Just wanted to take a second to thank Google for allowing me to make a call to the U.S. from my email for FREE!!!!! It even uses my Google Voice number so it shows up from the Lansing area.

A while ago I bought an Amazon Kindle so I don’t have to haul any books around on deployment. I must say, I am quite impressed with it.

To start, the battery lasts a long time. I can go weeks at a time without charging it. It’s slim, fairly simple to use and easy on the eyes.

UPs:
- Charges your CC without having to login
- Group books together to reduce clutter on the home screen
- Copy PDFs/Books from the computer over to the Kindle
- Free 3G world wide (if you get the 3G version)
- Computer application if you want to read from your laptop/desktop
- Make notes / Bookmark
- Built in dictionary

Downs:
- A bit slow at times
- 3G is not the fastest where I am at.

Overall it was worth the $189 for the Wifi+3G version.

2009 was a good year. I did a bit of traveling for both work and pleasure.

Cozumel, Mexico – 7-8 days on a scuba diving trip
Germany – 3 weeks on a work related trip
New York – 2 weeks on a work related trip
Colorado – 1 week vacation

2010 is no different.

March
Texas – SxSW Festival
Texas(again) – For MOSQ school
and a few other place(s) I won’t talk about at the moment.

With experience comes different ways a person may code. Take a look at the code of one of your first big projects. How is your code? If it was anything like mine it was pretty bad. Recently I have been rebuilding a web app of some business tools. It started with v1 of my “core tools” I use to help me along. Those tools drastically changed in the way I coded them and in turn required a more efficient way of coding to use them. So, I started rebuilding with v2 and am much more pleased. Updates will be easier to make, new features will be easier implemented and all around a better general feeling of the code.

Sometimes its necessary to start from scratch as your results will be much better. I am still a ways off of being done, but so far so good and I am really happy with how its turning out.

So I finally broke down a have been doing the Netflix free trial. Why? Simply because there is hardly anything on TV worth watching. Pretty much, Comedy Central, and Discovery Channel are the ones I watch.

Anyways, I have been doing both the streaming to my Xbox 360 as well as getting the DVD’s in the mail. As for the 360, its a pretty good experience. There was only 1 day where it kept telling me it detected a slower connection so it would lower the quality to keep the movie going smoothly. Except for the fact it did this several times within 10 minutes and it got to the point where it was so grainy it wasn’t worth watching anymore. The next day I got an email from Netflix saying there was some trouble with their system and increased my trial date by a day. Awesome! I haven’t had that issue since.

Get your dvd’s in a day! I know I do. They have a shipping center in Lansing which is sweet! I dropped my DVD the other day in a mailbox just after 4:30. By 7:15 the next morning I had an email saying they received the dvd. Then just shortly ago, I got an email saying the next dvd will be here tomorrow. I picked it out late last night so I am happy. I do plan on keeping Netflix as it is cheaper than going to Blockbuster. There , I rented a DVD for like $4.00 ( I think it was $4 and change), and didn’t care for the DVD. Now I can pay less than $9 and watch a bunch of movies, and if I don’t like it, move on.

Oh yeah, they even have the IT Crowd. Gee Wilikers BATMAN!!!

In the terms of an ebay review

Would recommend A+++++++++++++++++!