So the other day we got the Jason Mraz album "Waiting for my Rocket to Come". The only song I had really heard from the album is "You and I both". This was poppy and had a beautiful acoustic ring of a up and coming Signer song writer. So we got it. I listened to this album over and over again today. I couldn't stop. Mraz has to be one of the best lyricist to come around in a long time.

There some song on this album that you will just finding yourself singing along by the second verse. (to the horror of my co-workers). I was amazed at the diversity on this album. I expected acoustic pop, and I got that, but I also got funky groove, regae moves and outstanding lyrics and one of the best new voices to come to rock in a while. Songs like "Curbside Prophet," have the great feel, of classic J. Love, with some Nashville funk thrown in. While "I'll Do Anything" has an amazing reggae beat, with smooth lyrics flowing in to a melodic chorus, while avoiding lyrical cliches`that would of been easy to fall into. I think the song "The Remedy" will be the next song that gets radio play from this album. It has that pop rock feel, with out feeling like a teen bopper hit. It's obvious from this album that Mraz influences are many and diverse. Which for me is really nice to hear.

The other thing that impress me is Mraz website, someone was smart enough to figure out you have to give some music away to sell it. There are seven mp3s for the download. But I'm telling you that after listening to those songs you are going to want the album.

So I have been hitting my head against the wall with Session variables in C#. For instance, you can see a variable by just calling it and giving it a value.  Session["myValue"] = value Which is kind of like working in VB.NET. However when you go to read values from there it is a different beast all together. This comes from the fact that Session variables are actually objects and can be set to just about anything. So if I am going to read a value out of the Session variable it looks something like this: Response.Write(Session["myValue"].ToString()); Okay, now so far this isn't to bad, but what VB and VB.NET programmers are not use to, is have to initate the Session that you are going to use later. For example you have a Session variable that only gets a value if a event happens. If that even happens you don't initate the variable. Later in your code you have a condition statement that checks against the value in your Session variable. In VB you can do this all day not, and if there value is empty (ie you didn't initate the Session variable)  it returns an empty or null value. However in C# you get an error stating that the Object has not be set.

So this got me, jumpin up and down flustered. Then Ed told me the secret to it all, and I will now share it with you. (Though I figured you have guessed it by now) Initate all of your Session variables in the Session_Start function in your Global.asax. This way they are always initated and if you run conditional statements against them you can get an empty or null value.

Happy Coding

Yesterday afternoon, I was kind of restless, so I drove over to the local music store. While I was there I walked around a little bit and a tried a couple of guitars. Mostly feeling smart, because so far mine at home sounded much better then the ones I played. (And mine is less then half of the cost of the ones in this store) I walked over and played a couple of classical guitars.

I love the sound of nylon strings. There is a warmth to the tone, that I find so wonderful to listen to and to play. Anyhow, I pick up this acoustic classical, with a cutaway body so that you can reach high in the fret scale. I just strummed an E chord and all of the sudden, my ears said 'that sounded good, do it again!'. So I do, again my ears go, 'do that again!'. So I must of sat there played that beautiful guitar for close to 20 minutes. So by this time, I am in love, ready to take it up to the man behind the counter and ... put it on layway (what? You know you have to do that too!).

So I find the little card thingy that is the price tag and look. Once I regain consciousness... I looked at it again. $1,600.00 ... On Sale. So of course I put it back really gingerly, holding my breath until it is back in the guitar stand. Come to find out it is a Rodriguez C Cutaway. If I listen to the tale from the website, it is a handcrafted guitar made from the trees that Mr. Rodriguez grandfather planted many years ago.

Well, short story long, the guitar got to stay at the music shop. I got to come home and complain. I mean, I have a family to support, bills to pay, I can't talk myself in to buying something like that! That thing cost more than our rent (Though not by much). Though I have talked to the guy at the music shop and he says I can come back to visit, just as long as it's not to often.

How come weekends seem to go by so fast? There never seem to be enough time to get everything done.

Wow, am I feeling blah. It was a long night. I couldn't get comfortable. I went from the bed to the floor to the bed to the floor and back to the bed. My stomach hurts and all noise seems to be extra loud. I mean the hard drive in my laptop spinning was keeping me up, and I had to shut it down.

The other day I downloaded the trial version of Microsoft OneNote. I am amazed how quickly this has become one of those necessary apps. My boss told me about it and I thought, well it is probably good, but more for Tablet PCs. And yes, it does work with Tablets very well, but what it lets me do is brainstorm digitally. I can't sit down and write out how my next web application is going to work linearly. I do think object orientedly, in clusters of functionality. And once those are down, I figure out what I am going to need to built that function. So I have been mapping out my applications this way for years, usually with just a pad and a pen. OneNote lets you work that way on you PC.

So say you figure out you need two functions. One named myName and the other named yourName. Now we have the functions, what else do we need. Well maybe to create a superClass over the two functions because they have name in common. Well how do you write that out in Word? And once you have it written down, how do you move the text around to show relationships?

Well OneNote, works with textboxes, so you just click in the note space and start writing. And say, does that need to be higher in the document? Grab it's header and drag it up, or left or right.

When I work, I have Web Browser open to Google. I like to reference articles and blogs I have read, that have great information or ideas. How do you include that in your Word document. Add Hyperlink right, well with OneNote, you simple drag the URL from the address bar into the OneNote notespace. Or an image, drag that in too!

Okay, what if you don't want to type, you just want to, I don't know, talk about it and have that in your notes. OneNote can handle that too. It can record audio and have that linked in your document.

I test lots of applications, and very few of them, get in to my, required tools category, but OneNote has done that rather quickly.

Today was another Thursday. I had tons to do at work, but had to solve other people's issues. (grrrrr) So as far as I can figure it, I only spent ten minutes working on my stuff today. However I did somehow keep a good mood, despite the fact I am being buried in others work. We still haven't gotten everything straighten out with the vendor we are buying our CMS solution from, so it looks like we aren't getting it till next week. So on the 26th I will get it. At least they don't expect me to have it done by the 31st as original projected.

Through the rain there is some sun. I run two monitors at work, and the left side one was a CRT 19" Dell. It was getting blurring and being that I run the resolution really high, it accentuated this problem. So today it got replaced with a 18" Flat screen Dell, which is identical to the right side monitor. So now I have more desk space (a 19" CRT takes a ton of room) and two rockin Flat Screens. All I need is two more!

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It was really nice to get home before 6:30pm tonight. That hasn't happen'd in a while. I caught an earlier train and walk the 8 blocks from the train station to the house. It was a wonderful evening for taking a walk. A little brisk, but just really nice. As I walked down the street, I could smell everyone's dinner cookin'. This house on the right is having Chili, and this one over here is grill hamburgers and hot dogs. So I picked up my pace, because I was starting to get hungry.

On the way home, there is a little park. And there is where the Cheer Nazi does her work. You see it is dark outside and brisk but the Cheer Nazi doesn't care. She has what could be bright young women out there in the cold, in the dark practicing "the Perfect Cheer" until these girls pass out. This really bothers me, I mean these young women could be come doctors or scientist, to really make a difference in the future but no, she is turning them in to cheerleaders, yeah, cheerleaders. Bottle blonde, perpetually smiling, snooty, 'like oh my god', cheerleaders. I tell you the thought if it just makes me sick. Now, I know that some one is going to say, Hey, I was a cheerleader. And to that I ask one question, what did cheerleading teach you that you use in your day to day adult life. And please no "Miss America" answers. I want a really answer.

So this women (the Cheer Nazi) is out there screaming at these girls, 'no, no, no, do it again but right this time'. What pleasure can she possibly get from screaming at teenage girls ( I mean besides the obvious) to step to the exact rhythm of the stupid teeny bopper on the boombox. Is she creating a army of cheerleaders to take over the world?