February was an extremely busy month for me, so here’s a recap:

• Completed an open water SCUBA Diving International class at SeaVentures, taught by Terri and Joel Frazier. The course covered basic skills and safety requirements for underwater diving.
• Of course, there’s all sorts of gadgets and gizmos involved in SCUBA. I’ve now got a SeaQuest Balance BCD, Suunto SK-7 compass, Aeris Atmos Elite dive computer, Atomic SplitFins, XCEL Hydrospan 3.0 web suit, ScubaPro MK25/R390 first and second stage regulator, AquaLung Air Source, AquaLung Quartz, mask, Deep See Polynesian boots, and finally, the Ocean Master dry snorkle.
• Went on a weekend trip with Laurel in Florida to perform my open water checkout dives at Crystal River, near Rainbow Springs. The final day was spent at Devil’s Den, an underground spring inside a dry cave in central Florida. I passed all skills, including underwater BCD removal, successfully.
• Built a new computer system, a huge technology leap from my existing machine. It’s basically an AMD 3200+ Socket 939, with an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard processor, BENQ DW1655 dual-layer DVD burner. The system is running Windows XP Professional x64, which in hindsight, was probably a poor decision, due to lacking driver and software support.
• Worked on an article on writing a PHP plugin system for PHP Architect, and consulted for Gottlieb Vision Group on networking and infrastructure support. GVG uses Cromwell Medformix as their enterprise medical system, based on Slackware Linux.
• Tea time is the reason for the downfall of the United Kingdom. I worked double shifts while deploying HMI software for ABP Ipswitch, a treating company in the UK. The custom HMI solution includes software products from Software Toolbox, such as Industrial Gadgets, TOP Server, and the OPC Data Control.

We now return to our regular schedule.