9:49 PM
This morning I kissed Tammy goodbye before she left for the airport. She'll be in Las Vegas for a four day software conference. I'm kind of glad that I don't have to do any traveling for my job. It is a hassle!
On the way home from her house I stopped at Staples to pick up a spindle of blank CDs. Whenever I buy a 50 CD spindle, I'm like "Dude. That's a lot of CDs. There is NO WAY I'll ever use them all." I remember saying that a lot though, so I went for the big guns and got a 100 CD spindle. (I think it's a waste of money now, but I'll thank myself when I'm on #49!)
Back in the day when CD burning was new, I was hardcore into getting the CDRs that came with jewel cases. Soon I came to realize that when you accumulate a lot of them, things get really awkward, really fast! So I decided - no more jewel cases for me! They're good for transporting one or two discs from point A to point B, but I'm convinced that soft-sided mass storage is the way to go.
After Staples I cruised through the Wienerschnitzel drive-thru. My car hit 50,000 miles this morning, and I celebrated with two pretzel dogs and a root beer! I parked in the shade, rolled the windows down on what turned out to be a beautiful day, and ate like the crazy hot dog lover that I am!
Hot Dogs are pretty easy to make, right? Well Wienerschnitzel claims to specialize in them. I find that funny, because Wienerschnitzel consistently has some of the worst hot dogs I've ever eaten. The dogs are undercooked, small, and the buns are always shriveled up - almost like they've been taken right out of the freezer and put in the microwave. But really, a hot dog is pretty hard to screw up, and as hard as Wienerschnitzel may try to break me, they'll never make me give up the dogs.
After stuffing myself I headed home, met up with my parents, and we all went to a funeral home to view a family friend who died last week. That was pretty creepy. She was a nice lady and my brother and I carpooled with her kids all the way up through like 8th grade.
After that I came home, watched some TV, played some Game Boy, and did some stretching!
Oh, also! I had ice cream! Life is good!
PS - My unprecedented art sale is still underway! It's not too late to be bidder #1!
2:45 PM
I use a shadow mask monitor at home and an aperture grill monitor at work.
There is a huge difference between the two. The shadow mask produces a much sharper, clearer picture. It's much easier on my eyes, but different people have different preferences.
Some people say that AG displays have more vivid colors, and maybe that's true, but I can't really tell.
Here's a quick explanation of the technical difference between the two. It's amazing to me how these two completely different technologies can produce what is essentially the same end product.
In college I had to take an art class to fulfill a general education requirement.
All of the art classes in the catalog that I saw looked super hard! They were like art history classes or professional drawing classes. I can't do that crap!
So I signed up for the easiest class I could find - "Art and the Child." It turns out that everybody in the class was taking it in order to earn a teaching credential. Not me!
Anyway, the whole class was about making art projects for elementary school kids and coming up with lesson plans for each of them. It was pretty fun, especially since we got to do all of the art projects too!!!
3:04 PM
Usually when I can't sleep I turn on the History Channel and let myself fade away. Lately they've been showing a lot of Vietnam war documentaries around the time that I go to bed.
The last thing I watched was about the Tunnel Rats, US soldiers who went down in underground tunnel networks with a flashlight in one hand and a .45 in the other.
11:05 AM
We got our Arcade PC up and running again. Apparently the joystick controller's PS2 encoder board died, but Hanaho was quick to send us a replacement and that did the job! Now everybody's Super Puzzle Fighting it up again!
I just got word that my new car rolled off the assembly line and should be shipped to California soon. I drive a 99 Camry Solara right now and I'm getting an '02 Camry SE. Why? Because the lease is up on my Solara and there's too many things that I don't like about it to keep it forever. For example, I don't like-
Having two doors.
They're too heavy and easy to bang on nearby cars.
Having four cylinders
There are a ton of hills around my house, and when I go up them my motor really revvs up like I am super race car driver man. I just want to be commuter man.
Making people squeeze into the back seat.
There's plenty of room back there, but having to slide up the front seat so they can make it back there is a pain.
Not having a sunroof or a moonroof.
I like moonroofs, especially when it's raining! That way I can be like "AHHH!!! It is raining but I am dry! It is a hydro-miracle!!!"
Not having a cargo net in the trunk.
This is stupid, but it comes standard on the new one, so whoopie!
The new car will address all of these issues, and I am hoping it will make my two hours of driving every day a happy event! I even spang for the leather and simulated wood grain interior, so I can maybe pretend that I am driving a Lexus!
Except a few days ago I saw the new Corollas and they are just as nice as the Camrys, but I had already ordered the Camry so oh well.
12:42 PM
I had to make my IRA contribution for 2002 today. Let me just tell you, it hurt like hell. It doesn't help that they just raised the maximum allowable yearly contribution by $1000 either! I wonder if it's possible to have IRA contributions deducted directly from your paycheck instead of having to write a huge check every year. That would make me happy.
I shouldn't really be complaining though, because it's all going to a good cause! Between my 401k and my Roth IRA, I should have a pretty decent retirement ahead of me. Hooray for financial planning!
2:13 PM
We got one of these for the office about a month ago. Having thousands of playable arcade games in a real arcade cabinet was just too cool to pass up. Super Puzzle Fighter is the current company favorite.
Unfortunately the control panel died this morning...The good news is that it's still under warranty, so we'll get everything fixed soon!
4:50 PM
Human League really had a big hit with Human. All their other songs? CRAP.
80s synth pop rocks. (But Pop Rocks suck.)
Somewhere in the back of my mind I've been maintaining a list of the 10 greatest albums ever made. Information Society's debut album is on that list!
Information Society was my favorite band from 5th grade through...oh...the end of high school I guess. I've got all their albums and even all of their singles. I was a man obsessed.
Amanda Kramer left the band really early on. A few years ago Paul Robb and Jim Cassidy left too. Kurt Harland is the only remaining member, and all he's done lately is make really embarrasing industrial music and release it under the Information Society name.
Click the 'music' link on the left to stay in the loop! BinNewz relies on user submissions, so it is by no means a complete and accurate index of what's been posted, but it's a great place to start!
7:02 PM
You know what? Call waiting, caller ID, and 3-way calling should be standard features on all landline phone service. It's retarded that you have to pay extra for any of them. Well, I guess I could understand if they wanted to make 3-way calling cost more, but still. Caller ID should be a given.
1:16 PM
Saturday night Tammy and I went with Dallas and Vida (friends from work) to see Cheval, an equestrian extravaganza created by one of Cirque du Soleil's founders.
Tammy and Vida are horse girls, so they loved it. Wait, I don't mean that they are centaurs. They ride horses. Tammy has a horse. (Horses are not good for saving money purposes.)
I thought the show was okaaay...It didn't blow me away though. The tickets were a little pricey.
I need to get on the ball with Final Fantasy X again. I'm like 25 hours into it or something and I just haven't had much time to play.
3:23 PM
I gotta say, Farscape is the greatest show on television. Pure quality!
I've been waiting months for new episodes, and that day has finally come!
Apparently the Sci-Fi channel decided to wait like four months before showing last four episodes of season 3, but the first of those four will be broadcast tonight at 9pm!
Then on June 7th, season 4 begins! And Sci-Fi has already signed on for a fifth season! Life is good!
If you've never seen the show before, now would be a good time to start. Farscape is a lot like The X-Files; if you haven't been watching since the very beginning, you'll have no idea what's going on and it'll take you a few episodes to catch up. A big story arc just wrapped up in the last episode, so jumping in now would be a good idea!
Hey, once you're done watching Farscape tonight, be sure to change the channel. If you don't, you might get stuck watching Lexx, the absolute worst sci-fi TV show ever. Worse than Baylon-5? You betcha.
Let's say you pooped in a plastic cup, then you threw the cup in a blender and tossed in carrots, wheat, yogurt, and a sock. Now let's say you let the blender mix that all up for a minute or two. Now let's say you smeared that concoction all over your television screen and stared at it for an hour. That's kind of how it feels watching Lexx. It's horrible. Please do not watch Lexx.
It's like the Sci-Fi channel took the best and worst show in their entire lineup and put them side by side just so you could see the contrast between them.
Moving people between groups works now and that's good...
But for some reason ICQ shows up in the taskbar AND the system tray. It's supposed to be in the system tray, but not the taskbar for crying out loud. Whose idea was this? How do I get rid of it? I've looked everywhere and there's no checkbox! Somebody help me!
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