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A simple email...Sending one email to teammates and old friends... About $.02
A request to support a great cause... About 5 seconds.
Receiving a donation to the above cause that may save a life. $20.00
Saving the life of an affected two year old nephew... Millions.
Being told by someone you look up to that email should not be used for personal reasons... Priceless.
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's corporate politics.
Two years later, degree vanishes...Two years ago, Computer Engineering was at the top of the fields for lucrative degrees... Now it is not even on the list... Did the degree get lumped into Computer Science or did something else happen??? I think I'm doing OK for an entry level Computer Engineer but what does this say about the market? It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next decade and if CS degrees in general are a dying breed in the US because of all the outsourcing...
2004 Data - 2006 Data
Riddle me this..."There is also the paradox of the man who is own mother (my apologies to Heinlein.) "Jane" is left at an orphanage as a foundling. When "Jane" is a teenager, she falls in love with a drifter, who abandons her but leaves her pregnant. Then disaster strikes. She almost dies giving birth to a baby girl, who is then mysteriously kidnapped. The doctors find that Jane is bleeding badly, but, oddly enough, has both sex organs. So, to save her life, the doctors convert "Jane" to "Jim."
"Jim" subsequently becomes a roaring drunk, until he meets a friendly bartender (actually a time traveler in disguise) who wisks "Jim" back way into the past. "Jim" meets a beautiful teenage girl, accidentally gets her pregnant with a baby girl. Out of guilt, he kidnaps the baby girl and drops her off at the orphanage. Later, "Jim" joins the time travelers corps, leads a distinguished life, and has one last dream: to disguise himself as a bartender to meet a certain drunk named "Jim" in the past. Question: who is "Jane’s" mother, father, brother, sister, grand- father, grandmother, and grandchild?"
Puzzling... From this article on the physics of time travel...
Holding...It figures that a few days after I pi$$ and moan about comment spam, MT releases a new version of MT that has some new comment moderation features built in. Plus there is an official add on for adding another level of security. Now to enter a comment, you need to type in a security code displayed on the screen. If you misprint the code or completely ignore it, you comment gets a nagative "junk" rating and is moderated. I've had it working for a couple of days now and so far comments are still coming in but they are being moderated much more than they were before... Which is a good thing.
Another tool they released to fight the spam was a plugin that disabled trackbacks on older entries but left them active on the newer ones. Since all my trackback spam comes from entries I wrote over two years ago, this has put at complete halt to it.
Looks like I'll be here for awhile. =)
Ramblings...School has been really REALLY different than what I am used to. We are writing and discuss so many things that are opinionated instead of factual that it is almost not school to me. I have to write a 4 page paper on how I applied a managerial skill to a situation at work. I need to explain how equality in the workforce affects the moral. About the only thing factual is my accounting class which itself feels like I am in kindergarten (assigned seats, participation points, when we ask a question the prof does not know how to answer - she makes us give her an answer that we "think" would be fair)... Its just really odd. I'm so used to having confident teachers that care about the students learning their material and now I'm thrown into classes "taught" by researchers who don't know how to teach, and are more concerned with writing their books (literally) than the sucess of the class... It should be a fun three years. Free board of bulletins - ny immigration lawyer . Services of lawyers are in Moscow.
On the gaming scene, LOTR Battle for Middle Earth and Freelancer have been put on hold so I can finish LOTR The Third Age for PS2. It's been a more mindless game that really helps me wind down. Plus I can stay downstairs with Totem and Alex instead of disappearing up to my office...
I've just finished updating Gentoo on my laptop. After I got wireless working, I updated KDE and basically everything else on the system. The only task now is to get WEP working so I can actually use my own wireless network at home and not have to bum the neighbor's open wireless connections. I also got a new toy. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a DVD Lightscribe drive in my hands. I'm looking forward to it for the snazzy "labels" I'll be able to make, but more importantly, it will do more than my current DVD burner. I found out last week that the old HP 600i dvd burner (which I have), can ONLY write to DVD+RW discs. Not DVD+R, DVD-R, or DVD-RW. It took me awhile to figure this out, and a lot of misc media purchases, but I'm glad I have a "modern" burner coming so I can use all the media I bought and have not been able to use. ;) Plus I get to do lightscribe and DVD DL too! =) laptop lcd screen replacement
Alex is getting huge. =) He has his own personality and LOVES to giggle. He's even showing the "dog salivates when you ring a bell" type stuff too. I'll pick him up out of his crib in the morning and he starts smiling and laughing. If I don't have a bottom there waiting for him, he starts screaming. ;) And I think he's going to like cooking b/c he sure likes to BAM!!! =)
Update on Totems World...So I found out my account cannot create a Syndication of Totem's website... Can someone with a paid account set this up over on LJ?
http://journal.utopianmusic.com/index.xml
http://journal.utopianmusic.com/atom.xml
Totem's world...Totem is on a roll over at her journal. http://journal.utopianmusic.com/
Does anyone in the LJ world know how to setup one of those tracker things like you guys have for my blog? So when she posts, her entries can come up in the friends list like mine do fo so many of you guys...
Thanks!
Time... Lack there of...Everyone was right when they said there would be no time for anything with a baby. (Except for time with the baby which right now is AWESOME.) Everything has taken a back seat so I can make sure Totem and Alex are getting the help they need. Computers, Journal, Gaming, all are on hold.
Surprisingly, I'm not upset at all. The same time consuming stuff happened back in college and high school and I would get frustrated when I didn't get some time to so them, but not now. I guess I'm enjoying being a father. ;)
Change is on the way though. Yesterday was Alex's baptism and the last of all major parties that we are hosting until his birthday party. So no more planning, running around like a chicken with its head cut off, or struggling to get everything packed on time. This weekend Totem and I are going on a vacation with Alex to celebrate our 1 year anniversary (it does not seem like it has been a year)... When we get back, all we have to do is get all the Thank yous written up and then focus on the fall, balancing school, my baby, and my job in one. I'm looking forward to the challenge because a lot of good things come back like just sitting for 10 minutes in a lounge to check email, and driving around thinking about the world, and spending time at home when I come home after a long day. Should be fun...
Lack of postings...Everything that I normally do (gaming, posting, surfing) has taken a back seat while work type things have picked up. And for the first time in a long time, thats a good thing. My responsibilities have doubled here at work and people who know my job know that it is a good thing (IE: they like me enough to keep me here). Plus the side jobs are picking up too and, I say, the more the merrier. Since Alex is on his way, Totem and I want to be as ready as possible...
Back to work!!!
I'm not gone......in terms of writing. It has just been a long week... More to come...
No more "buy cable to get internet" crap... Maybe?Looks like Time Warner might be buying Adelphia. I loved Road Runner when I lived outside of the city because you didn't have to purchase cable TV to get it at a decent rate. I have Adelphia right now and the only reason its costs is reasonable to me ($10 more than DSL in more neighborhood) is because I also pay for digital cable. Drop the cable and the cable internet goes up about $25 for me...
Come on in Time Warner... Adelphia's monopoly in my area need a revamping...
Watch yourself...Especially when you get quoted in an article from a major news organization talking about how strange and wierd other people are... I just read an article on CNN about a pair of people who were hiding in a town for a decade to avoid authorities. One was an inmate and the other was a hostage...
When quoting a local who was trying to descibe how the couple acted, she was quoted as saying, "something ain't right with them people"
...
...
...
=) What? I didn't say anything... ;) Here's the original...
Lightning Fast!!!I have a calculator fast than that! =) Man... Imagine what they are going to be saying about our 4.0ghz processors in a decade from now. ;)
Public Radio...Getting close to the end of Grand Theft Auto Vice City (or at least the end of the storyline, not the end of the game), and as things are getting more and more repitious, I've been trying to listen to the in game radio stations more. Each have about an hour of recording and most are pretty funny...
The one that stands out is VCPR, or Vice City Public Radio. I know it's a game and they're trying to be funny, but does this stuff really happen? The main focus of the station is a variety of debates between a pastor who wants to build a statue of himself, a nudist ('nuff said), the mayor of Vice City who is proud that weather has been 15% better since he has been in office, and a mother who is very very far from normal. They're discussing issues like morality and laws and amusement parks, but most of the time end up going off on tangents about their individual lives... And then every once in awhile you get a commercial that begs and pleads for donations to keep the radio alive. Obviously, far fetched but very funny. ;)
My point? They must have gotten the idea to do this from somewhere. Why does Saturday Night Live do so well??? Because they mock out real life events. Is this what Rockstar is doing with GTA and VCPR??? If I could find public radio station that was as funny as this VCPR was, but tackling real life issues using funny people, they might just get another viewer...
Wait a minute... Isn't this what Howard Stern does???
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy...Amazon is hosting the trailer on the website, font page. SWEET! =)
42.
Big time fighters...Big companies have joined in the right against Comment Spam. Google, Yahoo, and MSN will now no longer index websites that contain external links with a new special attribute.
MovableType's Announcement of Supprort
Google's Announcement
Yahoo's Announcement
MSN's Announcement
Pretty awesome IMHO.
Livejournal badness...Ouch.
"Our data center (Internap, the same one we've been at for many years) lost all its power, including redundant backup power, for some unknown reason. (unknown to me, at least) We're currently dealing with bringing our 100+ servers back online. Not fun. We're not happy about this. Sorry... :-/ More details later."
Days late......and a couple of dollars short but still news none the less. Six Apart, the company that makes MovableType, which is the software running my blog, bought LiveJournal.
LiveJournal Press Release
Six Apart Press Release
Hmm... I really don't know how I feel about this. Maybe more integration of features that I and many of my LJ friends have been looking for...??? Maybe more ways to pi$$ off more people in the world, and managing to do it to 5.6 million users in a single step...??? :\
Fridge running? Go catch it!Looks like that quake in Asia spun the earth up a bit...
Info here...
Watch out, we're moving 3 micro second faster!!!! AHHH!! ;)
Changes... Here and everywhere...Things have been happening over the last couple of weeks that have made me take a step back and look around... I've been very frustrated at the economy ever since I left college. I set myself up for failure and hit a brick wall before I realized it was coming. Now, with a baby on the way, with the first christmas as my own family, and with the very first tight, and I mean do we want gifts or to pay the bills, holiday season, things have taken on different meanings. And I mean everything.
For the first time, I can honestly say I do not know what I want to do with my life, job wise. The jobs that I want I know are just not available anymore because they are either taken or are non-existent. I even tossed up the possiblity of starting my own business, but the risk is too great and I don't believe in gambling a job in exchange for a family. So, with the help of Totem, I've settled on what we have (having a job) versus what we want (a job I don't have) and I am going to change my outlook. Pending I still have this job next fall, I will be going back to school of my MBA (one of the benefit os this job is they will pay for secondary education). Plus, the Management school has what they called a PMBA program that will let me keep my job full time, attend classes at night, and get my MBA after three years. Should I finish it, not only would I actually have a Masters degree, the MBA would open the door to a completely different market of job opportunities for me that can help me move on in life and better support my family. mp3 downloads free
Totem is on the up and up as well. She got a new job recently and already the management and owners are impressed with her. So much so that they are going to help her get back into school to get her teaching lics. Something that is NOT a company benefit. Whats even better is that her job (which is at a day care) has a benefit of free child care for the first child and they have no problem at all that she is pregnant. Big plus for us not only b/c it will help out trememdously in about 6 months, but b/c she has the backing of the day care. Yeah, I know it is against the law to descriminate, but you can't tell me that when someone sees a new applicant who is pregnant, that they do everything to avoid hiring them. It happens. I've seen it.
In terms of coding, designing, website, geek type world... Dad (or Pops - what he wants to be called by his grandchildren ;))and I are trying to get a web design business off of the ground. We've got a couple of low end jobs lined up that will hopefully just get our name out there, I can only hope this balloons into a good thing. I've slowed down on doing my usual computer stuff. I'm going to let a couple of the "wishful thinking" domains that I have expire because I never got them off of the ground, even after a year has gone by... Others are just waiting to be finished (I've got a PHP site coded and almost ready for release, I just don't have time to finish it). Other sites, like this one, I think I'm leaning towards a revamp. Spam has gotten so much out of control here that I'm just going to take down all of the public tracking tools and blocks and just let everyone and anyone do what they please. Well kind of, I'll still be in the background but it will be much more transparent to the user... Basically my goal on this website is at least to trim the fat. Get rid of some of the things that are (literally) slowing down the response time. Images that aren't needed. Public stats that, while useful to me, are just being filled with spam sites. Inactive links. Stuff like that... Hopefully I'll have that done soon enough...
On the homefront, the computer situation is getting slightly better. Parts have not come in yet, but planning stages have been changes. I've got a better handle on how I'm going to get my Linux box back to the way I want it, instead of just being back. My laptop has become my production machine and it is holding up pretty well. Ever since I've picked up the browser based online web gaming, the lack of video power hasn't really been an issue. Totems laptop is out on loan while her mother goes into and recovers from surgery. When we get it back, if I've got some extra cash, I plan on getting a wireless network going in the house so Totem does not have to go upstairs to get to her computer. I think she'll use her computer that much more if she can just connect to the Internet anywhere in the house...
And me. Well, I kind of liked venting a little bit so maybe I'll try to get back into the swing of things. It helps me relax a little bit... And its nice to keep track of things. Enough from me...
Hehe...Just logged in and looked at the stats... 1000 comments. Probably like 3000 with all the filtered spammed comments taken out. :p
[Homer] Mmmmm.... Filtered spam... ::drool:: [/Homer]
Smilemore, you get a cookie. Check your cache. It's in there. I swear. It might not be from me, but it's in there. Seriously. Stop looking at me like that. 8)
Geek Talk...I think for the first time since I've been thinking about purchasing domain names, I'm actually going to let one die... :\ Too many other things are going on and as I'm developing the other three sites that have been on the backburner, they all seem to have more potential for popularity and usability versus the quick buck that this one was going to (hopefully) produce...
On the other end, the site could have blown up overnight and I would have been flooded with sales that I couldn't have handled. So thats another risk that right now I can't afford to play with...
So its right now sitting with a text file in the index and in a couple of months it is just going to go 'poof. Anyone interested in buying a domain? Email me and I'll send you the link...
True Geek...Some truely Geek movies. :) :sniff: Right after my own heart...
Awww... She did the dishes.
Geeks and Bikinis
Odd...I have no idea why, but I'm on some sort of a buzz this morning... Happy. Upbeat. Excited...
Wedding jitters finally kicking in???? :\
Who cares! I like it!!!
Other topic, new entry...This is another great read, just a different subject (funnier) so it got a new entry...
Yahoo news
HAHA!!! 8)
Great read...In my area, this applies to white kids as well... A great read, none the less...
CNN Article
Tired...Got a lot of stuff done today... Finished up the wedding invitations. Finally moved the fish to our house from Totems parents house. Cleaned out my office/attic. Things are feeling more and more like home and Totem and I are having a hard time realizing that our wedding is only 2 months away. The time sure does fly...
Now to tackle the new Linux box...
Future Goals...1.) Get back into the habit of writing here
2.) Take at least 2 pictures a week for photoblog
3.) Finish looming website designs
4.) Complete scripts
5.) Be home before it is dark and try to relax
6.) Work with Totem on watching a movie or two a week (we've had a hard time spending time with each other while exams and projects pick up for us)
Most are on hold b/c of the lack of broadband... Anyway... This summer should be pretty interesting (I'm getting married, DUH!). I hope I can get my life back on track after I get out of school...
Awesome Party...Now THATS a way to have a good time at a lan party... HAHA!!
Blah...That's about all I feel right now... Everything is blah...
That is all. Move along...
Where have you been?Wow. It's been a really long time since I have written something... :\
These past couple of days haven't been hell, but they sure have been busy. Friday and Saturday were pretty much uneventful. I had to go to work for most of each day. Surfed and coded and usual...
Sunday was a little busier. The day started by my actually blowing my windoze box away. And, as expected, I did forget to back some minor stuff up. (It happens to me every time.) I lost all my email account settings and mail filters... At least I managed to save the emails... :p But as that chugged along, something else popped up. Most of my software and things I needed weren't at my house anymore. They're in boxes. I ended up downloading mostly new drivers and software from the Internet so it wasn't a completely bad thing. What was bad was not having my Quicken CD with me. When your normal routine is to come home and check your finances and email, and suddenly I couldn't do that, everything becomes really weird. I was so out of place. At one point I was just sitting in my chair trying to think of what I could do next (in terms of reinstalls) and Totem walked in asking what was wrong. She said I looked so confused and lost... ;)
Needless to say, the computer is feeling healthier... Software installs are going slow but I've got all my data, email, and financial stuff back up and running so all is well. Unfortunately, on Sunday, not everything went well.
We spent the rest of the afternoon packing up stuff and moving it over the new place. We then got news that Jen's (step) Uncle had died. Now her grandmother has lost her husband and son within two years. Just as she was starting to be able to cope with the loss of her husband, her son dies. She is a wreck, the poor woman. I hope everything turns out as good as can be expected in the end...
Monday. Totem's first day of classes this semester and our first day to attempt car pooling. ::fake sarcastic laugh:: It was also the first day of really really bad snow in the area. Driving was a pain in the a$$. It should have taken me about 45 minutes to get her to school and then get to work. It took an hour and 45 minutes... What a way to start a Monday.
But, the day went off without a hitch for either of us. Work kept me busy all morning and school was nice too. I'm really getting used to this 3 days of school stuff. Totem's classes went well too. She was glad to be back with a bunch of her friends.
Tuesday was even worse than Monday, in terms of weather. Driving was horrible ALL day. Snow everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Another couple of hours drive for us in the morning. The day was normal. Work, meh... School was OK for Totem. We had dinner at a local sports bar (kinda a back to usual schedule treat type thing) and will never be going back there again... Not the worst $30 we have ever spent on dinner. There just wasn't much to quantity and Totem's chicken was drying than cardboard...
I got myself registerred for Tuxedos for the wedding. Its kind of a nice feeling to get that out of the way... Just one step closer I guess...
Wednesday morning. This morning. BAH! 2 hours of driving and I was still late for my class... All the roads were moving slower than usual. Wierd thing was that the side roads were going faster than the thruways... :) That's the only reason I was extremely late to class. I took all side roads to campus instead of the thruway after I dropped Totem off...
Now I'm just sitting here in a computer lab waiting for my next class... Creative Nomads (the devices, that play mp3's, not creative people that move from place to place, even though I qualify as one) are so nice... 8)
If Architects had to work like Programmers...My Software Engineering Professor posted this on his web site. It's really funny. Sad thing is that I can relate to it... ;)
Belly Up...Well everything that Totem and I have planned for the past year or so has gone belly up. We have literally done a 180 on life. We've come to realization that living on our own has finally gone beond our control and is an unattainable goal at this time, even though I've thought it could be, and fought for it to be, for over a year now...
Totem is not able to work this semester. I am limited in the amount of time that I am allowed to work at my job. We cannot live, even in a new place, on my salary alone. Student loans are not an option at this point. After talking with both of our parents, and having very long talks together, we decided...
We're moving in with Totem's parents. They have a guest room in the basement that they are allowing us to live in for the next couple of months until I graduate and get a better job. This will allow us to save the money that we would be spending on rent for either a deposit for an apartment in the summer, or maybe even a down payment on a house.
This is not something we've wanted to do, but it is the only thing we can do to not get ourselves any deeper than we currently are. With both sets of parents offering rooms in their houses, we figured her parents would be least inconveniced (sp) by us because they are not currently using the guest room. Whereas if we moved in with my parents, we'd force my dad to move our of his office.
I originally was extremely bummed and depressed about all of this. I've been trying to separate myself from any attachment (financial) I've ever had. IE: Use my money to live my life. Not living off of others. All four parents realized that I have been doing this, and all have been there to talk with me and let me know how they feel. They are welcoming us into their homes with open arms. So, even though I think I will be a burden on their lives, they have reassured me that we will not be.
So while this is not the step that Totem and I wanted to take, we are very gracious for everyone helping us out. Totem and I are happy. That is what I wanted. Thank you Mom and Dad, Mom and Dad. :)
Excited...Tonite is a night when I can finally (for at least a couple of hours) forget about the stress of school and work and sit back in loud, droning, noise. I'm heading out to the Blue Man Group's concert in an hour and I'm all pumped up. It's gonna be loud. It's gonna be fast. It's gonna be AWESOME!!!
Real...Two days ago we got a call saying we won a free honeymoon. We were optimistic, but skeptical. Today, Totem and I are holding the voucher for the trip in our hands... :)
WE'RE GOING TO THE BAHAMAS FOR OUR HONEYMOON!!! WOOHOOOOOO!!!! 8)
Lotsa reading...I did something yesterday that I normally don't get time to do, or norammly don't want to do. I read my book. :) During the 13 hours I worked yesterday I was able to knock out about 250 pages out of the LOTR book that I bought (its the one that has all three book in one book). So that tell you how slow of a reader I am, well that and combined with 13 straight hours of reading and really tire out someone's eyes. Either way, I'm coming along well in the book and I felt pretty good about reading that much. I'm still surprised at how much the movies change some of the things that are mentioned in LOTR. I'm also realizing why my friends said it was impossible to included all the details in the movies... There just SO much to talk about...
Drools...Two new trailers came out this week. Matrix Revolutions and LOTR: Return of the King.
::Homer drooling sounds::
In rememberance...
Too many leagues under the sea...Totem has always liked pets. She's always wanted pets. Recently she told me that she does not want to come home to an empty house anymore (she gets home at 6:30, I get home at 8:30) so she wanted to get a pet... I protested because first of all our landlords do not allow pets in our apartment and second, everytime we have gotten a pet we either have to move away (her dog was left at her parent's house when she left) or end up having to give away our pets and she'll get depressed (our two cats).
We tried a guinea pig (free from a friend) for a couple of days and I said if our landlord says we can have it, I'll be ok as long as she takes care of it. Our landlord said they would get back to us an never did... :\ We both made the decision that a guinea pig is not the right thing to do because we're never around and, for me at least, it just sat around and generally didn't give two $hits about us or anything else as long as it had its food...
So we compromised... Fish. :) 11 of 'em. All goldfish. (It probably helps that they were only 28 cents at Walmart.) We got the tank setup last night and so far only two have died (Walmart has a 24 hour policy so we are getting two new ones to replace them). I figured we now have a really fancy nite lite in the kitchen (plus the tank is a really nice addition to the apartment) and Totem gets to come home to something (even if she can't hold them, she was still happy that SOMETHING was there at the house)...
Excited...Its a little past midnight. Totem is sleeping and we are all packed an ready to go...
The permission has been asked. The item has been bought. The reservations have been confirmed. Just one thing left to do...
Ask. :)
See everyone in a couple of days!!! Wish me luck!!! ;)
Better...Yesterday was a much better day than Wednesday. I had to day of so I could spend it with Totem on her 21st birthday. We had a good time. We hung out with chef4lisa24 most of the day. Later in the evening my parents came over for dinner, since it was my Mom's bd too. We had a good time. Nice food and for some reason it always feels good when Mom and Dad come over. I can't explain it but it is just a nice feeling...
We are getting all excited about tommorrow. We leave for Niagara Fall, Canada tommorrow morning. We've got reservation for dinner and some cash to blow at the Casino. It'll be a nice relaxing trip for both of us. We'll hopefully come back rich, and if not that, at least very happy. ;)
5 years ago...It was five years ago and I was sitting on a bench watching some young scouts learn how to fish. On that day I was assigned to the fishing lake, responsible to unhook the fish and toss them back, helps scouts with their fishing poles, remove hooks from scouts fingers, and cook myself in the sun. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected someone to want to come up and sit next to me, especially one of the four women on the staff that summer...
That was the day that started it all... July 8, 1998. Totem started talking with me and now who knows what we'll do.
I love you honey!!! Happy Anniversary!!! :)
LOL!Look at what I came across...
andy46477's EBAY Comments Listings
One Dollar Bill
BBQ Sauce
NOTHING!!!
Largest Cheeto
I can't believe that they have not seen these and removed them yet... Still funny though. :)
Long weekend...This weekend was kinda longer than normal, but not necessarily in a bad way... I kinda hit on every topic I normally think/write/talk about...
Friday was OK. Work was kinda slow. Had a review session for my Statics test tonite (Monday). I'm getting nervous about that. Totem showed up after I got out and she came back to work with me since I took an hour off to goto the review session. We had dinner and general "time together" time. It was nice.
I ended up sleeping in until noon on Saturday; I was woken up by Totem vacuuming (sp). She was a little upset I slept in that late, but when you are playing a game until three in the morning, you're kinda tired when you get up. ;) We then went over to her mom's house and I got to do my lawn mowing again. Don't ask why, but I like the time alone to think. Call me Forrest Gump but I think it's kinda peaceful when you have the mower's engine drowing out all other noise and can just wonder about stuff. The weather was not as nice, just cloudy (YAY! No sunburn!!!). We stuck around until late night when we headed over to my parent's house...
I bought the Animatrix earlier this week and really enjoyed it. Getting a LOT of the questions answerred about the Matrix in general made the movie/9 anime cartoons worth it. Plus they were really good quality and had great depth. My opinion: If you liked the movie Heavy Metal, you'll like the animation in the Animatrix. You might not understand the it, but you'll like it. ;)
That brings me back to my parents. I liked to so much that I watched it with my Dad. Totem and my Mom were also there, but easily turned off by the whole concept. The general consensus: You have to be on drugs to understand it. :) Maybe. :p It's just really deep. Mom and Totem were LOST the whole time. Dad didn't get most of it but he said he enjoyed one of the 9 cartoons (the Square remake ripped from Final Fantasy).
So I'm the only looney one. Who cares? 8-)
Sunday was a little more rough. It does not help that I stayed up until 5AM playing Morrowind. The only reason I went to bed was because I knew if I didn't at that time, I wouldn't at all... We had to take the cats back. Turns out that the family that took them, has a baby that is allergic to cats... :( So Totem did something I didn't agree with, but worked out in the end. They're new home, Totem's parent's garage. I thought they were gonna FLIP, but ended up being much more receptive than I had thought. So now she gets to see them more often, still gets to take care of them, and I get my option of making them outdoor cats... I'm still very appreciate of all the people of offerred to help me out with them, but I wasn't gonna ask everyone again after I just told them we found a home... Only time will tell how long they will last there...
Last night I devoted to studying. Two hours and I had only gotten through half of the Statics homework problem solutions I have... I didn't even get time to study for my Com 101 exam this morning, which went OK I hope... I've got a couple of hours before the exam tonite, so I should be able to wrap them up and pray for the best... Knowing my luck, I'll be bummed out all the way back home when it's over. But I'm trying to keep my hopes up. Pending no brain farts. ;)
Another weekend......avoiding the blog.
Hmmm... This weekend was kinda fun. I got to go shopping on Saturday morning with Smilemoreb. Very very fun, and memorable too. ;) The rest of the day was spent with my Dad. We checked out some local computer stores. Chatted about life and "stuff" in general. Both of us expressed a need for more time in each other's lives. I've kinda lost touch with my family ever since I moved far away from home. While only an hour away, we just can't keep in touch. Weekends are the usual time together and once in a blue moon will we see each other on a weekday. I miss them.
I spent all of Sunday alone, in a good way. Totem was off at a local country concert (I have a hard time stomaching country music so I declined the invitation to come). I got to spend a lot of time by myself doing my own things which was really nice (I haven't done that in a long time). Played a little bit of the new game I bought, Morrowind. Looks like a really good RPG that is extremely open ended meaning I don't have to follow a story line. IE: I killed a NPC early on only to find out an hour later that he was part of the main plot. Bad because I just killed the main story line, but the game was not over. There we hundreds (literally) of other things I could do and many places to go. I've really missed these kind of games. Hopefully this will be a good stress reliever in the future...
Where have you been?This weekend had its shares of ups and downs...
I had my first exam on Saturday. I bombed it, and I mean bombed. The plus is that it was optionaly and could only help your final average. So I probably should have just stayed home and slept. Heh, you never know until you try, right?
Totem and I had a lot of heart to heart conversations *cough* arguements *cough* about our relationships too... Turns out I'm on the computer waaay too much. Nahhhh... ;) So I stayed off of it most of the weekend, which is why none of this was updated... What I don't understand is that she was fine with me playing playstation 2 all weekend, while she layed down, but she was not fine with me playing the games on my computer...
On the Linux box... Gentoo is gone. For some reason I couldn't get the bootstrapping to work. Without that optimization, I might as well go to another distro... So I'm giving LFS a shot. Hopefully that will work. If it does not, and I probably won't know for a couple of weeks, I'll be trying Slackware. Last but not least, if all else fails, I'll switch to Debian as many people have recommended it to me... Only time will tell...
Weekend recap...OK. Friday after babysitting, Totem and I were supposed to goto dinner with her parents. It was supposed to be a surprise party for me, but Totem had to blow her cover to let me know about it so I wouldn't work...
The night before, her brother blew his cover so now I knew that most of her family was coming.
When we showed up, I started to recognize cars and she played dumb saying that, "Nahhh, that's not her car." I get in and her entire family was there to greet me, give me cards, and, of course, a beer. Unfortunately for Totem, her father came up to me and asked if my parents were coming. I was like, "I don't know... What do you mean coming? They're coming???" Totem runs over and slaps his shoulder...
He had blown the last thing she had tried so hard to keep secret from me. Unfortunately for her, again, they showed up less than a minute later. I felt SO bad for her... :( She tried to hard to surprise me and everyone just kept blowing it, myself included...
My brother and his girlfriend also came to the party which was really kewl... Dinner was good, but I only had one complaint. Instead of a big long table, they reserved two tables for us. And obviously, the two families sat apart... :(
Outside of the occasionaly rude comment and stab in the back, everyone from both families got along. No one got too drunk. No one got too uncomfortable. All in all it was good clean fun...
(Well it was fun for me at least. Totem kept getting embarrassed about all the stuff that was going on... I'm not gonna say anything about it because that's her job. Maybe she'll actually update her journal and post about it...)
Birthday tally:Lotsa cards, some cash, lottery ticket, gas cards, and a new digital camera with a 168mb mem card([butt kissing] THANKS MOM AND DAD!!! [/butt kissing])
To my surprise, and happiness (Is that the right word to use?), my parents and company (bro and g/f) came over to my place after dinner. I got to show my apartment off to my brother and my parents saw it now that we were moved in (they came when we were first moving in and nothing was there). Mom and Totem talked. My bro and his g/f played PS all night. My dad and I played chess. We all had a very good time and were able to relax for a bit...
I ALMOST FORGOT! It's my 21st. I gotta drink right?!?!?!?!?!? I tried. I tasted like cold urine... I'm not drinking at a bar for a long time... :\ But in the true spirit (or so I am told), I went to a super market and bought some Mikes Hard Lemonade and Hard Iced Tea. Judging on the alcohol content, two of those were about one can of beer. After two, the only thing I noticed that changed in me was:
A.) I got warmer and sleepy
B.) I really mellowed out (as in I couldn't get my eyes off of the TV and/or monitor. Whichever I was in front of at the time. I could do everything else, just not shift my eyes. Wierd.)
C.) I got a REALLY bad after taste in my mouth after half of the bottle (might have been the drink itself, I don't know)
So for now, I'm not an alcoholic. I've been told I'll be "gotten" sometime. Then again, every time I see a bar or boose, I think of the day I took Totem to the hospital. Her brother was in a bed with tubes everywhere, barely conscious. His friend was down the hall and didn't wake up for a week, oh and he almost died. His truck was wrapped around a tree. Did I mention that he (Totem's brother) was drinking...??? Yeah... You know it's bad when you have to watch a father and a grandfather cry in the waiting room over the possibility that their son/grandson might die...
WHY THE FSCK DO THEY WANT ME TO DRINK!?!?
I'll never friggin understand... >:(
Back to the story... Woke up just in time the next morning to head out to DnD. The guys there had a bunch of cupcakes and oranges, my favorite fruit, there waiting for me. All courtesy of smilemore. Oh don't worry, smilemore. This is in my little book of... book of... well let's just say I'll find some way to get you back. =)
Afterwards, I came back to a quiet house since Totem was at concert practice. I gamed a bit, tried to make the linux box work (it's still down). Them She came home, we talked. All was good...
This morning, nothing special happened at school. When I got to work, I had a card, a balloon, and a cake waiting for me. It was kewl. I would have never expected anything from these guys. But I got something. I feel good now...
Not to mention the cake is something to the effect of a fried coconut layer top with a butter or cheese type cake below it. Lets just say its so rich, I wanna eat it all but can't afford to have a heart attack afterwards. =)
So thats my weekend... Yippee...
More surprises...Sunday at DnD, cupcakes, candles, and oranges. Don't ask. ;)
Monday at work, balloon, card, and a cake.
I feel special. =)
Once I get a chance to sit down for a good hour, I'll post all the other details about the weekend... Why don't you start making the popcorn. =)
Birthday goodness, and a little badness...Day started good. My exam went well (the only reason for me going to school today). Before the exam, robowoman gave me a card and and a hug that helped to cheer me up a lot... Hopefully I did really well on the test. You're getting a hug if I did, robowoman. =)
After the exam, I got hugged, and I mean hugged, like the bear type, by smilemore. She kinda ran into me, literally, as I was walking out of a hallway. She's kewl. Then we went out to lunch, her treat for my birthday. YOU ROCK SMILEMORE!!!
Badness: Note to self, when reaching for the menu, do not tip your glass full of ice tea over and in the general direction of the waitress. A result of wet waitress pants will occur... :(
Then the blah (not good not bad) stuff happened. Totem called during brunch and said that she called into work, for the day off, they told her that if she did not come in, she would not have a job anymore, regardless of what the problem was. (In other words: Get rid of the child you are babysitting now if you want your job.) Long story short. Totem wanted off today so she could relax and be with me on my birthday (plus she didn't feel like going in to work because they told her that even though her glasses were broke on the job, by one of the babies they were watching, that they were not going to help her get new ones). So she had her "neice" brought over to watch so she could say she had to babysit her "neice" and couldn't work. (Neice is in quotes because Totem's brother has not married his girlfriend yet, who had a child before she met him.)
So, at this moment, Totem is at work and I am home babysitting... It's not that bad. She's cute anyway. I just wasn't planning on spending my birthday babysitting... What are ya gonna do? Such is life...
Once Totem comes home we should be heading out to a party, I'm told. (Yeah, its all for me but I supposedly don't know about it... :\ I still don't know what they are gonna do to me...)
If I can still walk, let alone speak, and maybe type, I'll post something as to what happened... Otherwise, don't expect something until tommorrow for obvious reasons. :)
::Eyes up porcelain god, quivers in fear::
OK, so I'm 21...I made it. I survived. I'm 21...
...
So what's the big deal??? I don't feel any different. So I can legally get tanked now... Is that a good thing? A.) I don't have the brain cells to spare to excessive drinking and B.) I don't have the cash to spend on excessive drinking...
::goes back to boring life as college student and computer dork::
Which OS are you?
Like that wasn't obvious... =)
Must sleep...I've got a lot of things to say... But I'm too tired to post...
Look for some long rants tomorrow... :\
Trimmed the fat...I got sick of looking at this site in anything other than IE (because of the coding that I did, it only works in IE) so I decided to trim a lot of the fat... I'm working on a new design anyway so it won't matter much...
Things that I got rid of:
Weather
News Blurbs
Moods
College Survival Fund
Subscriptions
Restriced Areas
Bloginality
::sigh:: Oh well...
Wrong... So wrong...O... M... G... The search engines are starting to backfire... On MSN, "men.suck.women." found my website...
Here...
First of all, the searcher has problems. Second of all, my site was listed with a bunch of porn sites... More traffic, but I dont want that kinda people coming to my site expecting porn or something...
GAH!
ROFL...Someone found my blog by doing a search on Google for "echo chipper"... ;) ROFLMAO!!!
WHO WOULDA THUNK THAT BAD CODING WOULD BRING PEOPLE TO MY SITE?!?!?! =)
(The code that displays the moods uses echo for a command. It is printed out in Netscape unfortunately. This person found my entry that had the mood chipper in it...)
Added a few more things...Now I have icons to all the places that taught me neat little tips and tweaks on this blog. I also signed up for a bunch of blog rings. Now I should get more traffic so even more stranger people can listen to my bitching... err ranting... err complaining... err whatever...
I also put a link up to my Seti-At-Home Stats and I posted my wishlist. BUY ME STUFF!!! ;)
lso, thanks to Bloglet, you can now subscribe to my Blog!!! All you have to do is enter your email address there, and then at the end of every day you will get an email with a summary of all the entries and comments that were made during the day. SCHWEET!
Changed font...The entries were using the Veranda font... I changed it to Arial. Now to see if it holds up...
*smacks blog*
Restricted...This is my first restricted post... If you can see this, you are one of those wonderful people that I consider my friends or you got my password some how...
I'll be removing the password feature in the future, but for now it's a good work around. I'll be setting up a formmail form soon so you can just send me an email right from the website...
But for now, yea secret goodness! ;)
There is only 1 crack... When my site is syndicated, it generates a snippet of info about the article, like the first 20 words. I can't filter out those... So if I'm pissed at someone, they can probably find out but they won't know much more than the fact that I am mad at them... Oh well... You can't have everything can you? =)
Moods...I've finally got moods working! Scott Meinzer wrote this awesome tutorial about how to get it up and running and things are great! Now I don't have to be jealous of all you guys over at LiveJournal. ;)
I also used my first trackback for this entry. I feel special. =)
Here's the link if you are interested...
Reworked...Well, I made some more design changes to the blog... Changed the location of some things. Changed the title and added a new link to the blog (its a domain forwarder, to be revealed later). Finally got those syndicated news columns working. ;)
Next task... Weather. =)
Busy Today...Well I finally got all the links up to the flash animations I've been collecting... Enjoy!
Disclaimer: These animations are not my work and I am not claiming them to be. They are movies that I found on the net and I think are kewl enough that other people whould know about them. They are all copyright by their owners and I am only using them to show off their work (IE: Spread the love...). If any of these are yours and you would like them removed, please email me and I will be more than happy to do so...
Just wanted to say thanks......to everybody for saying such nice things. I know I sounds really negative here, and I do. Its just easier for me to come here and bitch about life than to come here and brag about something good that happened to me.
I'm gonna try to get something on here everyday, good or bad, that way I can move farther away from the "dark side"... (Though writing the crap down about what happened does help me to relax a lot, actually.)
So... Anyway... Thanks. :)
Revampage...Redesigning... Don't worry, you're links will come back. =)
Meh...Still messing around with the format of this place... I did get around to changing the icons though...
Whoa...See what I meant about the rabid hampster not working out... ;)
Merry Christmas anyway!!!
Gotta rethink this...The foot for the "Stress" category and the rabid hampster for my "Family" category are working as well as planned...
Just don't ask. It's easier that way...
They'll change soon (once I find better ones)...
Added Categories...Well... Added Stress, School, Techie, and Family categories. Just took a look at my entries an found over half are in the General Sections... Time for some house cleaning...
I found some nice icons too... =)
Reset...Reset the poll... Maybe I'll get some real results now...
Thanks...Thanks to the person who voted 11 times the my site needs a lot of work. Three votes for almost a month now, then 11 overnight. I don't even get that many hits in a day. If you think my site sucks that much, email me then... >:(
Check this out...Bet you you can't keep yourself from jumping... ;)
Click Here...
Just for Dave...Click here...
Oh yeah... There's more after this one too. ;)
Funny...And you thought stick figures were boring... =)
Click here.
Really behind...Bah... The usual. No time to do anything but school work... I can't wait to be outta here...
I just wanna sleep...
Click here.
Take 'em out...Heres to the United States Armed Forces...
Click here...
Pointless...Pointless cartoon for a pointless entry...
Click here...
New idea...So like in the last few minutes, I thought of something that I would like to share with everyone. All the time I come across these awesome flash sites that are either websites, cartoons, or movies, but either way they all ROCK! So I want to share them with you... I'll post one or two every couple of days... None of them are my work (at least for the moment) even though some may be hosted on my site. Most will knock your socks off...
Do you like Barney? If you answered "No" like the rest of the world, the following cartoons are for you. Now if you have ever wanted to take a shotgun to Barney's head, you'll die laughing when you see this.
http://htf.mondominishows.com/valentine/main.asp?seed=7669&serial=309653
http://review.mondominishows.com/happytree.html#
Enjoy. *evil grin*
In rememberance...I sent this to all my friends last fall... It still makes me tear up... The movie (it's a flash movie) is about 20 minutes long and is 7 megs in size. So if you have a modem, you'll be waiting a long time... If not, just make sure you can sit around for a bit... It means that much more if you watch it to the end...
If that site is down, I have a copy of the movie here...
"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."
9.11. 2001
Gone fishing...Well, not quite... As a last ditch attempt to relax before the semester hits me full on, I'm going camping this weekend. Should be loads of fun. Get to spend huge amounts of money in short periods of time. Get to read the magazines I've been neglecting for months now...
And I get to stay away from the computer... Who woulda thunk it? A computer junkie wanting to get away from a computer. Trust me. You need breaks from the things do, otherwise you would just get way too bored with them...
I'm sure when I get back there will be another kernel I'll have to compile or something like that. =)
Enjoy your long weekend! I know I will! See you next month! =) (READ: A few days...)
Finally found a website......that did the research for me. =) It's got proof that the picture of a shark trying to take out a guy climbing a latter to a helicopter is false...
http://www.snopes.com/photos/shark.htm
Where Have I been...Wow. First missed post in a month... Kinda depressing... *sniff* Oh well.
This weekend was kinda fun. Well for starters, got home on Friday night expecting to goto my second job. I was on a "we'll call if we need you" basis with them. No call. No work. So... All JumpGate. Got the final level possible and decided to goto bed... Not bad for spending 500+ hours in a game. OMFG... Lame???
Woke up at 6:00 AM the next morning waiting for a call. 10:00 AM no call. For those that know me I'm into paintball too... Turns out that my brohter works in a printing shop where they just ordered a 3 million dollar printer from Germany. You bet your a$$ is was sealed up all nice and tight. Came in a wood box. The sides were 10x10 and it was 15 feet long, about. He got first dibs on the box and we got to dismantle it.
Can we say paintball fort????? =) OH YEAH!!!
So we spend a lot of Sat morning setting it up for Sunday morning when we were planning to play. Afterwards went over to Jen's parents house. Had dinner, slept over. Relaxed, for a first...
Got up at 6:00 AM again to head out for paintball... Had the time of my life! I mean, when else can you shoot guns at your friends leaving huge welts on their body and watch them yell in pain??? ;) Trust me, I got my share too. =)
Learned an important lesson though. If you leave an opening in the back of your base, someone will try to exploit it. You should see the welts all over my back. After that, I'm never joining the military. That would just SUCK if it ever happened... :\
Night passed, monday morning. First day of school. I was actually excited for a change. Whats wrong with me??? Excited about school??? Anyway, day went well and now I'm at work... I now get to spend 12 hours away from my house instead of 8 during the summer. Take the 8 hours of classes and tack on an additional 4 hours of work each night... WOHOO... :\
Guess the good part about it all is that I'm half way done... Wow, kinda wierd to think of it that way. Two more years and I'll be done... Can't wait.
Linkage...I see you've added me to your Blog list, Tab. Stats are a wonderful thing =)
Got your return link on the side. Your's too, David. :p
Moved again...Kinda. This time it was only "across apartment". =)
Jen and I rotated our bed and computer desks. Now she can get in and work on her computer without having to be jammed into a wall... She likes it. I'm getting used to it... I still have tons of things to hook up yet...
More to come...
Pictures...Today was kinda fun. I got some pictures taken by my dad... Singles shots of me, shots of Jen, shots of both of us... It was good fun...
Guess it's kinda neat to see what he has done with his hobby. He's managed to rent out a portrait studio to do all his work in. He's raised enough money to buy some really good digital cameras. He got ahold of some really nice editting software that allows him to do almost anything with or to a picture. It's really cool to see how a hobby can develop over time... Especially because he started off with just an average quality APS camera...
Well for those of you who have not seen me, I'll have a couple of them up on my site soon... Just incase for some odd reason you wanted to see my mug... =)
To see more of my Dad's work, click here to goto his website...
Blah...I guess this was one of the first normal days in a long time... Wierd.
Work was fine. Kept myself busy. Went by really fast and no one managed to piss me off... Visited my dad at his work and scheduled the cats for the spaying/neutering during lunch. Horny little buggers. ;) Got home. Read my email. Gonna start touching up my website...
So I guess I feel blah today. You know what? Blah feels good for once. =)
Still here...Just a little tired. My second job seems to be done. I'm on a "We'll call you when we need you" basis now. Seeing that the last two times I went in, they couldn't keep me busy, I don't think I'll be going back again...
I gotta learn to slow down when I work... ;)
I'm still catching up to all my emails and getting back to my computer work. I'm sure I'll find something soon enough to get me going and mad enough to write something about it... =)
Writers block, sort of...With Dreamhost, you get a free web registration. Well, since I transferred my domain to them, I still have 1 free registration coming. I want to keep BfloEagle, my personal site for things like pictures, this journal, my resume, stuff like that... Sort of like get it up to the standards I want, and just let it sit for awhile...
What I have been told is my problem is that there is not reason for people to come back to my website. There is no content for people to see. They are right. That's completely understandable. My website is just that. No content. And it's not supposed to be in it's current state. Heck, the only thing that changes is this blog... I mean, how often do you update your resume and really use it? Not everyday. If you're supposed to, clue me in please. :)
So, I'm thinking about getting another domain setup dedicated to gaming. I don't know how I'm gonna get people to come there or how I am going to update content. I'm just gonna start out small, focussing in on the games I play at the moment. Then try to expand out into the types of games, instead of an individual game itself. Like MMORPG or FPS games...
Just need to come up with a name and a purpose... Any ideas?
Nothing...For the first time in a long time, I don't have much on my mind. Jen is home sick so she's trying to relax. I'm at work. I'm doing my projects, thinking about lunch and what I'm gonna do when I get home...
I guess I'm started to get settled finally. It's been about 3 months since I've moved out of my parents house. I'm feeling the financial pinch of independence but it is worth it. My cats are doing better. Gigabyte has made a full recovery. Gicoso and I can have "chats" for about 20 minutes at a time. Chat?Yeah, he purrs or something and I try to make a cat noise back to him. He actually responds. We just keep going back and forth for a long time. It's kinda neat.
Oh well. Same as usual I guess. If I think of something to write, I'll post it. (I'm brewing some good rants that I don't want to write about just yet...)
Happy Birthday!Today is my Mom and Jen's birthday! Happy Birthday you two!!!
A long time, but so short...Monday was my 4 year anniversary of meeting Jen. It's been so long and we have done soooo much. It just feels like it was yesterday that she came down to talk with her "bench borrower". If you want to know what that means, get ahold of me sometime. It's a good story but I cannot express it right if I just write it down...
Either way, it has been the 4 best years of my life. So much has happened. I've graduated High School. I'm a sophomore in college. I got a car. I've moved out. And Jen has been there the whole time.
I don't know what I would do without her. And I'm very glad to have her with me this and every day we spend together...
The Beginning...Well, this is it. My first attempt at a blog. I have been seeing them pop up all over the Internet so I figured, why not. I mean, I just got new hosting, Dreamhost, and they have been great so far. Probably the best thing about them is that you get your own shell... For those people are geek-impaired, basically it's like a personal virtual computer and I can do whatever, well almost whatever, I want on it. Not to mention a really good setup in general. If you are looking for a good host, click on the link and check them out...
I have also been messing around with Flash for a very long time now. Well, I have finally got somewhere (IE: My website will be updated soon. ;) ). I love what you can do with Flash. Yeah, it slows down your computer if it is a 166 mhz. But what are you doing with a 166 mhz computer???? It's 2002! They're coming out with 4 ghz computers in the next year or so! ;)
So while I was trying new things, a blog just seemed like the right thing to do...
