Well, it has been seven weeks since my last cigarette. I’ve executed on my game plan almost perfectly so far. I knew in advance how hard it would be, but until you are actually in the withdrawal symptoms, it is difficult to gauge just how hard they are to cope with. I accidentally went down a stage in the patch system two weeks early, and that may be what is causing some of my current discomfort, but I only have one more week of patches left. I will be very happy when this discomfort stage is over, and I am already feeling much better than I was a couple of weeks ago. I’ve managed, so far, to keep my weight gain to a minimum. I’m hoping that, as soon as I am through the extra hunger stage, that I can trim off the four pounds rapidly.

Well, here we go again. Tonight, the Yankees begin their regular season series with the most hated Red Sox. I predict that the Yankees will win ten out of the nineteen meetings during the regular season.

RIAA’s Nasty Easter Egg. Seriously, you have to be kidding me. Okay, let me give you an incentive to go back to “sharing” your MP3’s with your friends.

Cameron Childress, a good friend and longtime co-worker, has started a ColdFusion-centric blog. He is one of the top CF developers, in my opinion, making his site a must-read, assuming that he manages to stay focused and update it on a regular basis:-)

GUI Galaxy has returned, with a very nice modular redesign.

In other sports related news, Mike Mussina became the 100th big league pitcher to win 200 games yesterday.

Meg is not eating sushi anymore because they freeze the fish. I would submit that, if we knew everything that was done to our food before it made it’s way onto our plates and into our supermarkets, we would eat differently than we currently do. I, however, just love sushi.

Phil Mickelson won The 2004 Masters yesterday. For those of you who aren’t golf fans, Phil has for years been one of the best, and most consistent, golfers on the tour. He, however, had never won one of the four major championships. Last year, he had a bit of a rough year, but he has managed to come back strong this year. This weekend, at the Masters, he seemed like a different guy, and he finally pulled one out. I know that everyone on our team is extremely happy for him.

Torre gets extension This is great news, Joe Torre is the greatest Yankee manager of the modern era, and we are blessed to have him at the helm for three more years.

DNS Stuff: DNS tools, WHOIS, tracert, ping, and other network tools. Really useful web interface to DNS tools. (Thanks w00t.)

Claim vs. Fact: Condoleezza Rice’s Opening Statement Now granted, I like to think of myself as generally nonpartisan, and this is from an organization that skews pretty hard to the left, but this stuff does really bother me. It seems like this whole 9/11 commission thing has turned into this massive, awful, he said/he said/she said/Bush said/Clinton said thing. It’s all about ass-covering and grandstanding, and not about learning practical lessons from the tragedy. This does a disrespect to the the people who died, the city that was forever changed, and the rest of us, who would benefit from the lessons learned.

Lots of information about the upcoming Beastie Boys record, “To the 5 Boroughs.”

How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (via Disobey.com)

Gurus v. Bloggers, Round 1

CFMyAdmin is a ColdFusion based MySQL db management front end.

Music Recommendation System for iTunes (via JD)

Great 37 Signals post referencing a Chicago Tribune piece on Kanji tattoos and how they sometimes do not mean what the people who have them think they mean. I found this especially amusing since I have a tattoo of nine Kanji symbols on my right shoulder. Before I went to get the tattoo, I spent a whole day at a University library researching the symbols, and then special ordered a book for further research. I find it amazing that people would take something that they will have on their bodies for the rest of their lives so lightly. I’ve had my tattoo for almost ten years now, and I am as fond of it now as I was when I got it.

Great news for Guinness lovers. I enjoy a nicely poured Guinness from time to time. Lately, however, my beverage of choice has been Grey Goose and tonic water with a lime. I have moved away from the staple bourbon and coke that had been my drink of choice since the pre-awful ex-girlfriend era of the mid-nineties. Of course, I sort of decided to make some real changes this year, and changing my default beverage to match my new lack of nicotine inhalation addiction seemed to make good sense.

Hell yeah. Go Huskies. I’m happy for them, and they completely dominated GaTech. Listening to the radio here in Atlanta this morning, I don’t know if the local media are giving UConn enough credit. Now, if the UConn women can just pull it off tonight, they will make some history in collegiate athletics.

Five weeks since I quit smoking. It’s going to be a busy week with The Masters starting Thursday, so posting will be at a minimum.