Where to begin. It's been a long time since being "active" here. Now that things are getting back to normal, I still am slow to get back into the routines of DA. My inbox is a complete mess, so I'll work on that a little at a time. How old is a message before answering it becomes dated? Hmmm......

So, the leave of absence was mostly due to remodeling my condo. I hammered at it for a good month or two, then got burned out and took too long of a break. I was back at it a couple of weeks ago, but now I'm no longer motivated. Now I chip at it a little at a time. What's the hurry?

To begin with, every wall in the place was white. I've lived with white walls for over two decades and needed a change. Ever since seeing an episode of Magnum P.I., I've always wanted a red living room. Now the living room, dining room, and hall have red walls, white ceilings, and white crown molding. The painting is pretty much done, only needing a tiny amount of touch ups in the dining room. The crown molding in the living room is complete, but was looking at it last night and think it might need another layer of paint. The molding in the dinging room and hall is up but needs filled in and painted. And yes, hanging crown molding is a major pain, especially when the ceiling and walls aren't always perfectly 90 degrees.

I am almost done with the carpet in the living room. Should have been done if it wasn't for football. I went with carpet tiles and it doesn't look bad at all. I found an extremely high quality tile and I'm taking my time getting them put down properly. When I got the sample, it looked a bit more gray but now that it's down, I think it has a bit more blue tint. I cringed at first because I thought it would clash with the red walls, but it balances the gray leather furniture. Gray would probably have made it look too much like a dungeon, so the blue is actually a pleasant surprise.

And all the base board and door frames need to be replaced. The old wood majorly sucked so it had to go. I already have the molding shape and stain picked out because I had to do the patio doors really quick because I had custom drapes made and needed to get it done before they were installed. And the guys at work think I'm a lunatic because of the drapes. I just don't get why they think leather drapes are insane. I don't.

And I had before pics taken, but might have lost them. I'll get some pics posted to scraps when I get the carpet done in the living room.

And yes, unfortunately my computer died on me. I finally got the point of being tired of not having it and decided to do a cost analysis of getting a new one versus trying to get the old one going again. It was at least three years old, and the price of new systems has dropped a ton so I opted for a new model. Right now I'm trying to get everything customized like my old system was. Windows 7 is a mixed bag. Some things I think are completely cool, and some things are driving me crazy. Little my little I beat it into submission to look and run the way I want. And Firefox was a major war to get installed. I won.

Unfortunately I think I did lose some parameters for my latest images. Fortunately I haven't been creating much so taking a break helped. I'll know when I dig through my backup discs and see how far back they go. For the most part, I'm starting over clean. I saved all the emails for software purchases and passwords. And I'm not installing programs I hardly used. Keep it simple, and keep it lean and mean.

I also joined the Android nation back in August. My old cell phone was not cutting it when it came to meeting my work needs so I started shopping around. My basic need was something that would run programs and had a built in keyboard. The keyboard on the Palm Treo 800 was way too small. It was down to the Ocean by Virgin, and the G1 (Dream) by T-Mobile. I looked everywhere for an Ocean and couldn't find one to see in person. I bought the G1 and I'm hooked.

After about a month, I did some research and hacked it. Now I'm running Cyanogen mods, Amen Ra recovery image, and just upgraded the new 10 MB hack for the Ram. Androids rule. I bought it before I knew about the new Droid, and even though the Droid is now the #1 cell phone, I wouldn't jump ship and trade my G1 for one right now. This bad boy hums, and with the hack, I have tons of space for apps. HTC builds a mean phone, and the Android platform is awesome with its capabilities.

Don't know what an android is? Check this link out: [link] . The only phone I would consider getting would be the Bravo: [link] . It's due out in April, but it doesn't have a built in keyboard so I'd have to really think about it.

Iwhat?

Ye gads, I think I've become a nerd.

And one more thing, just got back from seeing Avatar. In a word, stunning. I checked it out in 3D on an Imax theater. Heard a lot about it and wasn't disappointed one bit. It's an artistic overload, that's for sure. I think I could watch it a dozen times and still find new things to take in, and never stop being amazed at the amount of detail and beauty of it all. The standard has a new setting in Hollywood, good luck all you movie makers out there.

Well, longest journal I've written in some time. I have some browsing to do, and some inbox cleaning I hope to hit soon. Til then, it's friggin cold here so say warm and stay in touch.