I found out over lunch that a friend of mine died last week. His name was Tony, and he was a big, jovial, happy-go-lucky man that would always bring a smile to everyone's face down at the cafe in our building. He was VERY young, not even 40. He died of a heart attack last week. I can't walk by the cafe on the way to work without my eyes tearing up. I don't think I'll be able to go in there again without crying.

He used to make the best omelets, and always had something good to say or something that would make you smile. He would turn my scowling morning into one of laughter as I'd walk out shaking my head and chuckling.

This only further supports my theory that the good die young and the @$$holes live forever. Death just sucks.

Godspeed, Tony.

Busy weekend ahead finishing up www.btwco89.com and planning to do a bit of work on the novels as well as find another article idea to submit a query for. That and laundry. Grr. I got a new wireless mic for stage -- it's based on the old Samson Que mics which I LOVED but were discontinued. Works pretty well although when the battery gets low they get raspy sounding and you have to swap out the battery. Hope it doesn't happen in the middle of a set. Also have to pick up a new clip for my mic stand since wireless mics are shaped a bit differently.

Oh yeah. And that StormFront GUI for Gemstone IV *bites*. Had to do a plethora of bug submissions last night doing beta testing -- kept gettting a blank screen in the main window to boot. Back to good old WizardFE.

Finally got my article submitted to Pocket PC Magazine. Won't get edited for another week, so I can work on some other projects in the meantime. I'll post when it's available at bookstores and newsstands.

Simutronics released their new StormFront front end for GemstoneIV to beta test. Kinda interesting interface, a lot of slick bells and whistles and a lot that I'll have to turn off. It's not bad. Hard to say without the ability to use any of my scripts yet since I guess this beta version doesn't support scripts. We'll see.

Went to a GREAT concert in Dallas last night -- it was KISS and Aerosmith, two classics. Saliva opened for them, they were okay, but had that typical "I'm a mean dude so listen to my growly snarly voice" thing goin on. All it meant was that by song three his voice was practically gone. Dumbass. This was my first KISS/Aerosmith concert ever, and they were unbelievable. I was actually rather surprised that Aerosmith was the headliner -- I figured KISS would be the stars of the show. Regardless, KISS stole the show IMHO. Don't get me wrong, Stevie Tyler rocks the house, but KISS is amazing. Quite the showmen. The line waiting for the gates to open was insane, I'm glad we got there early. They went back probably close to a mile, and about twelve people deep. Most of the outfits and t-shirts I saw were KISS, with a few Aerosmith t-shirts smattered here and there. Click here to see the pics from last night.