Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Washington clobbers Syracuse

By Brendan Loy

The Washington Huskies were supposed to win tonight's season-opener at Syracuse -- one of the few times they'll be favored this year, given their brutal schedule -- but a 42-12 shellacking of the Orange? That's pretty impressive, and bodes well for their chances to at least make a bit of noise this season, even though they're clearly going to lose a lot of games.

More broadly, this is good news for the Pac-10, which saw Oregon State beat Utah 24-7 yesterday, and now this. The big test, of course, is tomorrow night at 8:00 PM, when Cal hosts Tennessee. Five other Pac-10 teams are in nonconference action tomorrow too, including Wazzu at #7 Wisconsin and, of course, Idaho at #1 USC. The Cougars can lose (hopefully they'll keep it close), but all the others had better win for the sake of the conference's BCS reputation, as Chris Dufresne pointed out in the L.A. Times yesterday.

Tomorrow is, of course, college football's real opening day, as reflected in my countdown bar at left, notwithstanding the dribs and drabs of made-for-TV mismatches that have been played in the last two days. (Average final score: 38-10.) Not that most of tomorrow's games will be much better, what with such thrilling matchups as East Carolina at Virginia Tech, Appalachian State at Michigan, and Western Kentucky at Florida -- and those are all before 1:00 PM! :) But still, 54 games in 12 hours is enough to get any fan excited, especially after the wilderness of the offseason.

Alas, my opening-day football-blogging will leave something to be desired, thanks to our visit to Buffalo and, specifically, the baby shower. It's at 1:00 PM, and yes, I'm going: I've been informed I have no choice. :) Notwithstanding the stereotypically girly character of such occasions, there will actually be at least four males in attendance -- and the shower is apparently going to be held in the TV room, so there'll be no sneaking off to watch football. Hopefully it'll be over in time to catch the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game at 3:30 PM...

Speaking of which, I almost forgot... time for my ritualistic weekly incantations...
GOOOOO IRISH! BEEEEEAT JACKETS! (Suck it, JT! :)
FIGHT ON, TROJANS! BEAT THE VANDALS!

P.S. Over at ND Nation, an 'SC fan dropped by to wish the Irish good luck against Georgia Tech, and throughout the season... except on October 20, of course. "AZDomer" responded: "I hope the earth opens up and swallows your entire school." To which another Domer, "The Flash," replied:

This world would lose one tremendous count of hot women were it to do so. It would not be worth it just because we have lost a few football games to their university.

Heh. Well, at least some ND Nation posters have some sense. ;)

My first Iridium flare

By Brendan Loy

I just saw my first Iridium flare, caused by Iridium 65, with Becky and Barb from the parking lot of the UB Anderson Gallery in Buffalo. And of course, I got a photo:

Wide view here (2592x1944 pixels, 616 KB).

It wasn't terribly dramatic to the naked eye, but that's because it was a relatively weak flare from this location (magnitude -2, about the brightness of Jupiter, whereas some flares can get up to -9, about the brightness of a half moon) and we were in a rather well-lit parking lot, so there was lots of light pollution. I definitely look forward to seeing a lower-magnitude (i.e., brighter) flare from a better location sometime soon. But as a "starter flare," this wasn't too bad. :)

D'oh!

By Brendan Loy

Proto-Felix?

By Brendan Loy

Tropical Depression 6 has formed. The forecast track takes it into the southern Caribbean.

Dr. Jeff Masters and Eric Berger have more.

It's Brendan, with an A

By Brendan Loy

Last fall, a company called Bombo Sports & Entertainment contacted me about a documentary they were making on the 2006 Notre Dame football season. They wanted to know if I had any suggestions about things like fan rituals and gathering places for them to film, and they also wanted to interview me, to include the perspective of the "Irish Trojan" in their movie. (I'm sure this will go over very well with the ND Nation crowd. ... In fact, I warned them that some die-hard Domers would hate them for including me. But they wanted to anyway.) They ended up interviewing me several times, and micing me up during the North Carolina game...

...and filming me, and the people around me in the student section, from afar. I thought the whole thing was a little silly, frankly -- I'm hardly the best representative of your typical ND fan, if that's what they were looking for -- but I didn't see any compelling reason not to go along with what they wanted to do, so I did.

Well, the movie is out. It's called "Tradition Never Graduates: A Season Inside Notre Dame Football." Bombo contacted me last week to get my address so they can send me a copy. I haven't seen it yet, but one of my NDLS professors e-mailed me this afternoon to tell me that someone had sent her a copy, and it lists me as one of the DVD's "bonus features" ... but the description spelled my name in MSNBC style: "The Irish Trojan: Brandon Loy explains what it's like to be on both sides of the Notre Dame vs. USC rivalry." [UPDATE: Confirmed here.]

Between the numerous e-mails we exchanged and the fact that my website's primary domain name is BrendanLoy.com, you'd think they'd have been able to get the spelling right. In fact, the e-mail they sent me was addressed to "Brendan." But I guess whichever department does the printing missed that memo. Oh, well.

In other ND/USC news: staying in South Bend for the ND-USC game in October is a wee bit expensive:

In South Bend, the nightly rates at the Marriott hotel — normally in the $169 to $189 range — run up to $649 the night before a game. When top-ranked Southern California visits Oct. 20, guests must stay a minimum of three nights. The story is similar at other hotels.

(Hat tip: Andrew Leyden.)

Craig may resign

By Brendan Loy

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), he of the "wide stance," may resign today.

In other political news, Fred Thompson will announce his candidacy for president on Thursday. Though I must admit, I've always been a little unclear on the distinction between the announcement and the announcement-of-the-announcement. If you've announced that you're going to announce something, doesn't that mean you've actually already announced it?

TypePad blog crisis resolved

By Brendan Loy

It seems the problems I was having with TypePad on Wednesday and Thursday have been solved. My stylesheet and other files are no longer intermittently refusing to load. Here's what a TypePad support rep said about it: "We were able to confirm that we did experience a brief issue yesterday with domains not resolving correctly to the associated weblog. However, this has now been resolved and you should no longer see the unformatted text on your weblog when publishing. ... Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns."

So that's good news. If the blog still looks screwed up (i.e., like this instead of this), you may want to load my stylesheet file, refresh/reload it on your browser, and then refresh/reload the blog itself.

I'm still not 100% sure whether I'll stay with TypePad or not, and I appreciate everyone's comments on comparative blog and comment options. But for now, I'm just happy the blog is functional again. That said, if anyone has technical difficulties or other problems, please let me know. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people whose comments double-post, or post on the wrong thread, for no apparent reason. That seems to have been happening more often than usual since I switched to TypePad, and I'm wondering if there's something about the interface that's causing more user error -- or if it isn't user error at all, but is actually TypePad getting things scrambled on the back-end.

I'm also interested in any suggestions from the "regulars," and anyone else really, about the new style and formatting of the blog (which is really a separate issue from the identity of the blog platform).

In addition to the TypePad trials and tribulations, my brendanloy.com and irishtrojan.com accounts -- including all my images, my old blog archives, my photo galleries, etc. -- were moved early this morning from a WestHost dedicated server to a WestHost shared server (which was, after all, the whole point of the move to TypePad -- so I could shift the bulk of the traffic load away from WestHost and thus enable myself to stop paying for the dedicated server). There was initially a problem with the MySQL applications, including WordPress and Gallery, not working because of an IP address issue, but that has now been resolved, and everything seems to be working fine for the moment.

Reason #3,178 why USC is awesome

By David K.

Researchers at USC have developed a method for displaying 3-D holograms using a high speed rotating mirror that is simply incredible.  Take a look for yourself in the video below:

Hat tip: Engadget

T.D. 6?

By Brendan Loy

The tropical wave 250 miles east of the Windward Islands may be developing into a tropical depression. Hurricane hunters are heading out to investigate.

D'oh!

By Brendan Loy

Just get a Mac for crying out loud

By Jay Johnson

Well, I'm the lone Mac in my office, and everything else hanging around is a Dell product with Windows XP SP2.

Today, my secretary was working when her Dell spontaneously shut off.  Not shut down, not blue screen of death, no "Windows needs to shut down,"  just a stone cold, power off.

Hmm.  That's weird, so restart, which it does back to the main Windows screen, same thing in just a few seconds. 

Any of you PC types have any idea what could be going on here?  I'm thinking it's likely a hardware failure of some sort, possibly a power supply.  But, then again, I know just enough to be dangerous around children and animals.

BTW, I told the attorney I work with that he should replace it with a Mac and he looked at me like I was crazy.  Oh well.  Live and learn.  Die and forget it all.

You got enchilada in my Kung Pao chicken

By Jay Johnson

The former owner of a now defunct Chinese buffet in Knoxville has been sentenced to one year in federal prison for knowingly employing a staff of illegal Mexican immigrants at his establishment.

I'm torn about what to think about this, upon first glance.

Part of me thinks that it's certainly a reasonable response to a violation of existing law.  Then, I look at the defense strategy, which was likely the only real thing that the attorney could have argued in such a case.

"Everyone else does it, and the government doesn't do anything about it.  What's the big damn deal?"

Certainly, I feel as though our immigration laws aren't being enforced to the degree necessary and our borders aren't adequately protected from the influx of illegal immigrants.  While I don't feel a need to stem the tide of immigration to our country, I do believe that it is important to require/demand that our policies on immigration be followed.

However, a law not enforced is essentially a nullity.  It's similar in theory to real estate law, and the adverse possession of someone else's land.  If you build a fence over someone else's land, and they do nothing to remedy the situation within X number of years, then it's no longer their land, it's yours.

With our immigration laws, it would seem that a similar logic should apply.  When does the government have an affirmative obligation to start enforcing the laws on its books consistently in every such case?  When do (or should) they lose the right to do so if they fail to enforce those same laws?

How do you arbitrarily pick this particular guy to prosecute when there are hundreds or thousands of others out there doing the same thing?

I'm really torn about how to feel about this case, and would like to see what you all think.

Memory lane

By Brendan Loy

While culling several old photo boxes recently, I discovered a bunch of used film rolls that hadn't been developed. Not knowing what they were, I took them into Walgreens to get them developed. I figured there would be a mixture of interesting photos and total duds, but actually, as it turns out, those undeveloped rolls were a real gold mine of fun memories, recalled by never-before-seen pictures, most of them from 2003. For example, here I am in my headier, more confidently pro-Iraq-war days, at a "Support the Troops" rally sponsored by the USC College Republicans:

Say what you will about the war, but that was a damn nice sign I made. :) Anyway, later in 2003, here's me and Shannon in Rockefeller Center:

And then there's these adorable shots of Butter and Sasha when they were just little tiny kittens:

Aww! They were so little!

I also developed a much more recent roll of film, a throwaway camera that I used during Andrew and Bea's wedding when Becky had my digital camera. Check out this wonderful picture of Andrew's dad and Bea's dad, all smiles just after the ceremony:

And here's a shot of Bea's maid of honor, Pardis, frantically scribbling last-minute notes in preparation for her speech, just minutes before the reception started:

An eventful August

By Brendan Loy

Man, we've had quite a eventful month in terms of visiting friends, haven't we? Last week, Adrienne came to town, and then we met up with Brian Merrell (a.k.a. Briandot) for dinner -- the fourth "blog friend" we've met in person after becoming acquainted through the Loy-o-sphere. Cue the photos:

Now we're en route to Buffalo -- again! -- to hang out with friends and family, and to be showered with gifts and attention on Saturday. (Well, really it'll be Becky who'll be showered. My job is to sit there and oooh and ahhh. I know my place in the world. :)

Pick 'em contest reminder

By Brendan Loy

This post will remain on top of the homepage for a while: Enter the 3rd annual Irish Trojan USC & ND pick 'em contest!

Something to look forward to

By Brendan Loy

If this is what clothes-shopping with a pre-teen girl is like now, I shudder to think what it'll be like in, oh, 12 years or so. Excerpt:

Limited Too was awash in shimmer; virtually every item was encrusted with rhinestones or sparkling with glitter. Most of these clothes provided sufficient coverage, but my daughter doesn't like ostentation, so we looked through the T-shirts for something more subdued. There we discovered what I have come to think of as Nitwit Wear. These are T-shirts with slogans such as: "I Left My Brain in My Locker," "I Only Shop on Days that End in Y," and "Spoiled and Proud of It." (At least you only want to shake your head at these. Making you believe in corporal punishment is the Happy Bunny line of clothing, available online and at various department stores, which features phrases such as "Wow you're ugly," and "It's cute how stupid you are.") It's a comfort to know that if your child can't come up with her own insolent remarks, clothing manufacturers are there to help.

Of course, there's that extreme, and then there's the other extreme. Money quote: "Mom, I'm 11! I'm not Harriet Miers!" (Hat tip: Becky.)

Haloscan vs. Blogger Comments

By Brendan Loy

As this TypePad blog crisis stretches into a new day with minimal support and no resolution (not to mention an increasing number of other problems surfacing, like an epidemic of repetitively posted comments, presumably because of some flaw in TypePad's commenting system), it is becoming increasingly likely that I will be abandoning TypePad and switching to Blogspot. I'm hoping Blogspot might work a bit better than TypePad, and in any event, it's free, which TypePad is not. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $15/month for a buggy blog platform that doesn't provide adequate support when their mistakes are crippling my blog. So unless they fix this, and fast, yet another platform switch is in the Irish Trojan's future.

Which raises the question: which commenting system should I use, if indeed I switch to Blogger? Should I use Blogger's native commenting system, or HaloScan? I remember HaloScan causing lots of headaches, back in my blog's pre-WordPress days, in large part because of its per-comment character limit. (Even though I was a "pro" HaloScan user, there was still a limit, albeit a higher one than for regular users.) On the other hand, I've heard mixed reviews of Blogger's native commenting system. So I'm just curious what anyone with experience using either or both systems might have to say.

UPDATE: Welcome, InstaPundit readers! My TypePad problems have been solved, at least for the moment.

Let the season begin! And let Buffalo not lose by more than 50!

By Brendan Loy

So, I was planning to post something making fun of the quality of games, or lack thereof, on this season-opening Thursday of college football. I was going to list a representative handful of tonight's contests, with sacrcastic exclamation points at the end of each one -- Cincinnati vs. Southeast Missouri State! Louisville vs. Murray State! Rutgers vs. Buffalo! -- and then I was going to say something like, "Try to contain your excitement about this scintillating array of games."

But then I learned that I may have the opportunity to watch the Buffalo-Rutgers game, in a sports bar in Buffalo, with a bunch of crazed UB fans. And naturally, being a huge dork with a soft-spot for lovable losers like the UB Bulls, I'm totally excited. So it would now be disingenuous for me to go ahead with my originally planned post. :)

It's funny: a few years ago, Buffalo-Rutgers would have been seen as a rare opportunity for the Bulls to perhaps pull an upset against a BCS-conference team. Nowadays, however, it's almost as daunting as Buffalo-Auburn was last year. Rutgers is a legit powerhouse with legit BCS (and Heisman) ambitions, while Buffalo's ambition remains the same as ever: to avoid losing each and every single game it plays. To not go winless. A lofty goal indeed. :)

Anyway, not that it matters -- and this is the last time I'll root against Rutgers this season, unless they play USC or Notre Dame in a bowl game -- but I'll say it for what it's worth: LET'S GO BUFF-A-LO!!!

Richard Jewell dies

By Brendan Loy

Richard Jewell, the hero-turned-villain-turned-media-martyr of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing, is dead.

Erik Ainge and the Pinky Finger of Doom

By Brendan Loy

The greater Knoxville area is abuzz with anxiety this evening after the revelation of what Tennessee fans doubtless regard as the most consequential finger injury since Gollum bit the Ring off Frodo's hand: Vols quarterback Erik Ainge has broken his pinky finger on the eve (well, not quite the eve, but close enough) of UT's big showdown with Cal. The official word is that he'll start, but the football-obsessed denizens of Big Orange Country are nevertheless worried. Could Tennessee's hoped-for dream season be thwarted before it begins by a broken pinky?

I, of course, hope Ainge is able to play with full effectiveness -- but I must say, I'm extremely torn about how I want the Cal-UT game to come out. On the one hand, now that I'm living in Knoxville, I'm supposed to root for Tennessee when doing so doesn't conflict with my other loyalties (i.e., USC and ND), and anyway a Vols win over the Bears would really make the start of football season exciting here, the sort of excitement that can only come when the crazed populace of a football-mad region begins to see some validation of their championship delusions. :) On the other hand, this is a very big conference showdown between the Pac-10 and SEC, and although I'm trying to warm to the latter now that I'm living in SEC country, my primary loyalty as a Trojan fan obviously lies with the former. A second consecutive Cal loss to UT, in Berkeley this time, would be humiliating for the Pac-10, and would make it much harder to argue with the "SEC = NFL" crowd as the season goes on. And that could become very consequential for USC, if they end up in a BCS debate at season's end against the likes of LSU or Auburn or Florida (or, well, Tennessee!). So I feel like I sort of have to root for Cal in this one, even though I'd sort of like to root for Tennessee.

2 years later

By Brendan Loy

Today is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. Dr. Jeff Masters is blogging about it, and he links to Margie Kieper's excellent, in-depth feature on Katrina's Surge.

Stylesheet issues? Broken links? AAAHH!!!

By Brendan Loy

Is anyone else having technical difficulties whereby my blog's stylesheet is refusing to load, thus causing the website to look all screwed up? (If you're confused, it's supposed to look like this... not like this.) I am, and when I try to load the stylesheet manually, I get a "404 Not Found" error. I have no idea why.

Also confusing: the first time I clicked the URL in InstaPundit's post linking to me, I got a 404 error. The second time, the link worked. The third time, another 404 error. WTF? I know it's not just me, because Anonymous Hoosier is reporting problems too. Moreover, the traffic is very much below what I'd expect from an Instalanche... so I think lots of people are having trouble accessing that URL.

TypePad, I'm not real happy with you right now...

Fear not Red Sox fans...

By JLR

In spite of our disheartening loss last night at the hands of the Bronx B*stards, a quick calculation shows that the Magic Number for the Sox to clinch the AL East is

24

Just an update from your friendly neighborhood Red Sox fan.

Football meets futból

By David K.

Booty for Heisman: let the hype begin!

By Brendan Loy

Via TrojanWire:

I'll be honest: I wasn't terribly impressed with Booty last year... until the Rose Bowl. But man, if he plays this season the way he played against Michigan, he'll be a runaway Heisman winner.

Oh, and speaking of college football: Don't forget to enter the 3rd annual Irish Trojan USC & ND pick 'em contest!

A.G. Lieberman? V.P. Lieberman?

By Brendan Loy

The D.C./netroots rumor mill is churning tonight with the suggestion that Senator Joe will become Attorney General Joe. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) And then there's the ultra-paranoid kicker, that Lieberman will subsequently be elevated from A.G. to V.P. to replace a resigning Cheney, thus setting him up to run for president in 2008 as Bush's hand-picked choice*. Attorney General Joe? Vice President Joe?? President Joe??? Oh, the Joe-manity!!!

The veep stuff is obviously nonsense, but will the A.G. rumors come to anything? I doubt it. As James L. at Swing State Project notes, "if you've believed all the rumors, Lieberman should have been one or all of the following by now: Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, Ambassador to the United Nations, and George Bush's running mate in 2004."

Also, Ron Beasley (not to be confused with Ron Weasley) says, "I really can't see Lieberman giving up another five and half years in the Senate for 16 months as AG." I agree. I also, of course, don't share the Left's (plainly irrational) belief that Lieberman is a power-hungry closet "Rethuglican" who wants nothing more than to get all Larry Craig with President Bush and his cronies... so I can't see him taking this post unless he honestly believes he could do more good for the country in it than in his current capacity. And that seems doubtful.

Still, if Lieberman were appointed, that would bring about something truly remarkable: President Bush would have managed to find an attorney general who is, at least arguably, hated even more viscerally by the Left than John Ashcroft ever was. Wonders never cease!

*Why would anyone want to be Bush's hand-picked choice in the 2008 election? Just asking!

Tropics to heat up?

By Brendan Loy

The Atlantic tropics remain preternaturally quiet as we hurtle toward the season's climatological peak on September 10. Alan Sullivan continues to expect a subnormal storm count for the season; indeed, he says "I am beginning to suspect it may be lower than I had dared to hope, when I was bucking the consensus several months ago."

But now there is at least something to talk about, for the first time since Hurricane Dean died out over Mexico: "Invest 94L," a reasonably well-organized tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic. Dr. Jeff Masters says 94L is fighting against dry air, and the reliable computer models don't develop it. On the other hand, the computer models do predict that a currently hypothetical tropical wave in roughly the same area will become a depression later this week:

The UKMET and GFS models are indicating the possible development of a tropical depression by Thursday or Friday off the coast of Africa. There is a large surge of moisture with at least one strong tropical wave embedded in it coming off the coast of Africa this week. This moister air should make a more favorable environment for a tropical depression to form in than the one 94L finds itself in.

Cape Verde storms are always ones to keep an eye on, so this bears watching. Even if there's nothing to actually watch, as of yet. :)

Meanwhile, Eric Berger has posted a cool worldwide map of all tropical systems' tracks since the mid-1800s.

Austin City Limits

By Leanna Loomer

A very dear friend contacted me recently about Austin City Limits.  I've always been a fan of Austin City Limits so I was interested.  And, to my amazement, it turns out her two sons, in an indie band called The Frontier Brothers, are competing for a "new artist" slot on a future broadcast of Austin City Limits.  I knew they were a serious working band (out of Fort Worth), but this news about this opportunity, and especially about them in relation to this opportunity, was new to me.  I passed the word on to friends who are music fans and to a few friends who trust me when I ask a favor of them.  And only one friend misconstrued this situation as something like American Idol. Austin City Limits is a long-running PBS program presenting well-respected, professional musicians.  And it seems it is offering an opportunity to working (but not nationally-known) bands to be introduced in a new band slot. This is so NOT American Idol.

I now go to the site each day (one vote per day being allowed) and I vote for this band.  I urge you all to check this out at the URL I am putting below.  (Actually, this URL will specifically take you to The Frontier Brothers on the band ballot, but it also gives you the page, The Sound and the Jury.)  You can sample their music (you can sample any of the bands' music) and if you like their music, you can cast a vote for them (or for another band there).  One reason this particularly appeals to me is that this to me is so far superior to American Idol.  No ridicule, no comedy, no Not-Ready-For-Primetime bands. The Frontier Brothers is a serious working band making their bones in venues all around Texas and the Southeast, and this is a serious opportunity for them.  For all these bands.  And that matters.   

Check it (and them) out:  http://acl.mp3.com/feature/soundandjury/?band=THE-FRONTIER-BROTHERS.

CNN Breaking News

By Brendan Loy

Since I don't have CNN Breaking News alerts set to post automatically to the new blog setup yet, I'll post this one manually:

Sen. Larry Craig, who was arrested on misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a bathroom, denies he is gay and accuses a newspaper of a witchhunt. Visit CNN for the latest.

Today's WTF column

By dcl

Brilliant parenting at work I suppose So, umm yeah?.

Justice for murdered Trojan

By Brendan Loy

The man who killed USC basketball star Ryan Francis has been convicted and faces life in prison without parole.

I missed the eclipse! :(

By Brendan Loy

After blogging about it, counting down to it, etc., I actually ended up skipping this morning's lunar eclipse. I hate to miss such things, but I was exhausted, and after all, I've seen plenty of lunar eclipses -- and I'll have a chance to see another one in February -- so I decided going to sleep, and cuddling with my pregnant wife, was the more prudent option. :)

Anyway, SpaceWeather.com has an eclipse photo gallery.

It's that time of year again...

By Brendan Loy

...time for the Irish Trojan's 3rd annual Notre Dame and USC college football pick 'em contests to begin!

Just like the previous two years, the goal is not merely to predict each team's final record correctly, but to predict each game correctly, and that's how the contests will be scored. Final record and margin of victory will be used as tiebreakers.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment with your name* (or a psuedonym that will adequately identify you to Irish Trojan readers) and your predicted margin of victory for each USC and Notre Dame game. (They're separate contests, so you can choose to enter one or the other if you wish; you don't have to enter both, though of course it's encouraged.) Positive numbers mean you're predicting a win by the Trojans/Irish; negative numbers mean you're predicting a loss.

USC's schedule is here; Notre Dame's schedule is here. I'll put a simple text list of all the games at the top of comments, so you can copy & paste that, and then fill in the relevant numbers, if you wish.

The deadline to enter is 3:00 PM EDT on Saturday. The prize, as usual, is good old fashioned bloggy bragging rights.

Good luck! Beat the Vandals! Beeeeat Jackets!

*First and last names preferred, not required. But please, if you have a particularly common name, at least give a last initial or something. I don't want three "Davids" and four "Andrews" with no last names. :)

Irish Trojan: The Next Generation

By Brendan Loy

Welcome to the new and... well, downgraded... Irish Trojan's Blog.

As promised, I've split the blog in two. The "old" blog remains archived on my WestHost dedicated server (and will soon be on a shared server, once I've downgraded my WestHost account), while the "new" blog -- i.e., what you're looking at right now -- is actually located on TypePad's servers. The fact that it appears at the domain brendanloy.com is just a bit of DNS sleight-of-hand; the new blog appears to be united with the rest of the site, including the old blog, but it's really not. The end result is that the bulk of my traffic will go through TypePad's servers, not WestHost's, thus enabling me to stop throwing $260/month down the memory hole every month to keep the dedicated server up & running.

I picked TypePad over BlogSpot because I felt that its features were more robust in several ways. However, I may yet change my mind on that and switch to Blogspot. In fact, virtually everything about this "new" blog is subject to change, from the title and subtitle to the layout and design. Indeed, I intend to change a number of things. But I needed to make the switch now, before my September bill from WestHost comes due. So this will be a work-in-progress, as major changes to my blog invariably are.

Alas, one key feature that TypePad currently lacks is pagination, so you can't look at "Page 2," "Page 3," etc. Supposedly, TypePad will be adding pagination sometime soon, but until then, if you fall behind on what I've blogged recently and want to catch up, you'll have to use the daily or monthly archives. Sorry about that.

I did manage to hack together a recent comments page, displaying the 100 most recent comments. (Like the rest of the blog, it isn't paginated, so you're out of luck if you want to go past 100.) However, I haven't yet figured out if I can do pop-up comments, which I know people like. For now, the "comments" link on each post on the homepage goes directly to the comment area on the permalink page. Again, sorry about that. I'll try to fix it eventually.

I'm sure there will be some glitches and problems, so if you experience any technical difficulties, please leave a comment and/or shoot me an e-mail (irishtrojan [at] gmail.com) so I'll know about it.

Oh, and if you want to read posts and/or leave comments on the "old" blog, you still can. Posts are at www.brendanloy.com/wp, and comments are at www.brendanloy.com/comments.