Eric

Happy New Year

2007-01-04T21:46:52Z

Well, so far my year is off to a pretty good start. On the 1st, my playstation 2 died. Which, in and of itself, is not so good. But the thing had been dying for years. It just finally said 'no mas'. So I figured I'd just find other ways to entertain myself until playstation 3s were plentiful in the stores. So I go into Gamestop, and ask how often they get new shipments. The answer: "Well, we have one right now". So, after debating with myself for about 5 minutes about whether or not I should spend a bunch of money I didn't have, I decided to buy it. More on that later

On the 2nd, it was back to work. Which, in and of itself, is not so good. But, while at work, I found out that I had passed the PE test that I took oh so long ago. So that's completely out of the way now. And apparently getting licensed in other states usually just involves paying someone (although if I want to transfer it to california, it apparently involves a whole lot more).

Oh, and I came in 2nd in one fantasy football league, and 4th in another, winning a total of $260.

So that's about it, I suppose. But it's only the 4th. I can't expect good news every day.

Side note - the PS3 is pretty awesome. The backwards compatibility set up (since I only have 1 ps3 game so far, it's good that I can still use my ps2 games) is great. The online setup is pretty nice. I downloaded a demo for Gran Turismo HD, and was playing that a bit. And I can't wait for that game to come out.

That's all for now

Fun with the news - oh the irony...

2006-11-06T19:10:43Z

I just found this to be one of the more ironic statements I've seen in a while -

from http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/06/ussintrepid.ap/index.html

"The Intrepid stands for everything we believe in ... our freedom and our values," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said at the sendoff ceremony before the tugs began their work.

....she of course said this shortly before the Intrepid got stuck in the mud. So, uh, where are our freedom and values exactly?

flixxer @ 2006-11-06T13:58:00

2006-11-06T18:58:28Z

August 22nd? Was that really the last time I updated this? Well, I guess I should get back to writing in this little thing. I guess a good portion of my time since then was taken up by studying for the PE exam. And that is finally out of the way. The whole process was not very enjoyable - especially the test itself. And now the waiting is equally enjoyable.

The test itself was a great way to spend a friday. I got to the testing site at 7:10 am, got our morning instructions, took a test for 4 hours, went to lunch, went back to the testing site, got out afternoon instructions, and took another 4 hours of test. And left at 6pm. So for 11 hours, I was just hanging out at the Maryland state fairgrounds, focused on a test. I don't get the results until some time in january. I'm not really sure why it takes so long to get the results, since it was an electronic bubble sheet type of test. But oh well. It's out of the way.

In the middle of studying for the PE was my 5 year reunion. Which was a lot of fun. It was definitely nice to see people after so long. It's also funny to think of, in my view at least, how little people have changed going into their 5 year college reuniuon as compared to going into my 5 year high school reunion. Just an observation, I suppose.

Now that the test is over, things are slowing down greatly. Which I guess has advantages and disadvantages.

flixxer @ 2006-08-22T14:18:00

2006-08-22T18:18:31Z

Hmm...has it been longer than a month already?

I am now all signed up to take the Professional Engineer exam in october. And have received the letter saying that they'll actually let me take it, which means my experience and education are sufficient (which is always reassuring, I suppose). So yesterday was the first day of my review class for this exam. Overall, the class is kind of worrying me, because I'm worried we'll go over something that wont look familiar to me at all. That, and I'm really not looking forward to going to a 3-hour long class 2 days a week for the next 10 weeks. In addition to already going to work. So Mondays and Wednesdays, I'll (supposedly) leave home to go to work at 7:30 am. And get home around 9:30 pm. Good times.

Thankfully, the first day of class didn't go too badly. The material we covered looked vaguely familiar, and it didn't seem too difficult. Of course, the test will be 8 hours, consisting of 80 "6 minute" problems. I think I'll be doing a lot of practice problems, so that the problems really do take me 6 minutes to do.

In other news, the twins are coming to town this week. And the twins are currently .5 games back from the wild card lead. So baseball is pretty exciting. And football season starts soon. And Madden '07 came out today. so lots of fun stuff going on. Granted, I don't plan on getting Madden '07 or NCAA '07 until I get a playstation 3, which could be a long wait.

flixxer @ 2006-07-19T14:32:00

2006-07-19T18:32:18Z

So I guess I should probably update this thing, since in the time it took for me to update I've been to Minneapolis, Montreal and Quebec. Which you figure means I have something to talk about.

But first, I have to sing the praises of my Sunglasses case (and say I'm glad I moved my sunglasses from the soft case they came in to the hard case I've had for a while). Basically, I was running across the street, and my sunglasses fell out of my bag (I really should keep that part zipped, since it has my sunglasses, my ipod, and my clie). Traffic was stopped when it fell, but it fell right in front of the rear wheel of an SUV. So I tried to hurry back to grab it before the light changed. No such luck. My sunglasses got run over by an SUV. But the glasses themselves came out fine. The case? it's seen better days.

It was really nice being back in Minneapolis. The weather was great, and not so humid, which may have contributed to that (although it did rain a bit). And downtown minneapolis was a lot nicer than I remember it being.

After Minneapolis, it was back to Baltimore for about 3 days, then off to Montreal and Quebec. I think in Ranking canadian cities where I might want to live, Toronto is still on top of the list. But this is partially because I don't speak french, and felt awkward in the province of Quebec. Both cities are beautiful, and it seems like there's plenty to do in both places (although it rained a bit more).

Well, now it's back to Baltimore.

flixxer @ 2006-06-19T10:45:00

2006-06-19T14:45:35Z

So, here's my weekend in review.

Friday night I went out to canton. Got home, went to sleep. The next time I left my apartment was this morning, coming into work. I don't recommend that as a way to spend a weekend. Although I don't necessarily feel bad. It was 94 degrees and humid when I checked the weather. My apartment was much nicer. And staying inside is a good way to ensure that I don't spend any money. Which is good, since my next 2 weekends involve trips to Minnesota and Montreal. Which I imagine will cost money.

400 seconds

2006-06-16T15:08:33Z

It's always nice to have goals. Some sort of visible, tangible target. And it helps to have some sort of way to measure your progress against those goals.

I have one form left to turn in before I am officially registered to take the PE exam. Then I'll essentially have to study to learn every topic in civil engineering before I take the exam. The problem is, I never really studied civil engineering in the first place - I'm an environmental engineer by education, and a civil one by practice. Hopefully the study materials which I hope to come across soon will help me learn just about everything on the topic.

Speaking of working as a civil engineer, I think that's one frustration I have with work in general - the lack of goals. 5 years down the road, how different will things be if I'm still here? And against what do I have to measure my progress?

Outside of work, say, going running, it's pretty easy to set a goal. And to check your progress. So my new goal is a 400 second mile. Or, in a way my sprinter mind can understand, 4 100 second 400's with no cooldown in between. Which basically means losing 50 seconds. Should be interesting.

Other than that, I now have a ticket to go back to Minnesota. I'm hesitant to use the word "home" to describe Minnesota, but my instinct is to do that, and it's good to trust your instincts. But, to quote the movie "Garden State":

You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.

Although this is somewhat magnified by the fact that the house I grew up in is no longer the house that my mom lives in. Regardless, it will be nice to be back.

flixxer @ 2006-05-26T16:07:00

2006-05-26T20:08:07Z

So, I've noticed I'm often complaining about bad drivers out here.

Then I see this on cnn.com: (from http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/05/26/dumb_driver_states/index.html)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The tiny state of Rhode Island still ranks rock bottom in terms of driving knowledge, according to a national test conducted by GMAC Insurance. Oregon drivers answered the most questions correctly.

The test revealed that about one in 11 licensed drivers in the United States would fail a state drivers test, according to GMAC Insurance.

Rhode Island ranked last year, also, with an average score of 77. Last year, Oregon's average score was 89, which still placed at the top of the rankings that year.

Based on average scores, northwestern states generally ranked highest while the bottom-ranking states were mostly in the northeast. One exception was Vermont, which ranked third. Washington state drivers ranked second. Drivers in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia ranked at the bottom, with D.C. finishing just ahead of Rhode Island.

The 20-question test was based on questions asked in state driver's license examinations. A score of 70 or higher is required to pass a standard state test.

The failure rate for drivers in northeastern states was about 16 percent, according to GMAC Insurance. The failure rate for drivers in northwestern states was from one to seven percent.

The test and an accompanying survey were completed by 5,288 licensed drivers including at least 100 from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey asked about responses to specific driving situations.

(Cheat alert: The following paragraph includes some answers to the test.)

Approximately one in three drivers said they usually do not stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. At least one out of five drivers did not know that pedestrians in a crosswalk have the right of way. At least one in five also did not know that roads are most slippery when it first starts to rain after a dry spell.

State-by-state rankings - http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/05/26/gmac_test_rankings/index.html

Take the test:

http://www.gmacinsurance.com/SafeDriving/2006/drivertest.asp

-----

So I decided to take the little test. And this is what it tells me:

"Thank you for taking the GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test. A score of 70% or better is considered passing on a state written drivers test. Based on your answers, you have the following score: 100.0"

Awww yeah. I am now compltely justified in complaining about the bad drivers out here. (Maryland came in 46th place).

Other than that, not too much going on. I got the stitches out of my finger, which was nice. Now I just have a big scar running along my finger. And I discovered (once the bandages and things were off) that I managed to cut through part of my fingernail. I'll say again, x-acto knives are sharp.

It's now memorial day weekend, so it will be nice to have a long weekend. Not that I have anything planned for it. But I figure not being at work on monday is better than being at work on monday, so I can't complain.

flixxer @ 2006-05-16T10:19:00

2006-05-16T14:20:01Z

It's been said that you learn something new everyday. Well, yesterday must have been a special day for me, because I learned a few things. Here are some of the things I learned (in no particular order relative to when I learned them):

*-Contact Solution is a good tool for getting blood out of clothing
*-Stitches can go through your fingernail
*-x-acto blades? they're sharp
*-If you have a mishap involving a hospital visit while at work, work seems to pay for it.

Basically, I was cutting a little display board at work, and managed to slip, and miss the display, and slice my finger. So I had to take a little trip to the Emergency room to get it stitched up. So there are currently 9 stitches in my left index finger, from the fingertip to my first knuckle. The fact that there are 9 in such a short distance leads me to believe that it was pretty deep. Although I don't think I damaged any nerves, because I hit my finger against a metal railing this morning, and boy did that hurt.

In other news, I went up to New York to see the Lion King on broadway last friday. Which was completely awesome. I wasn't completely impressed with some of the singing voices (although Nala was great), but the sets, the costumes, everything else was amazing.

other than that, not too much going on...

More fun with the news

2006-05-05T20:43:38Z

from http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/05/bush.appoint/index.html

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA Director Porter Goss is resigning, President Bush announced on Friday.

"Porter's tenure at the CIA was one of transition, where he's helped this agency become integrated into the intelligence community, and that was a tough job," Bush said in a photo session with Goss at the Oval Office."

---

Integrated into the intelligence community? They're the Central Intelligence Agency... How much integration is needed exactly?

---

""He's got a five-year plan to increase the number of analysts and operatives, which is going to help make this country a safer place and help us win the war on terror," the president said."

---

While it's good to know that the guy has a five-year plan, I think it might be even better if he stuck around more than 1 year. If the next guy is bound to the 5 year plan, that seems like the easiest job in the world. (Where do I apply?). That's like Larry Brown having a 5 year plan for rebuilding the Knicks.

flixxer @ 2006-05-01T16:31:00

2006-05-01T20:31:58Z

This weekend turned out to be a pretty busy one for me.

Friday night, we had our 'end of year volleyball party'. Since I haven't written in this for a while, I should mention that my volleyball team miraculously made the playoffs, and then even more miraculously won our first round game (against the #2 seeded team... which yes, means that we were seeded 2nd to last). Second round, we played worse against a worse team, and lost.

Saturday, one of my friends from Stanford was in town because she's going to be moving here to do her residency at Hopkins. So I showed her around a little, and went apartment browsing with her. After that, we went to the inner harbor, where they're having a big waterfront festival (to coincide with the Volvo Ocean Race). Which brings up another quick aside - I went sailing for the first time last week (one of my coworkers has a sailboat). And it's really fun. And relaxing. The only time it's slighly less relaxing is when you have to tack. But even then it's not too bad. Although I definitely cannot imagine trying to go around the world, keeping a competitive attitude the entire time you're on the boat (the stops would be nice, though). Despite having only been on 1 sailboat, the Volvo Ocean race boats were all impressive. And pretty big. But not so big that it wouldn't suck being on it for 3 weeks at a time. But the harbor was fun, and it was nice to see that they finished building a big sort of grassy park right there.

Sunday, I ran a 5k in the morning, played football shortly after, and went to hear the baltimore symphony. The 5k ended up well - it was faster than the only other time I've run a 5k, and my time was about what I was shooting for (25 minutes... which, when I think about it, is kind of slow).

Since it's been a while, I'm trying to think of what else is going on. I got my new tv, and the HD part of it should now be hooked up. Although it was frustrating when I called to get it set up to find out that, at some point, they decided to give me Showtime. Well, charge me for showtime at least. Since I didn't know I had it, I clearly wasn't getting too much use out of it. And I love that if you get a High Definition TV with a built in tuner, you still have to pay to get an external tuner from comcast. scheming bastards.

flixxer @ 2006-04-13T12:23:00

2006-04-13T16:23:39Z

Here's something I don't completely understand:

(as a bit of background info, I had to take my car in to get serviced yesterday during lunch. So I went to Le McDo (McDonald's) for lunch)

if you get the 10 piece chicken mcnuggets, it will cost you $3.20

the 4 piece chicken mcnuggets on the value menu costs $1

...why would anyone get the 10 piece order, when they can get 12 for less money?

My other thought is that afternoon baseball games are a great thing. It's such a great feeling to sleep in, skip out on work, and watch baseball in gorgeous weather for 3 hours. It was also a great feeling to see Dick Cheney get booed (loudly) when he came out to throw out the first pitch in the Nationals-Mets game.

I wish DC were a little bit closer. I also wish the Metro didn't decide to start charging for parking. It's a disincentive for driving to the metro station and taking the metro in. It would not have cost me $3 in gas money to just drive all the way into DC. Granted, parking at the stadium probably would have cost more.

Ah well... that's it for now.

new tires

2006-03-21T14:10:18Z

So, a quick explanation about me selling myself to science that I mentioned. I'm taking part in a vaccination trial for the bird flu. But the vaccination itself has already been tested, and has been shown to be safe and effective. The trial I'm taking part in is testing an adjuvant to the vaccine, to see if it can be made more effective. Seems harmless enough. The good news is they pay me $500 for the trail. The bad news is that $200 comes in April, and $300 comes in October.

Why is that bad news? Because I needed to get 4 new tires for my car yesterday. And the tires realigned. Which unfortunately cost $500. Now, I don't know much about what goes into making tires, other than a healthy supply of rubber. And I don't really know the cost of rubber. But tires seem a bit expensive.

Ah well. I also had to take my car in because the 'service vehicle' light was coming on. Thankfully, that was a minor issue, and didn't cost anything. So I could look at the tire cost as including getting my car fixed. So long as I don't care about the itemization, it's not so bad.

flixxer @ 2006-03-15T12:39:00

2006-03-15T17:38:41Z

Well, it's good to see Stanford win their first round tournament game. And by tournament, I, of course, mean the NIT. Because the team struggled a bit this year. It's kind of disappointing, since they've been on a decline since my freshman year. But apparently they have a couple of great recruits coming in (big twins...last time stanford landed big twins, they went to the final 4). So maybe next year things will turn around.

Speaking of stanford sports and next year, I'm quite glad stanford has a live webcam of the stadium construction. Which is kind of sad. But it's fun to watch. (Stanfordstadium.com). I also hope they keep the name of it as "stanford stadium" and don't sell it out. I still don't completely understand removing 30,000 seats. There are apparently 2 schools of thought on how to fill a stadium. The stanford approach is to build a smaller stadium. Some people are more in favor of building a better team. I'm from the latter school. They didn't have problems drawing fans the year they went to the Rose Bowl (having a "money-back guarantee" on tickets probably didn't hurt)

I think it's been about a week since I got my 6 boxes of cookies. And after today, I'll have 2.5 boxes left. Yikes. But really, I could eat 4 boxes of thin mints in about an hour. So I'm showing great restraint.

Other than that, not too much going on here. It's St. Patricks day this weekend, and I've never really been a big St. Pats day fan. Which probably has something to do with me a) not being Irish, b) not being Catholic, and c) not liking beer. But the day is huge in Baltimore since apparently the city is filled with a) Irish, b) Catholic, c) Beer Drinkers. Or some combination of traits.

That's it for now

flixxer @ 2006-03-06T10:41:00

2006-03-06T15:40:17Z

I guess when it gets to be over a month between updates, I should just write *something* here.

In between posts, I went to California for Rob's wedding. Which was awesome. It's always good when I get to see all of my classmates. And I got to spend time with Randall. I definitely miss it out there. So hopefully I'll get to go out there more. At least I know that I have my 5 year reunion this year (scary!), and hopefully Randall's graduation as well. The weather in cali wasn't as nice as I was hoping (what's with getting hit with about 5 seconds of hail??), but Sunday turned out to be pretty nice. Which was good, because I spent almost all of sunday walking around San Francisco, playing tour guide. Which, ultimately I think is the cause of my being sick for the last 2 weeks. But I think I'm finally getting better.

I figured out how I'm going to get the TV I want... sell myself to science. Well, sign up for a medical trial of sorts. Which involves getting paid $500. So it really feels like prostitution, complete with diseases being involved.

Hmm...what else.... there are currently 3 cds that I will probably buy within a week of their release. The Coup, Prince, and Van Hunt's new cds all come out within the next month. Which means multiple trips to Best Buy, or some other store carrying those cds. Which could be bad news, if I stumble across anything else I want. Espcecially since I'm trying to save money.

My 2nd Batch of Girl Scout cookies arrived today. Which means I now have another 6 boxes of cookies. Which kind of scares me. Maybe I should eat a little slower this time around. I should also find myself a Dentist...

I suppose that's all for now.

flixxer @ 2006-02-02T10:18:00

2006-02-02T15:17:35Z

Borrowed from Clara -

</tr>

You scored as Mathematics. You should be a Math major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on!

</td>

Mathematics

83%

Engineering

75%

Philosophy

67%

Dance

58%

Sociology

58%

Anthropology

58%

Theater

50%

Chemistry

42%

Linguistics

42%

English

42%

Psychology

33%

Journalism

25%

Art

25%

Biology

25%

What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3)
created with QuizFarm.com

Okay, I can kind of understand the first 3. Dance? I'm not so sure about that one. I also have to wonder why it seems that only math and engineering problems can be solved with analytic thinking.

Other happenings this week - The oscar nominations came out. And I realized I've only seen 1 of the movies up for best picture (Crash, which I really liked). This isn't so surprising, I suppose, since i've seen no more than 5 movies in the theater in the past year. And new movies that come out on DVD get put at the end of my netflix list (unless I *really* want to see it, in which case it gets bumped... like Batman Begins... but that's another story). So sometime in about a year I might get around to seeing King Kong, Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, and the rest of the movies I'd like to see. Speaking of movies, it takes a lot of will to sit down and watch a 3.5 hour long movie. It happened when I got Lawrence of Arabia. Now it's happening again with Ran.

note - I'm not *complaining* about not getting to see movies. I'm just observing. Because I will get to see the movies I want to. And it's not like I'm the one voting for the oscars , so there's no need to see the movies right away.

Alright, back to work.

flixxer @ 2006-01-30T16:38:00

2006-01-30T21:37:47Z

So much time has passed, with so little report. The super bowl is coming up on sunday, and since the superbowl has turned into some big societal event, I'd feel kinda lame if I end up just sitting on my couch watching the game. Which is currently what my plans call for. As usual (since the vikings haven't sniffed a superbowl since before I was born), I have no real vested interest in the teams in the game. But, strangely, it's more the commercials than the game itself that turns the superbowl into such an event. Which is a sad but fitting commentary on our culture.

Speaking of the superbowl, after reading Skip Bayless' column on ESPN.com today, I'm quite convinced he's the worst writer on the page2 staff. I was convinced that it was Bill Simmons (aka the Sports Guy, who has fallen to a close 2nd...some days he seems determined to take the crown), but right now, it's Skip. It's actually a tough call. With the Sports Guy, I don't care about 75% of what he has to say, because it's some pop culture reference. Even when he references a show I actually watch (which right now I think is limited to 24 and the O.C.), I don't care to see those analogized to sports. Skip Bayless at least tries to talk about sports. He just usually has no clue what he's talking about.

Speaking of ESPN.com, the new layout is awful.

In my fantasy basketball league, I'm currently tied for first place. Which I'm kind of surprised at. Usually I'm nowhere near the running for the crown at this point of the season. But since I am, I have to actually try to win now. And the person with whom I'm tied just traded Kevin Garnett for Lebron James. Which might make it tricky. So now I need to figure out some blockbuster of equal proportions to keep my team in the running. Might be tough. Since I don't really want to trade any of my players except for Jason Richardson (since he can't shoot free throws... but he can bomb from downtown)

Fun with the news, part I -

from - http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/30/news/companies/exxon_earns/index.htm?cnn=yes

"Earnings up across Big Oil

Of course Exxon Mobil isn't the only oil company reporting sharply better results. The 12 U.S. oil companies in the S&P 500 that have reported fourth-quarter results have seen an average of a 48 percent rise in earnings excluding items in the period, according to First Call."

--

hmmmm... Gas is about 48 percent more expensive, and oil companies are making 48 percent more. Who'd have thunk it?

I think that's enough mindless babble for now.

flixxer @ 2006-01-13T10:18:00

2006-01-13T15:18:30Z

You know, in looking at my little picture that goes along with my journal, I couldn't help but think "hmmm... maybe I should use a picture that isn't 8 years old"... Granted, I still look pretty much the same. But still... that's an old picture.

flixxer @ 2006-01-13T10:12:00

2006-01-13T15:12:01Z

The new season of 24 starts this weekend. With 2 hours on Sunday, and 2 hours on Monday. I certainly can't complain. I can complain about Fox's decision to wait until March to finish the season of 'Prison Break', however. Still not sure why they did that.

That aside, I now have my ticket to go back to california for Rob's wedding in February. So that will be nice to get back out that way.

In the world of sports, the vikings hired Brad Childress, the Eagles' O-Coordinator to be the head coach. Which is something I'm somewhat wary of. First, Childress didn't actually call any plays as O-Coordinator. Which bears too many similarities to Stanford's hiring of Buddy Teevins. And really the last thing I want is for the vikings to resemble Stanford during Teevins' tenure. (Side note: A good sign Buddy Teevins wasn't that good - he's now the coach of Dartmouth. Who went 2-8 last year. They couldn't beat Harvard. They couldn't beat Yale. They really just sucked it up in the Ivy). Another reason I'm wary of Childress is because, without McNabb, their offense was kind of horrid. Granted, the vikings have a quarterback somewhat similar to McNabb (in that he's big and mobile). Another thing I don't get is why the vikings interview Ted Cottrell (the Defensive Coordinator) to be head coach, and then fire him 2 days later. "Well, we think you might be a good fit to coach this team. Wait, nevermind... We want nothing to do with you". Just doesn't make sense.

My friend Katie wanted me to talk about Hockey (since I complained about not having other sports to talk about), so here goes. First off, my fantasy hockey team is awesome. Now that Gaborik and Nash are healthy, and I traded for Sidney Crosby, I might actually start winning games. Speaking of Crosby, I'm really considering looking for tickets to see the Penguins when they go to play the Caps down in DC. Although that might be the same weekend I'm going to california - I need to check on that. But the Crosby-Ovechkin matchup really is the future of hockey, and is what hockey needs to win back the fans and gain support. The Wild are in last place in the Northwest Division ... which confuses me, since they have one of the best goalies in the league. I think having Gaborik healthy should help to create some offense. Getting Pierre-Marc Bouchard back would be nice as well. That's my hockey round-up. Oh, the olympics should be fun, as well.

That's all for now.

flixxer @ 2006-01-05T09:03:00

2006-01-05T14:03:19Z

To update on my question from before, I did end up getting a ticket down to Atlanta to see family for christmas. The ticket ended up being not *too* expensive (which was partly due to flying down the morning of the 25th), and it was really fun getting to see my brothers, and Phillip's family (Asha and Thaddeus are just adorable... if I remember when I get home, I'll add a picture of them). Other than that, it seems like I've spent entirely too much money the last couple of weeks, which will make the next few pretty boring.

New Years was remarkably similar to last year. Randall was in town, so at about 11:30 we walked down to the harbor and caught the fireworks. Then walked back. Side note - you know your Mayor's pretty cool when he says "I'd like to give a shout out to..." In fact, I think the shout out went to Best Buy, since they helped to sponsor the fireworks.

Other than that, the vikings' season is now done, college football is now done, it's not yet NBA playoff time, the stanford men suck, and the stanford women are impossible to actually find coverage of. So the sports world will be pretty slow for a bit. Although I am quite glad the Vikings fired Mike Tice. I just hope they bring in a new coach who's somewhat smarter.

flixxer @ 2005-12-16T11:47:00

2005-12-16T16:48:06Z

I've lived in places where people can't drive in rain. I've lived in places where people can't drive in Snow. I think Baltimore is the first place I've lived where people struggle to drive in the sun. And in every other condition imagineable. But driving to work in the morning, there's a certain corner that has the sun right at about eye-level. And no one seems to know what to do, except for slam on their brakes. Which I can't imagine is really the best option. It's really not that different from driving down a 2-lane road, and having bright headlights in your eyes... don't look right into the bright light, and things will be much better...

I think getting the Best Buy service protetction plan on my ipod was a great, great idea. A few months ago, I bought a 20 GB photo ipod. shortly after, Apple released the 30 GB video ipod for the same price. since a few songs on my ipod were skipping (more on this later) I took my ipod to best buy and said "there's a problem with my ipod". So they replaced it...with the 30 GB video ipod. I'm certainly not complaining one bit. As for the skipping, apparently there's something wrong with copying the songs from my computer to the ipod, because the songs still skip (but they play fine on itunes). Whoops.

Quick fun with the news: from http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/12/16/nurses.harassment.ap/index.html

Andres said she has sometimes asked not to take care of a particularly troublesome patient. But usually, she said, "I just tell them that we are supposed to be professional here. I tell them we need to have mutual respect. Sometimes you have to talk to them almost like children."

---Because, really, nothing says respect like talking to a grown person like a child.

So here's a question that's been bothering me recently - say you come across some extra money... is it better to overpay to travel to see family, or get a great deal on something you want for yourself? Here's the catch - holiday travel prices are ridiculous. After the holidays, prices are far more reasonable for travel. So is it worth it to travel at the more socially acceptable time, just because it's what's expected? Decisions, decisions.

That's all for the day...

flixxer @ 2005-11-22T11:06:00

2005-11-22T16:06:16Z

If you ever stop and ask yourself "How long does it take a person to eat 6 boxes of girl scout cookies?" and the person in question just happens to be me, I can tell you the answer is 4 weeks. Which is pretty scary to think about, considering it was near 200 cookies. And I only ate them at work. (meaning 20 days instead of 28). But surely it's completely normal for a person to average eating 10 cookies a day for 20 days... right?

Big game was a fairly painful experience (again) this year. Although the stanford-cal co-alumni event was pretty fun. Always fun getting picked on by a bunch of cal students. Aside from that, it was fun seeing people I hadn't seen in a bit (including some of my frosh from when I was an RA). Actually, with the exception of the vikings pulling out a close monday night game, the whole weekend was kind of painful in a sporting sense. What business does the stanford men's team have losing to UC Irvine? Why couldn't the women hold out against Minnesota? (note: when Stanford plays Minnesota, I pull for Stanford) What happened to the Minnesota football team? sigh.

Well, friday I head out to california, and it should be a lot of fun. I also need to decide what I'm doing about taking the PE exam. I figure since I'm going out to california, I should probably get in touch with people from CalTrans who would have to sign off on my application. But it's been a while. I guess I should have remembered to keep in touch with people that I needed to keep in touch with.

flixxer @ 2005-10-24T12:45:00

2005-10-24T16:46:56Z

okay, not much of a surprise here.

You fit in with:
Atheism

Your ideals mostly resemble those of an Atheist. You have very little faith and you are very focused on intellectual endeavors. You value objective proof over intuition or subjective thoughts. You enjoy talking about ideas and tend to have a lot of in depth conversations with people.

40% scientific.
60% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

flixxer @ 2005-10-24T12:38:00

2005-10-24T16:37:51Z

I think I've been avoiding writing in this thing because the vikings have been completely horrible. But the funny thing is, with only 2 wins so far, they're just a game out of first place in the NFC North. But the vikings, for a half yesterday, looked like they're actually ready to play again. It's funny, because they started playing well right after I sent my brothers a text message saying "the vikings are awful". Because, really, to that point, they had been. And even though they won, Mike Tice is still an idiot. And makes idiotic decisions.

Stanford's been playing well so far. But the end of the schedule looks a little bit brutal. Stanford's remaining schedule includes top-ranked USC (7-0), No. 8 UCLA (7-0), No. 10 Notre Dame (5-2) and No. 21 Cal (6-2). Also thrown in there is Oregon State. And of that group, stanford needs 2 wins to be bowl eligible, and not make me look like an idiot for predicting a bowl game. Why, oh why couldn't they have beaten UC Davis? Forgive me for sounding a little like John Madden, but I think the 2 most beatable teams out of the ranked bunch are the teams with losses. The good news is that UCLA, Notre Dame, and Cal will all be at Stanford. Other good news is that *I* will be at stanford for the Notre Dame game. So i'm very excited for that.

Outside of the realm of sports, there's not much going on. I need to think up a halloween costume, and I've exhausted my costumes that I brought from california (which really was just spiderman and the space alien pimp). Which means I need to get original again. But I have no ideas.

weekend report

2005-09-19T17:37:52Z

Unfortunately, the vikings seem determined to prove me right in my evaluation, and stanford seems equally determined to prove me wrong. The vikings somehow managed to come out even flatter, and got completely owned by cinci. Stanford? well, they only managed to lose to D-I AA UC Davis. I guess Davis really is ready for Division 1. Or stanford just isn't. A quick glance at the statistics from the game (since there's not much prayer of catching that game out here) says a few things. The D-Line really is doing a good job. Including picking up both stanford touchdowns. Kimble had another decent day (although fumbled once), and is still averaging about 5+ yards per carry. The other running back, Evans, ran 11 times for 17 yards. So maybe he shouldn't be running the ball 11 times. The starting quarterback got hurt, and the backup didn't do so well.

As for the vikings, I have no idea what's wrong with them. Well, I do, actually. Daunte's thrown 8 interceptions as opposed to 0 touchdowns, and the team probably has about 50 yards rushing total over 2 weeks. Everyone knows the vikings can't run right now, so they can focus more on coverage. Which, I imagine, contributes to the 8 interceptions.

In other news, this weekend was my company's golf tournament. And boy, do I suck at golf. The tournament was a best-ball tournament, and my team finished 4-over par, but I contributed very little to the team. I think my shot was the 'best ball' maybe twice over the entire day. I need to hit the driving range more.