A Week In Review, And It's Not Even Saturday

The sports world is trying to kill me this week. That’s the only conclusion I can logically reach.

First the Red Sox. As I said in a second-hand post to the Sons of Sam Horn bulletin board, I’m not a citizen of Red Sox Nation — maybe a green-card holder at best, which means I admire and would like to be part of what they have, but it’s not mine yet. That said, any baseball fan with a heart save Cardinals fans (who are great fans as well) had to love what happened Wednesday night. It should be noted that the Cards stank it up, but they ran into an absolute buzzsaw. On the night of a lunar eclipse, 18 years to the day after their last disappointment, the Boston Red Sox changed history. (Note to self: figure out some way to get that game from TiVo to DVD.)

Then the Hokies. Really, if you want a good idea of what went through my mind there, first read the halftime report at 17-7 Georgia Tech, then go to the wrap-up at 34-20 Hokies. TechSideline.com was going bipolar and/or manic-depressive most of the game, and I would have joined them had I not been giving cell-phone play-by-play of the entire second half to my cable-less girlfriend (so, best that I was doing so). Conclusions from that are: (1) next time, I want a color commentator, (2) commercial breaks are absolutely necessary for a broadcaster, and (3) better to PBP a team I don’t care about so much, so I can actually speak when the unthinkable happens, as it did repeatedly tonight.

Check out Tom’s and Bret’s takes, too.

Now It Can Be Told

Some of you have noticed content getting a little sparse around here. While it’s been exaggerated recently by my Atlanta/Miami adventures and failure to crosspost all my Fanblogs stuff, it’s been an off-and-on problem since February, when some massive changes took place at the office and sent most of my group scurrying toward Monster.com. We’ve lost roughly one programmer per month since then.

And now it’s my turn to depart. After eight months of looking, including phone interviews with five organizations and on-sites with three, I’ve accepted a Senior Programmer position with a contracting firm in Tysons Corner, working on the client’s site in Bailey’s Crossroads. In two weeks, I’ll be leaving Short Pump and Richmond behind, heading in the direction I’ve wanted to go since I graduated from Tech.

So what does this mean for BTN? Well, the little block at top-left will have a new “Current time in” location, once I narrow it down past “somewhere in 703-land.” I should have a bit more time to write now, depending on how much of my newly-acquired free time is eaten up by traffic (early guess: a lot). Expect the odd complaint about cost-of-living, some early road-geekery as I get my commute figured out, some political observations (well, of course — I am moving even closer to DC), and no commentary on work whatsoever.

I’ll miss the office here in Richmond and the co-workers I’ve worked with since I was a freshman in college (and, oh yeah, the associate discount). But it’s time for me to head somewhere north.

So, anyone up for an Expos Senators Grays ticket package?

Even Geeks Get Old

Kareem of reemer.com remarked last week on the quick-changing nature of the digital experience among young adults:

[I]t’s hard to generalize how those in their mid-to-late 20’s interact with tech, since it came around as we were growing up. Younger generations, on the other hand, don’t know a world without the Internet…

I got a taste of that a year or two ago, when my dad (who learned his Internet at the same time as me) complained that my sister never responded to e-mail. To get her, he had to use AIM — which didn’t surprise me, knowing that she uses her profile as her main means of communication with a group she leads at school.

The real enlightening experience, though, has been watching my brother start at Tech this year. After I posted my last entry from the terminal at Hartsfield two weeks ago, I flew to Roanoke and drove to Blacksburg, where I crashed in the suite room of his dorm and met a couple of his suitemates for the first time.

One of his suite’s chief complaints with the dorm has been that VT CNS requires them to pay extra to have the Ethernet ports in their suite room activated. This is rather inconvenient when guests (like me) or classmates show up with laptops, hoping to plug in and achieve something while hanging out and watching a movie or a game. They asked me whether we’d had to deal with this when I lived in New Res East during its first year of construction (1998-99), and I felt a little old.

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VT-WVU: OOC At Last

Live from Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, it’s your BTN preview for tomorrow’s game, the Hokies of Virginia Tech versus the Couch-Burners of West Virginia. You may be wondering where the heck BTN has been for the past several weeks. The answer is, over at Fanblogs ACC. Yes, I recognize this is no excuse for not bothering to post my stuff over here… but then again, how much are you paying for this fine reading? ;-)

After last week’s grueling loss to NC State, the Hokies have to hope for a letup against the Eers. Fortunately, this game plays a bit more toward Tech’s strengths — despite the Eers’ demolition of the Hokies last year in Morgantown.

When WVU has the ball, we should expect an awful lot of running, both from senior RB Kay-Jay Harris and senior QB Rasheed Marshall. Despite their spread offense, the Eers are only marginally capable through the air — junior WR Chris Henry is their lone serious option. The encouraging thing to me is that the Hokie run defense finally got its act together last week, against one of the few RBs in the country who (when healthy) may be superior to Harris, N.C. State’s T.A. McLendon. Earlier games had given Hokie fans cause to worry — particularly Duke’s success out of a spread (albeit often with a 2-TE set). The addition of freshman Vince Hall has been a serious upgrade to the VT linebacking corps, and you can be sure Hall will stay among the team leaders in tackles for this game.

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