Google Does Me Good Again...
Randomly plugging stuff in as usual, when a song comes blaring in from my mother's study that I remembered from my childhood, decided to snag it, turned out to be "Hands to Heaven" by Breathe from way back in 1988. Fourteen years ago even, scary thought.
The way I came across the title was just plugging in some of the lyrics, and I stumbled upon someone's page, who had written out all the lyrics to a few dozen songs and turned them into beautiful webpages with pictures and designs and so forth, and the song in compressed wav format playing in the background. Some were songs I'd heard, some were songs I hadn't, all were quite touching. Thought I'd pass along some lyrics from one by Billy Gilman, who some of you might have heard of, the young boy phenom who's been lighting places up all over the country
"There's a flower in the smallest garden
Reaching for the light
There's a candle in the darkest corner
Conquering the night
There is amazing strength in a willing hand
There are victories
That you've never planned
There's a hero
In everybody's heart
There's a fire inside of everybody
Burning clear and bright
There's a power in the faintest heartbeat
That cannot be denied
Go on and trust yourself
You can ride the wind
You're gonna take your dreams
Where's they've never been
There's a hero
In everybody's heart"
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
How'd That Tennis Ball Get In My Arm...
If any of you need a way to double the size of your right bicep in a week's time, I recommend just bowling a couple times in a span of a week, playing at least 3-4 games each time, and not putting your thumb in the ball. My strange style of just using the middle and ring fingers in the front two holes and having the other three simply palm it creates this really bizarre release followed by an insane left bending curve that takes it all the way from where I release it near the center over to the right gutter and all the way back over to the left side of the head pin, generally. This is sort of the way it's supposed to look, but with a lot less control and grace. :)
By the second throw tonight I felt my arm twinge as if I'd strained my bicep, which is weird because I haven't been doing any real hardcore arm workouts since I went a full week ago. I didn't stretch as properly as I should have, I guess. Deciding to play through the pain I ended up doing pretty well, I just had to rely on leaving my left hand on the ball as long as possible so my right arm was doing as little work as possible, and aiming a little further right, since it was curving more due to not having the power to get down the lane like it normally does.
Man, I probably sound like a bowling junkie by now. Well anyway, now it feels like there's a tennis ball under the skin attached to my bicep, which is I guess a good thing, other than the fact its quite sore, and I'm sure will be hard to move in the morning. Luckily I'm not at school, or I'd have to deal with "questions" about why my right arm is bigger than my left. I'm sure you can figure out what the assumption generally is. "It's all about the single room eh Matt?" Unfortunately it's harder to form tricep that does the majority of the work during push-ups and proper pull-ups with palms facing away from you. Gonna have to lay off the arm work for a couple days looks like, though. And DAMNIT I NEED TO STOP USING ITS AND IT'S...
[flexes a few more times] For the moment, I almost feel like I could arm wrestle someone, and put up a decent fight! ;)
If any of you need a way to double the size of your right bicep in a week's time, I recommend just bowling a couple times in a span of a week, playing at least 3-4 games each time, and not putting your thumb in the ball. My strange style of just using the middle and ring fingers in the front two holes and having the other three simply palm it creates this really bizarre release followed by an insane left bending curve that takes it all the way from where I release it near the center over to the right gutter and all the way back over to the left side of the head pin, generally. This is sort of the way it's supposed to look, but with a lot less control and grace. :)
By the second throw tonight I felt my arm twinge as if I'd strained my bicep, which is weird because I haven't been doing any real hardcore arm workouts since I went a full week ago. I didn't stretch as properly as I should have, I guess. Deciding to play through the pain I ended up doing pretty well, I just had to rely on leaving my left hand on the ball as long as possible so my right arm was doing as little work as possible, and aiming a little further right, since it was curving more due to not having the power to get down the lane like it normally does.
Man, I probably sound like a bowling junkie by now. Well anyway, now it feels like there's a tennis ball under the skin attached to my bicep, which is I guess a good thing, other than the fact its quite sore, and I'm sure will be hard to move in the morning. Luckily I'm not at school, or I'd have to deal with "questions" about why my right arm is bigger than my left. I'm sure you can figure out what the assumption generally is. "It's all about the single room eh Matt?" Unfortunately it's harder to form tricep that does the majority of the work during push-ups and proper pull-ups with palms facing away from you. Gonna have to lay off the arm work for a couple days looks like, though. And DAMNIT I NEED TO STOP USING ITS AND IT'S...
[flexes a few more times] For the moment, I almost feel like I could arm wrestle someone, and put up a decent fight! ;)
Monday, July 08, 2002
What The...
Tonight's random search engine query that brought a surfer of the internet follows...
"How to force husband to leave & I do not love him anymore"
Yikes, let's hope that it was part of a joke, or something. If people who are actually serious about it are randomly typing that into Google, well, that's just a real sad thing.
Beat SOF2, turned out to only take a couple of days. That's what I like about FPS's, you beat them, and move on. Now off to the living room for some ab work. WHEE.
Tonight's random search engine query that brought a surfer of the internet follows...
"How to force husband to leave & I do not love him anymore"
Yikes, let's hope that it was part of a joke, or something. If people who are actually serious about it are randomly typing that into Google, well, that's just a real sad thing.
Beat SOF2, turned out to only take a couple of days. That's what I like about FPS's, you beat them, and move on. Now off to the living room for some ab work. WHEE.
Sunday, July 07, 2002
What A Mess...
For those wanting to try their hand at the most violent FPS out there, I recommend Soldier of Fortune II. Now for all you haters out there, the game has like 20 different ways to turn down the violence, as well as a parental lock with password option, so our children can be protected to whatever level you want them to be. Now back to those who are actually aware of the difference between a "game" and "reality." This is easily the most violent game I've played, mainly due to the realism of the death animations, the dismemberment, the groans, spurts, squishies, and various other details I'll spare my elderly readers from. It's supposedly one of the longer single player games out there, I've put several hours in over the last few days and haven't beaten it yet, but I have no idea how close I am. Will update later on that.
Still no job, which is becoming quite irksome. Not that I mind being able to focus on things like running and arm/ab work, but money is good too. Spent Friday wandering around with the father, checking out various speaker systems, DVD players, and digital cameras, not that he was actually going to buy anything, half the fun is wandering around the store and then leaving, I guess.
Haven't quite decided what my big purchase of the summer is going to be, largely because my income is not yet steady and thus I don't know how much money I'll have to work with. Possibilities include a flat panel monitor (pretty sure I've been talking about that since I started this blog, and yet I'm still staring at this not even flat pos I've had since freshman year), a Klipsch speaker system, or a digital camera. All three of those things are good for the long term, the digital camera would get a lot of use, and the speakers and monitor would make great additions to my dorm room/new place of living in the next year or so. I'm guessing my amount of income will greatly influence which purchase I make, since the speakers run about $400, the digital camera something more like $600, and the monitor well, more than that. :/ Its actually dropped down to about $2.5k from $4k, so hopefully I'll be able to find it somewhere closer to $2k or below if I decide to go that route. That's an awful lot of money still, though. Winning lottery tickets anyone?
Got an honest to goodness handwritten letter today, which by the way is always the coolest thing ever. Knowing someone actually took time to put pen to paper for a few minutes, in order to write to me even, is always enough to lift my spirits. Mailing something back will give me something else to do other than sitting around here, anyway.
Also saw Dralion and Nouvelle Experience, the last two Cirque Du Soleil shows I'd rented off Netflix, and was again impressed by the former, and somewhat entertained by the latter. Maybe it's because I'd been so impressed by Quidam, but I'd have to rank Dralion a bit below it, and Nouvelle Experience as the worst of the four. Still has some good acts, but overall nowhere near the caliber of the other three shows I snagged (the third being Saltimbanco). The DVD was full screen rather than wide screen, and at times very dark and blurry, so it was hard to see at times, not too impressive. Also ripped Searching for Bobby Fischer (5 M's) which is a quite entertaining story about a young chess prodigy. That is, if you're at all interested in chess, or the idea of young prodigys. Otherwise you'd probably think it sucked. :)
Going to have to start another mad burning spree, with all these rips having to stay local until the Fall when I can spread them around in trades for new and exciting things, going to have to burn off a lot of the old stuff. Oh, and two Simpsons eps down, 101 hours worth to go. :/
For those wanting to try their hand at the most violent FPS out there, I recommend Soldier of Fortune II. Now for all you haters out there, the game has like 20 different ways to turn down the violence, as well as a parental lock with password option, so our children can be protected to whatever level you want them to be. Now back to those who are actually aware of the difference between a "game" and "reality." This is easily the most violent game I've played, mainly due to the realism of the death animations, the dismemberment, the groans, spurts, squishies, and various other details I'll spare my elderly readers from. It's supposedly one of the longer single player games out there, I've put several hours in over the last few days and haven't beaten it yet, but I have no idea how close I am. Will update later on that.
Still no job, which is becoming quite irksome. Not that I mind being able to focus on things like running and arm/ab work, but money is good too. Spent Friday wandering around with the father, checking out various speaker systems, DVD players, and digital cameras, not that he was actually going to buy anything, half the fun is wandering around the store and then leaving, I guess.
Haven't quite decided what my big purchase of the summer is going to be, largely because my income is not yet steady and thus I don't know how much money I'll have to work with. Possibilities include a flat panel monitor (pretty sure I've been talking about that since I started this blog, and yet I'm still staring at this not even flat pos I've had since freshman year), a Klipsch speaker system, or a digital camera. All three of those things are good for the long term, the digital camera would get a lot of use, and the speakers and monitor would make great additions to my dorm room/new place of living in the next year or so. I'm guessing my amount of income will greatly influence which purchase I make, since the speakers run about $400, the digital camera something more like $600, and the monitor well, more than that. :/ Its actually dropped down to about $2.5k from $4k, so hopefully I'll be able to find it somewhere closer to $2k or below if I decide to go that route. That's an awful lot of money still, though. Winning lottery tickets anyone?
Got an honest to goodness handwritten letter today, which by the way is always the coolest thing ever. Knowing someone actually took time to put pen to paper for a few minutes, in order to write to me even, is always enough to lift my spirits. Mailing something back will give me something else to do other than sitting around here, anyway.
Also saw Dralion and Nouvelle Experience, the last two Cirque Du Soleil shows I'd rented off Netflix, and was again impressed by the former, and somewhat entertained by the latter. Maybe it's because I'd been so impressed by Quidam, but I'd have to rank Dralion a bit below it, and Nouvelle Experience as the worst of the four. Still has some good acts, but overall nowhere near the caliber of the other three shows I snagged (the third being Saltimbanco). The DVD was full screen rather than wide screen, and at times very dark and blurry, so it was hard to see at times, not too impressive. Also ripped Searching for Bobby Fischer (5 M's) which is a quite entertaining story about a young chess prodigy. That is, if you're at all interested in chess, or the idea of young prodigys. Otherwise you'd probably think it sucked. :)
Going to have to start another mad burning spree, with all these rips having to stay local until the Fall when I can spread them around in trades for new and exciting things, going to have to burn off a lot of the old stuff. Oh, and two Simpsons eps down, 101 hours worth to go. :/
Thursday, July 04, 2002
Up, Up, Up, and BOOM!
Headed down to the pier to take in tonight's fireworks, had the usual fun with the oohs and aahs, from our vantage point atop my father's workplace. Just adjacent to the water and with a great view of the pier and the throngs of people who had turned out to mob it, it turned out to be a pretty good spot for viewing, even though it involved climbing a tall ladder carrying lawn chairs.
We've temporarily moved my speaker system out into the family room so my family can enjoy the effects of Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with the new DVD player, this works out pretty well for me since the father is now hooked on the idea, and will probably end up inheriting the system I got a great deal on about three years ago, and allowing me to upgrade to a newer (and even louder) one. Nothing like watching a movie where when a car goes flying by on the screen you hear it go through the left channel, center, then out the right and literally look out your window to see if it just went over your house and is about to land in the backyard. Very cool stuff.
I figure a new system will be a tad much for my dorm room, but the quality will be amazing, and that's the type of thing I can take around with me to everywhere I move in the future. Gotta start thinkin long term, almost done with this whole college thing.
So basically I'm deaf from the movies and fireworks, guess I'll turn in early. Then again The Rock (6 M's) is still blasting out there, might be a little tough. :)
Headed down to the pier to take in tonight's fireworks, had the usual fun with the oohs and aahs, from our vantage point atop my father's workplace. Just adjacent to the water and with a great view of the pier and the throngs of people who had turned out to mob it, it turned out to be a pretty good spot for viewing, even though it involved climbing a tall ladder carrying lawn chairs.
We've temporarily moved my speaker system out into the family room so my family can enjoy the effects of Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with the new DVD player, this works out pretty well for me since the father is now hooked on the idea, and will probably end up inheriting the system I got a great deal on about three years ago, and allowing me to upgrade to a newer (and even louder) one. Nothing like watching a movie where when a car goes flying by on the screen you hear it go through the left channel, center, then out the right and literally look out your window to see if it just went over your house and is about to land in the backyard. Very cool stuff.
I figure a new system will be a tad much for my dorm room, but the quality will be amazing, and that's the type of thing I can take around with me to everywhere I move in the future. Gotta start thinkin long term, almost done with this whole college thing.
So basically I'm deaf from the movies and fireworks, guess I'll turn in early. Then again The Rock (6 M's) is still blasting out there, might be a little tough. :)
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
Ridiculous...
That's my word of choice when describing many of the Cirque Du Soleil acts from Quidam, the latest DVD I rented/watched/ripped. When you realize you haven't closed your mouth for an entire ten minute act it's pretty obvious they're doing something impressive. Ridiculously impressive. Absolutely ridiculously amazing displays of strength. You basically just have to see it for yourself. This has been my favorite so far, other than the live ones I saw in Vegas. Frankly all of them seem like they'd be even better in person. Not that seeing them on any screen isn't good, but actually being there is something else altogether. Couple more on order, Dralion which is supposedly to be many people's favorite, and Nouvelle Experience.
Congrats to Brazil for bringing home the Cup, and more importantly thank GOODNESS its over, these 4am wakeups for the final matches were getting rough. :) Luckily Germany 2006 should only be half as many hours ahead, so it will be more like midmorning to early afternoon games over here.
Minority Report has become the first movie in a long time that I went to see twice in the theaters, mainly since my friend was quite insistant. I didn't put up much of a fight though, she wasn't having any part of Lilo and Stitch, which I've heard is pretty good, so I relented.
Still nothing of interest going on the job searching front, been spending about an hour a day on monster.com and various other sites looking for stuff I can do that pays more than chump change, but come up empty so far. Begun preparing for the AFOQT coming up on the 15th though, so we'll see from there what my future is beginning to look like.
That's my word of choice when describing many of the Cirque Du Soleil acts from Quidam, the latest DVD I rented/watched/ripped. When you realize you haven't closed your mouth for an entire ten minute act it's pretty obvious they're doing something impressive. Ridiculously impressive. Absolutely ridiculously amazing displays of strength. You basically just have to see it for yourself. This has been my favorite so far, other than the live ones I saw in Vegas. Frankly all of them seem like they'd be even better in person. Not that seeing them on any screen isn't good, but actually being there is something else altogether. Couple more on order, Dralion which is supposedly to be many people's favorite, and Nouvelle Experience.
Congrats to Brazil for bringing home the Cup, and more importantly thank GOODNESS its over, these 4am wakeups for the final matches were getting rough. :) Luckily Germany 2006 should only be half as many hours ahead, so it will be more like midmorning to early afternoon games over here.
Minority Report has become the first movie in a long time that I went to see twice in the theaters, mainly since my friend was quite insistant. I didn't put up much of a fight though, she wasn't having any part of Lilo and Stitch, which I've heard is pretty good, so I relented.
Still nothing of interest going on the job searching front, been spending about an hour a day on monster.com and various other sites looking for stuff I can do that pays more than chump change, but come up empty so far. Begun preparing for the AFOQT coming up on the 15th though, so we'll see from there what my future is beginning to look like.
Monday, July 01, 2002
It Starts...
Watched Season 1, Episode 1, of the Simpsons yesterday. We'll see how many I can knock out this summer. The real sad thing is when you think about it in terms of 20 minutes an ep, 291 eps, ummmm, 5820 min, ummmm, 97 hours or so? Actually that's not as long as I thought. Hell you could just lock yourself to a chair for 4 days and be done with it! :)
Also watched Saltimbanco, the first of the Cirque Du Soleil DVDs to come my way. This one also included the two brothers who are now performing in Mystere in Vegas (Saltimbanco toured back in 94) and I was amazed yet again. It's still quite cool to see Cirque on DVD, but it's really much better to see it in person. Then again I guess the price is right. Also watched Stomp Out Loud, the HBO special that was extended into a DVD based on the musical Stomp, involving plenty of rhythm, lots of noise, and toe tappin fun. Was actually better than I thought it would be, you wonder how interesting they can make slamming brooms around, but some of the sequences are pretty impressive.
Holy Jiggawats, its July? Middle of summer already, and all that. Well not really for me, I don't go back until like the 20th of Sept or something, so I still have almost three full months here. Rats.
Was looking at the Fry's ad today, and noticed they're up to 40x CDR burners now. Makes my 10x look pretty weak. Going to be doing a lot of burning as the summer wears on and especially before I go back to school too. Hrm... Not having to upgrade the comp as I normally do since I spent too much money last summer and it's still very high end, so I'm thinkin the extra money from working will go towards maybe a flat panel, maybe some speakers, maybe a digital camera, maybe a faster burner... We'll have to see. Flat panel would be the highest priority, but also the most expensive by FAR, given it would have to be at least the same size as the 18in viewable I have right now, and preferrably bigger. Aren't I just the pickiest.
For those looking for a game to entertain them temporarily, I recommend Theme Hospital, it's this quite temporarily addicting game in which you basically build a hospital from the ground up, hire staff, control the way things work, and try to make it the best hospital possible until it achieves certain ratings and you move on to the next level. Very Sim Theme Parkish if you've played that one. I seem to have run out of FPS's to play, and I'm trying to avoid starting an RPG I'll get sucked into for months, so I'm diggin out some old school stuff to keep me entertained between tv episodes/DVDs.
Man, my life during the summer is pretty lame. I need to get some hikin goin, some theme park trips, something outside the norm. I FINALLY cleaned out the van of all the boxes, organized my room, and packed a couple boxes of old stuff to put up in the attic, and put some of the stuff from school that didn't need to be unpacked into the garage. So now I'm set for the three months I'm here anyway. Oi. Is it move in day yet? :/
Watched Season 1, Episode 1, of the Simpsons yesterday. We'll see how many I can knock out this summer. The real sad thing is when you think about it in terms of 20 minutes an ep, 291 eps, ummmm, 5820 min, ummmm, 97 hours or so? Actually that's not as long as I thought. Hell you could just lock yourself to a chair for 4 days and be done with it! :)
Also watched Saltimbanco, the first of the Cirque Du Soleil DVDs to come my way. This one also included the two brothers who are now performing in Mystere in Vegas (Saltimbanco toured back in 94) and I was amazed yet again. It's still quite cool to see Cirque on DVD, but it's really much better to see it in person. Then again I guess the price is right. Also watched Stomp Out Loud, the HBO special that was extended into a DVD based on the musical Stomp, involving plenty of rhythm, lots of noise, and toe tappin fun. Was actually better than I thought it would be, you wonder how interesting they can make slamming brooms around, but some of the sequences are pretty impressive.
Holy Jiggawats, its July? Middle of summer already, and all that. Well not really for me, I don't go back until like the 20th of Sept or something, so I still have almost three full months here. Rats.
Was looking at the Fry's ad today, and noticed they're up to 40x CDR burners now. Makes my 10x look pretty weak. Going to be doing a lot of burning as the summer wears on and especially before I go back to school too. Hrm... Not having to upgrade the comp as I normally do since I spent too much money last summer and it's still very high end, so I'm thinkin the extra money from working will go towards maybe a flat panel, maybe some speakers, maybe a digital camera, maybe a faster burner... We'll have to see. Flat panel would be the highest priority, but also the most expensive by FAR, given it would have to be at least the same size as the 18in viewable I have right now, and preferrably bigger. Aren't I just the pickiest.
For those looking for a game to entertain them temporarily, I recommend Theme Hospital, it's this quite temporarily addicting game in which you basically build a hospital from the ground up, hire staff, control the way things work, and try to make it the best hospital possible until it achieves certain ratings and you move on to the next level. Very Sim Theme Parkish if you've played that one. I seem to have run out of FPS's to play, and I'm trying to avoid starting an RPG I'll get sucked into for months, so I'm diggin out some old school stuff to keep me entertained between tv episodes/DVDs.
Man, my life during the summer is pretty lame. I need to get some hikin goin, some theme park trips, something outside the norm. I FINALLY cleaned out the van of all the boxes, organized my room, and packed a couple boxes of old stuff to put up in the attic, and put some of the stuff from school that didn't need to be unpacked into the garage. So now I'm set for the three months I'm here anyway. Oi. Is it move in day yet? :/
Saturday, June 29, 2002
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. ;)
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! :)
Saturday, June 22, 2002
Wow, I Was Weird.
Decided to spend the evening getting my room organized, going through a TON of old stuff and basically filling up several large trash bags. Man, was I obsessed with Disney for a while. I kept just about every newspaper article there was about Disneyland for a few years there, and just about anything else I could get my hands on too. Also found a few of my old touring plans and artwork, course I was a bit younger then, but I still don't see how I could have possibly thought my drawing of Mickey actually looked anything like Mickey. :)
Just gonna leave this open as I go through stuff, I keep cracking up to myself even though no one is here, so I figured I'll share. :/
The fun part was taking literally a two foot high stack of paperwork from school and dumping it, doesn't make much sense to keep work from CS, Physics, or Math, given I don't have any intention of taking those subjects ever again. Well maybe CS, if its a fun elective someplace. :)
Also tracked down a bunch of cool pictures I'd managed to lose in the shuffle somewhere, including some great ones of my friends, so my photo wall next year should be much more impressive.
Just found a folder with spatial engineering major information in it, with a note on the front that two good schools for it are the University of Alaska at Anchorage, and the University of Maine. I used to be enthralled with the idea of living in the middle of nowhere. I still think it would be interesting, for a while. Don't think being a hermit for my entire life would be too cool though. Who would I blab to all the time?
Okay, I've filled three full large garbage bags and I can actually see the floor, guess it's time to take a break. Next up is taking all the boxes one at a time out of the van and figuring out what needs to be tossed, what needs to stay in boxes to be taken back, and what I actually need for the summer. Hoi. This is what weekends are for, right?
Oh, and the trial I'm a juror on should be over by Monday. Who knows, maybe even by lunch. Anyone need a lunch date? :P
Decided to spend the evening getting my room organized, going through a TON of old stuff and basically filling up several large trash bags. Man, was I obsessed with Disney for a while. I kept just about every newspaper article there was about Disneyland for a few years there, and just about anything else I could get my hands on too. Also found a few of my old touring plans and artwork, course I was a bit younger then, but I still don't see how I could have possibly thought my drawing of Mickey actually looked anything like Mickey. :)
Just gonna leave this open as I go through stuff, I keep cracking up to myself even though no one is here, so I figured I'll share. :/
The fun part was taking literally a two foot high stack of paperwork from school and dumping it, doesn't make much sense to keep work from CS, Physics, or Math, given I don't have any intention of taking those subjects ever again. Well maybe CS, if its a fun elective someplace. :)
Also tracked down a bunch of cool pictures I'd managed to lose in the shuffle somewhere, including some great ones of my friends, so my photo wall next year should be much more impressive.
Just found a folder with spatial engineering major information in it, with a note on the front that two good schools for it are the University of Alaska at Anchorage, and the University of Maine. I used to be enthralled with the idea of living in the middle of nowhere. I still think it would be interesting, for a while. Don't think being a hermit for my entire life would be too cool though. Who would I blab to all the time?
Okay, I've filled three full large garbage bags and I can actually see the floor, guess it's time to take a break. Next up is taking all the boxes one at a time out of the van and figuring out what needs to be tossed, what needs to stay in boxes to be taken back, and what I actually need for the summer. Hoi. This is what weekends are for, right?
Oh, and the trial I'm a juror on should be over by Monday. Who knows, maybe even by lunch. Anyone need a lunch date? :P
Friday, June 21, 2002
Ack, Poor Blog's Been Neglected...
Okay so since finals ended I've been a bit iffy on daily updating. Alas I've been just sort of easing back into life at home, not having to do much of anything in the lull between school and work. Going to try to catch up this weekend, both with this and unpacking/organizing/cleaning. Half my boxes are still in the car, even.
I never did really talk about the "year in review" so to speak when it came to life at UCSB. I guess I should start with the last night I was there, because it was basically one of the most fun nights of the entire year. Many of the irritating or annoying people had gone home already, and only about half the hall was left, with basically everyone having completed all their finals. One more wild night lay ahead. I'm not going to go into exact details here, but needless to say our R/A wasn't too concerned about disciplining anyone on their last night in the dorms, and basically let the fun roll on, even joining in at times. All sorts of crazy things took place, and I'm glad to say I spent the large portion of the night with some of the best friends I made here this year.
It's funny, some of the people I ran into during the night were surprised to see me, as if they didn't think I ever actually have any fun. Kinda sad when you think about it. People don't seem to understand that just because I'm not the one tippin back a beer or tappin the keg, doesn't mean I'm utterly incapable of enjoying myself around people who do. I've grown to be more open minded over the last few years, mainly due to the fact that I haven't had much of a choice, living in the situation that I have been. As long as I know the people I'm with have brains in their heads, and can make the right decisions about how much is too much, its just more live entertainment for me.
The one major highlight of the night was when a bunch of us were randomly in the hallway at one point, and all of a sudden someone who was a few apples short of a bushel announced that everyone must immediately come together and join hands in a circle. Given everyone's mental state it was unknown what made it such a good idea, but within seconds we were all standing in a circle, with our arms crossed, our left hand holding the right hand of the person to our right, and our right hand holding the left hand of the person to our left. Confusing? Well, it was pretty hard for some of them to figure out, too. Anyway, it was then decided everyone should take turns saying something, with the something being anything. This led to quite random exclamations, questions, statements about life, and general comments about how fun a year it had been.
Now comes the best part. A CSO (Community Service Officer) who happens to be making his rounds of the building at just that time comes out of the stairway during our little circle. He stares, and we all think "oh shit who's he going to bust" as eyes dart around at the various bottles, pipes, and other paraphenalia either lying on the ground or sticking out of people's pockets. He looks at us, we look at him, he walks over, and joins the circle. That's right, reaches out his hands and fills in a gap between myself and my friend next to me. Most hilarious thing I'd ever seen. Maybe you had to be there. But anyway, he spent the next several minutes with us just sort of having a big life powwow, and then shared his thoughts on how he wished his hall was this "tight" when he was in the dorms. Then off he went, much to the chagrin of his newest and greatest fans. Eventually the circle collapsed, as some people finally went to sleep, others went to barf, and still others just sort of lay down in the middle of the hallway and started snoring. On came the role of making sure everyone was okay, the whole big brother factor that consists of walking people down the stairs so they don't eat it, smiling and nodding when they're speaking total gibberish, and eventually passing out myself in the very wee hours of the morning. Actually I take it back, I stayed up to watch the first half of the USA vs Poland World Cup game, and that didn't even start til 4:30am. Needless to say I would have gladly slept all day Friday, except for the fact I had to check out the next morning which involved debunking my bed, packing everything up that I hadn't already, and going through the lengthy process of carting my whole life down to the car.
So, great fun was had by all, and it left me with many more fond memories of the year behind me. I don't see any need to name names, those people who affected me personally and helped me grow as a person know who they are. Looking back, I think I opened up to different kinds of people and personalities more this year than any other. It's hard though, coming back to a living situation where everyone still thinks you're the same way you were in high school, closed off to many things, stubborn in many opinions. Some people just don't seem to think its possible for someone to change over time. Go figure.
To all those who helped me smile this year, thanks. Hope you all have great summers, feel free to come back and visit anytime next year. :)
Okay so since finals ended I've been a bit iffy on daily updating. Alas I've been just sort of easing back into life at home, not having to do much of anything in the lull between school and work. Going to try to catch up this weekend, both with this and unpacking/organizing/cleaning. Half my boxes are still in the car, even.
I never did really talk about the "year in review" so to speak when it came to life at UCSB. I guess I should start with the last night I was there, because it was basically one of the most fun nights of the entire year. Many of the irritating or annoying people had gone home already, and only about half the hall was left, with basically everyone having completed all their finals. One more wild night lay ahead. I'm not going to go into exact details here, but needless to say our R/A wasn't too concerned about disciplining anyone on their last night in the dorms, and basically let the fun roll on, even joining in at times. All sorts of crazy things took place, and I'm glad to say I spent the large portion of the night with some of the best friends I made here this year.
It's funny, some of the people I ran into during the night were surprised to see me, as if they didn't think I ever actually have any fun. Kinda sad when you think about it. People don't seem to understand that just because I'm not the one tippin back a beer or tappin the keg, doesn't mean I'm utterly incapable of enjoying myself around people who do. I've grown to be more open minded over the last few years, mainly due to the fact that I haven't had much of a choice, living in the situation that I have been. As long as I know the people I'm with have brains in their heads, and can make the right decisions about how much is too much, its just more live entertainment for me.
The one major highlight of the night was when a bunch of us were randomly in the hallway at one point, and all of a sudden someone who was a few apples short of a bushel announced that everyone must immediately come together and join hands in a circle. Given everyone's mental state it was unknown what made it such a good idea, but within seconds we were all standing in a circle, with our arms crossed, our left hand holding the right hand of the person to our right, and our right hand holding the left hand of the person to our left. Confusing? Well, it was pretty hard for some of them to figure out, too. Anyway, it was then decided everyone should take turns saying something, with the something being anything. This led to quite random exclamations, questions, statements about life, and general comments about how fun a year it had been.
Now comes the best part. A CSO (Community Service Officer) who happens to be making his rounds of the building at just that time comes out of the stairway during our little circle. He stares, and we all think "oh shit who's he going to bust" as eyes dart around at the various bottles, pipes, and other paraphenalia either lying on the ground or sticking out of people's pockets. He looks at us, we look at him, he walks over, and joins the circle. That's right, reaches out his hands and fills in a gap between myself and my friend next to me. Most hilarious thing I'd ever seen. Maybe you had to be there. But anyway, he spent the next several minutes with us just sort of having a big life powwow, and then shared his thoughts on how he wished his hall was this "tight" when he was in the dorms. Then off he went, much to the chagrin of his newest and greatest fans. Eventually the circle collapsed, as some people finally went to sleep, others went to barf, and still others just sort of lay down in the middle of the hallway and started snoring. On came the role of making sure everyone was okay, the whole big brother factor that consists of walking people down the stairs so they don't eat it, smiling and nodding when they're speaking total gibberish, and eventually passing out myself in the very wee hours of the morning. Actually I take it back, I stayed up to watch the first half of the USA vs Poland World Cup game, and that didn't even start til 4:30am. Needless to say I would have gladly slept all day Friday, except for the fact I had to check out the next morning which involved debunking my bed, packing everything up that I hadn't already, and going through the lengthy process of carting my whole life down to the car.
So, great fun was had by all, and it left me with many more fond memories of the year behind me. I don't see any need to name names, those people who affected me personally and helped me grow as a person know who they are. Looking back, I think I opened up to different kinds of people and personalities more this year than any other. It's hard though, coming back to a living situation where everyone still thinks you're the same way you were in high school, closed off to many things, stubborn in many opinions. Some people just don't seem to think its possible for someone to change over time. Go figure.
To all those who helped me smile this year, thanks. Hope you all have great summers, feel free to come back and visit anytime next year. :)
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
Couple Quick Notes...
I'm on jury duty as was mentioned previously, but today I actually got called in, and managed to get selected for an actual trial. Luckily will only last until Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately I can't give all the gory details while its in progress, federal offense, yadda yadda yadda, so will update on that afterward.
Now for the most important news of the day.
By a whopping THREE HUNDREDTHS OF A GPA POINT, I have gained entrance into the full major of Business Economics at UCSB. Thus, no need for summer school, no need to take an extra quarter, and it would appear I'm actually going to graduate in June, at the end of my 4th year, even after switching majors in the middle of my 3rd. And they said it couldn't be done.
This is a HUGE load off my shoulders, its just been a really good day. :):):)
More tomorrow, I'm dead tired and going to bed early before something ruins it. :P
I'm on jury duty as was mentioned previously, but today I actually got called in, and managed to get selected for an actual trial. Luckily will only last until Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately I can't give all the gory details while its in progress, federal offense, yadda yadda yadda, so will update on that afterward.
Now for the most important news of the day.
By a whopping THREE HUNDREDTHS OF A GPA POINT, I have gained entrance into the full major of Business Economics at UCSB. Thus, no need for summer school, no need to take an extra quarter, and it would appear I'm actually going to graduate in June, at the end of my 4th year, even after switching majors in the middle of my 3rd. And they said it couldn't be done.
This is a HUGE load off my shoulders, its just been a really good day. :):):)
More tomorrow, I'm dead tired and going to bed early before something ruins it. :P
Monday, June 17, 2002
What Is It About Home...
That always makes me feel like ASSSSSSS. I don't think I've ever managed to come home after spending time at school without being sick for the first couple days. Always massive sneezing going on, due to allergies, or something or other, and the whole stuffyhead feeling where you don't want to do anything but sleep. Luckily i'm 2 for 2 on not having to go in for jury duty so far this week.
Caught a couple flicks today, hooray for at least twilight movie prices being cheap. Four fifty is a lot better deal than the 9.25 some places charge for regular adults. First one I saw was Windtalkers which I'll give 5 M's out of 7. Your classic war movie, very comparable to We Were Soldiers cept Nicolas Cage was in the starring role instead of Mel Gibson. I enjoy them both, and the effects of the war scenes were top notch as usual. I think the fact that John Woo directed it helped push it further than the norm. Obviously not a real picker-upper if you know people in the military, but then again this is the 21st century not WW2, the time period the movie was set in.
After that I hopped across the hallway to The Sum of All Fears, the one based on the Clancy novel of the same name. I never really got into Clancy, I've found that you can skip his first fifty pages and his last fifty pages, and not actually miss anything. I've always been more of a Chricton fan. The movie was good though, your classic "oh my gawd here comes the end of the world and one man has the power to stop it" drama. This time its Ben Affleck in the role of Jack Ryan, rather than Harrison Ford as was the case in a few previous Clancy novels turned films. This one was about on par with the rest of them, again 5 Ms out of 7.
While I'm at it, I happened to flip to a couple excellent movies while TV surfing last night, if you've never seen True Lies or Die Hard: With a Vengance then I highly recommend giving them a look-see, both have incredible action scenes, and some great dialogue thrown in between. Whether you're a Willis or Schwareaskdjflaskdfjger fan (not even going to try spelling it), or maybe even a fan of Tom Arnold, I give them both 6 Ms out of 7.
I'd love to get my exercise routine going, but that requires being able to breath through my nose. Gr.
That always makes me feel like ASSSSSSS. I don't think I've ever managed to come home after spending time at school without being sick for the first couple days. Always massive sneezing going on, due to allergies, or something or other, and the whole stuffyhead feeling where you don't want to do anything but sleep. Luckily i'm 2 for 2 on not having to go in for jury duty so far this week.
Caught a couple flicks today, hooray for at least twilight movie prices being cheap. Four fifty is a lot better deal than the 9.25 some places charge for regular adults. First one I saw was Windtalkers which I'll give 5 M's out of 7. Your classic war movie, very comparable to We Were Soldiers cept Nicolas Cage was in the starring role instead of Mel Gibson. I enjoy them both, and the effects of the war scenes were top notch as usual. I think the fact that John Woo directed it helped push it further than the norm. Obviously not a real picker-upper if you know people in the military, but then again this is the 21st century not WW2, the time period the movie was set in.
After that I hopped across the hallway to The Sum of All Fears, the one based on the Clancy novel of the same name. I never really got into Clancy, I've found that you can skip his first fifty pages and his last fifty pages, and not actually miss anything. I've always been more of a Chricton fan. The movie was good though, your classic "oh my gawd here comes the end of the world and one man has the power to stop it" drama. This time its Ben Affleck in the role of Jack Ryan, rather than Harrison Ford as was the case in a few previous Clancy novels turned films. This one was about on par with the rest of them, again 5 Ms out of 7.
While I'm at it, I happened to flip to a couple excellent movies while TV surfing last night, if you've never seen True Lies or Die Hard: With a Vengance then I highly recommend giving them a look-see, both have incredible action scenes, and some great dialogue thrown in between. Whether you're a Willis or Schwareaskdjflaskdfjger fan (not even going to try spelling it), or maybe even a fan of Tom Arnold, I give them both 6 Ms out of 7.
I'd love to get my exercise routine going, but that requires being able to breath through my nose. Gr.
Saturday, June 15, 2002
Owwwoooooooooo My Back...
If you recognize the reference above, then I'm going to be really freaked out, because that was my opening line in the musical I last starred in, and that was quite some time ago. :)
Putting together the ol comp is still fun, although it gets prettttttttttty boring after three years of moving it four times a year. Quite gratifying to lie back in the chair having pushed the power button, and soon after hear mp3s booming with everything working perfectly. Speaking of which, Josh Groban is probably someone you've never heard of, or maybe like me just discovered him recently. His new single "Where You Are" off his self titled CD is quite powerful, he's very talented. Also picked up a song from a friend called "I've Never Seen Blue Like That Before," forget who it's by, but its another pretty one.
Also got my Cirque Du Soleil soundtracks to Mystere and O, which are just as entertaining as I thought they'd be. I'm now looking around trying to find cheap DVDs of the show I haven't seen, I've become quite a fan. Apparently my younger brother has got himself a job at Hollywood Video for the summer, during which he can have 3 DVDs out at any one time. I plan to put this to PLENTY of good use, soon as I test out a few new ripping methods that have come out since last summer when I did the 19.99 deal for 30 DVDs in 30 days at Blockbuster, and converted them to DivX. He says their collection is bigger than Blockbuster's, I'll have to investigate.
Checked out Behind Enemy Lines last night, which I'm only gonna be able to give 3 out of 7 M's to. The camera work was quite annoying at times, and the acting was definitely less than impressive. Some neat effects, good action at times, but I was able to quite easily chat and surf the net while watching without really missing anything. This goes against the grain, as I tend to enjoy war type movies. Alas I guess this goes to show even a good concept can be screwed up if they try hard enough.
Think I'm gonna go hit up the theaters tomorrow, couple movies out I'd like to check out. Then comes jury duty for a week, at some point during which I'll probably find out my grades. [gulp]
If you recognize the reference above, then I'm going to be really freaked out, because that was my opening line in the musical I last starred in, and that was quite some time ago. :)
Putting together the ol comp is still fun, although it gets prettttttttttty boring after three years of moving it four times a year. Quite gratifying to lie back in the chair having pushed the power button, and soon after hear mp3s booming with everything working perfectly. Speaking of which, Josh Groban is probably someone you've never heard of, or maybe like me just discovered him recently. His new single "Where You Are" off his self titled CD is quite powerful, he's very talented. Also picked up a song from a friend called "I've Never Seen Blue Like That Before," forget who it's by, but its another pretty one.
Also got my Cirque Du Soleil soundtracks to Mystere and O, which are just as entertaining as I thought they'd be. I'm now looking around trying to find cheap DVDs of the show I haven't seen, I've become quite a fan. Apparently my younger brother has got himself a job at Hollywood Video for the summer, during which he can have 3 DVDs out at any one time. I plan to put this to PLENTY of good use, soon as I test out a few new ripping methods that have come out since last summer when I did the 19.99 deal for 30 DVDs in 30 days at Blockbuster, and converted them to DivX. He says their collection is bigger than Blockbuster's, I'll have to investigate.
Checked out Behind Enemy Lines last night, which I'm only gonna be able to give 3 out of 7 M's to. The camera work was quite annoying at times, and the acting was definitely less than impressive. Some neat effects, good action at times, but I was able to quite easily chat and surf the net while watching without really missing anything. This goes against the grain, as I tend to enjoy war type movies. Alas I guess this goes to show even a good concept can be screwed up if they try hard enough.
Think I'm gonna go hit up the theaters tomorrow, couple movies out I'd like to check out. Then comes jury duty for a week, at some point during which I'll probably find out my grades. [gulp]
Friday, June 14, 2002
Thursday, June 13, 2002
Three Down... Floor.
Well, as expected, the third one kicked my ass. I actually thought I had my shit together for this one, and apparently that just wasn't the case. Basically it focused a lot of time and problems on concepts that he'd acted like weren't important during the last few weeks of class, and spent basically no time on the stuff he'd actually told us to study.
So the theory is he screwed everyone over, and everyone got like a C or a D, so maybe the curve will be huge. I'll need it to be, that's for sure. Not even going to do grade predictions for this quarter, because its such a crap shoot for the most part. It's now just a waiting game, about ten days and I'll figure out whether or not I broke 2.55 in those two classes, whether or not that gives me a 2.7 in my pre major classes, whether or not that allows me into the full major for the fall, and whether or not I'll be able to graduate in four years. If I screwed this class up then it'll be the only thing I can really take next quarter, unless I make it up during summer school, or something. Sigh, let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Sorry, in quite the irritated mood. Going to spend tomorrow carting people and their luggage around for no real reason other than to be nice. I guess I don't have anything better to do, other than sulk.
I'd be asleep right now, if down the hall they weren't screaming at the top of their lungs across to the other building. The great thing for the freshmen about the school year being over is they can basically get away with murder these last few days, and no one really cares. They're having quite the shouting match, referring to their respective moms, girlfriends, and whatever other "hilarious" insults they can come up with. Oh this is good, now someone has some sort of porn playing full blast on their computer. They're like ten doors down with their door closed, as well as mine, and yet I can still hear it clearly. Wonderful. They sure showed them. Alas they seem to have called it quits at least temporarily, time to attempt to sleep. I must say after four years of living with children I'll be quite pleased to be living alone, or at least with people older and more importantly more mature than me.
"It's just one of those daaaaaaaays.... when you wanna be aaaaaaaaaalone... It's just one of those daaaaaaaaays.... when ya gotta be aaaaaaaaalone."
Tomorrow will be better?
Well, as expected, the third one kicked my ass. I actually thought I had my shit together for this one, and apparently that just wasn't the case. Basically it focused a lot of time and problems on concepts that he'd acted like weren't important during the last few weeks of class, and spent basically no time on the stuff he'd actually told us to study.
So the theory is he screwed everyone over, and everyone got like a C or a D, so maybe the curve will be huge. I'll need it to be, that's for sure. Not even going to do grade predictions for this quarter, because its such a crap shoot for the most part. It's now just a waiting game, about ten days and I'll figure out whether or not I broke 2.55 in those two classes, whether or not that gives me a 2.7 in my pre major classes, whether or not that allows me into the full major for the fall, and whether or not I'll be able to graduate in four years. If I screwed this class up then it'll be the only thing I can really take next quarter, unless I make it up during summer school, or something. Sigh, let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Sorry, in quite the irritated mood. Going to spend tomorrow carting people and their luggage around for no real reason other than to be nice. I guess I don't have anything better to do, other than sulk.
I'd be asleep right now, if down the hall they weren't screaming at the top of their lungs across to the other building. The great thing for the freshmen about the school year being over is they can basically get away with murder these last few days, and no one really cares. They're having quite the shouting match, referring to their respective moms, girlfriends, and whatever other "hilarious" insults they can come up with. Oh this is good, now someone has some sort of porn playing full blast on their computer. They're like ten doors down with their door closed, as well as mine, and yet I can still hear it clearly. Wonderful. They sure showed them. Alas they seem to have called it quits at least temporarily, time to attempt to sleep. I must say after four years of living with children I'll be quite pleased to be living alone, or at least with people older and more importantly more mature than me.
"It's just one of those daaaaaaaays.... when you wanna be aaaaaaaaaalone... It's just one of those daaaaaaaaays.... when ya gotta be aaaaaaaaalone."
Tomorrow will be better?
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
Two Down...
One to go. Classics went pretty well, bout the same as the midterm. Not expecting anything horrible grade wise in that class.
Started pondering yesterday about my room setup for next year, furniture wise. The way I've got it now is pretty ideal, space is relatively maximized. The only real possible change would be to... well I guess it won't make sense unless you know what my room looks like now.
It's about 8 feet wide, and 12 feet long (yes, SMALL). I'd have to go with about 8 or 9 feet high. The door is on the small width of the room, on the left side. Immdiately upon entering on the right wall is the closet, facing outward into the room. Its about 2.5 feet deep and 3.5 feet wide, and stretches floor to ceiling. The window is on the back wall, left side, stretching from ceiling to a couple feet off the floor.
Now currently, the furniture setup is as follows. The bed is bunked against the back wall, to a height that puts the mattress within about a foot of the ceiling. It takes up almost the entire width of the room, but there is a large space under it, the supports between the bedframe are on the backside. The desk and dresser are the same height and are lined up on the right wall, streching from the back wall almost to the closet, with the desk on the left side, and the space underneath on the far left of it, so as I sit here I'm right next to the window, able to stare out of it whenever I feel the need. So basically the bed and the desk and dresser if looked on from above make a big L shape when facing downward and towards the door.
If you managed to picture all that I applaud you. So anyway now that you're thoroughly confused, on to what I'm thinking of doing. The only other real possibility is to rotate the bed so that instead of being on the back wall it is on the right wall, above the desk and dresser. This is the way the room was designed to be for the most part, I'd say that setup is used in at least 2/3 of the doubles on campus. For them if they each have their furniture on one wall like that, it maximizes the space in between. Basically by doing this it will free up the space behind me currently occupied by the bed frame, and allow me to move over the small set of shelves I have just to the left of that into that space. In turn that will free up the space the shelves occupied, and thus allow me to move over the beanbag chair (most important piece of furniture to visitors) into that space. This will leave a dcently large gap between it and the door, space enough for more seating, such as a small couch.
This setup would obviously make the room relatively lopsided, with all the furniture on one side of the room. However with my monitor where movies get watched and TV both on this side, when we get more than 3 people in here it tends to be a bit crowded in the current setup, and the new setup would give me seating for 5 or 6, and space in between for a few more if necessary. In other words, party in Matt's room. [wink]
I think my plan is to rotate it around while I'm packing and debunking in the next couple of days, and see what it looks like and whether I like it. Ah, all the thinking involved in keeping the friendlies happy. ;)
Just wait til 7pm tomorrow, I'll be able to relax at last...
One to go. Classics went pretty well, bout the same as the midterm. Not expecting anything horrible grade wise in that class.
Started pondering yesterday about my room setup for next year, furniture wise. The way I've got it now is pretty ideal, space is relatively maximized. The only real possible change would be to... well I guess it won't make sense unless you know what my room looks like now.
It's about 8 feet wide, and 12 feet long (yes, SMALL). I'd have to go with about 8 or 9 feet high. The door is on the small width of the room, on the left side. Immdiately upon entering on the right wall is the closet, facing outward into the room. Its about 2.5 feet deep and 3.5 feet wide, and stretches floor to ceiling. The window is on the back wall, left side, stretching from ceiling to a couple feet off the floor.
Now currently, the furniture setup is as follows. The bed is bunked against the back wall, to a height that puts the mattress within about a foot of the ceiling. It takes up almost the entire width of the room, but there is a large space under it, the supports between the bedframe are on the backside. The desk and dresser are the same height and are lined up on the right wall, streching from the back wall almost to the closet, with the desk on the left side, and the space underneath on the far left of it, so as I sit here I'm right next to the window, able to stare out of it whenever I feel the need. So basically the bed and the desk and dresser if looked on from above make a big L shape when facing downward and towards the door.
If you managed to picture all that I applaud you. So anyway now that you're thoroughly confused, on to what I'm thinking of doing. The only other real possibility is to rotate the bed so that instead of being on the back wall it is on the right wall, above the desk and dresser. This is the way the room was designed to be for the most part, I'd say that setup is used in at least 2/3 of the doubles on campus. For them if they each have their furniture on one wall like that, it maximizes the space in between. Basically by doing this it will free up the space behind me currently occupied by the bed frame, and allow me to move over the small set of shelves I have just to the left of that into that space. In turn that will free up the space the shelves occupied, and thus allow me to move over the beanbag chair (most important piece of furniture to visitors) into that space. This will leave a dcently large gap between it and the door, space enough for more seating, such as a small couch.
This setup would obviously make the room relatively lopsided, with all the furniture on one side of the room. However with my monitor where movies get watched and TV both on this side, when we get more than 3 people in here it tends to be a bit crowded in the current setup, and the new setup would give me seating for 5 or 6, and space in between for a few more if necessary. In other words, party in Matt's room. [wink]
I think my plan is to rotate it around while I'm packing and debunking in the next couple of days, and see what it looks like and whether I like it. Ah, all the thinking involved in keeping the friendlies happy. ;)
Just wait til 7pm tomorrow, I'll be able to relax at last...
Sunday, June 09, 2002
One Down...
Two more to go. Kicked some decent butt on the Econ 2 Final, just about positive the final scenario in that class will be somewhere in the B+/A- range.
Going to be sparse posting over the next few days, basically nothing going on other than helping out with major rearranging of people's rooms, debunking beds, etc etc. Oh, and other than that the studying that tends to be involved concurrently with Finals week taking place. The big one is Wednesday, between that and Econ 2 the math says I need to average a 2.55 GPA. Sounds pretty easy, and although a B and C won't do it, my worst case scenario predictions are B+/C at this point. More likely I'll get an A- and somewhere around a B-.
Anyway, basically I need to just do well on the Econ 3B final, and therefore get like a B in that class, and not even have to worry about anything. We'll see how it goes.
Two more to go. Kicked some decent butt on the Econ 2 Final, just about positive the final scenario in that class will be somewhere in the B+/A- range.
Going to be sparse posting over the next few days, basically nothing going on other than helping out with major rearranging of people's rooms, debunking beds, etc etc. Oh, and other than that the studying that tends to be involved concurrently with Finals week taking place. The big one is Wednesday, between that and Econ 2 the math says I need to average a 2.55 GPA. Sounds pretty easy, and although a B and C won't do it, my worst case scenario predictions are B+/C at this point. More likely I'll get an A- and somewhere around a B-.
Anyway, basically I need to just do well on the Econ 3B final, and therefore get like a B in that class, and not even have to worry about anything. We'll see how it goes.
