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. Look here: computer essay, geography papers.

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! =) online filme, kinofilme besten.

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!!! =)

BOO YAA!!!

Being an x boy scout, avid camper, uber geek, and gadget dork, I think I have finally found the perfect tool for EVERY occasion...

Swiss Army Memory Knife

Oh yeah, you know I'm buying one. ;)

More fun...

Totem got me the Bloodmoon expansion for Morrowind so I'm looking forward to spending some hours wasting away in that world again. :) But since I got some gift cards for christmas, I figured why stop there.

I managed to pick up Black and White, the deluxe edition, for only $15. I remember when the game first came out and was in the $50 range. Anyway, I've heard a lot of good reviews and have wanted to get my hands on it for a couple of years now...

On a side note, My brother Jay, got me Enter the Matrix and Final Fantasy X for PS2 for Christmas. I'm gonna be really busy during the next couple of months... ;)

Cruel Toys...

I got a new scale on Thursday or Friday last week. It's one of those ones that can measure your body fat. I was hoping that since my weight loss from running/walking had levelled out that maybe something else was happening...

So far the average is around 25% body fat. It's shifted as much as 4% in only an hour difference and as much as 1% in two consecutive readings. So I don't have much faith in it giving an accurate reading, only that it is giving me a ball park estimate. And that's fine for now...

All I know is that I need to kick it up a notch and do something, in addition to the aerobic stuff...

Better...

Sunday went much better than the rest of the weekend... Maybe it's because I went looking to buy something that I would normally never buy...

I don't really read books. I've never been inclined to do so. I can only name two books that I have actually wanted to read and finish (Huxley's Brave New World and some book that I read in the fourth grade that I can't remember the title to about the Alaska Dog sled race, the ididirod (sp) I think). Every other book that sparked my interest was a huge technical manual (which I did read from front to back even though everyone told me I shouldn't). I bought The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, the one where all three volumes are in one bound book. I think it was a combo of my watching the Fellowship of the Ring about 6 times and getting sick of asking everyone questions about all the little details dropped in the movie... I figure it will give me something to do on the plane later this week and if all works out well, I won't be able to put it down...

I've already got another one lined up too, which is really odd. Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I've always heard about it (answer = 42 right?, and the babelfish) but never got around to buying it. Once I get through the 800 or so pages in The Lord of the Rings book, that's gonna be next...

Christmas...

I've got my Christmas list all set for December already... I only want one thing...

The SGI Altix 3000

The thing is capable of 1.5 teraflops and runs Linux. 2 Terabtyes of Memory and 256 processors. Droool.... Gimme gimme gimme... ;)

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. ;)

Ummm... Ok...

So I'm out getting my bother's birthday gift (a gas card), when the cashier asks for ID. I was assuming that because I was paying with credit, she wanted to verify whom I was. Fine by me. She looks at my license and says "Oh my god." So after my heart stops, I ask "What?!?!"

She says I do not look less than 21 (I am 20 btw). (My license has big bold letters on it that say UNDER 21). She said I looked older than 30...

Is that good or bad??? :\

Never thought I would want...

...clothes. Heh, I used to cry at christmas when I was really young when I got more clothes than toys. ;)

Just bought a bunch of Old Navy summer clothes. Most were on sale. They look good, I'm kinda surprised. Even more surprised when I saw the look on Jen's face. *evil naughty grin*

Boys and their toys...

Whoever made up that saying was really right... =)

Got a wish list of stuff I need ... err *cough* want. Computer is getting pretty close to as high end as it can go and I don't have the cash for a complete over haul. If only I had the cash. I would by my dream $15,000 system from AlienWare. Triple flat screen 19 inch monitors. Dual 60 gb HD's, mirrored on an Ultra 3 Raid controller. Gig of memory. 256 mb DDR video card... Dolby Digital 7.1 Surround Sound System. DVD+RW burner. *drool*

Anyway... Until I'm rich, here's what I'm looking at:

Nice new video card: MSI GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB DDR Video Card
New Bolt for my Paintball gun (make it more silent and deadly =)): Delrin Bolt
New Trigger for my paintball (Better for my twitchy trigger finger): Sweet Spot Trigger
Newer Volumizer for my Paintball (it just looks cool): Spyder Volumizer

Wanna help??? =) Send money my way via PayPal. bfloeagle@hotmail.com is the account. (Hey, I can dream can't I???)

You took my money...

This goes along with my joystick woes post from a couple of days ago...

So I return my joystick with the intentions of getting another one right away. Unfortunately, the refund of the money from the object I purchased did not clear right away. I come to find out that it can take up to 60 days for the money to be returned to me...

Umm... WTF? It took you under 10 seconds to remove the money from my possession but I am supposed to wait 60 days for you to give it back? That makes no sense. When I am in possession of the goods, you are in the possession of the money. And it should be vice versa.

But, NO, we need to make you wait 60 days while we hold your goods and your money just to be sure we can refund you the $80 incase our bank cannot back it with their millions that they get from the feds... PFFT!

On top of that, I bought a "protection plan" for $10 from the same place. Fortunately, that was also refunded b/c I no longer have the joystick. The strange thing is that I got the $10 back the next day...

Granted, I used two different cards from two different banks. You would think that the one credit card, which is the credit card of the store that I bought the stuff from, would be quicker because it is their bank and are directly linked to it... Nope. It's the opposite. The store's bank is making me wait the 60 days...

Grrrrr................

Yes, I'm impatient. :)