Well, I had the domain blitzcraig.net for about a year, and had forgotten that I had requested it to be cancelled. So, it expired on me and instead of renewing it, I created the new address blitzcraig.org, which you are now on. I just looked back at a previous entry from June 5th. That is when I introduced blitzcraig.net, while not realizing that it was about to expire on me. I had written that the url was here to stay. My mistake! I am going to keep this new domain for the foreseeable distant future. Go ahead and plant your bookmarks.

I have always been a little lax about backing up files on my computer. I have finally found an easy solution for everybody. First off, I make sure that I store all of my working files in the My Documents folder. That way you only have to backup that one folder. It may take some tweaking to get every application to store files there, but it makes things easier.

What I used to do was this: Simply zipped up all of the contents of the MyDocs folder. I then burned this single file on DVD or stored the file on my second hard drive. Let me stop and say that if you have some extra cash, it is worth it to buy a second hard drive to put in your computer. It comes in very handy for backups.

I have found an awesomely easy backup tool. Best of all, it is free, open-source software. The program is Cobian Backup. It runs in your system tray and backups up files on a schedule. You can backup files to another drive, network drive, or FTP server. Compression is available. I set the schedule on this to backup once a week. Choosing files to backup and setting profiles of backups is easy. It automatically does for me that I was doing manually before. Once in a while, I take the backup compressed file and burn it to a re-writable DVD.

It is reliable, painless, and free. If you aren’t using a backup routine of some sort, this is an easy way to go. The only downer about the program is that two system processes run in the background at all times, which suck up a combined 20 MB of memory. That seems somewhat unnecessary, considering what I am using it for. The two programs are cobian.exe and cbinterface.exe which boot with the PC.

I decided to open a new category for PC stuff. Software and hardware ideas and issues are the topic.

I despise Wendys fast food. People continue to eat there and I don’t know why. The food is terrible. Now, I know McDonalds serves low-quality burgers, but they have a certain appeal to them, and they are very consistent. You know what you are going to get and it is just about always the same. Wendys is another matter.

I decided to boycott Wendys after one-too-many bad meals there. This was October of 2005, and I haven’t been back since. I am not exaggerating when I say that at least half the time, the food is terrible. I am saying that at least every other time I go, it is a complete waste of my money and time. Their fries are never good, and usually have that “sitting around” feel about them. The square burger patties are nothing to brag about and the photos of their burgers make them so generic looking. They look like they were in the frozen foods section at Sams. Their popular Frosty is way overrated, too. It isn’t very good, and is usually on its way to being liquid chocolate milk when it gets handed to you.

The only appealing thing about the place is the speed of the drive-thru. It is super-fast and efficient. Why? Because all of their food was made hours before you showed up. And the taste proves it.

Except for speed, everything else about Wendys is absolutely terrible. It took me a long time to admit it, but think about it, and admit it to yourself. When was the last time you ate there and actually enjoyed it? For me, I can’t even remember.

The A/C in my aging Cavalier stopped working on me sometime last October. It didn’t matter during the winter, but it has been a problem now that we are in the middle of July. The heat has been quite bad. Chris has tried twice to add freon to the system, and it then does work, but only for a few days. Well, I finally took it to get my freon leak fixed. I was told that it would cost about $900 to fix the thing. My compressor needs to be replaced and that alone is $388 for the part! Are you kidding?

Anyway, I guess I’ll be driving without air until I ditch the car and buy a new one. Surprisingly, I have had the car for almost six years now and slowly I think she’s beginning to crack up. I’ll drive it until next summer, then we’ll see how long I can tolerate the heat.

On July 4th, me and Laura went to the iMax theater at Exploris to see Superman Returns in iMax 3D! I’ll start off by saying that I was very impressed with the movie. Adding to the hype was the fact that I hadn’t been to see a movie in a theater in a very long time. Let alone watching a 3D movie. I can’t remember the last time I saw one…a decade ago, perhaps?

The makers of the film paid a lot of tribute to the original Superman movie back from 1978. There were several instances where they mentioned things that happened in the original movie. The original music was used and they duplicated how the credits ran at the beginning of the movie, which flew at you in a 3D lettering. Marlon Brando still played his father, as in the original movie. Clips and audio were used from the original to make this possible. Also, the man who plays Clark and Superman, both looks and sounds a lot like Christopher Reeve.

The special effects are outstanding. The first time Superman flies onto the scene during the shuttle launch and airplane crash, the visuals and sound are both breathtaking. Adding to this is the 3D aspect of having seen it at the iMax theater. Wow! It was as if the caped wonder was flying over the heads of the audience. One particular scene, involving a sinking ship, was amazing in 3D with the water effects. It was as if the theater itself was flooded with water all around us.

The cast was well chosen. Kevin Spacey did a good job of playing Lex Luther. I enjoyed having him in the movie. The role of Superman was perfectly chosen and I appreciated the fact that he is a previously unknown actor. It would have been too distracting to have a famous person in that role. I was accepting of Lois Lane, but if they had chosen a different girl to play the part, I wouldn’t have minded. It wasn’t as if anyone else couldn’t have done the part, whereas I couldn’t imagine Luther or Superman being played by anyone else.

The only thing that I thought was off about the movie was that the characters often referred to five years prior, when Superman was away all of those years, hence the title Superman Returns. The funny thing is, the cast members would probably have been only seventeen years old five years ago. That doesn’t really bother me, but I was thinking it. I let it go because I imagine that they picked a young cast so that they can later churn out a few sequels.

Superman has a 2:30 run time, which is long, but I think all of that time is necessary to tell the story without rushing it. If you have the means to see it in 3D, then I highly recommend it.

I created a Pokerstars account for Laura today. Now she can play online with the rest of us poker fans.