Look! I promised another post and here it is. The real cool news is that I have posted more pictures! All of the pictures from when my family came to visit last December are now posted in the pictures section of my website. You can access them by clicking here. I was able to get these down much quicker than I have in the past. I have finally taken the time to figure out how to modify a group of images using Adobe Photoshop and a new program I found called IrfanView. I wish I could just use IrfanView because it has more options for sorting the images and whatnot, but it is not good for re-sizing images. Apparently, its re-sampling function is very inferior to the one in Photoshop. I wouldn't be surprised if I am just doing it wrong, though. If you want to download IrfanView (it is freeware) I have provided a link in the "linkz" section.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is my newest discovery: podcasting. I had heard about this stuff awhile ago, but just recently I have been downloading what are essentially radio shows in mp3 format. The cool thing about the internet has always been its ability to shrink the world and reach out to more people. Podcasting is essentially amateur radio over the internet. They call it podcasting because the idea is that you download the mp3, transfer it to your mobile media player, and listen to the shows when you get a chance. Because iPods are the most popular portable media players, the term podcasting was coined. There are a lot of crappy shows out there, but there are some diamonds in the rough. One of my favorites is something called The Seanachai. These podcasts are 8 to 10 minute original short stories. I think they are really cool, and you may like them too. I listen to other shows, but I doubt they would interest much of you. One of the coolest "geek" podcasts I listen to is called Extra Life Radio and it is done by a guy who does a webcomic. So far, he has been more entertaining and less embarrassing to listen to than some of the other casts. You don't even need a portable player to listen to the shows, you can just play them on your computer if you would like. However, now that I am getting into this stuff it just makes me want an iPod even more. If only I could justify spending that kind of money on an mp3 player...

Well, that's all for now. Heather's birthday is coming up next month, so I used that to motivate me cleaning up our wish lists and removing items we have already received. However, I need to bug her to provide me with more items to put on her list as it is now fairly slim.

I've been busy lately: from June 14^th to June 21^st I was in Indiana with Heather, Ginny, and Holly visiting Ginny's brothers, sister and family.  Then, from June 27^th to June 30^th I was in Vancouver, BC at a Power Quality Applications conference put on by EPRI (Electrical Power Research Institute) where I was a speaker as well as an attendee.  This is a yearly conference and two years ago I attended the one in Monterey.  Prior and between these trips most of my time was spent putting together and tweaking the presentation I gave on the 28^th.  I received some good feedback, so I think I did a decent job.  I also think that attending Toastmasters is helping my speaking skills as well.  I'm looking forward to actually getting things done at work and home now that I am back in the swing of things.

One of the web sites I was designing is now essentially completed.  If you would like to check it out, click here.  Let me know what you think.  I can take credit for everything except the logo on the index page.  Pete's wife! Karla designed the logo.  I modified it a bit for the other pages, so I can take a bit of credit for those logos.  Again, any feedback is appreciated and if you are in the Phoenix area and need someone to provide technical support for your computer(s) contact 5to9!

I've also finally posted my pictures from Chicago.  Next I need to post the pictures from when my family visited last December and then we have some pictures from Indiana that you may want to see.

Some of my family is now closer!  A few weeks ago, my mom, dad (Jeff), and Jake and Laura moved to Roswell, New Mexico.  Jeff took a job at the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Roswell, and now they are finally living within driving distance (not exactly a day-trip distance, though).  Welcome back to the southwest, guys!

There's more to say, so I plan on posting again later this week.  Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, new poll.