8:49 AM

I took some pictures earlier this morning.

6:19 AM

We've been listening to Zone 80 regularly for a while now.

I always thought French pop really sucked when I was listening to it in the 80's. Like every teenager I was mostly full of it. I was just reminded of how much I really liked this song.

The lyrics aren't bad either:

Ils ont quitté leur terre
Leurs champs de fleurs
Et leurs livres sacrés
Traversés les rizières
Jusqu'au grand fleuve salé
Sans un mot sans un cri
Ils ont fermé leurs visages de miel
Les yeux mouillés de pluie
Les mains tendues vers le ciel

Un peu plus près des étoiles
Au jardin de lumière et d'argent
Pour oublier les rivages brulants
Un peu plus près des étoiles
A l'abri des colères du vent
A peine un peu plus libre qu'avant

Au pied des murs de pierres
Ils ont brulé leurs dragons de papier
Refermé leurs paupières
Sur les chenilles d'acier
Eux qui croyaient vieillir
En regardant grandir leurs enfants
A l'ombre du sourire
Des Boudas de marbre blanc

Ils parlent à demi-mots
A mi-chemin entre la vie et la mort
Et dans leurs yeux mi-clos
Le soleil, le soleil brille encore
Une île de lumière
Un cerf volant s'est posé sur la mer
Un vent de liberté
Trop loin trop loin pour les emporter

Pardon my French. I was going to translate it, but it wouldn't do it justice.

9:05 PM

It's snowing… Yippeeee!

They are predicting up to 4 inches.

Thunder is roaring. I've tried to explain to our cats that a flash of light followed by a deep rumbling sound is just lightning, but they still get scared and are hiding in the bedroom.

Hard Rockin' 80s

We're listening to this net radio today. No commercials, just some funny intermissions. One of them goes something like:

Perhaps one of the most interesting words in the English language is the word fuck.

It is one magical word. Just by its sound you can describe pain, pleasure, love, war and hate. In language, fuck falls into many grammatical categories.

It can be used as a verb both intransitive (Dave fucked Anne) and transitive (Anne was fucked by Dave), as an adverb (Anne is a good fuck) and also as an adjective (Anne is fucking beautiful).

As you can see, there are not many words with the versatility of fuck.

Besides the sexual meaning of the word, there are also the following:

Aggression

Fuck you

Apathy

Who gives a fuck anyway

Denial

I didn't fucking do it

Derision

He fuck's everything up

Difficulty

I don't understand this fucking job

Dismay

Oh Fuck it!

Displeasure

What the fuck is going on here?

Fraud

I got fucked at the car auctions

Greetings

How the fuck are you?

Incompetence

He fucks up everything

Lost

Where the fuck are we?

Panic

Let's get the fuck out of here

Perplexity

I know fuck-all about it

Resignation

Oh… Fuck it

Retaliation

Up your fucking arse

Suspicion

Who the fuck are you?

Trouble

Well I guess I'm fucked now

There's really nothing like a good dose of humor between Priest and the Scorps.

To Swing or Not to Swing…

The recent release of JDK 1.4 is giving me headaches.

I've been trying to come up with a solution for IP Monitor to work consistently under Windows XP, Linux, Mac OS X and Classic. I've managed to make most of the UI look good on all platforms, except for the menu bar. The issues are as follows:

• JDK 1.3/1.4 doesn't properly render the background color of an AWT MenuBar under XP. A Swing JMenuBar, on the other hand, seem to be displayed correctly.
  
  
• Under Mac OS Classic, an AWT MenuBar can be placed in the standard OS menu bar; a Swing JMenuBar cannot. Mac OS X, on the other hand, can be made to use either.

I'd really like to avoid having to maintain two sets of menus. I think I've done a pretty good job at abstracting all of the platform specific code, so far. I'd really hate to resort to such a draconian approach.

I might simply have to drop support for Mac OS Classic in the next version. There's really nothing wrong with the classic MRJ, but being forced to code for JDK 1.1.x is annoying.

I could also implement support for, and, recommend people start using Luca Lutterotti's alternative MacOS Look & Feel under classic. Which may turn out to be the best way after all.

Decisions… decisions… My head hurts again…

Freeze This!

If you're looking for a creation/modification date freezing tool for Windows XP, I'd highly recommend Attribute Changer. It's free, intuitive and does a better job than any of the other tools I've tried.

Looking around for a file attributes editor reminded me of the Frontier Droplets I wrote, back in 1995. I haven't used them in years, but I still think the Freeze Date and Edit File Info+ UIs rock!

On February 20, 1962 John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

I just released a new version of IP Monitor for Java. Nothing major, just some UI tweaks for JDK 1.4.

Vicki and I went to Chandler's for our Anniversary/Valentine's dinner. This was our second visit. Good food and pleasant atmosphere. She surprised me with a book on James Bond, which is too cool. I gave her a personalized jewelry box as well as a heart-shaped diamond pendant. A very good evening, indeed.