Truer Than Fiction

Blog Retirement and Rebirth

2008-06-11T23:01:00.001-04:00

I don't know if anyone comes here anymore, but I suspect a few people may have this in their RSS reader or whatever. I'll make this short and sweet: I'm consolidating the three blogs that I have into one blog: I Push Buttons. If you care to follow me over there, I'd be happy to have you. The new blog should be a lot more interesting and active than any of my other ones, as it won't be content-specific. Basically, you get whatever crap that decides to come out of my head. Whether or not that is something of interest is up to you. If you don't want to come along, no hard feelings.

My Life In 30 Seconds

2008-03-25T15:46:00.003-04:00

- Saw "Vantage Point" with C. Fun movie, but nothing epic.

- Got new 46" Samsung HDTV. It rules.

- Brother-in-law headed back overseas to Afghanistan for eight months. Pray for him.

- Easter service was awesome. Singing went well. Dinner at in-laws' phenomenal as always.

- GMail chat blocked at work, so no more IM. Infuriating.

- Youngest sister turned 18 yesterday. I'm old.

- Bought "Watchmen" graphic novel, but still have other books to finish before I start that. Consider it motivation.

- Playing WoW again. It's fun.

Year In Review 2007

2008-01-29T11:30:00.001-05:00

Not that anyone comes here anymore (except maybe my wife), but I'm bored. So here goes.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? Paid off my car and went to the Outer Banks.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? This is the first year I ever made a New Year's resolution, so I didn't have any last year. So far I am keeping the one I made this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Pam and Amanda

4. Did anyone close to you die? nope

5. What countries did you visit? Stayed in the US this year

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? A new home theater system

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? No especially important dates from 2007 for me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Paying off my car.

9. What was your biggest failure? Failing to exercise regularly. Should change this year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Still have a pinched nerve in my leg and had a bad cold for a week.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I guess my new iTrip for playing my iPod in the car.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My mom and sister

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Congress. As usual, the Democrats are all talk and no action, unless it involves spending an assload of money. The Republicans continue to piss me off as well.

14. Where did most of your money go? I've saved most of my "fun" money. It will go toward the new home theater.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? going to the Outer Banks

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? As C said, anything by the Clintons

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? the same I think, maybe a little bigger
iii. richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? playing my guitar

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? commuting

20. How will you be spending Christmas? We spent it at home for the first time.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007? I'm going to keep the cheesy line and say "every day"

23. How many one-night stands? I think I've run out of jokes for this question. This is a sad day. :(

24. What was your favorite TV program? I've really gotten into Numbers.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No, I don't hate anyone, but my distaste for our government is getting close.

26. What was the best book you read? Red Mars

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Clintons and Lloyd Dobler Effect

28. What did you want and get? A Nintendo Wii!

30. What was your favorite film of this year? I'm going to have to go with The Bourne Ultimatium also

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 27, and I honestly can't remember. I'm getting old. :( I think we just went out to dinner.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Seeing my family more

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? I don't have a personal fashion concept. Just be happy my clothes match.

34. What kept you sane? Lack of items which would drive me insane.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Jenna Fischer

36. What political issue stirred you the most? Illegal wiretapping and various DMCA issues

37. Who did you miss? My family

38. Who were the best new people you met? I'm not sure I met many new people.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007: Take as many allowances on your W4s as you can without owing a ton of money at the end of the year. Stop giving the government a huge loan.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: "I got my g-string on, and I'm looking for love." That doesn't sum up my year at all, but I think it's funny.

A Harbinger Of Things To Come

2008-01-07T22:38:00.000-05:00

Amazingly enough, the post immediately previous to this from October is still applicable.

Unbelievable

2007-10-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

You don't even deserve a rant, VT. You gave that game away. Way to choke.

Matt + Anesthesia = Amusing

2007-10-12T15:22:00.000-04:00

So I had an endoscopy today to check for signs of acid reflux disease, of which there were some. I'm on medication now, so hopefully it will heal pretty quickly, and I won't end up with Barrett's Esophagus. The procedure itself went flawlessly, and I now offer you various quips from when I was coming off the anesthesia. Enjoy.

* The first thing I said after coming to: "I'm depressed. I dreamed about work. It was like I was never here."

* I claimed no less than three times that I had travelled through time. (The procedure was like a blink of an eye. They didn't even tell me they were turning on the anesthesia.)

* I requested that I be allowed to take the anesthesia home with me. My doctor expressed a similar desire for himself.

* Following an enormous belch, I was heard to say, "Sorry, I swallowed a camera."

* I looked at my watch and said, "I'm ready for my procedure." (My procedure was scheduled for 1:45; I was actually done at 1:45.)

* When my wife and I were left alone, I threatened to pull out my electrodes and "flat-line" myself to cause undue distress among the hospital personnel.

* Although I don't remember this one, apparently I yelled at the straw in my juice cup when I was unable to get it in my mouth in a reasonable amount of time.

Life Tilt. AGAIN.

2007-07-26T12:33:00.000-04:00

Cross-posted from my other blog.

---

So what's put me on tilt this time? Well, it's definitely much worse than some dumbass trying to steal my cable. I've noticed that I tend to swear a good bit in my tilting posts. If that bothers you, don't read on. I get extremely pissed off, and it's either vent it here or beat someone with a lead pipe. If you would like to volunteer for the beating, I will tone the language down.

So, I get home yesterday to a letter from Allstate saying that my insurance policy has been cancelled due to lack of payment. Ummm...what the hell? The check was sent out weeks ago. I called the wife to confirm this, and she did. I checked the counters and behind the couch to make sure it hadn't accidentally fallen somewhere, but that check was most definitely sent.

She called me back a few minutes later to ask if any of the other checks she wrote that day had cleared. I log in to Bank of America only to find that both our phone bill and our mortgage payment had not been cashed either. It looks like either a) someone stole these items with the intent of cashing the checks for themselves, or b) the more likely scenario that the post office completely fucked up and lost three of our bills. I do so love the reliable federal government and the services I pay for with my tax dollars.

I called up Allstate at their 24 hour support line and was able to make our payment via credit card over the phone, but the guy could not guarantee me that my policy would be reinstated. I have to call back in a couple of days to see if it has been renewed or not. He said he was pretty sure that it would be, since we had always been on time in our payments before, so hopefully it won't be an issue. It's a wait and see situation at the moment.

The phone bill we ended up paying online. We would have been doing that in the first place if Cavalier Telephone hadn't all of a sudden started charging its customers to pay their bills online. Seriously, what the hell is that all about? It is actually BETTER for them if we pay online. They don't have to have some minimum wage clerk opening up letters and endorsing checks all day. Fucking idiots. Service based businesses like phone companies and banks are just licenses to steal. They'd charge you a fee for charging you a fee if it wouldn't end up in an infinite loop and crash their systems.

Since these checks are lost, I have to go online to stop payments on them in case some tool tries to steal my money. I go to the stop payment page, and there's a notice buried in three paragraphs of text that says a fee may apply to stop payment requests. I didn't even see that until today when Courtney called and said we were charge NINETY DOLLARS in fees to cancel those checks. Unbelievable. This kind of "business" makes me sick. It's just blantant theft. If this were the old west, the bank owner would be hanging from a tree. But it's not the old west; it's 2007, where businesses are protected by buying off politicians who won't legislate against this kind of shit.

The only bright aspect of this entire situation is that our mortgage payment isn't due until the 1st of August, and we have time to send out another check. Hopefully it will arrive in time, as our mortgage company is like 15 miles away from us in Silver Spring. That is, if the post office can do its job correctly. Who knows if that will happen or not. I won't know until I get a notice saying that they are foreclosing on my house.

Almost There...

2007-07-25T17:48:00.000-04:00

Two days until the Outer Banks!!

That is all.

My Simpsons Character

2007-07-13T18:13:00.000-04:00

Check it out!

You can make your own Simpsons character here.

Happy Anniversary

2007-06-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

Courtney is the most awesome woman in the world. You are entitled to disagree, but you would also be wrong. I love you, Courtney! Four years and counting!

Life Tilt

2007-06-19T14:11:00.001-04:00

Cross-posted from my other blog. Enjoy.

I was excited at the chance to play in my first MATH tournament last night. I had specifically spent some time Sunday afternoon winning a token and pre-registering for it so I wouldn't blow it on something else. My confidence in my game was high after my deep run in the 100 Seat Guarantee. I get home last night, and I start surfing the web, checking on some blogs, and generally trying to pass some time before the game.

I'm online for no more than five minutes when my internet connection goes out. Nice. I've had some problems with Comcast before, but usually it's because of some router connection or other that died because some squirrel decided to break into a cable box and take a dump on all of the electronics. I get up and walk into the living room to check the TV. That's strange... no TV either. Usually it's just the internet that goes out.

I'm about to call Comcast at this point when my wife gets home. She opens the door, and before I can even say hello she asks, "Did you see the wires outside?" Wires? What wires? I follow her outside to see that someone had pulled the cable lines out from behind their cover. They then proceeded to disconnect the source lines from the building lines and attach their own black coax line. This line then runs around the entire front of our building and back down the side where the other end is just laying in the grass.

Some fucktard actually thought they were going to be able to steal our cable. I don't know how they could have possibly thought they would get away with this. Let me list the various problems with this super-brilliant plan:

1) All the cable lines are UNDERGROUND. People are going to notice a huge-ass 300 foot cable line running from the FRONT of the building all the way around the side. I live in a condo with 12 units. At least 30 different people walk into and out of this building on a daily basis.

2) The dumbass didn't even reconnect existing lines. He killed the service of three units in his misguided attempt to watch the next season of American Idol. If you are going to steal cable, at least put a freaking SPLITTER on the line so that we will be none the wiser.

3) We're in a very busy neighborhood. Lots of families and lots of kids. If you try and pull this crap, someone is going to see you, and you are going to get caught. The Asian guy that lives above me said he saw someone, but he doesn't speak very good English, so he is not much help.

Anyway, all idiocies aside, you'd think that I would be able to just reconnect the lines and everything would be ok. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I reconnected everything, and the guy on the third floor got his service back, but mine and the guy's above me still don't work. So now I have to wait until Wednesday for a "technician" to come by and tell me that he can't fix it so that they can send a REAL line technician on Friday to fix the problem.

So, my ability to join the blonkeys in a friendly game of poker ended up being sabotaged by some half-wit with a Teletubby fetish. I at least had enough time to call up a friend of mine and have him unregister me. I guess I will have to wait until next week to take down a MATH tournament.

One very minor plus side: I took the idiot's 100+ feet of coax cable and kept it. He is either out around $50 or the time he put in stealing it. I can now wire the entire rest of my condo if I want. Thanks for the free stuff, bitch!

And if I see this guy nosing around outside my building, I will not be calling the cops. So help me, I will beat his ass down, tie him to a chair, and make him watch reruns of the Rosie O'Donnell show. I may be crossing a line here, but some people just have to learn the hard way.

Monster Post

2007-05-30T12:08:00.000-04:00

Time for a monster post. Can you handle it?

I took the day off Friday to combine with the holiday weekend to give me a four day mini-vacation, and I bought a ticket to fly down to see my family in South Carolina. I got up on the ass-end of the sunrise at 3:30 AM in order to drive to BWI for my 5:30 AM flight down to Charlotte. It was either fly out at an unreasonable hour or pay $200 more. You'd think it'd be difficult to put a price on a good night's sleep, but apparently it's less than $200.

The drive to the airport was like a small vacation in and of itself. There was almost no one on the roads, save the tractor trailers and the occasional insomniac. I got incredibly lucky on this trip. There were several factors that could have kept me from making my flight. First, when I got to the long-term parking lot, almost every single space was full. It took me a while to find one, and I was able to jump on the shuttle bus right after I parked the car. Any longer, and I would have missed it.

One wouldn't think there would be many people at the airport at 4:30 in the morning, but when I got there it was PACKED. The ticket line alone was at least 150 people deep, and I had less than an hour until my flight. The only reason I even got my ticket before the plane took off was that a lady came down the line and pulled people for my specific flight to the front of the line. Problem solved, right?

Wrong.

After I got my ticket, I went to get in the security checkpoint line. It didn't look too bad at first. It was just backed up down a side hallway. I walked to get at the back of the line, and as I turned the corner, I just about swore. Actually, I probably did swear. The hallway stretched back a good fifty yards where it turned yet another corner. As I overheard one man say, "Stop when you get to New Jersey." So I dejectedly walked down the hall and turned the corner, where the line stretched back out into the main hallway. I got in back, looked to my right, and saw where I had just been standing in the ticket line. I looked at my watch: thirty minutes to departure.

I feared the worst, but there was no reason to. If there is one thing that BWI is efficient at, it is the security checkpoint. They blew through some 300ish people in about twenty minutes. I've never seen such efficiency in an airport. It was all so... unnatural. I managed to get to the gate and walk directly on to the plane. It took off less than five minutes later.

---

I had a great time with my family this weekend. Mandy picked me up at the airport, and we had a great time catching up on the way home. We stopped at Burger King for some breakfast and then headed to the house.

Julie is doing phenomenally! She's made some great strides since I last saw her. She is able to feed herself and drink from a cup all by herself. She was barely eating solid food at Christmas. She's also able to pull herself up out of her wheelchair, and she's able to walk very slowly with help. Her main problem is balance issues and moving her right leg, but she was barely even standing when I last saw her. She's also started to talk a little bit again. Her speech is not enunciated very well, but I could understand almost everything she said. She was barely making noises in January.

We played a bunch of Uno, and we all went to see Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 at various points during the weekend. Both were enjoyable movies, but neither were as good as the ones preceding it. That's Hollywood for you, though; just milk a franchise for all it's worth.

---

The airport wasn't nearly as bad on Monday morning, but I guess most people wouldn't be travelling on the actual holiday. I made it through ticketing and security with tons of time to spare and was able to get a quick breakfast in the food court. The flight, however, was the most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on, and I've been on a LOT of planes. First off, this was a little commuter jet, with only two seats per side. That in and off itself is usually not so bad, but I got stuck beside this enormous (not fat, just HUGE) guy who was taking up half of my seat. I looked to see if I could switch seats, but the flight was full.

Also, to make matters worse, the flight attendants would keep hitting my left shoulder with their asses as they walked down the aisle. There was no reason that they should have been running into me, as they could easily turn to the side; I was not that far out in the aisle. I started to wonder if they were, in fact, doing it on purpose. It wouldn't have been so annoying if they were hot, but they weren't. I think the days of hot flight attendants are long gone. 'Tis a shame.

---

I spent the rest of Monday with C. We went to get some lunch at Chick-fil-a, and I took her to get some ice cream later in the afternoon. I spent the majority of the rest of the day driving all over the place to try and find the Starcraft Battlechest. For some reason, I just never got this game, even though it's immensely popular (some people make a living playing it in South Korea). Every single store I went to was sold out. They were most likely bought up after the recent announcement for Starcraft 2. I eventually found a copy yesterday at a Game Stop I didn't even know existed. I managed to score the last copy in the store and, most likely, the entire state. I just about laughed in the kid's face that tried to get me to pre-order Starcraft 2. Normally, this wouldn't bother me at all, but this game is still in the pre-alpha stage. They aren't even to the point where they are testing; Starcraft 2 is at least a year off. I pointed all of this out, and all the kid could say was, "well, that's true." Nice try, buddy.

Courtney did an awesome job cleaning and organizing the condo while I was down in SC. The place looks amazing, like we had just moved in. She repainted the bathroom and the vanity and totally reorganized all of the rooms. The place seems more spacious now. Courtney wins at life!

---

Well, I think that's all I have for now. My procedure has finished running here at work, so I'm also out of time. Also, I need to eat lunch.

A Tribute To XKCD

2007-05-17T12:15:00.000-04:00

Clicky for readable version.

I Don't Like Feeling Left Out

2007-05-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0

Happy Pi Day!

2007-03-14T11:22:00.000-04:00

Educate Yourself

What Up?

2007-02-12T13:18:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I posted on this blog. I think I'm in just under the month deadline for being removed from C's link list. I win!

We spent several hours on Saturday replacing the faucet in our bathroom. That was obnoxious and disgusting. Our bathroom is so cramped, in order to fit under the sink, I had to stick my legs out into the hall. It took forever to figure out how to get the old pipe out from between the drain and the basin, but we eventually got it. That was pretty much the hardest part. Then we got all the new stuff hooked up and discovered that our hot and cold water leads are backwards in the wall, so we had to switch those (which also happened to get rid of a little leak that was happening when they were installed the other way). Hopefully, I will never have to do plumbing again in this place. Everything is ancient.

After fixing the sink, we went over to my cousin's house for her birthday party. She turned 16 this year! I feel old. She drove us to her brother's basketball game, and we watched them beat up on the opposing team. That definitely brought back some fun memories from high school. I think I might coach some basketball when I have kids; that could be fun. After basketball, we went back to their house for cake and presents and Guitar Hero. I brought our guitars and memory card, and my cousins just absolutely loved that game. I'm pretty sure they're all going to be buying it at some point.

Sunday we started our new men's small group at church. I'm looking forward to this, as I have missed the fellowship and friendship that develops in a small group. Hopefully this will go well. I had a brief solo in the Sunday service, and then we went down to Eric and Carly's for lunch and to try out their Tempurpedic mattress. I'm pretty sure that we're going to get one, but it will have to wait until we get back from our trip to visit Mike and Kim this weekend. After trying out the mattress we played a round of Trivial Pursuit (Silverthorn vs Nusbaum), and Courtney and I won that game. Then we played a round of King's Cribbage (guys vs girls). That game is awesome. It's a cross between scrabble and cribbage; it starts out fairly slow, but the end game is intense. The girls ended up edging us out in that game when they seemed to always draw miracle tiles to make some crazy high points on the board. I think we may have to buy this game.

Sunday night I played in a $1 rebuy tournament on Full Tilt. I finished in 10th, one spot from the final table. Meh.

I have a four day work week this week, and a four day weekend. Yay holidays! We're going up to visit Kim and Mike, and on Sunday we're taking a day trip to Atlantic City so Mike and I can play in a poker tournament. That promises to be freaking awesome.

The End.

2006 Year In Review

2007-01-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before? Went horseback riding; started learning to play the guitar.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Same as last year: I don't do that stupid stuff.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Gillian and Jen.

4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandma died in Septemeber.

5. What countries did you visit? Does New Jersey count as another country? I think it should.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? A Nintendo Wii; an HDTV.

7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? September 29, the day my grandma died.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Probably building a $3000+ poker bankroll.

9. What was your biggest failure? I didn't read my Bible enough.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I have a pinched nerve in my right leg.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My guitar and amp!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My wife, because she is totally awesome and does everything for me.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Same as last year: name a politician, any politician.

14. Where did most of your money go? My guitar and amp; eating lunch out at work with the guys. Buying a new heat pump for the house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Playing in live poker tournaments at Foxwoods.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006? Songs don't really remind me of any certain year.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? probably a little fatter. I need to exercise more
iii. richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? reading my Bible, exercise

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? I dunno

20. How will you be spending Christmas? We went to Courtney's parents and my parents. Amazingly, without any travel issues.

22. Did you fall in love in 2006? every day

23. How many one-night stands? We have four nightstands. Two are in our bedroom, and two are in the second bedroom. Oh, wait. I read that wrong.

24. What was your favorite TV program? Prison Break, House, 24, Lost, Day Break.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I don't hate people.

26. What was the best book you read? Shogun

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Muse! Thank you Matt Green!

28. What did you want and get? A guitar and amp.

30. What was your favorite film of this year? I thoroughly enjoyed both Casino Royale and The Good Shepherd.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 26, and C invited people over to watch a VT football game. It was lots of fun.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Julie being able to talk.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Same as 2005. I could care less about this crap.

34. What kept you sane? God and friends and family.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Same as last year: Stephen Colbert is the best thing to happen to television.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? The Iraq War, mostly because the idiots in the administration don't know how to fight one.

37. Who did you miss? My sisters and parents.

38. Who were the best new people you met? I think Tito was the coolest new person I met.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006: Life's too short to sweat the small stuff. Also, heat pumps are freaking expensive!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: "We didn't start the fire. It was always burnin' since the world's been turnin'." I don't think it sums up the year in any particular way, it just happens to be what I'm listening to right now.

Almost There...

2006-12-19T09:38:00.001-05:00

Four more days until vacation! I can't wait! This entry is too short.

It's Funny Because It's True

2006-12-04T23:14:00.000-05:00

Annoying

2006-11-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

I find the following situation most infuriating:

Required Rambling

2006-11-08T12:09:00.000-05:00

My wife has some crazy rule where if you don't post on your blog for two months, then you will be unlinked from her site. I think it just wouldn't do to be unlinked from my wife's blog. That would be the ultimate blagoblag (thanks xkcd!) insult, and I just wouldn't be able to stand for it. So, without further ado, I offer you random happenings in recent times.

Since I last posted here, congress has passed a retarded law making it illegal for financial institutions to do business with online poker sites, thus destroying my favorite hobby and a source of side income. (I had been doing very well for myself.) Hopefully this will be repealed in the near future now that the Democrats have control of the house and (possibly) senate. So, since poker was ripped from my arms, I needed to find another hobby.

I enlisted the help of Matt Green to help me pick out a good starter guitar and amp, and I have been plucking away at learning how to play. I think I'm doing pretty well for having been at it for only a month or so, and I'm definitely enjoying it. It's definitely a lot easier to get into than when I tried to teach myself to play the piano.

Speaking of guitar, Courtney and I are now the proud owners of Guitar Hero for our Playstation2. What a fun game! We first learned of it when Steve brought it to a LAN party I went to last weekend, and we ended up buying it the very next day with some Best Buy gift cards we received for our birthdays. We decided to name our band Poisson Sumac. (Poison Sumac + Poisson Distribution = Poisson Sumac! Nerds win.) We ended up beating the game on easy mode the same day, and now we have to work on unlocking all of the various extras. That will probably take a good while.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot that has been going on. Still workin', still livin'. Hopefully you're all doing well. I'm looking forward to the holidays. I need a vacation.

BREAKING NEWS: CATS ARE HAIRY

2006-09-20T12:55:00.000-04:00

And they clog up the heat sink in my computer.

I spent most of Sunday running around, trying to get stuff to keep my computer from overheating when running processor intensive apps. I started out by getting canned air at Best Buy. I tried to clean out the heat sink with that, but I couldn't get the right angle while it was mounted in the case, so I took it out and broke the cheap-ass plastic fasteners in the process. Nice.

So now I have to go and buy a new heat sink, since this one won't attach anymore. I try to go over to CompUSA only to hit random backed up traffic on Perry Parkway (which is actually just a small two lane road), so I turned around and went to try Best Buy. They didn't have any, but the guy said that CompUSA did for sure. Yeah, I knew that already, but I couldn't get there.

I then drove down 355 to try to get to CompUSA from the other direction, but I ran into traffic there too. So I ended up parking like half a mile away and walking. CompUSA is right across from the Gaithersburg Fairgrounds, and apparently Sunday was the day where the entire countries of Central and Southern America were to meet there. I don't know why, but there were certainly tons of Latinos there. Although, I didn't see any on the actual fairgrounds. I just saw about 30,000 parked cars. There were people here and there walking toward the cars, but no one actually seemed to be doing anything. I'm not sure what was going on.

Anyway, I found a good heat sink at CompUSA for $40, and it was actually better than the one I had. I bought that, took it home, and installed it, and now I can play games and run my virus scanner without the computer dying. Also, I still have a good bit of canned air.

Shooting cats with canned air is AWESOME.

Stupid Facebook

2006-09-05T16:48:00.001-04:00

If you're reading any of these posts on the Facebook site, it strips the links for some stupid reason, so if you want to see any of the links in the posts, go to http://truerthanfiction.blogspot.com

This Thing Deserves An Update

2006-09-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

I give you, movie theme songs:

Superman

James Bond

God bless YouTube.

Teh Updates!

2006-08-01T20:20:00.000-04:00

ARE YOU HAPPY COURTNEY?!?

Hope Everyone Had Nice Holiday

2006-07-06T15:14:00.000-04:00

We had a great Fourth of July holiday. We started it in true American fashion by sleeping in. Once we got up and got ready, we headed over to Sean and Jennifer's for a lunch cookout. Also present were Dave and Ellen, and S&J's neighbors Kaiser and Asma. Food consisted of burgers and grilled vegetables. It was great stuff. I also partook of some homemade ice cream, which was exceptional!

We had a great time playing a bunch of party games, including some Munchkin, Apples to Apples, and Five Crowns. We had so much fun playing games that we ended up leaving there a little late to get to my aunt and uncle's house. We managed to get away from Sean and Jen's around 4:30, and no sooner did we get on the road than BAM, thunderstorm. It didn't last very long, and soon we were past it.

However, once we got on to I-66, we ran into the tail end of it, and this thing was a BEAST. At one point it was raining and blowing so hard that we had to pull over to the side of the road because my windshield wipers couldn't keep up. While we were sitting there, it start HAILING. It was pretty insane. It only lasted about ten minutes, though, and then we were able to continue on to my uncle's.

Apparently the storm completely missed them because there was no wetness there. We had a great time playing some Mario Kart and croquet. I destroyed everyone in croquet, and when that was over, I somehow ended up in the middle of a water balloon fight. Good times. Dinner consisted of grilled hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and kabobs. I didn't have any room for dessert this time though.

My uncles had purchased some Virginia "fireworks" to set off in the lawn, which were fun to watch. However, once it got dark, their neighbors started lighting off their illegals that they got in Pennsylvania, and the real show began. They must have spent a couple grand on fireworks because they had a really impressive display. Courtney will probably have pictures up on her photoblog soon. She got some really good ones.

So, that was our holiday. I hope everyone else had a great Fourth! Now I just need to make it to the weekend.

Julie Update

2006-06-07T11:25:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I posted here. I should have posted this a long time ago, but I guess I forgot. A couple of weeks ago, we went down to SC to visit the family for Memorial Day weekend. Everyone seemed to be doing a lot better than when we were down there last, especially Mandy. She seems to have come to terms with the accident and is back to her old self again. This makes me very happy, as she was very depressed for a while.

Julie is still doing well. She's eating all of her food now, and most of it is normal food. They don't really have to mush stuff up for her anymore, as she is now able to chew on her own. She still has the feeding tube for water and medicine, but she's working on learning to use a straw again, so hopefully that won't be there much longer. She has MUCH better range of motion for her arms, and she is able to hold her head up for much longer periods of time. She is slowly but surely regaining strength in her muscles. Probably the best part of all of this is that she is now able to give hugs. Of couse, you have to be careful, because if she gives you a hug she doesn't want to let go!

Still not much going on in terms of talking, but that's usually the last thing to return. She laughs all of the time, though, and she understands everything that's going on around her. There have been several times where my mom has been surprised when Julie starts laughing when a more intellectual joke is made while she's watching TV. Julie's all there, she just has to keep working to get her mobility back. God has definitely been working, and we're praying that he continues to heal her and bring her back to her old self again. Thank you everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Satisfaction

2006-05-21T16:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we got up early so that we could go over to the church and help with the church clean-up day. The main task at hand was to take back the parking lot from the jungle that had encroached into our spaces slowly but surely over the last twenty years or so. We arrived about a half hour late, but everyone seemed to just be getting started, so it was all good. Over the next three hours we managed to take back the entire parking lot.

There used to be tons, and I mean tons of vines growing all over the trees and bushes that line our parking lot, to the point where it was almost hard to tell there were trees and bushes there. Thanks to a power trimmer, some hedge clippers, a hack saw, and some back breaking labor by about fifteen people, you can actually tell things were purposefully planted here. You can now see individual trees and bushes, and you no longer have to worry about stuff scratching your car when you park.

We also managed to find some interesting items in the course of clearing the rampant vegetation. Among these items were three eight-foot lengths of PVC pipe about four or five inches in diameter, a pair of flip flops that were now paper thin, a newspaper from the 1940s, the top section of framing for an automatic door, and (I kid you not) the front grill of a pickup truck. My pastor was convinced that if we dug a little bit deeper we would probably find Jimmy Hoffa. I'm inclinded to agree.

It took us about four hours, but the effort was definitely worth it. You can now see the fence that surrounds the lot, and the overall look is a lot cleaner. My back is definitely not happy about yesterday's work (holding a power trimmer over your head for extended periods of time = SORENESS), but there's definitely a great sense of satisfaction in a job well done. A job well done where you did most of the work with your own two hands just makes it that much more gratifying.

MI:3

2006-05-11T10:51:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Courtney indulged me by going to see Mission Impossible: 3 with me. I didn't have super high expectations for this movie, but there's no way it could have been worse than MI:2 so I decided to give it a shot. I was right. This movie is definitely a lot more enjoyable than the second film, however, it still doesn't live up to the first.

For some reason, either because they don't want to or because the writers are just inept, they have yet to capture the cerebral feel of the first movie. In the first film it was about brains more than firepower. The first movie made you think. I had to see it a few times before I understood it all and caught all the nuances. Call me crazy, but isn't that something you'd want as a writer/director? You want people to see your movie over and over and tell their friends to see it, not just see it once and forget about it.

Anyway, suffice it to say that MI:3 is not as smart as MI, but it's light years beyond MI:2, which was just John Woo filming stuff blowing up. Tom Cruise gives a pretty good performance, but the real star of this show is Philip Seymour Hoffman. He's by far the best bad guy of any of the films and is quite scary in a psychological sense. He definitely steals any scene he is in.

The plot of the movie was pretty good, though I was kind of disappointed that they don't tell you what it is that they were all after at the end. I guess it's left as an exercise for the viewer? Whatever. There were a couple of minor twists that I didn't really see coming, but wasn't particularly surprised about either. It's not The Usual Suspects, but then, it's not trying to be.

If you're a fan of action/spy movies I recommend that you check this movie out. It won't really make the wheels turn in your head, but it's a fun experience. For others, Hoffman's performance alone is worth the price of admission. So if you're a fan of his, then you should definitely see this movie.

I'm A Genius

2006-04-29T15:41:00.001-04:00

I thought of it back in 2004.

They're making them now.

Late Weekend Update

2006-04-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was a ton of fun. We were going to go down to Carly and Eric's for ultimate frisbee and a cookout on Saturday, but it rained and rained. They cancelled the ultimate frisbee but still had the cookout so we went down anyway. We arrived a little early because we always plan to hit traffic on the beltway, and we haven't yet. I know that the one time we don't plan for this, we're going to hit a major accident or something, so we will just have to continue to arrive before everyone else.

We started out by playing some Rainbow Island on the PS2. I'd never heard of this game before, but it's addictive as all get out. I need to try and find it in a bargain bin somewhere because Carly said she wasn't able to find it being sold new anymore. Boo to that. We ate dinner while we were playing that, and afterwards we started up a game of Texas Hold'em.

I dropped the hammer very early on against Nate, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After that, I pretty much played loose and aggressively. There was no money on the line, so I didn't really feel mentally invested in the game. I was the 3rd or 4th person to go out when I caught the ass end of the straight, and Courtney had the nut straight. Oh, well. She went on to win the whole thing, and I was very proud of her. She said she was even calculating pot odds! That's so hot.

After I busted out of the poker game, Carly, Steve, Pam, and I started up a game of Mario Party. This was another game that I had never played before, but it was FUN! There was a lot of strategy involved in making your moves on the board, and most of the minigames were very engaging. I ended up coming in 2nd place when I missed my roll to make the final star, and Steve hit his. I may have to get a Gamecube at some point just so we can play this game. They're already dirt cheap for $100; maybe there will be a sale or price drop in the future.

Sunday we went to church and then promptly went home to clean the house. Norm and Laura came over for dinner around 6:30, and we had a great time eating and swapping stories. Once they left, we were able to catch Family Guy. Stewie as a gymnast is hilarious. I hope they do more of that.

That's about all I got for now. I hope the rest of this week goes by quickly. I'm ready for another weekend. Actually, I'm ready for a vacation. Come on, June!

Easter Weekend

2006-04-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was really nice. I pretty much just ran errands on Saturday, so there's not much to say there. The Easter service at church on Sunday was great, and I think that the choir did really well. We had two violinists join us for the music portion, and they were just awesome. I really wish we could have violins more often because they add so much to the music.

Church started fifteen minutes early so that we could sing some extra songs and not go too far past noon. Service ended around 12:15, and, as is tradition in our church for Easter, we ended with the Hallelujah chorus. We're actually getting pretty good at it, too. I love singing that song. After service, I got changed into some shorts (it was HOT sitting through the whole service in that massive choir robe), and then we drove down to C's parents for Easter dinner.

They always have awesome food there for Easter. I think it's a traditional Polish meal, but I could be wrong about the nationality. Anyway, they have different kinds of sausage, pirogies, hard boiled eggs, noodle pudding, ham, and babka bread. I'm not a huge fan of the bread, but I love everything else. I had a lot of time to relax and to read while I was there, and it was just good to hang out with family.

Courtney's brother Daniel also got engaged to his girlfriend Tammy while we were down there. We were expecting it, so it wasn't much of a surprise for us, but she had no idea. We're very happy for them, and we love Tammy, so she'll be a great addition to the family.

On Monday we went to Arby's for lunch since C hadn't been in forever and she really wanted curly fries. We relaxed around the house for the rest of the day and then packed up and drove to Fredericksburg to have dinner with Derrick and Robyn. We went to a small Italian restaurant that I don't remember the name of. It was pretty good, though. I got a sausage and pasta dish that I would definitely eat again. It was a little spicy, but not too bad. After dinner we drove back home to our place. All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend. The traffic was never bad, so the driving was just fine. Now it's back to the grind. Ugh. I can't wait for June. I want my vacation!

Random Update

2006-04-11T14:32:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know, I don't post nearly as often as I should. The reason is usually because I do most of my writing over on my poker blog instead of here. There hasn't been too much going on, but there's a few things that I can write about. So, in no particular order, here are the happenings as of late.

First off, there's Julie. She's been making progress. It been slow, but it's progress at any rate. She will be getting her casts off of her ankles on Wednesday, I think. On Thursday, my mom, dad, and aunt will be driving her back home to South Carolina. Her time at Shepherd Center is up. I'm not sure how much progress they were able to make with her. I think she's to the point where she is practicing standing up and moving from the bed to a chair by herself, but I don't think she is doing any walking. Hopefully she will continue to improve at home. Dad put a ramp in at the front door for her wheelchair, so she'll be able to get out and about easily now. I think the next step is to get one of those vans that has a lift on it for her. We'll see how that goes.

This past Sunday was our church's main Easter performance. We always do the majority of our program on Palm Sunday because a lot of people like to travel to see family for Easter. It was a pretty neat program this year. We had a DVD running and displaying on a projector and our performance was timed to music that it played. There were also various character dramatizations on the screen. It was pretty neat. I had a solo (backed up by the choir), and I think it went extremely well. I received a lot of compliments, so that's definitely a boost to my confidence for future performances. We have a couple of songs we're doing for Easter Sunday, but nothing nearly as complicated as last Sunday. After church this week, we'll be going down to C's parents' for Easter dinner. They always have an awesome meal, and I can't wait.

The weather has started to warm up finally, and C and I got to play some tennis on Sunday. It was great to be playing outside finally. I can't wait until they open the pool so I can go swim laps on a regular basis. Hopefully the stupid kids will stay out of my swim lane! Apparently Eric and Carly are taking an interest in tennis too, so we'll have to have them up for a game or two one weekend. And then we'll have to take Carly to Krispy Kreme because she's never been to one. (Yeah, I know. I don't know how this is possible either, seeing as how she grew up in NOVA.)

That pretty much sums up everything that's going on at the moment. Hopefully you're all doing well. I'll try and post more often, but there's usually not much to write about. We'll see what the future holds.

Brilliant

2006-03-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

I'm usually not one to post song lyrics, but these just speak volumes on the state of America today:

"We're sung to sleep
by philosophies
that save the trees
and kill the children."

-Casting Crowns, While You Were Sleeping

That's just amazing and insightful writing.

I've Been Had!

2006-03-20T14:55:00.000-05:00

So, yeah, C and I went out last night to see the theater production of Movin' Out, the tickets to which were her Valentine's Day present. I thought it would be pretty cool to see a play based on Billy Joel's music, you know, since he rocks and everything. I figured they could probably do a neat play with his songs as the foundation.

We get to the theater early, take our seats as soon as the doors open, and it's not long until the show starts. It opens with his song "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant." People start coming out on stage. They're dancing around, rocking out. So far, so good... Wait a minute, something's not right here... No one is talking. Is that girl on her tippy toes? Did that dude just pirouette? No, it can't be... It is!

It's a ballet!

Pwned. I was suckered into going to the ballet, the one major form of performance art that I had had the pleasure of not ever attending in my entire life. I actually like regular plays, and I bit the bullet to go to the opera once in high school for extra credit. But I'd never been to the ballet before. Until now.

In all fairness, it wasn't that horrible. I got to listen to a live band, and they were pretty awesome. There was a part where they drove a car on stage. That's pretty manly. The chicks were hot, so that's good. There was a stripper scene (no actual nudity here; they keep it PG-13 for the kids), so bonus points there. I'm sure that guys would have less problems with the ballet if there were more strippers. And, you have to admit, there's worse things they could do ballet to than Billy Joel. All in all, I didn't hate it. It's probably not something I would go to again though.

I would have to say that the most awkward thing about the production was what I referred to as "the gay scene." Now, there was no overt homosexuality here. But these guys were just dancing around on stage by themselves. Oh sure, they tried to make it manly with the occassional punch in the arm or high five, but when it comes down to it... dude, you're dancing around with two other guys. Cut that out.

After the... ballet... we went to The Chessecake Factory for dinner. Now, I'd never been to one of these places, and I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much from a place with "factory" in the name. But this place was nice. It had a really cool Atlantis/Mediterranean architectural theme going on, and the food was fantastic. We had chicken pot stickers for appetizer, and I had hibachi steak for dinner while C had the four cheese pasta. Both were really good. For dessert I had the oreo cheesecake, which is pretty much the only cheesecake I've come close to actually enjoying. C had a caramel cheesecake, which she was a big fan of.

So, all in all, it was a very successful date night out. I just thought I would post this warning, though, to any other guys who may be thinking about taking their ladies to the theater to see Movin' Out. Don't be fooled like I was! It's a ballet!

Awesome Saturday

2006-03-13T12:33:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was great. Since the girls were going to go out for a dinner theater experience on Saturday night, the guys decided that we would get together and do our own thing. The rest of my team at work was out of town on Friday, so I decided to go down to Ryan and Phil's office a day early, work from there for the remainder of the day, and spend the night at their place. It ended up being pretty quiet on the work front. Ryan apparently spilled some water in his keyboard and shorted out his "x" key, so we went driving around to like five different places to find a replacement. We eventually found one at Office Depot.

Once we made it back to the office, we decided to go and grab dinner at Quizno's. The prime rib sub is awesome. You should get it. From Quizno's we headed back to their place. Steve met up with us there, and we watched some Star Trek and Family Guy episodes that they had recorded. Unfortunately, Matt McHugh wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it, so we ended up being one guy short for the weekend. We went to bed around midnight since we had to get up pretty early for paintball on Saturday.

I used to play paintball a bunch with friends in high school, but once I graduated I didn't really have the time or the money to keep up with the hobby. Our time playing on Saturday definitely brought back some fun memories. We ended up playing for most of the day for around $50 a person. All of the games we played were attack and defend. One team would attack the other and try to take their flag while the other team defended it. They had a variety of courses, and we played on Castle, Compound, Village, Rock Garden, and one last one that I can't remember the name of, which had the attacking team pushing up a big hill to try and take a flag. The defending teams always won in a complete slaughter on that course.

The highlight of the day for me took place when I was on the attacking team on Rock Garden. We had slowly made our way up the left flank of the defending team, whittling down their defenses and trying to sneak up to the flag from behind. I had stealthily crept along the back border of the course to an opposing team member who was busy holding off a frontal assault. I got up to within ten feet of him and demanded his surrender. He, instead, spun around in an attempt to catch me off guard. I was ready for this and took him out with one shot to center mass.

I had a couple of teammates coming up behind me, and one of them began firing. Apparently I had missed another defender over to my right (it turned out it was the father of the guy I shot). One of my teammates was eliminated quickly. I spun around to try and help my remaining teammate. I crouched, brought up my gun, pulled the trigger...

*CLICK*

Crap! My gun hadn't recocked itself after my last shot. I frantically reached for the hammer to pull it back, but I wasn't fast enough. My game ended when the guy put a ball directly in my left eye on my mask. We ended up losing that round, but we got a lot closer to capturing their flag than they did when they were the attacking team.

Once we were done with paintball, we headed back to Ryan's place to shower. Phil called Bobby, and when he arrived we all went to Sweetwater Tavern. I was pretty starved after the day's activities and ordered a drunken ribeye. Man, that was one of the best steaks I've ever had. I definitely need to go back to that place sometime with Courtney. We had a great time eating and talking, and our waitress was phenomenal with the service. She got a very hefty tip at the end of the night.

So, that pretty much brought to a close a great guy's day out. I hope that we can do it again sometime in the summer.

Worst Traffic EVAR!

2006-03-03T10:18:00.000-05:00

It took me three hours to get to work yesterday. I left before nine, and I had to stop and pick up lunch ON THE WAY TO WORK. It was a disaster. Some dumbass trucker overturned his vehicle on the overpass on the outer loop of 495 that goes over 270. He not only succeeded in closing all lanes of the outer loop, but he dumped a bunch of lumber off the overpass onto 270, closing all northbound and southbound lanes. Well done, indeed, sir. I was forced to drive around the entire inner loop of the beltway (yes, over the Woodrow Wilson bridge) to get to work, as all the other avenues of escape were not moving at all.

I hate semi trucks.

Trip Report

2006-02-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

Well, the ski trip was just an awesome time. The wife and I went to Canaan Valley with my aunt Leslie, cousin Robbie, and friends Ryan and Sarah. It was just fantastic. What follows is a day-by-day summary of events. Man, I'd much rather be skiing than writing this.

Friday, Day 1

We left our place at around 7AM. We stopped quickly at the local Burger King for breakfast and then hit the road for West Virginia. It's a really pretty drive and not horribly long. It's about three and a half hours to get there. Once we hit the mountains in western Maryland, we played what I like to call "The Crosswind Game." The rules are very simple. You try to drive on the road, and mother nature tries to throw you off a cliff. I totally won. But just barely.

We got to the house around noon-ish. It had been warm there the past couple of days, so we didn't need the tire chains. We drove right up, dumped our stuff on the floor, changed into our ski clothes, and headed for the Ski Barn. We rented our skis (I also got a helmet this year, which came in quite handy) and made a short backtrack to Timberline.

We'd never been to Timberline before, so we weren't sure what to expect. They have one of the longest runs on the east coast, and I'm sure it would have been great if it weren't for the ice. Come to think of it, most of the mountain was ice. I think what happened is that a lot of the snow melted and refreezed over the previous couple of days, making for crappy conditions on Friday. We made due, and when the day was over we headed home for dinner. Courtney had prepared stuff for tacos, and it was great! After dinner, I introduced everyone to The Colbert Report, which is pretty much one of the best shows on TV. Everyone loved it. We hit the hot tub to loosen our muscles for Saturday and then went to bed.

Saturday, Day 2

We got up around 8am, had breakfast, and went straight to Canaan Valley resort, where we would spend the next three days. We weren't there for long when it started to snow. And it snowed all day. It was awesome and made for great skiing conditions. In all, we got around six inches of snow that day. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough snow to open up one of our favorite black diamond runs, Dark Side of the Moon, the entire time we were there. Boo to that. However, we made due by skiing Valley Drop, Valley Vista, Meadows 2, Shaft, and Face.

I also tried to ski moguls for the first time this year. I fell a lot on the first day, but I promised myself by the time the trip was over, I would have the main mogul on the center slope mastered. We had a great second day of skiing and headed home around 5:30. The snow had completely covered the road up to the house, so we ended up needing to use the tire chains. We lost the left one about fifty yards from the house, but the right one provided enough traction to get us the rest of the way there. Robbie and I went back to get the other tire chain while everyone else unpacked our gear. At least this was the only time we needed to use the chains.

Courtney had prepared salisbury steaks and macaroni and cheese for our second night's dinner. My wife is a great chef. We hit up the hot tub again, and we watched some of the Olympics on TV. We saw some of the downhill skiing and were absolutely amazed at Bode Miller. He didn't even finish the run because he caught a ski about halfway down. However, he managed to continue on just one ski at about 50 MPH while the other was flailing behind him madly. He somehow was able to recover from this and pulled over to the side of the slope. Holy freaking crap. He should have gotten a medal for that.

Sunday, Day 3

We got up around 8am again. Quick breakfast, then straight to the resort. Skiing on Sunday was even more awesome than Saturday because it had snowed some overnight, and they had been able to groom what had fallen the day before as well as some machine-made snow. We had a most excellent day on Sunday. However, they closed the best run (Upper and Lower Ramble) so that they could set up a time trial slalom for those who wanted to pay for the chance to win a medal. I don't pay for crappy stuff like that, so we didn't get to ski that run until late Sunday, when they took the flags down. By that time, it was only open for about twenty minutes before that side of the park was closed due to lack of lighting. We still had a great time, though.

I also saw one of the funniest things ever on Sunday. I was walking back up the hill from the lodge to get my skis and saw two kids playing. One kid was already at the bottom of the hill, and the other slipped and rolled all the way down as I was walking up. His friend laughed at him, and as the kid was trying to get up his friend grabbed an ice ball about the size of his head and crunched it down on top of his helmet. It was pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen. File that one under "Do Not Attempt Without a Helmet."

Sunday's dinner consisted of chicken tenders, french fries, and salad. We had stopped by the store on the way home, so I picked up some Old Bay for the fries. Man, that stuff rules. After dinner, we watched K-PAX, which some people hadn't seen before. I really like that movie, and I think Kevin Spacey does an excellent job with the character of Prot. I recommend it.

Monday, Day 4

Monday morning we got up extra early so we could be there as soon as the park opened. Amazingly, almost no one showed up for the whole time we were there. I thought it would be packed on a holiday, but apparently not. Awesome! I would say that we had the best ski conditions on Monday because there weren't a bunch of noobs falling and packing all the snow. By the time I left on Monday, I had mastered the mogul and landed it four out of four tries. Sweet! I also started going over some of the side hills that the boarders liked to frequent, and that was fun as well. We left around noon to get home and pack. We left the house around two, and the drive home was uneventful. (I think mother nature knew I would kick her butt again at The Crosswind Game, so she didn't even show up.)

After everyone left and we had gotten everything unloaded, we went to Ziki's for a nice dinner. Courtney definitely deserved a night off after cooking for everyone for three days. The food was great, as always, but our chef was new, so the showmanship wasn't as high quality. I've seen the show so many times now that it doesn't really matter to me, so I guess it's good that he got our table.

That pretty much sums up our vacation. It was an awesome time, and I can't wait to go again next year. For now, it's back to work. We get to start planning our anniversary trip to Foxwood's soon, though. I can't wait to play my first live poker tournament!

Valentine's Day

2006-02-15T10:41:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty good Valentine's Day yesterday. I got Courtney some chocolate truffles from Godiva and tickets to see Movin' Out when it comes to Baltimore in March. She got me Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek and Phil Gordon's Little Green Book. I started Phil Gordon's book last night, and I can already tell that it's going to be a great help to my poker game.

For dinner we went out to O'Donnell's, which is a nice seafood restaurant in Kentlands. I got the filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and onion rings. She got the lump crabcakes with green beans. The steak was awesome, and the bit of crabcakes that I tried was also very good. I had a glass of Merlot with my steak, and Courtney had some Pinot Grigio. I didn't try her wine, but mine complemented the steak very nicely. For dessert we split a slice of chocolate mousse cake. It was very yummy.

I wish we could eat at that place more often, but it's freaking expensive. So we just have to go on special occasions.

T-minus two days to the ski trip.

AWESOME.

I Am A Snowman. Do As I Say.

2006-02-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

If any snowman could kick your ass, this one could. You can't really tell from the photos, but he's almost as tall as Courtney. That's about an 8 foot fence to the left of him.

Drunk On 1s and 0s

2006-02-06T17:14:00.000-05:00

This is pretty much one of the coolest case mods I've ever seen. And portable too! If I was good with tools (and if I had tools), I'd like to try and make a neat case mod. Unfortunately (fortunately?), that's not where my creativity lies. It's still fun to look and see what other people come up with, though.

Great News!

2006-01-26T15:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my parents received a phone call from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Apparently the insurance information finally went through, and my little sister has been accepted into their inpatient rehabilitation program. This is great news for us! Julie has continued to make progress at home, but she's not getting nearly the amount of attention she would receive from an inpatient stay. The Shepherd Center actually specializes in head injury trauma, so Julie should be in great hands. She'll be getting eight hours of therapy a day, including physical, occupational, and speech. I'm sure that she gets bored just sitting around at home, so this will hopefully be good for keeping her mind and body active. They're going to take her down sometime over the next couple of days, and mom will stay down in Atlanta during the course of her therapy. Hopefully we'll be seeing some big leaps in her recovery process soon! I will post any updates that I receive.

Genius? Maybe...

2006-01-26T14:58:00.000-05:00

According to these two tests that I took anyway. I got all 33 in the first one, though I did have to use Google to get one of them. I knew what the clue pertained to, but I didn't know the rules of the game, so I had to use Google to overcome the cultural bias of that question.

I'm currently 22/24 in the second one. I'm missing numbers 18 and 19. Hopefully, I can come up with them over the next couple of days.

Bored: 2005 In Review

2006-01-20T14:07:00.000-05:00

Stolen from Eric, who stole it from Seth, who probably stole it from somewhere else. Nothing on the internet is original.

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before? Bought a house.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't do that stupid stuff.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Not that I'm aware of.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No, but my little sister came scarily close.

5. What countries did you visit? I don't visit countries. I roundhouse kick them in the face. No, wait, that's Chuck Norris. I just stayed in the good ole USA.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? A larger poker bankroll

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? May 13, the day my sisters were in their car accident.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Buying house from question 1.

9. What was your biggest failure? I don't fail. I roundhouse kick success in the face.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nope.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Haven't we been through this? The freaking house!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My wife, because she does all kinds of great things for me and others. I don't know how she does it.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Name a politician, any politician.

14. Where did most of your money go? THE FREAKING HOUSE ALREADY!!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Winning an iPod in an online poker tournament.

16. What song will always remind you of 2005? I don't associate songs with years. I just like songs.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? same
iii. richer or poorer? richer, sucka

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? reading my Bible, exercise

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? taking family for granted

20. How will you be spending Christmas? We went to Courtney's parents'

22. Did you fall in love in 2005? every day

23. How many one-night stands? I've tried, but I can never manage to stand up for an entire night. I usually fall asleep and crash to the floor. I'll manage it someday...

24. What was your favorite TV program? Prison Break

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I don't hate people. I roundhouse kick... oh, nevermind. No, I don't hate anyone.

26. What was the best book you read? Brimstone

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head

28. What did you want and get? a laptop

30. What was your favorite film of this year? I'd have to agree with Kim on this one: Batman Begins rocked.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? My wife threw me a surprise party for my 25th birthday. Pretty much all of my friends were there. It was awesome.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If my sisters had never had their car accident.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005? I wear whatever I want. I don't really care.

34. What kept you sane? Friends and family.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Stephen Colbert is the best thing to happen to television.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? I don't really care. I hate politics.

37. Who did you miss? My sisters and parents.

38. Who were the best new people you met? I don't know that I really met any new people.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005: Treasure every moment you can with the ones you love. They could be taken from you in an instant.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: "I'm 22 for a moment..." I know I'm not 22, but that's the lyric. Last year went by FAST.

DUMBASS

2006-01-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

What a waste of talent. Way to be a role model, Marcus.

Finally Friday

2006-01-06T11:03:00.000-05:00

This week has been alright at work. Yesterday sucked, though. It wasn't like there was some massive problem, but a lot of minor things hit me at the same time and ended up really pissing me off. Courtney bought me a 2006 poker calendar by Phil Gordon, and we went out to dinner to help me relax after that fun day. Anyway, I'm very glad it's the weekend. I've had a lot of late nights this week watching the bowl games, so I need to catch up on my sleep. I just hope this work day goes by quickly. It's an hour until lunch, so that's a start. I just hope the afternoon doesn't drag.

Courtney is going to a concert at the 9:30 Club tonight, so that means I will have the house to myself. And that means poker. I'm currently working on rebuilding my bankroll after a stupid move on Monday, so we'll see how that goes. I had some marginal success last night, so we'll see if I can continue that today and tomorrow. You can read about my screwup here.

Randomness follows.

I think that this is awesome! I really hope they can get the technology to work. Faster than light drives (engines) have long been a staple of science fiction, but to have it become a reality would be unreal, especially within my lifetime. If this stuff works within the time frame they're hoping, I'm SO changing careers.

Where has Homestar Runner gone? They haven't done anything new in over a month now. I hope that they're just working on something big and that nothing bad happened to the brothers Chaps or their families. The world needs Strongbad! I hope they come back soon.

The date for our poker home game has changed to the 21st of January to accomodate Eric and Carly. They had a foosball tournament on the 28th, and everyone else said the 21st was ok, so we moved it. If you read this, I know you, and you are interested in attending, let me know. I'm hoping to have two full tables for this game. So far there are nine confirmed coming and three maybes. Looking good so far!

A-not-nearly-new-but-highly-recommended-CD: Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head. There are just so many good songs on this album. I have no idea why "Clocks" was chosen to be the single that was played to death on the radio. "The Scientist," which was the only other single off the CD and came much later, was a better choice. However, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" and "Amsterdam" are better than either of those songs. I don't know if Coldplay had a say in which ones were released or not. They probably didn't. The studio they have their contract with probably just picked a random track. Stupid music industry. I still need to buy their Parachutes album, which probably contains a bunch of songs better than "Yellow," and I also need to get Three Doors Down's new CD. I might have to get both of those off of iTunes this weekend.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Welcome To 2006!

2006-01-04T18:27:00.000-05:00

Well, we've made it to 2006! Happy new year, everyone! We had a pretty good time spending new years weekend with my family in Springfield. We went down to my aunt/grandma's on Friday afternoon. One of my cousins was also staying with them, so we got to hang out with him all weekend, too. We got there around 5:30, and soon after we went out to dinner at Olive Garden. I, of course, got my stuffed mushrooms and my portobello ravioli. That stuff just rules. The service kind of sucked, though. I didn't get my appetizer until after my main course because someone mixed up the order and brought out calamari (cause those sound alike). However, I got my mushrooms in the end, and all was well with the world. Friday night we broke out Cranium for the first time, and C and I kicked everyone else's butts! We totally rocked that game.

Saturday we went to my cousin's place to pick up Mad Gab, a game they had gotten for Christmas. We ate lunch at Five Guys (mmmmmmmmm), and on the way back my aunt called telling us that The Chronicles of Narnia was playing soon. So we ended up going straight to the movie theater (and getting stuck behind a wreck on 66 along the way; idiots). The movie was exceptional, and I will definitely be buying the DVD when it comes out. I may also pick up the soundtrack off of iTunes; it was pretty good, and I generally like Harry Gregson-Williams' stuff. Saturday night we had dinner at my uncle's place. They grilled steaks, and we had baked potatoes and green beans. It was delicious! We then went back to my grandma's to watch the ball drop.

Sunday was spent playing games in the morning (Sequence, more Cranium, and Mad Gab), and then we went to the bowling alley. We played two games, and I bowled a 127-ish and a 185. My cousin Robbie got four strikes in a row, I had three in a row, and Courtney had two in a row. It was quite the game! Sunday night we had some excellent Chinese food for dinner, and then we packed up our stuff and headed home. All in all, it was a nice weekend with the family and a good way to start the year. Hopefully 2006 will be just as good (if not better than) 2005!

The Eye Of The Storm

2005-12-27T12:47:00.000-05:00

The way I see it, we're pretty much sitting in the eye of the storm right now. The Christmas rush is over, and we now have a few days to recover before New Years descends upon us. I'm sure the worst of the craziness is over, but it won't be truly done until we hit 2006.

Christmas recap:

We left on Friday to head down to Courtney's parents' place. The drive that should have taken two hours actually took three hours because we drive by the only major shopping center near Waldorf and La Plata on the way there. It was the Friday before Christmas, and all of the procrastinators were out in full force. Other than the traffic on 5/301, the drive was uneventful.

Friday night we had pork tenderloin for dinner. It was really good, as always, and we spent the rest of the evening just socializing. Christmas Eve was spent lounging around the house and wrapping a few gifts. (Courtney bought some of our presents on Amazon and just had them shipped to her parents' house.) We also played some Cheater and Miles Bourne as well. I got to catch up on some reading, play some Nintendo DS, and just pretty much be lazy. For Christmas Eve dinner, we had an awesome meal of crab stuffed shrimp. It was an Emeril recipe, and it was good. I hope you got that recipe like you were supposed to, Courtney! I was the one to unwrap baby Jesus around midnight for display in the nativity (a tradition in their house), and then we headed to bed.

Christmas morning was spent unwrapping presents. (What else did you expect?) Courtney was caught completely off-guard when she opened her diamond necklace. She was convinced that her big present had come from Best Buy. I had in fact bought her an iTunes gift card at Best Buy. I then bought the necklace and put it in the Best Buy bag as well and ditched the Littman's bag at Pep Boys. So when I walked in with nothing but the tiny Best Buy bag the weekend before, it just confused her. Mission accomplished! Courtney got me Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head and Matchbox 20's Mad Season, both good CDs, and Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill DVD. She wanted to get me a VT polo shirt, but the bookstore was sold out. I'll have to wait a few weeks before I get that present. I also received a Monty Python T-shirt, a car charger for my iPod, some flannel pants (good for lounging about in the mornings), Best Buy gift cards, The Apprentice TV game (looks fun for parties), and a collection of John Wayne movies. I'm sure there's other stuff, but I just can't think of it right now.

For Christmas dinner we had an awesome beef Wellington. I'd never had it before, but man was it good! A bunch of people came over to hang out after dinner, including Seth, who I hadn't seen in forever. It was cool to catch up with him. He was also the one who got me the John Wayne movies. Everyone pretty much hung out and talked late into the night. We watched the Green Bay/Chicago game, and that went pretty much as expected. The last couple of minutes were pretty exciting when it looked like Green Bay might tie it up, but in the end Chicago managed to hang on to their lead.

Monday we bought Chinese food for everyone for lunch, and then we headed home. We made the drive back in two hours, giving me time to go and get the oil changed on my car. We watched the Eddie Izzard DVD (which had more stuff in it than what I had seen before), and then we went to bed. I'm working today, tomorrow, and Thursday. All three days promise to be slow. I am definitely looking forward to another four day weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

2005-12-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

The wife and I are headed down to her parents' place today. All of the Christmas shopping is done. We just have to pack our bags, toss them in the trunk, and drive for (hopefully) two hours down to King George. Her brother Daniel is able to take leave from the marines, so he will be there, and we'll get to see Seth, as he's home with family during school break. We haven't seen him in a good while, so that should be a lot of fun.

We'll be coming back Monday, and even though there's dialup internet access at her parents' house, I doubt I will be posting anything over the weekend. I will be sure to post a full update when I get back, as I'm sure you all will die if you don't know what I got for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

L-O-Freaking-L

2005-12-22T15:01:00.000-05:00

Do yourself a favor and watch the Chronicles of Narnia Rap as done by Saturday Night Live. Too funny. The history reference near the end is great too. Can you find it?

My Wife Is Hilarious

2005-12-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

Me: They're talking about extending the PATRIOT Act for another six months.
C: *sigh of exasperation* Do you know how many people they've actually caught and convicted with that?
Me: Ooh! Ooh! Can I count them on one hand?
C: I can count them on my penis.

And because Courtney always takes the cool links, I'm going to beat her to the punch. Pacman reenacted!

I win!

Weekend Update With Matt Silverthorn

2005-12-20T11:59:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was incredibly busy. I already posted about the party on Friday, and we also had a party on Saturday and another one on Sunday. Insane. First, the Saturday party.

Phil drove up to our place, and we all rode up to Kim's place together. We were the first ones there, so we just talked for a bit. Mike showed me some of the cool poker stuff he had: a WPT handheld poker game, Phil Gordon's little green book, and an instructional video by Phil Gordon. We popped the instructional video in while we were waiting for other people to arrive. I learned some really important things, which I have posted over on my poker blog. It has most definitely helped to improve my game.

It wasn't long before everyone showed up, and we ate dinner. After dinner was over, we busted out Trivial Pursuit: 90s Edition. Team 1 was Courtney, Kim, and Ray. Team 2 was Jim, Mike, and Matt Sprinkle. Team 3 was me, Phil, and Sid. This was the most intense game of Trivial Pursuit ever. By the time the end rolled around, Team 1 had all the pies, Team 2 was short only one pie, and Team 3 had all the pies. Team 1 went to the center about 4 or 5 times before they ended up winning. If it weren't for their crazy lucky pie streak early in the game, my team probably would have won, but they definitely deserved it.

Sunday's party was over at Chuck and Peggy's place. They live right near our church, so it didn't take long to get there. It was a cookie exchange party, so Courtney baked and brought about eleventy billion cookies. We took home slightly over twelveteen billion. That's a lot of cookies. We watched the end of the Redskins game (they dominated Dallas), and after that was over, we watched the greatest 80's movie of all time:

The Holiday Yule Log

That's right, we watched a video of a fire burning in a fireplace (Chuck and Peggy don't have a real one). It wasn't meant to be for serious watching, but we had fun making up crazy commentary. It was a good time. Courtney proceeded to pick up our twelveteen billion cookies while I talked with some of the other people from church. Once the cookie gathering ritual was complete, we headed home, where we already had over one hundredty billion cookies.

PLEASE TAKE THE COOKIES! I'LL PAY YOU! (in cookies)

Work's been pretty lax so far this week. I'm taking Friday off, and there's two parties this week, one of which I have to go to now. I'm outta here.

Spend, Spend, Spend

2005-12-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

I woke up early this morning so that I could do what Americans do best: go out and spend money. I had several errands I needed to run. First, I went by Best Buy to return the iPod FM transmitter that I bought, because it sucked. It was weak and only had eight stations that you could set it to. I just can't settle for that, so I returned it. I also picked up C's Christmas present.

After that it was to Lakeforest Mall... to spend more money. Courtney wanted me to get a haircut before Christmas, so I decided to do that today before we went to Kim's party. However, this haircut was no ordinary haircut. No, sir. This haircut was a landmark event in the history of me getting my hair cut. Today, ladies and gentlemen, marks the first time (since I was like 8), that the barber had to raise my chair.

I'll pause to let you catch your breath. Don't hyperventillate. Brown paper bags are in the kitchen if you need assistance.

That's right, my barber needed to lift my chair to give me a haircut. I'm a skosh (man I love that word) taller than six feet, so I'd almost forgotten that little pedal beneath the chair was even there. However, my barber today was like six foot five, so he actually needed to raise my chair to cut my hair. What a fun little ride. After my haircut, I got lunch at Chick-fil-a, and then it was time to go to Pep Boys...

...to spend more money.

I noticed on Friday that Courtney's right rear brake light was out, so I took her car over to Pep Boys to buy a replacement. Let me tell you, if you ever need to feel like a man's man, just head on over to Pep Boys. There will be at least four other guys in the parking lot working on their cars. So I went in, bought the replacement tail light, and busted out the toolbox. There's very few things more manly than working on a car. The only things more manly than working on a car are eating a giant steak and shaving with a knife.

Even though I know absolutely nothing about cars and was only replacing a tail light, for about five minutes I felt like a kindred spirit. A car guy, if you will. The sense of belonging wore off quickly when I noticed I'm standing there with my leather jacket and Dockers while these other guys are in their soiled car shop clothes. I'll never be a true car guy, but every once in a while I get to pretend.

On the ride home, it finally dawned on me the kind of place the DC Metro area really is. I was stopped behind an SUV at a red light, and I noticed that he had padlocked his spare tire to the frame of his car. I had never thought of someone stealing spare tires before. It had just never crossed my mind, but apparently it's actually a problem in the DC Metro area. How very sad.

Hmm, I wonder how much money you can get from that...

I'm currently up $4.70 at a $.25/$.50 limit table, it's almost time for Kim's party, and Phil's on his way up. Hit it!*

*With profuse apologies to the Blues Brothers.

One Down, Two To Go

2005-12-17T00:26:00.000-05:00

Well, we got our first party out of the way tonight. We left for Carly and Eric's around 6:45 because I figured that traffic was really going to suck. It turns out that there was barely any traffic, so we spent a while browsing around the CVS near their place. We got Dan's (Courtney's brother) girlfriend a Christmas present and some doggie treats for Emily's (Courtney's parents' dog) Christmas present. After that, it was over to the Nusbaums' for some fun times.

We started out just socializing and meeting some new people. We got to meet Eric's brother Jeremy and his fianceé Ashley, and their friends Mike, Doug, and Josh. Gillian came, and I was very glad that I got to catch up with her. I hadn't seen her in months. Randi came as well, and we had a fun time. Carlymo showed up with her boyfriend Jay, and Carly's sisters Cary and Amanda were there for a while as well. The last time I saw them was Christmas of 1999. They weren't even in high school yet. Now they're college kids. I feel so old.

The party got fully underway with the gift exchange. I ended up stealing Cranium from Randi instead of opening a present, and C ended up with some champagne, a candle, and a Christmas kitchen towel. Ashley ended up with our game of Pit that we brought, and Carlymo ended up with Set and LCR. We also managed to collect our Question of the Day prizes from Eric. C got some chocolate candy, and I got a duck shaped squirt gun and a magic wiggly (I'm not sure what it does yet).

After the gift exchange was holiday trivia. Eric had it set up where he would ask a question and the first person to get the correct answer would get a card. Whoever had the most cards at the end would win. People were yelling out answers all over the place (the questions were hard), and many Monty Python references were thrown out. ("Apples... small rocks... churches! churches!... a duck!") It was great times indeed. Mike ended up winning it after two bonus questions, at which point he was tied with Carly with five cards. It was the general consensus that since Carly bought the prize in the first place, that Mike should get it. It was a DVD entitled Star Wait, a documentary about the fools who waiting in line for six weeks for Star Wars: Episode 2. That's probably got some pretty entertaining footage.

The party kind of settled down after that, and people began to drift out. We played a little bit of Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast, but the maracas were broken so we had to use the controllers. It was still pretty fun, and I even managed to get a perfect score against Courtney in our last game. She called me a jerk. It was awesome.

We headed home around 11:45 and got home just fine. I'm going to get up a little early tomorrow and run some errands before we head up to Kim's party. I need to return my iPod transmitter (it's freaking weak), and I need to get a haircut. I also need to replace the right rear brake light on Courtney's car, so tomorrow promises to be a busy day. I better hit the hay.

Ice Waves and Big Brother

2005-12-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

The drive in to work this morning was pretty cool. About halfway there, really tiny pieces of ice started falling. I dunno if it has to be a certain size before it's called hail, but it definitely wasn't snow. This poses no dangeer to drivers at all, but of course traffic drops to 5 MPH below the speed limit. Had it been an actual blizzard, everyone would have been doing 80. What a stupid city. Anyway, the pieces started to gather on the road, and then whenever a car drove by, the gusts of wind would create currents and eddies of blowing ice. It was really pretty.

Then I get to work and find this on Slashdot. To sum it up, all electronic transaction data (phone, internet, credit card, you name it) now has to be recorded by the telecommunications companies in Europe in order to combat terrorism. Oh, and child porn, of course. You don't support child porn, do you, Sicko? So yeah, everyone on the other side of the pond say hello to 1984. I can't wait until this gets tacked on to the Patriot Act or something stupid like that.

EDIT: In addition (and only a couple of articles down the page on Slashdot), I also found the Orwellian microchip. Goody, now any website can see who I am. That's awesome! I've always wanted that. Seriously, how can this EVER be considered a good idea. Better personalized ads? Whoop-de-freaking-do. If this thing ever becomes standard, it's going to get "accidentally" shorted out on my motherboard.

They say it's going to help combat fraud, but what makes them think the information on this chip will be any more valid than what they get anyway? I give it a month after it's common before it's hacked and we're back at square one, only now we've lost our anonymity on the internet. The solution to the problems of frauding and phishing on the internet is NOT more technology, it's EDUCATION. People need to be educated on the dangers of the internet and how to avoid being defrauded and getting their identities stolen. That's the only way the situation is going to get better. You can keep inventing new technologies, but hackers will just keep finding new ways around them. Until the general public becomes more than just a bunch of technologically impaired sheep, internet fraud and identity theft will continue to be a common problem.

Go To Work Drunk!

2005-12-14T14:10:00.000-05:00

I was driving along on 270 this morning, and as I approached the split for the beltway, I noticed the sign that's supposed to display traffic information was now displaying a different notice: "U drink, U drive, U lose." Now, maybe I'm just not the typical Marylander, but is that really a problem at 9am on a Wednesday morning? Also, can we get someone besides your ten-year-old son to write the messages next time? It's "you," not "U"; this is not instant messenger, email, or IRC. This is a public notice on equipment owned by the federal government. How can other nations take us seriously when we have stuff like this?

Tonight is going to be one of our last (if not our last) choir practices before the concert next Wednesday. Personally, I think we're pretty set. We have some areas that we can polish up, but overall I think we've got all of the songs down. Here's a list of the songs that I remember off the top of my head:

"Oh Little Town of Bethlehem"
"Is There Room?"
"Hark the Herald Angels Sing"
Two pieces from Handel's Messiah (no, the "Hallelujah Chorus" is not one)
"Calypso Christmas"
"How Far is it to Bethlehem?"
"Journey of Praise" (a medley of a few different songs)
"Oh Holy Night" (women only)

There are at least five more, but I can't remember what they are at the moment. It should be a good concert.

Party Time This Weekend!

2005-12-13T20:53:00.000-05:00

Man, it feels like it's been four days already this week, and it's only been two. What's the deal with that? I'm so ready for the weekend. This weekend we have two fun Christmas parties to go to, and I can't wait. It promises to be a lot of fun with people that we haven't seen in a while. Friday night is Carly and Eric's party, and Saturday night is Kim's party.

Chris said that he should know what the approved bonuses for our team are by the end of this week. That will be nice to know, because C and I would like to get her dad a pretty nice present for Christmas, and we need to know how much we have to work with. We also need to set aside enough money for our ski trip and for our summer vacation to Foxwoods that we're planning. We also would like to get her a new laptop and possibly get a new mattress for our bed, so we'll have to see exactly how much we have to work with.

I can't believe it's less than two weeks until Christmas. That is insane.

Inauguration

2005-12-12T18:33:00.000-05:00

Ok, lemme esplain. This past weekend my old web page was hacked. It was the very first site that I ever coded, and I tried to make it as secure as possible. However, I was a newbie back then, and someone managed to hack it this past weekend. I really don't have the time to go and create an entirely new site from scratch (especially since I will be redoing my church's website), so I've decided that I will migrate over here to Blogspot, where my poker blog is already housed. With that said, let's hit it!

This past weekend was pretty good. Mostly. On Friday I got some nasty spyware that neither Adaware, Spybot, OR Norton could detect. I think I got it through a security hole in an old version of Winamp that was running. Everytime I started the thing I would ignore the little warning to upgrade (mostly because I hate how bloated it's become), and it looks like it finally bit me in the buttocks. I have iTunes now, so no more need for crappy Winamp. Anywho, I had to do a format and reinstall of my Windows partition. That's not a really big deal, since I keep all the other stuff on another section of the drive. However, I did forget to copy the budget file from the desktop, so that got lost. We spent Saturday morning rebuilding that, and I moved it to the documents section and created a shortcut instead of storing it on the desktop directly.

Saturday afternoon we went Christmas shopping at Lakeforest Mall. It was pretty packed, and it took us forever to find a seat for lunch, even though we ate at like three. We got most of the Christmas shopping done, including presents for the gift exchange at Carly and Eric's. We're awesome. Oh, and the poker chips I've had my eye on for like six months finally went on sale, so I bought them with my Christmas money. Booyah! I can't wait for January poker night.

After shopping and lunch we came home and set up our Christmas tree. Max was the first one under there, though I haven't seen either of the cats under there very much since it's been up. Courtney even put lights up above the living room windows, and it looks nice. That night we had to give Roxie a bath because she smelled like terds. I'd never given a cat a bath before, so I was a little curious if I would come out of the experience with all of my limbs. As a precaution, we cut Roxie's claws a few hours beforehand. She struggled a bit when we put her in, but after she realized she wasn't going anywhere (I had her pinned), she just kind of resigned and glared at us the rest of the time. However, once she dried herself off, all was forgiven.

Sunday was a nice service at church. We did a neat arrangement of several Christmas songs which we had only practiced twice, once last Wednesday and once before the service. That's how good we are. (It also didn't hurt that it was very easy.) After church we ate lunch at home and then went up to Courtney's office Christmas party. Almost no one from her lab showed up, so we pretty much just ate dinner and then left. When we got home, I proceeded to lose $15 to people sucking out on me in poker. You can read about that over at the poker blog. When I got tired of that, I watched some WSOP reruns on TV.

So now it's Monday, and the workday is over. It should be pretty easy going until Christmas break. I think the client isn't going to ask for any new stuff until after the new year, so we're just maintaining and improving what we have. I'm looking forward to the two parties this weekend. It will be good to see everyone.

Hope that wasn't too boring for you. Welcome to my new home on the intarnets.