Cornbread and Robots

Last night, GM, AE, JH and I went to see Robots at the Exploris IMAX theatre, in Raleigh. First we went to the Cracker Barrel. I'd never been there before, but JH recommended the clam chowder highly. They have very good cornbread. It's not yankee cornbread, so it's excellent. It's not sweet.

I drove everybody to the theatre and we were just a little late, partially due to my passing the parking building. I was worried that they wouldn't let us in. Robots was fairly entertaining, although certainly not the best I've ever seen. They really weren't trying for realism or surrealism, which is ok, but that definitely made it seem more like an old fashioned cartoon.

Hold the ketchup

I don't know if anyone has coined the term "slogger" as a slacker blogger before, but it certainly seems to apply to me. I haven't blogged in ages. I haven't described more appreciation for my Treo 650. I have been busy. Of course, this means that I have had tons to write about. Instead of writing about everything in excrutiating details and describing every single condiment, I will attempt to describe everything as quickly as possible.

I went to a Durham FM Association meeting the week before last and the program was about storm chasing. It was very cool seeing real footage of some of the hurricanes last season. It was pretty dramatic and educational. That week I also went to see the Duke Symphony Orchestra, which had an excellent concert. You can find out more about the soloist for the evening, on his website, rahulmania.com. For the many of you who are searching, you can also find a picture of J.J. Redick there.

Last Saturday I went to the Orange County Radio Amateurs ham radio breakfast. For dinner, I went with JJ and EB to Outback. I had coconut shrimp and their chopped blue cheese salad, which was wonderful. On Sunday, I went to the RARs hamfest and got to show off my house afterwards. That night I went over to GM's and had pizza with him, AE and JH. We watched Chicken Run afterwards, which was still entertaining, even though I'd seen it a couple of times when it came out.

This weekend, KS came to visit. Last night we went to Kanki to celebrate BJK's birthday. That was fun and Japanese steakhouses are usually entertaining. I got to meet BJ's sister and see her parents again. Afterwards, KS and I went to the Coffee Cafe around the corner to get ice cream and a brownie. This morning, my parents came over and I took forever making French toast, but it was good. If nothing else, I'm slow when I'm talking and doing anything else, especially cooking.

Picnic Chant

This weekend I went to a picnic, got a haircut, went to a concert and did my taxes.

The picnic was for the Duke Computer Science Department. It was held at the West Point on the Eno, as it is every year. The weather was just perfect and the food was from Whole Foods, so I enjoyed it. I got to talk to a couple of professors and watched some ultimate frisbee. I was actually hit on the wrist by a frisbee in an unrelated game of "catch"in which I was not participating. Game projectiles are attracted to me. I'm suprised it didn't hit me in the forehead like they usually do.

On Sunday, my dad and I met AE at Duke Chapel for a concert by Trio Medieval, a Norwegian (actually 1/3 Swedish) female acapella group. The entire concert was music somewhat similar to Gregorian chant, although it was from the 13th century, where some of the dissonance starts to creep in. This is one of those cases where I know I used to know much more about this in college, at least briefly.

Doing my taxes was a lot easier this year than last, since I didn't have to struggle with Wild Tangent. I ended up going over to my parents' house last night, to finish them up. They have a very cool HP printer/copier/fax now. I need to try putting in a different cartridge into my printer, in my studio. I have a black and white one, which should be good enough for black and white, I think. I try not to leap to conclusions too often.

Bobby McFerrin

Last night, my parents and I went to see Bobby McFerrin at Duke's Page Auditorium. He is just an incredibly talented performer and vocalist. He is a master of commanding audience participation and I recommend that you go see him performance if you ever have the opportunity. I actually saw him at the same location (Artist's Series) five or six years ago. This time he was joined for part of the performance by the Durham Children's Choir, which I thought was pretty impressive given that the kids had only been performing together for a year and appeared to be quite young. Some of McFerrin's routines had to be exhausting, so I would imagine that performing with the kids would provide a needed break. He invited people to join him on stage several times, to do improv dancing and sing. He is capable of singing the notes of Bach's Preludes as well as a Cliffs notes performance of the Wizard of Oz. In addition to sheer musical talent, and the ability to sound like a entire band, it's obvious that he has an excellent sense of humor, too.

Here you can see the large number of daffodils blooming in my front yard. I want more. (taken with Canon s300)

Here's one of the prettiest photos I've taken with my Treo 650, shortly after I got the camera, two weeks ago. This is a clivia that my mom gave me. I ended up taking tons of pictures of it, with my Treo, my Canon s300 and my mom's Canon s500. 

Syncing with Lotus Notes and Other Mental Anguish

One of the many things I've been investigating now that I have my Treo 650 is syncing with my Lotus Notes calendar at work. I read on one of the forums that I happened upon that EasySync wouldn't work with the 650. EasySync is what I used briefly with my Palm V and while the version I had was somewhat annoying, it did the job. I also read about MNotes, which had favorable reviews. That, however, costs money and I'm not too inclined to spend even more money just yet. Also, now that the majority of my meetings are in a single building or are conference calls, it's not that hard to look up a meeting location or time at my desk. Either I can wait for EasySync update or wait for $75 to seem like an insignificant amount of money again. It could take a while.

Speaking of money, it's time for me to think about working on my taxes again. There. I thought.

Ouch.

Treo 650 Excitement

Wow! I was quoted on the PalmAddicts blog! That's more exciting than when I was in college and I was quoted in the Raleigh News & Observer as saying that the regional ACM Programming Contest was more exciting than basketball. I'd wondered why there had been a dramatic increase in hits and that's why.

Now that I've had the Treo 650 for a couple of weeks, I have to say that I still love it more than ever. I love being able to look at the doppler radar on it without worrying about being fried while I'm plugged in. I got the 1.08 update for the firmware, which probably improved the sound quality. I've also noticed that it helps to put one's ear in the vicinity of the ear piece (ear bump). I got the free 128 MB memory card from PalmOne so now I can play mp3s on it. The speaker is really pretty good and the music sounds great. It's great having the tradional Palm functions again, too. I had pretty much abandoned using my Palm V (despite carrying it around with me everywhere), because I put all my phone numbers in my Motorola Timeport. Now I've consolidated all my numbers and contact information into my Treo, which makes so much more sense. I can even use my Treo to check my gmail account and send mail. It's not pretty, but it works.

Today I went to Maggiano's for lunch, because the department wanted to take my manager out to lunch, since he's moving to a different assignment. It took three hours, but it was worth it. I tried several new things, such as their chicken parmesan and some kind of herbed chicken, which was extremely tender. The four cheese ravioli is still the best, though

Parmesan in my Phone

I went to Vinny's with my mom this evening and I got a little carried away with the parmesan. I always unscrew the tops of the little glass dispensers and evidently I got a little carried away. Parmesan ended up in my phone case, all over my skirt and in my shoes.

This past weekend my dad and I volunteered as ham radio operators for the annual Hillsborough Crop Walk. We were stationed at water station #2. Our responsibility was to let the net control know when the first runner went by, when the main pack of walkers went by and when what we thought were the last walkers passed us. Unfortunately, we saw more coming as we drove off. Oops. Even people serving the water had packed up a few minutes before. Fortunately, it was a very nice day, although extremely windy, so those last people probably weren't that thirsty. Before the "race" started, my dad and I drove around the course looking for the best place to be stationed. Driving the several mile long course around Hillsborough was probably the most entertaining part of the experience.

The weather has been beautiful and my daffodils are gorgeous.

I watched the Incredibles again Saturday night and I enjoyed it more the second time. I think it looks more impressive on a smaller screen. Either that or I just appreciated more the subtleties this time. My brother sent my parents a DVD, but it's really supposed to be his and my mom is supposed to mail it to him.

I'm doing my taxes now. I suppose I should get back to them. They might feel as if I'm ignoring them otherwise.