In keeping with resolution number one below, I have started the year off by delving into some books. I read on a regular basis, and I probably read close to 100 books in 2002, but I wanted to create a formal goal that would make me want to strive to read even more than I had been. So this week I’m reading:

1. The Virtue of Selfishness
2. Smart Mobs
3. Naked
4. The Partly Cloudy Patriot

I’m very amused by this listing of Cockney Rhyming Slang. Part of the reason I’m amused by it is the fact that I needed it in order to understand something someone I work with said.

At the risk of embarassing myself quite badly, I thought I would go ahead and post my New Year’s Resolutions here. Somehow, I think that makes them more real. So here goes, in no particular order:

1. Read 100 books this year.
2. Drink more water, less coffee and soda.
3. Go to the gym two out of every three days this year.
4. Worry more about myself, and less about others.
5. Get up earlier, go to bed earlier.
6. Relearn to read non-fiction.
7. Quit smoking.
8. Make this Web site a labor of love.
9. Write more.
10. Learn Object Oriented Programming better.
11. Do one major house project each month.
12. Be more financially responsible.
13. Enjoy things you already own rather than buying more stuff.
14. Be a better friend.
15. Meet a new girl.
16. Improve my work ethic.

Welcome to 2003. I look forward to this being a year of personal growth, enhanced learning, and increased health. My New Year’s Eve was enjoyable and a little wild, and I spent it and New Year’s Day with some great new friends. One thing I know for sure, I am excited by the opportunities that life has presented me with for the New Year. I hope everyone else had a good safe New Year’s Eve, and I wish everyone the best in the new year.

FlyGuy is incredibly amusing. (via Boing Boing)

The NFL is complaining that Midway’s NFL Blitz doesn’t accurately reflect what happens on the field with late hits and violence. This is crap. It’s a video game, I’m not certain if people in the league office are familiar with video games, but they often do not mirror “reality” very well. Umm, it’s sort of the point y’all.

My summary version of 2002:

1. Still Laid off, doing small projects. Boring.
2. Lots of sitting around the house. Boring.
3. I go to SXSW. Fun.
4. I go to Las Vegas. Fun.
5. I go to California. Fun.
6. Working again full time as an independent consultant. Rewarding.
7. We settle with our former employer. Finally.
8. I go to Maine and Nova Scotia. Great Fun.
9. I loved her for eight years, she breaks my heart in an instant. Not so much fun.
10. I attempt to recover. Eeesh.
11. I go to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. Fun.
12. I continue to attempt to recover. Aaargh.
13. I return to Connecticut and New York for Christmas. Fun.
14. I am tired of the recovery process and decide that I have to move on. Hooray!

Top Five Things I bought this year.

1. Danger Sidekick Hiptop
2. Apple iPod (20Gb)
3. Sony MDR-NC20 Noise Cancelling Headphones
4. Xbox
5. Nikon Coolpix 4500

FlyGuy is incredibly amusing. (via Boing Boing)

So I’m back in Atlanta after my whirlwind tour of the Northeast, back at work and trying to figure out where exactly I left off before Christmas, which is proving to be a more difficult task than I would have thought. I return from the holiday personally energized in a way that I was not energized prior to the holiday. The one thing that I can say with some level of certainty is that family is perhaps the most vital thing in a person’s life. This Christmas, we severely limited the gift giving. I actually liked it much better than I would have thought. It put the emphasis on what the holidays are really about for me, catching up with the family, and getting to spend time with them. My brothers and parents are great people, and by being a part of the family, it makes me feel like a great person too. It centers me in a way that no interaction with non-family members can. It really makes me look forward to having a family of my own some day. Not that I’m in any rush on that front mind you.

I’m in New York City, enjoying my brothers' company before departing for Atlanta in the morning. We went into a Tower Records downtown, and I didn’t buy a thing. Compact Discs have gotten way too expensive if you ask me. Case in point, I looked at the Goldmember Soundtrack because we’ve been laughing and enjoying the song that Dr. Evil performs in the movie. The soundtrack cost $18.99. The movie, on DVD, was priced at $19.99. How the hell can the soundtrack cost only one dollar less than the entire movie? It’s just ridiculous.

White Christmas here in the North East. It feels great, I just went out and wandered around in the still falling snow, took some pictures, and enjoyed the feeling of the flakes hitting my face. What a wonderful Christmas, I’m glad we didn’t have to leave the safe haven of my parent’s house, driving doesn’t look too pretty here in Connecticut. It’s not too deep, but it’s great snowball snow.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Spherical PC from Japan. Over time, more and more of these non-traditional PC shapes are appearing. Even more interesting, however, are all of the non-PC devices that are Internet connected now. My Danger has really impressed upon me that the always connected device is where things are going, and that there will soon be more devices like this connected to the Internet than PC’s. (link via Gizmodo)

Merry Christmas.

The Register: Microsoft plots Macromedia coup against Java One of the strengths of Macromedia’s toolset is its crossplatform nature. Especially with the increased focus on server side Java. It would be a shame to see this company gobbled up by someone who would end this strength.

I’m home in Connecticut for the holidays with my family. In the past, this has meant either a return to dialup access or using my parents oldish PC for my computing needs. However, my brother and I discovered that someone in our parent’s neighborhood has a WiFi network that we can connect to. I intend to use some stumbling software to figure out exactly who it is and let them know that people can hop on to make sure they have no problem with it, but it’s nice to be able to do the things I normally do online from the comfort of my parents' living room.

I know I posted a link to 5inch a while ago, but they have some really cool newish designs that I hadn’t seen until today. I wish that I had seen this one a month ago, it would have made for some really cool mixed cd gifts for friends.

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.2.3 via Software Update.

I need to switch to a different email application on my Mac OS X boxes. I used to use MSFT’s Entourage, but I switched over to Mail, which Apple ships with Mac OS X. I’m not happy with either at this point. I want something slimmer and more responsive. There’s a list of some other options over at Mac Net Journal, the problem is that I am so email intensive that it is quite an investment in time for me to test out new mail applications. I guess I will try the most recent version of Entourage since it has been updated. The things that I need most in an email client are:

1. Support for multiple accounts.
2. Strong filtering capabilities.
3. Some kind of Spam filtering.
4. Responsive Interface and mail browsing.
5. Stability, good conformance with Mac OS X User Interface Conventions.