Holy rusted metal, Batman!!!

An interesting thing I have discovered. There are no rated "R" movies playing at the Tinseltown in the Newgate Mall. Just thought you all should know.

For Jon (since I don't have your email address)

I just wanted to tell you that I met somebody from your mission. He's in my ward here in Dugway. It didn't sound like you two knew each other, but he knew who you were. Anywho. His last name is Gunnell. Thought you might like to hear that. :)
Have a good one!

Web 2.0

Well, kind of. Here's a nice AJAX homepage: NetVibes

Oh, and here's a really funny recording of... well, just listen to it.

Also, check out Box.net

Woa there...

...I didn't think Leopard was supposed to be unveiled until August. Dude! What's up with that? And they have touch-screen iPods? I didn't know that. Well, at least Apple can release their OS on a fairly regular schedule (unlike Windows Longwait, er, I mean, Vista.) Now, Vista Beta 2 isn't too bad, really, but it certainly isn't as slick as Mac OS X.

Geek kool

OSX Leopard Mobile on an iPod? See for yourself.

Conversation Starters

So, I think that I have been a bit callous lately on this forum and I don't really mean to be. I am just really amazed at the condition of the world today. I think that too many people are in too much of a hurry to be nice to each other. It's like society is in the withdrawal from the drug-induced high of the '90s and we're just a bit crabby with each other.

So, to ease the tension of the world just a bit, I introduce a most hilarious website: The Wonderful World of Longmire. Now, please remember to take with Mr. Longmire says with a grain of salt (or maybe a whole mouthful of salt, depending.) My personal favorites of his are his Awkward Conversation Starters and his Longmire Does Romance Novels. This guy is absolutely hilarious, in his own geeky sort of way. He's a guy who pokes fun at just about everything.

So, for some good laughs, check him out.

Feeds on the road

If you want to have access to all your favorite RSS feeds no matter where you are, check out Google Reader. And if you find any cool sites that have a feed worth subscribing to, feel free to link them here so we can all add them to our Readers.

Peekup Trucks and Ess Yoooo Vees

Anyone who says that they bought a pickup or an SUV because "I can see farther and therefore I'm safer" is lying their butt off. I make that bold statement after the idiocy I saw on Highway 89 this afternoon. I saw a lady in a Ford Explosion totally jump out into oncoming traffic and just about get T-boned by a car that was really close to her. The lady was making a left turn from a side street and needed to cross HWY 89. Obviously, the stratospheric height of her SUV made it so that she saw a long ways off but totally missed the car coming close to her. So, out into the road she leaped and were it not for the diligence of the driver of the car, a bad T-bone collision would have occurred.

Now, on to the matter of business. I don't know if you have noticed, but it seems that Utah Power (not really Utah Power) has decided to forcefully lower my power bill this month. Something has brought down power to my apartment two days in a row for about an hour in the afternoon. Yesterday, power went out between 4:02 pm and 4:42 pm. Today, there was a power outage from 5:00 to 5:35 and another from 5:41 to 6:29. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm running a couple of servers at home and I like to be able to get to them from out there in the world. I can't exactly do that when they're down because a power outage took them out.

Anyhow, so yeah, I'm kind of not happy with the power company right now. They not only took out my servers, but they caused me to take an hour to get home because of malfunctioning traffic lights. :) It still blows my mind that people don't know how to do a four-way stop.

Chao!

It's your civic duty...

...to vote, that is.

If you've ever been to a Jazz game, or even seen one on TV, you know that Bear is super cool! So, do your civic duty and vote for the Jazz Bear as this year's mascot in the Mascot Hall of Fame! Something I didn't know about him was that he has his own Utah holiday established by the governor. Now that's cool.

Vote Now!!

Chao!

Here is an update of the other stuff

Ok, so when I said "the scientific method can be fun" what I meant to say was this:

The scientific method can be fun

Oh, and by the way - Canada has finally produced something good other than a Photoshop pro

The chef is quicker than the hammer: Shaolin cooks

If you liked 1 and 2, you'll maybe like 3

Oh, good. I was waiting for these.

Gaming is about to get a whole lot crazier.

And speaking of crazy, here's a fun music video: Weapon of Choice

A thought....

I have to disagree with Jason about the cell phone ban. Yes, they're a distraction in school, but there's no reason they can't take a phone with them to school. I support a rule that requires the phone be OFF in class, and if it's not it may be confiscated or whatever. In my experiance the whole note-from-the-office thing never works. (besides, Jason's a decade out of school, he's a little behind the times) ;) Often, when it came to notes from the office for me, I'd get them an hour or more after my parents called, they'd say call ASAP, and the office wouldn't let me use their phone anyway.

So, in conclusion, I think phones are a distraction, but rather than be banned outright (like guns and knives) they should simply be controlled.

-Kristin

Good on ya!

Congratulations are in order for Ben and Hava for the arrival of their baby! I found out about this the other day and was very happy for the news. Kristin and I send our best wishes!!

Okay, I have to rant about something. It's just not my nature to not find something controversial and exploit it a little bit. :) I am just blown away by the fact that we're only now realizing that cell phones are a distraction. I don't get it. Couldn't the "experts" see this one coming? According to CNN, cell phone ringtones are a distraction in work and school. I just can't believe that it has taken so long for this to catch on. Of course they're a distraction!! I remember being really angry by customers when I worked at the grocery store who would stop conducting business with me and answer their dang phones. Or, what burns me up now is to see a group of supposed friends hanging out together all chit-chatting on cell phones. You know that they're not talking with each other. No, they're talking with other, unseen people. It seems that the ringing cell phone has become more important than the person in whose company you find yourself. I mean, I can get pretty insulted when I'm talking to someone and they brush me off to answer the blasted phone. I can understand if they warn me that they're expecting a call. I won't be annoyed in that case, but when it's just, "Oh, hang on; I have to take this call," then I feel put down. It's as if I am not as important as the person on the phone.

I totally support cell phone bans in schools. I mean, come on, schools are where kids are supposed to learn. My tax dollars are going to support schools. I don't want kids bringing their cell phones and causing distractions "because their parents need to be able to reach them." That's not a very good reason to send a kid to school with a cell phone. For crying in the mud, when I was in school, if my parents needed to get a hold of me, they called the office and they got a message to me. No cell phone distractions in class, no annoying ringtones, nothing. Just a note from the office. What's so wrong with that? I guess people are just too inconvenienced by that. It takes too much time out of their already too-busy days. People should slow down and learn to choose their activities wisely.

Anyway, I don't mean to sound like an old sourpuss, but I don't think cell phones have really helped us THAT much. The few times I really could have used one when there wasn't a regular phone available do not, in my opinion, merit the cost of having one.

And now for a really great show! The Rootisms page has had its first content update in over a year! Thanks Jon! It's awesome. I really liked the stuff from the VFW rehearsals. Visit the Rootisms page now! Dr. Root continues to amaze and entertain with his seemingly endless supply of whimsical, yet wise, statements.

More cool stuff

More urban skilz - this one is kind of long and there's about 30 seconds towards the beginning where it's boring, but after that it's pretty cool

The scientific method can be fun

When worlds collide

Post #901

I just wanted to have post number 901. That's all. It has been one of my goals in life.

Cool stuff, installment 2

Animator vs Animation

Optical Illusion

New movie

Napoleon Skywalker

Hey, Ricky. Good to hear you're having a blast. (pun intended)

Hey, everybody. This is the 900th post on this blog.

Hey, Ben and Hava. Let us know as soon as Junior makes the scene, eh?

If today is 6-6-6...

...and it is supposed to mean bad things happen, I can't wait 'til next year when we have 7-7-7. That's jackpot day. :)

Anyhow, after what Ricky said in his last posting, I'm now looking for a way to get down to San Antonio to see the Regiment. I wish traveling wasn't so blasted expensive. Besides, I really need to get back to San Antonio because it's been, like, seven years since I was last there. :)

Jarrett (and any other interested chaps): the Rootisms page is located here. This is the most recent version that I have. That page has an interesting history to it. I first started hosting it on my ProNetHost site because I thought it would be permanent. But, in January of aught-five, the server went through a metamorphosis, so to speak, and I was locked out of it. At the time, I was learning to set up my own web server so I simply grabbed everything and hosted it myself. The page is still over at ProNetHost, but it's an old version that I can't touch. The current version is on my personal server. So, if anyone has more recent Rootisms, please send them to me. I will post the changes.

Hello from Rockford, IL

So I finally had time to look for a computer here at Rockford College, so I figured I'd drop the virtual band hall a line while I could. So how is everybody doing?? Everything is going great over here, I survived brass boot camp, we have 145 of 150 sets of drill on the field with music, and tomorrow, we move to a place with stadium lights so that we can rehearse from 8am until 11pm until we leave for our first show on June 17th!!! I'm not going to lie, just about every part of my body hurts right now, especailly in the mornin's, but it is some much fun and so worth it, that the pain doesn't even matter. If by some chance you come to a show, stop by and say hi, plus, I might let you touch my tuba, after all, they are the biggest tubas in drum corps!! They have 21 inch bells and are over half as tall as I am!! Well, I hope you all are having a great summer and I'll talk to everybody later!!

a thought

SMS messages...
It's scary to have them held against you in court... but it's scarier to have them read monthly by your mission president.

Where are the rootisms?
toebaai
Elder Kobus

Bad Tech

Recently, PCWorld Magazine published a list of the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. Okay, so it was more like the 25 Worst Tech Products of the Last 25 Years, but in computing terms 25 years _is_ all time. :) I really thought this list was well thought-out and was quite amused at some of the picks listed in the "Hit List."

On top of the list of infamy is the Internet service provider America Online, or AOL for those of you unseasoned young'ins in the crowd. AOL started out well enough. They were an upstart from an old BBS determined to bring content to the masses. They did it, too. Them and Prodigy and CompuServe, as well as some smaller, lesser-known ISPs helped to revolutionize the Internet and begin it on the journey to what it is today. However, it was AOL that almost singlehandedly turned people on to the idea of online content. This was in the ancient times, or about 1993.

That's where it gets bad. After turning people on to the idea of the "interweb" or whatever people called it, AOL had met its match. People will tell stories of how they tried time and time again to connect only to receive a busy signal. Those who were lucky enough to connect were often stifled by AOL's limited content. You see, back in the elder-days of the Internet, each service provider provided a unique subset of Internet content. It was not publicly accessible like it is today. The things that one provider allowed its customers to see was not the same as content provided to another company's customers. And there was no Google, too boot.

Anyhow, AOL became synonymous with bad quality and lack of service. Not only did they provide a lack of service, but they also tried to create a new continent with all the CDs they shipped out. How many AOL CDs have you received?

More recently, AOL has billed itself as not so much a service provider, but a content provider, providing "security" features and parental controls. I mean, let's be serious. How much security do you have when AOL wants you to use the hacker's delight Internet Explorer browser? How about none. I mean, that browser's a piece of crap. But AOLers seem to know of no other way to browse the Internet. That leads me to my final point about AOL: user ignorance.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone who's ever connected to the Internet through AOL is a complete moron. What I am saying is that from a tech support standpoint, my worst clients are AOLers. They often don't know basic things about how to operate their computers. And getting them to give you their email address is like pulling teeth. You ask, "Ma'am, what's your email address so that I can send you this invoice?" They say, "It's ahansen, with an 'e.'" I get the feeling that they don't realize that there are about a gazillion email providers out there. They think that AOL is the only service around.

Anyhow, I just wanted to back up PCWorld's claim that AOL is the worst of the worst. I hope that I didn't offend anyone. That was not the intent. If any of you are AOL subscribers, I hold absolutely nothing against you personally. I just find that AOL is a bit, uh, misguided in their approach to online content. Now, don't even get me started on Microsoft... And, no, I'm not a Mac guy.

Ta Ta!

Yo Ho

Here are some nice 3D rendered vids of how merchant galleons were constructed.

woohoo

check out diego's blog for some percussion ensemble pictures. Woohoo!!!

Capture the Flag

Ricky, you have yourself a fantastic summer. I'm so jealous.

Just in case anyone is interested, I posted up another 11 videos on the DC podcast.

This guy knows a lot about how paper works.

And speaking of flags, I saw a funny bumper sticker: If you must burn our flag, please wrap yourself in it first.

lols + ok, bye

My summer tour contact info.

So as I'm sure most of you know, I'm going to be on tour this summer with the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps of Rockford, IL. I'm very excited cause this is my 1st year marching in drum corps but also a little sad that this is also my age-out year. But my excitement way covers up that!! Anyways, because I'm going to be gone, I won't see many of you (probably all of you) until I get back so if you want to get a hold of me, here are 2 ways:

1) You can send me an email to my hotmail account, tubaribonephone [@] hotmail [dot] com but it could be a long time before I'm able to get to a computer, so believe it or not, this next option is actually the best one and the fastest.

2) You can send me stuff through the mail, be it letters or packages. It really doesn't matter, just nothing to huge. It'd be nice to hear from you people while on the road, if anything to remind me of home (although, I'm not sure how much I'll miss Utah, but whatever... j/k!). You can send me a letter about how your summers been going, about how your day was, about how much you hate your girl/boyfriend or just random thoughts you've been having. It really doesn't matter. You can also send me some pictures so that I can make my bus seat feel a little more like home. Packages are very welcome and things such as cookies are greatly appreciated, especially if they are chocolate or peanut butter, or both!! So, if you choose to send me anything, here is the address:

Phantom Regiment
5050 E. State Street
Rockford, IL 61108
Attn: Ricky Lopez

Click all of this to see our tour schedule, as of 4/25/06 If you are going to be at or around any of our shows, don't hesitate to stop by and say hi.

If there is anything else regarding contact info. that I haven't put on here that you are curious/want to know about, just drop me a line. And if you want me to send you a letter while I'm on tour but don't want to write me 1st, just give me your address. Well, talk to ya'll later, hopefully before I leave, if not, then after tour.

Ricky

Yay!

Free SkypeOut! I'm excited!! Thanks for the heads-up, Jon.

Harvesting Entropy...

Cool stuff

Jason, that's awesome. Ricky that's awesome.

Here's my awesome contribution for the day: tool-assisted run of Mario 64

Update: embedded vids









"As far as we know, this is the first time in history when unlimited calls to a standard telephone network are free without any form of payment or subscription. That’s kind of cool."

Yes, my friends - SkypeOut within the US and Canadee is now free as a bird till the end of the year.

ONLY 11 MORE DAYS!!!

That's right, only 11 more days until I leave for tour with the Phantom Regiment. But more on that later. I wanted to share this pic with ya'll. It's getting to do moves like this (see below), appropriately titled "flying cadet", that are just one of many reasons I love drum corps, both as an art and a sport.

Check out the Soprano (trumpet) player in the front, FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

Well, later everybody.

Birds!

So, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I didn't have much to talk about, until now. So, I'm home for the summer. We have an old, broken-down car in our driveway. The battery is not there and there are many othere problems with it. So, it's just been sitting there for about a year. For the past few days I've noticed some very loud chirping outside, but could never locate where it was coming from. Then, today, I realized that it was coming from this car. I popped the hood and found these 4 little chicks in a lovely nest. All I can say is...clever bird!

Google Universe

Well, not exactly Google Universe, but it's pretty close. It's an app called Celestia and it gives you the ability to survey the solar system the same way Google Earth lets you survey our beautiful planet's surface. You need some pretty powerful, gamer-type hardware to view it on, but even at my crippled, less-than-spectacular level, it's still spectacular. Now, if I could only stop it from rendering every single piece of cosmic dust...

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Email me.......

Jason,
Email me at Jeffry[dot]s[dot]johnson[at]convergys[dot]com with a number that I can contact you at, and maybe you can help me to understand these things.
See, I recently purchased a Dell and am now connecting through a router and have discovered new things in the tech biz. It's fun to learn.
I'm trying to figure out virtual servers and whatnot to improve performance, and be able to access my comp from anywhere. It could come in useful.
Looking forward to it!
PS Remember that, if you're looking at the radishes from underneath, you're probably visiting a place beyond this world!!

A total waste of time

Gambling, that is. It's a total waste of time and it's way overrated. I remember trying it out in Shreveport, Louisiana once and thinking the same thing. But this weekend we celebrated Kristin's birthday and went to Wendover and tried a bit of gambling there, too. Still, it's a waste of time and I do not understand why someone would get addicted to it.

Anyhow...

So yeah, I would like to participate in the contest, but I don't really know how to use SketchUp. I'm still working my way through the tutorials. I know, I'm a slacker and should have had them done a long time ago, but I was very busy Friday and Saturday. So far, it looks fairly simple to construct a 3D object, though.

Also, Jeff, what do you want to know about web servers/virtual servers/remote connections? I just happen to know quite a bit about them and have set them up successfully. In fact, I have a web server and some remote connections set up on my home network now. My web server is currently running on Red Hat Linux 9 with Apache 2.0.40. I have remote connections via secure shell (SSH) and via Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (Terminal Server) to my Linux box and my Windows machine respectively. I can reach these machines anywhere in the world. Virtual servers are one thing I haven't had much experience with, but I did just learn about them last week, so the information is pretty fresh in my mind. So, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Take it easy, y'all.

Oh, let me enumerate the cool cars I spied on my way back from Bend-over yesterday:

Plenty of Porsche 911s (~$97,000)
A Bentley Continental GT (~$165,000)
A Ferarri F430 (~$199,000)
An Enzo Ferarri (current mkt value approx. $1.2M)
A Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (~$450,000)

HI all........

BOY!!! It's been a long time!!! I miss all you guys!!
Sorry I missed Suzanne's party tonight. Work calls!!!
Marching band for next year is looking great!!
We've hired a new Colorguard advisor, and have already
put together an 8-10 person guard!!
People need to email!!
Also, who knows about web servers/virtual servers/remote connection?
I have questions people!!
Laterz!

Today is the day when superheroes walk openly among us

I saw two walking around campus this morning with their multicolored capes flowing behind. Later on, they congregated in the Dee to confer graduate status on a buncha peoples.

Congrats to all who have worked hard and completed their degrees. And a pat on the back for everyone else who just finished the semester and is looking forward to the day...

I heard some good news today from my boss-man. It looks like our programming team here at work is going to sweep the Flex 2 competition and take home the grand prize of a 42" plasma screen display and an Xbox360. We might even get invited to the conference where the release Flex Builder 2.0 (full version).

Heartened by this news I am eager to start work on the other entry we will hopefully enter. All I can say about it so far is that if you like GEwar, you'll like this.

Everyone send me your DC pix. (Thanks Melissa)

***

I found out that I love racquetball. I only played once when I was a youth, but just the other day Diego/Tiffany/Robyn/Nate invited me to come play and I liked it so much I came and played with them again tonight. I'm thinking I'll build myself a studio appartment that is just a racquetball court with an adjoining bathroom and kitchenette. I'll have a cot in the corner or something. Then if we want to play, I'll just wheel my home entertainment center on a cart out of the room and we'll throw down.

Can I have an iPod, please?

People should add us all to each other's Blingo friends list. And make sure to search at least 10 times a day (keeps the doctor away).

Isn't Snoil fun?

And aren't small-footprint computers cool?

And fake DNA replication?

And building a chocolate printer out of legos?

Annonce

Presenting the first model-building competition of the band blog.
The rules are as follows:

Contest deadline: The end of May 2006 (no submissions accepted in June 2006 or later for this competition)

Submission guidelines:
- Models must be built in Google Sketchup
- Submissions must be emailed to... me
- Submissions may include the sketchup file, but must at least consist of an appropriately placed .kmz (placed in GE)
- You may build anything you want, but I'd suggest starting with a building or similar structure

Judging: Judging will take place the first week of June. Entries will be evaluated by an independent panel of judges (me and Tom Bell). The winner will receive a free lunch paid for by me at your choice of The University Broiler & Grill, Costa Vida, Gandolfo's, The Mongolian Grill, Golden Jade, or 5 Buck Pizza.

To get y'all started, I've made a sample. You'll need to right-click and Save As. Please note that the geocities hosting I'm using (free) won't upload .kmz files, so after you save you'll need to change the file extension from .doc to .kmz and then open it. If you can't see the extension already (Windows users) then you need to go to Tools > Folder Options > View > uncheck Hide File Extensions for Known File Types > OK.

Thanks for asking

Jon, I am doing great! Its been a rough couple of months, but I came out on top, and conquered some interesting classes, one of wich was a social dance class. Take it everyone you will love it!

Otherwise, I am gearing up for a summer filled with two jobs and house hunting.
Have Great days people!
Batman Out

Change of place

The party tonight is now going to start at 5 pm (sharp - be there by 5 so we can surprise Ramey). I changed the other post to match.

We're combining Aaron's birthday party with a surprise birthday party that Julie formerly-Casperson Lattin is throwing for her hubby, Ramey.

For directions, call me at work. Bring a side dish if you can.

Other good stuff.

Here, everyone! Have a...

...word.

Yes.... it has been a while

And it's good to hear from you, Andrew.

Well, I'm off to go see the Countdown. But before I go, may I just pose this rhetorical question:

What would you do if you were a geek with ten billion dollars?

It's been a looooooooong time.

Hey there, virtual band hall!

It's been far too long since I have visited you all. Just thought I would pop in here and say hello!

I am going slightly homicidal at the moment. I am juggling working, finals, and getting residents checked out. I couldn't be any more busy. Oh, wait......I AM!

On top of that, I have to figure out how, when, and where to move all my stuff for the summer. I am getting ready to attend "Leadershape" which is a conference on, you guessed it, LEADERSHIP at East Canyon the week after commencement. Then, the awesome news......drumroll please......

I will be working on a feature film which is shooting in Filmore, Utah for three weeks at the end of May, beginning of June. I will be working as a gaffer (which is a person who is responsible for assisting with the lighting and electrical, basically a glorified lightbulb changer).

After that, I'm off to glamorous Denver for a week or so to visit my Pop, then it's off to Dallas for a little while to see my Ma and go on a family vacation. Then, it'll be back up here to the U for another year of being a crazy RA.

In other departments, some of you may know that I have found a lady-friend and we are doing quite well. She will be gradumating this semester, and I next year.

Any of you on Myspace and/or Facebook should look me up! I'm almost always on those confounded creations.

Anyway, you are all awesome! I'll see you later.

ps- A question for Aaron: Were you up at the U campus around April 7 in the evening? I thought I might have seen you, but wasn't entirely sure. Strange...

Quote of the day

"the misunderstood powers of the banjo. I mean come on, the thing is half drum half stringed instrument, it was born to groove."
- Bart Olsen, drummer for RS&RB

Instructions for viewing the new video podcast of the DC trip:
-Install iTunes (or update your old version)
-Right-click on the XML icon next to the words "DC Trip Video Podcast"
-Click on Copy Link Location, or Copy Shortcut or whatever (alternately you can just click on teh XML icon and when it shows you the XML file just copy the URL from your browser's Adress bar)
-Open iTunes
-Go to the Advanced menu
-Click Subscribe to Podcast
-Right-click and select Paste (or hit Ctrl+V)
-Click Ok
-Happy Birthday to you

So far I don't have all the videos up. Wait patiently. Thank you.

Also, a funny thing happened to a co-worker of mine the other day. He was parking in the A lot just West of the gym when he saw some guy, apparently fed up with the fact that the orange cones/yellow tape was still cordoning off the curb parking area on the North side of the lot even though there had been no snow for about a month, in the act of taking said cones/tape and chucking them into the bushes/trees on the Northwest corner of the gym so that he could park there legally. (I mean the cones'n'tape just make it illegal to park there, not to move them from there.)

Here's a small hint for any boy/girl relationships: be friends.

By that I don't mean be "just friends" like you shouldn't have any kind of romantic relationship. I mean that any relationship that is more than just friends should still be first and foremost a friendship. If you think about the friendships you have with people that you are good friends with there are certain things in that kind of a friendship. Just make those things the basis of your relationships that are more than just friends and they won't topple. One of those things is to think of the other person's feelings/needs/wants/etc.. Of course if you're all hitched and stuff that aspect becomes more important, but it's the same basic idea.

Just an apostrophe I had today.

Jason, sounds like your techno-adventures are varied and never-ending. I haven't really posted much about my own tech-spoits lately, but suffice it to say that I'm going to be working quite a bit over the next 3 days to try to finish our (my work group) entry for Adobe's Flex 2 application competition. There are some sweet prizes if we take first (don't know what are chances are of that, but you never can tell). I can say, though, that I sympathize with your experience with the different wired faries. The one that visits me most often is the Random Fairy. It makes random things happen in the apps I develop. And the Random Fairy gets the biggest kick out of later on sending over its friend, the Logical Continuity Fairy, to tap our app on the noggin and suddenly make there spring into existence a Reason for why the effects of the Random Fairy's tampering are happening. It's like things 'splode for no good reason and after 3 or 4 hours of digging around we finally find the Reason, which apparently didn't exist until just before we found it.

Woes of coding.

Well, good to hear from you all, including the long-time-no-see BrittChap. How's it be going?

Everybody remember Aaron's party on Friday.

And do your homework.

And don't crash your car.

Or mine.

Thanks.

Hey All

Just thought I would jump on the blog quick as lighning and say hi! to everyone....so
Enaul me @ Britty_in_oz@hotmail.com

Hi!

Batman Out!

Parties Forthcoming

Party the first: Aaron has had a birthday and we need to celebrate it

Time: 5PM Friday April 28th
Place: Julie Lattin's (Casperson) place (so we can celebrate Ramey's birthday, too)

Party the second: School will soon be out for the semester and we need to celebrate that too.

Time: the week after finals, or maybe the friday or saturday after commencement
Place: open for suggestions

Call me with any questions.

What was that?

Okay, I might think that the Monome is cool if I could figure out what it was supposed to do. All I saw was this thing with 64 lights on it connected to an iBook (eyeBook?). It seemed like the thing also controlled the music that was playing, but I can't figure out how. I think the demo could have been better, also, if you could see the lights a little more clearly. For me, I saw lots of reflection off the somewhat shiny top surface. But, if I could tell what the Monome did, I'm sure that I would think that it was cool and I'd probably want one. :)

In other news, the Backup Fairy was averted. I think I might have scared it off. However, I was visited by the Wipe-Out-Your-Server's-DNS-Entries Fairy. That's why my server was behaving the way it was. A simple reset of the DNS entries solved the problem. However, I still have to research the tens of thousands of log entries that the server generated during its soused period.

'kay, bye.

Things to note

Take good notes. There will be a quiz at the end.


Technology is cool.


Any questions? Ok, get out a blank piece of paper and put your name at the top.

Question 1: Wasn't that cool?

Question 2: Sure was.

A visit from the...

...Backup Fairy can be a very disastrous thing. Just ask any of the admins who watch over WebCT Vista. The Backup Fairy makes sure that you have been keeping proper backups of data and settings by causing a need to use the backups to recover. Unfortunately, I seem to be in a bit of a Backup Fairy situation right now with my Linux server, Persephone. Most everything still works on my server, just v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. For instance, it takes about 30 seconds to authenticate when logging in. Rendering web pages can take even longer. And to top it off, it's filling up my web server error logs with thousands of broken pipe errors. So, Backup Fairy? Perhaps. I'll let it be for a day or two and keep researching the problem. I do have current backups of all important files on the system, so I'm not too freaked out by it. It's just kind of a bummer because just when I get my server working just the way I want it, it craps out on me and decides to go on holiday. So far, my Linux server has been an ultra-reliable machine. It works day and night and never complains about anything. It's been up almost constantly since Christmas with only short periods of downtime for maintenance. I think it's only been rebooted three times since Christmas, so if that doesn't say anything, nothing will.

Hasta la Charlie!

DCI Classic Countdown

Thus far it is me and whoever I ask and Jon and whoever he asks going down to the DCI Classic Countdown in my parents van so we can watch Drum Corps videos on the way down. If there is anybody else who wants in, just let me know either on here or just email me at tubaribonephone ~ at ~ hotmail ~ dot ~ com And if you haven't bought your tickets and want to buy some, just click on the link that is a few posts down. Just make sure you buy them for the on in West Jordan at Jordan Landing. later.

Use[ful]less thoughts

Did you know that the Pony Express has a higher bandwidth than a 56K modem? You can transfer a 4.7 GB DVD movie across the country faster on the Pony Express than you can with your common, run-of-the-mill 56K modem. :)

Calvin Klein Eternity for Men costs $1,881.98 per gallon which is still somewhat greater than gasoline. Therefore, we should not convert our cars to run on mens' fragrances. However, gas prices are coming scary close, per gallon, to the cost of mouthwash. So, in the future, we could see some sweet-smelling autos.

Whenever you think of decorating your abode, be sure to contact a gay man. You will end up with the coolest place on the block.

For about $6,000 a sqare foot, you can put TFT LCD windows in your house that can be connected to your computer. These windows can be set to lighten or darken depending on your settings on the computer.

Chao!

I think that is a...

...great idea! Nine weeks, you say! Good grief, that's incredible. That's like a little more than two months. Good on ya, mate!

Anyhow, I really did have a purpose in blogging tonight. Okay, first, I must get up on my perverbial soapbox for a second and speak my mind. I really hope I don't offend anyone and if I do, I sincerely don't mean to. I've just got to say something about this protesting that's been going on lately. If there's one thing that drives me crazy it would have to be people who knowingly break the law. Having served my mission down on the border between Mexico and the United States, I was witness to lots of people illegally immigrating to the States. I dealt with illegal immigrants every single day. The problem that I have is that they work here in the U.S. and they don't pay any taxes. Yet, at the same time, they wish to be beneficiaries of all the blessings provided by this great country. Now, I am all in favor of allowing people to come into this country. We don't need no stinkin' walls. However, if they're going to come to this country, then they need to do it legally. We would be expected to do it in their country. So, until these illegal immigrants (from whatever nation) go through legal means to obtain citizenship, then they are criminals. It's that simple. There doesn't need to be a big protest. There doesn't need to be huge reform. People just need to go through the legal naturalization process, or they can go and have a chat with one of my uniformed friends driving the white and green INS trucks.

Okay, I'm done now. I just had to get that off my back because it's really been bothering me.

So, my purpose in writing this blog tonight is to inform you all of an update to the band photo album. I was browsing through my photos and found the rest of the pictures from the Days of '47 2003 parade in Salt Lake City. I know it's like almost three years ago, but I figured that I should scan the rest of the pictures and post them. They can be found here. Check 'em out!

Speaking of pictures, let's get the D.C. pictures posted for all to enjoy!! :) Dang, I wish I could have gone. Gee, and to top it all off, my brother is in Disneyland right now, and I'm not even there! What's up with that?

Meaningless??? You decide.

I updated my other two blogs, so why not post something here?

A Capitol Idea

Well, the trip has been mucho fun. Tim just growled like a dog and announced that he would be getting in the shower. Odd. But funny.

So far I've seen the Capital building, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln, Korean War, and Vietnam War Memorials, the Senate Office Buildings, the International Spy Museum, the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center (including backstage, which is cool), the National Mall (duh), shaken hands with President Eisenhower, met the First Lady (and the Second), eaten breakfast with the czar, toured the Kremlin, and just this morning some guy sold me the Golden Gate Bridge (the real one! not just that fake replica in San Fran) for only $50! What a bargain.

The flight out here was rough - just the way I like it.

I've been making a video blog on my cam which I will post up when I get back.

Well, it's been real. I'ma go' tell Tim to get his self on the go and we're going to go see the Washington Monument up closer, the Hope Diamond, see some sharks get fed, and check out Arlington.

Peace

Galactic domination is immenent

On a similar note, how about very, very large image files? Go Hubble.

This one's a bit smaller, but also very attractive.

And does anyone else think that if they borrow an hour in the spring that when they return it in the fall they ought to return it with interest? Maybe an extra 1/2 hour?

Finally

You can now by tickets for the DCI Classic Countdown online. Just click all of this.

Useless trivia

The first recorded use of a blog dates back to 1774, when Samuel Adams detailed his account of the Boston Tea Party in a little known journal which he titled "The Boston Log." Amongst friends and colleagues he would refer to it as his "blog."

Also:
Due to popular demand for the film but governmental concern over its message, George Lucas's Star Wars was redubbed and recut by the Soviet Ministry of Information in 1981. In this altered version, Luke is reluctant to resist the Empire because he knows that their goals are virtuous, but is strongarmed into it by a conniving and cowardly Obi-Wan Kenobi, who commits suicide at the hands of Darth Vader rather than lead the rebellion against the Empire himself. Luke finally becomes indoctrinated, and leads an attack run against the Death Star, from which he does not return. The final shot of the film is of four additional Death Stars, and the implication of many more, underscoring the futility of Luke's fight against a government whose only goal is to protect its citizens. Interestingly, the name of this loving empire's weapon remains more or less unchanged, translating roughly to "Star of Murder".

Those factoids from gullible.info (no, they're really true).

So... the website for purchasing the DCI Classic Countdown tickets from is not working, but I purchased my tix directly from the theater over the phone. Downside: I have to pick them up in person and they will only hold them for 2 days tops. So - if anyone wants to order their tix over the phone and leave them in my name I will pick them up when I go down tomorrow after Conference (ca. 8pm). But you have to let me know ASAP if you want me to. Umkay? Umkay.

In other news, I have a new blog that will be coming online soon. It will be cool. Literally. I'll link it up here when it's ready.

Peace

Holy iPod, Batman!

Some of you may think that the iPod is the uber-player of digital media. Well, it was, but now it's not. It's just been trounced. Behold, the iZilla. Not 30GB, nor 60GB. Not even 100GB of iPod goodness can match this beast's 2000GB storage of digital euphoria. The best part is that it only costs a little more than 2 iPods. :) Ooh! And to top it all off, it even rips vinyl! I used to do that, but it took me a long time and a lot of equipment to do it.

Oh, and about the DCI show: yes, I think I will be trying to buy tickets for it. I'm in a serious low spot for band right now and need a bit of a pick-me-up.

Fortune:
diplomacy, n:
Lying in state.

you best go

to the DCI Classic Countdown. 12 drum corps shows on one night on the big screen!!! It's Thursday, April 27th at 7pm. Tickets are $12.50 and where supposed to go on sale yesterday but haven't yet. I'm going to the one in West Jordan at Jordan Landing. I believe thus far it's just Jon and I that are planning on going, but if enough people go (and want a ride), I'll take my parents van and we can watch some DCI vids. on the way down. Just let me know. I don't know how fast the tickets are going to go but I'm going to buy mine as soon as I can because they literally sold out every single theater they where showing it at last year. Well, have fun ya'll!! later.

Poetry

To the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean"

My Bonnie looked into a gas tank,
The height of its contents to see!
She lit a small match to assist her,
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me.

I know, it's kind of morbid, but I thought it was funny. It's my fortune of the day, y'know. :)

I concur

I concur with all jon said, including the nice date that he had. I was there, I saw the whole thing.....almost.

Woo Hoo!

Someone's alive out there! I was about to say something crass and see if anyone perked up at that, but then my conscience got the best of me. :) Just kidding. No crass-ness here.

Okay, I have to faunch for a while. I'm really frustrated with some things right at this moment and I just need to get it off my chest. First: Norton Anti-Virus SUCKS. It's a big, fat pig that uses every available system resource that it can find. It's update manager runs on steam, I think. It's freaking slow and bloated. Next, Windows Vista, the next version of Microsoft's flagship product, currently in Beta status, really sucks. It's huge, slow, and stuff just doesn't work. It's user interface is a bad ripoff of Mac OS X and it doesn't even look cool. It looks corporate and well, Microsoftian. Finally, why in the name of all that's holy and pure do brand-name computers (Dell, HP, Com[crap], Apple, etc.) not have hardware reset buttons? If the system ever becomes unresponsive and needs to be shut down, you have to hold the freakin' power switch for five seconds before the blasted thing gives up. Any DIY-ers out there have a hardware reset button that allows you to quickly reboot the machine.

*panting*

I guess the reason that I'm faunching about all this is because I just wasted the last hour fiddling with Windows Vista and its inability to determine whether a program is installed or not. I hope that when Vista (Long-in-the-tooth) finally ships that Micro$oft works out the Oh Duh! stuff.

Hey Jon, I have a proposition for you: What do you think of a community chess game on the Band Blog? Kristin and I were brainstorming some ideas the other day and thought it would seriously rock if there was a chess game or something on the band blog where people could randomly stop by and make moves. The system would keep track of the turn and the game play, but otherwise it would be totally open to anyone who wanted to play. For instance, someone could just make a move on the board and then check back later to see how others have done playing the game. There would probably need to be an option for an actual chess game where those more interested could actually sit down and play against the computer or an opponent, but the main concept would be just an open board. I recently installed a chess game on my server in which a player logs in and starts a game. He/she then waits for an opponent and is notified via email of requests to join the game. It's cool, but it's a little bit geeky seeing as it's really chess by email. :)

Anyhow, talk at y'all later!

Not boring

Gaming is really coming of age. What a colossal undertaking this must have been in the Planning and Thinking About Stuff areas.

Sorry, anypplz on dial^.

Jason, that's some no-nonsense talk about backup. I hope I can keep that in mind.

And yes, there's stuff going on in my life. Namely, I had a date for the first time in a long time and it went well, which is also good. Also, we're flying away to DC in a week and a half-ish. And there's more, but I'll blog it up when I get a bit more time.

Ok, laters all.

The Internet has become...

...a boring place. There's nothing new on the band blog as of late, so there's really no point in having an Internet connection. There are not even any decent news stories to follow.

So, to brighten up this dreary, lonely place, the next one who posts on this forum wins A NEW CAR!! Of course, I can never guarantee the state of this new car, but I can tell you that in some circles, it would be considered cool. :)

Anyhow, yeah, there's just been so little activity on here for the last few months and I'm just kind of wondering why. What's everyone up to? I know that school is dragging on, but there surely must be something of interest going on in someone's life.

Oh, I must share a fairly traumatic experience that happened to me recently, and if you learn something from it, more power to you. Okay, so last week, I was in my Database Administration class (CS3540.) We were discussing some of the finer points of backing up data in a corporate (or personal) environment. Well, I thought to myself that I hadn't backed up my schoolwork from this semester for a few weeks and it was high time I did something about that. So, I remoted in to my Windows computer at home and proceeded to back up all of this semester's work onto my Linux box, Persephone. After class got out, I headed back home to get ready for work only to find that the hard drive in my Windows computer was making a strange moaning noise. So, I tried to log in and it just froze up. I cycled power to the machine and it failed to boot. My hard disk had crashed. I took the hard drive out of the computer and replaced it with an old one I had lying around. That worked, but of course, it didn't have anything on it pertaining to my schoolwork. Fortunately for me, I had backed up all my work from this semester to Persephone and it was safe there. I took my hard drive down to PC Club in Riverdale where they told me that they would do what they could to recover my data (shy of cracking the case on the hard drive.) This was Thursday, I think. When Saturday came, they called me and told me that my data had been recovered and that I could come and pick up my new, larger hard disk with the recovered data. In all, I paid $154.xx to ge my stuff back. It was worth the cost, but I could have avoided the cost by properly backing up all of my data. So, the lesson I hope everyone learns from this is that if the stuff you have on your computer is important, BACK IT UP! And then, once you've backed it up, back up the backup. Be paranoid, but Don't Panic.

So, yeah, that was my not-so-fun week of learning the hard way about backups. Take it easy, y'all!

A website for the masses

Have you ever been really curious about what your neigbor's house is worth, but not nosy enough to ask? Yeah, me too.

So, now there is a website for ordinary people to use so that they can find the value of stationary property pretty much anywhere in the U.S. You can also learn things about the homes researched on this site. It will tell you the square footage as well as some other details about the dwelling.

The site is Zillow.com and it uses a Google Maps-type interface. It's interesting to note that your money will buy you a lot more house in Utah than it will in some place like Beverly Hills, where a modest 2,000 sq. ft. house costs more than $1M. I also found a house north of the State Capitol that had a price of over $3.5M and was over 16,000 sq. ft. It was cool!

Chao!

Spring Break...

...seems like a good time for me to have my eyes worked on. For those of you who were around, Spring Break 2000 was when I had surgery on my left eye that gave me the appearance of being in a fight with a fork. That was a fun experience. I especially like telling people about how I went back to the doctor the day after the surgery and had the operation fine-tuned. Yeah, it was cool. :)

Anyhow, I am going back to the eye doctor today to have a checkup. I don't think it'll be anything major; I just need to get a new prescription on my lenses so that I don't have such issues reading computer screens and printed text. I just think that my eyes have gotten a bit weaker in the last few years and so I need some better correction. :)

Anyhow, I just thought I'd bring everyone up to speed on my current ocular condition. I actually had a checkup a couple of years ago and the doctor told me that my left eye is still wandering a bit. He says that since I have had two surgeries on it already, I can't have any more surgeries. Drat! I'm stuck for the rest of my life being totally unable to look at repeating patterns. Going shopping is really hard for me.

Take it easy!

ps: I have created a new blog for all you Lost freaks out there. If you make it a habit of sitting down in front of the TV every Wednesday at 8:00 pm, then you probably know what I mean. Lost is the best television program ever!! If you wish to get hooked like I have, talk to me and I'll make sure that you're good and hooked. :) Jason's Lost.

My 15 Minutes of Fame

http://www.nba.com/rookies/mailbox_060309.html

Look for the King!

A thought for all

A thought from my Dad, March 6, 2006

“On the way home from Vegas I spent a lot of time thinking. I have been thinking about “treating the cause not the symptom.” It came to me that we are in a bit of a quandary. We are of great worth, if not we couldn’t become Gods. At the same time we are totally dependant on Christ for our Salvation and for Eternal life. So we are of great worth but we must be humble at the same time. Discouragement is one of Satan’s biggest tools against us. He tries in so many ways to get us to believe that we are not important, that we aren’t valuable, that we don’t deserve good things. After we got home I wrote this on the fridge…
“You are infinitely valuable. You are worth more than all the things in this world.”

The same is true for you too. My friends, you are infinitely valuable. You are worth more than all the things in this world. Pass it on.

And I'd like to thank...

...all those wonderful people at Saturn of Riverdale for making my experience there so enjoyable. Seriously, without those guys, I wouldn't be where I am today. That is to say that I wouldn't have a nice mast antenna to display my Mickey Mouse antenna balls. And it was free, to boot! All I had to do was be willing to accept an antenna from a '96 S-Series that had 219,000 miles on it. I figured that the antenna generally ages a bit better than the rest of the car, so I went for it and now I have a nice 1996 antenna on my 1999 car. :) Cheap as free!

Tootles!

ps: If anyone happens to want to donate to the $24,000 Buy-Kristin-a-New-VUE fund, we'll be accepting donations at The Stick.

Yes....but

your posts were both on the same day. If you look back, there were like 4-7 days in between some of my posts. Difference= mine>yours. The alligator of math is eating me, so I win. Hah!

Okay, so now...

...it's just me posting. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to rant a bit about the new Micro$oft technologies coming out.

First off, we have the "Award-winning" Internet Explorer browser. Okay, so maybe it was award-winning back in 1996 when it bested Netscape for features, but now the only awards that Internet Explorer is winning are the "Most Exploited," "Easiest to Pwn" and "Slowest Browser on Earth" awards. I must say that this holds true for IE7 which I have had the distict priviledge of testing the last couple of months. As far as I'm concerned, Internet Explorer 7 is the same piece of crap as Internet Explorer 6, just with a much less intuitive interface. I mean, the browser control buttons are freakin' located all over the place. I should call this browser Picasso because of how deformed it is. The tabs, while an improvement on the conspicuously missing tabs of IE6, are not as refined and neat as those in Firefox or Opera. In this day and age, a browser without tabs is like a car with only one door (which would be the BMW Isetta, for those of you who might be car buffs -- look up a picture and see what I mean.)

Internet Explorer is really only the beginning of the headache. The meaty, juicy part of the headache comes from the next version of Windows called Vista. I'm certainly glad they didn't opt to put a Buena in front of that because then we would be seeing news reports of Microsoft in purchasing negotiations with the Walt Disney Company, which is just wrong on so many levels.

Windows Vista is a huge, bloated, overly complicated piece of junk. Okay, so don't crucify me for being too critical of a yet-unreleased product. It is still in beta development. But, if anyone remembers the Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox betas of a couple of years ago, we can easily be reminded of just how good betas can be. I remember reading in the technology press back before Firefox 1.0 when the press was urging people to install Firefox and turn away from Internet Explorer, an already well-established product. These were comments about a beta software. With Windows Vista, it's just the opposite. It makes the functionality of Windows 95 look pretty darn good. Vista is slow and clunky. Its rendering engine, while impressive, is an overkill. I mean, it's cool that you can increase the size of your icons to rediculously-huge size and they still look good, but it's just that: rediculous. Who needs a Recycle Bin icon that takes up half the screen? Don't even get me started again on the Administrative/non-administrative issues.

So, without further ado, I present Linux. It runs on your current Intel/AMD-type hardware and it's (mostly) free. Kill the bloat!

ps: This blog entry was created on Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista build 5112.

The Joker

For a launghin' good time, call: Fatboy Slim

That was probably one of the laughin'est videos I've seen in a while.

(Careful...Requires Qucktime 6 or higher)

Trend ruining is my specialty

I never was known as a "trendy" type person. In fact, when it comes to trends, I like to be a sourpus and criticize them. But, I guess in the case of a Ben posting on this site, I can't criticize him too much. :)

So, I guess I did join a bit of a trend though, recently. I just installed Google Desktop, which I must say, is one of those technologies that you look at and go, "wow!" I mean, after about 4 hours of indexing stuff on my box, I can now search for anything instantly, way faster than the anemic Windows search feature. And it recognizes r3gul4r 3xpr3ss10ns, which those conglomerations of characters are not. Even the almighty (okay, not quite) Linux 'locate' command isn't that cool.
It may be even cooler than the Mac OS Spotlight search engine because this one is powered by the biggest brain in the world: Google.

So yeah, I'm just kind of basking in the coolness of my new gadget.

Known fact of the day: A Saturn L300 can smash through at least three trees with four-inch-thick trunks. That's like one tree with a foot-thick trunk.

Well, I guess its time

to post again. It seems like I get two posts to everyone else's one lately. So, maybe somebody will post and ruin the trend...?

As bees in a hive

Busy, that is. Otherwise I would've read/posted sooner. Congrats on your soon to be bouncing baby boy, Ben and Hava. That'll be awesome x 10. I'm both excited and betting that I'm not nearly as excited as you guys are. Happy upcoming birthday. :)

And also speaking of busy and awesome...

Cory and Tristin took the plunge on Saturday last. More pictures to follow when I'm not on dial-up.

In other news, we all need to have a party. Like... seriously. Partying is in dire need of happening. Perhaps on a Friday evening someweek?

How come

I'm the only one that seems to post on here lately? Are we all that busy?

I am very very excited, as a matter of fact

We are calling him Ben. He'll be known as Little Ben and we already call him that endearingly. We're preparing a lot of clothes and blankets and stuff, yes. The ultrasound technician said today that he is perfect. That's what I was thinking from the beginning.

Y'know what surprises...

...me? It's the fact that you go on Sony's website looking for cassette players and with all the technology that we have today, they're still asking a premium for the cassette players. I don't have any cassette player (except for microcassette) but I have lots of tapes with cool stuff on them. So yeah, somehow I need to solve my cassette issue.

Anyhow...On to more important and pressing issues.

So Ben, you're having a boy, eh? Well congratulations!! That's awesome! Have you decided on a name yet? Have you started to put together a room for him? Are you or are you not utterly excited for this new arrival? :)

Anyhow, until I can think of more pressing issues, this has been Chunga and Mister from 101.9, The End.

It's been

almost a week since my last post, sorry guys....er....um....wait....I'm doing better than all of you! What's up with that?

It's a

BOY!!!

And in unimportant (for this country) news...

link of the outrageous: London

link of the coolness: you need speakers for this

Shin Sei

Ogden is full of fun little treasures if you know where to look. While the city isn't that much to look at on the outside, if you dig a little bit, you'll find some quite fascinating tidbits of art and culture buried under the overall lackluster appearance of the town. Gems such as El Matador restaurant on 26th Street, the old UP station at the end of 25th street, and a little place called Shin Sei just up 25th from the old Union Station.

Shin Sei is a quaint little Japanese sushi bar that has a very distict foreign appeal. The exterior of the shop doesn't shout out to the tourist or restaurant connoisseur as being a fancy foreign restaurant. However, once you cross the threshold of the entry, you are greeted by a very unique place, indeed. Kristin and I took a chance on this place Friday night and were not disappointed at all. Almost immediately after entering, we were greeted by a very nice waitress who asked us if we would like to sit at the bar or if we would like our own private room. We opted for the room. The whole time I was thinking that it would be a standard booth-style "room" where the patrons all shared a common cafeteria, just like in most non-upper-crust restaurants. Boy, was I mistaken when about two minutes later, our waitress came and up a small flight of stairs into something that reminded me of a Japanese bath house. She ushered us into a room with cane curtains and a table sitting about 8 inches off the floor. Much to my surprise, this was actually a false floor and the table was sitting in a pit where you could put your weary feet. There were no chairs to sit in. Also, the ceilings are painted with a calming sky pattern of blue with white clouds.

Once seated, we perused the menu and ordered an appetizer called the Sampler, which is in itself self-explanatory. Consisting of egg rolls, crab wonton and shrimp Tempura, this was almost a meal all its own. Next came "I Can't Believe It's Not a Volcano" which is plate of very fine salmon sushi with cream cheese and Tempura bits. Keep in mind that there are no utensils like what we Americans are accustomed to. The only utensils available are chopsticks.

The main course consisted of Tori Sake Mushi (Sake grilled chicken) for Kristin and Salt and Pepper Shrimp for me. Both plates were very tasty and prepared with a great deal of quality. The ambience and the menu selection were highly reminisscent of the restaurants in Taiwan where the Ogden Concert Band had the priviledge of visiting in December 2002. I must say, that the only negative aspect of this experience was the root beer. It tasted quite watered-down. Other than that, it was a delightful evening, perfect for a date. All main courses come with a miso soup or salad and fried rice. This combination makes for a perfect meal; one that is neither too heavy nor too light.

All in all, I will have to give this 4 and a half stars out of five. It is easily the most foreign restaurant I have ever eaten at in the United States (disregarding the little Mexican cocinas along the US/Mexico border.) Shin Sei was a delightful eatery with a flair for the exotic. So, if you're pining for a neat place to take a date (be it your spouse or your boy/girlfriend) don't hesitate to check them out. 154 25th Street in Ogden.

****(1/2) of *****

Technology - aka magic

funny link-o-theDay: Store Wars

EVERY... LAST... BLASTED... GOOD... IDEA!!!!!!!!

Every one!

New York Times tech section was pretty much all about something we'll be seeing more and more of in the future: the GeoWeb/GML/OGC and stuff like Yellow Arrow

Still not encompassing the full ubiquitous computing that is possible, but it's heading in that direction. Well well well. We shall see what we shall see.

OK, bye.

For the First of February

I totally withdrew from a class cuz it was stupid. I'm a junior in college. I've almost got my bachaelor's degree. I don't need some stupid teacher telling me to read the chapter, find three things that interested me and then write down why; do this every day and turn it in for a grade. Can you say busywork? Can you say high school? I'm a way smarter student than that. So, teacher, you just got deleted. And I don't care if you went to all that school AND are head of the department, your style of teaching IS THAT of a high school TEACHER, you are no professor to me.

Wow

Someone totally slammed China for their lack of human rights.

(The actual logo here.)

...and you turned me into a llama!

M'kay, I just noticed something here that might be a matter of confusion. There's now, in the band hall, a person by the name of RMT CTL. This person has been fairly active making posts and generally commenting on life as a band geek and as a geek of another trade. Fear not, this person is not someone new to the band hall nor is it someone hell-bent on damaging this sacred shrine. It's me, Jason. The other day, I went in and made some modifications to my profile and chose the moniker of RMT CTL (which is my dream license plate - and which I notice is still available!) So yeah, when you see RMT CTL, just think of me being controlled by a kid with a 27MHz handheld.

Would you please pass the Grey Poupon?

Aah, the nostalgia

Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we. Think back about, oh, ten years or so when there was this little computer game called Gorilla. Do you remember? Hmmm, some of you look like you've wasted more time on it than others. Well, good. I'm here to say that good ol' Micro$soft has removed the beloved QBasic program from Windows XP users. Actually, they probably did that starting with Windows 2000, but I never tried it. Anyhow, I'm here to tell you that I have the old QBasic program and Gorrilla to go along with it. Go here first to download QBasic. It's a zip archive so you'll need to extract the files to your C:\windows\system32 directory. Next, download Gorilla from here and extract it wherever you would like. I don't advertise these downloads on my Windows page of my web site because technically, QBasic is a proprietary Microsoft technology and I have said that I will not post un-free softwares on my Windows page. So, to download them, you pretty much have to link directly to them.

Once you have QBasic and Gorillas downloaded and extracted, to run Gorilla, go to a command prompt in the directory where your Gorilla.bas file is located and type 'qbasic /run gorilla.bas' without the quotes. This will launch Gorilla and you can proceed to terrorize the city with exploding bananas.

Have a lot of fun!

Hay hay, people!

Grass grass...

So, now I command you to click on the link to my blog over on the left side of this page. It's new and it's got a picture. That's all I have to say. Now do it before I break your arm or some such nonsense.

Did you see this in the news? Didn't think so. 

Vol. 11: Make & Do

If you're sitting around sometime and you're bored, try making fake blood and filming gunfight scenes.

If you really want to be left alone, be seen making fake blood.

There's never a single all-encompasing good idea in the universe. Take breathing for instance. Normally, this activity is considered a good idea. But change the venue to, say, the bottom of a swimming pool, and the good idea starts to look a little suspicious. Likewise, it can be said about an all-encompassing bad idea.

Up-date

For the total fun. I pulled my hamstring doing flips off a rock into a pool at Sherwood Hills Resort last night. And the New American Philharmonic Orchestra had a great concert, complete with flying timpani mallets. Concert tonight at 7:30 @ V.A.B. Center for anyone who wants to come. My favorite piece we're playing is Der Schvan von Tuonela. Very moving piece. And yes, that is the group's real name now, since some "American Symphony" decided they'd threaten litigation if we didn't change it. Flippin' chips, Kip!!!

Homeneo Runner? Cool.

New semester, new semester, hey-hey, new semester.

And.... THIS.

Pevek, Russia. That is the city I'm going to take over on Monday. My troops left about an hour ago and will arive around 2AM tomorrow morning. I guess they'll just chill at the city til I get to school Monday AM and give them the order to attack.

Speaking of dates, nobody better forget February 12. It is a date significant to this blog. Make sure to buy a binary teething ring for it to celebrate (not a token ring - it's database won't be able to handle that til it gets a little older).

Time for lunch.

Just totally cool, that's all. 

It ought to be an...

...Olympic sport. Okay, right about now, several things could be running through your head that might be good candidates for Olympic sports. Things like Olympic lawnmowing, or Olympic Slinky walking, or maybe even Olympic needle-in-carpet avoiding (try that with bare feet at night)... And while those are superb examples of activities to suffer from wholesale discrimination by the IOC, they are not what I have in mind for a new Olympic sport. What I'm thinking is much more far-reaching than those. This sport is truly on Olympic scale. In fact, there are no out-of-bounds because the entire cosmos is included (no, it's not Olympic starship captaining, but good idea.)

The sport I'm suggesting is Olympic 404-error finding. The person who can document the most creative 404 errors in a certain time wins. Of course, there would be a panel of judges to determine the creative content of the found 404 pages. Think about it. We all know what a IIS 404 error looks like and what a standard Apache 404 error looks like. But, sometimes, folks get really creative and put up really cool 404 errors, like this one. It has been my experience that the more creative and less "corporate" the site is, generally the 404 page will follow suit. So, I think we should have contests to see who can come up with the most 404 pages in a certain amount of time given a consistent Internet connection speed.

Just a thought.

So...I found out some cool news...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10855323/ if this link works...that probe is landing practically in my home-town backyard. If it doesn't work...here's an idea of what's happening. A probe, named Stardust, is landing after collecting about 7 years of dust and microscopic particles from comets. It is landing in Dugway Proving Grounds (where I grew up) on Sunday. It's actually not the first one (the last one crash-landed), but it's still really cool! Have a great weekend ya'll!

yay for ben

That is a very nice picture and my hat is off to you. Yes, it is true that I don't know where most of my hats are (perhaps washed away in the flood of '05), but it is still off to you.

One could waste hours...

...on this site.

I think this will have to be the site of the week: Speak 'N Spell.

Hasta luego.

Yay for Family Guy!

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as your local fence-sitter...

I have to agree that the war effort is probably more than what any of us would like to have spent. Indeed, it may be even ludicrous. But, if "experts" are saying that it will cost $2Trillion, where are they getting that figure? Do you realize that 2 trillion is 2 thousand-billion? That's a helluva lot of money. So, in all fairness, I would like to know where the figure of $2T comes from. Also, I would like to point out that while we are experiencing casualties in the war in Iraq, there are many more unseen things, good things, that are happening over there. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a big Bush supporter or pro-Republican nut-job; I just like to look at things from more than just one side of the coin. If you are also interested, I do not believe any of the stuff coming out of Michael Moore. I don't believe that man would defend his country if it were the last cause on Earth. He's just out to get one for himself. But, that's neither here nor there. Like I said before, I like to look at issues carefully before forming a decision and saying it's either all good or all bad. For instance, while the war is costing American lives, it is also bringing a new freedom to millions of Iraqi citizens, both in Iraq and abroad. We are in the process of witnessing the nation of Iraq coming from the dark, oppressive closet of a dictatorial regime into the light of democracy and freedom. Yes, it may be a large up-front cost, but if you think of the other side of the coin, you may see the global impact of a free Iraq.

Anyhow, I do not mean to start a flame war and if one starts, I will do all I can to stop it. I just like to give people the benefit of a non-biased approach. Don't we live in a society that has as one of its tenets "Innocent until proven guilty?"

We have a multi-party system in this country for checks and balances. The differing parties have the opportunity (and do take it liberally) to disagree. This keeps one party from having too much clout. When one party takes over, we have situations like what happened in Iraq, Nazi Germany, North Korea and others where there exists a government that serves itself and oppresses the people.

I did call myself a fence-sitter. This is because I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I think that each party has wonderful ideas and plans to "promote the general welfare." However, I also find that they both have tenets that I find disturbing and oppressive. So, I prefer to make decisions on a case-by-case basis and trust that someone in authority probably has a better view on something than I do. If there is something I disagree with, I try to make my opinion heard.

Anyway, take it easy! Try not to roast me too badly. I am allergic to pain, after all. :)

Everybody wants to rule the world

And I'm not talking about that one Tears For Fears song.

My most profound appologies to my fellow geeks (band, tech, or otherwise). I have been holding out on you. But it wasn't on purpose. More like on laziness. What am I talking about, you wonder? Well, I haven't let you all in on a geekret (geeky + secret). So, now, to try to mend affairs, I present to you...

*drumroll, please*

cooler link of the while: GEwar.net

Just when you thought Google Earth couldn't get any cooler, someone goes and hacks it. You will need the latest version of Earth for this. Hat's off to Luke for rev-engineering the API.

All I will say is this: when you get hooked up, post up here what your username is and I'll invite you to join our alliance (Multimedia SWAT, currently #22 thanks to the Tom).

lyrics of the day:

We're on our way
Here we go
We're gonna take over...
- The Aquabats

P.S. Did I mention I like elipses???

P.P.S. I had a fun date last Friday. And I found another favorite restaurant: Famous Dave's.

I love my schedule this semester!

I love my schedule this semester!

Let the Madness Begin!!

No, this is not a repeat of last season. It's doesn't even come with a 90-day guarantee. The most you'll get is maybe a 5-day guarantee. We're Back! School is officially in session on Monday and that means that all the madness of the world will be cobbled into a couple of days. You may have noticed that in previous semesters, we've featured lots of hard classes with a considerable amount of stress. And, oh the tests! Tests and quizzes to dull your senses. Well, this season, we thought we'd start out with a little bit of, well, just that!

So, without further ado, get your notebooks and pencils ready for a great semester of learning and application. Uh huh. It's cliche, but what else can I say?

Anyhow, I didn't want you all to go into this semester completely devoid of any amusement at all, so if you'll please direct your browser to this link and either select to download or stream the movie presented on that page, I assure you that you will be amazed. Okay, that was a long sentence so let me recap: Click here, download or stream the movie (beware, download is big), enjoy. If you download the movie, it is in mpeg format so you might need to install a software DVD player to view it. If so, go and download PowerDVD from CyberQuest. Be sure to only get the trial version.

Okay, so I just have to mention that if you're interested, I do have a copy of the Lord of the Rings Symphony for band by Johan DeMeij which you can download for your listening pleasure. If you're in Dr. Root's band program and have not yet played the LOTR symphony, stick with it and you will. He loves it and so do most of the students. You can download the symphony here. Keep in mind that this is on my personal web server in my apartment so my bandwidth (and therefore your download speed) is somewhat limited. I probably shouldn't be hosting that on my site, but it's very difficult finding a good recording of the LOTR symphony. If anyone complains about it, I will remove it. By the way, while you're on that site, you may take a listen to the Ditty Bops. I really like their music.

Anyway, the time has come to bid you all adieu. Take care and good luck this semester! I know I'm going to need it. :)

"Ferrari is like a toned down version of God" --Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear

ps: I have been in one of the above-pictured motorcars. I have a permanent place in my heart for them.

Byline

News from Jarrett's neck of the woods

And this from ours.

Getting Civilized

I've been playing Civilization 3 of late. And starting to learn Ruby.

long, geeky quote of the day:

"The Ruby developers use CVS (Concurrent Version System, freely available from http://www.cvshome.com) as their revision control system. You can check files out as an anonymous user from their archive by executing the following CVS commands:

% cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.netlab.co.jp:/home/cvs
login
(Logging in to anonymous@cvs.netlab.co.jp)
CVS password: guest
% cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.netlab.co.jp:/home/cvs
checkout ruby

The complete source code tree, just as the developers last left it, will now be copied to a ``ruby'' subdirectory on your machine, updating your local source tree from a repository on the other side of the world. Isn't it a great time to be alive?"


Actually Jason, the Napster in that picture is on my office machine. Downloading music is okay on campus as long as it's legal. Napster didn't used to be legal, but it is now since they are no longer a p2p filesharing network client thingy. However, one of my co-workers is one of the very people that would drop said burning automobile parts on my person should I use a p2p client to start pulling ""archived"" music or movie torrents off the web. I have only ever downloaded about 2 illegal music-type songfiles in my life, which I later purchased anyway. I may be a pirate, but not that kind! :)

In other news, I hope everyone had a greatwonderful Christmas and is having an Appy New Year so far. I know I am. I am in Ithilien right now, just getting ready to leave. And I am learning all sorts of new things, like how Dreamweaver 8 uses html and xml for a lot of its functionality (hooray for customization/automation).

haha

I just rememered that the Jingles2la tagline was "3 Monkeys 10 Minutes"

Good times, good times.

A funny thing happened on the way to town the other day...

So, I was casually driving up to the Clearfield area to visit a friend and the funniest thing happened...my car somehow ended up facing traffic. Thankfully my car was off to the side of the road, but for a while there I thought that I'd be eternally stuck between the I-215 exits ramps from I-80, facing the wrong direction. Flipping a 180 on I-80 is definately not a good way to start off the new year...but hey, at least everything ended up alright. :) I think I will never drive again....at least, not in weather like that...although I think I have concluded that it was the wind, not the road. So...with that...
Happy New Year!!!!
(Good morning starshine, the earth says hello!)