The brand new Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard was released today! One hour ago, to be precise.

I have seen many of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, including the last version made in 2003. The newest movie, The Beginning, released in 2006, had good reviews on Netflix, so I decided to rent it. I watched it two nights ago, withholding any expectations.

I really liked it! It is only an hour and a half, but it that plenty enough. The movie is very twisted and gruesome, leaving you cringing in your seat for nearly the entirety of the film. Some of it is almost hard to watch, which is a lot for me to say. To me, the best element of this movie was the casting of R. Lee Ermey as the madman sheriff. He steals the show. He may not be a household name, but is probably best known for his role in Full Metal Jacket. I was pleased to find that the chainsaw wasn’t necessarily the centerpiece of the movie. It didn’t make an appearance into well into the film. Still, it ripped through plenty of bodies by the end.

A user comment on the IMDB page says it well, “Very Good…Full-On Chainsaw. Lots of gore. Very little cheese.” Well said! If you like this kind of movie, then certainly watch it. This one finally gets it right.

I really like Yahoo News these days. I have found myself visiting Yahoo the most for national and world news. Today it is better than ever. Yahoo has a clean interface that is quite interactive. You are presented headlines from a wide variety of sources (such as AP, Reuters, CNN, USA Today, NPR, E! Online, etc.) Switching between sources is as easy as clicking a tab atop each news topic.

Enter your zip code and you get an added section for local news. Doing so added WRAL, my local newspaper, and a few more to this part of my page. Perhaps the greatest selling point for me about Yahoo News is that fact hovering your mouse over each news story gives you a small popup box giving you a small synopsis. This is such a time saver for me. I don’t have to load another page to get the jist of most of what is going on. If it is important enough, I’ll read the article as a whole.

There are a ton of news sites online today, and I still visit plenty of them. I see now more than ever how convenient it is to visit Yahoo first because they are pulling news from all of the sources I would visit individually, anyway. Check it out for yourself and customize it the way you like.

My company recently notified us of an employee discount on Lenovo computers. I was not interested, but did visit the website to see about this discount. Well, the supposed discount amounted to about $20 off the price of a new computer, which is practically nothing. But while I was on their website, I found something striking about the appearance of their desktop PCs.

See the screenshot below. Lenovo has the nerve to call this pathetic abomination “stylish”. What? This computer looks like it came straight out of the 1980s. Who would buy this horrendous piece of crap? Get it together, Lenovo. You apparently don’t know the first thing about style.

Leopard is only a week away! Finally, version 10.5 of the Mac OS is being released next Friday, October 26th. Apple claims the new operating system boasts over 300 new features. I am in love with my Mac and I look forward to test driving the new OS someday. Full details on the new version can be found on on Apple’s website for Mac OS X.

This weekend I went in search of a new theme for Firefox. Since buying my Mac this past May, I have basically been using Firefox’s default theme. I have tinkered with a few themes here and there, only to find myself later uninstalling all of them.

I have stumbled upon an absolutely fantastic theme that hits the spot visually, as well as with functionality. It is a clone of the Windows Vista/Internet Explorer 7 interface, and is called Vista-aero. It is ranked as one Firefox’s top five most popular themes. After using it for only a couple of days, I can see why. It looks brilliant, and the functionality it brings is a convenient addition. The Mac version of the theme does not have the exact number of features as the Windows version, but that isn’t a problem because all of the important goods are present.

Closing tabs, opening new ones, and adding bookmarks are all very inviting and straightforward, with all being accomplished directly from the tab bar. As you roll your mouse over your page tabs, they glow and highlight in such a way that is very pleasing to the eyes. Individual tab icons animate while pages are loading, and do so in style. My only complaint, which is very minor, is that there is a tiny Windows-ish logo on the far right side of the browser. That logo does not animate, though, so it isn’t much to gripe about.

I know what you are probably thinking. Using an IE theme for Firefox? On a Macintosh of all machines? Blasphemy! I know. I can’t believe I’d do anything to try to emulate Internet Explorer, either. But this theme is a complete home run. I am hooked on it. Try it yourself and see. Note: This theme does not play well with the Colorful Tabs theme that I mentioned in a previous post.

If you like to camp and live in the Raleigh, NC area, you must pay a visit to the Jordan Lake campground. Me and Laura camped there last Sunday evening. The campground has many lake view lots to choose from. We picked an incredible wooded lot with a gorgeous view of the water. We had a fantastic time, and the dog enjoyed himself too. The weather was awesome and campers were sparse.

I think Jordan Lake is the number one place to camp if you are in the Raleigh area. Take my advice and check it out. Look the sunset photo I snapped, shown below.