We’ve just gotten back from a nice but short mini-vaction that we took with some good friends to my aunt’s condo in Perdido Key, Florida. It was a wonderful weekend of excess and we thoroughly enjoyed the time away. We enjoyed some fine dining at a few different establishments and even got a glimpse of Kid Rock and Rev Run who were apparently in town for the weekend as well. Of course any time in Orange Beach would not be complete without a trip to the infamous Florabama bar – in which we took in the local sites and flavors, having a blast gawking at the local party-goers and other assorted lounge lizards.

In other news, we’ve been been watching a few movies lately, and I am really getting psyched for a few upcoming movies, namely Indiana Jones and Batman. I saw some new publicity stills of Heath Ledger as Joker over at Slash Film and I am convinced that this movie is going to seriously kick ass. As for Indiana Jones, I’m starting to get nervous as I saw the most recent trailer and I noticed lots of stupid slapstick and painful comedic lines that were reminiscent of Temple of Doom which pretty much goes down in history as the worst movie ever. I am still holding out hope that they may revive the series without ruining it but honestly I am going to be going in with little hope and see what shakes out.

As for the boob tube, we’ve been watching a new series on Discovery called the “Alaskan Experiment” which pits four teams of ordinary folks having to survive in a very rugged Alaskan environment for 3 months with nothing but the very bare essentials. It has been a very interesting series to watch as I’ve been bantering about how they should do a Survivor show in some sort of cold setting as the typical tropical locations have gotten old and uninteresting anymore. Although there is no game show element or prize involved with this, the show seems much more real and the people involved are engaging enough to make you want to follow them without having to resort to petty squabbles and sex-laced scanters with bathing suited bimbos starving on a beach and fighting about who is sleeping with whom. It’s got us hooked and I encourage anyone to check it out.

Lastly, on the web front, I am deep in the middle of a much needed re-design of my new employers’ website. I also just launched the new City of D’Iberville website. Although it is still incomplete in several areas, their old site was so horrible that we just had to take this one live sooner that I had liked to. I’ve also got the City of Ocean Springs site in development which is going to be a rather large project. Both of these designs are taking local city websites into a new realm for the Mississippi coast. Historically, the Gulf Coast has been several years behind the rest of the country and in the case of the web, I’d venture closer to ten years behind at least. I’m trying to change that, one site at a time and while it’s slow going it has been pretty rewarding seeing old antiquated websites get a more modern refresh and use technologies and techniques that don’t seem to exist on any other websites in the region. We’re not only doing it better, but we’re doing it right in every instance that I can get away with. Sometimes it’s tough convincing our customers why things should be done that way since they’re not always the most informed or abreast of current styles and movements on the web.

Anyways, enough for now – I’ll post more, as I get more time.

The commercial has apparently been aired for awhile, but this was the first time that I’ve seen it, and quite honestly I was thoroughly disgusted by it. The 30-second spot is a series of clips from Hurricane Katrina played behind a message that “Most people run from point a to point b” followed by “Then there are a qualified few who run from point b to point a” concluding with a scene of a yuppie Hummer slowly driving down a flooded street during the storm. The commercial ends with a logo called “HOPE – Hummer Owners Prepared For Emergencies”.

This is so wrong on so many levels that I am not quite sure what to say. I cannot believe that a company would actually attempt to market their product in such a revolting way. How can Hummer possibly think that it is okay to profit off a storm that killed hundreds, destroyed millions of peoples lives, and changed the landscape of three entire states forever?

At the end of the ad, a website called www.hummerhelps.com is shown, so that it portrays that somehow Hummer is managing a charity or disaster relief program from this site and this ad. Go ahead and click on that link and see the website for yourself. You’ll find that it does nothing of the kind, and it in fact, merely links to a main corporate sales site. Can you believe that?

Hummer hasn’t helped the Gulf Coast at all. They’ve done nothing to help improve the situation here. Hummer should be ashamed of themselves for producing such a blatant attempt at making a buck off a national disaster and tragedy. This is akin to Hummer claiming that their gas-guzzling wastes of metal were used to help transport firemen into Ground Zero after 9/11.

I’ve never really been one to be that vocal against Hummer or against their pointless products that do nothing but help destroy the environment faster, but this is just too tasteless to not say something.

So, I have been using Joost for a little while now and I have to say that it is pretty cool. It doesn’t quite replace regular TV for me yet, but it does offer a unique alternative to specialized programming. The interface is something to see for sure as it is also quite unique. I am not sure that I am in love with it, but it is “slick”!

Anyhow, I have been given free invites to offer to friends, so I thought I would just post them here and see if anyone wants them. If so, just post in the comments and I will dole them out as I get them.

List of shows that I watch regularly: (in no particular order)

• 24
• The Shield
• Rescue Me
• Lost
• Heroes
• Nip/Tuck
• Desperate Housewives
• Prison Break
• E/R
• Survivor (although this getting old)
• Family Guy
• Simpsons
• CSI Las Vegas