Civil Engineering Unplugged

Astros' season ends on down note

2005-10-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

The Astros ended the greatest season in their franchise's history with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox. The loss also completed the four game sweep of the Astros in their first world series appearance. Bad hitting and an inconsistent bullpen were the downfalls of the Astros. The Astros should be proud of what they accomplished this season but they should be embarrassed with their performance in the world series. Even though they lost the four games by only a combined six runs, they still got swept. The thing that ticks me off the most is the fact that they couldn't score a single run for Brandon Backe, the game four pitcher who pitched the game of his life. Even though the Galveston native threw seven scoreless innings and was so energetic and into the game the offense could not do anything. Hopefully this will only fuel their fire for next year.

Astros going to the World Series

2005-10-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

Like I said in my last post, I was able to attend the three Astros games over the weekend. Things started off great but then turned terribly wrong. The Astros were playing the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS (a rematch from last year's NLCS that the Cards won in seven games). Game three was great since the Astros won 4-3 behind the pitching of Roger Clemens. Game four was an intense battle to the end. The Cardinals put runners on first and third with one out in the top of the ninth and the Astros desperately needed a double play. They got it. A close play at first sealed the 2-1 victory and gave the Astros a 3-1 lead in the series. Now all they needed was one more victory to close the deal. Game 5 did not look promising at first. The Cardinals jumped to an early 2-0 lead with their pitching ace Chris Carpenter dominating the Astros. But the Astros scored a run on a Craig Biggio single to cut the lead to 2-1. Then came Berkman. In the bottom of the seventh with two men on Lance Berkman blew the roof off of Minute Maid Park. Berkman lined a three run home run into the Crawford Boxes to give the Astros a 4-2 lead and what looked to be all they needed to clinch the series. The atmosphere was unbelievable. You could not hear the person sitting right next to you. But in the top of the ninth joy turned into absolute misery. Closer Brad Lidge came in to seal the deal and quickly got two outs. But then came a single and a two out walk and that brought Albert Pujols to the plate. Albert quickly silenced the crowd with a mammoth three run home run that gave them a 5-4 lead. I honestly felt sick to my stomach (I like to blame that for my kidney stone that I am suffering from as we speak). But of course all is well now because the Astros flew to St. Louis and won 5-1 to advance to their first world series. Hopefully the Astros can beat the Chicago White Sox bring the championship to Houston.

baseball classic

2005-10-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday i was able to witness first hand one of the greatest postseason baseball games of all time. The Houston Astros defeated the Atlanta Braves in what turned out to be the longest postseason game in history. The game lasted five hours and 50 minutes. Astro rookie Chris Burke ended the game in the bottom of the 18th with a walk-off home run. I must say that the whole experience was one of the most gut wrenching of my life. Every extra inning was full of excitement and uncertainty. But in the end everything turned out ok. The fact that the home run ended the Braves' season made it even more enjoyable (i hate the Braves). Now the Astros will face the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series, which will be a rematch of last year's NLCS. Hopefully the Astros can continue their magic run and beat the Cards. I will be attending the games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and hopefully I will be able to post some good news after Monday.

aggies sucking

2005-10-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

I hope to God that the Aggies get better as the season goes on. What they are doing right now is just wrong. First they let Texas State score 31 on them and now they beat Baylor by three points, in overtime. I don't even want to think about the game against Texas. Needless to say there will be plenty of people drowning their sorrows with alcohol after that game. After the way they've been playing I don't see how they were ranked in the preseason polls.

2005-09-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

Civil engineers will have a big part in the rebuilding of New Orleans. Along with various road and construction problems, the main thing people will focus on is the levee situation. What will civil engineers do to prevent another "Katrina Aftermath"? I read on the New York Times' website that the old levees were only designed to withstand the power of a category 3 hurricane. You can be certain that the engineers will make sure the new levees are able to withstand other potential Katrinas in the future.

$$

2005-09-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the Texas Department of Transportation's website today and found something that caught my eye. A federal highway bill obtained by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the Texas U.S. House delegation, and Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma was approved by the House. This bill will reauthorize $286 billion through 2009 for variouse safety and transportation programs throughout the state. $286 billion is a huge sum of money. Some very lucky construction companies are going to be seeing green soon.

forgot to tell ya

2005-09-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

Aside from civil eng. I probably will talk about other random things on this blog. One day I might feel the need to comment on a certain sports or political story that catches my eye. But hopefully i will not stray to far away from civil engineering.

Hey People

2005-09-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

I will be posting all sorts of information about the world of civil engineering. Anytime you want to learn something new about the crazy world of civil engineering just stop by and take a look.