Librarything.com

I recently cataloged the books that have been residing on the shelves in my office. After trying different things on and off for a couple years, I decided to use a website called: librarything. The librarything website is essentially an online library catalog, where you can store and share lists of books. Inputing a hefty number of books was amazingly fast with the help of a cuecat barcode reader, which I picked up a while back for just such a project. You can check out the 'books' link on my website to browse through my library.

A Table, Apple TV, and Bamboo

My office recently had an injection of greenery in the form of a bamboo plant. It certainly helps to break up the monotony of the khaki colored cubicle walls.

Earlier last year, Melissa found a nice looking table in a magazine, and we decided to build one similar to it. After drafting up some measurements and adjusting the table height to be a little taller, it was time to saw and sand. After a few days of sawdust and paint, the table is now done. However, it might still end up with a different color, and another coat of paint.

We also recently got an Apple TV. I immediately began to modify it. It now features Boxee and XBMC (xBox Media Center). These additions allow the Apple TV to play almost any form of multimedia content from multiple types of servers, such as Hulu. I had installed XBMC on an original xBox and enjoyed that project thoroughly.

Reading here and there

I recently finished the The Genesis of Shannara prequels by Terry Brooks. Fun reads if you've slogged through the rest of the Terry Brooks universe. He included alot of flashbacks for character development that were tiresome at points. His style of splitting up the main characters into competing quests and then rotating through them round robin keeps the flow of the books exciting, though it becomes an expected aspect of his writing. I also just read through My Word is my Bond by Roger Moore. It was a fun book detailing the experiences of an English actor.
I'm planning on reading Westward Ho! a novel from 1855 by Charles Kingsley. Which isn't about manifest destiny, but rather about Spanish Conquistadors, English Privateers, etc. I also am looking to read through the short story the The Corsican Brothers by Alexandre Dumas.

smartphone

Melissa bought me a wonderful gift: an iPhone from craigslist. Needless to say, I am super-mega-excited to have a smartphone! Thanks love!

Anniversary

Melissa and I just celebrated our first anniversary of being married. I am so happy and blessed to be married to such a wonderful person. It has been an exciting year filled with adventures and growth. I've heard people say that their love for someone grows more and more each day; and I thought that was kind of a silly thing. But now I know it's true!

hettinger.cc changes to hettinger.us

I've noticed that performance at Dreamhost fell off the charts lately, so I've been looking around for a decent VPS provider. Some of the better ones looked like Slicehost, and VPS village, and Rapidxen. I eventually ended up going with RapidXen. The uptime looks way better already. Dreamhost was giving me whole days of subversion like webpages that had nothing to do with my websites.
Along with the different web host, I am changing the domain for the website. The old domain name should forward to the new one for a while.

Echo Rock Hot Spring

Melissa and I recently headed off to Owyhee reservoir in Oregon to visit Echo Rock Hot Springs. We went with some friends, Tony and Janat. We hiked the majority of the way, on the bottom of the nearly empty reservoir. A six mile round trip hike, the hot springs was worth the exercise. The pool was cement lined and had an intake and outlet valve. Pretty nice for being out in the middle of the Oregon wilderness.