Hi! Welcome back.

It's been just about one full year to the day and hour when I last looked at the site. I felt that it needed some major updating. Every day for the last year I would think to myself "Gotta do something with the site." Never happened. Excuses? Got a million of them. The point? I finally came up with something I liked a lot better. I guess we'll just call 2001, for the most part, "The Lost Year".

So, here it is. The new design. The site is completely server side generated, with PHP, text files, and some SQL. There is even a message board. I am testing it out here, so if there is a lot of abuse, I will yank it. But, give it a try! Every time you ask for a page, it is constructed on the fly and then delivered to you. Every page on the site was and will be affected. If something is broke, well, let me know about it. I probably missed it. I know there's a ton of links in the Captain's Log that don't work anymore. The internet, as we said before, is a changing commodity.

As so, it seems, is the world. The picture at the top of the log this month is a scan from a postcard my parents had in their house. It is of lower Manhattan in the 1950's, before the Twin Towers were built. And now, the skyline doesn't look very much different. But America sure does. Our resolve, our goals, our very mission has changed in substantial ways. I don't plan to go off in a rant here. Perhaps I'll tell my "where was I" story at some later date. I wish those left behind the very best.

I still use notepad to create the site. I wish it had a spell checker.

The Linkfest

Ok, now this is more like it. It's past midnight, and I am going to call it a night. I think I have the main bits of the page back up. The picture pages - well - I'm saving those for later. Brain fried. Can't think anymore.

I've been busy. I still play volleyball once a week. That's not going to stop until my knees give out. I also still have a band. We have a new lead singer, and I play the guitar now. We added a pedal steel player, and he also plays a hot lead guitar. I have been improving. I bought a new guitar during the last year, a Fender American Standard Stratocaster. It was built in 1998, and I recently put a new neck on it. The neck is made from Padouk (an African rosewood) and has a Brazilian rosewood fretboard. (For you guitar junkies out there, it is set with a low action, strung with .11 strings, and has a graphite nut and medium jumbo frets.) It plays really well. I have also taken one (1) music theory lesson, and plan to take more. I'm excited about this.

I also started an improvisational comedy troupe, a la "Whose Line is it Anyway." We had one show, but had personnel troubles. We are back to full strength and practicing now, so hopefully, we'll have a show soon. You can check us out at Insert Something Funny.

Let's see, I am still hashing. Got promoted to Religious Advisor. That means, I learn the songs and run the down-downs. Great fun. I've been to a few away hashes, in Burlington and Ithaca. I plan to go to Washington, D.C. for their red dress hash this year. We have our local red dress hash in April.

Still work at the same place. It's been easier, so I can't complain. We've lost a lot of people - some to normal attrition, and some to lay-offs.

Ok, I know there will be more, but that's it for now. Night.

Or rather, not enough time on my hands. It's typical of the week before I go on vacation. Everything seems to be going wrong, and I am running out of time to get it all done. True to form - I have yet to pack. Thought about it, sure. Done it, no.

Yes, that's right - vacation. You did hear me correctly. Instead of a long weekend, I am actually going away for a span of consecutive time. I am taking my first cruise next week, heading down to the Bahamas. I'm looking forward to it for a number of reasons. In fact, this is not my first out-of-country-for-a-week trip in recent history. Last year ("The Lost Year" in this journals vernacular), I vacationed for a week in the Dominican Republic. I might have mentioned that I won the trip at my work Christmas party, but I can't remember if I did. It was fun. Now that I have done the "all inclusive resort" thing, I am not eager to do it again. So the next thing to try is a cruise. Booked this one a few months ago (right after September 11th) and got great rates. With airfare, the whole thing is like 100 bucks a day.

Tonight: band practice. There have been changes. I now play the rhythm guitar and do a lot of singing. We added a bassist. We have a new lead singer. We now have a pedal steel player who can also rip it up on the lead guitar. Sounds great. We have a lot of opportunity this year to get out there. I hope that it happens. Everytime we get together, I come away thrilled.

Learned today that my job, which I have had for 6 years, is no longer as secure as I thought. I am not as upset as I thought I would be. I just ask for a heads up, that's all. A little advance notification to get my ducks together. The times, again, are changing. This seems to be a theme this week. Well, I am not afraid of change. Everything always seems to work out for the best. And, everything happens for a reason. All we have to do is be flexible, be responsible, and keep our fingers out of the harvester.

I was always convinced that I would be one of the last ones out the door here. I guess we'll see. Last one out the door, turn off the lights.