Joe's Randomness that is blog

Notice of change coming

2006-07-04T20:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally did it. I finally got my own domain and web hosting. In the next few weeks, I will probably be changing the layout of my blog and moving it over to my website, which is TeamHAMRacing.com.

There's nothing up there yet, but very soon there will be. Team HAM is the name that bounced out of my brain one early morning while driving to an autocross when talking with Diana about what we (Diana, Chris, and I) could call ourselves and my first thought was MAH, but then I thought HAM sounded better (and it also put my name last. . .I dont like the attention of being first usually). So its been a few months since then and I got the sudden urge to make a move on using that, so I went to GoDaddy.com and got the domain name and web hosting for 2 years, for under $130, with an account I don't think we'll ever use half of the features of (I think 5gb storage, 500gb of bandwidth, 1000 email addresses, 25 mysql databases, support for PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, and probably even more stuff but thats what comes to mind).

Keep an eye out for it. It should be a fun little side project and I think we'll all enjoy having our own webspace. No more need to use yahoo/cardomain, johnnysays.com, or webshots for uploading files online.

I don't know why I'm writing this

2006-04-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

Probably because I'm bored and just realized I havent written a thing in this blog for almost 1/4 of 2006. A quick update on things.

-My job is going well. Got a $1/hr raise for my 6 month evaluation (doesn't sound like much but comes out to a little over $2000/yr). We're currently working on a few fun websites right now. OutdoThat.com will be a photo sharing/voting website where the top ranked photos can win cash. And to help us get started, we're offering cash to people who just submit photos, since we can't really take a photo ranking site live without photos. JohnnySays.com is a very simple website about Johnny, some random guy that hangs out around one of my boss' pawnshops and is pretty entertaining. Pretty much we'll just be posting video's of Johnny and the stupid crap he says.

-In other job related news, I recently got to drive my boss' 94 Dodge Viper RT/10 which was insanely fun and quite scary too. I think if I get to drive it again sometime, I'll be a little more relaxed in it and can maybe see what it can do (besides go insanely fast).

-Car news. Diana, Chris, and I attended an autocross school run by a local club in mid-March which was a lot of fun, despite the drive there and back (it was about 2.5 hrs each way). But we learned a lot about what to look for and also got advice from some of the people there. I got to use Diana's fathers Miata for the even (shhh. . .he thinks it was a defensive driving school). First time driving a rwd and it went fairly well. I did get it sideways once, managed to take out a few cones, but continued on. I also got to do some fun runs in a 2004 corvette z06 with a guy thats done the evo autocross school more than 20 times and also does various other racing around the country (he's participating in One Lap of America this year in a new M3). The week after that, we got to put our skills to the test in an actual autox event in Greensboro. Chris and I had a successful day in his car. I finished 2nd and he finished 3rd in the novice class, losing to a modified Subaru STI. If we had competed in the non-novice classing I would have finished 2nd in the regular class anyway, which is a good confidence boost that I'm getting pretty comfortable on these tight autox courses. The next two weeks (Apr. 23 and 30) we have events to look forward to. Hopefully we'll get some video of the events (in and out of the car). Lets hope the weather stays beautiful like it was this weekend.

Other random thoughts:
-I like driving in Gran Turismo 4 with my wheel and pedal set (yet more good practice for autox. . .same princples apply but much faster speeds)
-I need some new shoes and am thinking about getting driving shoes from Piloti (blah to them being uber-expensive. . .$80)
-I am still saving up for my new car (I've decided on a 2005 Subaru STI in black or white)
-My desktop still kicks ass even though my graphics card is so outdated now its no longer made so I have to keep my eyes open for any good deals on used 7800gt's if I hope to run in SLI
-Lost is the best show on television
-South Park, while I love the social commentary the show provides, needs to do some episodes that DONT rip on something thats overexposed in the news
-Diana's dad wouldn't take the money I offered him which slightly upset me (when I had his car for the autox school, I broke the rear plastic window and was offering half of the repair cost of it)
-I want to go karting sometime this summer, maybe at VIR. . .must get more information about it
-I want to drive the Viper some more because I like being scared

As predicted. . .

2006-01-11T16:03:00.000-05:00

I did not update around Christmas, but indeed after I have built my desktop. To catch up with things.

Work has been fine (just about done on a site that I did completely by myself, from concept through implementation in about a month).

Christmas was good. The few days leading up to Christmas were a bit depressing though. Diana went to NY to visit family so I was alone from the Wednesday before the holiday up until Christmas night (yeah, I spent Christmas morning sleeping, not with friends/family). But Christmas night was great. . .Diana came home and then my mom also made the trip over from Nashville and stayed with us until Tuesday morning.

New Years Eve weekend was awesome. My friend Jeff came up from Charlotte and stayed for a few days and also Mike was in town visiting Laura so they hung around most of the weekend too. So much Scene It was played. I really don't know much about movies. . .

That's about all that has happened since the last post besides the building of the desktop, which is awesome btw. Only spec that changed since the last post in terms of the components is the power supply. I found a GREAT deal on a used PC Power and Cooling 510w SLI-ready supply. They are pretty much the best power supplies on the market (and as such, are very expensive new, but I got one that is less than a year old for $80 off the new price). Pretty much everything went together nicely. Wiring in the P180 was a bit tricky. No way I could really hide wires, so I mainly tried to keep it organized in a way that wouldn't hurt airflow in the case. I think it all came out very nicely. And the best part is. . .it hauls ass in gaming (as was to be expected). I ran the 3dMark05 test after getting everything installed and working and scored a 7401. If I ever decide to overclock, there should be no problems hitting 8000. And then when I throw a 2nd card in there in SLI. . .watch out.

Anyway, here's the link to some pictures. The P180 Hotness

And my favorite picture. . .

Sweet. . .

An update on things

2005-12-14T23:03:00.000-05:00

Hmm, last post was a long while ago. Some of the things I've done since the beginning of November:

Learned ASP (or enough to get by) at work, but this is sort of still on-going, while still doing 10 other things at the same time

Participated in my first autocrossing event, which was too much fun for words

Built my first desktop computer (for my mom because damn. . .she needed a new computer)

Went to Nashville for Thanksgiving, ate way too much food for the 3 days I was there, did the whole Black Friday thing and got some good deals

Went through the hiring process at work (funny, I'm still on probation yet I was pretty much in charge of hiring a new person)

Began gathering parts for my desktop build which will happen after Christmas

Thats pretty much it. Here's some more in-depth details.

Autocrossing was insanely awesome, but it really made me realize a few things. First, I suck at driving. Second, I suck at driving because my car sucks. I really wish my car was in better order because I could just put some suspension mods and I think I'd fair much better. But I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a car that really isnt worth it. That being said, I am actively doing my best to save money so I can maybe buy myself a new car sometime within the next 6 months. I'd like a miata (for autocrossing purposes) but I can't picture myself with a miata as a daily driver. More than likely I'll find a Subie and it will be great.

Black Friday was a good shopping day (though I spent far too much money). Best Buy was the first store we visited and I ended up getting Billy Madison and Minority Report on DVD for $4 each and also a copy of Call of Duty 2 for $25. Almost worth the hour long line we had to stand in. After BB, we stopped in at CompUSA. I ended up buying a $150 case for my computer build. Luckily, there was a $50 mail in rebate. The case is awesome. Its the Antec P180, if you're curious. Check it out on Newegg. We also stopped in at Target for the Family Guy movie, an air mattress, and Grand Theft Auto on PSP. The two final stops included Burlington Coat Factory (where I got a super-heavy-duty jacket) and Staples (where I got a wireless router for the apartment).

Apart from the case, I've also been doing some other shopping for my desktop build. I got an extra 120mm fan for the top of the case (with green LED's no less), some non-ugly wires for floppy and DVD drives, a nice stylish wireless keyboard (and mouse too but I already have a Logitech G5 so the mouse isn't needed), and tomorrow I'll be getting my floppy drive/media card reader. Since my case only has one 3.5" external slot, I figured why not combine the two drives that I put in my mom's computer. After Christmas, where I'm hoping to get some money, I'll hopefully be ordering all the rest of the stuff I want. As of now, I'm going over my budget a little bit, but I am getting better things that should last me 6 months-1 year longer than I was originally planning. Parts include: Abit An8 SLI-ready mobo, AMD Athlon64 3700+ (San Diego core), 2gb of Corsair XMS RAM, evga 7800gt, Seagate 250gb sata hdd, NEC 16x DVD burner (much like the one I already have in an external enclosure), and an Antec TruePower 2.0 550w power supply. Hopefully I'll be happy with that for at least a year and a half to 2 years before I even think its necessary to drop another 7800gt in and run in SLI. The only thing I might buy before a major upgrade like that is another hard drive to either run in raid 0 (if its another 7200rpm drive) or be a gaming-only drive (if its a 10000rpm drive).

That's really about it. As a contributing member of society (by that I mean having a job and not sitting on my ass all day doing nothing), I have grown to appreciate weekends so much more than when I was in school. There's nothing quite like being able to sleep in until 10am. I'd like to say I'll update around Christmas time but more than likely, my next update will be after I have my new desktop built, so who knows when that will be (once the desktop gets built, I'll pretty much be playing games on it constantly). Until then. . .

The New Job

2005-11-02T13:14:00.000-05:00

So I've been at my new job for 2.5 weeks. I think I made the right decision coming here. I don't wake up in the mornings and feel sick at the thought of going to work. And apart from much less stress, I like the environment here. Its much more relaxed. And because of that, I feel as though I can get more work done.

So, my job here when I started was to finish building the front and back-ends of a website, elitevaluecards.com. There was a lot done, but the database had yet to be started so I had to finish up probably close to 80% of the back-end programming, along with creating the database. Glad to say, I did that in about 1.5 weeks. We officially took the site live yesterday afternoon and I haven't seen any problems with it yet (that weren't able to be fixed immediately).

Right now, I'm working on fixing the website of the guy that was here before me made. Seems like there's a lot of session problems so people get logged in when they shouldn't and get logged off when they do certain things. Yay for having to deal with code thats supposedly complete but doesn't work correctly! I think I may just try to re-create everything on my own for when we set up a subdomain for our primary website. Would be fairly simple I think and then I'd have a better understanding of exactly whats going wrong if something did happen.

Until then, we will limp along with our semi-working website.

Questions I have been unable to answer:
1)Is there a simple way to synch two databases on seperate servers (when the server's don't allow remote access)?
2)Is there a reason in MySQL 4.25 that TRIM(username) wouldn't turn the username 'somedoofus ' (notice the space) into 'somedoofus'?
3)If I want to see if the last time something was updated (I have a date for the last update, format 05/05/2005) and check if that last update was greater than 2 weeks ago, shouldn't the SQL be something like date_sub(last_update, interval 14 day)? Because thats not working. . .

Am I a bad person?

2005-10-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

So, my previous post said I was hired by New Horizons. Now, 3 weeks later, I write here as a Joe without a job at New Horizons. That's right. After months of job searching, I finally got a job and quit 3 weeks after being hired. But, I do have a few reasons. First is because I was offered a job here in Burlington doing web programming for a small company. Pay is comparable and I don't think I'm going to wake up feeling sick everyday. While I don't think I totally botched anything at New Horizons (hey, they didn't fire me), I just never really felt comfortable there, especially in a teaching environment. There's a reason I wasn't anywhere near being an education major. I'm not that kind of person (meaning I can't ever really see myself talking to groups of people all day pretty much every day). Way too intraverted for that.

It was a real tough decision for me to quit working at New Horizons. It seems like my job offer timings were just terrible. As soon as I got hired, I had two other companies looking at hiring me, and one extended the invite. I still actually feel a little bad about it. I didn't even work at New Horizons for a month so I don't think I really contributed that much. I'm sure that they'll be just as fine without me though.

Apart from being offered a job 1)closer to home and 2)in my field of study, I also feel that I can perform this new job much better than being an instructor at New Horizons. I don't think I'd ever truly show my true potential there because of the teaching environment I'd be in most of the time. And if I don't feel 100%, I know thats going to show in my classes. And if I can't give 100%, I don't think I should risk potentially losing customers of a company. At least in programming, I'm not directly responsible if things really go bad (as long as I get my programming done).

So, this coming Monday, I begin my 2nd "real" job with the ECA Group here in Burlington. Maybe I'll actually be able to write more in the blog (I don't think I did for the past few weeks because I didn't want to just totally rip on how I felt about my job with New Horizons).

It is good to know that if I ever need to take some computer classes or certification tests, I know a great small company in Greensboro that I wouldn't have a problem giving money to.

Finally

2005-09-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

Some good news to report. Yesterday, I was offered the position at New Horizons. I officially begin work there this coming Monday. Hopefully I'll take to the job and have a fairly quick adjustment period (I'm not thinking they're going to give me a lot of time actually).

Based on what was said today when I was filling out the tax forms (I hope I did that correctly. . .I have no real clue what it all means), I'm apparently going to be travelling to Virginia Tech fairly shortly after a week or so of training/orientation. It would seem to me that they should let me work in the office at first, to get me somewhat used to what they do, but hey, if they think I can handle it, whatever. There has to be a good reason why they chose to hire me.

Also (since I don't want to talk about it in my other blog just yet), the season premiere of Lost was this past Wednesday. Wow. Just wow. The opening segment, I think, may be the finest 3 minutes of television I have seen. Not because of what you see (some guy waking up, working out, etc) but because of what you can see. There's so much going on in the scene. I've watched it probably 6 or 7 times, just trying to figure out what some of the images mean. We have the computer, the guy typing the numbers (we assume) on the computer, cleaning up a meal that I don't believe he ate (leading many to believe that there was someone/another set of people living there besides the guy we see), having a mash-up of stuff in there from all different time periods (some stuff being very recent, like the washer/dryer), and the medicine with the numbers on it. It all went by really really quick when it aired but being able to go back and freeze-frame during the scene really lets you see what you might not normally see.

Can't wait for the rest of the season to really start picking up.

And out of the blue, my phone rings

2005-09-20T16:43:00.000-05:00

So I got a call from Dealerstaff this morning. It's been at least 2 weeks since they last contacted me (when they said they'd be setting up an interview for me soon) and they called to tell me that I have an interview tomorrow morning. That was nice to give me less than a full days notice. . .

We'll see how this one goes. I still haven't heard back from New Horizons yet so my hopes are dwindling on getting a job there.

Job update

2005-09-14T14:53:00.000-05:00

Well, I did say it was good when I was going to car sales training. That hasnt really turned out so good (call me crazy but I'm actually losing sleep over the fact that they may try to scam me out of $900 if I dont get a job from them and they arent doing their job in keeping in contact with me/setting up interviews for me). But this new update is actually good. I applied to a company in Greensboro called New Horizons Computer Learning Center (they have franchises all over the country and a few international ones as well). Anyway, its for a teaching position. Technology teaching. Hmm, sounds similar to what I was sort of doing for the past two years while I was in school.

Anyway, I applied over the weekend, got a call back on Tuesday, preliminary interview today (Wednesday) and am going back tomorrow to give a 15 minute teaching presentation (so they can see if I am actually able to talk about computers without feeding BS into the minds of others). Luckily, the topic was fairly wide open (anything from their basic Windows XP class, which is really really really basic). I'm currently preparing how I want to talk about using and creating documents with WordPad. So, if all goes well tomorrow with my presentation, I may be getting a nice little cushy job doing technology training. Woot for a job possibility. . .thats actually putting my college degree to work!

My new obsession

2005-09-11T17:22:00.000-05:00

Well, its not really an obsession. . .yet. As seen from my last post, I am a fan of the show LOST. Since there's so much going on in that show (and we've only seen season 1), I decided to create a blog so I could post my own thoughts about the show. I'm currently working on the layout of it so I have not really begun to post any relevant information about the show yet. But I will soon. I figure as long as I dont have a job, I should at least me learning or doing something involving computers, besides playing video games. This blog is helping me learn more about Photoshop and CSS (which I don't really care for anyway, and trying to format the blog really isnt making style sheets grow on me to the point I would say they're the best creation for web programming in the history of the universe).

So, use the link in my sidebar to get there or follow the link at the end of this posting. Either way, check it out if you havent, give me feedback, or if you know anything about CSS, help me figure out how to make the page look not like crap.

The-Hatch: A blog about LOST

My favorite TV show, now on DVD

2005-09-08T00:41:00.000-05:00

LOST, Season 1 came out on DVD yesterday, September 6. Of course, since its my favorite TV show, I went out and bought it soon after I woke up. Even though I did download all the episodes after they were originally aired, the DVD collection is awesome. I wish I had a 5.1 system so it would sound as good as it looks. I'd highly recomend it to anyone and, at around $40, its a steal. 24 (some say 25 since the final episode was 2 hours instead of 1) episodes on 6 DVD's and a 7th DVD full of extra stuff (once I watch it I'll write some more about it). All in all, the box claims it has over 1200 minutes of content in the set. I linked to amazon up above, but I bought it at Best Buy, solely because you get a bonus DVD from BB that has a few nice features such as the season review episode that was aired on ABC, a mini-documentary about the flashback sequences in the show, 2 behind-the-scenes and on-location snippets from two of the earlier episodes, and also a teaser trailer for Season 2. It was worth the $2 extra I spent getting it at BB instead of Target (I love having those two stores less than a mile from my apartment).

Back to finish watching the mid-season episode I go. And remember, buy the DVD set so that you will know whats going on when Season 2 starts on Sept 21.

Google. . .can they do anything?

2005-08-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

The web's best search engine. . .the web's best e-mail. . .the web's best IM/Voice service?

Less than a week ago as I was browsing my RSS feeds from Slashdot, there seemed to be a lot about Google Talk. I believe that there were two posts in the same day about it. Needless to say it sparked an interest in the new happenings of Google. Apart from learning more about Google Talk (runs on the Jabber protocol so Gaim can use it, Google's client supports voice so you can practically make phone calls to other friends, etc), I also read about the new Google Desktop, which was just released about a week earlier. This has been my new favorite piece of software. Using it as a sidebar on the desktop, you not only get the desktop search feature but also a plethora of other awesome features. "Out of the box" it gives you widgets to receive gmail messages, rss feeds, file history (if you use a supported browser, ie not the one I use, Opera), top web searches, local weather (goodbye Weatherbug says I), top news, and more. Where this new tool will really shine though is that it can be added to. Like I said, its only been out a week or two, but there are already a lot of user-created widgets. The two I've been using are a system monitor and a control for iTunes. I'm sure more will come the longer Google Desktop is available.

OK, enough geeking out about Google. I wish they were located on the east coast instead of the west because I would be doing just about anything possible to work for them. Perhaps I'll see if I can figure out how to create an add-on for the desktop sidebar. Just gotta figure out what I want to see (probably something dealing with video games, since the sidebar is so convenient when I'm gaming).

My life continues to be boring

2005-08-27T15:05:00.000-05:00

I think I've given up on the whole car sales thing. The training company hasn't contacted me back even though I did contact them. I applied to a tech support job at Wake Forest and had a telephone interview earlier this week. I thought it went well but wasn't too thrilled with how it ended (they didn't say they'd call me back or when I could expect to hear from them again. . .maybe I'm just being paranoid). The more time I spend sitting in the apartment looking for jobs the more I think I almost would've done better trying to get into grad school somewhere. Because if a college graduate can't even get a call back after applying to a new Best Buy opening up, maybe a Masters degree would help. Unfortunately, those cost money and money is something I don't have. And I really don't want to add to the already insane amount of money I owe in loans after 4 years at Elon.

Apart from job searching, I have been doing a few other things as well. I figured that since I didn't have money, it wasn't fair to Diana to feed me as much, so I've pretty much stopped eating 2 meals a day. I haven't really minded only eating dinner, probably because I do nothing all day anyway to warrant me needing the extra food/energy. I also have started walking around the apartment complex when I start to get a little stir-crazy. This may be changing soon though since the new Best Buy did open up this past week. I figure if I could walk there and back, thats plenty of exercise for a day. Of course now I just have to start doing that (and hope that Best Buy doesn't try to ban me because I don't buy anything).

So, whats up with this Hot Coffee thing?

2005-08-15T00:53:00.000-05:00

Quick update to job situation: Had car sales training last Monday and Tuesday. While money may be good, I don't seriously see myself doing that. Having to be what I consider rude in order to make money is definately not what I want to spend significant time doing. I had an interview last Wednesday with the Toyota dealership in Burlington. I don't think it went well at all (funny that what should have been the easiest interview I've had felt like my worst). Haven't heard back from them or from where I was trained yet (they have a vested interest in my getting hired. . .if I don't, they don't get paid for my 2 days of training). Honestly, I really want to get ANY kind of job so I have a way out of needing to be hired at a car dealership. I'm currently finishing up writing some cover letters for tech support jobs at Elon and at Wake Forest. Maybe I'll get some kind of call back soon. I hope.

Now, onto other things. Mainly, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I've been playing this a lot on PC. Its far more fun sitting in front of my computer than in front of the TV and PS2 (not entirely sure why that is). I will admit that I downloaded the game just so I could see what the whole deal with the "Hot Coffee" mod is, because I couldnt stand hearing about it in the news, seeing Rockstar get the blame for everything when seriously, nothing is their fault. They left code in the game, that wasn't implemented in-game, someone hacked it and distributed the hack (Rockstar has nothing to do with distribution), yet its Rockstars fault for everything, especially when a 90 year old grandmother wants to sue because she bought it for her 14 year old grandson. How ridiculous is that? I could go on forever about this I think but its late, so we're saved for now. But I really can't stand the fact that the game has been pulled from shelves, re-rated, and now millions of taxpayers dollars are going into a useless investigation against Rockstar. BAH!

Maybe I'll write some more in a few days, relating to job status maybe if something happens.

Finally there is hope

2005-08-04T14:41:00.000-05:00

After attending a private high school, spending well over $100k studying computers at a private college for the past 4 years, my time in the academic world is finally paying off! Next week, I'll begin the next chapter of my always-exciting life. I'll be selling new cars.

/sarcasm

But seriously, a job is a job and practically all the tech jobs I've applied to never bothered to even contact me to set up an interview. And the ones that did (at least my own college gave me interviews) deemed that I didn't have enough experience. So, until I find something better, here I come, auto industry. I'll write more about it when I know more about it after training this upcoming Monday and Tuesday. If all goes well, I'll be starting at the dealership next Wednesday. Lets hope I get put at a nice dealer like the Nissan dealership here. Its too bad I don't live closer to Greensboro or I'd try to get into a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi dealer.

And on a lighter note

2005-07-31T10:48:00.000-05:00

This is whats been happening in my life for the past few weeks (job search edited out).

Was in PA for my grandfathers funeral 3 weeks ago. Didn't do much while there (not having a car makes the Lehigh Valley even more boring, if you can believe it). I mostly just sat around and played Tiger Woods 2k5 on my computer and read a bit of my A+ certification book.

After coming back to NC for a short stay, my mom flew into Raleigh and we drove to Nashville the next day. I stayed there for a week and again, didn't do that much. Least it seemed that way. I guess if I put it in list form, I did get a good amount of things accomplished.

Diagnosed printer problem (faulty USB printer connection, so nothing I could fix)

Finally got the wireless card working on my old Dell so my mom can have internet access upstairs and downstairs

Completely cleaned/organized my room so that there arent 5 giant cardboard boxes sitting in there anymore

Signed up with Verizon for new cell phone service, got a Moto E815 for me and a Moto V265 for my mom (I wish I could've stayed with Nextel but they don't have a real family plan)

Re-registered car in TN, barely passing emission test for Hydrocarbons

Played over half of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Ate at Mafiozas, the best pizza place EVER

I also fixed a very minor printer problem with the church's computer (I don't really consider changing where the printer cable was plugged in as "fixing" a big problem). After spending 5 days or so in TN, I was ready to come back to NC so I did. For some reason the drive didn't phase me at all. I didn't get tired once and I didn't zone out either. Maybe thats because I actually drove during the day.

I mostly stayed in this past week because I wasn't about to voluntarily go outside in 100+ degree heat. When it did finally cool down and I went out driving, my car's air conditioning decided to crap on me and die so hopefully it won't get really really hot again this summer because I'll have to rely on going fast with the windows down for cool air. Maybe if I had a job I'd be able to get it fixed. . .

Nothing new to report

2005-07-29T23:42:00.000-05:00

As the title suggests, no job news really. I am going to some kind of job fair-esque thing in Greensboro this coming Wednesday (I think its doing work with a car dealership, they called early and I could barely understand what the lady was saying anyway). So maybe something good will come out that. The web producer job that I had a phone interview with while I was in PA still hasn't contacted me back yet about interviews which makes me very sad. That job sounded really great and the pay was amazing (since I'd be working with IBM/Lenovo). It was OK sitting around shortly after graduation but 2 months of not doing anything is really really getting on my nerves. It's not like I was some dumb computer person that just barely got through college with a C average. I pretty much finished my degree in 3 years, working 20 hours/wk for 2 of them, with a major GPA of almost 3.8 and an overall of 3.336 (which, after a 1.8 GPA my freshman year, is really darn good, like around a 3.65 for the last 3 years after changing majors). I do know my stuff about computers but no one wants to hire people without experience. WTF am I supposed to do? I can't get "experience" without a job and I can't get a job without experience. All things considered, my on-campus job for the past 2 years was probably tougher than just sitting around and creating web pages all day. I not only had to learn new technology but I had to teach it to people who barely knew how to use computers. Arg. So depressing that the 100k+ spent on college isn't really amounting to anything. That plus the fact that the longer I don't have a job, the more knowledge I'll forget so I'll seem really incompetent when I do start working. AND BEST BUY NEVER EVEN CALLED BACK! There's something wrong when a new Best Buy won't call back college graduates. . .

A real, non-blabbing post will come tomorrow about what's been going on in my life the past few weeks or so, sans the crappy job search status.

Back and gone again

2005-07-18T22:56:00.000-05:00

After spending a long week in PA listening to my mom and grandmother yell at each other most days and not having internet, I was glad to get back to NC last Friday. Even though flying back was terrible (I almost could've made better time driving. . .lets just say 2.5 hour delays resulting in sitting in Philly for far too long is not fun) but at least I finally got back to home.
For the next two days I watched the Open on tv in the mornings and mostly was lazy in the afternoon. Sunday my friend Mike was planning on coming over later in the afternoon so Diana and I went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm not sure if it was Johnny Depp playing Wonka or the strangeness that is Tim Burton but I don't think it was as good as the original. Still though, great fun to watch. I find it amazing that one person was all of the Oompa Loompa's.
Today, my mom was scheduled to fly into RDU so I could pick her up and we could drive to Nashville tomorrow morning. Unfortunately she had an even worse time flying down than I did. US Airways lost her bag (with all her clothes and medications) because the Lehigh Valley airport checked her bag in as "late" even though she checked in over an hour before her schedule flight. So what should have been a 2-3 hour trip to Raleigh and back turned into a nearly 5 hour fiasco. Hopefully the airport will give a call back to us tomorrow and let us know they found the bag.
After getting the luggage back tomorrow morning (hopefully), we'll be driving to Nashville. I'll be spending the week there, probably coming back sometime on Sunday, maybe Saturday even (I don't like spending time in Nashville). I figured I'd post this blogging tonight because who knows how good the internet will be at the house. If it's decent, I'll be posting throughout the week and probably try to get up reviews of Fantastic Four and Charlie.

RIP Grandpop

2005-07-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

While I was out getting an oil change, my mom called and let me know that my grandfather passed away early this morning. As such, I'll be travelling to PA for the next week (until next Thursday). I'll be back in NC for a few days until my mom flies in and we drive over to Nashville and I spend a week there.

Looks like I'm headed north

2005-07-06T22:47:00.000-05:00

I'll be heading to PA for who knows how long. My mom is flying to Raleigh and then we're gonna drive north. About a month ago, my grandfather was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and things aren't looking too good at the moment, hence the sudden trip home for as long as need be. I swear to God, if I get a bunch of phone calls from companies that want to schedule interviews while I'm gone, I'm going to be really bummed, since I have no way of knowing when I'll be back in NC. Hopefully things will get better in PA and we won't have to stay for too long. At least it'll be good to get out of this darn humidity for a bit.

I'll probably take my computer with me and try to get online a few times (there's a Panera not too far from the grandparents house) to post some updates.

The new world of podcasting

2005-07-06T11:16:00.000-05:00

New to me at least. I downloaded the newest version of iTunes and it has support for podcasting built in. A few months ago, when Opera released version 8 of its browser, they included RSS feeding as an option. I've grown a little dependant on my feeds. But seriously, its so much better to just get email-like messages when new stories are posted, as opposed to having to go to cnn, slashdot, or notebookforums constantly just to check and see if something of interest has been posted. I see podcasting in the same light. Its a great new feature that's really leading edge at this point (especially since its now built into iTunes).

Now I just have to find some decent podcasts to listen to all day. I've already signed up for a few, including dvd reviews, golf talk, and the slashdot weekly review. I dont think that anyone reads this, but if you do and you are into the whole podcasting scene, let me know some other ones that are good. I'd really like to find a good comedy podcast.

Ok, its a little past 11

2005-07-05T22:34:00.000-05:00

After my previous posting today, I decided it would be better to go and golf than sit around all day. Again, Indian Valley was the course because it's fairly close by and its really cheap ($15, cart included. . .thats almost free in golf).

Coverage of the round:
It was hot. It was humid. 90+ heat index. But at least it didn't rain or anything stupid like that. However, due to the heat and humidity (at least I think so) caused me to hit the ball much less farther than normal. My irons were all off by about 10 yards. On the first par three on the front, which was about 170 yards and downhill, I pured a 6 iron and it didn't even reach the green (probably traveled about 155 yards before plugging in a bunker).
Apart from the heat and humidity, I had a good day I think. For not having played 18 holes probably since the summer before I started college, I played well. On the front 9, my iron game was terrible. I didn't hit one green in reg. I did, on the other hand, chip and putt half decently. I shot around what I did when I played last Friday (low to mid 40s).
I had never played the back 9 at Indian Valley before today, so the results surprised me a bit. I started off on fire. I hit the first 3 fairways and greens. Putting wasn't as good as the front though so no birdies despite having the ball about 20 feet away for birdie on all three. After that though, I started to get really tired. I hooked all of my tee shots on the rest of the holes, except for 18. I managed to shoot in the low 40's on the back (including a great up-and-down on the last for par) so 18 hole total was low to mid 80's. I think if I keep playing more, the consistency I had will start to come back and I should be able to get down into the 70's at Indian Valley (its a short 6500 yards from the tips, par 70 course).
I've also decided I need to start working out. Even with the cart, I was still dead tired after playing 18 holes. Since I still have no job, I should get on that.

Until I figure out something else to write about. . .

Some updates

2005-07-05T13:21:00.000-05:00

Since blogger wasn't letting me change settings in my old template, I picked this as my new look and feel. I'll probably tweak the css sometime this week, if I feel not-lazy.

Also, I got a call earlier today about a job I applied for over the weekend. Its for a web producer for a company in Raleigh. They're going to call me back next week to tell me more about the job and, hopefully, set up an interview. Haven't heard back from the other jobs I applied for last week so who knows if they'll bother to contact me.

Right now, I'm debating if I want to go golf or not. Other than it being really hot outside, there's also a chance of isolated storms popping up at any time. More on this developing story at 11. . .

Hmm. . .I wanted to write about something

2005-07-02T23:00:00.000-05:00

But I can't remember what now. I was thinking about it while playing Tiger Woods 2k5 earlier this afternoon. Oh well, I guess I'll just write something else.

Our friend Mike came over yesterday morning to spend the day with Diana and I. While Diana was working in the morning, Mike and I managed to watch a few movies, return a few movies, and get lunch. When Diana came back, we went to Indian Valley and played 9 holes of golf. While I have been hitting the ball decently at the range as of late (for some reason), I haven't practiced my short game at all since the last time I was out on the course, which was well over a year ago. All things considered (and people talking in my backswing a few times) I played pretty decent. Shot mid-40's. Highlight of the day was on the 6th hole I believe. Its a dogleg right so it set up really well for my drive. I was a bit angry after losing a ball on the last hole, so I really ripped into it and hit it exactly as planned, playing the dogleg. The hole was I think around 360 yards and I didn't have more than 75 to the middle of the green. I made par on the hole but at least the drive was about as perfect as a drive could be. Hopefully I'll get to play once or twice this coming week.
After golf, we all came back to the apartment, ordered pizza, and watched Paycheck. Except for Ben Affleck, the movie is really good. Perfect for a wannabe-engineer/computer dork like myself. Nothing much happened after the movie (came back to my room and watched some Family Guy episodes and talked about our Lost (which happens to be the greatest show on TV. . .even when there's no new episodes until this fall) theories.) Mike left Saturday, early afternoon. I was then forced to sit around and do nothing for the rest of today. How grand. Just like every other day.

I guess thats enough for this post. If I remember what I wanted to write about, I will. If not, at least you have the story of the life of Joe Magyar, Friday July 1st 2005 to keep you entertained.

A quickie before bed

2005-07-01T00:36:00.000-05:00

Heh, I know the title sounds. . .um. . .heck, its 1:30 in the morning, you can't seriously expect me to come up with non-subliminal context in a blog posting! That just would take all the fun out of writing in a blog this late/early (depending on if you're a night person or not).

As I said in my previous post, I would be reviewing things as I saw fit. Well, I see fit.

War of the Worlds
movie
Didn't know much about the original story/broadcast so this is my first real experience with the story. I generally liked it, but damn! The ending was terrible! As I said on the way back home from the theatre, I really do believe that they could have done ANYTHING else and the ending would have been better. I really wish the movie would have just ended with Tom Cruise bringing his "daughter" back to her mother and then walking away. As it stands, the ending not only brought up unanswered questions, but also tried to explain *highlight for spoiler* why/how the aliens were defeated/killed. ARG!
Other than that, the acting was overall decent (its Tom Cruise. . .don't be expecting an award-worthy, except MTV award, performance) and the special effects were worth the price of admission. Definately won't be seeing it in theatres again though.

Graduation and such

2005-06-29T16:27:00.000-05:00

Haven't written a blog posting in a while so I figured I'd do a quick catch-up of whats been happening.

Made deans list again and graduated from Elon, 3.337 gpa

Went to Disney world for a week and set up two interviews for jobs at Elon

Interviewed for Web Application Developer and Web Designer jobs at Elon, not enough experience for either

Have been looking and applying for jobs practically every day, have yet to get any call backs, even from Best Buy (makes me seriously wonder if I'll get a job in computers. . .I mean, if Best Buy won't even call back a college graduate, what chance do I have working somewhere "real")

Went to the final round of the US Open at Pinehurst No. 2, spent way too much money

Started playing golf again, thanks to graduation money

My 22nd birthday also came and went in that list of events. I didn't get a job on my birthday so it was just another boring day, except for dinner at Olive Garden.

I'm really getting a little crazy at this point. Sure, having a week off at Disney and then a few more days of sleeping in was great, but I didn't finish college to sit around all day. I want to get a job, any kind of job, that will let me use my knowledge and keep on learning what can't be taught in a classroom. I guess until that happens, I'll keep sitting in front of my computer, checking for new jobs pretty much every hour.

On the bright side of not having a job, I have been able to start golfing again, which is great. I never wanted to stop golfing, but when you have class all day/afternoon, and no real source of income (at least to sustain a nasty golf habit), it becomes very tough. Diana and I have gone to the range a few times in the past week. On Monday, we went to a free clinic that some pro from Raleigh was giving. Because of the looming bad weather, we were the only two there so we got a free 1 hour lesson. It was great for both of us. Diana got some pointers that seemed to really help her. And I was able to use the pointers to and almost get my swing back into shape. The pro also seemed to really like my swing and I think found it hard to believe that I haven't seriously been golfing in the past 4 years. We'll see how I do when I get back out on the course at the end of this week.

Thats about all the news I have. Since I have no job and spend a lot of time in front of the computer, I think I may start blogging a little more. Rather than having these huge long posts as I normally tend to do, I'll try to make shorter posts, as ideas and thoughts come to mind throughout the day. Also, I'll be starting to write about the various worlds of entertainment I enjoy. By that, I mean amateur movie, music, video game, etc. . . reviews. So, for the first installment of my reviews.

Batman Begins
movie
I saw this on my birthday and holy hell was I impressed with it! All of my friends that had seen it before felt the same way. While I wasn't fond of the beginning (ok, so you're in jail and beat up the other people there because they're bad and then you get out and climb a mountain and learn to fight from these guys. . .wait, why the hell are you not in Gotham?), I liked the movie overall. Great action sequences and a good amount of storytelling. This is what Batman movies (and comic book movies in general) should be like. Definately the best movie I've seen this year.

Cars and jobs

2005-04-15T23:22:00.000-05:00

In either category, its not looking to hot at this point. I've applied to a bunch of jobs in all kinds of fields and haven't even gotten to an interview yet. So sad. Especially considering my resume and the experience that I do have. Oh well, as I said a few summers ago when I applied to just about every crap-job in the Lehigh Valley and didn't get hired for anything. . .I can't make them hire me. This is dissapointing because I kind of need a job. I don't want to move to Nashville where I don't know anyone. Another reason I want a job is my car situation.

I've been thinking about this a lot. I love my Probe GT. However, with all of its problems and my complete lack of funds to take care of it (and even with a job that would give me the money to repair it, its a 10 year old car, its not getting better with age). What I've been thinking is to look at a new car. Obviously, it would be pretty tough to get a new car without a job/source of income. Anyway, if I do end up with a job that I would be earning a decent amount of money in (30k give or take), here's my list of new cars I'm interested in, higher interest towards the top.

Subaru Impreza WRX (STI)

Nissan 350Z

Mazda RX-8

Infiniti G-35 Coupe

BMW 325 or 330 or by luck finding a really good deal on a used M3

New Ford Mustang GT

Mazda 6 5-door

Dodge SRT-4

I think thats about it. Obviously, with my tastes, I'm going to have to get a job that pays fairly well. Anyone that knows of any kind of IT job openings, let me know, because I need a job faster than a cop chasing down donuts (it's late, my brain is tired. . .lay off!). That's all for now.

RIP

2005-04-01T23:02:00.000-05:00

RIP Mitch Hedburg, 1968-2005

For those that weren't familiar with him, Mitch was a great comedian. I'd argue one of the funniest people I've ever heard tell a joke. Even though he wasn't, he always sounded like he was kind of "out there" and it only added to his act of great observational humor. I feel as though I was extremely lucky to have the chance to see him live a few years ago when he was in Raleigh. The comedy world is now missing one of its greatest comics and the world is missing a great person. We'll miss you Mitch.

Time for Classes

2005-03-29T00:15:00.000-05:00

Spring break has come and gone. I did the work I had to and generally had a good time not doing much of anything all day besides reading Slashdot postings and not being able to watch TV or go to CNN.com without hearing about Michael Jackson's love for children and Terri Shiavo's parents trying desperately to break the law of marriage that grants guardianship to the spouse. ITS NOT A POLITICAL CASE! Stop making it out to be one! GOSH!

So, a few things

My car: I didn't go home for Spring Break, mostly because my cars brakes are pretty much done for, especially the front ones. So I need to do as little driving as possible as I save up to get new rotors and brake pads. *insert "Please donate to help Joe have a semi-safe and driveable car" paypal link here. . .I also accept cash*
My computer: Sager has had it since last Friday, so it should hopefully be just about done getting fixed and shipping back to me soon. It's so lonely without that giant brick of electronics and plastic in my room. Luckily, Diana is awesome and has been letting me use her computer for basic internet needs.
My PSP: Got it on launch day, at EB (third person to pay for it there). It is great. The screen is amazing. Its like having a portable high-def TV. Only thing I still need is a bigger memory stick, so I can use it as an MP3 player (or movie viewer). Needless to say, I'll be carrying it with me to classes for a while so that I can make people jealous.
My job search: Still haven't really heard anything from anyone. Today, I was looking at staff jobs available at Elon and there are two that I'll probably end up applying for. First is a Media Technician for Media Services, which is pretty much fixing stuff around campus most of the day, such as projectors and maybe printers. Second, which I'd prefer but I'm not totally sure I'm qualified for: Multimedia Developer for IDD. I'd LOVE to get that job and continue working with the awesome people in IDD that I've been working with for the past 2 years and be able to really contribute my skills while still learning much more about graphics and web design from JP. In comparison to JP though, I have virtually no skills so I'm not sure how far I'd get in the hiring process there. I still have 2 months though to find something so time is starting to run out, but by no means am I out of time yet.

Once I get my computer back from Sager, I'll post again, between the scare-fest of Doom 3: ROE. Maybe I'll be able to break the computer again before August. . .I'd have a good case for requesting my money back then and getting a newer, better laptop. One that doesn't overheat to the point of ruining the GPU and mobo every 6 months. Now, I need to get to sleep. . .second half of second semester, senior year, starts tomorrow.

Time for Spring Break

2005-03-17T20:42:00.000-05:00

Even though I'm not doing anything for break, it'll still be nice to have a week off. So far this semester has been mostly stress-free, with the exception of attempting to find a job. Classes are all going well (should have strong A's in everything) so hopefully that will continue. I'm not sure if I want to go home to TN for break. First, I won't have my laptop (more on that later) and second, I don't like driving 500 miles each way to spend like 3 days total there.

So, for the laptop story. As with most Sager 8790's, my computer has, in technical-terms, crapped out. It works fine as a normal, web browsing text writing computer, but for gaming, it can't do anything because about 10 seconds into any kind of gaming, the artifacting gets so bad you can't even tell whats on the screen. So earlier today, I got in contact with Sager tech and told them my problems (artifacting, screen flickering and memory stick pro reader not working). They gave me a return-service number so as I'm writing this, I'm waiting to hear back from PCTorque, because they're supposed to be giving me a shipping label so I don't have to pay to ship it back to Sager in CA. Hopefully I'll be able to get it shipped out tomorrow and Sager gets it in the first half of the week. I believe that Sager tries to get computers out of the factory with 3 days so I shouldn't be without my computer for more than 2 weeks total, including all the shipping time. It'll be OK after next Thursday though because. . .

I should be getting a Sony PSP. Not only can it play games that look as good as PS2 games but it'll also serve as a nice MP3 player until I feel like paying $300+ for a real one from Apple or Sony. I'm very excited about getting a PSP. I haven't done anything in the world of handheld gaming since I was probably around 10. If nothing else, it should make boring nights at work a little easier to handle.

That's it for now. Once I get my computer back, it should be about time to start playing the new Doom 3 expansion game, which should be awesome. Hell, being able to play any game again will be great! Hopefully I won't have to send my computer in for repairs every 6 months to a year because that'll get old really fast and make me angry. I'll write more after spring break (maybe from Diana's computer, maybe from mine).

And on we go

2005-03-04T00:42:00.000-05:00

Almost spring break already. . .what the heck have I been doing that has made the past month and a half go by in no time at all? Yeah, I've been doing work in all of my classes but that usually makes time go slower, not faster. Anyway, final semester has been mostly fun up to this point. Learning real design techniques for websites is something that is great to know (not that I didn't know the stuff before, but now it has actual names, like grid-layouts and categorical grouping of links). Also, senior sem has been fun thus far. I like the fact we're doing things that will actually help us in the future, rather than just some dumb project that has no real value whatsoever and will never even be used outside of class (now I'm not naming any classes in particular in which this practice is currently being used in, but, it's a little difficult to do work when you know that it truly is only for a grade). Racquetball, though tiring on my old and feeble body (that can be read as slow and lazy), has been fun. With the exception of the fact that I'm pretty terrible at it, I enjoy the sport. Gold and badmitton are still sort of my style though. Why oh why couldn't there have been a badmitton class at Elon?

In non-school news, the job hunt continues. The problems thus far: having classes and work all week during the times that I would be able to call people back. That and having a piece of crap cell phone that should have been replaced about 6 months ago. But I'll keep looking online and maybe eventually have time to call places back that actually contact me (like American Express).

Also, I decided to buy a DVD burner. Oh what fun this new toy is. Backing up large amounts of data in less time than it used to take to burn a CD is great. Freeing up hard drive space on my nearly-full 160gb external hdd is also great.

Diana just got a new laptop. A Sager actually. Guess who suggested it to her. I should get a commission! Anyway, she got the 3790 model, which is awesome. Not only does it have the great Pentium M processor for insane battery life and good performance, it also has an ATI 9700 graphics card, just like mine. Once she gets a little more used to it, I think I may make her play some Doom 3. Its a great little computer (lol, I know that 7-8 pounds isn't little to everyone, but to someone like me who has a 10+ pound laptop, 7 pounds is tiny). And for the price of under $2000, can't beat it. Just wish it came with the glossy WSXGA+ screen like mine. . .

I guess that's really about it for now. Thinking back about all that I just wrote, this is kind of a random posting. Oh well, deal. At least you got an update out of me and know that I haven't dropped off the face of the world yet. Oh yeah, if you haven't yet, please check out my online portfolio and let me know what you think of it. And please, be totally honest in what I could do to make it better. It's already shaping up to be my favorite website I've ever created and anything I can do to make it better would be awesome.

Spring semester thus far

2005-02-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so we're only a week into the semester but there's still plenty to talk about. Lets see how condensed I can make this...

1) CIS 310: Web design. . .hopefully I'll learn to make webpages that don't look like I puked them out
2) CIS 430: Systems development. . .um, didn't I do this last semester making Checkers. . .oh yeah, that was FUN, this isn't
3) CIS 450: Senior Sem. . .major research and job hunting. . .oh boy! (actually, I think I will enjoy the class anyway)
4) Racquetball: no better way to start your mornings that having to dodge fast moving circular objects

So thats my semester in a nutshell, class wise. Work is work and is hardly ever THAT much fun, but money is money and that IS fun.

In other money news, the school didn't bother to give me a meal plan for this semester, which resulted in me getting a huge refund check. Luckily for me, I had over $300 meal dollars on my student ID so I said "F it" to paying $900 to get a meal plan back. $300 should last me for meals for most of the semester. Plus having that $900 to play with is great. So, after paying back my grandparents the $500 I owe them, I have about $750 left over from my refund check to play with. Guess who will finally get to upgrade his car speakers and amp AND make his car windows very dark. . .that's right, THIS guy! And I'll also be helping Diana make her car windows a bit darker as well. Once I get my paycheck from work, I'll also be adding a DVD burner to my laptop set up. Its turning into quite the beast (as if an 11 pound laptop wasn't already). But it will be nice to make "backup" copies of DVD's.

I'll write more after the cars are upgraded and I have access to many more DVD movies. Later

Winter Term done

2005-01-26T13:05:00.000-05:00

My last winter term class is over. I'm done with my upper level general studies requirement. Now I only have 13 more semester hours between me and graduation. Winter term this year was awesome. Almost as cool as getting to spend 2.5 weeks in Australia doing practically nothing in terms of school work (a-la last winter term). To re-hash what I did this winter term:

Watched The Matrix, Minority Report, Blade Runner, Gattaca, 2001, Sneakers, and Jurassic Park

Read a 400+ page book that was totally awesome

Created Wiki pages about movies and other subjects

Compared The Matrix to Fight Club in what I thought to be a strong paper

Played Second Life and wrote 3 reflective essays about it

Gave a presentation about Sneakers

Had an awesome time learning about virtual societies and virtual life

I think the only way this class could be better is if it was a semester long instead of only 2.5 weeks. Now, moving on from winter term and into spring term...

4 classes stand between me and graduation. Hopefully they'll be somewhat fun. I'm still not totally sure if I'm ready to move on from school but I will be, whether I want to or not in a few months. I hope that some employer is out there looking for some kid right out of college that, by grades, seems to know a fair deal but in reality doesn't really know what the hell he's doing, yet.

OK, enough of that. Time to end this entry. More to come as my final semester of undergraduate college looms in the not-to-distant future.

Updates galore

2005-01-12T19:58:00.000-05:00

Well, its been a while since I've updated my blog. Figure I should do it now or it may not get done until the end of January.

Lets talk some about my class this January, Imagining Technology. It rocks! I really can't say anymore. We watch movies that deal with technology and cyberpunk, we're reading one book that is VERY good (Snow Crash), we write a few papers (it is our upper level general studies class, after all), and we play Second Life. And I'm doing fairly well so far too! I rocked the first essay with a 93 (class avg was a 78) and I got a 98 on our first reading quiz. I'm sure I'll do fine on the homeworks we have based around Second Life and our final project (watch movies, create wiki's). I love being able to say that I really truthfully enjoy an upper-level class at college. We need more classes like this.

Another reason I felt like updating now is because of the speaker I saw this afternoon. M. Szulik, the CEO of Red Hat (makers of Linux and other things open source) spoke about open source technology and some of the difficulties it faces in a global market that is 94% monopolized by one company (any guesses?). He also spoke about how leadership should never be underestimated. Red Hat, a company that started by giving things away for free (and they still do. . .go ahead and download Fedora) is now a key player in trying to get M$oft to release their strangle hold on computers. It really hit a brain cell in me. . .here's a guy that, at the height of the company after going public, could have walked away from it all with almost $1 billion in his pocket, but he chose to stay and be a leader to a company that he has greater asperations for. If that's not inspirational, I don't really know what is. I really need to start looking for jobs soon. . .good thing Red Hat is only about 50 miles away or I might have to move closer to Raleigh.

I'll try updating more before the end of January. If that doesn't happen, you can blame Second Life and tringo for taking up all of my time.

The drive and PA

2004-12-29T16:35:00.000-05:00

About the drive from Nashville, TN to Whitehall, PA:
Departure time - 8:30pm CST
Arrival time - 9:30am EST
So the drive overnight took 12 hours. 800 miles in pitch darkness was not so fun. And I got the 2nd leg of it so I was really tired while I was driving. I didn't sleep much while my mom was driving just in case something happened snce she still wasn't quite at 100% (and still isnt really). Despite a group of deer soon after getting out of Nashville, there were no problems. Gas stations were open, prices were decent, and of course there was hardly any traffic (wouldn't expect it XMas eve into XMas day anyway). Still not really looking forward to driving back on New Years Eve and then spending one day in Nashville and then driving another 7-8 hours back to NC.

PA so far: I've pretty much just been sitting around at my grandparents house since we got here on XMas. I called one of my friends and will be visiting his family tomorrow (Thursday) and attempted to call my high school friends but couldn't get through so we'll just catch up online or the next time I'm in PA (who the hell knows when that will be. . .probably not before summer).
I'm still waiting to get my new digital camera (I've been lazy and haven't deposited the money I got on XMas into my bank account). Making this update by mooching off of someone's wireless connection near my grandparents house (ah the goodness of taking peoples bandwidth because they don't encrypt their AP).
Some good news I found out yesterday. . .Father of the Pride is back on the air. For how long I have no clue, but last week and this week brought 4 new episodes so I'm doing my best to download all of them off of my limited internet access time.
Guess thats about it. Next update will come after I'm back in NC and ready to get started playing Second Life, watching movies and writing on message boards for my January term class, Imagining Technology.

Break so far

2004-12-23T02:31:00.000-05:00

I spent the first few days of my break bumming around the apartment in NC. This is what I considered my real break where I wouldnt really have to do anything for at least a few days. I didn't know how right I was.

Coming to TN was fun. From Ashville, NC all the way up until I got here, if I wasn't in a city (of which there consists Ashville, Knoxville, and Nashville) it was snowing. Definately not so much fun to drive about 5 hours in very snowy conditions with people who get afraid when they see snow falling from the sky, let alone accumulating on the side of the road. But it had to be done.

The reason it had to be done was that my mother was in the hospital. I got a call the day I was planning on coming here from someone at church saying my mom had to go to the hospital on Sunday morning because she was sick. No one really knew what was wrong. When I got here Sunday night, she was still in the hospital so I get to look after the animals and this huge house by myself. Monday wasn't too much better. Apart from getting called every 10-15 minutes by people I don't know, my mom was still in the hospital and there still wasn't any word as to what was wrong. Eventually, my mom called to let me know that the doctors said she could come home because I was here if something happened. So I got to drive around at night and find Vanderbilt and the hospital. Luckily it wasn't too far away (about 3 miles. . .ah the advantage of being in a city). I picked up my mom and she seemed to be doing better. Even now she's still not totally better but hopefully by the time we have to drive to PA in 2-3 days from now she'll be good to go. She usually doesn't get sick so this was really weird.

Apart from my mom not being at 100%, TN has been uneventful. Just been sitting around the house all day, watching tv or playing computer games. And totally not feeling like home (apt in NC or PA). I don't really know why but I don't really feel comfortable here. Maybe its because I've never lived in a city. . .maybe its because I've been here for probably about 7 days since my mom moved here. . .maybe its because I don't know ANYONE in Nashville. . .but I am totally not adjusting to 1024 Noelton Ave. I can't wait until we go to PA. The fact that its going to be a 13-14 hour drive almost doesnt matter to me as long as I'm not in TN and going somewhere I'm more comfortable and may get to see people I'm comfortable with.

I'll try to update one more time before we go to PA. Let's hope the weather on rt. 81 will cooperate with us on Christmas Eve into Christmas morning. Long night drive isn't going to be very fun.

Final Damage Report

2004-12-15T16:17:00.000-05:00

OK, no real damage actually. Lowest grade was a B (probably my highest low grade of any semester besides last fall) and my two grades I was worried about dropping to B+'s both stayed at A- so that means I made Deans list again. WOOT! Since switching my major at the start of my 2nd year, I've made deans/presidents list all but this past spring. Still amazing how changing your major will do that (and by that I mean "turn some dumb kid into someone who, by grades alone, seems to know what the hell they're doing"). Now we'll just have to see what I can muster in spring. It would be nice to end on Presidents list with all A's.

Oh yeah. . .Half Life 2

2004-12-13T18:30:00.000-05:00

Totally forgot. I finished Half Life 2 on Saturday morning after I woke up. I finished the game in a little over 2 weeks (probably did about half the game on Thursday,Friday,Saturday). Thats gotta be record time for me. I usually play through games really slow (it took me almost 3 months to get through Doom 3) but Half Life 2 drew me in so much. It is an amazing game and definately deserves all of the credit in the world. To me, Doom 3 is still a better GOTY candidate but I know that it can't really compete with HL2 in that category. Everyone saw Doom as merely eye candy with a really crappy story and horrible AI. After playing through HL2, I dont think the story is all that much better than Doom. And for AI, yeah, Doom did kind of lack (come on, seriously, a HellKnight just isn't going to move as fast as a friggin human). Of course I could just say "Well, they are demons after all. . ." but thats just sort of pussy-footing around the issue. Graphics/game engine is where I think people should really look at more. Yeah, HL2 has real life physics. But you know what, so does Doom 3. I shoot a light. . .it swings or bursts. I hit a box. . .it flies off the shelf. I get the crap knocked out of me by a Pinky. . .I fly back a few feet and get shaken up. And then there's the lighting and sound effects. Sorry, Doom 3 totally wins in best new game engine in my book. I can't wait until that engine starts getting used in more mods and becomes less of a beast so it can run on my computer at a good 60fps.

So, in conclusion. . .finished HL2. . .awesome game. . .played through it fast (for me). . .Doom 3 is better overall. The end.

Done done and done

2004-12-13T17:56:00.000-05:00

As of 7pm tonight I officially have no more business left to do for the fall semester of my senior year (besides check for my grades every 5 minutes). I am quite amazed I pulled off all of that work I listed in my previous post in less than 2 weeks. Guess the senior slack didnt really kick in all that much.

Today was kind of good and bad. Good because I'm done and I'm happy with my grades that have been posted (a B in programming, my highest grade in any CS programming class. . .and a B+ in digital art, thanks to an A- on my final project and a 100 on the take home final test). Don't ask me how the hell I got an A- on my final project. I did all the work the day before and was up until 2am finishing putting it all into Flash. Oh well, Mike pretty much crapped on everyones work all semester so I'll accept the A- and forgive him a little bit.

For the bad: my two classes with Megan. I'm a CIS major so I should tend to do well in those classes, right? I mean, my overal major GPA is something insane like 3.8 or higher. However, for my two classes with Megan this semester, I'm not going to be surprised if I get B+'s in both classes. Today, both classes had projects (and database also had an in-class test, at 8-friggin-AM). Well, for database, everything was good for the project up until I couldnt get half of the SQL SELECT statements to work as they should. I was working on them for probably close to 4 hours yesterday (which happens to be a long time to look at snippets of code that shouldnt be more than 10 lines long). Eventually I got to the point where I sort of just threw some stuff together that sort of answered the reverse of the question and just hope that I get some credit for it. All that working didnt give me any time to really prepare for the in-class test part so I just kind of winged that (when I was half asleep). For the other class, we had 3 features to implement in our Wine Store Website. First was to add a Tips page which was easy (no dynamic Cold Fusion schtuff). Second was to add an age checker to the website (again, no big deal, simple Cold Fusion). Last was to add a feature that would let a user change their password. Here's where the shit hit the fan. I created a page that would allow you to enter your old password and new password and got it to pass those values to another page that would check and make sure your old password matches your current one (for security) and if it did, it would replace it with the new password. However, I was not able to figure out how to make it do that for the specific user that was trying to do this. It would change every persons password in the database to whatever the new password is. I knew exactly what I had to do and I probably tried about 10 ways to do it, but it just would not work.

I hate not handing in things that don't work. As much as I want good grades, I'd almost rather get a C on something that just doesnt work. Least then I'd know I had messed up. Arg. Nothing else I can do now I suppose. I'll let myself be consoled by video games and sleep for the next few days I guess. I'll write more after all my grades are in.

That time again

2004-12-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

Yes kids, its that time again. Time for Joe to not be constantly updating you with news of his life because other crazy stuff is going on. Mainly the final week of school for 2004.

Here's what I've done/will be doing before next Monday.

Database homework 5 (88)

ColdFusion homework 7

Implementation of Checkers source code (nearly 25,000 lines of code)(95)

Digital Art take home final(100)

Personal Website

Digital Art Final Project(A-)

Programming Languages Final Exam(don't think i want to know)

Database Final Project

Database Final Exam

ColdFusion Final Project

Thats it. OK, on to doing my website now. I'll update after this hell thats known as Finals Week is over. . .

Black Friday

2004-11-27T01:01:00.000-05:00

Well, I went out shopping today to get into the holiday spirit and join the crowds. Actually though, it was a very painless experience in terms of crowds. Staples, Circuit City, a local camera store, EB Games all seemed less busy than normal. Best Buy was Best Buy so it was pretty terrible, but still, nothing all that bad. Definately much better than back in PA where all the stores worth shopping at are all in the same mall or within 1 mile of said mall. Nashville is a little more spread out so I think this city can handle the crowds a bit better. OK, here's the damage report.

-Bought a wireless router and notebook card. Got the router and wireless network up and running really quick. Couldn't get my old Dell with the new card to connect to the network though, but I'll have more time in December.
-Bought a 512mb Memory Stick Pro for my future digital camera that I'll be buying myself for Christmas.
-Bought 6 games at EB for around $90. Manhunt, Return of the King, and Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow on PC and Prince of Persia, Kingdom Hearts and the Mega-Man collection on PS2.
-Bought "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Edward Scissorhands" on DVD at Best Buy. They had already sold out of "Mean Girls" a little after 10am so that was kind of dissapointing (its such a funny movie, definately worth the $10 they were charging for it).

After all the shopping, my mom and I had lunch at Olive Garden. Ugh, two days of filling my stomach to capacity not good. I need to not eat for the next 3 days I think. Anyway, thats about it. Its good to actually be able to use my own computer here at home (now I have less reason to ever leave my room).

Thanksgiving. . .I'm thankful that my car made it here

2004-11-25T23:55:00.000-05:00

OK, nothings really wrong with my car, except for the oil leak but that hasnt killed the engine yet. Anyway, onto my travels and Thanksgiving.

I left NC much later than I expected to, hit some rain and got caught up in traffic yet still made it here to Nashville in about 8 hours (it usually takes me 7). Had some dinner, messed around on the computer for a bit (admiring the fact that my moms computer isn't completely dead anymore. . .yay for more RAM) and then went to sleep. Woke up Thursday, watched some TV and then went to have Thanksgiving day lunch/dinner at 2. So much food. . .soo good! I need to get honey-baked ham for my apartment and always keep some prepared. When we got home, I looked through all the ads for tomorrow and tried to figure out what I could possibly use. So, tomorrow I get to wake up very early and try to get nifty things. On the list are

Wireless router and laptop card

Stuff for my digital camera that I don't have yet (give me time, its gonna be an Xmas gift to myself)

some video games maybe (as if I don't have enough to keep me busy

some dvd's

and maybe some clothes (as my mom says, I can't go to interviews in jeans and t-shirts and expect to get hired)

Apart from getting up early and shopping, I really need to do some homework tomorrow too. I was planning on doing stuff after Thanksgiving food but we stayed and chatted for far too long. So, tomorrow I really need to add code to my webpage for CIS320 (yay for adding auto-send email stuff), try to find images that I can edit for my digital art final project (boo digital art), and maybe think about what I want my database design to be like. And thats totally ignoring the work I have to do on my personal website and on my programming project. Thanksgiving break. . .HA! More like Thanksgiving "here's a bunch of food and other things to distract you from the 500 million things you have due within 3 days after you get back to NC."

Half-Life 2 Update:
Didn't make too much progress since last posting. Played for about 15 minutes this morning after waking up. I'm far less effective at killing zombies when I'm half asleep. I also got killed for the first time in the game. Damn you black head crabs. . .damn you and your ability to instantly put my health at 1!

Some /. for ya. . .

2004-11-24T01:20:00.000-05:00

In case you don't /. here's some interesting stories I've seen recently. By interesting I mainly mean in terms of gaming. . .

1)Massive Multiplayer Gaming Warehouses On The Way
-This sounds like it may be incredible. When I was in Australia, all the cities had multiple locations where anyone could go, pay $2 or so and have internet access for 30 minutes or more (if they wanted to pay more). This seems to be taking that concept to another level. $5/hr to have access to a huge TV and some of the best gaming equipment available. . .sounds decent.

2)Some Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 schtuf
-Since I got my new laptop in August, I've pretty much gotten bored with console games and Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 are without question the biggest technological breakthroughs, in terms of video games, this year. Personally, I think Half-Life 2 was a bit over-hyped with what we got. Granted, it absolutely obliterates Doom in the sense of keeping a fairly high and steady frame rate (50 in HL2 compared to the 30 or so I got in Doom). However, I think that the Doom 3 engine is far more impressive in terms of TRUE realism, which is to me sound AND visuals.
Anyway, back to that story. Nausea. . .wtf? Definately missed that part of the airboat ride. And then, there's using HL2 textures in the Doom 3 engine. Strange, but I think it can totally be done, and the pictures included in the link from the /, story show that. However, I think the real test would be trying to take Doom 3 textures and throw them at the Source engine. I'd be willing to bet Source wouldn't be able to handle it. OK, I've blabbed enough about this.
In closing. . .Half-Life 2 = great game, great new technology (Source) but Doom 3 = great game, better new technology (when playing the game, its very tough to remember that it is just a game when you have high-resolution zombies coming out of shadows, demons screeching all around you and a single eerie light swinging overhead and having to deal with constantly moving shadows).

I'll post more news as I see fit. And I'll also be posting progress reports in Half-Life 2 as well. Currently, I'm in the "scary" part, a city full of zombies and headcrabs and death-traps by the name of Ravenholm. Besides the non-human inhabitants, there's a crazy preist who seems to enjoy blowing the crap out of zombies. And people say he's insane. . .
Oh yeah. . .I likey the gravity gun. Picking up huge saw blades and hurling them at zombies is fun. Since there's a grav gun mod for Doom 3, all we need now are the saw blades and then Doom 3 would have all the fun stuff that Half-Life 2 currently has. Well, except for the hot lead female character. . .

Joining the geeks

2004-11-24T00:20:00.000-05:00

OK, as if it wasn't official before. . .I'm officially joining the league of Geeks. In digital art class today, I was bored and looking at things on Newegg. Now, I have been wanting to get one of those small USB drives for a while now, but I didn't think it was justified unless it would have at least 1gb of storage and be under $100. Well, on Newegg today, they had this. Now its showing up as $74 but when I ordered it, it was only $65. So, the final outcome: 1gb of storage in a pen drive the size of my pinky for $70 shipped. Nice!

Welcome to the Blog

2004-11-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

Due to the fact that I don't update my LiveJournal anymore and I had to create a Blogger account so I could post on the Elon ACM blog, I figured I'd set one up myself for my personal webpage, which I'm currently working on revamping. This blog will serve as the central index page, where I'll post anything I like and link to various other pages I have created for my site. Hopefully I'll get it all figured out and working the way I want to sometime in the near future. Until then, cool your jets. . .this site is a work in progress and it will eventually progress until its done.