Kevin's Musings

Finally got around to seeing Million Dollar Baby on Saturday night — what a fine film. It was not what I expected at all but don’t let anybody tell you about it, go see it, rent it, whatever.

The Oscars were last night. The strong winners seemed to be Ray, The Aviator, and Million Dollar Baby, all of which were very deserving films. If you haven’t seen these you need to get busy. I would say, in general, 2004 was a really good year for movies.

We had a garage sale this last weekend where we got rid of a bunch of stuff that we don’t really need. We did pretty well but need to do it again soon. After we will probably trash, donate, or sell on Amazon and Ebay the remainder. I had my Twin Peaks VHS set (complete series) out for like $15 until I realized I could get more like $40 on Ebay. Almost an oops.

My trip to New York is coming up in less than a week. Looking forward to it. After that I may be doing a short trip to Phoenix. Nothing else specifically planned, but, big things may be afoot soon (we’ll see).

Still enjoying my Treo 650… if only I could take it to work it would be absolutely perfect, but, oh well, next job I guess.

In the world of PDA (or PDA-like) phones I have owned a Sidekick, a PocketPC phone (T-Mobile MDA) and now the Treo 650. I liked the Sidekick a lot, but, I decided T-Mobile’s inability to provide syncing with the desktop (to Outlook or whatever) a huge shortcoming. The promised it was coming “real soon now” for a long time then just abandoned the idea altogether. When they abandoned the idea I abandoned the Sidekick.

After the Sidekick I tried the T-Mobile MDA (which is also known as the XDA) which is a PocketPC phone. I liked this phone a fair but although I have always preferred Palm to PocketPC, PocketPC has grown up a fair bit over the years. It was nice having a real browser (NetFront, not PocketIE) and the ability to use applications like GPS, etc. really made it a step up from the Sidekick. I still preferred the Sidekick’s keyboard to the PocketPC input, but, having real applications and a browser that supports Javascript is a big bonus. But, the MDA began to have some issues so I started looking elsewhere.

I would have been happy to stay with T-Mobile, but, they only offer the Treo 600 and what I really wanted was a Treo 650. At the current time, this means Cingular or Sprint. The voice plans are pretty comparable but the unlimited data plan on Cingular is far more expensive (although they very recently created an unlimited data plan that is far more reasonable, I think) and I primarily am interested in the data portion of the device than the voice portion. Speed between the two services seems to be more or less comparable. So, I went with Sprint.

Getting the voice portion of the service activated was easy. Getting the data portion was a big pain. It took well over 24 hours to get it all straightened out. Oh well.

If you are getting a Treo, I strongly recommend using IMAP for your mail transport and getting ChatterMail for your mail client. This gives you “push” e-mail (new e-mail comes to your server and quickly appears on the Treo in ChatterEMail). This is just great stuff that I missed since the Sidekick. For e-mail service I really love Fastmail.fm — they are hard to be for performance and features.

Yes, I do everything via webmail (plus the Treo). I have completely given up trying to handle my e-mail on my desktop/laptop because of occasional hard drive crashes, system reinstalls, etc. where I have more than once lost my entire mailbox. Now I just don’t worry about it. I keep it on the Fastmail server and know it is always there (even if I am travelling or whatever). If you really want to use Outlook or Outlook Express or whatever keep it on Fastmail (or wherever) but use IMAP. Just saves headaches.

I forgot to mention… I recently got a Treo 650 PDA/Cell phone and have switched to Sprint PCS for my cellular services. If you have been following along, this more or less replaces my T-Mobile MDA PocketPC phone. Aside from Mapopolis being nicer on the PocketPC than it is on the Palm, the Treo 650 is a superior device in pretty much every respect.

Had a fun weekend down in Balmorhea, TX doing some scuba diving (pictures in my gallery) with a friend. The drive was somewhat long (about 7 hours) but livable. My wife and I have been going through all of our possessions trying to get rid of everything we don’t really need — I have been quite successful with getting rid of a lot of stuff. We’re having a garage sale (practically an estate sale) this coming weekend and hopefully my old stuff will find a good home.

Planning a short trip to New York City weekend after next. Should be interesting. I have visited the city once before and enjoyed the trip then. I will try to put some of my old pictures in my gallery (and add some new ones after the trip). If you know of any great places to eat or visit you should let me know.

I don’t have any other specific trips planned. I would like to take a diving trip to San Diego/Los Angeles/Seattle or somewhere within the next few months — we’ll see if that materializes.

Until next time…

New hosting… I finally got fed up with the hosting problems at name2host.com — they served me relatively well for several years, but, lately they have had lots of problems (and I haven’t been happy with how they handle email for about a year). After much searching I settled on made2own.com. For my needs they have a nice mix of capability and price. They lack Java Servlet hosting, but, other than that one couldn’t couldn’t ask for much more for the price. Hopefully they will remain fast enough, stable enough, etc. The transfer was relatively simple and quick except for changing my domain name from the name2host registrar (they do their own domain registration) to GoDaddy.com which took a week (almost to the minute). But… I am now completely back up and running and having CPanel and Fantastico to help manage my hosting is very helpful.

Going diving at Balmorhea, Texas this weekend. Not a deep dive (only about 25 feet) but warmer than the diving around Albuquerque (and Santa Rosa) and lots more life. Will be fun. I will post some pictures.

Started playing the new Oddworld game and it’s a winner. If you have played the other three Oddworld games you know what I am talking about. I was skeptical about how Oddworld would translate into a shooter, but, it works great. If you liked the other Oddworld games you need to check this one out. The next game will probably be Metroid Prime 2.

Until next time…

Not too much has been happening over the last month. Continuing to do Taekwon-do. Test coming up in March. Sadly, no diving in a while and nothing specifically planned.

Finished Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I think I am getting near the end of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. Next is either Metriod Prime 2 or the new Oddworld game (probably play the new Oddworld game first).

Planning on changing hosting providers. In the past I have been happy with Name2Host but they have had what seems like an excessive amount of problems over the last several months and I am getting tired of it. No definate replacement yet, but, I have picked a few contenders.

Until next time…

Looking over my last post, just under a month ago, a few things of interest (to me, anyway) have happened…

I bought a 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe. I got my green belt in Taekwon-Do. I now have about 45 stars in Super Mario 64 DS. I had a nice week off for Christmas. Family came over for my traditional Christmas Eve gumbo. Spent a nice Christmas with family. Started playing Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within (for Xbox). Helped my wife (very little) with a CSI Puzzle (which was cool). Got almost completely caught up on movies. I Finished Half-Life 2. We spent New Years Eve with friends. I sold my 1996 Mazda Protege. I have returned to work. Whew.

FWIW: Half-Life 2 was STELLAR. Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within is, I think, just as good as The Sands of Time (which was a fantastic game) although it is darker. Super Mario 64 DS is still awesome; I miss not having a real analog stick sometimes, but, it is really fun. I also got Driller Spirits DS, but, I don’t really see any other compelling DS games. Next I plan to play either Knights of the Old Republic 2 (Xbox) or Metroid Prime 2 (Gamecube) – haven’t decided which, yet. I still need to go back and finish Halo 2. Finally, we got Donkey Konga (Gamecube) which is a ton of fun.

Looking forward to attending CES 2005 this weekend. If you are reading this before CES starts and have a Palm device check out ExhibitList.

A little over a month since my last entry… Some movies I have seen worth noting: Saw, Finding Neverland, Garden State, The Grudge, The Polar Express (IMAX in 3D!), Ray, and Primer. Some of these are harder to find than others. All of them have my seal of approval, but, your tastes may vary.

Did the Pumpkin Carving dive — lots of fun, as usual. No dives specifically planned but I hope to travel somewhere to dive in the March timeframe with some ZiaDivers members. Am considering starting Dive Master certification, not sure yet.

Spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Atlanta with my wife’s sister’s family. This was my first trip to Atlanta. The city seems large and urban (more so than Albuquerque), but nice. We visited the World of Coca Cola and the CNN studio tour. No Christmas travel plans, but, thinking about going to the upcoming CES 2005 in Las Vegas.

Looking to maybe buy a new car or SUV. Most likely contenders right now are the Toyota RAV4 or Highlander. Also considering the Nissan Xterra. Have ruled out Jeeps, Kia, and a few others.

I am playing Halo 2 for the XBox which impressive but mostly seems like more of the same — not vastly different than the first Halo. I am also playing Half-Life 2 for the PC which is incredibly impressive… Half-Life was previously my favorite first person shooter, this is even better. The gameplay is awesome the graphics are unsurpassed. Half-Life 2 is the game of the year — guaranteed.

I picked up a Nintendo DS (this is the season’s hard to find toy — I happened upon one at Wal Mart) and Super Mario 64 DS. This is a better than perfect conversion of the original Super Mario 64. I saw better because it is a bigger game, more stars, more love. It is absolutely stellar. I have two complaints with the DS: the first is the lack of an analog controller. You can use the touch screen as an analog controller, but, … The second complaint is lack of GOOD games; it appears the only good launch title is Super Mario 64 DS. Oh well, SM64DS is huge and great. The “demo” Metroid Prime that comes with the Nintendo DS is very impressive and I cannot wait to play this game.

Games on the near horizon (over the Christmas holiday?) are likely to be the new Prince of Persia and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2.

Finally, Taekwon-Do is going well. I am testing for green belt this Saturday. After spending several evenings this week with final preparations I fell confident I will do fine. Since I last wrote my wife also took up Taekwon-Do and will be testing for yellow belt this Saturday as well.

Until next time…

I did two dives at bottomless lakes. They were a good learning experience but far from my “favorite” dives. Visibility was extremely limited, on average about 7 feet. I am glad I did them so I could experience the extremely limited visibility in a controlled environment, but, I much prefer better visibility.

Will be doing the scuba club (ZiaDivers.org) pumpkin carving context dives this coming weekend at Blue Hole (Santa Rosa, NM). Undoubtedly there will be limited participation but it should be fun.

Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 both went gold in the last week or so and will be out in November (9th and 16th respectively). Looking forward to both of these games.

Saw Team America (new film by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame). It was a lot of fun. I didn’t think it was quite as good as the South Park movie but definitely a must see if you share my sense of humor. I also saw Shaun of the Dead this weekend. This movie was hilarious but also not for the easily offended or those with queasy stomachs.

I attended my first Taekwon-Do competition. There were not very many entrants in the adult yellow belt range, but, it was lots of fun and I didn’t come in dead last so I will call it good 🙂 It was a great experience.

I am going with some folks to attempt some diving at Bottomless Lakes in Roswell, New Mexico. Hopefully visibility will be good, but, it is hard to say since it was raining earlier in the week all over the state. Also, toward the end of the month I should be back at Blue Hole for the ZiaDivers.org (Scuba Club) pumpkin carving competition. Last year there were only two drivers for the competition, we’ll see who shows up this year.

On the software development front, I have switched to using JasperReports and iReport for the bulk of my reporting needs. If you want to use JasperReports 0.6.1 make sure you get iReport 0.4.0 (I had to get it from CVS). It took a while to get it going partially because the support (mailing list) on both products seems quite spotty, but, I now have both running pretty well. I am much happier than I was with JReport.

On the entertainment front, I have started listening to Opie & Anthony on XM radio for their free month. It is showing some promise. My old favorite, The Monsters of the Morning, are dwelling way too much on wrestling for my taste, so, we’ll see if it is time for a regime change. Also, on the movie scene if you haven’t seen Sky Captain… Get on it — it’s a really cool movie.