JARinteractive

Tonight I managed to win an auction for “Pro Pain” by Mars Ill. Normally getting a CD wouldn’t be very newsworthy, but this one is not (and likely never will be) officially released. In October 2004 it was supposed to release, but was pushed back due to “clearance issues” with a couple of samples on the album. Then it was set for February 2005, but pushed back because Gotee Records could put forth a better marketing effort for a July 19th release. Just before July 19th, EMI (the distributor) delayed the album indefinitely. A small number of copies were sold by outlets that hadn’t received notice in time. Now, the unofficial word is that the album will be released with a modified track listing in January 2006. Check out videos for two songs on the album: More, Sound Off.

I haven’t been giving my blog enough attention. I think it is lonely.

Tonight I cleaned out Duncan’s (my newt) aquarium. It, like my blog, needed some serious attention. I replaced all of the aquarium gravel to give it a new look. Black stones now cover the water section of the aquarium. The land is a nice rich blue. The backdrop that had been on the aquarium was severely faded from the flourescent light, so I need to find a good replacement.

Last weekend I went to Albuquerque, NM for a funeral. Jaime’s uncle had an unexplained heart attack the previous Monday and passed away on Wednesday. I had met him twice and was looking forward to getting to know him better, but that won’t happen now. He was a software developer at Sandia National Labs working on artificial cognition for use in robots. Prior to that he worked at Honeywell and developed software for the B2 and Boeing 777 among other things. He also wrote a number of books on scripture, had much of the New Testament memorized, and lived out his faith. You can find out a bit more about him at his website: www.scumoftheworld.org.

Two weeks ago I helped Jaime move back to GC. It was really good to be back and to see my friends that are still there. I played ultimate frisbee on Saturday. It is only the second time I have played, despite there being daily games on Scott Field. The other time was during choir tour in Indiana.

Two and a half years ago I took the photo that you see in the header of this weblog. Little did I know that I would be riding the MetroLink every day from the very same location on my way to work. Lately I am unable to find time to be creative. After work (and the commute), there isn’t much time (or energy) left to do photography, programming, or music. I hope that I can adjust to the schedule and get back into some of my interests outside of work.

Tonight I purchased an iPod for the first time. I finally have the finances and a good justification. My commute on the MetroLink is about 30 minutes, and having an iPod will be far simpler than a CD player and CDs. I plan to get a case for it in the near future, but I’m not sure which one to get. I will probably get a car stereo adapter (maybe the iTrip) too.

It has been a while since my last entry. I am now settled into my apartment and have DSL (yay!). I am starting to do some actual work at SBC, as well. Free time is a premium right now though. Working every day plus an 50-55 minute commute each way really eats up the time. I would like to dig into Objective-C and Cocoa a bit deeper if I can find some time. Maybe I can be a bit better about updating my blog, too.

Today I began my career with SBC in St. Louis. I should be getting DSL within a couple weeks - hopefully sooner than later.

College is over. School is over. I graduate on Sunday. Today I moved most of my belongings to an apartment in St. Louis. On Sunday I will graduate. It is a strange feeling knowing that a couple of my long-term goals will be met within the next couple weeks. I have completed two degrees and I have a software development job. It is a strange feeling knowing that I have met major goals that I have had since junior high. I am eager to unpack everything into my new apartment, but that will have to wait.

When did TextWrangler become free and how did I miss it?

It has been a while since my last update. Most of my time since then has involved preparing my Digital Media Portfolio for its presentation last night. Now that the portfolio is finished and the presentation is over, I only have one major class project left before graduation. I will be spending the next week exploring parallel programming as a part of my parallel computing independent study. After (finally) getting the cluster running, I have been busy working on other projects and have not yet had time to explore parallel programming. I am eager to dig into that after taking a little break this weekend.

I did take the time to install Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) on my PowerBook a week ago. I am enjoying Dashboard a lot. It would be fun to create a dashboard widget, although I’m not sure what I would make. While working on my DM Portfolio I noticed that I could no longer drag PHP and Perl files to the SubEthaEdit icon on the dock (they want to be associated with Adobe GoLive). In 10.3 it was never a problem to drag a file to an application on the dock, as long as the program supported that file type. What happened?

Yesterday marked the end of a huge project that all seniors are required to complete at Greenville College. Now I have time to turn my focus back to my digital media portfolio and parallel programming. There are two weeks before my DM portfolio presentation on May 5th. I have until the end of the semester to complete work for my independent study in parallel programming. My flock of Electric Sheep continues to grow larger; For the last couple weeks I have been mating the sheep to watch the traits of the parent sheep appear in their children. Through this process some great (and some not so great) sheep have been born. Here are the thumbnails of a few of my sheep…

    

We got back from our tour last night. It is great to be back in Greenville after travelling for 11 days. The tour was a wonderful - though taxing - experience. Shortly after the Pope’s death on Saturday afternoon we sang for a vespers service at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. We were also privileged to worship with Edgar O’Neal (of the O’Neal Twins), a 2004 inductee of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, on Friday evening.