12.31.2004
2:21pm
Need some awesome desktop wallpaper? www.terradreams.de has some breathtaking images. I discovered the site while perusing DB's User Gallery.
On our trip to Roanoke yesterday we saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events at the Valley View Grande. I thought the movie had some fantastic acting by Jim Carrey and the story had the right mixture of mystery and fantasy. I'm not crazy enough about the movie to purchase the Lemony Snicket books, of which I hear there are a total of 8 published so far. This first movie supposedly covered the first three novels, so we can expect a theatrical sequel covering the next three, and so on and so forth. At Sam's Club I found a newly-published anthology of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis for $12, so I've been re-reading what were some of my favorite fantasy stories when I was a kid. I'm old enough now to notice the blatant biblical allusions regarding Christ and the Devil, and The Fall, etcetera, but if you can tolerate that it's a very enjoyable set of stories.
12.29.2004
11:29pm
Tuning in from Blacksburg, Virginia < What's the Frequency, Kenneth? >
I arrived here yesterday around 5pm after an eleven-hour drive from Melbourne. Fortunately I did not encounter any bad weather or traffic congestion along the way. I got to see the house that my parents are renting while waiting for their new one to be built in Christiansburg, which looks like it might not be finished until after April. Lots of problems with the builder getting his act together, it seems. Mom came back from NC today after delivering Brittany to her friend's house in Wilmington, and after stopping to see Uncle Carl and Aunt Carmen in Cary. Kobe and Mikayla seem to be doing well, and now mom has a yard in which to set up her dog agility equipment. We went for a walk today through the nearby neighborhood, and most of the apartments are deserted since all the Virginia Tech students are home for the holidays. I read some more of Michael Crichton's "State of Fear" which I bought a couple days ago at Wal-Mart; it's a typical Crichton thriller--this time about Global Warming (yes I think it's a proper noun by now). At dusk we took a drive over to the site in Christiansburg and met with the guys doing construction on the house. So far they have the basement completed, the trusses and base for the first story, and a few walls. For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse for steaks and ribs, which I haven't had in a long time. Mom was feeling pretty tired from early morning traveling so we went home and watched "The Glass House."
For any of those interested, the final three episodes of Father of the Pride aired yesterday from 8pm - 9:30pm and are of course available on TVTorrents. The new episodes really weren't very funny and I can see why NBC originally pulled them from sweeps. Gotta love the CGI animation and provocative humor though. While digging through previous posts on a.f.l-k I found a link to BBC's made-for-tv movie called "Pride" and am watching that now. BTW, Adelphia's Usenet servers are amazing--they keep backlogged posts since June of 2003, unlike RoadRunner which tends to purge messages more than a month old. I cringe when I think about the amount of hard disk space that must be consumed by their archives--many terabytes to be sure. In any event, Outlook Express downloaded about 100,000 headers for the six newsgroups I subscribe to. Yikes!
12.25.2004
1:09pm
Well I finished opening my Christmas gifts from my parents and sister. My sis gave me a silk-screened Magical Trevor T-Shirt which is really cool, and the Bourne Supremacy DVD. My parents got me the Spiderman 2 Superbit DVD, a DTS poster, Pink Floyd's "The Wall," some clothes, a blank panther plushie, the yearly Craftsman tool, a National Geographic subscription, and a 1-year membership to Digital Blasphemy.
Images:
12:12am
Well, it's officially Christmas day here in EST (GMT -5) time zone. Feliz Navidad and happy holidays to everybody. It's about time for me to go to bed so I can get up at a decent time tomorrow, so I can... umm... open presents and enjoy my own company. Hurrah for solitude :/
12.24.2004
10:05pm
So here I am on Christmas Eve... just got back from watching Meet the Fockers at the local Oaks cinema. I went in expecting a hilarious sequel to the original "Meet the Parents" and it delivered on many levels. Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand were great as Bernie and Roz Focker, a retired lawyer and sex therapist respectively. They managed to keep the jokes running continuously throughout the film, beginning with Gaylord delivering his first baby and the parents deciding to name their baby after him--before they see his nametag. Mister Jinx is back from the first movie along with a new horny Focker puppy. Jack works throughout the movie to educate his grandkid, Little Jack, who is far too responsive for a toddler. All in all, the movie was well worth my five bucks for two hours of laughs.
I've got some time off work from Dec 28 - Jan 1 so I'm planning to drive back to Virginia to visit my parents. I'm still pretty shocked I managed to get 5 days off in a row, but Danny is cutting everyone's hours back so it won't be a problem. Hopefully the weather and traffic will cooperate; I think by the 28th the roads won't be too busy.
12.23.2004
2:24am
Checking in with the morning report... well maybe a little too early in the morning for that.
Ron brought his 4 hamsters and 2 fish over tonight for me to watch while he's away at home for Christmas. He's leaving tonight after work and should be back on the 28th, so I'm responsible for 5 days. He said the adult female is pregnant again, so hopefully she won't give birth until he's back to monitor everything. Apparently he's had a good bit of luck selling the baby hamsters so maybe the third batch will sell just as well.
I got the new Top Gun Collector's Edition DVD today and watched it in DTS-ES 6.1 surround; completely blows away the prior DVD release in picture and sound quality. There's something about the title credits with the Top Gun theme song and F-14 jets that is just spine-tingling to watch.
12.21.2004
2:28pm
Saw an interesting flamewar on alt.home-theater.misc about Bose systems and somebody posted this link: Bose Acoustimass 15 review. It covers an in-depth analysis of the materials used and frequency range covered by the Bose cube speakers and the Bass Module, and the results are quite pathetic. I really wish we didn't sell Bose gear at Best Buy, but then again there are some stupid people out there that will buy $1000-$3000 junk.
1:30am
Final grades are in:
| Circuit Theory 1 | A |
| Soft/Hardware Design | A |
| Prob/Stat | A |
| Sci/Tech Comm | A |
| Modern Physics | A |
So I managed to pull off another 4.0 semester, hopefully I can keep it up. Circuit Theory 2 is looming as a formidable obstacle next semester.
I forgot to mention a few days ago that my 90 day review is being submitted to Best Buy corporate. Danny said I was doing a great job so far and that I would receive a small raise (5-7%) which equates to about 35-50 cents. Dwight also resigned two days ago because he's taking a two-week vacation with his fiancee, and Best Buy is never that generous around the holiday season. Hopefully he will get re-hired in mid January but who knows for sure.
12.19.2004
11:08pm
It's just not Christmas season without some Mannheim Steamroller music playing in the background...
Best Buy was very busy today, as expected with only 6 days left until the 25th. The hottest items at our store this season seem to be iPods, PlayStation 2s, home-theater-in-a-box systems, and big-screen televisions of course. There have also been an unusual number of people looking for karaoke systems. I guess it's entertaining to have everybody drink a bunch of eggnog on Christmas day and make fools of themselves by singing along to pop music. Now a rap-along with Eminem music might be hilarious, especially since the tempo is so fast and memorizing the lyrics is improbable. I also got to see an employee arrested today for stealing some cell phones and a bunch of SIM cards. He made the mistake of registering the phones in his own name, after leaving the empty boxes in the store with the ESN still attached. Cingular just traced the account. I guess he really thought that one through beforehand.
I had to go grocery shopping tonight since I can no longer get meals on campus. That means I'll actually have to cook microwave stuff. Of course Mom did send some cookies so they will hold me over for a while ;)
12.18.2004
12:23pm
It's kind of lonely around here with everybody gone now. Ron is still around until Christmas Eve and Dave will be here this week as well, so I can hang out with them when I'm not working. I've also been playing CS: Source to occupy my time.
My modern physics exam yesterday seemed pretty easy; in any event, it only took me 35 minutes to complete. I had to go to work immediately after and ended up parking at the mall since the Best Buy plaza was packed with people. Today and Sunday will be even worse, as it's the last weekend before Christmas. I work from 1:45 - 10:15 tonight and it will be tough to stand 8 hours of retail madness. On the plus side, it's giving me something to do; with school over until early January I don't have much else to hold my attention.
My hamster Nicodemus is practically full-size now... it's amazing how fast they mature. Ron has sold his entire second batch of babies including the two 3-legged ones. I don't know if he's planning to make more to sell or not, but hopefully he waits until after Christmas since I have to take care of his hamsters for a week.
12.15.2004
10:41am
I went to Midnight Breakfast with Rolando and Ron last night around 11pm (Midnight being figurative in this case), and we met up with Chris, Dan, Steve, Jason, Jenee, Tim, Gwen, and some other random people. It's much more of a social event than a meal, although they did have all the usual breakfast fare available including a large selection of doughnuts. Somebody at the neighboring table was trying to show off by stuffing as many grapes as possible into his mouth without swallowing. I think he managed somewhere around twenty which started to draw a crowd, and then he wrapped up by replacing the grapes with a whole apple. It was great, almost felt like we were in middle school again watching some immature contest/bet. Chris was busy giving us an infomercial-style lecture on the greatness of salvia divinorum which is a legal substance with LSD/marijuana-type effects that probably won't be legal for much longer. Remember kids, drugs are bad mmmmkaaay.
I've got my Prob/Stat final in two hours, wish me luck. I need to get a 79.1% or higher to get an A in the class.
12.13.2004
3:55pm
One down... three to go. The SHD exam was 25 question multiple-choice, but the questions were more difficult than I would have anticipated. It was supposed to be a comprehensive final but almost the entire thing focused on the last few topics in class, the ones that Dr. Kozaitis had to rush through very quickly without much explanation. I think if I had re-read every page of the textbook about 3 times I might have gotten 100 on the exam, but as it stands I probably got a high B or low A. Rolando didn't fair so well, having less programming experience than me, but hopefully he didn't do too badly. I think Dr. Kozaitis should have given us a practical rather than a final, and had all of us write a program on paper to accomplish some task. He still could have implemented most of the topics he wanted to cover, and it would have given much better representation of those who understand the material rather than those who are good at picking A, B, C, or D.
10:45am
Waiting for my first exam at 1pm, which is for Software/Hardware Design. I did some studying this weekend and it's a familiar topic for me anyway, so this exam should be relatively easy compared to the other three. I've got work tonight but tomorrow is completely free, so I will have plenty of time to prepare for my Prob/Stat test.
I watched The Chronicles of Riddick with Dan, Cory, Chris, Steve, and Rolando last night. Blockbuster was completely rented-out but fortunately Hollywood Video had some left. The unrated Director's Cut was a slight improvement over the theatrical version, with some added footage that explained things a little better. Chris brought over the 30-minute anime called Dark Fury which is the middle episode between Pitch Black and Chronicles, and that helped shed even more light on the story.
I saw Blade: Trinity on Saturday with Rolando, Chris, and one of Chris's friends. It was a little different in tone from the first two Blade installations, with more comedy thanks to Ryan Reynolds of "Van Wilder" fame. The villians this time around were awful except for Dracula from whom all vampires supposedly descended. Overall it lacked the innovation of Blade I and the energy of Blade II, and I think the series will end with Trinity.
12.10.2004
2:00pm
Here comes the rain... such a sweet sound.
It just started sprinkling a couple minutes ago, evidence of the cold front that is moving across the eastern seaboard. The daytime temperature for Melbourne is supposed to drop from about 80 down to 68, which is a welcome change. I was getting a little tired of summer weather during December.
The Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market next door is nearing completion, with the main structure finished and some of the parking lot paved. I think it's going to make traffic on Babcock even worse than before, which means longer waits to turn left toward campus. It's something we Saratoga residents will have to get used to I suppose. On the convenience side, there will be a grocery store about 3 minutes away by foot.
Bad news, Terrible news, Strange news, and geez it's really hard to find any good news. Blade: Trinity and Ocean's Twelve hit theaters today, unfortunately I have to work until 11pm tonight or else I'd go see one of them. I will just have to wait until tomorrow. The reviews seem average for Blade and a little above average for Ocean's, but they both seem like fun movies nonetheless.
12.7.2004
11:05pm
Studying for Circuit Theory while listening to bluefm.net on Winamp Shoutcast.
I had my last regular Modern Physics test today on nuclear reactions and elementary particles. It wasn't too bad overall but it will still probably be my test grade that gets dropped. Dr. Lopez just discards the lowest of the four, and my other three grades were > 94. After the test I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart, washed my car, and did some cleaning around the apartment.
12.7.2004
12:39am
Wow time to catch up with this journal... ahh, where to start.
I drove to Orlando last night to see Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, and Dustin Hoffman. Any movie that garners ratings as high as it did deserves to be seen, but I'm very surprised that no theater in Melbourne seemed willing to offer it. I guess it has a pretty limited audience since it's not a big-budget fall blockbuster movie, rather a more artistic drama that requires a little patience and intelligence to see the true value. I realized while watching the movie how long it has been since I've seen Peter Pan. Not to mention that I've never read the book, at least I don't remember ever having done so.
While I'm on the Orlando topic, I saw this movie at the Regal 20 at Alafaya, which sits in the back of the biggest retail plaza I have ever seen. I'm just glad I was there at 10pm on a Sunday night because otherwise there would have been a million people shopping there. You could probably spend a whole week making your way through every store and cafe there.
Today between class and work I found time to watch Super Size Me, the documentary about the adventures of Morgan Spurlock and his month-long binge on McDonald's fast food. I will say it was very scary to see how unhealthy Morgan became by eating the high-fat food for every meal. He gained almost 25 pounds, 100 cholesterol points, and had damage to his kidneys. Not to mention the overall sick feeling and lack of energy. I will say the documentary was tastefully done, focusing mostly on the individual physiological changes during his diet while taking a jab at fast-food corporations, school lunch programs, and fat people in general. The movie should be required viewing for every middle school health class, save a view disturbing parts.
My Sci/Tech Comm team had its final presentation today, the report is posted here and the PowerPoint is here. The web site Adam made is also online, and it really topped off our oral presentation. We played a quasi-Jeopardy game in Prob & Stat class today, and my team chose the title of "Ken Jennings" to reflect our hopes of winning (as long as there weren't any H&R Block questions). Ms. Reese actually had a category called "Absolutely nothing to do with Stats" which became the most popular of course. I learned that hippophobia is the fear of horses, Optimus Prime was the good leader of the Transformers, Azrael was the cat from the Smurfs, Minnesota was the original home of the brothers from Beverly Hills 90210, and other useless tidbits. Oh and the British singer who was nominated for the 1995 Grammy for best song was Seal, not Def Leppard. In retrospect, Def Leppard isn't even British.
12.3.2004
2:50am
IT'S DONE... FINISHED! The Sci/Tech Comm report is proofed, revised, printed and sealed in the requested 10x13 envelope. Required a 2am trip to Wal-Mart because the old envelope wasn't big enough to fit 3 copies of a 32-page report. Oy vey. Hopefully this was worth all the effort, I would hate for our team to get a B on the report considering the time we spent. Now we just have to worry about this bothersome oral presentation worth 10% of our grade... hmm.
Work was a pain tonight, since the home theater department looked like ground zero after the truck was unloaded last night. Fortunately Jason has some great organizing skills and we managed to get everything put out of the way. I also learned how to use a Telxon for the first time tonight... apparently nobody bothered under the old manager but our new one wants to follow SOP and be on top of things. I'm taking Pablo's shift tonight so I'll be working 6-10pm. That still leaves time for Halo 2 at Ron & Jason's. I've been trying to finish Half-Life 2 but I just haven't had enough time. I keep thinking I'm near the end but the game just keeps going, and going, and going. Like that bunny.
12.1.2004
12:19pm
Family Guy is the best show ever made, hands down. I'm rewatching some of the season 1 and 2 shows... it's been so long since I've seen them that the jokes are original. So many pop-culture references as well... starting with the hilarious Kool-Aid guy in the very first episode.
My "Peachtree Road" and "Captain Fantastic" SACDs arrived today from Amazon.com. Peachtree Road was particularly well-mixed, not overbearing in the surrounds and had a strong LFE channel. The Captain Fantastic album is about 30 years younger and is a completely different style of music, but it was also sounded great. Spider-Man 2 came out on DVD today... regular widescreen and Superbit for those who want something a little nicer... ;)