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Resurrect or replace my PDA

The touch screen on my Visor Platinum is starting to flake out on me. Taps on the left side of the screen bounce wildly about, making it difficult to use. My wife gave it to me for Christmas about two years ago, and it’s served me well since then. So, do I take this opportunity to shell out more money to replace it with a new and improved PalmOS 5 model (I’m kind of digging the Palm’s T3), or go the much cheaper route and just buy a replacement screen.

I like my Platinum, and have grown attached to it. With the Memplug and 64 MB card, I have plenty of space to hold stuff. My trusty Stowaway lets me write and enter data quickly.
I’ll probably just replace the screen, because after Christmas, we’re pretty tapped out at the moment. Or I might be tempted with a refurb from Handspring. They’ve got some pretty good deals going on there.

First I think I’ll take it apart and see if reseating the cables helps.

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LOTR:TTT

One of my Christmas gifts was the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers extended DVD (to go with the first one). So for the past 3 days, we’ve been watching a good 9 hours of Lord of the Rings and the behind the scenes stuff.

It’s an astounding DVD set, like the first one, but I think they’ve managed to pack even more stuff into this 2nd extended DVD set. Just like the first extended DVD set, the two appendix DVDs with behind the scenes stuff was fascinating to watch, and really adds a lot of insight into how the film was made, and the decisions the directors and writers made about adapting the book to film.

I don’t think there are very many people who are disappointed with Peter Jackson’s adaptation to film of Tolkien’s great work. This is one of the few film adaptations of a book that’s given me a greater appreciation of the book, and where you don’t mind the visual imagery from the film interfering with what you read in the book.

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The ocean

What is it about the ocean that captivates people? All you see is endless water which makes you feel small and insignificant, which isn’t something many people deal well with.
I grew up inland, never seeing a body of water much larger than a lake. Always thought it was nice, but never had any particular fascination with living near water. Even after visiting both coasts and wetting my feet in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, I never really thought much about the ocean.
But now, after living here for a few years, with the beach and ocean only a few minutes away and marsh in my back yard almost, I don’t think I’d want to live inland again. I don’t own a boat (nor do I really want to), and I don’t surf or do any ocean related activities. I’m not sure what it is I like so much about the ocean. There’s something about looking out onto the ocean and feeling the ocean breeze that just utterly captivates you. The waves come in onto the shore in a hypnotic rhythm, drawing my thoughts further out onto the water. And when I look closer, I see the sea birds gliding on the breeze, shore birds hopping around poking about in the sand for a morsel, or maybe a small crab scurrying about trying to avoid the birds. There are people surfing on the water, others wading in the water close to the beach, or lying on the sand. Looking even closer, there are shells, sometimes jelly fish remains being picked over by the occasional bird, or the broken shell of a small crab. Sand packed hard by the water gives way to softer drier sand. Even closer, are the tiny grains of sand rushing up and down the beach, pushed by the waves. Windblown grains of sand drift over the beach and cover my feet.
All this and more for anyone to discover. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to leave.

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Another late Friday Five

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Making sure everything was in tip top shape for my part in DHEC and JCAHO inspections this year. May not seem like it, but it can be a lot of work making sure all the documentation is in order.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
No really big disappointments. Maybe not taking that job at Duke University, but neither choice was a bad one for me to make.

3. What do you hope the new year brings?
More progress on the path to enlightenment, wherever that takes me.

4. Will you be making any New Year’s resolutions? If yes, what will they be?
I usually try to avoid making resolutions.

5. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?
No plans yet. Maybe find a event or party to go to.

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The holiday aftermath

Christmas is over with, the endless loop of Christmas music on the radio is done, and life slowly returns to normal.
I think we’ve definitely made our contribution to the economy this holiday season. The last couple of months worth of credit card payments have all been pretty much undone with our holiday spending. That means my initial target date for getting one of our credit cards paid off is pushed back a few months. Well, at least we had fun with it 🙂
All in all, it was a good Christmas this year. Less drama this year (at least I think so…we were mostly busy with cooking). Smaller group over for Christmas this year, which made for a nicer event. Got some strange gifts though. Don’t know what the heck we’re going to do with a 2′ tall wooden Nutcracker doll.
Hope all of you reading had as pleasant a Christmas as we did!