Welcome to my first ever blog. I can't promise that it will be funny, informative, clever or even regular - but I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless.

Yesterday I returned from a business trip to Lincoln, NE. For the geography challenged, Nebraska is located almost exactly in the center of the US. So no beachwear was required for my trip, unfortunately. Lincoln is the capitol city, though not the largest (that would be Omaha -which the native tribe after which the city is named pronouce o-MAH-hah). Hey, I guess this blog may be informative (dont' worry, it won't be all that educational in general).

Oh, for those of you who do like maps and satellite images of the country, Google Maps is an amazing resource. It allows you to view an area as a nicely drawn map, a satellite image (cities have excellent detail), or a hybrid of the two. Google is on its way to world domination, so prepare to pay tribute.

Lincoln is a small college city - football fans are sure to know it as the home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. However, since the students weren't yet in town en mass, it was a bit on the quiet side. Not being a partying type, that was fine with me anyway. I managed to go to a couple of movies in my time away from the conference. Normally I see 8-10 movies over the summer, but this year I haven't quite found the time.

The first movie I went to see was War of the Worlds. Now, I must admit to being a sci-fi fan in general (yes, I'm a bit nerdy) and I have no hatred of Tom Cruise (he seems to be a good judge of scripts, Cocktail aside). I usually enjoy Spielberg as well, so I figured the movie would be good and it did meet my expectations. Nothing suprising really, just a well done movie that kept the focus on the people instead of the tech. I give it 3 stars (out of 5).

The next night I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp. Being a huge fan of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I was expecting to be disappointed by this one. I wasn't. Johnny Depp's Wonka is a very different character than Gene Wilder masterfully portrayed in 1971, but retains the wit and charm that makes the movie fun. My only complaint was the Oompa Loompas; in this movie they are all played by one man in a bit of digital trickerty that I think looks like trickery. Digital effects are well and good when pulled off - distracting when they're not. That aside, it's a fun movie that I can easily recommend. 3½ stars (out of 5).

The photos for this blog were taken with my new camera - a Canon PowerShow SD300 which I love so far. It takes nice sharp photos and even VGA (640x480) movies at 30 fps (frames per second). Best of all, it's about the size of a credit card and only half an inch thick.