Stuff

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Really, really weird and disjointed but kinda interesting movie. At least I thought it was interesting. Wife didn't like it at all.

Secret Window: Excellent suspenseful movie ... highly recommended!

Battlefield Vietnam: Cool game, definitely requires a lot more horsepower than 1942 did. I don't think the single player play is all that much better, really.

The weather: Really, really, really nice! It's 74 degrees out right now. Buh bye!

I passed!

So I finally took the test, and passed, so I can now officially call myself a "Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform 1.4". The test was quite a bit more difficult than I expected. There aren't supposed to be any "trick" questions, but I will say you really have to pay attention to the details. Some of the questions, it seemed to me, got you focusing on one part of the question when the really important details were subtly lurking in another part of the question. Let me just advise you that if you are planning on studying for this test there is probably no such thing as studying too much. You should also take several of the many practice exams that you can find online to get a better idea of where you stand. Next on the agenda for me is studying for the web developers certification. No rest for the wicked!

So how about those wackly al Qaeda? I am so disappointed to see the reaction of the Spanish people to the the tragic terrorist attack in their country. They have given al Qaeda exactly what they wanted. They Spanish people have given in to fear and thrown out the existing Spanish government which took a hard line against terrorists. They have replaced it with a government which apparently favors the approach of many of the other European countries, i.e. "if we play nice and leave the bad guys alone maybe they'll play nice and go away". It seems to me this is just going to encourage the terrorists to commit further acts of terror. Maybe the Spaniards have bought a little time for themselves, but the terrorists will just keep going after other governments now. Who is next? Britain? The US?

So, while we are talking about politics and world affairs, I've had mixed feelings for awhile now about President Bush. I like a lot of things about him, particularly his foreign policy approach. Call me crazy, but I'd much rather have a president who puts our country's interests first. Not a president who is greatly admired by other "foreign leaders" with their own agendas, which in many cases probably don't squarely line up with the best interests of the United States.

However, there are also certainly a lot of areas where I feel President Bush is lacking. This past weekend I ran across this editorial in our local Gwinnett Daily Post newspaper. It's as if the author is tapped into my brain, because it does a great job of summarizing many of the things I admire about our current president, as well as the many issues that have me concerned.

Stuff and Things and Junk

Aside from the wind gusts that seemed to appear from nowhere (I took this picture of my neighbor a few minutes ago), and which knocked my cable modem out for the past hour, the weather today was awesome. Actually, it's been a little bit windy all day, but not bad until the last couple of hours. Anyway, managed to get back out on the bike again today. Road about 9 miles at the park again. I made the mistake of skipping lunch and I was definitely ready to stop at the end. Still slowly working my mileage up. Hopefully since I'm caught up at work this week, if the weather stays nice I can get out and ride a couple of times during the week too. I've also decided I really need to be more strict with my diet the next couple of months. Every pound I drop before the ride will make it that much easier to finish it.

So after returning from the park, I came home to watch the race, catching-up to realtime on my Tivo which was dutifully recording it, but I ended up not really watching it much by the time Junior was 46 laps down. What a bummer. Leading the points standing for the first time in his career, then he has handling problems and now he's down to 7th in the points standing.

Also, Donna's LCD monitor freaked out today. I thought it was fried. First the screen went all white, then I powered it off and on and the screen was all jumbled. You could see stuff but it looked like one of those jumble picture puzzles. Then I got to thinking it looked more like a video card problem, like the memory was corrupted somehow, so I powered off the PC. Same result. Finally dragged on old 17" monitor out of the closet and all was well. I was cursing the cheap LCD monitor because I only bought it last July, when I got a pretty good deal on it. I was reminded of that old saying "you get what you pay for". I was also thinking I should have been clued in to buy the extended warranty since when I bought it, after the first one I got quit working after about 10 minutes and I had to take it back and exchange it. I was thinking it only had a 90 day warranty, but I went to the web site to double check. Turns out it has a 3 year warranty. I wasn't looking forward to the hassle of returning it to the manufacturer but at least it was not going to be a total loss. In an effort to determine what was going to be involved in returning it, I checked the support area and found that it's actually a known problem with an easy fix. Don't just power the monitor off but actually unplug it. I did so and now it is fine! Weird. At least that little story had a happy ending. Moral of the story: if it's broke, unplug it. Unless it's a cable modem. Then it won't make any difference.

Speaking of being happy, not only are Battlefield Vietnam and Unreal Tournament 2004 being released this month, but if you can believe it Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is supposed to be available March 26th. I presume that's this year. I say "if you can believe it" because when I did a google search to see if I could find any corroboration, I ran across this article where some higher-up at valve swore that the game was going gold shortly and would meet it's November 18, 2003 release date. This game has been delayed so many times it's crazy. I used to really be in to CS and always wished it had good bot support. It may be too little too late, though. I'm gonna be pretty busy with the other two games. I'm also still waiting on Half Life 2. Of course I'll probably end up buying CZ at some point just on general principle.

I should have more time for all these games because I will be taking my Java programmer's certification exam a week from tomorrow Monday. I guess if I don't pass I'll have to quit my job. Or lie about it. Of course it figures that now I'm ready to take the exam for JDK 1.4, JDK 1.5 will be available before much longer.

OK, the winds kicking up again so I better get this posted before my cable modem comes out again. Oh, if your bored, check out my revamped "links" page (AKA as "Other Cool Stuff" on the right sidebar). I hope to keep this updated with cool stuff as I uncover it, mostly just for my own reference but maybe you'll find some of it useful or entertaining as well.

Dukes of Hazzard Movie!

Unbelievable... I was joking about this with a buddy of mine earlier, talking about Starsky & Hutch and Six Million Dollar man. Turns out there really are plans to make a Dukes of Hazzard movie! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, really. I mean, the movies above, That 70s Show, SWAT, Shaft, Charlies Angels ... and the list goes on.

Man I used to LOVE that show. Well, until Bo and Luke left. :)

Happy weekend!

Boy am I glad the weekend is finally here. It has been a really exhausting week. Been putting in lots of OT for work trying to meet a deadline, which I did. Didn't leave much time for anything else, including studying for my Java certification test. I'm going to try to get caught up on that this weekend. My exam voucher expires this month so I gotta hurry! Also didn't manage to get out on the bike at all this week. Hopefully I will be able to tomorrow. Today isn't looking very promising as it is raining right now. At least it has warmed up considerably the last couple of weeks!

Donna found something I've been wishing for for awhile now. Low carb frozen meals! I've eaten a lot of Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice meals on previous diets, and while they were OK they never seemed very satisfying. Being on a low carb diet now, though, there haven't been many options. So Donna saw these at Engle's the other day and brought several varieties of them home for me to try. I like all of the ones I've tried -- the "Cheesy Broccoli Scramble" is my favorite so far.

I'm in a pretty good mood today. I've got family coming from out of town to visit soon. I will have that Java certification done soon. Battlefield Vietnam will be out soon. We will be going on a cruise soon. (I am so ready for a vacation!) Life is good.

Oh, and before I forgot, we went to see Starsky & Hutch last night. I don't know that it's destined to be a classic or anything, but it was very entertaining. I found myself laughing quite a bit. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson always seem to work off each other pretty well. I only vaguely remember the TV show (mostly I remember the car -- which reprises its prominent role in the movie). Evidently you can now get the first season on DVD now. I've also really enjoyed playing the video game on my Xbox for awhile now. Speaking of 70s-TV-shows-into-movies, did you know that they are making a Six Million Dollar Man movie starring Jim Carrey? That's not a casting decision I would have thought of. Should be interesting.

OK, time to get busy studying for that certification. Oh, and if you're wondering about the picture, just click on it and read the story. Weird.