Personal
Happy New Years
Jan 02 2009 01:33 PM
Paige and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Agave Restaurant to
ring in the new year. It’s that time of year
again, time to make some resolutions.
I think this year instead of making some big overall resolutions, I’m going to list some things I’d like to start or continue doing.
I think this year instead of making some big overall resolutions, I’m going to list some things I’d like to start or continue doing.
- I got myself out of debt earlier this year, and have done fairly well at keeping myself out of debt. I do still use my credit card to pay for stuff online or for our trips we take, but I make sure to pay it off either at the end of the month, if I can, or within a month or two if I need the time. This year I plan on continuing to stay out of debt.
- When I was younger I used to draw all the time. I have a lot of great drawing tools lying around, and I really need to get back into it.
- I haven’t been playing the guitar as much as I used to, so I need to get back into doing that.
- While I have been good at not getting into debt again, I haven’t been doing all that well on putting money into my savings account. I’ve set up automatic deposits to try and resolve this. I have two big expenses coming up this year, my lease on my car runs up in September, as does the lease on the house I am renting. I have been renting this place for 3 years now, and am thinking of either looking into getting a place of my own, if I have the money and the housing market allows it; or at least move somewhere else and rent, for a change of scenery.
- I’d like to live more frugally this year. Just because I can afford to eat out often, or get Starbucks coffee daily, doesn’t mean I have to. I’m going to try to stick to eating out on weekends or during the week for special occasions, and cook meals at home during the week. I’m also thinking of cutting out the trips to Starbucks, or at least cutting it down to once or twice a week.
- Through exercise and monitoring myself using the Wii Fit I was able to lose 15 pounds this past year. Now, I have gained some of that back over the holidays, so I need to get back into working out and keeping the weight off. I also need to broaden my exercises beyond aerobic and get some strength training in too.
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Call of Duty: World At War
Jan 02 2009 01:21 PM
Shortly after I finished Lego Batman I purchased two
new games for the Wii. Call of Duty: World at War and
Tomb Raider Underworld. I finished Call of Duty
yesterday and have now started playing Tomb Raider
Underworld.
Call of Duty: World At War
I’ve been playing the Call of Duty games since they started coming out for Playstation 2 many years ago, only missing Call of Duty 4 because it wasn’t released for a system that I own. Call of Duty: World At War is a first person shooter that takes place in the final days of World War II. You play two characters, an American and a Russian, whose stories intertwine. The American conflict taking place with Japan, and the Russian conflict taking place in Germany. Just like Resident Evil 4, I found this game perfect for play on the Wii. This game supports the Wii Zapper, but I found it too hard to play that way because you have to be able to press the buttons on the WiiMote, which is hard to do when it is in the Zapper. Using the WiiMote to aim your weapon gives you better precision than using the joysticks when playing the game on other systems. This game has online play, but that’s something I’ve never been interested in, so I didn’t play that part, just the single player campaign mode. It’s a great game, definitely recommend it if you are into first person shooters.
Tomb Raider Underworld
Tomb Raider is another game I have been playing since it first started, back on the original PlayStation. I haven’t started playing this yet, so I won’t have a review until I’m finished. Most of the Tomb Raider games have been good, but there were a couple that felt thrown together just to release another title in the franchise. Hopefully this one isn’t one of those.
Call of Duty: World At War
I’ve been playing the Call of Duty games since they started coming out for Playstation 2 many years ago, only missing Call of Duty 4 because it wasn’t released for a system that I own. Call of Duty: World At War is a first person shooter that takes place in the final days of World War II. You play two characters, an American and a Russian, whose stories intertwine. The American conflict taking place with Japan, and the Russian conflict taking place in Germany. Just like Resident Evil 4, I found this game perfect for play on the Wii. This game supports the Wii Zapper, but I found it too hard to play that way because you have to be able to press the buttons on the WiiMote, which is hard to do when it is in the Zapper. Using the WiiMote to aim your weapon gives you better precision than using the joysticks when playing the game on other systems. This game has online play, but that’s something I’ve never been interested in, so I didn’t play that part, just the single player campaign mode. It’s a great game, definitely recommend it if you are into first person shooters.
Tomb Raider Underworld
Tomb Raider is another game I have been playing since it first started, back on the original PlayStation. I haven’t started playing this yet, so I won’t have a review until I’m finished. Most of the Tomb Raider games have been good, but there were a couple that felt thrown together just to release another title in the franchise. Hopefully this one isn’t one of those.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Dec 29 2008 10:04 PM
I picked up the new J. K. Rowling book, “The Tales of
Beedle the Bard” last night while grabbing a couple
things from Kroger. It was already 40% off, plus I
used my Kroger card to get additional savings, it
cost around $5.
For those of you not up on Harry Potter, one of the stories from this book was mentioned in the final Harry Potter book. This book is short, around 120 pages, and can be read in about 1 hour. It contains 5 stories, and commentary on each story by Dumbledore. I would liken this to something like Grimms Fairy Tales. Each of the stories are very short, and convey a message. The commentary by Dumbledore is the interesting part. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, it’s a good quick read if you can find it cheap.
For those of you not up on Harry Potter, one of the stories from this book was mentioned in the final Harry Potter book. This book is short, around 120 pages, and can be read in about 1 hour. It contains 5 stories, and commentary on each story by Dumbledore. I would liken this to something like Grimms Fairy Tales. Each of the stories are very short, and convey a message. The commentary by Dumbledore is the interesting part. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, it’s a good quick read if you can find it cheap.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Dec 28 2008 05:36 PM
I just finished a great book called ‘The Girl With
the Dragon Tattoo’, by Stieg Larsson.
This book caught my eye one day while I was at Barnes & Noble, and after giving it a once over I figured I’d pick it up. I haven’t read many mysteries lately. This mystery is what’s known as a ‘closed room’ murder mystery, akin to what Agatha Christie would write, where a murder has taken place, and because of the circumstances, you know who all the suspects are. In this case the suspects were all trapped on an island, where the only access was a bridge, that was closed due to an accident.
It wasn’t until I finished the book, and read a quick blurb about the author, that I found out he had passed away in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscript for this novel, and two others. He was 50 years old and died of a heart attack. The two other books are being released in the coming years, and if they are anything like this one I will plan on reading them.
I recommend this book if you are into a good mystery.
This book caught my eye one day while I was at Barnes & Noble, and after giving it a once over I figured I’d pick it up. I haven’t read many mysteries lately. This mystery is what’s known as a ‘closed room’ murder mystery, akin to what Agatha Christie would write, where a murder has taken place, and because of the circumstances, you know who all the suspects are. In this case the suspects were all trapped on an island, where the only access was a bridge, that was closed due to an accident.
It wasn’t until I finished the book, and read a quick blurb about the author, that I found out he had passed away in 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscript for this novel, and two others. He was 50 years old and died of a heart attack. The two other books are being released in the coming years, and if they are anything like this one I will plan on reading them.
I recommend this book if you are into a good mystery.
Finished Lego Batman with 100%
Dec 06 2008 06:28 PM
It took a while, but I finally finished Lego Batman
on the Wii with 100%. I used the same strategy I used
when playing Lego Indiana Jones. I saved up the
points I earned along the way and found and purchased
‘invincibility’ and ‘score x 6’. These allowed me to
get through the levels easier and also to earn enough
points to purchase anything I needed.
It took me a while to figure out that you go through this game as both Batman and Robin, and also as each of the villains. It’s actually an interesting way to tell the story. Usually when you are playing as Batman, you show up to the scene after the villain has already done their deed. Now, when you play as the villain, you play the backstory that leads up to that deed.
Overall I think I enjoyed Lego Indiana Jones more than this one. The first reason is Indiana Jones followed the story from the movies, so it was something I could relate with. Secondly, while this game was entertaining, it seems like it was just created to milk the franchise. I still need to play the Star Wars series, but I think I am going to take a break from the Lego games for a while.
It took me a while to figure out that you go through this game as both Batman and Robin, and also as each of the villains. It’s actually an interesting way to tell the story. Usually when you are playing as Batman, you show up to the scene after the villain has already done their deed. Now, when you play as the villain, you play the backstory that leads up to that deed.
Overall I think I enjoyed Lego Indiana Jones more than this one. The first reason is Indiana Jones followed the story from the movies, so it was something I could relate with. Secondly, while this game was entertaining, it seems like it was just created to milk the franchise. I still need to play the Star Wars series, but I think I am going to take a break from the Lego games for a while.
Finished a couple more books
Dec 06 2008 09:37 AM
I just finished reading two more books.
A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich
I have been on a little bit of a history kick lately. The story behind this book is actually pretty interesting. In 1935 a 26-year old Gombrich was tasked with writing a history book that could be enjoyed by children and adults alike. He completed the book in 6 weeks. The way he made it enjoyable to children is the text isn’t littered with dates. Instead he will tell you about on piece of history taking place, such as Julius Caesar in Rome, and when he tells you about another piece of history he would say it happened around the same time as Julius Caesar or maybe 100 - 200 years after. This helps you put everything into perspective, without constantly having to see tons of dates. I guess this makes it more of a history book you can read instead of one you would want to use as a reference book.
I’m a Stranger Here Myself (Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away) by Bill Bryson
I love Bill Bryson books. He could write about the most boring subject in the world and make it both an interesting and humorous narrative. This book is a collection of weekly stories that Mr. Bryson wrote for Night & Day magazine, one of the Sunday inserts for a newspaper in England. Bryson had lived in England for a while with his English wife and kids and had recently moved back to America. His stories are a mixture of what is different between America and England and also is used to introduce English citizens to some of the American traditions. As always, he is very funny, and this is a very entertaining read.
A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich
I have been on a little bit of a history kick lately. The story behind this book is actually pretty interesting. In 1935 a 26-year old Gombrich was tasked with writing a history book that could be enjoyed by children and adults alike. He completed the book in 6 weeks. The way he made it enjoyable to children is the text isn’t littered with dates. Instead he will tell you about on piece of history taking place, such as Julius Caesar in Rome, and when he tells you about another piece of history he would say it happened around the same time as Julius Caesar or maybe 100 - 200 years after. This helps you put everything into perspective, without constantly having to see tons of dates. I guess this makes it more of a history book you can read instead of one you would want to use as a reference book.
I’m a Stranger Here Myself (Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away) by Bill Bryson
I love Bill Bryson books. He could write about the most boring subject in the world and make it both an interesting and humorous narrative. This book is a collection of weekly stories that Mr. Bryson wrote for Night & Day magazine, one of the Sunday inserts for a newspaper in England. Bryson had lived in England for a while with his English wife and kids and had recently moved back to America. His stories are a mixture of what is different between America and England and also is used to introduce English citizens to some of the American traditions. As always, he is very funny, and this is a very entertaining read.
Thanksgiving
Nov 29 2008 10:53 AM
I stayed in town for Thanksgiving, my mother is in
Virginia picking up my grandmother to bring her down
to Columbus for the week. I am heading down to
Columbus for the weekend to visit them.
Paige and I had a nice little Thanksgiving. We had dinner at a restaurant called ‘The Palm’. The Palm is located in Buckhead in the Westin hotel. We made a night of it and got a room at the hotel. It was nice to have a night away and still be in town. The dinner was good, except for the lobster bisque, which had a fishy taste. We both ate too much, didn’t have room to have a couple after dinner drinks.
The Westin is next door to Lenox Square mall. We walked over and watched a little of the Macy’s tree lighting ceremony, headed back to the hotel for dinner, then walked back over to look at the tree, hoping we could walk off the full feeling, but that didn’t work. The tree isn’t all that great looking either, shame such a big tree had to give its life for that. The next morning we walked over to the mall and did some people watching. There weren’t as many people out shopping on Black Friday as we thought there would be, but there were still a good bunch out there. That’s the first time I’ve ever ventured out to a store on Black Friday, I try to stay away from stores this time of year.
Overall it was an enjoyable Thanksgiving.
Paige and I had a nice little Thanksgiving. We had dinner at a restaurant called ‘The Palm’. The Palm is located in Buckhead in the Westin hotel. We made a night of it and got a room at the hotel. It was nice to have a night away and still be in town. The dinner was good, except for the lobster bisque, which had a fishy taste. We both ate too much, didn’t have room to have a couple after dinner drinks.
The Westin is next door to Lenox Square mall. We walked over and watched a little of the Macy’s tree lighting ceremony, headed back to the hotel for dinner, then walked back over to look at the tree, hoping we could walk off the full feeling, but that didn’t work. The tree isn’t all that great looking either, shame such a big tree had to give its life for that. The next morning we walked over to the mall and did some people watching. There weren’t as many people out shopping on Black Friday as we thought there would be, but there were still a good bunch out there. That’s the first time I’ve ever ventured out to a store on Black Friday, I try to stay away from stores this time of year.
Overall it was an enjoyable Thanksgiving.
Vacation photos slowly being uploaded
Nov 25 2008 09:21 PM
I have uploaded the photos I like from the vacation
Paige and I took to the Southwest. I still have to go
through my photos from Sedona, which is taking a
while, because we were there for 4 days and went to a
lot of different places.
You can find the latest photos over in the photo section of my site.
You can find the latest photos over in the photo section of my site.
Just Voted
Nov 04 2008 10:13 AM
After hearing all of the horror stories about the
long waits and issues with early voting, I was
preparing for the worst today, but it never happened.
My polling place is an Elementary school within
walking distance of my house. I left my house at
9:15, was back home by 9:45. Voting took a total of
probably 10 minutes. Lovely!
On a side note, this is the first time I’ve voted in a while where I voted for someone because I really felt strongly about them. Usually voting comes down to which person do you hate the least, the lesser of two evils.
On a side note, this is the first time I’ve voted in a while where I voted for someone because I really felt strongly about them. Usually voting comes down to which person do you hate the least, the lesser of two evils.
Couple new games: Guitar Hero World Tour and Lego Batman
Nov 02 2008 01:19 PM
After finishing Lego Indiana Jones I went out looking
for a new game to play. I enjoyed the Lego game so
much that I purchased the Lego Batman game. I’ve
played the first level so far and it’s just as fun as
the Indiana Jones game.
I also found that Guitar Hero World Tour is now out. I purchased the game itself, instead of going for the whole kit at the moment, just didn’t feel like spending that much. If you purchase the whole kit you get a drum set, guitar, and microphone. This new guitar hero is competing with Rock Band. The game is fun, and I may end up purchasing the drum set at a later date, because there are some good drum songs on it; but I will hold off for now.
I also found that Guitar Hero World Tour is now out. I purchased the game itself, instead of going for the whole kit at the moment, just didn’t feel like spending that much. If you purchase the whole kit you get a drum set, guitar, and microphone. This new guitar hero is competing with Rock Band. The game is fun, and I may end up purchasing the drum set at a later date, because there are some good drum songs on it; but I will hold off for now.
Something Rotten
Oct 23 2008 09:33 PM
I just finished reading another Thursday Next novel,
by Jasper Fforde, called Something Rotten.
This is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series and it is probably my favorite. Jasper Fforde has to be one of the most imaginative authors I’ve ever read; it’s amazing the stuff he comes up with. This story is very funny, entertaining and well written. I recommend this series to anyone that enjoys quirky humor and a fun book.
I have his newest Thursday Next novel, First Among Sequels, but I think I am going to take a break and read something else right now. I purchased a couple classic novels, you know, the stuff you were forced to read back in grade school. I figure I’ll appreciate them more now that I am reading them for my own pleasure. I also have a couple other books sitting around that need reading. Will get back to Fforde later on.
This is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series and it is probably my favorite. Jasper Fforde has to be one of the most imaginative authors I’ve ever read; it’s amazing the stuff he comes up with. This story is very funny, entertaining and well written. I recommend this series to anyone that enjoys quirky humor and a fun book.
I have his newest Thursday Next novel, First Among Sequels, but I think I am going to take a break and read something else right now. I purchased a couple classic novels, you know, the stuff you were forced to read back in grade school. I figure I’ll appreciate them more now that I am reading them for my own pleasure. I also have a couple other books sitting around that need reading. Will get back to Fforde later on.
What?!? I installed Vista? On a MacBook!
Oct 19 2008 05:28 PM
Yes, you read that title correctly. I installed the
latest version of the Microsoft OS, Windows Vista, on
my MacBook. I didn’t install it in a virtual machine
using VMWare Fusion or Parallels, I actually used
BootCamp and installed it directly on my MacBook in a
separate partition. I did this for two reasons.
Number one: I didn’t use VMWare Fusion or Parallels
because my MacBook is one of the old ones that can
only support up to 2 GB or RAM, so I would only be
able to give my virtual machine around 1 GB and still
have a responsive Mac. Windows Vista wouldn’t be a
happy camper under 1 GB of RAM, especially since the
reason I installed it is for reason number two.
Number two: I realize at the end of the day, even
though I love Apple and my Mac, the thing that brings
home the paycheck is Microsoft development. We are
getting into serious development at work now using
.NET 3.5 and Silverlight 2.0. I need to have a
machine at home that I can use to work on, and I’d
rather not have to lug around a laptop back-and-forth
to work every day.
Now, as for why I installed Windows Vista Ultimate, when Windows Vista hasn’t exactly received stellar reviews? I had a copy that I got for free for attending a Microsoft developer session a few weeks back, and didn’t feel like scouring the web to find a pirated version of Windows XP.
I don’t see myself booting into Windows very often, but it’s nice to have the option. This is actually the reason I waited until Apple switched over to the Intel platform, so I would have the option to install Windows. I’ve played around with Vista for a few minutes now, this is the first time I’ve really used it, and while I don’t think it’s as great as OS X, I do think it’s more pleasing on the eyes than Windows XP. It also seems to be running pretty responsively, which is good. We’ll see how it goes once I start doing development on it.
Now, as for why I installed Windows Vista Ultimate, when Windows Vista hasn’t exactly received stellar reviews? I had a copy that I got for free for attending a Microsoft developer session a few weeks back, and didn’t feel like scouring the web to find a pirated version of Windows XP.
I don’t see myself booting into Windows very often, but it’s nice to have the option. This is actually the reason I waited until Apple switched over to the Intel platform, so I would have the option to install Windows. I’ve played around with Vista for a few minutes now, this is the first time I’ve really used it, and while I don’t think it’s as great as OS X, I do think it’s more pleasing on the eyes than Windows XP. It also seems to be running pretty responsively, which is good. We’ll see how it goes once I start doing development on it.
Goal Achieved
Oct 18 2008 01:08 PM
When I purchased Wii Fit and did my first weigh in, I
came in at 185 lbs. Now, I’m not some chunky guy, but
a 5’7” guy weighing in at 185 lbs tends to have some
signs of love handles. I set my goal in Wii Fit to
get down to 170 lbs. I set a goal of 3 months,
figuring 5 lbs a month may be achievable. It’s taken
a little while longer than that, but I weighed in at
170 yesterday. Now, my weight tends to head back up a
couple pounds on the weekend, since this is when
Paige and I head out to eat, but that’s fine. My next
goal is to get down to 160 lbs. Wii Fit says my ideal
weight is 148 lbs, but that’s just too skinny for me.
I used to weigh that much back when I was around 28,
and when I look at old photos my face was very
skinny. I think 160 may be a good stopping point. To
achieve this goal I pretty much just try to watch
what I eat. I try to weigh in on the Wii Fit every
day at the same time, and use it to work out when I
have a chance.
Simplicity
Oct 18 2008 01:02 PM
I came across this web site the other day that is
very helpful and super simple to use. It’s simplicity
at its finest.
The site is called Umbrella Today. It asks you for your zip code and returns a YES or NO on whether or not you may need an umbrella today. You can also sign up to have text messages sent to your phone to let you know when you may need an umbrella.
The site is called Umbrella Today. It asks you for your zip code and returns a YES or NO on whether or not you may need an umbrella today. You can also sign up to have text messages sent to your phone to let you know when you may need an umbrella.
America's Hidden History
Oct 13 2008 10:07 PM
While I mostly read fiction I try to fit in a
non-fiction book or two when I can. Lately these have
dealt with American History. When I was in high
school and college I was always more interested in
World History or Medieval History, I didn’t develop
an interest for American History until later.
I just finished reading a pretty good book by Kenneth C. Davis, “America’s Hidden History”. This book deals with some of the unknown facts or back stories around the events and characters in a couple events from history, such as the Revolutionary War, or the Pilgrims. I found it a very interesting read, and Mr. Davis does a good job of keeping you interested in the subject, which can be a hard thing to do when it comes to history.
I just finished reading a pretty good book by Kenneth C. Davis, “America’s Hidden History”. This book deals with some of the unknown facts or back stories around the events and characters in a couple events from history, such as the Revolutionary War, or the Pilgrims. I found it a very interesting read, and Mr. Davis does a good job of keeping you interested in the subject, which can be a hard thing to do when it comes to history.
Back From Vacation
Oct 12 2008 12:59 PM
Paige and I returned earlier this week from a nice
southwest vacation. We’ve come to really enjoy
traveling to the Southwest, and this trip did not
disappoint.
We started our journey in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where we flew into. We took the rental car from there to Sedona, Arizona, for a stay at The Enchantment Resort. This is the place we had stayed on an earlier visit. This time we did a lot more exploring of ruins and trails. We were there from Saturday to Tuesday.
The next leg of our journey was The Grand Canyon. It’s a beautiful big hole in the ground. We got there to experience the sunset, and took photos the next morning too, before heading off to our next destination: Monument Valley.
Monument Valley, Utah, is amazing. This was another one evening stay, with lots of exploring.
The next leg of our journey was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We timed our trip perfectly to experience the first day of the International Balloon Fiesta! We lucked out with the weather, although it did get too windy the first evening to experience the balloon glow. The next day was too windy and rainy, so they canceled most all of the events.
We finished our journey in our favorite spot, Santa Fe, New Mexico. As always, it was a perfect experience.
We both got a lot of photos using our new cameras. It will take a while to go through all of them and get them up on Flickr, but I will post them when I get them up.
We started our journey in Phoenix, Arizona, which is where we flew into. We took the rental car from there to Sedona, Arizona, for a stay at The Enchantment Resort. This is the place we had stayed on an earlier visit. This time we did a lot more exploring of ruins and trails. We were there from Saturday to Tuesday.
The next leg of our journey was The Grand Canyon. It’s a beautiful big hole in the ground. We got there to experience the sunset, and took photos the next morning too, before heading off to our next destination: Monument Valley.
Monument Valley, Utah, is amazing. This was another one evening stay, with lots of exploring.
The next leg of our journey was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We timed our trip perfectly to experience the first day of the International Balloon Fiesta! We lucked out with the weather, although it did get too windy the first evening to experience the balloon glow. The next day was too windy and rainy, so they canceled most all of the events.
We finished our journey in our favorite spot, Santa Fe, New Mexico. As always, it was a perfect experience.
We both got a lot of photos using our new cameras. It will take a while to go through all of them and get them up on Flickr, but I will post them when I get them up.
Amazon MP3 Downloads
Sep 14 2008 11:00 PM
I’ve read some reviews, have seen some mentions in
forums, and have heard some people talk about it at
work, so I finally got around to checking out MP3
downloads from Amazon. Most of the time I purchase my
music at Downloadpunk, but they
don’t have everything I’m interested in. I’ve
purchased a couple CD’s from iTunes, usually
using a iTunes gift card. While their selection
is great, and I pretty much just listen to my
music either on my iPod or one of my Macs, the
fact that a lot of their music has DRM on it
does kind of suck. The music isn’t in MP3
format, instead it’s in AAC, which is a wrapper
around MP3 that allows Apple to place their
digital rights restrictions on the music. This
usually limits your music to being played on
certain computers, so you can’t share it with
anyone.
Amazon has a competing music store. I don’t know if it’s as big as the iTunes store, but their selling point is that there is no DRM and also the price is usually a little cheaper. iTunes does carry some music with no DRM, but you actually have to pay more to have the privilege of getting the non-DRM music.
There’s a group I listen to, a psychobilly group, called HorrorPops. They’re a great group and I have their first two CDs, ‘Bring it On’ and ‘Hell Yeah’, and I saw they have a third CD called ‘Kiss Kiss Kill Kill’. This CD is available on iTunes for $9.99, but not in a non-DRM version. I checked out Amazon and they have the same CD in MP3 format for $8.99. I decided to purchase it from them. You have to download a small program, which is a downloader application. When you purchase the music you download a .amz file, this file is used by the downloaded to download your purchase. The cool part is once you finish with the download, it imports the music into your iTunes application. It’s now ready to be listened to and synced up with your iPod.
I was pretty happy with my first purchase. The download was very quick using the download application, and all of the music sounds great. It’s at 256 kb for the bit rate, which is very nice. I plan on making future purchases I don’t find on Downloadpunk on the Amazon site.
Amazon has a competing music store. I don’t know if it’s as big as the iTunes store, but their selling point is that there is no DRM and also the price is usually a little cheaper. iTunes does carry some music with no DRM, but you actually have to pay more to have the privilege of getting the non-DRM music.
There’s a group I listen to, a psychobilly group, called HorrorPops. They’re a great group and I have their first two CDs, ‘Bring it On’ and ‘Hell Yeah’, and I saw they have a third CD called ‘Kiss Kiss Kill Kill’. This CD is available on iTunes for $9.99, but not in a non-DRM version. I checked out Amazon and they have the same CD in MP3 format for $8.99. I decided to purchase it from them. You have to download a small program, which is a downloader application. When you purchase the music you download a .amz file, this file is used by the downloaded to download your purchase. The cool part is once you finish with the download, it imports the music into your iTunes application. It’s now ready to be listened to and synced up with your iPod.
I was pretty happy with my first purchase. The download was very quick using the download application, and all of the music sounds great. It’s at 256 kb for the bit rate, which is very nice. I plan on making future purchases I don’t find on Downloadpunk on the Amazon site.
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Sep 13 2008 06:06 PM
I purchased a new game a couple weeks ago called
“Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures”, and
I’ve been having a blast playing it.
If you’ve never played one of the Lego video games, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you think Lego games are only for kids, you are completely wrong. These games can be pretty tough. There’s a Lego Star Wars game and also a Lego Batman game; they all operate pretty much the same. You first play through each level in Story Mode. In this mode you follow the story line of the movie. This game has all three stories in it: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade. You play as Indiana Jones and you’ll also usually have one or two other characters on the screen too, which you can switch to when you need to use one of their talents (women characters can jump higher, short characters can climb through holes, etc). The game follows the story lines pretty closely, adding little puzzles along the way. Once you finish a level you can go back through the level in Free Play mode. In this mode you will have access to additional characters that you unlock along the way, and they can allow you to access parts of the level you couldn’t in Story Mode, so you can find additional secrets and treasure.
I have finished the game in Story Mode. It’s not tough to finish if you are persistent. You can’t die in this game, you just lose some of the treasure you’ve accumulated along the way each time your life force goes to zero. You use the treasure to purchase additional characters and abilities, so it is best not to get killed too often. Once I finished the game in Story Mode, I was only through with 67% of the game, so now I am going through in Free Play mode, trying to find all of the secrets for each level.
I definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes a game with puzzles to solve and also is a fan of Indiana Jones. There’s a lot of humorous stuff thrown in, including cameos from various Star Wars characters, which are actually Easter Eggs that you are supposed to find to get 100%.
If you’ve never played one of the Lego video games, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you think Lego games are only for kids, you are completely wrong. These games can be pretty tough. There’s a Lego Star Wars game and also a Lego Batman game; they all operate pretty much the same. You first play through each level in Story Mode. In this mode you follow the story line of the movie. This game has all three stories in it: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade. You play as Indiana Jones and you’ll also usually have one or two other characters on the screen too, which you can switch to when you need to use one of their talents (women characters can jump higher, short characters can climb through holes, etc). The game follows the story lines pretty closely, adding little puzzles along the way. Once you finish a level you can go back through the level in Free Play mode. In this mode you will have access to additional characters that you unlock along the way, and they can allow you to access parts of the level you couldn’t in Story Mode, so you can find additional secrets and treasure.
I have finished the game in Story Mode. It’s not tough to finish if you are persistent. You can’t die in this game, you just lose some of the treasure you’ve accumulated along the way each time your life force goes to zero. You use the treasure to purchase additional characters and abilities, so it is best not to get killed too often. Once I finished the game in Story Mode, I was only through with 67% of the game, so now I am going through in Free Play mode, trying to find all of the secrets for each level.
I definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes a game with puzzles to solve and also is a fan of Indiana Jones. There’s a lot of humorous stuff thrown in, including cameos from various Star Wars characters, which are actually Easter Eggs that you are supposed to find to get 100%.
Run VM From External Drive
Sep 08 2008 09:03 PM
If you install the software I spoke of in an earlier
post: “Read/Write to NTFS on external drive with
Mac”, you will be able to run a virtual machine from
your external drive. You need to have write access to
the NTFS drive to run the VM. You may think that
running a virtual machine from an external drive
would have bad performance, but it’s actually just as
responsive as if the files were on your machine. The
only times I’ve seen operations take an extended
amount of time is when you perform a Suspend, or when
you take a snapshot of the machine. The great part
about running the VM from the external drive is it
lets you keep the space on your laptop/desktop. My
MacBook has a 60 GB HD, and my average virtual
machine is weighing in at 30 GB, which is a huge
chunk of space to give up.
The Well of Lost Plots
Sep 01 2008 02:42 PM
I recently finished the third book in the Thursday
Next series by Jasper Fforde, “The Well of Lost
Plots”.
Jasper Fforde has to be one of the most imaginative writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Like I said, this is the third book in the Thursday Next series, the first two being The Eyre Affaire and Lost in a Good Book. Thursday Next is the main character in the series, she is a SpecOps agent working for The Literary Detectives. Her teams job is to police the book world, looking for fraud, changed story lines, missing characters, etc. In their world the literary detectives can jump in and out of books, and the same can happen the other way, fictional characters leaving their books and entering the real world. The stories are great, full of humor and great characters. I’ve already started reading the next in the series, Something Rotten, will probably have it finished sometime this week or next. If you enjoy a good, humorous, fictional story I recommend the series, as well as Jasper Fforde’s other series dealing with Nursery Crime.
Jasper Fforde has to be one of the most imaginative writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Like I said, this is the third book in the Thursday Next series, the first two being The Eyre Affaire and Lost in a Good Book. Thursday Next is the main character in the series, she is a SpecOps agent working for The Literary Detectives. Her teams job is to police the book world, looking for fraud, changed story lines, missing characters, etc. In their world the literary detectives can jump in and out of books, and the same can happen the other way, fictional characters leaving their books and entering the real world. The stories are great, full of humor and great characters. I’ve already started reading the next in the series, Something Rotten, will probably have it finished sometime this week or next. If you enjoy a good, humorous, fictional story I recommend the series, as well as Jasper Fforde’s other series dealing with Nursery Crime.
STP
Aug 24 2008 01:08 PM
Paige and I went to the STP (Stone Temple Pilots)
concert last night at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
in Alpharetta, GA.
Our night started off interesting. We decided to drop by P. F. Chang’s to eat some appetizers and have a couple drinks before heading to the concert. We generally don’t eat at chain restaurants, aside from the occasional visit to Ted’s Montana Grill for a bison burger; but there’s not much choice in Alpharetta when it comes to restaurants except for chains. When we arrived at P. F. Chang’s, we saw there was a long wait, so we headed up to the bar area. Unfortunately we could only find one seat at the bar, so Paige sat down while we ordered drinks. The manager walked by and started talking with us, saying it was kind of crowded due to people dropping by before the STP concert, we told him we were heading there and wanted to grab something to eat before going. He said the wait was around an hour, but he would see what he could do. Maybe 15 minutes later he comes back and directs us over to a table. Then he proceeds to provide us with a card for a free appetizer on our next visit, and also said one of our appetizers with our meal would be on the house. Paige and I just looked at each other wondering what we did to deserve this. We felt bad that we were only eating appetizers, not exactly spending a lot of money, but I did end up giving the server a 100% tip, and we plan on writing in to P. F. Chang’s to let them know how great we were treated.
We arrived at the amphitheatre in time to see one of the opening acts, Black Leather Motorcycle Club. We got our double Jack and Coke and headed down to the pit area, where we ended up running into some friends. Once that act was over I headed back and got us two more drinks and got back in time for STP to start. I saw STP a long time ago, probably 94 - 95, when they opened for Butthole Surfers. I think that concert was a little better than this one, they just had more energy. Paige and I both thought that Scott Weiland performed the STP songs better when we saw the Velvet Revolver tour earlier in the year. This show wasn’t bad, it just didn’t have any stand out performances. It was great to see STP again, they do have great music, and hopefully Scott will hang around long enough to record another album.
Our night started off interesting. We decided to drop by P. F. Chang’s to eat some appetizers and have a couple drinks before heading to the concert. We generally don’t eat at chain restaurants, aside from the occasional visit to Ted’s Montana Grill for a bison burger; but there’s not much choice in Alpharetta when it comes to restaurants except for chains. When we arrived at P. F. Chang’s, we saw there was a long wait, so we headed up to the bar area. Unfortunately we could only find one seat at the bar, so Paige sat down while we ordered drinks. The manager walked by and started talking with us, saying it was kind of crowded due to people dropping by before the STP concert, we told him we were heading there and wanted to grab something to eat before going. He said the wait was around an hour, but he would see what he could do. Maybe 15 minutes later he comes back and directs us over to a table. Then he proceeds to provide us with a card for a free appetizer on our next visit, and also said one of our appetizers with our meal would be on the house. Paige and I just looked at each other wondering what we did to deserve this. We felt bad that we were only eating appetizers, not exactly spending a lot of money, but I did end up giving the server a 100% tip, and we plan on writing in to P. F. Chang’s to let them know how great we were treated.
We arrived at the amphitheatre in time to see one of the opening acts, Black Leather Motorcycle Club. We got our double Jack and Coke and headed down to the pit area, where we ended up running into some friends. Once that act was over I headed back and got us two more drinks and got back in time for STP to start. I saw STP a long time ago, probably 94 - 95, when they opened for Butthole Surfers. I think that concert was a little better than this one, they just had more energy. Paige and I both thought that Scott Weiland performed the STP songs better when we saw the Velvet Revolver tour earlier in the year. This show wasn’t bad, it just didn’t have any stand out performances. It was great to see STP again, they do have great music, and hopefully Scott will hang around long enough to record another album.
Styx/Boston
Aug 18 2008 08:33 PM
Paige and I went to the Styx/Boston concert last
night in Alpharetta, GA, at the Verizon Wireless
Amphitheatre. Styx was the opening band, we came in
after a couple songs, but caught a lot of their good
songs, so that was fine. Boston played for probably
an hour and a half, and it was pretty rockin. They
are both great bands to see live. you should see them
if you get a chance, even if they don’t have all the
original members.
Starting New Project At Work
Aug 17 2008 03:13 PM
A few months back I was involved in developing a
prototype of an Executive View application, using WPF
technology. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the project,
mainly due to us using Tangerine, a pre-developed
application from Infragistics. While it did help us
get the prototype out the door in a timely fashion, I
didn’t want us to go the route of just building on
top of that application. Luckily we didn’t go that
route. It was decided we could use Tangerine as a
reference application, which is what I was pulling
for from the beginning.
This week will mark the first iteration of The Executive View development. We are doing it in .NET 3.5, with a Silverlight front end. It will be a nice diversion from the project I was working on, which will be nice. I’m not the biggest fan of Silverlight development, mainly because here I am trying to get out of Microsoft development all together, and I’m going to be learning a totally new development environment. At the same time I guess it is pretty cool to be developing using the newest, cutting-edge technology. We’ll see how it goes.
This week will mark the first iteration of The Executive View development. We are doing it in .NET 3.5, with a Silverlight front end. It will be a nice diversion from the project I was working on, which will be nice. I’m not the biggest fan of Silverlight development, mainly because here I am trying to get out of Microsoft development all together, and I’m going to be learning a totally new development environment. At the same time I guess it is pretty cool to be developing using the newest, cutting-edge technology. We’ll see how it goes.
Vacation Planning
Aug 17 2008 03:02 PM
Paige and I spent the evening planning our next
vacation, which we will be taking the end of
September, and beginning of October. We are going on
another trip to the South West, this time adding in a
couple stops we haven’t done before.
We plan on starting off at The Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Arizona. This is the resort we stayed at on our previous trip. It’s a beautiful place to stay, so we are happy to be staying there again. We plan on doing a bit more exploring this time, and also would like to head out on a photography jeep tour, getting to use our new cameras (although we both plan on bringing our old point-and-shoot cameras too, can never be too careful).
We will be heading to The Grand Canyon once we are done in Sedona. We plan on staying 1 day there.
We will head to Monument Valley, Utah, after that. This will be another 1 day visit.
We will spend a couple days in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after that. We are coinciding our trip with the 2008 Hot Air Baloon Fiesta, which should be really cool, and a great photo experience.
We will end our trip with a couple day stay in our favorite place, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
This vacation will be a little different than our others, due to the fact that we are traveling around and doing so much, but it should hopefully be lots of fun.
We plan on starting off at The Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Arizona. This is the resort we stayed at on our previous trip. It’s a beautiful place to stay, so we are happy to be staying there again. We plan on doing a bit more exploring this time, and also would like to head out on a photography jeep tour, getting to use our new cameras (although we both plan on bringing our old point-and-shoot cameras too, can never be too careful).
We will be heading to The Grand Canyon once we are done in Sedona. We plan on staying 1 day there.
We will head to Monument Valley, Utah, after that. This will be another 1 day visit.
We will spend a couple days in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after that. We are coinciding our trip with the 2008 Hot Air Baloon Fiesta, which should be really cool, and a great photo experience.
We will end our trip with a couple day stay in our favorite place, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
This vacation will be a little different than our others, due to the fact that we are traveling around and doing so much, but it should hopefully be lots of fun.
Lonely Werewolf Girl
Aug 03 2008 02:13 PM
Most of the time I research a book before I purchase
it if it’s from an author I am unfamiliar with, but a
while back as I was perusing the shelves at Barnes
& Noble I came across a book that caught my eye:
“Lonely Werewolf Girl”, by Martin Millar.
The beautiful illustration on the front caught my eye, so I took a closer look. I am a fan of stories that deal with Werewolves or Vampires, plus this book appeared to have a bit of humor thrown in too; so I went ahead and purchased it.
When I started reading it there was one thing I found weird, the length of the chapters. Now, this story takes place in Scotland and in London, and jumps around between 5 or 6 different story lines, so I understand having new chapters for each story line, but most of the chapters averaged 1 - 2 pages, with the longest chapter being probably 5 - 6 pages. The book is 558 pages and comes in at 236 chapters. Usually when I read a book I try to read a chapter or two an evening, with this that would have taken a couple minutes.
The story revolves around a werewolf clan whose leader had just passed away. Two brother werewolves from the clan want to try for the Thaneship, but the voting by the council doesn’t favor either brother to victory. There are a couple werewolves in the clan that weren’t present for the voting, having moved off to London to start their own lives. The story revolves around these other family members, the two brothers battling, killing, and doing anything else they can to get the vote to go their way, a fire elemental queen that is obsessed with fashion, her crazy niece, and a couple college students caught in the middle. Throw in a guild of humans that hunt werewolves, and you have a pretty good story. Kalix, the youngest werewolf, is the main character this story revolves around, but most characters get equal treatment.
I’m glad I picked up this book, and will look out for other books by this author, it’s a great read.
The beautiful illustration on the front caught my eye, so I took a closer look. I am a fan of stories that deal with Werewolves or Vampires, plus this book appeared to have a bit of humor thrown in too; so I went ahead and purchased it.
When I started reading it there was one thing I found weird, the length of the chapters. Now, this story takes place in Scotland and in London, and jumps around between 5 or 6 different story lines, so I understand having new chapters for each story line, but most of the chapters averaged 1 - 2 pages, with the longest chapter being probably 5 - 6 pages. The book is 558 pages and comes in at 236 chapters. Usually when I read a book I try to read a chapter or two an evening, with this that would have taken a couple minutes.
The story revolves around a werewolf clan whose leader had just passed away. Two brother werewolves from the clan want to try for the Thaneship, but the voting by the council doesn’t favor either brother to victory. There are a couple werewolves in the clan that weren’t present for the voting, having moved off to London to start their own lives. The story revolves around these other family members, the two brothers battling, killing, and doing anything else they can to get the vote to go their way, a fire elemental queen that is obsessed with fashion, her crazy niece, and a couple college students caught in the middle. Throw in a guild of humans that hunt werewolves, and you have a pretty good story. Kalix, the youngest werewolf, is the main character this story revolves around, but most characters get equal treatment.
I’m glad I picked up this book, and will look out for other books by this author, it’s a great read.
Ugh...letter from the I.R.S.
Jul 30 2008 09:41 PM
I had a nice big letter from the I.R.S. in the mail
today. I was guessing it wasn’t my stimulus check,
since I knew I made too much money to receive one of
those. At first I thought, “Oh, No! I’m being
audited!”. Well, it wasn’t that bad, but, still, I
don’t know if you ever get a letter from the I.R.S.
that’s good. This one says I owed them some money.
See, I forgot that last year I received money from my
Aunt’s estate, not some gigantic inheritance, but
still, it was money that should be considered income.
I totally forgot about that, had filed it away, and I
never put it in my tax return. Now I receive the
letter saying I owe them $1,500. I guess this is when
it’s handy that I had started an “emergency fund”,
unfortunately it currently has $1,200 in it, started
the fund not too long ago; so, while it will help
cover this unexpected expense, it puts me back at
square one.
New Camera
Jul 20 2008 09:36 PM
A few months back Paige purchased a new camera, a
Nikon D80. This is a
Digital SLR. It’s a very nice camera. After a
month of using it she decided she would have
actually liked to have gotten the next step up,
the Nikon D300. I’ve been
wanting to get myself a DLSR one of these days,
since I enjoy taking photos so much, and would
like to have more control over my shots than a
point-and-shoot camera can provide. I told her I
would gladly purchase her camera from her, since
I saw how nice it is, and how nice the shots are
that it produces. She got her new D300, which
she took to Asheville and St. Augustine; and I
purchased her D80. I haven’t used it yet, since
all I bought from her is the camera body, had to
purchase lenses separately. The lenses should
arrive this week. I got a basic lens, which is
good for portraits or any other type of shot
where you don’t need to zoom. I also got a basic
tele-photo lens for zooming in on subjects. I
purchased Aperture, a software
program for the Mac, similar to Adobe Lightroom,
which is what Paige uses. It’s made for dealing
with RAW images, which is the format DSLRs
produce. I’ll need to learn the ins-and-outs of
the camera, but it should be fun. I’ll be
posting my photos I take on my site.
Couple quick vacations
Jul 14 2008 10:30 PM
Paige and I took a couple quick vacations the past
two weekends, we both needed some time away from work
and Atlanta.
Our first vacation was spending July 4th weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. We headed up Friday morning, it’s not too bad a drive, around 3 1/2 hours. We stayed at the Renaissance hotel, which is located within walking distance of the town, which is nice. We spent the first day exploring the town and ended the night watching the fireworks display, which was a nice show. We woke the next morning, planning on heading to Biltmore House, which is 10 minutes away; unfortunately my car wouldn’t cooperate. It wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. I figured I must have left a light on over night, causing the battery to drain. I called roadside assistance, and they sent a tow truck to jump the car. The tow truck driver was the spitting image of Larry the Cable Guy, from the look to the accent. Once he jumped my car we decided to take a trip on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. There weren’t many scenic views, but we made a couple stops, and saw a wild turkey, which was cool. When we got back to the hotel I turned off the car, and just for kicks decided to try and start it again, to see if all the traveling had charged up the battery. The car was dead again. We were both happy I never turned the car off while we stopped for the scenic views, we would have been stuck up in the mountains. We spent the evening walking around the town, it was very nice. The next morning I had my car jumped again, and we headed out to Auto Zone to get a new battery. Once that was done we headed over to Biltmore House. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. It’s a beautiful house, and the gardens are great too. We finished the day by stopping off at the winery, taking a tour of it, and attending a wine tasting. We both thought the wine wasn’t going to be all that great, but it ended up being surprisingly good. We sat down and had a cheese plate and some more wine before heading home. Our overall thoughts of the trip? We don’t think we will go to Asheville again. It’s not that great a town. We were expecting something more along the lines of Santa Fe, which is more of an artist community, there weren’t many galleries in Asheville. Also, there are a lot of dirty hippies there, which isn’t the nicest thing to see everywhere. We did enjoy Biltmore, and would gladly visit and stay there, but not Asheville.
This past weekend was a two part trip, and it wasn’t just Paige and I. We left Thursday morning for St. Augustine, Florida. Neither of us had been there, and we have both heard good things about the place. It is about a 5 1/2 hour drive from Atlanta. We met Paige’s Mom when we got there, she flew down from Pennsylvania. We stayed at The Hilton, which is very nice. Much like Santa Fe, where no building can be larger than the church steeple, St. Augustine does not allow any buildings to be larger than two stories. So, instead of your usual high rise hotel, the Hilton is spread out amongst 19 buildings, looking like a small village. The rooms are very nice, and it’s right across the street from the water, and in the heart of everything. We were there from Thursday to Saturday, and never had to use a car. St. Augustine is beautiful, about our only complaint is it was hot and very muggy, but that’s not the city’s fault, it’s ours for heading down to Florida in July : ) It was great to see Paige’s Mom again, she’s a very nice woman. We left Thursday to head over to Lake Panasoffkee, which is where Paige’s grandfather lives. We were visitng him for his 90th birthday. We met up with Paige’s sister there, and I also got a chance to meet other family members. We were there for the day, leaving the next day back to Atlanta. It was a great trip, maybe not the most relaxing vacation, but we still had a great time.
Our first vacation was spending July 4th weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. We headed up Friday morning, it’s not too bad a drive, around 3 1/2 hours. We stayed at the Renaissance hotel, which is located within walking distance of the town, which is nice. We spent the first day exploring the town and ended the night watching the fireworks display, which was a nice show. We woke the next morning, planning on heading to Biltmore House, which is 10 minutes away; unfortunately my car wouldn’t cooperate. It wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. I figured I must have left a light on over night, causing the battery to drain. I called roadside assistance, and they sent a tow truck to jump the car. The tow truck driver was the spitting image of Larry the Cable Guy, from the look to the accent. Once he jumped my car we decided to take a trip on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. There weren’t many scenic views, but we made a couple stops, and saw a wild turkey, which was cool. When we got back to the hotel I turned off the car, and just for kicks decided to try and start it again, to see if all the traveling had charged up the battery. The car was dead again. We were both happy I never turned the car off while we stopped for the scenic views, we would have been stuck up in the mountains. We spent the evening walking around the town, it was very nice. The next morning I had my car jumped again, and we headed out to Auto Zone to get a new battery. Once that was done we headed over to Biltmore House. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. It’s a beautiful house, and the gardens are great too. We finished the day by stopping off at the winery, taking a tour of it, and attending a wine tasting. We both thought the wine wasn’t going to be all that great, but it ended up being surprisingly good. We sat down and had a cheese plate and some more wine before heading home. Our overall thoughts of the trip? We don’t think we will go to Asheville again. It’s not that great a town. We were expecting something more along the lines of Santa Fe, which is more of an artist community, there weren’t many galleries in Asheville. Also, there are a lot of dirty hippies there, which isn’t the nicest thing to see everywhere. We did enjoy Biltmore, and would gladly visit and stay there, but not Asheville.
This past weekend was a two part trip, and it wasn’t just Paige and I. We left Thursday morning for St. Augustine, Florida. Neither of us had been there, and we have both heard good things about the place. It is about a 5 1/2 hour drive from Atlanta. We met Paige’s Mom when we got there, she flew down from Pennsylvania. We stayed at The Hilton, which is very nice. Much like Santa Fe, where no building can be larger than the church steeple, St. Augustine does not allow any buildings to be larger than two stories. So, instead of your usual high rise hotel, the Hilton is spread out amongst 19 buildings, looking like a small village. The rooms are very nice, and it’s right across the street from the water, and in the heart of everything. We were there from Thursday to Saturday, and never had to use a car. St. Augustine is beautiful, about our only complaint is it was hot and very muggy, but that’s not the city’s fault, it’s ours for heading down to Florida in July : ) It was great to see Paige’s Mom again, she’s a very nice woman. We left Thursday to head over to Lake Panasoffkee, which is where Paige’s grandfather lives. We were visitng him for his 90th birthday. We met up with Paige’s sister there, and I also got a chance to meet other family members. We were there for the day, leaving the next day back to Atlanta. It was a great trip, maybe not the most relaxing vacation, but we still had a great time.
Finally released to Production
Jul 04 2008 12:08 AM
After a little more than a year of development, or at
least I think it’s been that long; not exactly sure
when this project started...our application was
released to production today. I think as a team, and
as an organization, we have learned a lot about the
agile development process, and see where we made our
mistakes, and see where we can improve as time goes
on. Our future iterations should be a lot smoother
from this day forward.
Fun at the Zoo
Jun 15 2008 11:07 PM
Paige’s work had a company function at Atlanta Zoo
yesterday. I haven’t been to the Atlanta Zoo since I
was very young, according to my mother, and from what
I am told the zoo really sucked back in the day
compared to now.
We had a great time. Paige recently purchased a Nikon D80 Digital SLR, and got to try it out yesterday. We got about 3/4 of the way through the zoo, a couple hundred photos, when she looked at some of the photos she had taken, and noticed she had the camera set on the wrong setting, causing the photos to be blue. Also, she wasn’t shooting in RAW format, which is one of the reasons for shooting with an SLR, you have a format that has all the information about the shot so you can work with the photo later in a tool like Aperature or Lightroom. We went through the zoo a second time (all in all we were there around 5 hours) so she could retake photos. I didn’t mind. Aside from it being very humid, it wasn’t overly crowded, and the kids that were there were very well behaved. We had a great time.
We had a great time. Paige recently purchased a Nikon D80 Digital SLR, and got to try it out yesterday. We got about 3/4 of the way through the zoo, a couple hundred photos, when she looked at some of the photos she had taken, and noticed she had the camera set on the wrong setting, causing the photos to be blue. Also, she wasn’t shooting in RAW format, which is one of the reasons for shooting with an SLR, you have a format that has all the information about the shot so you can work with the photo later in a tool like Aperature or Lightroom. We went through the zoo a second time (all in all we were there around 5 hours) so she could retake photos. I didn’t mind. Aside from it being very humid, it wasn’t overly crowded, and the kids that were there were very well behaved. We had a great time.
Faster *crack whip* Faster
Jun 15 2008 10:53 PM
The DRM project I am working on at work has been
going on now for about a year. We should have a
usable product in production, but we found that after
all this time in development, the application is
quite unusable. I don’t think there’s any one thing
or person to blame for this, but if I can think of
anything we could have done differently, I’d point to
us spending too much time working on polishing the
application up to look all pretty for the customer,
while neglecting the actual day-to-day use.
We got a pretty good talking too, and management went into crisis mode. Here they are selling the application to all the users, everyone wants it, but if the user were to sit down with it they would find it was very slow. The architecture and design we chose for our application just wasn’t suited for the amount of data that it would handle. We were told we had 3 - 4 weeks to get it working. We tossed around a couple ideas, and finally came up with spreading the saving of data out over time, instead of trying to save it all at once. It was a huge change, we would basically be redesigning a large portion of the back-end; but as of Friday, 3 weeks into the crisis mode development, all was working well. We have a couple things to take care of this week and next, but overall, the big work is done.
Hopefully management learns a lesson from this, and we can concentrate on getting the core functionality of the application working, instead of worrying about the window themeing and animated cursors, and pretty icons.
We got a pretty good talking too, and management went into crisis mode. Here they are selling the application to all the users, everyone wants it, but if the user were to sit down with it they would find it was very slow. The architecture and design we chose for our application just wasn’t suited for the amount of data that it would handle. We were told we had 3 - 4 weeks to get it working. We tossed around a couple ideas, and finally came up with spreading the saving of data out over time, instead of trying to save it all at once. It was a huge change, we would basically be redesigning a large portion of the back-end; but as of Friday, 3 weeks into the crisis mode development, all was working well. We have a couple things to take care of this week and next, but overall, the big work is done.
Hopefully management learns a lesson from this, and we can concentrate on getting the core functionality of the application working, instead of worrying about the window themeing and animated cursors, and pretty icons.
Tech support
Jun 15 2008 10:51 PM
My mother called me this evening wanting the one
thing I dread: “Long Distance Tech Support”. Being
the member of the family that knows a lot about
computers, I am used to providing some form of tech
support a couple times a year, but I hate doing it
when it’s hardware support, and that piece of
hardware is not right there in front of me.
Apparently there was a pretty bad storm last night in Columbus, and the power flickered on and off a couple times. Even though my mother’s computer is hooked up to a surge protector, this afternoon, when she tried to turn it on, nothing happened. All of the other computer peripherals: the monitor and printer, worked perfectly. But not the computer. So she gives me a call. She’s hoping there’s some kind of fuse or reset switch on the back of the computer, but I tell her I don’t think there is, and without being able to get my hands on the computer, I don’t really think I can be of too much help. I tell her maybe the power supply got fried, and she may need to take it somewhere to have it looked at and possibly get that piece replaced.
After I got off the phone with her, I went over to the Acer support site. I find that her one year warranty expired June 12. Isn’t that the way it always is : ) I look through there knowledge base and come to an entry about the machine not powering up. I give my Mom a call back and tell her to try one of the steps they mention. She should unplug the power cord from the back of the machine. Next she should hold down the power button for 30 seconds. After that she should plug the machine back in and try to power on the machine. I told her that sounded weird, but possibly that’s a built in way to reset the machine after a tripped breaker. She gave it a try and it worked. She sounded so happy. My mother doesn’t use her computer much, it’s powered off more than it’s powered on. She checks e-mail every other day or so, and if she’s bored she may hop on and play some solitaire, free-cell, or go to one of her puzzle web sites. I’m glad this tech support call had a happy ending without any money needing to be spent.
Apparently there was a pretty bad storm last night in Columbus, and the power flickered on and off a couple times. Even though my mother’s computer is hooked up to a surge protector, this afternoon, when she tried to turn it on, nothing happened. All of the other computer peripherals: the monitor and printer, worked perfectly. But not the computer. So she gives me a call. She’s hoping there’s some kind of fuse or reset switch on the back of the computer, but I tell her I don’t think there is, and without being able to get my hands on the computer, I don’t really think I can be of too much help. I tell her maybe the power supply got fried, and she may need to take it somewhere to have it looked at and possibly get that piece replaced.
After I got off the phone with her, I went over to the Acer support site. I find that her one year warranty expired June 12. Isn’t that the way it always is : ) I look through there knowledge base and come to an entry about the machine not powering up. I give my Mom a call back and tell her to try one of the steps they mention. She should unplug the power cord from the back of the machine. Next she should hold down the power button for 30 seconds. After that she should plug the machine back in and try to power on the machine. I told her that sounded weird, but possibly that’s a built in way to reset the machine after a tripped breaker. She gave it a try and it worked. She sounded so happy. My mother doesn’t use her computer much, it’s powered off more than it’s powered on. She checks e-mail every other day or so, and if she’s bored she may hop on and play some solitaire, free-cell, or go to one of her puzzle web sites. I’m glad this tech support call had a happy ending without any money needing to be spent.
Parker turns 1
May 19 2008 08:48 PM
My nephew, Parker, celebrated his 1st birthday over
the weekend. I went down to Columbus to attend the
party. He is such a great kid, very well behaved. My
Grandmother and Aunt were in town too, so I got to
hang out with them also. All in all it was a great
weekend.
Here's Parker in all his Auburn clothing and facial decals; that's my mother holding him.
Here's Parker in all his Auburn clothing and facial decals; that's my mother holding him.
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Apr 30 2008 10:21 PM
I just finished reading another book: Lone Ranger and
Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie. This
book is a collection of short stories about life in
and around the Spokane Indian Reservation.
There are 22 stories in all, and each one is a pleasure to read. They were the basis for the award-winning movie Smoke Signals.
I am also reading a book called Material World: A Global Family Portrait
This book is like an earlier book I read, Hungry Planet. In Hungry Planet, a husband wife team stayed with families and learned about the way they eat, taking photos of all the food they buy in a week. This book is pretty much the same thing, except that instead of food it deals with the families possessions. It's interesting seeing what the average family around the world owns. I find this book most interesting because since I have moved into this house I am renting I have slowly been getting rid of anything I no longer use. It's interesting the amount of junk we have. I donate a lot to Goodwill, but I still have a lot I can go through and get rid of.
There are 22 stories in all, and each one is a pleasure to read. They were the basis for the award-winning movie Smoke Signals.
I am also reading a book called Material World: A Global Family Portrait
This book is like an earlier book I read, Hungry Planet. In Hungry Planet, a husband wife team stayed with families and learned about the way they eat, taking photos of all the food they buy in a week. This book is pretty much the same thing, except that instead of food it deals with the families possessions. It's interesting seeing what the average family around the world owns. I find this book most interesting because since I have moved into this house I am renting I have slowly been getting rid of anything I no longer use. It's interesting the amount of junk we have. I donate a lot to Goodwill, but I still have a lot I can go through and get rid of.
Moved to a new building
Apr 21 2008 09:38 AM
Turner Broadcasting, in Atlanta, is split amongst a
couple places. They have a main campus, which is very
nice, and they have a floor in a building in midtown.
For the past 4 years I have been working at the nice
campus, but that all changed, and now the department
I work for is in the building in midtown. When you've
worked at a nice private campus, it really sucks to
have to move to a building shared by other
businesses. We also went from having a personal
parking deck, to having a couple parking decks spread
out over a couple block radius. One good thing that
came from the move is I have started taking public
transportation to work. I should have done this a
long time ago. Driving in Atlanta sucks, I live 12
miles from work, and if I don't time it correctly, it
can take up to an hour to get to work or back home. I
live within 2 miles of a MARTA station, and it drops
me off within 2 blocks of work, so I will start
saving money on transportation and also not put so
many miles on my car.
Handling Sin - Michael Malone
Apr 20 2008 10:13 PM
I just finished reading a great book called "Handling
Sin", by Michael Malone.
The book starts off with the main character, Raleigh, finding out his father checked himself out of the hospital, bought a new Cadillac, and was last seen withdrawing a lot of money and driving away with a teenage black girl in his car. Later Raleigh receives a call from his father saying he would like Raleigh to come meet him down in New Orleans, they live in North Carolina, but he needs to do a couple things before coming. The bulk of the book revolves around those things he has to do. Michael Malone is a great writer; his characters are great, and he is very funny. This is a long book, over 600 pages, so it took me a while to read, but there was never a dull part in the whole story. I definitely recommend it.
The book starts off with the main character, Raleigh, finding out his father checked himself out of the hospital, bought a new Cadillac, and was last seen withdrawing a lot of money and driving away with a teenage black girl in his car. Later Raleigh receives a call from his father saying he would like Raleigh to come meet him down in New Orleans, they live in North Carolina, but he needs to do a couple things before coming. The bulk of the book revolves around those things he has to do. Michael Malone is a great writer; his characters are great, and he is very funny. This is a long book, over 600 pages, so it took me a while to read, but there was never a dull part in the whole story. I definitely recommend it.
Fixing Error 51 issue with Cisco VPN
Apr 11 2008 07:07 PM
Perfect work at home setup - a Mac, VPN, VMWare Fusion
Apr 11 2008 06:42 PM
Occasionally I work from home. I used to bring home
my work laptop and VPN into work off of it, but we
got new machines, and I opted for a desktop. I just
like having a desktop for development. It's more
powerful, and is cheaper to upgrade.
Since I got a desktop I started working from home a different way. I installed the Cisco VPN software on my Mac, and I also installed Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. This way I could remote into my machine at work and just work off that machine. There would be an occasional flicker of the screen while it's refreshing, but all-in-all it worked well.
Since I occasionally have to work in Visual Studio .NET 2005, and other times in Visual Studio .NET 2008, I decided to just have those environments running as virtual machines. That way when we go to VS.NET 2008 full time, I won't need to perform an uninstall, I can just delete that virtual machine and start using the VS.NET 2008 virtual machine exclusively. It also helps in the future if my machine gets borked, I can just revert to an earlier snapshot of the VM.
Since I am running off a virtual machine I've found it difficult to work from home using my previous technique. Remoting into a machine, then running a VM on that machine is pretty painful in the lag that occurs.
I decided a better option would be to just get VMWare Fusion for the Mac, and load the virtual machine directly onto my Mac and run it from here. Since I am VPN'd into the company network the VM connects to the domain with no problem (except I have to remember to have my machine at work off the network or I will get an error because of the duplicate machine names on the network). I ordered a copy and just tried it out and it works great. I will try to work some this weekend on the WPF project, and if all goes well, I may just start bringing my Mac to work and working off of it. My goal is to only use Windows for development and Outlook, all other stuff I can just do from my Mac.
Since I got a desktop I started working from home a different way. I installed the Cisco VPN software on my Mac, and I also installed Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. This way I could remote into my machine at work and just work off that machine. There would be an occasional flicker of the screen while it's refreshing, but all-in-all it worked well.
Since I occasionally have to work in Visual Studio .NET 2005, and other times in Visual Studio .NET 2008, I decided to just have those environments running as virtual machines. That way when we go to VS.NET 2008 full time, I won't need to perform an uninstall, I can just delete that virtual machine and start using the VS.NET 2008 virtual machine exclusively. It also helps in the future if my machine gets borked, I can just revert to an earlier snapshot of the VM.
Since I am running off a virtual machine I've found it difficult to work from home using my previous technique. Remoting into a machine, then running a VM on that machine is pretty painful in the lag that occurs.
I decided a better option would be to just get VMWare Fusion for the Mac, and load the virtual machine directly onto my Mac and run it from here. Since I am VPN'd into the company network the VM connects to the domain with no problem (except I have to remember to have my machine at work off the network or I will get an error because of the duplicate machine names on the network). I ordered a copy and just tried it out and it works great. I will try to work some this weekend on the WPF project, and if all goes well, I may just start bringing my Mac to work and working off of it. My goal is to only use Windows for development and Outlook, all other stuff I can just do from my Mac.
Got a new phone - joined the 21st century
Mar 29 2008 10:36 AM
So, you would think a computer geek like myself would
have had some sort of decent phone, maybe a smart
phone of some sort, or even better, an iPhone, since
I am a big fan of Apple. But, that wasn't the case.
My phone was a basic, run-of-the-mill, phone. No
camera, no keyboard, no fancy operating system, a
very basic WAP web browser; it was pitiful. I'm not a
big gadget geek, so I never needed much more than I
had. The biggest thing I would like to have is a
keybo