Well, it's off to Puerto Rico for a company sponsored vacation.  We leave at 8am tomorrow (ugh...why did I schedule such an early flight).  Anyway, should be pretty fun.  Among other things, we're doing a tour of the rain forest (this time as lazy tourists!), some scuba diving (well, I'll be doing that while Meg is getting a massage), a San Juan historical shopping tour and a tour of Camuy caves.

Well...so far so good on the New Year resolutions.  I just finished up my second book for the month, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.  Absolutely fantastic book!  And a much needed reminder of the power of human thought.  32 people have submitted reviews on Amazon and it's averaging a 5-star rating.  One of the reviews was especially poignant, so I reproduced it here:

The most interesting thing about this incredible book isn't the time-tested, practical advice (although there is much of that), nor the potentially life-changing observations on "how to live" (although they also abound). No, the most important lesson of HOW TO STOP WORRYING comes from an unintended source...and tells us a lot about how the world has changed.

This book was published nearly half a century ago, and was based on observations from the first half of the twentieth century. Does that make it a hopeless anachronism? Just the opposite...it shows us how far we've fallen in one very important respect: Our willingness to take responsibility for our actions. Consider this: Every single bit of advice in this book is based on the premise that you, the reader, are responsible for your own destiny, and must personally take action in your own life...not wait for the government or a pill or someone else to take care of it for you. Not once is anyone in this book characterized as a "victim" (although many come under great misfortune). If this book were to be written today, the fault for it's subject's problems would lie entirely with external forces, as would all of the remedies.

I find it interesting that the overall term used to describe the problem this book attempts to solve ("worry"), is one that we never hear these days. In today's world, we say that someone is "stressed" to describe the same symptoms. Why? Because "worry" is something one does to one's self, and "stress" comes from the outside. We no longer want to acknowledge responsibility for anything.

I'll be the first to admit that we know much more today about the cause of mental and physical problems than we did when this book was written. But any open-minded reader of this volume will have to admit that, in many respects, we've gone backward. This was self-help for what Tom Brokaw calls "the greatest generation", and I recommend it highly.  posted by Michael D. Bush on Amazon.com

If anybody tells you that Time Warner's road runner service is fast, don't believe them!  Just laugh hysterically in their face.  I can't wait until DSL is available in my area.

Well...so here's a peculiar update on our house. It's no longer there! Defective slab + quality assurance guy + dump truck + bulldozer = no house. Evidently, they were behind in their slab testing, so they just ran the strength tests on our foundation in the past couple of days. And it didn't pass...they said it's the first time this has happened. Go figure. I think the most surprising thing was the reaction of my wife and me when we first saw our empty lot...we just laughed. I mean, what else can you do. It was so unexpected and bizarre to see an empty lot that we just lost it. Oh well. I'd rather them take the time to build the house right. I'm actually quite impressed that they tore the thing down...the defect wasn't noticeable so they could have easily covered it up, but they didn't...so in a wierd way, my confidence in the builder has actually gone up now.

Ugh. Haven't been feeling well for the past couple of days. You know the feeling you get when you know you're about to get sick, but you're not quite there yet...that's where I've been. So I've been trying to ward it off...whatever it is...massive overdoses of vitamin c, enough water to drown a fish, and tons of sleep. I think it worked...I'm starting to feel better.

I really, really, really like Fridays.

Well, the name search may be coming to an end.  Meg and I are pretty close to picking Duncan Conall Weaver.  Now we just have to see if we still like it in a week or two (that's the ultimate test).  You'd think we were both pure Scottish, but we're not...we just like the name...though I think I have a bit of it in me.

Hmmmmmmmmm.  I know I need to eat better, but this looks pretty intense.  I wonder if I'd have better luck easing my way into something or just jumping in head first.

I'm going to sound like such an infomercial, but oh well.  I finally got around to starting Evelyn Wood's reading dynamics program the other day.  I borrowed it from a friend about a year ago.  ["BAM!  stick around, we're gonna kick it up a notch"...my wife is watching Emeril Live right now]  Anyway, I'm totally amazed with this speed reading stuff.  It's so simple.  On the first night, I timed my reading at 250 wpm (words per minute...100-400 is average they said, so 250 is right down the middle).  Two nights later (last night), I clocked 670 wpm!  No joke.  Needless to say, I'm a believer!  I've got one more tape left.

Cool.  Have a peek at Andy Grove's office.  (Andy Grove is the chairman and founder of Intel).

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life, which is required to be exchanged for it immediately or in the long run.  Henry Thoreau

Tired of waiting for blogger to update your page?  Stay tuned.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Well, in my quest to become more like these people, I picked up Macromedia's Flash 5 Freehand 9 studio.  You might have discerned from the conspicuous lack of graphics on this site that I am a developer, still young and naive in the ways of presentation and visuals.  Sadly true.  But one day, I know I'll actually win a fight with Photoshop and produce a graphic that doesn't look like I made it with my eyes closed.

Oh no!  This is horrible.

I really, really, really don't like margin calls.  Really.

Hmmm.  I'm intrigued.

I don't think thestreet.com has a single technical or optimistic person on its staff.  What a bunch of doom sayers.  I've never seen them say anything good about any stock even remotely related to technology.  So here's the question of the day.  How much credibility can you give a company that sells investing advice, when they can't even figure out how to increase their own stock price??  Perhaps they should take their own advice and pay more attention to their earnings.  Oh well.  Perhaps I'm just jaded.

Have some fun.  Help us pick a name!

Stumbled on some very insightful quotes today.  My favorites are:
     Be here now.  (Buddhist tenet)
     Think that this day will never dawn again.  (Dante)
     Every day is a new life to a wise man.  (anonymous)

A a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !  I hate driving.  There.  I feel much better now.

Well, I've picked up a new nickname.  My wife has aptly begun to call me the shopping grinch.  I must admit, it's pretty well deserved, especially when we go to Sams Club or Walmart.  Those places are always packed with such friendly people that I just can't help but bubble over with joy.  Today it was Sams Club.  I started whining as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.  Oh well, being a shopping grinch has its perks.  She told me that next time she goes to Sams, she'll leave me at home!  ;-)

Blogger is flying today!  Finally!

Got some pictures of our house in progress.  Thanks Liz!

It's a boy!!!  And here's proof of the boy thing.

My New Year resolutions for 2001.