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October 31, 1997
News
Information about Ty Davison straight from the horse's mouth.
News Archives
Years worth of mind-numbing details, ponderings, and events.
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External URLs that have cropped up in the course of the News history.
October 31, 1997—Halloween
Concluded our first week of soccer practice and on the whole it's been a good effort by the guys. If we can maintain our level of intensity and increase our understanding of the game (and how to win at it), it looks to be a great season.Watched the #4-ranked University of Portland women's soccer team defeat #3-ranked Santa Clara 1-0 in overtime at Buck Shaw Stadium. Both sides play a 3-5-2 (which I like) and an English long-ball style (which I don't). SCU, who dominated the game and had numerous chances, should've won in regulation. I'll take my Pilot victories any way I can get them.
After the game, we headed over to our friend Jim's party where we met his fiance Tamara, checked out his new house and watched the eerie Wizard of Oz/Dark Side of the Moon convergence. (For those who haven't heard, you play Pink Floyd's Dark Side CD and watch Wizard, and everything syncs up in an almost scary fashion.)
October 29, 1997
Caulked and sprayed. Dead-ant...dead-ant...dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant!October 28, 1997
I can think of at least a hundred different things I would've rather discovered under our kitchen sink, but, life being what it is, we've got ants. Gobs and gobs of ants. Erin tried a funky all-natural solution which didn't appear to do much besides give them all indigestion. One can of Raid made for a better, albeit temporary, fix. We'll get more areas sprayed outside (and hopefully close to their entry point) and tape corners and cracks inside and see what happens. One thing for sure: This is loads better than the roaches we had to deal with in Oregon when we managed apartments.October 27, 1997
The world-wide stock markets continue to take a pounding with investors losing billions of dollars in value. Hong Kong and Far East stocks are particularly hard-hit, and that means only one thing to the wise aggressive investor: Time to buy Hong Kong and Far East stocks! Good choices include Hong Kong Telecom (HKT-NYSE), Singapore Airlines and Dairy Farm International. Great buying opportunities only come along once every few years. This is one of them.Another in my continuing series of great runs at Rancho San Antonio. This time a bunch of rabbits, quail and deer. Sure beats running around a track.
October 25, 1997
I tried—I really did—to buy local so far as the Roland XP-80 keyboard is concerned. Unfortunately, there was no getting around the $150 extra I'd have to pay versus doing the deal mail-order. Even taking shipping and handling into account, we're still talking an extra $100.So, trying to put a positive light on our obvious inability to do a deal, I mentioned that maybe I could still buy expansion cards for the Roland from them. Sure, I can get just as good a price mail-order, but if I can come in here and listen to them first, that'd definitely be a service to me, and I'd be willing to pay for that service by buying from them.
"Oh," says the guy, "We don't demo expansion cards."
Why don't they just put "not for sale" signs on the merchandise and posters reading "please let us know if there's any way we can serve you less" on the walls?
My synthesizer purchase is delayed about a week as I further explore mail order.
In happier news, the city of Mountain View held a grand opening for its new multi-million dollar library. The coolest feature in my book was the 145 ethernet terminals located around the building in various study areas. Just take your laptop, plug in and —bang!— you're connected to the Internet via a T1 line. For free.
October 24, 1997
We've more or less concluded the soccer tryouts for the boys' team at Saint Francis. We'll take one final look on Monday, and make cuts after practice. As you can imagine, cuts are the worst, and this is one of those times when I am so thankful to no longer be a head coach.As for the team, I'd say our talent pool is pretty strong this year. We should be able to field a very solid 11 and have plenty of power left over.
October 22, 1997
Absolutely nuthin' in the tank, but I dragged myself out to Rancho San Antonio for a 5 mile run anyway. Saw my requisite deer, birds, etc. I'm trying to get on an exercise pattern that puts me at about 15 miles a week (3x a week x 5 miles). I'll be sore tomorrow for sure.October 21, 1997
Tryouts are off to a pretty good start, though we've already got an injured reserve list a mile long. Don't ask how we're going to evaluate guys on IR, because I'm not sure we know—we may have them try-out next week. Regardless, I'm happy to say that, just like last year, we have a number of players who are very technically skilled. Passing, trapping, dribbling, shooting are all taking place at a high level for most players. The upside is that it makes for a much better team. The downside is that it makes the final cuts very difficult.October 20, 1997
Let's see: Deer, squirrels, lizards, bluejays and a mess of other birds I don't know. Another successful run at Rancho San Antonio. And with temperatures in the low 70s, a good day for it, too.St. Francis boys' soccer team try-outs start tomorrow.
October 19, 1997
So it's called Bocci and it's somewhat lazy and meandering—all you do is throw balls at one another—but boy is it ever a great way to spend an afternoon. Family and friends headed over to a Bocci ball court in Los Gatos and had a blast. Easy to learn, and fun to play—my kinda game.October 16, 1997
Another run at Rancho San Antonio, my second this week. The deer continue to pop up everywhere along the trail, a nice distraction from the ache of my cardio-vascular system. My back is continuing to hold up.Another talk with Sal regarding tactics and teamwork with the SF Boys' soccer program this year. These are very productive sessions—we've got ideas, good ideas, flying all around us. This should be a great soccer season.
October 14, 1997
Lots of web site updating in various sections, most notably the temporary removal of the Views & Reviews. I'm hoping to have this section re-appear in an indexed form as Commentary. It'll take me a little bit of time to get it together, though.I've got a couple of animations which I'll be adding to the front page. They're nothing spectacular or time-killing; I just thought a little on-screen movement would be nice. If I can get some more animations going, I probably will—assuming the file size doesn't make anything download prohibitive.
October 12, 1997
Significant piano practice and song work today. The new keyboard is less than a month away, and my excitement level is rising. I'm now on a couple of different music e-mail lists, digital audio workstations (DAW) and Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) (who make Digital Performer).October 10, 1997
Conferred with Sal, the head coach of boys' soccer at Saint Francis, about how we're going to run things tactically this year. We both brought a lot of really good ideas to the table, and I dare say this year's team should do well as a consequence. Try-outs start October 21.October 9, 1997 — State of the URL Address
It's been two months now since I added a counter to the ol' Davison web site, and latest stats show about 260 hits in that time. Now, I'll grant you that I probably caused a number of those hits simply to upgrading and checking out my own URL. I'm sure Royal Court members Dennis Scott and Dave Van Driesche are similarly responsible for a good percentage of hits as well. But I'm happy to report that there's also a sizable contingent who are apparently checking in occasionally (I've heard from some of you) and then going on your merry little web surfing way. While these hit numbers extrapolate out to around 1500 hits for a year, I confess my sights (no pun intended) are set much higher, and I'm going to start pushing the on-line advertising angle in e-mail and newsgroup forums.In terms of my own on-line sales and advertising, it's reasonable to conclude that this site isn't going to make me the next Rockefeller. I'm planning on killing the top of page advert for starters. I didn't expect there'd be much interest in advertising, and it seems that I was right. I will start hawking my on-line sales items (baseball cards, etc.) in newsgroup forums and see if that helps.
I've got a goofy on-line survey form created and set to go, but it is somewhat incompatible with the stand-alone version of Netscape Navigator 4.0. Because the form uses the mailto: command and Navigator 4 has no built-in e-mail, nothing happens when users try to send. This is technically a user issue (since the form does work with MS Internet Explorer 3 and Navigator 2 and 3.03), but I'm torn. In the meantime, if anyone wants to try out the form in Experimental HTML, it should work just fine unless you're running Nav 4.
Lack of time has really hampered my effectiveness in making all the web site changes and updates that I've wanted to. As a result, I will probably scale back or eliminate some sections. Reader input on what sections you definitely want saved is welcome.
I know I don't say this enough: Thanks for checking out my web site!
October 7, 1997
Another in my "miracle mile" series of runs at Rancho San Antonio. (It's over a mile and it's a miracle I'm getting through them.) This time I saw three deer. One of them, a 6-point buck, startled me by crashing through the underbrush and heading toward the jogging path (probably in retaliation for my scaring a fawn a couple of days ago). Notice to deer: Jogging paths are for joggers! =)Met this evening with my friend and Saint Francis Head Soccer Coach, Sal. We talked about various ideas and philosophies and found (like last year) numerous areas of agreement. I was offered and I accepted the Assistant Varsity Boys' Soccer Coach position. The hours required here in the next 4-5 months will be immense, but the potential rewards (for the team, the school and me) are great as well.
October 5, 1997
Parade Magazine published its top ten list of favorite bumper stickers including "Hang Up & Drive" and "You! Out of the Gene Pool!" Surprisingly, my favorite ("My kid beat up your Honor Student") wasn't on the list.October 3, 1997
Another one hour run at Rancho San Antonio. Again no sightings of dangerous animals, though I did just about run down at fawn which had wandered onto the jogging trail. Sorry fawn! I was too busy looking at other members of your family!Duncan Sheik's self-titled album is the latest on heavy rotation in the CD player. Sheik's not what I'd call a great songwriter or singer, and his album is a real hit-or-miss affair. Some tracks, like She Runs Away, Barely Breathing, Serena, Home, and The End of Outside, are quite good. Others (In the Absence of Sun, Out of Order, and November) are interminable. In all cases, the vocals are really up-front in the mix, which would have been more advantageous if (1) Sheik had a better voice and (2) his lyrics were better. That's not to say that his voice or lyrics are terrible; his voice is more than passable and some of the lyrics are quite good. A little more diversity in instrumentation might have helped here too. Nonetheless, the album has an earnestness and authenticity which is compelling (some of which it gains from having those vocals up front), and if you're into the "alternative soft rock"-type thing, this oughta be your cup of tea.
October 2, 1997
Attended the very interesting Seybold 97 Publishing Expo in San Francisco. Details in the Mac Advocacy section.
