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I never really thought of this as a vacation trip.  I’m basically trying to get to Portland as fast as I can and hopefully see some cool scenery along the way.  I wanted to spread it out so I didn’t have to drive day and night. I don’t have any fun events planned.  Having the dog makes it a little bit harder to do.

I got about 4 hours of sleep last night.  Today I went from Mississippi to Tennessee to Arkansas to Missouri.  I’m spending the night in Kansas City.  Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas are pretty boring to drive through.   Once I got close to Missouri, it got more interesting.  I ended up taking my GPS system’s route instead of the Google Maps route and that took me through the heart of Arkansas and Missouri.  Both set of directions agree for tomorrow route.  I should be on the interstate a lot more, which I think will be better.

Reese was uncomfortable in the car at first.  After a while he got comfortable and went to sleep and I would forget that he was there until he farted or something.  There was a little bit of a hassle over Reese staying here at the hotel.  They claim to be pet friendly on their website, but when I get here they say that pets aren’t allowed.  I’m trying a different chain tomorrow.

The weather was pretty cold today.  I hate that the South got hit with cold weather right when it was time for me to leave.

I probably won’t have time to do much tomorrow.  It’s snowing tomorrow morning in KC, so I’ll be getting off to a later start.

More pics are on Facebook and I’m sure I’ll add them to every other social network later.

I wanted to updates today since I haven’t written in a while.

I was busy with preparing to move and trying to visit family, friends, and my former co-workers before the move. I hope I get to see everyone again soon.

Packing is a pain, especially when you’re doing it all by yourself. It seems like every time I have to move, I end up having to do it all by myself. There were some times when I said “Screw it. I want to play Xbox for a while.” I got it all done, though, in time for the movers to come yesterday.

The movers made me hate moving even more than I did while I was packing. They got to my place at 3pm, which is a later than I wanted them too. I still had to clean to place after they left, so I was hoping they would give me plenty of time to do that. They didn’t. They parked the truck across the street. I understand that they couldn’t get closer because my driveway goes down and the truck is too low for that. Since they had to walk farther than 75ft, I’m going to be charged an additional fee of $75-$100, depending on the weight of my stuff. I’d be willing the bet that I’m going to be charged the maximum amount.

There were two movers. The older guy was Russian or Eastern European and the younger guy was Latino. I love meeting all different types of people, but there were communication issues because they weren’t fluent enough in English. Early on the older guy came running into my place and asked to use the bathroom. I heard the toilet flush about 5 times and the water in the sink run for a long time before he came out. He went back outside and I hardly saw him after that. I don’t know if he was sick or if he was supposed to stay outside with the truck. When I went into the bathroom it was rank and there was poo splatter all on the inside of the toilet. I had just cleaned that toilet before they got there and packed away the toilet cleaning supplies.

The younger guy kept dropping stuff and almost dropping stuff. The older guy kept barking instructions on what the young guy should have been doing whenever I saw them together. I ended up helping the younger guy out some, since the older guy wasn’t around.

Eventually the older guy came in and told me his estimate for how much my stuff weighed. His estimate was about 1300 lbs over the original estimate, which meant I would owe them about $1000 more than I expected. I figured it would be over some due to stories I’ve heard from others, but not that much. I WAS PISSED. This on top of everything else. I think he could tell how upset I was by this because he basically told me that we would find out the real weight when they weighed the truck. I emailed the guy who originally set up my move. He’s a Mississippi State graduate. I figured he’d get back to me on Monday. This news really put a damper on my mood. I was already stressed out enough. I got a call from the moving company today in response to my email. They said tha my actual weight is close to the original estimated weight. If I am over, it’s not 1300 lbs over. What a relief! I had a feeling that mover guy didn’t know what he talking about.

After they left I finished cleaning pretty late and put as much in my car as I could. I slept on the floor with Reese. I listened to coverage of Whitney Houston’s death on my phone. Kind of a sad way to spend my last night in Starkville, huh? I got up this morning, finished putting the rest of the stuff in my car, got some gas, and left Starkville around 6:30 this morning.

After 14.5 years, I’m gone.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved loved loved this book! Once I started reading, it was hard to stop!

It’s about what it was like for black maids to work for white families in Mississippi in the 60s. I liked the 3 main characters whose point of views the story was told from. The chapters written in the dialect didn’t bother me, and that kind of thing usually does bother me. I like the way the story unfolds with a good mix of seriousness and humor. I got really nervous at times and couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen.

I know one of the reasons I enjoyed the book was that it’s set in and around my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. I recognized a lot of the areas that were mentioned. It sucks to think that things were that bad just 50 years ago. The story begins about 16 years before I was born. A lot has changed and a lot still needs to change.

It’s a great book. Check it out if you haven’t already. I’ll probably be watching the movie sometime this week.

HTML5 Cookbook by Christopher Schmitt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A good book. Well-written with helpful examples. It looks like they tried to make things a lot better with HTML5.

The book does a great job of explaining HTML5 features. It presents everything in the form of a problem and a solution. It shows features that are widely supported, features that are supported by some browsers, and features that aren’t supported by any browsers yet. You get workarounds for pretty much every feature just in case the user is using a browser that doesn’t support the feature.

Rule 34 by Charles Stross
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the latest Sword & Laser pick. It’s based around the Internet meme Rule 34 that says if it exists, then there’s a porn for it. The book is set in the near future in Scotland and there’s a police force set up to make sure people aren’t doing anything illegal in this regard. Overall, I thought the book was okay. It’s definitely not my favorite S&L pick.

Most of the book is told from the point of view of one of 3 main characters. As you get further into the book, more characters are introduced. Just like the A Songs of Ice and Fire series, the name of the point of view character for that chapter is at the beginning. The problem is that I didn’t care for most of the characters. And didn’t care for the author’s writing style either.

An odd thing about this book is that it’s mostly written in the 2nd person point of view. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book in this point of view before. Made up example: “You wake up. You get out of bed, take a shower, and put some clothes on. You grab your keys and head out the door.” Weird, isn’t it? The “you” isn’t the reader, it’s the point of view character for that chapter. I got used to it, and it didn’t bother me after a while.

Something that did bother me was the Scottish dialect/vernacular. I’ve always hated reading dialogue written in the vernacular because it’s makes for slow reading. In this book, there were words written in a Scottish accent and words that I didn’t know the meaning of. Annoying.

I suggest passing on this book unless you’re a fan of the author. I’ve heard that his earlier work is better, so check that out instead.

CSS: The Missing Manual by David McFarland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got to refresh my memory and hopefully learn something new, which I did. It’s a good book. I didn’t read everything in detail, but I skimmed through the whole thing. The humor in this book wasn’t funny to me, but it’s easy to ignore it.

One benefit of working at home: It’s been about a month since I filled my gas tank and I still have a little under a quarter of a tank left.

One drawback of working at home: I’m going a little stir crazy. Other than trips to the gym and to the grocery store, I haven’t gotten out much lately. I’ve probably said this before, but this town is so boring. I’m glad to be leaving.

I think I’m going to the movies this weekend. Haywire looks really good and it’s getting good reviews. I’m interested in Red Tails as well. Watching the Golden Globes this past weekend made me realize that I slacked off on movies last year. That’s partially because a lot of movies I’m interested in don’t play in Starkville, but it’s also because it’s a lot easier and cheaper to stay home. Maybe I’ll go to Columbus and do some shopping as well.

CSS3 For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m not a design person, but I learned a lot and I think I’ll get a lot of use out of what I learned. It gives a good overview of CSS3 features that can be used now, even though CSS3 isn’t finished yet (as far as I know). It focuses on non-critical aspects of the experience layer so that people using browsers that don’t yet support these features won’t know that they’re missing anything. It’s short, to the point, and even funny in a lot of places. Definitely worth checking out.

P.S. – I don’t feel bad about including this type of book in the 20 I want to read for the year. I did read this book all the way through and I plan on reading a couple of trilogies that are counted as 1 book on Goodreads.  3 down, 17 more to go.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finally got around to reading some Dresden Files. I really enjoyed the TV show and I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not to read the books.

I’m not big on urban fantasy but I liked this book a lot. I don’t the 1st person perspective, the way that some points were repeated too many times, and some aspects of the magic system. However, I did like the story and the character, especially Harry Dresden. This book sets up the world nicely. I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading more in this series and re-watching the TV show.

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good end to a great series! All fantasy fans should read this trilogy!

It’s been about 2 years since I first started this book, but it didn’t take long to get back into it. My only issue is that the climax went on too long. Other than that, it was great. I wouldn’t mind reading other books set in this world.