It turns out I’m not the only one that uses Moleskines in the way that I do, but this site BulletJournal.com takes it to a new level that I’m going to have to check out. When I was working at agencies I’d have multiple projects going on all at the same time. I’d use my journal to keep notes and important information in a safe location. I would have a Table of Contents for date, project name and major important pages.

Yesterday I built a box and filled it with dirt. Ten little words do not quite describe the amount of work it was, but it’s concise and it could fit in a Tweet if I really wanted to. Today we added some more dirt and planted the seeds. I also got some lettuce starters because I wanted a little green in the garden. Here are a couple photos showing where we are.

Loosely following directions that Scott Hanselman has on his site, we decided to start a ‘Square Foot Garden.’ This doesn’t mean plant a one square foot garden, it means setup a large above ground garden and for every square foot in there plant something different. Now because it’s above ground and there’s a weed barrier at the bottom it is actually treated like a very large potted plant. So the dirt mix that I have in there is a Miracle Grow for potted plants.

There’s a quote that I heard a while back, “In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.” But I don’t know who to attribute it to. If anyone knows who said it, please let me know @spatacoli. Thank you!

For the first time since 1990 the Oakland Athletics have started the season with a 12-4 record. In addition to this most people are touting the fact that they have the best record in the American League. However, this 12-4 record includes 6 wins against the Houston Astros. The Astros have just recently been added to the American League and are playing like a glorified expansion team. Meaning they suck. Most people are predicting that the Astros will lose 100 games this year.

Wow! It has been almost an entire year since I last blogged on here. A lot has changed in a year. My daughter is now 5 years old. She was accepted into Bullis Charter School for Kindergarten this fall. I am starting a new job on Monday working at NOOK. I’ll be one of the software engineers working on their Windows 8 App. Don’t worry I won’t be trying to convince you all to switch from Kindle to NOOK just yet.

The Hunger Games is based in a world where the government keeps the peace by killing 24 subjects each year in something called the Hunger Games. Each of the 12 districts picks one boy and one girl between the ages of 13 and 18 to fight to the death. Winner take all. The games themselves takes place in a forest and is televised in a manner reminiscent of The Truman Show only evil.

One evening not too long ago we were forced to remove all objects from the cupboards in our kitchen and bathrooms. During this extraction my wife found my super secret chocolate chip cookie recipe. The recipe was on half a 3x5 note card that I’ve had sine I was about 16. I’ve been scribbling the minor changes I have maid to the recipe since then on the card. Being helpful she put the recipe in a safe location.

Before I begin this review I have a public service announcement: Thandie Newton is HOT! That is all. So Guy Ritchie who wrote and directed Revolver wrote a new mobster type movie. This one is really good. It’s a story about everyone screwing everyone over in the London underground. Everyone from the Old School guy who owns the town to the lowest of low drug dealers. The cast is amazing: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, the aforementioned Thandie Newton, Mark Strong, Jeremy Piven, and Ludacris.

Yes it is. Do you need to know any more than that? Yes? Well, let’s see. This is the story of a looser, as most comic book stories are, and this looser has a crush on a girl. But this looser gets mugged one too many times and decides to become a super hero. He dresses up like a schmuck and goes to stop muggers, but gets his butt kicked. Anyway, he doesn’t stop, the girl gets interested in the hero, but thinks the kid is gay.

Working in advertising I sometimes wonder if what we sell products to people that don’t really need the product. Stupid idea I know, who needs anything really right? Well this movie takes the idea of advertising to the next level: Real Life Social Marketing The Joneses is just as you’d expect, “Keeping up with the Joneses.” They are a perfect family, living in a perfect (rich) neighborhood, and have all of the latest stuff.

Two years ago at about this time I was standing in a NICU looking down at my two month premature baby girl wondering how the hell I am going to be her father. Two years later I guess I’m still asking the same questions, but I know now that my life changed that day. I’m thankful that my wife recovered, and that my baby girl is amazingly healthy and happy.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a huge SciFi fan. 7 years ago Ronald D. Moore and David Eick made a spectacular production of a reimagining of Battlestar Galactica. This reimagining was an origin story that was shown as a mini series and played on SciFi. It was amazing and fans immediately begged for more. Mr. Moore and Mr. Eick granted the fans wish with 5 years of television that made my Friday nights something to really look forward to.

Bruce Willis leads a cast of characters including James Cromwell and Ving Rhames in this Sci-Fi action/murder mystery. Written by Michael Ferris who also penned such wonderful movies like Catwoman, the Net, and the Net 2.0, you should probably take the hint that this may not be the best movie out there. The movie has some interesting subtexts about humans living in a world where their surrogates (a robot avatar that lives life for them) take risks the human operators probably wouldn’t take.

Last year was a good year for movies. I however, haven’t had a chance to see all the really good ones (or any of the really bad ones either). So, I’m playing catch up here. So, this week’s movie is called “Moon” written and directed by Duncan Jones. Moon is the story of Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) who signed up for a three year mission to mine the moon for the LUNAR corporation.

There are times when you want to be entertained. You want to sit down and watch a 90 minute movie and not think about cinematography or blocking or direction etc. You just want to watch a movie. Some of my friend don’t get that. They laughed at me when I said that I liked watching Smokin’ Aces 1. Then they went through a point by point explanation of why it was a terrible movie… technically.

Friday night is pizza night in my household, and now that there’s a new SyFy show on, Caprica, it’s even more important that we spend a simple family night eating pizza, and enjoying each other’s company. This past Friday we decided to try Domino’s new pizza. They’ve changed the cheese by adding a hint of provolone. They’ve seasoned the crust with garlic, and they’ve changed the sauce with more herbs and red pepper.

Yep, there sure have been a lot of people over the past decade or two complaining about Digital Rights Management. For the most part I’ve been a complacent monkey in the whole thing just accepting it as a necessary evil of living in the digital age. For those uninitiated, Digital Rights Management (called DRM) is code embedded in digital media (like digital audio and digital video files) that somehow ensure that the files are only played on the hardware that the owner of the media allows.

Three and a half years ago I wrote a blog post on my other blog asking the question, “Where was Microsoft?” This post was talking about the video iPod and asking why Microsoft hasn’t come out with a decent competing product. Since then the Zune was introduced and it has won my affection so well I own three of them, plus I pay for my Zune Pass subscription three months at a time.

Clive Owen and Naomi Watts team up to take down the man in this classic action drama about an evil corporation and the good Interpol/FBI trying to get the baddies. But is this movie truly a classic? I’m afraid that it isn’t. Clive Owen is starring in another movie right now with Julia Roberts called Duplicity. When I went to see The International I thought I was going to see a better movie, and I’m wondering if Duplicity is what I meant to see.

There are some people on this planet that I’ve worked with or have had some interaction with where I grew to respect them and their opinions. I like to think of myself as a fairly open minded person and I respect that nobody on Earth has the same ideas and values that I do. As such I listen intently when people have vastly differing opinions as my own so that I can understand them.

Family members have for a while seen pictures of my baby girl via a web site that I’ve been running here at home. Lately I haven’t had very much luck keeping it running all the time though due to some work I’m doing at home. Because of that I decided to get a host and put the site up permanently somewhere. Well everyone I would like to introduce you to https://inara.

Isn’t it interesting how some people you thought were good folk are actually arrogant bastards? I’m not talking about the fine ale from Stone Brewing Co. I’m talking about truly, “I’m better than you” attitude. I’ve been silent in my blogs of recent simply because work calls, I’m not sure of the direction I want my blogs to go, and I’ve been wrapped up in the fairly simple nature of Twitter.

I used to hate on Starbucks like everyone else, but lately I’ve really grown to like them. Why? Recently they made a lot of corporate changes and one of them was that they now have the same coffee every day for regular drip coffee. It is called Pike’s Roast and it is really good. Does that mean that I’ve shredded my Peet’s Coffee and Tea card? No, I still prefer going to Peet’s mainly because all the employees know my wife and I.

Hello out there in Internet-land. There is a shocking number of you coming to my web sites using Internet Explorer 6. I don’t think that you realize that a lot has happened in browser technology since August 27, 2001. You see, that date almost 7 years ago is the day that Internet Explorer 6 was released. At the time it was a fine browser, but that time has passed. It is time to move on.