Katie's bridal shower was today

This afternoon, Katie and all the ladies who she's close to got together for her bridal shower today. Nothing really to report from this end, though I'm sure Katie would have a good deal to say about all the gifts we got. You see, this is the part of the wedding where I'm not supposed to be included in things.

It's become more apparent, with events like the Katie in wedding garb picturefestravaganza, that this upcoming wedding day is solely for Katie. I'm just the guy up there on stage next to the pretty girl.

Photographer: "Excuse me, sir."

Me: "Who, Me?"

Photographer: "Yes. *waving hand back* Could you please step back a few feet. We want to get a picture of the bride."

Me: "But I'm the groom, don't we get pictures together?"

Photographer: *laughing* "You silly man. You're just here to look sadly uncomfortable around the bride's relatives.

We did get some really great stuff from the girls at the shower and I'm really appreciative of the way they've all treated us since they found out we were engaged.

She's got another shower this weekend, and a bachelorette party, so I hope things go as well next weekend as they did for her this weekend.

DVD Checkout progress

The site/project I've been working on recently hasn't really had even a mouse's share of my time lately. That time's been devoted to getting into a little better shape, cleaning things (baby steps...), and doing laundry. Well, tonight, and last night (since there was no premarital counseling last night) I got some time to work on the design of the main page of the DVD checkout site.

In working on this portion of the site I was able to get together a color scheme and most of a splash/login page. Here, for your viewing pleasure is the design I came up with...

If anyone can come up with a name that's better than media exchange (and it's media because I'd like to expand to trade books or CD's or any other media) leave me a comment. You can even leave a comment giving me a slogan of some sort... that's another area where I struggle sometimes.

Here are a few duds:

• Jojometal.com's mess of media
• community dvd collection: your little slice of communism.
• Jojometal.com's DVD Checkout site: guaranteed to increase your bust size by 3 inches.
• Media Mayhem

I'd even like to hear about some corny ideas if you've got 'em.

Congrats to Johnny B. on the birth of their first baby

Congratulations to Johnny and Tasha on their newest family member - a brand spanking new baby girl.

Lists of bests - listsofbests.com

I'm always looking for lists of bests, for one reason or another. When I was first getting into blues music I tried to find the top blues albums by certain artists or by other artists I hadn't heard yet. Earlier this week I came across a site called List Of Bests , which is one of those sites that makes me slap my forehead after learning about it... It's an "I should've thought of that" situation.

Anyways, they've got some pretty good lists there. For example, Travel & Leisure's top 10 cities in the world and imdb.com's top 250 movies as voted by their users and for those with a science fiction reading habit The SF Book Club's The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years (1953-2002). Give 'em a look.

Sharebuilder.com... I hate you right now.

Recently I've been learning more about the stock market, paying close attention to what people are saying about certain stocks on TV and in the wall street journal. It's mostly a culmination of recent events where I wish I think back to a year ago when I said I wanted to invest in company X, but didn't, and now the stock/index fund has gained 10-20%.

After reading an article on MSN.com, I decided that I'd start dabbling in the market in small amounts taken monthly from my account. These funds would allow me to buy different index funds (really just a stock representing a lot of other stocks) in small amounts, and build a small portfolio. I chose sharebuilder because they had an advertisement to allow for periodic investment that, if placed on a Tuesday would only be $4 per trade. In addition, they would allow me to buy a fraction of a share. This may not seem important, but when I'm taking out $200 or so per paycheck and some of the index funds are $130+ per share, I would wait an awfully long time before being able to have a handful of shares.

One of the main sources of information fueling my stock purchases (not related to index funds) has been Jim Cramer. While I know people who know the name and have seen him screaming and throwing chairs on MSNBC's mad money may think he's outrageous... when he's calm and not playing to the ratings on tv (on his daily podcast) you can find some good information. After learning a good deal about his philosophy on stocks and hearing him talk about different companies I decided to check out his web site, thestreet.com, and see what he had to offer.

I found something particularly valuable to someone of my financial position. Stocks under $10 (fee based service). This is a model portfolio made up of stocks that are bought at under $10/share. I decided to have a free trial of the service to give it a go, and so far I've been extremely impressed. This morning I got an e-mail about SVI, a company that recently acquired Jamba Juice...?

While I have no idea what Jamba Juice is, they explained (in great detail) that the leadership in the company (SVI) was good, that the stock price seemed poised to go higher and that the time was buy was nigh. I agreed. I logged on to my trusty sharebuilder.com account and was ready to plunk down much more than I've invested in any other stock, when I found that I'm not able to fund a purchase of that stock from my bank account. Apparently, sharebuilder doesn't allow it.

I really wasn't that upset about it until the stock price rose 15% today, after the price I would've gotten in at. Let's just say that I would've put $450 in the stock... while I was at work today, making the same amount of money in several hours, I could've made around $70 (assuming I sold at the end of the day). I may be thanking sharebuilder come tomorrow, because if recent history has been any indication, big market days are followed by bad days. We'll see, but today I was mighty mad about being prevented from making a little change on SVI.

Bush censure... is it so wrong?

You know, I like George W. Bush. He's a down to earth person, who really seems genuine in what he wants for the country and firm in his belief that he's doing the right things in the middle east, and in particular Iraq. Noone could've predicted the fallout that is occurring in Iraq now (if things are as bad as the press make it out to be with the shiites and sunni's in Iraq). I believed at the time that we should have invaded Iraq, and now we can't back out. That's seems pretty simple to me.

However, regarding the NSA surveillance program and President Bush's role in authorizing it, I can't help but agree that Russ Feingold should have his day in congress to have a vote on whether to censure Bush over the NSA surveillance program, or at the very least there should be some kind of investigation into whether Bush broke the law by authorizing this program. At first, I thought that it was a ridiculous ploy by a possible presidential candidate in 2008 (who will not have my vote... or the majority of the country's vote... but that's a different story). That's the way the whitehouse chooses to spin it too. After listening to a few excerpts from some of Feingold's statements to the press and congress, I have to agree with him.

Maybe the censure doesn't need to happen to have a proper investigation into the matter, but it seems that most other investigations were initially blocked and I haven't heard a peep about the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation. If there is political opposition to this resolution just because he is our president and it would be an unpopular move, I don't think that's right at all... In that case, a censure resolution (being fully heard and voted on) seems like a good choice.

I know this is causing an artery to bulge on the neck of many of this blog's regulars. That's the way it goes sometimes though...

I think the NSA surveillance program that was in place was probably a good tool for the current law enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance. I don't have a problem with that, in and of itself. I have a problem with the government and the president deciding that they need to circumvent laws that are in place to protect the public's civil liberties. It may have been inconvenient and caused a very small delay in the process of going through the procedure set up by FISA, but that's no reason to ignore the FISA law altogether.

I want for someone to investigate the constitutionality of the program and then let congress and the US Citizens deal with the president accordingly. If he is able to make decisions like that in times of war, I'm ok with it. Great. If not, then I think he needs to face some kind of consequence, though I don't think impeachment is a valid answer. I just have to agree with Feingold (though I know he has political motives) when he says that the government was intended to have seperate branches to check and balance the other branches. If one gets out of line, the other steps in and smacks its hand.

On a side note, I'd like to finally see one side be right about the domestic spying. It would be great if all the liberals could stop making sly comments about spying (and about Dick Cheney's rifle for goodness sake). On the other hand, if they're wrong, I would like to see the White House eat humble pie after saying that they've had lawyers evaluate the constitutionality of the program... and have found it to be within President Bush's powers. I don't think it's good for the country though to go on without a solid resolution on certain issues.

It's the intention of the government since its founding... how can it be so wrong?

Personal Notes

Here we are, almost a month before Katie and I will be married. Time is really flying by. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I had Katie helping me move out of the apartment in Ruston to move back home. At that time, there were no solid plans for engagement. No big changes worked out, except for a new job looming a few weeks away.

It's a year later and I'm extremely happy with all the changes that have been made. In retrospect, I see that the decisions I've made have been the right decisions. It's not as if I was able to go and make things work my way, I've just been really blessed to have things work out in a favorable manner. I didn't really think about it until the other day when I thought about how great my new workplace is relative to the old job, and how learning .NET will expand my opportunities in the future.

Just take a look at the great things that have happened within the last year and a half.

• I got engaged to a wonderful girl
• I got my first full-time programming job within an hour of Katie
• I got out of my first job after things went south, and got in with another company in a complete reversal of fortune
• By learning .NET I'm expanding my opportunities for employment in any city
• Moved back in with my parents until the wedding (a great plus considering how close our family is)
• All of Katie's close family moved back to Shreveport, so we've had the chance to get to know them
• Katie graduated with her Master's degree, which means she'll be heading toward her ideal career soon.

That's my short list. I had to get that out there for some time in the future when things may not be going so great... I can hopefully check the site and see how much has been done in my life this year. I hope that everyone's year has been a similar collection of great things... let me know.

Goodbye gadgets

It's time to say goodbye to the most recent slew of gadgets. They're on the way to Ebay land unfortunately... This includes one of our gamecubes, DDR: Mario Mix, the Xbox 360.

The new ipod video is a little different, though. It's going back to wal-mart, not to Ebay. The screen was apparently not very resistant to scratches, a complaint I'd heard about with the ipod nanos. I kept the dern thing in my pocket (alone) whenever I had it with me and it has little scratches all over the screen. So, it's going back.

I really hate to see them go, but on the bright side, they're all going to fund the purchase of a new laptop. I like the idea of being mobile with my computer, so I'm looking to pool my money from the different gadgets sales and spend a little bit on a laptop that I can keep with me. So, I'll be looking into laptop recommendations here shortly.

I don't look a day over 34.

Today I turned 25. Nothing special there... except for the new ability to rent cars without a surcharge and a drop in my car insurance bill. You know, I do feel more calm. I think I actually just went to sleep for a second there... without knowing it.

Anyways, tonight Katie and I went to Target for regular ol' grocery shopping. Using my special powers, I turned it in to super gadget shopping. I talked Katie into the idea of an ipod video... for my birthday... and she warmed up to the idea after much groveling and full-bladder-like prancing in the aisles. Unfortunately, Target was sold out of the 30 gig gems, so I ran on over to Wal-mart instead.

So, here I am at home coveting my new toy, and planning to give a tearful goodbye in the near future to my ipod mini. It's been such a good little bugger for me *sigh*. Oh well... Since I got the new gadget, here's a site for anyone else who has an ipod video, showing how to make a non apple ipod video-out cable work with the ipod video's headphone jack.

On the programming front (DVD checkout portion of this site) I haven't had any time since I worked last to try to finish up. Each night I've had something else going on, which reminds me... I didn't post on here that Katie and I had premarital counseling this past Tuesday... it went really well. Anyways, the site is still in the very early stages of implementation, and at the same time in the last stages of planning. Wish me luck.

SaltGrass Bossier City

Tomorrow's the big day, I turn 25. Two days later, my dad turns... older. One day after that, Kristina, my co-worker will be a year older also... and Steven, a co-worker from my last job, celebrated his birthday late last week. That's a lot of Birthday's to be celebratin'.

For our family's celebration, we decided to go out on the town for dinner. Katie's co-workers had been talking up a new steakhouse called Saltgrass down at the boardwalk that was supposed to be a great place to eat. So, Katie planted the thought in my head earlier that some steak might be nice, and that's where we ended up going.

I think the place has only been open for a week, two at the most. The servers are still talking about where the company started, and describing the menu. The hostesses are still giving their menus, saying "Here's your menu" to each person. All the waiters and food/bread runners still say "pardon me" and "excuse me sir"... so you can tell the place is new.

Between the five of us (Katie, my parents and Taylor), we tried all the varieties of meat they had to offer. Taylor had the shrimp and steak, Katie had the hickory chicken, my parents had the pork chops and I also had a steak. I think everyone was happy with their food, though personally I was extremely disappointed with my steak. It was burned... There's no avoiding it. My family kept saying that it was the sauce I asked them to add, or that it was just cooked well. They're wrong. It was burned. It tasted like an ash tray.

That's one of the few things I didn't like about the place. Among the others, it was really noisy, the tables were far too close together and the wait was extreme for each step in the meal process.

On a more positive note, Taylor's steak (requested medium rare) was excellent, and so was Katie's hickory chicken. The salads were awesome, especially since they offered fresh ground pepper... which is one of my favorite flavor enhancers. Lastly, Katie and Taylor were very happy with their potatoes romano, which are sort of like potatoes au gratin, but with a thicker layer of cheese.

Anyway, it was good and I'd have to recommend it to anyone looking for a good steak house. Their steaks, as shown by Taylor's rib eye steak, can be great. Just don't order the Boss trail top sirloin, medium... unless you enjoy licking used ashtrays.

Movies & Moonbeams - revisited

A few days ago I wrote about Movies & Moonbeams, a monthly event catering to the Shreveport/Bossier community hosting big screen family movies in Shreveport city parks. The only complaint I had about this program was that they don't list the upcoming movies on their website, which did seem really strange, since they have such a great looking website (and name... on an unrelated note).

I got a comment on that post from Chris, who says he is an organizer for Movies & Moonbeams. Chris had this to say:

Hello! I'm one of the organizers of "Movies & Moonbeams" and I just wanted to say thanks for promoting our program. I think it's a pretty rad idea, if I do say so myself. The Robinson Film Center is the lead organizer, and we pay for the rights to screen these films, so (for some ridiculous reason) they forbid us to adertise the films on-line. We hate it as much as anyone, believe you me. But if you want to give us a call, at (318) 424-9090, we can give you all of the film titles. Thanks again for the mention!

That explains a lot... I knew the MPAA or some such body had to be the cause of the problem... Thanks for the comment, Chris. Glad to do what I can to promote such a great service.

DVD Borrowing site... right here

I've started work on a DVD borrowing site, for lack of a better term. I've gotten quite a few DVD's since I've been working... all as part of my plan to stop going to theaters. I'm guessing that many people feel like I do... lack of atmosphere in the theater, lack of quality movies, high prices for tickets, concessions, etc. So, for those people who I know, or those people who I may come to trust later, I'm trying to put together a small site where people we know can get together and put their DVD collections online.

The main purpose of the site is really to let me lend my DVD's to people without them having to actually make it to the apartment to check them all out. I don't really know who will want to use this, so I'm not trying to make it commercial. However, I'd be happy if a few friends signed up and tried it out for a while. I think it could be a nice thing.

Ideally, it will be an easy method for people to see what I've got and for me to either hand it to them in person the next time I see them (if that's an option) or just mail it to them. I think that DVD mailers are inexpensive enough to buy in (semi) bulk and just mail them back and forth. Instead of paying 3-4 bucks at blockbuster, spend 37 cents or so to get a DVD you can enjoy that may not have been at blockbuster in the first place.

If you sign up you have the option of sharing your DVD's with people you know. The ability to share with a limited number of users is the only part I haven't set up yet... the grouping of people who are authorized to view your DVD collections. It should just be a matter of adding a table linking a userID to a CollectionID though. After that, the process should stay the same.

Here's how I see this whole thing working (and if you've got comments, feel free to share them).

1. First, you sign up and create a username.
2. If you want to share, You list all your DVD's, entering the basics about your movies (and I hope to speed up this process by, possibly, sending a cheapie USB UPC reader to whoever wants to scan a collection quickly. After all, that's the most time consuming part.
3. Whenever you like, browse through the different collections of DVD's. If you find one you like, click on the link to 'ask to borrow' or some such text.
4. This will send an e-mail to the person who owns the DVD, who can either accept or reject the proposal (this may be removed in favor of only allowing viewing to those who are pre-authorized to auto-accept requests).
5. Owner mails/hands-off the DVD, borrower receives, watches, returns within a decent amount of time 1-3 weeks seems reasonable. In the meantime, e-mail reminders may go out to tell the person not to be delinquent.

In addition to those great benefits, I wanted a project to freshen up on my web skills. I've not had an opportunity at work to develop using web technologies, which is definitely ok since I'm learning .NET, but I want to keep learning and refreshing my web skills.

Shreveport Movies & Moonbeams

My parents told me about a monthly event called Movies & Moonbeams... and let me tell you, it's a great idea. Each month Shreveport Parks and Recreation (SPAR), The Robinson Film Institute, and Shreveport Green put on an event to show a movie in one of Shreveport's many parks. They set up a 40' x 30' inflatable screen and show a "blockbuster family movie", charging a mere 50 cent admission.

Katie and I were just commenting yesterday that there is hardly anything exciting for a family to do as a group in Shreveport. Putt-putt closed, bowling is outrageously expensive (check into it), pool is for adults only who can put up with smoke, and restaurants aren't normally set up well for large groups of large groups (meaning it's hard to get a large table if another family/group has one of the larger spots in the restaurant).

I think it's a great idea, and would love to see more activites like this. I'm sure Shreveport has more activities like this, but it's hard to find out about them when you don't know where to look. Movies and Moonbeams has made it pretty easy to find show dates, though I don't think they make the movie titles available on their website, which is just plain dumb... That's a minor complaint though, about a great service to Shreveport families.

--Update--
I got a comment saying that the terms of the licensing agreement that allows them to show these movies prevents them from listing the movies on their website... which is ridiculous. However, anything less than ridiculousness from the likes of the MPAA or any other organization of that ilk would make me have to rethink my anger toward them, and that's not something I'm ready to give up just yet:). Call (318) 424-9090 for information about what movies will be shown.

Yesterday was how a Saturday should be

Saturdays are usually a time for me to get up early, have some breakfast and talk to the family here for a while. I'll usually play on the computer until the absolute last minute (when Katie pulls into the driveway), then jump into the shower... raising Katie's blood pressure to artery ruining levels. However, after a rocky discussion with Katie early in the morning about where we would go to look at my wedding band, the day turned out to be great. We ended up getting my wedding band, taking a gang load (300 or so) pictures at Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport and then going to a party for Katie's graduation.

I know I may not have mentioned it here, but last weekend she graduated with a Masters in Counseling, with a 4.0 no less, but after all the work she's done toward getting the degree she didn't want to walk. We had a nice little trip to Dallas instead. Since we were gone last weekend, though, her family wanted to have a little get together in her honor.

So, the fam got together over at Chris and Ann's house and had a cookout and movie night. I brought the projector and a DVD over, and Chris and I rigged up a sheet to act as a screen, which hung in a large doorway between a living room and an entertainment type room. This meant that people in both rooms could see the movie (though one side would see it backwards).

We brought Bend it Like Beckham... which was really the only movie we could find at blockbuster that really seemed like a good choice for everyone. We also bought Daddy Day Care and Bewitched, but people had seen both of those and didn't care for Daddy's Day Care and as far as Bewitched was concerned I tried to convince everyone to see a movie everyone hadn't already seen.

Anywho, we had a good dinner of burgers and hotdogs and everyone really seemed to like the movie.

I'm posting the pics that I thought turned out well in the gallery. Click away if you're interested. Beware of the bees!