Mark Mulder
Man, not even a week has gone by since the Tim Hudson trade and now Billy Beane sends Mark Mulder the Cardinals? What's up with that? Now the A's lose 2 of their big three. So my next question is, with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder gone, will Barry Zito want to stay around? Man, as an A's fan this is really hard to take. Who is going to want to go watch the A's now? Boy, the A's fans really got a large lump of coal in their stockings for Christmas.
Scott Peterson
Well, was there any doubt in your mind that he wasn't going to get the death penalty? I mean, the bodies washed up not far from where he said he went fishing. Does that not sound fishy (pardon the pun) to any one? All the lies and the deceit. If he wasn't guilty then how come he died his hair, had his brother's Id, a huge load of cash with him, and was heading south for the Mexican border? What made him think that he could get away with this? Why did he even consider murder an option?
One of the jurors said that Scott was Laci's husband and Connor's father. He was supposed to protect them. Instead he killed them. Getting the death penalty won't bring Laci or Connor back. It will just bring more heartache for Scott and his family. It may take 20 or more years before Scott is actually executed, and who knows by that time the death penalty may be abolished.
At least he got what he deserved. Laci and Connor, may you rest in peace.
Oracle and PeopleSoft
Finally there has been some resolution to this 18 month saga. I'm sure my friends at PeopleSoft can now breathe a small sigh of relief for the time being. Hopefully Oracle can somehow improve the crappy PeopleSoft software SJSU uses (sorry guys, but you have to admit the myeducation stuff really sucks). Anyway, once Oracle has integrated PeopleSoft products and people into their company, the layoffs will soon follow. So I guess this is not the end of the story.
Tim Hudson
So I read on the internet that the Oakland A's are thinking of breaking up their "Big Three" by trying to trade Tim Hudson, well at least he looks like the most likely candidate at the moment. Billy Beane did say that he wouldn't rule out trading either one of the "Big Three", so that includes Barry Zito and Mark Mulder too. They let Jermaine Dye go, so I wonder where Tim Hudson is going to go. There's no denying that the A's have had some great players over the years, the problem is they just don't have the big payroll like the Yankees or Red Sox to keep all their great players together. I guess it doesn't help Tim Hudson's case that he was injured this past season and hasn't done as well this season as he as in the past.
What I think the A's need is a good closing pitcher. Too bad they couldn't keep Keith Foulke. I mean Dotel is good, but it's never a sure thing with him you know? At least that is what I think.
You know, it would be really nice to have another Battle of the Bay. I doubt that will happen in the very near future, but we can always hope. Spring training is only a few months away...=)
First Cingular and AT&T, now Sprint and Nextel?
So last year Cingular bought AT&T, and now Sprint might be buying Nextel? Also, apparently Verizon had looked at acquiring either Sprint or Nextel, but decided against it. Maybe they can buy T-Mobile? Hmm...seems kind of like the hard disk drive business a couple of years ago when it started consolidating after a couple of companies started buying out their competition.
So a year later I wonder, has cell reception or service impoved at Cingular? So what's going to happen with the Sprint and Nextel deal? I kind of have a vested interest here since I am a Sprint customer and recently signed a two year agreement for my current contract. Maybe this cool national walkie-talkie feature will become more prevalent. Currently Sprint has only one phone with that capability the last time I checked.
Well, I guess only time will tell...
Steroids
So was there any doubt in anyone's mind that Barry Bonds was using steroids? I mean, the guy looks pretty huge. Grant it, he doesn't look as huge at Mark McGuire did, but Mark McGuire admitted to using "performance enhancing" drugs. And what about Jason Giambi? His supposed grand jury testimony said that he injected himself in the a$$. I know he hasn't been mentioned, but I'm sure Sammy Sosa also used steroids. I mean he was pretty huge as well.
I think greed has a lot to do with why these athletes use steroids. I mean, if you can out perform the next guy, it gives you a shot at a higher paycheck. I think there is something seriously wrong when athletes make more money than the President of the United States. What happened to good old-fashioned hard work?
Hundreds of young children look up to these althletes. What kind of message does that send to them? Some reporters have said that well if most of the players in the league are also doing it then it compells other players to do them as well just to be able to compete. But it still doesn't make it right.
I don't know what Major League Baseball is going to do to resolve this, but I suggest that if a player is caught using steroids they should be banned from the sport. That's what they do with Olympians and track stars, so why should baseball players be exempt?
IBM Selling PC Business
So there's this rumor that IBM is trying to sell it's PC business, which includes laptops as well. Wow, first they sell their hard drive business. A business in which they were the pioneers, now there's talk of selling the PC business, another business in which they were the pioneers. I guess it's just a sign of the times.
For a company as big as IBM it doesn't make sense for them to focus on businesses with low margins. Since the PC business is so cut-throat and with prices dropping all the time, it's hard keep up without slashing prices, which in turn reduces profit. So if the rumor is true, I'm really going to miss those ThinkPads. I'm sure the ThinkPads won't go away, but it just won't feel the same if IBM doesn't make them any more.
Jeopardy Guy
Ok, so the "Jeopardy Guy" (Ken Jennings, who is a computer eningeer by the way) finally loses. It's been rumored on the internet for a while that he was going to lose at around his 75th appearance. Someone even leaked an audio file of the Final Jeopardy question and how it all went down. So I wonder if it would have been more exciting if that info wasn't leaked?
Anyway, the guy won over $2.5 million. His daily average was calculated at around $34,000. I saw one episode where he beat his opponents so bad, that his nearest opponent only had $200. I didn't see the entire episode last night, only the Final Jeopardy question. But I read on the internet that he had missed two Daily Double questions, quite uncharacteristic of him.
Man, if I had that kind of money, I could just build my own house!
