MSNBC has published it's "The Year in Pictures 2005" , some photos are beautiful, some are sad and some are a little graphic, but it was this year.

On a little lighter side, there is some photos I took this year. Let me know what you think.

Well it's about ten days late, but it was around this time two years ago that I started this blog thing. My first post was fairly simple, it just said: "Just did the bills... Either need more money or less bills or both." And it has a cartoon of a guy with a wheelbarrow full of bills. That image linked to my amazon wishlist. I was telling my beautiful Wife about that and she commented that the wheelbarrow full of bills hasn't changed, and she asked if my amazon wishlist had changed, I told her it did. She said good, so at least there was some change in two years. She always knows how to make me smile.

I started this blog two years ago, just to make me enjoy the web again. I've been doing Web work since 1997 and after six years of working at the business end of it, it was nice to kind of get back to the roots of the internet, which for me is, anyone with a little time can publish their thoughts, Ideas, Interest and Passion to the World Wide Web so that others can learn from each other. In the begining the internet was used to connect universities together so that the could share their collective knowledge, and in a bigger way that is what the web has become. One of my new favorite methods for the whole collection of knowledge is the Wikipedia, it allows people, everyday people that know a little something about a certian subject to submit an article about any subject. Then once submitted if there is an error in the article anyone is allowed to edit it. It's had its ups and downs, as some people abuse the privilege of being about to edit such a site (Adam Curry). In the end, if some respect is shown it could be a great thing.

Today, I received a very encouraging email. You see about a month ago I submitted one of my photos to BetterPhoto.com of Max the Wonder Puppy. I entered it in there monthly contest for Animal photos, and apparently I got picked as a Finalist. So here is the email:

Hi Russell

Congratulations... you have placed as a Finalist in this month's BetterPhoto
Contest! Over 22200 photos were entered into the competition; it is an honor
to have your image selected among the top 561 Finalist photos.

Your Finalist photo: Who's There? (#1421907)

This image can be viewed - along with all of the Finalist images - at:
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGall2.asp?catID=8648

During the next few days, the judges select the top winning photos. If
your image is selected as a winner, you will be emailed again.

Again, congratulations on placing as a Finalist - keep up the great work!

Heather Young

Kind of Cool, Huh?

So this afternoon doctors visit was very very diffferent than the one six weeks ago. First off, I walked in to the doctors office feeling good. Which was something new to me. I got on the scale, and I was 15 pounds lighter.  So, got to feel good about that. I waited patiently in the exame room waiting to find out the results of my blood test, I mean I had studied really hard for it. Well the Doctor comes in and is great as always, asks me how I'm doing. I told him I was feeling better and what I had been doing. He seemed pleased, and then we checked out the results. First the biggy, the triglycerides,  the first blood test, they were 709, this time, 147. Which was awesome, they are suppose to be under 150, and in six weeks we got it down! Cholestrol was 247 to 129.
So that is all good news.

The results of it all was very good, and encouraging. I will keep up with the good diet and exercise.

It's funny three weeks after I stopped drinking soda, especially Vanilla Coke, I was told that they were cancelling Vanilla Coke. I'm not saying that it happened because I stopped drinking it, but if it is, I apologize.

Last year I read a book I really enjoyed. It was called "The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography". It was basically the history of cryptography in a nutshell. One of the subject that I found completely fasinating was the use of "Enigma" machines during World War II to encrypt messages. Germany had some brilliant minds creating these devices. Well there are only a view in existance today. So it's something I could get my hands on and play with, that was until I found a Virtual Enigma Machine. So now I can play with one to my geeks/hearts content.

Update: There is quite an interesting discussing on the Enigma at digg.com if you'd like to read more about it.

So as someone that takes public transportation to and from work every weekday I have to say that Google Transit, is something that has been desperately needed. The first time I took the train to work, it was so confusing. I wasn't sure of the schedules, didn't know where to catch my connection at, it was tough. However there was an amazing sense of accomplishment when I did finally get to work. Currently it just seems to be handling the Portland Area, however I hope that LA Metro contacts google and becomes a "Participating Transit Authority".

This is a great post on where to, and where not to use AJAX in your applications.