Pacers/Pistons Brawl

If you have not seen or heard anything about the fight that broke out last night in Detroit between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, you need to. The fight started out as some name calling, pushing, and maybe a few swings and ended up being an all out brawl with players going into the stands and beating fans that had thrown cups full of drinks at them.

People are saying that the players should not have gone after the fans and to a point I agree. But, no player deserves to have stuff thrown at them by a drunk fan. If you are dumb enough to throw something at a person who is much bigger and stronger than you than you are dumb enough to face the consequences, which, in this case was a right hand to the face.

To make matters worse fans came out onto the court and were taunting players and throwing more stuff at them. One guy even took a swing at Ron Artest and Ron did what any other person would do, he swung back.

I really do not know how I feel about the whole situation. No, there should not be fighting but there also shouldn’t be people throwing things at players.

You can watch the video here.

Spring Break

It is only November and already I am starting to think about what I am going to do for Spring Break. I have been contemplating going to one of the coasts and just seeing the sights.

I have wanted to visit New York or Washington D.C. for a while now so I may just go to one of those cities and spend the week. Since Washington is so close to Baltimore I thought I might catch the Metro (I think that is what they call it) and head up there to catch an Orioles game, but I was just looking at their schedule and their season does not start until April.

Philadelphia is also pretty close to D.C. so I could head up there and check it out.

There are just so many options, I don’t know what to do. But, knowing my luck I’ll stay in Lubbock soaking up some of that West Texas dust.

Backing up tons of MySQL databases…

I have been trying to tackle this issue for a while now and I still have not come up with a good solution.

My requirements are to backup MySQL databases that reside on multiple servers and then download the backup files (*.sql) to a local machine so that they can be burned to a CD.

The two solutions that I have come up with are:

  1. A Python script that runs the commands from a local machine.
  2. A Shell script that runs on the remote machines to backup the databases and a script that runs on the local machine to download the backups

My problem is deciding which way is more efficient and easier to use. Since we are usually adding sites at a rate of about 2 a month I need to be able to edit a config file with all of the new database’s information so that it can be backed up as well.

Anyone dealt with this before? Ideas? (e-mail me: s [AT] badice [DOT] com

Holiday Spice Pepsi

After learning about Holiday Spice Pepsi I had to pick some up. The plan was to get a 12 pack of it and try it out but the local grocery store only had it being sold as a single in a bottle. I picked one up and gave it a try…

My first impression was that it was “different”. It was not bad, it just had a different flavor that I was not used to. As I continued drinking it I realized that it reminded me of the smell of Pine-Sol. Other than that I thought it was pretty good. You can taste the cinnamon and ginger, which I know does not sound good to most people but I thought it was.

So if you are in the mood for something different try it out. It will only be around till New Years.

The Rest of the Week

Rain will be around the rest of the week. It is not pouring rain or anything like that, it is a steady, depressing drizzle. I walked home from school in it and by the time I got to my block I was soaked. I enjoyed it but I do not think I can take 4 more days of it. I feel like I am back in Houston except it is cold…

My week will consist of me studying as much as possible so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving weekend with my family. I am meeting with a professor tomorrow to discuss taking an independent studies class that would allow me to free up a spot in my schedule for lunch because as it stands right now I go for about 6 hrs. straight a day with no lunch break.

I’ve made some time over the last few days to play America’s Army. My connection at home sucks so I usually go to a friend’s house to play. It is weird to play again, but it is nice.

New Database System?

I have been thinking about moving this site to a different host so that I could get SSH access to my account and its databases. Along with that, I have been working on a new database structure that is somewhat different to what is considered normal for a “blog”. I’ll explain more when it and its corresponding PHP is complete.