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Tuesday: Janauary 01, 2008 - New Year New Year
Happy New Year.
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Wednesday: Janauary 02, 2008 - This Week This Week The first week of the new year is typically the most exciting. You get to harbor all the false hope that you can somehow revise yourself to be a better person before ultimately caving in a few days down the line when a huge piece of delicious cake passes your way or you inadvertently procrastinate only to catch yourself later and write off your resolution as broken. Unlike other times of the year, the cracking of your resolutions is painful simply because you were actually making an effort--or if nothing else consciously thinking about not breaking them. This year, rather than putting forth a slew of things I'd like to improve I'm going to be thankful for the many good qualities I already have and would encourage you to do the same.

I still have not uploaded the picture of the Music City Bowl but they are safely on my iPhone. Hopefully they will come in the next few days (see, this is why I didn't add Stop Procrastinating to my New Years' Resolutions List). Last night I went to watch the Orange Bowl at 8pm but fell asleep even before I could turn it on. I woke up at 2am in a little bit of a panic since there was a lot of things I wanted to do last night and it was officially too late at that point to do it. Alas.
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Thursday: Janauary 03, 2008 - Obama? Obama? That wacky Barack Obama is at it again--pulling in Iowa by a surprising margin last night. While Jamie and I were in Nashville we heard him speak with Tim Russert on MSNBC and he (Obama, not Russert) sounded pretty good (Russert sounded like the moron he is). He's a brief recap of the interview:
Russert: Now Barack, it has been reported several times--including the Washington Post--that you've said these words "I hate black people". How do you respond to that?
Obama: Look, I might have said those words but I certainly didn't say them in the same sentence, let alone in that order.
Russert: So what you're saying to me and the American people is that you have indeed said "I hate black people".
Obama: Look, there are only so many words in the English language and since all of those, individually, are common, it would not surprise me to find out I have uttered each of them at one time or another but as I just said, I have never said "I hate black people" because that's simply untrue...and I'm black.
Russert: OBAMA HAS CONFIRMED HE HATES BLACK PEOPLE. HE JUST SAID IT!!! BAM!

I hate the news.
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Weekend: Janauary 06, 2008 - What Do You Do? What Do You Do? This weekend I worked a lot on my new site: carsite. It's not actually called carsite but that's what I've been calling it. Carsite is nearly ready for beta testing (within the month hopefully) and I'm hoping that I can drum up some interest for testers when that time comes. The only thing really holding me back at this point is that I'm not sure how to do searches by zip code--if someone says "within 25 miles of 32303" how I know what zip codes are within that range. So I ask you, my fellow nerds (Brian, Ricky, Sunshine) if you know how to do this because I certainly don't and trying to ask Google how to do it yields nothing because apparently queries along the line of "search by zipcode" means something totally different. I'm really beginning to enjoy AJAX and if I had more Uriesque motivation I can think of a lot of things I could do with for this blog.

For whatever skills I have in programming, I have none in Photoshop. If for no other reason I was impressed that Sunshine was able to fix up one of my vacation pictures. Check it out: before / after. All hail the Photoshop master! (Even if I do look old and tired now that you can see my face.)
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Monday: Janauary 07, 2008 - 2007 NCAA Football Recap 2007 NCAA Football Recap Ok, if you want to skip this football entry and jump straight to my 2007 Christmas pictures go right ahead. Onto the meat. Now that LSU is the BCS Champion, I am ready to share my thoughts on the season. Since I am the back-to-back Pick 'Em Champion, you must listen to me. First of all, anyone who says the PAC10 is better than or even close to as good as the SEC is retarded. Although I don't root for any SEC teams, I do believe they are hands-down the best conference and FSU would probably go 4-8 there. The ACC is not the worst conference but only because the Big Ten is so bad. FSU could have easily lost last night's game by the same score. For the second year in a row, the Big Ten showed they are an anemic conference with no elite teams. Yes, Ohio State is a good team...but FSU is a good team too. Neither are great, let alone elite but when you play in the Big Ten you've got no one to beat up on you. I laughed out loud last night when Kirk Herbstreit said college fans thought the Big Ten was worse than Conference USA and the MAC. He said he didn't agree with them but it seems plausible to me.

On to FSU. The only thing FSU has to look forward to is another 7-5 season and another visit to the Tidy Bowl to play Directional State University. If there's any bright side, it's that there's not a lot of guys graduating leaving for the NFL. FSU is going to be very average/good for a while. At least FSU fans, while unhappy, admit their (our) team sucks when they do--there is nothing worse than blind fannage. Anyway, I know Bobby said they were "one player" away from a great team but I don't know who that one player could possible be (unless he is the size of an entire o-line). I guess another bright spot is that Drew Weatherford is now the only quarterback and while he's not great at least he's consistently good when he gets protection. Yeah, that's some slim pickings for bright spots.
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Tuesday: Janauary 08, 2008 - Secret Day Secret Day Today is Secret Day! Please use the form below to submit your name and a real life secret (nothing too traumatic please) about you. On Thursday I will take all the secrets and all the people that submitted and you can attempt to pair people up with their secret. I wanted to make the blog more interactive this year so here's the first one.





Your Name:


Your Secret:




Last night Ricky and I went out to dinner and then he showed me the wackiest game I've ever seen--Portal. My brain hurt so badly by the end that I had no choice but to go home and go right to sleep. Man, that is a wacky game right there, I tell you what (trying to get my southernisms in while I still can).

(P)update: Ok, I need to stop the comment form from colliding with with the secret form--if you sent me one, I didn't get it. I'll have to fix it later. Sorry.

(P)update II: No, I'm stupid. The emails were just going to my phone instead of to my inbox. [Comments: 0]· permalink · Bookmark Secret Day at del.icio.us · Digg Secret Day · Bloglines: Secret Day

Wednesday: Janauary 09, 2008 - More Secrets More Secrets Thanks to everyone who posted (mostly lame) secrets about themselves yesterday. If have not posted a secret about yourself, we really need about five more so go look at yesterday's entry and post one. If you need help coming up with one, here are some questions to get you started: Did you miss something significant in your life that most people got to experience? What's the meanest thing you did to someone before the age of 15? Are you scared of something weird?

I've been tearing up the new Guitar Hero games I got for Christmas but unfortunately I have yet to beat them. I stupidly started them all on Expert and both Rock of The 80's and GHIII are sitting on the last level with at least one song remaining that is just unplayable. In Rock of the 80's, I am stuck on Electric Eye by Judas Priest and I know damn well I'm not going to be able to be Extreme's (the "end boss") Play With Me since I've seen videos of it YouTube and know it's waaaay out of my league on Expert. On GH3 I can't play any of the songs in the last set and when I say I can't play them I mean it--I can't get more than a quarter of the way through any of them except Metallica's One where I always die at 98%. I really would like to at least try to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia but I don't think I'll be able to beat all four of these songs to unlock it. It's still fun to lose though and, unless you're Ricky, I can probably beat you and that makes me feel like a big, tough man.
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Thursday: Janauary 10, 2008 - Last Day For Secrets Last Day For Secrets Ok, if you have not submitted a secret yet, today is your last day--go back two entries and fill out that form. Thanks.

I may or may not have received a secret from third-grade teacher--I guess it depends on how much faith you have that people are who they say they are online. Regardless, thinking back to third grade I really don't have many happy memories but that's not to say there were none. It's strikingly funny to me how childhood "trauma" (I use the word loosely) is never readily forgotten. I think I've sat around with just about everyone I know and gone on about the hilarious-now-that-I'm-almost-30 stories. I was always very small (not that 6'0", 160 is exactly beefy now) so most of my memories are of getting picked on and while I certainly don't wish any harm on anyone for it now, it's strange to me to think they would have no recollection of it. Conversely, thinking back to when I was teaching at FSU, did I inadvertently traumatize some of my students? I'm pretty sure saying "shut the f* up or get the f* out" to a particular student was the most scarring thing I ever said but I would have to suspect that I wouldn't remember the most searing things. Anyway, if you were in fact my third grade teacher, thanks for teaching and I'm sorry my memories are not fond ones--I think you just wanted me not to be a slob anymore and I can appreciate that now. Seriously, thank you for teaching; it's the most valuable job in the world.
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Weekend: Janauary 12, 2008 - Weekend 12 of 12! Weekend 12 of 12!
8:15am: Good morning dogs! I've got some bad news--it's crate time. Please ignore the severely neglected fish tank in the background and pay extra notice to the never-neglected dogs.


9:30am: I normally go out to breakfast by myself on Saturday mornings. There's a little diner by my house and while they don't have my order memorized yet, it's still pretty darn good.


10:00am: Waiting in the Starbucks line. I was hoping Jennifer would be working so I could ask her to take a picture of my receiving the coffee but she wasn't working. Some straight dude was working and that's a recipe for disaster (and nasty coffee)


10:00am: To add insult to injury, this guy actually made me pay for the coffee. Where are the girls/guys that love me and show me their affections with free beverages?


12:00pm: Time for the yearly registering of domain names--not sure if you can make it out but it says $804. This is the first year I've been able to buy the domains for more than the next year, so rest assured you'll be getting plenty o' red zeppelin at least until 2010.


1:00pm: Oh Chompy, why are your ears back? I know *you* wouldn't do anything wrong...


1:20pm: Here is me all prepped to clean up Abby's crap off my bedroom floor. Rest assured it was not the "Hey Food Guy, I'm feeling great so I left some neat clumps for you" kind.


1:30pm: Like your sheep is going to appease me. Riiight.


4:00pm: Watching Green Bay stick it the Seahawks. Go Packers! Take that Rex Grossman!


8:00pm: Finally finished my shopping at Target. I was stuck behind an entire branch of the Redneck family tree. Sorry sir, Target does not offer taxidermy.


8:30pm: After surviving the Deliverance experience for what has to be the billionth time in seven years here, I decide to give Starbucks another chance to give me a free coffee. Score! It's Matt and Megan and that means free, delicious coffee.


10:00pm: Negotiating a deal for a new domain. Prices were being thrown around in the 25k range but fortunately I was able to work it out for much, much less in exchange for parting with some of other sites (not this one).

Happy 12 of 12! Check out Brian's and Kathy's. If you get bored with theirs look over mine again and then check out the original 12 of 12.
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Monday: Janauary 14, 2008 - Happy Birthday Chris Happy Birthday Chris Happy 27th birthday Chris Green! You're still a young pup but nonetheless formally welcomed into the "Late 20's" group. We'll miss you and Miker in Tallahassee over Spring Break this year but I guess there's really no one still left here except T-Chris and Ricky anyway. Whatever, happy birthday!

I posted my 12 of 12 from over the weekend and I'm done writing the Guess The Secret Challenge for posting on Wednesday morning. I know you're all very excited to play and guess the lame secrets of your friends. If you STILL have yet to submit a secret you have about 24 hours to post one here. I spent my entire evening making backups of all my sites. What a hassle. I wish I knew whatever language would let me write something that would do all that for me automatically every day. I only do it twice a month because it takes a good eight hours to do it all.

Confidential to LB--if you send me a feedback here, I can send a proper reply. I believe you're you now.
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Tuesday: Janauary 15, 2008 - Jupiter's Secrets Jupiter Where is the secret quiz?!?! Last night I accidentally fell around 9pm and missed my opportunity to upload it. Sorry, you're going to have to wait one more day. Everything was going fine--I had made a quick stop at RD after work and come home to play with the dogs when I got settled in watching this show on the history channel about Jupiter. I started to struggle staying awake around 7:30 and decided I should watch the rest of the show in bed in case I happened to fall asleep. I figured the dogs would wake me up around 11pm to go out. Surprisingly, they did not need to go out nor did they "let loose" in the house. The downside, of course, was that I woke up at 7:15 this morning when the alarm went off and missed a good three hours of my night. I originally woke up at 4:15am and decided to go back to sleep with the hopes of waking up (naturally) sometime around 6am so I could hit the little diner by my house and start my day off right. Alas. Anyway, the secrets are coming tomorrow for sure so start reaching deep into your brains to recall what you know about people. [Comments: 1]· permalink · Bookmark Jupiter's Secrets at del.icio.us · Digg Jupiter's Secrets · Bloglines: Jupiter's Secrets

Wednesday: Janauary 16, 2008 - No Secrets No Secrets Ok, it's secret time. Take the quiz here. It's ugly but it works.

I've rediscovered the History Channel over the past two days and I've had it on while I've been developing new sites. I was hoping to have a month or so between going to work all day then coming home and working for another six hours but the Internet Gods are unhappy so I either need more virgins to sacrifice or churn out a bunch of new sites. As I was telling Steve last night I'm not sure if it's faster to build back-end templates that I can use for them all, that take about three times as long to make initially or, since I'm trying to get exactly three sites done this week, if I should just do them. I can tell you this much--when I get home from wrangling semicolons the last thing I want to do is continue to wrangle them for almost another complete work day. It seems like just yesterday that I had to look up to see what attribute went into the <a> tag to make a link and had a post-it note that said HREF so I would stop having to look it up constantly.

Sunshine: Your secret didn't come through--just your name. I didn't catch it until I actually went through them. Sorry! :( The sad face is the only true indicator of the depth of my sorrow.
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Thursday: Janauary 17, 2008 - You Oughta Know You Oughta Know I'm 28 years old and I have a bunch of papers taped to the walls of my office from various institutions of higher learning asserting that I am smart. While I'm sure this is true for everyone, I nonetheless feel like I have some very big holes in my general knowledge of the world. I'm not talking existentialism here but rather basic things that I think I should know that I just don't. Today I'm going to unabashedly list those things in the hopes that you, wise readers, will be able to answer these things and perhaps share some of your own.

Where is DNA? For that matter, let's say I have a cell. How far away from the atomic level am I? If I have gene therapy done does it need to be applied to all my cells or does once one have it it somehow get transfered to the rest?

How does the computer know what to do with my code? This one is particularly embarrassing because I am a computer programmer. Surely this would have been covered in some computer science course had I taken more than the Let's-Get-Started-With-PASCAL. I know there is "machine language" but when I type the letter "B" how does the monitor know to light up pixels to spell out that B?

What's wrong with carbohydrates? I might, and I stress might, know this one. Is it because they're difficult for your body to break down so it's easier to store them as fat instead of churning them into energy?

How do your eyes work? This question started as "how does a camera work" but then I realized that I don't really understand how your eyes work either; how they're able to "grab" 3D data and make your brain "see" it.

Ok, let's start with those four. Congratulations to T-Chris, who got 5 questions right on his first try on the Secret Quiz from yesterday. Almost everyone got 2 on their initial attempt and several people stayed the course and ultimately got them all right. I'll reveal the answers tomorrow for those of you who did not take it yet.
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Weekend: Janauary 20, 2008 - Burr-berry Burr-berry I realize that there will be very little sympathy for this entry but it is so cold here. The temperatures have stayed in the 30s for a couple of days now which wouldn't have been so bad had it not absolutely poured rain for the two days prior. I can only estimate the temperature in my office but, using unofficial measures, I would put it at around -40F (or roughly the temperature with the wind chill at the Packers game last night). I can't believe the Packers lost--like I told Steve while watching the game, it seemed like God Himself was willing the Packers to win and giving them more than ample opportunity. I really just wanted to see Good vs. Evil with the Packers winning a last-minute stunner over New England. Now it's going to be a 56-3 (assuming the Patriots call off the dogs at halftime) blowout with Stupid vs. Evil. Watching Eli Manning speak is just painful. You would think after a while doing interviews he'd stop sounding like a flustered eight year old but no, he just clanks his awkward way through through trying sentences like "It, well, uh, really just, it really feels good to uh, uh, you know, come out here and win. He needs a big str_replace("uh","",$whateverheistryingtosay). Yeah. [Comments: 5]· permalink · Bookmark Burr-berry at del.icio.us · Digg Burr-berry · Bloglines: Burr-berry

Monday: Janauary 21, 2008 - Saw IV Saw IV Last night I saw Saw IV on the internets. It was the first time I'd ever watched a movie online and the experience wasn't that great. If the movie industry was smart they'd allow you to watch movies for free online when formatted as follows: Each movie is broken into four chunks and you can't stream the next chunk while one is streaming/playing. This ensures at least 20 minutes in between chunks and most users would be so irritated they'd just buy the movie for $4 on iTunes. For me it was a matter of principle so I sucked it the f* up and started redesigning a site I just bought while I waited.

Internet or not, Saw IV wasn't that good. The casting director should have been fired along with the make-up guy because too many of the male characters looked the same. Thankfully the main character was a black guy so he was easy to pick out. All the white guys though looked exactly the same--it reminded me a South Park episode where the kids are in China and all the Chinese kids can't tell them apart because they all look the same. Anyway, I was a big fan of the first two and third one was fair but this was just lame. There were no big shockers and you could tell they were really running low on ideas for torture. Fortunately, it appears the series will continue and the production company has signed on with the US government to purchase some of their intellectual property for the next few movies.
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Tuesday: Janauary 22, 2008 - Procrastinatation Procrastinatation Although my mantra of the year has been suck it the f* up the past four days I have started to slip back into my old ways. I think the big problem for this particular bout is that I'm starting to hate sitting in front of a computer. I sit in front of a computer all day and then go home and do nothing but sit in front of a computer doing the same things I do at work but for myself: wrangle semicolons.

I can't speak for everyone but my personal problem with procrastination is lack of negative reinforcement. When I am accountable directly to other people I am excellent at beating deadlines and not getting behind. When I owe something to myself though I just can't muster up that same energy. It's not like there isn't motivation and, unlike the music world, in programming you have very tangible results; I truly have no reason to not get things done (or write double negatives).

In my freshman year of high school I took a history class and at the end of the first week we were told that a term paper was going to be due the last day of the semester it was going to have to be (gasp!) 12 pages long. Now, in my defense, in 1994 we didn't have any internets at all so writing a paper entailed more than going to Wikipedia, looking up "why did the civil war happen" and plagiarizing like mad. Regardless, as soon as I heard the words "last day of the semester" I thought "you're not going to do it at all are you". I didn't. I think I got a D in the class I otherwise enjoyed. I distinctly recall having something like a 97% before the final paper but I just didn't want to do it. It's not like I had any friends and was too busy to do it. It's not that I forgot about it. I just knew I'd get away it. While I certainly incurred the wrath of my parents for getting a(nother) D on my "permanent record" I didn't think anything would come of it. Even now I don't know if it mattered or not. I know my grades were really bad generally in high school and I only went to college based on my test scores and the ability to whack a timpani properly. And there's that lack of negative reinforcement again. I did just fine. I went to college and graduate school and taught and joined the work force all without incident.

I just wish I had that panic that non-procrastinators have--like something terrible is going to happen if I don't do something for myself. I guess I've written enough although I do very busy day today so I'll probably be back.
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Wednesday: Janauary 23, 2008 - Revelation Revelation Since this was going to be a revelation follow-up from yesterday I did a search for "A ha!" so I could find a picture. I figured I'd get a bunch of the band A Ha but I was under-prepared to find this one. Funny.

Last night Chris appeared for some GH and we got absolutely nowhere in beating #3 in Coop. The remaining songs are just too hard. He's progressing a lot faster than I did so I'm banking on the fact that he'll soon surpass me and be able to carry my slow-fingered self to the end next time.

After work I was supposed to have learned my lesson in procrastination. I was to meet with a freelance client to show them a demo application that was grossly underdeveloped. The entire application was white-background, Times New Roman, 12 point font. I spent the whole day worried about learning the negative reinforcement that was going to come on showing it. I get there and what happens? It's loved! Not only do they love the functionality of it but they decide to give me a bonus on the spot for it. After I left I called Steve to help me understand how this could happen as he's right up there with K-Chris and Brian on the list of people who suck it the f* up and get things done. He pointed out that maybe--just maybe, there's no lesson to learn. If after 28 years there's been for the most part positive reinforcement of procrastination then maybe it's not worth changing. Once I left high school my life was essentially devoid of busy-work and things have gone really well. The pre-college years were the only ones where there was any negative reinforcement for procrastinating (probably because it was coupled with complete non-action on my part) and even then everything turned out just fine. Viva la homme paresseux!
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Thursday: Janauary 24, 2008 - Sew What? Sew What? Duh. I forgot to post the secret answers so everyone (except Kathy) could see what profound faults we've been hiding from the rest of the world.

In middle school, I faked an asthma attack to get out of camping. It was so good, I fooled 3 nurses and an ER doctor. (Jamie)

I have a crush on Tyler Florence, from Food Network. (Kathy)

I can only jump rope backwards. (Steve)

I is adopted. (Brian)

I'm slightly colorblind. (T-Chris)

I stole academic regalia. (Marty)

When I was about seven I ran away from home for 45 minutes. (Chompy)

I hand-write fewer than 100 (alphabetic) letters a month. (Mike)

Shocking I know. I expect to hear from both People and Us magazines this afternoon now that I've posted such sordid details about famous people.
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Monday: Janauary 28, 2008 - No Mas No Mas It's time to say goodbye to classical music and, to that end, to throwing money at universities to teach it to me. Over the past six months I've finally come to terms with the fact I just don't like classical music anymore and the thought of having to study it for another three years makes my stomach turn. Although I would have liked to have taught it at some level, I simply don't see how the world is in any sort of need for another atrocious "modern" flute solo or zzz-brass quintet. The funny part to me is that my music is played more now than it ever has and each year picks up dozens more of unsolicited performances than the last. This all started in about 2003 and with the passing of each calendar I get more emails telling me my music is great and larger checks being cut to me. The only "problem" is that it's all for a single genre; one that is neither respected nor appreciated in the classical realm and frankly I was also tired of having to downplay those to seem a decent member of the establishment. This sunk in last year after submitting applications to schools where I knew damn well I had more pieces performed annually than the entire composition faculty combined and still didn't get in. Did they sell a twenty copies of a single piece in the same month? If they did, why would their mom want twenty copies of their piece for solo flute?

While I'm not as skilled at programming as Ricky or Brian and not as killer of an optimizer as Christine, I do both admirably even if I'm not in the 98% percentile like they are. What I do have going for me in this area is that, at least so far, I have killer business ideas and the skills to build the sites behind them. If for no other reason, this is why I'm ready for a change--because I'm not going to be living on the street or cleaning bathrooms (again). So to you classical music, thanks for the memories but I don't think we should see each other any more. You just love yourself too much to be loved by anyone else.
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Tuesday: Janauary 29, 2008 - Wasted Vote Wasted Vote Because, believe it or not, I am a registered member of the Republican Party I threw my vote away on Rudy Giuliani on my lunch break yesterday. As far as I can remember, I have never voted for a winning candidate so my vote was probably the kiss of death and he's expected to formally drop out of the race today. He may be a fascist but at least he's a smart fascist. Since I voted I formally have a right to complain now. I was hoping the national race would come down to Obama and Giuliani so I could actually choose between two people I liked. Oh well. Looks like McCain and Obama now. Makes my decision easy since, I don't know, McCain is crazy?

LOST is only two days away. I still remember watching two seasons in about two days with Jamie in my office and trying to ration them because they were so good. I recall reading that Lost hadn't filmed the whole season because of the writers strike and that would suck it they only had a handful. I wish they had filmed the entire show and could release it as needed. Without Lost, and now that football season is over, I really don't turn on the TV at all except to play Guitar Hero with Chris so I was really looking forward to having some TV-time to take the edge off what I believe to be the single most stressful time of my life.
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Wednesday: Janauary 30, 2008 - Rhythm Method Rhythm Method That last time Chris and I got together to beat GH3 on Co-Operative mode it was decided that after only making it 78% of the way through Metallica's One about 4,000 times we'd switch parts. With Chris now on lead we have officially made it into "A" range, topping out at 93% of the song. I never really felt strongly about Metallica one way or another but since we've played One so many times that I'm starting to really hate them. After playing the rhythm guitar part so many times now I'm pretty amazed that James Hetfield is able to both sing and play that part.

Looking back at the Red Zeppelin Time Machine yesterday I concluded that (for at least as long as I've been blogging) the last week of January has always been really bad to me. It's a weird combination of just bad decisions on my part (see: Leaving RD last year) and life just taking a big dump on me (see: FSU years). At least this year I have Guitar Hero going for me.
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Thursday: Janauary 31, 2008 - Oceanic 6 Oceanic 6 Since I only had two Lost-watching friends in town (both fur-enclosed) I was of course sitting in front of my computer instead of in the rarely-used TV room. As soon as I heard the term "ocean six" I immediately tried to register it. Too bad it had been registered since...that's right August of last year. SOMEONE had insider knowledge. How Lostian.

All in all I was really happy with the episode. Seeing the flash-forwards are nice because it makes me feel like they do in fact have a master plan and aren't just making it up as they go. Of course the big question of the night was "Why were there only six in the Oceanic 6?" Did the rest die? Are they still there? Hmm. As far as we know Kate, Jack, and Hurley survive plus someone who died at the end of last season. Should be interesting.

The only part I didn't really care for was how people were splitting off between John and Jack's camps. I would have to believe that despite all the island weirdness more people would have stayed with Jack in the hopes of being rescued. On the bright side we might have seen the last of Charlie (CHAW-lee!).

Now we just have to wait another eight months for the next one. Oh wait, it's one week. Force of habit.
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Good Things Take Time... -2 days until FSU Football (2010)


Random Picture...
Here's Kristen with the waves crashing in the background. I tried to time the picture to coincide with a big crash but this was the best I could do.


Time Machine: 09-07-2009 · 09-07-2008 · 09-07-2007 · 09-07-2006 09-07-2009: I'll start with the good news: my death from the swine flu is no longer imminent. Now, onto the bad news.

WHERE THE HELL WAS FSU'S DEFENSE?! *I* could have been playing cornerback last night. I can easily ignore receivers as the blow past me or trip on my own two feet as a RUNNING BACK shoots past me for a catch in the end zone. Uggggggggh. On the bright side, the offense looked pretty good--at least Christian Ponder and the vaunted offensive line. The running game looked anemic when Jermaine was in there but his backup looked like a punisher. The fact our receivers c(w)ouldn't catch the ball made life rough. Fortson looked like the only guy who actually was willing to take one for the team and try to catch it, although Richard Goodman's catch on the two-point conversion ended with him getting blasted.

Anyway, where was the bloodthirsty FSU defense? Who were these cowards playing constant zone coverage? It doesn't take a PS2 NCAA Football expert very long to realize there's a time and a place for zone but if you want to win you need to MAN UP. Granted, the man coverage, when "utilized", made the secondary look absolutely stupid, with their coverage at least five yards behind the Miami receivers.

Whatever, we'll be good next year.
09-07-2008: It looks like my vice-like grip over NCAA Pick 'Em is officially over. After tweaking "the algorithm" I still finished near the bottom of the picks because I clearly overweighed the section dedicated to "do they like to get upset?". The numbers correctly picked the ECU upset of WV but unfortunately they also picked three more upsets and, knowing that no more than three teams ever get upset in a week, I released WV out of a personal affinity towards the school. I also, until the game started, thought USM was in fact Mississippi State which they are clearly not. Oops.

I went out to Virginia to watch the FSU game with Kathy & Co. The bar had a lot of FSU fans but none that were particularly into the game. It didn't help that there was over two hours in combined rain delays. FSU looked good but I think anyone would look good against Western Carolina. They're not East Carolina, that's for sure. Catamounts, for the record, are mountain lions. They are not horses despite containing the word "mount". We'll know for sure how good FSU is when vaunted Chattanooga rolls into town next week.
I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-07-2006: Although not as gratifying as some wins in the past, I was able to fend off tchris and jamie in a little three-way poker last night. At different points in the night we all had huge chip leads and somehow blew them. We're all big bettors so it was a lot of fun despite the low number of people.

I really need a new computer. Mine shuts off after about five minutes of use due to overheating and I still have not been able to find the right replacement fan. I'm hoping by the week after my birthday to have enough money to buy the new one from Dell, even though they won't let me get it without the video card. I talked to their retarded sales/tech guy and asked them simply if they could not charge/install a video card. They do not have dual-monitor options and I wasn't ordering any monitors so I didn't need the card. He replied that they could not and I was out of luck. I replied by asking him if the computers were really built by hand like they say in the commercials. He said yes. I then asked if they guy installing it could just "leave out" the video card (I'd be throwing it out the day I got it) and have the person hand-writing my bill leave off the cost of it. He said no. Oh well.