Saw Juno las weekend. After reading the SWPL writeup on it I was intrigued. We got it from Amazon Unbox via our HD Tivo since it wasn't available on Xbox Live Marketplace. A couple of quirky things about the Amazon service is that there was no HD option for Juno and the SD version we got was in widescreen format crammed into a 4:3 picture. So we were watching a rectangle within a rectangle. Sure, after a few minutes we weren't really bothered by it but seriously... Good movie by the way. But the indie soundtrack annoyed me.

Some dudes walk through the jungle. Some other dudes walk through the jungle too. Some dudes meet up that haven't seen each other for a while. The baby is passed from person to person. Some people get on a raft and go somewhere. The presence of one dude on that raft is interesting since we know he's not one of the Oceanic 6. More people go running off into the jungle. Ben and Locke continue to do their verbal sparring. Hurley does his "dude" thing. Some dudes on the freighter see some stuff in a room that makes you say, "Whoa. That's a lot of that stuff!" Then some dramatic music starts playing and various scenes move in slow motion. This is to let us know that some dudes might be dying soon. But not too quick though. We have to wait until next week for the 2-hour finale. Total "dude" count for this post: 7. Not too bad.

When I was just starting out in the software development world in my early twenties I read a lot of books about my chosen craft. At first I was convinced I was going to be a Windows programmer so I read a lot about C/C++ and the Windows API. I was using Microsoft Access for my day job so I had a few books on Access and learned that product inside and out. I also studied Visual Basic. As I got more into web development, HTML and Perl became big topics for me. Then of course Java came along. I've accumulated more books than I care to admit about Java. I did some non-language-specific reading as well but not much. Mainly Code Complete and some magazine articles. I was mainly obsessed with learning new languages and technologies. What's kind of ironic is that the language I ended up using the most, PHP, is the least represented in my book collection. The language itself is so easy to use and the online reference so complete no book was really needed. Around the time I built DailyRadar.com (long since dead) I got burnt out on reading about programming languages and software development in general. Sure, I did programming almost everyday as my job but the urge to learn new things slackened. Several years passed without me really getting into anything new. The one exception being that I learned more about XSLT than I really cared to for one particular project. In XSLT I found applications where recursion actually makes perfect sense! But the project I was using XSLT for never saw the light of day and that knowledge has since receded to the darkest corners of the lowest basement of my mind. Getting back to the main topic though. Within the past couple of years I've found the desire in myself again to seek out and consume new knowledge. This time around I'm more interested in general software development methodologies and practices. Things like design patterns and how to scale web sites. Maybe this is because I've been around long enough and have been a part of enough projects to have seen what works and what doesn't. I want to learn about other people's experiences with software projects and how we can improve life within this still young profession. It's tougher now to find the time to actually sit down and read and try new things but where there's a will there always a way. Here's a few software development related blogs I've come to read on a daily basis. I highly recommend these to anyone doing programming of any kind out there. Joel on Software This is required reading. Seriously. Go through the archives and read his past articles. This guy absolutely nails it 99% of the time. The other 1% we'll just chalk to him being crazy every once in a while. His philosophy boils down to two very important things. 1) Be Smart and 2) Get Things Done. I see a lot of people who have one of those traits but the not the other and it always leads to a lot of frustration and failed projects. Coding Horror This is a recent addition to my list so I don't have a ton to say about it but it seems like a solid blog for programmers. The Daily WTF Sometimes the best way to learn is by looking at how not to do things. Loud Thinking A blog by David Heinemeier Hansson -- the guy who wrote Ruby on Rails. This blog is where I first found confirmation of my belief that people who over-engineer their projects (a.k.a. astronauts) do more harm than good. Does anyone have any other recommendations on good software development related blogs?

Well, things are starting to get interesting now aren't they. But I guess you could say that about pretty much any episode so far this season. I do think the faster story-telling has helped keep things interesting this season. So let's do a spoiler free recap real quick. The losties on the beach find that thing that those some other people couldn't explain. Some other dudes do some stuff with that one person. The losties at The Others' camp start preparing for something. Then something happens which makes us think "Oh, so that's how that situation came to be." But then it turns out that wasn't the case. Then a really shocking thing happened. Seriously, I couldn't believe it. Then one character goes and does something which makes us think "Oh, there's a connection between those two?!" Then on the beach the one guy says something and another guy says something else which isn't that big of a surprise because we pretty much knew that certain people were inclined toward a certain way of thinking to begin with. Oh, and in the flashback/flashfoward we do indeed learn how a different situation came to be. In all seriousness though, there was a part in the episode which was not intended to be funny but my wife and I found hilarious. It took away a bit from what should have had more of an impact.

I've been playing through Gears of War the past couple of weeks. The positive buzz around this game was one of the main reasons why I purchased an Xbox 360 in the first place. Right now I'm in the middle of Act 3 and have unlocked both achievements involving the active reload mechanic. How brilliant was that idea?

We just returned our final Blockbuster movie this week which happened to be Reign Over Me. It is a truly great movie with Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. No funny stuff for Mr. Sandler in this one. He's dead serious and does an amazing job of it. However, for me the real star was Don Cheadle. He's officially my new favorite actor. I was completely impressed by his performance. He brings a real authenticity to his character. He plays a successful dentist who's dealing somewhat unsuccessfully with unrelenting pressures both at work and at home which have made him a more cowered man than he used to be. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it but he makes his character so real and believable. Also, the remake of The Who song, Love, Reign O'er Me, by Pearl Jam is absolutely fantastic! This is the Pearl Jam we all fell in love with back in 1991. This performance proves they still have that same energy and raw emotion. Now if they can just channel those qualities into their current full albums I might actually start buying them again. Anyway, the reason why we canceled our Blockbuster membership is that we just don't watch movies often enough to make the monthly fee worth it. So we decided to try out renting movies from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Our first one was Into the Wild. This was a great choice for an HD rental because of all the outdoor shots in Arizona, the pacific northwest and Alaska. Oh ya, there's the Eddie Veder connection with this one too. Eddie has turned out some of his best material in years with the soundtrack. It's officially on my list as a "must buy" for my mellow collection.

After nearly a week of delays we finally get the keys to our new house today. So the process of moving begins today. I plan on getting everything in our garage and everything we've boxed up over to the new house today. Tomorrow we're going to rent a big truck with a lift gate and get a bunch of friends to help us move furniture and appliances and anything else that's left. One downside of moving is that we'll be without an internet connection at our new house for a couple of days until the cable company hooks us up. I guess I'll just have to play some more Rock Band. But then again, maybe moving into a new house would be the appropriate time unwrap a new game (to me anyway). Like Gears of War!

I finished the Hard Solo Career in Rock Band last night. Flirtin' with Disaster was the only song I had any real problem with. After practicing the solo for about 30 minutes I was able to barely scrape by. The final song, Green Grass and High Tides, was fairly easy in comparison. I also got the Still Alive song since it was free. I'm sure it would mean more to me if I had actually played Portal but I haven't yet. The Orange Box is sitting on my shelf just waiting to be played. But so is Gears of War. Getting back to Rock Band, I really hope they patch the game to allow the Band World Tour mode to be played either with one player or over the Internet. There's a whole bunch of achievements I'm never going to get unless that happens. Getting through Flirtin' With Disaster has given me the idea that I might actually be able to beat Raining Blood in GH3 on Hard. Just maybe.

I should know better by now. Don't believe anything you read on the internet on April 1st. But the fact that this page was accompanied by an email newsletter kind of fooled me for a bit. http://www.xbox.com:80/en-US/community/promotions/2008/spring/default.htm I clicked in deep enough to find out how much the helmet would cost. That's when I found out. I'm ashamed it took me that long to figure it out. Of course, we have our own April Fool's page as well. http://www.gamespot.com/promos/2008/april-fools/index.html

Watching CSI: Miami here. Horatio is doing actual lab work! That has to be a first!