My mom is in the process of cleaning out the upstairs of her house. This involves giving me boat loads of crap from my past every time she sees me. The other day I became the proud owner of a stack of old papers written by yours truly, the greatest writer ever. Actually, some of it is pretty bad, as you might expect from a 3rd to an 8th grader, but I just came across something that absolutely cracked me up.
I found my stunning epic novel entitled John and the Little People. I wrote it in the third grade and it is bound and fully illustrated -- pretty pimp. The funny thing is that this story perfectly parallels Gulliver's Travels. In fact, I vividly remember plagerizing what I did not know at the time was one of the most well known stories ever told. Why nobody ever called me out on it, I will never know. It's hardly the lesson to teach an 8 year old that blatant copying will go unpunished. My favorite sentence in the whole book:
"He soon found out that he wasn't paralyzed; he was tied down by tiny, strong cords!"
Ha! I used a semi-colon in the 3rd damn grade. Half of you skeezes couldn't do that now.
My report on The Killer Angels from 8th grade was lackluster, to say the least, even though Wenger gave me a 94 ... something I don't recall happening all that often. My poetic skillz back in '91 leave a lot to be desired. I know my pen pal letter to a kid in Columbia was a written assignment, but why I chose to tell him that I watch Hometime every day after school and my favorite episode is the one where they put up tile-backer is beyond me.
The other strange thing is the papers written about my brother, Stephen. There are many. I have one nicely typed biography of him that details his philanthropic misadventures that ends, "The less fortunate and the well-to-do have both benefitted from him, even if I never have." Another paper details how he always has the remote control. One annoying thing he does is taking control of the TV. The first words out of his mouth when we get home are, "I get control!" He then flips though all 99 channels. Of course, we only have less than 60. Then he goes to the B channels. He stops on stuff like church preachers and faith healers. Then we have to watch channel 12B. It is the twenty-four hour fish network. It shows different fish tanks and changes every 15 minutes. We always have to see it change. Then he goes back to A channels to 3. USA has Night Rider on twice in a row after school. That's OK but it takes us 15 minutes to get there. They never should have let me pass 8th grade. I turned this shit in!
I am laughing my ballz off at this stuff. One more description (moreso for my brother than any of you) and then I'm done. The last paper I failed. It was supposed to be a compare/contrast but all I do is slam Stephen throughout it. Because he's 16, he can drive. My parents take advantage of that and make him pick me up from school. He has the loudest, highest pitched, most annoying horn ever. He loves to lay it on when he gets me at the corner. People inside Wilson can hear it. At Christmas, he would play the first seven notes of Jingle Bells. I yell at him every day and then he hits me. I go on to explain that I cannot hit him back since he's driving. Even though most of the time, I remember doing the steering. He thinks he knows everything because he is in the eleventh grade. He always tries to give me advice on things I don't need advice on. I know when next year comes, he is going to want to help me pick classes. Hahaha.
Then I contrast that with how we like the same TV shows, again mentioning Hometime. Then: We like to play baseball in our backyard. We play with a whiffle bat and tennis balls. We have about 120 tennis balls because my mom takes rejects from Plano Tennis Organization or something. We hit them over the neighbors' fence and the husband gets peeved at us. Homerun Derby was always so much fun. My favorite line from the paper is, "I don't like him to think he's all bad because he's taller than me." Who writes like that on an English paper? Well, I mean, I do ... I guess I did all the way through college. Now check out this conclusion: I guess having an older brother with you through life isn't all that bad. I might even miss him when he kicks the bucket. I'll be old by then and probably senile so I won't even know or care, come to think of it.
Shazzam! I hope some of you might have found some amusement in that. I am going to see Stephen on Saturday morning. Sunday is my niece Kaylyn's 1st birthday and she is hosting a kegger. It should be really fun. I got her ultra cute presents. Alright, literature lovers, it is time for me to retire.
Holy fuck I graduated
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 2:03 pm
So much has happened since last we met, faithful Sidesho-Viewers. I apologize half-heartedly for the impromptu hiatus from the blog. Since last we met, a couple of very exciting and life-altering things have taken place in my life. Let's discuss, shall we?
First things first, I graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Technology. Whoop. This might just be a piece of paper with my name on it, but it is also my ticket out of here. You see, that company that finally called me back have made their official offer and I have accepted. It's off to the Big D for yours truly. Any of you that have followed my webpage have only ever read about my many adventures while living in College Station (unless you are a VERY long time viewer and remember Chicken Cherry Cola or If I Had My Own Domain, It'd Be Vid.com). Now we're all going to have to make this move together as I transplant my life back to Dallas. Ironic, isn't it ... that the one child that probably wanted to get away the most has traveled the least, as the crow flies.
At the onset, I am going to move back in with my parents. This will keep me from having to go and find an apartment right away. I'm not sure if I want to live in Carrollton right close to the office, or if I might like to live downtown, or somewhere else. So this will give me an opportunity to see if I have a social life in Dallas and where the epicenter of that is. It also keeps me from having to pay rent. Which is a good thing. As long as I am staying at home, every dime I make is pure profit. So I want to save up for at least a couple of months just to have some money to stand on before I try to move out on my own and start accumulating nice things.
Since graduation all I've done is eat, sleep and drink. And its surprising how having NOTHING to do can keep you so busy. I am moving out of my apartment on Thursday. So I'll no longer live here. I think Friday, Allison and I are going to float the Guadalupe again, and then Monday, maybe flying to Miami. Our plans have changed slightly and may no longer include California. We shall see.
And last but not least ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARSHALL!!!!1!!!!!
In the words of the great Albert Einstein …
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 6:39 am
Free at last. Free at last. Thank g*d almighty, free at last.
I guess thats the last time I'll get to utter those words in response to the end of a semester. That's right kids, you heard me right. I am DONE with college. I just wrapped up my final doc for my final project. I need to go to Copy Corner when they open at 7am and have it printed and then turn it in and that's that. It's an odd feeling. Graduation is on Friday at 9am at Reed Arena, if anybody feels like coming.
I was pretty stoked about my plan to just be a bum and try to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my future. Then as luck would have it, I received this email from T.A.C. (that company I interviewed with):
Dear David,
Good afternoon! As a follow up to the phone message I left today, I am writing to let you know that we are very interested in moving forward in our hiring for the project engineer position, and you are a top candidate we are strongly considering. Please let me know as soon as possible what your employment status is and if you are still available to be considered by TAC. Thank you!
I told them I was still interested. We'll see what comes of that. They haven't made an offer or anything yet. Sigh, I am so tired but unable to go to bed just yet. I can't wait to be done so I can sleep all day. I slept all day yesterday but it didn't help much. By the time I went to bed I had been awake and working for roughly 80 hours. I took one final, gave a presentation, finished a project (well, Owen did), wrote 5 papers, and finished a takehome final in that time. Our presentation went wonderfully. Its looking like I'm really graduating.
Pretty soon I'll be leaving College Station. Seems like it will be for good. It's odd. For five years all I've wanted to do is leave. And now that I'm leaving, I'm not sure I'm ready. But I'll tell you what I am ready for. Tomorrow Allison and I are going to the Association of Former Students party to get stickers for our cars, and then we're getting all snazzy and having dinner at Mesina Hof. That was one of our other goals before we left ... eating at Christophers and Mesina Hof. It's going to be so good. I love rawkin' the Hof. Then its drinky drinky time. I hope I'm not too tired.
Can't think of what else I had to say, but I wanted to let you all know whats been going on. My whole family will be in town on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but I'm hoping to sneak away for some just-graduated-college style partying, so hit me up if you want to join (and buy the first round whooaahh). Later you have-nots!
Where have I been lately?
Friday, May 7, 2004 4:45 am
A limerick by my wonderfully creative and observant friend Justin Brantley:
An Aggie named David was near
to the end of his college career.
He grew quite impatient from sleep deprivation,
and decided, at last, to cashier.
In other news, several of you have expressed your disappointment in my absence as of late. Oh okay, fine, I'm lying. Not one person has missed me. But during those long hours, I sit back, close my eyes, and imagine loyal Sidesho-Viewer after loyal Sidesho-Viewer logging on and getting this forlorn puppy dog look on their face when their Buddy List is devoid of the SideshoViD. Regardless, many of you know that I have been spending the majority of my time out at "the greenhouse." But what is the greenhouse? I am referring to Martha's Bloomers in Navasota, TX. You've probably driven by it on your way to Houston. Next time be on the lookout for the little grey Cavy.
Anyway, I thought if you couldn't be there with me, then perhaps you could be there in spirit. And in order for you to do that, you need to know what the place looks like. Or maybe you're just plum curious. I took my camera out there today to take pictures for our final documentation and presentation (rescheduled to Monday) and some of them are worth sharing. I didn't put up a lot of the pictures of boring valves, pipes, and switches, but chose some of the few cool ones.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MY PICTURES1!!!!1!!!11!!!
You happy, Owen, I switched up the 1's. And David27, I expect you to take a look at the circuit board I designed and leave me a comment identifying at least two of the components on the board. This is your final exam. So its 4:45am and I am up watching MacGuyver on TV Land. Why?
That was a rhetorical question.
Update: MacGuyver just beat up a guy who knew kung fu and had a chainsaw and a knife. And he did it all with his bare hands ... no MacGuyverish tricks. Fucking sweet. I wish I had a MacGuyver mullet.
Miserability
Wednesday, May 5, 2004 3:32 am
OUCH, my head hurts. It's 3:30 in the am ... I woke up a couple hours ago completely disoriented and confused as to what time it was, where I was, etc. Owen was watching TV and I was sleeping on the couch and the shows he was watching kept ending up in my dreams. It took me a few minutes to realize I wasn't the general of an army throwing people from a moving vehicle. God, why do I always have such murderous dreams.
Anyway, the reason my sleep schedule is so fucked up is because I pulled an all-nighter last night to finish a project. I did a piss poor job. I'm concerned I won't pass this class. Hopefully there will be a large curve. But I was already so tired to begin with, I couldn't believe I made it through the night and into the next afternoon. It was not without the help of coffee and cigarettes. I finally got to bed around 1pm and woke up at like 6. I thought perhaps I could stay up and be normal but after Owen and I ate at Fitz's, I crashed again, hardcore. This is not good because I have an assload to do by Thursday, but once again my stupid body is requiring food and sleep. It is so annoying like that.
The schedule for the next two weeks or so: Thursday, user manuals, installation guides, trouble shooting guides etc are due as well as the technical presentation and demonstration of our greenhouse project we've been working on for the past year. Probably the biggest hurdle. Friday-Saturday, feverishly finishing final documentation for that project, studying for a final in the class that I'm concerned about passing. Monday, take that final. Monday through Wednesday, work on a program that will test parameters of an Analog to Digital Converter that Owen and I haven't started yet. That is due Wednesday at noon along with our take home final. Wednesday night -- drink lots and lots, pray that grades go through. Friday at 9am, my graduation. After that, I will move all my stuff out of my apartment back home to Dallas. May 20th my lease is up and somewhere in there, I am going to California with Allison. Very hectic. Cannot wait to be done.
So if I don't update, please don't hate me. And for those of you moving back home for the summer and stuff, don't forget to bookmark SideshoViD.com and keep in contact with me. Where ever I go and whatever I do SVC will remain a constant way to see what I've been up to. I love you all, in spite of the fact that you are all a bunch of have-nots.
Enter: Tuna
Friday, April 30, 2004 5:35 pm
I finally decided to name my fish. I think it's safe to say that he is going to survive for the long haul. Anyway, his name is Tuna. I'd be lying if I said that the can of StarKist in his tank wasn't an inspiration. Anyway, I think it's a fitting name and its a relief to finally have named him.
This week has been alternating between really fun and really stressful. The documentation is going well. I can really churn this shit out like you wouldn't believe. Twenty pages in just under eight hours? Gimme a break. I'm a machine, and if I keep this up I'll be doing okay. Not ahead of schedule or anything, but just okay. Last night I went over to my new neighbor Marshall's apartment and drank beers and 'gina juice with him and Thommi. It is too fun having him live so close now as opposed to 20 minutes away. A true improvement.
I had yoga yesterday. She had promised that she was going to teach us all some new poses that day so I showed up ready to go. Apparently she had changed her mind and was just handing out grades and letting people leave. I had no intention of leaving. I paid to do yoga and I was gonna do some. I ended up being the only person to stay. After a little warm up, we just kind of started trying to out-yoga each other. We can both do the scorpion now that she's been working on it all semester in an effort to match my abilities, so that didn't work. Then we started doing all these fucked up headstands. Like inverting and then going into the lotus with our feet, or doing the splits upside down and stuff. It was too fun. Then she wanted to know if I could do a handstand, which I'd never done before. So now I can totally flip myself completely over ... and then I trumped her by doing a couple of inverted Nicholas-Cage-in-Con-Air pushups. Boo yah.
So that was ridiculously fun, I'm sorry it had to end. Then I went and got a pep-talk from the cafeteria lady who was giving me advice on what to do after graduation. Apparently she hadn't read my last post. I'm not sure why. This weekend I am trying to avoid going out and just work on a paper, but keeping me away from a night of drinking is like ... um ... keeping an alcoholic away from alcohol. Is that even a simile? Whatever, SHUT UP! Czech you skillets later.
I got a fish!!1!
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 6:10 pm
Today I woke up kinda early for me and had time to walk over to the pet store and look at their bettas. I found one that I thought would look really cool in my new tank. He serves two purposes though. First, he's my pet. Second, he's my guinea pig. If he dies then I know the tank is inhabitable and I shouldn't let Marshall bring me his fish until I get the water fixed. I would feel so bad if I killed Marshall's fish right off the bat. I still need to go to David27's and get his unused betta food so I can feed the little guy.
At first, the water level was kind of low to allow the water spilling in from the filter to make a water noise and produce lots of bubbles ... something to hear and see. As soon as I put the betta in, the force of the induced current shoved him up against the wall. I had to add more water to reduce the impact it has on his environment, but I think he still doesn't like it. I'm not sure, I don't speak Betta. But, I also know I don't want to clean this tank all the time, so he can just learn to deal with it.
Tonight, my friend Brandon is driving in from Austin to visit. He hasn't been back to College Station in a long, long time, so that is going to be fun. Idk what we're going to do but I'm sure we'll be able to find something. I just found out that I haven't been skipping class this week. My prof has been out and may be out for a while. So yay! No early classes! Excelsior!
Why I hate this fucking school, by SideshoViD
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 7:43 pm
Today was just a rip roaring good time on campus. I had my weekly senior project meeting, which went flawlessly as always, and then met up with some of my friends who had gathered at the Straight Pride rally over by Rudder Fountain. Damned free speech areas. Has anyone noticed that not once have the free speech areas on campus been used to promote liberal, democratic, tolerant, or educated viewpoints? It's always a bunch of dumb fucking redneks abusing the power.
So we went and had a discussion with them all trying to inform them that every day on campus is Straight Pride day and to try and belittle Gay Awareness Week, no matter how good your intentions may be, will be misinterpreted by the less educated (i.e. most dangerous) members of our little society. We didn't have long to talk to them because they were closing down camp for the day, but promised they would be back tomorrow if we wanted to talk to them some more. So I think we're going to get a big group of sane people together, just to show that on this campus, for every idiot who thinks Straight Pride is funny, there are two people who realize the implications.
You might think we were out of fun after these idiots cleared out, but no, OH NO, our fun had just begun. Our beloved campus evangelist, the one and only, Mr. Tom Short was back! Hoorah! Our friend Jon Steed, like the leader of Aggie Democrats, and a Jew, no less, had quite a time talking to Mr. Short. I don't like to talk to him because I know that he is an accomplished speaker and the last time I talked to him he turned my words back around on me. I prefer to prey on his little minions that he positions throughout the crowds to talk to you as you bad mouth him under your breath. I got sucked into an argument when I overheard some guy proclaiming that g*d was obviously real ... just look at the tree ... how could you possibly explain the tree without g*d? So I pointed out that it could be explained with Horticulture, a subject that is taught at this very university! Shazam!
Then he tried to tell me that faith was logic. To which I countered that faith is the opposite of logic, at which point, a guy who is in my major, and an active BUc (Brother Under christ) jumped in. We talked for a long time much to the amusement of my friends who were sitting near by. I've never really been observed in one of these arguments even though I tend to have them WAY more often than I'd like. But they were all laughing because, apparently, I show no emotion ... big shocker there, I'm totally monotone all the time. But they said that the other guy would get worked up and I wouldn't give a shit, which is basically true. We had to stop arguing though because he wanted to go on forever when it was apparent to me that our beliefs were fundamentally opposite, and no common ground could be met. For every christian bullshit line he pulled out, I put it back on him. He said he was trying to spread g*d's word to help me, I told him I was trying to convince him otherwise to help him.
All in all it was the same argument I always have with these people. I always think that it must be such a treat for them to get to talk to me, and such a drag for me to talk to them. Because I formed my own opinions on everything and they're good and funny and logical, whereas they all read the same stupid fairytale book for their opinions, so I know exactly what they're going to say next. Fucking automatons. My favorite part of the discussion was when I informed him, "There is no heaven. There is no hell. There is no g*d. There is no jebus. There is no salvation. There is no sin. You've got to stop thinking in terms like that." Lovely, just lovely. I love myself.
I am God.
I took a picture of my brown hair but I don't like the self portrait thing with my camera, so you all have to wait until I get someone else to take my pictures before you can see it. I am totally styling it in 70's retro style, and everyone hates it but me. But it completely cracks me up so I'll probably keep it up for a while. In the mean time, if you'd like to meet us out at Rudder Fountain tomorrow to speak more with the bigots, do just that. We'd love to have you. Laaaaaaaaaate.
And the party continues …
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 1:23 pm
Once again, alcohol was involved in my night. What makes this even better than the party that was rockin on Sunday during the Britney concert, is that this was a Monday night. So fun. The occasion for last night's festivities was Brian's 21st birthday. Everyone together now, "Happy birthday, Brian!" It was quite an ordeal to finally decide that I would be in attendance. I got home from working out with Thommi and didn't feel like drinking or spending money, but 27 and Marshall wanted to go, so I went. Like it took a whole lot of convincing or something. And of course I got shitcanned and spent a bunch of money, but it was a blast. Kyle was there.
After hitting up Fitzwillies, Mad Hatters, and Gatsby's (the new bar on Northgate, very chill, I liked it) we headed back to Aaron's apartment. Aaron had recently busted out of jail, so I bought him several drinks. I kinda feel like I owe him for his superiour bartending skills. I don't think we did a whole lot at Aaron's but sit around and shoot the shit. At one point I was laying on the floor, and as I was too lazy to get up, Justin was kind enough to pour the remnants of a bottle of wine into my mouth. Now that's service!
By far the highlight of my evening was Big Jeff, who was waiting for us back at the apartment. A few people were chillin there when we arrived. Anyway, back to my story. He had everyone's attention in a large round table discussion and went to tell a story about some friends of his. Honest to g*d, the story went like this: "Jeff, Jeff, Jeff and I," said Jeff. I thought it was hilarious, as did Kyle. That was the first thing Kyle IMed me with this morning (or afternoon, for you sun dwelling people).
I have got to go to campus and work on this project that was due 2 weeks ago. I don't know what I'm gonna do but there's a bunch of people in the same boat so at least that's comforting. But instead, I think I'm going back to bed. Later, sluts. Later, Kyle.
What really tans my hide…
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 1:31 pm
As it turns out, I really don't know how to tan. In fact, I was going to attempt to photograph my ineptitude, but the problem seems to have faded, so I'll illustrate for you again. I got a membership at Total Tan for 25 bucks for a month. So far I've only been twice, but I've fucked it up twice now. Every time I get out of the bed, my body is a splotchy, nasty red, white and tan neopolitan mess. That's not sexy. Maybe one of these days I'll figure it out.
This morning I had a missed call at 8:10am from a private number. Only two people I know use private numbers. One of them is my old boss, but he knows better than anyone that this guy wouldn't be awake at 8:10am since thats when I was supposed to be at work every day and I'd roll in around noon usually. The other is our dear Yalie friend, Chris, whom I normally wouldn't suspect, but he is supposed to be coming home today for a few days. Again though, why would he call so early and not leave a message? More than likely what we have on our hands here is some sort of telemarketer riling up my imagination.
Got a lot to do this week. Have a couple projects due on friday. Spent 10 and a half hours in one chair yesterday working on a program. Normally I wouldn't have spent so long working on it but it was just one of those days where everything was just going right. I was really making great progress and didn't want to stop and come back on a day when everything would just be going wrong, because those certainly are easier to come by. I went and had a beer with Bo over at Fitzwilly's around 11:00. That was so delicious esp. since I hadn't eaten all day. I'm fasting this week. Anyway, I suppose I should go wash off this brown sugar and get headed to campus.
One last foot note. David27 found a zippo lighter in my couch cushions that says "TAMU OUTLAW '03 CORPS OF CADETS" on its sides. It's not that I desperately want to return this to its rightful owner, I'm just dying to know who the closet corps boy is, because if I'm gonna have a corps boy in my house I need to at least know who he is ahead of time. So if it's yours, fess up, soldier. Laaaaaaaaaate.
It’s fuckin’ Friday!
Friday, March 5, 2004 2:45 pm
This Friday is uber special. First off, I didn't go to class this morning. While there may be ramifications dealing with this oversight at a later date, it sure did make today more fun. So I just rolled out of bed at like 2pm and took a bubble bath. I spoil myself so. Now that I'm all clean, Thommi just asked me to go work out with him. Whatev, just an excuse to take another bath. Then we're gonna go to the mall and get me this new outfit I want that was out of my size when I last looked. So I'll be lookin fly tonight because ...
Tonight is my date with Allison for her birthday. She got her hair did and got a new outfit to wear. So we're both gonna be lookin spiffy. And we're going to Christopher's on someone else's tab. Wahoo. But before we go to dinner, we're going to go see Starsky and Hutch. Oh shit, I just realized I'm gonna be cuttin it close here with the time. Oh well. After the movie we're going to the Groove with Marshall to see Skyler Blue ... some local band that a guy he works with is in. They're supposed to be pretty good. Good enough for me to waste a cover charge to go see them, thats for sure.
Anyway, I hope you are all having as wonderful of a day as I am. It's not easy bein the Sidesho ... but somebody's gotta do it. Peace out, have nots!
My name is Zoon and I live on the moon
Tuesday, March 2, 2004 5:09 pm
Hey, Allison. It's your birthday. Hey, Allison. It's your birthday ... today! Happy 23rd Allison, I love you!
In other news, I was crusin around today with the birthday girl. We went to eat lunch at Souper Salad. Took us a good hour, which you know was trouble with the all-you-can-eat buffet. Then we decided to go to Wal-Mart to see if they had little shelves we could put in our bathrooms since Bed Bath & Beyond only had like 40 dollar chrome ones. Well, first we stopped off at Total Tan so I could get a membership but the girl was a bitch so I left without filling out the paper work. The big news though is that George Bush East is OPEN! Omega this is going to make it so much easier to get EVERYWHERE from my apartment. I am so completely stoked.
I have this vague feeling that I was the first car to drive on the newly opened road. They had just moved the baracades and there were still DoT cars on either side of it. And as we drove down, people who live on that street were out in front of their houses jumping up and down and cheering. We cheered, honked, and waved. It was too much fun.
Tonight I have a lab to attend. Blech. I'm kind of giving myself this week off as much as I can on account of having to do shit last week. But then Allison and gang are going out to Ninfa's. Even though I loathe Ninfa's and enjoy it even less on Tuesday nights when all the second rate frat boys and girls overtake the place, I am totally going. I'll just have to down a few drinks right when I get there to soothe myself. Then who knows what will happen. Do you ask where a shooting star will fall? Peace out, you have nots.
Mercy me
Monday, March 1, 2004 10:40 pm
This is more of a pity update than anything. I realize that I haven't been very dedicated to the SVC this week even though a lot has happened. I have much to break down for you, but for now let's just hit the highlights. First, and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LESLIE! I tried to call her today and see how she was durrin, but she didn't answer. Hope it was wonderful. Tomorrow is Allison's birthday which will have me occupied for the whole night, if not the whole day as well.
The symphony was pretty cool. They played selections from Tchaikovsky and Chopin. The piano was beautiful. I dunno though... she was called the 'Nora Jones' of classical piano. I think that was completely inaccurate. She was just a really accomplished pianist ... and was impregnito at the same time. Now that takes talent.
This weekend was all about mixing business and pleasure. We had our mid-term presentation for my senior project today. We really weren't prepared for it so I spent almost every waking hour of the weekend working on designing a couple of printed circuit boards for our project. I managed to slip out in time to get drunk both Friday and Saturday, which was a blessing. I even kept myself under control, which I got a lot of props for ... getting props for not falling down drunk ... sign #236 you are an alcoholic.
Anyway, I won't keep you in suspense. Our presentation went really well. It's over now. My head hurts. My shoulders hurt. Yet I have a beer and 27 is on his way. Things are definitely looking up. More on that ... after this.
Fucking Leeches: Blood Sucking Tow Trucks
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 4:25 pm
Omega, I fucking hate tow trucks. What fucking purpose do they serve? There are 40 empty parking spaces in a row and they have the nerve to come and try to tow the one guy who is here visiting me. They are the lowest of the low, the modern day untouchables. If I saw a towfuck crossing the street I wouldn't brake. To hear about my past personal experience with getting towed, please revisit Monday, September 9, 2002: "Got fucking towed".
So anyway, David#27 came over because we were highlighting Allison's hair (which turned out great despite her zero confidence in my abilities with all things hair). We were chilling on the couch when he was like, "Is that my alarm?" He looked through my window and then sprinted out the door. I followed soon after with his sandals to find him talking to my most hated enemy, my hyena, the tow truck driver. The guy said if we gave him 40 dollars in cash that he would put the car back on the ground. I think thats extortion and I'm pretty sure its against the rules, but fuck it, its better than driving halfway across the state to pay 100 bucks. And since I didn't have my gun (I believe its legal to shoot him in Texas to protect property) we gave him 40 bucks.
I just doesn't seem fair. But I don't want to go further into that rant again. I just hate tow trucks, omega, I hate tow trucks. I complained to the management but they looked at me like I was crazy. I'd rather hike a mile in the snow to my apartment because all the spots are gone than to contribute one dirty fucking dollar towards feeding anyone low enough to drive a tow truck.
On a lighter note, I just got an AOL trial CD in the mail. Allison and I have always loved the random word combination passwords they give you. The two I got today (which I think Alfie would probably list as band names for the day) are NEPHEW-GNAWER and EARFUL-EXAM. Wonderful. Well I'm off to build a Digital to Analog Converter, design an Equipment Interface PC Board, polish off the Internet-Based System User Interface, and prepare for our Technical Advisory Team presentation tomorrow. Busy, busy, busy... HA!
Hair today, gone tomorrow
Thursday, February 12, 2004 5:01 pm
Ahh, what a week this has been. I haven't been to class all week. I place the blame squarely on jesus. I did make it to yoga today though, because as you all know, I do not miss yoga for any reason. Now I'm back on my signiture couch vegging out. I'm watching T3 again. I watched it last night with Raul, Tommy and David, but we didn't really pay attention. It has been out from Blockbuster for SO long now, but it's on Tommy's account so no worries here. I really should get it back at some point. We also watched Circuit. Believe it or not, I didn't like this movie despite the title. There wasn't one integrated circuit, resistive network, soldering iron, or pc board in the entire movie.
Today after yoga this girl came up to me and said, 'Hey do you ever hang out at Revolutions.' And by god, I do. She said she recognized my hair from the other weekend and wanted to tell me that she liked it. I hawked it today for the first time since the bleach incident. I've been kind of scared to put a flat iron to it in fear that it would just melt off.
Since the incident I've been doing just about everything I can to get my hair back to ... well, hair status. First I bought some shampoo and conditioner specifically designed for bleached, fried hair. That's helping a little bit. Then I did a protein pack on it, that was really good, I might need to buy a couple more of those. Finally, I got some Infusium leave in conditioner. All of this together, Pesci willing, will give me back the hair I once had. Wish me luck, have-nots. Back to T3...
Whoring myself, the corporate way
Thursday, February 5, 2004 11:20 am
I had my first big-boy interview yesterday. It was with a company called T.A.C. even though I don't know what that stands for. Anyway, they make automated systems (just like me!). We were sitting in class on Tuesday when my prof said that whoever didn't go to this luncheon had to take a quiz, so we all went to go eat. I was done eating and decided I wanted a free pen, being as I love free pens. I got busted trying to steal one and had to talk to this woman about the company. Bear in mind, I am wearing my safety pinned sweatshirt and had my hair gloriously hawked.
Turns out their company was right up my alley and my senior project (which she had heard about) was in keeping with what they do so she told me to send her my resume and she would get me an interview. Lo and behold, not 24 hours later, there I am in the interviewing room in a new suit (yes, a suit). I think it went really well. I'm pretty stoked about it. If they make any offer, I'll probably take it. What a load off.
Then this morning I had to return to take their written exam. Gimme a break. They make all applicants take a test that goes over math, grammar, and personality. It was supposed to take at least 2 and a half hours (the untimed portion), but I finished the whole fucking thing in about an hour. It was ridiculously easy. All of the algebra and word problems were a total cinch, I wouldn't have used a calculator on them even if I had had one. Then the grammar came. That was even easier. They gave me a sentence to find the error in ... like:
But, if any of you have ever had a paper proofread, editted, or, god forbid, graded by me, then you know that it looked more like this in my head:
I breezed through that rather quickly determining which were complete sentences and which were fragments (something I've become quite good at after working with Sean) and deciding which version of (to/too) was correct (something Marshall would have certainly failed).
So that's my good news for now. I will keep you posted on the employment status of your favorite sidesho attraction. Peace out you have nots, and don't have to much fun.
Oh yeah: I almost forgot to mention. There was also a handwriting portion to the test. Which I also aced. Laaaaaaaaaaaate.
Butterfly Effect
Thursday, January 29, 2004 2:27 am
Can I just say, I LOVE not having a job. And yeah, yeah, yeah, one of you fuckheads is gonna bring it up, "But what are you gonna do for money?" Well I don't care. I hate money. That's why I'm always trying to get rid of it so fast. Anyway, my school day ended at 10:00. How awesome is that. I was awake and had the whole day with nothing to do.
So the first thing I did was take a nap. Then I went and bought a book I don't want for a hundred bucks. Then I went to HobLob to hob knob with Marshall and buy a picture frame. Then I went to Academy Sports and Outdoors and bought a yoga kit. So now I have my own mat, strap, and blocks to play with. I also rearranged my bedroom so I have room to yogate in. I wanted to go see Blue October tonight over at the Tap (yes, I was actually willing to go to the Tap) but when I went to see if tickets were on sale this afternoon, they were sold out.
So as soon as Tommy got out of class and I got out of my bubble bath, I headed over to his place to go work out. I'm not sure what happened, but in between the time he got up from the chair to go put his workout pants on and the time he got back to the living room, I feel sound asleep. I've never fallen asleep so fast and so deep. It was crazy. I woke up a while longer and we went and worked out (apparently it was family night at the rec) and then sat in the hot tub. Then we went to see Butterfly Effect.
Holy crap. As you can see, on a scale of 1 to Incredible, I've rated it incredible. I was a bit apprehensive about Ashton in a serious role but he knocked this one outta the park. This movie was like woah. You've got to see it asap. I'm not even lying. If you disagree with me, you are wrong. I can't even really talk about it cause I'm still digesting. Me and Tommy were both blown away by it. Wow. Now I have to go to bed, even though my bed is possessed, but that's another story for another post. Good night!
And the party must stop
Tuesday, January 20, 2004 12:20 am
School starts tomorrow afternoon. I have one class and a lab, and I guess I'm gonna go back to work. I dunno, I sure do hate work, but I am so fucking broke its not even funny. Let me see if I can even remember all of the shit that has gone down in the past few days. First off, my cell phone has been working for a while now. I stole a charger from Aaron's apartment while he was out of town. I think it may have been mine though, but either way, I'm back in business and hating it as usual. I know I've said this far too many times before, but based on the conversations I've had in the past few days, I'm just going to briefly reiterate ... I fucking hate talking on the phone. It makes me want to cut my eyes out with a spoon. Because its dull, you twit, it'll hurt more! So if you're just calling to see 'whassup' then don't. And if you're calling for a reason, keep it short and to the point. I would really, really appreciate it.
So anyway, back to the narration. Thursday and Friday, we went out to Halo as usual. Despite my announcement that I was completely partied out and most definitely not going to drink, I got shitcanned both nights. There was much vodka consumed, and much dancing. Nothing severely out of the ordinary. Saturday, I had promised Tommy weeks ago that I would go to Houston with him. I don't usually leave town, and if I do, I need like some serious emotional preparation in order to do so. I mean, despite the fact that my wallet is almost rotted in two, I still haven't gotten a new one because I'm not emotionally ready to commit to a new wallet. Thats the kind of person I am. Very much about the rut, and any deviation from said rut is stressful. But Tommy gave me ample time to prepare so to Houston we went. It was quite traumatic, I'm not gonna lie. We went to South Beach with Todd and I managed to have fun once I got a few drinks in me. They spray liquid nitrogen onto the dance floor in this huge cloud so thick you can't see two inches in front of your face and its really cold. And when you're hot from dancing it feels so good.
We finally got home around 4am. I slept the whole next day, never even made it home. By the time I woke up, Tommy had come home from work and was ready to go get something to eat. And then Aaron called me and said everyone was staying at his cousin's house in Houston and going to South Beach again. So despite the fact that by this point my body was REALLY beggin for rest, I agreed. So Tommy and I turned back around and got back on the road for Houston this time with Allison in tow. It was a blast again, especially because everyone from College Station was in attendance. Much fun, much alcohol, much dancing. Aaron's cousin lives in a mansion. It was too much fun. I didn't go to sleep until like 6am. I spent the day today cleaning up a little around the apartment and doing some laundry. Its time to stop having fun, go to school and work every day, and then graduate and the fun is REALLY over. Sigh. Good night, fuckers, hope everyone has a good first day. Leave me a comment letting me know how it went.
the email…
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 5:41 pm
Welcome Sidesho-Viewers. Today I greet you all from the interior of Club 511, my new home away from home. I've been all about the firsts lately, so I thought I would give Ms. Leslie Bizzell the honor of watching me whilst I update. She is, naturally, one of my most loyal viewers, and most deserving of this. We are closing out my 32nd hour of being awake. It's been a long ass time since I've been awake for this long, and I can't say that its entirely enjoyable. However, the many beers of Leslie's that I've drank and the 'martin-ay' that I drank at Chili's are helping to take the edge off just a tad.
This is the second time this week that I have stayed awake to watch the sun rise due to school. I fuckin hate school, but its over now and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I was totally supposed to go to work today but hahahahaha. So when I finally finished my paper this afternoon around 12:30 I decided to check my email. After that, it was most definitely time to get drunk with Leslie so I woke her ass up and invited myself over.
Now I find myself nestled on the most comfortable couch with far too many people. I vowed to LESLIE, Rick, and Ty, that I would stay up and party until we go to Northgate to watch Aaron dunk his ring and Josh re-dunk his right (What? who does that?). I will do my best, and I'm a total trooper. Ms. Bizzell and I (who together comprise Bizzells Photogrizzaphs) are supposed to sojourn to Houston tomorrow to take some pictures of office furniture. My uncle resales the shit, but me being the artist I am totally have an idea to, like, sell the shit out of this stuff. We're gonna have Leslie pose erotically on top of all the furniture. It's GOLD!
Leslie totally has a wireless router inside her apartment which has totally allowed me the mobility to continue updating despite the fact that we have travelled outside the confines of Club 511. I am now smoking while updating ... Another first! I completely feel (and look, as was confirmed by Leslie) like Carrie Bradshaw. Is it really our inner selves that dictate our relationships or are we all just playing the inner child?
I have to go now before I have any more fun, because there is much more to be had as the night progresses. Hopefully, I'll be awake and cognizant for all of it. Catch you sluts on the flip side. Peace out, have nots.
Tis better to thanksgive than to thanksreceive
Saturday, December 13, 2003 1:23 pm
I have been putting off this blog for some time now. I have to talk about Thanksgiving. Part of the reason I was stalling was because I had to find out all that happened that night. I couldn't remember the last part of the celebration. Whoops. Anyway, it was quite riotous and out of control, just the way the holidays should be.
I cleaned my house all day long in between preparing the turkey, and had it spotless by the time AllieD, the first guest arrived. Shortly thereafter, Ryan and Todd came. By the end of the night, the meal consisted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, bread, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole ... and taco salad. Ha! Gotta love pot luck. Let me see if I can run down the guest list without forgetting anyone and irrepairably damaging our relationship: AllieD, Jamey, Allison, Ryan, Todd, Leslie, Josh, Ryan, Josh, Kyle, Aaron, Ty, Rick, Bob, Antwat, Trey and Thomas. That's the best my faded memory can do. It was a lot of people. Then there were the 14 other guests ... each one a different empty bottle of wine. Yeah, we drank 14 bottles of wine ... as well as a box of Franzia ... and a 30 pack of Stones ... and a couple cases of Bud ... and a bottle of expensive scotch.
Needless to say it was a whole helluva a lot of fun. The next morning I woke up feeling wonderful, but soon discovered I was just still drunk. Later on the hangover hit me and I spent the day throwing up. But it did wonders for my abs. You should have seen the kitchen. It totally should have been deemed a bio hazard and demolished. We're talkin food everywhere, like turkey grease and shit. Wine stains on everything. Dishes piled high all filled with leftovers. Broken glass galore.
We broke 2 glasses and one bottle of wine. I only saw one glass get broken ... the other two must have happened outside since there are shards of proof. Aaron and Trey got towed. Aaron got hit in the face with a wine bottle? Antwat got taken advantage of in the back room. Somebody stuck novelty fingernails on my right hand ... and there's a pair of handcuffs on my bathroom sink. My toe is all but broken. I woke up next to Allison wearing more clothes than I had remembered. Somebody stole some DVDs from me.
I will never drink wine again. Thanksgiving was absolutely insane but totally fun. Can't wait to do it again whenever that holiday happens to roll around. Then I had to get serious cause I had two finals on Friday. I bombed the first one and did alright on the second one. The second one was Control Systems, and it was only two questions, but took me the full 2.5 hours and I didn't finish. Cra-zy. Then I went home for a spell, got dinner with Kyle at Rumors since he's goin home in a couple days, and then started working on documentation. We have huge documents due on Monday. Sucks. I should be working on them right now, but I didn't want to leave you all in suspense any longer. I'll be so much happier when all of this is done.
Enter The SideshoGang
Sunday, December 7, 2003 9:46 pm
Last night was pretty tame. I sat around most of the night not really doing anything. You'd never guess by my behavior that finals are right around the corner. There was a party going on over at Julius's apartment last night that a lot of my friends were at. So my phone was ringing off the hook with people telling me to get over there. Which is flattering, but you all know how I feel about my phone ringing. Eventually Dustin and Trey came to get me, because I kept stalling.
I didn't go out earlier because I was over at Allison's looking at her new baby dog, Colby, whom I call Winky. This dog is cute and nice, but has a gimp eye, and a crazy streak. He kept spinning full speed and barking at the ceiling and then ramming his nose into the ground. And he sleeps with his head propped up on his nose. Too funny. I'm sure she'll be thrilled that I'm making fun of her new dawg.
So anyway, I eventually ended up at Julius's around the time the alcohol ran out. I had one cup of punch ... just enough to turn my tongue blue so I would fit in with everyone else. Naturally, I ran into Leslie, Rick, Ryan, Thomas, KYLE, Josh and Josh, among others, and have to mention them. However, I decided to put a little twist on their sudden SVC fame. Since I talk about them so much and there are so many names to remember, they will henceforth be referred to as The SideshoGang.
So I was standin outside talking with the SideshoGang when Leslie decided to tell me that my story about my first time on the internet wasn't funny. I don't know where she got the idea that this was an open forum, but nonetheless, she offered up her negative feedback. She redeemed herself only by laughing at my interpretation of Britney Spears "Me Against the Music" where I wonder why she's always singing about getting a p'zone. Speaking of, that does sound kind of delicious. But back to my story. Josh and Ryan scored points for the SideshoGang by saying the story was, indeed, funny, so they're back to a collective par. Way to go, gang!
I got woken up this morning at 4:00pm by Josh and Ryan telling me to open my front door. So I did and they shared gossip and stories from last night. One of the stories was that Ryan had spilled a big coke on his lap on the drive home, and had drenched his phone in soda. So it was not functioning today. He had a Nokia phone from T-Mobile, so I went into my room and got my old Nokia phone and said he could have it if he wanted. Because all you have to do is insert your memory card into a phone and it works as yours. His away message right now said that he was so excited about his new phone that he's going to name it SideshoViD. I wonder if that has anything to do with the front screen already displaying SideshoViD. Either way, I'm still flattered. Its like I gave birth to my own baby boy, only he's a gigantic baby boy who smokes and says 'shit' a lot. Y'know?
Weekend Wrap-Up
Sunday, November 16, 2003 10:55 pm
So my weekend was pretty good. I went out one night with Owen, Allison, AllieD and Jamey. That was rather uneventful. Last night Ryan, Todd, and I decided to just drink a whole bunch of beer. I actually bought 30 Stones to contribute to the party. But then Rob called me and reminded me that it was his birthday and that his party was going on. There was a keg, so naturally, we decided to go there. It was a quaint little party at a house that I've partied at before, even though I don't know the guy who lives there. There were a few people there that I knew, most of whom I hadn't seen since this summer. I drank a whole lot of Shiner, and Allison gave me a ride home. Fun times had by all.
I have an exam tomorrow at 8am. I should be getting to bed soon. I just got done studying at Sweet Eugene's with a group of friends. I think I understand everything well enough now to pass the test. The trick is going to be getting up and going. Hence the early bed time. But it all works out okay since I only got like 4 hours of sleep last night and I'm still a little hungover, so I've been looking forward to sleeping for quite some time.
In fact, I think I'll go do that.
Blue and yellow purple pills
Tuesday, November 4, 2003 2:44 pm
Is it just me or does everyone I know now have a prescription to something? Allison has her injured back that awarded her muscle relaxers and hydrocodone. Sean just tore something in his knee and was awarded some hydrocodone. Owen has his speed 'prescription' and he stayed home sick from school today so he'll probably win some more pills for that. He's gonna try to claim that I got him sick, when in reality, its some Austinian disease he brought back from his Halloween adventures.
I got strep and was awarded Penicillin. Which I didn't think was very cool until my brother just informed me I could tell people I was "chillin' like a villain on penicillin" and not be lying. Rawk! The only thing that isn't cool about my booty is that it doesn't really make a very good bargaining chip. On the black market of pill pushers and poppers, there's no way anyone is going to vie for an antibiotic. They have no side effects and are so easy to come by. Looks like I'm going to have to sweeten the deal if I'm going to get my paws on any of those hydrocodone circulating around. And to top it all off, I didn't even get molested by the doctor this time. What a rip off!
Tonight we have to go to Navasota to Martha's Bloomers to pitch our project proposal to the owner out there hoping that he'll fund our little operation next semester. That means I have to dress up and act polite, my two favorite things to do. But if all goes well, we could be sittin pretty next semester, and that ... is a good thing. Peace out, skillets.
Kill Bill et al
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 5:51 pm
I saw Kill Bill (vol 1). This is the movie where Britney Spears dresses up like Bruce Lee and fights with swords. I have yet to enjoy a "Quintin Tarrentino" movie that I've seen, so it shouldn't surprise me that I didn't appreciate Kill Bill. However, I will say that there were many, many redeeming qualities that I hope and pray some filmmaker I enjoy will steal and use. Fighting in the dark with nothing but shadows -- very cool. Excellent wire effects. Great soundtrack, all fights should be set to cool music. On the negative side: ridiculous amounts of gore ... I got a little queasy at a couple parts. Anime is not cool, not even when you try to be artsy about it. That's my official review. It was worth the money, but just barely.
I spent yesterday running around town putting together my Halloween costume with Allison. We're doing the themed thing again. As soon as I'm done sewing, we'll take a picture and I'll throw it up here. Until then, hold your breath.
Have I said lately how much I enjoy Martha Stewart. She is so great. And truth.com ads drive me to smoke more. Not surprising that they are funded by Phillip-Morris. Smart people working there. Evil, but smart.
Lastly, I got a shoutout from the past today that absolutely made my day. Anytime people tell me they read my webpage (which has been happening a lot lately, I'm starting to blush) it makes my day, but this one was from my old elementary school flame.
MissyHo12: i just had to give a shout out to my boyfriend for 3-5th grade. wanted to let you know that i frequent your website and find it laugh out loud hysterical! thought i'd say and let you know that! take care
I took a midterm today that I think I bombed. That sucked and it was very stressful. My boss is in China for a week now so I have yet to make it to work this week. And I'm broke. Like absolutely broke. That is all I have to update you on for now. Viva la vid.
Getting plowed
Thursday, October 16, 2003 2:40 pm
So today I thought I would share a bit of yoga progress with you all. Since it would be hard to explain the insanity of the Plow Position in words, I thought I would include a little picture. I did this posture today. Me. Ouch. Keep the comments g-rated.
In other news, I have a test tomorrow in my LAN/MAN class that I am completely unprepared for. And on top of that, its at 8am, so there is no way in hell I can go out tonight. That's very upsetting to me. But I just ran into Dustin on campus (don't worry, he's okay) and he said he's not going out tonight either, so we'll both be rarin' to go on Friday night. It's going to be nice to be able to just lay around for a weekend ... what a change. Owen is going to Dallas after our exam at 8, so I'll have the place all to myself. Maybe I should throw a par-tay. We'll see. For one thing, I have GOT to clean my house. I just did an emergency load of laundry at Harvey Gangbangers yesterday since I've been recycling for the past two weeks. Feels good to be clean.
I dunno, not a whole lot to port or report. Hope everything is going well for everybody. Catch you on the flip slide, you have-nots.
Manic Matrimony
Monday, October 13, 2003 6:39 pm
I was putting off this blog because I know its going to be lengthy and I have a mid-term paper due tomorrow. But after proofreading this document for about an hour, I'm ready for a break. I'm also waiting for AllieD to come and get me to go to dinner. Marijuana ... harmless?
So I left on Saturday morning to go to Plano. I was in a particularly inertial mood so I sped the entire way like a maniac. I never speed, but I felt like it so I did. I made it in just around 2.5 hours. Shaved an entire hour off the drive. I got home still a little hungover from the night before, so I took a bath in my parent's jacuzzi tub. Decadent. Then I did my hurr, got dressed up, and headed over to the Methodic Church. Methodic weddings are so much different from cathlick. The damn thing was over in about 10 minutes. For those of you not keeping up to date on your SideshoViD.com blog, it was Allison's brother getting married. Congratulations Amanda and Matt! Allison was the second prettiest bridesmaid at the wedding.
After that it was on to the hotel where the reception was. Allison's parents got us a hotel room, which is a lot radder than my parents. OPEN BAR, DUDE! Four hours of all the Coors Light you can drink ... did I die and go to heaven? We had so much fun, because of, and in spite of the DJ. It was a small wedding and I knew most of the people there so it was a blast. After they shut down our little shindig (aka stopped giving me beer) Allison and I decided to go out to Dukes in Addison. Big ups to Delilah who slipped me a crisp, new 20 before we left. (Don't worry, I never told Allison.)
Okay, if I had to describe Duke's in one word, that word would be: rude. The door man was rude, the people there were rude, the people who worked there were rude ... and I was already wasted, at the point where I start loving everybody. I was going to this one beer bucket girl all night and buying beers, and tipping her $2 every time. Towards the end of the night cash was slipping, so I checked my wallet before I walked over there. And when I did, she goes "Do you have any money to tip me?" And I said, "Well its tight, but I've got 50 extra cents." And she has the nerve to say, "Fuck that, I'm not selling to you." WHAT?! Its GRATUITY! Its GRATUITOUS! Holy shit, I pointed out to her rather rudely (when in Rome) that I had been paying her two dollars to twist off a cap all night, and she begrudgingly sold me my last beer for a 50 cent tip she didn't deserve. Fucking bitch.
Then we came back to the hotel and started meeting strangers. We met one guy who had some beer so I invited him up. Then we met some guy who had been riding the elevator up and down all night, so naturally, he came with. Then guys from the bar started calling Allison because she'd invited them all over, and one of them came. Although we had no idea who he was based on his name. Then Allison got molested by the elevator guy, so he had to leave. When I woke up, our room only had me and Allison in it, thankfully.
So then I pretty much had to high tail it back to College Station for a special Sunday class ... bullshit. And now I'm working on this paper. Then I have the huge NASA review over the project I've been working on for 6 months. Then a mid-term on Friday and another on Tuesday. I haven't done shit in 6 weeks and all of a sudden, I'm busy. Sucks.
I made an observation on myself today. Thought I'd share it. Whenever I don't like somebody, I always refer to them in quotes. E.g.: I don't know what's up with this "David" but I don't like him. Keep that in mind, in case I ever say, Hey "%n". (For all your AIMphiles out there). Peace out.
Well deserved rest
Wednesday, September 10, 2003 9:36 am
It finally happened, and just shy of two weeks into the semester. I skipped my first class. We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but I'd always assumed it would be on a Friday morning. 8:00's are beat up, as Brandon would put it.
I needed a drink last night so I went out to Northgate with my good buddy Keiff. We used to work at Jiffy Lube together. So I had a couple scotches on the rockses and he had a couple gins and tonics. Miss Allison showed up with her new grad student friends. Me and Keith did not withhold our opinions of these gentlemen but we did politely wait until we were alone to express them. Then we went home around midnight. And believe it or not, Keith was a bad influence on me. He's got me drinking during the week, and then coerced me to smoke a cigarette when we got back to his place. So we're back to hour 9 of being smoke free. Nobody said this would be easy.
So anyway, delightfully liquored up and nerves finally calmed, I came home, chatted for a while, and then feel into a deep sleep I've not felt in days. When the alarm went off at 7am, I just so happened to be enjoying the most wonderful dream imaginable, the details of which I will leave to your imaginations, and I plum decided to turn the fucking alarm off and finish out the dream. It ended with me waking up in a complete stranger's house with an iguana running loose and me deciding to just take a shower and then crawl out the window. So it ended a little strange, but whatever. I needed that. So now I'm off to tackle the day. So long, suckers.
Documentation Days
Friday, May 2, 2003 3:34 am
Hello, friends. Today, for a little twist, I thought I would address you all from my home away from home away from home, Thompson Hall Development Lab. For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, that's where I work. Its tres fab. I'm sitting here with Owen. We're going on the 14th consecutive hour of working on final documentation for a couple different classes. I finished documenting my calculator earlier this afternoon and got started on the mobile platform documentation almost immediately. Well, first I went and had some delicious sushi with Owen from Kyoto. If you haven't tried it yet, you need to go today.
I decided a while ago that it was not going to be possible to finish this document before my final exam tomorrow, so I am pulling an all-nighter. I might take a quick nap on the couch if it needs be, but I think I should be alright. My goal is finish the document around 7am, which leaves me a few hours for formatting and perfecting everything. Then I'm going to drive to Copy Corner to have them print it out and bind it. Its going to be fucking expensive because every page is in color. And I'll be a monkey's uncle if I'm gonna let fucking Kinko's get their hands on this baby. If you haven't heard my Kinko's rant yet, just do yourself a big favor and never ever go there unless it is your last fucking option on earth.
Anyway, I'm gonna get back to my documentation. I'm on page 24 right now and we're shooting for about 50 pages. Which does not, by any means, equate to being half done. I hope no one else is experiencing this much of an end-of-semester crunch. I wouldn't wish this on anyone ... well, maybe a select few. Anyway, I miss you all, dearly. And I will see you on May 7th. Laaaaaate.
Great week for ENTC
Sunday, April 27, 2003 3:44 pm
First, lets flash back to Thursday where our story begins. We had the IEEE-Tech golf tournament, which is like a big deal in my major. All these dudes from industry come down and they each get put into a team of 4 with 3 students. Its like a networking thing, and everyone plays golf. Well, I don't play golf, nor do I walk around on an 18 hole course, so I asked if there was anything I could do to help that didn't involve golfing. So I got to drive the beverage cart. It was so damn fun. I spent all day cruising around the Bryan golf course handing out drinks to the golfer. Those golf carts are like big go-karts and it was totally fun for like 5 hours. And I got to drink beer and be outside on a beautiful day. I had such a blast. After that, we all went to Rudy's for a free dinner and one of the industry guys started a tab and called an open bar. Open bar, dude! Then, me and a few others reconveined at Fox and Hound to drink some more. And THEN, AllieD met up with me there and we went to Mad Hatters for the rest of the day. It was such a great day of reckless abandon and boozing.
The next day I only had one class at 3:00, thank jebus. I managed to make it to that class and all he did was give up back our grades for our calculators. We spent all semester making our calculators and I got a 91 on mine, which was fine with me. If I do well on the final I can make an A in that class, no problem. That night was also my neighbor, Breezy's, birthday party. So we just had a keg in our backyard. Not many people showed up at first, but people started trickling in later and it was also a total blast. Just shootin the shit and drinkin some beers.
Then Saturday I had to get up kinda early to go to Zachry for the MPX. In another class of mine we've been studying wireless technology by controlling these mobile platforms (MPIII's). And we had organized this race amongst all the teams. It had all kinds of tricky parts in it, like a section that was blacked out so you had to use a light and a camera to navigate it. It had a figure 8, a hairpin turn, and a section where you had to drive backwards. Anyway, me and my team MARS (Sean, Owen and Max) got first place with a time of 2:50. Second place came in at 2:51, which was really exciting. So we got little trophies and the highest grade on that semester project as well. Like I said, it was a great week to be ENTC.
Today I already went to the Rec and laid out by the pool. Gotta get back into the swing of laying out for this summer. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do this summer, but I'm not too worried about it. I know it'll be fun. This coming week I have presentations to sit through, projects to work on, a webpage to make, and a shitload of documentation to write. So I'm gonna be staying busy, that's for sure. Soon enough, my friends, soon enough, this semester will be over and we'll all have a chance to regain our composure and get ready for the next. I have two more semesters before graduation and then I'm really going to have to decide what I want to do with my life. How freaky is that. I try not to think about it too much. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week, fun during dead days and does well on finals. I'll see you all on the other side.
Grammar Deputies
Sunday, April 6, 2003 3:28 pm
Alright, alright, alright, children. Enough with the nitpicking of each other's posts. As the Grammar Sheriff, I can only hope you Grammar Deputies will start behaving yourselves. Nobody is proofreading here (well, I don't have to, thats why I don't) so it's stupid to disect each other. Jebus, sometimes I feel like the focus of this webpage is drifting away from its original purpose: the unadulterated adoration of me. The CTRJFS.C may be inadvertantly destroying its beloved SVC. Just something to think about.
In all honesty though, that would be impossible, because I rule and I'm the master of my own domain, so to speak. If you can't tell by my demeanor, I've been spending a little bit too much time recently reading over Maddox's webpage. If you don't know who Maddox is immediately, then you suck, really hard. And you need to go his website STAT and read all of his posts. Its the best webpage in the universe. http://maddox.xmission.com/
So for the more day-to-day update. I did not go out to Northgate this Thursday because I had a hair appt early on Friday morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, say what you will, but it was the only time I could get and I did not want to be hung over for a haircut. And lord knows, I refuse to party in moderation. Anyway, my hair looks sabulous. I think I'll snap a pic of it on the webcam as soon as I take a shower and fix it cause right now it looks like that Indian chief guy from Dances with Wolves. If any of you in College Station need a good haircut and are sick of the bullshit you get from EVERY dumb whore with a pair of scissors and want, just once, for someone to understand what you want and make your hair look good like you want it ... then you have got to go to Cutler2 and ask for Hannah. If you need the phone number, hit me with an IM and I'll give it to you. She's incredible.
So since I didn't go out Thursday, and I was looking so good Friday, I decided to hit the Northgate with AllieD and Jamie. Jamie still isn't drinking because of his whole lenten thing. Hopefully it will help him get into heaven. Anyway, this weekend all of the kids got their Aggie Rings, so Northgate was insane with people dunking at the Chicken (an absolutely attrocious idea). So we get there and there is this throng of people out back. I'd estimate at least 250 people. And you know me, I can't handle crowds, so I'm like "oh shit." But being the trooper I am, I got some cash and we headed for the Library. Mmmk, we walk in and there are like 8 people in there. Wonderful! People came and went all night, but it never got crowded because all the people that were outback were dirty locals and inbred rednecks who wouldn't be allowed in the Library even if they wanted to. Oh yeah, and the power went out. That was so exciting. All of Northgate lost power. Actually, it wasn't that exciting. It was just a little darker. Luckily, we already had drinks, so we continued to sit and drink and chat unphased by the lack of light and AC. I was tempted to steal this really kickass painting off the wall and escape out the back door, but alas, my conscience won out once again.
So thats my update for now. Everything else is pretty fabulous. School's going good. I probably shouldn't post this on my website, but my ring dunking is next Saturday. Its going to be a pretty big party. I won't disclose the location tho, but if you feel like you should have been invited and weren't hit me up with an IM. Just a hint: If you weren't invited, that was probably on purpose. But its worth a shot right? Ha. Well, I gotta run, I'm meeting Joseph for lunch. Peace out, you have fucking nots!
Disgruntle my nutz
Thursday, March 6, 2003 11:52 pm
Too bad disgruntled reader won't be around to read this. Something new! And just for all my loyal Sidesho-Viewers. A lot has happened, but I am going to try and summarize it into just a few paragraphs. First, we have to start off with Ms Allison's 22nd birthday! Happy Birthday Allison! We had such a crazy night that night. We started off partying at home and then went to Northgate, where I realized I did not have my ID because I gave it to Ryan the night before to buy drinks for 2 people. So I was SOL until Ryan could make it up to Northgate. So I chilled at and had a sub from New York Sub. Tres good. That night was the night of chuggin, I dare say. We started off at home with Flaming Dr Peppers and Jäger Bombs, and proceeded to Northgate for a massive amount of shots, Flaming Dr Peppers and Saki Bombs. After the Saki Bombs they gave us some raw crab to munch on. It was so damned good that I had to go get some for lunch the other day.
Other than that, school is going well. I had a big test today that I wasn't all too happy with. I knew everything there was to know, but just fucked up and forgot some stuff on the test. And it wasn't like I was sitting there wracking my brain trying to remember, I just straight up forgot to include it. Thats what sucks about it. I left the test thinking I had a 100 and the more I think about it, now I'm expecting like an 80. Ohh well, at least I have an A in chemistry. Boo yah. I'm making an A in a freshman level course ... something I've never ever done before.
So I have one meeting tomorrow and then Spring Break is upon us. I think I'll spend most of my time lounging about and working on projects. On Saturday I am going to listen to Stephen Hawking give a lecture on campus. I'm really stoked about that. My friend JennyCole from Plano is coming up to see him. She's the biggest Hawking fan ever. I don't think she ever misquotes him, but she does like him. I was also supposably gettting a ticket to Peter Paul & Mary from mi padre, but he just called tonight and said the show was totally sold out. He's gonna see if he can't get a couple tickets on cancellations, but I'm not getting my hopes up. That totally sucks, that concert would have rawked.
Anyway, I'll be in College Station for the majority of the Spring Break. Jenny is flying here, and I may give her a ride home, even though my parents are like gone for the week or something. And I might go see Kevin again if I can't convince him to come here. Other than that, its calculators, mobile platforms, and DUT test plans for yours truly. Hope everyone has a crazier Spring Break than I!
indite (in-DYT) verb tr.
To write or to compose.
New Years Day 2003
Wednesday, January 1, 2003 4:14 pm
Happy New Year! Welcome to the year 2003, WHOOP! Today is an absolutely gorgeous day outside so I thought I'd waste it by playing Grand Theft Auto all day. I'm getting pretty far in the game, and its so damn addictive. So you wanna know what happened last night? Well I'll tell you. First I went and actually bought alcohol. That almost never happens, and wouldn't you know it, we barely touched it. I had a beer before we left and I think Ryan had a beer and that was it. So I'm set for a while. First I went to Northgate with Brandon, Allison, and Ryan. We started at 315. We saw the guy make some flaming Dr Peppers. It was incredible. He had the shot resting on top of the rim of the beer glasses, and then he took a lighter and a mouthful of 151 and sprayed this massive fireball and lit all three shots and then knocked them into the glasses. It was tres cool. Then we tried MadHatters but it basically sucked.
So we decided around 11:00 to try Hurricane Harry's. I have not been there since my freshman year, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. They were playing good music, not kicker shit. They had free champagne and a free buffet, so we partook in both of those. At midnight they played the Fight Song, which was pretty cool. We ended up leaving without Allison who found her own ride home. I'm sorry, but you'll have to hear that story from her, its not really mine to share. *WINK*
In other news, I talked to my professor about that unexplained C that I got in his class and he said it was a straight up mistake, it was supposed to be an A, so that's taken care of. Then I asked him if he needed a webpage guy next semester and he said he would rather I was a TA. Its kind of flattering for him to tell me he wants me to work for him, so naturally I did not decline. I have an appointment with him tomorrow to talk it over and see which class I want to TA for. I just need to make sure my chemistry class doesn't conflict with either of them. Hopefully it won't. Anywho, Happy New Year again. Your homework assignment today is to post your New Years Resolutions on the comment board. Mine is the same as it is every year: to be more open and honest with my opinion. Haaaa. I know its not the most noetic resolution, but its worked for me thus far. End of Line.
RF Communication is our bitch
Monday, December 16, 2002 2:39 pm
Last night was not nearly as drunkenly crazy as the past few nights have been. No, my friends and fans, last night I spent nearly 12 hours in lab. Yeah, I know that school is basically over, but we still find things to do in there. But I am proud to announce that RF Communication is our bitch. Thats short for Radio Frequency, meaning that we can control our motor from the other room if we really wanted to.
The fun part of the night was the random breaks we would take to find stupid shit on the internet to laugh at. I introduced them all to my favorite ninja site, Real Ultimate Power and we had a good laugh at that. Then I showed them Monkey vs. Robot, because it reminded me a little bit of the classic battle between ninjas and pirates. Then I had to go an pose the question, who would win in a fight between Monkey, Robot, Ninja, and Pirate. We all made our gut instinct guess to the question and then set about solving the problem logically.
First, we took our four givens: Monkey hates Robot, Robot hates Monkey, Ninja hates Pirate and Pirate hates Ninja. From there we had to make some assumptions in order to solve the problem. We decided that Robot hates everyone, since he's an unfeeling machine. We also decided that Ninja hates everyone. I mean, he'll flip out and kill and entire town and not even think about it, how could he have compassion toward Monkey, since we already knew he hates Robot. Next we decided that Monkey LIKES Pirate and Ninja, since his only real beef with Robot is that he hates technology. Finally, it was decided that Pirate hates Monkey since pirates generally eat monkeys (a fact Owen pointed out that might have gotten by us otherwise). And we decided that Pirate LIKES Robot, since pirates are easily amused by crap like that. Next, we made a graphic to represent this situation. Red arrows represent hatred, and blue represent a like.
From here we were able to assign a precedence to each character to see who would actually win. Monkey has the most enemies of anyone, so it stands to reason that in an all out post-apocalyptic head to head battle, he'd be the first to go. We assign Monkey a 4. With monkey out of the picture, Pirate is weakened by the fact that he likes Robot. While he's busy fighting Ninja, the Robot waxes him from behind. Pirate is assigned a 3. Now that Ninja and Robot are left, it was determined that Ninja would indeed lose. The only one who's been trying to hurt Robot is Monkey, and he was out right at the start. So the fact that Pirate has been hurting Ninja will weaken him until Robot kills him. Ninja is assigned 2, and Robot wins, with a 1.
The only one in our group to guess what our analysis confirmed as the right answer was Owen. I was still really pulling for Ninja. But really, we didn't even consider their different powers or how that might play into it. That's another argument for another day. It was fun deciding this shit. If you've read all of this and enjoyed it, I'm amazed. If you have any thoughts, or noticed some blaring mistake that we missed, please post a comment and share your ideas.
Finally, an update
Thursday, December 12, 2002 4:39 pm
Where to begin, where to begin. So much has happened since I last posted, this may end up being a long blog. So go get something warm to drink, perhaps a blanket to wrap up in whilst you read, and lets begin. First off, why haven't I posted? Well, the end of the semester was a really busy time for me. I had exams, presentations, and projects to work on. I still have one exam to take and two projects to work on, but the deadlines are further away for those.
The first project was our closed loop controlled dc motor supply. Me and my group, the Users, had been working on it all semester. We had to finish it up and debug it and do all kinds of crap. I was in charge of the documentation for the project. Basically you have to document every little thing you do all semester long. The final product was 100 pages, front and back. My obsessive compulsive anal retentive nature came out while working on this document. Everything about it had to be absolutely perfect. In the end, it was. Its the most gorgeous comprehensive thing I've ever made. My professor was very impressed and even said he couldn't wait to read it. And I don't doubt that he meant it with all sincerity. We also had to put together a powerpoint presentation to show to the prof. We did our presentation pretty quick the night before it was due. We had plenty of time though since the last day, we started working on it at 10:00am and didn't finish until 9:00am the next day. I was bound and determined to have the thing finished before I went to sleep. And I did. Our presentation went well even though we got absolutely grilled on the Q&A. Our prof wanted to give us questions that were a cut above the normal question, and they were hard. I think I answered one completely right, and the other one I had to say "I don't know." I wasn't too happy about admitting defeat, but I had no choice.
After the presentation we all went over to the Chicken to relax, drink beer, and play pool. Our professor even joined us, and helped us close the bar down. I paid the pool guy 10 bucks to take the door off of the pool table, so we got unlimited pool the whole night. Because I did that, I didn't have to buy any beer the whole night cause everyone felt indebted to me. That was pretty cool. I got pretty stupid that night but I had a great time just hanging out with everyone from my major. We spend so much time together up in lab, it was nice to kick back with them and just talk about things not related to a 68332 microcontroller. Turns out, my classmates are fun people. Ryan and Todd showed up to Northgate and I was supposed to go home with them, but they ended up ditching my ass when I went inside MadHatters to find Allison. That was cool ... NOT. But whatever, me and Allison ended up getting a ride home from two guys she had met 2 seconds before I showed up. I was under the impression that she knew them, but it turned out that she didn't. Their names were Buck and Kix ... wtf? Why she was talking to a couple of guys named Buck and Kix, I'll never know, but we got home safe and thats all that matters.
Another thing I had to be doing this past weekend, in between my 14 hour stints at the keyboard working on documentation was attend concerts for symphony extra credit. I was concerned that I wouldn't be passing the class. Turns out I was right. Its a good thing I did that extra credit cause it bumped my grade up to a D. A D will really fuck my GPA this semester (which would have been a 4.0 otherwise) but at least I get credit for the class and my fine arts are out of the way. An interesting turn of events though. Our prof in symphony informed us that being a 300 level course, there were prerequisites to get into the course, which only a handful of people knew about. They messed up in the catalogue and allowed us all to sign up for an upperlevel music major course. So depending on the grades, he may curve the whole class, which could potentially bump me up to a C. That would be nice. I'm not counting on it though.
Another project I'm working on is a digital thermometer. We designed the circuit, built it, and tested it and it worked. But for any extra credit points, we have to have it etched onto a pc board. So we frantically designed a pc board, something none of us had ever done before. It was hard, but we got it done and verified by the prof before sending it off to be fab'ed. Turns out it's gonna take way more than the estimated 3 days leaving us with 24 hours to test and debug our system. Sucks. So I don't know what were going to do. Soldering the parts on alone would take that long. We'll see what happens, it may not be possible. I have an A locked down, so I couldn't care less, but my teammates could use the points. We bargained on so many added features (7-segment displays, dual celsius and fahrenheit capabilities, mounting it in a remote control car, and wireless capabilities) that we could earn as many as 10 points to our final final grade. That's so out of control.
Finally having time to relax is weird. At first I was having trouble sleeping. I would wake up every couple of hours and jump out of bed constantly thinking I was either late for something, or wasting time not working on anything. I'm better now though. I slip back into my slothfully prefered mode quite easily. All in all this was a pretty good semester, though I'm not sorry to see it go. Making the highest grade on every test in every class was pretty funny.
I've run out of things to talk about even though I'm sure I've forgotten some things. If I remember I'll post again. Anyways, I'm back now, so fear not. Updates will commence. Peace out, you HAVE NOTS!
Enlarged Uvula
Monday, November 18, 2002 1:21 am
It's time for Monday again ... my favorite day of the week. It signals an entire school week ahead during which I'll be able to further my knowledge (and love) of digital and analog circuitry. This week is an especially exciting one since I'll be able to take a test on Thursday over a bunch of stuff that I really don't understand. Anyway, I don't really like talking about school. You know what I really like talking about.
Last night Colette and Brianne (the girls next door) both dunked their rings. It was really fun to watch. Brianne came in around 150 seconds and Colette followed shortly thereafter. And then, of course, there was a whole keg of beer left that had to be drank. I did my best to drink as much of it as I possibly could. It was a really good time. Todd, Ryan, and Sam showed up later, but I don't really remember even talking to them much. Allison swung by for a while. Matt and Keith both came as well as John and Courtney. Basically it was a good night of just sitting around doing what we do best.
I do have one misgiving about the whole weekend though. This morning (Sunday) I woke up with an enlarged uvula. For those of you who are not aware, thats the thing that hangs in the back of your throat. The only time this has ever happened to me was when I had my second knee surgery and my uvula got stretched out by the tube being shoved down my throat. Allison found something on the internet that said it could be caused by stress or an infection or something so we'll have to see what that's all about. It is SO annoying because its just resting right on my gag reflex. Yes its that long right now. I'm hoping beyond hope that I'll wake up and it'll be back to normal. Anyway, thats totally gross. I'm going to try to take a picture of it. Check you sluts later.
UPDATE: I just woke up this morning, and while my uvula isn't back to its original size, I think it is definitely smaller than it was last night.
Pajama Par-tay
Sunday, November 3, 2002 3:00 pm
In the end, last night turned out to be thoroughly entertaining. Ryan and Todd decided to throw the bash of the century and declared last night to be a Pajama Party. Everyone was supposed to wear their pajamas and get all messed up. Great idea. I went with Brandon over there around 11 ... at which point the guest list was already up to ... wellllll ... zero. So no one had showed up yet it was sure to get rocking soon. Or so we thought. It ended up being the 4 of us sitting around playing drinking games ... in pajamas. Tres different from every other weekend.
Even though the party was a total bust, we still had a blast. My neighbor, Breezy, showed up later and partied with us. Frank dropped by for a spell and Daniel came over during a study break. None of them were wearing pajamas though. We got drunk, ate some queso, and played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City all night. Then we passed out.
I just got back from lunch at Fitzwilly's with AllieD and Breezy. It was so delicious. I think I'm gonna lay on the couch now and watch TV and then maybe head up to lab, ugh. I hate lab. Anywho, I'll catch you kids later.
Happy Drunken Halloween
Friday, November 1, 2002 12:10 pm
God I love Halloween. That is, like, my favorite holiday all year long. The day started off pretty sucky, but it got so much better once I mixed in some drinks. I went to class around 9 and did that whole thing. Then I had to talk to my prof about the presentation I'm going to have to give to a class next week. He said we're going to shoot for Wednesday. I really don't want to do this, but its going to change my D to a B, so its definitely worth it.
After that I had to walk to archery. We had our form test, which means we didn't even shoot. Each person took turns having the prof watch us. You had to shoot two arrows at a target that was like 5 feet away, cause he didn't care if you could aim, just your form. I got 14/15 points. He said my form was really good, but I didn't pull the bow back the same distance both times, which I'm sure is true cause I'm not very good.
Then I went to my circuit design class. That was business as usual. That gets out at 3:30 and I decided to get ahead of the game and figure out my schedule for next semester. Turns out my department has a new lady whose only job is to be an advisor. We have a real live advisor now! Like someone who actually knows what she's talking about and gives a shit. Its nice. We used to just talk to professors who had way more important things to do. Anyway, I got my sched for next semester kinda figured out. I might take chemistry at Blinn, but I don't know how to do that, so we'll see.
After that I went to the computer lab to work on my presentation a little bit, but that didn't end up happening. Instead me and my lab partner, Owen, ended up on Yahoo! games playing pool against each other. I lost twice and won once. It was really fun. Then at 5 it was up to the lab to work on our multi-channel pulse width modulator. Fun stuff, it never ended up working. Then I left to go to my car and realized I never went home so I didn't have a car. That's always a fun feeling. So I started making calls.
Keith was in Fort Worth. I swear I need to start listening to him sometimes. Then I called Allison and she was too drunk to drive ... at 9 oclock. Halloween rules. So I called Brandon and he gave me a ride home. Then he came in while I made myself some leftovers and he ended up falling asleep on my couch, and he slept there all night. Didn't bother me. So I got ready to go out and did just that. I had my neighbor Brianne paint my face with eyeshadow so I looked like really sickly. I tried to snap a pic of it, but most of it rubbed off last night. So I went and picked up Ryan and we hit Northgate.
We started out at 315, the place that used to be the Reef. Then we ran into Allison and we went to the Library. That was pretty hopping. We spent the rest of the night there. Halloween on Northgate is too much fun. Everyone's in costumes and just getting CRA-ZAY. God I can't wait for next year. So then we went to Stev-o's house. It was fun. There were drinks and I think there was some oregano going on in the back room, but I'm too innocent to know. Well I ended up passing out on the couch in blissful slumber. I was rudely awakened a while later cause I guess Stev-o's roommate came home and it was his weed everyone was smoking or something, I don't know. I was just told we had to leave 'now!' So then Justin gave me and Ryan a ride home. Thanks for that, that was cool.
Today, I might go to class, but probably not. I hate my Symphony class, its so stupid. I do need to take a quiz I missed on Monday cause I was sick tho. Ehhh, I dunno. Then I need to go to the parking garage and get my car. Its so cool that you can just leave it there overnight. Very good call on the part of College Station. They usually just do stupid shit, but this makes sense. Then I don't know what else is on the slate.
One more quick note, sorry this blog is too long. There are some very exciting things happening at SideshoViD.com. This time ... he's not alone...
Keith’s Big Day
Tuesday, October 15, 2002 4:06 pm
Howdy everybody. I am in the SCC right now to write up a paper over the Symphony that I attended on Sunday. I have to have it done within 5 days of the concert or else he won't accept the paper. So I thought I would get it out of the way. I am going to open lab at 5 so I won't have a chance to go home today, which always sucks. However, I will be going to Northgate after open lab probably around 9 or 9:30. If you would like to grab a beer with me tonight, meet me at MadHatters. I'll be at the bar. A few big news stories today, so lets dive right in.
First off, my new shoes look so good. However, they are tearing my feet to shreds. I have like 3 major blisters on each foot. You know how Sketchers are though, they take some serious breaking in. So I'm gonna grin and bear it today (not that I have a choice) maybe not wear them tomorrow but then continue to wear them every day until they are comfortable. But like I said, they look damn good, and thats what really matters.
I just came from my Circuit Design class. We got our tests back. I know I claimed to have aced it and then later retracted that statement. Anyway, I got a 92, which was the highest grade in the class. The average was a straight up 70, so basically I kicked the shit out of it. The sad part is, 4 of the points I missed were off reading a spec sheet. Which means looking at a sheet of paper, reading values and transferring them to the answer blank. I'd never looked at a spec sheet though, like I was supposed to have so I didn't have a clue how to read the thing. The other 4 points were just minor deductions here and there either for a stupid mathmatical mistake or not plugging in the correct given values. He really grades on method though, so he only takes off one point for the wrong answer as long as you got the wrong answer correctly. Anyway, I was totally pleased with the outcome there.
Finally, congratulations to my roomie, Kieffer Sutherland for making it into the Battalion today. Thats our school newspaper for those of you who don't know. The article was entitled "Going once, going twice ..." and it was about the auction of Lost & Found items at the MSC. Here now is the excerpt of the article that mentioned Keith:
Keith Kovalic, a junior English major, enjoys the thrill of shopping. He says he would rather compete with others for purchases verses the traditional method of shopping. Like many Americans, he has become entrenched in the auctioning craze that has been sweeping the nation for the last several years. "In online auctions, I have bought DVDs for a dollar, CDs for a penny and an 8-by-6 inch Harley Davidson belt buckle for five bucks," Kovalic said. "Because stuff at auctions is so cheap, I feel obligated to buy it." Students such as Kovalic can bid against other Aggies at the MSC Hospitality's Lost and Found Auction on Wed., Oct. 16. The auction will be held in the MSC Flagroom, MSC from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
That Keith! He sure does enjoy the thrill of shopping. Why just the other day he was telling me how thrilled he was to have gone to the mall to do some shopping. You ought to see him when he shops ... so thrilled. Thanks to Emily Vincent for her wonderful article.
That about sums up all the excitement of today. I will see you all at MadHatters tonight. Thanks and gig this.
Business as Usual
Monday, October 14, 2002 12:32 am
Another weekend has drawn to a close. This was a particularly fun one, and if you're lucky I might tell you why. Okay, you're lucky. Lets see, last night me and Allison spent the better part of the night together. We took it slow though, no sense in chugging beers when you've got all night to drink. *WINK* Yeah so we were drinking like champs, what can I say? After got a little toasted we made some calls and my friend Stev-o came over to do a little drinking of his own. Then my neighbor Brianne came over to party with us and Keith came home. Before you knew it we had a little party goin'. Drinkin' some beers, telling some stories. Good times had by all. Then Matt came home with one of his friends, and it was just an all around good time.
I woke up this morning feeling refreshed. Okay, there's two lies in that sentence. I didn't wake up this morning, it was more like 2:30 in the afternoon, and I was surprisingly un-refreshed. Alas, it was worth it. I showered and got ready and went to the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra concert. I was a little bit disappointed. I knew what to expect, so I wasn't surprised, but my god could Baroque music BE anymore repeatative. I don't think so. Me and Keith both fell asleep in alternative intervals. Now I have to write a paper about it, which I'm not too thrilled to do, but whatever, it won't be hard. I don't have anything else due tomorrow since we got assigned a 2 week lab last week in my 349 lab. So thats a nice load off for a Sunday night. So in other words, no plans for tomorrow, just business as usual.
I hope you all had a good weekend too, and good luck with everything goin on this week. Keep checkin' in to keep up with yours truely. Laaaaaaaaaaate.
Wasted Friday
Friday, October 11, 2002 7:26 pm
Well hey there, good to see you again. Since the last post, I took a big test in my Circuit Design class. Everyone thought it was pretty hard, but I came out of there thinking that I had aced it. I realized just a little while ago that I forgot to put a resistor in series with my diodes in the clipper circuit I designed, so the whole thing would instantly burn up ... oops! Other than that I think I got everything right. So in order to celebrate, I decided to go get drunk at Northgate.
Me and AllieD went to Hole in the Wall and had a couple of pitchers. Then we went over to the Library after like 2 hours of just sippin beers and chit chatting. At the library I had a couple Cosmopolitans and she had a couple of Jack and Cokes in martini glasses ... tres chic. We ran into Travis there and shared a table with him and his friend Vicky. It was a good time. At 1:00 they stop serving alcohol which sucks, but I decided I wasn't drunk enough, so we all ended up going back to Travis's place to drink some more. He made some nauseating lemonade and vodka drink and I gladly slurped it up. Then I had another drink. And that, my friends, is where the story has to end, because I don't remember anything else. Oops! It happens though. It seems that whenever I get it in my head to get really drunk, I always succeed. Just chalk it up to the maturity that is SLOWLY slowly, growing. Until next time, folks. Take it easy. And if its easy, take it twice.
Rainy Monday
Monday, September 16, 2002 5:03 pm
Hey all. I'm about to run out to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding with Allison and skip out on open lab hours. Me and Owen (my lab partner) got a lot more done today than anyone else, so its time for another break. I had a fairly productive day despite the rain. I went and pulled a couple football tickets for Vergina Tech on Saturday. Me and Allison are just going together. Its too hard to coordinate a big group for us. Then I went and cut the sleeves off my Harley Davidson shirt cause they were bothering me. Then I ran into both Justin and Arash each on opposite sides of the campus (both of whom you'll remember from the towing blog). So that was fun. Then I had my Symphony class where I fell asleep, and then my lab, which I already discussed. Which brings me to the now.
This is off the topic, but me and Keith watched Wayne's World last night while we ate, and I made a comment about how much of that movie is in my regular rotation of phrases. And as we watched it, i kept count of how many lines from the movie I use on a daily, semi-daily (or even hourly) basis. The count got way into the double digits. Lets just put it that way. It made me kind of sad.
On another note, I told you all I would let you know how Jay's endeavor in the ToughMan competition turned out. This thing went against everything I believe in, but I found myself being very entertained. Jay 'Soda Popinski' did not advance past the first round. He lost after 3 one-minute rounds in a unanimous decision. It wasn't all for naught though, because he made the front page of our school newspaper today. And I felt obliged to share it with all of you. Gotta run, check you all latah.
Catching up
Friday, September 13, 2002 3:16 pm
I think I have a lot to talk about. I haven't blogged in a couple of days. So sit back, relax, and strap yourself in for this fast paced eye popping blog of all blogs. Okay thats a total lie. Anyway, what's been goin on? Wednesday passed like any other day, not much to talk about there. Thursday a lot of little things happened.
In my archery class we got to select bows. I chose a left handed 26 pound bow. I am left eye dominant so I'm taking the instructor's advice and firing left handed. He said initially it will be harder, but a better idea in the long run. And since I'm going to be a complete natural at archery, I want to be as good as I can be down the road. On Tuesday we actually get to fire arrows. I'm so excited.
On my way back to main campus from archery, my friend Nadia called me just to see what was up. I have a large break in between classes so I met up with her outside of the Bright Building just to say hi and bullshit. On the way, I ran into Adam, the guy who was in our speech class with us. We chit chatted for a little while and then parted our separate ways. The rest of the day was a total bore of class and stuff. But I did not go to open labs for the first time this week. It was a nice break. Instead, AllieD invited me over for dinner. She made beef strogonoff (if anyone knows how to spell this word I would greatly appreciate it). It was so damn good. She made a LOT tho, and it was just the two of us, so we ended up completely gorging ourselves while we watched Van Wilder (an excellent flick, I highly recommend).
After that I wanted to come home, get ready and go out. Turns out Allison was (a) in a good mood and (b) wanting to go out. So we actually went to Northgate just the two of us. That doesn't happen too much. We had a friggin blast. Well I know for sure I did, and I'm pretty sure Al did too. We started off at the library. I ran into some of my friends and we all shared a table. Allison had a Cosmopolitan cause she was already looking fabulous so she wanted to accentuate the obvious. I had a Jack and coke cause I'm a simple man with simple tastes. After that we went to Duddley's and drank some beers until they kicked us out. I completely forgot that we had parked in the garage, so I was thinking that Moore Hall was on the way to my car, so I made Allison go all the way over there cause I had to piss like a racehorse and everywhere on Northgate was locked. Burns let me in, and we chilled for a minute. Some guy was riding around on a skateboard, so Allison told him she had a phone call for him. It was the 80's and they wanted their skateboard back. Needless to say, she wasn't making friends. So we split. I got home, drank a few beers, chatted for a while, and then went to bed.
Today I woke up at like noon, didn't bother showering, went to my Symphony class. Then I did this assignment for my 349 class and turned it in, and now I am home. End of story basically. Tonight, me and Keith are going to the Toughman Competition. Our friend Jay has decided that it was necessary to gain like 7 pounds in order to be able to fight in the lowest weight division. He's going to get in the ring, hit somebody he doesn't even know as many times as he can, and I suppose its gonna prove something. Whatever the motivation though, we're so there. I know I shouldn't complain about the idiocy of such a contest when I'm funding it with my ticket price, so I'll try to keep an open mind going in. We'll see though. I'll let you all know how it goes. Til then ... be cool, stay in school.
No mo school
Thursday, August 15, 2002 1:27 pm
Well, as Fukia-san would put it, "Summer school is OVAH!" Not too shabby. I had my final yesterday and I think I did well enough on it to get me my B. If I didn't, I'd be quite devastated. We celebrated the end of the summer session by heading out to Shadow Canyon for karaoke night. Turns out about 10,000 other students had that same idea. On top of that, Don Gainer (the man who owns every bar on Northgate and is very, very evil -- for those who don't live here) had the bright idea to go ahead and shut off the air conditioning. Needless to say we didn't stay long. We headed over to Fitzwilly's to have a few beers and play some pool.
Earlier in the day I got up around 9:30 and got ready for my final at 10:30. The stupid proctors were a good 15 minutes late, which resulted in the prof giving us all an extra point. Every little bit helps. The test didn't take me too long and then I hit the lab. Previously in the week, I was on the verge of quitting this summer project because I didn't think there was any way I would be able to finish. I was extremely pessimistic. But I was like, "I'll go one more day, it won't do any good but maybe I'll have some miraculous breakthrough and everything will just fall into place." Well, as unlikely as that sounds thats exactly what happened. I can't exactly explain it to you in great detail if you're not in my major, mostly cause you don't give a shit, but out of about 40 files and endless pages of code ... this is all that I changed: always @ (posedge clk) begin to always @ (negedge clk) begin and it instantly went from a worthless piece of shite giving me a headache to a perfectly operating microcontroller. Granted, once it started working I noticed a few hundred bugs and kinks, but those are pretty easy to work out, they just take time. Its a race to the finish line now. And I don't have the 18-25th basically cause of Vegas and my brother's wedding. After that I went and caught dinner with Will since he was leaving for Houston to stay there for good. We went to On the Border, but I wasn't much in the mood to eat so I didn't exactly murder my enchiladas. After that I went home and fell fast asleep. I didn't wake up until 10:30 so I got a pretty late start at the drinking and didn't do much of it.
Right now I need to go work on my project but it is thundering and raining and I really don't want to go to campus and walk thru this. I really can't afford a day off though. It sucks. I'd only have about 3 hours to work if I did go so many I'll just get up at 8 tomorrow and spend the whole day in lab. And just on a final note, my page is not always updated daily. Sometimes I'm busy with things like debugging 100's of lines of code during which I don't like sassy comments about my hiatus. This site is updated daily ... or close enough for you, bitch. 'Nuff said.
In San Antonio
Saturday, August 10, 2002 10:07 pm
Sorry for the hiatus, kiddies. I just wanted to leave a quick note to let you all know that I am in San Antonio right now. I up and decided pretty spur of the moment to come see Kevin. So that's where I am and that's what I'm doing. I'll be back tomorrow and then I have a final on Tuesday and then I'm done with summer school. Score. After that, all that's on the calendar is the Vegas trip, Michael's wedding (my bro) and moving into my new place. Czech you skillets later.
1000 hits
Wednesday, August 7, 2002 2:53 pm
Ugh, thank you very much to my retarded brother for getting my hit count up to 1000 'single handedly' as he put it. So now it totally skews everything. He's a real doll. I'm glad they're keeping him busy up at work.
In other news: Monday morning I had my second exam in PoliSci. I didn't study a terribly long time for it, but I think I did okay. We have two text books and the majority of the questions were from the good text, that reads like a human is writing it. I knew all of those. The other text is nothing but facts and figures and inane statistics at the end of which he goes, "So we can conclude nothing." Long story short (which is pretty worthless once I've already told the long story, sigh), I think I did well.
The best part of having a test one day is not going to class the next. So Monday night I rallied up the roommates for a par-tay or Milton Bradley proportions. Earlier in the day me and Todd went to Wal-Mart and purchased Yahtzee and Pictionary. We then invited Doug and Nicole, as well as our friend Fucking Frank to play some drunken Pictionary. Frank doesn't drink anymore and Nicole wasn't drinking that night, so it wasn't completely drunken, but it was completely fun. We played for hours. Whenever somebody won, we'd just start over. Me and Frank ended up winning, technically, since we won 2/4 games, but I'd have to say there were no losers that night. We all had a very good time.
After everyone left, me and Todd sat up playing some Drinking Yahtzee. Then I decided I was hungry so I called Clay and made him come pick me up and take me Taco Cabana. I think it was around 1am and he was working on a paper or something, but that wasn't important. What was important was my two chicken soft tacos. Damn skippy. Anyway, I didn't go to class on Tuesday (or today, shhh) because its completely worthless to go, and I just sat around all day. Did nothing spectacular.
Today I went to Texadelphia for Christine's 21st birthday ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINE!!! If you haven't got anything better to do, click there and send her a friendly birthday IM. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear from a loyal Sidesho-Viewer.
Anyway, that's all to report. Sorry for the massive amounts of paragraphs. I'm gonna go meet Justin for some coffee. Peace out, you have nots.
SideshoViD@sideshovid.com
Wednesday, July 24, 2002 1:57 pm
Big news everybody. Say it with me now all together, "SCREW YOU AOL!" HA, we don't need 'em anymore. And you know why? Cause we've got
SideshoViD@sideshovid.com
Oh yes, you read it right. We're becoming more self sufficient every day, my friends. Along with this comes the news that Hit-O-Meter, my long time counter service will be going offline in August. So now I'm gonna use my own cgi counter that will be self contained inside my webpage. I know I say it often, but this time its really true. Some very exciting things are happening at SideshoViD.com!
Whats new IRL tho. Not a whole lot. Class has become a secondary thing since I took a test on Monday. I think I may be coming down with something because I sleep far too much to be a normal person. But I haven't diagnosed myself with mono just yet. I'm still gonna give it some time to just pass on its own.
I'd like to take this opp to thank Steve for helping me test my email and sending the first ever email to SideshoViD.com. And likewise, I'd like to thank Ryan Short for being the first ever to receive an email from SideshoViD.com. (I got the incoming working way before the outgoing.) These men were a part of history today. Hopefully a long and celebratory history. I'm just a little too excited, so I think I'm gonna go update the cast page like it badly needs. Excelsior, you have nots!
Back from Houston
Saturday, July 20, 2002 4:22 pm
I am back from Houston and my brother's 24th birthday. Boy did I have a good time. First we went to a restaurant called Floridito's. As many of you well know, I hate seafood and refuse to eat it. But Stephen wanted seafood for his birthday so I agreed to try it. I had something like a grilled banana leaf mahi-mahi. It was so good. It wasn't like any fish I've had before. It had a different taste and texture than I was used to and had all kinds of carribean stuff like mango on it. That was delish. His wife, Rachel, bought us each a drink called a Rum Runner. It was also very good, though very alcoholic.
From there we went to Dave n Busters. Rachel was funding the little operation and bought us each a Water Moccasin shot. I had one at Shadow Canyon the other night and it was a light, easy shot and a very tasty treat. Rachel wanted a shot that wouldn't be hard to take so we each had a birthday shot for Stephen. Then we told the bartender that it was his birthday so he bought Stephen a shot too. It was called a Tiger's Tail. I'm not sure what all was in it, I know there was some Jäger in there. He said it was good. A beer later a group of Stephen's friends showed up. It was a semi-surprise semi-party for him. When there were 6 people, Rachel once again stepped up to the plate and this time ordered 6 shots. These were called a 'Buzz.' They were huge shots, filled to the top. Everyone was joking we needed a straw for them. I took mine like I thought everyone else would but I ended up being the only one to shoot it, the rest took half and half or just drank it. I guess I'm still in that 21st birthday mode, but I thought it was a really good shot.
After that we spent the night in the arcade playing skee-ball, driving games, etc and always giving our tickets to this little black kid who never once said thanks. He just stared at us like we were crazy. He musta been about 4. It was funny. We did end up spending some of our own tickets. They weigh them and print you off a little voucher, so we tried to put our finger on the scale to up the count. Apparently the thing is pretty sensitive, cause when I really had 24 tickets, it printed out a voucher for 829. I got busted, but naturally argued with the guy acting offended that he would accuse me of such a thing. Stephen bought a couple big bouncy balls with the tickets. It was a fun night, I think we left around midnight. It was kind of weird though to be walking around with a beer fairly drunk while little kids are running around you playing video games and cashin in tickets. But it was a hella good time. Then we went home and went to bed. That was the extent. Tonight I think I'm gonna study for my government exam on Monday. I'm so studious. My roommates are both gone right now but their cars are here so I don't know whats up with that. I guess I'll give them a call in a minute. Peace out, sluts, have a good Saturday night.
New Summer Session
Tuesday, July 9, 2002 5:21 pm
Today was the first day of the new summer session. I'm only taking one class: PoliSci 207, State and Local Government. My professor seems like a nice enough guy, he gives lots of A's. But he also believes in engaging the classroom in discussions, which I'm not really into, especially in a class of 300 people. He spends a lot of time just waiting for someone in the room to respond to his (what I consider) rhetorical questions. It shouldn't be too bad though, its only one class and its at 10:00 so I'm done early.
I tried to start working on my summer long project, finally. I've already pissed away half the summer. I went into the lab and downloaded all the files I need, but my computer ended up crashing 3 times and it pissed me off. They also keep it like 30 degrees in the lab, and since I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt I froze my ass off. I decided to just come home instead, like I knew I would anyway. I'm going to dress warmer tomorrow, which will be fun because I can sweat my ass off the rest of the day.
I inadvertently omitted Todd from San Antonio from the last blog. He's Kevin's roommate. He paid for mad drinks for us on our birthday and I am, of course, very much obliged. I like it when people buy me alchohol. I'm not sure what's on the slate for tonight. Allison usually goes to Ninfa's for the Ninfaritas and I'm supposed to accompany her sometime, but I think she said she doesn't want to go today. If that's the case I'll probably sit at home watching movies and drinking some beers. My life is too exciting.
I found out today that AOL finally figured out that I haven't given them a penny in like 7 years. I got an email from them saying that since I no longer work for them that I have until July 16 to either start paying or have my account canceled. That totally sucks. I have so much stuff coming to my email address regularly ... I mean I've had it for so long. I'm going to have to transfer it all over to somewhere else. My webpage comes with like 30 email addresses, but I can't figure out how to set them up. Once I do my email will be SideshoViD@sideshovid.com, which is cooler anyway. I'm still not happy about the whole arrangement.
I laid out in the sun yesterday for like an hour and a half. I got some good sun, but only on half of my body. Serves me right for going out there late in the day. I need to remember to turn my chair, I guess. My legs itch. I'm out.
Speech 3
Thursday, June 27, 2002 2:54 pm
I gave my third speech today. I decided to do it over stem cell research ... it was a little more specific than cloning, and easier to research because of that. If you're at all interested in reading it (I'm kind of proud of it) you can do so here. I accidentally went thru it a little bit fast in class though and might have come in under time. I tried to stall the conclusion a little bit so I would be within time. If I didn't quite make it, thats an automatic 5 points off, aside from the 'probable inadequecies of a short speech.' Lets just hope for the best.
I decided then that since I gave a speech today it was okay for me to skip statistics. Oh my god, that class is so boring. You have absolutely no idea how dry and sleep enducing this man is. I didn't figure I would last another day, much less stay awake to reap the benefits of being present, so I just came home and took a fat nap.
Tomorrow I have some stat homework due and a few speeches to evaluate in my speech class, which sucks, I'd rather skip the whole day. And then tomorrow night I think Allison Delerie is gonna come over with her boyfriend and get sloppy. This is my last weekend as a minor, don't forget, so you know I'll be hittin it up minor style. Boo yah!
New Webpage
Saturday, June 22, 2002 6:00 pm
Ahh, Friday went well. My speech was alright, not great, but good. My test was pretty easy. I think I knew how to do all of them but 3 and there were 35 questions. Not too bad unless I'm so clueless that I actually didn't know how to do them and I just thought I did. Then I got a box of Franzia and sat down to enjoy the evening. Half a box of wine later, boy did I. I fell asleep after the first half of the World Cup game.
Today I didn't do anything and I loved it. I woke up, and got lunch with Ryan at Jin's, which is over on Northgate next to Burger Boy. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend. Then I sat around all day. It was wonderfully unproductive. I also decided that I hate my webpage, so I'm planning on redoing it soon. I'll keep you updated on that endeavor. If you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see post me a comment.
Travis and Micki’s Wedding
Sunday, June 16, 2002 7:41 pm
I just returned from Conroe where I attended Allison's step brother's wedding. I had so much fun last night, but boy am I paying for it today. Let me start from the beginning though. We started out the first night by going to the rehearsal dinner at the Macaroni Grill. The food was so good and I was so fetted and full by the time we were done. That night was pretty moderate on the partying. I we had some beers with dinner and then went over to Chili's for a little after party. I ordered a big ol' blue margarita, didn't even get carded. After that me and Allison each got a 24 oz beer at the gas station and drank that back at the hotel and just hung out by the pool chatting.
On Saturday I didn't have jack to do all day but everyone I knew was in a frenzy. It allowed me some time to just sleep late, lay out by the pool, and read my book that I still haven't finished. I got kind of tan though, I need to be laying out every day, when I can find the time. Anyway, then all I had to do was be ready to go to the wedding at 7:00. It was an outdoor wedding and it was really pretty. It was a fairly short wedding, and the minister-type dude made it all rhyme. Needless to say it was nothing like a Catholic wedding. It was at this quaint little bed and breakfast with white picket fences and shit. We stayed there drinkin and then went back to the hotel pool for the after party. I ended up staying up drinking until 5am. I was more than a little intoxicated. It was the really good kind of long periods of slow drinking saturated drunk. Which more than explains my splitting headache, aching body, and queasy stomach today. But it was worth it, I had a really good time.
On the calendar is a Speech test tomorrow morning and a Stats test on Friday. Nothing too strenuous. And I need to start on that damn microcontroller project. Catch you kids tomorrow.
Speech Grade
Wednesday, June 12, 2002 7:56 pm
I got the grade for my speech today. I got an 85 on it. Its not that great, but it was the highest grade in the class. He said with a little effort I could be much better. I suppose I can't argue with that since I did the speech in less than a day. Once again, I got the comment that I am too monotone. If I had a nickel for every time I'd heard that in my life ... well, I'd have a shitload of nickels.
Today was a good day though. I slept in late. And by late I mean 9:20, but it still felt good. I went to class but nothing was due, so all I had to do was show up. Then I walked my happy ass over to Burger Boy for lunch. I felt like I needed it. After that I met Allison, Christine and Katie over at the Rec Center pool to lay out in the sun. Summer can be so rough sometimes. After that, I came home and Ryan cooked steaks. Yum. Gotta love protein.
I think tonight I'm going to do my stats homework and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour, after I watch the first half of Costa Rica vs. Brazil, of course. That is, if we decide to not go to Shadow Canyon for karaoke night. I don't think we're going to though. I also have to get my workout in, so I'll be heading back to the Rec Center again tonight. Right now I'm weighing in at 150 lbs straight up. My target weight is 165. I'll keep you all posted. I may have already gained a pound, but its hard to tell on that scale, so maybe I'll just report every 5 pounds I gain. Either way I look damn good. Boo yah. Czech you later, skillets.
John Lennon Speech
Tuesday, June 11, 2002 5:17 pm
Well today was fun. About a week ago we were assigned a speech for my SCOM203 class. If you'll recall, it was supposed to be over a significant historical event. I pissed away my time trying to think of a really stellar topic until it became the day before it was due. I finally had to just pick a topic, any topic, and start writing the speech. I chose the murder of John Lennon. Not that I'm a huge Lennon fan, nor did I particularly care for the Beatles, but I wanted to do something with music, I respect the man and his work, and there weren't any good sources over John Denver's death.
I feel it necessary to give thanks to a couple of people. First Ryan Short for helping me get started, figure out a killer intro, teaching me about ethos, pathos, and logos, and telling me to just shut up and write the speech. Also to Allison who let me come over at like 11:30 to help/encourage me to finish my speech and then listen to me read it a few times. I ended up finishing writing the speech and the outline I used to speak from around 2am. And I got up this morning at about 8 to get to school, print it out, and practice it. In fact, that reminds me that I used my ftp to transport the files, so if you would like to read my speech you can do so here.
I managed to memorize the thing in a little over an hour this morning and was feelin good when I got to class. There were 8 people speaking today and I was fifth. Some of them were clever, a couple were well written and a couple were even pretty good speakers, but all of them before did nothing but bolster my confidence that I was going to do fine. And I did. I didn't studder or mess up or anything. I'm pretty confident that it went well, I'm just hoping my outlines and stuff are in the proper format so I can get full credit there.
My friends in my class were very supportive of my speech, which was flattering. And we all know I do like to be flattered. My friend Adam leaned forward after I sat down and said, "And you hadn't even picked a topic until last night? You bastard." And I made a new friend today, Nadia. She volunteered to work the camera so she was sitting right next to me. I think I like summer school, everyone's so much friendlier, I think. Or maybe just I am. Oh well. Catch you skids later. Give peace a chance.
No more DSL
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 12:50 am
God, I am so sick of moving. I have like two more car loads and this place will be deserted. I just keep taking car loads to the storage unit and the pile I need to take out isn't diminishing. I am moving everything over to Allison's tonight because the damn storage unit closes at 9pm and I want to be out of this apartment tonight so I don't have to worry about it and can check out. But tonight I am unplugging my computer which means no more being online 24/7. If you need to get ahold of me, email me and ask me for my cell phone number.
I am going to leave on Thursday for Plano and will be there until the 30th. Thats the plan anyway, I may come home to CS sooner than that.
Tomorrow I am meeting with Dr. Ochoa, the professor who owned me last semester. I seem to have gotten a D in his class and I'm not quite sure why. I'm also wanting to do his webpage next semester so we already had a meeting set up. So I get to go talk to him about that and then slip in there about why I got a D. While a D is certainly passing, it sure as hell doesn't count to get me to the next round of classes, and it will royally screw my career plan if I have to take this course over again. So we'll see. I'm in the worst mood right now. And while I won't be online as much, I am going to try to update the page at least every 3 days. So do keep checking back. Thanks and gig this.
End of the Semester Crunch
Monday, April 22, 2002 11:17 pm
Hello loyal SideshoViewers! Sorry for the pause, let me try to bring you all up to speed. Long story short, the end of the semester is upon us and I know we're all busy trying to prepare for projects, presentations, and finals. So if you find the blog stagnant, please forgive me, I will post as much as I can.
The BenchFuck party was fun. There were a lot of old people there to share their old stories about their times in the dorm. Not too many freshman showed up, but enough to benefit from the wisdom were around periodically. We didn't end up having a keg at Schu's like I'd thought, and they all wanted to go to Northgate cause Sober was out there, but I'm not 21 yet (74 more days) so I opted to just go home. My friend Allison, not the one usually blogged about, brought over 30 Stones and we sat on the porch and drank them. It was quite fun.
Sunday I woke up and nursed myself back to health. Can't get sick right now! Then I went into open lab hours for about 4 hours. I'm really worried about this project, but mildly optimistic. Like there's a chance I will pass this class ... whoo hoo. Thats more than I can say for some of the poor saps in that class right now. Beyond this, I'm trying to make a website about Argentina. You can see what I've got so far by clicking here. My group is trying to reach more than one culture by making the site bilingual, which is really easy for me since I don't speak Spanish. But I'm doing pretty good with the online translators.
Right now I'm supposed to be doing a writeup on a CPU Control for our 6805 Microcontroller, but I just can't get motivated. I went into total shut down mode earlier today when I walked home from class. I am so sick of walking by the apartment pool and seeing people out there reading and tanning when I'm always so busy that I can't possibly sit out there. So something inside me just snapped and I said to myself, "I will get a book and sit by the pool, damnit." So thats just what I did, and just why I won't be going to bed early tonight. We'll see though.
Aside from that not much has happened. I registered for all my classes next semester and this summer. I'm hoping to be out of here in just under 2 years if that's possible. I'm really in no major rush since I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do when I graduate, but we'll see. For now I have to get back to that report. You kids be safe and try to have some fun. Peace out, you have nots! End of Line.
249 Test
Thursday, April 11, 2002 11:45 am
That time is upon us again, dear friends. That time when David sits down to take another 249 test. Its actually in about 3 hours, so I'm currently taking a brief study break so fill you in on the day's activities. This particular test we are responsible for knowing the entire block diagram (including all registers, signals, and bus widths) for the Parallel Port, the Addressing Unit, Data Unit, and Multiplex Databus Structure. I don't know if you recall, but on the last test that I made a 99 on, it was because I missed one measly little label in the entire UART design. So the chances that I'll miss one measly little label in 4 drawings is a little greater, but I have faith in myself.
The other things we need to know are ring detectors, which are retarded and easy. I'll teach any of you how to do one sometime. The other thing is to list every single addressing mode, there are 8 ... inherent, direct, relative, indexed, 8 bit offset, 16 bit offset, immediate and extended. That's easy enough. Then we have to give an opcode for each, an assembly code command example, and then hand compile it into RAM. That'll be a bitch. And naturally, all of this has to be done in 70 minutes. Wish me luck, you have nots, I am going to attempt again to make a 100 to average out that embarrassing 99. Time to study ... Laaaaaate.
No More Friends
Wednesday, April 10, 2002 1:35 pm
First order of business: Happy Birthday and congratulations to Arash, who just turned 21 years of age. My sincerest apologies for not indicating this joyous day on the blog. But there it is, folks, right from the horse's mouth. Also, thanks to Delilah for her delightful email. Its always good to hear from Da Momma. There is one thing I might clear up, that I might not have mentioned.
I get this question again and again, "Where did your friend's links go?" In short, they're gone, but I'm sure you already figured that out. Unfortunately sometimes when one tries to do something lighthearted, fun, and entertaining such as friend bios, it turns political. There were too many people out there who felt they deserved to be on the friends list without applying, those who actually applied (you sad, sad individuals), and those who were booted off the list for pissing me off. There were several people who fit into each of these categories all of whom were mad about it. In order to remedy the problem in the easiest and most efficient manner, I simply deleted the friends links. Besides, its better this way. Now we can all focus on whats really important... ME!
Wailp, tonight I am looking forward to being in the Thompson lab all night. Yeah, you know that building to the left there, that picture isn't a joke. During the week I seriously fucking live there. If you need to talk to me just hang out on the stairs there in that picture, I'll be outside for a smoke about every hour, since that damn lab is so stressful. Just in case any of my group is reading this (even though I think Torrey is the only one who does), my group is wonderful, and we're gonna make an A! No more lies, time to go take a nap while watching Blade before my meeting with the Bob @ 4.
End of line.
Weekend
Friday, April 5, 2002 12:46 am
Friday again, FINALLY. I need this Friday like the crops need rain. This has been a stressful but productive week. I was really stressed about that microcontroller, so I dedicated this week to getting as much done on it as we could as a team. I was really proud of everyone, we made some great progress on some stuff. Hopefully we'll get on track if we apply ourselves like this for the next 4 weeks. But if that happens, you KNOW i'm gonna be waaaasted on Friday night. Its just one of those things I need to do.
Next week doesn't look too bad. I've got a couple tests, and one of them is in the class that consumes my life, but it hopefully shouldn't be too bad. We'll find out more about whats on it on Tuesday. I have a circuit analysis test coming up soon, but that's gonna be an easy hundred. I've been paying attention in class just to ensure that fact. Other than that I haven't had a chance to do much. I'm pretty sure I'm going to Ryan and Todd's tomorrow to drink, like always. Lord knows I don't have anything or anyone better to do on a Friday night. Not a soul worth the least bit of my attention. Certainly, though, if you would like to join me, let me know. I doubt they'll mind.
I call Thompson home
Wednesday, April 3, 2002 11:02 am
Wow, does school suck or what? Can I get an, "AMEN?" My tech writing teacher seems to think we are all REALLY interested in what she has to say. I always thought she was really obnoxious and prepared these little lectures for every day, but today I had my book out studying for a quiz, and realized that EVERYthing she says is straight from our text book. She follows the headings and bullets, even her little side comments ... all right from the text. What a lazy bitch in a pantsuit.
Other than that, the class that consumes my life is consuming my life even more. And it probably will until the end of the semester. We have like 2 weeks to get every component working and then like 2 weeks to integrate it all into one thing. Just to give you a small taste of what has to be done here's a little break down:
baud rate generator
transmitter
receiver
SCCR, SCSR, and UART integration with loopback mode enable
parallel port
addressing unit
data unit
CPU control with final integration of everything
Basically we're fucked. Ah well, it'll be a lot easier when I take it over next semester. Ugh.
12 Hours to Save Them All
Tuesday, March 26, 2002 9:05 pm
First, let me apologize to Joseph for not blogging recently. There have been a couple factors keeping me away from the ol' Grey Matter. First was school. I recently decided that I am behind, and consistently not getting my work done. How could this be? Time management ... or lack thereof. So I came up with a simple solution. On Mondays I get out of class at noon, and generally go to bed at midnight. That is 12 solid hours with which to accomplish all my goals.
While I did not accomplish everything on my To-Do List, I got a big chunk of it done. Tomorrow I have a Circuit Analysis Test and Thursday I have an Economics test. Neither of these should be too hard, but they will require some studying. Basically, I'm set on "GO MODE" for the rest of the week, and then probably will reset to "DRINK MODE" this weekend. We'll see, I may use the 3 days to get ahead. Hahahaha.
The second factor keeping me from the blog is SVCv3. For those of you not up to date on my lingo, that stands for SideshoViD.com version 3. Yeah, I've begun work on it. Initially, I'm pleased, but I'm probably a good 40 manhours away from releasing it, so no telling when it'll be done. I will keep you updated. PLH.
Roommate search
Thursday, March 21, 2002 7:12 pm
So Keith had a good idea last night. We are looking for a third roommate to move into a duplex over on Dexter and he suggested I advertise that on my webpage. So if you are looking for two roommates, are not psycho and would be interested in paying $350/mo for a duplex on Dexter, please IM me or email me and let me know. Serious inquiries only please :)
Other than that, school's been kicking my ass, but its all good. Tonight is Thursday, I'm just gonna relax, and I might, JUST might, take a Day-O-Fun tomorrow since I only have one class, but I don't want to get back into that habit. We'll see. LAAAATE
Another lazy day
Wednesday, March 20, 2002 12:58 am
I know all of you have been waiting on the edge of your seats for the result of my ENTC249 test. Alas, I did not make a 100. I did, however, make a 99. He took off one point on my diagram of the UART because I didn't box in the components of the Baud Rate Generator and label them as a whole. He didn't take off for that on anyone else's test but mine. I think he's just too proud to give a 100 even though I knew EVERYTHING. I am the smartest man alive.
I am so exhausted. I woke my happy ass up at 8am this morning for lab, and then worked on the crossword and Econ homework for a long time. Then I went and sat outside Moore on the benches like old times for a while. Then I had class, then important TV, and now its 1am and I'm about to start working on a resume for Tech Writing. I haven't even looked at the assignment. I hope I get to sleep tonight. Maybe not. I'll keep you posted. Over and out.
Spring Break, BABY
Friday, March 8, 2002 10:17 am
Well, Spring Break is officially here for yours truly. I had one quiz this morning that I think I aced and now I'm home. I got up early, got dressed, went to campus, and class was like 20 minutes long. That's alright though, I almost prefer it that way.
I have a shitload to do today before I leave for P-town tomorrow. I've gotta do ALL of my laundry. I typically do laundry 2 maybe 3 times a semester. So when I do its a massive undertaking. Then I'm going to go tanning and possibly work out. I can tan while I do laundry though cause I do it at Harvey Gangbangers. Then I've got to drive out and get some leasing information on a duplex for next year. Sometime today I've got to clean the apartment. I think thats about it. But still, its a full plate.
I decided to take my computer home with me so I can do some work during the 3 days I'll be in town. I still have a lot left to do for some classes, which sucks, but oh well. I figure I'll be bored enough at home to maybe try to get something accomplished. We'll see. I hope everyone has a great Spring Break, and stays safe and drunk. Laaaaate.
Its not worth it
Tuesday, March 5, 2002 9:52 am
Man, I just got out of my 8:00 lab today for Circuit Analysis. Our prof dropped by to show us our averages. I have a 99 test average and a 73 average in the class. Now that takes skill. I am doing so well in all my classes, but it isn't worth jack because they all give us immense amounts of daily work, quizzes, homework, and labs until exams aren't worth shit. It pisses me off. If I'm acin tests I should get an automatic A.
But I did have one lab on there that was a 0 and should have been a 100, that will help some, but not a lot since I have two other zeroes on labs and 2 zeroes on quizzes. Ugh, I despise these little daily grades. It's so high school.
I also want to make a shout out to Pho John. If you guys in College Station haven't tried Pho John's Vietnamese Noodle Soup out on Texas Ave by the new Petsmart, you need to get out there stat. I am addicted to the stuff. Its so damn good. Aight, peace.
Ace in the hole
Thursday, February 28, 2002 10:41 pm
I know I said I didn't want to get cocky, but the time for being cocky has arrived. I am so certain I aced that test. I normally don't say that because then I make 50's, but I had so much time to check it over that I'm certain its 100% correct. In fact, I even told my professor, Dr. Ochoa, afterwards that I'd bet him a soda I aced it. He said if I made a 100, we'd talk. Boo yah.
On a 'side' note, you'll see the new Sidesho-Pic to the side here. There's no deeper meaning. Its just the amalgamation of my webpage and the Matrix. Its COOL. Why don't you people get it?
Miss Cleo says
Thursday, February 28, 2002 2:11 am
Heyo, this blog right now is only to post my predictions for tomorrow. (It might be fun to see how my attitude changes in about 16 hours.) I have this big test in ENTC249, or as I've dubbed it, "The Class That Consumes My Life." Anyway, I'm kind of confident in it, but I don't want to get cocky. I've gone over everything like 10 times. So I'm gonna call it right here, right now, for all of you to bear witness.
I will make an A on my ENTC249 test.
Late Night
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 1:22 am
Man, its going to be another late night. I am such a procrastinator. Tonight's late night is brought to you by the letters ENGL and the numbers 210. I have to do an audience profile on the job that I'm going to be "applying" for. I was supposed to have already turned in the job advertisement I'm going to use, I just found out, so I went on Monster.com and found some web designing position for Travelocity.com. I like to use computer based subjects for my papers because its easier to bullshit since my prof doesn't know anything about the internet, I've gathered. My last memo proposal about creating a new layout for the company website got me an 82 cause she couldn't tell that 80% of what I said didn't even make any sense. Ah the perks of random jargon. Hopefully I can churn this out in about 30 minutes and be in bed by 2am. I have class tomorrow at 8, and then at 9:10. Then I have an Intel Training course from 12:40 to 2:40. Then I'm meeting with Bob to teach him more about making a website (the prof I'm working for now). Then I have like an hour or two to chill before open lab hours start for ENTC249 (the class that consumes my life). On the plus side though, I've reassessed our progress and decided that my team is ahead of schedule. Thats a first and it feels good. I hate to be an asshole, but every time I hear another team bitching about not having something done, it makes me feel really really good ... provided we have ours working. Oh well, I suppose I've stalled long enough, time to start working.
On a side note, everyone click here to send Steve a shoutout. Today is his 20th birthday, and I just know he'd love to have some well wishes from loyal Sidesho-Viewers. Thanks!