Damn, Working and All...
Doh, ya work a couple days and ya forget about this whole blog thing altogether. Had to be at work at 7am yesterday for a supposed huge influx of paperwork to be entered at my temp data entry job that was supposed to go through Saturday, to make a long story short their inventory wasn't quite as streamlined as it could have been, and so I'm done with that job.
Didn't hear about any work for Monday, so it appears it's at least a three day weekend. Really got keep track of my its and it's, my proofreader is becoming quite irked with the amount of times I screw that up. :) Well maybe I'm just irked it happens so often. Wonder if its irked or erked. Anwyay.
Just finished listening to the O soundtrack from Cirque Du Soleil, while I was defragging my hard drive. Yeah, for the first half of that sentence you almost thought I was a non-geek, I know. ;) I try to backup at least once a year, thanks to a major issue I had losing a hard drive about two years ago which caused some major problems. Today I think I'll go through some more boxes, and get some more work done around here. Maybe watch a DVD or two later. I signed up for the Netflix free trial, so I'm getting some Cirque Du Soleil DVDs sent so I can use the "rent and rip" strategy of making avi files out of them so I can keep them forever before sending them back. Always nice to add to the collection. I'll either cancel after the first shipment if it doesn't work out like I expected and pay nothing, or pay 19.99 for the first month of getting as many dvds as I want, up to probably about 20 DVDs. Either way I don't see myself being a long term subscriber, they only have some rare stuff that I want, and with a brother working at Hollywood Video who can bring home anything they have for free temporarily, no need to spend even a buck a DVD with Netflix. Frugal is the word, not cheap, frugal. ;)
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
We the Jury Find the Defendant...
Guilty, as charged.
A week later, the verdict was finally rendered in the court case I served as a juror for... I personally had made up my mind (even though you're not supposed to) by day two, when the defendant took the stand and proceeded to make up her testimony as she went along, and eventually got her words shoved down her throat like eight times when the prosecution cross-examined her. Deliberation took about an hour, with the majority of it spent clarifying aspects of the trial that some of the jurors didn't understand, or were unsure of. Once those of us who were paying attention filled in the rest, there really wasn't much to talk about except whether someone had "magically appeared," stolen the defendants ID and password, and used it to wire $1125.95 to Western Union without inputting the money from the customer into the cash register, effectively pocketing that much of Rite Aid's money for herself. She got caught when they compared the numbers, and when they did a surprise register audit on her the next day, they found she was doing the same thing again, and had $1100 bundled up in a seperate area of the cash register, ready to be yoinked whenever she pleased. Busted.
The experience in itself is something I'm glad I did, it was quite interesting being stuck with eleven individuals from eleven totally different walks of life, and having conversations with them about anything and everything between recesses and the mandatory hour and a half lunch break. I was the youngest by far, something I'm not used to being, but something I'm going to be seeing a lot more of outside of college. Everyone had their little title they were known by, from "The Student (me)" to "The Actor" "The D.A." and so forth. One of the things I ended up finding out about one of my fellow jurists (spellcheck?) was that she is now in fact the first Air Force officer that I've met. She works in combat cameras as she calls it, basically documenting wars. Said she'd gone through the AFROTC program rather than OTS to earn her commision, and thinks she has one of the best jobs there is. The facets of leadership involved and seeing people look up to her in her "workplace" having just come out of college is something she said was most rewarding about her career choice. It was encouraging, hearing about someone who has actually been there, and knows how it is, and doesn't regret the decision at all.
[head begins to bob to "Who Knew Heaven Is A Place On Earth"] It appears they finally killed Audiogalaxy, my source of mp3s for quite some time. I've switched over to WinMX, a program that's very Napster like that seems to work very well. Spent the evening downloading a bunch of old 80s tunes, a decade I've always been a fan of musically. Also picked up a new version of "The Prayer" by Josh Groban (who also did the great "To Where You Are" mentioned earlier) as a duet with Charlotte Church, which is just as good if not better than the Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli version. Their combined age is only 35 (20 and 15 respectively) and their talent is obvious. That song has always been one of my favorites, the last note harmonically is just beautiful.
Guess I'll stop sounding middle aged now. ;)
Guilty, as charged.
A week later, the verdict was finally rendered in the court case I served as a juror for... I personally had made up my mind (even though you're not supposed to) by day two, when the defendant took the stand and proceeded to make up her testimony as she went along, and eventually got her words shoved down her throat like eight times when the prosecution cross-examined her. Deliberation took about an hour, with the majority of it spent clarifying aspects of the trial that some of the jurors didn't understand, or were unsure of. Once those of us who were paying attention filled in the rest, there really wasn't much to talk about except whether someone had "magically appeared," stolen the defendants ID and password, and used it to wire $1125.95 to Western Union without inputting the money from the customer into the cash register, effectively pocketing that much of Rite Aid's money for herself. She got caught when they compared the numbers, and when they did a surprise register audit on her the next day, they found she was doing the same thing again, and had $1100 bundled up in a seperate area of the cash register, ready to be yoinked whenever she pleased. Busted.
The experience in itself is something I'm glad I did, it was quite interesting being stuck with eleven individuals from eleven totally different walks of life, and having conversations with them about anything and everything between recesses and the mandatory hour and a half lunch break. I was the youngest by far, something I'm not used to being, but something I'm going to be seeing a lot more of outside of college. Everyone had their little title they were known by, from "The Student (me)" to "The Actor" "The D.A." and so forth. One of the things I ended up finding out about one of my fellow jurists (spellcheck?) was that she is now in fact the first Air Force officer that I've met. She works in combat cameras as she calls it, basically documenting wars. Said she'd gone through the AFROTC program rather than OTS to earn her commision, and thinks she has one of the best jobs there is. The facets of leadership involved and seeing people look up to her in her "workplace" having just come out of college is something she said was most rewarding about her career choice. It was encouraging, hearing about someone who has actually been there, and knows how it is, and doesn't regret the decision at all.
[head begins to bob to "Who Knew Heaven Is A Place On Earth"] It appears they finally killed Audiogalaxy, my source of mp3s for quite some time. I've switched over to WinMX, a program that's very Napster like that seems to work very well. Spent the evening downloading a bunch of old 80s tunes, a decade I've always been a fan of musically. Also picked up a new version of "The Prayer" by Josh Groban (who also did the great "To Where You Are" mentioned earlier) as a duet with Charlotte Church, which is just as good if not better than the Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli version. Their combined age is only 35 (20 and 15 respectively) and their talent is obvious. That song has always been one of my favorites, the last note harmonically is just beautiful.
Guess I'll stop sounding middle aged now. ;)
Monday, June 24, 2002
A Visual Feast
Can't think of a better way to describe Minority Report. If you like cool gadgets, think cool gadgest times a million. The visual effects and CGI were just phenomenal. It seemed like maybe five minutes of the movie didn't involve some sort of computer generated effect in there somewhere. Walking out I was seriously pondering 7 M's out of a possible 7, but it didn't quite make it. It was an incredibly awesome movie in basically all respects, but it wasn't life altering or anything. We'll go with 6 M's. I found the acting to be quite good, although the effects were definitely center stage. The actress who plays the pre-cog is quite spooky and haunting, her screams will echo in my nightmares I'm sure. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but feel free to buy me a Lexus like that when I grow up. Dayam.
The other movie I saw just before seeing Spielberg's latest creation was The Bourne Identity. Speaking of Spielberg, if you think Minority Report is another A.I. think again, I found it to be MUCH better. Although I did enjoy A.I. largely due to the performance of Osment, I found it to be too much Kubrick for my liking, and not enough Spielberg. Anyway back to Damon's latest flick. Seems like there's a resurgence of secret agent movies that aren't in the Bond series, with this one and triple X coming out soon. I expected it to be very Bondish, and it was. Given I enjoy those types of films, I wasn't disappointed. Very good action in this one, some very body thumping fight scenes, with your classic "how's he gonna get out of this one" scenarios, and a pretty nice car chase to boot, in one of those ugly as hell mini cars everyone seems to want lately. Who knows why. My favorite part was they actually got a decent actress to play the part of the female companionship, rather than just a walking plastic surgery advertisment. (see Denise Richards in The World is Not Enough for a good example of the latter, sorry, I'm not a fan). This one deserves 5 M's. Was quite a good flick, unfortunately I saw Minority Report immediately afterward and that tarnished its greatness a bit. :)
Jury duty over, more on that later.
Can't think of a better way to describe Minority Report. If you like cool gadgets, think cool gadgest times a million. The visual effects and CGI were just phenomenal. It seemed like maybe five minutes of the movie didn't involve some sort of computer generated effect in there somewhere. Walking out I was seriously pondering 7 M's out of a possible 7, but it didn't quite make it. It was an incredibly awesome movie in basically all respects, but it wasn't life altering or anything. We'll go with 6 M's. I found the acting to be quite good, although the effects were definitely center stage. The actress who plays the pre-cog is quite spooky and haunting, her screams will echo in my nightmares I'm sure. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but feel free to buy me a Lexus like that when I grow up. Dayam.
The other movie I saw just before seeing Spielberg's latest creation was The Bourne Identity. Speaking of Spielberg, if you think Minority Report is another A.I. think again, I found it to be MUCH better. Although I did enjoy A.I. largely due to the performance of Osment, I found it to be too much Kubrick for my liking, and not enough Spielberg. Anyway back to Damon's latest flick. Seems like there's a resurgence of secret agent movies that aren't in the Bond series, with this one and triple X coming out soon. I expected it to be very Bondish, and it was. Given I enjoy those types of films, I wasn't disappointed. Very good action in this one, some very body thumping fight scenes, with your classic "how's he gonna get out of this one" scenarios, and a pretty nice car chase to boot, in one of those ugly as hell mini cars everyone seems to want lately. Who knows why. My favorite part was they actually got a decent actress to play the part of the female companionship, rather than just a walking plastic surgery advertisment. (see Denise Richards in The World is Not Enough for a good example of the latter, sorry, I'm not a fan). This one deserves 5 M's. Was quite a good flick, unfortunately I saw Minority Report immediately afterward and that tarnished its greatness a bit. :)
Jury duty over, more on that later.
Sunday, June 23, 2002
Tada!
Major Info:
ENGR BS Pre-Computer Science F99 - F01
L&S BA L&S Prog-Undeclared W02 - W02
L&S BA Business Economics S02 - Now
There you have it, my major status as indicated online. Some would say I'm on my way down the totem pole, but alas those people are doing things I just don't enjoy. So basically I think even if they do submit a grade change form that lowers one of my pre-major courses, it's too late for them to stop me from registering. :) What are the odds of that happening anyway... [knocks rapidly on nearby wood] The change of major form went through, and I got everything squared away for next quarter. My whole life was almost screwed when I found out a class that I thought was from 2-2:50 was actually from 2-3:15, conflicting with the one I had to take from 3-4:50. You don't get too many choices once you're upper division, generally just one lecture per quarter, and no section. So I had to shuffle things around, which was almost impossible because basically NOTHING by way up upper division electives that I actually have the pre-reqs for is offered Fall quarter. Luckily I found one of the other classes I had scheduled for later that could be shifted forward, and one of the classes I was planning to take in the Fall that could be shifted back. So no real serious changes, after thinking for a while I was screwed. Still have an open slot Spring quarter, who knows I might actually be able to take something FUN! :)
Major Info:
ENGR BS Pre-Computer Science F99 - F01
L&S BA L&S Prog-Undeclared W02 - W02
L&S BA Business Economics S02 - Now
There you have it, my major status as indicated online. Some would say I'm on my way down the totem pole, but alas those people are doing things I just don't enjoy. So basically I think even if they do submit a grade change form that lowers one of my pre-major courses, it's too late for them to stop me from registering. :) What are the odds of that happening anyway... [knocks rapidly on nearby wood] The change of major form went through, and I got everything squared away for next quarter. My whole life was almost screwed when I found out a class that I thought was from 2-2:50 was actually from 2-3:15, conflicting with the one I had to take from 3-4:50. You don't get too many choices once you're upper division, generally just one lecture per quarter, and no section. So I had to shuffle things around, which was almost impossible because basically NOTHING by way up upper division electives that I actually have the pre-reqs for is offered Fall quarter. Luckily I found one of the other classes I had scheduled for later that could be shifted forward, and one of the classes I was planning to take in the Fall that could be shifted back. So no real serious changes, after thinking for a while I was screwed. Still have an open slot Spring quarter, who knows I might actually be able to take something FUN! :)
