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As you all probably know, Richard Pryor died today at the age of 65. I remember growing up watching many great movies and SNL skits that would not have been possible without Mr. Pryor. He was one of the greatest commedians to ever entertain us, and even though he's been retired due to health for quite some time, will be sorely missed. There will never be another Richard Pryor.

My prayers are with his family, and to him my gratitude for bringing me laughter so many times.

Have any of you watched rugby much? I've recently been watching USA Sevens Rugby on TV, and if you're a fan of football, you just might enjoy this. It's a very fast paced game (especially Sevens, which I found out differs from regular rugby in that it is played with 7 players per team, rather than 14 or 15, and a game lasts less than half an hour) and the rules are similar and even simpler than football, so it's easy to catch on. The best game I've watched so far was US Eagles agains Korea. We won, but it was "on the buzzer". Great game.

So, if you find yourself with no football on TV, maybe you could catch one of these games. I think it's fun and look forward to finding some real, non-sevens games to watch.

I love music. I really, really love music. I think if I were to have the choice to be blind or deaf, I'd choose blind because I couldn't bear to be without my music. And I love music for the sake of music, and enjoy many different genres, but particularly like the sound of instrumental music, and love hearing a variety of different instruments. Guitar, banjo, accordion, violin, piano, didgeredoo, whatever, I find them all fascinating. But, since my taste in music spans (or should I say transcends?) genres, I sometimes have a hard time finding what I want to listen to.

Well, while reading slashdot today, I came accross an article about Pandora, an offshoot of the Music Genome Project. The idea is, you tell Pandora an artist or song you like, and it attempts to create a radio station with music that is musically similar to that song or artist. Not depening on only genre, but, supposedly, the actual acoustics of the music. This is not the same as, say Yahoo Launch, which tries to find music in particular genres you tell it you like. We all know that two artists classified in the same genre may sound nothing alike, and you may love one, and hate the other. For instance, I like Johnny Cash, he's classified as Country in most instances. Now, Billy Ray Cyrus is also classified as Country, but you'll not find any Billy Ray Cyrus songs on my playlist. Pandora, on the other hand, supposedly would find artists and songs that share certain musical qualities to Johnny Cash, rather than just lump all "country artists" together. Very cool if it works.

Anyway, may be a cool way to find new music you may otherwise never have listened to.

Well, yesterday it was confirmed without a doubt that summer is a complete goner in my neck of the woods. We had our first, albeit light, snowfall yesterday, and upon waking up this morning to temperatures in the mid 20's, I have no choice but to bid farewell to summer and welcome the winter ahead.

I'd like to announce the birth of my niece Elizabeth Hollie Phillips! She was born yesterday (November 12th, 2005) at 11:07 AM in Odessa, TX to her parents Corey (my little brother) and Cheri Phillips and to her little brother Cole Wesley Phillips. And, of course, to her uncle. . . ME!

I've been promised pics, so I'll post them as soon as I get them. To any of you who know Corey and/or Cheri, your congratulations are welcomed and encouraged.

Last week, and this one a bit so far, has been quite a busy week for me. I had been working on a site to replace an ugly sharepoint portal we were using as our main site (a lot of people here are emotionally attached to sharepoint), and the boss made a final decision to make the site live, so I and a couple of content managers busted our butts to get the thing up and running and with enough content to be appealing. Well, we accomplished our task, and I think we did a pretty fine job, if I say so myself. Unfortunately, since it is a secure site, you'll all just have to take my word on it!

With the busy work week, and yesterday was my birthday, I haven't taken time to blog. We didn't do anything special this (we plan on doing something this coming weekend since it's a 4 day weekend for me. I love working for the government!), but after the long week, I didn't care to even look at a computer. I noticed I'm not the only one who took some time off of blogging. While it's not unusual for a week or more to go by between posts for me, jamescross.net has been uncharacteristically absent of new blog entries. Are things ok down there in Texas?

UPDATE: I just noticed James has a new entry. . .and a new site design. Nice.

Well, our trip to Texas has come and gone. I have to say I really had a great time.

We left K.C. around 3 on Thursday with the intent of stopping in Wichita Falls, TX for the night. We didn't quite make it that far, stopping in Lawton, OK instead (about halfway point from OK city and Wichita Falls) at probably the worst motel I'd ever stayed in. It was a Days Inn, which are usually OK, but this one was old, dirty, packed with loud guests, and the air conditioner alternated from not working at all and rattling like a jackhammer. Plus they were out of king beds, so both of us sleeping on a double made it a little cramped. What's worse, we found out the next day when we left, if we had just stayed on the interstate a few minutes more, there was a Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Best Western, and La Quinta right down the road, and all looked much nicer than the shithole we stayed in.

We finally arrived in Sweetwater around 10:30 AM on friday, and we were exausted. We slept at my parents house for a few hours before finally getting around town and visiting with people. We decided to go to the Roscoe High School football game that evening to watch Tammy's brother Keith play. It was a great game, Roscoe slaughtered Winters, and we met up with family and friends we hadn't seen in a long time. For some it had been well over a year. At one point a boy came up to me selling raffle tickets, and I politely declined. As the boy walked away, my wife started calling him back, and it then occurred to me that it wasn't just any boy, but Benny's son, Zack. I could hardly recognize him, and he, until being reminded of who I was, didn't recognize me either. It's hard to believe it's been so long. I found Benny making his way to the stands, talking to each person along the way (sound familiar OT guys?) and we got to catch up a bit during the game. I especially had questions about a disturbing dream he blogged about not too long ago.

Saturday was the wedding, the very reason we came down to Texas. The ceremony was beautiful, and it was really great to see Tammy's family again. We have not seen any of her family since moving up here, and I know she has been missing them a great deal. Brenda (the sister who got married) was so very nervous, so out of character (she's usually the strong, proud type) that it got me a little choked up too. You could tell she was very, very happy. She had many concerns before the wedding (as I'm sure all brides-to-be do) that something or another would go wrong with the ceremony. Well, as it turns out, she had nothing to worry about. It was honestly one of the nicest wedding ceremonies I'd ever been too.

After the ceremony, we headed out to the Wagon Wheel Ranch for the dinner and dance. During the dinner, the mariachi (who also played during the ceremony) went around the room playing to different groups of people. These guys were good, too. I'm not much of a mariachi authority, and don't listen to much mariachi music, but I was impressed by these guys (and gal). The food was also great, although I was hoping for some good Mexican food, I wasn't complaining about the brisket they served.

The dance started a couple of hours after the dinner was finished, so we all headed out to buy beer and other goodies for the dance. The dance was a highlight of the evening, even though I didn't do much dancing. Our friends Benny, Mari, Isabelle and Tim showed up, and while the girls were interested mostly in the cumbias, the guys were more into the beer and conversation. We did dance a bit, and I usually like dancing at Mexican dances, but having not seen my friends in such a long time, I found myself wanting to chat more than anything (and drink beer).

After the dance, we headed off the Roscoe to see Benny and Mari's new place (new being relative, since they moved into it over a year ago). There we caught up a little more and drank a little more beer. Before we knew it, it was 3AM. Our original plans were to leave Sunday morning so we would have Monday to recover. This, obviously, changed our plans. So, we spent monday with my family messing around Sweetwater and talking. This gave me and Tammy the opportunity to get to know Andrea, my brother Steve's wife, alot better. They married a month before we moved to Kansas, so we had never really had a chance to get to know her. She's a lovely woman, and I can tell she's good for my brother. We're looking forward to a visit from them sometime soon.

We then headed back to Kansas early monday morning. The drive wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be, and only took around 10.5 hours, not the 12 hours mapquest estimates. Plus, with Tammy keeping me company, the drive went by relatively quickly. The longest seeming stretch was from Emporia, KS to Kansas City.

Now, it's back to our normal routine. It's hard to believe it will soon be a year since I left Texas. My, how time does fly. . .

This afternoon after I get off of work, Tammy and I are heading off to Texas (Sweetwater/Roscoe) for her sister's wedding. I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends, but I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the drive. We'll probably stop in OK city on the way there (it's about the halfway point). On the way back, we're hoping to drive straight through, but may think otherwise after we're on the road (it's about a 12 hour drive from Sweetwater to KC).

Anyway, everyone have a great weekend, and if you're in the Sweetwater/Roscoe area, maybe I'll see ya there.

Well all, here is the pics I promised of the Weston Irish Fest. I just uploaded them, so it's nothing fancy, just directory browsing. Just click here and enjoy.

I lived in Texas for 99.9% of my life, and a great deal of that time was in a county with a much smaller population than what I live in now. During that time, I never got called for jury duty. Not once.

The reason I bring this up is this:

When Tammy and I moved up here, a friend of mine and his wife also moved here for the same job. This was in January of this year. Since that time all 4 of us have been called for jury duty. We had all lived in Texas our entire lives, and none of us had ever been called for jury duty. But, after 9 months in Kansas, we all get called. In fact, it was only about 3 months from when the first of us was called until the last of us was called. And of the 4 of us, mine was the only trial that wasn't canceled. I ended up not getting selected for the jury however, nevermind it took them almost 5 hours to not select me.

Now, I don't mind being called for jury, it is an important role we play (even though the trial I was called for was basically a rich guy suing another rich guy), but just wonder how 4 people, newly relocated, get called in such a short time frame. How do they make these selections? They claim it is random, but it sure doesn't seem random.

Well, as promised, Tammy and I attended the Weston Irish Fest, and I had a GREAT time. The beer was flowin', the music was awesome, and . . . did I mention there was BEER?

The festival was held in Weston, MO, a small town of about 1600 people about 10 miles northeast of here (also home of the McCormick distilling company), at O'Malley's pub and American Bowman restaurant. There were two stages set up, one outside and one down in a limestone cellar (this is where O'Malley's pub actually is) that had to be more than 100 years old. To me, even though it was dirty, crowded, and smelled like a storm cellar, the indoor stage was more enjoyable. It almost felt like I were in Ireland.






We had planned to go on saturday night which is the big night for the Irish fest, but both Tammy and I were feeling under the weather, so we went on sunday instead. There wasn't as much activity as saturday night would've had, so I'm a little upset we were unable to attend then, not because I didn't have enough fun tonight, but because if I had this much fun sunday night, I can just imagine how much fun I would've had saturday night. I love Irish music, and this was just fantastic. The three bands we saw were Jiggernaught, Brigid's Cross, and The Elders. When first moving here, I saw a video of The Elders on TV (they're a local K.C. band, but have members from Ireland) so I knew I wanted to see them, and they were outstanding. But suprisingly, the band I liked the most was Brigid's Cross, mainly because of the fiddler, who was OUTSTANDING. This guy was around 300 lbs, wearing a football jersey and what look like pajama bottoms, but played a fiddle like the devil himself. They even did a rendition of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", but this was just showing off I think. This guy was amazing. Not only was their music great, but they played the crowd as well as he played that fiddle.

Jiggernaught was interesting because they featured a female piper, and their music was more of a celtic/rock/country hybrid, so electric guitar paired with bagpipes was kinda cool.

The Elders where the headliners really, and played on the larger outside stage. They attracted quite a large crowd, and were also kinda a rock/Irish hybrid, but more Irish than rock compared to Jiggernaught. One cool moment was when they announced the attendance of a couple that were born in Weston in 1900. That's 105 years for you math geniuses!

It was a nice change from the ordinary, and I plan on going again next year (if I'm still living here).

Anyway, I took some pics and will be posting them soon. I also plan on going to this pub more often, as they have live music every saturday, and well, I like beer.

Look for some pics soon.

Well, although we've had a couple of cool days already, today finally feels like fall is really here. It was only around 40 this morning when I woke up, and the forcast says it won't get over 55 today, and then down in the 30's tonight. Not only is my AC off, I may have to switch some heat on.

I know alot of you don't like the cooler weather, but I've always enjoyed fall and winter, ever since I was a kid. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's from associating it with the holidays when I was young, who knows. Tammy is dreading the coming winter, she keeps a blanket on the couch even in the summer to keep her warm, so winter really gets to her.

I may not have time to blog this weekend, Tammy and I are planning on possibly going to a local Irish festival, so I'll take this time to wish everyone a safe and fun Columbus day weekend. Slainte!

I remember Buster raving about how good the freshly made Krispy Kreme doughnuts were that he used to get while living in Houston. Well, I finally got a taste of what he was talking about. Tammy and I were doing a little shopping in KC this weekend and on the way home stopped by at a Krispy Kreme store (the kind with the window you can watch them fry the doughnuts through) to maybe get a doughnut and a drink. First thing when we walked in the woman behind the counter hands us two freshly made doughnuts as a free sample. Until then I don't think I've ever actually had a doughnut. Tammy, who as as rule, does not like doughnuts, had me buy a dozen of these things. These things melted in my mouth. Good thing there's not one closer to my house or else there'd be around 200 lbs more of me in no time. So, Buster, I finally understand the allure of Krispy Kreme and why you wanted to make a special trip there while in Houston with Hank and the other OT clowns. It's not just another doughnut.

On a side note, I'm going to make a concerted effort to blog much more frequently, as I've really slacked off on my already infrequent blogging. I'm shooting for at least 3 times a week.

I've been thinking a lot about, as I'm sure most of you have, the people of Louisianna and Mississippi this past week. I can sit and complain about the exorbitant gas prices, but at least I have a car to put gas in and a garage to park my car in. I can hardly watch television or read the news because the scenes of the once bustling city of New Orleans that now looks like a 3rd world nation. The death toll is already unthinkable, and will get worse as the days go by. I cannot imagine how the people that have been relocated far from their home, possibly forever, must be feeling. As I was enjoying my labor day weekend, thousands of people find themselves suddenly homeless and in unfamiliar cities. Many have lost contact with friends or family, not knowing if they are alive or dead.

We can't blame terrorists this time. Some have pointed fingers at state and federal governments for how the rescue efforts were handled, and perhaps there is some blame there, but ultimately there isn't anybody responsible for the event itself. We can't threaten to retaliate, because there is nobody to retaliate against. Whether it was God, mother nature, the earth, or whatever you want to give credit to for creating Katrina, there is nothing anybody can do to punish it. It's a bit of a helpless feeling, as it's human nature to lay blame. But blame won't bring back the dead or rebuild cities.

The best any of us can do is to help the victims in any way we can, whether that be prayer, donating money, physically volunteering, or perhaps offering space for evacuees to stay.

Well, last night I had my first chance to try out Google Talk. Dubz and I had a conversation over the new IM client last night, and I was pretty impressed. I was impressed more by what it didn't have than with what it did have, although that was impressive too. The interface was extremely clean and very easy to understand. Not a whole mess of options that the average user will never, ever use. It was just simple, and functional. There were a few small things that I particularly liked, such as the alert sound only occurring with window minimized or closed, starting conversations from where they were left off if one participant closed the chat window, and (this one for some reason I really liked) it didn't display the persons name next to every line they messsaged in the chat window, only when speakers changed, which made reading the chat text much easier.

My being microphone-less stopped me from being able to try the VOIP features, but I'm sure they're great as well. I'm also certain there are other features that I'm not aware of yet, as I only played around with it for an hour or so.

One oddity I noticed was that Dubz was the only person in my Gmail contact list added to the Talk's contact list, although others in my Gmail contacs (Benny and Tim I know had for sure, probably others) already had Talk up and running. My theory is they weren't online at the time, so weren't imported, but I'm not certain.

It's going to be interesting to see what additional bells and whistles is added in the coming months. Who knows, maybe I'll become an avid IMer (is that a word?) once again. Probably not, but who knows.

I'm sure you all know by now, but Google has launched it's IM product, Google Talk! I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but according to Dubz it lives up to the Google standard.

I haven't used IM much in the last few months, mainly because prior to that I used it mostly at work, and here at my new job we're not allowed IM clients on our machines. Nonetheless, I'll most likely have Google Talk installed shortly after arriving home.

From what I've seen of the interface, it's very clean, simple and easy on the eyes. One of the things I really love about Google and their products is their simplicity of design. From the Google homepage to Gmail, it's very, very simple and clean. No fancy graphics, Flash animations, or Java gizmos. Just a clean, easy to use interface. It's one of the reasons I started using Trillian for IM was because the other IM's were becoming nothing more than (to steal a quote from Dubz) "Ad Machines".

Those of you that already have Talk installed, look for me online tonight. Maybe we could test the VOIP (if I can find my mic).

Ok, this is really getting ridiculous. It started off as one or 2 every now and then. Now it's almost every day. Online casinos, viagra pushers, porn peddlers, left and right spamming the hell out of my blog. I'm talking 10 or more in a day when the spammers are really doing their jobs.

Has anyone else had this much of a problem with spammers? Is there any effective way to combat them? I've been banning domains and deleting comments (some of which crash my browser just loading up. . .), but they keep coming in ever-increasing numbers. It is bad enough getting this shit in email, but I at least have tools to fight the bastards on that front. And I know, 10 a day isn't that horrible, but it seems to me they're just picking up momentum, and this could really snowball into a real ass-pain-causing problem.

And I'm not a big fan of ass-pain.

For those of you who use Google for your portal page (or for those of you who don't), they've finally added some new features. One which I am excited about is the ability to (finally) add custom RSS feeds. This, in my opinion, is an extremely important feature.

So, I'm off to add all my usual reads to my Google homepage.

Well, this past Sunday marked my 6 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe Tammy and I have been married for that long. Looking back, we sure have come a long way. I remember in our early days living with a friend of mine while trying to save up some money for me to go back to school. We'd scrounge to pay bills and lived off a diet largely consisting of Ramen noodles! Strange, but I actually regard those times quite fondly. From the moment I married Tammy, my life changed, and continues to change to this day. I don't think I would have ever gone back to school if not for Tammy, and consequently would probably be stuck back in my hometown with a go-nowhere job just wasting my days away. She gave me the courage to take a chance and was my support during hard times. I can't begin to express how much of my crap she's put up with over the years. She definitely got the dookie end of this deal (I was going to say short end of the stick, but since Benny will probably read this, I didn't want to leave it open to any interpretation)! But, for some reason, she sticks around despite that. She's not just my wife, she's my best friend, and I'm so very thankful she has had the strength to stay by my side all these years.

I thought this might be interesting for OT veterans and current inmates. RCG Companies changed its name to Onetravel Holdings, INC.

AMEX symbol is OTV for any of you would-be investors out there. I plan on keeping an eye on it, not that I want to invest (because I don't), but just for the curiosity of it all.

Well, another 4th of July has come and gone. There's just something about a holiday of which the main activities include eating meat, drinking beer, and blowing things up that puts a smile on my face.

After the meat eating, and during the beer drinking/blowing things up, it occurred to me just how cool fireworks are. I haven't really gotten to use fireworks the past few years because of them being illegal within city-limits where I've lived (and not having a place to go outside of city limits), so this year, being in a more flame retardant environment, I went a little nuts and bought quite a bit of them (nothing, I think, compared to buster's standard however). With all the special effects and technology we've gotten used to in movies, theme parks, and what have you, it's amazing that fireworks haven't lost a bit of their charm. I'm a little bummed out that they don't they only allow fireworks on the 4th up here, not on New Year's, so I'll have to wait a whole year before I get to do it again.

Anyway, hope you all had a great 4th of July and ate plenty of BBQ, drank plenty of beer, and blew plenty of stuff up. It's the American Way!

The Pitch, a local semi-serious news and event site recently published this article. Since it is quite a lengthy article, I'll paraphrase the gist of it. At the construction site for a downtown sporting arena, the remains of 6 humans were discovered and determined to be the bodies of Civil War soldiers that were killed by local whores for trying to skip out on payment. I must admit I'm somewhat of a history buff, and I thought it was kinda interesting. That is, until I found out the whole thing was supposed to have been satire in response to Missouri's governer Matt Blunt allowing the Confederate flag on state property. Well, the whole thing was lost by me (as well as just about everyone else). I was a little disappointed that it wasn't true, and a little ashamed for falling for it hook, line and sinker. It's made quite a bit of buzz here, as it ruffled a few feathers.

You can read about the hoax here.

We had a pretty busy day today, but it was fun. First off, we went to the Kansas City Zoo. We've been meaning to go for quite some time, just haven't gotten around to it until today. The was a very different type of zoo than I am accostumed to. I'm used to zoos that are almost like theme parks with animals, but this zoo was like being in the woods. It was very, very wooded, and at times seemed like I was out camping or fishing (then a hippo would pop out of the water). I saw gorillas sleeping in the grass, elephants along a walking trail, and I already mentioned the hippos. I've seen all these animals before, but it somehow seemed, I dunno, more natural here since it was so wild looking you didn't really notice the fences and stuff as much. It was great fun, but we should've gotten there earlier (we got there around 2:00) because it is quite a large zoo. The guides said it would take around 5 hours to see every exibit. And, like a dumbass, I forgot my camera, or else I'd be posting some photos, but we'll be back, and I'll be sure to remember the camera.

On the way back we were starving and decided to stop by at a restaraunt we've driven by dozens of times: Cheeseburger in Paradise. I thought it to be a glorified fast food joint, but man was I wrong. This place was great. Full bar, great burgers, live music, and decent prices. Probably one of my favorite places we've eaten at so far (I'm a big fan of a good burger. Gourmet food as far as I'm concerned.). I'd even go so far to say this even beat Cassidy's in Odessa, TX. And that's saying alot.

Anyway, I've got alot of exploring to do, there's alot of stuff to do here in K.C. I especially can't wait to hit some of the blues and jazz clubs in town. Tammy's even making plans for us to see an opera or some plays (which I think might actually be fun).

Last week, my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and little nephew came up from Texas to stay up here with us for a few days. It really was great to see them all. I always hear people complain about family, especially when family out-of-town come to visit, but for me, they didn't stay long enough. There are alot of things I'd like to have done while they were here, but there just wasn't enough time. But, I'm thankful for the time we did have.

Being so far from home (Texas) it's nice to have some familiar faces around. Having my family and friends so far away has been the biggest, if not only, drawback to moving up here, but the change of scenery was something I desperately needed. I hope, in the not-too-distant future we'll have some more company. Benny has mentioned maybe coming up here sometime. Maybe we could catch a game or take the kids to Worlds of Fun

For now, I at least have a September fishing trip in Texas to look forward to!

One of the simple things I missed while living in Midland was sitting outside on my porch on a summer evening watching birds, approching storms, or generally just enjoying the air. Tammy and I would do this quite often back in Sweetwater, but since moving to Midland, having a small apartment, and the view from our "porch" was other apartments and a parking lot, we didn't indulge much in this simple pleasure anymore.

Tonight was great though. Thunderstorms were coming in the distance, so we decided to sit on our porch and watch them come in. Not only was the lightning quite beautiful to watch, but we noticed our entire neighborhood has been invaded by lightning bugs. I mean these things were everywhere. Growing up in west Texas, I only remember seeing them when I would go camping with my family, and even then it was very seldom, maybe on one or two camping trips out of dozens. It was quite entertaining to watch them blink and flash, and all in our own yard.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that with everyone. I thought it was kinda cool to be able to just sit on my porch and finally enjoy it again.

I must admit I'm somewhat of a closet Star Wars geek. I don't own a lightsaber, I don't have any Star Wars toys, you'll never find me dressed as Darth Vader (well, once maybe when I was about 6), I have never, and never want to, attend a convention or Star Wars event of any kind really, and I've never camped out at a theater for any movie, but, none the less, I guess I'm a bit more than a casual fan. I do know a more about the story than I need to, can name just about every character. So, I lie somewhere in between the guy who declares his religion as "Jedi" and the guy who doesn't know Boba Fett from Han Solo.

I didn't hold the same disdain for Episode I and II as many people have. Mainly because I wasn't expecting anything more than what they were. After all, it's Star Wars, not Shakespeare. If you analyze and dissect it, of course it's ridiculous. If I walked into a McDonald's expecting a gourmet meal, I'd be really disappointed. But, despite how many people claim they just hate McDonald's, they sure sell a mess of hamburgers. The same could be said of Star Wars. Somebody is buying these tickets, right? I'd be willing to bet my life's wages that the vast majority of people who see (and like) these movies are not the stereo-typical Star Wars geeks you see camping out at the movie theaters and dressing like Jedi.

That being said, I think this final movie is possibly the best of the whole series. I grew up with Star Wars, my brother and our friends used to have lightsaber battles, we had all the action figures, ships, etc. I can't remember a time when I didn't know who Darth Vader was. We all knew he was Luke's father and at one time a good man, a Jedi even. But we never really knew how he came to be Darth Vader and exactly why he wore that black suit. After seeing this movie, it makes me view the originals a little differently.

Throughout the movie I was anticipating the inevitable ending. I knew what and who Anakin was to become, but I think somewhere in my subconscious I was hoping he wouldn't. It was interesting that his intentions for turning were actually good: to save Padme from death, of which he had premonitions. Palpatine had tempted him with the promise of being able to prevent death through the use of the dark side. Ironic that his finally turning to the dark side was the ultimate cause of Padme's demise. This was a level of story complexity alien to the series, especially the prequels(the originals had the whole "I am your father" bit). After preventing Mace Windu (Sam Jackson) from killing Palpatine, Anakin is finally christened "Darth Vader" and as his first act of loyalty to the Sith, he slaughters all the children in the Jedi temple. This act makes it clear Anakin is gone, and Darth Vader has arrived. It was also a bit odd seeing a character addressed as "Darth Vader" that certainly didn't look like Darth Vader.

The final lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan was grueling. I knew Anakin was going to lose, and lose very badly, I just didn't know when it was going to happen. It was like waiting for that little puff of air you get in your eye from that machine at the optometrist. When that final moment did come it was easily the most gruesome scene in any of the Star Wars films, and is probably the main reason this film was rated PG-13 (parents of young children, beware). Both legs and arm severed, then severely burned by a lava flow, Anakin's transformation into the Darth Vader we know and love was complete after being rescued by Palpatine (Obi-Wan left him for dead) and painfully fitted with the familiar life-support suit. The final scene is Darth Vader standing next to the Emperor overlooking the beginning construction of the Death Star.

Would I say this was the best movie I've ever seen? Absolutely not. There are far smarter and more thought provoking films out there, but Star Wars is not, nor was it intended to be, one of them. It was intended to be a special effects filled roller-coaster ride, and this it accomplishes quite well.

I just wish I still had those old toys from my childhood. Imagine the killing I could've made with Ebay! If only I had known then what I know now. . .

I thought you former and current OneTravel guys would be interested in this. Lastminute.com based in the UK has sold to Sabre. You can read about it here.

I think it's particularly amusing that they sold for so much more than OneTravel did.

Oh well, another OneTravel partner leaves the fray. I'm so glad all the time and effort OneTravel invested in them really paid off, just like most OT ventures.

Microsoft has released beta 2 of their Visual Studio 2005 Express products. This includes Visual Web Developer Express, Visual C# Express, Visual Basic .NET Express, Visual J# Express, Visual C++ Express and SQL Server 2005 Express.

I've only used the Visual C# express beta 1, but was quite impressed with the IDE. For those of you interested in .NET, you might want to check it out.

Well guys, I know I've been slacking on both the posting and the updating of my site. I've been really busy as of late and haven't had a chance to do a lot of my personal stuff and have kinda fallen out of contact with most everyone.

I also want to take this opportunity to offer my condolences to Dubz for his return back to the mainland from his trip to Hawaii. I know just how painful that can be.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know I'm alive and well. I promise I'll become a more active blogger!

Oh, and I've added links to some of my close friends' and family member's sites, so check them out.

You know, I've always been told to look for the positive in whatever situation you're in, and I've always tried to do this, although often not very successfully. This morning while frantically getting ready for work (damn snooze button!), I longed for the good 'ol days of OneTravel.

Yes, you read that right, I said "good 'ol days".

Although many, many, many things at OT were less than good, there were a few positive things like great co-workers, close proximity to my family, and flexible work schedule, among others. The particular positive I was reminiscing about this morning was the casual work environment. From the time I woke up to the time I was leaving the house was often 15 minutes or less provided I showered the night before, 30 minutes if I needed to shower in the morning. I would throw on some shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers, and that's all it took to get ready. Shaving was optional. Combing my hair wasn't necessary if I wore a cap. I could probably have shown up in a bath robe and not break the dress code. Having to iron clothes (and having to buy clothes that need ironing ever), making sure I'm clean shaven every day, wearing uncomfortable dress shoes . . . this all has really cramped my (lazy) style. Gone are the "jump out of bed and go straight to work" days.

Am I saying I would go back there? Not even if I could work at home all day in my underoos.

So, there you go, another positive thing discovered in the hell-hole that is OneTravel.

A colleague of mine recently published a novel. I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet, but it's a fantasy/adventure story. The book is titled The Book Of Legends: Hallowed Ground by A.V. Spallo Jr.

Knowing Vince, it ought to be a great read. I'll post my reviews after I read it.

Google has announced to up Gmail's storage to 2 gigabytes and promises more storage in the future. I'm not sure if I'll ever use even the 1 gig I have, but it's nice to know it's there if I need it.

As most of you know, I relocated from Texas to the Kansas City area at the beginning of this year. For the most part, I'm really liking it up here, the job is great, I live far enough out of K.C. (Leavenworth) that I don't have to deal with the problems of city life, but close enough that it's convenient. We're right on the Missourri river, and the country around here is beautiful with rolling hills and lots and lots of trees (in Midland there was a town nearby called Notrees, just to tell how the tree situation was there).

But, there is one thing that is taking some major adjustment: winter is LONG here. I'm used to Texas where it would get cold intermittently from November through January or February, then start warming up by march or April. Not so up here. Once winter comes, it doesn't let go, and it sticks around for a while too. Plus, I've seen more snow in the few months I've been here than I saw in the 2 years I lived in Midland. And they tell me it wasn't a very snowy winter either. Don't get me wrong, it's not like it's bitter arctic-like weather up here, it's just that it's very consistently cold, unlike Texas where it would be cold a few days, then warm up a few days, then before you know it, it's warm all the time again. . . then hotter than hell.

All this winter is really making me appreciate spring more. I can't wait until it gets here and don't think I've ever looked forward to it as much as I do now.

When I was a young lad, I watched a show called Battlestar Galactica. Those of you old enough probably remember this little show, with an evil race of machines called cylons bent on eradicating humans from the universe. I have a particularly fond memory of going on vacation with my family to California where we took a Universal Studios tour. During the tour we got "kidnapped" by cylons and were rescued by Starbuck, one of the heroes from the show. There were lasers, explosions and it was great!

Anyway, the folks on the SciFi channel have brought back this classic with a whole new perspective. The cylons are still trying to destroy humankind, but the show is much more dramatic and much darker than the old shoot em up of the early 80's. In fact, it almost plays like a documentary, especially the space battle scenes.

I tend to not get caught up in TV, but whether it is nostalgia or something else, I have been hooked on this show. My wife, who is unique among women in that she loves science fiction (her two favorite movies are the Alien series and all the Star Wars movies, in that order) makes it a point to have no plans for fridays between 9:00 and 10:00 pm. And with an actor like Edward James Olmos heading up the cast, it's one of the best science fiction shows of all time.

If you get a chance, check it out.

I've made a decision to use b2evolution as my blogging software. The feature set of both b2e and WordPress are very similar, and both seem like great products. The reason's I chose b2e are as follows.

1. Multiple blogs (not just multiple categories) per install.


2. Easier to customize. All templates files contain complete HTML, with all tags closed, unlike WordPress which would split tags up between files (<html> tag open in header file and closed in the footer file for example.) Some style information was also contained in the template php files, rather than all being in a .css file. This is probably the most important reason in my decision (although admittedly a little nit-picking).


3. Spellchecker! This may be an option on WordPress, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps as a plugin?


4. Nobody else I know personally is using it yet. This is a very minor reason, but I take it as an opportunity to share what I learn, and learn about the in's and outs of SimplePost and WordPress from the one's that are already using it.

That's about it really. Neither product really shines compared to the other. Both were extremely easy to install, are packed full of neat features, support plugins, are configurable and customizable, and, most importantly, are 100% FREE open source software. I'm certainly not bashing WordPress in any way, and think whichever software you use, you've made a good choice.

I've added a link on the Misc section of the side nav (as the template is now, until I get around to customizing it).

This should allow you to log in when you want to comment on a post so you don't have to enter your information every time.

Register and let me know what you think. Thanks for any feedback you guys give.,I'm counting on it to help me evaluate b2be to see if it fits my needs.

Well, here I am again trying a new blog software. Hopefully soon I'll find one I really like. Wordpress was very nice, and still in the running for sure. Just can't see myself choosing it if I have never even tried anything else. Just my nature I guess.

I wasn't really happy with blogger, mainly because I like to have total control over the software on my host, at least as close to total control as possible. I also didn't like the idea of having my data stored on google's server instead of my own hosts server.

Also, I'm looking for a new host for caseyphillips.net. Currently I have it forwarding to the host that peench.com resides on. What I'm looking for is a Linux reseller's account with PHP & MySQL, so if any of you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear about them. I'm using a windows host for it right now because I thought I'd do some ASP.NET stuff, but I do that all day at work, and want something different for my personal time. Not to mention Linux hosts are usually much cheaper and come with more features.

Well, I finally broke down and set up my blog. I know a lot of you have been on my case to start updating it, so I expect regular visits (Buster, James)!

Anyway, I'll try to post weekly, if not more often. I'll probably be experimenting alot with the layout for a while as well, so expect alot of changes.