Go Tar Heels!
A Tar Heel Triumph: North Carolina Takes Down Michigan State, 89-72
Several new records and a great end for some great seniors.
Celebrations on Franklin Street.
Time to go shopping for a new sweatshirt.
It was a big day for sports fans.
The NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game on opening day of Major League Baseball.
The Red Sox got rained out so they will try again tomorrow. I'll still be wearing Carolina blue but maybe, just for Spot, I'll wear my Red Sox t-shirt under my Tar Heel sweatshirt.
The Women's NCAA basketball championship game is tomorrow night. A Big East team will win. Louisville takes on undefeated UCONN. No opponent has ended a game closer than 10 points and Louisville lost twice, the closer game being a 28 point loss. They are playing really well right now and it is hard to beat an in conference opponent three times in one season but all predictions are for UConn to win this one. I'm hoping that it will at least be an interesting game.
I am also proud of my Tar Heel women even if they did get knocked out in the 2nd game. They played very well at times this season and often better than expected. They had a lot of adjustments to make and it was fun to watch them grow. I am really looking forward to next season.
-SML (UNC Alum)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
It is definately spring
Procrastination happens.
I had the great plan of posting some time back with the first signs of spring. Some bulbs had popped up and I thought I should take a picture and share with the world.
Then it snowed. Not record breaking but the 6 inches was something like the 7th largest March snowfall on record for this part of NC so it did make the news - and kill off some of the early buds.
Then I did get a couple of pictures but never got them moved from the camera. That was around the time when I saw a flurry of pictures and posts about the signs of spring.
This past week I was about 400 miles north of here and when I got home I realized that spring was in full force.
Redbuds are dropping buds and dogwoods are opening up.
The cherry tree has leaves and the flowers are mostly gone.
The white ipheions on gone and the blue ones are fading.
The pear tree and the apple trees have flowers.
The phlox and periwinkle are colorful and the azaleas have buds.
The many colors of green are just appearing in the trees.
I moved a dogwood this weekend from the woods to my front yard and still need to move some periwinkle and irises then go pick up some summer annuals to plant, a few more ground cover plants, and start up the veggie garden.
The real reason I know it is spring though is that my arms are red and itchy.
Now where did I put that allergy medicine...
-SML
I had the great plan of posting some time back with the first signs of spring. Some bulbs had popped up and I thought I should take a picture and share with the world.
Then it snowed. Not record breaking but the 6 inches was something like the 7th largest March snowfall on record for this part of NC so it did make the news - and kill off some of the early buds.
Then I did get a couple of pictures but never got them moved from the camera. That was around the time when I saw a flurry of pictures and posts about the signs of spring.
This past week I was about 400 miles north of here and when I got home I realized that spring was in full force.
Redbuds are dropping buds and dogwoods are opening up.
The cherry tree has leaves and the flowers are mostly gone.
The white ipheions on gone and the blue ones are fading.
The pear tree and the apple trees have flowers.
The phlox and periwinkle are colorful and the azaleas have buds.
The many colors of green are just appearing in the trees.
I moved a dogwood this weekend from the woods to my front yard and still need to move some periwinkle and irises then go pick up some summer annuals to plant, a few more ground cover plants, and start up the veggie garden.
The real reason I know it is spring though is that my arms are red and itchy.
Now where did I put that allergy medicine...
-SML
Saturday, March 14, 2009
ACC Men's Tourney
It is another basketball weekend. This time it is cold and rainy outside and the games are on local TV. Also all the games are being covered by the Tar Heel Sports Network (Woody and Eric) on local radio. But what I found interesting is that the same four schools made the semifinals though in slightly different match ups.
Recall the Women's tournament:
1. MD
2. FSU
3. Duke
4. UNC
Where UNC lost to MD and Duke won over FSU in the semifinals.
Now look at the Men's tournament:
1. UNC
7. MD (beat #2 Wake Forest the day before)
3. Duke
4. FSU
Where UNC lost and Duke won.
Does that say something about the overall programs of those school? I don't know but it is an interesting thought. I do know that, like the Women's program, the ACC is one of - if not the best conference. The quarter final games on Friday were decided by 3 points, 2 points, 9 points, and 1 point. The semifinals today were differences of 3 points and 6 points.
Tomorrow is Duke vs FSU - Duke has been in the championship game 27 other times and has 16 titles in 55 years. This is Florida State's first time in the finals since they joined the league in 1992.
-SML
Recall the Women's tournament:
1. MD
2. FSU
3. Duke
4. UNC
Where UNC lost to MD and Duke won over FSU in the semifinals.
Now look at the Men's tournament:
1. UNC
7. MD (beat #2 Wake Forest the day before)
3. Duke
4. FSU
Where UNC lost and Duke won.
Does that say something about the overall programs of those school? I don't know but it is an interesting thought. I do know that, like the Women's program, the ACC is one of - if not the best conference. The quarter final games on Friday were decided by 3 points, 2 points, 9 points, and 1 point. The semifinals today were differences of 3 points and 6 points.
Tomorrow is Duke vs FSU - Duke has been in the championship game 27 other times and has 16 titles in 55 years. This is Florida State's first time in the finals since they joined the league in 1992.
-SML
Friday, March 13, 2009
Not a hardware person
I am not a hardware person. Given a working system that supports the operating system, I can get things installed and configured. Even the many cases where the software is not really supported but it can work are fine. Oh sure, I can deal with hardware but it is definitely not my favorite activity.
I built a machine from scratch one time. I had a number of colleagues and friends who loved the activity. A bunch of us went to one or more computer shows at the fairgrounds and picked out parts. Then a friend came over to my apartment and we put the box together. I remember at the end signing the date and our names on the inside of the case as a sign of accomplishment. The friend was bouncing with excitement, I was just exhausted. At least that was over and now I could do the fun stuff of installing an operating system which at that time was probably OS/2. The friend wandered off bored and I started having fun. But then, I also had fun helping customers get a DOS box to connect to TCP/IP, IPX, and Netbios networks all at the same time with a bunch of tweaking to memory management and protocol.ini configurations. Now that was fun.
Why do I mention this? Well, a couple of weeks ago I finally moved my home desktop from Fedora 7 to Fedora 10. This involved a complete reinstall since when I ordered the machine with the "defaulting partitioning" I assumed it was Fedora 7 default partitioning including LVM. It turned out to be the company's default partitioning which did not include LVM and because of a few other issues, I did not reinstall it until after I was sure I would not need to return the whole thing and by then I would have to backup some stuff so I might as well wait for the next release which was due soon and the comedy goes on and on.
Then this week I discovered that I don't have enough memory to boot the F11 alpha in KVM. So I am spending some time looking at the book and the machine and the BIOS to figure out my options. The first book I find says the motherboard has 3 slots for 184 pin DDR DIMMs and a max on 3G RAM. The system (dmidecode) tells me I have 2x1G in there now and 4 slots, a maximum of 4G, and a bunch of supported speeds but unless I am missing something, it does not tell me anything helpful for ordering additional memory. Taking the case off reveals 4 slots and a pair of 1G DIMMs labeled PC2-5300 and with a part number that turns out to be 240pin non-ECC memory. I dig a bit deeper into the pile of hardware and manuals and find another book. This book now matches with the 4 slots and says I can have up to 8G which sounds much more like what I would have ordered.
Turns out I still had the book from a previous machine that used the same brand motherboard and I wasn't paying attention to the model numbers. No wonder I was confused. Sigh. Maybe I should go back to watching basketball now.
-SML
I built a machine from scratch one time. I had a number of colleagues and friends who loved the activity. A bunch of us went to one or more computer shows at the fairgrounds and picked out parts. Then a friend came over to my apartment and we put the box together. I remember at the end signing the date and our names on the inside of the case as a sign of accomplishment. The friend was bouncing with excitement, I was just exhausted. At least that was over and now I could do the fun stuff of installing an operating system which at that time was probably OS/2. The friend wandered off bored and I started having fun. But then, I also had fun helping customers get a DOS box to connect to TCP/IP, IPX, and Netbios networks all at the same time with a bunch of tweaking to memory management and protocol.ini configurations. Now that was fun.
Why do I mention this? Well, a couple of weeks ago I finally moved my home desktop from Fedora 7 to Fedora 10. This involved a complete reinstall since when I ordered the machine with the "defaulting partitioning" I assumed it was Fedora 7 default partitioning including LVM. It turned out to be the company's default partitioning which did not include LVM and because of a few other issues, I did not reinstall it until after I was sure I would not need to return the whole thing and by then I would have to backup some stuff so I might as well wait for the next release which was due soon and the comedy goes on and on.
Then this week I discovered that I don't have enough memory to boot the F11 alpha in KVM. So I am spending some time looking at the book and the machine and the BIOS to figure out my options. The first book I find says the motherboard has 3 slots for 184 pin DDR DIMMs and a max on 3G RAM. The system (dmidecode) tells me I have 2x1G in there now and 4 slots, a maximum of 4G, and a bunch of supported speeds but unless I am missing something, it does not tell me anything helpful for ordering additional memory. Taking the case off reveals 4 slots and a pair of 1G DIMMs labeled PC2-5300 and with a part number that turns out to be 240pin non-ECC memory. I dig a bit deeper into the pile of hardware and manuals and find another book. This book now matches with the 4 slots and says I can have up to 8G which sounds much more like what I would have ordered.
Turns out I still had the book from a previous machine that used the same brand motherboard and I wasn't paying attention to the model numbers. No wonder I was confused. Sigh. Maybe I should go back to watching basketball now.
-SML
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
So much for 5 in a row
No. 11 Carolina Falls To No. 4 Maryland, 95-84
It was back and forth. The final score isn't a good reflection since it was 83-81 with 2:38 left on the clock and 8 of Maryland's last 10 points came at the foul line. There were some very good moments for the Tar Heels, just not enough. It was pretty even on assists, turnovers, blocks, and steals. Field goal percentage was close and UNC was better from 3 point range. MD got to the foul line a lot more, making more than UNC attempted, and ended up winning the boards but only by 7. In the press conference, Coach Hatchell mentioned that UNC got more points in the paint but couldn't get to the foal line and is not sure any team can keep MD off the foul line.
In the second game of the day, Blue Devils Advance After Beating Seminoles 75-57. I stayed until partway through the second half. Duke led by about 20 at the half. FSU surged a bit at the start of the second half and got within single digits before Duke pulled away again for good.
This ends a UNC winning streak of 13 consecutive ACC Tournement wins. The last time UNC was not in the championship game was 2001. UNC has been in 13 of the last 15. One other realted note - The last time no teams from the state of NC - or even more specifically, the last time that neither UNC or Duke - was in the final was 1993 (VA over MD in triple overtime).
On the other hand, Coach is still very optimistic about the NCAA tournement. It is hard to win in conference where the other teams know your style. This year particularly, where the conference is so balanced, so talented, and all in such a fun style. She said this was a fun game - except for the last 3 mintues. I also noticed that in the 10 games so far, every team - win or lose - scored over 50 points in the game. That is well over 100 points scored in 40 minutes of play in every game. That is fast basketball, that is fun basketball. The Maryland vs Duke game tomorrow should be fun too.
Meanwhile in the SEC, the Lady Vols fall in the semifinals to top seeded Auburn who will take on the winner Vanderbilt vs LSU game.
-SML
Corrected Mar 8, 2009 - VA beat MD in 1993. MD last won an ACC championship in 1989.
It was back and forth. The final score isn't a good reflection since it was 83-81 with 2:38 left on the clock and 8 of Maryland's last 10 points came at the foul line. There were some very good moments for the Tar Heels, just not enough. It was pretty even on assists, turnovers, blocks, and steals. Field goal percentage was close and UNC was better from 3 point range. MD got to the foul line a lot more, making more than UNC attempted, and ended up winning the boards but only by 7. In the press conference, Coach Hatchell mentioned that UNC got more points in the paint but couldn't get to the foal line and is not sure any team can keep MD off the foul line.
In the second game of the day, Blue Devils Advance After Beating Seminoles 75-57. I stayed until partway through the second half. Duke led by about 20 at the half. FSU surged a bit at the start of the second half and got within single digits before Duke pulled away again for good.
This ends a UNC winning streak of 13 consecutive ACC Tournement wins. The last time UNC was not in the championship game was 2001. UNC has been in 13 of the last 15. One other realted note - The last time no teams from the state of NC - or even more specifically, the last time that neither UNC or Duke - was in the final was 1993 (VA over MD in triple overtime).
On the other hand, Coach is still very optimistic about the NCAA tournement. It is hard to win in conference where the other teams know your style. This year particularly, where the conference is so balanced, so talented, and all in such a fun style. She said this was a fun game - except for the last 3 mintues. I also noticed that in the 10 games so far, every team - win or lose - scored over 50 points in the game. That is well over 100 points scored in 40 minutes of play in every game. That is fast basketball, that is fun basketball. The Maryland vs Duke game tomorrow should be fun too.
Meanwhile in the SEC, the Lady Vols fall in the semifinals to top seeded Auburn who will take on the winner Vanderbilt vs LSU game.
-SML
Corrected Mar 8, 2009 - VA beat MD in 1993. MD last won an ACC championship in 1989.
Friday, March 6, 2009
The ACC - day 2
So far the predictions are holding true.
Tar Heels Rout Clemson, 74-55 after only a 2 point lead at the half. The most impressive items appeared not in the recap, but in the game notes. "The crowd in today's game is the largest in ACC Tournament history with 13,599 fans." and "The Tar Heel rebound effort is fifth-best all-time in the history of the ACC Tournament." UNC got 59 rebounds - more rebounds than Clemson had in points.
Offensive wins fans, defence wins games, rebounds win championships.
I am sure someone deserves credit for that quote since I have heard it a number of time.
If I had to guess, it was probably first said by Pat Summitt but I think I have heard it from other coaches too including Sylvia Hatchell.
In the afternoon game, Terrapins Survive the Deacons 72-70. Wake lead through much of the second half but Maryland went on an 11-0 run to regain the lead.
-SML
Tar Heels Rout Clemson, 74-55 after only a 2 point lead at the half. The most impressive items appeared not in the recap, but in the game notes. "The crowd in today's game is the largest in ACC Tournament history with 13,599 fans." and "The Tar Heel rebound effort is fifth-best all-time in the history of the ACC Tournament." UNC got 59 rebounds - more rebounds than Clemson had in points.
Offensive wins fans, defence wins games, rebounds win championships.
I am sure someone deserves credit for that quote since I have heard it a number of time.
If I had to guess, it was probably first said by Pat Summitt but I think I have heard it from other coaches too including Sylvia Hatchell.
In the afternoon game, Terrapins Survive the Deacons 72-70. Wake lead through much of the second half but Maryland went on an 11-0 run to regain the lead.
-SML
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