Well, let's see... We've gotten Christmas over with, thank God. It's such a barbaric little ritual, I 'd like to see it abolished, personally. Or maybe just hold it on February 29th's, so we'd only have to suffer through it once every four years. I mean, the date is pretty arbitrary anyway; the first Christians only stuck it at the end of December so it would more or less coincide with the Roman celebration of Saturnus (or something like that). I guess they figured they'd stand a better chance gettin' time off from work that way (not to mention keep from getting their asses crucified).
Syracuse won the Liberty Bowl (yay), handling whoever the hell it was they played (Houston, I guess) pretty easily even though they played like shit. It's a shame SU had to cough up the largest hairball ever seen on the Carrier Dome's turf against Miami, but at least they went to a bowl (who the hell plays a bowl game on Dec. 27th?). And they scored 30+ points in, what, eleven consecutive games? So, hopefully they won't choke so hard next year.
The first round of the playoffs are over, and while it's unfortunate that teams like Dallas and San Francisco went and won, at least the Bills lost. I love watching them lose, and seeing them lose a squeaker at home is that much better. Now, I should explain that I haven't ALWAYS hated Buffalo. Far from it, really. While I had the misfortune of becoming a Jets fan at a very early age (something about Joe Namath being a long-haired hippie-type just won me over), like most folks in these parts, I still liked the Bills (and of course OJ; I realize it's politically incorrect to admit it, but OJ was a very big deal back then, and he'd hardly even started his wife-beating hobby). I remember attending a preseason game back in old Memorial Stadium in Buffalo when OJ was a rookie with my oldest brother Tim, my sister, Barb, and of course my Dad, Dad. He was hurt and didn't play in that game (OJ, that is, not Dad, although Dad didn't play in that game either), but he got a huge cheer just for coming out onto the field. They were playing the then Boston Patriots, and while I haven't a clue who won, I remember enjoying myself immensely from my vantage point behind one of the many pillars in that stadium.
Anyhow, it wasn't until I went to school at UB, and had to suffer through my roommate's constant tirades and verbal abuse slung at my poor, pitiful Jets that I started to hate the Bills. I mean, how the hell could you possibly hate the Jets? They hardly ever beat anybody. Anyway, I think the final straw came when I attended a Jets/Bills game one beautiful fall day during college. That year, they played that stupid "Talkin' Proud" song Buffalo was so big on after every Bill's score.
"Buffalo's got a feelin', talkin' proud, talkin' proud. Buffalo's got a feelin' talkin' proud. Buffalo's got a feelin' talkin' proud, talkin' proud, TALKIN' PROUD!"
The Jets lost by like 45-3 that day. It is, I think, a credit to me that I didn't enter the nearest "Chicken Coop" wearing my green and white colors and mow down every stinking chicken-wing eatin' Strohs drinkin' son-of-a-bitch in the place with an Uzi. Except I didn't have an Uzi, of course. Anyway, sitting through every score, and then having to listen to that idiotic song another five thousand times on the way to the parking lot while every semi-literate drunken moron (in those days, you were allowed a gallon of whatever alcoholic beverage you could concoct, so long as it was in a plastic container) sang along...
"Buffffalllooosgottafeeeluhn. Talkun prow, talkun prow!"
...was one of the most horrible experiences of my life (I can only liken it to being in the "It's A Small World, After All" ride at Disney World when the damn boat got stuck for an hour; yet another experience which perhaps sheds light on my eventual mental development), and I can't help but hate the fucking Bills for it, so I'm glad they lost to Jacksonville. I will admit that the drama of an AFC Championship game between Denver and Buffalo (the AFC's four-time Super losers) for the honor of seeing which team would get to lose a record fifth Super Bowl DID hold a certain amount of appeal for me though. But enough about them. I would just like to point out that the Jets have STILL won more Super Bowls than the Bills.
I downloaded Netscape's new Communicator package this week. It has some interesting ideas, but the "preview release" was pretty squirrelly; lots of stuff wasn't active yet, and the browser kept locking up on me. The new mail and news interface shows some promise, but I think they still need some work. The browser failed to display my little scrolling Java marquees, and while you can get rid of the big old buttons and toolbars, they kept coming back when I restarted it. Another thing that kept coming back was that damn license agreement. In fact, if I started the 3.01 version up after I ran Communicator, I had to "accept" the stupid thing all over again. One of the nice things about it is you can set up more than one user profile in it, with different bookmarks, address books, preferences, etc. No security between users, though, so little Jimmy can't hide his porno bookmarks, and sexy e-mail from that girl he met on Alamak last week. Also, the "composer" portion of it is kinda nice. You can compose e-mail or your webpage at the same place, which means you can compose HTML e-mail pretty easily. There's also a "Drafts" folder, for things that are in the works, but you aren't ready to send off just yet. Anyhow, after I played with it (the Browser, that is, Jeez!) for a while, I decided to get rid of it. If I were you, I'd wait for a more stable release.
I also installed Internet Explorer 3.0. I figured I had to see what I've been missing. I mean, there are some people who keep saying what a wonderful browser it is. Well, I can't say as I really care for it much. It gives you absolutely NO options on where you want to install it, and if you go for the full install (including NetMeeting and stuff), it'll pop over fifty megs onto your hard drive, so be ready. While it works pretty much the same as Netscape does, I found it kind of slow and clunky to use. It seems to be much slower at displaying pictures (especially JPEG's, but it's none too swift with GIF's, either). I made sure to build my cache up with it, just to be fair. It also kept telling me it couldn't start my midi, yet it was playing the whole time. There are a few things that IE will do that Netscape won't. IE supports floating frames, which might be kinda cool to play with. And the Active-X controls will go out and fetch and install a plugin you don't have, right when you click on a page that requires it. I suppose that's nice for people who can't manage to do that by themselves. So I reckon IE will be big in Buffalo. As for me, though, I think I'll be getting rid of it soon; I just don't care for it. And since it doesn't display MY webpages properly, I highly recommend that you, too, stick with Netscape. Afterall, my website is probably the reason you got a computer to begin with.
Speaking of my site, I've made a change or two you might notice. Uncle Pat talked me into putting frames in at his place. I kinda like the way they work there, though I'm sure I'll be doing some tinkering around with 'em. Just don't forget you can pull the frames around to whatever size you want. Uncle Pat also whined and whined until I gave him some music, too, so there's a new midi for him. I made up a new GIF for the homepage; I spent about two hours dicking around, putting the stars in so it would match the background. It doesn't look like much, I know, but I was just killing time while the Steelers were killing the Colts. There're also a few new eyes and stuff kicking around, you might notice. Otherwise, I guess that's about it for now. Take it easy, and have a good New Year's. See ya in '97.
What's Old
Home | Links | Photos | Rants & Rambles | Ask Uncle Pat