Happy Halloween!

I wore my costume to work today, and felt kind of like a tool since not so many people wore costumes. Oh well. I got a lot of compliments, though, so it could have been worse. Had football practice after work, which was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've been active, and it felt good to go out and run around a little bit.

At work, we're going to try to do a push to finish up our project, and we're anticipating some long hours and weekends, so that's not really good news. I can't wait to be done with this, though, and we're really close, so hopefully this will do it.

Had dinner and carved pumpkins and watched Survivor over with Diana's parents, which was nice. I carved a smily like this: :-) into my pumpkin. How much of a geek am I? A big one. Oh well.

Tomorrow is Friday, Saturday might be work (or perhaps some golf if I can convince Iwan or Little Buhr or Diana or Norm and Teri). Sunday is the Race for the Cure, and hopefully some time to watch the Charger game. I hope I'm not needed to much at work this weekend, 'cause I feel like going out and having some fun!

Ugh.

I was fooling around with my RAM today, trying to tweak some stuff for performance, and I screwed something up. Windows XP has the nasty habit of getting it's registry files all f'd up the computer crashes, leaving you in a state where you can't even boot the machine. Luckily, I had a printout of how to get around this from the last time this happened. I was able to restore the files that would allow me to roll back to a recent "system restore checkpoint". This is normally a point in the computers life that is saved like everyday. The last one that I had, for some reason, was in May. Ugh. So, basically, I have all my current files, buy my registry thinks it's May. So I've been reinstalling drivers and software as necessary. Big pain in the butt.

Diana made Halloween cookies tonight (I helped a tiny bit with the cutting out parts). Tomorrow I'm going to wear my Ghostbusters costume to work. That costume was a good investment. :)

Diana and I played a fun game last night in bed (stop that!). We were talking, and she said "I'm falling asleep." A couple seconds later, I felt her body jerk a little bit. I asked "What were you dreaming about just then?" She'd tell me, and then fall back asleep. I'd wait honestly about 15 seconds, and ask the same question.

Here are the responses I got:

"I was at school, and there was a big silver bus."
"I was looking at curtains, but they belonged to Andrea."
"Ohno... I was in a big kitchen, like in Jurassic Park with the 'raptors, but it was Billy Joel chasing me."
"There was a cake, but it had a gun on it and it was for Columbine."
"I was at the movies with Eric Cheng, and he was looking for the best deal for food."

Dreams are crazy things... given this little experiment, the claim that we have thousands of dreams a night doesn't surprise me at all. It's incredible to me the variation of the things that popped into her head, seemingly completely randomly. We did just spend a weekend with her friend Andrea, and we did just see a movie loosely about Columbine, so some pieces at least aren't completely foreign.

Another day, another day.

Work as usual, and then home. Diana got home from work to have a conference call with some student and her parents 'cause the student isn't doing her homework. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that sort of crap with my job (especially after I've come home for the night!) Poor girl.

Real World is on tonight. What an absolute mess that show is. I can't wait to watch it! :)

Wow... just saw "Bowling for Columbine", a documentary on the violent attitudes of Americans. Amazing movie. The prime focus is questioning why there are so many gun-related murders in this country, and focuses on issues surrounding gun control. One of the major point in the movie is the role that fear plays in our society, and how fear of everything is fed to us by the media, and how that fear plays into consumer spending. They showed a montage of local news clips, and all of them were things like: "A local woman is bitten by a rattlesnake... what you don't know could save your life", and a story on escalator safety, etc, etc. It was crazy to think about how often this concept that we should be afraid of something is pounded into our heads.

It was something I'd never even considered, but really made a lot of sense to me. I'm going to keep my mind open to non-specific fear as presented to me from the media or any other sources.

Anyways, I totally reccomend the movie. Really, really thought-provoking. Go see it.

Dude! This website rocks. I've never been much of a Rubik's cube fan, but this is pretty damn dope. Make sure to mouse-over the spacement down below... there is a link to randomize the cube (or you can do it yourself), and a link to solve it. It's pretty fun to watch it. It could just be blatent computer cheating, though, and how would we know?

Off to the movies... either to see "Real Women Have Curves" or "Bowling for Columbine". D's choice.

I just read this story about boycotting the movie Jackass. Basically, the reasons sited are that kids are going out and imitating what they see on TV and in the movies, and hurting themselves in the process.

Is it just me, or is this kind of boycotting (or worse yet, censorship, which thankfully hasn't happened yet) totally and completely rediculous? I guess the question, really, is where is the line drawn? We obviously(?) can't outlaw everything with violent content, can we? And if so, would that stop bored kids from going out and finding something else potentially dangerous to do?

I'm not stupid. I was recently a kid myself. I did dumb stuff, and I sometimes got hurt doing dumb stuff. And I probably got lucky a number of times that I or some of my friends didn't get hurt worse than we did. But the responsibility still remains on me, and not where I got the idea from.

The problem isn't Jackass, or any other number of violent things out there. The problem is the lack of teaching that there are consequences for our actions, and that we are accountable for the things that we do. Period.

It's probably impossible to say that parents can control all the content that enters childrens systems, but I do believe that guidelines and general street-smarts can be established at a young age that give kids the ability to filter out what is a good idea and what is a bad idea. At least, most of us were able to do that when we were kids.

Well, back from our trip to San Jose/San Francisco. Diana and I flew up Friday evening, and were picked up by our friends Greg and Andrea. They took us back to their new house in San Jose, and we spent the evening catching up on news and so forth. Saturday we went into San Francisco, and checked out the Flugtag thing. It was crazy. The competition is supposed to be people building some craft that will be launched off into the bay, and it's supposed to fly. Most (all?) of the crafts were exceedingly silly, and simply plummeted (with drivers and pushers) off into the bay. It was frequently hilarious and lots of fun. Today, we drove to Santa Cruz, and walked around the campus a little, where Diana and Andrea and Greg (all SC alumuni) shared memories and pointed out the various sites. We stopped by a little grove where the monarch butterflies come to hang out, which was really neat to see... thousands of the guys flying around and gathered on branches. There definitely was the feeling of some sort of DnD-type druid or nature magic at work. Then out to lunch, and then the flight home.

In San Diego, we went to the top of the parking garage that we had left our car in, which was almost directly under the planes final landing path. We watched a couple of them fly really close by, and had a great view of the runway as they landed. It was a lot of fun, and something that I've always wanted to do but have never gotten around to. Here's to new experiences!

Buh-bye! Off to San Francisco. :)

Diana and I are leaving for San Francisco this evening to visit our friends Andrea and Greg. I've always enjoyed the Bay area, and am looking forward to the trip. More on that when I get back.

I saw this on Slashdot, which always has some really good geek news. I never had an Atari growing up (my parents, in their somewhat surprising technological moxy, bought an Apple ][+ instead), but I played a lot at friends' houses. Anyways, someone made a Flash version of Adventure. I really like the interface, complete with the Atari switches and buttons and so forth. Check it out.

So I guess the snipers are caught. What a horrible, horrible thing that was. I've been totally following the case, and Diana would frequently call me at work asking if there was any news or more victims. I'm really intrigued to see what happens now that the (alleged) guys are caught. Crazy.

Well, I'm giving it another go. I had previously started keeping a blog/journal type thing on my own computer, but it was proving unwieldly. After seeing what some of my friends have done (Baditude and tundrah), I thought that Blogger would be the easiest way to go.

So, what's to expect? Hard to say. Mostly this is just for myself, to keep a journal of what I've done in my life, from the big important stuff (rarely), to the little day to day fun things (mostly). Unfortunately this can't be a complete journal with my innermost thoughts, but we'll see how it goes.

Previous to this post are some older messages from my initial foray into blogging.

Deep ponderings of the moment: I actually listened to the words of the Star Spangled Banner today while driving home and listening to the beginning of the World Series. What a whack song that is. Read the lyrics sometime as a sentence. Translated, it's basically: Hey, the flag was there last night, and we saw it through the night from the light of the bombs... is it still there?

Weird.

Oh, one more thing. I was prompted to put a title in for the blog, and came up with "Does Life Get Any Better Than This?" I wonder what people think when they read that. Is that a postitive- or negative-feeling statement? In other words, is it "my life is so great, could it possible get better?" or "my life is so crappy, doesn't it get better than this?" I think how you read it has a lot to do with your outlook on life. Take a moment to think about it.

9-28-02 @ 10:22 PM PST

This weekend is packed full of goodness!


Last night we went out to celebrate my friend Iwan's birthday. Iwan and I have been friends for such a long time, and it was really fun to go out and share the moment.


This morning, Diana and I joined Iwan and Little Buhr at the mini's course for a little golf. It was a nice morning, and good fun was had by all. We then headed down to Mission Bay to a Brandes sponsered picnic for the Systems department. Not too many people were there, which was too bad, but it was fun to see the ones who were, and Diana was able to put some faces to some names. We then went back to Diana's parents house, and hung out with her mom and sister (I somehow ended up asleep on the couch). Then over to Norm and Teri's house, where we met up with Eryn and Heather for a BBQ and general chatting and fun. It was great to see everyone.


Tomorrow, Norm and Teri are going to pick us up, and then we're going to go pick up Iwan and Sara Martin, and head down to the stadium for the Charger - New England game. Norm has tickets for some awesome seats, and I can't wait to see the game. It's going to be so much fun, and fun to hang out with everyone.


What a great weekend. :)



9-22-02 @ 10:02 PM PST


My weekend of bachelorhood has come to a blessed close. When she's gone I spend way too much time doing useless activities and inside.


That's not entirely true. On Saturday, I played a nice round of golf with Iwan and Little Buhr. On the way home I bought a driver, and hit some balls at the range. There is now a dent in the face of the driver (which I'm still not sure if it's supposed to be there, or if it was caused by me). If I did it, I'm going to be pretty pissed, though. That's what I get for buying a $50 driver, I guess.


We just watched Chasing Amy. Not a bad movie. The interesting thought-provoking parts make up for the screeching of the main, three-named girl. I think Mallrats is next on the list, and I'm sure Clerks will follow soon after that.


Diana's tempting me with an all new episode of the Anna Nicole Show. As mentioned before, I can't stand it, but somehow I can't bring myself to look away.


I need to get some official graphics if I really want to do this webpage right. I'd love to do 'em myself, but I just don't have the skills.


So much to do, so much time eaten up by Counterstrike.




9-19-02 @ 10:30 PM PST


Well, the Chutes and Ladders lost in our first playoff game, taking us out of the running. :( It's frusterating to lose against a team that makes it seem so easy to beat us. One of the other players, though, got ejected from the game for having alcohol on his breath. I wish we had noticed earlier, as he was pretty damn good. Oh well.


Diana's going to Santa Barbara this weekend to visit friends. That should be a lot of fun for her. I miss her when she's gone, but it also leaves me with some free time to work on the website and play golf and so forth... Diana and I have so much fun together all the time, but it's also nice to have our own time. I really like that about our relationship.


I only ask that you be none other than yourself, for with you I will walk my path from this day forward


I bought Battlefield 1942. It's frusterating. The sniper rifle seems really innaccurate. I can be lying on the ground lined up on a guys head, and fire, and miss. Maybe that's WWII realism for you, but it's damn frusterating. I played a little with Baditude tonight, that that was fun. Still playing poker and Counterstrike when I get too frusterated with 1942, though. I still have a saved game from Ultima Underworld waiting, and Diana and I are crusing through Syberia. Yay. :)




9-18-02 @ 09:27 PM PST


Just got back from dinner with our friend Andy and his friend Erika. We went to Pizza Nova, and Curtis was there serving us, and all was well. It was good to hang out with them. Andy's looking for a job in game programming, which sounds like a lot of fun, but I don't envy him. It's a tough field to be in, I think, and it's a pretty demanding job which I don't think I have the stamina for. I do want to see Diana and my friends every so often.


This week on TV is pretty big. The Real World just started, and it's already going to be a mess. Survivor starts tomorrow, which will be fun. I don't watch much TV at all, but those shows are always a good time.


Tomorrow is the first game of the playoffs for the Chutes and Ladders (co-ed soccer). I hope we do ok. I'm thinking of re-joining the Rooks (men's soccer), who I've abandoned since I got hit in the head (I literally don't remember how) and knocked unconscious. That was such a horrible experience... I never want to go through that again. I'll certainly never play goalie again, but out in the field I'm in a much safer position, I think. We'll see. Josh made a good point in that I shouldn't come back if I'm going to play scared.


I just bought Battlefield 1942 today, and I'm playing PokerStars while writing this. I read a book loaned to me from Papa Roston on how to win at Omaha... it's hard to play with fake money, though, 'cause it's so easy to not care and stay in and play anything. I do some




9-15-02 @ 09:28 PM PST


Football rocks. I was up late last night playing poker (check out PokerStars.com... lots of fun), as well as Battlefield 1942 and Counterstrike, so I slept late. I watched the end of the morning games (which I wasn't very interested in), and the Charger game. I'm happy to see them playing well and winning games... hopefully they can stick with it.


Rich Gannon just had a career day for the Raiders, setting personal best in completions and yards, but he threw two picks and only 1 touchdown, so didn't score *that* many fantasy points (which is all I care about in terms of Raiders performance). I'm doing a lot better this year, scoring more points in both these last two weeks than I did in any week last year.


The Anna Nicole Show is about to come on. It's like a train wreck, but I'm not sure if I can look away. This week the new Real World and Survivor start. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but those and ER are pretty much my staples.



9-14-02 @ 11:00 PM PST


These last 24 hours have been pretty damn nice.


Diana and I somehow accumulate gift certificates, free passes, and store credits. Especially since the wedding, we've returned and exchanged a lot of gifts that don't always give us cash back. So we'll have lots of odds and end credits to various stores. Also, being a private tutor, Diana sometimes gets gifts from her students for her birthday, or for an extra tip, or whatever. And recently at work, because we've all been working pretty hard, we were given free movie passes, and encouraged to take some time off work and slip away to the movies.


So, Friday afternoon, I left work a little early and met Diana. We then headed down to the little golf course nearby (aka "the mini course", (but it's realy golf, not miniature golf)), and played a round. I played my usual ok, and Diana, in spite of feeling like she did worse, actually tallied a better score than last time. Crazy game, that golf.


Afterwards, we went to dinner at Sammy's pizza, where we used the first of many gift certificates and got a couple of pizzas. We saw Nelani working there, and it was nice to say hi to her.


After that, we used the free movie pass and bought one more ticket and saw "One Hour Photo", the new movie starring Robin Williams. It's a creepy movie, but I found it really enjoyable. Lots of neat themes, very good suspense, and Robin Williams yet again proves that he can do more stuff than be his total manic, idiotic self. He was really great.


Today, we lazed around here a bit. Diana went to the gym and I downloaded and played the multiplayer demo of Battlefield: 1942 which looks to be a pretty fun game. We had leftover pizza for lunch, and headed out to find this geocache which was a lot of fun. Geocaching is great... You should learn more about it.


After the cache, we did some a little shopping, and used up our $1.56 credit at Linen's n' Things. They only give you cash back on returns if it's less than $1. Sweet. So we bought some Kettle Corn. :) This evening we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and had dinner, and played more of the game "Syberia", and adventure game that we're working on together. It's a lot of fun... a lot better (or at least, a lot less annoying) than "The Longest Journey".


Nothing thrilling, but just a nice, satisfying day. Tomorrow: football.