dans.blog

Well this afternoon I booked a cabin down in the Hocking Hills area (in Logan, OH) at a place called Acorn Acres.

I've never been there—I found the place on the web. The lady I talked to sounded nice enough though, and it had the ammendities Jenn & I were looking for. We've been talking about trying to get away for the weekend and this place seems to fit the bill. The cabin does allow for dogs, so we're taking Maddie. I was hoping to find a cabin right on the water, but Lake Logan is supposed to be just down the road, so hopefully we can take her swimming there. If not, there are several other lakes in the area, including Lake Hope.

The place is supposed to only be a couple of miles from Old Man's Cave—which is a place I've always wanted to visit, but just never gotten around to it. I definitely think we'll get there either Saturday or Sunday—provided the weather isn't horrible. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend. I've been needing a mini-vacation.

Posted by Dan on Jun 16, 2003 @ 5:11 PM

Well, another weekend's over—sometimes I wish weekends were longer than 2 days. :) Anyway, didn't do much on Saturday, did a little bit of yard work, but my lawn was drenched, so I didn't want to mow the grass. Just walking through the yard you'd see small splashes of water with each step. Unfortunately, it's crappy outside again, so I doubt I'll be able to cut the grass tonight either. (We're supposed to have band practice tonight, and I wouldn't have to time to cut the grass if we jam anyway, so I guess that's good.) I watched a couple of MLS Soccer games, but that was pretty much the extent of my day. :)

I didn't get much sleep Saturday night. Someone in the neighborhood was having a party and at 4am they were still blasting—let me tell you, it was loud too, way too loud for 4am and being outside. I almost yelled something at them when I let Maddie out to go potty at 4am, and then I realized what an old geezer I'd become and decided just to go inside. The sad part is, I think the lady holding the party is 5-10 years older than I am. I hope I don't become an old miser. :)

Anyway, since I didn't get much sleep I ended up sleeping in too late and missed breakfast w/my parents and grandparents. I was supposed to meet them at Northwood Hill CC in Springfield at 9:30, and didn't wake up until 9:18. Thankfully, Jenn came in the room and woke me up, otherwise who knows when I would have gotten up.

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Posted by Dan on Jun 16, 2003 @ 12:30 PM

Ok, as you can see in my list of blogs in the nav bar, Jenn's decided she's going to join the blogging world. :) She set her blog up this morning on blog*spot and I tweaked her template a bit this afternoon. So, if you're interest in the world of my girlfriend, make sure to check out Jenn's Blog.

Posted by Dan on Jun 14, 2003 @ 2:51 PM

Looking for more classic gaming at a relatively low cost? Then check out Jakks TV. I've got to say, the Namco looks like the best one, I just wish they would have included Galaga instead of Galaxian. Anyway, you should be able to pick these up for under $30, I even saw the Atari unit for under $20—of course it's been out for 6 months. Anyway, they should be very cool cheap novelty toys.

Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 10:44 PM

Robi's had a couple of good posts on his blog site as of late (well, he normally has good stuff on there, I recommend reading his blog daily.) Make sure to at least read the following couple of blog entries:

More on the missing 727 from Angola
More Commentary from G (about current life in Baghdad)
MoveOn.org Email Cause Me To Opine

Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 3:27 PM

Ok, so yesterday was an interesting day. At 2:42pm I get a call from Jenn. She apparently was walking to ladies bathroom at work and bumped into the fire extinguisher on the wall and fell of and hit her square on the right foot. I took off from work to pick her up and take her to the ER. Fortunately, she works at a medical supply chain, so they were able to lend her some crutches on the spot.

We went from her work straight to St. Anne's ER room. They weren't terribly busy and we only waited like 45 minutes before getting back called back for the exam. The hospital did all there paperwork and then they wheeled her back to take the X-Ray. Fortunately, I had my Gameboy Advance SP with me, so I just played for the couple minutes it took for them to take the X-Ray.

Fortunately it doesn't look like she broke anything, although we've yet to hear back from the radiologist to confirm the ER doctors initial findings. They told Jenn to stay home from work until Tuesday and just to try to stay off of it as much as she can. They also gave her some Percocet to ease the pain. She seemed to be doing ok this afternoon, but the last time I talked to her she had just taking some Percocet, so she sounded pretty tired (and she was getting ready to take a nap.)

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Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 2:07 PM

Nice to know we have a president who can stay on his feet. Ok, so he didn't look all that graceful in the process, but at least he kept his balance! :) I've got to admit, I'd really like to ride one of these things just to see what it's like.

Arriving at the family's oceanside estate, the younger Bush quickly shed the suit and tie for casual wear, grabbed a tennis racket and whacked an orange ball for dog Spot to fetch. The president was still clutching the racket when he boarded a Segway, a standup, motorized scooter that resembles a push lawnmower.

The Segway went down on Bush's first attempt, but he stayed on his feet with a flying leap over the machine. Undeterred, he got on again. His father climbed on a second Segway and they cruised around the driveway at the estate at Walker's Point.

- CNN.com

Thanks to Robi for the link. :)

Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 2:07 PM

Well, Macromedia has finally announced "publically" announced their "Royale Initiative." There's not much there, but the FAQ does cover some very basic questions I've heard asked. I really wonder how close the stuff Macromedia is working on will resemble what Laszlo Systems has been working on.

I've been very intrigued by their product since I first saw their idea. I like the idea of XML In, Flash Out. If you haven't seen what the Laszlo Presentation Server can do, go check out their demo page. The XML Editing demo actually allows you to view the XML used to generate the demo. You can even change the XML around and view your change on-the-fly!

I originally blogged about Royale back on March 28, 2003. I does appear that Royale may be a little more than a fancy form generation tool. I'm really interested to see what they come with.

Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 1:05 PM

I found a cool site for Gameboy Advanced products called Gameboy-Advanced.net. Go figure! Anyway, lots of cool stuff on there. I'm especially interested in the "linkers" they sell. I'm still reading up on them, but it sounds like a good way to play old NES games on my GBASP. :)

Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 10:10 AM

Well surfing last night—to see if there's a way to tell how much battery life is left in my GBA SP—I came across this Uncle Clive's website—which is dedicated to gaming, with an emphasis on classic gaming.

I especially got a kick out of this old TV commericial:
I'm about to show you something new for Intellivision which will revolutionise the way videogames are played and compared.

There's also a link to a game called Super Mario Pac—which was developed by Matt Verran of Hermit Games after seeing a spoof game that was on Uncle Clive's website a while back.

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Posted by Dan on Jun 13, 2003 @ 10:10 AM

So, I was doing some recording last night on bass. I came up with a cool little line I really liked and figured I better lay it down before I forget it. I tried finding a drum pattern to lay down on top of it, and couldn't find anything I like. As a matter of fact, I've never found a good program for laying out drum patterns. Maybe it's my lack of patience with any tools, but I've just never found anything I like. If anyone has any recommendation for PC-based drum machines, let me know.

Posted by Dan on Jun 12, 2003 @ 10:05 AM

Ok, for all you sadist out there that who live their gaming lives "no pain, no gain" here's the game controller mod for you! Kevin Rose, from The Screen Savers, posted this mod for replacing one of the rumble motors in the XBox controller w/a pest controller shocker. This way you feel a small electronic charge every time you take damage in a game. I wonder how long it'll take for someone to seriously injury themselves with this one. :) Personally, my tolerance for electricity is very low. I've had to take several EGK to test my carpal tunnel and I hate the feeling of electricity running through my body. I find it very uncomfortable.

Build an XShoK Controller

Posted by Dan on Jun 12, 2003 @ 10:05 AM

Well, I'm still at work—but I'm getting ready to leave the office. Jenn's been sick today—another bad migrane. She's probably going to kill me that I'm blogging from work instead of home, but I can post much faster from work. :)

Anyway, not much going on. Took Maddie to training class last night. She's still very easily distracted and for any type of "stay" action, I have to have a treat in hand to entice her to stay put. However, she did start picking up "High 5" and "Wave Goodbye." She does the "High 5" really well, but we still have some work to do before she'll get "Goodbye" done pat. I want to see if I can get her to wave goodbye when someone waves at her. I'm also working on getting her to sit up on her hind legs (with the front legs in the air.) If I can do that, then we can work on some more tricks.

I'm hoping we'll have band practice on Friday, but Todd was sick on Monday. Jenn was talking to one of her co-workers the other day and it turns out he plays drums. She gave him my number and she got his. I've been waiting to see if he calls me, if not I'll probably give him a ring to see if he's interested in playing out.

Posted by Dan on Jun 11, 2003 @ 5:57 PM

IBM's posted an article about sharing sessions between CFMX and J2EE components. It's obviously geared towards WebSphere, but the general concepts should carry over to other Java applications/classes.

Together At Last: Sharing Session Data Between ColdFusion and J2EE Components

Posted by Dan on Jun 11, 2003 @ 5:45 PM

Here's a good article with the author of Designing With Web Standards. I haven't read the book, but the article's worth reading—even though it is fairly long. The author discuss a lot of good points about browsers and developing for the large array of browsers out there.

A Conversation With Jeffrey Zeldman On Web Standards

Posted by Dan on Jun 11, 2003 @ 5:45 PM