Woo! I finally got a new hard drive for my laptop, going from a 40 gig drive to a 100 gig one. I’m hopefully going to be able to transfer everything and install the new drive today. Also bought an enclosure for the old drive so I can use it for backups and stuff.

Well, I’ve finished updating all but one of my blogs to WordPress 1.5. The only one I haven’t done yet is the gallery and that’s most likely getting a complete overhaul so I’m not worrying about upgrading that just yet.

Haven’t played with the new features too much yet, but I have to say what I have played with rocks.

Saw Steven Curtis Chapman’s All Things New tour again Thursday night. Was just as awesome as the last time, maybe more so.

We had closer seats this time, eighth row on the floor, and I was on the end of the middle aisle so I was able to get up and move even closer standing at the fourth row. Got some really nice pictures that I’ll try and get up sometime..

I also liked the warm up acts better this time, I mean they were the same as the other concert but I enjoyed them more for some reason. I even used two of my free iTunes song codes to download a couple of Chris Tomlin’s songs. I was also going to get some Casting Crown’s songs, but after hearing previews I’ve decided I like enough of the songs to just buy the cd.

I had also won the auction again for the after show meet and greet with SCC. The cool part was he remembered me from the last concert, he didn’t quite remember where he knew me from but he did remember me so that was awesome.

Hope your Christmas is filled with family, friends and fun. And always remember the greatest gift of all, given so very long ago in a manger under a star.

Well, after all the hassle I had to go through, I finally got my new glasses today. I really like them, although since it’s a new prescription they said I’ll probably get headache for first few days while I adjust. I can honestly say though I won;t be going back to that store next time I need an eye exam or new glasses.

Just got back from the Steven Curtis Chapman concert not too long ago, I had a blast!

The first two groups were Casting Crowns and Chris Tomlin. I’d heard of them both and have heard some of their songs before but not too many, they were good but I probably wouldn’t go to a concert if it was just either of them.

After the intermission, SCC came out, which was who I wanted to see. He was awesome! This is my fourth time seeing him on stage and out of all the concerts I’ve been too I’d have to say Steven’s are always the best. I also had great seats, 17th row on the main floor, I even had an aisle seat near the center so was able to get some good pictures without too many heads in the way.

After the concert I got to meet Steven using the meet and greet ticket I won in auction. He was super nice and I got a picture with him which I’ll post soon as well as two autographs. He also said hello to a friend of mine who’s a huge fan of his after I called her on my cell phone which she has said thank you for multiple times already so I’m pretty sure she liked the call

Woo! I just won an auction for a backstage meet and greet with Steven Curtis Chapman at the concert I’m going to this Friday I’ll admit I did spend quite a chunk of change, but the money is going to the Shaohannah’s Hope charity which SCC actually founded after adopting his daughter Shaohannah.

I almost didn’t win since the way I was going to pay has a limit but thankfully I was reminded in time that the checking account I have just for charitable donations had a debit card and was able to input that info fast enough to make another bid. Luckily the auction was set up so that time extended five minutes if a bid was placed at last minute so I had time to do that and put in another bid.

There was another bidder who went back and forth bidding against me, but they either thought it was over or it got too rich for their blood, either way I’m not complaining. Expect a very excited CoolB to post about the meet and greet after the concert this Friday evening or Saturday (depending on when we get home).

Well, it’s officially Thanksgiving here in my part of the world and I just wanted to post a small list of what I’m thankful for.

What are you thankful for?

Well, I finally downloaded and tried out the Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client.

I’ll start my review with Firefox. I’d tried it before but at the time I had trouble getting it to do things the way I’d gotten used to with Avant Browser but now that I’ve figured out how to find and install extensions I’m a more happy camper. There’s still somewhat of a learning curve for me (remembering to hit ctrl+t instead of ctrl+n to open a new tab instead of a new window for example) but I’m very very satisfied with the program.

Thunderbird however is a whole different story. It’s nice and all, very clean interface but there are two things I can do with Outlook Express that I haven’t figured out a way to do in Thunderbird, and until I do I won’t be switching. The first, and least important, is the ability when filtering mail to be able to copy a message to another folder but leave it in the inbox. The second and more important feature I need is the ability to sync the inbox with my Palm device. I’ve seen ways to sync the address book but I like to read my mail at work during my breaks on my Handspring Visor and to do that I need to sync the inbox. Once I can reliably do those two things I’m pretty sure I’d switch in a heartbeat, so if anyone out there knows how to do those let me know.

Well, went and got an eye exam yesterday, unfortunately the place I went to has a special doctor just for my particular insurance and they don’t get in until 11am, so had about 4 hours of so after getting out of work before my appointment, luckily I was able to get a small nap. I’m glad I did since while we out we did some other stuff as well and I didn’t get home into bed until 3 in the afternoon.

Anywho, got my eyes reexamined, didn’t particularly like the doctor, thought she was just on the nice side of being rude and condescending, but that’s just my opinion. After that I looked around and picked out a pair of frames I like, unfortunately I have expensive tastes. My insurance (which for the record stinks, but probably most of them do) covers one pair of glasses a year, and even then it’s limited. I’m not sure if there a monetary cap, or if they cover a percentage but I had to pay for part of the first pair of glasses. I also got a second pair of prescription sunglasses, which I did get at a discount since I got the other pair but even with the insurance and the discount I had to drop a bit of cash. I have to say I’m glad I have a budget of sorts when it comes to my money and am diligent when it comes to saving.

I’ll have to cut back a bit on some personal items for a bit so I can get my Christmas shopping done in time, but I don’t foresee any major problems, and if anything does arise God will see me through.

Well, I know form reading other blogs and sites that my opinion won’t be agreed with by everyone (but then if everyone agreed life would be boring), but I’m definitely glad to see Bush got re-elected. I agree with more of his stands on issues than Kerry’s, and even though some of his stands weren’t the most popular he still stood behind his decisions and didn’t change where he stood just because it might have made him look better politically. Kerry on the other hand said whatever he thought the people nearby wanted to hear even if it contradicted something he said earlier.

God bless America.

Well, I finally got Pictoralis to work and have gotten it running on my site. I still have lots of work to do uploading pictures and getting the design to look like what I want but at least I’m past the first hurdle.

Well, the rumors were correct, Apple announced the iPod Photo today. They also announced that iTunes 4.7 will have a new photo folder to sync your pictures with the new iPod.

All I have to say is I think I’ll finally be upgrading my iPod very soon.

Edit: iTunes doesn’t have a photo folder, it just syncs up with one on your hard drive.

Went to the Motor City Comic Con today. The fall ones are usually smaller than the one held in the spring, so there wasn’t too many guests I was interested in seeing. In fact there were only two, Corbin Bernsen and Walter Koenig. And since I saw Walter Koenig last time he was at the comic con and didn’t have anything new to get autographed I only saw Corbin Bernsen this time.

While walking around I also picked up some HeroClix and also left some promotional stuff for the fan campaign to bring The Invisible Man back to tv.

The following is from a mailing list I’m on:

To commemorate the third anniversary of Iman’s cancellation, we’re
gonna have ourselves an old-fashioned online fan rally. We’ll kick
it off at 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 29 on the SciFi Invisible Man bboard,
boogie on through Mischief Night (hmmm, how’s about throwing cyber
toilet paper all over Skiffy’s front yard?), and then wrap it up with
an all-out Monster Mash on Halloween! There’ll be plenty of virtual
chocolate, more than a few cyber tricks, and I can almost guarantee
an invisible conga line. So join us and show TPTB that Iman fans
still want their Iman back!

So if you’re a fan of the show, or if you’re just curious, come on by and join us.

Well, I made it home safely, although I kind of still wish I was back in Lake Tahoe, would have liked to get a chance to do some exploring and photo taking. Got to do some more talking with a friend I made at conference while we waited for the flight from Reno to Chicago, very nice guy, you can find his blog here if you’re interested in reading his thoughts on Gnomedex 4.0.

The first leg of the trip was OK, although I had a difficult time getting comfortable enough to sleep, when I finally did get in a somewhat decent position the plane was descending.

The second leg was a bit more stressful, when we landed in Chicago we were told to go to concourse H, which we did, however our flight was moved to concourse K (which is where we got off) but the people working at where we told to do were in such a bad mood due to some other people they apparently decided they weren’t going to annonce the change and by time we found out we had to pretty much run all the way to the other end of the airport to catch our flight, not fun.

But anyway, I’m home now and the adventure is over, can’t wait for next years conference.

Wil Wheaton was a great speaker, he read excerpts from his two books “Just A Geek” and “Dancing Barefoot” which were great. The books actually started as entries on his blog and from what I understand were just edited slightly and some further narration/explanation added which in my opinion is very cool.

He also said that his reading today, as well as at least one of his books, was done under the Creative Commons License which means anyone who was recording his reading in one format or another today are able to distribute it via things like BitTorrent as long as they don’t take credit for it and don;t change the content.

Afterwards he had copies of his books to sell and sign, unfortunately he sold out a few people before I got there but I did get a CD demo of “Just A Geek” read by Wil and two Star Trek: Customizable Card Game cards I’d brought signed plus a photo. He was definitely very kind and like everyone else I’ve met at this conference very down to earth.

Chris just announced during his welcome speech today that there will definitely be a Gnomedex 5.0 next year, I’m definitely planning on going and can’t wait.

Well, i sort of lost my seat, but got a betetr one, now I’m at a table by an outlet so I have more room and can use my mouse.

Well, I’m about an hour early for the actual conference, but I managed to get a good seat near the fornt and by an open outlet, so I’ll be able to blog during the actual conference, at least until lunch anyway.