Dumping Grounds

I know that later in their career they became a punch line (especially for their outfits, and those of their fans) but the BeeGees are under-appreciated for the music they made.

So there.

I certainly wish that it had not taken until the last game of the season, but the Nationals defeated the Pirates Black, 11-10 in 5 innings.

The Nationals fought back from a 10-4 deficit in the third inning with a multi-hit game by James Kurtti, a multi-RBI game from Alex Galloway, and two innings of masterful shutout pitching by Cole Schmanke.

Cole pitched the last inning with the knowledge that not only could he allow NO runs, but he had to complete the inning in 8 minutes. (Plano has a rule that any baseball game must end at the 2:00 mark, and that any incomplete innings will not count in the final result.)

If that’s not pressure, I don’t know what is. Not only… â??You gotta strike ‘em outâ? but â??you gotta strike ‘em out, and FAST.â?

Even the defense got into the act. Tyler Eggers and Michael Shaw both had nice catches for putouts in the last two innings.

In related news, it is believed that upon Michael catching the fly ball for the final out, a certain coach set a world record by jumping about 19 feet into the air, immediately before doing his Jim Valvano impression and hugging any player who ventured near him on the field.

TextMate is a wicked cool text editor that can be expanded with macros written in just about any language known to man or machine. Some guy actually wrote a set of macros that will post text entries directly to your blog. Seriously cool.

But, it is now time to speak of serious things. Important things. Things that are of national, if not world, import…

Namely… anyone know where I can get a machine to make Sonic Ice for my home? I know the following:

• It’s called chewblet ice, chunklet ice, or nugget ice. Rarely it’s called rabbit turd ice.
• There are numerous manufacturers of machines for hospitals, training rooms, and restaurants.
• While I am willing to spend a pretty penny on a device that will bring me such pleasure, I’d prefer not to spend $2,000 on such a beast. And as far as commercial applications, $2,000 is a CHEAP one.

So, all of you willing to try out your Google, Ebay, and Craigslist searching skills… find me an ice machine, because I sure have not had any luck.

Rangers - 15 Nationals - 9

Seems like an odd score for the title, eh?

The Rangers are 9 years old, and have played 6 seasons together. The Nationals have had more games than we have had practices.

The Rangers are in first place in a 13 team league, and the Nationals are dead last. Until last night, the Rangers had not lost a game, and the Nationals have yet to win.

Our kids knew exactly what they were getting into, and yet showed up enthusiastic anyway. And you know what? They gave as good as they got. Good pitching, good hitting, and some outstanding defense that included a truly fantastic outfield fly catch (that turned into a double play) by Stephen Cobb.

Not a team all year long has scored 9 runs on the Rangers. I know this was much more of a game than the Rangers coaches were expecting. They kept shuffling pitchers, looking for something that could stop the bleeding. Unfortunately for the guys in red, they finally found it.

I’ve never been so proud of a 6 run loss. The improvement in our team is nothing short of miraculous. If we could just pick up a win in our last two, I’d be really happy. They deserve to win one.

Pictures are up on MatthewCave.com

Incidentally, for those who were giving me a hard time for getting excited… the energy drink in question was ProEndorphine mixed with orange juice. Yeah, I’d say it works. Although honestly, I was excited by the good play more than I was worked up by a supplement

There’s actual news!

First of all, I’m seriously going to try to post some more.

Second of all, I’d like to announce MatthewCave.com. This is going to be the location for my photos and things that pertain to my photos. Dumping Grounds will continue to be the place for controversial talk, rants about politics, religion or work, and the place where I can curse.

Off to a Little League game (yes, I’m coaching a Little League team). I’ll try to post about how the Mavericks ROCK later.

Well, I really regret that when I do get back to post something, it has to be another â??sucksâ? post.

Catalog.com (also known as Dallas.net and Webhero.com) really, really sucks.

I called in advance of my hosting expiration (and precisely 4 minutes after receiving my invoice) to cancel my hosting and some completely bum-fucked charge they call a â??hosting clubâ? (I call it a completely random line item to take $40 more out of your pocket)

Why did I want to cancel my service even before they screwed me out of $130?

• Their servers are slow
• Their servers have been down 3 times in the last month alone
• Calling support is an absolute minimum 30 minute wait
• Calling support, once you DO get through, is an exercise in frustration
• Security breaches have put user accounts (although not billing information) at risk

So, with that thought in mind, I called to cancel my service.

â??We’ve already billed you. No refunds.â?

Wait, I just got the invoice 30 minutes ago, and all of that time, I’ve been on hold.

â??That wasn’t an invoice, that was a receipt.â?

Then why is it (and I copy and paste, to eliminate the possibilities of typos) SUBJECT: â??CATALOG.COM, Inc. Invoiceâ? and shows an outstanding balance?

â??Uh…. that’s a good question. I can’t help you with that.â?

Exactly what CAN you help me with? Let me talk to someone who CAN help me.

â??There is no escalation procedure for billing inquiries.â?

What the FUCK?!?! I assume that means â??If we absolutely refuse to talk to you, eventually you will give up.â? I realize that I am only 1 of about a billion customers that they have… but:

• How can they have that many customers when their level of service is SO low… in such a competitive industry?
• The least I can do is be one very loud, very pissed off customer

Bob Crull (President, CEO, or some other self-important title of Catalog.com. He’s the guy I get a lot of rather annoying e-mail from about how their service is improving. No, Bob, it’s not.) if you are reading this, I hope you realize that I’m going to post this crap everywhere I can find a forum to accept it. It would be cheaper to give my my $130 back. I also host at least 10 client accounts with Catalog.com. Trust me, Bob… they’re moving.

Well, although I seriously doubt I will be successful (they are hiding behind some rather ridiculous Terms of Service that says they can auto-renew your account, pretty much whether or not you have authorized it… in effect â??we can charge your card whenever the hell we want toâ?), I have contested the charge with American Express already (whose service, as always, was outstanding), and have changed my billing information in Catalog’s database to something bogus, so the next time they decide to arbitrarily charge my card without my authorization, it won’t be as easy for them.

So, in the meantime, Catalog.com gets to host this page that details how much they suck, how unhappy I am, and they can host this advertisement for their competition. If you want a hosting provider with better support, cheaper prices, better product (they host Ruby on Rails, unlike Catalog), and FAR better reliability, try http://www.a2hosting.com