My two cents worth

2:52 PM   I just posted updated predictions for NCAA. I believe that I now have all the systems that I am going to get for week 1. So I will go out on a limb and make some suggestions. There are about 10 decent games to choose from. It is hard to say how well this will do early on but the majority of these situations were correct 100% last season.
Iowa -11
Toledo +0
Western Michigan +13.5
Georgia Tech +3.5
Georgia -3
Fresno St. +20

11:28 AM   I put up the first pass of the ncaa predictions for this week.
There is still a lot of work to be done. The first week is always rather time consuming.
I will likely be slowly changing things for the rest of the week.

10:51 AM   I am back again. I have a lot of things to do so I am not sure when I will be able to post the first week of the ncaa prediction tracker. It is not looking like it will be today. I will give more updates later.

8:02 PM   On Sunday I am leaving to spend the next week in Prudenville Michigan. I am doing a week of volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity. I did this last summer and had a lot of fun up in Escanaba Michigan. For someone that normally sits at a desk behind a computer every day it is a fun break from normality to be outside and working with my hands.

Since I am going to be away from the computer for the entire week I am NOT going to be collecting the predictions for the Kansas St./California game. I will start with the first full weekend when I return.
I will also not be scoring the predictions from this week's nfl preseason games. And I will not be posting any predictions for next week either.

3:39 PM   The Blaster Worm hit my office hard today. I was basically the only person in the office that was not affected. Everybody else was not able to log into their computers all day. If they logged in the worm just logged them back off.
Here's at least one story on the worm. I thank Rusty for the warning last week about the hole in windows that this worm was exploiting. Although I don't know how thankful I should be since I worked all day while the rest of the office sat around talking.

4:40 PM   I can tell that football season is around the corner because of the amount of email I am getting these days.

There are already at least two new entries in the NCAA prediction tracker: Warren Claassen and Dave Congrove. Congrove had some impressive numbers in the past so his ratings should make a great addition.

I am going to be on vacationi next week. Most likely that means that I am going to have to skip the one game that is played on the 23rd. I will start things up the following weekend which has a full schedule.

A friend of mine from CMC has accepted a job in Naples Florida to be a crime scene investigator (CSI). No word yet on whether CSI: Miami will base a character on her. If there are any criminals in Naples reading this you better start covering your tracks.

12:34 PM   I have spent a lot of time this week and the last month trying to apply some of my statistical modeling experience to the stock market. I have never bet on a football game but yet I have money in the stock market. Why not try to improve my chances there? It is too early to know how well it is working but I am having a lot of fun playing around with the data.

I noticed that for 11 NFL exhibition games this weekend the spread is 3 points. I kind of get the feeling they just gave up and said whichever team should win, give them 3 points. The lines are laughable when starters play just the first series or not at all.

So Arnold is running for governor of California. That disturbs me less than one of the other contenders. Gary Coleman offically put his name on the list too.

10:43 AM   The preseason coaches' poll has been released and Oklahoma is the #1 team. They are followed very closely by Ohio State. My preseason poll is starting with Miama at the top.

I may try to put up a page of NFL predictions soon. I can use the preseason games to get things ready for the regular season. If you are looking for college predictions it may be a while. I am going to be on vacation Aug. 17-23, so I will likely just skip the one game being played on the 23rd, and try to get things ready by the 28th, when the first full season weekend kicks off.

5:41 PM   Yesterday when I got off work it was pouring rain. I don't know if I can say it was the hardest I have ever seen it rain but I can say for certainty that it is the wettest I have ever gotten while using an umbrella. I got soaked.

The booksale was fun, as always I managed to find a backpack full of books. Probably my best find this year was John Madden's book, One Size Doesn't Fit All. I have read his three other books. This is the only one that I have not read yet. Today being the first NFL preseason game it will be a great book to get me in the mood for some football. Madden is far and away my favorite football announcer and his books read very much like it sounds listening to him.
Tonight is the first preseason game, Buc's versus the Jets in Tokyo. Actually the game has already been played and fortunately I haven't seen a score yet.

Today I did some light electrical work around the house. One of the light sockets in a ceiling fan stopped working so I replaced that one and put a new socket with a drawstring in the attic. One of the hardest parts was just finding the right breaker to cut the power. The 'joys' of living in an old house just never cease.

1:23 PM   Here's a story about Bill Parcells and a teaching technique of his. This is why it may finally be fun being a Cowboy fan again.

9:57 AM   One of my favorite events each summer takes place this weekend, the Oak Park Public Library book sale. The library collects donated books and also sells some of their own. It is quite large, filling up the cafeteria and adjoining gym of the local high school. The books are sold dirt cheap, 50 cents for any paperback and a dollar for hardcovers. I always leave with a backpack full of books. And you know you live in a good community when a line two blocks long forms waiting for the doors to open to a book sale.