Blog Archive of 2004

12/29/04 -- Been up all night, slept all day. I might have something to do for New Year's, probably go to a bar with some friends and have fun. Oh, and I've been planning on going to Colorado over the next Spring Break. Ya, I know it's cold there, but since I plan on living there someday, I like going there whenever I can. What would be really cool is going to Ouray, the "Jeeping Capital of the World". A long time ago, some guy from Mid-America Energy came to check our furnace, and he told me all his stories from when he was there at Ouray. You can rent Jeeps and go on trails all day. When he told me his stories, I was like a kid in a candy store. Some parts I remember is when he said he saw carvings in the trees from when the 49ers went thru there, driving thru 15 foot walls of snow, finding puddles deep enough to swallow Jeeps, etc. I know the drive from here to Denver is about 10 hours. My sister and her husband live there. Then the drive from Denver to Ouray is 6 hours. Seems like a long ways to go, but if I left the Friday before Spring Break, and came back the last day before class, it would give me 10 days of vacation. Woohoo!

12/28/04 -- I've decided to spread the holiday cheer, and I am giving away FREE Gmail accounts to those who want one! Read a little about it on my homepage. I've had these invites for quite awhile and I'd like to give them out to people who could really use them. Once they are used up, I will eventually get some more to send out, so if you missed out, just wait till I get some more invites. Good luck! Oh, check this out...I was rummaging through some of my junk looking for something today. Didn't find it, but I came across my old floppy collection, thought this one was pretty funny, click here to see it, and notice the version number!

12/27/04 -- So anyways, I plan on getting a full blown website hosted this February after I get my financial aid money. After looking at several hosting companies, and taking notes, I've compared all of them and I think I found the one that will best suit what I want it to do. Here is the list of what they offer. I'm still not sure what to put on my new site, I'll probably just copy this junk over to it and add a crap load of content to it. With all the extra features to my site, I can add forums, and give out email addresses to people, and lots of other cool stuff. It also has some blog feature, so I can make this page a hell of a lot nicer looking! With this new site, I can get traffic from ANYWHERE, not like it is now, where only people that know me can access this site, or if they came across this site randomly. What I would LOVE to do it have something on my site that I can make money from. It would be a dream of mine to have a website that makes money for me, and I don't have to do squat!

12/26/04 -- Ah, what a weekend to just SLEEP. That's basically all I've done this whole weekend. I got a nice, cozy, warm comforter for Christmas, just what I wanted. It was getting too cold to sleep! All I had before was a quilt my grandma made me like 10 years ago. It was thinning out and the small rip it had in it turned into a huge rip. So I finally got to retire that old thing. But man, I love this comforter! I just look at it and can't wait to get under it to keep nice and warm when I sleep! Other than that, I am now entering the 2nd week of my vacation. This one ends with New Year's, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do this year. I'm sure by the end of the week, I'll be having to decide what I want to do from all the choices. Just as long as I don't have to drink that damn Champagne, ack! That's something I could never get myself to like. It is sweet and bubbly and I see why the ladies like it. But no thanks, it always tastes stale to me.

12/23/04 -- Winter sucks. I don't mind the snow, just the low temperatures. Right now the temp is -4, and tomorrow the temp will be a high of 15! Other than the cold temps, nothing else is going on. Been getting more bored, been sleeping in more and more, and not to mention sleeping stupid somehow getting my neck all kinked up. Well, this weekend is Christmas and next is New Year's. Still don't have any plans yet about New Year's, trying to get something going on. Gotta get my drink on and gotta find the lucky lady who gets MY first kiss for the new year! Also been working hard on my music collection. I am on the last leg of the 60s, then that's it for the 60s! I passed 6,000 songs today too! The 60s had a lot of a 50s flavor to it, but I really enjoyed the late 60s because of the classic rock songs at that time. The 70s should be mostly that with a splash of disco, but I'm really looking forward to the 80s and the 90s. Those were good times for music, but my favorite year of music is 1996, the year I graduated high school. Alternative music was the best; a total opposite of the pop crap they play on the radio today. Ah, those were the days!

12/21/04 -- I think I'm starting to get bored. Not much to do, everyone's at work or something, and it's too cold outside to do anything. I'm thinking about watching a bunch of movies I haven't seen yet, like a series of movies I got. I got some scary movie series that I haven't seen yet, like Halloween, Nightmare On Elm St, Friday the 13th, Children of the Corn. hehehe Bring on the scary movies! I'll be the only one home watching them, but I'll have Gizmo to protect me!
12/19/04 -- Bad weekend for torrent users. One of my fav sites, youceff.com got raided this weekend, and that site is no more. Also this weekend, suprnova.org is history. They didn't raided though, they just said that they couldn't keep up with everything, and with costs of it, they couldn't afford anymore. So the death of two MAJOR torrent search engines. I found another great one though, www.torrentspy.com from the same people that do www.ircspy.com So update your bookmark's, and pour some beer out for this great loss in file sharing.

12/18/04 -- Had fun last nite, Poker nite at Dan's. I was actually kicking ass finally too. Had the lead for awhile, but ended up in 2nd place, got $25. Other than that, I'm thinking of having my website go official, and have a company host it. This wouldn't be till early next year when I get the money though. I've been wanting to do this for awhile, get a domain name and have my site hosted. When that happens, I can do a lot more with my site and have other cool things in it as well. I'm still deciding on who to go thru for it, each company has different pros and cons. If anyone has any advice on who to go thru, be sure to let me know.

12/16/04 -- School's out! Yay! The Cisco test today wasn't too bad, I got a decent score of 72% on it, which is passing. That score with everything else should give me around a 87% in the class, which by their scale is a solid B. So if that comes out that way, and if I get A's in my other classes, I should have no problem getting on the Dean's List again this semester, but very doubtful on the President's List. Now I have 3 weeks of needed vacation! Dan's having another Poker night this Friday night that I'm looking forward to, and DMACC is having its first LAN Party the weekend before classes start that I'm REALLY looking forward to. Can't wait to play HL2DM in a LAN. I'll be practicing over break so I'll get really good, cuz I'm ready to own some people during the LAN Party! I finally got my custom spray working for HL2 last night, see it here. Can't wait to use it in the party! Waahahahahahaha!

12/15/04 -- Almost done! The tests I had today and yesterday were horrible. I got like a 63% on yesterdays, and a jaw-dropping 31% on today's. The good news is that our teacher is going to curve the hell out of the tests, so most likely I should end up getting A's in both classes. I've been studying the practice final for tomorrow's Cisco test, and it really doesn't look that bad at all! A lot of the information was coming back to me and I got in the high 90s on the test. Hopefully the final test isn't too different from the practice test. When this is all done, I plan on drinking myself retarded this weekend, I need it after this stressful week! So after tomorrow, I will have 3 weeks off. I plan on doing some major updating to this site, and also more studying for my retake on my Microsoft test I failed. I know I can pass it, I was SO close. So close, that I probably missed like 1 or 2 questions from passing. But for the 2nd one I need to take, I'm gonna wait a bit to do so. After getting a 31% on today's test that's just like it, I would fail miserably on it, and would waste $125 in the process. I'm going to go in to school early tomorrow and study up with some of the guys on this Cisco test. So wish me luck for tomorrow's test!

12/13/04 -- What an exhausting day! So ya, I was up all night because I could not sleep. I get to school super early to meet a friend and study up a bit before the test. We both feel confident about it and proceed to get registered for the test and get it started. This test SUCKED. It was VERY difficult. The test was 65 questions, and we had 2 hours and 20 minutes to do it, I used the entire time. So I held my breath, clicked the Grade Exam button, and then almost threw up. I failed. My first failed test. My score was 677 and I needed 700 to pass. I was only 23 points away from passing. Argh! Well, soon after I didn't feel so bad after all because not only did I fail it, but so did everyone else in my class who took the test! (I think everyone failed it, most did, but not sure on all of them though) The GOOD NEWS is that this was a 'special' test, and Microsoft gives us one free retake on this one, so I will be using it. I guess I just need to call the company and they will schedule a new one for free. So now I'm not sure what to do, try again right away, or study some new material on it. I think I should try again soon since it's still fresh in my mind. But AFTER Finals week, my brain is so burnt out right now from doing ALL those practice tests studying for this crap, ack! (And because I didn't pass this test, I HAVE to take the final in that class tomorrow! Something I wouldn't have to do if I passed the test. But I'm not worried about the final, I'm not even going to study for it, it will be curved and it's gonna suck as much as this test today did. I'll end up with an A in the class for sure, so I'm not sweatin' it.)

12/12/04 -- Finished studying up for my Microsoft test today. God, my brain is full, and I am so sick of taking practice tests. I'm ready to get this thing over with. I have a good feeling I'll pass, and at this point I don't care what my score is, as long as it's passing. I don't remember if I slept the night before the last Microsoft test I had. Right now its 2am, and I can't fall asleep, and I got my test at 9am. Actually, I don't think I got any sleep the last time I did this, because I remember looking at the questions and my brain was such moosh that I could barely read them! Those of you that told me a good night sleep is key, I know you're right, but for really important things like this, I can never get to sleep. Now, if I can only remember what I wore last time, so I can wear it again this time...(it's gotta be a lucky shirt, it's gotta be!)

12/11/04 -- Today and yesterday I've must of studied about 8 hours each day. My brain is planning its revenge on me. I know I'll probably be well prepared for my big test on Monday, but I'd rather be over-prepared than under-prepared, especially when money's involved. And of course if I fail it, all hope will be lost in me. Nah, that won't happen. I feel like a loser not doing anything but studying, but on the other hand, this is a very busy week for me, and once this week is over, I have 3 weeks off till Spring semester starts on January 10th. Of course, over that time, I'll be studying for ANOTHER Microsoft test that I plan on taking on the first day of school. That test WILL be harder to pass than this one though. That one will be easier to study for because I'll have all that time exclusively for that test, and not 2 other finals to worry about. It's funny, because if I read back on my blog to finals time last semester, I was totally pulling my hair out over that one, so nothing's changed. I'll pass and tomorrow will be another day. Besides that, I got a letter from DMACC today saying I can't graduate in May next year until I get a couple classes done. One I knew about, and it's only available in the fall, but the other I already took the equivalent of, so know I have to get that mess squared around. So I could walk across the graduation stage in May of 2006, but that would be after a full semester of me not being in class. Kinda silly, don't you think?

12/09/04 -- Today was pretty good. Had 2 tests, and got an A on both. We played Jeopardy in our Microsoft class, had it divided into 3 teams. We all helped write the questions and answers last week. When the first round started, it took us awhile to get going, but we basically owned the first round. At break, we were ahead like 3300 to 1900. In round 2, team 2 came out of nowhere and was bustin' our asses. We held our ground though, and at the end of round 2, had a good lead on everyone. Then it was final Jeopardy. Before we started, I told the guys to just double what the 2nd place team could win if they bet all their points and got it right, then subtract that from our total, and that will tell the difference. Then we just need to bet 1 more point than the difference. So if they bet all and get right, and we get right, we still win by 1. If we loose, we don't loose too much and have a chance for 2nd place. Well, the final Jeopardy question was what is the exact opposite of an A record in DNS? DNS isn't something we really got into in this class, and I felt this question was out of right field. We all set up our own DNS servers before in Network Apps class over the summer, but what was this? A team member and I both quickly agreed that it was a SRV record, (maybe because it was the only other record we could think of), so we bet the right amount and submitted our answer. Come to find out, we were wrong, it was a NS record. The team in 2nd place got it right and shot to first place. The team in last place got it right also, and shot to second place. Us, team 3, who was leading the high score through the ENTIRE game, ended up dead last. But it's just a game right, and it doesn't matter who wins? Whatever, I hate you.

12/08/04 -- Coffee is great, but not at nighttime. I had about a pot of it last evening around 6 to 'help' me get moving on studying. I got a lot of studying done, but because of that I couldn't sleep and was up all night. At class, it started off being unbearably slow, and it was very difficult to stay awake. But got the test done, got home, and got some sleep. Too tired tonight to get much of anything done, but I have 2 tests tomorrow which should be ok. Then I have my 4-day weekend to cram up for my upcoming Microsoft test.

12/07/04 -- My head is going to explode. I have 3 tests this week, my 2nd Microsoft certification exam on next Monday, 3 finals next week, and a project for Cisco that is nearly impossible to figure out due very soon as well. Our teacher told us how tough it was to figure out and he said he would give it to us in the beginning of the semester so we had plenty of time to figure it out. He never did, and we never said anything to him hoping he would forget. Well, 2 weeks before the semester is over, he hands them out....grrr.... I will be major stressin' this week and next. I feel pretty good about passing that Microsoft exam next Monday. I know what I need to do to get myself well prepared, and I have under a week to do so. The test I will be taking is part of a new discount student program, so I get to pay $60 for the test instead of the usual $125. I also get a free second try on the test as well, which is crazy because that is something they would NEVER do in the past. But I hope a second time isn't necessary. Other than that, I have no time for anything but studying. Let's just hope I come out of this thing alive.

12/04/04 -- Spent a lot of the day trying to get things done. I have a crapload of homework to do, and other things as well. I still have 2 days left of weekend, so maybe I'll get things done. Took a 'break' from homework, and finally redesigned this site. It wasn't as easy as I hoped, and it took 4 hours total, but I'm really happy with the new layout, and I hope you like it too!

11/26/04 -- Ah, the holidays, pffft! My sister and her husband came into town from Denver, and I had to give up my room for them to sleep in, while I'm stuck sleeping on the couch. The past 2 nites, I gotten 4 hours of sleep each night. I was woken up both times by Gizmo, he'd either jump on me, or decide it's time to play with his toys at 4am. So besides getting no sleep and being cranky all the time, vacation has been ok so far. This time, I get a 5 day vacation till I have school again on Tuesday. Tomorrow I have to go out to Grinnell to see all my relatives and have ANOTHER big Thanksgiving meal. Hopefully it will be a good day, and on Sunday my sister and her husband are leaving so I get my room back, so that will be a good day too!

11/18/04 -- Took about 3 days of non-stop, no sleep, red-eyed, video game playing until I finished Half-Life 2. The ending was good, but it kind of mad you a little bit sad. The whole game played out like it was a movie, and you really got attached to certain people in the game. But it was great, and I can't wait to do it all over again, onlyl this time, move the game up a notch on the difficulty level. I took some neat screenshots from it, and this one is now my desktop image. Other than that, I'm ready to get to school, get home, and crash. I'm in vampire mode, but this weekend will straighten me out again....I hope!

11/17/04 -- Why do I do this to myself? Last night I stayed up all night playing HL2. Got ready for school this morning, and started driving out to where we had a Microsoft meeting today. I went about 10 minutes away from my house realizing I was too tired to even drive, I felt like I was gonna run into somebody. I knew I wouldn't make it all the way across town and then 4 hours later, drive all the way back. So I came home and crashed. Only slept 6 hours so I wouldn't be up all nite tonite. Ya right. Here it is 4:30am, and I have to get up in 2 hours. At least it's a short day today. Here's my 2 astonishing pieces of information for today! ONE, I do plan on taking two Microsoft tests this December for the classes I'm currently taking. I'm getting low on cash, and for the tests it would be $125 a piece, $250 total. That's a lot of dough. So then I thought about checking on eBay for the 'vouchers', they usually have them on there cheaper because those are about to expire. I find a ad for a FREE 25% off your test, and it gives out the voucher number! I go to the site where you register to take the test, and try out the voucher discount number, and it works! It says it's a "instructor promotion code", and according to the ad on eBay, it's good till the end of this year, and anyone can use it, multiple times, but just once per test. That will save me $60, plus when I'm ready to take the test, why pay full price? I'll look for a cheap voucher on eBay around that time! And now TWO...DMACC is selling cheap ass computer parts! They were selling old PCs for $50, and after an email reply, I found out its ancient junk, 233MHz, no thanks. BUT, the good news is that they are also getting rid of all their old tube monitors, they switched over to flat panel monitors recently. So I am going to get a 17" monitor for $10!!! Only ten bucks, wow! Of course, I've heard some of them will only last a month or so, while some will last longer, who cares, its ten bucks! I've had second thoughts about trading Dan my newly bought 17" monitor for his 13" monitor. But this will make everything better, now I just need more desk space!

11/16/04 -- Went to Wal-Mart at midnight. All their employees are retarded, it took them 1/2 hour to locate the Half-Life 2's. Lucky I was there early, the box they came in only had about 10 copies, not to mention I got the first copy! Can't play it till 2am, when activation goes into effect, trying patiently till that moment. I bet it might take awhile to activate it with all the other million geeks out there trying to do the same! Doubt I will get any sleep tonite, you don't know how long I've waited for this moment to arrive, and it's finally here! I do have another Microsoft meeting at 8:30am at Wynnsong again tomorrow morning. I'll be there for that, but will skip out on Cisco to come home and play more or maybe sleep, hehehe.

11/08/04 -- Not too much to write about this weekend. Took it pretty easy this weekend. Had a lot of reading for homework to do. Went out with Dan and friends on Saturday night, and believe it or not, I beat Dan 4 games out of 6! I think he was having a bad night, and I was having an awesome night, but either way it was fun. I think I'm starting to get better at pool, I'd hope so for as much as I play! I did find an awesome deal on study books for my Microsoft tests online. They had the 4 core exam books together in a bundle for like $56, when the retail is $100. I was pretty excited about that deal. Those books are what make passing the certification tests a breeze. I hope to take 2 more Microsoft certification tests after this semester, during winter break in December, since I am in two classes this semester that prepare you for 2 of the exams. I hope I do as well as I did on the first one I took. I think I should though because my teacher told me that the one I took was one of the hardest of them all because it covered so much more ground than the other ones do. So if I almost got perfect on the "tough" one, I think I will definately do fine on the others!

11/04/04 -- What another long week. I'm still surprised that Kerry conceded and did so early as well! He "seems" like a nicer guy than what Gore was, Gore was out for blood and I think he went insane over it. What really makes me giggle is that all the hoopla they made about getting young kids to vote this election. With MTV's Rock The Vote and P. Diddy's Vote Or Die and Leonardo DiCaprio telling me to vote for Kerry, they had a record number of young kids register to vote. But with most of those programs, they end up convincing you to vote Democratic anyways. So all these new voters registered to vote, but I don't think anyone told them that they still HAVE to go vote. When the numbers came in on the exit polls, it says that in the age group of 18-29 year olds, only 17% of them voted in this election. SEVENTEEN PERCENT!!! Well, is that better or worse than the last election? I looked it up, for the same age group in the Bush/Gore election it was also exactly 17%. Know what that means? P. Diddy's got a lot of mo-fo's to kill now! But don't worry, he's good with a gun, just ask J Lo, that's why she dumped his no-talent ass. So all that hoopla about young voters voting didn't amount to jack squat. How funny. Here's another fun fact about the election. On another exit poll question, it asked if you like the person you voted for. The majority of the voters who voted for Bush, voted for him because they LIKE Bush. But an even GREATER majority of voters who voted for Kerry, voted for him because they DISLIKE Bush. Know what this means, nobody likes Kerry! And for him to say that he will still fight for "us", wtf? The fight's over dude. You lost to Bush. Think about that, all you hear in the media is how much Bush sucks, and you couldn't even beat the guy. Not to mention the majority of the House, the Senate AND the majority of governors in America are now all Republican. What fight is left to fight, and what chance in hell do you have the against insurmountable odds? And why is it that in EVERY election, the majority of people who did NOT graduate high school always vote Democratic? Don't believe me? Look up the numbers...I did...and it's absolutely hysterical! (If I pissed anyone of by these comments, remember this...it is MY opinion, and every person has a right to their own. I didn't force you to read this, so if you don't like it, you can kiss my black ass!)

10/21/04 -- Took my first Microsoft test today. At first, I didn’t think I would pass, I got 60% on the final that was a practice test of the real thing, but I thought, what the hell, just go for it. I’ve spent about an entire week studying for this. Every waking moment besides school, I’ve been studying for this test. Reviewed the book from class, read an exam cram book, went thru all 114 pages of the test king, and read a study guide from my teacher that was 56 pages long. Well, either I got lucky or I’m damn good. I’d like to think I’m damn good. Not only did I pass the test, I almost got damn near perfect! My score was 919 out of 1000 points. My teacher said with a score like that, I probably missed 2 questions out of the 50 questions for the test. Boo ya! So now say hello to the new Microsoft Certified Professional. One down, six to go…bring it

10/17/04 -- What a tough weekend. I have the final for my Windows 2000 Professional class on Tuesday. I also scheduled my first Microsoft certification test for Thursday morning. I got an extra study guide for the class, and I have been reading it all weekend. I want to have it finished by tonite, and spend all day tomorrow going over sample study questions. Then I will be well prepared for the final on Tuesday. Then have a few days to cram some more and take the dreaded Microsoft test. The Microsoft test cost $125, and if you don't know, you pay up front, and it don't matter if you pass or fail, you don't get that money back either way. So I hope to God I pass this sucka the first time. I am pretty confident I will though, and my teacher thinks I will too, so I think I should do fine. If I do pass, I will then have 6 more Microsoft tests to pass to get my certification. And all those tests are the same, $125 if I pass or fail. I still got to get my Cisco certification and sometime finally pick up my A+ certification as well. But I think after this first test on Thursday, I will have an idea what they are like and can plan accordingly. I hear the first one's a pain, but I'm usually good in taking tests, so wish me luck!

10/11/04 -- Another long weekend, been too busy to update this most righteous website. School's getting tougher, it's almost guaranteed that I will have 2 tests per week. We are going so fast in the books, we test all the time. But I had a nice weekend. Went to that new Jordan's Crack Mall in WDSM today. What a dump! hehehe I think its almost too nice for WDSM. I'd say about 80% of the shops in there I've never heard of, mostly women's clothing stores anyways. They even got valet parking for the place, not to mention a squad of trash collectors constantly combing for garbage in the parking lots. It is pretty big in size, and I hear the theatre there is huge as well. After 2 hours walking around that place, I ended up going to across the way to Old Navy to buy clothes. Some of the shops in and around the mall aren't even open yet. I'd thought it would be more like the Mall Of America, it could be big enough to be, but there was no rides, waterslides, or nothing fun inside the mall besides an elevator. That's Iowa for ya, still lame.

10/03/04 -- What a long weekend. On Friday, I had a bee guy come out and take care of those little bastards. It only took him 15 minutes to do, and he only charged $40 compared to $130 that the others guys wanted. He showed me the nest afterwards, and I could see the baby bees inside the cells wiggling around, looking like maggots, it was gross. Saturday spent all day roofing that last garage with Dad. Saturday night, Dan and I went out and had one hell of a time. He didn't have any money, so I had to spot him all night. I spent about $100 that night, ouch. This morning I woke up at Dan's hungover as hell, and drove home. I got about 2 miles from my house, and my car was chugging and I knew I was almost out of gas. I just wanted to get home and back to bed, so I kept driving. I got stuck at the red light on Park, and I think thats what stopped me from getting home. A couple blocks later, my car died, and I coasted into a parking lot and had to walk the 2 blocks home. That sucked. After I slept for about 4 hours, my headache was gone, but I've been so out of it today. Finished the garage at Dad's, and that's the last project he needed help with. So now I have my weekends back. I also finally got service pack 2 installed on my XP box. It was a pain though, took about 3 times to get it, and then it kind of froze up on the reboot, but it's working now and everything is OK. I had a list of things to do before I installed it, and that took all day. I decided to defrag because I think the last time I did that was last year, check this out to see how bad my main drive was! Oh, and I also took a picture of my current computer setup, check out the pic here.

09/26/04 -- Got up at 7am, and tried taking out the bees. We found out soon that the vacuum idea didn't work, we only got like 5 bees out with the vacuum. So then we got the bee spray and sprayed a whole can of it into the hole, while Steve was in the basement spraying a whole can of it on their hive. He said the entire thing was soaked with poison, and I put a whole can of it directly into their nest. Once that was done, we didnt see any bees coming out, and the few that were trying to be back in didn't want to go back in. So it looks like we killed them! I then spent the entire day at Dad's putting a new roof on his girlfriend's daughter's garage. After we took the old roofing off, we realized that the boards underneath were all crap, so we took all those off. Then we realized that the rafter beams were also crap too! I said to tear it down and build a new one, but he couldn't afford it right now. So we had to get some new supplies, put up some new rafters, and lay down a new roof to it. This took all day, and god was I tired. It looked like there was some kind of fire damage inside the garage, and half the garage was rotted out. So next weekend, if the other side of the garage roof is OK, like we hope, then I will help out roof the entire garage, so that should take 2 days max. I just hope this is it, because every weekend I've been over there helping, and not getting shit for sleep. Last night when I came home from Dad's, I showered and hit the sack at 7:30, and woke up at 9:30 the next morning! That's 14 hours of sleep! But I needed it.

09/25/04 -- Went to the Computer Sale that was in Ankeny today at 9am. Ended up getting a computer system, a P3 500MHz, 128MB RAM, 17GB Hard Drive, video, sound, and network cards along with a 17" monitor. Dan said he wanted a 17" monitor and I'd rather have a small monitor, a 15", so I stopped by his place and traded monitors with him. Was at Dad's helping him move his stuff out of a storage lot into his new shed, and that drained me. His girlfriend's daughter wants her garage roof redone, so I said I would help out, but we decided to start that tomorrow, so tomorrow will be another long day for me. So when I got home, I got to play with my new toy. It's an upgrade for my spare PC. Took parts out of the old one, put them into the new one, and I'm still configuring it and stuff. I plan on using it for DVD ripping, downloading movies, and burning CDs. Now I need to get a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive to stick into it. It is a crappy Compaq though, but after installing Windows 2000 Pro on it, it seems to be running quite nicely, and it's fast with that OS too! I did get to borrow Dad's WetVac, so hopefully tonight, Steve and I can get Operation Bee Killer ready to go. We need to seal up some holes first, and then place the make-shift funnel I made from a 2-liter bottle over the bee hole. Then tomorrow morning, the sucking will begin! My plan is to suck as many bees as we can out of their nest for about 10-15 minutes, kill off the ones in the vacuum by poision overdose, kill any bees left inside by poision too, and hopefully that should be it. Then when all of them are dead, we will need to crawl back in that ungodly crawlspace and take out the nest, and seal the hole from the outside. I've been making a master plan for this for quite awhile, and I think I have all loose ends covered. If it does get ugly, and say bees start swarming inside the house, we can leave the house for some time since it will be early. I just hope to god I don't have to go to school on Tuesday, and have my face all swollen from bee stings, god would that suck. Wish me luck!

 
09/23/04 -- Bee very quiet! Well tonight, after I got home from Dan's to check out the new Star Wars Battlefront game, I talked to Steve and Mom about the bees, and decided to go and take a look for myself. Earlier today, I was watching the hole outside the house where the bees were going in, and within 30 seconds, I counted at least 50 bees, so I knew this would be bad. I went downstairs to the crawl space under the kitchen to see the hive. There is a big board loosely nailed up to cover the hole. I tugged on it a few times, and realized I needed a hammer. So for fun, I ran upstairs as quickly as I could and screamed, "Run for your lives!!!" Steve and Mom's heart stopped, it was funny. So I grabbed a couple hammers and went back to their underground lair. I had a heck of a time getting the last nail off the board, it was tiny, and the whole time I was nervous as hell, and was sweating buckets. I finally got the board off the wall, and grabbed the treble light to look into the darkness. I don't see much at first, but then I froze in place. In the very corner of the crawl space I see the nest. This nest is about a foot and a half wide, about a foot tall, and about 3 feet deep, had a rectanglar shape to it. Covered on the outside of the nest was about 100 bees sleeping. I knew this was bad, very bad. I took a picture of it too, and I'll post it whenever the film gets developed. I got Steve and Mom to come down and look and we all knew that this isn't something we can fix ourselves. I carefully put the board back in place, and stuffed towels and blankets in all the cracks and gaps around the board. It's not completely airtight, but it is now a lot better than it was. Tomorrow I need to call some exterminators to get an estimate on this. I got a feeling it won't be cheap. But I know if we have a guy come out to get rid of it, he's going to have to crawl his ass back in the hole and take the nest out throw the house. It's not going to be pretty. In the meantime, I'm going to look up some info about doing it myself. A "how-to" when it comes to bee nests...that are inside your house...in the worst place possible...and also being outnumbered about 500 to 1. (gulp!)

09/22/04 -- I finally got all songs up to 2003 in my ever expanding music collection. This is where I wanted to stop when I started, but I think I need some more songs. I definately want to get the 60's, but I also decided to go and get the 50's as well. So here I am, trying to find songs for 1950, they are few and far between because it was so long ago, and most people don't listen to music that old nowadays. But maybe this is a good thing, all early 50's songs will sound like 40's songs. But for the 50's and 60's, you will have a lot of oldies songs, the good ones. But the part I'm most excited about is getting classic rock from the late 60's. And some of that hippy music is kinda cool too, the music during the Vietnam war. So now I have 20 years left of music to get, and when that's done, I'll have the majority of my collection complete. It will continue on through the years of course, but it would then be mostly new music or those few songs from the past that I don't have. So this is now the last leg of my collection.

09/20/04 -- Ah, money. Finally cashed my financial aid check and did a bit of shopping. Got some computer parts I've been needing, and filled my printer up with ink. I spent most of today printing labels for my CDs, so much so that I almost used up an entire color ink cartridge in one day! But I bought two color ones, so I'm good. For the past month, there have been bees in my house. Somehow they are coming in and they get stuck inside. I usually find dead ones on the floor or window sill, or some very weak live ones trying to fly but they can't get off the ground. Gizmo will sit and watch them sputter out till they die, I think he's a bored cat. But yesterday, there was one in the basement, and it was flying around, it must have just recently got inside. Steve saw it and told me to watch out because of it, but I said I wasn't scared, I've killed like 100 of them so far, and besides, they are honey bees (I think), so nothing to worry about. I felt the bee buzz by my head and then felt it brush my arm. I was standing there holding my coffee when bam, that little bastard stung me in my right forearm. I screamed out about every word in the book, spilled half my coffee on the floor, (which was a LOT since I drink coffee from 32oz cups), and when I looked down, he was already gone. I did find him later and squashed his evil little heart out, but damn that hurt! I think the last time I was stung, I was like 8 years old or something. I got stung on the bottom of my heel and I cried for awhile. Didn't cry this time though, honest. I remember feeling its stinger slide into my arm, felt like a brief pince, then a overwhelming heat and pressure feeling in my arm when he squirted his poison ass juice in me. I would compare it to this...imagine someone getting a Phillips screwdriver, heating it up with a blow torch till it was orange hot, then stabbing it into your arm. It was very painful, and it's still red today and itches like a mo fo. Maybe I'll just cut that arm off so it won't hurt anymore...

09/18/04 -- Well, poker night came, and poker night left. It was kind of funny, Eric and I both went all in on one hand, and we got caught up in Sarah's sister's bluff, and lost. But it was a fun night anyways. I got some sun today working at my Dad's roofing his new shed. I have to go back tomorrow all day, and probably again next weekend. Then when it's over, I'll get a nice check for all my hard work! I also got my financial aid check on Friday, can't wait to cash it and go shopping. I have a long list of stuff I need and want. So I'm going to get some nice goodies with this money. Probably the most exciting thing I will be buying is this new DVD player that plays DivX movies and just about everything else under the sun, including DVD's of course. You can see this cool contraption here. It also plays DVD's from any region, so then I also plan on finally getting 2 DVD's I've been wanting for the longest time, The Best of Trigger Happy TV. They used to show it on Comedy Central, and I'm not sure if they do anymore, I don't get Comedy Central at the present time. It's a hidden camera show where this English guy goes around and plays the funniest pranks on people. Every show I've seen, before the show was over, my sides would be hurting from laughing so much. It has to be one of the funniest shows I've EVER seen. (And I'm talking about seasons 1 & 2, with Dom Joly in England, not season 3 with these new people here in the states, they are awful!) The thing is, they are only sold in England, and the DVD's are in PAL format, unlike the NTSC format here in America. So not only do I have to pay in Euros, (a credit card will take care of that), but I have to have a special DVD player to watch them too. But this fancy DivX DVD player will play them, and all my other 400+ movies I have as well. Boy is this going to be fun!

09/14/04 -- This morning was the Microsoft meeting, and it was pretty interesting. The speaker showed us a couple new programs that Microsoft is coming out with and what you can do with it. He was interesting, but it was hard to stay awake because it was 8am, and the meeting was in a movie theatre, and the comfy seats made it easy to pass out. We got a "continental breakfast", and also some Microsoft pens and notepads. At the end of the meeting, we finally got what we all came for, free goodies. We all got a Microsoft t-shirt, and 3 CDs with 'evaluation' software on it. Two were of the programs he discussed and the other one was some kind of audio CD about something stupid, it went right to the trash, but I kept the cool plastic cover it came in. After that, some guys and I took a long lunch, and proceeded to Cisco class late, but not late enough, I almost feel asleep in there too! After this long day, I also helped out Dan with his bathroom project. It's getting closer to done, but we hope to make it look nicer before our Poker night this Friday night when lots of people will be there. I'm hoping my almighty bluff skills will rake in some cash for me, even though I don't really need the cash now, it's just fun to see people loose their money to a bloke like me, hehehe.

09/13/04 -- Onto the 3rd week of school out of 12 weeks, I think. Haven't had much time nor energy to update this site much, even though there are just a few things left that I'd like to do to it for now. I'd really like to get my own domain name and make that look all nice and spiffy, but I doubt I will have much time for it. I made some money over the weekend helping my dad put together this giant shed he's been working on. He said if I help a few more weekends, he'll hook me up with more money. This is good, because now I have plenty of money to get me thru till I get my financial aid check sometime this week. Oh, and tomorrow morning there is a Microsoft seminar, and our class is going to it. I've heard they can be either interesting or boring, but the main reason people go to it is because 9 times out of 10 you get something free at the end of it. Could be some neat stuff, t-shirts, or the main thing, software. I have to be at the meeting instead of class, but the teacher will take role there, so he knows who shows up. I'll let ya know what free goodies I get. Click here to see my new desktop picture.

09/06/04 -- Last day of this long 4-day weekend. But I think I'm going to like them! Gives me more time to goof off and postpone homework! I finally hit my 5,000 songs mark today, and I'm on my last year before I travel back to the 60's! Groovy! Oh, I also heard something on the news today that there might even be a THIRD hurricane coming towards Florida some time soon, THREE! My friend Sarah lives there, and I would think after 2 hurricanes within a few months, I'd be packing my bags and getting the hell outta that state, geesh!

09/05/04 -- A 4-day weekend is VERY long, that's more than half the week! I have plenty of time to get extra stuff done, and I can take my time on my homework. I've been trying to expand my software collection and been burnin' off lots of CDs. I found something that I needed and a lot of guys in my class need also, so I made a few copies and I'll try to make a few bucks from selling them too. My financial aid check doesn't get mailed to next week, so I gotta scrap together money till then, then I'm rich! Or at least till I blow my money on junk, hehehe.

09/03/04 -- First week of school is done. I got all my classes starting at 8am, and it's very tough for me to have to get up that early, I never get up that early. But I think I'm starting to get used to it. Even though on T/Th I have school for 8 hours, I will always have a 4-day weekend, and you cannot complain about that at all. And I know you're jealous, but don't be hatin'. Speaking of jealous, I got an invite from a friend at school to get a gMail account. It's Google's new thing they are coming out with. They give you an entire GIG of space for your mail, so, according to them, you never have to delete mail ever again. It's still in beta mode, and the only way to get an account is to get invited from a friend. So someday it will come out so anyone can get an account, but I have no idea when that will be. But it's got some nice features to it, and I'm excited about having it.

08/29/04 -- Am I still alive? Click here to read about my trip to the Projekt Revolution concert.

08/27/04 -- Dan and I have been checking out hosting companies and their prices all week. We both are thinking of buying our own domain names and putting a bunch of junk on our sites. I have came down to two companies, and with the money I'll get from financial aid, I think I will go ahead and pay for a year or two of service up front. So then I will be able to do a lot more with my web site, and have a lot more cooler features than what I can with Mediacom's 10Mb free space. I'm thinking about buying up djdingo.com
Also, Dan and I leave for the Projekt Revolution Tour tomorrow morning at 9am to head up to Somerset, WI to see Snoop Dogg, Korn, Linkin Park, and others in concert. It is going to be a great time.

08/26/04 -- I've just been getting answers from my team members about the contest today, and I also spent a lot of time finding answers as well. I now have about 70 of the questions answered. I would just have today and tomorrow free, since Saturday I will be going to the Projekt Revolution Tour in Wisconsin with Dan. Then on Tuesday, Fall Semester 2004 starts, and that's going to be a long day. I have class from 8am till 4pm, and I still need my books for my last class. I called DMACC today and asked if they had them in. For this Cisco 3 class, I should have to get 3 books, a textbook, a lab book, and a workbook. They told me that they just had 1 book in. So instead of waking up and getting to the bookstore at 7:30am tomorrow, to avoid the rush, I'm just going to do it after I have the class. Hopefully the teacher's not an ass and makes us start reading in class. I hate it when the teacher expects you to have books for the first class, and if you don't you get a mark against you. I'll take my chances. Cisco books are terribly written and are full of typos. Another semester of trying to learn from incorrect information. Damn you Cisco...

08/25/04 -- Last day of Jury Duty, read my conclusion to my Jury Duty adventure here Other than that, I received a new contest in the mail from Marlboro, and its grand prize is $1,000,000. All I have to do is pick 3 other team members, get all the registration information sent in to them, then later send in all the answers to the questions. They send me a small book with 100 clues in it and our job is to find the answers to each one. The questions are very difficult, but I figured for a million bucks they better be. But with the team I have chosen, and the skills of my team, I feel we might have a fighting chance on this one. If we are one of the top 20 teams, we get to spend a week at one of their ranches. Jeremy found a website that tells about this guy's fun he had at one of their ranches in the past, read about it here. It would be a 4-day, 3-night trip to one of their ranches probably in Montana sometime in the summer of 2005. Then at the end of that trip, they would name off the team that wins the million dollars. Since there are 4 people in a team, each person would win a lump sum check for $250,000 right there on the spot. So for a team, I got my friends Mike from Des Moines, Jeremy from California, and Sarah from Florida. With all our expertise, I believe this is the greatest team every assembled since the Powerpuff Girls. hehehe

08/24/04 -- Not much went on today, updated my Jury Duty page about today's events.

08/23/04 -- First day of Jury Duty, to read my adventures on my new Jury Duty page.

08/22/04 -- Got up super early today to help Steve paint his sister's house. I wouldn't of done it, especially this early, but he said I'd get paid $100, so I said how many coats? I really needed the money for my concert this coming Saturday. (I'm a poor college kid, remember?) It's gonna be an awesome time, and it will be my last out-of-town party before school starts up again the following Monday. So after 8 1/2 hours of painting, I got my $100. We still didn't get it all done though, have to go back in a couple days and finish the trim, about 2 hours work probably. But when I was done, I was sweaty, tired, and covered in dried brown paint. I spent the entire day on the East side of Des Moines, and I didn't get shot, damn...so now I can't use "dead" as an excuse for my dreaded jury duty tomorrow morning at 8am. Speaking of, here I am again, 1:30am, jury duty in 6 1/2 hours, and I'm updating my f***in' website! I was trying to think of an excuse for jury duty, and this ran thru my mind. The jail is right next door to the courthouse, so I could run over there before jury duty, and it would go something like this...
Cop at front counter behind bullet-proof glass -- "Can I help you?"
ME -- (looking around) "Ya, I'm trying to find your gift shop"
Cop -- (confused) "Excuse me?!?"
ME -- "What I need is one of those orange jumpsuits, but I don't want to get arrested just to get one"
Cop -- (even more confused and growing angry) "HUH??"
ME -- "OK, to be honest, I got jury duty next door in about 5 minutes, I don't want to do it, and I'm trying to come up with a good excuse to get out of it." (me starting to laugh) "Just imagine the judge's face when he see's an 'escaped convict' sitting in the jury box!"
Cop -- (PISSED) "You have 5 seconds to get the hell out of here before you are arrested for lewd behavior and misconduct!!!"
ME -- (looking at my watch) "5...4...3...2..." (I run like hell for the door)
THE END

08/21/04 -- Well, got up early and went to DMACC today to get my books. They had books for 2 classes but not the third. So guess who gets to go and wait in that long ass line when school starts just for one book? ME. grrr...BUT, here's the good news for today. On the way home, I heard on the radio station that they were giving away Linkin Park tickets to a concert, and I thought that would be a lot of fun to win. So when I got home, I listened to the radio waiting for them to say when to call in, and I thought I missed it. Then they told us to call in, so I got on the phone, hitting the redial button. I had to be caller 13 to win. I got through right away, but they hung up on me! I counted how many times I called, was going to stop at 15, but when I was on number 8, some guy answered, and asked me a bunch of questions about myself. Then guess what, I WON! Only possible problems are that I have to pick up the tickets this Wednesday, and I got jury duty next week, so hopefully I can do that. And the tickets are for a concert in Somerset, Wisconsin next Saturday. I got to find someone to go up there with, but I really don't think that will be a problem. Oh, and I recorded my victory over the radio, and you can hear it too! Click here. (Right-click and Save Target As..., then listen after a short download)

08/20/04 -- Worked a lot on this site today. Added some new stuff to it, to the Stats page and extra pages on the Interests page. Now you can read about me and what I do. Sounds exciting, eh? hehehe. I got to get up super early tomorrow, because that will be the only time I can go and get my books before school starts. The bookstore is open from 8am-noon tomorrow, so it will be a stretch for me, because I've been waking up at around 1pm most of the week. Why so late? Because I'm on vacation, so get off my back. My classes for next semester all start at 8am, but I will have 4-day weekends!

08/19/04 -- Trying to get some stuff done around here before I got damn jury duty next week, and school start's up again the week after. Been pounding away on my music collectin' adventure. I just started 1999, and have over 4,600 songs now. I want to get as much of this done while I'm on my vacation. I don't know if I've been listening to too much music or had it too loud, but my left ear's kinda hurts. I also got my report card today, and I was right, another 4.0. Kind of an easy semester. I think I'll be lucky if I get Dean's List next semester, tough classes. One of the classes next semester is 5 credits! But anyways...Here's a weird picture to look at.

08/18/04 -- Well after dinking around with stuff all day, I found out that my router is shitty, my other 20Gb hard drive is probably safe to refer as "dead", and wireless networking isn't all it's cracked up to be. Here's a screenshot of my fun and wacky hard drive, here. Other than that, a pretty dull day. Here's my cool pic for the day, click me

08/17/04 -- Tonight I decided to dink around with my home computer network and my router. The wireless router I bought from Dan, 2 of the ports in the back are dead. Thanks for the junk Dan! hehe But he knows about it. I've had this problem for quite sometime, ever since I got it about a year ago. I should just get a switch or a hub, but can't afford it right now. (I'm a poor college kid remember?) So just for the hell of it, I decided to give Linksys a phone call to see if this is something that is fixable, or something in my options isn't enabled or something. So I call up their tech support, and when I get to a person, it's some Indian guy that I can barely understand him say his own name, so I hang up and decide to call back to get someone else. It wasn't until I just hung up that I realized that Linksys's tech support IS probably in India, since outsourcing is the "in" thing to do nowadays. So when I call back and get someone else, this time it's an Indian woman, and she was even MORE difficult to understand than the first guy. God, you need a translator to call customer service anymore. But after a lot of "what was that?", "come again", and "I don't understand you", she basically said it got fried by lightening or some other act of God, or Buddha or whatever she said, I didn't really catch it. So now it's 12:30am, and I'm gonna give my wireless another go to see if I can connect 3 PCs at the same time to the Internet.

08/16/04 -- After staying up all night Thursday night, and working 9 hours outside on a shed on Friday, I slept away most of the weekend. Today is the dreaded day for Jury Duty. I have to be there at 8am this morning. It came down to getting less than 5 hours of sleep, or saying screw it and stay up all night, so I know there's no way I'll miss it or be late. I picked the 2nd choice, and I knew I would end up staying up all night the night of Jury Duty. This sucks...I gotta go into f***in' jury duty, what a joke. I thought I was smarter than this. I guess I shouldn't give up all hope just yet, I haven't been there yet. I just hope I get in there, get told to go home, and be back in bed within the hour. Ya right, but it's wishful thinking. But whatever happens, I'll keep this posted. UPDATE, passed out at 4:30am, had alarm set for 6:30am, slept right thru it. Got up at 11:30am. Called jury duty, lady said that she'll just have me come in next week since I overslept. On the good side, if I get picked for a case, I have less than a week now to do it because school starts the following week. On the bad side, I just realized that next week is the week I need to get my books for school. Ah well, if I have no time next week to get them, I can still get them the first week of school. Argh... My current desktop background pic

08/12/04 -- OMG!!! This is hilarious! I just did this, and I should be sleeping because I told my Dad I would help out roofing a shed tomorrow at 9am, but I gotta write this out before I forget it. Ok, its 1:30am, I'm tired but not that tired, flipping channels, and I come across this home shopping network-like channel, that sells artwork late at night. Sometimes I'll hover on the channel, because it is completely lame hearing the guy try to sell it. Most of the time he just says, what a great price! But when I ran across this channel, I had to stop. For $99, they were selling a brown cardboard tube with a white sign on the side that read 'Barry's Mystery Tube!'. I couldn't believe it. WTF? Who would buy such garbage? I wanted to call them up and say, "Are you f***in' serious?" It was just that lame guy again trying to sell this garbage, and it was quiet on the set, and you could hear a phone ring every now and then. So I decided to call, and hang up after one ring. So I did. And I could totally hear their phone ring once, and that was it! I was like, whoa, that's kinda cool, live TV and I just made their phone ring, I'll do it again. So I did this about 10 or 12 times in a row, call, let ring once, then hang up and repeat the process. I could hear, live on air, their phone ring, and stop. I thought this was hilarious. Again, its 1:30am, and I should be sleeping. Then the guy says, "I think something is wrong with our phone system, are we having problems? Barry, do you know how to reboot the system? Sorry folks, I think we might have to reboot our phone system, we are having some problems with it. I told you people would go crazy over this piece of artwork! (then laughs sarcastically)" When this lamer said all this, I lost it, it totally made my day. By me calling and hanging up after one ring, they thought they had phone problems. Eventually he said, "Oh wait, it seems like our phones are OK after all". God that was fun, I'll have to do it again sometime. Maybe next time I'll see if I can talk live on the air! LOL

08/11/04 -- Summer 2004 semester DONE. Both written tests I had for both classes were really easy for me, but I know I didn't get perfect. But from what I've heard, as long as you passed the projects, you were guaranteed an A, so I should get another 4.0 this semester. I had to be in early this morning, but I couldn't sleep, so I just stayed up all night. It only took me 15 minutes to take today's test, when it takes me a 1/2 hour to get there! Oh well, I'm now done with school for 2 and 1/2 weeks. Gotta call the courthouse this Friday to see if they still want me to come in next Monday for Jury Duty. I got a feeling I'm gonna get outta all that junk. I had a great idea today. If I somehow got my hands on one of those orange jumpsuits that they make the people in jail wear, and wear that to jury duty, that would be hilarious! But then again, they might think I've escaped, and beat me and put me behind bars. Cops gotta ruin all my fun.

08/10/04 -- I made it to 1995 in my collection today. I now have 10 years left of music for my impressive collection. I am still contemplating whether to get the 60's or 50's after I get up to 2004. I think I might get the 60's, since there is a lot of good music during that decade, a lot of classic rock. But the 50's...I would think its all sock-hop kind of music, stuff I wouldn't enjoy having nor listening to. I think the 60's will be it. After that is all said and done, I will have 44 years of music, damn! Someday, I'd like to throw together a spare computer, and make it a jukebox, and hook it up to a nice stereo system. My friend Dan has a nice setup at his place. He has an old Gateway Destination monitor, which is something like 30", freggin' huge, and he's got it hooked up to a spare PC with a TV tuner card in it. So now he can use that huge monitor for a TV, and with the DVD-ROM in the PC, its also a DVD player. I suggested he put in a large hard drive, and also make it a jukebox as well, since it's already hooked up to his stereo. It would be a all-in-one digital entertainment system. I got this feeling, that when I get done with college and buy my own house, my house will have PCs everywhere in the house. Lots of spare PCs setting around the house doing little extra things, like one for an entertainment center, maybe one for security, and I also want one for my digital picture frame, which I got the idea here. Someday, then I'll have the coolest house on the block.

08/09/04 -- Took my Linux written test today, very simple. Was only in class for 20 minutes today. Have to take my Network Apps written test on Wednesday, probably be same thing, in and out quickly.

08/08/04 -- Last day of my 4-day weekend. Played Poker at Dan's on Friday night, luck wasn't on my side again, I was the first one to bust! But it was a good time. Been mostly relaxing all weekend. I have my Linux written test tomorrow at 12:30pm. Then my Network Applications written test is on Wednesday, and that is it for this semester. I tried studying over my notes, but there isn't much to study, so I hope its a gravy test. But on NEXT Monday, the 16th, I got the dreaded Jury Duty. Hopefully I get out of that right away.

08/05/04 -- Ah, first day of my 4-day weekend. Completed Doom 3 tonight, only took me 5 days. Going to play poker at Dan's house tomorrow night with some friends. I did pretty well last time, was leading for the longest time, until I kept pushing my luck and ended up without any chips. But I paid a lot of attention reading them last time, so I think this time I will dominate again. I read somewhere once, Poker is not about the cards, but the people you play with, and how well you can read them. Last time I played I'd bluff till the very end, and everyone bailed out, and I didn't have squat for a hand. hehehe. Damn, I'm good.

08/04/04 -- i did it. I Did it. I DID IT!!! I'm the luckiest SOB right now. With the forces that were facing against me, I conquered above all. Today was it. This was the day that I just HAD to get both my projects DONE in order to get a 4.0 this semester AND pass the class. The day started out very bad, woke up at 9:30am, the time I have to LEAVE for school. I jumped in the shower and left at 9:45am. Usually when we have big tests, the teacher will lock the door when class begins, and if you're late, too bad for you. I get to school at 10:10, (10 minutes late), but lucky me the door is wide open. I guess some guys haven't finished their previous class's test, so he left the door open for them. LUCKY ME. I jump right into it and start working on what I think is wrong. By time noon comes for lunch, I'm still stuck where I was and now nothing wants to work. I was this close to giving up. But then I got a hint from someone saying something I should check, I thought it wouldn't fix my problem, so after lunch, I tried it, and behold, it worked! LUCKY ME. But then 2 other things didn't want to work for some unknown stupid reason. I tried EVERYTHING, and even got the teacher to check out the weird error message. He couldn't explain it either. I could do it one way but not the way he really wanted us to. I convinced him that this error message was crazy, and my attempts were close enough, and he gave it to me. LUCKY ME. So with that out of the way, I now have 15 minutes till my next class started, and I would have an hour and a half to finish that project. No sweat I thought, I wrote it at home. But then again, nothing wanted to work. After spending 45 minutes getting everything back to where it was, the program I wrote still didn't work. It was a bit later when I realized since I wrote it on my Windows machine, it wouldn't run right under Linux. I had a friend help me convert it over, but then I still had one little problem. So then me and both my teachers looked at it, and we couldn't figure it out. Then, with barely anytime left, I realized I was missing some things in it, added them really quick, and behold, it worked. LUCKY ME. Now only me and another guy in my class got the project done. Everyone else was working on a test that they got to redo that we did a few months back, one I BARELY got done in the nick of time myself. So it looks like I'm set for A's, and just have 2 written tests next week to take, but those should be cake. THANK GOD. Now I have a 4-day weekend. Plenty of time for my precious Doom 3. Another screenshot here, this the last guy?

08/03/04 -- Tomorrow is it, well not really. I did go over what I did and I think I found a few errors. So I got those marked ready to check out first thing on Wednesday. But after thinking about things, my Linux project is due at the end of tomorrow, while my Network App's project isn't due till Friday. Sure it would be nice to have a 4-day weekend, but I don't think there's as much pressure as I think. It would be great if I went into class tomorrow at 9am and was done and left by 10am. So what I did pretty much today was look over my projects for class, downloaded songs for 1993, and of course, Doom 3.

08/02/04 -- What a stressful day! This week starts my hands-on evaluations in my classes, and they are just a pain in the arse. In my first class, we worked from 10am to 3pm, with an hour lunch, non-stop trying to get our project done. I would of been the first one done, but I'm having problems with the simplest stuff, so I am just THIS close. Then in my 2nd class, we have to write a short program for our project, and I haven't started, and no one else has, and it's due at the end of class THIS Wednesday. I don't think many people will get it done. So with all of that to do, I think that in order to get a 4.0 this semester and get on the President's list again, I would first have to get my first class project done EARLY on Wednesday morning, then once that's out of the way, I can then work on my program for my 2nd class with the time I have left in my first class. So I was really stressing today. But after I got home, I worked on some things, and I think that I might have found the problem with the first class project, and I pretty much wrote out the program for the 2nd class project, but who knows if it works yet. So if everything goes into plan on Wednesday, I'll get an A in both class projects and be above the rest of the class AND won't have to come to school till Monday. That would be a 4-day weekend. Awww yeah!

08/01/04 -- Did you know Doom 3 comes out this Tuesday? I knew it was soon, but I didn't know it was THIS soon. But, lucky me, I got it today. All I gotta say is I got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it, well, you get the idea. And YES, it's kickass and not to mention scarier than hell! There were a lot of times I jumped out of my seat when something would jump out at me. So far it's a lot of wondering around inside buildings in the dark, trying to see with your flashlight, and being able to pick off the monsters as soon as they see you. Really fun though. See the screenshot I took of a lot of blood here.

07/29/04 -- Oh, and if I haven't said this before, DMACC administration sucks all that can be sucked. Talk about a bunch of monkeys working there! I got something the other day asking for payment because DMACC thinks I'm leaving school this August. I don't know where they got that date from, even though I'm scheduled for class next semester, and have all my financial aid done for next year as well. So I call up to get it fixed, no answer, got voicemail, I leave a very long voicemail, explaining everything and tell them to call me when it's fixed. I get a call yesterday from a lady asking what the problem is. I finally get ahold of her today, and she had to ask me what was wrong, somehow she got the message I called, but my 5 minute entire explanation of my problem that was also in my message, she missed. After I explained the problem AGAIN, she finally saw where it was on her computer, and then asked if I got a packet from DMACC about this. Um...YEAH, that's why I'm calling. Then she asked if there was a sheet in there that said something like if this date was incorrect I could mail it back with the correct date. I said ya I saw it in there. She said are you planning on sending that in, or do you want me to correct this over the phone? (I'll leave this one with that last sentence)

07/28/04 -- In class we are working on something called 'sendmail', and it allows you to set up an email server to run on a LAN. This sendmail is the single most complicated task we were given all semester. Everyone in class was stumped on it. Me and my friends got really close to completely it, but then we were stuck back in the beginning of it, farther away from the end. One guy in class DID get it completed, but he went back to clean up somethings, and it don't work anymore. This is super tough to set up and run. I worked on it all day, in both classes, and even for 3 hours when I got home, and I now THINK I have it working correctly. But I won't know for sure till Friday. Hope it works because then I will be the hero of the class.

07/27/04 -- Talked to the jury duty lady today. Told her the truth, hehe, and said that I am available the week of August 23rd, but I have class the next week. She said I could ask the judge to be put on a 2-day case if I got picked, I thought ya right. So then I asked her if she could put me to come in the week before, so then I'd have 2 weeks to use if I needed it. She first said it was kind of a hassle for her, but she did it. I did this because the summons says one week or one trial, so if the trial goes over a week, I should be fine, as long as it doesn't go over a third week. I'm also thinking that since it's a week early, they already have enough people to come in already, so hopefully I'll get the boot right off the bat. So August 16th at 8am, I gotta be at the courthouse. I just hope I don't fall asleep cuz I heard you could get in trouble for that. Other than that 5 days of school left then finals, and on my music project I am now on 1992, enter Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

07/25/04 -- So if you didn't know, I started a project a few months back. It first happened when I saw a infomercial on hits from the '70s. I was thinking, there are a lot of great songs in the '70s, and I'd like to get some of them. So I started looking up charts from the '70s, and decided, why stop there? So since then, I have been downloading every hit song from 1970 to the present day. I went off one list from 1970-1990, and a lot of the songs, I never heard, and I was missing a lot of the ones that I REALLY wanted. So I found another site with charts on it, and also went off their lists too. I just NOW got the 2nd list up to 1990, and I am now on 1991. Now that I look at it, I've been doing this since March this year. I'm now over halfway done, and still got a ways to go. I am pushing to get it done soon before Kazaa goes completely defunct, since that is my single source of songs. It might be a year or two before Kazaa dies though, from what I've read that is.

07/24/04 -- Been awhile since I've said anything. Still working thru school, I now have less than 3 weeks till this semester is over! And with the way things are going now, I know I will definitely make the Dean's List if not the President's List again. But I'm not looking forward to the break in between semesters. I have been finally pinned down and my do jury duty. I did have it deferred twice, but they are really breaking my balls to come in now. Earlier this year, I gave them the week of August 23rd, after the Fair and before school starts. I tried to get out of it again, but to no avail. I just hope to God I don't get picked. The summons says one week or one trial, and if I do get picked, and the case goes beyond a week, I'll be missing class, and the first days of class, not good. But from what I've read, chance is on my side, and I won't get picked in the first selection. Then I'm off the hook for now, until they want me to come in again, but what wouldn't be for at least a half a year from now. Either way, I'll have to be downtown at 8am sharp, ack!

07/06/04 -- Got a four day weekend cuz of the Fourth. Been keeping busy putting hours into Steve's website. I'd say as of right now, I'm about 90-95% done. Still need to take a few more pictures of framed pictures, and finish one last page on the site. It all played out like I thought it would. Getting the template made and the layout just the way I wanted took the longest, then once that was done, the rest was downhill.

06/24/04 -- Mediacom came today, hooked us up with the cable TV that we've been paying for the last 6 months! Grrr...But I'm happy, we now get more than 5 channels! I've been watching TV most of the day, I also get stuck on some interesting shows on the Discovery channel. I still don't get my Comedy Central, but I don't have to worry about watching new South Park's still part 2 of Season 8 starts in mid-October.

06/23/04 -- Jeremy got cute and fed me a keylogger under my nose, got my passwords, and did his dirty deeds. Luckily, I did one last check before I hit the sack, and noticed things were wrong. It took me a good 3-4 hours to get everything back to normal, and I HAD to do it tonight, so I'm getting no sleep, and I'll have to be at school all day. Thanks Jeremy! Remind me never to accept another .exe file from you again.

06/21/04 -- A bad day at school for another crappy Monday. My Linux server was acting up, so I allowed all permissions on EVERYTHING, and I guess Linux didn't like that too well. Everything ended up crashing, so I have the privilege to go into school early on Wednesday, reinstall Red Hat 9.0, and reconfigure all my previous settings/servers. Thank god it happened now, and not two months into the semester, I'd be screwed. I'm still kinda new to Linux, and you learn from your mistakes, so I'll have to remember not to do that again.