The Luebbes: A Family Blog

TheLuebbes Sept. 2007 - Aug. 2009

Chris — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:31:00 -0700

Please be seated.

Today marks the posting of the final, erm, post to TheLuebbes.com. It is with bittersweet emotion that I make this announcement. See, I really like my blog - except when it causes the RSS or email feeds to regurgitate. It runs on .NET, which I work with on a daily basis. It's my domain name - which I'm actually letting expire. Trouble is, the hosting for it isn't free. Not that it's expensive. Quite the contrary.

Yet, in these times, every dollar saved helps.

Besides, even though to friends and family, theluebbes.com is easy to rememer, I'm not trying to build a brand here. I'm really just looking for a place to store my thoughts, share funny and/or educational bits, you know, kind of like a journal.

So with that, let it be known that TheLuebbes.com will live on at its new home: nerdly.blogspot.com. Not much over there yet, but I'm working on importing the archive-worthy posts from this blog. Why don't you hop on over there and subscribe to the RSS feed. Or just click here.

Out.

Finally! A New Car!

Chris — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:53:43 -0700

It has been a lo-o-o-ong while since I’ve posted. Sorry about that, but I’ve been ridiculously busy at my new job: Sr. Web Developer at Bridge Worldwide. But that’s not the point of this post.

This post is about what I did yesterday: I bought a new car. Yes, it’s true. 14 years after my last new car purchase. Rachel’s van doesn’t count, since I drive it like maybe once a month.

That last new car purchase, which is the only other brand new car I’ve ever owned, was a 1995 VW Jetta “City” – a trim level probably named by someone with a lisp. “Joe, what should we call the trim with no options but A/C?” “How about Shitty? Ha ha!” “City? Yeah, let’s go with it!”

It was a nice enough car and had terrific gas mileage, but after 3 or 4 years, the exterior door trim strips started peeling off. And the paint started fading. And the material that coated the steering wheel started to crumble. Literally.

We dumped it in favor of Rachel’s van, and I inherited her then 7 year old Pontiac Grand Am. At least it had a V6 and a moonroof.

I’ve had many other cars: 1972 Chevy Malibu, 1986 VW Golf, 1986 Toyota MR2, 2002 Ford Explorer, and my soon-to-be-former ride, a 2002 Chrysler Sebring. The MR2 being the exception, none were truly fun to drive.

My new car will be.

I bought a 2010 Ford Fusion Sport in Sport Blue Metallic. 3.5L V6. Moonroof. Nav. Leather. Power everything. Heated seats and mirrors. And before you say, “Yeah, but it’s a Ford,” consider that Consumer Reports and many other mags are saying that the Fusion and Ford in general has matched or even surpassed Toyota and Honda in initial quality and reliability. And Ford is the only of Big Three to not take any bailout money. They’re surviving with cars and trucks that people actually want to buy.

So, yeah, I bought a new car. I pick it up Monday night after work. Pics to follow.

Where’s Luebbe?

Chris — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:11:16 -0700

Good question. I’ve been ~~busy~~ ~~lazy~~ both. Very busy at work means I just want to unwind when I get home. Unwinding during the week usually includes making dinner; giving the kids a bath; getting them ready for and tucking them into bed; watching a show or two with Rachel; watching hockey, basketball, baseball, football, bowling, golf, curling, wheelchair racing, or any other competitive sport; and sleeping. So yeah, I’ve been busy being lazy.

Of course, that’s only on the nights I don’t bowl.

Speaking of which, I’ve been and will continue to be busy with that over the course of the spring and summer. To wit:

March 28-29: IronMan Singles Tournament, Glenmore Bowl, Cincinnati, OH
April 30-May4: USBC Open Championships, Cashman Center, Las Vegas, NV (host city changes each year)
May 22-24: Louisville Derby Tournament, Executive Strikes and Spares, Louisville, KY
July 10-12: St. Clair Lanes Team Tournament, St. Clair Lanes, St. Clairsville, OH
July 31-Aug 2: The Petersen, Chicago, IL

When I do have a chance to belly up to a desk with a computer on it outside of work, I’ve been using Twitter and Facebook. Both require much less organized thought than a typical blog post. Not the kinds of posts you read here, mind you. In fact, my head hurts right now. Yet, I soldier on for both of you that will actually read this.

Here are a few thoughts on the aforementioned tournaments:

The IronMan was fun. 12 games over 2 days. 3 different oil patterns. There were a couple of sandbaggers, but that’s to be expected. I finished 5th scratch, but didn’t sniff the handicapped cut score. Maybe the re-rate rule that goes into effect next year will help my cause. Not holding my breath.

The USBC Open is a big deal. There are over 17,000 teams competing this year. That’s just a ridiculous number, considering the Louisville Derby Tournament, which is pretty popular around these parts, had 1,034 entries last year. This will be my first year bowling the Open.

I’m very excited about joining my buddy Jeff’s team. I know they have a tremendous amount of fun each year and I can’t think of a better place to kick off my Open career than Las Vegas. I really can’t wait. Just 4 (!) more weeks.

The Louisville Derby Tournament is always a good time. We golf Friday morning, bowl Friday night, spend Saturday at Churchill Downs, then bowl again Sunday midday. I usually bowl pretty well and typically make some money. I’ve been going for 5 years now and this will be the first time Rachel joins me for the weekend. Aside from cashing a big check, that’s about the only way it could get better.

St. Clairsville is always a fun time as well. Golf Friday, maybe hit the casino, bowling Saturday, dinner at West Texas Roadhouse, complete with margaritas on the rocks, maybe being asked to “keep it down,” definitely hit the casino after that, come home Sunday. Good times.

I’ve never bowled The Petersen, but I’ve heard stories. Stories about the tournament directors putting your bowling balls in shopping carts and you have to go find them. Stories about a curtain that hangs over the lanes, such that you have to bend over to see the ball hit the pins. Stories about lanesmen “adjusting” the oil pattern if you have 3 or 4 strikes in a row. They say only idiots bowl this tournament. I think that’s an insult to idiots. I’m bowling August 1.

Well, that’s my time folks. Please tip your waiters and waitresses.

Replacing Smart Quotes Using XSLT

Chris — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:12:09 -0700

First let me say that it should be illegal to paste content from Microsoft Word into an HTML text editor. But, since that’ll never happen, I’m left to deal with the repercussions.

The most ridiculous of which are these so-called smart quotes. They’re smart because they curl depending on which side of the quoted word they’re on. For example, this – “ – is a left smart quote, and this - ” – is a right smart quote. These are opposed to the more typical dumb quote: ".

The problem occurs when you users paste these smart quotes into HTML text editors followed by innocent little web developers like myself who have to output that content onto a webpage. Apparently, on Windows XP, these smart quotes aren’t recognized characters, so they are output as little rectangles. Sorry, no example for you. Just take my word for it.

Anyway, after about two hours of chasing that wild goose, I came up with the proper XSLT syntax to eliminate the little buggers:

        1: <xsl:call-template name="fix_quotes">

       2:     <xsl:with-param name="string" select="$your_variable"/>

       3:     <xsl:with-param name="find">“”</xsl:with-param>

       4:     <xsl:with-param name="replace">""</xsl:with-param>

       5: </xsl:call-template>

       6:  

       7: <xsl:template name="fix_quotes">

       8:     <xsl:param name="string"/>

       9:     <xsl:param name="find"/>

      10:     <xsl:param name="replace"/>

      11:     <xsl:value-of select="translate($string,$find,$replace)"/>

      12: </xsl:template>

      13:

Yes, I had to actually paste the goofy quotes in the find parameter. And, yes, there’s probably a more concise way to do this, but it works for me (and more importantly the Google-Mini powered search engine on our website).

Hope this helps someone else.

Enjoy.

Random Tip [Microsoft Outlook]

Chris — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:27:36 -0700

If you have something on your clipboard and you want to send it to someone via email, just go to your Outlook Inbox and hit Ctrl-V. It creates a new mail window with your clipboard contents already pasted into the body.

Convenient!

UpdatePanel postback causes extra spacing in IE

Chris — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:05:39 -0700

Move along if you’re not a web designer/developer and using ASP.NET with AJAX.

I’ve got two hyperlinks in an UpdatePanel that, when clicked, perform some database operation, then change their text to reflect the change that was made. Works perfectly in Firefox. IE, not so much. Why am I not surprised?

I had trouble figuring out a solution on my own, but thanks to an intelligent fellow named Phillip over at Full Extension, it turns out that setting the UpdatePanel to render inline fixes it.

God Bless you, Phillip. You saved me lots of time and a few gray hairs.

Newsflash: Mike Brown does not care about winning

Chris — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:25:40 -0700

Surely everyone can agree that the putridity of the Bengals can be attributed almost solely to the team owner, Mike Brown. This is not news. Yet, the formal media as well as the blogosphere have really amped the volume of news and posts this past season and current off-season about the woes of the Cincinnati Bengals.

I've read probably hundreds of posts over the past year related to the reasons why the Bengals stink. Each and every one point to how stupid Mike Brown is, how small the scouting department is, or how frugal the team is when going after free agents as reasons for the ineptitude. That Mike Brown is too stubborn or too ignorant to know what it takes to win games.

Rubbish.

Mike Brown is a very, very smart man. True, each of the reasons given by journalists and bloggers certainly contribute to the ongoing losing seasons. But none of it matters. Mike Brown doesn't care. Mike Brown only cares about the bottom line. The financial bottom line.

As long as the stadium is full, the concession lines are long, and merchandise sales are strong, Mike Brown's wallet is getting bigger. This is what Mike Brown cares about.

As long as people continue to go to games, buy $7 beers, and purchase apparel, Mike Brown has no financial reason to change anything. One of the few times Brown made changes was after the 2002 season when many of the original COAs and luxury boxes were up for renewal.

Face it people. Mike Brown does not, I repeat, does not truly care about winning football games, let alone the division, conference, or Super Bowl. He cares about the financial bottom line. He does just enough to keep COA ownership levels at a specific threshold and luxury suites filled.

The only thing I could argue is that it is easier to do this by fielding a consistently winning team, but on this, I digress.

If you want the Bengals to pursue real change, quit going to games. Quit buying licensed merchandise. Sure, continue to wear the gear you already have; just don't buy any more.

End game: Mike Brown has no desire to win so long as people keep showing him the money.

See Films Differently

Chris — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:37:45 -0700

Since my mind is very much in the gutter, I found this too funny not to share.

Enjoy.

T-SQL: Get just the date from a DateTime

Chris — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:31:17 -0700

Often times, you can do without the time portion of a T-SQL DateTime field. After perusing the various ways others have posted regarding how to do this, I settled on this particular one:

        1: DATEADD(dd, -DATEDIFF(dd, <mydatecolumn>, 1), 1) 
  

This gets the number of days from your date since “day 1” and adds it back to “day 1.” This gives you a new, clean date (with no time) and avoids converting the string to a varchar or something else.

Hope this helps someone else down the road. And me to find this later. :)

Big Weekend of Bowling on Tap

Chris — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:22:27 -0700

Hello again, friends, family, and random anonymous passersby. I hope you all had a very pleasant Thanksgiving spent with friends and family. We did. We also think Cameron's allergic to cats. Nothing like ending a great day with a medical scare. I am, however, very thankful it's just a mild allergy and not something serious.

But I digress. What this post is supposed to be about is the upcoming Hoinke Scratch Classic bowling tournament in which I'll be participating this weekend. For those of you too lazy to click the link or too taken aback by its garish appearance (the bowling industry is a great market for web designers, BTW), the Scratch Classic has a first place prize of $6,000 and will feature some of the best bowlers from literally all over the country.

The tournament format consists of a five game qualifying block to reduce the field to half the entries. Following that, another 5 game block to reduce the field to 32 bowlers. After that, single elimination match play. I think you draw a random lane assignment and bowl whoever happens to draw the other lane on your pair.

Some of you might remember my experience from last year. My spare shooting the first block was abysmal and my adjustments to the changing lane conditions both blocks left a lot to be desired. Looking back on it, I can see a number of places beyond that where I went wrong.

With that, here are my keys to victory this time around:

Improve my spare shooting. In the first block last year, I blew too many easy spares. My spare shooting so far this bowling season has been exceptional.
Make better adjustments. To do this, I need to not only read my own ball reaction better, but I also need to pay closer attention to what the other bowlers are doing. If they're making a certain move and having success, I need to at least try the same thing.
Don't stick with an adjustment for too long if it doesn't work out quickly. Last year, I stuck with an adjustment for 4 or 5 frames before I realized it was a mistake. I'll be using a 2 shot maximum honeymoon period this year.
I've improved my ball arsenal. Last year, part of my struggle was finding a way to the pocket with enough angle to carry the ten pin. I felt the shot was inside, which requires a ball with a very aggressive back end. Problem was, I didn't have one last year. I've got two of those now.
My bowling balls fit better. I think I've finally found the right feel for my thumb. I'm also very comfortable now using tape to adjust the feel of my thumb.
My confidence is soaring. I'm averaging 221 at Glenmore, 238 at Colerain, and I averaged 231 over 6 games in a tournament at Sunset Bowl in West Union, OH. I'm tempering my excitement over my league averages, because they are typical house shots, but only a bit since I'm 2nd high average at Glenmore (to my buddy Chris Cummings) and in the top 5 at Colerain (in a league with 140 bowlers).
I've put all my faith in God.

I bowl Saturday at 10AM. If you are looking to kill an hour or two and want me to buy you a drink, just stop by Western Bowl. And bring you pompoms.

Tree Frog Beer Salutes You, Mr. Football Team Screwer Upper

Chris — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:02:00 -0700

Back in the day (late 90’s to early 2000’s), WEBN’s Dawn Patrol was, in my demented mind, the funniest radio morning show in this glorious city of Cincinnati. One of the things they did very well was parody commercials and some of their more famous ones – aside from Snappy Cicada Pizza – borrowed an idea from a very successful line of Bud Light commercials. You know the ones: Bud Light Beer salutes Real American Heroes, later changed to Real Men of Genius.

Well, WEBN made a few of them, but I thought in this era of miserable Bengals teams, I’d share the one they made about our beloved team’s owner, Mike Brown.

I present to you Tree Frog Beer Salutes You, Mr. Football Team Screwer Upper.

Enjoy.

[mediaplayer:screwer upper.mp3]

Fountain Square Chipotle to Open December 5th

Chris — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:15:00 -0700

I walked by Fountain Square in Cincinnati today on my lunch break and asked the guys working the site when they were opening. The one gentleman, who I’m going to assume is either the foreman or the soon-to-be store manager based on his attire, stated they would open December 5th. Mark you calendars.

Of course, I’m not the only one excited about Chipotle opening a downtown location. Many, I’m sure, are concerned about the expected length of the line in the first few weeks after the open.

Did you know Chipotle offers online ordering? After you order your meal, simply walk right up to the register and pick it up. No waiting in the line. Unless, of course, there’s a line for online order pickup. That would suck.

In fact, never mind. Don’t order online. I don’t want you standing in the way of me and my burrito.

Project Mayhem #2

Chris — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:19:47 -0700

God bless WhoDeyRevolution. They are making an attempt to rustle up enough local and national attention to hopefully embarrass Mike Brown into doing something about this abysmal group of men parading around as a professional football team.

For Project Mayhem #1, they encouraged everyone - whether they were in attendance or not - to call the JERK line during the Jacksonville game. They were to tell the person answering the phone that Mr. Brown is causing them mental anguish and suffering from his luxury box.

Very clever.

For Project Mayhem #2, they have really upped the ante. WhoDeyRevolution has purchased 4 billboards that are currently displayed about Cincinnati. The billboards read, "Dear Bengals, Hire a General Manager. Love, Your Fans."

Spectacular.

WhoDeyRevolution is asking for a meager $18 donation through PayPal to help diffuse the cost of the billboards. $18, or one dollar for every year Mike Brown has been operating the team without the aid of his father, the late Paul Brown. Based on the chart that appears on their site, their goal is $4,000 and at the time I write this, they appear to have already accepted $1,000 or so in donations.

If you want to see one of the billboards for yourself, WhoDeyRevolution states their locations as:

West 3rd St and Clay Bridge Rd.
Wooster Pike at Red Bank Rd.
Beechmont Ave at 8 Mile Rd.
Glenway Ave at Muddy Creek Rd.

I suggest you join the revolution by donating now.

They Look So Grown Up

Chris — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:10:45 -0700

Ruth and Cameron had their school pictures taken recently and what strikes me is how grown up they look. Too bad Ruth is still recovering from her spill, but she’ll have a story to tell for this one. Cameron just looks so handsome – and well behaved!

I love you guys!

(Click the pictures for a bit larger size)

A little Who-Dey Rap for ya

Chris — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:39:03 -0700

With the Bengals mercifully on a bye this week, I thought I’d let you bask in the glow of the last time they were truly any good: 1988.

How many players can you recognize?