Cubs In First Place in NL Central

Wow, that feels good to type.   The Chicago Cubs are off to the best start in franchise history and of course lead the NL Central.    I know it is early, but after the slow start last year, it really feels good.

If we are this good now, how about when we get Soriano back?   What if we pick up a bat before the trade deadline?  It will be interesting to see how things work out with the bullpen, as that will probably determine if we make playoffs and how far we go from there.   With all the time Kerry Wood has missed, it would be great for him to tear it up and lead this team to their first championship in 100 years.  Chic

Kyle Eslick dot Com Redesign is Almost Complete

In our business it can be important to establish an online identity, and part of that online identity is having a homepage (or hub) for your information.   Whether it houses personal or professional information (or both!), I think it is important to have a place to point clients, friends, and family as a starting point. 

As a result, I’ve redesigned this “blog” to have more of a website feel.  Though the blog component is still there, I will be shying away from that for now and focusing on just keeping the front page up to date with information, videos, pictures, and more about, well, me!   I may post from time to time, but for the foreseeable future I will be focusing my efforts on some of my blogs with higher volumes of readership.  

To keep up with me, you’ll want to subscribe to the following 3 feeds:  Slick Domains, Hack WordPress, and Slickmania.   I also write for a few other websites/blogs, but that is hit or miss, so you’ll want to focus on the three above.   I also keep a few niche sites that for now or anonymous, but may eventually warrant more focus on my part. 

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know! 

My MyBlogLog Profile Was Stolen

More than a year ago, when I first joined MyBlogLog, I had set up communities for both Kyle’s Cove, and my personal domain, Kyle Eslick dot Com.  At some point in the following months, I had temporarily pulled down this website because it really wasn’t being used much.  

A couple of days ago, I went to re-claim my website and found that someone named Vidztime has someone stolen the page for this website, which prevents me from claiming my own site.  You can see from the screenshot used on the profile page that it is a REALLY old design (mid-2006).  

After trying a few different avenues to get some answers and get this resolved using the MyBlogLog help form, I decided to instead report copyright infringement in the hopes of actually getting a response.  Yahoo! responded fairly timely telling me to write this post, so I have.   Hopefully this gets resolved soon.  

Has anyone else had this problem?   I can’t imagine MyBlogLog lets anyone claim any website they want to without some sort of verification.

Michigan Hires Rich Rodriguez

If you are a Michigan Wolverines fan who says that you aren’t surprised we landed Rich Rodriguez, you would be lying.   While I don’t think there are many college coaching jobs that wouldn’t be considered a step down from coaching at Michigan, there are some guys that are just off limits. 

Rich Rodriguez grew up in West Viriginia, was a player at West Viriginia, and then eventually managed to bring the football program into the national spotlight as their head coach.  Last year, he turned down the Alabama job, which is considered by many to be on par with the Michigan job, to remain with his alma mater in West Viriginia.   Because of all this, I figured he was probably off limits to Michigan.  

Now it looks like Bill Martin managed to sail into Morgantown like a viking and continue his pillage of their athletic department by bringing Coach Rod to Ann Arbor.  I hear next we are going after their women’s basketball coach.  

So, what can the father of the spread offense do with better talent?   Just win I hope.   Beat Ohio State and win a few bowl games.   No matter what happens this upcoming season, I have a feeling that Michigan will be fun to watch.   I expect to put up 45 points in losing efforts and occasionally go for it on 4th down.   And most of all, I expect our players to learn to tackle on defense and quit playing to not lose, instead of trying to win at the end of the game. 

2008 should be fun to watch for Wolverine fans……..

Black Friday - WTF Is Wrong With People?

I think of myself as a fairly intelligent human being, but there are some parts of human behavior that I fail to understand. I mean seriously, what is wrong with people? These Black Friday sales have gotten out of hand, and shoppers behavior is even worse.

Here is a video of a bunch of losers outside Best Buy trying to save $10.00 on a few $500.00+ items:

And here is the view from the Best Buy employees perspective:

If there is such a thing as a sign of the apocalypse, I think I’ve just seen it….

Thoughts on Lloyd Carr’s Retirement

Last year some adjustments were made to Lloyd Carr’s contract which seemed to point towards a possible retirement this season.  Yesterday, it became official as Lloyd Carr officially announced his retirement. 

As a loyal Wolverine, I have several mixed emotions about this.  While I think Lloyd will have a warm spot in Wolverine hearts across the nation, he often failed to adapt to the current college football environment, and his play calling had become stale and predictable.

With that said, Lloyd’s accomplishments speak for themselves.   In many ways, he finished with better statistics then Bo Schembechler.  His winning percentage was a little lower, but he won a National Championship, which Bo never did.   He also kept the program clean and formed a lot of relationships that went far beyond the football field.   It can best be summed up by saying that Lloyd is what it means to be a “Michigan man.”

It is with great sadness, as well as great anticipation, that I wish Lloyd Carr a happy and healthy retirement, and turn my eyes towards the future of the greatest program in college football. 

Who will it be?  Les Miles, Rich Rodriguez?   Maybe we can pull the sweatervest from Columbus?  (Can’t beat ‘em?  Join ‘em!)  No matter who we end up getting, my hope is that we get someone willing to run a spread offense and recruit speed first and foremost.   Then hire a defensive coordinator that can teach players to tackle.