To do: Win

Alright, so I didn't want to title this post, "To Do: Graduate," but that's what it's about... I took a peek at some synonyms for the word, and "win" won. The runner up was "get out."

1. Finish Network Admin...

Seriously, I was one class away, and I'm still paying for it.

2. Go on...

I've been looking at Programming, because that's something I know I could do, even enjoy, and if I took it far enough, it could be something either important and impacting, or... video games! (Hell, I suppose it could be both.)

3. Halcyon...

Yeah, programming's been sort of an innate interest since my discovery of the concept, but lately, I've developed a half-obsession with Physics, I think even enough to really study and apply. But I've had a tough time justifying spending time and money in such a field, for lack of direction. What would I do with that? I couldn't know. Until I realized just now that I have been telling people I am interested in doing these things because I am.

4. And on...

So I sat down and drew out what I could actually do with these fancies in my life. The first obvious connection I made was that degrees in Physics and Programming could go hand-in-hand, as the logical structure of physics applies to coding.

And physics could apply broadly to engineering, math, and education, which somehow always felt like three things I could use as a safety net.

As I realize physics could tie in to Computer Science (Engineering), the possibilities expand: Not only could I develop software, but hardware... and not just building computers more efficiently (borrring), I could design, to put it simply, robots and shit. I'm thinking broadly: medical, research, and space exploration tools; and electricity-efficient products. Why not, I could be an inventor.

5. And on...

I'm still scared, though, because I'm interested in:

Theoretical, Nuclear, Atomic, Molecular, Astro, and Meta-physics.

So, in conclusion, I think my first step will be to track down and read The Flying Circus of Physics, which attempts to explain what physics has to do with anything.

Back From The Future: 1000 Pillboxes

I swear to god I'll get it, day by day, bit at a time, I'm not giving up now. I'll sacrifice as much Day Job logged off time as it takes in the next week or so. I'm at 762 as of tonight.

*pant pant pant*

I just spent over a grueling hour and a half setting up 5 CoH accounts each on my laptop and desktop.

Seven trial accounts, a friend's, and my own two, to get the last two Arena Badges and corresponding Accolade.

I am now officially ranked (tied for) seventh on Freedom server for holding 657 of 687 Badges.

Alls I gots to say is thanks you Devs for letting trials accounts join Arena events. >_+

That was some disgusting load time.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 301 more pillboxes to take over.

I'll just leave this relic here...

LEASE

August 4th, Renee, Phil and I will all have the day off, in which we will be moving her into her new place.

August 8th is our last day of work at the New York store.

Here are our new apartments (The Ridge).

August 16th will be our first day at the Iowa store.

something's life

Last day of work is Aug 8th.

Our car is broke.

I threw out my futon and some clothes.

We will live in Coralville and transfer to the Best Buy at the mall there two blocks away.

I was gonna walk to work but we have Renee's car.

I have slept on the floor.

We went to the mall.

Phil and I just spent over six hours building these, and haven't even started on the boat yet. We purposely mixed all the pieces together first.

k, I'm in Iowa.

So here's my travelling experience...

We were to fly New York to Detroit, then to Moline, where my mom would pick us up. Got to the airport early, printed out our tickets, checked Renee's bag, got on the plane. Some people were turned away because it was overbooked. I was actually like two rows behind her, but confused and convinced passengers to switch. There was a mechanical issue with a fueling vehicle I guess, so we had to sit there for an hour or so. We arrived in Detroit with just enough time to have made our second flight, but there was no one coming to the gate for our arrival, so we sat around again, missing our connecting flight.

We were issued another ticket to Moline, and had a couple hours to wait before we were to leave, so we went and ate in the airport, and killed some time walking around. just as we were supposed to leave, we were directed to another gate, where, though the monitors still said the Moline flight was on time, but the announcements stated that said gate was still waiting on a flight to leave before our flight could even come in and go. And the flight waiting to leave was still delayed.

Then we were moved to another gate again, and told that the flight wouldn't be for at least another two hours, so we went to kill some more time. There were periodic announcements reminding us that we couldn't smoke, save designated areas, and it was making me want one, bad, so I decided to investigate the locations available, which were two sports bars, so we picked one and both got a drink as well. The cool part was that we got to walk through a huge light showy musical hallway several times.

We made it back to our currently assigned gate and were told to move to another one yet again. Finally, the flight was actually there, and we got on around 10pm, having supposed to have landed in Moline around 4.

We sat and waited for takeoff clearance for an unknown annoying amount of time, and when we got to our destination, Renee was told her bag wasn't there and she should contact this number they would mail it. We got into Moline to meet my waiting parents at around 11, I think (having lost an hour in changing timezones). As of today (the next day), they don't know where Renee's bag is.

Beginning this post I'm listening to Tool with my mom, having just had a strange conversation about physics, math, evolution, creation, and et cetera. She has since gone to bed, and, not having any luck in finding a friend who is actually around tonight, I suppose I will too.

Happy birthday.

thats fucking amazing.

All around sweet discovery, but about 9:35, I lost my breath.

FML Chuck Norris made me do it

8am-8pm shift over, I am now sitting in my own sweat with an aching back and legs.

Mary-Kate and Ashley's birthday was yesterday, by the way. They turned 23.

I officially got June 25th-29th off to visit Iowa, an idea which sprung forth only last night.

Coffee did nothing this morning, but steak and burgers on the grill was an awesome lunch.

The title of this post represents a response a co-worker wrote on a write-up against him.

At the beginning of this post, my first thought for a google image search was nappy ass windmill. Here's what I got:

...I'll say.

Oh, Bob Saget!

So I've been feeling really annoyed and unmotivated, mostly about going to or being at work, but lately even playing my games or reading. Which is weird because I just bought The Sims 3, one of the most addicting games I've experienced.

The past two days were fucking suck. I have no desire to help an insignificant mongoloid who starts out a conversation complaining as if I came to his house and shit soup into his electronics, and then purposely paraded everyone else in line before him with their stupid problems so he would have to wait in utter disgust, as if he had something to do. What's worse is the apparent full moon trend. I am confident that people get angrier and less intelligent when it's full or at waning gibbous.

I did however, laugh as hard as I can remember as Phil and I constructed ridiculous stick figure scenarios in mspaint, which is twice as awesome on a 42" screen. In one scenario, we break the spirit of our hamster, Robot, jeering at how fat and useless of a human being he is.

I recently paid a giant lump of my student loans that were overdue in full so they stopped calling me, and finally set up auto payments so I wouldn't have to remember. at the same time, I also set up direct deposit. I noticed my first instance of such this morning. This pleases me.

Two weeks ago, I picked up two paychecks, which I often do, because I can't be bothered to retrieve them when my rent doesn't depend on it. One week ago, I was approached to pick up yet another paycheck, apparently left behind, which seriously confuses me, but certainly not enough to investigate, lest someone conclude it was a mistake.

I googled wretched beast.

About the tree...

I've been taking every once in awhile photos of it, but the damned thing's like half dead in the branches.

I'm gonna have like seven fuckin eggos. Them shits are the licious!

Fuck it let's post daily

I got a lot of shit today.

rcarhar.net expired.

I shaved the rest of my head.

Going to bed now, after sadly watching the last episode of The Universe, season 2.

I just looked up season 3 thou and turns out it was just released last Tuesday. Gonna buy that shit. Possibly even give in to the temptation of the package they're offering with the Planet Earth series.

Fuck yeah, growing up nerdily and watching primarily PBS.

Phil cut his hair short,

so did I. Excited to go to work tomorrow looking like this:

shit.

I didn't make a post like I wanted, but here's a substitute.

Renee's car is in the shop, so I had to take Phil to work at 7am and then Renee to class at 9am. Then I fell asleep on the couch doing crosswords, and woke up at like 2pm, ate a sandwich, showered, and picked up Phil, and we went to Renee's school to watch her (and her classmates') dance pieces. I bought razor blades. We had chicken parmesan.

OH DOS ITAS MOCINW

oh god its moving

...ok day after tomorrow, i make post times, .

Boom De Yata

FuuuuuuucI gotta start writing some blogs again huh? I've been taking photos and shit to put on here... and today was my day off... but uh

First things first.

k I haven't made a post for exactly a month. This timely post is just a coincidence though. Work has been long and hectic, and life has been (etc).

Let's give you a teaser. Real posts to come.

This is the latest photo I'd taken of myself, last night when I saw my devilish features in the mirror:

I wasn't scared by my reflection. It delighted me, but I thought I needed a pitchfork. So I got carried away and grabbed an alien fork and the camera.

Here's a drawring or two I made today. I had tattoos on the brain:

Oh yeah...

ƒ(x)=1/x is a mathematical singularity, where zero gives ±∞.

Pi is pi.

Fox is smoking.

Serenity Prayer

Man, life for everyone would be way freakin easier if people would just chill the fuck out ...about everything.

Moving around the country is a real eye opener for me. Especially coming from laid back, do what you gotta do California, directly to do whatever I want for free because I'm an asshole and you don't want to deal with me New York... Everyone is so unhappy here compared to what is ideal, whereas California was a much better environment on the mood, though in both places it's often only skin deep.

When I was younger, I learned to never give a shit about what I thought I wanted. Either I'd get it in due time, or I'd want something totally different soon anyway, so no sense in stressing over any single event. What I wanted most became peace of mind. Life became eventually easier when I actively stopped myself from dwelling on the agitations and bullshit from life. Drama escaped me, serenity emerged.

I've posted this chart before, this time again to reiterate the importance of just letting go of whatever you may think is so consuming at any given time - serenity and elation are the real ultimate goals. Not material items; not success in events; not whatever. Those are all just temporary desires.

Having personally gone through periods of marked, diagnosed anxiety and depression, I can say that molding my own point of view has become the easiest, and most effective combatant. Not drugs; not counseling; not even affection. Those are all just temporary fixes. Getting to the point where I realized that, and being willing to do it however, was the hard part - and I don't think I can coherently explain how I did. It just clicked at one point.

What I always try to remember is a variation of the Serenity Prayer, something I had heard countless times when I was younger, and took as nothing but a cliched verse. Here are three variations to put the concept into perspective:

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, try to find it;

If there be none, never mind it.

If you don't like what's going down
You need to change something round;
And what you can't change

You've got to change the way you thought about.

Just be broad and genuine about what you want. You get it or you don't. Your mind moves toward something else. If something you don't want is fuckin up your style, get away from it, or treat it in a different way, but don't just complain about it. Either it will go away, or you will finish minding it.

My blog lately has been an obsession over major material things that I'd planned on getting. I didn't follow through. I'm not devastated. In the past I would have been, and I know too many who would consider a broken dream almost irrecoverable in the time being. Chill the fuck out.

You cheeky monkeys

now I don't know what video card to get...

SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

BFG Tech BFGEGTX2801024E GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

I did not buy PC parts.

I bought these:

LG - 42" 1080p 120Hz Flat-Panel LCD HDTV

Regular price $1500

Best Buy end of life price on a six month old display model (without remote) being replaced by the newest model, with four year service plan, seperate HDMI cable, component cables, and HDMI/DVI adapter, total price $650

Panasonic - 1000W 5.1-Channel Home Theater System with 5-Disc Upconvert DVD Player - Black

Regular price $415

Circuit City going out of business sale price $300

-Like holy shit.

Also, :