09/30/04 (01:15 AM) -- Happy Birthday Austin Moffitt, Cinda (Goodman) Voiles, Richie Ramirez, JeanAnn (Hughes) McConnell, Dom Moceanu, and Deb Van Den Berg!

Sorry y'all, but I am still feelin' like ass today, so I'm not going to write much.  Thanks to everyone who got in touch yesterday.  I appreciate it very much.  I know I haven't responded to everyone yet, but I will once I start feeling better.  Man, I sure hope that is sometime soon!  In the meantime, I hope all the birthday peeps today have a great one.  To Austin in particular though, I hope you find some time to celebrate out there and have a good day.  You deserve it.  Take care and stay safe.

I do have things to write about, but right now I am so dang tired.  Hopefully, I'll feel up to it later today or tomorrow.  So y'all have a good day and I'll talk to y'all then.  -- Michael

09/29/04 (02:00 AM) -- Happy Birthday Mo' Bhardwaj, Michael Carrizales (me) and Happy 3rd Anniversary Lu & Ursla Hernandez!

Man, I felt so sick all day today.  I started feeling this way Monday.  When I was leaving the driver's license place, I started to feel it a little bit.  I just thought I was tired from waiting in that damn line for so long.  There were so many people there.  And may I say, I sure as heck hope they finish the construction on Ben White soon!  Man, there was an accident yesterday and, combined with the road construction, it was total hell.  I hope no one was seriously hurt and all.   I imagine that construction is not exactly helping to prevent any accidents either.  I can't wait for it to be over so the intersection of BW and I-35 will finally be a flyover.

Anyway, I felt sick throughout yesterday, and through today also.  I pretty much stayed grounded in bed, trying to get a few things done in the process.  But that lasted like a few minutes because I felt horrible.  I just thought perhaps allergies I didn't know about were kicking in, but it seems like a few people have been sick recently.  And right now my body isn't exactly fighting infections full throttle, so I guess it should be no surprise that I got it.  I just rested tonight, falling in and out of sleep.  I thought I would write a quick something before I lay down again.  Hope everyone is doing okay.  Thanks to those who have already got in touch.  I appreciate it.  I am going to try to get some rest now, and hopefully feel better in the morning.  Talk to y'all then.  -- Michael

09/28/04 (11:00 PM) -- Happy Birthday Amy (Herndon) Holt!

09/25/04 (11:00 AM) -- #5 Texas Longhorns vs. Rice Owls @ 6:00 PM on Fox Sports Net!

09/24/04 (04:00 AM) -- Happy Birthday Hunter & Darren Thompson, Lisa Huerta, and Paul & Morgan Hamm!

So can I please tell y'all that it feels so good to relax, finally, and actually have a little bit of free time!  I got so much done yesterday, a heckuva lot more that I was counting on.  That is always a good thing!  It was great because I was able to finish in time to sit down and actually enjoy ER!!!  It's still one of my favorites, if not the favorite now that Friends is gone.  But I mostly have to record that stuff and hope to find time for it on the weekends.  It felt really good though to watch it straight up.

This past week I went through some old pictures trying to find a few for something, and I totally found like tons from the old days.  Man, I hadn't seen those pics in so long.  They brought back so many memories.  It's amazing how pictures can make you completely laugh so hard one minute, then make you sad the next.  I was smiling pretty big thinking back to the times and stuff.  On a few of them, I got so compelled I ended up IMing some of them to Mark, and then others to Hunter afterwards.  All of us were laughing pretty good at them.  They were good times.  It was pretty sad though to see a few with Jeanette in them.  That was the first time that I had gone through old pictures since her passing, and just happen to stumble upon some where she was in them.  They were like from our freshman year.  We were all babies back then.  I miss those carefree days.  I think we all miss Jeanette too.

So I am leaving out later today, then the game is tomorrow.  I think it's going to be a kickass weekend.  I'm looking forward to enjoying the weekend.  Last night I was convoing with McGuire about the game and it got me excited.  She tends to make me laugh a lot.  And I got to give her credit, she is one of only a few people that can keep me in line.  She's pretty good like that.  The honest truth though, I just let her think she is getting her way.  It's all just to appease her.  In reality, I know what I am doing!  :-)

Okay, so that is it for this morning.  Thanks for all the write-ins yesterday.  I'll be answering y'all back today.  I'll try and write some more this weekend.  Talk to y'all later!  Bye!  -- Michael

09/23/04 (05:30 AM) -- These last few days have been pretty busy.  Again, sleep has been a commodity that has seemed foreign to me.  I got a ton done yesterday though, which was pretty good.  I'll be out of town on Friday, and then we play Rice on Saturday.  I have to get a lot done today also, because come tomorrow through the weekend I am looking to have some fun.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the "covert operation" this past week.  It was greatly appreciated.  Also, thanks to those peeps who have been sending me pictures.  Please please keep sending them in.  With all the pictures I receive, along with the ones I'm either trying to recover, or rescanning, the Photo Album will be bigger and better than before.  Busy as I am, I am trying to spend at least a few minutes working on it.  In about a week, I'll have a little more free time to dedicate on it.  Hopefully at that point more progress will be made, and I'll have it back up.  In the meantime though, keep sending me your pictures.

I don't have much else to write this morning.  I should be able to write a little more tomorrow.  I'll have some more time then.  Hope y'all have a good day.  'til tomorrow... -- Michael

09/21/04 (04:30 AM) -- Group picture being taken for the "covert operation" tonight at the Executive Surf Club in The CC @ 8:30 PM.  If y'all are in town, please head on out.  It's for a good cause, and well worth everyone's time.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in yesterday.  I didn't quite finish responding to everyone, but I will try to do so today.  I wish I had more to write, but sadly I don't.  Yesterday was pretty routine.  I pretty much spent the whole night reading, and then trying to code a new section of the site.  Then I tried to respond to e-mails and such.  I watched a little of the Vikings-Eagles game, and was upset that the Eagles won.  It always helps Dallas when teams in their division lose.  Oh well, hopefully they can keep pace.  The Eagles look, again, to be the cream of the NFC East.  

Oh yeah, I have a request for y'all.  Since the 2nd partition on the old server is still jacked, I am switching to plan B.  If anyone has any pictures out there that y'all would like to send in, please e-mail them to me.  I would like to put something up, rather than having it empty.  So, send me all of y'alls great looking pictures!  It doesn't matter what they are from.  I'll do my best to create pages for them.

And, I think someone's birthday is today?  For some reason the 21st of Sept sounds like someone's day that I know.  If today is someone's birthday, let me know!  In any event, Happy Birthday to all the 09/21s out there (haha)!  Okay, no more jibber jabber for this morning.  Hope y'all have a great day.  Don't forget about the picture being taken tonight.  Talk to y'all later.  Bye!  -- Michael

09/20/04 (04:00 AM) -- *Important Message.  Please read in full!*  Okay, so I am going to talk about the site for a second.  Please read the whole thing with an open mind.  It will make sense at the end...

I'll be honest, sometimes this site can be a huge pain in the ass.  It started kind of small, and then grew quite a bit.  The biggest obstacle was the server going down a few weeks ago.  That was total hell because I had to spend SO MUCH time trying to recover what was temporarily lost, and recode what was permanently gone.  For the most part, though, everything is pretty much back to normal, with the exception of a few sections.  I have taken every necessary precaution to make sure that what happened never happens again.  But that only lasted for a few weeks, a small portion of how long this site has been up.

The time needed to maintain the site has grown over the years.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good problem to have.  The fact that maintenance needs to be done is an indication that traffic continues to grow.  And in the end, that's a good thing.  But a lot, if not all, of my already limited free time is dedicated to making this thing appealing for everyone out there who visits.  I am not quite sure if everyone realizes just how much work goes into putting and keeping this thing together.  Bugs always need to be fixed.  Links need to work and not be broken.  Everything needs to match.  Every so often change is good.  And that doesn't even include the time it takes to add the new information, whether that be these posts, listing new people, updating sections with new and current information, adding pictures, (once I get that section up again), formatting things, etc.  And then there is always time spent thinking about ways to make the site better.  It's always good to try to come up with new sections, new features, make it more user friendly and provide more user interaction, etc.  It can get overwhelming at times.  And in a way, the site has become such a part of who I am, it's like I now have this inner alarm clock dedicated to making sure I have the site as current as possible.  When a day goes by and I haven't made any changes, I feel like something is wrong.  I feel like I NEED to update the site.

I met someone new last week.  We were in a group, and did the customary "hello" and stuff.  But then she said that she knew who I was because she visits my website all the time.  That totally caught me off guard!  It was weird, because here was this person whom I had never met before, and yet she knew so much about me already because she had read my words and seen portions of my life in pictures.  At first it was cool because the site found its way to her, an indication of its growth.  But then I felt a little weird.  I've always known there are random people out there who visit.  And of course I totally welcome that.  Some of these people have even wrote to me.  But I have never actually met one of these random peeps before.  I was shaking her hand, knowing absolutely nothing about her.  But she was asking me things about what I had recently wrote.  It was SO crazy!  I really didn't mind or anything like that.  I mean, I am not ashamed of anything that is on here.  The site is me, plain and simple, like it or not, take it or leave it.  To me, that's the only way to live.  But I guess sometimes I write and forget how many people it reaches.  I forget that, for one reason or another, people are interested in what I have to say.  Isn't that the reason why you are reading these very words?

Someone asked me this week: "How do you have time to maintain your website, and to write so much?"  I laughed at the question because I get it a lot.  I used to not know how to answer that.  I used to just shrug my head and be like, "I don't know; I just do!"  But when I really thought about it, the answer really is very simple.  I just find time.....somewhere!  I have learned how to fit 25 hours of work into a 24 hour window.  When you are working, I am working.  When you are studying, I am studying.  When you are reading, I am reading.  When you are exercising, I am exercising.  You get my point.  However, when you are relaxing, I am writing.  When you are bored, I am updating.  When you are sleeping, I am maintaining.  I guess that's the difference.  I just dedicate nearly all my free time towards making sure this site is the best it can possibly be.  

You might be thinking that I am complaining.  I'm not.  I'm not trying to make it sound like that at all.  Are you wondering why I put so much work into something that I sometimes describe as a "pain in the ass"?  Perhaps you are thinking that if it is so much damn work and if it sometimes is so hard to maintain, then why the heck do I put forth the effort in the first place?  That's the easiest question of all.  Here is the answer...

"Thanks for all you do."

"Thanks again for putting together such a great website."

"You are so sweet to do this and are truly an awesome person!"

"I appreciate you taking the time to put this together.....Great job man."

"I'm so glad there's someone out there who is helping our class keep in touch."

"Excellent site Mike! It's a nice trip down memory lane, especially for those of us over here in Iraq."

"Your webpage is AWESOME!! I love being able to catch up with everyone. You are so great for putting this together and keeping it up to date!"

"Thanks for giving us a way to stay connected with each other.  I read what you write everyday, and really appreciate you opening yourself up to everyone.  Believe it or not, it helps me do the same in my life."

"Michael, I hope people truly realize what you are doing for us.  I want you to know that I, for one, in fact do.  The classmates thing is great, but my favorite part is your words.  You make me think about my actions, and how they effect and are perceived by other people.  You might not be able to understand this, and perhaps I am not explaining it well.  But your website helps me to be a better person.  I sincerely thank you for that."  (by far, the best, most touching, and in my opinion most completely undeserved compliment of all)

...Those are just a few of the messages I have received over the last few days.  Those words are what make this all worth it.  When I hear/read things like that, it makes all of the work, the time, the lack of sleep spent on this website worth going through.  As much as y'all are thanking me, I thank y'all more.

With my warmest regards,
Michael Carrizales

09/19/04 (02:30 PM) -- Happy Birthday David & Monica Berlanga!

I don't have much time to write right now.  I am about to leave.  But the last few days have been okay.  Friday I was able to rest, which was very welcomed by me.  Yesterday I finished some reading, and watched a lot of football.  The games were good this weekend.  I met up later that evening with Larry and Brian at their in-laws place to watch the fight.  We hung out afterwards and had a good time.

This morning I have been trying to finish some profiles that I needed to do.  I just finished.  The Texans-Lions game is on also.  It was awesome to see Roy Williams make his first NFL touchdown catch just a few moments ago!!!  He is going to be badass.  I just wish he had a better QB.  I am not sold on Harrington.  

Thanks Ryan Nelson for getting in touch and sending me your information.  Also, thanks to Mrs. Spangler for writing in!  It was great to hear from you.  I haven't had a chance to sit down and respond to everyone yet.  But I promise to do so this evening. 

09/17/04 (03:00 AM) -- Happy Birthday Omar Garcia!

I sent out an e-mail yesterday about a surprise "covert operation" that we are planning.  The e-mail went out to an ass load of people.  If you know nothing of what I am talking about and/or you didn't receive an e-mail from me, please e-mail me to get in touch to find out what I am talking about.  We want to keep it a surprise, so I am not going to divulge in this post.  For those who did get the e-mail and want to take part, please complete the task ASAP, or at the very least by the beginning of next week.  A BIG HUGE "Thanks" goes out to everyone who took the time yesterday to respond.  I know it will mean a lot.

For those who have been interested in what Austin Moffitt has been up to, I apologize for being tardy with his letters.  I know I know, shame on me.  I can't say this enough ... when the server went down, I lost a ton of crap.  I was happy to regain his section though.  I updated the Austin's Letters page with his most current prose.  I'll be adding more as time permits.  Also, "Thanks" go out to Sarah Mizener (Ray '96) and Helen Lukefahr (Carroll '97) for sending in their Classmates info.  It's great to have y'all both on.  I hope more are on the way.  Now on to my day...

Have y'all ever been SO tired that you aren't even sleepy anymore?  I mean, like you are just completely tired and drained but your psyche hasn't quite transitioned into sleep mode because it hasn't had it in a longer time than usual?  It's kinda like being so hungry you can't eat.  Crazy...I know!  But I know some of y'all out there know what I am talking about.  That is where I am right now.  I am that tired.

It's been a long day.  It started yesterday (Wed. night @ midnight) when my "once-a-month" began.  It started out with some research work to keep busy.  I didn't get called that night which was nice, though sometimes you almost want to get the buzz just so you don't feel like you stayed up for nothing.  Anyway, yesterday, during the day, it was routine as usual for a "once-a-month" ... which pretty much means hectic, long, and unpredictable.  I finished up and then headed out.  I wasn't able to make it to the Texas Exes Thirsty Thursday because I had already had plans to meet up with some friends to celebrate Omar's birthday (all be it a day early).  It was fun, even though I couldn't join everyone in the beverage fun because I just might have been zapped (of course that never happened though).  We all went out to eat a late dinner afterwards.  Even then I didn't want to chow down, despite the fact that I hadn't eatin' all day up to that point.  I knew if I stuffed it then I would get that after dinner lul, and it would make me tired.  I still had a few hours to go.

We ended up calling it a night 'round 10:00 PM ish, so I then returned to finish more research for my last two hours.  They actually went by really fast because I had a lot of e-mails to respond to.  I started to update the site for a bit, and had a few phone convos as well.  That brings me to now.  Like I said, my rotation ended three hours ago, but I am right now still in that tiredness described above.  I finished what I wanted to get accomplished on the site for tonight.  I finished e-mailing people back (I think?).  I just hung up with one of my west coast friends.  I am finally done, and now I am going to force the psyche to transition itself into rest mode.  I should probably read a few more pages.  But I say screw it!  I'm going to bed!  -- Michael

09/16/04 (05:55 AM) -- There were a lot of write in responses to the post from yesterday.  They were all pretty funny.  Thanks to those who got in touch.  I'm glad y'all enjoyed the piece.  I don't have anything major for y'all this morning.  Yesterday was a long day, but not too interesting.  Thursdays are always the days that I try to pack too much in.  I don't really get a ton of time to sit down and enjoy TV during the week.  If I'm lucky, I might be able to catch a program on a random day.  But Thursday is when, in my opinion, the good shows are on.  Tonight Joey, The Apprentice, The O.C., Survivor: Vanutu, and CSI are all on tap.  And that's because ER hasn't started yet.  Needless to say my video equipment is always working overdrive on Thursdays.  But I don't know how much I am going to catch because I am going to try to make the Texas Exes Thirsty Thursday tonight, and we are also celebrating a friend's birthday tonight.  So I gotta get to being productive this afternoon because tonight is pretty packed.

Jase, I hope y'all stay safe out there in 'Bama.  Ivan seems to be slammin' y'all right now.  I just caught the Weather Channel and it looks like the storm just hit the shore a few hours ago and Alabama is taking a direct hit.  I guess that was an advantage of growing up in The CC huh?  We were always used to hurricane protocol.  Teach those 'Bamans what to do man!

Okay y'all, time to shower.  I'll talk to y'all later.  -- Michael

09/15/04 (05:30 AM) -- Okay, so I got a topic for everyone this morning: College Rivalries.  I am curious about everyone's opinion on this.  I got into a discussion with some peeps last night about who is each school's major rival.  It all started because this random ass-clown Aggie got in touch again mouthing off about stupid shit.  It just seems like A&M people give more of a damn about the whole UT/A&M thing than Longhorns do.  Then it just so happened that a friend was comprising an editorial piece about the topic, from each school's perspective.  I was then asked to write the one from the Longhorn point of view.  Here is what I wrote...

"In my opinion, when it comes to who is our biggest rival, it really is only a two horse race.  It's either Texas A&M or Oklahoma.  Here's my jest...

Historically, A&M is UT's rival.  And in the end, it will always be that way.  I mean, for God's sake we are both in each other's school song ("...and it's goodbye to A&M";  "...goodbye to Texas University")!  So, in theory, it will always be A&M to a certain degree, in terms of the biggest, longest, and perhaps most historical.  However, in terms of importance and pure hatred, hands down it is OU.  It isn't even close.  It all starts with football because let's face it ... football just flat out means more.  The Texas/OU game historically carries more national weight, especially at the present time.  And of course the fact that OU has kicked our ass the last few years has definitely fueled the rivalry even more.  However, it has moved beyond just football.  In every capacity, Texas just gets more excited with it comes to playing OU.  The TX/OU athletic programs, at the current time, seem to be more on par with each other as opposed to the programs of Texas/Texas A&M.  And, whether y'all want to admit it or not, rivalries always start on the playing fields.  Posed with the same general question, the opinions from users on HornFans.com concurred that Texas' biggest rival is Oklahoma, no question.

Now, when you switch the sides, it's a completely different story.  A&M sees UT as THEIR biggest rival.  TexAgs.com users were clear in sayin' that UT was theirs.  There seems to be more Aggies who hate Longhorns, than the other way around.  I imagine this to be true because, again, we seem to have their number in most sports these days.  Perhaps if A&M were to become more competitive, especially in football, I think the rivalry might heat up a bit.  And this is something I actually would like to see (the rivalry heat up I mean).  Some even said that because of the whole TX/OU thing, they have now started to consider Tech their biggest rival, especially after the whole goal post incident a few years back.  But according to my minimal research, the majority was that Aggies dislike Texas, and think of us as their top dog.

I think the major difference from other rivalries is that in the Texas/Texas A&M one, a lot of us are on both sides of the fence.  Most of us have family that have attended both schools.  I'm sure all of us have friends from both schools.  Individual people might even have attended both schools at one point or another.  In my opinion, it boils down to everyone ultimately being Texans first, Aggies and Longhorns second.  There is still an element of civility present among both sides.  I think the bonfire tragedy in '99 probably had a lot to do with that.  Even though it is a rivalry, I think most people take it in stride and are somewhat respectful with it.  Of course, there are those few extremists out there that take it WAY too seriously, though.  You know the ones that I am talking about.  Some of you might in fact be one.  I am referencing those peeps that, even on a regular day during the off-season of major sports, will see you wearing a Longhorn shirt and mouth off something like, "screw tu!  y'all suck!  whoop!" and vise versa.  The UT/A&M thing honestly seems like it is only big in the state of Texas these days.  If you leave this great state of ours, there is not too too much concern for the whole Texas/Texas A&M thing, at least in my experience.

That takes me back to blOwU.  There is no respect there.  This matchup is pure hatred.  There is no underlying common ground.  They hate us and we hate them.  It's not just their school either.  We hate their state, their people, their roads, their everything!  We won't even set foot in that God awful place unless we absolutely have to.  To us, Mobile-homa is like one big Lubbock!  And the feeling is mutual.  Of course we all try to be adults about it, but there is a big difference between Owho? and A&M.  Many of us don't have family or friend ties to OU.  We don't share state citizenship.  The best way to describe it is like this:  When Texas A&M plays Oklahoma in the Who-Really-Cares Bowl each year, if a gun was put to our heads and we HAD to cheer some someone, we would pick A&M any day of the week!  That's how bad we hate Joke-la-homa.  Texas/Texas A&M means something to Texans.  TX/OU means something to more than just Texans and those land stealin' neighbors from the north.  It's a rivalry on a national level.  You have your Texas/Texas A&M, your Florida/Florida State, your USC/UCLA.  But there is something different about a rivalry involving two different states, such as Texas/Oklahoma and say Michigan/Ohio State.

Arkansas used to be a Southwest Conference rival of ours.  However since they fled to the SEC, the SWC going belly up, and since we don't regularly play them anymore, the rivalry has kinda fallen by the waste side.  It only heated up again recently because we played them in a one-n-one in which they upset us at home last year, and this year they played liked some dirty cheatin' bastards!  There are no immediate plans to include Arkansas on future non-conference schedules, thus diminishing the once important rivalry.  We sure as hell still hate them though!

On SoonerFans.com, they agree that Texas is their biggest rival and they ours.  Oklahoma State seems to be their Texas A&M (and Nebraska their Arkansas).  We see the schools the same way.  Texas A&M and Oklahoma State are like that sibling or cousin that you don't like, but you are related to for life.  Arkansas and Nebraska are like that old acquaintance that you don't see every year anymore, but when you do you realize why you don't like them in the first place.  

Then there are those few other schools that get thrown in the mix from time to time.  These schools THINK they are our rival, but who are they really kidding?  Tech, Rice, Baylor, Houston ... they are better off sticking to themselves than trying to pick fights with the big boys.  They think we are their rival, but they are just a nuisance to us.  If I had to break it down, I would say that our rivals are:  1) OU  2) A&M  3) Arkansas ..... and if you even want to take it to a fourth ... 4) Tech, just because they have found a way to beat us a time or two recently in Lubbock.

Oh yeah, the time is now (enter current time here), and OU STILL SUCKS!!!"

...There's my opinion.  I'll post this on the Message Board so y'all can respond.  I am interested in reading people's comments.  -- Michael

09/13/04 (06:30 AM) -- Don't have much to write this morning.  The Cowboys and Texans both lost yesterday.  That pretty much made the day blow.  It was really great to have a full weekend of football again though!  Yeah, so this one is going to be short.  I hope y'all have a great Monday.  Talk to y'all later!  -- Michael

09/12/04 (02:00 AM) -- Damn, can we say lucky!  I'll be the first to admit ... we played like shit!  In my opinion, we were VERY lucky to get out of Arkansas with a win.  Heck, we were lucky to get out of that state without being hit by their ugly stick, or without getting run over by one of their numerous trailer homes!  (no disrespect to my Arkansas readers!)  Seriously though, we were very lucky to win that game with the way we played.  We committed TOO MANY penalties.  Our receivers really gotta get better.  Their route running and catch ability just plain sucked!  Our offensive line did well, but had a few lapses.  Cedric Benson was showing signs of the second coming of Ricky Williams ... FINALLY!  But losing Selvin Young was really bad.  Can someone PLEASE teach Vince Young how to NOT throw side arm!?!?

I was nervous because I knew Ark was going to be ready to play.  Houston Nutt is a good coach.  But in my opinion, we really didn't deserve to win that game.  They beat themselves.  Don't get me wrong, I am definitely glad we won, especially after seeing all the ranked teams that lost this week.  But still, we have a lot of things to work on over the next few weeks.  Rice and Baylor, both at home, are going to be walkovers and are not going to test us.  After this game, I am REALLY nervous about going to Dallas in a month and trying to take down OU.  As much as I hate that school, right now they seem to have our number.  We need to fix those mistakes and start playing better if we want to have any chance against OU.  I think we have it in us to win, but not the way we played against Arkansas.  C'mon horns ... let's start playing like a top 5 team!

Obviously I watched the game.  But I decided to stay in and catch it.  I was going to go with some friends to the Texas Exes away game watching party.  But after I saw all those ranked teams go down, I started to get nervous so I wanted to stay in ... in case I were to get pissed, which is exactly what happened.  Anyway, I think the combination of the crazy game, food, drinks, and a lack of sleep made me feel a little sick.  So I didn't do anything tonight.  Buuut, I am getting pretty tired, so I am going to turn in.  Glad the 'horns won, hope the Cowboys and Texans do the same tomorrow!  -- Michael

09/11/04 (06:45 PM) -- #7 Texas Longhorns at Arkansas Razorbacks @ 7:45 PM on ESPN!

Kick off is in about an hour, so I thought I would quickly write before the game starts.  Frankly, I am a little nervous.  Arkansas came into Austin and upset us last year.  So far this week, #4 Florida State, #8 Michigan, #13 Kansas State, and #17 Missouri have all lost.  #3 Georgia is losing, and #9 Ohio State BARELY hung on to win on a last second 55 yard field goal!  That just makes me a little nervous having to go into Fayetteville and play the hogs tonight.  Come on Horns!  Kick their ass tonight and pay 'em back for last year!  I say we win 31-17.  Let's see if I am right.

Not much else to write.  I am going to go get ready to watch the game now.  This date tends to have some historical memories for people, obviously myself included.  I hope whatever y'all are doing, y'all are well and are having a good time.  Talk to y'all tomorrow.  -- Michael

09/10/04 (4:30 PM) -- So I've had tons of questions bout why the site went down last week.  Let me explain...

Last week, Monday night I think, the server went down.  It got infected.  Normally I have a pretty decent security platform on, though it just so happen to be on those few days, it was down because I was working on something.  The server, which houses all the information and files that make up this website, was hit with a timed virus ... setting it up to go down at a certain point.  I am still not quite sure how it all happened.  I now know where the worm came from, and I know how it got in, but at the time I was pretty clueless.  So what happened was I was completely locked out of the web server, and all my files were screwed and/or erased.

I realized that I was, at worst, going to have to rewrite the whole damn thing.  I was pretty pissed at that point.  So I just decided to go full speed ahead with the overall face change that I had been planning for a little while.  I have had like no sleep since last week, because at night I have been coding and working my ass off trying to fix the problems and start again from scratch.  Slowly, I was able to recover some of the files from before, but not all.  There are still some that are either locked or erased.  It sucked because the things that I JUST loaded like the day before are gone now.  Even now, I still haven't found a way to recover them yet.  But I am working on that.

So basically, I had to create previous images (technical talk, I know), sift through past log ins, and then just break things down into 1s and 0s, and then put it back together.  I was actually pretty surprised at how successful I was.  So yeah, I have now recovered most stuff, and the other stuff I rewrote.  I also got lucky because some things that I sent to friends like a few days before, they still had so I was able to have them send that stuff back to me.  For the most part, the site is kinda back to normal.

In short, the web server got hosed.  I lost everything.  I worked hard to recover as much as I could.  I recovered a lot.  I am still trying to recover the other stuff, namely the pictures.  I hope to get it all back, but it is hard work and it will take time.  I really don't feel like working day and night on this like I have been this past week.  I am going to do my best.  But my main objective is completed, the site is up and running again.  I ended up getting a new web server, and setting it up so hopefully this won't happen again.  That's pretty much what happened with the website, which is what prompted me to make some changes.

That's it for me this afternoon.  I am looking forward to the Miami - Florida State game tonight.  Football season couldn't have come soon enough!  I'll talk to y'all later.  -- Michael

09/09/04 (03:00 PM) -- Happy Birthday Lana (Buchanan) Polzin!

Wow, thanks to all who got in touch with such kind words regarding the site.  It was nice to hear/read all the great words.  They are all greatly appreciated!  I'm still working on some areas, but I am glad that y'all like what I have up so far.  I don't have much to write today.  I as pretty pissed because I just saw that Andre Agassi lost in five sets to #1 Roger Federer.  I wanted Andre to grab another major, but he'll have to wait 'til next year.  I guess I'll have to root for Andy Roddick now.

All the Carroll '95 ers out there should check out the Carroll 1995 reunion page.  Joanna Garcia is helping to organize the event.  Right now it looks like they are trying to grab current contact information for everyone.  If any 95ers our there are reading this and haven't done so already, send in your info to Jimmy or Joanna!

Okay y'all, I gotta finish some work so I can watch some good stuff tonight.  Let's see, there's #17 Mizzu at Troy St in College FB.  Tonight is also the Pats and the Colts kicking off the NFL season!  And of course Joey and The Apprentice are on tonight!  Gotta get stuff done so I can be free for tonight's viewings!  Hope everyone is well.  Talk to y'all later.  -- Michael 

09/08/04 (05:30 AM)  -- Well, I have finally finished with overhauling the site.  Granted, the actual pages look a little different, it's actually on the back-end where I made most of the changes.  If you were to look under the shirt of this site, you would see what I am talking about.  Okay, so here's what happened...

Basically, for whatever reason, the web server crashed last week.  It was a big problem because initially I lost a ton of crap.  I mean I pretty much lost everything.  It took A LOT of creative work in order to retrieve most of what I was able to.  I did lose some stuff completely though.  But who knows?  Maybe I might be able to get that back too.  The stuff that I lost was pretty much the brand new stuff that I had just loaded up last week before the crash (i.e. - pictures, posts, etc.)  So that really sucked because I didn't have backups for those.  I had to really work some magic just to recover the older stuff.  Anyway, I just decided that since I was going to have to recode a ton of crap, I might as well take this opportunity to redo the site like I had been wanting to for a little while.  Thus, MichaelCarrizales.com version 2.0 was created!

I'm not going to get into detail about all the things that are new and such.  I trust that hopefully y'all will look around and check everything out accordingly.  I had originally planned to go live with the site tomorrow, but I decided to do it a day early instead.  However, once I did this morning (and as with any launch), I ran into some unexpected problems.  I think I got all of them fixed though.  If y'all find anything y'all think to be a little weird, e-mail me and let me know.

Anyway, there are still a few sections that I have yet to finish, namely the Photo Album section.  I was hoping to go live with everything completed.  However, once I realized that was going to take me quite a bit of time to fix (I lost like all of my new pictures I had just added, and am having a very hard time recovering the older ones), I just decided that I didn't want to wait that long to put the site back up.  So..... I'll add the picture pages as I recover and complete them.  Have patience with me please.  I have been coding my ass off these last few nights trying to get this thing usable again.  I am still working hard at it, but I am going to slow slightly now that the site is again up and running.  I'll be making the finishing touches in the next few days.  For the most part though, 2.0 is finished.  

That's pretty much it for now.  I hope y'all enjoy the site.  As always, I welcome y'alls thoughts.  Click on the Feedback page to let me know what y'all think.  Okay, it's like early in the morning, and I stayed up all night working on this thing.  I need to grab a quick shower and start the day.  Thanks go out to Larry, Nicole, Heather, and Marissa for the great input while creating the new version.  It helped greatly.  Talk to y'all tomorrow!  -- Michael

09/06/04 -- Happy Birthday Marissa Gonzales and Happy Labor Day!

09/04/04 -- Congratulations to Nik Villarreal & Jeannie Cantu on their wedding day and #7 Texas Longhorns vs. North Texas Mean Green @ 6:00 PM!