dan flies

Tonight I was able to get a ticket at Old Tratford, the home of Manchester United, in the vistors section. I was able to sit and cheer and sing with other Spurs fans. I had a great time, it would have been even better if I would have known all of the cheers and songs, but I was able to particpate in a few.

The funniest thing I noticed that you have to cheer togother to really feel it and for me that ment singing with a very English accent. It wouldn’t be a big deal except when they sang “When the Spurs go Marching In” to, you gessed it, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” It feels really weird to sing it with no g’s.

I sat with 5,000 Spurs fans out of 70,000 Man U fans and I’m pretty sure we out sang them. I couldn’t imagine if the Vikings fans developend a set of songs it would turn the Dome from loud to DEAFENING.

It would be easy to say that I’m hooked. The best place to enjoy a game is in the stands. Tomorrow Aston Villa and West Ham are playing in the afternoon, I’m going to try a pub or two to see what the atmosphere is like. Then I’ll try to see if there is a place to watch American Football. What I would like to see is some baseball tomorrow evening, espically the Twins and Tigers. The season could be settled by the time I return on the 24th.

I arrived last night in Manchester wishing I was able to stay in Ireland. In my search today for some info about the Co. Mayo football team I ran a cross this movie a guy made after his trip to Co. Mayo using the Saw Doctor’s song “The Green and Red of Mayo”. The song and the photos collected do an excellent job of capturing the feeling driving around Mayo.

The Green and Red of Mayo – slideshow

The Green and Red of Mayo – lyrics

The green and red of mayo
I can see it still
It’s soft and craggy bogland
It’s tall majestic hills
Where the ocean kisses ireland
And the waves carress it’s shore
The feeling it came over me
To stay forever more
Forever more

From it’s rolling coastal waters
I can see croagh patrick’s peak
Where one sunday every summer
The pilgrims climb the reek
Where saint patrick in it’s solitude
Looked down across clew bay
With a ringing of his bell
Called the faithful there to pray
There to pray

Take me to clare island
The home of granuaile
It’s waters harbour fishes
From the herring to the whale
And now I must depart it
And reality is plain
May the time not pass so slowly
Before I set sail again
Set sail again

I’ve survived the trip across the pond (with very little sleep). There are a few stories to tell about the trip, but I’ll write them up when I’ve some more time later today or tomorow, when I can add some of today’s photos.

loc: Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, Ireland

We had our draft last night, everything went smoothly minus a few glitches. Here is my roster:

SLOT PLAYER  TEAM  POS
QB Tom Brady NE  QB
RB Joseph Addai Ind  RB 
RB/WR DeShaun Foster Car  RB 
WR Anquan Boldin Ari  WR 
WR Hines Ward Pit  WR
TE Chris Cooley Was  TE
D/ST Jaguars  Jac  D/ST
K John Kasay Car  K
Bench Carson Palmer Cin  QB
Bench DeAngelo Williams Car  RB 
Bench Fred Taylor Jac  RB
Bench Terry Glenn Dal  WR 
Bench Kellen Winslow Cle  TE
Bench Charlie Frye Cle  QB  

ESPN FFL 2006: Welcome to ESPN Fantasy Football!

Hey here are some pictures from last night’s BBQ at the Armbrusts. I didn’t be may pictures before the fire, so I missed some of the folks that left early. Check out the uploaded photos on Flickr.

Ok. I’m done. I’ve got the new camera, but its time to get back on task: programming. To reiterate the goal: to be a competent programmer in Java and Ruby. I am defining competent as an ability to excecute a good design over small and medium sized applications preferably via the Web. Or, not be a complete idiot when I want to start making money via code again.

But this is the hard thing for me, what to start with. I’ve got some compeletly useless advice from many folks, including “go find an open source project and start chaning things”. Wow, that may work for you, but not for me. Espically when it comes to Ruby, Java may be, but tell me how to find a list of Java projects on SourceForge. I couldn’t do it.

So, I’m going to find stupid little assignment from intro to programming courses like this one. Now this will only work for a while and maybe in a few weeks it won’t meke sense to still be using the little assignment, but I need to get the ball rolling and this seems to be a better idea. Comments?

Oh yeah, earlier this morning I did take some photos with my new lens. Here is a sample and link to Flikr:

Big software project gone wrong. This shouldn’t be a big suprise, a large open-ended contract by the US Government to a private contractor produces useless software. Challenges still abound in modern software development.

The FBI’s Upgrade That Wasn’t

I’ve posted about 60 more photos from the wedding check them out on Flickr.

Here is a sample to start off the new set:

I went to St. Louis this week for work, acutally just a day. I thought I’d make the most of day by going to a Cardinals game and taking some photos.

I’ve joined my first fantasy football league since the 8th grade, when all stats were added by hand out of the Star Tribune. I’ve just been invited to a league with some current and former co-workers.

I’m pleased to annouce my offical team name will be the Minnesota Fightin’ Pike! I’ve chosen the name to honor the one season wonder of the Area Football leauge. Plus I get a cool logo easily.

here it is: