Webthoughts

Alrighty then! Sorry everyone for being so incommunicado for so long. For those of you who have written asking is everything was okay, yes everything is. I have just been incredibly busy with my day job and working on iHam on iRye.

It's really quite amazing to me that so many people have actually been paying attention to this blog in the first place. Huh. Will wonders ever cease?

You've also probably noticed the new look. I've decided to try out MovableType, the granddaddy of all blogging tools.

I'm just starting to dip into this thing, so I'm simply using a built-in template from MovableType, but I hope to eventually transistion this thing over to a more customized template that will better fit into the overall look of this site, but for now, just a generic template.

I will, however, be back on a fairly regular basis and hope to have some big news soon!

This is pretty cool! Hopefully this somehow makes it into the Mac OS sometime soon. Although it looks like it is only currently available for Windows platforms, the demo works with Macs as well. It's definitely a step above "Victoria"!

I love April Fools Day. Any day that the normally serious isn't quite so serious is a good day.

But there are times I really have to wonder and shake my head.

Yesterday morning, a local radio station began to air news stories about how the city had banned people from smoking in their cars. The first offense was punishable by a $50 fine and went up from there for multiple offenses.

The station presented the thing seriously and the morning show DJs were encouraging people to call in to voice their opinions.

Here's the head shaking part: Of the dozens of calls they put on the air, nobody seemed to realize what day it was. People were outraged葉alking about organizing protests, limitations on personal rights, blah blah blah, etc.

Finally, toward the end of the morning show, someone thought to point out what day it was. The volume of calls they received on the topic seemed to suddenly drop off.

*chuckle*

This is interesting. Apple has finally responded to the complaints from many PowerBook G4 12" owners regarding the extreme temperature they experience from the machine. Basically, Apple's response is that it's a normal side-effect of incorrect ventilation (due to incorrect placement of the machine).

I don't have a 12" PowerBook G4, but am seriously considering one to replace my venerable, but aging Pismo 400. I have read all these reports with great interest. I like the form-factor of the machine and it's just about perfect for my various needs for a portable, but the heat thing does worry me.

It seems though that Apple is not worried. I'll be interested in seeing what happens with the first revision of the Lil' Al.

The latest installment of the Animatrix is out. By far, this one is the best one of the bunch so far.

"The Second Renaissance, Part 1" was good, but the animation was a little primitive for my tastes. I do look forward to Part 2, however. It'll be interesting to see the Matrix actually begin.

"Program" was fairly weak, I think. I don't like Animae-style animation and it just seemed too escapist to me. I'm sure that if I really lived under the circumstances they live under, escapism would be high on my list of priorities, but I really do prefer "The Real World".

"A Detective Story" just clicked for me, however. I like the tie-in to the actual movies with the Trinity character (one must wonder if that was really Carrie Ann-Moss providing the voice--or maybe I just really missed something). The animation, while evoking the feel of a more primitive style, certainly seemed to fit the story. The twists and turns of the story were very "detective"-like and I REALLY liked the bit about the past detective.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to the release of The Animatrix in a few months. And, of course, I am eagerly awaiting "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions".

Okay...is there anything that FOX won't stoop to in order to get ratings? Honestly, I was not watching the program, but in the process of flipping through channels tonight, I happened across "Married by America".

I haven't watched a single second of this program before tonight, so take everything I say with a grain of salt悠 really know nothing about the program. But, i guess tonight was the night the couples had their bachelor and bachelorette parties. I'm sure stuff similar to this goes on all the time, and my own bachelor party could have been considered questionable in some ways. But do we really need to be showing this kind of stuff on prime-time television?

Yes, I know that FOX has always considered itself to be the "daring" network預lways trying to push the envelope. And, the network is also responsible for some really good television ("Boston Public" is just good television and "24" is probably one of the best hours of TV on each week).

But, there still needs to limits. This may be an unpopular opinion, but television is a HUGE influence on our society's perceptions. Networks really need to keep that in mind.

Am I asking for a return of the hardline censorship of the past? No, not at all. Television's pushing the boundry have done a world of good as well (Trivia Question: When did television's first inter-racial kiss occur?).

I don't know the answers to these types of questions. Do I think that what FOX is doing with this show is right? No. I don't. Am I sure that I'm correct? Not so much. I'm sure I'm correct for ME, but not necessarily for everyone else.

Ultimately, I guess, the responsibility for what we see on TV falls to the public. Yes, the networks need to show some responsibility as well, but we need to make sure that we're taking responsibility for what WE think is right.

For me, "Married by America" isn't it.

I found out some interesting news yesterday evening regarding the popularity of the stuff on the SearchWare Solutions Website.

The website is hosted by the fine folks at digital.forest and I have been extremely happy with their service over the past year or so that SearchWare Solutions has used them. The actual account is one of their shared hosting accounts that has pretty much been very reliable for my needs.

Over the past several months, however, I've been getting hit with some bandwidth charges. I really never realized my stuff was popular enough to cause these kinds of problems. Yes, I check my server logs, but the actual numbers never really clicked until last night.

It turns out that the SearchWare Solutions site is averaging serving about 583% of its allocated bandwidth. Oops. I guess that explains a lot of those bills.

Granted, the website itself is probably not as optimized as it could be. It loads well enough, even for those still using 33.6k modems (the lowest I've ever tested on), but there are probably many corners that I could cut to optimize it even more for size and speed. And, in reality, I'm toying with the idea of starting a fairly major redesign soon to accomplish this and some other goals that I'd like to meet.

However, most of what the site is serving is the software itself. Print Window, iHam on iRye and Pix Lite are by a huge margin served the most. This is what I've always expected. I fully understand that some of the older, Classic-only stuff (like Eradicator, Startup Lock and MacRun) will never be as popular as once they were. Look for me to post a little more about this later.

Of course, I decided I needed to find a way to cut back on those additional bandwidth charges I was getting hit with. I gave my account-representative at digital.forest a call and asked what other type of account I could have that would allow me greater bandwidth but would still cut back on my overall expense. After some discussion about what exactly I was looking for and some other factors, she was able to set me up on a customized plan that, while more expensive than I'm paying now, should cut my overall costs by elminating much of the additional bandwidth charges.

Although I'm not going to go into much of the specifics, I will say that it was a great example of customer service that went above and beyond what would be accepted as the norm. This is why I give digital.forest my business. They have always gone out of their was (at least as I perceive it) to service my needs. If you are looking for a hosting partner, I would definitely highly recommend digital.forest for this reason alone, even if their standard hosting packages didn't look so attractive as well.

Ken Bereskin talks today in his weblog about the new auto-installing disk image format introduced with Mac OS X 10.2.3 and how Safari takes advantage of these to make the entire download process very seemless.

Letting alone the fact for the moment that I really dislike how Safari handles downloads (why won't it let me choose where I want my download to go on a case-by-case basis?), the auto-installing disk image format disturbs me as well, but, perhaps not for the same reason as you might think.

The thought behind the whole thing is simple and seems like a good idea on the surface: The image is downloaded and, as soon as the download is complete, the application is automatically extracted from the image, placed in the same location as the download and the image is then deleted. All this happens without user interaction. Simple, right?

But, I have a few issues with this (and, if I didn't, would I be posting it here?). First, when you get right down to it, what's the difference between this and a self-extracting archive such as those made by Stuffit Deluxe? They both encode a file (or files) in an Internet-safe format; they both provide a single container; they both automatically extract their content when told to (by Safari or by other means such as double-clicking). The only REAL difference is that the auto-installing disk image deletes itself when done whereas Stuffit self-extracting archives don't. Seriously: big whoop.

Secondly, and this is probably the bigger of my complaints, I believe that computer users need to understand what's going on with their computers, at least to a point. These auto-installing disk images are doing things, basically without the users knowledge. A file IS being deleted. Yes, I'm sure Apple has taken all possible precautions to try to insure that this functionality isn't used for malicious purposes, but's not my point here. I see nothing wrong with expecting a computer user to have some basic knowledge on how their computers work and how files relate to one another. I'm not asking for people to be geniuses, but a little basic knowledge here can be a good thing. The way this works now, people could get the impression that they are actually downloading the file itself and not an archive, or possibly the reverse.

I try to make all the software I produce as easy to use as possible to appeal to the greatest user-base possible. But, at the same time, I'm not going to sacrifice functionality or power because I'm afraid of scaring off a person without a basic understanding of how their computer works. I firmly believe in easy-to-use and easy-to-comprehend software, but not to the extreme to the point where I'm patronizing the user.

At the same time, I acknowledge that I may feel this way because I am a more advanced computer user. Perhaps Apple is on the right track here, but I'll remain skeptical until I seem some very tangible benefits over current conventional methods.

Crap...I didn't even notice this... FOX has preempted "Boston Public" tonight for more of that "Married by America" drivel. Hopefully, this will be the last one (I think it's supposed to be).

Needless to say, I won't be watching tonight's episode unlike that unfortunate incident last week. Good riddance.

Did you get your taxes in on time? Here in Omaha, you have just about two hours and forty-five minutes left...

Luckily, my wife and I got ours finished and mailed off yesterday.

Why didn't we electronically file (we could have)? We owe this year, so why make it happen any faster than it needs to?

For those of you squeaking them out at the last minute, good luck!

I'm back now after the holiday. I had a very pleasant weekend that culminated on Sunday with both sides of my family coming over to my place for Easter dinner. Surprisingly, it was the first time that both sides of my family had been together since my wife and I were married back in August of 2000. Things went really well and some anticipated tensions didn't rear their ugly heads, so we think that it was a success overall.

It was back to the grindstone today, however, and, as usual, the Monday after a holiday found a way to be worse than the Monday previously. It really astounds me the attitude that some people take when dealing with those providing a service, such as printing. Having a counter between you and the "customer" really does seem to bring out the worst in others. I really don't know what it might be, but something seems to make people think that when that counter's there, they aren't liable for their actions or words. They way my coworkers and I get treated at times is downright reprehensible?and this frequently by people who I know, overall, are good folk.

Can you tell I had to deal with a lot of attitude today?

For those of you who want to spend a little more, Microsoft has announced the availability of Special Edition versions of its Keyboards and Mice. Of course, these Special Edition input devices are really just their same fare with an updated black or white appearence. Microsoft even goes so far as to offer high-resolution pictures of these new devices.

I don't know what I'm really trying to say here. I just find it funny that these products have been released. What's wrong with their current devices? Say what you will, but Microsoft makes some pretty nice keyboards and mice. I don't see the need for "Special Edition" versions of these that do nothing really except change what they look like.

Apple's current (excellent) industrial design aside, a computer is really just a tool and not much more that that. Yes, one wants it to be pleasing to look at, especially if you can't hide it under a desk, but do we really need to be releasing "Special Edition" keyboards and mice (at a higher cost)? I'm getting more and more frustrated with the current trend to make things look "snazzier" without really improving function. And this isn't just in the computer world, but in everything. You can get spiffy looking televisions, phones and even toasters for Pete's sake! Overall, do these modified appearances really improve function?

Of course, one might make the same case for cars (such as the 1970 Chevelle that I mentioned in my last post) and other things that have traditionally had a much higher focus on form as well as function than do consumer electronics and the like. But I guess it just disturbs me that as a society we are finding these kinds of things more and more important. There just seems to be something so...shallow about that.

Eh...maybe this is just me being cynical after another day at work dealing with crabby customers. Those kinds of days always seem to put me in these kinds of moods.

All I know for sure right now is that I won't be rushing right out to buy a "Special Edition" keyboard or mouse anytime soon. My current mismatched ones work just fine thank you.

I've been playing around with iTunes 4.

I'm really enjoying this new version. The whole streaming capability is still wowing me (despite my other obvious reservations).

I have just a few minor things I'd like to point out that I haven't seen discussed elsewhere yet.

• If you haven't tried out the Visualizer in the new version of iTunes, I highly recommend that you do. It is a definite improvement over the previous versions. It appears to include some new effects, but the biggest improvement is how much smoother it appears. There even seems to be some anti-aliasing going on there as well. Of course, I'm running on a fairly modern Mac, so I don't know how much of this would show on older video cards (maybe this ties in with Quartz Extreme somehow?). At any rate, as I said before, try it out. I found myself staring totally transfixed earlier this evening.
• I really don't like the new button appearance in the main iTunes window. The buttons have a very flat, 2D appearance that is quite unlike the older 3D, shadowed look. I know I've seen these buttons in something else as well, but for the life of me, I can't remember where right now. At any rate, they definitely look...cheaper...than the old buttons. I would go so far as to say they look quite ugly as they really don't seem to fit in with the rest of the interface.
• I've only purchased one song from the music store so far ("Simple Man" from Lynyrd Skynyrd, if you must know). The quality of the audio seemed very good (at least on my small Yamaha YST-M15 Computer Speaker). The process couldn't be easier to purchase a song either.

Why does it take almost two days for the Music Store to send me an e-mail confirmation of any purchases I make? I've made a total of three purchases (each 99｢ songs), each on different days. Each time, I receive an e-mail confirmation about 36 hours after the actual purchase.

While I'm on the subject, at least as far as I've seen, the Music Store doesn't show you how much your purchase will be with tax. The only place I've seen the total with sales tax is in the e-mail confirmation. Maybe I'm missing something obvious, and it really doesn't matter for a 99｢ purchase, but it could for some of the higher-priced items.

Just in case anyone has been living in a hole and doesn't know yet, Apple has made available Mac OS X 10.2.6.

I think this just might go down as the quickest update to Mac OS X since 10.0 appeared. I'm willing to be that one of the major reasons this update appeared so quickly (let alone at all) is the highly-reported problems with USB hubs that 10.2.5 had (although I never experienced any of those problems). However, many other improvements are listed at the page linked to above.

The update is currently only available via Software Update, although I'm sure a standalone installer is only a day or so away.

Okay...I just spent the last several hours lost in the world of Jinni Zeala. I really must say that this is one of the finest computer pinball games that I have ever had the fortune of playing.

It's got everything: realistic physics and mechanical actions, challenging puzzles, a great soundtrack and sound-effects and graphics that are the next best thing to real.

It has its quirks, to be sure (TILT is difficult to control and the ball does seem to find the outer "pocket" way to easily), but it is incredibly easy to lost a lot of time to this game.

Highly recommended.

Today was the beginning of a much-needed 10-day vacation for me. I have been looking forward to this for a long time. I plan on spending it doing as much unwinding as I possibly can.

It was a good start today. I and an old college-buddy of mine visited AmeriCruise 2003 in Lincoln, NE, quite possibly the largest car show I have ever been at. They claimed up to 2,000 cars. I don't think it was that much, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were several hundred there.

The show was held at the State Fairgrounds and covered about a four-square block area. There were, of course, cars everywhere. We arrived there at about 11:00 this morning and proceeded to immerse ourselves in classic-car goodness for the better part of the afternoon.

Frankly, although the show was an excellent show with many incredible cars, I was very surprised at the lack of variety in the cars. I would say that '55-'57 Chevy BelAirs were by far the most represented car, followed closely by 30's vintage Fords. I also saw more Chevy Nomads today than I have seen in the rest of my 30 years of life combined. It was astounding how many of the same type of cars there were.

Of course, Chevy and Ford far outnumbered everything else. Mopar (Chrysler products) was very poorly represented. I was also disappointed to find a dearth of Chevelles. As I've mentioned before, I really want a 1970 Chevelle. I was looking forward to taking a close look at a couple of prime examples of such a car. There wasn't one to be found in the entire show. There were a few '69 Chevelles and a '64 and '65, but no '70s. Oh well.

I was also surprised to see that, although the Camero was fairly well represented (a few dozen or so), there were a grand-total of two?count 'em?two Mustangs (a '65 and a '70) in the entire show. Interesting.

The show ran the gamut of car categories: from all-originals to fully-restored, heavily-modified to near-junkers. I had my camera with me and took many, many pictures, but as I still don't own a digital camera, I don't have any to post for you this evening. Maybe after I get the film developed I'll scan a few and post those.

All-in-all a good start to my vacation. I'm actually going to another car show tomorrow here in Omaha. Golf will be up next on Monday. I REALLY want to unwind...

There's really not a lot more I can say about this, except provide the link.

It's finally the weekend. Finally. At long last. I thought it would never come. Ever. In a million years. Weekend? What's that?

It's was a very long week at work. We were very short handed and I had several emergencies pop up that demanded my complete and undivided attention (even when more than one showed up at once). One could say that I came this close to quitting several times this week. But, of course, I didn't because that would be...well...er...quitting.

At any rate, I now have two days of time that I supposedly could call my own. That's fine. I have a house that is in desperate need of some straightening that will probably get some attention this afternoon. I have a lawn that is turning the most interesting shade of brown, mostly due to the horrendously hot and dry conditions we've been enduring for the last week or so, and my lack of time to do anything about it. I have a wife that would probably like to spend some quality time with me without my seemingly eternal grumpiness getting in the way.

Did I mention it was a bad week? ...At least as far as my normal weeks go.

Along with everything else that was happening this week, I also was deeply involved in a software project (for work, of course) that, while exciting in many ways, has dragged on way longer than it should have. Much of that is my fault, for various reasons I won't go into, but this project has also necessitated my putting a hold on SearchWare Solutions stuff until this project is done. Hopefully, that should be by the middle of next week. Then, it's back to the Print Window and iHam updates that I have been promising for a while.

In other news, my wife and I have been tinkering with the idea of buying a truck of some sort. Ever since we purchased the house (a year ago 4 days ago), it always seems we're hauling something somewhere. This doesn't always work that well in a '99 Pontiac Grand Am and '96 Honda Civic. This would be the first truck for either of us and so we really don't know exactly what we need. We've been visiting a few car lots in the area to see what options we have available to us.

Due to budget constraints, we're probably looking at a used truck. We've found several so far that have interested us, ranging from '95 Chevy Silverados to '00 S-10s to '01 Dodge Dakotas to '00 GMC Sierras. All over the spectrum, it seems. If we have time tonight, we may head back out to some of those lots for a test-drive or two. Any suggestions anyone?

Finally, I still haven't worked out the Airport problem I detailed in an earlier post. Therefore, my Pismo has become physically wired to my router due to the necessity of having network access on this machine until I get everything else figured out. It somewhat defeats the purpose of a portable, but use of the machine is more important than that at the moment.

I'm off to start cleaning...have a good weekend all!

Like it or hate it, one can't deny the impact that Star Trek has had on today's world. The Star Trek world lost one of its pioneers today as the man who designed one of the world's most recognized icons passed away.

Thanks to Steven Frank for pointing this out...

Take a look at some research being done by one James Patten at MIT's Media Lab. Apparently, he is working on developing some new user-interface technologies that involve manipulating physical objects on a given surface.

Although relatively primitive in presentation currently, this project looks to have created some incredible behind-the-scenes technology that only looks to be about one step removed from some of the user-interface ideas presented in Minority Report, the recent sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise.

This is very different stuff than the current Desktop/Window metaphor that is so prevalent these days. But, this is also very interesting stuff. Take a look. Those of you on slower connections should be aware that this is a largish QuickTime movie.

Just got done dealing with a somewhat disturbing situation. I was at a local Super Wal-Mart attempted to pay for my purchase with a check.

The checker was obviously new (he kept referencing a hand-written guide on how to use the register) and had some trouble feeding my check through their scanner.

The scanner, the first several times he attempted to read the check, refused to scan the check (for whatever reason). The checker called his supervisor who did something on the register, at which point the scanner accepted the check. However, after it scanned the check預lmost instantly葉he register responded that my check had been declined.

This, of course, came as somewhat of a shock to me. The checker tried the process a couple more times, but each time the check was declined. He couldn't tell me why (whether because he really couldn't, or just didn't know how, I don't know).

I ended up paying with cash (good thing that I had enough on me; I normally don't carry much cash around with me) and took my check and one of the little declined receipts that the register spit out to Wal-Mart's Customer Service desk. I explained that my check had been declined, but the checker couldn't tell me why and asked if she could. After briefly looking into it, she informed me that I had a history of writing bad checks at Wal-Mart and therefore they would no longer accept checks from me. Needless to say, I was now shocked again. If I had been writing bad checks, I certainly didn't know it (and, indeed, I knew that I had NOT been)!

She gave met the 800 number for TeleCheck, the service they use for their check processing. I thanked her for her time and went home to call the number.

Turns out the 800 number is an automated system only. It prompted me to provide it with various numbers (such as account number, bank routing number, social security number, phone number, zip code, etc), a process that took probably three or four minutes counting time to navigate through the menu system, only to tell me it had no information regarding the reason for the decline.

The system then told me that if I wanted additional information about the decline, I could write a letter to the company and gave me the mailing address for TeleCheck.

Now, the way I see it, if the system knows enough to decline my check at Wal-Mart, then it should know enough to tell me why it was declined when I called their number. But, then again, I'm the criminal here (as it appeared), so why make it easy to find out anything?

I searched through the rest of the system's menu system and found no path to actually speak with a person (again, why make it easy?). So, I checked out the company's website. After a brief bit of searching, I found some other phone numbers to TeleCheck other than that provided by Wal-Mart. Many of these numbers just dumped me back into the same automated system, but one of them actually connected me (after a brief wait) with a real person.

I explained the situation to the man on the other side of the phone and let him know their automated system couldn't tell me why my check had been declined. After providing him with much of the same information as the automated system asked for, he was able to tell me that the problem actually appeared to be an error on their part. It seems my account number had been linked with another person's information somehow. After much apologizing on his part, he told me that he had, while he was explaining what had happened, fixed the problem and I should be okay now.

This whole thing has disturbed me a bit. The idea that a mistake like that that can have such an adverse effect on someone can occur without warning scares me. Granted, the company appears to have made things right with (after the fact) relatively little fuss, but why did this happen in the first place?

I have always had a problem with the idea that a company like this or the credit agencies like EquiFax and the like hold so much power over us. One mistake can cause a lot of problems for someone who has never done anything wrong. In this instance, the problem was fairly easy to fix once it had been identified, but I know from experience that fixing things with the credit agencies can be much more difficult.

I'm not sure this is the best system we could come up with to help protect companies from those with bad credit histories or other financial problems. But, I suppose these companies really have no interest in making things better for those whose lives they actually effect, deferring instead to the idea that retailers and mortgage-lenders are much more important.

At the same time, however, I really have no ideas on how to make the system better, so really I guess I'm just ranting here. But, a good rant now and then never really hurt anybody.

According to the The Mercury News, at least one retail chain is selling disposable digital cameras. I guess the 2-megapixel cameras retail for $11 and include 25 shots.

This sounds good in theory, but looking at some of the details, I'm left scratching my head. Users of the camera are only able to delete the last picture taken--it's not possible to modify or review any of the other pictures. This is okay--it is a disposable camera, after all. But my greatest confusion in this is a simple question: "Why?"

It turns out, the camera can not be connected to a computer. Instead, the camera must be returned for processing. The user will then receive prints and a PhotoCD. Uh...I can do that now with the (much cheaper) current crop of 35mm cameras. And, I'll get the negatives. The article doesn't say how much (if any) processing fees are, but I can't imagine that this is that much better of a deal.

It seems to me that if I could just hook the camera up to my computer and get the instant satisfaction of having my pictures there, it would be much better. I'm sure the camera could be rigged to not function any more after the 25 picture limit (thus, the "disposable" part).

I suppose this is just a first crack at this concept. I'm sure we'll eventually see different takes on this as time progresses. Still, it's interesting that digital photography has entered the "disposable" stage. That shows you how far it's come.

Heh...

I have a coworker who has been known to, frequently, use Kazaa to locate and download music. Questions of legality and ethics aside, this is a prime example of why peer-to-peer file-sharing services can be so dangerous if you are not careful.

Now, I don't have the particulars. All I have is the evidence provided by a single panicked phone-call from this coworker. But, the situation sounds dire.

It seems that he has been searching for a certain song for quite some time. Last night, he finally found it and, in his excitement, downloaded it and attempted to load it into whatever MP3 player he uses to play it.

Immediately, his (Windows) system presented him with some sort of message indicated a fatal error and suggested that he reboot his computer. He did so, only to be presented with a message indicating that no bootable system disk could be found.

He tried various things (although I couldn't get exactly what out of him) before panic truly set in. He used his copy of Norton Disk Doctor to examine the hard drive. Apparently, Disk Doctor could find no usable data on the drive. It found fragments of something, but nothing usable or recoverable.

Now, as I said earlier, I have nothing but his description of things to go by. Much of this could very well inaccurate and the situation may not be as bad as it appears. But, it does appear bad. He doesn't have a current backup and it looks like he has lost at least six months worth of data.

But, back to my original point, it appears that the "MP3" file was the cause of the problem. Could it have been some sort of trojan application? Looks that way. And that's my point. With these types of services (i.e. Kazaa), you really don't know what you are getting. Just because a filename appears as one thing doesn't really mean it is. At least from things like many of the big-name websites (like VersionTracker, Download.com, etc.) you can be pretty sure that what you're getting is what they say it is, as these things are check out before being made available. One assumes the same thing with a music-service such as the iTunes Music Store.

I have always tried to avoid peer-to-peer services (although I did experiment a bit with Napster back in the day). And it's stories such as this that makes me happy that I have. Of course, with a Mac I don't have to worry about these types of problems nearly as much, although it could still happen.

I'd just rather not deal with the problem in the first place.

It's been quiet in my neck of the woods here as of late because I've actually been on vacation and simply forgot to mention that fact. I'm in a place with little to no 'net access, which explains the lack of updates.

I'll actually be back home on Saturday, but until that time, don't expect anything else from me.

Okay...I titled this entry "Reflections on Solitude", but maybe that isn't quite right. Perhaps it should have been titled "Being Away From it All."

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I have been on vacation for a while. My wife and I went to spend some time at my family's lake house about three hours from Omaha. This is my all-time favorite place in the world.

Now, the terms "lake house" and "all-time favorite place in the world" might bring to mind images of water-skiing, boating, laying out in the sun, swimming, etc., etc., etc. This is true. I do many of those things when I'm there. But they are not why this is my favorite place.

What appeals to me more than anything else is the solitude and the simple life it provides. These have a profound impact upon me every time I am there. The community of cottages that surround the lake is small; the nearest town is less than 2,000 people; and, as I mentioned before, there is little in the way of Internet Access.

Although in recent years, non-local visitor traffic has picked up (especially on the weekends), during the weekdays, the silence and sense of calm that pervades the place is so incredibly profound, I can't help but to reflect upon it and its place in my life. I did some of that reflection during my last visit.

As I have touched on before in this weblog, my life can be extremely hectic and much of the time, I feel as though my time is not my own. My job keeps me busy for most of the day, and even when I'm not there, I am on call (a fact which is frequently taken advantage of by my employer). However, I am not going to debate the merits of my job at this time.

Instead, I'm going to ask a question: Why does a place of such quiet and solitude appeal to me?

I'm a technology-oriented person. I love tinkering with my computers, love the fact that my job involves computers and am always keeping on the latest gadgets coming down the pike. However, when I visit the lake-house, I usually make sure (and did on this last visit) that I don't take my laptop with me. I leave my Palm at home. There isn't even a telephone there.

And...I love every moment of it...

I figure that this place gives me something to work toward in my life. Although, the idea appeals to me, there is no way that I would be able to live there full-time at this point in my life (although there are others that do live there full-time). Right now, as I said, I am a technology-oriented person. I would be seriously out of touch with that if I lived there. The closest thing to an internet connection that can be had there are (by today's standards) relatively slow 33.6k modem connections (the phone lines can't sustain anything higher).

It's not all back-water of course. The paper gets delivered every day. People still bring home new cars, new boats, etc. Some of the older cottages have been torn down and replaced with thoroughly modern homes. Trash gets picked up. There's a recycling program. Many modern conveniences.

Still, it's simpler. And, unfortunately, that just doesn't fit in with my life on a full-time basis right now. Not with what I want to accomplish.

But, the idea that one day I would be able to spend more time there, even permanently, is one that appeals to me. Retirement's 30 years off for me, if even that soon. But I will find a way to make that simpler life a part of my life. It's something for me to work toward: an ultimate goal.

Well, to be unoriginal, I would have to say playing golf in a blizzard.

Okay...it wasn't quite a blizzard. More like snowing hard with a fairly gusty wind, but it was definitely cold. It was during my junior year in college. We were bored silly on a Saturday afternoon. Despite the snowstorm outside, one of the guys glanced at the golf-clubs sitting in the corner and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?".

Fifteen minutes later, we were at a local three-hole practice course that was (not technically) free. Six inches of snow on the ground, orange golf balls and many layers of clothing didn't stop us from playing six holes.

Good times... Good times...

I haven't updated the blog in a while, so I thought I should probably drop a line.

I've been doing some reevaluating of my life recently. Nothing major (at least I don't think it is), but something that has bothered me for a while. I have found that I've been having problems "unplugging"葉hat is to say, turning the computer off.

Now, the fact that my computers are never turned off aside, I still have been thinking recently that I've been spending way to much time in front of computers. As you have already probably figured out if you've read this blog for a while, I'm in front of a computer (three actually預 Mac and two Windows PCs) every day at work and then I come home where I spend a few hours a night working in front of a computer again.

I'm on at least six different e-mail lists, SearchWare Solutions-related e-mail to slog through. I spend time working on various SearchWare Solutions programming projects (which, as of late, have been progressing slower than I would like). I browse various hobby-related websites from time to time (computer-related and otherwise). I also do some graphic design work on the side. And this is all after I get home from work.

The point is, I think I've been spending too much time in front of a computer recently, so I've really been cutting back. I can't do much about the amount of time I sit in front of computers at work, but I've been limiting myself time-wise at home and, indeed, for many days over the past two weeks, I haven't even touched a computer at home. (This is one of the reasons the blog hasn't been updated in a while.)

Honestly, it's been wonderful.

The weather has cooled off some, so spending lots of time outside has become enjoyable again (the lawn hasn't looked better since I purchased the house), I've gotten other projects that I've been meaning to get around to done, my wife and I have been walking a lot more, I've read several books in the time it used to take me to read one (and I'm an avid reader), the house is cleaner than it usually is, etc.

I think that with the amount of stress I've been under from work this past year (probably one of the most stressful times in my life), I've really lost sight of how to unwind and make sure I have downtime. I've really tried to make that happen these past couple of weeks, and part of that is making sure that I'm not stuck in front of a computer all the time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still a geek and will always be a geek. That isn't going to ever change. I've just remembered that even geeks do not live on computers alone.

For the Mac users out there, what is your alert sound?

Pre-Mac OS 9, I always used Sosumi (as did so many others, I think). With the advent of Mac OS 9, I switched to Submarine because I liked how much more subtle it was. When Mac OS X appeared, I switched to Purr for a while and then back to Submarine. Nowadays though, I use a custom sound I found somewhere called "Uh-Oh" which is exactly what it sounds like, a voice saying "Uh-Oh!". I am sure that I will eventually become bored with that though and switch to something else, although I have no idea what.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Steven Frank yesterday blogged an entry about how he is mystified by his blog-reading habits. He finds himself with two separate lists of blogs he visits, some in his browser and others in NetNewsWire. Some are the same, others are only found in one or the other list.

Although I don't follow as many blogs as I suppose that Steve does, I agree with some of his points. Granted, I only use the "Lite" version of NetNewsWire, but I, overall, prefer to read blogs in my browser, rather than NNW. I like how NNW keeps me up to date with which blogs have been updated, but I find reading entries in that manner to be incredibly boring. No personality, whatsoever.

I find that much of the personality, as I say, in the blogs that I read is in the webpage itself. Granted, Webthoughts is simply using one of MovableType's built-in templates (that will eventually change when I have time to muck with it), but I find that, in reading other's blogs, the design of the page many times puts me into a certain frame-of-mind regarding what I am reading. I find this almost imperceptible feedback necessary, if that makes any sense.

Plus, truth be told, Safari makes it really easy for me to quickly scan my (admittedly small) list of blogs. I have a separate folder for those blogs in the bookmark bar. Simply click on it, select "Open in Tabs" and - Presto! - all the blogs are open and ready to be read. If no changes have been made, it's only a single click to close that tab and move to the next blog. Really, NNWs benefits aren't really much of a benefit to me when considered in that context.

So, I would say that I am definitely on the side of reading blogs in my browser, rather than in a RSS reader. I find it a much more pleasurable experience.

This is a true story, frighteningly enough.

As many of you have probably figured out by now, I work in my day job at a quick print shop as their technology manager. Just because I'm the tech guru though, doesn't mean that I don't have to deal with customers as well.

Well, today, I got to deal with another one of those customers.

I received a phone call this morning from a man asking if we could accept orders through the internet. We can, of course. The primary means for a customer to place an order through the internet is by visiting our website, which provides an online order form. I relayed this to the customer.

"Huh," he said. "Do you have an e-mail address I could just send my file to?"

I explained that the website was the preferred method for online orders. We did have e-mail addresses, but they were not for general order submission.

The customer was very insistant that he just wanted an e-mail address and didn't want to have to deal with filling out an online form, but grudgingly accepted my suggestion to try the website.

About two hours later, the customer called back fairly upset because he "could not get the website to work." I asked a few questions, trying to figure out what the problem might be. It turns out that he was spelling the site's address incorrectly (leaving out a character), which of course, caused the expected page to not appear.

After correcting the man, he seemed to get even more irritated. He demanded that I give him an e-mail address he could just send his file to and that, if I wanted his business, he would not deal with any website to place his order.

Of course, I gave him an e-mail address, but I qualified that by explaining that, again, the website was the preferred method because it had, in the past, proven to be more reliable at both delivering the orders and providing better order details.

At this point the man practically screamed into the phone, "Look! I work for [a local offset printer]! I should be given preferred, direct access to your e-mail to send my files! I should have to deal with your website like I was a member of the common rabble!" I kid you not. He actually referred to everyone who wasn't a printer (and therefore his potential customers) as "the common rabble." And, he sounded like he meant it. He was far and above anyone else because he was a printer.

I sat there, slightly stunned, stunned for a moment as I tried to figure out what I would say to that. I muttered something about how we looked forward to getting his order and that if he had any other questions, he was more than welcome to give me a call back.

About three hours after that, we received an e-mail from him that, along with an attachment, read:

"Print 500 copies."

I chuckled in private vindication while preparing to give him a call to ask him such annoying questions as "What paper would you like this on?" and "When do you need this by?"

Heh.

For those of you who might be living under a rock, the Chicago Cubs clinched the National League Central championship today with an impressive double-header sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, combined with a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers by the Houston Astros.

The Cubs now move into October for the first time since 1998, and this is their first division title since 1989.

They now move on to meet the Atlanta Braves in the first round of the playoffs. Atlanta, while sporting the best record in baseball, has their work cut out for them. The Cubs have been hot lately, going 19-7 in the month of September. Atlanta will also be facing the best starting pitching rotation in baseball (although, I'll grant that the bullpen is an entirely different matter).

Way to go Cubs! Could a Cubs/Red Sox World Series actually happen?

What was your first computer?

An Atari 400. Ah...remember those? The baby brother of the Atari 800. My mother gave it to my father as a Christmas present in 1979 or 1980.

I spent many an hour planted in front of that computer playing many different games, from Pac-Man to Star Raiders (still one of the best games of all time). This computer was also my first exposure to programming. I wrote my very first programs on that system using Atari BASIC (yes, even using that awful membrane keyboard).

The Atari continued to have a long life, even well after my parents brought home the Apple ][e. It finally died in 1991, I think, after it received a severe static shock which caused the keyboard to no longer function.

Honestly, I wish I still had that computer.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

If you spent any amount of time playing arcade games in the 80's, this should bring back some memories. I haven't thought about some of these games in a long time.

My place of employment is one of the many companies that sold its soul to AOL and has an agreement for AOL to have prominent product placement in our storefronts. This, of course, means cases and cases of AOL CDs stacked to the rafters (slight exaggeration, maybe, but in final effect, basically true).

Well, one of the "perks" of this agreement is that, once a month or so, an AOL representative (read: "paid subcontractor") comes in to make sure the AOL displays are still looking nice and replenishes the stock of CDs.

Today, I witnessed something that simply appalled me. The representative came in to do his duty, as usual. However, this time he asked if we had received our stock of new CDs (the ones with the blue covers is the way he put it, I think). Someone mentioned that we had and retrieved the many cases of aforementioned CDs that had arrived earlier that day.

He took to replacing the old CDs with the new ones in the various displays scattered about the retail floor. What did he do with the old ones? He threw them away!

Now, at this point, I should probably point out that those AOL CDs don't move very fast, if at all. I have no concrete numbers to provide, but it seems as though those displays are always full and we always have extra cases of AOL CDs laying around in our store room.

So, this representative simply threw away 500-some-odd AOL CDs because they were old. Now, in all fairness, what was he going to do with them? I don't think CDs are recyclable (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and I really don't know what other use you'd find for them. But, I also know that CDs are not biodegradable. You throw them in a landfill, they're going to stay there for a long time.

Now, if he threw away 500-some odd CDs at my location only, multiply that by all the other myriad of locations you can find the CDs at (they even have them at Burger King, for Pete's sake!), and suddenly you have a great many more CDs clogging up a landfill or two.

Not a very environmentally friendly policy, if you ask me.

Of course, it all comes down to AOL producing far too many of these CDs in the first place, but that's an entirely different rant...

Way to go Chicago Cubs! You just had to go and win that game last night didn't you! Understand that because of you, I have been flat on my back all day! I didn't even get to sleep in my own bed last night!

Because you had to win that extra-innings thriller of a game, I had to, of course, jump around my living room in celebration. And, because I was jumping around, I failed to notice my wife's shoe laying in the middle of the floor. Well, I failed to notice it until I rolled my ankle when I came down on top of that shoe.

So now, because you had to go and win the game, I'm laying here on my living-room couch with an ice-pack on my swollen ankle that won't support me when I try to stand.

Of course, the fact that I have a bad ankle from an old high-school era injury that is susceptible to frequent sprains, the fact that I was jumping around like an idiot and the fact that my wife left her shoe in the middle of the floor had nothing to do with my present condition.

Your win is totally to blame. Nothing else. Now I'm forced to just lay here watching college football all day in the same couch as I slept on last night because I couldn't make it up the stairs.

Yes. Definitely. The Cubs are definitely to blame for this. There is no way I could be responsible, could there?

Okay...it isn't actually broken, but after a trip to the doctor today, I found out that I most likely have a small fracture in a bone in my ankle.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, this ankle has always been my "bad" ankle. I would sprain it fairly badly every few years, but it always seemed to heal fairly quickly.

The sprain from Friday night hasn't really gotten much better.

Oh, sure, I was able to finally walk on it again yesterday, but this morning, walking was out of the question again and the ankle finally started turning several different interesting colors. And it is still very swollen.

So, I decided (with lots of encouragement from my wife) that it was, indeed, time for a trip to the doctor.

The doctor told me after examining the x-rays that, although it isn't clearly visible, all the signs point to me having a fracture. If it is indeed there, however, it is a very small one. He'll know more after they are more thorougly analyzed in a few days. However, I'm still looking at one to two weeks of crutches. Yay.

At any rate, if it really is fractured, it will be my first bone-related injury ever. What a new experience! One, of course, I would much rather have totally missed out on.

Okay...no matter how the game turns out, this will go down as one of the best moments in this post-season. Kerry Wood hitting that ball out of the park to tie the game just fits in with the way this post-season has gone.

Wow.

Well...not the result I was looking for.

Although it is truly amazing the way the Cubs fell apart in the 8th inning last night, it's more amazing how well the Marlins kept their heads in the game tonight and head to their 2nd World Series in franchise history after being down 3-1 in the NLCS.

Congratulations to the Florida Marlins. You guys played some really good ball and were the better team on the field these last three games.

Likewise though, congratulations to the Chicago Cubs. This was really a breakout year for the franchise and they really have nothing to be ashamed of. My hope is, of course, that they will build on this year and vie for a World Series again next year.

In the meantime, I'll have to root for the Red Sox (to hopefully beat the Yankees). That failing, I'll be rooting for the Marlins because we just can't let the Yankees win it all!

Just tried to log into the iTunes Music Store via iTunes. It seems it's not possible at the moment: "The iTunes Music Store is currently unavailable. Please check back soon."

Seems to throw more fire onto the "rumor" that Apple will indeed release the iTunes Music Store for Windows today.

I'm going to be really interested in seeing if there is any truth to the rumor that Apple and Pepsi are going to launch a joint promotion whereby people who purchase Pepsi products will be given a code that can be redeemed for free downloads from the iTunes Music Store. If this is indeed true, this is the just the type of promotion that Apple has needed to do for a long time.

Anything Apple can do to get itself and its products and services more into the public eye can only be a good thing.

I feel bad.

I find myself rooting for the Florida Marlins in the World Series this year, even though they beat the Cubs in an incredible comeback from being down three games to one in the NLCS. It痴 not that I dislike the Marlins. I really couldn稚 care less about them. The reason I feel bad is that I知 rooting for the team that beat my team.

Ah, the important issues in life, eh?

At any rate, it痴 great that the Marlins won last night in a game with some sloppy pitching all around. That game really could have gone either way.

In a related story: I really have to assume that FOX is really upset in what it was dished for a World Series this year. I really think that the network was hoping for a Cubs/Red Sox World Series. Their ratings would have been through the roof. Now, I have to think that their ratings for the series will be mediocre at best.

I get the feeling that, New York City aside, America is pretty tired of seeing the Yankees in the World Series. I know I am and pretty much everyone I know is as well (except for one coworker of mine who is such a big Yankees nut that it痴 just scary). Of course, I do live in Cub country, so this area might be slightly biased.

Nevermind.

It's not broken. It's not fractured. It's just really, really sprained.

I just got back from seeing my doctor again about the ankle. Turns out that the specialist looking at the X-rays of my ankle have pronounced the bones sound and whole.

But, the ankle is nastily sprained (and indeed is turning all sorts of interesting colors this evening). So, I'm still on the crutches. I'm still on really high-dosage drugs to get the swelling down (yes, it's still not gone away).

But it's not broken. It's not fractured. Finally, some good news about this whole thing...

It has been an incredible weekend here weather-wise. These past two days have been the first days this year that I have truly felt that Fall had arrived.

Sure, it's been fall since September 21st and temperatures have definitely been cooler than the summer highs we saw this year. But still, temps have been in the mid to upper sixties, with a couple of days in the seventies this month.

Eagerly anticipating tonight's season's premier of 24, easily the best show on television last season. The preview's that FOX has been running nearly non-stop for the past several weeks look intriguing.

Although the novelty of an entire season being dedicated to one day has worn off, the drama, twists and subplots that this show has consistently kept spewing at us continues to make it my most eagerly anticipated television hour each week (yes, even more than Star Trek).

I had the opportunity today of watching an (obviously) novice computer user engage in an epic battle with Clip--the paper-clip assistant in Microsoft Office. It was really quite humorous.

So, after a string of several days with at least one post a day, I haven't posted for...uh...five days now. I've received a couple of e-mails asking why I don't post more. The answer to that is simple: I post when I have the time, inclination and/or need to post something.

Wow. Word's fail me. This is just pathetic... (warning, long load time due to size and number of pictures)

According to the Register, Jon Lech Johansen has managed to write a small utility that can "decrypt" the FairPlay protection scheme that Apple uses for the songs available on the iTunes Music Store.

My excitement level is certainly getting higher and higher as Monday approaches. I've been looking forward to this for a long time (since March, when I first heard that Battlestar Galactica was coming back).

Monday and Tuesday have come and gone and I was finally able to see the newly "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica. Although I won't go so far as to say "WOW!", I will say "That was pretty good; I look forward to the series, if there is one."

Although this is perhaps one of the funniest Strong Bad e-mails in quite some time, it's also a little sad because I know people who are just like this. All the time.

If you happen to be watching Today tomorrow morning on NBC, take note of the weather segments. The house with the Christmas decorations that they will be featuring during these segments is not very far away from where I live.

The City of Papillion is already gearing up and making a big deal about Al's visit. Traffic control is already underway in the neighborhood. Luckily, the neighbors are really supportive and understanding about the whole thing!

Although I'm sure she would be devastated to hear this, Britney has lost what little respect I had left for her. Her little joke over the weekend shows that something is seriously wrong in her life.

Getting married "just for the hell of it" is pretty much the last reason anyone should ever think of marriage. A spur of the moment joke, just to be "wild" is probably one of the sickest things I've ever heard of (with a few fairly obvious exceptions, of course).

If I was anyone who ever had the opportunity to get close to her in a relationship, I would look at this incident and wonder just what she really thinks about marriage. Would she look at a "real" marriage as a joke as well? Something to not be taken seriously? Luckily, I will never have that opportunity, nor would I ever seek it out.

This points to something seriously wrong in her life and points to something seriously wrong in our society. People don't take marriage as seriously as they once did, and the family and, to many extents, future generations are suffering because of that.

But really, I'm going to stop here. I could go off on a rant for quite some time on this subject (both the Britney aspect and the much more important, grander-scope societal issues involved). It wouldn't be pretty, and this little weblog isn't going to make much of a difference anyway.

It's just really sad to see someone who is looked to as a role model for so many impressionable people to continue to throw her opportunities away for flings and money and other momentary things. *sigh*

Just in case you were curious, or just plain hadn't figured this out yet, flickering florescent lights with bad ballasts and migraine headaches simply do not mix...

My wife and I have been thinking about getting a truck. We've never owned one before, but there are a variety of reasons why we think it might be a good idea for us to have one. So, we've been looking around.

Two things...

1. Omaha has been getting pounded by a snowstorm since about 11 a.m. Sunday morning. So far, about 13 inches and still snowing. The TV weather-guy says it will taper off overnight and that the worst is just about over.

Granted, 13 inches may not be a lot to many of you, but in these parts, it's a big snowfall. I've scooped my driveway three times in the last 24 hours.

I hope to post some pictures tomorrow or the next day.

2. I went to the 2004 Midlands International Auto Show over the weekend. I'll post a "review" in the next day or two when I get some more time. But, in the meantime, here are some photos I took at the show.

According to the TV news broadcast this evening, this past storm that finally ended yesterday evening, was the biggest snow-storm in 16 years for this area. That's pretty impressive. Looking around outside my house, I can believe it. I haven't seen this much snow in I don't know how long. Official totals say that my area received 13.5 inches of snow. Just west of here received 15 inches. It snowed non-stop from around Noon on Sunday (as seen in some of the car show pictures) to about 10:00 p.m. last night.

I took some pictures this morning, but unfortunately, something odd happened when using iPhoto to transfer the photos to my computer and all the pictures were lost. So, I don't have any photos to show you as I promised last night. I may try taking some more tomorrow morning, but it won't be quite the same as "the day after".

The great thing is, they are predicting more snow beginning Thursday-ish. I look forward to that. I haven't scooped my driveway enough in the last two days. I need a snow-blower.

...you have over a foot of snow on the ground already, it starts snowing again and the weather people all seem to agree that over the next day and a half you'll get at least another foot of snow.

Here are some pictures taken this morning. The first is the view across the street from my driveway:

The next is of my house, from across the street:

That's 13 inches of snow in my front yard you see there. You can't really tell how hard it's snowing in this picture, but there are really a lot more flakes than you see.

I may not make it into work tomorrow morning at this rate...

Well, we didn't get the foot of snow predicted. Instead, we got 10 inches. That's still plenty. I've been scooping snow a lot over the past two days. This spring, I'm buying a snow-blower at someone's garage sale.

Incidentally, for those that might actually be curious, they're predicting another storm on Wednesday or Thursday (only around 5 more inches), and another "possible snow event" over next weekend. Joy of joys...

As I sit here this evening as the snow falls AGAIN, I am reminded that I promised a more in depth report regarding the 2004 Midlands International Auto Show that took place here in Omaha two weekends ago.

So, without further delay, here we go...

Okay...my last entry dealt with lots of cars. This one will deal with one particular car: mine.

Seems that I have a few decisions to make, rather quickly regarding my car. As I have mentioned before, we've had a fair amount of snow. Well, we've started melting some of that snow off as of late with temperatures reaching into the low-30's.

Makayla Rose Crick. 7 lbs. 12 oz. 20 3/4". February 14, 2004 @ 6:38 p.m.

Here is a picture of the new one with her excited uncle (i.e. me):

I'm going to have fun spoiling this one! I've already told her that I'll be the one teaching her all the necessary bad habits (as her father slowly shook his head).

I got my car back today after it was in the shop for more than a week.

The total bill came out to be a lot less than it could have been, but still a lot more than I would have hoped. However, the bill was still such that it didn't make sense to trade in the car as my wife and I were originally thinking.

Instead, life threw me not one, not two, but three knuckle-balls that really made me step back and look at things a little differently.

My family has had this misfortune this year of dealing with three deaths, one of which was completely unexpected. In April, an uncle of mine (on my mother's side) passed away unexpectedly of heart failure. He was only 53. This occurred shortly after I went incommunicado on this weblog. In May, my grandfather (on my father's side) passed away after a thankfully brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Then, in August, my other grandfather (on my mother's size) passed away.

I was pretty close with both my grandfathers (but, of course, as is often the case, not as close as I wanted to be). So, even though we pretty much knew that the deaths were coming, they still hit me pretty hard.

To add to the fire, I was thrown into some really unexpected situations with my job that were very, very stressful. Because of some of these changes, I ended up working 50-60 hour weeks for several months in a row. Although the paychecks were very nice (I'm not salaried), the continuous long hours were something that I ended up wishing I didn't have to deal with.

As all this has happened, it has really caused me to re-examine priorities in my life. I tried to mentally step back from everything I was doing and figure out exactly what I should be doing with my time.

Family is very important in my life. I realized that I hadn't spent enough time with either of my grandfathers despite the fact that it would not have been all that hard for me to do so. Yes, I realize that this is a common regret that people feel when a loved-one passes away. But, for example, despite the fact that one of my grandfathers lived maybe five minutes away during his last year of life, I saw him maybe 10 times during that period. Something else always came up. I was working late, was exhausted after work, needed to work on my software, etc.

Family was not prioritized where it really should have been. Even spending time with my wife was something that was getting pushed down the list at times.

So, I've decided to make some adjustments. Family, of course, is prioritized much higher now. This doesn't mean that I'm always going to drop everything for family all the time. But, my intent is to remember that family should remain much higher that it was.

I've also decided that I'm spending way to much time at one of my various computers. Working on my software, reading my e-mail, browsing the web, etc. was tying up way to much of my time. I sacrificed much time that I could have spent outdoors working on my lawn (something I love to do), riding my bike, taking walks with my wife, etc.

I've realized that the computer isn't all that I'm about. I have other interests as well that I need to spend time on. But, I will also admit that I over-compensated during these last several months and worked to spend as little time at the computers as possible. Because of this, new versions of iHam on iRye and Print Window are long overdue.

So, although I won't be spending the huge amount of my free-time working at my computers as I was, in favor of other priorities, I will be setting aside a good amount of time every week to work on my software and other SearchWare Solutions-related items. You should be seeing new versions of iHam on iRye and Print Window soon.

Really, I'm trying to re-budget my time in a way that will allow me to focus on each of my interests and loves, but giving none of them short-shrift. Hopefully, I'll be successful at this. I've ignored to much and too many people for too long. By doing this, I hope to be able to greatly reduce the stress in my life. It should be interesting to see what comes out of this.

Just thought I would share my new toy with everyone.

1998 Chevrolet Silverado Z71 with 54,000 miles. The thing looks and drives like it came right off the showroom floor!

My wife and I had been thinking for quite a while that we needed to get a truck. We were getting tired of constantly borrowing other peoples' trucks. We always seem to be hauling something somewhere.

So, when we saw this one sitting on a car-lot we pass by frequently, we decided to stop in. Needless to say, we were very impressed and after our mechanic gave the truck his seal of approval, we're the proud owners!

He we are having the nicest day (weather-wise) in two weeks--an excellent chance to get outside and do some fall cleanup--and I get called into work.

Figures.

*Ouch*

Although I figured that Oklahoma would pound Nebraska, but it still hurts to see where the program is right now.

This is just cool.

My ISP upgraded Perl on this server recently and, in doing so, broke MT-Blacklist for this blog (MT-Blacklist is a MoveableType plugin that helps prevent comment spam). After speaking with an admin at my ISP this afternoon, they are not going to be able to fix the problem until Monday (due to the fact that the people who will need to fix the appropriate files are out of the office until then). No worries there, because this isn't a mission-critical thing for me.

However, because this blog has been getting spam-bombed over the past several days and MT-Blacklist isn't not working at the moment, I have temporarily disabled commenting until the problem is fixed.

Just so you know.

The four-day Thanksgiving Weekend is just about wrapped up. It was a good weekend, filled with family, friends and enough shopping for me for a year.

Heh. This is funny. As the friend who pointed this out to me said, "It's sad because it's true!" Sorta.

There is no doubt that ineffectual defenses led to a lot of the trouble for Nebraska Football this year (and in years past), but this year's team had more problems than just that. Keep that in mind.

We received the first snowfall of the year yesterday in Omaha. And, unlike many first snowfalls around here, this one was actually quite pretty (and productive).

Usually, the first snowfall doesn't really amount to much, just a spitting of tiny little flakes that can hardly be called snow. However, yesterday's snow was of the big, fluffy flakes variety. We ended up with about an inch of snow when it was all said and done.

Of course, much of it melted away today, but they're saying more snow by the weekend, so it looks like Winter is beginning to flex its muscles.

After a few experiences at work over the past few days, I got to thinking about how E-Mail fits into the business world. Should e-mail be relied upon for mission-critical business?

Okay...another work-related rant today.

At my place of business, we offer customers a public-use fax machine for outgoing faxes (all incoming faxes are in a secure location and we have to retrieve them). The public-use fax is a self-service machine. Customers can just walk up to it and use it at their convenience. We offer step-by-step instructions for them to follow. If they would like, they can ask for assistance.

When we are asked for assistance (which is quite regularly), the most common reason is because the customer did not dial the fax number correctly. Invariably, the number they need to dial is a local number, but they added the area code anyway, or it's long distance, but they didn't prefix the number with a "1".

Mistakes happen, and that's fine. What astounds me is the frequency with which this particular mistake happens. And, most of the time, the customer will tell us "I didn't know I was supposed to dial that way." Um...it's a phone. A specialize phone, granted. But it's still just a phone. Dial it like you would any other phone.

Pretty much, it boils down to the fact that many people are simply intimidated by a fax machine. I have no idea why. I've seen people who can find their way around a computer like no other, but the moment you stick them in front of a fax machine, they're not sure what that number-pad is for.

I really just don't get it.

It turns out that the problem with MT-Blacklist was much bigger than I originally anticipated. So, I've had to keep comments off for the time being.

I'm not even sure what to say. [link]

I've decided to go ahead and use TypeKey to manage comment posting. This will, hopefully, greatly cut down on the amount of comment spam this weblog gets on a daily basis if I allow open posting.

However, I am experiencing a problem that I, for the life of me, can't seem to figure out. I've entered my TypeKey Token in my Comments Preferences in the MovableType configuration page. I've set MovableType to only accept comments from registered TypeKey users. However, with things set this way, I'm running into a situation where, when a user tries to post a comment, they are given the opportunity to enter their comment, but when they click the "Post" button, they are told they need to use a valid registration to post a comment. The user is NEVER given the opportunity to enter their TypeKey registration.

If anyone has any ideas on this, I'd really appreciate hearing them. I'm sure I'm missing something obviously simple, but I just can't seem to figure it out. If you would like, e-mail me at "s dash crick at cox dot net" (I'm sure you can figure out the real e-mail address).

Am I the only one who had a problem with the stylized, triangular "flag" they used during the National Anthem before the Orange Bowl this evening? Just seems somewhat disrespectful to me somehow...

So, were the sound problems during the half-time show limited to ABC's broadcast or were they in the stadium itself? Judging by the reactions of the performers, I'd have to think the problem was in the stadium's sound-system itself. At least we know there probably wasn't any lip-syncing going on here...heh.

Although I know it's nothing compared to what some of you out in Ohio and surrounding areas have had to deal with so far this season, the first major snow storm of the season moved through the area last night. We received about six inches of snow and are expected to get another six to eight inches by midnight tonight.

Of course, I got a new snow-blower last fall, so it got its first workout this morning. Handled things fairly well, it did. Much faster than shoveling. My wife told me that I looked "happy" going up and down the sidewalks with the snow-blower. Actually, I'd much rather have been in bed. But, whatever.

Okay...so I was in the kitchen during Ashlee Simpson's portion of the Orange Bowl half-time show last night and didn't really listen to her performance. But, upon seeing a replay of it this morning, I have to say, I was glad I hadn't. Ugh. That was beyond terrible. Is she actually making a career out of that crap?

I remember when I was much younger looking forward to my parents letting me stay up to watch the Orange Bowl half-time show. I was enthralled with those shows. Maybe my tastes have gotten much more specific than they once were as I've grown, or maybe these shows quality have just gone strait down hill. Probably a mixture of both.

Oh, and remember that "at least they're not lip-synching" comment I made last night? Uh...never mind. It sure looked like Simpson was lip-synching to me, at least in the replay I saw.

My wife and I purchased a TiVo earlier this month. I had found that, because of the work schedules we have been keeping, we had been having trouble keeping up with the few shows that we follow, frequently missing episodes because we just weren't around and forgot to set a tape.

I have to say, in the week or so we've had it, it's been helpful already. For instance, I had misunderstood what time the season premiere of "24" was on last night. When I realized that I had already missed the first 45 minutes of the show, I remembered that I had set TiVo to record the entire season. So, even though the show was still on and the TiVo was still recording, I was able to watch the show from the beginning.

Now, I've heard many say that TiVo has changed the way they watch TV. Will that happen for me? Not really--at least, not yet. I don't use the Live TV feature that much, instead watching TV directly from cable rather than through the TiVo. For one thing, the picture quality definitely takes a hit when watching through the TiVo. There is a little fuzziness and some noise that appears from time to time, especially in solidly-colored areas. This is because you aren't actually watching the live feed, instead you are watching the encoded video that is stored on the hard drive with a slight delay. This is what gives TiVo the ability to "pause" live TV. So, when I want to watch live TV, I just watch live TV.

But the TiVo's recording abilities are second-to-none. The Program Guide is very useful (for those of us that don't have satellite or digital-cable, this works very similar to those systems). The TiVo service, allowing the TiVo to record your show no matter what time it's on, even if it's moved to a different day or time, is very nice as well.

I haven't yet tried using the TiVo's ability to connect to the Mac's iPhoto and iTunes libraries (as that isn't really an important feature for me), but will give a try sometime. I also haven't "hacked" the system to unlock some of the "hidden" features and am unsure if I am going to do so.

But, although it hasn't yet "changed the way I watch TV", I think it's been a good investment so far.

Ted Landau has posted an excellent article about how advertising is becoming more and more pervasive in our current society, especially in entertainment. This is something which I have noticed more and more, and actually rather scares me.

I'd comment on this more, but haven't really collected my thoughts about it. Right now, I'll just direct you to the article.

After about four days of sub-10° weather (with lows in the -10-0° range), things are starting to look up. Highs in the mid-30s by Tuesday. A veritable heat-wave!

I read a column in the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly about advertising that is shown before movies at theaters. The article made some good points about how polls have shown that people have noticed the advertising, but are disgruntled that they have to sit through it after paying to see the movie. How will this affect the industry?

Check out Panic Software's new webstore (for apparel, not software). The store works by drag-and-drop and even includes the Mac OS X "Poof" effect. Really cool!

As you have probably noticed, things look a little different around here right now.

I've finally found some time to live up to my original pledge to make this weblog look more like the rest of the Searchware Solutions website (rather than using the default MoveableType templates). Currently, only the main page is using the new template, but the rest will migrate over after I get things tweaked just the way I want them.

There are a few issues that I'm running into that I haven't found a solution to. The boxes in the sidebar appear normal in most of the browsers I've tried. But they don't appear correctly in Safari. In Safari, the dark line on the right side of the boxes appear twice as thick as they should be. I haven't figured this one out (except that the graphic that draws those boxes is being distorted somehow). If anyone has any suggestions as to why Safari is doing this, please let me know.

You will continues seeing other minor tweaks to the stylesheets and layout of these pages in the days ahead.

Charlie Daniels, Black Eyed Peas, Earth, Window and Fire...

Uh...okay.

I'm so glad I got to watch that.

BTW...my prediction: Patriots 20, Eagles 17.

One-hundred Million times better than last years. 'Nuff said.

Well, I got the score wrong, but got the spread right.

Congratulations to the New England Patriots. It was an absolutely ugly first half (for both teams, really), but the Patriots got it together in the second half and did what it took to get the win.

So, I suppose this makes them a dynasty. Honestly, I have absolutely no particular feelings about the Patriots. But, I do like a success story, especially one for a team which plays as a team, rather than as a bunch of individuals. So, for now...Congratulations.

Before the Superbowl, my wife and I went bowling. Yes...bowling.

It was the first time in...geez...must have been seven or eight years. And, it showed. I used to carry around a 200 average. My first game this afternoon was a 97. Ouch. But, I was much happier with my second game: a 167.

I could probably get it back up to a 200 average again if I kept at it. We have talked about joining a league. Maybe.

Well, this week, I have been spending much of my "free" time at work. A company Vice-President (i.e. Big Wig) was in town visiting today, so I've been spending a lot of time making sure things around the shop were completely ship-shape (did I really just use the word "ship-shape"?).

On top of this, the last few days have been much busier job-wise than they have been for a long time, so there was less time at work to get the things done that needed doing. When it rains, it pours...

I plan on some hard relaxing this weekend.

My wife and I will be attending my niece's first birthday party today. Although, granted, a first birthday party is more for the parents than it is for the kid (really, the Kid couldn't possibly care less), it should still be a fun time.

(And yes, her birthday is really tomorrow, but today was much more convenient for all involved for a party.)

What happens when your overweight cat trys to squish itself into a box that's several times too small...

I had the day off from my "real" job today. We get holiday pay for President's Day, but it wasn't feasible for me to take Monday off, so today was my day off.

It was a very restful day, for which I am very thankful. Granted, work did call me three times today, but it was nothing terribly involved, so it didn't impact my day too much.

Frankly, I spent most of the day being lazy. I watched the latest episode of 24 (stored on my TiVo) earlier today. Tonight I watched two episodes of Firefly from the DVD box set (I've slowly been working my way through the set).

I ran some errands around town and also spent some time cleaning around the house.

So, yes, it was a rather uneventful day. But I needed one of those after these past few weeks.

I spent most of the day yesterday visiting my brother-in-law and his family with my wife. They live in Volin, South Dakota (about 20 miles west of I-29). Let me tell you, that is the definition of "Middle of Nowhere".

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with living in rural areas. It's just not what I'm used to. I've always lived in big cities, so going to a place where the nearest Wal-Mart is who-knows-how-far away is a little disconcerting.

Although we were there for the better part of the day, I didn't really get a chance to see most of the town (and I'm pretty sure there wasn't much of a town to see, size-wise). But, I'm sure we'll be heading back there at some point and I will make it a point to see more.

I woke up this morning not feeling very well. Somewhat of a sore throat and a headache. But, because of things going on at work and some other factors, I've decided that I don't feel bad enough to take a sick-day. So, today should be fairly miserable all-around. Joy.

I spent a good part of the afternoon today taking down my Christmas Lights. Yes, it is March 6. Yes, Christmas was two-and-a-half months ago.

I wrote earlier about how I wasn't feeling well on Thursday. Well, I felt much better on Saturday and Sunday. Monday, however, my throat began to hurt again and by Tuesday evening, it was definitely on fire.

I called out from work today. There was no way I was going to make it through the day there. I feel guilty as sin that I called out (I knew that we were going to be short-handed anyway), but I just wasn't going to be able to do it. I spent most of today in bed doing not much of anything.

Hopefully, I'll be up to going into work tomorrow.

Yesterday, on a whim, my wife went into a local Keyboard Kastle to look at some used pianos. I've been wanting a piano of my own ever since I left college, but never have been able to afford one, nor have I really had the space for one.

However, when we bought our house a few years back, I started thinking about getting a piano. But, with money tight and things to do with the house, again the money just wasn't there.

Anyhoo, back on track, we went to look though the used pianos. I've been in Keyboard Kastle before, but never found anything which really called out to me. I didn't expect today to be any different.

Well, in a incredible display of stupidity last night, I managed to cut off over half of my fingernail on an industrial cutter we have a work (from the middle finger on my right hand, in case it matters).

It's really amazing how difficult it is to type and perform other seemingly simple, everyday tasks without the use of that finger (I can't really put any pressure on it at the moment without very strong pain in the finger). I hope this thing heals up soon (although I know it will be months before I have my full fingernail back again).

After a particularly nasty week at work, I was looking forward to doing some hard relaxing this weekend. Of course, it didn't end up that way, but I had a very good, productive weekend nonetheless.

Well, my day has started out rather poorly.

My wife was backing out of the driveway this morning to go to work (I was eating breakfast at the time) when there was suddenly a loud "POW!" and the front of the car jerked. Not knowing what the noise was (I heard it from inside), I ran outside to see what had happened. My wife was just getting out of the car.

After a quick walk-around of the car, we saw the passenger-side front tire was flat. But, worse than that, that corner of the car was sitting almost on the ground. Uh-oh.

I got the car jacked up and the wheel off. That's when I saw it. The spring had broken. It was literally now in two pieces. Yes, the spring itself. In the process of breaking, the spring ripped up the inner sidewall of the tire (causing it to go flat).

Needless to say, the car was not drivable, even with a spare. So, one flat-bed truck later, the car is at my mechanic's shop.

This is likely to be expensive.

As I thought it might, it did go slightly out of tune when it was delivered. But, luckily, my brother knows tuning pianos, so all it'll take is dinner for he and his wife and I'll have myself a tuned piano.

Well, $1,000 dollars later, the car's fixed. I took it to the mechanic my family's used for years and he was surprised to see the damage done. He says he's never seen a front spring go like that (rear ones, yes. Just not front ones).

So, comments are working again. No more authentication errors or anything else of the sort.

If SpamLookup works out well, great. If not, then comments will go inactive again until I figure out the authentication problems.

Who knows? Maybe one of these days, I'll get around to finishing up the stylesheets for the archive pages as well!

THE ZOOMQUILT: a collaborative art project

This is a very neat concept with slick execution. It's slightly disturbing in places, so be forewarned, but nothing too bad.

Today was spent mostly outdoors. After a rather chilly morning (it got down to about 29° last night), it turned into a really nice day.

Starting about Noon, I mowed the lawn, repaired ground, planted grass seed, washed a car, cleaned out gutters, and ended the day with a softball game.

Yes, I have been silent for a while--mostly because of work issues. But, hopefully a lot of that is behind me now.

The new manager to my shop started last week and he has some really good ideas. Although he still is learning a lot of what it means to work for this company, I have a lot of hope that he's going to turn out a lot better than the last manager did. Besides, I'm excited to not have to play full-time manager anymore. Hopefully the days of 60-hour work-weeks are behind me for a while.

I spent last weekend with my wife and parents at the family lake-house. Memorial Day weekend is traditionally a work weekend, getting the place ready for frequent summer visits. This includes putting the dock in the water, getting the boat ready, opening up the cottages and the like.

It was abnormally cool at the lake last weekend, however. This, of course, didn't stop us from putting the dock in. However, I can tell you, buy the time we were finished with that particular chore, I was very cold. The water was definitely too cold to spend to much time unprotected in.

The family acquired a new (to us) boat last fall, so this weekend was our first chance to really put it to use. Despite the test drives we took it on last fall, we still had a lot to learn about its capabilities and handling. I have to say, we're pretty impressed with it. Looking forward to getting the opportunity to ski behind it this summer.

I had to come back before everyone else because I had to work on Memorial Day, but I'll be back out there again in a week-and-a-half, so it's all good. It's the first Memorial Day I've had to work in five or six years, but the normal guy who supervises on that day deserved to have Memorial Day off this year, so I was happy to work for him.

We had a tremendous rain-storm last night. It poured 4.5" inches on us in about five hours. Although not the worst that I've ever been in, that's still a pretty good amount of rain in a relatively short period of time. For a while it was raining so hard, I really couldn't see the houses across the street from my house. That's the last of the rain for a while, though. It's supposed to be dry now for at least the next week.

Work continues apace on a new version of Print Window and, yes, the next version of iHam on iRye is still planned. Various issues have kept me from releasing it when I've said I will, so I've decided to stop guessing on that part. It'll be released when it's ready.

*sigh*

You would think that work would let up a little every once in a while.

Of course, I did get a week long vacation a few weeks ago (first week of July), but without Internet access and with everything else I had going on that week, updating the Blog wasn't a high priority.

Yes. I know. I'm whining. Oh well.

Wow! I actually managed to get out of work early today--almost an hour and a half ahead of time.

I'm not complaining, of course. Actually, it's a good thing, even beyond the simple fact of not being at work. It gives me time to finish getting the house cleaned up before an old college friend of mine shows up tonight for a visit.

Haven't seen him in years and he unexpectedly called last night to say he was in town and would we mind a visit? Should be some good times.

Several of you have asked what the lake-house I have looks like. I've finally gotten around to posting some pictures that I took in June of this year.

The yellow cabin you see in the pictures is the family cabin. Everyone uses it. It's been in the family since the thirties (I think that's when it was built). The interior shots are not of that cabin however. They are of a cabin owned by my wife and I (along with my brother and sister). We've been in the process of "remodeling" the interior of that cabin for the last year or so (it was in really poor shape when we inherited it). And, it actually looks different now that what you seen in these pictures (there's new carpet now as well).

The lake it self is about seven and a half miles around. At its widest point, it's probably about a mile across. That should tell you how long it is.

The lake is, of course, my favorite place in the world. I dream of being able to live there full time one day. I have no idea if that'll ever happen, but it's an extraordinarily nice thought.

My wife and I went out shopping this morning (just for some odds and ends, nothing major) and had thought about going on to visit this year's Street of Dreams, but decided against it at the last moment. It is really getting hot out there.

The forecast is for 105°. It's already 97°. Supposed to do this again tomorrow, and then cool down to the upper 80's. Thankfully. *BLEAH*

I'm so mad at my place of employment at the moment, I could spit nails.

I really can't go into details just yet (because, admittedly, things are not necessarily set in stone as of yet), but will say if things pan out as they appear to be panning out, the company will have royally screwed me over after I have given them nine years of hard work and loyal service.

Hopefully I can expound on this further soon, because I really need to get some things off my chest.

No...not THAT kind of cool one.

Things really cooled off around here today. After nearly a week in the upper 90s/lower 100s, it only got up to 72° here today. We had really nasty series of thunderstorms that passed through the area starting yesterday evening and lasting through this morning. As I drove to work this morning, I saw several trees that had been badly wind damaged and even saw one that had obviously been struck by lightening!

It's nice to have the cooler temperatures. I'm a summer not, and I like it when it's hot out, but even I was getting tired of the continual 100s we were experiencing. My lawn is happy too.

Although I keep telling myself I'm going to stop my general complaining about work on my blog (especially since updates are so rare around these parts anymore), it's really hard not to vent at times.

I think I'm getting close to the point where my job just is not worth it anymore. Although, for a time, things were looking better, the past four weeks have brought my confidence in my company and in my ability to properly do my job to new lows. And, the biggest sticking point is, I can't talk about it (because of my contract).

All I can say is I'm really tired of, among other things, 55-60 hour weeks. Yes, the overtime checks are nice, but I really think they aren't worth it anymore. I'm tired. Very tired. I'm to the point that I really couldn't care less.

And that's a point I never wanted to be at.

Yes, I know that means that I need to be looking for a new job. And I have been off and on for a while. But, there are other considerations that I have to think about, such as health plans, bonuses and whatnot--stuff that I'd be giving up by leaving my current job.

I really have some soul-searching to do here in the new future. I really need to figure out what I need and want to do.

If I can find the time.

BWAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! This is really funny in a disturbing sort of way. Don't worry, nothing bad here, but this is well-worth the look.

I despise Notre Dame football with a passion. But, this story still touched me. I heard about this for the first time on ESPNradio earlier today and it even choked up Dan Patrick.

No matter what I think of Notre Dame football, I have to admit that Charlie Weis is a class act. Keeping his promise to Montana by calling that play in a situation where it was absolutely ludicrous to call such a play shows that there are still more important things than football.

Bravo Charlie.

Okay, I actually saw the movie over a week ago, but am just now getting around to writing up a quick review.

WARNING! THERE ARE POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD! If you have not yet seen the movie, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

To this article on CNN.com, I say: "AMEN!"

I have noticed for quite some time that people are becoming ruder and more self-absorbed all the time. Most of this is due to my day-job and the experiences I have with customers (which, admittedly may skew my perceptions slightly), but it's nice to see I'm not the only one noticing the trend.

The CNN article covers many different examples of rudeness in America and even goes so far as to somewhat blame the 60's/70's generation. I'm not sure I would go that far, but you do look and see the state of parenting and wonder just how big a factor that is. It is a factor--no doubt about that. The breakup of the nuclear family really weighs heavily on how children form their attitudes about life.

Mike Zornek asked a deep question last month: Are this country's best days behind it? Although I don't think he was specifically talking about this, I'm going to weigh in and say that our society is in serious trouble and a lot of is is because of the "Me Generation". We have become so self-absorbed that we are losing sight of some of the important things in life. Common courtesy is one of those things.

I personally believe that the biggest problem contributing to this rudeness surge is the fact that we now live in a 24-hour society. Things never stop. Businesses like Wal-Mart are open 24-hours a day. So many companies run third-shifts in an effort to stay ahead. The Internet is never off. We've come to expect instant gratification at any time. Because of this, we have to continue to go through our days (nights?) faster and faster. We no longer have time to be polite. I even find myself falling prey to this from time to time.

Perhaps if we slowed down a little, things would get better. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that America is spiraling down into self-destruction. But, we do need to reevaluate some priorities. If the country is going to maintain its greatness, society needs to remember that it's the people that count. Rudeness doesn't help that. Common courtesy would.

Last night my wife and I stayed home and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters that stopped by. This is the first Halloween since we moved into our house in 2002 that we've been home. It turned out to be an interesting experience seeing the different costumes. We kept a list of the different costumes that stopped by.

• Football Player (4)
• Cheerleader (4)
• Tourist (4)
• Darth Vader (3)
• Ninjas (3)
• Batman (2)
• Princess (2)
• Witch (2)
• Power Ranger (2)
• Dorothy (2)
• Belly Dancer (2)
• Cow
• Horse
• Demon
• Tinkerbell
• Soldier
• Diva
• Indiana Jones
• Cat in the Hat
• Bear
• Two-Headed Man
• Uncle Sam
• Matador
• Hospital Patient
• 50's Girl (Poodle Skirt)
• Minnie Mouse
• Medic
• Egyptian Queen
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
• Spider-Man

I was not surprised at seeing so many football players and cheerleaders. Those have always seemed to be staples of Halloween costumes (from what I remember when trick-or-treating myself). Darth Vader wasn't much of a surprise either.

Some of the costumes were really quite creative. According to my wife (she handed out most of the candy), one of the Darth Vader costumes was quite realistic including the flashing lights on the chest of the costume.

The hospital patient costume was a girl wrapped in bandages around he head and arm and using crutches. I really didn't know what else to call the costume. The tourist costumes all showed up at once. They were a group of kids going around as "senior-citizen tourists" with canes, cameras and a wise-cracking attitude. The two-headed man was actually twins dressed up in one shirt. It looked a lot neater that it sounds.

Most of the kids were really polite and thanked us for the candy. Many of them were quite quick to tell us what their costume was. We saw kids ranging in age from 6th or 7th grade down to about 3-years old.

It was a fun night and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of kids we saw, considering this is the first year we've given out candy. In fact, we did run out of candy.

We went through the first snowstorm of the season today. The snow started about 3 a.m. this morning and didn't let up until about 4 p.m. this afternoon. All in all, the Omaha area received about 4" total in the area today, but only 1.5-2" actually stuck on the ground.

I've always enjoyed the first real snowfall of the year. It's when you get in to February and March and it's still cold and snowing that it gets really old. Right now, though, it's exciting to me when it snows.

In about half-an-hour, my wife and I will be out the door to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Qwest Center Arena in Omaha. I'm really looking forward to this concert.

I've been a big fan of their work since I first heard them around 2001 or so. They do an excellent job of mixing the classic Christmas carols with a modern rock twist. This will be my first time seeing them in person.

I'll try to remember to post how the concert was when we're back.

I got back too late Sunday night to post about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert and ended up working very long days Monday and Tuesday, so the report waits until Wednesday...

What an incredible experience! These folks know how to put on a show. The light-show, while not the most whiz-bang light show I've ever seen, did greatly impress me and the music was as good, if not better in some cases, than that on the albums.

I had wondered how this concert would be presented. There are four albums of material to choose from and most of the albums are really more concept albums--meant to be played together and in order--than collections of separate songs. How they did it actually worked fairly well.

The first half of the concert was an abridged version of Christmas Eve and Other Stories. I say abridged because most of the choral pieces were not performed (such as "A Star to Follow"). I assume these pieces weren't performed because there wasn't actually a choir. This wasn't really a problem however. The album was performed as a single entity. The "narration" was expanded with a spoken (not sung) narrator going more in depth than on the album itself. Crowd-pleasers were "O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night", "A Mad Russian's Christmas", "This Christmas Day" and, of course, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24".

After a very brief intermission including introductions of the band members and touring group, the concert became a little more muddled. They jumped right back into things playing assorted pieces from the other albums and promised a few pieces from a forthcoming album whose title I didn't catch. This part of the concert didn't flow as well and some attempts at humor were a little awkward (including one of the band members showing up on stage in a cow costume). There were a few awkward pieces performed as well, such as a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll".

But the last third of the concert made up for the weak middle section. It started out with a "play-off" between the band's two keyboardists (both of whom are absolutely incredible)--each trying to play more difficult pieces that the one before. This was actually very entertaining and humorous and included things like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra rendition of "Linus and Lucy".

What I found incredible though was a new piece that I can only assume will be on this forthcoming album. "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" from Carmina Burana done in the style of TSO. Oh. Wow. Shivers kept rolling up and down during that one. Other crowd-pleasers were "Requiem" from Beethoven's Last Night and "Christmas Canon Rock" from The Lost Christmas Eve.

The Grand Finale really was just that: Grand. It consisted of a medley of various pieces all done in great TSO style, lights, fireworks, musicians wandering amongst the audience playing they instruments, and culminating in a reprise of "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" that was perhaps more powerful than the original.

Again, TSO really knows how to put on a show. They make a stop in Omaha every year for the last several years and I will definitely be back to see them again next year.

So, its November 27th and Omaha is in the middle of a thunderstorm and several counties just west of here are under tornado watches. Oh, and this is after I woke up this morning finding out that we would be under a winter storm watch later this evening. Yes, it's supposed to snow tomorrow.

Welcome to Nebraska!

So, it's November 30th and Omaha is in the middle of a moderate snowfall. Hmmmm...more like the season.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I had my camera set to the wrong setting and didn't realize it until too late. The exposure was too long. This is also evidenced by the fact that the snow flakes don't look like flakes, but like streaks instead.

But, the picture does show the blue-lights I used to line the now-hidden flower bed in my front yard (as promised).

I went for a walk this evening in the snow. The wind isn't blowing, the flakes are coming down in copious amounts and its really quiet out there right now. It was very peaceful and relaxing. I really enjoyed it.

Now, in another month when I'm dealing with a foot of snow on the ground, sub-zero temperatures and howling winds, I'll probably be saying something else.

I apparently am not well-versed in excellent television and/or cinema.

The American Film Institute has released its list of most outstanding television shows and films of 2005. Of the TV shows, I've seen at least one episode of only 4 of the 10. Of the movies, I've seen exactly zilch.

24 and Battlestar Galactica are two shows that I consider to be the best on television. I've enjoyed the episodes of Grey's Anatomy and House that I've seen, but never am around to watch them. I've also never gotten around to programming my TiVo to record them. I should point out that I've never even heard of Sometimes in April.

I haven't seen any of the movies on the list and haven't heard of several. Heck, King Kong hasn't even been released yet (and even then, I'm not sure I'll be seeing it in the theatre, choosing, instead, to wait for its DVD release).

I guess I'm just uncultured.

This has nothing to do with Windows, really. Rather, this is an extraordinarily helpful error message produced by my Dell's BIOS today at work:

Keyboard Failure. Press F1 to continue. Press F2 to retry.

Um... Okay.

Happy New Year to everyone!

I just finished up over a week of vacation from work. Even though I didn't really have much relaxation time, it was still great to get some "away" time from work.

I spent most of my vacation concentrating on a two different activities: family activities and cleaning the house. What with several different family Christmas celebrations (one including some traveling) and getting the disaster of a house cleaned up for guests in time for our New Year's celebration, I just didn't have much time.

Don't get me wrong, though. I really enjoyed my time off. Family time is always important. As a country, we don't spend enough time as families anymore, so my time with my family is very precious.

Cleaning the house also game me the opportunity to get some things done around the house that I've been wanting to do for a long time, but just haven't had the opportunity to do.

So, really, my vacation was pretty productive.

As for the New Year, I really only have one resolution: I'm going to concentrate on slowing down when it comes to work. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to do the best job I possibly can while I'm there. What I mean is, I'm not going to let my job dictate what happens on my personal time as well. I'm really going to work on keeping work time and personal time separate. I know it's not possible to completely separate them, but I'm not going to let myself get as I was by the end of last year.

I hope all of you have a great year in 2006.

Yay! After a lengthy break, Ron Moore is blogging again! I love hearing about the ins and outs of Battlestar Galactica and I really missed this blog when Ron went silent.

Of course, I can't really be too upset. I'd rather he keep working on the the show than work on the blog, if it came right down to it.

For my wife's birthday, I took her to see NASCAR 3D at our local IMAX Theatre on Friday afternoon. I've been to IMAX movies before, but this was the first IMAX-3D movie I've seen. I have to say, I was very impressed!

Although the IMAX 3D glasses make you look like an idiot (they look somewhat like those oversized "clown" glasses that you see every once in a while), it's worth looking like an idiot. Seeing those race cars seem to almost literally jump off the screen and into the air in front of you is incredible. This is not your father's 3D movie. Really, it's very hard to describe. You really almost have to see it yourself to understand. But, things truly looked three dimensional. I really found it difficult to distinguish between the depth of what I was seeing on the screen and the depth of the real world around me.

As for the movie itself, it was about an hour long and was really more of a documentary than anything else (as most IMAX films are). It was very good though. It was especially good to a die-hard NASCAR fan like my wife (and, to be honest, I'm getting closer).

Those in the know will be able to tell that the film is a little dated (we're guessing the footage is at least three years old). There are no references to the NEXTEL Cup (all references are to the previous Winston Cup). Cars made by Pontiac are shown. Things like that.

But, all in all, it was a very enjoyable movie. Well worth seeing, even if you are not a die-hard NASCAR fan.

On a local note, congratulations to the Jaegers on the arrival of Jude Thomas Jaeger at around 4:00 p.m. on February 28th. I'm a little unclear on the stats, but I believe they work out to 21.5" and 8 lbs. 7 oz.

Can't wait to meet the little guy!

World of Wheels 2006 took place at the Qwest Center Omaha this past weekend. Always a great event, I didn't get to go last year, so I was really happy to get the opportunity this year. I've posted a picture gallery of some vehicles that peaked my interest during the show.

Overall, the show seemed smaller this year than it has in years past. I really don't know if it actually was or not, just that it seemed smaller. There was a great representation of classic cars, modifieds, racers, etc. As you can see in the pictures, the Batmobile from the original Batman TV show made an appearance.

My one big beef was that there was way to much floor space devoted to "sound cars", cars whose only claim to fame is the audio/visual systems that have been stuffed into them. It's interesting in a few, but really, there are only so many variations on the theme. I'm wondering if the high percentage of the show-floor space devoted to this was because of lack of entries in the other categories.

And, yes, I did start to long after a 1970 Chevelle again after attending this show.

Stupid Permissions.

Believe it or not, the reason I've been silent here for the past two months is because:

• Due to maintenance by my hosting company on the server this site is hosted on, the permissions of my Movable Type installation got all screwed up.
  
• I'm an idiot.

Yes, there are a few other reasons here and there that I haven't had the time to update lately, but those are the two big ones. Really.

Kinda sad, huh?

Yes, the permissions on my MT installation were messed up because of the maintenance. Yes, it kinda sucked. But, things like that happen. Oh well. I can't get too mad about it. It's not like every release of Print Window I've ever put out has been perfect. That's why it's at Version 3.1.5 at the moment. Because 3.1.4 accidentally broke something. So, whaddya gonna do?

As for the second reason... I have no idea how to deal with MT permissions. That's the crux of the matter. It sat there for so long because I didn't know what the proper permissions for the various directories and files were supposed to be. Honestly, I didn't have a lot of time to research it, but the fact of the matter is that I could have researched it. I just didn't get around to it until tonight. Hence "I'm an idiot."

The truth comes out.

It's a really odd experience when you are shopping for groceries in Super Wal-Mart with your wife and a total stranger walks up to my wife to tell her not to watch television so that she can become a minister of God. This lady that walked up to my wife approached her like she was an old friend and just launched into this sermon on how television prevents people from listening to God.

I have no problems with those who wish to talk about their faith. It's an awkward experience when it happens out of the blue by a total stranger in the bread isle at Wal-Mart.

The whole experience was just...odd.

Well, at least we now know what happened to Homestar Runner.

I guess I shouldn't complain about how bad traffic is around here. It could be a LOT worse. (Sorry about the Windows Media movie...)

Today was my first day back at my "real" job after my two-week vacation. Although it was actually very weird to be back to the daily grind, it felt kinda good to see that the place didn't fall apart with me gone. That kind of thing had happened before when I took vacations, and it's something I've been working on combatting by teaching people to be able to handle things, even if I'm not around.

It's funny in that I really had managed to forget all about work during my vacation. But now that I'm back, I slipped back into the "groove", as it were, very quickly. Having done this for 10 years now apparently has taught me a few habits, I guess.

By the way, speaking of vacation endings...

The Summer Vacation Special on Print Window Advanced has been pretty successful, so I've decided to continue it to the end of this week. You won't have to wait to get your serial number if you registered either! But, this offer will end on Friday night, so if you've been thinking of upgrading to Print Window Advanced, now is the time to do it!

Would someone please explain to me, in what world is this even a remotely good idea?

My wife and I are off to close up the lake house for the year this weekend.

It's always a sad event when it comes time to pull the dock and boat out of the lake and close the cabin down for the year. Then, it seems like it takes forever for the following May to arrive when we head out to the lake to open everything up again. That's one bad thing about living in the area of the country that I do--the lake house is just not a year-round place.

Anyhoo, I'll be "off the grid" for the weekend, so if there are any support requests or registrations over the weekend, they will be handled on Monday evening when I return.

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone!

I'm back now from the trip to the lake to practically close it down for the summer. It's always a bit of a sad trip, as it's primarily a work weekend to prepare the place for the coming winter.

The boat gets pulled from the water. The dock gets disassembled and stored. Plants and flowers are cut down to the ground. Life jackets and swim gear are put away. The entire time, you have the feeling hanging over you and the thought running through your head: "This is the last time this year I'll be seeing and using this stuff. It'll be another nine months before it gets pulled back out."

This year was no different. Except that it was mostly cold and rainy--the entire weekend. Luckily, we did have a window of a few hours of sunlight on Sunday morning where we were able to get the majority of the big work done before the rain started up again. Plus, the running joke of the weekend was that every time we looked at the thermometer, it read 56°. It really did seem like it was that cold most of the time.

Anyhow, the majority of the big work is done. I'll be heading out there one more time sometime in early October to do the final closedown of the cabin (tear off the bedding, winterize and turn off the water lines, etc.), but that'll be it for the year.

Today was my last day of vacation before heading back to work tomorrow. It was a pleasant week, overall. My wife and I travelled for a few days (we did the final closedown of the lake house for the year and also went to see my grandmother in Cozad, NE), but most of the time we spent at home--fall yard work, house cleaning, some work on the truck and so forth filled my time.

My wife painted the living room on Friday. She used a color called "Kitten Fluff" which is a medium-shade beige color. It's a good color and compliments the room nicely. I gave her a hard time about the name of the color, though. "Kitten Fluff" indeed!

Of course, with painting comes moving of furniture, which, in turn, brings cleaning. The house, as a result, got a pretty good cleaning. Not the best, but definitely much needed. We felt so good about it, we invited my parents over to watch the Nebraska/Iowa State game on TV on Saturday night. Nebraska won, so it was a good day.

And now, on the eve of going back to work, Fall has arrived in force. Temperatures have fallen and it's turned cloudy and potentially wet. Cold and wet are on tap for the next several days. In fact, I just noticed the first leaves turning colors on the Silver Maple tree in our front yard (usually the first tree in our yard to turn each year), so I have leaf cleanup to look forward to here in the next few weeks. My wife purchased a leaf blower/vacuum the other day though, so I look forward to using that to clean up those leaves.

So, back to work tomorrow. Hopefully I go into it with a fresh attitude and an excitement I haven't felt in a while. We'll see what happens.

This is wrong. Simply wrong.

I completely understand wanting to protect our children and make sure they are safe, but there are certain things that are going to happen to a kid, no matter what. Banning tag and other "contact" sports is simply wrong.

What person grew up without ever playing tag? I'd say that those individuals are few and far between. It's just something that a kid does. Children have a lot of energy, and they need to expend that energy. Tag is a great way for them to expend that energy. Running and laughing are two things that children adore doing. Tag allows them to do both. I'd go as far as to say it's built into each and every one of us.

But now, this school district has decided that tag is too dangerous for kids. They might get hurt, you understand, and when that happens, the parents will rain down upon them with the might of the lawyers and sue the district into oblivion. This, of course, is a perfectly valid reason to ban tag. It's also stupid.

This is just another example of how stupid our society is becoming in many ways. We are so scared of being sued that, rather than saying "You know what? Kids will be kids. They're going to get hurt from time to time. It's part of the growing up process", we'd rather say "We're not going to let kids be kids anymore. They might get hurt. That will cause them all sorts of anguish and trauma."

I was a kid once. In elementary school, we played tag. We played dodgeball. We played on—*gasp*—monkeybars! We were in situation each an every day where there was potential for getting hurt. In some cases, that potential was for getting seriously hurt! I remember one boy who fell off the monkeybars and broke his arm in the process! Did his parents sue? Of course not! He was just being a kid! These things happen! Granted, they probably were full of all sorts of sympathy of the pain the boy was in, but guess what? He healed! He grew up! He's probably a well adjusted member of society today! Horror of horrors!

This type of thing is just becoming stupid. At first it was distracting, then it became sad, now it's just disgustingly stupid. As a society, we have got to figure out that things happen. No one wants kids to get hurt, but it's going to happen, no matter what.

No one is deliberately trying to hurt these kids by letting them play tag. Provide reasonable adult supervision and they will be fine—bumps and bruises, the occasional broken arm and all!

This goes just the same for the rest of life. We need to take responsibility for our own lives and stop trying to blame things on others all the time! We're human. We're going to make mistakes. Accept that and move on! But, it's now going to be that much harder for these kids in Massachusetts to learn that lesson.

Today is Election Day in the United States and I encourage everyone to go out and exercise your right to vote. This is a right that is too often ignored and that is a very frustrating thing to me.

On a general topic mailing list that I frequent, political discussions frequently pop up, especially around election time. There is one person on the list whose opinions on matters political always interested me greatly. Frankly, he does complain a lot about the leadership in Washington D.C., but he makes some very good points. However, the other day he revealed that he does not vote because his "vote wouldn't matter anyway."

With that one statement, he has completely and utterly invalidated any arguments he has had about our government. If he doesn't go and vote to express his opinion, then he has absolutely no right to complain about the leadership we end up with. This goes for everyone, not just him. If you don't vote, you are saying that your opinion doesn't matter and therefore, you have no right to complain about the leadership that those that did vote put into place.

Again, I urge you to vote. Is our political system in the United States perfect? By no means is that answer yes. It's not perfect. But it's a heck of a lot better than what many other countries in this world have and countless people in the past have died to protect our right to enjoy our political system. Take advantage of that. If you don't like the way our leadership is running the country, vote for those that you think will do a good job.

I'm off now to vote. I hope you do the same.

The last 48 hours have not been fun. At all.

Stomach viruses are vile, disgusting things and are a very miserable experience. And really, there isn't much more I can say on the topic without passing at least some bounds of decency.

At any rate, I'll be really happy when I can eat again.

...my wife has it now too. Fun weekend. Woo.

I just realized that I haven't posted anything since my last cryptic posts about the stomach virus that made its way through my household. Suffice it to say that the virus is now over. Everything is back to normal (and I'm even regaining some of the fifteen pounds I lost over those four miserable days). The only difference this time is I seem to have lost any taste for Fritos. It's probably best if you don't ask why.

Thanksgiving was a quiet affair this year for the most part. My wife and I went to see her family on the 18th at her parents' house, but it was a quick trip (two hour drive out in the morning, spend a few hours there, two hour drive back in the late afternoon). It was great to see everyone, but it would have been really nice to stay longer. Unfortunately, with my work schedule, it was not to be.

On Thanksgiving Day proper, we actually spent most of the morning cleaning up around the house (something that had gone by the wayside since the time of the Great Virus Outbreak of 2006). Early afternoon arrived and we headed over to my parents' house (a much shorter trip than her parents' house) to spend the rest of the day with them. My brother and his family were unable to be there that day and my sister lives about 1,500 miles way and just can't make it back for one day, so it was just the four of us. Good food, great time with family (and a rousing game of Scattegories to round out the day), but it was a little odd to not have everyone there. A good day, all-in-all though.

My wife and I had talked about getting up early on Friday to hit some of the big sales. However, better wisdom prevailed and we actually didn't get up until about 9:00 a.m. We did hit a few stores starting about 10:00, but didn't spend much. My wife had to work that afternoon and I spent the time getting all the Christmas decorations pulled from storage and watching Nebraska/Colorado on TV. When my wife got home from work that night, we spent some time putting up the tree and getting some Christmas decorations strewn around the house.

Saturday saw a variety of activities including finishing decorating the tree, watching the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State game, and getting lights put up on the house, not necessarily in that order. I spent most of the afternoon working on the lights on the house. My time on the roof reinforced my dislike for heights (as it does every year). This year, I spent time putting clips on every one of the lights I strung across the roof-line. The results look quiet nice, but it took a long time to do. Unfortunately, I started to loose light and it started to rain, so my house-lighting activities were cut short. I'll post a picture of the final results once I get the rest of lights put out (which, it appears, will be in a few days as it's supposed to rain until at least Tuesday).

It really was a good holiday weekend. I hope it was for all of you as well.

Happy New Year to me!

I just found out, through a routine furnace checkup, that the house's furnace is a safety hazard and needs to be replaced. Cost? Basically $3,000.

It seems that there is a crack in the heat chamber in the furnace. This, apparently, is a safety hazard. I'm also told that the furnace is putting out three parts per million of carbon monoxide—also, not a good thing.

This was not entirely unexpected. The furnace is the original that came with the house, which was built in 1983. That puts the furnace at least 23 years old. My wife and I knew that the time to replace it was coming soon, but we had hoped it might last at least another year, if not two. We had designs on a heat pump.

Alas, that is not to be. Because money is so very tight at the moment, we'll have to make due with a standard gas furnace replacement. The heat pump system was just way too far out of our price range at the moment. Perhaps, not the best choice, but the only one I can financially make at the moment. So be it.

The installers will be here on Monday to install the new furnace.

So, obviously, the blog is sporting a new look now. I'm working to differentiate the blog from the Searchware Solutions website, and the old look didn't really do that.

The template that's being used right now is a theme called "Relaxation" that I found on the Style Contest website and used the StyleCatcher plugin in MoveableType to install. Unfortunately, it doesn't render correctly. The content that is supposed to be in the shared area on the right instead appears below the entries listed on the left.

I'm fairly sure that this problem is a problem in the CSS, but I'm very much clueless when it comes to CSS, so I don't even know where to look.

Does anyone have any suggestions they might be able to pass my way on how to fix this display problem?

UPDATE (2/1/2007): Thank you to "Su-" on the MovableType forums! He found the problem, which was a missing .css file from the theme that, for whatever reason, MT was not including when updating. The problem is now fixed!

Oh...I should probably also point out, for the record, that the RSS feed has moved. This is the new link. There's now an Atom feed as well!

To the gentleman driving the pale-yellow Dodge Ram by Oakview Mall the other night: I understand that driving is a difficult and inconvenient thing, so I just wanted to tell you not to worry about it.

That speed limit thing? That does nothing but slow you down. I understand you're a busy man and you have places to be, so you can go ahead and just consider that speed limit sign to be a general guideline, not a hard and fast rule. Don't let it get in your way.

I also understand that the turn signal is a difficult concept and is just all-around inconvenient, what with having to remember to actually use it and all. I'm sure everyone around you won't have any problem figuring out what lane you're moving toward and what direction you're going to turn after you actually start heading that way.

Oh, and speaking of lanes, don't worry about those white and yellow lines on the pavement of the road. They really don't mean anything. Again, it's one of those general guideline things. It doesn't actually mean you actually have to pick a lane or anything.

Here's a couple of other items you might not have thought of, so I thought I'd throw them out there to make your driving experience even more pleasant.

• You might consider reading the newspaper while you're driving. There's all sorts of interesting information in one of those things. Of course, this assumes that reading isn't a foreign concept to you.
• While you're reading the newspaper, you can also eat your dinner as you barrel on down the road. You have two hands, one for the paper and the other for your food. You can just steer with your knees.
• And just to make the most efficient use of your time, after you're done eating, you can go ahead and shave in your rear-view mirror while your driving as well. That way, you can spend more time doing things you want to do outside of your car.

I hope this helps you feel better about yourself. Really, don't feel bad. Everyone drives that way. I mean, it is all about number one, isn't it?

I despise this time of year.

I really hate late February/early March because the weather just can't make up its mind. Is it going to snow, or is Spring going to finally arrive?

Late in the Fall and early in the Winter, I always look forward to the first real snowfall of the year. It's an exciting event to me. When the snow is falling, I'll stand at the window or in the front doorway and simply watch the snow falling for long periods of time. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

But as the Winter starts to drag on, the nearly perpetually gray skies, continuous cold temperatures and five o'clock sunsets start to take their toll. I begin to feel gloomy myself (well, more-so than normal, I suppose). I simply want Winter to be over and for Spring to take hold. But instead, I get a transition period that is just that much more frustrating—hints of Spring and resurgences of Winter.

Last week, in Omaha, we had several days in which the high temperature reached the 50s. One could go outside without a coat on, feel the sun on one's face and know that Spring was on the way. This week, we've already had one snow storm and another is on the way tonight.

I'm tired of dirty snow piled up along and gravel and salt piled up on the roadways. I'm tired of gloomy days. I'm tired of looking at brown grass (when it shows through the melting snow) and leafless trees. I'm tired of not being able to get out and work in the yard.

I just want, as I do every year at this time, for Mother Nature to make up her mind. Let's get through this yearly transition and move on. Late March and early April just can not get here fast enough.

Two signs of Spring finally being here:

• I mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday. I didn't mow it very short (I've always been told to mow the lawn higher the first few mowings of the year, to not stress the new grass), but my lawn is really starting to look...cared for again!
• I participated in my first softball practice today. The league that I'm part of starts up in a few weeks and the team got together just to have a chance to start throwing the ball around before that first game. It got a little chilly toward the end of practice (a front is apparently moving through tonight) as the wind came up, but it was still wonderful to get out and throw the body around.

Easter is next weekend and we'll be having family over at our house, so I'm looking forward to getting out this week and finishing up some spring lawn cleanup. My wife, of course, thinks I'm nuts.

At work (otherwise known as The Real World—not be confused with MTV), I had applied for a promotion to a higher-level management position. I've been at my current level now for about eight years and, although I've grown a lot in my skill-set and similar, I have not actually advanced in position. I figured it was about time.

The interview process started back in late April and involved a phone interview as well as putting together a detailed action plan for a certain aspect of the business. Neither aspect of the process was particularly enjoyable or easy, but such things rarely are.

I had it on good authority that I had made it to the final cut. I was one of three final candidates for the position, which I suppose is a good thing.

However, yesterday I got the official word that I had been passed over in favor of one of the other two final candidates. Honestly, I am fine with this. I know the candidate who got the position. This person is a fine individual who will do well in the new position and will be a boon for those they will work with.

Besides, I also happen to know there will be other positions coming available in the somewhat near future which I will most likely be applying for. So, it's not like this was any sort of end of the road.

To the older couple in the gold Ford Taurus I cut off earlier today while I was turning left into my driveway, I apologize. I'm not sure where my mind was and I screwed up. Swinging wide into the driveway was not my intention.

I'll probably never see you again, but I have to apologize somehow, so this seemed as good a way as any. And yes, I do realize that you will probably never see this post.

I doesn't matter. I apologize anyway.

Well, that was embarrassing.

In case you are wondering where I've been, it appears that there was more to the server problems than I thought. It turns out the server was majorly hacked and had become a host for some anime.

Great.

Of course, that caused all sorts of problems, one of which was this weblog being down and general serving problems with the main Searchware Solutions site.

Everything should be fine now though.

If you do find something still wrong, don't hesitate to let me know! Thanks!

POST DELETED

And because the news media can make completely inappropriate decisions in an effort to scoop everyone else, I've had to take this post down.

Suffice it to say, the folks a CBS News crossed a line and obviously did not read into the meaning of the post that was originally posted here. Way to go. Oh, and don't ever call me at midnight again. Not only is it rude, but it was also completely unnecessary.

I have stopped accepting comments on this blog for the moment. The Spam was getting overwhelming again, so until I've found better filters, no more comments.

So, a few months ago, I finally got the promotion that I've been working for at work for at least a year. I'd interviewed for two other promotion opportunities over the last year, was a finalist for one and wasn't considered for the other. Needless to say, I'm very happy that I've finally gotten what I consider to be "my due".

Although it's been a mixed bag so far, it's been an overall positive experience. I say it's been a mixed bag because there have been aspects of my new position that have been frustrating. But, in reality, they are nothing that I hadn't been expecting when I applied for my new position.

I'm not allowed to talk about where I work in a forum such as this, so I can't be very specific, but I can say that I'm now the manager of a staff of fourteen people, all of whom are very good at their jobs. There have been some frustrations for them, however, over the past several years, so they have been going through some major burnout. My number one priority so far has been to make their working experiences much more positive and showing them that their new manager does care about them and wants the best for them. So far, I think I'm being successful, but not as successful as I would like. But, again, I knew that would happen.

It's involved some very long hours (again, something I knew would happen) and being very tired at the end of the day (something that has actually ended up being worse than I thought it would be). But at the same time, I've seen some of my team's attitudes begin to get better. I've seen laughter and camaraderie become much more obvious in the few months I've been with them. And, that makes it all worth it.

I'm in a position now that I wanted. I have been experiencing some challenges, but I'm hopeful that things will continue to get better and that I'll be able to slow down a little here sometime soon.

I'm glad I went after this opportunity.

I really applaud Amazon for doing this! Not only are they trying to eliminate that hard plastic packaging that just about everyone and their brother and their cousin's dog hates, but they're trying to do it in a very environmentally-friendly way. Although Amazon is not without its problems, this is a good example of a corporation trying to do the right thing for itself, its customers and the environment.

Bravo!

You know...I normally try to steer clear of being too political. I try to take people for who they really are, not political rhetoric.

But in this case, I have to say something about last night's election results:

Uh-oh.

I'd like to go see the new Bond film, but probably won't be seeing it this weekend. It'll probably have to wait until next weekend. I have too much stuff going on this weekend.

Of course, although I enjoyed the previous film, the real reason I want to go see the new one is because I want to see the new Star Trek trailer. Does that make me sad or what?

Have you ever had one of those days where everything that could go wrong did? It seems that Mr. Murphy did not smile down upon me today.

Although I can't go into everything that went wrong today, I can say that it won't be stopping for at least another twelve hours. One of the things that went wrong is that both people that work the overnight shift called out sick today. That means that I get to help fill in the gaps. I'll be into work by 4:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. That'll make for a long day, mostly because I'll be dead tired most of the day. Joy.

Mr. Murphy, if you are listening, please just leave me alone tomorrow? It would be greatly appreciated.

So...this is exciting only because of my acknowledged lack of woodworking skills, but I spent a good portion of this past weekend building this:

We had previously had a pre-fab cedar bench sitting in front of our house that we had purchased at Menards a few years ago. However, a few weeks ago, several of the supports split and that was the end of that bench. My wife and I had looked around for a replacement in various stores but found nothing that we really liked.

So, on Saturday, I decided that I'd just throw caution to the window and build a cedar bench, rather than just buying one. I had found plans (links to a PDF file) for the bench in an issue of Family Handyman from 2003 and it didn't look too difficult, so that's the direction I went.

I purchased the lumber and supplies at a local Menards (lumber and supplies cost about half of what a good prefab bench would cost) and spent most of the afternoon and evening on Saturday cutting the wood and assembling the pieces. A few hours on Sunday were spent putting the finishing touches on (adding the trim pieces and rounding the corners). The article claims three hours to build this bench, and I believe them. But it took me about seven hours, all said and done.

I had a lot of fun doing this and had the opportunity to use some power-tools that don't get used all that often. I definitely have a good sense of accomplishment with this!

Plus, the bench is very comfortable to sit on!

So, I finally joined the 21st Century yesterday—I actually purchased a cell phone contract, rather than staying with the pay-as-you-go plans.

First, a little bit of background. I hate cell phones. Despite their conveniences, I think they are largely, but not completely, responsible for our society's continued "me first" attitude and overly busy pace. The only reason I had a cell phone to begin with was for emergencies. I never intended to spend hours a day talking on my phone.

I had been with Virgin Mobile for the last four years or so, and it was okay. As a pay-as-you-go plan, I highly recommend them. Easy to use, some decent phones and reasonably priced (again, for a pay-as-you-go phone).

But, for my uses, Virgin Mobile did have its drawbacks: I got no service at the lake-house (which, believe it or not, was important from time to time); the reception on my phone wasn't always great (although that may have been more the phone than the service itself); and I found myself paying for more minutes than I thought I would more often than I thought I would.

See, my job requires that I be available via cell-phone a "reasonable" amount of time, but doesn't provide the cell service. So, because I was phoned a lot on my cell, I was spending a lot more renewing my spent minutes than I originally planned. The pay-as-you-go services are nice for very occasional use, but are expensive for frequent usage.

So, I figured, with the money that I was putting into my Virgin Mobile service, why not just put the same money towards an overall cheaper-per-minute plan that would actually provide coverage at the lake. Looking at the major carriers, I determined that Verizon probably offered the best coverage.

Now, I still hate cell phones. I still don't intend my cell phone to be my primary phone service (although I'm sure that one day it will be). I've gone with Verizon's cheapest plan (voice only, no included texting or data time). Yes, it's not as good a "bargain" as some of the more expensive plans are, but I'm not going to pay for things I never use. I do feel a little like I've sold my soul to Verizon for the next two years (the minimum contract). But, overall, I think it'll be cheaper than what I was doing.

Oh...for those of you that had my old cell number, I'll be giving you my new cell number. Unfortunately, my old number was not portable to Verizon, so I had to go with a new number. No big deal though.