CoolB*log

Went on the first dive of the trip today. It was a two tank dive in Cozumel, Mexico. The water was nice and clear and very warm. It did rain but not until after the second dive. I did have a bit of trouble on the first dive since I didn’t have enough weight I had to work to stay down and ran low on air before the dive was over and had to go up early.

The second dive went a lot better, I added some more weight and didn’t have any trouble and was able to stay down the entire time.

We also met a nice couple from our cruise ship who just got certified on labor Day and are going diving at every port, so a good chance we’ll see them in Costa Maya.

Went to another show on the ship last night. The first part of the show was a performer who balanced all sorts of things, including a bicycle (the back wheel was on his forehead and the front wheel was turned and in the air spinning), a giant metal pyramid frame on his forehead, a golf club balanced on a golf club which was balanced on another club and then the top club was spun, and a dagger and sword balanced end to end.

After him a comedian came out named Michael Macy. He was pretty funny but I think between the two acts I prefer the balancer.

Went to a show on the ship last night, it was a Broadway style musical called “Generations.” It was pretty good, it was a montage of old rock & roll songs as well as dancing.

Arrived in Grand Cayman today and went on the first shore excursion of the trip. We went swimming with the stingrays in “Stingray City” and were able to pet and feed them. Surprisingly they’re really soft. We then went snorkeling at a small coral reef for a bit before heading back.

Took a tour of the ship’s galley this morning. Was interesting, they had a list of how much food is used on the ship, which is a lot! The one I remember is 5000 pounds of ice cream. They also had someone carving an ice sculpture, another was carving jack’o'lantern, another was carving flowers out of vegetables and one more was making flowers out frosting.

Just did some exploring around the ship. Walked around one of the top decks. Also found the shops and the library, which also has the internet cafe in it.

Found our rooms without too much trouble. We then had lunch, which was a buffet with all sort of things. After that we had a lifeboat drill (which we hopefully won’t need).

We’re leaving port now and I’ve finished calling people to say goodbye.

And the first “cool” note of the trip: I saw a dolphin in the water while leaving port.

Got to airport & had a loooong check in line. Took a while but we got through without any hassles, we’re now just waiting for our flight.

Did a re-certification class for Scuba Thursday night to get a refresher of the basics before going on a cruise next week. Even though it’d been about seven years since the last time I dove once we got in the water a lot of it came back to me pretty quickly.  I’m also going to look for a few underwater disposable cameras before we go, I’d thought about getting a digital camera with an underwater casing, but I figure if I get disposable, since I haven’t been diving for a while if something happened to the disposable one I wouldn’t be out lots of money.

Went to Motor City Comic Con yesterday with couple of friends I play HeroClix with. Haven’t been able to play in a while so was good seeing them again. The show was on the small side, which it usually is for the Fall show, but in this case I’m glad it was since I have to pay my first car payment this month, as well as insurance, which means less money to spend. Only one guest I wanted to see at the con this year, Michael Dorn. I’ve seen him before at a previous convention but had more stuff to get autographed.

Also went to a panel discussion featuring Michael Golden, who is in the comic book industry. I didn’t know the name before yesterday but one of my friends is a big fan of his, and even brought some artwork to get signed as well as commissioned a sketch from him.

All in all I had a good time and even got a little Christmas shopping done there.

Just found out that another podcast I used to enjoy is planning on coming back after an almost 10 month hiatus. Not exactly sure when the next new episode will be out but hopefully soon the Domestic Life with John and Kacy will start producing new episodes soon. Their podcast was one of the first, if not the first, podcast that I ever left feedback and comments on and also probably the first where I kept up a dialogue with the hosts, so I’m definitely excited to listen to them again.

Well folks, another podcast has been released to the wild, which in and of itself isn’t necessarily news since many new podcasts pop up every day, however what makes this one different is that I’m in it. I’ve emailed into podcasts before and have even left voice mail, but this is the first one that I’ve done where I recorded it along with all the other hosts.

The show is called Buzz Echo and is a fan response to CNet’s Buzz Out Loud podcast which talks about various technology stories. On Buzz Echo they give their opinions on some of the stories from Buzz Out Loud’s Friday podcast.

So, check out the episode, and if you haven’t already heard Buzz Out Loud I highly recommend checking that out as well.

I just picked up season one of The Sentinel on dvd yesterday and I have to say I’m underwhelmed by the special features. Mainly because there are none. I am glad they put it out on dvd and hope to see the other seasons eventually but I do think they could have put more effort into the release. As I mentioned already there are no special features of any kind, but also it seems they made the transfer from someones version recorded off of a vcr since in the pilot episode (the only one I’ve watched on the set so far) it shows the closed captioning symbol in the corner and also says something about surround sound at the bottom, which I’ve never noticed before on any of my other television on dvd sets. What makes this even more ironic is that the set doesn’t even have closed captioning.

All things considered I’m glad the show is out on dvd but I hope that the production quality is raised for the other seasons.

I enjoy the Foxtrot comic strip, however today’s strip was sort of sad for me as it mentioned TechTV, which hasn’t been around for a while now. I used to enjoy watching all the tech shows on it like The Screen Savers, Call for Help and Fresh Gear. However the channel as I knew it pretty much died when they merged with G4, for a time they called the new station G4TechTV but after a while they dropped the Tech from it and just made the station G4TV.

Luckily, many of the hosts from the different shows can be heard on various podcasts now so it’s not like they’re gone forever, but it was still sad to be reminded of what the television airwaves have lost.

P.S. I’m not positive but I believe the comic will most likely be taken down after a month or so, so if you want to see it I recommend viewing it as soon as possible.

Went to a presentation last night on the Star of Bethlehem. It was very informative and eye opening and the presenter pointed things out in the Bible that I’d never noticed before. On the site there’s a list of where the presentation will be and when, if you have the chance I highly recommend you go check it out even if you’re not a Christian.

Picked up my new car today, it’s niiiiice. Now.. I have a whole new category of “toys” to drool over. I’ll try and post photos.. sometime.. I hope.

That’s right folks, just because they’re called podcasts (for now anyway…) doesn’t mean you have to use an iPod to listen to them. A Canadian band by the name of Uncle Seth have made a “Public Service Announcement” and put it up on YouTube. Check it out, it’s actually a catchy tune.

Well, I’m a bit miffed at DeviantArt. It seems you can’t subscribe to a member’s online journal’s RSS feed unless you’re a DeviantArt member. I can understand not being able to post comments unless you’re a member to cut down on spammers, MySpace is the same way. The difference though is that MySpace let’s non-members subscribe to RSS feeds.

I have no clue why DeviantArt is blocking access to the RSS feed, non-members can still read the journals on the website. And while DeviantArt does have paid memberships, they also have free ones which I’m assuming can also access the RSS feed.

So in general, unless I’m missing something it seems to me that DeviantArt is just trying to control something that shouldn’t be restricted. And honestly, if I had access to the RSS feed I’d be more likely to check out the site more often since I wouldn’t have to remember to check eveytime I wanted to see if my friends there had new content to read.

Well folks, it finally happened. Yes, I bought a car. It’s a used silver 2006 Ford Taurus. I’ll be picking it up Monday morning after work. It’s very nice, lots of leg room which is important for me. I do plan on replacing the radio eventually though with one that will integrate with my iPod.

Just heard about this product on CNet’s Buzz Out Loud podcast. It’s a standard AA battery with a built in charger. The top of the battery flips up to reveal a usb dongle so you can charge it via your computer. The downside? Right now it’s only available in the UK. But hopefully they’ll come to the states soon. Also they’re working on other size batteries.