summerfest in vana'diel

 

It's Summerfest in Final Fantasy XI! I've been having lots of fun watching the fireworks and getting all sorts of special prizes for going on moogle quests. Check out Karatina's yukata; pretty sweet looking, if you ask me! :)

only one space after a period

This is something I saw a few weeks ago and have only now remembered to mention. I never had a clue that there was only supposed to be a single space after a period when typing. Turns out that it is simply a holdover from the days of mechanical typewriters. In light of this, I've been trying to change my habits of putting two spaces after a period. Breaking this habit is much, much easier said than done.

don't use our service

Seems like the hot new thing to give away to make people interested in buying a particular products is a DVD player. I've seen Sports Illustrated and at least one other magazine publisher giving away a player as a promotional gift for buying a subscription. When you think about it, it's a really great marketing scheme. I mean, DVD players (the ones they give away, at least) are dirt cheap to manufacture. But I think I just saw the most ironic free DVD player giveaway yet. I saw a commercial for a satellite TV company (might've been DirecTV, but I'm not sure) offering a free DVD player as a gift for switching from cable to their service.

Basically, it's like they're saying "Get great satellite TV 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We offer so much more interesting programming than cable. Oh, by the way, here's a free DVD player to watch stuff when there's nothing else interesting to watch." Strange....or maybe it's just me.

good tunes

I find it amazing how finding the right music can make you so much more productive. At least that's how it works for me. I just recently got my hands on the soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future, a game I've never had the pleasure of playing, and likely won't unless they port it to a system other than XBox. I'd heard several of the tracks on GamingFM a few times and loved them. I've already listened to the entire album several times through. It's definitely non-mainstream music, which is perhaps why I like it so much. But it's just the right music to put you in a good mood, being very upbeat. I'm glad I found it, since it's single handedly pulled me from my recent bout of apathy. :)

[Listening to: Like It Like This Like That - Hideki Naganuma - Jet Set Radio Future]

you like ninjas?

I ran across Ninja Jeopardy a while ago surfing the web. Ninjas rock!

a must read book

I can't believe I've never read this book until now. The book in question is Tuesdays With Morrie, which I added to my Zooba reading list as I mentioned earlier. I happened across a paperback version while in Books A Million this weekend and decided to go ahead and pick it up instead of waiting for it. I started reading it later that night, intending to read just a few chapters. Before I knew it, I'd read nearly three fourths of the book, and finished it earlier today. I knew it would be good, because I'd read The Five People You Meet In Heaven a few months back and was enthralled by it. But I never expected it to be that good. It truly lives up to every bit of praise that is showered upon it on the back cover of the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Just for a brief synopsis of this book, it contains just two principal characters: the author, and his old college professor, Morrie. Yes, that's right, this is a true story written from a firsthand account. Perhaps it was this fact that makes the book so incredibly endearing. Morrie has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) and the author is able to meet up with him in the last few weeks of his illness before his death. The two meet on Tuesdays and discuss many different aspects of life ranging from aging to money to marriage. This book will completely change your outlook on a lot of life issues.

hooray for reading

I just finished The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene yesterday. That book has completely enthralled me; so much so that I'm now 70 or so pages into The Fabric of the Cosmos, also by Greene. Both books describe superstring theory and the scientific revolutions that preceded it, including Einstein's theories of special/general relativity and quantum mechanics, in a way that is both entertaining and easily grasped, even by those without much inclination towards physics. I loved physics in high school and college, but only after reading these books have I gained that fascination with it that encourages me to continue my studies outside of a classroom setting.

In other reading-related news, I stumbled across an interesting site called zooba.com, which seems to be a very interesting book-of-the-month type service. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Netflix in the way that it lets you create a personalized reading list. For a $9.95 monthly subscription fee, they're going to send me the #1 book on my reading list, usually in hardcover format, and don't even charge shipping and handling fees! If I were to want more than one book a month, I can buy them for another flat $9.95 charge each, again with no shipping. Their selection may not be overly complete, but they do seem to stock most of the recent bestsellers and other popular books. I've already picked out my next 9 or so books, including Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, which I've been anxious to read for some time. And getting each for just under ten bucks is a pretty good deal as far as I'm concerned!

pot noodles

I'm not quite sure what pot noodles are, but this chick's got a problem! It was good for a laugh or two though, so I thought I'd share.

[Listening to: PlayStation 2 - RuLude Gardens (Gaming FM - Modern Console) - Final Fantasy XI - ]

having a baby

We found out on June 26 that my wife is pregnant! Both of us are extremely excited about the news; not to mention the excitement of our family. My mother-in-law has already been out shopping at least three times for baby items; even took my wife once. They bought both boy and girl items and claim that they'll keep the receipts and return whatever they need to. Of course, the coming of a baby means that we're really going to have to buckle down and clean up our extra bedroom to make space for a nursery. Right now, it's a storage room, and I have no clue where everything that's in there is going to go!

I think my mind has been slipping lately after hearing the news. I can't concentrate on much anymore, and things tend to run together. I was on the phone telling a friend the date of baby's arrival and slipped up saying something like "the release date will be...". I caught myself soon after saying it; guess I must have been reading too many gaming magazines and websites or something!

Anyway, the due date that we were given is February 21, 2004, which seems a little early, but works out based on the way they have to count the days. Since hearing the news, I've been reading all the information I can. I've found that Baby.com has some pretty good resources available, especially for soon-to-be dads. We've also been given quite a few magazines and other paper materials to look through as well, so I guess I know what my literature will consist of for the next year or so!

[Listening to: Playstation - Song of Mana (Ending Theme) (Gaming FM - Modern Console) - Legend of Mana - ]

that which shall not be named

Well, I've gone and done it. Went and ranted about [the diet that shall not be named] a few days ago. Now it seems that the Google AdSense script that generates the ads at the top of the page has picked up on it and seen fit to show nothing but ads for [the diet that shall not be named]. Wonderful....

[Listening to: Going Under - Evanescence - Fallen (0:-1)]

are you in?

So, I've been running around lately, signing up for every Google service like they were Pokemon. Up til' two days ago, that included Blogger, Google Groups 2 (beta), GMail, and the Web APIs. But Orkut was wildly elusive for me, and I didn't know anyone who could get me in. I must've spent four hours searching for someone to give me an invite. Finally, fortune smiled upon me and some incredibly nice soul invited me to join the party. At last, I'm in the club. :)

I've had the chance to play with Orkut for the past few days and I can definitely say that it is a very nice service. It's a pretty gated community, so you can feel pretty safe in knowing that you're not going to be bombarded by ads and spammers. I also love the various communities. So far there has yet to be a topic that I can think of that doesn't already exist as a community. And I take comfort in knowing that if I do happen across a discussion topic for which there is no community, I can create it myself. All in all, I'm just about as impressed with this service as I am with GMail. If anyone happens to want an invite to Orkut to try it out, just leave a comment with your first and last names, e-mail address, and a description of yourself and why you should be invited. Then maybe, just maybe, you'll get to try it for youself!

[Listening to: Experiment 626 (D I G I T A L L Y - I M P O R T E D - European Trance, Techno, Hi-NRG... we can't define it!) - Broken Toy - (0:-1)]

wimbledon

Well, today is the first day of competition at Wimbledon. Bless IBM for providing such a wonderful site to keep track of everything I'd ever need to keep track of. They've even got me considering paying the extra $9 or $10 for the Wimbledon Plus package that lets you hear more audio and watch entire videos until next year. At least then I might be able to watch a match or two. We really need a TV out here. Either that or I need a Tivo. I'll definitely be rooting for Roddick and my two fave ladies Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati.

the cult of the low carb

Alright already! Enough of this Atkins craze! You know, it's fine and good that America in general is trying to lose weight, but now I can't even go into a restaurant without having to be inundated with the plethora of new low-carb items (which are all items that were previously offered anyway with shiny new marketing strategies behind them). Look, you're on this diet, shouldn't you know what you can eat and what you can't? Is it really so hard to decide that the fried chicken with a buttermilk biscuit on the side is probably not on your diet? I mean, come on, fast food restaurants have low carb menus now. They never seemed to care before; why now?

Not to mention the fact that so many people are putting themselves on this diet like it was sent from heaven. Sure, it may help you lose weight fast, but do people ever consider that the diet might actually be bad for them? Now don't worry, I'm not going to open that can of worms too far, because there's enough fodder on both sides to start a war. But seriously, there is still an ongoing debate on whether there are serious health risks or not. It seems to me that it would be prudent to wait until conclusive studies can be done to decide on whether the diet is a good idea or not. But most Americans, anxious for that "quick fix", have jumped head first into these low-carb diets without any more than a marketing scheme to tell them that they're doing a good thing.

Look, you want to lose weight? How about trying the tried-and-true method? Stop eating so much and get out there and excercise!

indie films

Just by happenstance, I stumbled across several movies and shorts created by independent artists. I'm sure these are probably old news, but I was amazed by them just the same.

First is a short CG film that was created by one guy with his 1.4 Ghz Athlon PC and a few rendering computers. It's called This Wonderful Life and can be viewed at CGChannel.com along with an interview.

The second film that I was wowed by this morning is a fan-made Star Wars movie named .Star Wars: Revelations. I've heard of several of these in the past, and I'm not sure if this was one of them or not, but after looking at the trailers, I am thoroughly impressed. I'll definitely be checking this one out when it becomes available next spring.

a good day

Last night made yesterday probably one of the better days I've had at work in a while. I ran into a problem with the licensing tool that we purchased a while back and had almost convinced myself that it would take forever to get it resolved. I went ahead and fired off an e-mail to their support desk last night close to 5 pm and didn't really expect a resolution until today at the earliest. I was literally floored when I received a response to my e-mail in two minutes. I figured that it was an automated e-mail for sure. But upon reading it I found that it wasn't automated at all; in fact they had even answered my second question, which I half expected them to ignore. And they were completely friendly and professional to boot! After sending a second e-mail to provide additional information, I stepped out to grab a bite to eat and by the time I got back, my issue was resolved. No runaround, no hassle. Talk about making a developer's day! I am definitely impressed, and if anyone out there is a .NET developer in need of a licensing framework, check these guys out.

But that wasn't the only good thing to happen. One of my co-workers stumbled across , a company that creates components for .NET applications. We downloaded the demo and played with it last night. It was almost like Christmas; we played with it and were continually oohing and ahhing with each new feature that we came across.

To top it all off, Blogger has had a facelift (yes, I only recently noticed this), so I was able to give my blog a cool new style and finally include a commenting tool that works. All in all, yesterday was a great day! :)

back from vacation

Well, it's been a week now since I've been back from vacation, and it's taken me as long just to get back into the swing of day to day activities. I've yet to get any pictures online yet, but that'll be coming in the next few days hopefully. We went for a 5 night cruise to the western Caribbean and it was completely awesome! Our ship stopped in Key West, Cozumel, and Belize City, and we did all sorts of things like snorkeling, kayaking, parasailing, and exploring the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. We even got to swim with a dolphin named Amaya.

Life on the boat was incredible also. There was always something to do, and we probably didn't do half of what was available. We had the two most incredible waiters there ever were. Ravi and Nerise, you guys are awesome! The entertainment was nothing short of amazing either. The singers and dancers they have on that ship were easily on par with some of the better Broadway shows that I've seen. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of all of this to share soon!

[Listening to: Captain Kirk - Bob Schneider - (3:11)]

nap time

I have been fighting the urge to fall asleep all day today it seems. I suppose that listening to this excellent kyotaku (Japanese zen-flute) music isn't helping me stay awake much either. Nor is the fact that I've worked two 13.5 hour days in a row and am prepping for another long one today. It's only nine more days until I leave for my long overdue vacation, though. I'm ready for a week of doing little-to-nothing! The sad fact is though, that if my wife would let me, I'd probably be content to bring a computer along and code all week just the same.

I've been studying up on some Japanese. One of these days, I'm going to get to the competency level that I need to be able to watch anime without the need for translation and play Japanese-native video games. But I fear that time may be a long time from now. I just don't have as much time to study as I would like. Not to mention the fact that I'm quite the cheapskate when it comes to purchasing the study materials I'd probably need anyway. I did pick up a book to assist me in my studies; now if I could just find the 45 minutes a day that it says I need to learn the material in 6 weeks, I'd be set. :)

[Listening to: Chinese Princess-Tilopa.mp3 - 02 - (5:41)]

the quest is over

By luck I have stumbled on perhaps the only convenience store in my town to purchase Bawls Guarana. I still need to visit the others just to see if perhaps I can get a better price, but I have at long last found a place to feed my addiction. :)

I think I am finally coming out of my latest bi-monthly burn out session. Lately, I've tended to enter these periods of apathy about every other month or so in which I have to force myself more than normal to concentrate on things I should be doing. It's really not a matter of a lack of productivity though, rather it's just my mood during that time. Lately, I've been loathe to get myself out of bed in the morning, but finally I'm getting to the phase where I enjoy doing what I do again. :) Maybe it's just because of the onset of spring, perhaps it's because I've gotten a hold of several new songs that I'm rocking to, or maybe it's just because I've finally found a source to feed my Bawls addiction. Who knows; I just hope it sticks around a little longer this time...:)

[Listening to: Where Do We Go From Here? - Jamiroquai - Synkronized (5:13)]

need...more...bawls

So, I finally got the chance to try out BAWLS Guarana this weekend. We were passing through Paducah on our way to visit family for Easter and I just happened across a gas station that actually carries them (something I have yet to find here in Murray). Anyway, it instantly became my favorite caffeinated beverage. Now, I just have to find somewhere more local that carries them. I've started a hunt through several convenience stores all over Murray but have turned up nothing yet. I'm just rather reluctant to spend the $40 (after shipping) at ThinkGeek to order a case of 24. It's strange...it would actually be a little cheaper doing it that way, but in my mind, I can justify spending $1.99 for one at a convenience store but not $40 for 24. I guess I have the feeling that I'd go through all 24 too quickly to get my forty bucks worth...:)

I'm trying out a new blog tool also. I'm giving w.bloggar a try, and so far it seems to do everything I want, and more. I guess this means I won't be writing one myself...ah well. Guess I'll have to try and find some other project to work on in my spare time. :)

[Listening to: breath - Bamboo Forest - Bamboo Forest (8:02)]

waiting for the weekend

The weekend cannot get here fast enough. I don't even have anything extraordinarily exciting planned for the weekend either, I'm just ready for a couple days off. My colleague and I have been racking our brains for most of the week trying to understand a data object library that wraps ADO.NET; a library with a very spartan outlook on documentation. While the documentation was technically complete, there were certain aspects of it, such as how to use the thing that were notably absent. Needless to say, it was a two and a half day adventure into the underpinnings of a system we had little to no information about.

I've been absorbing as much Naruto as humanly possible the past few days. I got hooked on the manga and ended up spending quite some time downloading and reading every chapter available on the web. I'm now completely caught up and can't wait for the next episode or chapter to come out. Dark will be the day that they license this anime in the states and I have to wait for some US group to sub it. (And sub it they had better; the seiyuu couldn't be better in the series, and I'd hate to have to hear another voice for any of the characters.)