The U of M Dentists web site went back up last month after an extended period of downtime. The site is an “Online Network of University of Michigan Dental School Graduates and their Practices”. Here’s the strange story…
Last December, I noticed a few web sites of mine were completely down. The reason was tragic. A former co-worker of mine in Florida was hosting the sites, and he died suddenly. His computer business was sold, and the plug was pulled on the web servers (literally).
It took me a week to figure out what happened, then a several weeks more to track down the new company and get some domains transferred into my name. What a mess that was. When I finally had time (after reviving other higher-priority sites), I converted the old ASP code (yes, Classic ASP!) into nice, simple PHP. And the Access data to MySQL. It was a tedious but worthy effort.
I’m glad I decided to re-launch the site instead of ditching my pet project. And since its return, a few dentists have requested to be added to the network.
Did you know that James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader from Star Wars, graduated from the University of Michigan? (My alma mater.) Awesome, go blue! Among 200 other films, television shows, and theater productions, the famous actor was in such “classics” as Conan the Barbarian and Coming to America!
I have very mixed feelings about Florida playing Ohio State in the NCAA national football championship game in January. I like the Gators, don’t get me wrong. And they had an outstanding season. They did win a very tough SEC conference title and should make it a good game against OSU.
But, there are three reasons why I believe University of Michigan got robbed of a shot at the biggest game of the year:
- U of M’s only loss is to Ohio State, the #1 team, and it was only by 3 points and at Ohio State.
- U of M was ranked number 2 in the last two months of the season, and only went to number 3 because they weren’t scheduled to play any games. Florida was, and they won. Is it Michigan’s fault they didn’t have another game to play to prove themselves? No!
- The real reason why Florida took the #2 rank from Michigan is because many voters didn’t want to see a rematch between OSU and U of M. Is the possibility of a rematch a valid reason to discredit a football team? No! Historically, a team never jumps ahead of another in the polls when the higher ranked team is idle. Michigan got screwed.
Well it was another great sports evening this Saturday night. First, in Major League Baseball, the Detroit Tigers finished the sweep of the Oakland Athletics! The Tigers have lost over 400 games in the last 4 years (152-game season), so that makes a trip to the World Series even more spectacular. The relatively new Tigers’ stadium, Comerica Park, had never seen a playoff game until this series.
The Tigers haven’t even been to the playoffs since 1987. They won the World Series in 1984. I remember that very well as I followed baseball more than the others sports back then. I also painted my mom’s face for one of the World Series games, and she brought back Tiger Stadium sod which we planted in the back yard!
The second game was University of Michigan football. The Wolverines beat Penn State in Happy Valley, 17-10. They are now 7-0, and should be moving to #2 in the polls. (They are currently #4.) Ohio State is #1 so it looks like an extra special showdown between the two powerhouses at the end of the season.
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