iTunes is addictive!

Yikes! I'll have to exercise some restraint:-). It's just too damn easy to purchase tunes, but the selection is awesome and the price is pretty reasonable. iTunes-the-tool is pretty decent as well. I wish it had a windowshade mode like winamp, and different skins to play with, but you can't have everything I guess.

I do love my iPod! I've hooked the docking station into a pair of decent PC speakers so I can listen while I work, and I can simply plug in my earbuds and keep the same playlist selection going when I take the anklebiter for a walk. Way cool.

I've been spending most of my time during my hiatus ripping all my CDs, creating playlists and organizing my music... now that task is mostly complete (it's a bit tedious but worth it IMO).

Kewl, I created an RSS feed!

Well, after all, a blog without an RSS feed is like a tree falling in the woods with no one around:-). I searched around and found BlogFeed, but that requires that my ISP support server-side scripting, which apparently it does not. Then, I discovered RSSify http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/rssify/rssify.php which uses the same markup as BlogFeed... no fuss, no muss as long as the site remains available. You can access my RSS feed using the XML icon in the description box. Enjoy!

I got the blues for Xmas

Well, it's Christmas night, and I am finally recovering from a bout with the flu. Last night was the pinnacle, with a 103 degree temperature! I was wracked with pain from the fever and the drugs and high temp had me pretty delerious. I am amazed that I managed to make it through tennis Tuesday eve, as well as a tournament on Wednesday morning (although I was completely unfocused and did not play at all well due to the drugs). The fever broke this morning and I felt well enough to go to my sister-in-law's for Christmas dinner. I think my spirits were raised by my new toy... an iPod. Woo hoo! Very cool. I'll have to think about a firewire card for my thinkpad... syncing on a slow USB connection is a little tedious, but I managed to get my mp3s loaded in a couple hours.

Woo hoo!

Basic Profile 1.1, Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 and Attachments Profile 1.0 Working Group Drafts were published today. It has certainly been a long, strange trip but I think you'll find that it was worth the effort. These are solid draft profiles.

Tom's got a blog too!

I saw LOTR ROTK at the 12:10 am showing this past Wednesday with my son. It met (nearly) all my expectations! I thought it was a little maudlin at the end, and was (as expected) disappointed that they omitted Sauron's role in the return to the Shire... I guess I'll have to wait for the extended DVD release next year. The battle scenes were fantastic! The scene in Shelob's lair was too kewl. I thought that the struggle between Frodo and Gollum inside Mt. Doom was a little over-dramatic, but great nonetheless.

I'll have to see it again, probably with my daughter this weekend, to catch all the nuances.

Hello World! I thought that I should "get with the program" and start a blog.

I'll start with a reference to a particular pet peeve of mine, referenced in Don Box's blog... I hope there's a special place in hell for keyboard designers:-)