretty much every scenario that could play out this week.

You can bet the Big 4 will be a big topic of conversation, with Tiger getting most of the attention as always. Heck, they might even talk about Retief Goosen, what with him being the defending champ and all.

Dave Pelz will show his face at some point I'm sure, with his expert advice on how the "finesse game" will play into the final outcome. And he's right. From what everyone has been saying, the short game will play an important roll in determining the winner. But I've also heard that the rough is going to be pretty... rough. For that reason, I can't predict winners such as Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, neither of them being the straightest of drivers. I would probably pick Tiger over Phil, though, just because Tiger would have enough sense to hit a fairway wood or long iron off the tee, where Phil will probably take out the driver every chance he gets. "New Phil" or not, he still likes to come out of his shoes more than most.

Annika Dominating Again

Say what you will about the Big 4, or 5, or whatever you want to call them, Annika Sorenstam is currently the best golfer on the planet. It's unbelievable how she's dominating the LPGA Tour right now. She won 5 in a row, lost one, and now is on another streak. She's won the first major of the year, and is currently leading the second by two strokes with two rounds to play.

I read somewhere that someone suggested that Annika should be invited to join Augusta National. While that probably wouldn't make Vijay very happy, if it's going to happen at some point (and Hootie Johnson indicated that a woman would probably be invited to join sooner or later), I think Annika has definitely proven her worth.

Hall Of Fame aside, what kind of honor would it be to be the first woman invited to join the most exclusive Country Club in history? And how funny would it be if she declined the invitation? Oh well, I'm not holding my breath for either to happen any time soon.

Tiger A Nerd?

Heh. This is funny. Tiger Woods is #2 on the 50 Biggest Nerds Of All Time list. Other highlights include Dana Scully (#30) of X-Files fame (she's hot), Queen Amadala herself, Natalie Portman (#21, and also hot) and former Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy (#48, and not so hot).

The Pelz Method

I've just recently purchased, and am now reading Dave Pelz' Short Game Bible. While I to try to stay away from the technical aspects of the golf swing (it tends to ruin my game even more, if that's even possible), I decided to get this book because I'm at the point where I'll try just about anything. I would have to say, having read only the first 3 or 4 chapters, I'm really impressed with the physics and statistics that Pelz puts into his method.

One example that I particularly like: tour pros, in Dave's research, tend to have a 7% variance on any full swing shot. That is, if the average pro hits a full wedge from 100 yards, he's going to be (on average) within 7 yards, or 21 feet of his target (keeping in mind, of course, the true target is not necessarily always the hole). Now, if that same pro hits a full 5 iron from 200 yards, using the same 7% variance, he would be (on average) within 14 yards, or 42 feet. So, 42 feet away from the target, maybe this particular pro lands in a bunker. Maybe he finishes the hole with a 5 instead of the 3 or 4 he would have gotten had he landed on the green. He goes to the next tee disgusted with the "bad" 5 iron he hit to get himself in the bunker. But statistically he was within the 7% average of tour pros. Had he had a stronger short game, he might have still been able to get that par.

It's a very interesting read. I would definitely recommend it. I would even go so far as to say I have seen some improvement in my short game already, without even having had the chance to practice too much yet.

The Return Of Push

Does anyone remember push technology from a few years back? It didn't go over too well back then, because it was a little before it's time I guess. If you think about it, it's the same thing that we're basically all after now, what with rss news aggregators, podcasts, Tivo, and now this new Akimbo IPTV-based set-top box on the horizon. We're all wanting to find new and better ways to get content "pushed" to us without having to go get it. It's just funny for me to think about something that basically flopped (as far as I know) a few years ago, is now the "in" thing.

OS Quiz

Here's a nice little quiz I found via Digg to tell you which OS you would be if you were an OS. They've got some other quizzes too. Check them out.

I'm Slackware Linux.

A Few Links Of Note

Just doing my part to get the word out that there is still some tech programming out there... even after the sad and unnecessary demise of TechTV.

First, some of the former personalities on what must be called the "flagship" show of TechTV, The Screen Savers, have begun getting together on Sundays to create a podcast called This Week in Tech (TWiT for short).

Next we have the leader of the crew himself, Leo Laporte. He's pretty much everywhere, on TWiT, on the radio, on podcasts and on Call For Help Canada.

Patrick Norton has a blog that he never updates, but has been posting to his blog on the TWiT website. He also has an RSS Feed that pretty much posts everything he writes for ExtremeTech.com and ExtremeiPod.

Kevin Rose, who went on to be a personality on the new (and now former) Screen Savers and it's evil twin Attack Of The Show, just announced on his blog that he will be leaving G4 and devoting all of his time to his new show Systm and his first video project, thebroken, with hopefully even more to come.

I say great work, guys. It's nice to know that you are all still out doing your best to bring the tech to the masses.

Audit My PC

Just found this website, AuditMyPC.com, via Digg.com. Looks like a decent little site for checking various things about your PC, including a spyware scan and a test to see if your popup blocker is working as well as it should. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I work on PC's a little bit in my spare time. I'll be using this site in the near future to see if it lives up to my expectations.

Gaming Bits

Check out this pic of the controller for the new Playstation 3. Is this butt ugly or what?

I myself just purchased an original Xbox about a month back. I find if I stay about a generation behind with gaming consoles, it's just as much fun and a whole lot cheaper. Now I can get most of the games that everyone was raving about 6 months ago for about half the price. And by the time I'm finished with them, the games that are hot now will be $20... maybe even less with the Xbox 360 just over the horizon.

Speaking of games, I can't wait for the release of the new game, Destroy All Humans. I've been waiting for this thing since I read about it last fall in a gaming mag. It looks to be a nice twist on the old alien invasion movies of the 50's. This time you get to play the alien. I think it's due to be released sometime next month. I probably won't wait for this one to make it to the bargain bin.

How Did It Go In?

Ok, this is crazy. Now we've got this website dedicated to trying to figure out how Tiger's ball dropped on the 16th hole in the final round at the 2005 Masters. And I thought I had too much time on my hands. I have to admit, though, it's pretty funny.

Tin Cup Revisited

Here's a nice post on Snopes.com that will remind everyone who has seen the movie of a famous scene from Tin Cup.

Spyware: Out Of Control

This spyware stuff is out of control.  I would even go so far as to say that it's currently a bigger problem than viruses.  I make a few extra bucks every now and then by doing the odd computer repair, and in the past 6 months to a year, the bulk of my repairs have been concentrated on the removal of spyware.

The problem is that, while a lot of people out there have probably heard of spyware, they don't worry about it as much as they worry about viruses.  We've all heard for years about the dangers of viruses and what they can do to your system, and most of the PC's I work on have some type of antivirus program installed (even if it's not updated).  But with spyware, people seem to look at it as more of an annoyance than a danger.

This may be true for the most part, but it will be nice when the word finally gets out about the adverse effect spyware can have on general PC performance.  When people finally realize that spyware is a big part of why their PC is "slowing down", maybe they will be more willing to be proactive about stopping it.  One thing I would welcome would be to see the Dell's of the world start to include anti-spyware programs on new PC's with 3 or 6 month trials, the same way they do with anti-virus programs now.

I just purchased Spy Sweeper for my own system, and so far, I'm pretty impressed.  I didn't have a big presence of spyware on my system.  I purchased it mostly for testing purposes, to be able to recommend it to some of my clients.  But I did have a few pieces on my system that the program was able to find and clean.

Let's Go Kipper!!

Looks like Kip Henley, the winner of the Golf Channel's Big Break II, is set to play his first Nationwide Tour event this week in the Henrico County Open. For those who don't know, Big Break is the Golf Channel's reality game show where 10 men (or women) compete for a few exemptions on their respective tours.

I always liked Kip on the show, but didn't really respect his game until the final episode when he edged out one of the favorites, Don Donatello. He showed he has gained a lot of knowledge about the game in his 40+ years. I hope he does well. If he makes the cut it will be one more step towards his goal of making it on the PGA Tour.

New Direction

Starting today, I'm planning on moving this blog in a somewhat different direction. No, that's probably not entirely accurate. I still plan on talking a lot about golf here. It's just that I would like to be able to incorporate some of my other interests, as well as the occasional post about my life in general. In short, I'm going to be talking about whatever the heck floats my boat at any given time.

That was actually the intention when I started this thing a little less than a year ago, but before I knew it, I was focusing mostly on golf. I guess I was taken in by the title "Rub Of The Green", but in fact, as I alluded to in my first post ever, just because it's a golf term, doesn't mean it has to be ONLY a golf term.

I'm working right now on an acceptable way to implement categories into this blog, to give it a little bit of organization when I do start talking about anything and everything. I've been working on a couple of methods over the past couple of weeks, but nothing satisfies me so far. So I guess for the time being I'll be throwing everything together in a big hodgepodge of tech, golf, life and... golf.

Stay tuned...

Tournament Results

Well, my big tournament has come and gone. We all had a pretty good day. We shot 9 under, which for four high handicappers isn't too bad. Our previous best had been 7 under. We had gotten to 7 under with 5 holes to play. We figured then we would easily be able to beat our previous best, since 4 of our final five were birdie holes. Things didn't work out exactly as planned. We parred the next 4, but managed to eagle the final hole to get it to 9 under, which is a nice way to finish up. We did bogey one hole, which left us a little bitter in the end.

When we first came in, we had heard we were tied for the lead. But our shot at glory was brief. The next team to finish posted 10 or 11 under, I don't know for sure which. We left after finding out we had been beaten, so I'm not sure of the final winning score.

Oh, yeah, and my cart broke down 6 holes into the round.

I'm There

As of this morning, I have reached my 200 lb. pre-tournament weight loss goal. I still have some weight to lose, but it feels good to have reached another goal.

Next up: Get down to 195 by my birthday. I've got about 2 1/2 weeks to get there.

Stay tuned…

Too Close For Comfort

This is nuts. I'm 3 days away from the tournament I've been talking about for the past 2 weeks and, to quote Roy McAvoy, "my swing feels like an unfolding lawn chair".

Is it all in my head? Probably so. Is there anything I can do about it? Probably not.

The only thing I've got going for me is memories of playing well in other scramble-format competitions through the years. Sure, it's all because I don't have as much pressure on me, and maybe that means I'm a choker, but at this point I don't feel the need to delve into that territory. I just want to make sure I get through Saturday without making a fool of myself.

One thing is good. I feel like I'm putting as well as I have in a while. My big problem with putting has always been speed, especially on longer putts. For some reason, the speed of our local greens seem to be to my liking right now. As anyone who has played scrambles knows, a decent putter can contribute a lot in that format. You can hit the ball like a drunk all day long, and if you can putt, you can finish the day as the hero.

My big problem right now is off the tee. I was hitting the ball well a couple of weeks ago and suddenly this week a pull hook has found it's way into my bag. And with my team, I could be called upon to be the "horse" off the tee. One of our teammates, my cousin, actually hits the ball a long way, but my Dad told me he's not been playing that well lately. I know how that feels. Our other teammate can hit the ball pretty well and with decent distance, but he's not had any confidence in anything bigger than a 5 wood for a few years now.

We can probably count on Dad to keep us in play most of the day, which should give the rest of us a chance to try to wail on it. But if we can't keep it in the fairways, we may be working pretty hard for birdies. Which is not what I want. I want to have at least a chance for birdie on every hole.

Looks like it's time to pull out the Harvey Penick books again.

Big Break III

I hope whoever might be reading this has seen the Big Break III finale, because I'm going to ruin it for you if you haven't. If you're like me, it's not that big of a deal anyway. I actually forgot it was on and had to Tivo the later showing and watched it this morning. The whole season, while mildly entertaining, was not on the level of seasons 1 and 2. That's not a knock on the ladies or anything. Maybe it's just too much of a good thing. I don't think there was enough time between season 2 and 3 to make for a good build up.

Anyway, as far as last night's finale goes, going into it I would have to say I was pulling for Pam over Danielle. I tried to give Danielle the benefit of the doubt, and was actually pulling for her a little throughout the series, but she got to where she kind of grated on my nerves. At the same time, Pam showed a little questionable games(wo)manship in the final match. Even so, I was still pulling for her at the end. Danielle seems to have such an ego on her, I think it would have been cool to see her get beaten by the most inexperienced of the group.

Win or not, Pam's got game. She was spraying it all over the course in that final match, yet she was still able to keep things going until the 17th hole. To have been only playing 3 years and be at that level, is amazing. I've been playing the game for close to 20 years, and I'm still in hacker territory. As for Danielle, she's got game too. She could whoop my butt any day of the week. But I think she doesn't have as much game as she thinks she does.

Check-Go

Just for the heck of it, I bought one of those Check-Go sweet spot finders last week. It's probably just a gimmick, but at this point I'm willing to try just about anything (cheap) that will possibly give me some advantage. I've tested it, not with actual putts or anything, but just by trying to mark the equator on a ball then putting the same ball back in the thing and marking it again. It does seem to find the same equator, or pretty close to the same equator every time. That's encouraging just in the fact that whatever it's doing at least it seems to be doing it consistently. Whether marking that equator and using it as a putting line will actually produce results is another story. I guess it can't hurt to try it though.

Random Thoughts

My scramble partners for the previously mentioned scramble have been set. With less than 2 weeks to go, I've got for pounds left to reach my goal. I was proud to get through my conference with with no major weight gain.

I just bought a (new-to-me) used set of clubs off eBay a few weeks back. They were the Taylor Made RAC Oversize. I've always really liked the looks of them, but being left handed, it's hard for me to find some to demo. I thought I'd go ahead and give it a shot and started looking for a set about a month ago and ended up getting a pretty decent deal on eBay. Here's the kicker though... they have graphite shafts. I've never played with graphite in my irons, and am still having a little mental trouble with making myself trust that they're not going to snap on me. I can actually hit them pretty similar to my King Cobra irons, and they really feel pretty good in my hands. I was planning on debuting them in the scramble in a few weeks, but the bermuda in our fairways hasn't really woken up yet, and I've not gotten a good chance to get used to them. Even though they're used, they're in pretty good shape and I don't want to scratch them up too bad on the basically dirt fairways that we have now.

I also bought, last week, a new Sunday Golf Bag. I'm planning on getting back into walking this season. My 200 pound tournament goal is not the end of my weight loss aspirations. I've been working for a few years now to get back down to 180, and I'm getting there this year. It's driving me crazy. I've been so close it's not even funny, then I'll end up falling off the wagon and gaining 20 or 30 pounds. It's the unattainable goal that I just want to see on my scale one time. Of course, I'd like to stay around there once I get there. But as long as I get there, I wouldn't be too disappointed to go back up as high as 190 every now and then.

 

Weigh-In

As of this morning, I've got 6 1/2 pounds to go to reach my goal, with 3 weeks left to get there.

 

Tournament Time

Got myself a little tournament coming up the 7th of May. Actually, it's not that big of a deal, just a little 4-man scramble for charity. It's something I started playing in about 3 or 4 years ago when my boss offered to sponsor me (foot the bill) if I could get a team together. I didn't think much of it. I'm not much of a tournament golfer, but figured since he was offering me a free day of golf, I shouldn't pass it up. So I got a team together and we ended up shooting 7 under. Not great, but considering our high handicaps and the fact that the winners (much lower handicaps) shot 14 under, we were pretty pleased.

 

All in all it was a fun day and has been one of the highlights of the season for me ever since. I didn't get to play last year because I had to be in a friend's wedding, so I'm really geared up for it this time. My current goal is to get myself back down to 200 pounds by the day of the tournament. As of this morning, I've got 9 1/2 pounds to go. With just 3 1/2 weeks remaining, it's going to be difficult, but not impossible. My biggest obstacle coming up is that I will be attending a conference for 2 days next week, which will most likely throw me off my diet at least a little bit.

 

I plan on posting updates to this blog as I make progress toward my goal in the next few weeks, as a little bit of a motivating factor.

 

Major Recap

Well, that's another major in the books, and another win for Tiger Woods. It was a good final round I thought, as Sunday at the Masters usually. Matter of fact, it was one of the best in recent memory I thought, right up there with Phil's win last year.

 

I was most impressed with Chris DiMarco and his relentless pursuit of Tiger. Some would have said going into the final round (me being one of them) that DiMarco didn't have much of a chance to catch Tiger, with Tiger playing as well as he was and DiMarco seemingly choking on the final 9 of the third round. But DiMarco showed a lot of guts and, to me anyway, Tiger showed that he's still not quite the force he was in 2000.

 

I think it's a combination of things. First off, Tiger's swing, while looking better all the time, is still not as repeatable under pressure as I'm sure he'd like it to be. And second, I think most of the guys on tour aren't looking at him anymore as the unstoppable force. Let him throw together a few more wins this year and that may change, but for now I think everyone sees him as a little more human that he used to be.

 

The Masters

With the first major of 2005 looming, I have to admit I'm beginning to feel all tingely inside... is that how you spell tingely? Oh, well, anyway...

 

With the Big 4(+1.. props to Retief) playing out of their minds so far this season (#4 won just yesterday), I'm really hoping for a shootout on the back nine on Sunday. Heck, I'm hoping for a shootout all four days to be honest. How great would it be to have all 4(+1) with a realistic chance to win come Sunday afternoon? I mean, the shootout at Doral was great, with Tiger and Phil both grinding it out until the final shot, but I for one would like to see a shootout with everybody in the mix.

 

Here's my fear though. Going into the event, with the exeption of Phil's win yesterday, all of the guys just seemed to me to be a little loose... with their swings I mean. Given, they have all had an extra week to work things out, but the possibility is totally there that none of the so-called favorites will be there come Sunday afternoon. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it would be great for someone else to have a shot at the coveted title of Masters Champion. But with all the hype on the Big 4(+1) this year, and with the seasons they've had thus far, it would be a bit of a letdown in my book.

 

I'm going to go ahead and predict Ernie Els to win. But I'm still going to be rooting for Phil to successfully defend.