Bulls...!
Has anyone seen that new show Penn and Teller: Bullshit? It's actually a pretty funny and interesting show. Last week I watched an episode about how the war on drugs is not working and that marijuana is not as dangerous as everyone believes. Tonight I saw an episode that I know you would love David. Recycling is bullshit. It does not save the environment because it produces tons more, takes a lot of energy to produce and only creates money for those on the very top. Environments are just lobbying the government to save the world and perhaps create money for themselves. You should try to watch it some time Dave, I'll see if I can tape it. Now this actually applies to most recycling. The only item that really should be recycled are aluminum cans. See all the homeless running around collecting those? Do you see the same collecting paper and plastic? No. Because there is no money in recycling those items. The homeless are a lot smarter than we think.

They prevent the sweep
Time to put those brooms back in the closet, but don't lock the door because they'll be out soon enough. I didn't get a chance to watch the game yet but maybe I will tonight. I'm guessing Maddux pitched a good game which must be such a confidence builder considering he hasn't done well against the Backs and at least he didn't get the win. I normally back all the players and the moves of management but Mantei is really pissing me off. He's only 3 for 5 in saves and has an 0-3 record. That's really pissy this early in the season and I expect a turn around. I got into my car just as the bottom of the ninth began when I heard this news and just started yelling and cursing. I also couldn't believe that the Backs tied the game with three solo shots by Finley. With all the hitting going on you mean to tell me not a single person could get on in front of him? This is great for Fins because he is such a streaky hitter, look out. But the worst part is that Sexson got injured and they don't really know how long he may be out but the 15-day disabled is likely. At lease Bautista kept the streak going, would have been great if he hit in front of Fins. Well they still won the series and I guarantee that if the they were to win every series here on out they would definitely be playing in October. It's unfortunate they didn't get to see the Cubs best stuff but that won't matter as we'll see later this year, right?

JJ is the man
Man I was so down earlier today. We showed our system to our class and it was awful. First the detector didn't work and then as we were showing some test results nobody understood. They didn't understand the explanations and then our professor was all "so what's with all the noise. I don't trust your results. I think it's made up and you need to fix that software" or at least that's what it felt like he said. He's not really much of a motivator or supporter and is real good at making people feel stupid. Now I'm filled with exuberance, because later in the day JJ, our project manager, went into the lab for three hours and fixed it. I'm not sure why some of the other members couldn't do it with all the other time they spent but JJ did it. He got it to actually image the sample with a uniform collimated beam to give good clean results. He got some awesome pictures that I can't wait to show. JJ really pulled through as PM and I'm really proud that my software does work. It's like playing god creating something for a purpose. Well the net is a little slow right now so I'll have to post the pictures later.

I'm spent
I no longer function. I'm not thinking clearly and my body is not responding the way it should. Our capstone system isn't really working properly and it's all my fault because I'm chief systems engineer. I'm so out of it I'm not sure if I can pull myself together to even attempt the fixes. Maybe this is considered as giving up but I'm not sure what to do. At lease I have one professor that is really cool and understands and is now giving me an extension on a report. Otherwise the only thing that is keeping me going and keeping my spirits up is that it is Wednesday and for the past two nights in a row the Diamondbacks have just creamed the Cubs. That's a positive isn't it?

There's a Puma in my house
So I guess I now have a cat, sort of. My new roommate moved in tonight and she brought along her cat, Puma. She's adorable and does some funny things, oh and the cat's cute too. All kidding aside, I just love cats and it will be nice to have a pet around. I would have had one sooner but my roommate/landlord told me that it wasn't allowed. I guess the rules have changed. I'm definitely getting a kitten when I move to Florida, I'm going to need the company.

The Big Project
Okay, here it finally is and please read it all. It really is a neat project and interesting.

First the premise. Lenses and optical elements are often made from glass because it pretty much has awesome optical, structural, and mechanical properties. It does have two faults though; it is prone to scratches unless coated and is expensive to produce especially in large numbers. The solution? Plastic. Plastic can be very cheap and can be of high optical quality as well. Unfortunately the elements are often made from melted plastic in molds and when it cools it's not uniform and little stresses form inside. When light travels through it isn't consistent and may take one wave of a certain orientation to travel through than another. This is known as birefringence and has a large effect on the polarization of light (orientation of the wave). There are simple devices that can show the birefringence, in fact it can look very pretty, but our project sponsor wants to know quantitatively what the birefringence is over his plastic elements. Our job was to build such a device.

We actually had a large group at six but I had a lot of responsibility under my belt. I was appointed Chief Systems Engineer which basically means that I am the one that makes sure the system works and to be honest I don't think I did that great of a job in that position. I was also responsible to figure out the math to get numbers and then code it into a program. I kind of had the most experience programming so I said sure. Not my favorite thing but I got the hang of it. On these second tasks I think I did a damn fine job.

The system basically works like this. We use an LED source basically cause it's more affordable. We collimate it so that we have a uniform beam illuminating the test piece. Now comes the cool parts, the polarizers. This is the key to measuring the birefringence. The first comes directly after the collimating lens and makes all the light circularly polarized. It then travels through the test element and then hits the second polarizer. This second one is the genius part. By rotating this piece and flipping it around we can make the four measurements needed to get the retardance and birefringence.

Bored yet? No? Then keep plunging on. After this second rotating magic analyzing polarizer the light travels bouncing off a couple of mirrors and then is imaged through another lens onto the detector. Man has this detector been a lot of trouble. Basically when it all comes down to it, the detector/camera is really quite good but the framegrabber and software is not. We lose a lot of resolution and it is very touchy. At each step of rotating the analyzer we take a picture and save it. After four pictures have been taken then it's time for my software.

All the software really does is load the images, process all the algorithms for the math using Mueller matrices and Stokes vectors and stuff and then stores all the retardance values along with its orientation into a matrix. Then these are imaged showing all the changes with beautiful colors. Below are some examples of the result of some pictures of a similar case, so we didn't actually take the pictures but the results still look really cool.





Confused? Well feel free to ask questions cause I really want to answer them. The whole thing is hard to explain so quickly, definitely when you aren't really familiar with a lot of optics. If I post anything in the future I'll try to clear some things up. Anyway I'm pretty proud of it and I hope everyone can be as interested and as excited as I am. Tonight I'm actually finishing up our final testing and perhaps I can actually show pictures that we took and some real results. Exciting!

Diamondbacks: 2 Cubs: 0
The Diamondbacks take another from the Cubs and once again in demanding fashion 10-1. It looks as though the D'Backs bats are finally heating up and its a good thing because unlike the Cubs, the Backs are climbing up towards 500. But man, the Cubs were just dominated and this time at the hands of Brandon Webb, our little shining star that had a strong case to be rookie of the year last year and of course in my opinion should have. It's unfortunate the Backs don't get to see Prior. I hear he's now back to form and that's great cause any team could use his arm.

But back to tonight's game. Positives: D-Bo's streak is up to 19 games; Webb looked great improving to 2-1 despite another shaky first inning; Chad Tracy hit his first major league home run while knocking in three runs; and Gonzo is quietly putting up more great numbers with a three run homer. Negatives: Kata's hitting streak ends at 8 games; and Hollandsworth kept the Cubs from looking totally pitiful as he managed to put a run on the board as once again the bullpen couldn't pitch some scoreless innings. But who really cares, the Backs won and it's time to get those brooms out of the closet. Oh and I forgot to mention this yesterday, Danny Bautista was deservingly awarded NL Player of the Week for last week.

Round 1: Diamondbacks
That's right one of the first big series of the year. So the Cubs came into the west on a six game win streak and just got steamrolled by the D'Backs 9-0. Randy Johnson shut them down with ten K's, Danny Bautista extended the hit streak to 18 games and Richie Sexson launched a blast 503 feet. Holy Cow. What a fun game to watch. Even though the little winning streak for the Cubs died, some stayed alive like D-Bo's and Kata's hitting streaks and the fact that Randy has never lost to the Cubs. He's 12-0. You've got a great team Cubs just not tonight. They just couldn't cut it. I'm sorry but you just can't go far hitting like that. I mean even Randy had half as many hits as he allowed and knocked in more runs in holding the Cubs to their first scoreless outing of the year. And of course my apologies to Daniel, sorry.

Go D'Backs!

It's Wednesday again!
So soon? Yeah it's been transplanted to Sunday night because the girls, Kelsey and Nikki, are coming over to my place. Since last week we went to the Mr. Greek pageant and weren't able to watch The OC we'll be watching it tonight. I so responsibly taped it plus its a great little ploy to entertain some fine, attractive girls. Woohoo, hot chicks at my place.

Floaters
That's right, big ol' floaters just bobbing around the bowl and...wait a minute, no I mean eye floaters, little strands of your retina blocking and messing up your vision. If you want to know more just click the new link I put up labeled, that's right you guessed it, "Eye Floaters." Last year I had to do this research project about some sort of optical phenomenon and instead of it being a normal report it was a web report. I really hated doing it at the time, I wasn't (and still to some degree) not that web or HTML savvy. Something about it being understandable to highschoolers or early college or something. Yeah right, explain a Fourier transform to a highschooler. Anyway, our professor also wanted it to be public so anyone could read and respond. Well a few days I got my first response. I'll leave him anonymous but this is what he said, "I am a 30 year old male with a few floaters that drive me nuts. Is there anything I can do?" Sorry bud I'm no doctor I just did a research project. Did you see any medical advise on my website. No, just a bunch of description and equations. Try the other links bub.

I live on a farm
Or perhaps my house is just giving me a sign. There a tons of flies buzzing around in my house. This week I've killed around 15 or so. Yeah that's right I'm a fly killing machine. They fly around too much and then slow down and I either catch them or slap them right out of the air. Tuesday there were around 7 or 8 in the kitchen and last night I killed 5 in my bathroom. I mean what's the deal? The trash is empty and we hardly have any food in the kitchen. Those flies better wizen up or they are all going to have their lives shortened by a few days.

Carlos has a blog
He's a good friend of mine and now has new insperation to maintain his blog, one that he actually started back in August. Expect a lot of fun ranting.

Day Four
It wasn't a night but a day. I decided that four hours of sleep over the past three days wasn't enough to function so I went home to finish my work late Thursday afternoon and called it an early night. 10 hours of sleep was just what I needed. The documentation was finished and the code was bug free. All that's left is to make the changes to my documentation that my project manager suggested and complete the testing of the software with our own detector and pictures. Unless something else comes up, I should be finished up by later this night or tomorrow morning. Which is great cause I have a lot from other classes and an OSC picnic tomorrow that should be fun. Man, I still feel tired.

Patriot
I just had to put this in. Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals has been killed in Afghanistan. I remember the news stories when he made the announcement back in 2002 that he would skip millions in the NFL and join the Army Rangers. We owe you, your family and all of your fellow soldiers and all soldiers overseas a debt of gratitude. We salute you Pat, a true patriot.

What happened to Night Three?
Was there a night three? Yes there was but it wasn't quite like the others. Most of yesterday I spent typing up the documentation for my part, the math and software for the Birefringence Device. At 9:30 I met with Minglie, a team member, to set up a borrowed detector. Ugh, still more problems. The capture software was extremely slow and we couldn't really get an image. He left to work on that and I went back to my cubicle to finish the documentation. Now this is where the night took a different turn. I collapsed. I just couldn't work any longer. I'm not sure if it's just my lack of sleep or it's partly my sickness with the allergies but I just couldn't function. I knew I needed to get to bed but I was kind of afraid to drive. I made it home safely but there were some scary moments. Most of the effects I was suffering last night have carried over to today. So, I decided to do the work during the day and try to get normal sleep at night. So far so good. My software looks mighty good and seems to be bug free and the documentation is close to done. I can't wait to go to sleep.

Yay, Wednesdays
I've vastly become more drawn to Wednesdays. You could say it's my favorite day. It used to be Thursdays because it had "Must-See-TV", but now that's kind of died and Thursdays have now been replaced. Probably just 'cause I'm a curious guy, I've put up a new poll on the left. Subsequently my least favorite day is Monday, there's just nothing on the tube that day. Look in the near future for a closely related poll to hated days.

So why Wednesdays? That's the night I get to hang out with my girls. They're good friends and we get together once a week to watch The O.C and other shows or just hang out. Most of the time we meet up beforehand for wing night at Rocco's for wings and good food. Tonight we're going to a philanthropy event which is some sort of male beauty pageant. Disturbing, but it's for charity right? I wish I hung out with them more than just Wednesdays, but it normally doesn't work out. So as each week rolls around, I look forward to Wednesdays. The highlight of my week. I love you guys.

Night Two
Wow today was a much longer work day, 10 plus hours. I just kept plugging along. I also purchased a 60oz thirstbuster of Code Red to keep me awake into the wee hours so I was getting up to pee every half hour or so. Although I'm very happy with my progress, and I got a lot farther than I did last night. The software for my project seems to be working correctly practicing with some images that I created or found. Now I just need to configure it with the detector for our system. Tomorrow I'll have to borrow someone else's so I can find out what file type is best to use for the images. The rest of the night will be focused primarily on finishing up the documentation for my part of the project. Basically I worked out all the math and was also responsible for coding the software in Matlab. Unfortunately the computer that I work on here has an automatic scheduled Norton scan for 2 AM which takes up tons of CPU and makes things so slow that it takes a second or two for the words I'm typing to jump up and catch up to the speed of my typing. So I'm off to my house to finish the documentation and I promise to have more information up soon to describe what this project actually is but here's a little snapshot to get your chops wet. I apologize for the poor rendering.

Night One
I'm into hour six here at the lab. I'm into the final push for my senior project. It's almost done so that means tons more work. I'm trying to get the software to work correctly and give some expected results. Unfortunately the detector for our system is busted and we may not be able to get a new one in time. We can try borrowing one but that can be a nuisance. I'm really not that tired, and do really feel I need a break from this but my eyes are killing me. I got two of my prescriptions filled today and of course the one I need the most, the eye drops, they're out of. With out those drops my eyes continue to burn and I can't work any longer. So I gotta get of the computer and maybe next time I can explain the project, it's really pretty cool (and maybe more visual than yours Dave).

Super Allergies
If there's a possible symptom from allergies, I've got it. My symptoms? Sore throat in the morning, dry mouth later, itchy burning eyes, runny nose, congestion, nasty flem, chronic sneezing and coughing, popping ears, and heavy breathing. I went to the doctor today because I've been miserable for the last three weeks from allergies. Last week I was especially bad so I decided to get checked out. I also had suspicions that the cause could be from my room. There was flooding in my room two months ago and I don't think my land lord fully took care of it so there could be something growing in my walls, ewww. Anyway, by the end of the checkup I was given four prescriptions, for nose, breathing, eyes, and internal. I hope this works cause I'm sick of this and have you ever lost your voice because of allergies?

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman
Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen

Fun and very different than volume one. After seeing Kill Bill: Vol. 2 you can just tell that Tarantino loves film and making it. He mixes everything up with multiple and unexpected camera shots including a scene that he films in "fullscreen." This volume doesn't have as much action and not nearly as much blood but is focused on dialogue and the minds of the remaining members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squadron. This can better be described that it is more in the style of Pulp Fiction. So there is a lot of good dialogue and some very intense moments. What makes the film so great is even though there is intense action and serious dialogue, Tarantino still manages to parody Chinese Kung-fu movies. There is a lot of extreme closeups of an old Chinese martial arts master, with an excessively long silvery beard, and he's always laughing and mocking and tossing his stringing beard over his shoulder. It's hilarious. This film is probably best enjoyed watching soon after the first when the previous plot is still pretty fresh in you mind. Otherwise a great standalone that may not have as much rewatchability as the first.

I want to live in Urinetown
Seriously? No. But Urinetown the musical is great and definitely the funniest one I ever saw. One phrase says it all "Over the top." It was silly and melodramatic but most of all it didn't take itself seriously. The actual plotline was very sad, but even the characters within realized this and said "this isn't a happy musical but then why does it have happy music?" The main police officer, also the narrator was a riot. The rest of it was just fun through and through and I definitely suggest anyone to see it. Even those that don't really care from musicals or theater much, because this was full of laughs.

Monterey, California
I just wanted to put up some links for Slashdot and make a quick note about each.

Futurama and Family Guy-I like these shows a lot and love Family Guy. It's interesting that this will be the second time Fox will start the shows back up because of successful reruns. How come they never stick?
Bootlegging-I know it's illegal but how am I going to get that quick fix online when I can't wait for the DVD to be released?
Paper Disc-This one hits a little more close to home. In fact I was going to Monterey for this conference when I realized I couldn't miss class so close to finals and the end. For the past year I have been working with Tom Milster in the optical data storage center here at the U of A. So I know all about this Blu-ray technology and all the other hip stuff that lies in the future and will be the talk of the conference. In fact several of my peers are giving talks on really neat subjects. I just wish I had a real reason to go rather than just have fun. It would be fun wouldn't it?

Frustration
So I had a test today, but before I say I how I did I'd like to share a new philosophy that hit me yesterday. To begin, I was sick, I skipped class and rested. I thought, "gee I can take this time to study for my test tomorrow," and for the most part I did. But then I realized that I'm always studying for these tests lately and haven't done to well, and suffered through the agony of the studying. What would happen if I didn't study at all and winged it? Well the plan mostly worked. We had to memorize a whole bunch of materials properties like the density, conductivity, CTE, and E of BK7, fused silica, aluminum, steel, titanium and more, so I just crammed those in right before the test. The test was not too bad, I was doing great except for one thing, the professor made it a little too long. I didn't finish, and I don't think he realizes how long it would take. I was motoring along and then I looked at my watch and noticed it was 10 minutes after class should have ended. Why must professors frustrate us so?

On a more positive note, check out this cool material stuff called Sapphire. I'm also a materials sciences minor so this stuff really interests me. Make sure to check out the slideshow on the second link. Except for the fact that it's probably a little toxic, I would really like to take a dive into the stuff.

School of Rock (2003)
Director: Richard LinkLater
Screenplay: Mike White
Starring: Jack Black, Sarah Silverman, Joan Cusack

This is a fun enjoyable movie. This is totally Jack Black's role. No one else could play it and he nailed it. I don't know what it is about movies that star primarily children, it's either good or bad, no inbetween. This one is the good. I mean it is full of cliche and almost as predictable as any other children's "doing the wrong thing for the right reasons" movie, but it has some extremely funny parts. The gay kid is a knockout. I also really enjoyed the music, not just the old rock tunes but Black's tunes as well. This is definitely not a movie I would be disgraced to have on my shelves. Some could say that even I learned something from the School of Rock.

I'm sick
I did not need this today. I had the whole day worked out. Stop by the grocery store on the way home for class, and then go for a swim. After that, watch the taped D'backs game from earlier in the day while cooking dinner. After dinner I would head back to the optical sciences building to spend a decent amount of time working on my senior capstone project. Unfortunately I've got a bug I just can't shake. I think I'll go to be early and see where I am tomorrow, but right now it's not looking so good. Man, I've been more sick this year than ever before, what is wrong with me?

Phil's a winner!
Everyone give a round of applause for Phil Mickelson, after years of winning plenty of PGA tour events, he's finally won his first major. After a birdie putt on the 18th he jumped for joy for just edging out Ernie Els by one stroke. He finished nine under to win the Masters at Augusta and end an exhausting 0-42 record in major championships. Ol' Lefty, I salute you for accomplishing what many began to believe as the impossible.

I'm not really a fan of golf and I haven't really played, but I have always thought about picking it up. I just follow it from time to time because it is a sport, and who wouldn't want to know that Phil finally did it.

I have a poll
Check it out to the left.

Mmm, Lucky Charms are yummy
So that's the format below. When I review and post a movie, I shall post just that, the movie. It'll keep things more streamlined. I would also like to remind that I will only review movies I've seen for the first time bit if there's every an inquiry, just drop a line, I may have seen it or know a bit about it. I don't think they'll normally be that long but when I love a movie, I love to talk about it. You may also notice the spoiler alert. I typically try not to ruin anything and focus on more general topics but when I really enjoy it I can't help revealing the story in my analysis. I will try to always warn the reader first. You may also notice that I'll toss around couple of terms; movie and film.

A movie is mostly that which was made purely for entertainment, very story and action driven. Not exactly acclaimed. They can be enjoyable but you're normally going along for the ride. Summer blockbusters fall in here, like Independence Day, The Terminator and most comedies like The Jerk. A film is the artistic one, the right side of the brain. If it didn't make sense it's probably a film. Here, camera shots are more important or a crazy nonsensical plot. Some examples are Eternal Sunshine or even The Fifth Element and dark comedies like Fargo. And then there are those that are on the line in between, these are mostly epic like Lord of the Rings. It has the action and computer generated special effects to appeal to the vast and general audience but also has the feel and artistic direction to make it a great film.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Director: Michel Gondry
Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo

Now this is a whacked out film but isn't that expected? It is a Charlie Kaufman film. So in other words, it is a great film and kind of surprising that it is actually a romance, but it still has its humor. One of the things that I love about his screenplays are the way the story is told and this film continues that wonderful trend. Everything is so artistic with great camera shots and cinematography. And never film it in order. Everything is out of place and better described as 'Unstuck in time' a la Slaughterhouse Five. I mean it is told forwards and backwards, inwards and outwards, sideways and slantways. Eternal is just plain awesome. Eternal also portrays a couple of themes that we're all pretty familiar with and is probably the best portrayal of the these themes that I've seen. The themes are "It is better to love and lost than never to love at all" and another that is not really mentioned much but one I'm sure is all on our minds, "You can never get rid of that initial feeling."

(Spoiler Alert)I'll begin with the second theme. Even though Joel (Jim Carrey) had his memory erased of Clementine (Kate Winslet) and she the same, they still ended up meeting again and felt the same emotions all over again. Love at first sight is inescapable. The other theme is really apparent. As Joel's memory is being erased he is aware of it and realizes that he'd rather hang on to them and tries to reverse the erasing. Unfortunately he does not succeed and all is lost. Yet in the end he and Clementine meet up and find out that they had their memories erased and actually had a window into their future. Even though they knew that they would grow apart and get to the point where they couldn't stand each other anymore they still wanted to live through it again, together.(End Alert)

The actors were great and Jim Carrey really shines and shows a lot of prowess. He's not the old insane guy with the gravity defying facial contortions but rather shows a lot of seriousness and wit. Although the real star is the script, spun by Kaufman. It goes right along with his other greats Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. I see Kaufman finally winning his first Oscar for screenplay in the future, or at least another nomination. This is definitely a film I would want to see again and probably own and also inspires me to purchase other Kaufman films.

Comments are up
Hard to miss huh?

My new stuff
So I've got the little features at the bottom of my page. I think it's important to have a counter to see if people are visiting, and I want people to visit. Now the only thing to get up is the comments. I should have those up later today.

Cable internet is great
So I'm up at my parent's place in Tempe and it is so great that they finally got cable internet. Now it doesn't take me 10 minutes to check my email. But now time for the real meat, more about me and what I'm going to post.

Basically I'm an old Arizona native attending the University of Arizona studying for a Bachelor of Science in Optical Sciences and Engineering. I plan to graduate in May and go on to grad school. So besides all this engineering stuff and science and math I also really love sports. So expect plenty of that and lots of baseball, by far the best game on the planet. I also enjoy the occasional good read and video game. I watch a bit more television then my studies should allow and can devote a lot of time to my favorite shows and D'Backs games.

But my newest hobby is movie watching. I'm not talking about going to the theaters and watching the new stuff, I'm talking about watching the classics. Back in '96, AFI (American Film Institute) released their list of the top 100 American films. A few years later they released lists for funny films and then another for heart-pounding films. I don't know what snapped in me but about three years ago I decided to make it a goal to see all the films on those lists. In the meantime I've discovered other great films, started making lists of my own and learned a lot about what makes great film. I still manage to catch a new one here and there but I can't really afford it. It's a lot cheaper to rent. Anyway I began watching so many that they began running together, their stories got all tangled up and I could no longer remember much about them, so I now have a little book where I write a little piece, and now this blog shall serve the same purpose. So from time to time I will write about a movie and do a little review, a review from a real person. It will always be a movie that I had seen for the first time, only first impressions, no rehash of a movie I already love and would have a lot of bias for. As soon as I get comments up I'm sure to open them up to anyone who wants suggestions for a good movie or for what occasion and what to spend your time and money for.

Sorry that this post is so lengthy I'll try to keep it down in the future.

Well David I've finally done it
I shall begin all of this with a little ranting, which there may be a lot of. So apparently once a name has been chosen on Blogspot it is stuck on. There is no way they can revoke it and take it away. It does matter how abandoned it is, no matter how many years since last post, even if they never even made a post it just stays there. You can ask the person to cancel and put it back up for grabs, but unless they posted their info on their page you'll never know how to contact them; Blogspot cannot give out personal information. Blueharvest was not my first choice, fortytwo was, but I guess will have to do.

I'm heading up to Tempe to join my family for Easter weekend so look for some other posts later tonight or tomorrow.