Adam Stiles

Congratulations to the team from Hawaii for winning the Little League World Series yesterday. The tournament takes almost two months, starting out in early July with league all-star teams from around the world playing local, regional and national tournaments, culminating with the WS tournament that finished this weekend. There is something magical about the LLWS for me. I love the international flavor. I love the raw emotions, the joy and the tears. I love that these kids seem pretty normal, that most of them will never play professionally, but for this one summer they are the best in the world.

I played in the tournament twice but my teams got knocked out the first week after winning just one game. League policy prohibited us from throwing curveballs during league play. This protected our arms but also meant we didn't hit the curve very well. We saw tons of curveballs during those games, and I'm sure the fans enjoyed some mighty wiffs and embarrassing, unnecessary batters box bailouts. But we had the time of our lives and loved every minute of it.

Did you hear that barbaric yalp coming from Pasadena a few minutes ago? That wasn't fireworks - that was me screeching out because I found out my Dish Network subscription doesn't include the Outdoor Life Network, the only network that provides daily Tour de France coverage. Last year we watched most stages on cable (yeah Tivo!) but we switched to a basic satellite package this year for the lower cost. Turns out the basic package doesn't include OLN. Doh! This will be six-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong's last tour so its a must watch for me.

I called Dish to upgrade and they set me up within a couple of minutes. The technician chuckled when I told him I needed to get OLN. "We've been getting a lot of these (upgrades) over the last few days. What's up?" I told him its all of us Tour fans making sure we're ready for race start tomorrow.

The tour can start now - go Lance!

I like Diet Coke... I really like Diet Coke. I've been a two-can-a-day-er for years (and before that, regular Coke) and this year consumption is definitely up as I compensate for baby-induced sleep deprivation with caffeine.

I've been reflecting on my habits and attempting to be more intentional about the things I do and the way I live life. Do I really want to be someone who drinks this much carbonated nutrasweet water? Not really - so I decided to give it up.

I don't want to backslide on this, so I've given myself some extra incentive to stay the course. With the money I'm saving, I just sponsored a child through WorldVision's HopeChild program. Milly is a 6-year old (who shares my birthday) living in Uganda who lost her father to HIV/AIDS. For $30 a month, I can help to make a difference in her life. I'm sure there's a psychological term for trading a bad habit for a good one. Whatever it is, I'm doing it.

I recently upgrade SpamBayes from version 0.8x to 1.0. Not sure what changed since version 0.8, but SB has gotten MUCH slower. Not slow enough not to use it, but slow enough that I will sometimes start to read an email in my inbox, only to have SB remove it while I'm reading.