A few new details have surfaced regarding the crash I wrote about yesterday. Apparently, another car crossed the median and hit Jessica's Civic head on. She was killed instantly while the other driver, also just 23 years old, died at the hospital. Such a senseless loss of life.

URL: SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Man killed in crash on Interstate 805

Sometimes, life just sucks.

I was talking to a friend tonight on AIM and apparently, one of my ex-coworkers passed away last night in a car crash. Little is known exactly about the crash, but apparently, Jessica was killed on impact while the other driver died at the hospital. Jessica was a first year driver at UCSD Shuttle Operations during my last two quarters there. During Fall quarter, I either relieved her or was relieved by her three to four times a week while driving East Parking. She was a great person and I feel blessed that I got to know her. Next week, UCSD has finals and Jessica was set to graduate at the end of finals. Just a week away from leaving college...

I'm still in shock. Other than one close family member, I've never really had to deal with death. Even that one time, I was still young and unable to fully comprehend exactly what had happened. Even though I only knew Jessica for two quarters (about 6 months) and our whole friendship consisted of brief passings as one person ended the shift and the other started, the loss just hurts. Sometimes, life just sucks.

URL: One dead, one hurt in two-car collision | The San Diego Union-Tribune

As many of you probably know, I'm a tech geek and I've been through my fair share of handheld computers. I had a Palm Pilot back when they were actually called Pilots and then upgraded to the "3" version I think (can't remember exactly). After the novelty of those two wore off, I didn't really use them much until I my dad gave me a Palm VII that he won at a golf tournament. I played around with it for a while, but mostly used it for games. After I started having problems with it, I just gave up on Palms and stuck with my desktop computer. Then, about a year and a half ago at Fry's, they had a sale on the low-end Sony Clie (runs the Palm operating system). I picked one up and used it pretty religiously for a while, but one of the reasons I wanted to get the Clie was so I could listen to MP3s on it, but after buying it (and after reading some misleading information online), I found out that the Clie I bought was the last one without MP3 capabilities. So the Clie now sits in a box in the hall (anyone want to buy one?).

So, after that long story, what's my point? Today, I received my brand new Axim X30 with a 624 MHz processor (almost as fast as my computer and just a tad bit slower than my server). It has 64 MB of RAM, 64 MB of ROM and an SD card slot (my 512 MB SD card shipped today from Newegg). On top of all that, it runs Windows 2003 Mobile Second Edition. I was pretty fed up with the Palm operating system even though it gave me basic connectivity with my computer, it really didn't offer much more. With the sync capabilities of Windows Mobile with my Windows 2000 computer, I can easily keep track of my schedule, my tasks, and even my e-mail if I want. This is also my first handheld with a color screen and it is beautiful. Even though it's not VGA like the high-end Toshiba, it still looks amazing compared to the dull, lower contrast Palms I've been using. And the icing on top of the cake, it's got WiFi and Bluetooth built in. I plugged it in to charge the battery and since I couldn't wait for it to charge for 8 hours, I turned it on, and immediately was connected to the internet via the wireless router we have in our house. Now...to find open wireless connections near my work.

I haven't had a chance to fully play with the Axim, but I love it already and with all the great games you can install on it (think: NES emulator), what more could you want? It plays videos, has Windows Media Player built in (all kinds of audio formats) and once I have AIM installed, I'll be connected everywhere. Now...to learn how to type/write faster with the stylus.

URL: Dell Home Systems Axim X30

As you may have noticed, I changed some settings here at blakex.com. Now, on every archive page, you can click the top "BB ~ Blake's Blog" link to come back to the front page - I didn't want to make it look like a link, so if you didn't mouse over it, you wouldn't know it had changed.

Also, I messed around with the <blockquote> settings so they are now more clearly defined within a table with dashed lines and smaller print inside so they don't take up so much room. I thought about adding a bar over to the right, but it's become so cliché with blogs these days, I'm going to stick with this basic, utilitarian design. Perhaps later I'll turn on individual post pages so it's easier to link to a specific post, but since I don't title my posts, I'm not sure how blogger will work those out.

Oh yeah, I removed that stupid new blogger button at the bottom of the page and replaced it with the classic blogger logo.

URL: BB ~ Blake's Blog

Wow, I never thought I'd consider voting for John Kerry, but after his speech today, how can you not?

[John Kerry] promised on Tuesday to safeguard all the nuclear weapons and materials that exist around the world by the end of his first term if elected.

...

[Kerry] also pledged to reduce existing nuclear weapons stockpiles, halt production of the materials used to make them and end nuclear weapons programs in nations like North Korea and Iran.

I would love to hear how he would actually go about safguarding "all the nuclear weapons and materials" that exist anywhere in the world. I really would love to hear how exactly he would "halt production of materials used to make [nuclear weapons]" and how he would end programs in North Korea and Iran. We all know that North Korea and Iran are just itching to comply with the U.S. and/or the U.N. and since Kim Jong Il is such a rational ruler, how could this plan not work? He continues...

"If we secure all bomb-making materials, ensure that no new materials are produced for nuclear weapons, and end nuclear weapons programs in hostile states like North Korea and Iran, we will dramatically reduce the possibility of nuclear terrorism," he said.

Again, more completely outlandish statments. We (the United States) are going to secure ALL bomb-making materials? We are going to ensure that no new materials are produced for nuclear weapons? And end programs in hostile states? Yeah, IF that happens, of course we dramatically reduce the possibility of nuclear terrorisim. Of course, any sane person has to realize that there is no possible way to do anything that Kerry has outlined. By definition, hostile states are not going to cooperate. And let's see...how can you make a bomb? Well, Tim McVeigh proved you just need fertilizer, so, we have to first outlaw that. Then, we have to safeguard every single stick of TNT and C4 in the world so they can't be used to blow stuff up that we don't want blown up and then we have to police every single square mile on earth to make sure that no one is going to produce weapons-grade uranium or any other element or machine that could be used to create a nuclear weapon.

"Remember. No material. No bomb. No nuclear terrorism," he said.

As they say in a popular commercial, "BRILLIANT!"

URL: Yahoo! News - Kerry Outlines Way to Limit Nuke Threat

As I prepare to go see The Day After Tomorrow for the second time this weekend, I just have to look back and laugh at the absurd claims of those who championed this movie as the truth, or what could happen if we don't change the way we utilize the natural resources here on earth. From start to finish, the whole movie is awash in it's own self-indulgence. As the film tries to make a statement, all it does it just become more and more irrelevant. Now don't get me wrong, it's a fun film to see (why else would I be seeing it a second time (yeah, the first theater I saw it in sucked...)), but as some sort of 'horrific future' that we are bringing upon ourselves, please. As mentioned in a previous post, pretty much all of the "scientific" evidence presented in the movie is false, though there are still those out there who think it is the truth.

The Day After Tomorrow is a fun, fictional movie, just like the movie I watched earlier today, Reign of Fire - a movie wherein, a dragon, after being dormant for thousands of years wakes up and procreates and he, along with his offspring, return the world to a dark age. As it goes in the movie, it wasn't natural causes that killed the dinosaurs - it was dragons. After the dragons had ravaged the earth and killed off the dinosaurs, they went into a state of hibernation, waiting for the world to replenish itself - and in 2084, when awakened, they ravaged the earth again. It sounds far-fetched, but what if that could happen? What if there is a dragon, hibernating somewhere, waiting to be awakened who will then spawn and kill almost every living creature on earth? Sound far-fetched? Sound ridiculous? To me, it sounds about as realistic as three "super-storms" being created by a global climate changes spurred on by the diminution of the Atlantic current.

URL: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW