For those that may not know (I had to look it up) here is the definition of MEME:

Meme: an information pattern, held in an individual’s memory, which is capable of being copied to another individual’s memory.

When used online it usually means a series of questions that you answer then ask others to do the same.

It’s an interesting social experiment, and makes for some interesting “backwards” web surfing.

Well I’ve been tagged by the MEME phenomenon by Mikal over at Belicove.com

This one is book related.

Here are my answers!

1. Estimate the total number of books you’ve owned in your life.

Wow.

No Idea.

Story books as a kid … (although my parents may have paid for them … many .. hundreds easily)

text books as a student… (nine semesters… easily 100 if workbooks and “supplemental readings” count)

…and everything in between.

If you count all the technical reference books I buy/read/use for computer/web work..t

he grand total must be 1-2 k

2. What’s the last book you bought?

Hmmm.. I belive it was a book on wine actually.

3. What’s the last book you read?

Oddly it wasn’t about wine. (I’ve not read that one yet)

I think it was a poker book.

I’ve “spot read” a number of books recently.

4. List 5 books that mean a lot to you.

- A bio of Mario Andretti (a childrens’ book.. I was very young)

- “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote (that book will stay with you a while)

- “Grapes of Wrath” Forced reading in High school.. and very worth it.

- All the “choose your own adventure” books I read as a kid.

- Title escapes me. Book about a kid who gets lost in the wilderness after a plane crash… what was that one??

5. Tag 5 people!

Kevin

Taylor

Dave

Chris

Darren

There you go guys your turn!

You’re welcome / Sorry… whichever is more appropriate for you.

Have fun!

Well I have an emergency dental appointment today.

A actually have to leave here in a minute to make it there.

I’m pretty nervous about it.

I hate the dentist.

That’s why I haven’t been in years.

I’m sure that’s also why I have this emergency.

I’ll update this afterwards.

If the pain doesn’t disable me.

Ok…

All I have to say today is that there’s NO justice in the world if Bo Bice doesn’t win Idol tonight.

Well it’s done!

Today I completed my SCUBA certification dives and got my card!

It was a great dive today at France Park. The water was nice and warm and we had 30-35 ft. of visibility. I even got to see one of the 5 ft long paddle fish!

These fish have dorsal fins and tails exactly like sharks, but their nose is really long and flat. I tell you what if it weren’t for the nose it would have been VERY unnerving to see that silhouette in the water!

Here’s a pic of a paddle fish.

We only had one dive today.
We had three yesterday. And yesterday was rough.
I didn’t do real well yesterday.

I got all my skills completed, but I didn’t do any of them with any real degree of grace or comfort. The water was colder, it was our first time with the 4 piece 7mm suit, and my weights weren’t quite right. So I was uncomfortable anyway.

Then I had the panic attack.
That was no fun.

I was 20 ft. down, and it was my turn to do the “flood and clear your mask” skill.
Not a very tough skill, mind you.
But when I broke the seal of the mask to flood it I started to choke and cough… and of course I can’t see now. I couldn’t clear the mask because I couldn’t get a solid breath … what with all the coughing, choking, and the onset of hyper ventilating.
And for some reason I just flipped out.

Completely panicked. I couldn’t breath, I was dying… yes dying for sure. I was gonna be a scuba student statistic.

I considered completely inflating my BCD and sky rocketing to the surface.

Apparently through all the choking and coughing I had cleared enough of my mask that the instructor was going to turn his attention to the next guy.

That freaked me out even more.

I’m not sure what I thought he could do for me.. but If I was about to take my last watery breath I wanted him to see it.

Then a faint voice of reason fought its way into my head.

“No one is going to make this better for you but you.”

“As much as things may suck right now… you are breathing.”

“You ARE breathing”

“Forget the mask you can clear it later… just close your eyes and breath until the choking passes”

“Then clear the mask and take a few minutes to just rest here and breath.”

… well it worked… I pulled it off and ended up ok.

But it was an experience I don’t ever want to relive. Being panicked underwater isn’t fun.

Today was much better.

I had to take the mask completely off and then put it on and clear it.

I did it just fine.

Well… it took a couple of times to clear it but it was ok. No panicking.

The warm dive today was full of life and things to see.

I really enjoyed it.

And if you can enjoy a quarry dive you can dive anywhere.

Ok it’s gonna be a busy day.

I have to get like a million things done in the next 90 minutes.

Have a presentation right after that.

Then I have to pick up my SCUBA gear for this weekends series of open water dives.

…

And I have tickets to the latest Star Wars film tonight.

I’ll try to post more about these things today if time permits.

Otherwise I’ll post my thoughts on the movie tomorrow.

Greetings!

Well as some of you may have known Dave has started a new feature called:

“An audio lunch hour”.

It’s been fairly entertaining so far so … no pressure Dave.

The thing is he made this logo:

It’s a very nice logo.

I like it.

The whole concept is something I’veconsidered doing, and now that Dave hasproved it’s worth I may also do some sort of audio Blog.

Things were progressing nicely with the evolution our web sites have been going through.

Then Dave posted to one of my Blogs that even if I DID do an Audio Blog… I couldn’t possibly create a logo as brilliant as his.

I can’t resist a challenge.

I submit to you know my candidate for the Audio Blog Logo contest.

(Please cast any votes via the comment Link.)

Stay tuned… the first audio Blog will likely be launched soon.

Ok all.. time to get you all fired.

I hope you’ve all spent some time at Chris’ site.

It’s well worth a look.

In particular the “time wasters” which you’ll find to the right.

Turns out that several of the little apps I’ve posted in the past were already listed there.

Here are two more I got from Chris’ list to help you all waste some time.

The Airplane Lander.

This is actually pretty hard.

I’ve figured it out and managed to score a perfect 10. Good luck… this one could drive you batty for a very long time.

The laser game.

Logic puzzles, and a lot of fun.

Also capable of doing away with a good number of minutes of your life.

Stay tuned there’s plenty in the works here.

Well nothing helps save a rotten day like a twenty dollar lunch.

I was completely drained and beaten down today so at lunch I decided to treat myself to some sushi.

I drove to Kona Jacks near work which is home to some of the freshest sea food in Indy, and the best spider roll in the hemisphere.

And it was exactly what I needed to get through another few hours here in the real world.

I mean heck I’m even Blogging twice in one day!!

Ok so onto the topic at hand.

ATTENTION PURDUE PEOPLE:

My neighbor Leslie is graduating soon, and has been accepted to Purdue University.

Obviously we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her attending such a great school.

Now she’s faced with the big decision of how to rank her housing choices.

Everyone please comment here with your opinions on the following choices:

1.Earhart

2.McCutcheon

3.Windsor

4.Shreve

5.Owen

6.Meredith

I spent my Freshman year in Cary Quad, and the rest of my time at Purdue in the Fraternity so I’m not going to be a great deal of help.

I’ll still do some digging and try to come up with some helpful hints for these places.

Come on all you boilermakers, let help a future one out!

By 8:45 this morning I wanted this day to be over.

This has not been a good week… not been a good couple weeks… but I don’t really want to get into any of that.

Needless to say I could use some good news and a nice diversion.

Saturday I have my last confined water dive SCUBA class.

I also have to take “The final exam”.

Then all that remains to complete my Open water SCUBA cert is to do the 4 open water dives.

(Those will take place the following weekend)

I have to admit I’m not looking forward to the final exam.

It’s not hard material, but there is lots of it.

It’s been awhile since I had to “study”.

I’m looking forward to getting the cert done though.

Sunday the 22nd I’ll make my last required dive, get my cert, and can spend the rest of the day diving for fun.

I’m already considering some follow-up classes.

- Wreck Diving

- Underwater navigation

- Deep water diving

- Underwater photography

- Underwater Videography

- Search and Recovery

- Rescue Diver

And if I ever get all of those done….

- Technical Diving

- Nitrox (enriched air)

- Master Diver

… and then maybe the instructor certs.

All of this and I live in a cold…land locked state.

Ok so there are three big news items in the blogosphere today.

Sadly neither of them here.

1) Chris Heacock has given his Blog the attention it deserves. You’ll find a link below.

Tell him Doug sent you and he’ll send you a free T-shirt.

2) Dave started “An Audio Lunch Hour” audio Blog feature.

Pretty neat. I’m thinking of copying it and claiming it as my own.

3) The a fore mentioned Chris Heacock is gonna have a Baby!

Congrats Chris, that’s great news.

Check out Chris and Dave’s site.

I’ll have something for you later in week.