I’m always talking about how my brain works, so I thought I should talk about how it doesn’t work for a change.

I’m not a big music nut, and I think it’s because of two deficiencies that I have. 1) I have a really hard time picking out lyrics - If you visit KissThisGuy.com you’ll see the kinds of things that I mishear all the time. So that’s one obstacle. 2) I’m very literal minded. I never much cared for analyzing poetry in English class, because I felt like it was all just made up interpretations. If the poet wanted to say “she was pretty” he could have written “she was pretty” and not whatever they did write.

So, when you combine the fact that I mishear lyrics, and that I don’t look for hidden meaning in them, it’s perfectly logical that I would like songs that have a good sound, but mostly nonsensical lyrics. Happily enough, that theory holds true. The other side of the coin is that I tend to like music where the lyrics are clearly sung, and/or make literal sense. That comprises music that some people would sneer at as “music for kids” (though not strictly children’s music) and heavily vocal music.

So, a couple of examples of music that I like - R.E.M. — I used to really like their older guitar based stuff, but I’ve grown more fond of their more recent eclectic stuff too. I hate when someone explains what their lyrics mean though, cause I think they’re nuttier than a fruitcake. Weird Al — I’ll qualify that though, I haven’t listened to Weird Al in a really long time. I think I’m out of his target market now. Norah Jones — beautiful voice, fairly simple lyrics (not that I pay attention to them much) She conveys meaning with her voice more than with her words, which works for me.

I used to be into heavier guitar based stuff, and I still listen to some of it on occasion, but I find Megadeth to be way less pleasant to listen to than Katie Melua. I guess I use music to relax me now, instead of to pump me up.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “That’s some nice fluting, boy.” - Chief Wiggum

Things have been pretty hectic around work lately. I’ve got three systems that are giving me troubles all at the same time, and then all of my normal development work too. It’s ok though, it’s just good to be busy.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “D’oh! I mean… D’oh-n’t worry son, I forgot to get you a present. But I swear on my father’s grave…” - Homer

We went out for supper last night, on Dave and Katriona, to celebrate them “getting out of Dodge” so to speak. They took the whole family out to Montana’s for supper. Afterwards, we stopped by Mom & Dad’s for a few minutes to meet their new dog Brandy, who is staying there until the move.

I just saw the General Lee drive down 22nd street. It was so strange, that I thought I’d mention it.

Anyway… The Visor came yesterday, and the laptop was ready to be picked up from it’s repairs, so I got to play around with the Visor for a bit. First impressions are that it’s a little more bulky than the Casio, though that’s largely the Springboard expansion slot. The display is nice, and being able to hotsync it is nice too. There are more hardware buttons, but they’re not as configurable as I’d like. The backlight is pretty neat - instead of lighting the whole screen like the Casio does, it only lights up the bits that are “on” which makes for ghostly glowing letters and such.

Overall, it’s a nice device.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I can be a jerk and no one can stop me!” - Homer Simpson

I’ve been having sporadic problems with connecting to this server. Is it something with my connection here, or is it something wrong with the server’s connection? Anyone else experiencing the same stuff?

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Why it’s that delightful tv lephrechaun! I’m going to get your lucky charms…” - Mr. Burns

The days have been flying by - it’s hard to imagine that it’s already a month since William’s 18 month shots, but it is. Not much is happening with us, we’re kind of preparing for the inevitable winter onslaught that has felt like it’s just around the corner for a while. Next thing you know, the weather improves, and yesterday was a gorgeous afternoon/evening. The weekend is looking good too.

So, more about the ebook woes. I wound up ordering a refurbished Handspring Visor Neo from a place in the US. It’ll wind up costing about the same as we paid for our Casio Pocket Viewer S460’s, so it’s reasonable. The fact that it’s PalmOS based means that there is a lot more options in the bookreader software than we had/have on the Casio. It’s still kind of a pain in the butt to get books ready for the pda, but again, there seems to be more support software out there too. I think it will work out for us

Jason asked about using a pda for an ebook reader Wednesday, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the subject.

Initially, I looked into it because I really wanted to read some of the stuff that’s available online, but I didn’t want to read off of a laptop. I do most of my reading on the bus, so it was important that whatever solution I got be fairly small. I don’t remember what settled me on the Casio, but once I tried it out for a few weeks, I was hooked. I’ll admit that it seemed a little awkward at first — after all, the screen isn’t as big as a printed page, and that means that you’re flipping pages a lot more frequently. I quickly got over that though, and it’s to the point now where I don’t remember what the last paper book I read was, or when I read it. I feel genuinely sorry for Erin, who’s without her book until the new one arrives, because I would rather not go back to paper books myself. It’s just incredibly convenient to have a bunch of books with you, in such a small form factor. I used to read paper books on the bus, and when I’d finish one book on the ride to work in the morning, I’d have nothing to read in the afternoon. Now, I just start up another book. I don’t have to worry about losing my place, because the book remembers where I left off. A set of batteries last between 3 and 5 months for me — we’ll see how the Handspring pda does — so changing batteries isn’t a huge chore.

Once every few months I’d have to format some more books for the pda, which is kind of an annoying process, but I’ve got more stuff to read on my computer than I’ll ever be able to finish, so finding stuff to read isn’t a big chore. I’ve had a chance to read some books that I likely would never have picked up previously, just because I don’t like carrying around/holding a 600 page paperback. So it’s been good that way too. I’d probably be happier with a slightly larger screen, and maybe one that isn’t as affected by lights, but overall, it’s been a really usable device for me. Like I said, I can’t imagine going back to reading paper books regularly again.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Save me from the wee turtles! They were too quick for me!” - Groundskeeper Willy

Erin’s ebook reader/pda broke late last week, so I’ve been trying to find a replacement. I had a line on the exact same model on ebay, but some joker came in and doubled my bid in the last minute, to the point where it was ridiculous. I had used the proxy bidding thing though, and it worked out just fine. I was willing to spend a lot more than the bid was at, so it caused the guy to spend a lot more than he probably thought he’d have to.

So, now I’m looking at alternatives. I’ve currently got my eye on the Handspring Visor line - I know they’re old and stuff, but that’s half of what attracts me to them - long battery life, without all the bells and whistles. Plus, they’re expandable. Oh yeah, and they’re much easier to find - from stores as well as ebay.

I’ve had to do all of my research at lunch though, since the laptop is in the shop to get the backlight fixed.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Diggity! Highly dubious!” - Martin

So, after we got back, and recovered from William being sick (mostly) we went to Mom & Dad’s for Bryan’s birthday party. He went back home to Vancouver the following day.

So now I can talk about the slopitch tournament this past weekend. The weather was awful, but we had a lot of fun anyway. I hit my first two home runs of the year - the first one was a nice drive off-field into the gap, and the second one was a hot shot that went right through their outfielder (and kept on rolling.) For whatever reason, I was swinging the bat fairly well over the weekend. I finished off the tournament by pulling a couple of long fly-outs, which was disappointing.

We wound up winning two games and losing four, but three of the four that we lost were very close fought games, and the two we won were both blowouts (also the games that I hit home runs in…coincidence?)

Saturday night, a bunch of us came back to our place to watch the hockey game, which thankfully turned out in Canada’s favour. The finals should be a good game tonight.

The papers on both houses have been signed, and the deals are all but done now. All we have to do is wait for the end of November, and we can move into our new house, so that’s pretty exciting. Not much new beyond that though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “It smells like Otto’s jacket…” - Lisa