I figured I’d make good use of our last day of internet before it gets turned off…since it’s too late to make friends. For those not in the loop, Amy and I are moving from Gainesville, FL to Columbia, SC bright and early Tuesday morning. I should be back online and back to work by Wednesday…hopefully with pics of our new digs.

Just when I thought we were done with this whole meme thing for 2005, I get hit with another one from Marko. Thanks buddy, thanks a lot! You know, in order to stop these things, somebody has to refuse to do it. That is the only way…amputate the branch before it becomes a trunk. (Pardon my nerdy anology…I was up way too late last night, and I’m working on nested code this morning.) I would take my own advice, but doing so would suggest that I don’t listen to music and don’t read books. So…in an effort to not come off as an uncultured, illiterate jerk…I’ll keep the Baton moving.

Number of Books…in Boxes

All of our shelves have been dismantled and packed up for the move, and all of our books are in boxes. My best guess is that we have 5 or 6 boxes worth, or about 3 tons.

Last Book Purchased

Three at once back in April - Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers and The Zen of CSS Design

Book Reading Right Now

Well, most of our books are in boxes right now…but I’ve been reading a lot of Mastering 3ds Max 4 (co-authored by Chris Murray, one of my college professors) - Yes, it’s old, but I needed to brush up on some things for a 3d project that Amy and I have been trying to wrap up.

Last 5 Books Read

1. 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask by Ilyce R. Glink Actually, this was my latest book purchase…later in April.
2. Usability Return on Investment by Nielson Group (For Work.)
3. The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shea & Molly E. Holzschlag
4. The Art and Science of Web Design by Jeffrey Veen
   Because he just made it available a a free download!
5. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Meaningful Books

The Bible…and Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. Even though Tycho (Penny-Arcade) had a field day bashing this book when he received it as a Christmas present from his mom, it had a pretty profound influence on my life when I was in college.

Those to Whom I Bestow this…Sentence

1. Nathan Bird
2. Brian Reese
3. Ray Williams
4. Justin Perkins
5. Ryan Salerno

Thank you for two amazing years of marriage, Ames! If the rest of our lives are anything like the last 5 years, I’m sure there will be plenty more memories like the ones below:

Note: The 777 code described below no longer works. Please feel free to read the post though as I am still very happy about my switch to dreamhost. If you found this post looking for promo codes, try using the code “onehundred” to get one year of “Crazy Domain Insane” for only $100.

So it seems I’m moving in more ways than one… Amy and I are trying to finish up everything here in Gainesville for our big move to Columbia on the 26th, but I’ll be switching my hosting provider at the same time. I’ve been Fed Up and looking for a reason to switch to Dreamhost for a while now…and I think I found it. I just paid $9.24 for an entire year of hosting! Too good to be true? That’s what I thought.

My plan was to wait till the year with my current host was up, but after I heard about the “777” coupon code on thebignoob, I decided now was the time. The deal is that they are offering their Crazy Domain Insane plan for $0.77/mo for the first year of service. (That’s a savings of $110.16!) Crazy Domain Insane is their smallest hosting package, but includes 2400MB of storage, 120GB of bandwidth, and 3 hosted domains, which is more than enough for my personal projects.

I’m not sure how much longer this deal will last since word about it is catching on pretty quick, but if you’re looking for hosting:

1. Visit Dreamhost
2. Sign-up for the 1 year pre-pay on Crazy Domain Insane
3. Your total will show $119.40 until you enter 777 in the special promotions box on step 5.
4. Watch your total magically change to $9.24 when you submit the promotion code…that’s it!

Back online and running smoothly. Sorry to those of you who got denied while I was working out mySQL issues.

Come ‘n listen to my story ‘bout a girl named Ames
A poor engineer, hadn’t time for any games.
And then one day, she got an acceptance letter from USC
And then bought a house and planned an Ikea shopping spree.
Lillberg, that is, solid birch, modern furnishings.

Well, the next thing you know, all our stuff’s in a box.
Gainesville friends said, don’t forget to cancel Cox,
Said, Columbiana Mall is the place you oughta be
So we’re load’n up the truck and movin’ close to Lake Murray.
Harbison, that is, shoppin’ malls, restaurants.

Well, now it’s almost time to say goodbye to Ames and Jas,
We would like to thank you folks for hangin’ with us in this place.
You’re all invited up to our new locality
To have a heapin’ helpin’ of our new duality
USC vs. UF, that is, Steve Spurrier, takin’ on the Gators…

Y’all come up now, hear?

Ames and I got back from our vacation with her family on Tuesday, and I had an opportunity early this morning to get the pictures posted on amesnjas. The pictures there are a good summary of the vacation, but since there are so many, I thought I’d post the highlights here.

On Saturday, we all went out for an early dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. The food was awesome, the atmosphere is out of this world, but embarrassing Alina on her birthday was priceless.

After eating at the Rainforest, the whole family made the hike around the Downtown Disney lake to the “West Side” for an awesome show at Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba. La Nouba is a permanent attraction at Downtown Disney and is well worth the price of admission. Words can’t describe a Cirque show…you have to see it…so that’s all I have to say there.

On Sunday morning, we all got up and spent the day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. At first, we though we would skip out on this adventure, but it ended up being a lot of fun. All of the Disney parks are so far over-the-top with their atmosphere and attention to detail and Animal Kingdom is no exception. (I know, I should be posting pictures of animals here, but I liked the picture of the tree. For animals, visit the amesnjas page.)

When we weren’t out at shows,parks, or restaurants, we were either at the Coronado Springs Resort pool, or playing board games in our room. Here’s a picture of Amy’s dad trying to make “spaghetti and meatballs” out of Cranium clay.

Since we were there for the 4th of July, we thought we would take advantage of the awesome Magic Kingdom fireworks show. The question was where and how we would do so. We decided that a great place to see the show would be from the Polynesian Resort, which is across the 7 Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom. From our resort, we took a bus to the Kingdom, and then the monorail to the Polynesian. We created a “camp” in the lobby which overlooks the lagoon, ordered drinks and appetizers and waited for the show…

…and what an awesome show it was. After the fireworks were over, we took an alternate route back to our resort to avoid the exodus from the park. We were “lucky” to be aboard Penny’s bus to Downtown Disney, and from there we were able to catch a ride back to Coronado Springs. Needless to say, we slept in the next morning.

I didn’t want to leave for the holiday weekend on such a negative post, especially considering the circumstances. Today at 4pm, Ames and I are jumping in the car and driving down to Orlando to meet up with her family for a 4-day 4th of July vacation. We’re staying in Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort for the entire time, and although we don’t plan to hit up any of the major theme parks while we’re there, our weekend does include reservations to the Cirque de Soleil show, La Nouba. Amy and I have actually seen La Nouba before, but if you’ve ever been to a Cirque show, you know there’s always more to see. Although I’m pretty sure pictures in the show are prohibited, I’ll be sure to take a bunch over the weekend and I’ll be back to posting (and working) on Wednesday.