| 1/25/99 | We had a great time celebrating Dad's 60th birthday up at Poverty Flats this past weekend. He was completely surprised! At one point there were 36 people in the house - pretty crowded! Billy, with Heather and Christian, made it in from Dallas, and Forrest & Shelli came in from Nashville. However, Patrisha and Antjuan were unable to make it because... |
| Patrisha's Vikings Cheerleaders competed in a Cheerleader Competition this past Saturday. They were invited after repeating as the SEMAA Cheerleader overall champions for the second year. This was their first competition outside of the league and they performed quite well, taking 2nd place. Jennifer, competing in the individual event, also took home a 2nd place. Congratulations! | |
| I'm still in Memphis, although a couple of things are brewing...I should hear something on a short-term deal in Dallas on Wednesday. Long-term things are still up in the air, but the relo to Dallas is all but a done deal. We're shooting for a move soon after Antjuan is out of school for the summer. | |
| 1/18/99 | It looks like I'll probably be in Memphis this week. I'm still not sure what I'll be working on next, but as soon as I know something, I'll be sure to post it here. |
| Patrisha is going back to work in a couple of weeks. She was called back by the IRS to start a couple of months earlier than last year, and with a pay increase, to boot! She will return the week following her team's Cheerleader Competition. | |
| The Broncos are in the Superbowl again! But it won't be the game we were hoping for - the Vikings were knocked out by the Falcons in OT. Patrisha is really bummed - she was looking forward to a big Superbowl party and decorating the house up in Purple and Gold. Well, perhaps next year. | |
| 1/12/99 | Well, the big site update is here! Let me know what you think of it. Note the URL Minder in the Nav bar frame - it should send you an e-mail whenever I make changes to the pages. |
| I'm home for the time being - my work in Minneapolis is finished now. There are several things popping up in Travel and Transportation (my field of expertise), so I'm waiting to see what's up next. | |
| Yay for the Broncos! After the resounding victory over Miami, I'm really looking forward to the Jets game next weekend. And based on the way the Vikings played, it's looking more and more like the big shootout will take place. The Superbowl should be great! | |
| 1/3/99 | My first official update of the new year! I hope everyone had a safe and joyous holidays. We had a nice time here - I took a couple of weeks off and got some stuff done around the house, and also spent time with my family. It just reminds me why I need to cut back on travel. Quality of life is becoming more important to me as I get older. |
| The playoffs are here! Denver will square off against Miami for a rematch - but this time in Mile High. Go Broncos! If it ends up being the Broncos and the Vikings in the Superbowl, there will be a war here at the Smothers household. Patrisha is a big Vikings fan! It should be fun. | |
| Finally, I have to run up to Minneapolis next week (Tuesday through Friday). But after that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing, work-wise. I'll try to keep you posted here. Happy New Year to All! | |
| 12/22/98 | Once again, a lengthy delay. Anyway, I'm done in Minneapolis except for a transition effort that should only last a few days. I'll probably go back up for a few days the first week of January. Patrisha came up for the Perot Holiday Party in Minneapolis - we had a great time! We went to the Mall of America, the Hyatt comped me with an Executive Suite, and we met, talked to for awhile, and had our picture taken with Ross, himself! |
| Now that I'm home for awhile (I took the last two weeks of December off as vacation), I've got lots of chores to work on. But I'm trying to take it a bit easy, as well. I may undertake a bit of a redesign on my web site - I'm thinking of going to frames as everyone seems to have updated browsers that support it. FYI, the latest Netscape still works best on this site - please avoid Internet Exploder! | |
| By the way, for those following the football stuff, Patrisha and her Vikings Cheerleaders repeated as Overall Champions in the SEMAA Cheerleader competition. It was exciting to watch! Now we're done with the season and if the relo to Dallas happens (looks pretty sure now), it will probably be our last. I'm sure we'll come back to catch a game or two next year. | |
| 11/15/98 | Man, I've left all you hanging for far too long! I'm sorry, but with the travel to Minneapolis, football season, and everything else, I let this site get away from me! My sincerest apologies. I will endeavor to do better in the future. The family is fine, by the way, and Antjuan is out of his cast and fully healed! |
| Speaking of Antjuan, the football season is over now for the Grizzlies. They finished the season 7-2 (both losses came while he was injured). The last game of the season was a bowl game against the Fayette County All-Stars. It was a real shoot-out! The Grizzlies won by coming from behind in the 4th quarter with a final score of 40-38. Antjuan played the game of his life, rushing for 120+ yds and one touchdown, throwing for nearly 400 yds, 3 TD's and 2 two-point conversions. He also played both Linebacker and Defensive End, making 10 or 15 tackles. Now, he's back to the low-man on the totem pole when he starts high-school next fall. | |
| I'm back to Minneapolis in the morning. I'll try to update here when I get back. Saturday is the SEMAA League championship games and the cheerleader competition, so Patrisha and I will be busy most of the day, but I'll be in Memphis all of next week, so I should have time to make updates. With the big to-do at Poverty Flats the weekend after Thanksgiving, I'll get to see many of you face to face, so we can catch up then and you can give me tips on this site. See you then! | |
| 10/10/98 | I was in Minneapolis and missed all the action last Tuesday! Antjuan and the Grizzlies played out at Somerville against Oakland. It was a tough game - they were big, physical and fast! We won the game 12-8 and everyone says Antjuan played the game of his life, throwing for one touchdown and running for another, playing defensive end, and stepping up as the team leader. But that's not the amazing thing - during warm-ups, he fell and injured his wrist. They wrapped it up and he played the game, but afterwards it really swelled up. Patrisha took him to the doctor Wednesday to look at it, and found out it was fractured - he had played the whole game with a broken wrist on his throwing hand! Well, I'm quite impressed with his toughness, but we're all extremely dissapointed that he'll miss playing quarterback for at least some of the season. |
| We took Antjuan to the orthopedist to have his wrist looked at and casted and the doctor said he would have to be in the cast for 4 weeks, but he can play with the cast padded. Antjuan will probably have to just play defense, but it's better than not playing at all. | |
| 9/29/98 | The game on Saturday against Kirby Middle was great! We won 32-6, and Antjuan had a very good game. Grandpa Big Mick made it to watch the game and was impressed - hopefully Grandma Holly will get to see a game soon. The next one will be against LaGrange on Tuesday, Oct.6th. It will be under the lights at the Somerville High field and starts at 5:30. Unfortunately, I'll miss it as I'll be out of town. |
| Not much else going on - I'm in Memphis this week, will be in Minneapolis next week. | |
| 9/19/98 | Done with SEMAA Football for the day...I'm whipped! Good football, though. Antjuan and the Grizzlies won the Hernando game last Saturday 16-6: he rushed for 80 yds, threw for 150+ with one touchdown and 2-two point conversions! Lots of tackles at Outside Linebacker, too. They also played a game last Thursday at Harding Academy against their 7th grade team and beat 'em bad. Antjuan and the big boys didn't play. I missed it because I was in Minneapolis (bummer). |
| Please, anyone with some time free next Saturday (the 26th) should try to come out to Antjuan's game against Kirby Middle at our field at Wooddale High School. That's the school that Antjuan and some of his teammates attend. We beat them twice last year - it has developed into a fierce rivalry over the last few years! The game is at 12 noon - call or email me for directions. | |
| Now that Northwest has settled their strike, I'm heading back up to Minneapolis next week. One of the guys I worked with in Philadelphia will be up there, too, so we should have a good time. I'll be up there Monday through Friday next week, then home all the following week. | |
| 9/12/98 | Well, another long delay without an update - but I have plenty of excuses! We had a fun time in Dallas, but I let the heat get to me at Six Flags. I developed a nasty cough and haven't completely recovered yet. I also made some massive reorganizations to my network here at the house. I now have a Linux box running IP Masquerade (among other things) as my firewall - after some trials and tribulations, it's running great! For those that care, it's from the Slackware 3.5 distribution - I downloaded the entire 330+ MB over the cable modem in a few hours! Cool, eh? |
| Antjuan and the Grizzlies' first game (supposed to be at Ridgeway) was cancelled - a bunch of political B.S. However, the Hernando game is still on for today (I'd better get to bed - gotta be up at 7am)! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. | |
| Northwest may be on the verge of settling the strike - I sure hope so! | |
| 9/2/98 | We're heading to Dallas this weekend for a family getaway. We'll get to see Billy, Guy and Cheryl and the boys, and some friends. We plan on going to Six Flags and some other stuff. It should be a blast! |
| Antjuan and the Grizzlies have their first game tomorrow (Thursday) evening at Ridgeway. Kick-off is at the high school field at 5:30 pm. We're looking forward to a good showing. | |
|
This Northwest strike is really messing up my travel for
work. Hopefully they will get together and come up with
a solution everyone can live with. In the mean time, I'm
spending lots of time at home. I guess I can live with
that! | |
| 8/24/98 | Sorry for the delayed update! I've been very busy with travelling for work, the start of SEMAA football, and other stuff. But as I'm working from Memphis all this week, I should have more time to update my site. |
| Speaking of sitekeeping, I'm planning to gradually update this site to HTML 4.0 and Cascading Style Sheets, so if things start looking funny (wierd backgrounds, colors, etc.) then you may want to check to be sure your browser is CSS compatible The latest Netscape Navigator/Communicator and Microsoft Internet Exploder...er..Explorer (the 4.x releases) should work fine. | |
| Check out the SEMAA Football site to find out about Jamboree last weekend. In the Grizzly Intra-squad scrimmage, Antjuan scored the lone touchdown to win the game as time ran out! It was definitely exciting. | |
| 8/10/98 | Football sign-ups are over (finally!). It looks like the league will be full this year. The team rosters are even (thanks to a strong draft), and even the Grizzlies already have 12 players on the roster! I'm looking forward to a great season! |
| Patrisha is still fighting a nasty cough and the occasional headaches, but she is doing better. She's going to the doctor tomorrow to find out how she's coming along. | |
| 8/2/98 | Patrisha was sick this weekend, so other than Football signups on Saturday and a trip to the emergency room for a massive migraine Patrisha had (scared the bejeezus out of me!), the weekend was rather uneventful. |
| Tuesday night in Minneapolis I had one of the less pleasurable experiences of being a frequent traveler. I was confirmed at the Hyatt Regency, but due to an account meeting, I didn't go to the hotel to check in until around 9:40pm, at which point I was informed that they had overbooked and had no rooms left. I would have to go to another hotel (this is called being "Walked" in hotel industry lingo). Unfortunately, the hotel they had walked me and an associate to was not comparable, to put it mildly. After several hours of phone calls and sitting around in a seedy lobby across from the bus station, we were finally sent to a hotel 25 miles out of town. I finally got to my room at 1 am. However, the rest of the week went fairly well. Anyway, there's another good Road Warrior story for friends and colleagues. | |
| 7/27/98 | The doctor gave me a brace for my knee today - he wants to give it a few weeks and see how it does. We'll hold off on surgery for now. |
| SEMAA Footbal sign-ups were a little slow Saturday - a combination of bad weather and the usual slowness on the first weekend. But there's still two more weekends - it should pick up substantially then. | |
| 7/20/98 | We made it back from our trip out West - had a great time! We spent some time in Yellowstone on our way to Ten Sleep on Thursday, and got in late. Friday morning we drove around my old stomping grounds, then went to the Reunion Dinner that evening. It was fun seeing my old high school mates. Saturday morning was the parade, picnic, and other activities. Then Sunday, it was back to Billings and a plane home. Except for a sprained ankle for Patrisha and a dislocated knee for me, we made it safely. I'll find out if I need surgery on Monday the 27th. |
| Because I had to see the doctor for my knee today, I delayed my trip to Minneapolis a day, but I'm off in the morning. I'll be back on Friday evening. | |
| 7/15/98 | I'm back from my first (short) week on my new project. I think it will be interesting work. The team is good, and the customer is reasonable. The only down side is the travel - it looks like I'll be in Minneapolis Monday through Friday every week until the end of August, at least. |
|
IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! The big 20 year Ten Sleep High School class reunion (class of '78, for the arithmetically challenged) is on! Patrisha and I are on the plane tomorrow morning. I'm really looking forward to it! | |
| I'll try to get in an update Sunday night before I head back to Minneapolis. | |
| 7/12/98 | Well, the official word came down, and in a big hurry! The need is pressing and I'm on a plane for Minneapolis Monday morning. I'll be leading a team setting up the groundwork for an Object Oriented project for an insurance company. It should take 60-90 days. After that, who knows? I'm still hoping for the Memphis-based business to materialize, but with the delay, you never know. |
|
The Wyoming trip is still on. I'll make next week a short week and
head back to Memphis from Minneapolis Wednesday evening, repack,
then get up Thursday to fly back to Minneapolis | |
| Because of the trips to Minneapolis each week, I'll have less time to spend updating the web site, especially when Football starts. But I'll still strive to update at least the "news" here weekly. Also, just to give me an idea who visits my page, please e-mail me at: mick@midsouth.rr.com and let me know how often you check here. Thanks! | |
| 7/9/98 | Sorry for the delayed update...I know I promised to do better, and I have, I really have! I just got really busy these last few weeks and haven't had a chance to jump in here and update stuff. Especially with the Wyoming trip next week (we're leaving on Thursday). |
|
SEMAA's fall season will be cranking up in a few weeks. I'm in the
process of updating that site in preparation. Coach Reyes has already
created the flyer for sign-ups and I'll be adding it to the site soon.
Also, with the new sod on the field, it should be in much better shape
than last year.
| |
| The travel plans for me should be firming up soon. It's pretty much boiled down to Minneapolis, Denver, or Ft. Lauderdale. I should know for sure by Wednesday of next week (July 15). | |
| 6/24/98 | ITCScroll has been updated to version 0.91 beta. I made some massive changes in this release - it looks the same on the outside, but the innards have major rework. One new feature is the ability to change the scrolling speed. Download the update from the Software page and read HISTORY.TXT for some details. |
|
It looks as if I may be travelling for a
few months in the near future. The local
prospect has been delayed for awhile, so
I'd better get to work! The leading
candidates for work locations are: Denver, CO Ft. Lauderdale, FL London, England We'll see what happens! | |
| 6/22/98 | I made it back from St. Louis - it was a very interesting class I attended. Another technique for the old systems development toolkit. |
| 6/14/98 | I'm heading to St. Louis tonight to attend a training class. I'll be back Wednesday evening after 8:30pm or so. I won't be able to answer personal e-mail (to my Roadrunner account) while I'm away - I'll answer it when I get back. If you need me sooner, send it to my work account: mick.smothers@ps.net |
| Patrisha, et. al. made it back safe and sound from her cruise. She really had a good time! Her recommendation is to go on a three or four day cruise for your first one...more than that would be too much. | |
| 6/5/98 | Patrisha is on her way to the Carribbean right now! She, her sister, and their friend are on a getaway cruise to the Bahamas - it's something she's been looking forward to for a long time. Right about now they should be rounding the tip of Florida on their way to Key West, their first stop. |
| Version 0.6 alpha of the scroller applet is now available on the Software page. There have been some improvements in the design, but no real additional functionality. It's still worth the update, especially if you are doing anything with the code. | |
| 5/30/98 | I finally broke down and have released the java applet that displays my latest news. It's called ITC Scroll and is still a work in progress. This initial release is 0.5 alpha and is definitely alpha code. Use at your own risk. If you do use it, please let me know! It is available on the Software page. |
| A point of interest: Patrisha and Antjuan's email addresses have changed and the old Mindspring ones are no longer active. The new Roadrunner addresses are on the Family page. | |
| 5/28/98 | Well, I'm back from the big family reunion. It was a wonderful time! 30+ folks showed up for the festivities. We had lots of things to do, but mostly visited and ate lots of good food. We even spent a little time getting my brother's home-built computer running better than it was (flaky motherboard chipset problems, we think). We're already looking forward to next year, probably in Knoxville. |
| 5/21/98 | The Memorial Day weekend is upon us and that means...the Anderson/Smothers Family Reunion! We're having it up at my mom & dad's place, near Ripley, TN. We're leaving tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and I'll be incommunicado until probably Monday - no e-mail, no telephone, no pager (at least I don't think it works up there). I'll check my e-mail when I get back and try to catch up as quickly as I can. |
| 5/19/98 | Sorry for the tardy update - I retrofit all my pages to use a slick HTML preprocessor written in REXX by this guy in Australia. I put a link up on my Software page pointing to it if anyone wants to try it out. Now that my pages have been updated to use it, it should be easier to get updates processed. |
| 5/6/98 |
Roadrunner is up and running! It's
really fast! I'll try to put a page
up soon to describe my setup (as I
get it squared away). I've learned
more about Socks5 and BIND than I
ever wanted to know in the last 48
hours |
|
By the way, for you guys that have been
bugging me for the source for this java
scroller applet (you know who you are
| |
| 5/4/98 | I'll probably be moving this web site in the very near future...I'm having the RoadRunner Cablemodem service hooked up tomorrow. I'll leave a link here to the new site as soon as I get it set up. For more information about RoadRunner, go to: http://www.midsouth.rr.com |
| It's the last week of SEMAA Spring Camp - we're in full pads and putting in plays to prepare for the games on Saturday. I think we're handling the camp pretty well, despite the incredible turnout. There's alot of good players out there, and everyone seems to be having fun. | |
| As far as work goes, we're in a "hurry up and wait" mode. We just have to get the contract signed and then we can get started working. I'm definitely getting anxious to get busy! | |
| 4/29/98 | I had to cancel my trip to Dallas this week. I need to be in Memphis to help close the new deal. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to make up for the trip - I was going to attend a revised version of a class I was unable to complete last year due to a work emergency. |
| SEMAA Spring Camp is in full gear! I missed the first week while I was in Dallas, but I'll get there as often as I can this week. I guess we ended up with over 100 cheerleaders and 180 players. What a great turnout! Hopefully this bodes well for the Fall. | |
| 4/27/98 | Well, I'm back from Dallas - the training class I attended was surprisingly good! Lots of useful information. I also got to spend some time working on other stuff - preparing for the new project. I will probably have to return to Dallas next week as there is still some work to do. I'm looking at leaving Wednesday and returning Friday evening. |
| While in Dallas, I got to spend some time with my brother, Billy. He is working on his computer that he built and will be spending time on-line soon. I also spent some time with my cousin, Guy and his family (Cheryl, Trey, and Max). I had lots of fun. | |
| 4/19/98 | The meetings on the Memphis project for work went well - it looks like we'll get the business. The lawyers have to hash through the contract mumbo-jumbo, but that shouldn't take more than a week or so. I'll be in Dallas all next week working on staffing and attending a training class, so I may be a bit slow on e-mail responses, but I'll try to get on at least once a day. |
| The SEMAA Spring football signups went well, despite the cold, rainy weather. We ended up with over 100 players and 60 cheerleaders! Past experience predicts those numbers to at least double during the first week of Camp. I sure am disappointed that I will be out of town for the first week, but I'm sure the other volunteers will handle it OK. | |
| 4/7/98 |
Things are moving forward with the Memphis
based project. We had a productive series
of meetings with the prospective customer
and are now working on an agreement. Let's
keep our fingers crossed! |
| I'm currently working on a web site for SEMAA Football, so I've added a link from my SEMAA page to it. When it's soup, I'll make the main page link point to the SEMAA site. | |
| I plan on getting back to some of my java work soon. I intend to add the source to this scroller app (a derivative work) to my software page soon. I just need to fix a couple of things and organize it better. Give me a few weeks. | |
| 3/30/98 | I am currently working on landing some business here in Memphis - that would be really great! My travel would cut way down and I'd have a much more normal life. This week will be spent in meetings with the potential customer, so I should know more by the end of the week. |
| 3/4/98 | Toronto was an interesting place to visit. The trip went well, and we got the information we needed. We stayed at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto, arguably the best hotel in Canada. It's where the Queen and visiting foreign dignitaries stay! Nice place. Anyway, it's good to be back home. |
| 2/20/98 | It looks like the Ten Sleep High 20 year Reunion is on! July 17-18 are the most likely dates. I'll enjoy a trip back to Wyoming - I miss the mountains every so often. Now the only questions are whether to fly or drive, and whether Patrisha and Antjuan are coming, too. |