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Rubber Factory - The Black Keys Funeral - The Arcade Fire The Futureheads - The Futureheads Summer in Abbadon - Pinback Shake the Sheets - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Milk Eyed Mender Joanna Newsom |
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The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2004 - Bob Sehlinger Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em - Lee Jones The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don't Think for Themselves - Curtis White Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World - Bruce Schneier--> The New Yorker The Economist The Richmond Times Dispatch and constantly referring to Dynamic HTML the Definitive Reference 2ND Edition - Danny Goodman |
November 13, 2003 - permalink
Remembering the Wounded
It's a couple of days after Veterans Day, but there's never a bad time to remember servicemen wounded, either in past wars or in the current ones. At the least recent ones are no longer being charged for their meals while in the hospital.
Miami Puppet Menace
In anticipation of next week's free trade summit in Miami, the city is considering a ban on dangerous implements. Among the list of forbidden objects are the usual items - glass bottles and slingshots - and one unusual item - giant puppets.
Protesters have been using large puppets made of paper mache for years. Puppets have been used to protest trade summits, political conventions as well as the war in Iraq. However, the some of Miami's city fathers are concerned that large puppets pose a paper mache threat. Mostly likely, the city will be limited to prohibiting certain materials in the construction of the puppets.
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November 9, 2003 - permalink
Java in Arlington
With one project at work delayed, my boss asked me if I wanted to go up to the Northern Virginia Software Symposium - No Fluff Just Stuff - this weekend. Admittedly, it was tantamount to working on a weekend. However, chances to learn are hard to come by, so I took him up on the offer.
I drove up to Arlington on Friday morning and checked into the conference around Noon. The sessions started at 1pm with three 90 minute sessions crammed into the afternoon. Dinner was included the first night along with a talk by Alan Williamson, the editor at Java Developer's Journal. Yesterday and today, were two more days filled with Object Oriented theory, Struts, Faces and XML. Dave Thomas's talks were especially good as well as Stuart Halloway's on XML. Actually, all of the talks were quite solid; I know just need to sit at home and watch cartoons until my brain cools down. After that, I have a some new toys to go out and download.
The last three days have been a nice change. I don't normally get many chances to just sit and learn at work. For that matter, I don't think I've ever spent a whole day just tinkering at home; there are too many distractions. However, the conference has inspired to start plowing through the stack of Java books in my dining room as well as provide me with a list of more books to put in my sites.