Technology & MSG

I upgraded WordPress to 2.5.1 this morning without too many issues. It took longer to download and install all of the plugins than it did to convert the database over. I would have upgraded before, but I was running an antiquated version of MySQL until the server upgrade this past week. The upgrade itself took a few seconds, including the conversion from the old database.

I don’t care for the default theme, so I had some customization to do after the upgrade. I download the new version of the Mistylook theme. I knew that I’d need to edit the templates later, but the plugins alter the output and I didn’t want to clobber anything.

I downloaded and reinstalled Bad Behavior, Optimal Title, ShareThis (which has now changed to a JavaScript-based remote service model, which I’m not sure if I like too much), Similar Posts (which didn’t show up immediately, then I remembered that you have to edit the template before they’ll appear), and Ubernyms. I also installed Feed Locations to point my RSS feeds to FeedBurner, instead of hacking up the template like I did before.

After all of the plugins were installed I had to do the AdSense inserts and make some aesthetic changes. I also assigned proper weight to the page text for Google AdSense parsing. These are just HTML comments that tell the AdSense spider which sections to look at and which to ignore. Namely I don’t want to be generating ads based on comments or navigational elements, just the content itself.

The changes included:

1. Edited header.php to display of Google AdSense banners for non-commenters
2. Edited footer.php to include Google Analytics code and to change some minor aesthetic things
3. Edited page.php to fix Google AdSense content weighting.
4. Edited sidebar.php to add subscribe via email link, though I don’t think that module is being display anyways.
5. Edited single.php to fix Google AdSense content weighting and to add SimilarPosts output.

That isn’t too many hacks to make the pages look like they did before.

I couldn’t remember where I inserted Similar Posts into my RSS feed before. There used to be a separate plugin for that, but the author states that Similar Posts provides all of the functionality now; turns out there’s a largely expanded administrative panel for the plugin and the option it include in RSS feeds is there.

The Links still aren’t behaving properly. I can’t locate the option that used to be in the management pages to limit the number of links that are displayed at one time.

I like that there are tags now. Previously I was using Categories as tags. I might have to re-think how I categorize and sort my entries in the future. I see that there are Widgets, but I’m not too sure what they are or how they’re used. I’m sure it’s covered in the WordPress documentation, but I’m not there yet.

All told it took about an hour and a half.

Tags: plugins, upgrades, wordpress

After putting it off for a year or two, I invested in a small Dell PowerEdge (with a warranty) to replace the server that’s served this blog up from the beginning. In addition to faster dual-core CPUs, faster memory, and faster disks, I changed to a Linux-based operating system. This is a departure from the BSD-variant I’d been running for the past eight years.

Pull up your carpet square, because it’s time to step back in time.

Eight years ago I decided that I wanted to run my own web server to host photos. I had previously been paying for shared hosting from a commercial provider in Washington state but I wanted more access and more control of the system. I served a lot of files and video from my Windows NT 4 workstation at school, including the videos that would become the basis for the now very-public CollegeHumor.com. Shortly thereafter a friend introduced me to FreeBSD and I upgraded, thus beginning my foray into *nix systems.

I’d been running FreeBSD ever since and I couldn’t be happier with the performance of the system. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got no problems with the OS itself. It rocks and has consistently smoked Linux in my dinky and completely unscientific tests over the years. The change is mostly because of me. I’ve been using Linux-based systems at work for the past couple years and I’d rather be running something that I’m more current on.

Over the years I’ve been beige-boxing it, purchasing motherboard/memory combos and sticking my own drives in. I’ve been through two motherboards, three power supplies, fans galore, memory upgrades, and a lot of disk space. During that time my approach to OS upgrades was pretty damned poor. It it wasn’t broken or didn’t pose a risk to the system, I didn’t upgrade. To date I never performed a system-wide upgrade on the thing, meaning I was very out of date. Today FreeBSD 7 is the current version. Until last week I was running FreeBSD 4.7 which was released in October 2002. Seriously, the operating system was so old that new versions of most applications couldn’t be compiled from the ports tree because the ports tree itself dropped support for OS’ older than 5.0 a year or two ago. Even so, the system kept chugging along blissfully unaware that it was outdated. It lived in Rochester, New York even after I graduated, in the on-campus apartment of a friend who was staying an extra summer. When my friend left school the system was driven to the corporate offices of Take One Digital Media Works in Annapolis, Maryland where it lived for a year or so on a dedicated T1. Then due to the cost of doing business there, I moved onto a coworker’s business class SDSL line in his basement. While there I had a catastrophic motherboard failure that forced me onto temporary hardware for a week for it could be swapped for new hardware. Then my coworker moved to Arnold, Maryland, so the server moved from one basement to another, this time on business class FIOS which is extremely low latency and sickeningly fast. Since then we’ve moved from a shelf unit to a proper four-post rack, but otherwise it’s business as usual.

I don’t care if my system isn’t in a data center with biometric locks. I’m not that classy. I have no problem being in the basement.

Transitioning from ipfw to iptables has been a little bit of an adjustment, mostly for me. The transition from MySQL 3.2.23 to 5.X was amusing to say the least. There are still a few things to be tweaked, but for the most part the transition was pretty smooth. System downtime was 20-30 minutes at most with most people’s things coming back online immediately.

So farewell FreeBSD, it’s been a great eight years.

I experienced fried goodness last night at Rocket to Venus. Located in Hampden on Chesnut Avenue, I’m told that it’s fairly new and for a while was the hip place to be. I’ve never been on the same page as everyone else when it comes to popularity, but it was still pretty busy last night. There was a 30-45 minute wait for a table for two, so we waited for a space at the bar until two stools opened up and we ended up eating at the bar. This was fine and the bartenders were friendly and very attentive, but probably not suitable for a larger party; reservations are recommended for a reason, thus I’d recommend making one if there’s more than a few of you.

Wasabi peas grace the bar instead of peanuts and the bar itself is made of soft copper tubing. I was pretty pleased for noticing that. The menu is very eclectic, serving up a variety of Asian and seafood dishes in addition to some typical bar fare. It was difficult deciding what to order until the couple next to us got their desert. As soon as we saw the Deep Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly we were sold, especially after seeing the couple’s initial reaction after the first bite.

The three courses of fried goodness included:

• Fried Pickles ($3) - I couldn’t determine the pickle provider, but the buttermilk batter was pretty good as was the chipotle ranch dipping sauce. As good as they were, I prefer the dip-friendly slices at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Because the three pickles are fried/served in spear form, the batter tended to chip off when cutting the thing up into easily dipped pieces.
• Wimpies ($8) - Their 2 ounce version of miniature cheeseburgers. Cooked medium and served with fried onions, these burgers were really good and much better than some of their competitors. The fried onions make a big difference, instead of having minced onion bits falling off the bun. The four burgers came with a side of spiced fries, though besides salt I couldn’t tell you what they were spiced with. That’s not to say that they weren’t tasty.
• Deep Fried PB&J ($7) - This desert was the finishing touch. Take two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made on Challa bread and deep fry them until slightly crispy, then arrange around a large scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and drizzle the entire plate with caramel. Oh yeah, baby. Words can’t really adequately describe how delicious this big-enough-for-two desert was. The only disappointing note is that it isn’t always on the menu, so I’d recommend getting over there right quick to try it before it isn’t available anymore.

All of the food looked and tasted great, I wish I had taken some photos. Despite being busy, the atmosphere was still good. Enough lighting to see the color of what you’re eating and not a din either; you can easily hear and talk to the person next to you without having to shout. I’d definitely go back again, for food and/or drinks.

They have real ginger ale there, too.

While waiting at a stop light, I took a photo of a large brick building at the corner of W. Pratt and Greene Street the other morning. The color of brick is in stark contrast to the white building behind it, so much so that the entire photo looks like I ran it through a paint-like filter. Maybe that’s not it, but something is strange about it.

Later that morning on 295 nearing 175 I saw a Mercedes coupe with a got glock? bumper sticker in the rear excuse-for-a-window. I was driving and didn’t attempt to take a picture, but I was wondering why you’d tag a $80,000+ vehicle with a bumper sticker advertising your love for a particular firearm. Surely the Mercedes owner can afford a decent car alarm? I lost the car in the traffic amidst the Columbia-bound sprawl, then saw the car later parked in the parking lot at work…

I should have figured.

I lent a hand yesterday at the Art Attack XXV at University of Maryland College Park. This year the show was part of MTV’s Campus Invasion 2008 tour, which no doubt brought a handful of larger acts to the show: Wyclef Jean, The Bravery, Simple Plan, Cobra Starship, The Spill Canvas, as well as local band We Are Fiction. In between sets we were graced with the skilled DJ Legacy on the turntables and the charismatic and upbeat MC Sunnie Dae.

While the band list was a step up from last year as far as nationwide acts were concerned the short length of the sets was bothersome, probably both due to the involvement of MTV. Each set was 30 minutes, with a 30 minute DJ/MC set before the next set, with the headliner getting a full hour (although after intro music and scratching by Wyclef’s DJ the actual set was probably only 40 minutes, but that’s typical these days). I don’t like short sets. There’s a lot of prep work involved to put a band on stage, both for the production crew and the artists’ technicians; each drum kit had to be set up and wired, as did each artist’s copious quantity of guitars have to be setup and tuned. The amount of work is the about the same whether the set is 10 minutes or 2 hours. Short sets leave a lot of people wondering “why bother?”

I liked the sets from Simple Plan and Cobra Starship. Good music and well played. Cobra Starship — famous for their Snakes on a Plane title track — was a fun bunch, incredibly big with the crowd and having a unique electronic gadgetry feel. Simple Plan had a solid set; I hadn’t heard much from them before except their big tracks, but it was well polished. After each of these sets, the lines for the meet-the-band booth grew longer and longer. The Bravery was a let-down. Their own engineer mixed and I found it to be raucously-loud and blown out, overdriven and not nearly compressed enough. “An Honest Mistake” was their best song, the but the rest was a mixture of The Cure and The Killers though not nearly as good as either.

When did tight jeans come back in style? All the hip punk/emo kids on stage are wearing them now, almost like they’re afraid if they wear looser-fitting clothes that all of their emotional performance might escape and blow away in a weak breeze.

With only an hour, I would have expected a 6-7 song set from Wyclef and his band. There were only a handful. Highlights included the new single Fast Car, which I like. Sweetest Girl was mostly sung while hanging onto the truss that he had just climbed, no doubt making the University officials extremely nervous and thankful for their insurance rider. A lot of his set was freestyle and jam-oriented. Crowd-pleasing for sure, but I would have liked to have heard the live band play Gone Till November or 911, with his sister singing Mary J. Blige’s part. I had seen Wyclef at a show a few years back in Rochester, New York. One thing hasn’t changed: the man is a performer. He knows how to work the crowd. He gets them going, singing and jumping as one. He certainly isn’t afraid of the crowd. While some artists might never stray from the stage or might stand atop the crowd barriers, Wyclef jumps the barrier completely and sings within the crowd. He runs across the field to the bleachers to sing to the folks who didn’t brave the crush of the stage, getting a piggyback ride back to the stage through the crowd.

It was a gorgeous day, perfect for an outdoor concert. I did take a few photos. Good tunes, good company, good times.

This past weekend I worked Movin’ On 2008 at Penn State University. On Friday morning a small crew loaded two trucks full of audio and lighting gear just south of Baltimore and took off towards State College. We arrived without issue and got to work unloading the gear and loading in for the all day show on Saturday. Compared to last year I took a ton of pictures (and put together a time lapse slide show of the event) that show some of the effort required to put on a live concert event.

On Saturday morning and afternoon the weather was gorgeous. In the mid 60’s to low 70’s, there were a lot of students out on the lawn with their volleyballs and Frisbees. More than a half-dozen bands cycled through the main stage and the B-stage before we noticed some bad weather brewing. When it appeared on radar that the apocalypse was imminent PSU called it off temporarily in the middle of Sports DJ set; we covered all the gear with tarps best we could, lowered the stage roof, powered down, and headed inside to wait out the storm.

It rained pretty heavily. Some of the tarps stayed. Some didn’t. After 90 minutes or so we headed back outside to inspect the damage. The field was soaked. The stage was relatively dry. Most of the equipment was good to go, though the moving lights were fouled up from the improper shutdown and had to be restarted manually (after lowering the roof again) during Vedera’s set on the B-stage (which sounded really good, such that I wouldn’t mind checking them out again).

I was never into the Wu-Tang Clan, but apparently I’m not down with “real hip hop” since I didn’t find Raekwon’s set to be particularly good. The crowd would disagree with me, turning out in force despite the fact that it was pouring down rain throughout the majority of the set. Automatic Loveletter was scheduled to play the B-stage, but it was completely soaked through — since electrocution would have been a certainty had we plugged anything in — and so we were making preparations to have them play on the main stage instead. We saw lightning near the end of the Raekwon set and were pretty sure that PSU was going to call the whole thing off.

With a pop, everything went dark and quiet around 9:30. The generator had crapped out. Whether due to water in the exhaust or just being a crappy unit, it wasn’t running and it couldn’t be restarted.

Say Anything — reportedly in from California for the show — was the headliner scheduled to close out the main stage, but to be honest I think more people showed up for the earlier Wu-Tang bit. Anyways they didn’t get to play a single note. The band may have retreated to their tour bus, but I’m not sure because we were already busy packing things up. The B-stage rig and the lighting gear had to be back in Maryland at 9:00am for another gig.

The rain stopped 30 minutes into load-out, but it was still a mess getting everything out of there. The generator was still toast, so we were working entirely by 3 sets of portable utility lights (like you’d see on the side of the highway). There were plenty of muddy cables to be coiled and wet scaffolding to climb. We finished loading the trucks around midnight, around the time that we should have been shutting down had the last two acts not gotten canned by the generator failure.

All in all, a good time despite the weather.

This Friday I’ll be putting my time in on Art Attack at University of Maryland College Park. The lineup this year is excellent: Wyclef, Simple Plan, The Bravery, Cobra Starship, and The Spill Canvas. Looking forward to a shorter drive to the venue and some better weather.

I saw 21 last week at Tysons Corner AMC. If you’ve never been there, this theater is nuts. If you’ve got vouchers to AMC, save ‘em for here. Student rate for a matinée was $8.50. I think regular adult admission was $12.50. The decor reminds me of a casino; there is oak trim and marble inlay on the floor and their food specials are advertised on no less than 20 large plasma screens.

But enough about the theater…

Jet-setting between Boston and Sin City, Jim Sturgess plays the lead male (or “big man”) in this adventure. Though relatively unknown, he is immediately likable and plays well. He is taught by the ever subtle (though slightly scary) Kevin Spacey, whose classroom monologues are better than the other scenes. Aaron Yoo will be typecast as the crazy and zany Asian dude forever, this movie being no exception. Kate Bosworth is played back for this one, as is Laurence Fishburne. Pity on both counts.

The movie was inspired by five MIT students who took Vegas for a load of cash by counting cards playing blackjack. The movie was supposedly based on the book written by one of the students. So the problem here is figuring out what parts are Hollywood’s elaboration and which are the authors. I’ll probably end up reading the book just to make my own determination, but for now it doesn’t really matter, it’s entertaining to watch.

During the first hour I experienced the the same queasy feeling in my stomach that I get when first stepping up to the craps table, just before I decide to put my money down. I’m not sure how to explain that, but I think everyone has a few shakes when stepping up for the first time in a while.

21 boasts an amazing soundtrack. From the moment the opening credits are rolling we are graced with MGMT’s Time to Pretend. It doesn’t let up, including tracks from Peter Bjorn, Junkie XL, Rihanna, and Broadcast. It’s all hip, funky, and it really drives the movie. My Amazon wish list is short, so the fact that I added it should be worth something.

Aside from my queasy stomach and props for the soundtrack, that’s probably the worst movie review ever.

I keep notes about the places I go when I’m on travel, about experiences with vendors good and bad. While a particularly bad place might stand out in my mind, I may forget when a place is just sub-par. If you don’t travel, the following probably won’t be of much interest.

When it comes to profit, there’s a lot of ways to cut corners. In the restaurant business you can jack up the price of a meal or start charging for previously-included sides. Or if you keep the price the same you can reduce the portion size. In the hotel business, you can’t downgrade the furniture or building too easily. You can start charging more, but since savvy consumers won’t put up with paying more for the same thing, something has to change. How about the name?

I recently stayed at Crowne Plaza at Tysons Corner on business. Billed as “the place to meet,” it was a actually Holiday Inn the last time I stayed here last year. From the moment my sneaker-clad feet hit the marble-clad lobby floor last January I knew it was the most elaborate Holiday Inn I had ever been in, so it wasn’t any surprise that they upgraded the name of the place.

Though the two are owned by the same company, Crowne Plaza is a more upscale brand than Holiday Inn. The posted room rate for a 1-2 person King room was $339/night. Now that isn’t what I paid (because that’d be nuts), but it is at least 50% more than last year’s posted rate. Aside from the name, there must be a ton of changes to warrant the increase. Right?

Sorta…

In the bathroom, the water-restricting shower head had been removed from the shower. The impact to water usage is probably neutral as far as I’m concerned. Rather than rinsing slowly, the shampoo and soap are blasted off of you in record time. It provides a quicker but thoroughly pleasing shower experience, right up there with the stainless steel pressure washers they called showers in RIT dorms. Plus I do participate in the towel re-use program, since I see no reason why I’d need fresh towels every day. There’s one of those curved shower curtain rods that give you a bit more space to maneuver while bathing. In addition, all of the provided soaps and shampoos boast the following label: “A warm blend of sparkling bergamot and fresh ginger. Clean musk notes of white tea, amid spicy nuances of vetiver and nutmeg.” I had to look up Bergamot and vetiver: the former is a type of orange and the latter is a type of aromatic Indian grass. Anyways, they smell pretty damned good! There’s more ginger in here then was in the Ginger Chicken.

They’re promoting proper sleep. They’re advertising their wake-up guarantee right on the bedside table. If your previously scheduled wake-up call doesn’t arrive plus or minus 5 minutes from the time you specified you get a night’s lodging on them. That’s supposed to “eliminate anxiety about oversleeping.” Also, when I checked in there was a little gift bag on the bed containing various “sleep amenities” such as an eye mask, ear plugs, a little bottle of lavender aromatherapy spray for the linens, and a sleep CD. The alarm clock — also new — has got a CD player, which is cool by itself. The CD is titled “Sleep Advantage” and it has a bunch of guided mind and body relaxation techniques, followed by 30-45 minutes of tranquil sounds. Track 4 is entitled “Floating” and though it’s only 7 minutes and 42 seconds long I’ve yet to hear the following track.

In the visual entertainment department, there’s a 32″ wide screen LCD (LG 32LC5DC) in the room, upgraded from a 30″ tube model. It’s not a hotel model and all of the inputs (HDMI, DVI, RGB, S-video, RCA) are accessible, although later in the week someone came in and replaced the stock remote with a dumbed down hotel version. Even so the panel-mounted buttons should still work. Wii Sports, anyone?

Though I’m pleased with these upgrades and perks, I’m pretty sure they aren’t worth the extra cash.

As far as amenities go, Internet access is a must for the business traveler. It’s how we connect with friends and loved ones during our stay, get directions to meetings, and keep up with company email while we’re away from our usual desks. Previously free, in-room Internet access (whether wired or wireless) is billed at $9.99/day. Unsecure wireless access is still free in common areas such as the lobby and the hotel’s restaurants, but the reliability of it seems lower than usual.

All of the furniture is the same as far as I can tell, as is the bedding and pillows.

The rest of the facility seems the same too, and while it’s uber-clean and well maintained (and super nice as a Holiday Inn), I think a decent stay could be had at a cheaper rate somewhere down the block. Courtyard Marriot is next door and I’m thinking I’ll give that a shot next time.

I was not impressed with the carry out from P.F. Chang’s China Bistro.

An order of Peking Dumplings ($5.50) consists of four steamed (or pan-fried) dumplings filled with ground pork and vegatables. The dumpling wrappers themselves are thinner than most neighborhood take out, reminding me of the dumplings you can get in bulk from the market. They were good, as was the carton of brown rice that came with the entree.

An order of Ginger Chicken with Broccoli ($12.50) is “served Cantonese-style on a bed of fresh steamed broccoli.” By Cantonese-style they must mean sans ginger, because I didn’t taste much at all. To be fair, I’m a tough critic when it comes to ginger; I drink a lot of ginger ale and enjoy fresh ginger whether its grated or in raw chunks. Maybe I have a high tolerance. My preferences aside, there wasn’t a single bit of ginger on the chicken or visible in the sauce. The chicken was a better quality and more lean than the usual take-out, but without drenching it in sauce it was slightly dry. The broccoli was perfectly crispy. That being the best part of the dish, I was disappointed.

Over the past couple months I’ve had numerous people tell me that I just had to check out P.F. Chang’s. Though it would appear that the restaurant itself is very stylish, everyone I talked to only had great things to say about the food. Though the food was alright, it’s not great and definitely not worth the premium price. I’m wondering what all the fuss is about.

I must have been really out of it this morning because I chose the first available space when parking in a federal lot. Despite being in unfamiliar territory, it didn’t even occur to me to look along the fence for any restriction signs. I recall seeing a lot of similar looking vehicles in the row, such as the Ford Contour and the Dodge Stratus. That should have been a big hint but none of that registered this morning, either.

The United States District Court Violation Notice I found this afternoon registered.

Oops.

Stuck under my windshield wiper, it’s a $75 lesson to pay more attention. For the record, parking in a space reserved for a government vehicle is a $50 offense. On top of that is a $25 processing fee, which I think is crap although — knowing that this is a government operation — it may very well cost the Central Violations Bureau that much money to process and store the ticket for eternity. Also for the record, federal tickets are no different when it comes to reading illegible handwriting or 3rd/4th-hand carbon copies.

That’s all the bad news. The good news is that the officer opted to slide the ticket into a sealed (and seemingly waterproof) plastic bag. As irked as I am about having to pay, that’s good procedure there.

I worked a quattrocelli concert the other night. It’s a four-piece cello quartet based out of Germany. Cellists — and most other artists who play while seated — are picky about their seating, particularly the height of the seats. Not having numerous adjustable piano benches, we managed to strap several stacked chairs together with gaff tape, custom-fit for the individual’s preferred height. Not classy, but functional.

They started with Bach. Not good Back either; Air from BMV 1068 makes me want to curl up and nap forever. Fortunately their program livens up with more contemporary pieces. Of particular interest was the inclusion of several movie themes: Lalo Schifrim’s Mission: Impossible, Erich Korngold’s Robin Hood, John Williams’ Imperial March, and Nino Rota’s The Godfather. For their encore, they led the audience to snapping their fingers and proceeded into the theme from The Pink Panther before slipping into the classic 007 theme. All masterfully arranged and performed.

Aside from the occasional acoustic prop, such as an egg shaker strapped to an ankle or a faux lip-based trombone, the cellos were used for all instrumentation. Bowed and plucked seated, played like a guitar, and used as a percussion device. I can’t imagine using a 200-400+ year old cello — that requires its own pricey ticket on international flights — as a percussion device, no matter its heritage or making.

I was slightly irritated by Mr. Dreyer, who didn’t speak a word of English while setting up. He had Mr. Peternek translate his staging and acoustic needs to me. Now I have no problem with artists who don’t speak English, but once on-stage in front of an audience he found his German-accented English words with ease.

The performance itself was received well, though there were lots of words about the temperature from the crowd and the artists. When you don’t control the heat in the building, the only thing you can do is turn on all the stage lighting in attempts to warm the area. That works to a point, until the stage lighting looks gaudy and makes people look washed out.

I was meddling with FeedBurner settings early today — researching something for a customer — and wasn’t able to tell how the FeedBurner Ad Network and/or Google AdSense for Content actually appears in the feed body. Based on their advertising specs I know they’re in the feeds, but it wasn’t horribly clear from the documentation how it would look. The only link I found to a screenshot of the ads resulted in a 404 error.

I don’t intend to run ads on the feeds, but I’ve enabled them to see where the heck they appear. If you see one, I’d appreciate a head’s up and/or a screenshot.

When I woke up this morning I felt rested and ready to get up, then I looked at my alarm clock.

3:02

Despite feeling just fine — my brain alert — I decided that it was entirely too early to start the day, having been asleep for a few hours. I rolled over and got a sip of water, then went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30.

Snooze.

When I did get up almost an hour later, I felt groggy and unrested. This is typical for me. I always wake up better without an alarm clock, even if I get the same amount of sleep. I think that being jarred awake has an impact on how your day goes and it’d be better for all of us if we just got up when we woke up naturally. I’ve got a few coworkers that come in after they get up, whatever time it is. While it’s a pain to schedule things around their usually-consistent schedule, I bet they’re sleeping better. It may be a combination of their personalities and the sleep methods, but they do seem more cheerful than their alarm clock counterparts.

I’m thinking I should have just gotten up the first time.

I’m no stranger to waking up in the middle of the night. Although I rarely have a problem getting back to sleep, for a while I was waking up regularly. Sometimes I’d sleep straight through until morning, but the mornings that I did wake up early it was at 3:27. This happened for a few months, always the same time exactly.

I think the next time this happens I’m just going to listen to my body clock and get up.

I don’t remember The Bank Job getting a lot of hype but I think it might be the sleeper movie of the year. In short, I was more than pleasantly surprised. It’s good. Really good.

The first thing to know is this: don’t go see this movie because of Jason Statham. Not that he isn’t good, mind you. He does well (while managing to escape his recent beat-the-crap-out-of-everyone-while-making-it-look-cool typecast role in a slight way) but that’s not why you ought to see it.

Go see it because it’s a heist set in the UK, based on a true story.

Everyone loves a heist. Dane Cook knows better than most, claiming in one of his bits (NSFW) that most guys would rather be part of heist than have sex. I don’t know if I’d admit to that, but it would be pretty damned cool. Some of my favorite heist movies would include any of Guy Ritchie’s movies, the remade The Thomas Crowne Affair, Dead Presidents, and Heat. It may not be as action packed as that one, but I’d certainly add it to the list.

Nowhere in the previews or trailers that I saw did I see that it would be set in the UK. For some reason unbeknown to me, Americans — myself included — get a kick out of the British. Their accents, expressions and mannerisms. The more stereotypical the better. Fascinating stuff which we don’t get enough of here.

The supporting cast just fit. Mostly unknowns but it was David Suchet who played the local porn king. His deep, throaty voice was very distinctive and reminded me of David Carradine and I couldn’t place him until I got home; he played the prime terrorist in both Executive Decision and The In-Laws. I suppose that’s a different sort of stereotype, thus this role was an interesting twist.

Definitely worth a visit to the theater, even if you won’t want to stick your priceless artifacts in a safe deposit box anytime soon. Hope there’s room under the mattress.

And yes I just wanted to use the word “precious booty” in the title no matter how horrible.

The weight of everything is being lifted, one bit at a time. Lots of little things that I’ve been working on have finally come to fruition. My tax returns are completed and mailed. I contracted to have a new and improved splash image created for my placeholder site and am pleased with the results. Over the past couple months I’ve been putting in hours for RockStock, doing integration and custom code. I enjoy all of these, but I’m glad I’m done with them for now. I was getting to feel like I needed a vacation. Maybe I still do.

I was at work yesterday and had a Seinfeld thought about pens. I use ‘em all the time at work and at home, but I don’t think I’ve ever used a pen from beginning to end. I’ve used new pens and I’ve had pens that died on me in mid-stroke. I can see the ink cartridges and it occurred to me that I either misplace them or people walk off with them long before they go dead.

Speaking of pens, I think it is both absurd and ludicrous that we’re bailing people out who signed their mortgage contracts either without thought or a full understanding of what they were getting into. How many people read their contract before signing? I know I read every line — boilerplate or not — when I was closing. When did it become our country’s policy to bail people out of situations that they themselves signed up for? Bankruptcy hurts, but you’d sure as hell learn not to take on more than you could afford. How are people who made bad decisions going to learn from their mistakes if we keep helping them out?