Well, today was my birthday. Jenn took me out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then we headed back to the house to relax a bit. We left the house around 2:30pm on our way to Troy, OH to pick out the new puppy.
There were three black female Labs left out the litter of 13 (the seven males were all still there.) We took Maddie with us to help pick out her baby sister. The remaining females all had very similiar personalities and they all took to Maddie right away—which was to be expected since the breeder has lots of Labs around the puppies. We ended up picking out the slightly smaller female—she just had a certain spunk about her. I let Jenn make the decision since she was the one purchasing the dog. Jenn decided the puppy's name is "Nikita," but we'll call her "Nikki."
After we left the breeder's house, we headed to my parent's house to celebrate my dad's and my birthday. The weather was really nice for February—in the high 50s, low 60s—so my Dad ended up being stuck at DQ because they were swamped. When we got to my parents house, Jenn, Jeff, my mom and I all stayed outside playing with the puppy for a few hours. My mom was running in and out of the house preparing dinner.
Ok, lessoned learned. Notebooks run hot. I placed my laptop on top of a book with a waxey cover (my copy of "Labrador Retrievers for Dummies" and it started melting the wax on the cover. Fortunately, I picked up my laptop before things got out of hand but there's a nice little burn mark on the cover.
So, just remember to be careful where you place your laptop when it's powered on. Not all flat services are safe.
Just talked to the breeder today (the one for our new Black Lab.) He wants us to come by Saturday to pick out our puppy from the litter. I'd would have preferred to take the puppy home the first weekend in March, but I don't see much since driving all the way there two weeks in a row. Plus, Saturday's my birthday and it just seems kind of appropriate.
Oh yeah, Jenn's leaning towards naming the puppy "Nikita" and calling her "Nikki." We'll see if she seems like a Nikki when we bring her home. :)
Well, I got my check for $13.86 today from the "Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation Settlement" class action lawsuit that was filed. There's more information on the actual lawsuit at the official site. Apparently over 120,000 Ohioans are recieving settlements. I signed up for the lawsuit via official site some time ago—I can't remember exactly when. I really hate the state of music right now. It's all about how to make as much money as quickly as possible—I get the feeling very few record company execs care about the music anymore. Just look at Britney Spears—she's nothing more than an image, she certainly can't sing. They process her vocals more than fruit that goes in a Hostess Fruit Pie.
Today was Jenn's 29th birthday. She went and worked out after work and then we headed to Champps for dinner. Her best friend, Jenny, and Eric & Krista met us for dinner. I was going to surprise Jenn by having a few more friends meet us at the house for cake, but dinner ran real late, so things didn't work out the way I planned. It was still a really nice dinner. I think Jenn had fun.
Well, it's been a long time since I've last blogged. That doesn't mean there hasn't been a ton of stuff going on, just that I've been too lazy to update everyone. :)
December went pretty fast, between contracting work and the Holidays the month really flew by. I picked up a little extra contracting work, doing some work for friends. I think my portion of the stuff turned out decent, so hopefully there's some more opportunity there in the future.
I also bought a new vehicle in December—I bought a black 2003 Toyota 4Runner. My Camry was running fine, but it was getting up there in miles and I'd already been driving it for 7 years. I know it's an odd time to buy a new vehicle, but it just seemed like the right time. Plus it was nice to have a new SUV for all the Holiday driving. :)
Even bigger news on the DVD front. Star Wars, episodes 4-6 are finally coming to DVD!!! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this news! Here's the press release I got in my mailbox:
The most requested films for the DVD format will finally become a reality this September as Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox present the eagerly-awaited Star Wars Trilogy for the ultimate home entertainment format. The four-disc collection will be released on September 21 in the U.S. and Canada, with international release dates following closely.
"We know how long fans have waited for this release and how much they have been looking forward to it, so everyone has been working overtime to make sure that the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD is an awesome experience," said Jim Ward, Vice President of Marketing and Distribution for Lucasfilm Ltd. and the DVD collection's Executive Producer.
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi will be available in a four-disc set that includes a bonus disc filled with all-new special features -- including the most comprehensive feature-length documentary ever produced about the Star Wars saga and never-before-seen footage from the making of all three films. Each of the three films in the Star Wars Trilogy has been digitally restored and re-mastered by THX for superior sound and picture quality.
"First and foremost, the DVDs will deliver the very best possible sound and picture and take advantage of everything the medium can offer. On top of that, we are creating added-value material that gets inside the creation of the Star Wars films in a fresh and fun way," Ward said. "We want watching this DVD collection to be as memorable as seeing the movies for the first time."
The films of the Star Wars Trilogy will be available exclusively as a collection and will feature Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX. All three films are closed-captioned and subtitled in English, French and Spanish in the U.S. Internationally, sound and subtitling specifications will vary by territory.
Keep checking starwars.com over the coming months for more specific details about the content of this must-own DVD set.
Well, exciting news on the DVD front. The complete Freaks & Geeks episodes are being released on DVD in April. See the Freaks & Geeks website for more info.
Christophe Coenraets, the Macromedia Flex Evangelist, has blogged a cool little entry that not only shows a Flex Blog RSS/RDF Reader, but it also shows the entire code used to build the application.
This is the most revealing information I've seen to do date on how Flex operates and the types of applications you can build with it.
NOTE:Be sure to check out his follow up post—in which he posts the external CSS and XML files he used.
Well, Thanksgiving was a busy extended weekend. Being in a serious relationship tends to make the Holidays a little more packed with activities—because we get to celebrate with two families instead of one.
Jenn & I spent Thanksgiving morning at the Riverside Hospital. My cousin, JP, and his wife Betsy had their first child, a baby girl, Paisley Reese Sayers, at around 2:45am Thanskgiving morning. I got to take a number of pictures and videos that morning and burnt them to CD to give to JP's family at Thankgiving dinner.
After we left the hospital, I burnt the CDs and we left for Springfield for Thanksgiving dinner at my Uncle Jack and Aunt Nancy's house (JP's parent's house.) Dinner was great as always. I ended up taking about a 30 minute nap right after dinner. My Aunt has a cat, so I always end up having to take a Benedryl (sp?) and that always makes me drousy.
Well, George R.R. Martin is still writing "A Feast For Crows", but at least he's finally given us a little peek at what's to come. He's decided to publish a chapter about Dany titled "Daenerys." For those of you who enjoy Fantasy and haven't read it, I recommend reading his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. "A Feast For Crows" is the fourth book in the series. I normally hate reading incomplete series (because I'm impatient,) but I'm grateful for Robi and Mark for turning me on to this series. Of course, I'm frustrated with them for making me read something that I'm no so anxiously waiting the follow up books for.
Anyway, I can't say enough good things about the way that Martin writes. He has a very unique style and all of his characters are very real. This series definitely doesn't follow the "good guy always triumphs" philosophy. More often than not, doing the nobel/heroic act in these books makes you wind up dead. He definitely brings in a sense of realism that is often lacking from this genre.
One of the most unique aspects of his writing—and the part I enjoy the most—is the fact that each chapter is written from the account of one person. When he's writing in the narrative, he's writing from that person perspective—which may not always be reality of the situation. You'll often find much of you read was not necessarily the whole truth of a situation, but simply the truth as it appears to that character. I've been so conditioned in to believing that everything an author writes is true to the story, that I found this very interesting and always kept me guessing at what was going to happen next. I know this isn't unique to writing, but I've never read a series where you figure out the truth from reading different accounts of a situation from different peoples point of view.
I was very sad to learn today that composer/conductor Michael Kamen passed away suddenly from an apparent heart attack. I really respected Kamen's work, as he was never afraid to merge traditional orchestra work w/modern music. If you've seen/heard any rock bands do any work with an orchestra in the past 20 years, it's most likely that Kamen was behind the orchestra. My condolences go out to his friends and family—he'll be sorely missed, but his contribution to modern music won't be forgotten.
It always amazes me what someone with a little bit of ingenuity and time on there hands will do. Dr. Trevor Blackwell, who recieved his Ph.D. in 1998 from Harvard University, decided he wanted to build his own version of the Segway because he was facinating with the Segway's self-balancing mechanism. There's a couple of neat videos on Dr. Blackwell's site that show of his version of the scooter. Pretty cool stuff.