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| Monday, May 7, 2007 - One. | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Special
Finals Week Edition! Only one day left! I'm truly ecstatic! A Chemistry final is all that stands in my way. After that, summery goodness will be mine! The price has been paid! Freedom's price has been paid! I will see you all tomorrow... unless you're hiding from me, but mark my words, I will hunt you down! You're all stuck with me for the next three months whether you like it or not!!! All I can say is that you best prepare for daily doses of insanity. I won't have much time tomorrow, so the final blog of the semester will probably be posted remotely from back in Albuquerque. We'll see how well that goes! I'm sure it'll be fine, since I've already configured my FTP program for updating this site on the go. I will be updating the actual post itself with new grades as they come in until I receive all of my final grades, which will probably be Friday. After that, all of the front page blog entries will be moved into the Chapter 2 Archives and a simple splash illustration shall adorn this space until I return to updating on August 21st. Catch ya on the flip side! :3 School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 1. |
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| Saturday, May 5, 2007 - Maybe We Rocked a Little Too Hard... | |||||
| Posted 9:36 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Special
Finals Week Edition! You know it's finals time when I start posting blogs on Saturday! Anyway, today's final was Calculus II. It wasn't too bad, but doing Calculus for two and a half hours in a row is quite unpleasant nonetheless. I think I scored somewhere in the B range with curving in place. Now the only finals I have left are on Monday and Tuesday. They are Computer Science and Chemistry, respectively. I'll be posting the last two blogs of this semester on those days. I know, I know, that sounds awfully familiar, but this time I'm not lying! In other news, my Xbox 360 is indeed still busted. Dang it all. It costs $140 and takes two weeks to send it in to Xbox Support, but I just may have a trump card up my sleeve. We'll see, but darn it all if I can't get my console to work without spending gobs of moolah. Now all I need is a massive lightning rod and a good thunderstorm to come along... yes... hahahaha!!! Just kidding, of course. I'm not THAT crazy! :P Oh, and about the title, Danny and I were attempting to play Guitar Hero yesterday and one time after Danny hit the whammy bar and the console froze, the power promptly went out. Of course, it wasn't caused by us, but it was perfect comedic timing! Ah, good times. Now, it's time for some good ol' Saturday night anime. Catch you later! UPDATE: I just took Azumanga Daioh Vol. 5 out of its Netflix sleeve and the entire right side is sliced in half like someone took a pair of scissors to it! The weekend from hell is just getting worse and worse... oy. School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 2. |
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| Friday, April 27, 2007 - The Epic Battle | |||||
| Posted 5:56 AM (MDT) | |||||
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Well,
today is the day I register, so I have to be up right now. Oy. Online
registration starts in a few minutes, so I need to get crackin'
on that at 6:00 sharp before the freshman horde devours my class
slots. It's a tense moment... you can almost smell the quiet sense
of bloodlust given off by freshman with bleary eyes and uber micro
all across campus. The battle is about to begin. Who's up and at
it? Who's web browser will display the pages faster? Who has the
quicker finger? It's truly a battlefield. Class slots will be won
and lost and I might even be able to hear the yelps of defeat given
off by the slow-fingered. At 6:00, the F5 key is your best friend
as you refresh at blinding speeds. Hark, it is time. I shall return
with a report of my success or failure. Let the battle cry be heard... Live Report - 6:00 AM - The system heaves with pressure as the hordes attempt to pass the gate. Many are connected, but who's page shall actually load? I have refreshed a full minute ago, yet I am still only connected... wait! I'm in. Live Report - 6:02 AM - I have entered my courses in. What shall the results be? Once again, I am only merely connected. One can almost audibly hear the groans emitted by the BanWeb server as it faces the weight of the entire freshman class! The connection was reset! Attempt #2: ...Reset again! Attempt #3: ...it is complete! All classes have been successfully registered. I come out victorious! Until next time, I shall be proclaiming my victory! Woo!!! School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 7. |
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| Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - Colorful Commode | |||||
| Posted 11:55 PM (MDT) | |||||
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The
full title of this entry is actually "Colorful Commode on the
Crest of the Castle of Codices," but that was way too long.
For those of you without thesauruses or dictionaries, here's the
simpler version: "Green Toilet on the Top of the Library!"
I didn't get to actually see it up there, but I did look at some
pictures of it. Absolutely hilarious! Apparently, some NMT alumni
visited over the weekend and used a rope anchor to allow some guy
to walk up the slab of concrete with the toilet rig on his back.
He must be pretty strong! Anyway, the town of Socorro didn't have
a crane tall enough to do jack, so they had to get a crew from Albuquerque.
Gotta love Techie pranks. Makes you laugh and scratch your head
at the same time! However, while the management of Tech admitted that the prank required ingenuity, they claimed that they might threaten legal action if they catch the pranksters. Come on, let the pranksters bask in the hilarity, it's college. It's not like allowing this will cause daily imitation pranks... let it go. I, for one, fully enjoyed it. If you want some pictures, give Google a try, I'm sure you can find some good ones. Also, I have a few announcements. First off, my final schedule has been switched around a bit. A lot of of people complained about having finals on Sunday morning, so all of those finals were moved in bulk to Monday morning. My final schedule is now laid out like so: Saturday (1:30 pm) - Calculus II, Monday (9:00 am) - Computer Science 122, and Tuesday (1:30 pm) - Chemistry 122. Secondly, there is a free performance this Thursday at Macey Center. It's called "Santa Fe Opera: The Apprentices" and it features apprentice opera folk who will perform popular excerpts from famous plays and such. Sounds like a good time! The details are as follows: Thursday, April 26, 2007 @ 7:30 pm in Macey Center. Public admission is free. Until next time! School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 10. |
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| Monday, April 23, 2007 - Blow Me Away | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Geez.
Does the wind here ever stop? Is there a black hole to the east
of us that no one's discovered yet? Seriously! On Friday while driving
back to Albuquerque, I was attacked by a herd of wild tumbleweeds
along with a gust that almost shot me into the other lane! Wind
aside, I'm really starting to countdown. The end is coming fast,
but I think I'm ready. I just need a bit more study time and I think
I can breeze past finals. I'm going to try to get in two or three
blogs a week for these last few weeks as well, since the blog will
be on hiatus for the entire summer (cause instead of having you
read this, I can ambush you in person!). I'll finish off this update with some technology news. First off, Microsoft announced a cool new product that's planned to be released in mid 2007. It's called Silverlight and it plans to be a new, efficient, and cross-platform way to create dynamic website content. It's supposed to be a superset of AJAX, Flash, Quicktime, and DHTML. It can render dynamically and play back media content in many formats, including hi-res video up to 720p. It sounds neat, and it doesn't require any server-side scripting. All it requires is a small plug-in for the user to install. You might see this page become enabled with this technology, you might not. Depends on how bored I get over the summer :D. Secondly, Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 was just released over the weekend. Sweet software, if you're not already using something like Outlook for e-mail. It handles POP3 and IMAP, but not MAPI, so if your company uses Exchange, beware. I highly recommend it. You can get it over at the Mozilla Foundation website (link). Finally, for those of you who were unaware of the drama that unfolded over the weekend, my Xbox 360 had a near-death experience. Those three red arc lights, how they burn. Anyway, I had to tinker with it, but it works AND I got the content that almost killed my 'box in the first place, so I'm happy. Adios! School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 11. |
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| Monday, April 16, 2007 - Days Bathed in Blood | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MDT) | |||||
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The
days that live in our memories forever are the memories that we
most want to forget. I heard the news of the Virginia Tech shooting
only a few hours ago during 24. I've got to say that I never expected
anything of this magnitude. I thought that after Columbine security
would increase and that awareness of issues that could cause incidents
like this would become better. Apparently I was mistaken. What happened
today was quite the tragedy and it shows just how ill prepared we
still are in detailing with urban combat, here at home and abroad.
The police department and school security divisions always make
a cataclysmic mistake that allows prolonged periods of violence
to occur. It shouldn't matter whether something appears to be an isolated incident. If someone's waving around a gun, the police need to do something before two hours pass by and the culprit meanders all across campus! All the meanwhile, everyone is walking around completely oblivious. Things could have been a lot worse because of this. Anyway, it's still a horrible occurance and my condolences and prayers go out to all of the affected and their families. God bless. School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 16. |
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| Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - Titrate This! | |||||
| Posted 11:58 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Chem
Lab never ceases to cheese me off. This week we created some grape
juice-esque junk and had to slowly drop it into sulfuric acid. It's
so fun waiting for 20 mL of purple junk to slowly drip into acid
until the acid turns pink. So fun I could scream. In other news,
spring apparently got sick of us and moved away for a little while
to pout. Seriously, it was so hot and sunny for two weeks and now
it's like winter again! It's cold, rainy, and windy. Especially
today. The wind battered everyone around so much that you could
tell which way a person had been walking by looking at which way
their hair shifted! By the way, if anyone has a copy of "Airplane!", let me know. I've been meaning to see it. School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 20. |
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| Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - Spring is in the Air! ...*achoo!* | |||||
| Posted 7:34 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Bleh.
Seriously. Yesterday after I came back from dinner, I just couldn't
stop sneezing! My allergies are getting awful! The pollen count
must've exploded recently. Even though I took a Zyrtec, it feels
like someone jams a feather up each of my nostrils when I walk outside.
It gets better when I've been inside for a while, but it's still
crazy. It just snuck up on me all of a sudden! Well, tomorrow I get to go back to Albuquerque, so I'll see you all then. BTW, I grabbed the wrong charger when leaving the house on Sunday, so my phone is totally dead. You can still reach me on the dorm phone if you really must talk to me, but I'll be back tomorrow anyways. School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 24. |
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| Monday, April 2, 2007 - I Pity the Fool! | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MDT) | |||||
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There's
nothing quite like April Fool's Day. There's also nothing quite
like watching someone's face when they realize that all of the furniture
in their house has been rearranged in such a fashion as to freak
out anyone who steps into the living room. Priceless. I was darn
lucky that the prank I received later on in the day didn't effect
me very much. I had a burger that was rolled in jalapeno seeds and
soaked in hot sauce and yet somehow I barely noticed. I guess I
have quite a high tolerance to spicy stuff. I'm sure you'll get
me next year, though, folks. I was wondering why you were all chuckling
incessantly whilst I was chomping into my burger. Anyway, the shower has been fixed again and the water pressure is great! I absolutely love it. If you turn it on full blast it feels like your back is getting sandblasted. My kind of shower. Also, there's some great technology news that came out today. First off, EMI, the third largest recording company in the world, has pledged to start selling DRM free music on the iTunes Store starting in May. The new versions of their music will be available in an unlocked AAC format encoded at 256 kbps, which is double the quality of current DRM'ed iTunes Store offerings (128 kbps). Although, it kinda stinks that they're leaving it in AAC format. MP3 would have been a much better choice in my opinion. The tracks will come at a premium, however. For normal tracks, it costs 99 cents, but for the new DRM free tracks, it will cost $1.29, 30 cents more. Also, they are allowing users to upgrade already purchased EMI music for 30 cents. Quite a good deal. Things are looking up. Secondly, Bungie is releasing a new Halo 2 map pack on April 17th and it will feature two new maps, Tombstone and Desolation. I'm excited about this because the two new maps are actually remakes of two classic Halo: CE maps: Hang 'em High and Derelict. Hang 'em High is one of the best Halo maps ever made and I'm overjoyed to see that it will finally make it to Halo 2. The maps will be sold together for $4.00 and will be available via the in-game content downloader on both the original Xbox and the Xbox 360. This means that Microsoft Points cannot be used for this and silver level subscribers will be unable to get this content. I'm also assuming that the maps will be included with Halo 2 for Windows Vista when it comes out. Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, check out Google's new TiSP service (It was their April Fool's Joke) -> (link). School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 25. |
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| Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - Under Pressure... or not. | |||||
| Posted 11:39 PM (MDT) | |||||
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I have
a good subtitle for this semester. How does this sound: Semester
2 - The Shower Chronicles? I think it's appropriate. There's nothing
like waking up in the morning to encounter disaster. To summarize
the current problem, the shower now has no water pressure and so
the water dribbles down from the showerhead in a shallow stream
as it drops to the ground. So, if I want to get clean, I have to
stand at the wall and maneuver my arms and legs around like Tetris
pieces against the shower wall to redirect waterflow. Fun. I mean, you could give me a date and I'd be able to say, "Oh yes, that was in the 'Shower is Ripped from the Wall' period" or "Well, that was during the 'Shower Flooding II' era. Quite a frustrating time." Seriously. This thing defines my time here at Tech! Regardless, I have some good news. Next week we have Friday off, which means two things. First off, I don't have Chemistry Lab on Tuesday so I have no classes on Tuesday. Secondly, I don't have any classes on Thursday, so that means my weekend starts on Wednesday afternoon. Four day weekend here I come! See you all soon! School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 28. |
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| Thursday, March 22, 2007 - I Vant to Suck Your Blood! | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Today
was full of strangeness. So much strangeness one may assume that
I have spent the day in the Twilight Zone. First, it started with
hail. I noticed something sounding like light machine gun rounds
outside so I sprang to the window to see what was the matter. It
was hailing hard. Fortunately the hail was only pea-sized, so there
wasn't any damage. It made such a clatter, though. Five minutes
later, it suddenly stopped and the sun came out. Weird, eh? Then, at dinner, as we were almost done, they announced "Fire drill in five minutes!" Wonderful. I managed to scrape out some ice cream right as the siren sounded, so I still got my fix. :D Quite stupid to schedule a fire drill right at dinnertime, don'tcha think? Makes dining here even worse! Finally, a few minutes ago as of writing this, I noticed a HUGE something on the wall. I thought it was a spider, but David commented that it was a mosquito! It was a mosquito the size of a freakin' grasshopper! Its legs were as long as toothpicks and its body was quite visibly large. We killed it, but it was dry, meaning it was waiting to suck our blood! Not the stealthiest of insects, though, I must admit! My skin's still crawling. School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 32. |
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| Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - Waking the Dead | |||||
| Posted 10:35 PM (MDT) | |||||
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Oy,
in Chem Lab we had to smell certain ammonia salts to see which one
was the most potent. Two of them weren't that bad but one of them,
Ammonium Acetate, was absolutely nasty. It sucked the breath from
your mouth, brought tears to your eyes, and left you choking. Later
we learned that a more common name for Ammonium Acetate is "smelling
salts." I can see why. That stuff could wake the dead. The
smell is awful! It's like trying to whiff Lysol! I mean, you can
feel it in your brain! Anyway, today was pretty mundane, so nothing else to report. School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 33. |
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| Monday, March 19, 2007 - We Sprang Forward a Week Ago... | |||||
| Posted 11:45 PM (MDT) | |||||
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...
but I feel like I'm already falling back :P! It's school time once
again after a nice, however brief, week off. It's strange: It felt
like the first half of the week (Friday-Tuesday) crawled by but
the last half of the week shot past me like a bullet. Before I knew
it, it was Sunday night already! Anyway, it's back to the grind,
with professors shoveling out the classwork. I have 8 weeks left,
with 35 school days left for me, since I don't have finals on the
last two days of class. The countdown begins! Here we go! School Days Left Until Summer Vacation: 35. |
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| Wednesday, March 7, 2007 - Like a Rock. | |||||
| Posted 10:00 PM (MST) | |||||
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Well,
yesterday the ice cream freezer in the cafeteria became operational
and quite well stocked. But alas, it was a forbidden and treacherous
treasure. The geniuses at Chartwells (our food services people here
at Tech) decided to make the ice cream cold. REALLY cold. South
Pole, Antarctica cold. Hence the title. Anyway, nobody could scoop
the ice cream without bringing in an ice pick. All you could do
was scrape the sides and get the precious shavings. It was like
watching the strongman competition to find out who could scoop the
ice cream. Today at lunch things had not improved. I went to get some shavings of Cookies n' Cream and as I pressed the last shavings out of the scoop, it broke! The spring loaded system that pushes the ice cream out of the scoop when pressed snapped and due to the force on the spring, shot out of my hand at lightning speed! It ricocheted off of the wall and fell in the other cylinder drum of ice cream. Game over. Funnily enough, the other scoop broke in the same fashion not 10 minutes later! Apparently, it sent a message to the workers. At dinner tonight the ice cream was scoopable and delicious, so I had four bowls! One bowl of pure vanilla, one bowl of pure chocolate, one bowl of Spumoni, and one bowl of Chocolate/Vanilla. Oh, delicious delicacy! I was happy to find that the ice cream served is of the same caliber as ice cream served in nice cafes and bistros. Kinda makes Chartwells worth it. Anyway, I can't wait for Spring Break and I'll see you all soon! |
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| Thursday, March 1, 2007 - Gone With the Wind! | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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Good
lord, the wind whipped the hell out of Socorro on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I swear... walking was a pain! The wind blew you around like a play
thing and cut right through you like a sharpened knife. I think
the wind chill was something like 20 degrees even when it was 40
outside. Brrr... Anyway, it was nice to have the whole day off today without having to worry about any classes or homework. I spent most of the day playing "Lumines Live!" on my Xbox 360, which was great fun. For those who aren't familiar with Lumines, it's a puzzle game where you're presented with falling squares of random 2-color 4-block arrangements of squares and to score points, you have to match up 4-block squares of the same color block. It's great for me though because it's comprised of shifting "skins," which are visual themes with matching music that change every 4-5 minutes. Eye candy, great music, and fun puzzles means a winner in my book. Well, it'll be nice to be home for the weekend tomorrow. Can't wait to go skiing for the first time on Sunday, either. Only one more week until Spring Break! Woo!!! |
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| Monday, February 26, 2007 - In Case of Fire... | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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...
we're screwed. Seriously. We had a fire drill today in Baca Hall
and I failed to take notice for a good two minutes or so. I noticed
this constant quiet beeping and I thought maybe they were having
a fire drill across the way at the Altamirano Apartments. I peeked
out of the blinds to see what was goin' on and discovered that our
hall was movin' on out. So I rushed out as well and saw our "alarm
system." One small speaker and a tiny flashing light. That's
a good alert system (yeah right!)... So, we went out for a few minutes and everything was just fine. Anyway, we actually started learning grammar and a bit of vocabulary in Japanese today. We finally get to learn about something other than Japan's issues caused by the "West" and Hirao-sensei's strange personal life. "Big eggplants here in America, eh?" Oh, I almost forgot! I want your opinions on this: My early 8:00 history class is cancelled on Friday, Chemistry and Calculus aren't presenting anything important on Friday, I will have finished all of my work for the week on Tuesday night, I have no classes on Thursday, I don't have Japanese on Wednesdays anymore, and my last class on Wednesday ends at 3:15. Do YOU think I should take an early weekend or do you think I should stay for those two classes? I'm curious to find out. Right now, I'm of the opinion that I should stay, but you know me! ...and I want your opinion, not "Well, it's up to you. Do what you want." I wouldn't ask if I didn't want an opinion! :P This blog entry has rambled on long enough! Tsuzuku! (To be continued...) Stay tuned, folks. Same bat time, same bat channel. |
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| Thursday, February 22, 2007 - Priceless. | |||||
| Posted 10:55 PM (MST) | |||||
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A mile's
worth of gas: 9 cents Drinks and food: $23.02 Causing someone to have that "deer in the headlights" look: Priceless. To explain: I went to Wal-Mart this evening to grab supplies for the coming weeks. A few interesting things happened. First, I swiped my Tech ID in Wal-Mart instead of my credit card (D'oh!). Then, I put my stuff in the car and returned my cart to the receptor. I saw a gray pick-up truck pull in next to me and as I came in on my final approach, I saw his door open swiftly and heard a small *bang*. Of course, he loudly said "Oops!" just in case I was around and right as he finished his call I appeared and whipped out my keys. The look on his face was great. He quickly walked towards the store and whimpered a "Sorry!" Of course, I decided to be nice and say "No problem." There wasn't any damage, which is good, but the frightened look on his face was hilarious. Anyway, see you folks in ABQ tomorrow! By the way, I changed the large TV show title logo images to make them look better. |
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| Tuesday, February 20, 2007 - Sidebar V.2 | |||||
| Posted 9:45 PM (MST) | |||||
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Well,
folks, I decided that the sidebar needed a redesign, so I went ahead
and did it. I used some transparent PNGs and some JavaScript, so
if your browsers don't render it right, sorry! Anyway, the Music
and Podcast album covers show album information on mouseover. The
Movies section does that as well. When you move your mouse over
titles on the television section, it'll show the title logo above.
If you click, it'll send you to the official show site, as usual.
I also used more graphics in the "Internet Humor" section
and I added "The Adventures of Dr. McNinja." Good comic,
readers. Anyway, today was pretty decent. I got to skip a bunch of steps in Chem Lab today since I got an easily identifiable bunch of cations and then I got to play a bunch of Super Smash Bros. Woo! |
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| Monday, February 19, 2007 - Return of the Mack... err... Blog. | |||||
| Posted 11:00 PM (MST) | |||||
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Well,
geez. Windows Vista decided to be retarded on me and fully deleted
its own bootloader, rendering the entire system unbootable yesterday
night. Oh how I despise thee, Windows Vista. Everything about Vista
is awful. I had to borrow a friend's XP Pro CD just to get the XP
partition to be able to boot correctly. Now Vista is unbootable
and won't even start up. Oh joy. Anyway, things are going fine otherwise
with classes and homework coming at me at a good pace. Sorry for not posting any blogs last week, but I was quite busy. I'll try to update at least once a week from here on out. By the way, here's some funny stuff: 
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| Thursday, February 8, 2007 - Ballantine's Day? | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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Norway
is officially awesome. They celebrate Valentine's Day on February
14th, but they also celebrate "Ballantine's Day." It's
celebrated by gathering up some single fellas, sitting around a
table, drinking some Ballentine's whiskey, and complainin' about
how ridiculous Valentine's Day is. Supposedly, this started last
year. I'll be celebrating that instead of Valentine's Day on the
14th for sure, but don't worry, I'll only be celebrating with root
beer. :P But, seriously, Valentine's Day sucks for single people. It's a huge display of what you wish you had. It's everywhere! You can't step out into the streets without seeing people displaying their love. It was horrible in high school! You'd see people making out everywhere! Gawd! And the phrases you casually overhear constantly: "I'm so glad I'm in love!" or "I'm so glad we're together!"... they make me want to tear out my heart with a spoon and carry it with me the whole day on display. (If you can't tell, I'm very bitter about Valentine's Day. >_<) Eh, maybe I'll just wear green and pinch everyone. Sounds like fun to me. :P |
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| Wednesday, February 7, 2007 - George Orwell Meets Windows | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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Boy
has this week been interesting. First off, as I'm sure most of you
know, I had my finger made into a pancake on Saturday. That was
awful, but in retrospect, I don't think I'll ever get out of the
back seat of a car the same way ever again, which is probably a
good thing. Then, after I came back to Tech and installed Vista,
I discovered the blue screen of death while doing Windows updates.
Fun, fun, fun. So I booted into Safe Mode. Blue Screen. Windows
XP? Blue Screen. The Vista install DVD? Yeah, you guessed it, blue
screen. Turns out that the gigabyte of memory I bought from Best
Buy and installed was faulty. So, I had to take it out. Not fun,
but everything works just fine. Except for Vista.
Vista is covered in what analysts like to call C.R.A.P. - Content Restriction and Protection, or as it's more commonly known, DRM (Digital Rights Management). For example, when playing music or video through Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center, a new process is spawned: mfpmp.exe, which is the Media Foundation Protected Media Pipeline. It constantly sucks up 10% CPU and about 20 MB of memory, even when you're playing unprotected files. Can you say paranoia? Let's at least trust the consumer a little bit, guys. Seriously. Because of this and possibly other circumstances, my music skips when simply browsing the web. If you know my machine, that's a hard task to make my music skip. Microsoft hails Vista as the new digital media platform? Yeah, right. Cause DRM and horrible performance give the user satisfaction. Windows Vista is one step towards George Orwell's 1984. Scary, eh? However, on a lighter note, I applaud Steve Jobs' recent outcry against DRM. With everyone but the recording companies in the "No DRM" camp, things might just be looking up. I suggest heading over to apple.com and reading it. Yes, I just just linked to Apple, I know. It's so unlike me, but the man has a point. Also, good job with the recent Mac vs. PC ads, Apple. Thanks for driving Vista's flaws home. Maybe that'll finally start something up in Redmond. |
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| Thursday, February 1, 2007 - The Epic Battle Continues | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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Our
shower still isn't operational! Arrgh! Oh well, we have
been promised that it'll get done tomorrow, along with ze toilet.
However, the light in the closet works now (and is attached to the
ceiling again :D) and our towel rack is back in action. Apparently
some issues have prevented them from finishing up. They got
a tad concerned about some mold growing on the ceiling, so they
had to kill that before they put in drywall. And, of course,
they need to put in drywall before putting on the fixtures.
It's almost over, but the problems are going out kickin' and screamin'! This, however, I'm pumped about: Tomorrow when I come in, I'm grabbing Windows Vista Ultimate as well as Office 2007 Home and Student. It's time to embrace the future after six long years of XP. Now don't get me wrong, XP is awesome, especially Media Center Edition 2005, but Windows XP can only hold water for so long. Folks have been waiting for this product for years! I think Microsoft needs to go with the Apple strategy on this one. Release a new version every two to three years and make it affordable. Oh, and to Matt's folks, hope the flight went well and I'll see you guys tomorrow! <3 Crab legs. |
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| Monday, January 29, 2007 - Apparently Japanese is sexual... | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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Oh
boy. And I thought Hirao-sensei couldn't get much weirder. Well,
today, he described the hiragana for "no" as a "mooning
ass" and the hiragana for "hi" as a "sagging
breast". Very, very odd man. "Learning Japanese should
be fun, eh?" Right... Anyway, today was pretty standard otherwise. Our Chemistry professor had a hard time this morning, though. Instead of saying delta C, he kept saying data/theta/??? C. Also, catalyst is apparently pronounced catatalyst. :P Well, we're moving tomorrow if all goes right. And I'll be going to grab Office 2007 at the local Wal-Mart tomorrow morning as well. Fun stuff; wish us luck! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, the first entry has slipped into the Chapter 2 Archive, so I went ahead and created RSS feeds for the archives in case you prefer to browse archived content through RSS. They're accessed in the same way as the normal feed. Go to the respective archive page and click the "RSS Feed" button or click the small RSS icon in your browser that lights up. Also, I had an issue with Feed Preview in Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7.0, but it's been resolved. Apparently they don't like Unicode, so I stripped away all Unicode characters in the feed and returned it to plain ol' ASCII. |
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| Thursday, January 25, 2007 - Should I stay or should I go? | |||||
| Posted 10:44 PM (MST) | |||||
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I live
in a world of wet. Most likely this is caused by the shower still
not working right. I took a shower this afternoon only to find out
that the leak was still there in full force. Of course, the carpet
was soaked again. So, I put in another work order and the maintenance
folks arrived quite swiftly. They got the excess moisture up from
the carpet and bathroom and inspected the shower. Unfortunately,
they said that the drain pipe has disconnected from the shower and
has sunk into the ground. The constant moisture underneath the shower
has also broken it away from the ground, causing the huge leak. We have two choices, my roommate and I. We can either take showers up in Baca 218 every morning while we wait for the entire shower, piping, and shower portion of the foundation to be replaced or we can establish permanent residence up there, since that room is currently empty. We would, of course, have to say goodbye to our world of wet. No big deal, there. :P Anyway, we think we are probably going to move in up there. Provided, it is going to be a bit of trouble, but if we stayed in our current room, it just might be double. See what I did there? :P |
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| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 - The cycle of repairs. | |||||
| Posted 10:40 PM (MST) | |||||
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Well,
we got our shower fixed this afternoon, so we should be able to
take showers again! Yay! They also jiggered with the toilet a bit
and it's back to full capacity as well. So, the carpet is almost
dry and things are almost back to normal. However, we forgot to
inform the repairman about the light in the closet. Well, tonight
I decided I'd go ahead and change the light bulb myself, since I
have a spare. I mean, it's not that hard. Well, I started to unscrew
the cover when lo and behold, the whole fixture comes loose from
the ceiling and rests in my hands, along with a bunch of insulation
inside the fixture. Nice. Well, I had to undo two wire connectors
just to get the thing down so it wouldn't be hanging from the ceiling.
I guess another work order is in order then! After this, we'll be
good though, unless the freakin' ceiling collapses or something
*knocks on wood*. Time to get functional again! Woo! |
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| Tuesday, January 23, 2007 - God.D***.It. | |||||
| Posted 11:40 PM (MST) | |||||
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I can
describe today in one word: AAaaahhhh!!!!! So, it starts out in
the morning. The toilet won't flush because it appears the chain
slipped off. So, we temporarily slipped it back on. It works...
kinda. Then, I take a shower. Well, the drain is clogged so it has
to be short, probably less than five minutes. So, I get done only
to discover that while it didn't overflow, the floor is still covered
in standing water. W.T.F? So I thought it was the bathmat acting
like a sponge and squirting out water when I stood on it. It went
all over, spreading far into our actual room and soaking the carpet.
Of course, it heads towards my side. Wonderful. So, I used paper
towels and fuzzy towels and even my beach towel to soak up the water.
I left 'em outside to dry along with the bathmat after a frantic
struggle to control the water flow. Later, they were washed. So, David (my roommate) decides to take a shower, but he's got a good plan. He decides to turn off the water and let it drain while applying soap so as to make sure the shower doesn't overflow. It doesn't, but water still flows everywhere and spreads even more through the carpet. Holy crap. So, we come to the conclusion that the seal is broken. Our RA then supports this claim after sputtering out a few expletives. So, we have a pending work order. Until then, the floor is soaked and we can't take showers. At all. Oh, and the light in our closet went out too. Right in the middle of everything. So, in one day, our room practically fell apart. Other than that, I went to Chem Lab and checked in. No big deal there. So, wish us luck in getting this mess fixed! |
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| Monday, January 22, 2007 - ß (Beta) | |||||
| Posted 10:03 PM (MST) | |||||
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Fun
stuff. I got an e-mail today inviting me to join in the upcoming
Halo 3 multiplayer beta this spring. For those who are unfamiliar
with the term, it means I will be able to test a pre-release version
of Halo 3's multiplayer component before the game is released. In
this case, I get the beta around March, which is 6-8 months before
the final version of the game comes out. On another note, I was quite surprised to open my door today at 8 am and see a lot of white. Apparently we got an inch or so by the time I was up. It continued for a few hours, hindering my Chemistry professor's ability to make it into Socorro, apparently. And while white stuff is indeed fun, I think we've seen a bit too much of it this winter. Hopefully it'll get warm again soon. I'm sick of freezing! Oh, and hopefully I'll be able to make it into town this weekend... |
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| Thursday, January 18, 2007 - More Snow? | |||||
| Posted 11:53 PM (MST) | |||||
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Good
lord, 10-20 inches of snow over the weekend? This winter has seen
insane amounts of snow here in New Mexico. Oy, I never thought I'd
say this, but no more snow please! Oh well, there's a 12 hour LAN
party in the Student Activities Center next door going on tomorrow
night. Time for Halo in the snow! I must say, yesterday was interesting. My Chemistry teacher has a pretty good oriental accent, I don't think my Calculus teacher is going to be a good fit, Computer Science is going to be awesome again, and my Japanese teacher is a total nutjob! He rants about himself and Japan, he blames America for everything, he repeats everything, and he can sure drop the F-bomb! Well, anyway, the semester is going to be interesting, so I'll keep you all updated! |
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| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - Wait, what? | |||||
| Posted 11:13 PM (MST) | |||||
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Hmm,
today was interesting. I was able to get my room all set up and
stuff, which was nice. You know the routine: validate the ID card,
encode it so that it works as a door card, get books and some supplies,
go to Wal-Mart for food. Pretty normal, eh? Well, when I went to
validate and pick up my oh so long awaited 1.5K refund check, they
told me I had an outstanding balance of $15.33. Hmm... so I went
ahead and paid it just to get it done. Well, lo and behold, I got
an e-mail today from Residential Life stating that I owed money
for the following: broken ceiling tiles, broken window, broken/missing
screens, and missing cushion on arm chair. Uhh... broken ceiling
tiles? Broken window? Eh... huh? Oh well, complaining would've wasted
more time than it's worth for 15 bucks. Oh, and "lo" is no spelling error, my friends. Look it up in the dictionary; make it your word of the day; do what you must. Catch you all on the flip side! |
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| Monday, January 15, 2007 - The First Page of the Second Chapter. | |||||
| Posted 11:59 PM (MST) | |||||
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Well,
it's finally here, the second semester! This semester should be
quite interesting, but I think it'll be better than the last. A
better dorm can make all the difference! So, for all of you still
wondering, here are my classes for this semester: - Calculus II - Chemistry II - Chemistry II Lab - From Stone Tools to Spacecraft - Computer Science 122: Data Structures and Algorithms - Japanese I Oh, and I added an archive system to the site that separates the archives into chapters (each semester is a chapter). And when you're in the archives, it shows a list of dates to pick from, so hopefully that will provide easy access to past entries. Well, I still have to finish setting up my room tonight, so I best keep this short. Anyway, tomorrow I get my refund check and my ID card coded to let me in to my room, so that's good. Classes start tomorrow! |
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