So, I’m on my way to work this morning and a white van in front of me decides that even though the light has been yellow for as long as we could see it, he’s not going to slow down. Which means he’s entering the intersection on a very red light going at least 50 (in a 45, of course). The lady in the sedan to the right doesn’t see him and starts to enter the intersection when her light turns green. You can guess the rest. The driver in the van swerves to avoid her and hits her anyway. This causes him to overcompensate in an attempt to regain control of his van, swinging the other way and spinning completely around, blowing a tire. For a second I thought he was going to flip the van, but he manages to keep it upright.

No one seemed to be hurt. I moved on through the intersection once everything had settled down and then called the police to come file a report. I hate to admit it, but I’m concerned that the van driver doesn’t have insurance.

This epidemic of running red lights has really gotten bad lately. Not just in Plano (where it’s really bad), but all over town. I’m not sure what has precipitated this dangerous increase. It’s so bad that I have started waiting, sometimes several seconds, after the light turns green before entering the intersection.

You’ve heard it before: If you’re so in a hurry to get where you’re going that you have to run yellow (or red) lights, you should’ve left the house earlier. Just think how late you’re going to be if you end up in an accident because of carelessness. Especially if you don’t arrive at all.

Pictures of the new TV Cabinet are here. I’ve got the box put together in place, and electrical run. All that remains is to run the cable to the cabinet, trim, paint, and somehow getting the TV up into it. Haven’t exactly figured out how I’m going to do that, yet.

Shameful. Disgraceful. Cowardly.

Yes, the Dems in Texas are at it again, running off to New Mexico this time to avoid discussion and debate around redistricting. I knew if they were allowed to get away with it once, this tactic would become a standard dirty trick in their playbook.

Granted, it’s the Senate Dems this time, but they probably wouldn’t have considered the move had the House Dems not gotten away with it last time. They can’t stand to lose more power, so they’re bending and breaking every rule in the book to hold on to what they have. Absolutely disgraceful.

I can’t believe some loonies out there call the move patriotic. There’s nothing patriotic about it. Stand and Fight? Nope. Turn and run.

Once again the left is giving Texas a black eye on the national stage. Ugh.

The MDF is cut to size and the hole is cut in the wall. Tomorrow I should be able to assemble the box and set it in the wall. Pictures to follow…

It’s a sad state of affairs, but take a look at this:

Mr. Gates acknowledged today that the company’s error reporting service indicated that 5 percent of all Windows-based computers now crash more than twice each day.

This is the latest Microsoft shareholders meeting. The sad thing is people are conditioned that this is acceptable behavior. FIVE PERCENT OF WINDOWS COMPUTERS CRASH MORE THAN TWICE PER DAY! That’s at least three times. Not that even once a day should be acceptable. I just checked and my powerbook has been up for 7 days straight. Would be much longer except I rebooted it a week ago because I installed some new software. I think it was up for 40-45 days before that. I can’t remember the last “crash”.

A great product gets a little better: Griffin Technology has released a little piece of software for the iTrip called the iTrip Station Finder (download). This handy little gem allows you to select your market (city) and it returns what FM stations are open or available. Cool.

OK, after some additional research, the SonyEricsson P800 looks like a promising device. It does just about everything I want in a PDA/Phone, and is available now.

Pros:

• PDA Functionality: Address book, calendar, notepad, etc.
• Grafitti-like input (stylus based)
• Bluetooth 1.1: works with bluetooth headsets
• GSM/GPRS network
• Expandible (via memory stick duo)
• Very nice size (small, compact)
• Built in camera

Cons:

• Incomplete support via iSync (calendar and ToDo’s don’t sync in 1.1, Apple’s site says “coming soon”)
• Indeterminate ability to use iSync to sync with Entourage
• Salling’s Clicker doesn’t completely support the P800, yet.

So the dilemma is do I go ahead and make the plunge with the P800, expecting the iSync support to come up to speed soon? Or do I stick with the separate phone/PDA model and get a T68i (or T610) and a new PDA (like a Tungsten T2)? The price trade-off is about the same, so I’m inclined to go for the integrated unit. Signs seem to point towards support in the coming weeks/months. Of course, I could just break down and write the support myself… I’d just have to find some documentation on writing conduits for iSync.

Back from San Antonio. After take #6 on the second module, I was concerned that I wouldn’t make it thru the material in the one day we had allotted, but things picked up, and by lunch time we were cruising. We managed all the video work with only 2 or 3 retakes, and wrapped recording by 4:00. I caught an early flight and was home by 6:00.

While I was out of town, I had a service guy come out to check out our A/C units, which haven’t been cooling properly as of late. The good news is he was able to recharge them and it’s positively frigid in here now. The bad news is he suggested that there’s a (hopefully slow) leak in both A coils in the units, and can be replaced a mere $1600. Ugh. We’re going to ride out this charge of freon and see if we can make it thru the summer, and maybe look at the coil replacement next spring. Fingers crossed.

Went to Lowe’s tonight and stocked up on just about everything I think I’ll need to build the TV Alcove. Boy, a 4×8 sheet of MDF is H-E-A-V-Y. We decided that building the whole box out of MDF, while nice, would easily double the weight of the whole thing, probably itself weighing more than the TV. So I’m opting to only build the “floor” with MDF and the rest with standard 3/8″ plywood sheeting. Painted, it’ll still look nice, and you won’t be able to really see it, what with the TV in the way and all. The only real detail I haven’t completely thought through is how I’m going to vent the thing, but I’ve got some ideas. I’ll nail that one down (no pun intended) once the box is built.

Geez, it’s hot. The A/C guy is scheduled to come in the morning. I hope we’re just low on freon and not something more serious. Unfortunately, I’m on a plane at 7:00AM back to San Antonio for the day to record final voiceovers and video.

I started a new project today. We’ve ordered a new bedroom suite (bed, night stands, dresser, etc.) and part of the plan is to move the TV. I’m creating an alcove in the wall above the door, which extends into the attic above our master closet. No small project, but I think I can knock it out in a couple of days. Boy, it’s hot in the attic these days!