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Archive for February, 2008
Last May Crystal and I went on a Caribbean cruise - one of our stops on the cruise was Belize City, Belize. Long before our cruise departed I spent some time researching good excursions to do at each destination, and for our day in Belize we decided to trust our time to the guys at Cave-Tubing.com. Many people are hesitant to trust any non-cruise-ship excursion dealers, but I read only praise for their professionalism and tubing experience from other cruisers, so we decided to book with them.
We arrived in Belize early in the morning, and had to take a smaller boat to the shore. I received email directions from Cave-Tubing.com before the cruise, and we had a relatively easy time finding our way to the meeting place, where we were taken to a bus. The only difficult part about finding our way to the bus was avoiding all of the other cave tubing outfits waiting at the dock, trying to persuade us to join them instead of our reservation. Because the river we would be tubing on was about 45 minutes away I was prepared for some site-seeing out of the windows, but it turned out that our tour leader, Richard, would keep us entertained most of the trip. He was a funny guy, and he included a bit of tour-guide style commentary about the passing surroundings as we went, as well as information about our upcoming tubing adventure. It was enjoyable to hear him talk during our ride, even though he did talk the entire time. We were served a sample of local cashew wine, and given our headlamps and life vests, while we put on sunscreen.
The bus parked in a rest area, and we were given about 10 minutes to use the facilities and get our tubes from the staff before we started hiking through the rain forest. The hiking path was well worn, and it took us about 30 minutes to reach the point where we entered the river. The rain forest was fun and interesting to walk through, but humid and hot, especially when hiking with a tube over our shoulders. It took about 15 minutes to get everyone in our group into the river - and we hooked our feet and arms to create 5-7 person tubing chains. Each group had a staff member in charge of their navigation through the river and caves. Our individual chain of seven people had Crystal and I on the back, five newly met friends in front, and was being led by Jimmy.
Jimmy was a very energetic, happy, and funny leader. We ended up tubing through two caves, with a stretch of open water between the caves, and a larger stretch of water after the second cave. Both caves were quite long, so long that there were points that we were in complete darkness, so the headlamps and high powered flashlights came in very handy. The caves were really cool to tube through. As our guides reminded us multiple times, we were much better off than the cruise-ship excursion tubers who were given a tube, pointed at the river, and left on their own to navigate their way. Our Cave-Tubing.com guides on the other hand knew the river, and the caves, better than anyone - and they had all the proper knowledge and equipment to make our tubing experience fun. Many of the individual tubers that we passed on our way looked confused, concerned, or were stuck (in places the river was very shallow), and I was glad that we were in good hands. In the really shallow areas our guides shouted , “butts up!” and we would lift our butts up to avoid rocks. 
Also, if it was needed, our Cave-Tubing.com guys pulled us along to maintain a pretty constant speed, and we never had problems getting stuck. We had the leisure to not worry about actually navigating, and instead we were free to site-see, enjoy the river, and take pictures - we even spotted a few howler monkeys in the trees overhanging the river.
After we reached the end of the tubing area we headed back to the bus. On the way back the group voted to stop for lunch at a local restaurant in the country for an addition $5 per person - we were given a Coke, and a traditional Belizean meal. One of the best features of the Cave-Tubing.com experience was, they didn’t collect any money from us until after the tubing. This gave us the confidence that we weren’t going to be ripped off, and if we weren’t satisfied, Richard ensured us, he wouldn’t force us to pay. 
The entire excursion, including lunch, cost $50 per person, but we felt the service was definitely good enough for a $20 tip on top of the $100. We also purchased a Cave-Tubing.com t-shirt for $10 after getting dropped off at the docks again. We were returned to Belize City with plenty of time to get back to our ship, as promised.
I would definitely recommend this cave tubing experience to anyone who will be visiting Belize City in the future - not only was it cheaper than the cruise-ship tubing excursion, it was better executed, professionally led, and great fun.
Belize Cave Tubing with Cave-Tubing.com: 
5/5
5/5
Have you ever been to Belize? What did you do there? Have you ever been river tubing?
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I did not get a chance to see Beowulf at the theatre, despite being recommended the 3D version by multiple people. Fortunately, the DVD was released yesterday, and we rented it from a redbox. Here is my quick review:
Plot: This film stayed surprisingly true to the original epic poem. Of course, there was a lot of modernization, and some semi-major plot changes, but the overall theme was kept, and a lot of the plot works out the same way in the end. I expected a lot more to be different, coming from Hollywood. Either way, this turned out to be a good movie, with an action packed plot that kept me engaged. Having Beowulf yell out his own name at the top of his lungs multiple times seemed to be a bit ridiculous, but I guess it made for good trailer footage.
Acting: This film appears to be animated, but motion capture techniques were used, so it’s hard to know whether physical acting skill can be judged. I can say that the motion capture animation looked very impressive, and it made for a unique and interesting visual style. Also, I can say that the voice-over work was all pretty decent.
Soundtrack: The music in this movie was nothing amazing, but it seemed to fit well with the action, and helped set the mood, as it should.
Overall: Not a bad movie - it kept me involved, and I can imagine how it must have been fun to watch in 3D. I wasn’t amazed by anything in Beowulf, and I wouldn’t necessarily want to see it again, but it was fun to watch once. They could have toned down some of the bad-ass vibes that were a bit overwhelming, and didn’t seem to fit this film like they did so well in 300.
Beowulf (2007): 
3.5/5
3.5/5
What did you think of this movie? Did you see it in 3D?
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My dog’s breath smells. It seems to be a pretty common problem, with a few solutions. Luckily, he’s young and his isn’t the most offensive dog breath I’ve encountered, so I am hoping it will be an easy problem to erase. My veterinarian advocates brushing his teeth - but I am not quite at the point where I will willingly wrestle him to the ground to clean his teeth. For now, I have decided to try a few of the many breath freshening treats designed for dogs, and hope that his breath clears up before it gets worse. My first purchase in this quest was a package of Dingo Dental Stix found at Walmart for about $1.50. The packaging boasts, “with the power of baking soda!” - and promises to clean my dog’s teeth as he chews on the rawhide/chicken sticks.
One built-in benefit of these treats is the fact that they are treats - every time I give one to Phoenix he excitedly carries it to a safe place (usually under the bed, as seen here), and gives his full attention to devouring it. Unfortunately, he eats these treats so quickly that it seems the chewing process might not be helping to clean his teeth. I have been feeding him one stick every day or two for the past week, and he loves them as treats, but the question is, have they helped his breath?
Honestly, it’s not easy to get your dog to breath in your face when you want him to, and I don’t have a scientific method for measuring the smell, but as far as I can tell - his breath is actually a bit better than it used to be. It certainly isn’t minty fresh, but that really isn’t a requirement for a dog, and I am pretty happy with how well Dingo Dental Stix have seemed to work. If nothing else, Phoenix definitely enjoys eating them. For a cheap solution that seems to work pretty well I am happy with the results, and I hope to find that his breath continues to improve if I continue to buy these treats.
One of the downsides with the Dingo Dental Stix is, if your dog is a bit sloppy like mine, a few bits of the treat might be left on the carpet after he is done eating. Also, the unnaturally bright green color of the treat is a little off-putting, I certainly wouldn’t eat one, but my dog doesn’t seem to mind - let’s just hope he isn’t allergic to green dye.
Dingo Dental Stix: 4/5
4/5
Do you have any recommendations for freshening my dog’s breath? Have you ever tried brushing your dog’s teeth?
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For Valentine’s Day, Crystal and I celebrated by dining together at East Moon Asian Bistro here in Fort Collins. We had reservations at 8:30 pm, and therefore had almost no wait time once we arrived at 8:15, despite the crowded waiting area. Never having been to East Moon before, I was a bit surprised at the small size of their dining area, but our table was large, not squashed in with other tables, and seemed private enough, despite the abundance of people seated around us. This restaurant would likely benefit from a larger establishment - but as it is, it does feel quaint. I like the modern artsy decorations found in East Moon, a nice break from the cheap (and dare I say corny?) decorations often found adorning other Asian restaurants. The lighting is nicely done, a bit moody but not too dark, and I found the atmosphere to be very pleasing.
Our service was moderately good. There were a few minor communication difficulties with the staff. Our waitress seemed very high strung, yet somewhat cheerful and energized at the same time. This combination caused her to speed through everything, including taking our orders. It was entertaining to watch her go, but her hurry did cause her to make a few minor mistakes. For example, Crystal ordered a virgin Piña Colada but instead ended up with a normal rum-included drink. Luckily, the alcohol was not very strong, and the drink tasted just fine, but I think we would have rather paid the cheaper alcohol-less price. Despite this, we decided to not bother our waitress with the problem - she was likely too hurried and singularly focused for us to catch her attention anyway.
The food turned out quite well. We ended up ordering some sushi as a starter, we were also served a house salad with our entrees, and we each ordered something somewhat unique that we had never tried before off of the menu, just to try out a few new things. Unfortunately, neither of us happened to have our cell phones or cameras with us, so I was unable to take any pictures of our food or the restaurant for this review. If I return in the future, I will make sure to get a few pics to share.
We ordered two six piece sushi rolls, an Unagi Maki (eel and cucumber) and an East Moon Maki (shrimp, avacado, and cucumber), very reasonably priced at $4.50 each. Both types were tasty, but as I am not a sushi buff in any respect, I can’t say much about the quality compared to other restaurants.
As an entree, Crystal ordered Shitake Mushroom Duck, and I ordered Saigon Soft Shell Crab. Both entrees were pricier than most of the menu at about $12-$13 (most other entrees didn’t exceed $10 for dinner). The Duck dish was very tasty, with a lot of duck meat, and good mushrooms. The Soft Shell Crab was a bit odd, as it was fried crab meat which had been mostly shelled, but not entirely, so I had to be careful not to eat pieces of shell but still find all of the delicious crab meat. The crab was laid on a bed of very thin cold noodles (not sure what they are called), salad, and vegetables, which all seemed somewhat decorative, but rounded out the meal at the same time. The chile-lime sauce that came on the side of my crab meal was really tasty, but only in tiny proportions, as it was very spicy. We had both entrees substitute fried rice for steamed rice, and the fried rice was basic but delicious as well. Both meals were presented very nicely, with their own style, including unique serving dishes and food arrangements. We didn’t end up eating any dessert.
Overall, our dining experience at East Moon Asian Bistro turned out well, despite my ‘interesting’ entree. I definitely didn’t leave hungry, and as an added bonus, Crystal was presented with two pink roses along with the traditional fortune cookies and check once we were done eating. The atmosphere was inviting, and unique, and the staff was cheerful and definitely tried hard to serve us well. I hope to return to East Moon at a later date, to try their rendition of more familiar (and less expensive) dishes.
East Moon Asian Bistro (Fort Collins, CO): 4/5
4/5
Have you ever eaten at East Moon? What did you think? What’s your favorite Asian restaurant? How about your favorite Asian dish?
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One of the most useful tools that I’ve been introduced to since starting work in the web development field last year is a simple little Firefox extension called MeasureIt. I have used this extension extensively for the past few months, and although it is simple, it has helped me tremendously with my web design work.
What the MeasureIt extension does is add a button in the bottom left corner of your Firefox browser, which can be clicked at any time to enable ruler functionality. Once you’ve enabled MeasureIt, the contents of the browser are frozen, and your mouse becomes a pixel ruler. Clicking and dragging the mouse creates a box highlighted in blue, and a popup attached to the top right corner of the box tells you how many pixels tall and wide your box is. This information has been invaluable, as I no longer have to guess and use trial and error for placing elements on a web page.
The one flaw that I’ve found with MeasureIt, and I am not positive it can be considered a flaw necessarily, is it’s behavior when the browser is refreshed. I will often use MeasureIt to determine a pixel amount, make a quick adjustment to my code, and then refresh Firefox in order to see the difference, without toggling MeasureIt off. Instead of maintaining the ruler overlay, the browser returns to normal functionality, which wouldn’t normally be a problem, but MeasureIt’s button stays “on” instead of switching to “off.” This causes a problem if I need to make another quick measurement right away because I have to toggle the extension off and then back on before getting to use it again. What I would prefer more than anything else is to have the ruler overlay maintain it’s control, even after a refresh, until I toggle it off.
Despite the one minor flaw that I’ve found in my use of MeasureIt, I can’t help but give it a great rating, as it has saved me a ton of time and made my job a lot easier.
MeasureIt Firefox Ruler Extension: 4.5/5
4.5/5
Have any other really useful web development Firefox extensions I should try out? What do you think of MeasureIt? Know of something better?
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