Disney Cruise Reports Blog

You may remember that in a couple of previous posts (here and here), I was kicking around the idea of taking the family on a Disney cruise this year. For various reasons, I've decided against that option - for this year, at least. This year we're going to stay in a safari suite at the Sheraton Safari hotel when we visit Disney World in October.

Speaking of Disney Cruises though, Jenny has pointed me in the direction of her blog, Disney Cruise Reports. This is a nice looking blog (I dig the big Mickey picture), with good information on the latest happenings (and deals!) on the Disney Cruises - go check it out!

PS - Thanks for the nice comments, Jenny. You didn't leave me an email address, so I couldn't respond directly.

Keep the Gulf Coast in Your Prayers

As we speak, the US gulf coast is getting pounded by the devastating hurricane Katrina. A storm like this has the potential not only to destroy homes and property, but to flood entire cities and take many lives. Please keep the residents of New Orleans, Gulf Port, Biloxi and all the others in the path of this storm in your thoughts and prayers.

Current Updates:
Fox News
MSNBC
CNN

Happy day for Coffee Lovers

Coffee lovers of the world - rejoice! There's an article on wired that discusses a recent study showing that my beloved black gold contains more antioxidants than any other food or beverage. Just another reason to never stop enjoying the java.

Link: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68677,00.html

Lunch with Ann Northup

Kentucky 3rd district congresswoman Ann Northup was here today for a lunch time talk about the looming Social Security crisis. I am concerned about this issue for a number of reasons. Number one, I work at a company that is a major player in long term health care (nursing centers). Changes to Social Security and/or Medicare directly affect business. Also as a younger worker, I’m 31, any changes made to the Social Security program today will directly affect me in my retirement years.

As mentioned in a previous post, I attended President Bush’s town hall meeting on the same topic in March of this year. I know that the presentation was packaged for a mass audience and geared for sound bites, but even so after hearing him speak I was still very confused as to what he intended to do to fix the problem. He did a nice job of building consensus that there was a problem that needed to be fixed, but he was very short on solutions.

Not so with Ms. Northup. She did an outstanding job of taking a complex topic and making it understandable, clearly outlining both the problem and the proposed solution that she supports. In addition to the plan that she supports, she talked about the other plans on the table and why they are not as good. What impressed me most was the question and answer session at the conclusion of her talk. She was able to address a wide variety of concerns from the audience, and I came away with the distinct impression that she had spent a great deal of time getting to know this topic in intimate detail.

As for me, I’ve still got some more thinking and research to do before I make up my own mind as to whether private accounts are the way to go or not. However, I now have a much deeper understanding of the issues at hand and I’m very grateful to Congresswoman Northup for that. Thanks Ann!

New Poker Blog

I've just started a new poker blog over on MSN spaces that I'd like you to check out. You can find it at http://spaces.msn.com/members/cypoker. It's basically a journal of my online poker play with results and perhaps some keen insights (yeah, right) along the way. Go see it and let me know what you think!

Update: Corrected URL

It's Widget Time!

I'm sure that by now most everyone has heard that Yahoo! has purchased Konfabulator, and made it free (as in beer). Now it's time to go exploring and find out what the coolest widgets are. The default install includes a few pretty handy widgets like the CPU Portal and the Memory Guage. What are some of the others that I should check out?

The What To Do? widget has really caught my attention. I've been trying to convert to a more Getting Things Done style of managing my workflow. To that end, I've been using the GTD Wiki for managing my next actions list while I'm at the computer (which is always). The only problem with the Wiki is that I need to have the browser open to use it. In the past, this would not have been an issue because my browser was always open anyway. If the browser is always open, you can guess what I spent too much of my time at work doing, right? Anyway, I've got the What To Do? widget set as the topmost window and slightly transparent. I can see what I need to be doing at all times without having my browser (or Outlook) open. I'll let you know how it goes!

MindManager Beta

Woo Hoo! I got a message earlier that I was selected to participate in MindManager Pro 6 beta for Mindjet. As you may recall from a previous post, I am a big fan of the art of mind mapping in general and of the MindManager software in particular (though prior to the beta, I've been using FreeMind).

The confidentiality agreement of the beta prevents me from giving any details about the new product, but I don't think that the Mindjet folks would mind me saying that It Rocks! I'll post what I can about it in the future, but in the mean time I'm very excited to be playing with (er, testing) the new features ;)

Happy Birthday America!

Happy Independence Day! It's July 4, and that means Independance Day here in the states. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to our men and women in uniform all over the world who are defending our freedom and doing their part to keep America the "Land of the free and the home of the brave." Thank You!

Almost Famous

I've written a book review of Bill Jensen's new book What Is Your Life's Work for 800CEORead.com.

If you've not been to their site before, I encourage you to check it out. They've got a terrific collection of business books (and reviews). I especially like the Jack Covert Selects section (click the "We Recommend" link on the home page). This page has the president's recommendations and reviews of the latest books - very cool.

Stop your presentation before it kills again!

Kathy at Creating Passionate Users has done it again. Today she has a terrific post about the horrors of slideware presentations. If you're a PowerPoint user, or have ever had to sit through a PP presentation, or even if you know somebody who has, check out this post! In addition to Kathy's insightful (as usual) commentary, she's included a link to this Wired article about the effect that PP has on our learning and cognition abilities.

Vacation as an Inspiration for Change

WSJ.com has a fascinating story this morning about how sometimes vacations can inspire career changes. I'm going on vacation next week - maybe some time on the beach will help me find the spark that I've been missing. I know that I'm ready for a change, a big one, but I've not yet determined what it is that I want to do. My current job used to supply both sex and cash, but no longer. Stay tuned.

Link: WSJ.com - A Good Vacation Can Serve As an Inspiration for Change

China Forces Websites To Register

Slashdot has a post this morning about the Chinese government forcing owners of blogs and websites to register with the government. This story is chilling in a lot of ways, but one of the most frightening aspects appears near the bottom of the Inquirer story. A blogger who attempted to register with the government was told not to bother because "independent blogs would not be granted permission to continue."

Link: Slashdot | China Forces Websites To Register

Sim Brain - Coming soon?

New Scientist is reporting on an ambitious project by IBM and a Swiss university to create a computer simulation of the human brain. The project will use IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer and will attempt to simulate the electrical structure of the neocortex.

Link: New Scientist Breaking News - Mission to build a simulated brain begins

What I'm Hearing: A Short History of Nearly Everything

My audible.com listener pick for this month is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. The scope of this book is absolutely breathtaking! It represents the fruits of Bryson's quest for knowledge about, well, everything.

The book begins by tackling such trivial subjects as the formation of the universe and the age and composition of the Earth and the solar system. It then takes on nuclear and particle physics, natural disasters and just about anything else you ever wanted to know about, well, anything.

What Bryson has accomplished here would be an absolute dream to me. Imagine traveling to the far corners of the globe for three years to learn at the feet of the world's most brilliant scientists about both the history and origins of their fields as well as the bleeding edge of their current research. All I can say is - WOW!

Update: Include picture of book jacket

Star Wars Mini-Review

I went to see Episode III: Revenge of the Sith last night, and was pretty impressed. The Empire Strikes Back is still my favorite episode, but this one moves into a close second. The special effects of the battle scenes were a step beyond any of the other Star Wars films, which is to say that they were spectacular.

I think that the best part of this movie is the way that it answers all the questions (I won't spoil any of them here) and ties up all of the loose ends. The dialogue is a little hokey in places, and the film seemed to drag a little bit near the middle, but overall this was an excellent effort from Lucasfilms. Definitely worth seeing!

Coding for Fun

Scoble's got a link to the Coding for Fun site today. This is a site from Microsoft that's dedicated to hobby programming (games and web sites mostly). I'm just getting my first look at this site, but it looks pretty good. It's always fun to dabble in game development and other new stuff that most of us coders don't normally do.

I'm pretty lucky in that what I do for my day job is also one of the things that I like to do for fun (in other words, my sex and cash coincide). Obviously, the Coding for Fun site deals only with the MS tools. I really enjoy using VS .Net, but I use it all day long. When I code on the side, I like to pick up tools that are new to me (like Java and more recently Ruby). Still, this looks like a site that I'll be spending some time on.

Link: Do you code for fun? Check out this community

Dream the Big Dream

I watched a fascinating show called Black Sky on the Discovery Channel this morning about Burt Rutan and the Scaled Composites team that worked on the Spaceship One project for the Ansari X Prize. I was mesmorized by this show and by the amount of passion that the team displayed. These are people that know how to dream big and literally shoot for the stars. The show was very inspiring; I want to find something that I can be that passionate about!

Back to work

Alright, Derby week is over here in Louisville and it's back to business as usual. Raise your hand if you picked Giacomo in the big event. No? Me neither. Seriously though, if you've never been to Louisville for Derby week then you are missing out. It's not just a horse race - the whole city comes alive for all sorts of celebrations.

There are the usual host of civic events like the Pegasus Parade, but there are many events that you won't see too many other places: a steamboat race, a bed race, and a basketball game (and I've already mentioned the mini-marathon and Thunder). Of course, we do have some horse races too!

43 Things

The 43 Things web site is a great place for tracking your goals. It works like this: you write down your goals, make notes on your progress, and check them off when you've completed them. C'mon, you know that writing down your goals and checking up on them regularly increases your chances of completing them. An additional benefit of this site is that you get to see goals from many other people (and they can see yours), thus adding an element of social commitment to your goals. Incidently, some of the goals posted there are pretty inspiring, and it's very easy to make the goals your own and add them to your personal list.

Here are my things.

Ugh - Mini Marathon results

Well, as promised, I participated in the Derby Festival Mini-Marathon Saturday morning. My official time was officially bad - 2:55:22. I guess I still have some work to do on goal number 7 at 43 things!

Mini Marathon Tomorrow

I will be running in the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini Marathon tomorrow morning. Alright - "running" may be a bit of an exaggeration - I will be jogging, shuffling, walking... participating in the 13.1 mile run. I'm really crossing my fingers hoping that the rain will end by tonight. The race will be enough of a challenge without having to deal with soggy shoes.

Obesity in Middle Age Raises Dementia Risk

Uh oh. There's a Reuters story out of London about how obesity in middle age can increase the risk of future dimentia. Looks like yet another reason for me to work on getting rid of the, er, excess baggage around the waist line.

This story doesn't address it, but I wonder if obesity itself is the risk factor for dimentia, or if it is merely an indicator of a larger chain of risks and poor overall health habits.

Here's the link to the story:Obesity in Middle Age Raises Dementia Risk - Study - Yahoo! News

Use Your Brain: Intention Calendar

There's a terrific post at Creating Passionate Users about how our thoughts create new neural pathways in our brain. The post is about using an "intention calendar" to get your intentions on your to-do list. By getting your intentions in writing and then going back and reviewing them regularly, you actually begin to form pathways in your brain related to those intentions. This allows your brain to begin formulating concrete action plans to bring your intentions to reality.

The post also references A Tour of Your Brain: Thinking About Thinking, which is part of a very interesting series of articles about how your brain works. I plan to explore the parent site (the thinking business) in more detail, because it looks fascinating.

It's Derby time in Louisville

The Kentucky Derby Festival officially kicked off last night with the annual Thunder Over Louisville air show and fireworks display. For those of you who may not know, the Derby festival is a two week party that involves the whole city of Louisville. It begins with the Thunder Over Louisville, then continues with dozens of community events, and then culminates with the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May.

I gathered up the family and attempted to head downtown for Thunder this year. I had tickets for the Louisville Bats baseball game, and had planned on spending the afternoon at the river front and then watching the fireworks show from Slugger Field. Unfortunately, the weather had different plans for us. We made through to the end of the baseball game with 20 mph winds and a temperature of around 38 (with a little cold rain and sleet thrown in for good measure). At the end of the game we still had almost three hours until the fireworks started, so we decided that rather than suffer through the weather we would go back to mom and dad's place. We ordered pizza and enjoyed the fireworks on the big screen (and as an added bonus, the fireworks show was broadcast in HD for the first time).

All in all, not a bad day. The air show was taking place almost directly overhead while we were at the ball game. Many of the aircraft that were scheduled to participate bailed because of the low ceilings and high winds, but the planes that did fly put on a great show. The military planes that participated (including an F-16, F-18, F-15 and B-2 Stealth Bomber) put on a low show which was spectacular. It was deafeningly loud at times and wicked fast. If you've not seen the stealth bomber before - wow! It flew right over our heads at less than 1000 ft and we barely heard it.

New blog from Mindjet

The folks over at Mindjet are now blogging! These guys are always at the cutting edge of finding new ways to employ mind mapping techniques and new applications for mind maps. I check out the news on their site pretty frequently to find out about their latest innovations, and I always come away impressed.

I must confess that I don't actually own a copy of MindManager. I download the trial version every time there is a new release of the sofware and I absolutely LOVE it, but I get sticker shock every time I think about ponying up the cash for the full version. I will buy the software eventually, but until then I guess I'll have to keep drawing my maps by hand or using FreeMind.

What I'm Hearing - Blink

With this month's Audible.com Listener credit, I picked up Blink: The Power to Think Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell. This is a book which examines the power (and pitfalls) of our subconcious decision making. The author uses the term "thin slicing" to describe our ability to make instantaneous "snap" judgements with limited amounts of data.

I'm about halfway through the audio book already, and I'm really enjoying it. The author uses numerous stories about people making quick gut decisions using just their instinct and experience which turn out to be better decisions than those made by people after they have fully analyzed all of the available data. It gives a lot of creedence to the old adages of "Go with your gut" or "Trust your instincts". Gladwell also talks about how our biases and preconceptions play into our snap judgements and gives some pitfalls to try and avoid.

This book has turned out to be a real eye opener, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in exploring the power of their instincts.

My Stomach Has a Mind of Its Own

I always knew that my stomach could think for itself! Check out the post on The Second Brain at Creating Passionate Users.

What I'm Reading - Head First Java

Last week I picked up a copy of Head First Java. This is quite possibly the BEST technical book ever written. I’m trying to learn Java as an extra language to play with on the side. I probably won’t use it at work (I use VB, VB.Net and C# at work), but I want to know it for some projects I’m working on at home. I’m about half way through the book, and I’m amazed at how easy and (dare I say it?) fun this book has made the process of learning a new programming language. There are humorous picture, drawings, puzzles, mock interviews and a host of other items throughout the book that really reinforce the learning and help you commit the material to memory.

I’ve been so impressed with this book that I’ve begun reading some other materials from Kathy Sierra. Along with Bert Bates and the other authors of the Head First series, Kathy writes the impressive Creating Passionate Users blog. This blog has been added to my daily reading list, and I really recommend it for the variety of detailed entries on how the mind works and how we learn. Kathy also founded the JavaRanch, which is a good forum website for Java learners (and experts, I suppose).

On a different but somewhat related note, I’ve stopped reading Dianetics. I read close to half of the book, but I stopped in the section on Dianetic therapy. Hubbard has some interesting theories, but I really had a lot of trouble getting past his penchant for calling them “scientific facts” without a shred of evidence to back his claims. I learned some things from this book and I’m sure that a lot of Hubbard’s insights are correct, but I’m finished with this book for now.

How is Dianetics related to the topic of this post? Glad you asked. It so happens that Kathy Sierra recommends a number of books on how the mind works and how to think and learn better. Since that was the original reason that I started reading Dianetics, I think I’ll pick up one or two of the books that she recommends and try them out. I’ll let you know how it goes.

What I'm Hearing - Atlas Shrugged

I recently finished listening to the audible.com audio book of Ayn Rand's mammoth
Atlas Shrugged. The book is broken into three volumes (in other words, three month's worth of audible listener credits), with each volume broken down into three parts. Each part was around seven hours, so the total listening experience for all nine parts was well over sixty hours!

This book does have a plot, but it's almost beside the point. It would be better to consider this as a disertation on the philosophy of Objectivism rather than a fictional novel. Objectivism as laid out in this tome is fairly complex, but I'll try to capsulize it here and then give my thoughts on the matter. Basically, the philosophy begins with two tenets - existence exists, and man is a rational being.

The philosophy begins with existence, it does not make any attempt to explain how/why the existence came to be. In other words, there is no presupposition of a creator or a higher power. More on that in a minute.

The second key is that man is a rational being, and the rest of the philosophy grows from this fact. Man, being rational, has a moral duty to analyze and attempt to understand his surroundings (existence). According to objectivism, the rational being's highest objective is personal achievement. In fact, the catch phrase of objectivistm as repeated many times in the book is "I swear by my life and my love for it that I will never live for the sake of another or ask another to live for mine."

Personally I find a lot to like in this philosophy, but it certainly is not without its flaws. I very much like the idea of man analyzing existence for himself and drawing his own conclusions. Man's greatest gift is his ability to think critically and to understand - a gift which in my humble opinion is shamefully underutilized by most (myself included).

There are a couple of areas that I see as weaknesses in objectivism. Rather than "existence", I tend to think of the world around me as "creation". The term creation, in turn, presupposes a creator of some type. For all it's emphasis on rationality, objectivism makes no rational attempt to explain how "existence" came about.

A far greater shortcoming, in my opinion, is the philosophy's exclusive reliance on self-fulfillment. Objectivism promotes the individual's promotion of self to the exclusion of others. Decision making is therefore bases only on what is best for the individual - with no accounting for the benefit (or consequences) to family, social groups or society. I think that the best decisions can be reached only when all of the benefits and consequences for all stakeholders are considered.

Play guitar? We'll see.

I've been working on learning to play guitar for about two weeks now. It's been a slow process, but I've learned a little bit so far. Mostly I've learned how little I know!

So far I've been playing on a guitar (Fender DG-7) that I borrowed from a friend, but soon I'll be buying my own. My plan is to go to a local guitar shop and try out several guitars to see what feels and sounds good. I think all ask someone at the store to play several of them as well, so I can hear what they sound like in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. Any other suggestions on what I should be looking for? Any recommendations on what models I should be looking at?

Congratulations Cards!

Congratulations to the Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team on an outstanding season capped with a trip to the final four! This basketball team has been more of a joy to watch than any in recent memory. They have played with so much heart that you never felt like you were out of a game (just ask WV).

Special thanks to all of our seniors Ellis (Easy E), Otis (Big O) and Larry (threeeee Ooooo'Bannon), and to our outstanding junior Francisco (Cisco) who will be leaving us this year for the NBA. Thanks for the memories guys; it's been a great run!

My iPod is here!

My new iPod mini just arrived from the Apple store via FedEx. I can't believe how quickly it arrived - I just ordered it two days ago. The thing was customized, shipped from Shanghai and delivered in just two nights. Hat's off to Apple and FedEx, that's pretty impressive.

And speaking of impressive, this thing is GORGEOUS! I got the blue, and the color is much deeper than on the 1G minis. It's charging up right now, I can't wait to use it. I'll report back with lots more.

President Bush in Louisville

I got to see President Bush speak about Social Security reform this afternoon. Here he is being introduced by Congresswoman Ann Northup.

I think that the President has so far done a nice job of creating awareness of the problem with Social Security, but has a bit of a gap to overcome in proposing a workable solution. For example, the slogan for this tour seems to be "Do the Math" (it's printed on all the yard signs and bumper stickers that were handed out at the event). I agree that doing the math is the first step, and looking at the numbers it's very clear that we have a big problem looming with Social Security. Here's the math: WD = RB. Since Social Security is pay-as-you-go, the number of workers times the amount deducted from their checks must equal the number of retirees times the amount of their benefits.

I haven't yet been able to connect the dots in my own mind to figure out how adding personal retirement accounts to Social Security will solve this problem. The basic problem is that by 2018, the amount of money being withheld from workers' paychecks will not be enough to pay all of the benefits owed to retirees. Here's my confusion - say this plan were available today, and I choose to participate, putting aside 3% of my SS withholding into a personal retirement account. This is a good thing for me, because I now own a portion of my Social Security. The money is invested in relatively secure funds and I get to watch it grow. If I die, my beneficiary gets all the money. Good for me.

Now fast-forward to the year 2018. I'm still working, and the Social Security deductions are still coming out of my paycheck. But since 3% of the deduction is going to my own retirement account, that's 3% less that is going into the fund to pay today's retirees (by the way, since almost all of the baby boomers have retired there are a whooole lot of retirees now - in fact, there are only two of us workers for every retiree).

See my problem? The equation doesn't fundamentally change just by adding private retirement accounts to the mix. Unless I'm missing something (which is entirely possible), the only way to change the math is to change the numbers involved. In order for the equation to remain balanced in 2018 and beyond, either the amount of money flowing in has to increase (higher taxes) or the amount flowing out has to decrease (lower benefits or fewer beneficiaries).

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but in my mind we've still got quite a long way to go towards solving this problem.

"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!"

I just saw this link on BoingBoing about scientist who are planning to grow mice with brains made entirely of human brain cells. Now I don't claim to be any kind of expert in ethics or morality, but this just sounds like a very bad idea. This sounds better suited for Mystery Science Theater (or Animaniacs) than for the science lab.

Here's the full link.

Speaking of Cruises...

Here's one of my favorite photos from my collection. This was taken in Sint Maarten last October during our cruise on the Mariner of the Seas (that's her in the background). This was a pretty special cruise for us as pretty much my whole side of the family went (my Mammaw and Pap, Mom and Dad, 2 aunts and uncles, 4 cousins, my sister, my wife and I) - what a great experience! This was my fourth cruise, and it was definitely the best one yet. I give the Mariner four stars.

Going to see the President

I just found out that I'm getting a ticket to go see President Bush on Thursday. He's in Louisville Thursday morning on his Social Security tour and my company was allotted some tickets to go see him. I'm excited about the opportunity to hear firsthand what he has to say about the Social Security mess. Up to this point I've only heard the sound bites from the news, and it's pretty difficult to be sure that your getting the real picture that way.

As for my own thoughts on Social Security, the jury is still out. As a younger worker (I'm 31), I'm particularly interested in the private accounts issue. I don't know that Social Security is the right place to do that. Call me cynical if you'd like, but I'm well aware that by the time I retire I won't see the level of benefits from SS commensurate with what I will have paid in over the years. Don't misunderstand, I'm very much in favor of individuals owning their own retirement accounts - that's why I'm funding a 401(k) and two Roth IRA's (for my wife and I). I don't know whether the government security blanket (I use that term loosely) has any room in it for designating funds for a specific individual. To me that seems somewhat contrary to the program's stated goal of being a "safety net" for those that need it.

I'll take the President's speech under advisement, and like always, I'll draw my own conclusions on the matter.

No Cruise

Wow! The Disney cruise is a little too expensive for my blood. I guess for what Disney considers a "regular" family (four people or less), the price wouldn't be too outrageous. Unfortunately, when you add a fifth person, you either have to book two staterooms or upgrade to the family suite - ouch. Oh well, I happen to think that three kids is the perfect number - unfortunately Disney does not agree!

Disney Cruise?

Now I'm thinking about the possibility of taking a combination cruise/WDW trip. My wife and I love to cruise and have taken several of them, but we've never gone on Disney. The kids have never been on a cruise, so it might be sort of fun to take them. I'm thinking about three or four days at WDW and a three day cruise. Has anyone done this that can offer some pointers or share their experiences?

Disney World Planning

I've officially begun planning for the long delayed family trip to Walt Disney World. It's a little overwhelming right now trying to get my head around all of the options - fly or drive, stay on property or off (sub-choice: hotel or house rental), spend all of the time in Disney World or hit Universal or SeaWorld or Busch Gardens? We have 5 people in the family which really limits our on property options at Disney World - we can't stay at any of the value resorts and Port Orleans Riverside is the only moderate resort that can accommodate 5. Complicating matters a little further is the possibility of travelling with some friends of ours (they have a family of 6). Am I the only one that finds it odd that Disney World - the ultimate family vacation destination - has such limited options for bigger families?

I've never used a travel agent before, since I've not had any problems doing research online and deciding where I want to go and how to get there. This time may be an exception. Of course that brings up another choice - should I use a local all-purpose travel agent that I can go to and sit in their office or should I use one of the online Disney specialist travel agents? I've looked at a couple of these, namely mouseketrips.com and themagicforless.com. Both of these sites look like they have a great deal of Disney related expertise and can probably do a good job for me.

I'm sure that in the end it will all come together nicely. Does anyone have any helpful advice for me?

What I'm Reading - Dianetics

I recently picked up a copy of L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics. I've been wanting to read this book for some time, but have never made the effort before. This book appeals to me because it touches on a couple of topics that I'm very interested in. First of all, I'm very interested in how the mind works and am always looking for new methods for improving the functionality of my own mind. Also since dianetics is one of the building blocks of Scientology, it touches on another topic that fascinates me - religion and philosophy. I am Catholic, but have long been intrigued by the various religions of the world and their underlying philosophies.

I'm not too far into the book yet, but one thing has already struck me about it. There have been several topics introduced that the author calls "scientific facts" or says that they've been proven in "clinical trials", but offers no evidence to back up the claim. Most of the ideas themselves seem pretty sound though, so I'll press on with my reading with that in the back of my mind. I'll give a full review when I've finished reading.

My Job

I am a computer programmer by trade. Right now I work for a large healthcare organization as a software developer (among other things). I have been programming professionally [I use that term loosely] for about 10 years now, but I did it as a hobby for many years before that. In addition to programming, I wear many other hats at my job - project manager, business analyst, software analyst, tech writer, etc. I like my job and I like where I work. In fact, I've been at the same company for over five years now - that may not seem like long to some of you, but it's more than twice as long as I've ever worked anywhere else!

Chess, anyone?

I've recently gotten back into playing some chess (it's been a while). I like to play online on GameKnot. If you're ever on, challenge me - I'm cmyoung4.

Skydiving

Here is my first attempt at telling you a little about who I am. This was me in my first skydive (July 2004). This moment was one of the hightlights of my life (actually, the real pivotal moment was about 2 minutes before this photo was taken - when I was hanging by my arms from the strut of a cessna looking down from 3,500 feet!). It's difficult to put into words, but I learned so much about myself from this skydive. I hesitate to categorize the experience as "spiritual", but it definitely gave me the opportunity to look my fears in the eye and overcome them.

Welcome!

This is the first post of my new blog - Journal This! My name is Chris Young, and in future posts I'll tell you all about me (if you care). I plan to post thoughts about my job, my family, my thoughts on philosophy and religion, and other random thoughts that happen to come up when I am typing!

Again, welcome and I'm glad you're here!