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Gone Fishing Jun. 25th, 2006 @ 10:20 pm
As most of you know by now, I will be vacationing in the East Coast for 2 weeks starting Monday. I will split my time between NYC, Baltimore, and Fairfax. I will be back in mid-July to continue occasionally updating this site.

Pictures may be posted if I can get a comp and a decent internet connection!

The Graduation BBQ Jun. 22nd, 2006 @ 11:22 pm
One week ago, Hellbunny and I threw the hottest party at the Colleges: the NEDM Summer BBQ. The premise--let's get all our friends together for one last bout of fun before the weekend of graduations.

I spent the majority of the morning shopping with Hellbunny and Damian, going to places like Costco and Longs' to get all the essential items--hot dogs, hamburgers, steak, salad, soda, and a Nintendo DS Lite for Damian. After the food was bought, we cleaned the apartments because people were told to drop by both my place and Hellbunny's place to get the food/drink they needed. I managed to clean out all the trash on my floor, and get most of the vacuumming done before my first party guest, Alex, came over. He was tired because some jackass stole his bike the previous day, and he carried all his Programming Languages books in his backpack from the labs, so all he needed was a beer and a place to sit. I gave him a can of Guinness and he was off to Hellbunny's while I finished cleaning and then headed up to Hellbunny's myself.

Because so much happened at the party, I must use Bullet Points to recount every crazy thing that happened. Without further ado, the following takes place between 4 PM and 10 PM:
* A short while after finishing his Guinness, Alex, Serg, and I had bottles of Sierra Nevada, but no one else had any beer. Fuck them, I'll sponsor them and drink a couple cans in their place.
* At this point the party moved outside, because the first batch of food was almost ready. At this point, Matt and Serg decided to have a water balloon fight on the Colleges lawn, leading to the One Rule of Combat: if you are on the lawn, and you are not the cook, you are fair game.
* Stou stops by, and the first thing he does is say hi to Damian and Hellbunny at the BBQ pit. Except Cousin Amber is at the BBQ pit, and not Hellbunny. The look on his face was priceless: he said "hey [Hellbunny]", Cousin Amber turned around, he realized his mistake, and walked off with a face that said "oh shit that's not Hellbunny".
* I got Stou a can of soda (he was working and thus could not imbibe alcohol), and everyone grabbed a plate of food and started chatting. I was standing right by Alex and Stou when they started talking about Prof. Ma of the CS Depmt's Graphics Group. The discussion turned into a Civil War, with Alex leading the "Ma Sucks!" brigade, and Stou waving the flag that said "Ma is Awesome!" Their debate boiled down to personal taste: Alex didn't like Ma's hands-off teaching style and superfluous program requirements, while Stou enjoyed learning graphics on his own and having large projects with a ton of requirements. The best exchange of the debate, which drifted into "is Ma cool or not?" went something like this:
Stou: "Can't you see Ma driving down 5th Street in an Escalade with bitches in the back seat?"
Alex: "He drives a [lame family sedan--I forget what kind of car Alex said]"
Stou takes a minute to ponder this information, then says "You may have a point."
I laughed at a lot of Stou's comments because he is a born comedian, but I felt bad because a lot of them were disparaging to Alex, and he agreed to be my roommate this fall after he moves out of Davis. I blame Sierra Nevada for making me giggly.
*After we all ate, the water balloon fight resumed, and Alex was hit enough times to make him go into Commando Mode. Imagine a John Rambo armed with water balloons instead of bullets, and you'll have a good idea of what Alex looked like. He later switched from using a ton of balloons to carrying a box full of water--a very Rambo thing to do, if you ask me.
* Somewhere around this point in time, Hellbunny became a total punk: she would throw balloons, but hide on the concrete and never allow herself to be hit in the open. After seeing her dishonorable actions, I decided to take matters into my own hands: I grabbed her around the waist, carried her onto the grass, and told everyone to take their shots now while she was pinned. She got so drenched that she went inside, changed into a swimsuit, and came back ready to settle the score with me. I had nothing to fear because she throws like a girl--she threw 4 water balloons at me, and the only one that splashed me was the balloon that bounced off my back, hit the grass and exploded. CS/Bio Dude Kareem did a better job hitting me with a balloon that just barely missed me, but I remember saying "I gave you beer, and you shot me!" Clearly, I was the only Colleges resident who had honor that night.
* Speaking of beer, Alex helped himself to another can of Guinness while I was outside, I poured a can for Kareem after he learned I had Guinness in my place, and I had a can of Boddingtons, all in the span of about 10 minutes during the water fight.
* I took a quick break from the party to drive Alex home because he didn't want to walk with all his books, and on the way back Andrew called to say he was on his way to the BBQ. By the time I got back, the water fight had ended, people were done eating, Stou had left, and Priya had arrived. Danielle (Chocoholic) came over during the water fight and spent much of her time hiding, and Dave stopped by to eat during the Alex/Stou debate. At this point people just hung out and talked, and it was all very chill.
* Serg played Blackjack with some peeps, and then he and I tried to get a big circle of Texas Hold 'Em going. When there is no betting and no one knows the rules, THE sucks. Hellbunny and I decided it was time for a colossal game of Uno, so we combined our Hello Kitty and Spider-Man decks to form UNO PRIME. Sadly, we only got around to explaining the rules behind the special Uno cards before people decided we should clean up our mess, and then people left to go home. The UNO PRIME game ended before the first card was dealt. The time is now 9:45 PM.

I checked in with Andrew around this time, and he was at Woodstock's with his crew getting ready to see Stargate. I was just about to get in the car and head downtown when I remembered I had no money, and I felt tired from the BBQ. Exhausted, I headed back to my apmt and sat in my chair, and just started to relax when MA called. She asked if I needed a ride to the movies, since I asked if she would ferry Andrew and me to Stargate if we were too drunk to stand. I said I was cool, and then asked if she wanted to play Super Mario Bros. We had talked of playing NES that weekend, but conflicting schedules prevented us from getting our SMB on. She said it sounded cool, so I grabbed the JackPack and bolted out to her place, where Priya looked at me with an expression that said "didn't I just see you somewhere?"

MA and I played some awesome SMB 3, and homegirl is wicked good at SMB 3. I mean, she plays SMB 3 the way I play Metroid Zero Mission. She knows where the location of each cannon on the World 1 Airship, and knows just where to stand so she will never get hit by anything. Dave came over around this time and got in on the SMB fun, and we used our Warp Whistles to head to World 5 after completing the first 2 worlds. I also busted out my Nintendo DS Lite and got some NSMB time in, because Priya never saw me smashing the World 1-1 flagpole with Mega Mario. After playing SMB 3 to death (losing the damn Kuribo's Shoe because of a Spiny makes you want to stop playing and cry yourself to sleep), we all watched Fun with Dick and Jane, and MA/Priya's roomie Michelle watched it with us. After the movie (which means it's now 1:00 AM) my head didn't feel too well, and MA sat with me for like a half hour while I tried to figure out what was wrong, and dangled comics in front of her.

What was wrong with me? I had a sore throat, probably brought on by allergies, but it was definitely caused by a sinus infection that left me stuffed up with an aching head. For a while I thought I had a hangover, which I quickly ruled out. And my graduation ceremony was at 3 PM that day.

Summer Tour: Wheeeee! Jun. 6th, 2006 @ 11:51 pm
So it's old news now: Metallica is back on the road on Escape from the Studio 2006, and they are commemorating the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets by playing the entire albuim in concert.

No, I don't mean they're playing the whole CD before the concert starts. I mean they're playing all 8 songs live, in order, from start to finish. We get the missing middle portion of "Battery", the full "Orion", and both taped intros to "Battery" and "Damage, Inc." And we get this every night of the tour, with a grab bag of random songs to complete the set, plus mainstays like "Fuel", "Enter Sandman", "One", "Sad But True", and "Seek and Destroy". It looks wierd, since Dream Theater already played the whole album in concert as a tribute, but it makes sense. I mean, the guys released the St. Anger Rehearsals DVD, where they were filmed playing the whole album with their live rigs. This is a band that likes to play full albums, and while it would have been "convenient" to do this during the South African leg of the Escape from the Studio Tour (shorter tour, tour occured in March, the same month Puppets was released, first time ever going to South Africa), this feels much better. Puppets was born in Europe, and the first headlining Met tour was the European Damage, Inc. tour in 1986, so it fits better. It sucks they're not going to play a Danish festival and truly bring MOP home (I think the Danish festival is Roskilde?), but the lucky fuckers who go to the Download Festival at Castle Donington and the Imola Jamming Festival will be in for a treat.

Speaking of lucky fuckers, those assholes in Berlin got to hear a new song! Yes, a brand new song was played at the Waldbuhne in Berlin, which is where Hitler used to address his generals during WWII. (A "different" history than most rock venues, but all that matters is the size of the stage when you rock, not who has been there before.) It is so new, they don't even have a title, and I'm going to return to the Metboards just to see if lyrics exist yet. I'm willing to bet that there is only one verse, or they used the lyrics from "Fuel" so no one bootlegs it.

Single and the City Jun. 5th, 2006 @ 10:45 pm
After weeks of not posting anything, this article on fark.com made me want to find the nearest LJ client and spam your friend pages again. It links to this article about perpetual singles in the Boston Globe. [The fark comments are a mixed bag of "bashing the ugly people pictured in the article" and saying "fuck yeah, women suck!!!11oneone". I don't really see the need for this article: they are writing about a surge in still-single people in Boston. This is like writing an article in a Texas paper saying "OMG!!! There is a rise in the number of Americans who are waiting til marriage to have sex!"]

As many of my friends will tell you, I should be the first person to march in support of perpetual singles. 90% of my friends/companions/acquaintances/relative have "special someones", and thus I tend to be the "extra single friend" who tags along but doesn't bring an additonal guest to the party. The news media is describing this as a change that will rock the foundations of society to its core, so why am I not saying that my stance on relationships has been vindicated, that I have found a cause worthy of my support, and that at long last I am no longer a lone voice in a chorus of smooches? Because these people are fucking nuts, and I could not disagree more with their stance on relationships.

If you are single because you prefer your own company, that's fine. If you love one-night stands and don't want to deal with the daily grind that is a coupledom, that's coo. If you hate emotional attachments and don't want to get tangled with someone, you're kinda wierd, but still not too bad. If you are super introverted and hide in your room because you don't like other people, there's still hope for you, but you're still OK. If you idolize Lone Gunmen like Jack Bauer, Samus Aran, and El Mariachi, and dream of leaping into dangerous situations alone with some guns as your only support, and kick everyone's ass in minutes, then I need to buy you a beer. But if you call people in relationships "Couplists", and make up names like "Quirkyalone, Modern Spinsters, Marriagefree, and Spinsterellas", then you have crossed the line between "single and OK with it" and "single and full of spite".

Reading the quotes from these Modern Spinsters sounded more like the soldiers of [info]childfree than someone who has a different way of life and is proud of it. You can almost see them sneering at the couple holding hands as they walk through a park, as if the icy glare of a Marriagefree would stop the couple in their tracks and split them apart like an atom in a nuclear bomb. What was once an effort to legitimize being alone has turned into a campaign to lash out at people who are better at finding dates than you, and then acting as if not having a boyfriend/girlfriend makes you superior to those who do have one. Making a cute name for yourselves like "Spinsterellas" and "Quirkyalones" is the sign that you have gone to the dark side--first you glamourize your difference from the status quo, and next thing you know you're thinking that your shit doesn't stink cuz you're part of a group with a funky name. What caused their love to turn to hate? Let's see:

1) They are ugly--you'd be surprised how many unattractive people have turned their lot in life into a means of empowerment, which sometimes turns into disdain for people who can't see "the real, beautiful you" hidden in 200 pounds of fat, or behind a face that hit every twig on the Ugly Tree.

2) They were hurt by past loves--there are many reasons why a relationship is unhealthy: abuse, adultery, and unhealthy fixations are some of the prominent examples. If you were hurt once by a past relationship, the only way to overcome the fear/disdain you have for your sexually preferred gender is to get back out there and try to find someone better, a task made easier because almost anyone will be "better". If you are drawn to people who are bad news, and can only feel attracted to these people, then you're doing yourself a favor by staying out of the dating pool and being bitter.

3) They are jealous--sometimes, if you can't have it, and you really want it, the only way to stop wanting it is to hate it and thus not want it. Ever wanted a nice pair of pants that you could not afford? Did you start hating that line of clothing, and the people who buy it, as a Freudian way of not liking it anymore? If you don't want to say, it's alright--we already know who you are.

4) They are incapable of keeping partners--maybe you're very good at repelling people because you are needy and scare away first dates with talk of your wedding date the following year. Maybe you talk about your one hobby incessantly and find it impossible to connect with anyone because your hobby gets in the way. Or maybe you are a world class bitch/asshole, and no one asks you to go to the pub anymore. Why hate other people who figured out their issues and got over them?

5) They are waiting for perfection--the Globe article mentions the end of the "loveless marriage" and the belief in soulmates as a reason why these people do not date. Many of the interviewed singles mentioned the desire to stay single until they find The Super-Right Guy/Girl, the one they've dreamed about since childhood. If you find that the people around aren't "attractive", then either your standards are so high that you are waiting for a gymnast doctor with a PhD will knock on your door, or you have yet to find your "type", the set of traits that make your brain release every attraction hormone in the books and make you turn to mush. Either way, you will wait your whole life time waiting for your personal Godot.

There is a spectrum of human attachment: on one end is the person who so desperately needs another person that they cannot stand the thought of being alone for any period of time. That attitude isn't healthy, but neither is wanting to be alone for the rest of your life, and building a surrogate family to fill the hole in your heart where the love from a real family should go. The best outlook, myself and researchers have found, is one where you are OK with being alone, but you are also OK with having a special someone in your life. That way, you have all the benefits of a relationship/partnership with someone, but you will have outside, solo interests that make this relationship non-co-dependent. Co-dependent relationships only work when you are 8 years old and have nothing else in your brain except the desire to meld with someone and be the same sides of the same coin.

So where do I stand? I prefer to look at relationships from a Buddhist perspective: "if I find a wife, great! If I don't, that's great too! I'm prepared for either outcome, and will be happy either way." If I do get married, I can already see myself teaching my kids how to play "Enter Sandman" riffs and how to Shinespark in Zero Mission. If I don't get married, then I will have plenty of time to go biking in all the great trails and roads around the world (especially France!). Of course, it's easy to say you are cool with finding a girlfriend when you don't actually date and instead sit in a chair writing code/playing guitar/playing games, but I'm working on that. Going out to pubs/places with friends is making me more sociable, and I am well aware that being lazy and unattractive is a double whammy of failure because dating requires a lot of work even when you're handsome, and wanting to avoid even more work than normal means you're destined to eat at tables for one. Also, the rules change at 30, and girls switch from marrying guys because they are super-hawt to marrying guys because they are afraid of infertility and not being able to afford diapers on their own. The odds are stacked against me, but I'm not worried. The trick is to find someone who is interested in starting a family with you, but finds you to be so attractive, they can't keep their hands off you. If I run into one of these fabled chicks, I will make something happen out of it, but I will only pick the girls who want to make and raise my babies, and not just carry them.

I'm Back in the Saddle Again Jun. 5th, 2006 @ 07:30 pm
[Editor's Note--This used to be the Perpetual Single post, but I moved it into the next entry so I could write about my abscence from LJ. One day, when I have dementia, I'll want to know why the entire month of May is missing from the LJ.]

Holy Cats and Kittens, I missed all updates for the month of May? There are several reasons why I took a month off from LJ:
1) I had 2 long-term class projects that literally required 24 hours of work per day just to get finished. Those classes kept me so busy, I did not cook anything for the last 2 weeks. I survived off of my usual fast food joints and free pizza handed out by the College of Engineering.
2) I bought New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, and it is pimp. It's the original SMB with little elements of each subsequent Mario game mixed in. I finished it last Monday, and I'm still playing it so I can get all the Star Coins and find all the secret exits.
3) I had a stack of Weekend Reports to do, and I just said "fuck it!" and decided not to do them. Therefore, the events that took place during my first and last quarters at the Davis Apmt will be lost.
4) Speaking of said events, I was so busy having a social life that I did not have the time to sit in front of the comp and type.

And what did I do these past 8 weeks that did not get recorded in the LJ? Any one of these things:
[] Getting lunch at the Grad with Alex, Todd, and Lawrence
[] Going drinking with Andrew at Woodstock's, and then seeing Retro movies like Die Hard and Monty Python.
[] Watching all sorts of movies with MA
[] Looking at YTMND's with Hellbunny
[] Playing New Super Mario Bros!
[] Going to big social gatherings like Picnic Day and Andrew's Superhero Party (I dressed up as Mega Man!)
[] 24 Night with the 24 Crew
[] Playing songs on the guitar!
[] Watching Metallica videos on YouTube!
[] Joining Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honors Society, and getting involved
[] Hanging out with Cousin Amber and Her Awesome Boyfriend
[] Raising Hell

In the next week or so I will put off studying for finals by posting some things that I wanted to write last month, but never found the time to do so.

And now, without further ado, I give you Single in the City!
Other entries
» And now for even fewer updates
You thought having more to do and being lazier than usual meant fewer updates? Then check this shit out:

Last weekend I tried out Metroid Prime Hunters in Wal-Mart, and at a Retro Movie Fest from a long time ago I played Mario Kart DS on some dude's DS. After trying both games, I decided that a DS would be worth my money, so I decided to wait until the DS Lite was released on American shores. Problem: the DS Lite cannot be found in Japan due to high demand, and Nintendo is reportedly not thinking about releasing the DS Lite here until it can satisfy demand in Japan. So I said "fine, I'll buy a DS soon and trade it in later".

Apparently, "soon" meant "last Tuesday". I stopped at Gamestop after class just to say hi, and ask them if they had any Mario Kart DS bundles in stock. The guy said they had one left, and it was the only one in the region because that bundle has been discontinued. The gears turned in my brain, and I decided now was the time to get that DS. My money was spread out over 2 sources: credit, ATM, and cash, but the nice guys at Gamestop let me use 2 cards and cash just as long as I bought everything I wanted. My total haul:
*Nintendo DS system
*Free copy of Mario Kart DS bundled with system
*Copy of Metroid Prime Hunters
*MPH Player's Guide (20% off because I bought it with the game)

After some time, I can give you my findings on both games:
MKDS is 80% as fun as MK:DD!! The mini-turbo system is not as loose as MK:DD!!, so while the total number of mini-turbos is reduced, but the mini-turbos themselves are stronger, so it evens out somewhere. Also, the courses have more moving shit (Tick Tock Clock, for example), so you need to pay attention and let Physics guide you to the right track. I thought the CPU's were more aggressive than usual, but that's probably just my imagination. Besides racing, I had a lot of fun with the Battle Mode, and those missions are good for improving your Mario Kart skills. The game does make my hands hurt cuz you have to hold A while you support the DS with 2 fingers, but I found a way to hold it that reduces the strain.

MPH is what happens when you cross Mega Man with Unreal Tournament and slap Samus in there as the hero. Every zone works like this: you land your ship, you explore and find 3 Artifacts, you fight a rival bounty hunter, you fight some boss creature, and then you escape before time runs out. The only available upgrades besides expansion tanks are the Bounty Hunter Weapons, and the game tells you when you get a headshot. As for Samus's abilities, your only suit upgrades are the Missile Launcher, the Varia Suit, the Morph Ball, the Normal Bomb, and the Boost Ball, so you can't even do Double-Jump gymnastics or Grapple fights. It takes some getting used to, but the stylus still makes aiming pimp. This is not a First Person Adventure title, this is a straight-up FPS with a Morph Ball so you can run away. If you don't know how to play an FPS without a lock-on feature, then you better learn the fuck now.
Apr. 23rd, 2006 @ 06:25 pm
» Weekend Report: All Alone on Easter
All my friends left to go home for Easter, and I had to rot in Davis!!!!!

Seriously, it wasn't that lonely, but it did get kinda boring near the end.

Friday:
I spent the first part of the day finishing my Computer Security assignment: we had to overflow some input buffers to make the program do strange things. I had no problem with the concept of launching buffer attacks--it was little things that made this assignment take longer than 2 hours. Seriously, at one point my attacks weren't working cuz I had newlines in my attack script, so only the first 10 bytes of my 540 byte exploit was written to the computer. But I still got it done, and I raced Alex to see who could finish the whole thing faster. I'm proud to say I won, but he started it this morning, so he deserves more kudos than me.

Afterwards I killed time until 24 Night, which had more people than usual cuz Natalie+1 was there! I think half the people went to get food at the Guad, and the other half trickled in as we were watching 24. And Natalie+1 finally got her DVD of the first 12 episodes of the season, so she was very happy overall!

Saturday:
I played a lot of video games, and some guitar, but lots of people were busy and could not hang. I did start my Databases assignment, and I had Chipotle for dinner, so yay for me! Afterwards, I drove to the Wal-Mart in Dixon to get some stuff for the apmt, but of the three things I was looking for (a good JackPack, a small bookcase, a small trash can for cans/plastic recyclables), I only found the trash can. That's OK, I toured all the aisles looking for anything else I needed, and I found a Metroid Prime Hunters demo in the video game aisle. I don't care what anyone says, aiming with the stylus is fucking pimp. I also peeked in the local Gamestop to look for cool stuff, but there wasn't anything that caught my eye.

Sunday:
Usual Sunday: kill time in the morning until Software Engineering meeting at Dan Lorca's. We were still working on the login screens for all the possible users, but we did get all the project technologies working. Dinner was KFC, cuz most stores were closed for Easter, but in retrospect that was a bad idea cuz the KFC I ate did not like me. Then I went home to do more Databases and chill.
Apr. 18th, 2006 @ 11:26 pm
» Expert Mario Kart Advice
Like I said earlier, we watched Celebrity Poker Showdown on Sunday to learn how to play Texas Hold 'Em effectively. Watching Phil Gordon give expert poker playing tips reminded me of my days being a Mario Kart guru, so I thought I'd reach into my magical hat and share some more of my Phil Gordon-style tips with ya'll:

*Quit a GP if you place 4th or worse
You can still win most GP's if you place second or third, but no miracle can help you win a GP if you place 4th, especially in 150cc or higher. The point deficit is too great, so you had best quit and try again.

*Know what Items you can get in any given position
People in first place get Bananas and Fake Item Boxes, with the occasional Green Shell thrown in. Somewhere after 3rd place Red Shells become very common, and then disappear somewhere close to 7th. So if you need a Star, and you're in 2nd Place, you'd better find another way to get past this obstacle.

*Don't make too many mistakes
I can't tell you how many times I've lost a race because I accidentally hit a wall or a Banana, and while recovering from that a Blue Shell of Death hit me and the computers passed me. The BSoD is usually unavoidable, but hitting a wall isn't. Therefore, you should aim to make as few mistakes as possible. Remember: your lead over the other computers shrinks for every second you are not moving forward.

*Watch the Kart in front of you
Is the Thrower facing backwards? That probably means he/she has something that can be placed backwards, such as a Banana or a Mushroom. Get as close as you can so you can see the Item and know what to expect, but don't get so close that you can be hit with that Item.

More tips as they come to me!
Apr. 13th, 2006 @ 11:51 pm
» Weekend Report: I'm So Friggin' Busy!
How do I even find the time to sleep when I have so much to do on weekends?

Friday:
Oh this day was all about killing time til BSG night. I briefly considered going out to Chipotle to get dinner, but it was raining and I felt lazy. Instead I ate cookies to keep my stomach from rumbling, then I played a ton of Stanger songs on my guitar. My arm was still bent out of shape when I picked up Danny to go to Dan Lorca's house. The plan was to meet at 8, but that got pushed til 8:40 cuz Dan was napping and needed some time to get going again. We actually didn't get to the Guad to eat until after 9 cuz Dan was moving around books on his shelf and we had to finish that first.

So we watched both parts of "Lay Down Your Burdens" on Friday, and I must say, they packed more character development in the past 10 episodes than in the previous 1.5 seasons. Even the random jumps in time were just there so they could change the characters even more, and "missing years" work great! Last thing: ( cut for your convenience )

Saturday:
The parents came up to visit this morning at 8:30, so I was feeling really tired cuz I had been waking up at that exact same time for the past week due to my daily 9 AM classes. It was a good visit: the parents dropped off my new bike, we got IHOP, and talked about job searches and vacations.

After killing time by not doing my Security HW, reading my new Tucker Max book, and chatting with Hellbunny, MA and I hung out downtown. We got dinner at Pluto's, checked out comics at Borders, and watched V for Vendetta. I don't know how Infinite Crisis ended, so all the "One Year Later" DC comics made no sense to me, but the Ultimate X-Men/Ultimate Spider-Man crossover Deadpool story at Borders is awesome! And the movie was awesome: that one part where V has a monologue where every 2nd word starts with a 'v' was fucking awesome.

Sunday:
Oh, this was a busy day. I slept in, played some guitar, and field tested my new bike. It rides great, and I could not wait to go from class to class with my new baby. After my field test I grabbed my Software Engineering teammates and went to Dan's house for our meeting. The first thing we did at the meeting was play a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em to get a good idea of how to play the game and start thinking of what we have to do internally. Some of these things include handling antes/rakes, managing who's in the game, and finding the best hand out of seven cards. Everyone had their own playing style, and mine was "tight". I accidentally folded when I had a flush, but so did everyone, so I would have split the pot AKA got my money back. But I made a ton of money when I decided to go for broke when I had a straight draw, and the 8 I needed to complete my straight came on the river. No one expected me to win the pot, even when I went all in on the last round of betting!

In addition to playing the game, we watched a few rounds of Celebrity Poker Showdown to see the "What Beats What" hand comparisons, how the blinds/dealer button worked, and to teach the THE newbies how to bet/play competitively. We spent the rest of the evening working on Use Cases, which are Software Engineering paperwork that describe what steps have to happen to do everything from logging in to choosing a table. We took a short break to get dinner at Subway and watch more poker on the TiVo.
Apr. 13th, 2006 @ 11:42 pm
» A Video Game Update
Yesterday I went with Hellbunny to Gamestop cuz she wanted to buy the new Ice Age game and I wanted to look at DS games. Gamestop doesn't have a DS display anymore, and I only saw a couple DS games on display, but I did see something even better:
Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy, bitches!

40 new characters, including the ability to import my old LSW characters? Unlockable vehicles with free-roam vehicle levels? More Force powers and weapons? A character creation menu? Send me a copy, mofo's! The only downside: this game won't be out until this Fall, so I can't skip Boat Dance and play Lego Star Wars instead! Fucking weak!

As for the Nintendo DS games, I'm afraid I will not be buying any DS games until the DS Lite hits American shores. Since I doubt the DS Lite will be out before July, I think I'll ask for DS games from the guests for this year's birthday. Here is a partial list of the games that I would want for my new DS:
*Metroid Prime Hunters
*Mario Kart DS
*Metroid Prime Pinball
*Meteos
*Tetris DS
*Kirby Touch and Go
*Super Mario 64 DS
*Mario and Luigi
*The New Yoshi Game

I'll fix the names later, but I'm definitely buying Mario Kart DS and Hunters at the same time as my DS Lite. I played Mario Kart DS last Thursday, and I thought that it was 80% as fun as Double Dash, especially after the guy next to me said I wanted to get Orange Sparks, not Blue. I also want to try Hunters, because I don't know what the Single Player mode will be like, and I'm curious as to how a Metroid game can be Metroid without searching for Missile Tanks.
Apr. 13th, 2006 @ 11:38 pm
» Spring Break Part 2
It's wierd having 4 days of Spring Break, going to school for 2 days, and then having a 3-day weekend, since all the university had to do was give us the week off and let us start school on Monday, but fuck those miserable bastards who think 2 days of school is worth cancelling plans to go to Cancun.

Thursday:
Thursday was wierd cuz Prof. Gertz cancelled the Databases lecture for the day, so for all intents and purposes I went to school just to go to Security lecture. My Learn to Swim class with Natalie+1 was at 3 PM, but it was just a "hand out the syllabus" day and we didn't even have to change clothes. The problem with the class is it's for people who have never been in water before, so my Swim Team experience makes me qualified to teach this course instead of take it. Afterwards, I went to Security lecture and was amazed that we could spend 90 minutes talking about security as an abstract concept, as if it was something intangible like world peace or the meaning of life. We did learn that our final project will be to find a security vulnerability in today's systems, so I'm looking forward to having to demo *another* project in front of a professor.

After the class, and for reasons too silly to get into here, I really needed a beer, so I picked one up from my apmt before going upstairs to Hellbunny's birthday party. Postponed for 2 days due to rain, this one was "cram all her pals into her apartment and play charades". I was in a shit mood when I got there, but the beer helped me relax and feel all bubbly inside. After several rounds of charades and some of Damian's roasted chicken, I was feeling good enough to do a chicken dance with Hellbunny when Matt was talking about his Fear of Beer, which was behavior that made my cousin think I had one beer too many that night. Oh, and wasn't it awesome when I used a lyric from "St. Anger" as my one and only clue to the word "earthquake"? I'll let you guess which lyric I used!

The party was mostly broken up by 8, so Hellbunny, Damian, Matt, Jim H, and I killed time by watching South Park on YouTube: "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" and "South Park Is Gay". Around 9:40 we went to the MU Games Area to bowl with Natalie+1, who couldn't get thru to me because my cell phone died sometime around 6 and I didn't know until 8:40. We bowled for 2 games, and I was a fish out of water when everyone else was bowling in the 100's and I bowled 40. It was cool when I got a strike on the second-to-last frame of Game 2, because I thought it was going to be a gutterball and I walked back to get my next ball, comepletely missing my best shot in the game.

Friday:
Oh busy day. Here are some bullets to describe everything:
*Showered, shaved, and put on Dress Clothes at 8 AM
*Drove home at 9 AM, taking Cousin Amber and Danny with me.
*Dropped off gear at house around 10:20
*Dropped off Cousin Amber at her home around 10:40
*Dropped off Danny at Dentists at 10:55
*Went to mall to get present for Danny and maybe eat
*Called back to take him home around 11:40
*Went home and ate Usual Lunch at noon
*Went to my interview at Trapeze Networks at 1 PM. I was barraged with logic questions, MIPS quizzes, programming challenges, and some bit shifting. I'd like to say I did well, but my general inexperience with bit shifting will be my undoing.
*Had McDonald's at 6:30 after all interviews were completed
*Was home by 7:10, changed into PJ's, and watched Wedding Crashers with my mom. The movie was funny, and Rachel McAdams has a huge forehead. And thank the gods for Netflix!

Saturday:
Today was Danny's birthday party. We spent the morning just mulling around and doing some party set-up. While my dad was BBQ'ing some meat I was watching Saved! on our Showtime free preview channels, and playing some "Dirty Window" and "St. Anger" riffs. People started showing up to the party and didn't notice me playing guitar on the couch, so I put my shit away and went into Party Mode. Besides the usual Smashing, Ronnie played Strikers, I played guitar for Cousin Amber and my Uncle Hugo, the 6 Present Cousins played Spider-Man Uno, and every male in my family had a Sudwerk beer, including me. At one point Cousin Amber and I talked about Secret Davis Stuff using our special codewords and lingo. And the party ended when my Uncles Ron and Hugo took turns playing my Epiphone G-400 SG, and weren't used to having full access to a fretboard (acoustic guitars are mean like that).

Sunday:
Sit around and do nothing day. I watched a lot of movies on Showtime, probably because I was so tired from Daylight Savings Day. Here is a partial list:
*The Mask of Zorro: very funny and cleverly acted/written
*Godzilla 2000: how many times do they have to wreck the fucking city before they call Jack Bauer to come in and toast Gojira all by himself?
*Crash: it could have been an awesome movie, but instead it went around saying "THAT'S RACIST!" to everything the characters did in the movie. Hell, getting a cup of coffee would be considered racist just by how you told the barista you wanted extra foam in your latte. Still, it was a movie that actually evoked emotion instead of manipulating it, so it gets my support for Best Picture, but not my vote (that goes to Walk the Line).

Otherwise I played MP2:E and MK:DD!! in between movies, and then packed/went back to Davis. I rented a movie and watched it while not unpacking from my trip to Hayward for Spring Break Part 2. Oh and I updated the SWE website 10 minutes after checking my email and seeing the update request from Madame President. Wheee, an exciting evening.
Apr. 3rd, 2006 @ 11:31 pm
» The Beginning of the End
Today was the first day of Spring Quarter, and in a surprise twist, my instructor for Software Engineering is Earl, and the lectures are in the Art Building. I think it's a wierd coincidence because my first ECS class after moving into my new apmt was Earl's Computer Architecture/Assembly course, and now my last class while living in my apmt is his Software Engineering course. When you add in that this quarter is just like Fall 2003 in that I won't be going to Wellman at all, it truly feels like everything has come full circle. Except I drink booze and coffee now. And Databases 2 is in Wellman, but the class doesn't start til next week, so I didn't realize it until now. Whoops

Speaking of locations, I realized today that almost all of my classes are in buildings that are next to bus stops, so if I so choose I can just take the bus to campus and then walk 20 feet to my lecture. No seriously: go to the Unitrans route map, and zoom in to the part of the map that says "Rec Hall" in the UCD squiggly line section. My apartment is right across the street from there, and here are the locations of my lectures this quarter:
*Art Building
*Olson Hall
*Hoagland Hall
*Hickey Pool
*Wellman

Seriously, Art Building and Olson are right by scheduled Unitrans stops--check the map and see them. The pool and Wellman will require biking, and I don't remember where Hoagland is, but who gives a fuck?

And now, for some more randomness:
*My 5-man programming group for Software Engineering came about by pure chance: Dan Lorca and I had talked about working together in this class last month, and I made sure to grab Janice, and then Albert and Ryan asked if they could get in on this shit. So in less than 10 seconds, the Five Horsemen formed. We might get cleaved in half if Earl thinks it isn't fair that our group has two veterans of this school's Databases course, but hopefully it won't come to that.
*I had my choice of 2 electives this quarter: Networks 2 or Databases 2. Networks 2 is mostly socket programming and learning how to make TCP your bitch, but the 2 projects are client/server systems that have to be interactively graded. Gee, that sounds just like Software Engineering, and I think I'll stick with one client/server program. Watch me drop this class faster than Verizon drops my calls.
*Until now I never noticed how many times professors mention that this material will be invaluable when you start working in industry. Maybe it's because I had a mini-interview on Monday and I'm looking for work that my professors telling me about how this material relates to the real world seems louder.

By the way, did I say that my Software Engineering project is making a website that lets you play Texas Hold 'Em?
Mar. 29th, 2006 @ 11:51 pm
» Finals Report--Part One
My Finals Week Adventures will be recounted in however many entries it takes to recount the 8 days that was Finals Week. Also, I'm typing this up on the only computer that has internet access in this house, my mom's old laptop, so I'll keep writing until typing at this thing makes my fingers hurt. And to think I used to be so good at typing on laptops!

Thursday:
Thursday was "Dead Day"--the day between the end of instruction and the beginning of finals. Most people see this as their only day for cramming because all their finals are on the first few days, but I see Dead Day as an official University holiday. Hellbunny and I spent it celebrating Matt's 21st birthday, but we didn't show up until 4 PM because she had to write a 200 page lab report. We showed up at the LAN party an hour before it finished, and I did not take my computer because I did not want to carry it just so I could play for an hour. Hellbunny got to play one round of Empire at War, and I did my best to help her because she had never played RTS games before, but all my years of Starcraft did not prepare me for the enema that is Empire at War. Afterwards we spent 2 hours cleaning up the house and tearing down all the modifications that made it LAN-friendly. The ironic part is that Matt budgeted 2 hours for cleaning up the house, but it took 2 hours because Matt did most of the work himself and didn't tell us to do anything. This was the point where he dropped a glass candle holder, and it inspired me to say "Mazel Tov!" Hellbunny supplemented that by saying Matt should marry a Jewish girl, because every day would be their wedding day. I was tempted to say we should take Matt to the glass shop in Ghiradelli square, but I did not want to put that store's owner out of business by destroying his entire inventory.

Once the house was clean Hellbunny and I returned to Davis to drop off her comp and get Damian to drive us to Matt's Party Part Two: The Sushi fest. About 17 people went to Matt's party at a sushi restaraunt on G St (not Fuji), and we took up 2 booths and an extra table. Hellbunny said her booth talked about Linux and CS, while my booth talked about everything from TV shows to why I never drink alone, because the LORD is always with me. There was also a point where we were talked about Hellbunny and her amazing ability to drop sushi into glasses of water. And there was a point where we bought a bottle of Sake for Matt and had to find people to take shots with him. Then there was the moment where I had to help Matt cut his birthday cake cuz the knife kept getting stuck on the ice cream at the bottom, and Hellbunny said it was my "paternal instinct" kicking in. When all is said and done, we had a rip-roaring time, and the sushi place was so awesome, they let us stay even when they closed 30 min previously.

After the sushi some of us went to an apartment out by the police station, and we proceeded to drink the night away. Hellbunny passed the time playing chess, while I had a Pyramid Apricot Weizen and a shot of Morgan with the birthday boy and read Maxim. Fucking awesome, huh?

Friday:
A lot more tame--NOT!!! I went out and cut my fucking hair! Yeah, I know, the long hair is awesome, but I got tired of having to mess with it every morning and then seeing it go wild by 4 PM. Plus, I saw some pictures Hellbunny took at Matt's party, and I thought "fuck, it looks like that now?" So I went to Supercuts with a picture of James from the Lollapalooza tour, but they cut it a little shorter than I thought it would turn out to be. Oh well, I think it looks good.

After the shearing, I went to the Colleges Study Break to have some cookies, and then I went on campus to print practice exams for Databases, and managed to fit 4 example programs onto 2 double-sided sheets of paper. I then spent the last hours of St. Patrick's Day studying for that fucking 8 am final, and I couldn't even go out to have a beer as a study break. It wasn't too terrible, though: Dan Lewis came over to study with me, and the two of us figured out how to make Databases Practice Finals cry like little bitches. Alex also came over to study, but he had 8 pints of Guiness at the pub to celebrate both St. Paddy's Day and completing his Circuits II final, so he was a little out of it when he came by. Dan said "wow, you got your hair cut" when he first saw me, but all that beer made Alex say "whoa, you look fucking wierd cuz you cut your hair!" Nevertheless, he was still able to figure out what kinds of deadlocks occur in Database systems, so I applaud the man for being able to kick ass at Computer Science while having 8 pints of Guiness in him.
Mar. 25th, 2006 @ 11:53 pm
» Things Going From Bad To Worse
The updates have been infrequent cuz I have been busy with my "social life", but here is a listing of all the ways this past week has sucked royally.

Last weekend I had my 8 AM Databases final, but I had trouble sleeping and only got about 2 hours of shut-eye. Somehow I was able to get to Wellman, finish the exam, and then go to Borders without collapsing. That evening I went to bed at a slightly earlier hour so I could rest and relax, but I once again could not get any sleep. It was that night that I discovered the source of my problems--my apartment was a billion degrees, and it was too warm for 2 blankets and long sleeping pants. This is why I have to open my windows before I go to bed again, because the damn insulation retains heat instead of trying to keep from changing temperature. Either that or I need to mount mirrors on my outer walls to reflect all the sunlight that makes my apartment into a huge oven.

But the real kicker was last night. I went to REI with my dad to get a new bike, and on the way home we stopped for burritos at the local taqueria because he wanted to get lunch while on the road. The burritos did not look like gifts from the Chipotle gods, but I didn't think much of it at the time. My stomach started to feel wierd around 5, and at about 6 my cousins, brother, and I went to San Jose to see a symphony orchestra perform music from games. Sadly, I remembered what that pain in my stomach meant--food poisoning! Yes, for the second time in 3 months, and for the second consecutive break, I ingested something that was absolute crap. I missed the entire concert because I spent an hour in the bathroom doing my best bullemic impression, and then I was taken to the medical station cuz the bouncers thought I was going to stop breathing.

I got a ride in a WAHMBULANCE to Kaiser Santa Clara, but because I wasn't puking up blood, the triage nurse put me at the bottom of the priority list. So that meant I spent 3 hours lying on a chair in the waiting room until I decided that I digested what little was left of that burrito, and I could then go home. My Uncle Ron and my cousins waited for me at the ER Depmt cuz they really had no choice--my mom didn't go to the hospital to get me, and Uncle Ron was our only way home from San Jose. But they were all really great to stay there all that time, and even talked shit about the ER Depmt for letting me sit out there and not treat me. That said, I watched enough episodes of ER to know that Urgent Care Depmts actually treat their patients, and don't just hand them the meds they need and say "fucking leave!", cuz that's what clinics are for!

Now let's review what this second experience taught me:
1. Like my uncle says, be wary about taquerias, cuz not all of them are good, especially when they change management
2. My mom says I have an angry stomach, that was prone to stomach flus and other indigestions. Now ya'll see why I'm a picky eater? My brain is smart enough to know which foods make me sick!

Now, those were the only 2 low points of the past week, so I think I'm really lucky. I mean, I could have been shot in the head, but this was a pretty good week. Check out the next post or seven to see how much finals week rocked!
Mar. 25th, 2006 @ 11:35 pm
» Attention All Peeps
I have not seen Battlestar Galactica Episode 220: "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2". You know, the 90-min season finale.

I have heard some rumors about it, and some offhand knowledge, that says this episode is awesome but divisive. Hell, Ronald D. Moore said that this episode will piss off everyone.

Dan Lorca says we cannot watch "Lay Down Your Burdens" until next week, because he has a program to do by Saturday night.

So for the love of the Gods, PLEASE KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT AND DON'T TELL WHAT FRACKING HAPPENS!

What little I've heard sounds too terrible to be true, so I want to see how this all plays out.

Thanks and love,
Kirk Jr.
Mar. 14th, 2006 @ 12:51 am
» Another Fun Survey!
<td align="center">
Your celebrity match is Elisha Cuthbert. You like your women down to earth and cute.

QuizGalaxy.com

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com</td>


I can't argue with these results, cuz everyone knows I wouldn't mind dating Kim Bauer (CTU Barbie).

Stolen from the Internet at large.
Mar. 11th, 2006 @ 10:55 am
» In case you forgot!
Yup, another year has passed since the 2 March Met Shows of 2004! Relive the goodness here:

Met Show 1: Cow Palace

Met Show 2: Cow Palace

If you're wondering why I'm doing both shows on one day, it's because I did not know it was March 8 until yesterday, when I realized that March 8 was the day before. Damn my busy school schedule and busy social life! Anyways, I'm making up for that little oversight today.
Mar. 10th, 2006 @ 08:00 pm
» A Good Day For Guitar
After Dan Lewis and I finished our lab an hour early, I went home to pay my apmt. rent and tell them I was going to move out in August, after making a slight detour to the Quad to say hi to E-Week people. I had about an hour to kill before I had to go back out and print Databases lecture notes, so I decided to pick up my guitar and bang out some tunes. My guitar is tuned to one whole step below standard cuz the strings are getting old, so this was a day for playing detuned heavy shit.

First up was "Sad But True", where I was pleased to discover that I played the verse riff too fast--it means I know how to play it too well! The chorus riff was fun, but I still don't know what those last 2 power chords are during that whole section when the song is in A: is it "A A Bb5Bb5 G5 A5 G5 GG", or not? But anyways, the song sounded good, even when GuitarPort fried and just spit out static at one point. Next, I tuned to STANGER tuning (Drop the low D string to C) so I could mess around in Drop-D land. I started playing the "My World" main riff, and was again pleased to see that I was staying in time! Looks like my downpicking speed has gone up since last week! But the sound just wasn't happening--my tone was over-distorted and had too many highs.

I then dicked around with my onboard EQ box's dials, and came up with a slamming tone that has a touch more bass and more mids than I usually use, and it made "The Unnammed Feeling" sound awesome! I swear to the Lords of Kobol that my verse riff sounds like the fucking CD. However, I did not play along with the song because I got sidetracked into playing along with "Some Kind of Monster" instead. That song is really fun to play, and I did OK even though I haven't played the song in months. Hell, I learned a bunch of cool new riffs from that song, so I think it's best if I shelve it until I get my other songs done (and get my machine-gun triplet rhythms down). The last thing I did was play along with "Shoot Me Again", and I can't wait until I get my sixteenth-note chops down so I can finally nail that song.

Incidentally, I got back 2 midterms today. I took the Microcomputers exam yesterday and they had it graded by 9 PM that night, because the TA's were given pizza if they graded all the exams in a couple hours. I also got back my Databases exam from a couple weeks ago, the one where I finished early cuz I studied religiously during the 24 hours preceding the exam. I did very well on Microcomputers, and got a really high score on Databases, so it looks like this is the quarter of good midterm grades (my grade on my Discrete Event Simulations exam was also really good), and today was a good day overall. I hope to continue feeling good tomorrow evening at Sudwerk, where some people owe me some beers.

Assuming I finish my program before 10 PM that evening of course. And if I don't, I'll work on it on Friday, cuz I have nothing better to do.
Feb. 22nd, 2006 @ 08:06 pm
» Breaking News!!!!!!!
OH.
MY.
GODS!!!

Alternatively:

OH.
YOUR.
GOD!!!

Rick Rubin is producing the latest Metallica album!

Not Bobbo! Rick Rubin! And he only goes into the studio every once in a while!

Where is Bob Rock???? I mean, I was wondering why Bob wasn't in any of the pictures from the last studio update, but what happened? Is he busy producing a Richie Sambora album?

As I learn more, I'll write about it here!
Feb. 16th, 2006 @ 11:43 am
» Weekend Report: Cousin Amber is Too Popular!
What did I do all weekend? Screw around and piss away any chance I had to go out drinking on Valentine's Day. It's all good--there was no one around to go with me, so I didn't mind. Besides, Cousin Amber was too busy with her friends to have our semi-weekly dinner, so I had to improvise for most of this weekend.

Friday:
Oh this was a quiet day. I didn't go to Sudwerk the evening before, so I was all sober and not-hungover and not tired this morning. We had a Databases midterm at 4 PM, and I spent an hour after discussion studying with Dan Lewis and working on practice exams. When you add in the time I spent studying the previous evening, you'll see that I was ready to kick this test's ass. I took a quick break after lunch to play guitar and watch Fan Can, but I studied right before class and finished the test in 30 minutes.

After class I went to Chipotle for dinner, then Borders to kill time. I then hurried home because the Arrested Development finale started at 8 PM. The last 4 episodes were hilarious, and I always enjoy seeing Franklin on screen. Let's see the new jokes introduced in the last 4 episodes that made me howl with laughter:
*"My Name is Judge!"
*Lucille Bluth's two daughters
*Mock Trial and the Hung Jury! And one of them plays an ESP Strat!
*"Faker!"
*Saddam look-alikes!
*Jesus turns wine into water
*"I don't want my C-word to smell like fish"
*Lucille makes Lindsay Chops for dinner!
*And Lindsay's shocking secret!

After AD I watched the latest Battlestar Galactica, but I wasn't too impressed. I haven't been impressed by the last 4 episodes, actually, and the constant 24-ripoffs are getting tiring. We want Cylons, not Starbuck and Apollo pretending they are Jack Bauer and failing at it.

Saturday:
Like I said, I worked on HW for a little bit, but mostly I pissed away time. Great example: I played MP2:E in the morning, and slaughtered the Boost Guardian by shooting him when he was in Puddle Mode. Around 2 I went to a basketball game with Priya and Pals, and the girls won their game with relative ease! On the way out I remembered the comics I lent to Priya's roommate MA a while ago, and Priya said there was no guarantee that they'd still be at her place in an obvious spot.

After the game I looked at some HW, but got sidetracked playing along with the Fan Can DVD. Conceding defeat, I went to Pluto's with Danny for a tritip dinner, and then I went to the supermarket alone to get some necessities and rent a DVD of Chris Rock's Bigger and Blacker show. On the way home I stopped at Priya's apmt to get my comics, and MA gave me a Starbucks card to say "thanks for loaning me some awesome comics!" I am not exaggerating when I say "Ma rocks!"

Afterwards I went home and saw Hellbunny's open apmt windows. Singing "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" got her attention, and I headed up there with some cream sodas and Fan Can. We watched the Fan Can DVD to see Met royally fuck up some of the Ramones songs, but mostly we talked about life, being fired from the band, and other fun stuff. I also showed her a clip from the DVD where you could see Kirk's "modified" Marshall cabinet, where Kirk changed the "Marshall" letters on the front to say something obscene, and when Hellbunny saw it she screamed "OMIGOD IT SAYS ASSHOLE!" She also kept calling Bob Rock "Bobbo" whenever she saw him play bass, and admitted that she could not say "Gimme Fuel, Gimme Fire, Gimme That Which I Desire!" in time with the band, no matter how hard she tried. Then we watched some Arrested Development videos on YouTube.com, and her favorites were the Chicken Dance collections and the Analrapist video. After we finished hanging out, I went home, watched my DVD, and worked on some HW.

Sunday:
For once I was too busy to hang with Cousin Amber! She invited me to go to brunch with her family, but I was already at Hellbunny's watching Arrested Development Season 1. We got thru 4-5 episodes and had In N Out for lunch. While getting burgers I explained how the Latin American naming system works: your full name is your given name, middle name, family name, and mother's maiden name, so unless you're in the royal family your last 2 names will be different from your parents' and you don't need Jr.'s or IV's to differentiate between 2 people with the same name. It's too bad we don't do that in America, cuz then my kids will all have "Knightley" in their name.

I had a headache in the afternoon so I had trouble doing HW, and I could only do some Databases before being completely bored. I got dinner at the Tercero DC with Danny and Cousin Andrew (Cousin Amber had leftovers), but right before I played around in GuitarPort and switched my amp cabinet from a 2001 Mesa/Boogie to a 1996 Marshall. The Hetfield tone is finally mine!!!!!!!!!!!

After dinner I worked on Microcomputers HW while talking to Dan Lewis over AIM, and the first problem was not difficult as I had thought. The second part sucked and took most of the next 2 days to finish, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Valentine's Day addendum:
I went to the Colleges Poker Night cuz I had no drinking buddies and I had HW to finish. I didn't make it to the next round because I played too conservatively and got crap hands. I would have loved to bluff my way to the top with a King-2 offsuit, but I didn't have the chips.

On the plus side, I wore my "Unforgiven" shirt, which was just the amount of irony I needed that day. If only it was an "Unforgiven 2" shirt, then it would have been perfect!
Feb. 16th, 2006 @ 11:08 am

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