The problem is I’m not motivated for the design part, just the converting and JS parts. I think the designer in me has fallen by the wayside sometime long past, and the programmer has taken over. I’m not sure how I can motivate myself again for the design part.

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Over the weekend I decided I’d take another look around to see what other editors are available on the Mac. I looked at BBEdit/TextWrangler, Aquamacs, Jedit X, Smultron, Coda, SubEthaEdit and Espresso. I finally settled on jEdit.

Unlike all the other editors I tried, jEdit is Java-based, not Cocoa-based so I expected it to be a little chuggy. It’s actually quite a bit snappier than Textmate at opening and editing large files. Its UI uses Java’s Swing UI components, so even though it tries to look Mac-like, it’s definitely ugly compared to most of the other editors I tried. That said, it can be massaged enough to look decent using plugins and adjusting some default settings.

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I remember when my dad was 34 years old, and it doesn’t seem all that long ago. That was back in 1981 when my schooling was just getting started in a tiny, private elementary school called Strickland.

I’ve got nothing special planned for today. I’m thinking of heading to the lake this weekend with some close friends and family if the weather is nice.

Last year’s birthday sucked donkeys because no one was free to get together, so I sat at home and watched TV. Pathetic. Hopefully this year will be more eventful and fun.

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This wasn’t your typical fruit smoothie though. I decided to experiment a little with it. By the time I was done, it included several scoops of vanilla ice cream, one scoop of vanilla-flavored whey protein powder, some half & half, some milk, frozen strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses and two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar.

Both the molasses and vinegar are good for you. The molasses has a lot of minerals that your body doesn’t normally get, and the vinegar is great for digestion problems. It sounds like it would be disgusting, but it turned out to be quite tasty. I put a bit of whipped cream on top and it was as good as any smoothie at a coffee shop.

I’m not sure what I’ll add in my next smoothie, but it’ll be fun to experiment again. Anyone have any suggestions?

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While I was playing around with the demo model, I started adding up the cost of owning one. Over the course of the contract, I’d be spending over $2000 for a stupid phone. I already have a basic cellphone that works just fine and is no longer under any contract. So I decided to head down to Bicycle Sport Shop and look at mountain bikes instead.

I’ve been wanting to get a mountain bike for a while, but never got around to looking at them. The guys at Bicycle Sport Shop were very helpful, very knowledgeable and not pushy which was nice. I spent about 15-20 minutes just learning where the mountain bike scene was now since I’ve been out of it for almost a decade. Bikes have become pretty freakin’ nice since then, and some of them are seriously expensive. Like $6000+ expensive, which is ridiculous.

After checking out several bikes I settled on a Gary Fisher Cobia. It has 29” wheels instead of the standard 26”. It makes for a smoother ride over rough terrain. The bike is surprisingly light given the wheel size and handles really well.

I ended up buying the bike and most of the other stuff you need like a helmet, pump, patch kit, etc. I also had to buy a bike mount for my car, which looks quite funny. My car is small so the bike mount and bike look enormous on the back. The upfront cost was considerably higher than an iPhone, but was actually quite a bit cheaper versus the iPhone’s cost counting the two year contract.

I took it for its first ride later in the evening once the weather cooled down a bit. All I can say is I really need to get back in shape! My thighs were already burning a quarter-mile down the trail. I only rode for a couple miles, but it took me almost 10 minutes to catch my breath afterward. Back in the day, I could ride for many, many miles and feel great. I once rode 130 miles on a mountain bike. That was insane now that I think about it, but the point is I was in great shape then. I would love to get back to even half that shape again.

Anyway, I’m excited about the bike and think it’s a much better purchase than an iPhone.

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I had already made reservations a few weeks in advance and was chomping at the bit to get down there. It seemed like the day to leave for South Padre would never arrive, but it finally did. The night before we were to leave, I only got one hour of sleep which sucked. My cousin and her husband picked me up at 6 am Thursday morning (which for those who know me was probably the earliest I’ve been awake in a very, very long time). It took several hours to get down there since we stopped a few times to get gas or change my cousin’s newborn daughter’s diapers.

When we finally made it to the island, I rolled my window down so I could smell the ocean again. I love the smell of the ocean. I love the way it sounds, the ocean breeze, the seagulls flying around, the palm trees. There’s something about the ocean that is both calming and exciting for me. I’ll probably end up living on the coast one of these days. Anyway, back to the story…

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Princess (dog)
Duchess (dog)
Iggy (Iguana)
Kelsey (dog)
Tuff (cat)
Junior (cat)
Penny (cat)

And there are a couple other dogs and cats the girls had that I’m forgetting since I was away for several years.

We got her in April 1986, and she quickly became friends with our Scottish Terrier, Princess. They would chase each other all over the house. Oreo would hide under tables and wait for Princess to come trotting by. She’d then pounce on her back and run away with Princess barking right behind her. Princess would hockey check Oreo into walls and doorways while they were chasing each other. It was so funny to watch them play! Princess died in 1993. Oreo never was friendly with any other pets we got after that. She would tolerate them, but wouldn’t play with them. I’m not sure why. I guess she thought she was the queen of the house after Princess died.

When we moved from Austin to Arkansas in 1996, Oreo was put outside more often than she had been in Austin. She was still mostly an indoor cat. When Missy moved away to Kentucky though, Oreo became a full-time outdoor cat and had to compete with our other cats. Despite her being old and having no front claws, she held her ground against the others. They quickly learned she was one bad mama cat and left her alone mostly.

During the last few years, she lost a lot of weight, but would still eat normally and want attention like all the other cats. She wouldn’t (or couldn’t) jump up on the walls anymore, so she hung around in her box and every now and then would wander around the backyard a bit.

She had a stroke about a month ago, which would normally be a quick death sentence for a cat, but she looked like she would pull through it. Apparently she had lost a lot of muscle in her back legs though. So much muscle that she couldn’t walk normally anymore. One leg was nearly useless and the other was barely useful. So Missy took her to the vet and had her put down this morning, then brought her back home and buried her.

It’s always sad to see a family pet die, but Oreo had a long, long life.

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I’ve been keeping busy with work. I’ve got a lot of projects I’m working on, almost all of which are ExpressionEngine related. Projects range from simple design conversions to custom modules, extensions and plugins and everything in between. I find I don’t even want to deal with upgrading my own site when work is done for the day. I guess that’s kind of sad, but that’s where I’m at.

Not a whole lot has been happening besides work. I’ve started meeting up with a group of people on Wednesday evenings and have made some new friends, which is always good. I’m not a super outgoing kind of person, but I do need some kind of social interaction or I think I’d go mad.

I also just got back from my unexpectedly long Thanksgiving break yesterday. My car needed some work done on it, and my brother-in-law said he could do all the work it needed for about half the price of any local mechanics. So I drove it up last Tuesday and gave it to him the following Wednesday morning. It was needing the 90k mile checkup and all that involved, a headlight had a short and was constantly burning out bulbs, my ABS light was staying lit, it needed an oil change and I was finally going to deal with the rough idle it’s been having for a couple years now.

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I didn’t really do anything special. I ate lunch with my aunt, uncle and a couple cousins. I had planned on going to the lake with a few people, but everyone backed out. So lame. So I ended up watching some TV, taking the dogs for a walk and fixing some things around the house.

When I was a kid, birthdays were like second Christmases (Christmasis? Christmasi?). Presents were to be had, and friends were over to play all day until everyone’s parents came to pick them up. Now birthdays are a minor blip on the calendar. I’m not sure when birthdays became non-events for me, but the last several birthdays have been the same.

Oh well. Here’s hoping that this year is a special one, and that I end up finally meeting someone I can spend the rest of my life with.

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Songs are the same price as iTunes, but if a song is in the top 100 most bought, it sells for just $.89. Albums are also the same price as iTunes.

A major plus for Amazon is their music is DRM free and has better encoding than iTunes music. The Flash-based samples you listen to on the site don’t do the actual song any credit, but are good enough for you to figure out if you want it or not.

One thing I don’t like is that in order to download a song, you need to run the Amazon MP3 Downloader app. I don’t know why you can’t just download the MP3 directly, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Overall, I think the Amazon MP3 store is a good thing. More competition will keep the price down and our options up. I’ll definitely be checking it regularly for new music.

By the way, I discovered Amy Winehouse while browsing through the store. I bought “Rehab” and “Love is a Losing Game”. She has an amazing voice and tons of talent, but like many talented singers before her, seems hellbent on destroying herself. It’s sad. Hopefully she gets her life in order again and continues to release more great music.

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