I found this on a blog yesterday, and shamefully I don't remember where.

Disclaimer - not suitable for small children or cat lovers.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jimbeamblack/cat.mpg

Sadly, I'm not as adept at English as I had supposed.  Only a master, but not yet a god.  (Should have happen to look at the five result categories, notice that they appear in a random order.  I'm assuming from best to worst the categories are God, Master, Average, Student, Bastardization.)

You are a MASTER of the English language!

While your English is not exactly perfect,
you are still more grammatically correct than
just about every American. Still, there is
always room for improvement...

How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Thanks KC for the link.)

I applied a firmware update to my Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra and it seems I can now have multiple files with the same file name.  The problem before, I think, is that there was no support for folders.  If you had two songs with the same name, it was impossible to differentiate between them.  Now, and I'd guess with something like folders, but perhaps based on metadata (like album, author, singer, etc.), the problem seems to have gone away.

I made this discovery today, since this is the first time I've synch'ed since last December.  I read about stretched Beethoven on Raymond Chen's blog, and wanted to copy the mp3's to my Nomad.  Good times.

Hmmm...not sure what's up, but dasBlog decided to create several dozen (71 to be exact) bogus content files.  It then got mad that it couldn't open them (it didn't name them correctly to be opened), so it refused to display any content.  I've deleted those files, and now the content is being displayed again (you can see this right?).  I apologize for today's down time.

I took some pictures today (yes, of waterfalls), though I'm not sure exactly how I plan to post them.  I probably won't upload them for a few days (they're pretty big, so I'm thinking about how to deal with that), but I'm making progress.

Got my Matrix on...Matrix Revolutions on DVD just arrived in the mail.

I found this on Brad Abrams' blog and thought a few of my readers might appreciate it.  It's put together by the US Navy.  Have a look.

To quote a friend of mine, my new job with Flying J is keeping me busy, stretching me, and keeping me happy.  It's also given me (ack!) a mostly normal schedule.  I'm getting up at about 6 a.m. and getting back home around the same time in the evening.  I don't really have to think about work when I'm not there (though I do).  It's quite a switch from the way I've worked since the beginning of 2001, where I was pretty much on call 24/7.  Both approaches have their advantages, but I'm happy for the current change.

I'm working on taking some pictures of the scenery.  I know, corporate buildings aren't too interesting, but, in the desert that is Utah, I work in a good looking area.  They've landscaped the area all around the building with waterfalls, a pristine stream, very green grass (with stepping stone foot path), and a good variety of flowers.  I haven't developed great photography skills, but that notwithstanding, I should have some shots in coming weeks.

Grr.  Why doesn't Add / Remove Programs have rich sorting ability (sort by install date would be nice).  Why can't I start typing the name of the application and navigate to that entry like I can in Windows Explorer?  (I think I know the technical reason, but I'm sure some smart guy at Microsoft can overcome it.)  Why is the last used date almost always inaccurate?  When you click on the usage terms (Rarely, Occasionally, etc.), why does the definition window pop up centered on the screen rather than centered to the Add or Remove Programs window?

I failed to comment on my new job.  Let me correct that.  Starting tomorrow, I'll be coding for Flying J.  I'm not sure what's good to talk about and what isn't, so I'll not comment on projects.  Below are a few tid bits on Flying J.

http://www.flyingj.com/company/index.html

http://www.informationweek.com/803/genera2.htm

http://fleetowner.com/ar/fleet_flying_continues_wifi/

http://radio.weblogs.com/0110120/2003/03/17.html#a578

I've recently accepted a job offer, so my blog posting frequency is likely to decrease a bit.  Currently, I work at home and set my own hours, so I can adjust my schedule to blog.  Starting Monday, I'm off to work in an office again.  Having a schedule is a bit rough, but I'm looking forward to calling 5 p.m. time to quit working though.  Happier times are ahead.

Actually, quotes of the day, but I wanted to keep the titles consistent.  Again, thanks, Mom.

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.

Niels Bohr

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas.  If your ideas are any good, you will have to ram them down people's throats.

Howard Aiken

I just had one of those “ugh, I'd so much rather use Visual Studio” moments.  Unhappily, I'm writing Swing applications using Eclipse.  What took an hour or so to cobble together with the Java/Swing/Eclipse combo, I could have done in five minutes with the C#/WinForms/Visual Studio combo.  I suppose that my familiarity with the latter is one reason for such a drastic difference, but I don't think the difference should be as great as a factor of 12.  My first impression of Swing is far less than positive.

A good friend of mine and a companion when we were missionaries, Ryan Bonham, has started a new company call CleanCut.  If you're in the market for candle maintenance tools, have a look.  A wick trimmer or a wick dipper just might be the tool you're looking for.

Wow.  I've heard that www.systemwebmail.com was quite the resource.  Earlier today I had a COMException that was baffling me.  I google'd for three words of the error on systemwebmail.com, and found detailed steps to change a setting in IIS.  Now all is well.  If only all debugging were this easy.

Since it's April 6th, here's a treat.  It's the 174th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Keith sent this link my way last week.  It seems appropriate to post these together.  For those not familiar with the history, here's a short historical recap:  The church was founded on 6 April 1830 by Joseph Smith and five others.  In not too much time, many members moved to Missouri.  The native Missourians weren't too happy with them being there, so they tortured, harassed, and forced them out of the state at gunpoint.  The church then settled in Illinois.  After a few years, the natives of Illinois followed the example of the Missourians.  They also murdered Joseph and his brother Hyrum.  After being thrown out of Illinois, the church settled in the midwest and specifically in what became Utah.

I'm glad for Illinois' recent resolution.  I hold nothing against those of Missouri or Illinois, despite the fact that my ancestors were among those who were persecuted there.  Let's put the dark past behind us and move on to a brighter future.

Thank, Mom.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing;  it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Voltaire

This blogger has been very busy, stressed, and sick lately.  I'm hopeful that tomorrow I'll have a clear head again and can return to regular programming - complaining about technology implementations, and thinking out loud on idealism.  If you can stomach one more quote of the day, I'll post it in a bit.

Thanks, Mom.

It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.

Harry Truman

Thanks, Mom.

Half of the American people never read a newspaper.  Half never voted for president.  Let's hope it was the same half.

Thanks again, Mom.

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.