April 2004 Archives
So Wednesday was the annual Mayday Conference on campus, which turned into me not having class for most of the day. Two classes were canceled, and another was cut down to only half an hour from its usual three. This was very nice for us students, because its so damn nice out side. Someone said it read upwards of 80 degrees F outside, but you'd never know it due to the wind. This nice weather is also made even better by the blooming of so many flowering trees we have across campus. With the wind the sweet sweet scent can be smelled everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. If all goes well I may post a photo or two on the old photoblog today.
In very sad news the 1.25 liter bottle of RUM that Dale left here was taken out of my room. I'm quite sure its someone we know, because the rum was in my closet, in my room, and was probably the least valuable thing you could take. All my electronics, along with the rest of my alcohol supply, was left untouched. I'm very disappointed in whoever did this, because I would have most certainly shared it with them. Oh well, it was Dale's rum, and not mine. Plus I've not really been in any mood to drink the past week or so due to mounting homework and finishing up the China DVD project.
Oh, I got my first ordered for DVDs today! I'm pumped. I really need to go buy some blank DVD-Rs from Best Buy this weekend, except they're quiet expensive. Somewhere in the $1-1.5 range per DVD. Hopefully I get some more orders at orchestra rehearsal Thursday night so I can pay for the majority of the blank DVDs with it. The other downside is that I don't have cases or slips to put the DVDs in, so I really should find someplace to get those. Maybe Best Buy, or Officemax.
My $17 wireless base station came in the mail. I'm going to leave this at home usually so I have someone to use over the summer and on breaks. I figure for $17 after rebates, its not a bad deal. Now all I gotta do is get it working here.... maybe I should stick it in Sohre... hmmm...
If you didn't know we have an orchestra concert this Saturday at 3:30. Come to it! It should be good, or so I would hope. We have a 3 hour rehearsal tonight, which will sap my powers from me very quickly. Zach is playing a violin solo also, which you need to hear. Really, if you don't show up, he'll be very very sad, to the point of being depressed,
So I spent some time tonight and actually did some video editing for the China DVD project that I've been trying to do all semester. Having a faster computer with cool new features does make me feel better, and makes the work easier. When I'm done with the video I then need to go through all the photos I've got sitting on my HD. Thank goodness I've got an 80 GIG HD, or else I'd be SOL. Either way I need to finish this up quickly so that i can spend the rest of the semester slaving over several papers that I need to get done. man, they've really snuck up on me. Arg.. be prepared for a very stressed out Joshua. I've put the video of the Tang Dynasty performance that we went to on my page to show you what I've done. Its 18.5 MB, and I'm guessing that the campus bandwith won't be too great most of the time, so if you're off campus, be prepared to wait. (as an edit, I've made a page with more high quality videos on it. Quite big, if you care to see them.)
I had to get some passport-style photos taken of me today down in Media Services, because my original photos that I sent were rejected by the Japanese. It cost me $25, but it beat trying to do it all by myself. I also learned that we have no mass DVD burner on campus, which means I'll have to be burning every DVD I sell form this project off of my laptop. Thank goodness its got a 4x DVD-R drive, though I may still be spending a good deal of time doing it. I guess I can burn DVDs while I'm doing my many research papers that I still have due.
So I track the hits I get on my site and who they are, just so I can find out who is reading my blog and how many people are visiting overall. I guess there really is no bad publicity, because the number of people visiting my site has quadrupled in the past four days, all due to the controversy of me discussing Heidi Hope 's public drunkenness in a previous posting which has now caused her to seek legal advice. Just as a general though, if you don't like me, why do you spend so much time reading my personal journal? You people do know that I can tell who actually reads my page, right? Not that it bothers me or anything, I just find it weird.
Actually this whole thing is very silly to just about everyone except Heidi Hope. If nothing else, we want to thank Heidi for the pure entertainment value that this thing has given us. In a 'We're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you' sort of thing, and its brought us all closer together as roommates. Oh, and Heidi, if you're worried about the people in Washington or Parliament finding out that you were drunk on your 21st birthday, think of this not as a negative thing, but as a positive. I mean, lots of powerful governmental type people have had drinking problems (not that I'm saying you have one or anything). I mean, where would George W. Bush be with his DWIs? Or Teddy Kennedy without his a beer in hand? Or even Winston Churchill. The man won a war while have submerged in a bottle! See, this just proves that anything is possible, if you set your heart on it.
So I just received word that I'm in the process of kinda being sued. For defamation of character. On Heidi Hope. (Unless this is just another cockamamy story thought up by a certain imaginative english major with too much free time. Thank goodness I didn't use any names, that way I can say whatever I want!) If you've not tuned in for a while then I guess I should recommend that you read the last couple of postings, and the very long comments that went with them, just so you can stay up to speed on the issue.
So if I am to be sued, for my opinions posted on my own journal, of things that went on in public, does that mean that half of campus can sue the Weekly for its back page? (Our campus newspaper has a full two pages every week dedicated to making fun of everyone on campus. Its rather mean at times) Maybe Heidi Hope should do two things: 1) Not get drunk in public with that group of friends again, because they let you get out of control. 2) Read up on legal briefings or Constitutional papers. My first recommendation is the 1985 Supreme Court ruling in Falwell v Hustler. Its an interesting case about free speech and the right to express your opinion. To quote Justice Rehnquist "At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern.... The freedom to speak one's mind." Oh and the photo is covered also, seeing as how it was in public, and I did have the consent of her at the time. Oh well. Maybe her attorney can explain things to her about being in public, and the right to express your opinions.
Oh, how can it be defamation of character if she actually did these things? Its like Ted Kazinski suing people for writing about him being crazy. With all the bombs, and manifestos, and shacks. Sometimes the truth hurts, as you girls have so painfully reminded me time and time and time again. Ooo... maybe I should start suing people too.
Maybe if its any consolation to Heidi and her friends, I would have gladly removed the text and the photo from my page if asked so in a civil way. But no, she and her friends accuse me to many things, and attack my personal life, and analyze every word that I write to show ulterior motive. These things are not becoming of a mature adult, even in an immature situation. If nothing else this shows that certain groups of girls at Gustavus have way too much free time, that they like to thrive on conflict, and that they too have some growing up to do.
Besides having to deal with silly Gustavus women, I have been doing other things. We have an orchestra concert this weekend, in which Zach is doing a solo. Go see it. I've also bee trying to get all my study abroad stuff turned in, of which I just spent $25 to get some photos taken. The Japanese did not like the first set of photos that I turned in, so I had to get ones done by the professionals at our own Media Services. Speaking of going abroad I met the other guys who are going to Japan next semester, and they appear like a couple of cool guys. I'm looking forward to summer and to next semester, though I will miss my buddies in 202. Sniff....
If you have some space time, I would recommend that you read the massively long comment on the previous blog. Its about how I kill puppies, or at least I would kill puppies. Actually is a very long and nasty post about how I was completely wrong (and mean) to blog about what went on at the bar Saturday night. more specially, the things I said about Heidi Hope. If you read the post, I must point out, that I am not the spawn of Satin, nor do I try to be, though the comment would make you think that I was. My response to this comment will not be to remove it, because for once someone who was posting nasty things about me did so on my blog (as opposed to Zach's) and used their real name! Way to go at not being cowards! Speaking of which, no one around here can figure out one part of that post, the part about me not having enough courage to be drunk? I don't get it, how does one need courage to be drunk? Anyhow, I guess this means Kim will no longer be talking to me, nor inviting me to any of her fancy parties, or sending me little letters in the mail... oh wait. those things never happened. I guess Kim not talking to me will change absolutely nothing about my life. Its like if Al Gore called me up and said "Josh, I'm not talking to you anymore." It wouldn't change anything. In fact, it might slightly improve things.
ahhh but about the posting. Do I remove the things I said about Heidi Hope, or leave them. I'm not sure yet. If I removed my comments, which were all quite true and can be corroborated by several people, I would be lying. I wrote about things that went on in public, in full view of many people. I made fun of them, as I do all things. Maybe the fact is that Heidi's friends let her get out of control at the bar, even if it was her 21st birthday. If they didn't want her to act that way they could have done something. Had she crashed her car into a tree, would it have mattered if it was her 21st birthday? Using that as an excuse is very very weak. Oh, and I'm sure the half a beer that she kept taking from me, was the deciding factor in her drunken state. Also, I find it quite odd that I'm being blamed for things that her own friends did to her. Such as drawing on her. If I remember correctly, it was one of her friends that handed me the pen to drawn on her... hmm...
Oh, and the photo. I just wanted a photo of John, Heidi, and I. It was both their birthdays after all. If you want to read in more to the photo then it just being a photo, feel free to do so. Maybe you have too much free time. Think whatever you want to think. Say whatever you want to say. Last I checked, taking photos of people in public with their consent, or talking about things that actually happened, was not against the law. I need to sleep on this one.
Speaking of which, I've spent a great deal of time working on a paper for Parties and Election. Way too much time. But I guess thats what happens. Not to say that I didn't do other things today, like go into town with Heidi (Johnson), Ben, and Zach for hot hot hot mexican food, or go to a Wind Concert. Sigh, so much to do.
So last night John, Nate Kemp, and I went down to the bar to have a few drinks and celebrate John's 21st Birthday. I'm not a fan of the bar scene, due to the price of drinks, and the heavy layer of smoke that is present. None the less, it was fun. John had a few drinks, which is more then enough to get him going (he's a lightweight). We also ran into Heidi Hope and her friends, who were celebrating her Birthday. She was quite tanked. John would later describe her as "flirtatiously drunk," which would explain why she was hitting on anything with legs. Needless to say, we resisted what little charm she was putting out, and entertained ourselves by drawing on her. She didn't remember it the next day. Lucky us.
My day consisted of... nothing at all. yeah, I'm super lazy. Sorry to say. Zach and I hung out and just randomly did things. But as I said, nothing happened.
Tonight was rather interesting though. Carl came over and we had a 'laptop' party, an unplanned one. The picture says it all. Four guys with Powerbooks, on a futon, watching basketball and installing programs. Though it is kinda cool that Jared and Carl both have Powerbooks now, its rather stressful trying to show them the inner workings of OS X, and to 'de-windows' them. It will take time, effort, and love. None of which I'm willing to give right now. To hell with them!!!!!!!!
Zach is turning into an alcoholic. I'm seriously worries. Every morning I wake up and wonder "will this be the day that we find Zach face down in the gutter?" The time may be close at hand. Very close.
I've been very sleepy all day long, but yet I'm still up and about. I don't know why, probably from my long week. Though it should be known that its not going to get any better, seeing that I'll have to actually start doing real work Real work... blah...
So the real reason I wanted a Powerbook so badly, was so that I could be ultra lazy in the Library. Its sad, but true. Ultra Lazy.
John, Ben, Ben, and I went to go see the Punisher this afternoon. I can't say it was a good movie, but it was worth seeing for lack of anything else to do with my afternoon. But thats the way it goes around here. Anyhow, I enjoyed Hellboy more then Punisher. A lot more.
Anyhow afterwards we went to Best Buy and I ended up helping a customer, finding out that DVD-R media is extremely expensive. Blah, my night is so dull. But I guess I can now watch TV and write up a blog, which is a slight improvement from the usual.
Its true. My powerbook is super rocking this section. After spending the entire afternoon moving data over, and setting up all the old programs, its finally in working order. I'm now sitting on my desk, listening to the Blue Oyster Cult through my speaker system. Lets do a quick rundown of whats hooked up.
The Powerbook is hooked up to my 17in monitor, my Apple Pro Keyboard, and I've got the Logitech Bluetooth wireless mouse floating around. I've got my speakers plugged in, along with my external Firewire drive and iPod. I'm hooked up to the internet via Zach's wireless connection. If you'd like, i can also include the fact that I have my Canon S400 digital camera to my right, along with a USB 2.0 card reader. Even more so, my iSight is around here somewhere. Mmmm.... wireless iSight. Its enough to make any Geek drool. Now I guess the next step is to buy a nice LCD to match the Powerbook. Maybe next year. He he.
So I also bought a wireless access point last night from Amazon.com. You see it was only $17, and I figure I'll be needing it this summer at home. Plus, its only $17, so I figure its a good investment. I'll probably bring it back to school with me when I get back from Japan next year. Zach is in a tissy because he thinks that his wireless access point is going to be overtaxed with 5 people on it. I think he's over reacting, but it never hurts to have a second point around.
Oh well. I'd better start doing some homework. So much to do, so little time.
My Powerbook is here. I'm off to pick it up at the GAC post offcie after lunch. Wish me luck. I'll try not to drool all over it.
So I had 6 hours of class today, as I do every Wednesday, except today I had visions of Powerbooks dancing in my head. See my Powerbook is now somewhere in Alaska, or on its way from Alaska. The sooner it gets here, the sooner I can stop annoying Zach and everyone else with my lack of a computer. Soon... soon...
So besides that my day has really been completely dull. Seriously, dull. Oh well. Even when I get my computer I still have a 10 page paper thats due on Monday, plus the weekend full of fun. Remember, John is turning 21 on Friday, and as his only room mate that is 21, I need to show him a good time. What are friends for.
Oh, the weather has turned cold again. Some would call me mad for putting shorts on in this weather, others would call me a rebel. I would just call me a man who has no clean clothing. Which is why I did my laundry tonight. Cleaning clothing would be better if one of the dryers was not broken, which only slightly delayed me. It did give me ample time to watch some much needed Cartoon Network shows.
Oooo witha DVD drive I can finally burn off a whole bunch of anime from our file server, to make room for more useful stuff. Like anything. Yeah, thats right. Anything. And people said I"d never use the DVD burner. Blah!
I've got lots of homework tonight. Steve and I need to finish up a presentation for tomorrow, and I have a good chunk of reading to get done.
In good news though, my Powerbook is now on its way over from Taiwan, and I should end up getting it not later than Friday. I ordered some faster RAM and sent back the other stuff. I also ordered a sleeve for my Powerbook, so as to protect it from getting scratched up or bumped while in my backpack. It too should be here by Friday.
Speaking of Friday, its John's Birthday!! He's going to be 21, which means I'll buy him two drinks, and that'll be all he can take. John's a lightweight.
So I'm using the new Bluetooth mouse with Zach's laptop, and I love it. Zach still dislikes its response time, but I think the main problem is that Zach's desk is not really conducive to optical mice in general. The bluetooth mouse works just fine on my desk, on my bed, and on the futon. These being the main areas to which I'll be using it. I also got my 512 memory for my new computer, which I need to exchange. Why? Because of the amazingly good news this morning! Apple updated the Powerbook line so my order has been upgraded to new specs. Heres how the two compare.
Old 12in Powerbook: 1 GHZ G4, 256 MB DDR 266 RAM, 32 MB Graphics card, 2x DVD-R
New 12in Powerbook: 1.33 GHZ G4, 256 MB DDR 333 RAM, 64 MB Graphics Card, 4x DVD-R, built in wireless.
So cool new faster computer for me, at the same price. I just wish Apple would hurry up and ship my computer. Need... Macintosh...
Oh, I had a phone interview for a summer job tonight. It was with the good movie theater in town, as opposed to the crap theater I shortly worked at last summer. Although the job only pays $5.15 an hour, it beats no job at all. Hopefully I'll have another job this summer, so I can pay off my Macintosh.
So the other cool part about my day was the history lecture I went to with noted historian Katherine French. She spoke on the relationship between women and medieval churches. Very cool, very interesting, and quite fun. I have a photo on the photoblog, but its kinda weird. As soon as the lecture was over one of the history profs flagged me down by yelling "Josh, bring your camera down here and take some photos." I can't say I've ever talked to this one professor, but he knew me, and my camera. So I guess that makes me the resident History Photographer. I like the sound of that.
So my day was spent up in the Twin Citys. Yeah, kinda makes for a long day. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the weather, which majorly sucked all day.
But first about the concert. It went really well, with only one major problem which was caused by the conductor (he conducted 8 beats in 4 measures, when he needed 9 beats in four measures). There was a cool big screen computer generated effect thing going the entire time, and Orchestra Hall was almost completely packed with people, which surprised me. Afterwards we got back into the buses, and it started to rain. Not just a bit, but a lot. Tornado warnings were going off, which were no good. The drive back really sucked, but it didn't matter, because I was sleeping, as usual.
Anyhow, thats my day. Rather dull indeed. Hopefully this next week will be better.
So this weekend is inauguration for the new Gustavus President, so we had a weird class schedule. Needless to say, having shorter class times, it being a nice day out, and the fact that one class was canceled, I decided to skip my other class. Hey now, this would only be the second class I've skipped all semester, so I've been doing much better then I normally have done. No big loss, because I slept in late, went to work, got paid, and took some fun photos. It was only kinda a wasted day.
But what I did do is go see Kill Bill Vol. 2 in the afternoon with the guys. Ok, so the film was quite different form the first volume in many ways, and quite good in its own ways. It wasn't nearly as bloody as the first one and a lot more like Tarantino's other films. The movie wastes no time (or even a short intro or refresher) getting back into the action and story. The Bride is still trying to kill Bill and his former assassins, which she does end up doing. But how she gets there is where we have all the fun. If you enjoyed the first film, then go see how it all ends. As always there will be some actions, some violence, and the classic Tarantion dialogue. Plus, its UMA THURMAN WITH A SWORD, that alone should make you want to go see the movie. The acting was quite good, if you remember that this is an action film. The Kill Bill movies both felt like a cool cross between a Hong Kong kung-foo movie and a 1970's bad action movie. In a good way though. In a super cool action film way.
So I should clear up a few things about after the movie. Yes, my car wouldn't start and I called AAA. Yes I did try and jump the car, and yes, a tow truck did come. And yes, the problem did turn out to be that my car was in Drive, and not in Park, so it wouldn't start. But see, that shouldn't happen. My car shouldn't let me take my keys out without the car being in park. Sigh... I'm going to get crap form the guys for quite some time for this one.
If you hadn't noticed, I put a bunch of photos in my PhotoBlog last night. A bunch of photos I took with my new camera over the past break and in the past several days. You should check them out, cuz they're quite nice.
So to wrap up the night I went to see the campus movie, which was Big Fish, with Zach and Heidi. Its a touching father and son movie, directed by Tim Burton. See I half expected it to be some super freaky scary film, due to Tim's past scary film record of such movies as Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and PeeWee's Big Adventure. This was not the case. But I was quite moved by the film. My bellowing laughter could be heard throughout the hall, of which I was informed afterwards that I should probably keep it down. Oh well, it was a good end to a good day.
Ahhh, yes, about my computer situation. I got an e-mail from Apple saying how my computer would now ship sometime before the 27th, due to a production shortage. This is perfectly fine with me, because all the major rumor and news sites are saying that Apple is updating their Powerbook line next Tuesday, which means Carl and I will be upgraded. I'm willing to wait a few extra days if it means a faster and more powerful Powerbook.
Oh, heres a really cool thing for movie and computer nerds alike. Its movie clips in ascii format, otherwise known as freaky weird text. There are some really cool clips from the Matrix and from Spriderman on there. Check it out.
Today, was a lazy ass day. I got up, went to the chriopractor, came back, bummed around for a bit, went to lunch. That was half my day. After lunch I took a few photos of the flowers in front of the library. The light wasn't too good due to the clouds that blotted out the sunshine. Silly clouds.
So we once again had a rehersal in the Twin Cities, so I spent a good 3 hours on the bus, listening to music and eating cookies. Luckily our rehersal was let out an hour earily, so we got back a bit earily tonight.
So I finsihed reading Conan, by Robert Howard. The original pulp novel, about a young barabrian, with a big ass sword. Its a really good book, which I really enjoyed reading. I bought it for $0.75, and it was worth all the money. I think I'm going to try and find some more of the book at used book stores. Mmmmm.... swords. (don't be fooled by the bad movie versions have have come out, the books are super bad-ass)
Oh, I think I'll try and post a few photos on the photoblog tonight with the help of John or Zach's computer. I have some really good photos that I'm sure someone would like. I wish I had a powerbook to do it myself.
Oh, then theres the ongoing saga of Zach's blog, and someone being stupid. Some random person, who won't use their actual name or e-mail address, is posting mean stuff about me in Zach's comments. Coward. Some people are just stupid. Well, maybe I should say most people are.
I still have no Powerbook. Or a computer to use. I've been resorting to using the websever for e-mail and comic browsing during the day. On the up side, I was able to trade Ben some RAM from his computer for the same ammout of RAM from mine. I'm just happy that the webserver now has 576 MB of RAM, which should help things out a bit.
While my 12in Powrbook may not have even been shipped yet, I have been informed that my RAM, firewire case, ans bluetooth mouse have all arrived at my home in Sioux Falls, and that my parents will bring them up this weekend. Oh joy. At least I should be able to find out how well the mouse works with Zach's computer, if nothing else.
The campus is quite pretty right now. Everything is in bloom, and I should be able to take some photos. If I feel like it I may even post some photos on the photoblog this weekend, if I can sneak some time on Jared or Zach's Powerbook. I've been randomly using my new camera this week and man, I do love it. Very very cool. I should spend some more time reading over the manual when I have some free time. Which won't be this weekend.
This weekend I have a nice and friendly rehersal Saturday morning and a concert on Sunday. Fun fun. I also need to slip some time in and go see Kill Bill Volume 2 on Friday. Oh, and the movie Big Fish is showing on campus, which I should also try and see. I also need to start spending time working on the various projects that I have due at the end of the semester. Papers, tests, presentations. Arg, no fun at all! However am I goign to fit in my 20-30 hours a week of manditory goofing off that I must do?
Ok, so I've been complaining about not having a computer for the past week, and now I'm complaining about not having the Powerbook. But I do have good news. It appears at if Apple will be releasing updated Powerbooks
Monday, which is very good. This was one of my guesses as to why Carl and my computer had not yet shipped. What does this mean? Faster processor, faster graphics card. That sort of thing. I'd be very pissed if I bought a computer, and the next week a newer version came out at the same price. (Which may actually happen with Jared... he he he. Though he should get some money back from Apple because of it)
http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=425
Yeah, I'm not too happy about not having a Mac, and I'm also not happy that my mac has not shipped yet. Its my hope that it will be here by Friday, but I'm guessing it won't be here till next week. Thats ok, cuz I've got a lot of orchestra.
So we left for orchestra rehersal at 4:30, and got to Orchestra Hall at 6:15. We then had rehersal till 9, and got back at 10:30. I'm doing that again Thursday, and then have a rehersal on Saturday morning, and a concert Sunday. So my weekend is shot. Plus I have no Mac.
Anyhow, I should do my work. Lee is enjoying his new 15in Powerbook, yet he refuses to use Mail.app or any other Apple app. I will kill him soon. Very soon. Or not. I'm lazy.
All I can say is Jessica Rabbit, Raaaaar. For a cartoon, she's super hot. With that in mind, lets talk about my day.
I got up and went to Church with the parents. A new age Easter church service, so it was quite entertaining. See the church my parents go to now joined up with another church and held the service at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. It was interesting, I guess. Call me a stickler for the traditional. Or just a sleepy guy who didn't get any food before going.
So lunch was good. Nice glazed ham, a personal favorite. Wow, me trying to lose weight when i'm going to bring back a pound of left over ham. Sigh... maybe I should feed it to John. He always needs some extra weight. But after lunch I wanted to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but golf won out. So everyone was watching golf, which actually means everyone was taking small naps all afternoon. I'm not kidding, golf=sleep. Even my father fell alseep. Eventually we watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was still funny after so many years. Sigh... how I love cartoons of all flavors. Tonight my parents and I also watched Lost In Translation. I don't think my parents got the movie at all. go figure. Oh well.
So I'll be leaving tomorrow morning for school again, after I turn in a few job applications. Yeah, summer jobs. Hopefully I can get one lined up here soon, take that stress away. Anyhoo, nothing much interesting around here, expect me with my dead G4 and waiting for the new Powerbook. mmm... Powerbook. Even better, now Jared, John, and I can annoy Zach by sucking up his wireless connection! The fun we'll have.
On a new 12in Powerbook, thats how. Seeing how my old G4 is dead, so we're told from the techs, I somehow talked them into letting me get one and me now owing them a TON of cash. It works. Its being shipped to Sioux Falls, and I can hopefully either have my parents come up with it, or me make a overnight run home.
So I had an interesting run-in with my ex Rachel today. Not what I needed, and thats all I'm saying about that.
OH, due to complete dullness at my house, and becuase my parents didn't take me to the zoo like I'd hoped, I went and saw The Butterfly Effect, at the cheap ($3) theater. Its a super cool sci-fi mind trip, that makes you think twice about messing with time travel. Its the kind of movie I think John or maybe even Jared would like. Man, time travel is freaky stuff dude, freaky. Its something that even thinking about makes my head hurt, let alone the idea of going back and changing your past. The only good time travel happened in Quantum Leap, and only because he had Al along for comedic relief. Scott Bacula, where are you?
Oh, Jared was making fun of Macs because now someone made a virus for OS X. First off, lets talk about that virus. Its a Trojan Horse, which means its a program made to look like something else. It only works when you activate it, so you'd 1) have to be dumb enough to download it (because its not self-propagating), and 2) have to activate it yourself. Oh, did I mention how its a CONCEPT VIRUS, something some tech at a business made up to test security. Its not even out there doing harm, it was made, announced, and then Apple fixed the problem (along with some anti-virus companies who are now selling a 'patch' for $50). What I'm saying is that this is no big deal. There is no threat to Mac users. I'm not saying that OS X is completely secure, thats impossible, just that its a hell of a lot more secure then windows. It was build from the ground up with security in mind, unlike windows, which was made out of the idea of 'screwing your customers.' Anyhow, I don't see why Jared is complaining, he did buy a Mac afterall, and lord knows, he's going to have like 100 times less problems then before.
So once again, my computer has been broken. If anyone remembers my first Macintosh G4 tower broke its motherboard on a return trip back to GAC freshman year. Well, now my newer Macintosh G4 tower broke something important on its way over to the LAN party. Long story short: I'll either be without a computer for a long while, or be getting thet 12in Powerbook sooner then expected.
So I went to Saint Could with my father today, which was a 9 hour round trip, because he had a job interview. I went around downtown and found my way into a used bookstore, where I bought a couple of books (one of which was the original Conan book), and then went to a coffee shope and did some homework. On the way home I made a few choice stops, because I was driving, so that I could take some photos. I'd stick them on the blog, but remember, I have no computer.
Not having anything to do tonight I went to rent the movie American Splendor, and ended up buying it and Punch Drunk Love. I should make my way down and watch them.
Oh and if you're wondering, I'm using my parents old 233 iMac to post this, and I"m trying very hard not to be a horrible speller.
So I slept in till about 2 today. I know, I'm a lazy SOB. But see I actually got up at 8, thinking we were going to go down to Omaha to the zoo, except we weren't. So I went back to sleep, and didn't get up. Sue me.
So my parents and I went to the local Omni-Max theater and saw the documentary on Lewis & Clark, which I really enjoyed. Now as a history major I reflected on the video, to judge its historicalness and also as an overall documentary. I thought it was very well done. It was narrated by Jeff Bridges, done by National Geographic, and overall a very well done documentary. It showed the immense difficulty and wonder that was the Lewis and Clark expedition. The narration was mostly from the personal journals of Lewis and Clark, and the video was scenic landscapes and historical acting of the journey. I do enjoy good scenery, and I do enjoy good history, and I ever do enjoy big ass gigantic screens that come with a sound system that blows your shirt off. Its amazing that in this 8,000 mile journey that they took, only one man died, and he died early on. Its also amazing that the expedition didn't get killed by indians, in fact, it was the indians that saved the expedition several times. Though the indians may have saved Lewis and Clark, by doing so they also signed the death warrant for their people. From this video I also learned that Lewis committed suicide three years after the journey, while Clark went on to great notoriety and prosperity. Clark also named his first son after Lewis. Very very interesting. Anyhow my parents and I really liked this video, and you would too, if you lived in Sioux Falls and went to this sort of thing.
So my sister is home. Nothing more to say about that.
I've been working on the China DVD tonight, editing video, going through pictures, finding proper music. Though I am doing actual work, it has not prevented me from procrastinating even more. Like finding some SNL sketches online, or talking to Zach. The hardest part of this project is yet to come, the part where I go through a couple of thousand pictures and try and make slideshows out of them. Its not going to be extremely tough, just long. Luckily I was able to clear off a ton of video and make room on Zach's firewire HD for all the pictures, which were eating up a lot of HD space. One I pick all the pictures I'll probably just put them into iPhoto and export them as a movie, which will probably be the easiest solution. The next step after I compile the pictures and export them will be to make a nice DVD interface, which shouldn't be too tough. But I'm actually worried about what to do afterwards. Do I burn off DVDs on campus, which could take me forever, or do I try and gather money together and send the DVD off somewhere to get printed? I could always 'rent' a DVD drive from Best Buy and burn stuff off on my own. That might work. Long story short I should get the money from people ahead of time, seeing how I have no money.
Oh my new camera takes photos, at the highest quality, in 2.7 MB chunks. This is compared to my old camera's pictures which were 1.3 MB files. No wonder the 256 Compact Flash card I have only takes around 120 shots. Good gravy!
So I went over to Grant's house tonight for a bit of a LAN party. For those of you who don't speak 'nerd' this sort of gathering include lots of pop, lots of computers, and lots of file swapping. I'm there mostly for the files, which there are so many. Oh well, gotta love Macintosh junkies.
So I can't get any sleep around here at all these days. Todays early wake up calls come strait from the dentist, of which I had an unknown appointment. So while only getting about 4 hours of sleep I managed to make it to the dentist at about the time I was scheduled to go. Long story short, as is the general case when it comes to my teeth, is that I have great teeth despite my overall lack of good brushing and flossing. So why haven't my teeth fallen out yet? I have a lot of saliva, its like constantly chewing gum, without having any gum.
So I went around town today picking up applications, which means I have a bunch of paperwork to do tonight. Sigh... I really want to get a job at Best Buy... mainly for the discount and the $, but mainly for the discount. I'm fairly confident that I can get my old job at B&N back, but its rather boring and I won't get enough hours. After my fiasco at the movie theater last summer (short lived fiasco) I have applied to the other theater in town. The non-crap one. Having a job there wouldn't be so bad. At least the manager couldn't possibly be any scummier.
So out of complete lack of anything to do I've decided to start up WarCraft 3 again, which was probably a mistake. Well, that and my other mistake, being trying to play online with all the setting on high. See, those settings work fine for single player mode, but online, nope. I need to turn everything down to the lowest setting to get it to run. Otherwise I'll end up like I did last night, in a game and only get about 1 frame per second. Such is never a good thing. I should really stop playing...
While running around trying to get applications for job I figured that I should get a Memory Card reader for my new camera. I stopped at a local PC hardware store and bought a nice 7 in 1 memory card reader. I was going to order it online, but I figured with $5 shipping, and the possibility that they would only ship to my house and not to school, it was worth the extra $3 to get it in person. Its actually a USB 2.0 reader, so when I eventually get a Powerbook, it'll move at speeds never before achieved by memory card readers. Or something like that. Another reason was that I wanted a multi-card reader for those instances where someone needs something read or gives me something to work on. It never hurts to be prepared.
Oh, according to this website and Donte, I'm going to the 6th layer of hell. How fun is that! Note: Zach only made it to Purgatory.
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | Very High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | High |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | High |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Very High |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Extreme |
| Level 7 (Violent) | Very High |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | Very High |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | High |
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
So my parents were extra nice tonight, they took me out for Chinese food! I've not actually had any Chinese food since my trip to China in January. While the food here in town may be good, it can't compare to the wonder and amazement that was our China trip. Now eating any large amount of food makes me sleepy, so when I got home, well, I took a nap. Luckily when I got up it was only 10 O'Clock, which did leave me plenty of time to goof off. The joys of a South Dakota spring break, which has yet to go wild.
Jared ordered his new 15in Powerbook today. I can't express my joy at hearing this. Well, actually, now we have to teach Jared how to use a completely new OS, but in the long run, he'll have about 99 times less problems with it over a PC laptop. Heck, John's PC laptop gets about 40 minutes of battery life on average, because its a beast! Dude, I'll just be happy with a nice 12in Powerbook. Sleak, simple, and super cool.
So I have a couple of random links for you again. Just cuz I know that my roomies have no lives, and my links will provide them with a brief moment of happiness in an otherwise gray and dark world. What kind of world do we live in when people take other people's garden gnomes and then hold them for a random of candy and porn. Sick people. Very sick people. Maybe they read the homepage of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. Or maybe they were drunk. Also in the news, the all important issues of students running porn webpages out of their dorm rooms, and its effects on student society. Maybe the effects are that the male student body is happy, and perhaps, the world is a bit better place. Plus you could always say "Loans, we don't need no stinking loans!" The joy. Maybe they got the idea over at CollegeHumor.com. At last, we finally have an organization out on the internet I support, because I too am a victim. Support the Anti-Popped-Colar Club today. Oh, and why are the Japanese obsessed with photos of women eating bananas?
Yeah, first off I'm still a bit sick. I can't say I know what its entirely about, or what I've got, but I've been sleeping a lot, and feeling overall sore. Plus my throat is off and on. Blah on that.
So I had to break my traditional spring break slumber to do some house work this morning. Our realtors had some people coming over to view the house, so my father and I had to clean clean clean. I hate to clean, but I can be very anal about it when needed. Its kinda tough keeping a house clean with two dogs running around all the time. So we clean, and the people show up about half an hour early, so we vacate the house taking the dogs in tow, only to watch as the 30 people that show up leave in about 5 minutes. Very very anti-climatic. I have some jokes, but I'm not in the mood to say them.
So the camera I ordered on Saturday night showed up two days early, which surprised me. Go Fedex! After dinking around with it for about an hour I concluded that this camera rocks my work. Its a bitching camera that would probably spit on my old camera if given the chance. I know I would. I'm actually quite glad it's shown up, so that I can take it to the zoo with me and take a bunch of shots! Break it in before going to Japan! If I don't come back from Japan with at least 1,000 new photos, I need to be hit with a Twisler for an hour (and man do they hurt, although they are tasty).
Speaking of cool Japan photos, Nate keeps doing crazy things and posting pictures on his photoblog. Check it out! See, and people said that blogs were worthless.
The whole camera thing wore me out, so I slept for the next 5 hours. It probably wasn't the camera as much as me being damned sick. I feel much better now, though, and hope that this overall feeling of crap will go away before school starts up again. I'd hate to be in crap shape for the large amount of work that I need to start doing for my classes. Papers, projects, reading. I'm going to have my work cut out for me.
I've reworked my webpage and made a new template for it, though I still need to work out a few bugs for the subpages. I'll probably find some time when I get back to school to move myself over to the new address joshuazimmerman.com and put up the newly revised webpage. Heres what I've done.
Check it out if you'd like. Its just a testpage and not done yet. I've yet to find the images I want to use for the top left area, nor have I put in all the code for the links in the NAV area yet. I should really get to work on the China DVD project that I've been putting off all week. Once thats done, or mostly done, I can start working on the page update.
Ben bought a new speaker system for our section. Prepare to be blown away by the awesome power of the Ben-Sound-System-From-Hell!
So I found some really funny links tonight that just beg to be put on my page. I was always a big advocate of not drinking in high school, to an extent. Well the irony of this news posting is up a high school honor student who campaigned in her school against drinking, dies of binge drinking at age 16. The irony. Theres a new Spiderman 2 movie trailer out tonight, I've yet to see it, but it should be good. Hmmmm... Spiderman. Recently the country has been caught up in the classic battle between conservative 'christens' and everyone else. Well we should obey the Bible as much as possible, which is why I'm telling you all to stop the immoral action of eating shrimp. God Hates Shrimp, it says so in the Bible. Every time you're eating shrimp, you're kicking Jesus in the shins. Think about it, is Red Lobster worth it? Lastly, due to the fact that this is an election year our politicians are bringing up issues that will never be resolved, but are used to pit the 'conservatives' against, well, everyone else. One major issue is that of pornography, which 'suddenly' came up as a big issue. Remember John Ashcroft? The guy who put a towel over Lady Justice because she was showing a nipple? Well now he's after porn, hard core style. Well in retaliation the guy who brought you Girls Gone Wild now bring you, the Girls Gone Wild Sports Bar, which actually requires a shirt for service. The only next best things would be naked girls hacking on computers. Which we now have. Don't you love technology. I know Zach does.
So my day was kinda dull again. I got up and fetched the dogs from the groomers, they now look quite good, as opposed to their usual ugliness. Not having anything to do I yet again spent some time playing old NES and SNES games on my computer. Ahh... the memories of a wasted childhood are flooding back. But because of my intense love of movies, and the lack of anything else to do, which included procrastinating from applying for jobs, I went to a movie by myself.
So the movie I saw today was Hellboy. What is the story of Hellboy? Well, in a nutshell he was a demon brought over by the Nazis during WWII, but was captured and raised by a secret Paranormal FBI agency, and he now fights for the good guys. Besides kicking the butt of gouls, demons, and imps he also enjoys eating large quantities of food, playing with cats, and being helplessly in love with a fire-starter named Liz (Her power? She starts fire). Now the bad guys are the Nazis, but not entirely the Nazis. See the head of these occult Nazi people is Rasputin, who you may remember from your Russian history. See, he's back, and he's trying to bring an end to the world, and he needs Hellboy to do it. So to round it all up we have an evil plot with some Nazi and a dead Russain, a new FBI rookie assigned to Hellboy, a big red demon, a fire-starter, a amphibious telepath, and the old man who raised Hellboy. Oh yeah, some evil demon types to fight now and then. Ok, so what did I think of this movie? It was a good solid action film, with nice special effects that weren't overdone (Lucas, you hear that? Take a cue), the acting was above par for an action/sci-fi film with no big name leads in sight, the story-line was quite decent, and it made me laugh quite a bit (it was funny). Overall, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. It was a fun film, I was entertained, and so were the other 4 guys in the theater, and if you want a fun action film, go see Hellboy. Though some of you may not like the name, you may instead call him 'heckboy' if you so please.
I was reading some articles online today, and found a link to TerraServer.com, which gives you the ability to search for satellite imagery of any address in the U.S., maybe even more. So I look up GAC, and find an image form there. Then I look up my house, and find an image of it. Scary dude, scary. did you know that my dorm room is just about 44.3205626 degrees North Latitude by -93.970532 Degrees West Longitude. Now thats kinda freaky dudes, very kinda freaky. I mean, what if someone wanted to plant a large missile right at my room, all they'd need is this webpage and a general idea of where I lived. Its freaking me out man, majorly. Next stop, my room. If I was really interested in spying on people, I'd pay for TerraServer's premium service, I could probably see people walking on the street (or depending on the time of the year, people sunbathing).
My evening was spent doing random computer stuff, and trying to stay out of my parent's way. They're a bit testy trying to sell the house and all. Oh well, thank goodness for self-inflicted projects.
I like Penny-Arcade. I like when people 'remix' things, such as those cool remixed war posts I found. But what happens when an english teacher in Japan uses Penny-Arcade to help his students learn english? Remixed Penny-Arcade. Well, lets just say they were funny. Maybe teachers in America should do the same, except I doubt it'll be as funny.
What some people think about those individuals who stealing shareware programs. Taken from a posting about the program Acquisition, a gnutella client or OS X.
Bottom line: Acquisition is simply the best P2P client out there. Yeah, it's not free. Oh well. People who complain about $15 probably look at the thousands of dollars they've stolen from musicians and programmers, ask themselves everyday, "Am I going to be cheap all my life?", answer "Yes, because I can.", and then go out to dinner, tip their waiter a dollar on a $72 tab, hop in a cab, short the driver, head into the bar, order a Cosmopolitan and 6 Bloody Mary's, 2 extra spicy, 1 mild, and then stiff the bartenders. People suck somtimes.
While I most certainly 'forget' to pay for some shareware, I do take it upon myself to actually pay for some of it every now and then. Like Synergy or BetterHTML Export, programs I feel worthy of my hard earned library money.
I'm still sorta sick, but I'm getting better. I'm so glad that everyone is so concerned about me. Lord knows what the section would do without my constant blunders for entertainment.
So I'm going to completely redo my entire webpage. Again. You're probably asking yourself, "what is he doing? Didn't he just redo the webpage like, yesterday?" And you would be correct, I have now changed the way my blog looks twice in the last 6 months. The reason I'm doing it again is because I wanted to do something different with the graphic on the left, mostly due to the fact that in some browsers, and depending on your eyesight, you can't read the links to well. Valid excuse. Secondly, I wanted to add some JAVAScripts to the page for the links, so that when I need to change something, I don't have to go through and edit every single page. The last thing I want to do is to have a picture on my page that changes every time you connect to it. Kinda like the GAC webpage, where it has a bunch of photos it cycles through every time you connect. I could have it cycle through my photoblog, but I'd like to make it more specific. Oh well, all in good time.
Oh, I put together a calendar page using the same stuff Zach did (it was my idea first!). Check it out. I should be in class right now.
So I slept in till about... umm.. 3 this afternoon, which is longer then I ever sleep in when I'm at school. I'm feeling kinda sick today, a weird sore throat and overall general feeling of sleepiness, so sleeping in was probably a good thing. I eventually got up and ate 4 cinnamon rolls, and then kinda did nothing all afternoon. Which is good, I think.
I've been spending my time paying old Super Nintendo games on my computer, or playing Starcraft with Ben and Zach (of which we tend to lose a lot). It beats not doing anything, I guess, or watching the anime I brought home with me.
Oh, our dog probably has cancer. Or so the vet thinks. She probably has a couple of weeks left. She's an old dog, 13.5 years old, which is quite old for a spring spaniel. Oh well, so life goes on. Sigh.... Then again, my cats still around. He's in a box on the shelf. Actually, in a baggy inside the box on the shelf. My parents should really get a proper urn for him. Or something. Does anyone else see how this is kinda messing with me?
Then again its not like my parents will be living here for long either. My father is looking at jobs in the Twin Cities, and so they'll probably be moving up there by the time I get back from Japan. So much to look forward to, so little time.
So in my complete stupidity, I forgot to bring back home with me the VGA cable for my monitor, or the DVI to VGA adaptor that was attached. So I had to go to four different stores before I could find someplace that had an adaptor. Hopefully the have a generous return policy on these things.
My parents and I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind this afternoon, and man, did I enjoy it to bits. Heidi and I tried to go see it last weekend, but it was playing nowhere near Saint Peter, and we didn't feel like driving an hour and a half to see a movie. How do I describe this movie. Basically its a recount of Joel (played by Jim Carrey) of his entire relationship with his girlfriend, as his memory of her is being erased. Clearly the coolness of this film, and the fact that Carrey should be up for an Oscar for this film, can largely be contributed to the screenplay wonders that flow forth from Charlie Kaufman, a man whose film writing credits include Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Anyhow, for a change my parents liked this film, which doesn't happen too often when it comes to films that I take them to. The movie made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me wonder why it only had two showings during the day and why hardly anyone was in the theater. This is probably the best film I've seen in ages, and its something completely different from what everyone is used to in your average film, but then again most people don't want something different, they want the familiar and the secure. Some people.
Actually this film presents an interesting idea. What if we could erase someone from our mind? Or some event? Would we want to, would it be an impulse thing, or maybe a reaction? What about relationships? Would I want to remove someone from my mine, and if I did, what happens to me as a person? Even though there may be a lot of pain surrounding a relationship, to erase it from your mind would appear like a great idea at the time. Wake up the next day, and a blank slate! But what about all those good time you had, what about how you had changed as an individual because of that relationship, or maybe, what about the things you learned because of it. As much as having my cat die on me sucked, I'd hate to remove him from my mind. But then again, thats just me.
So I now have a creditcard! The power that I now hold in my hands will change mankind. Just at a $600 spending limit sort of way. Its not much, but I feel that I should try and establish some good credit, and eventually upgrade my card to something that doesn't have a 19% APR. Note to self: Always pay bills. To celebrate this I bought myself the new camera! Its a cool Cannon Powershot S400, 4 MEGAPIXEL, a nice 3x zoom, ect ect ect. Hopefully it'll show up at my house before Thursday, so that I can take it with me to the zoo, if we end up going down to Omaha.
Oh well, time to find something to do around here that doesn't involve yard-work. Well, that and applying for jobs. Man, maybe I should have spent my break going somewhere else, or going home with one of the roomies. No one I know from high school is around, nor would I really want to spend time with them if they were. Oh well, I guess its time to start watching the movies I brought home and downloading stuff. Reminds me way too much of last summer.
So I eventually made it back to South Dakota, completely free of any harm. Not much happening here, except that I forgot to bring my monitor cable home, and the VGA to DVI converter connected to it. I guess I'll just have to 'rent' them from a local computer store for the week.
In very sad news it looks like our Spring Spaniel, Jessie is actually about ready to die. She looks horrible, and my parents are waitign for some tests to come back, but they don't think she'll last much longer. I know I know. I've been saying that she was abut to die for almost two years now, but this time its for real. She actually is about to die.
So thats about it. Nothing too interesting is happening in South Dakota. Nother ever does.
So Spring Break is here! Which means I'm heading back to South Dakota for 10 days. I'm going to do some work on the webserver, which thankfully, gets to stay connected on campus over break. Andy got permission to stay over break, so we can leave some stuff plugged in. Fun stuff.
So thats the deal-o. When i come back I hope to have a summer job lined up, and some much needed R&R under my belt.
Thats what the free post cards we got tonight say. I don't know what a chair has to do with anything, but I'm sure its something with peace. Its a postcard for the event we're playing in after break, where we have to go up to the twin cities and actually play another concert. So many concerts, and me not really fitting into my tux too well these days.
So I've got a paper due on Friday, a nice 5 page on on Alaskan politics. You'd think a large state like Alaska would be filled with people and webpages that would provide lots of info on their state. Dead wrong. The webpages linked off their official Alaska homepage, look like they were created back in 1997. I think my original Star Wars themed webpage was quite a bit better. You'd also be surprised that no one in the lower 48 actually knows anything about the political workings of Alaska. No one. No books, no newspapers, no webpages. Its like we don't car about them at all, which explains why we don't let them in on our McDonalds contests. Always void in Alaska. But I find that working under pressure, and caffeine, are quite possibly my best working conditions. No, this is not because I'm a habitual slacker (which is true), but quite possibly because I do my work late at night, which is the only time where I don't have any distractions. God bless my roomies and their constant distractions. The only downside is that this much caffeine isn't the best thing for me, because I tend to start shaking violently, and I can't really sit still. I start twitching, and my god... its filled with stars...
So it looks roomie Andy Person is going to stay around over break, or for part of it. This is good news, I on longer have to move the damned webserver to my house, get it working, and then move it back again. A lot of extra work has now been diverted.
Besides now wanting to redo my page with JAVA or CSS, I have found a very cool php script that lets me publish my iCal calendars in an very groovy interactive webpage! Zach's already got his set up, check it out.
Heres something quite amusing on this April fools day, . No seriously, its real. Even more scary, it may soon be that you could face time in prison for swapping music. Time to move to Canada.
