Soon it will end

Yes, soon, bwahahaha! Oh, should I explain? Soon, as in a week, summer courses will be done with. Makes me happy, real happy. Not much else to say about that...

In other news I'm currently finishing a web design related project (PHP) and will be starting on a full blown commercial web site redesign. I remember once wanting to do stuff like this for my career. I can't remember why I changed my mind on that, but I guess I'll find out soon since this project is a two plus month long one. Since I will be doing HTML and actual design with this project I'll probably start up my own website again in order to get my skills up to notch (and keep them that way).

Not much else to say. Ian is over with his Xbox 360, so... bye.

Summer Courses

I know, I know. I complained quite a bit about college in the Spring semester, and yet I'm taking a Summer class. The class is just a Gen Ed diversity class. the main reason I'm taking it though is to combat the feelings that I had last semester. The feelings of basically being swamped and never being able to do what I want. Instead of 18 credits (the most you can take without Dean approval) I will be taking 14, with 15 max until I graduate.

Anyway... what's happened in the last four months? Nicole and I went to New York City for four days and she had a great time (I had an okay time, but I'm just happy that she had a great time). We went to the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum, Natural History Museum, Comedy Cellar (two times), Time Square, and a live show of the Opie & Anthony show.

I'm still on OS X Leopard on my desktop. It's still on my laptop, but I mainly use Vista on it when I use it. I've recently reinstalled it on my desktop in order to get an as vanilla an install as possible (meaning that it has the fewest modifications from stock Leopard install) and it's pretty vanilla. I can currently install Software Updates without fear (running 10.5.4 as I type).

By now everyone should know that a new version of the iPhone came out with 3G and A-GPS. Well, I got one. More specifically I was the first in line at the local AT&T store and walked out the store with the first one. It's the white 16Gb model. How do I like it so far? Love it. The AppStore is just as great as I thought it would be (at least at launch) and I know that it can only get better. Same cell number, so call me ;)

I'm still waiting for a What.cd account (I think Mike promised me one when he can invite...). I haven't downloaded music illegally since Oink.cd shutdown. I want to, just I want quality FLAC encoded music, or it's not worth it. I have a good list of music I need, just no venue :(

Anyway, enough for now, will update later.

OS X Leopard

So, I've been on Leopard on my laptop and desktop for a couple weeks now. Soon after my last post I got it running quite well. I'm running 10.5.2 Leopard Server on my desktop and only 10.5.1 on my laptop. I plan on selling my laptop for a MacBook 13" by around May sometime. See, pirating CAN pay off ;).

Besides for that I'm still in school, haven't dropped out yet =P. Been tinkering with ROLE (my secret Lisp project) off and on when I have time, which is almost never. And planning a trip to New York City. Yep, gonna go there around May 24th with Nicole for a week. It was mainly her idea, she mentioned she wanted to go sometime in her life, so I suggested recently that maybe that time should be this summer. So far we are liking the idea.

Not much else to say. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is pretty kick ass, I can hear my roommates play it in the other room as I type this. You really have to play it in order to see how awesome it is.

Busy...

Well, since Quaal reminded me that I haven't updated in a while I've decided to tell the world that I'm still alive, but not really updating. I'll do that later (around Spring Break). So, short summary: New computer, tattoo healed, gave Nicole some jewelery for V-Day, school is going fine (I guess). Current experiment: install Leopard on laptop and new desktop.

The Tattoo

I got my tattoo last night. Yep, finally got around to subjecting myself to pain in order to get art put permanently on my body. Was it worth it? Hell yeah it was. It looks so wonderful and it has so many meanings to me (I know of some where it only has one meaning if anything at all). Well, enough talk, now for a good picture.

My tattoo.

Here is a link to the post about my planning on getting the tattoo, so you can compare a before and after.

School, My Hatred

I was supposed to update a long time ago with post party pictures. I have those pictures still, but they will need to wait to be uploaded. Like always around this time of the year I have school. College to be exact. I dislike school. I love learning, don't get me wrong, but I hate the artificial requirements imposed on you in order for you to have a broad learning experience. I want to learn one or two or three things, don't make me inadvertently learn ten things just so I'm well rounded. If I wanted to be well rounded I would have taken classes specifically for that!

Another thing about school that just royally pisses me off is how it caters to the lowest or near lowest of the students. My Computer Science 2 class is one prime example. The prerequisites for the class are absurdly low enough, let alone that we have to lower them yet some more because some people claim to have not been taught simple things about C++. The class shouldn't be about C++ in the first place, we should have that down pat by now since there are TWO, yes TWO, classes about it that you need to have had done. I could choose to not care and still get a B+ or A-, but that's not how I am.

That leads to yet another thing that is getting to me lately. Suppose for a minute that Stephan was still in school and that he got a 4.0 for the semester (or maybe even one class). How do you think his parents would react? His grandparents? His girlfriend? They would fucking throw him a God-Damn party, or buy him a car, or something. You know what I get? "Good job, Brent. We knew you could do it." What type of reward is that? What incentive do I have to keep up the "good work?" It shouldn't be bothering me, but frankly it is. I work my ass off in order to get the BEST you can get. And sure, maybe in high school when I got good grades it was not much (I mean, it was ONLY high school), but this is college. This is supposed to be hard. I 4.0'ed Calculus even.

So, I hate school. What am I going to do about it? Nothing. It's a "necessary evil," if only because it will help me make more money later on. I may not even need the degree I'm going for in order to get the job I want. I'm just gonna have to deal with the hatred and push through this semester and three more. Maybe I'll learn to like it again sometime soon. I can only hope.

Pre-Party Party

Last night was our pre-party, party. By that I mean we played Monopoly semi-drunk and just hung out with about half of the crew that will be here tonight. We won't be playing Monopoly tonight though and I will be video taping almost all of it and taking pictures of some of it. For anyone who knows people from Onamia and such, the people that were all here was Sam, Mike, both of their girlfriends, Jon, Stephan, Jordan, and myself.

There wasn't much else to say, just had to get this down. Mail hasn't come yet, it better have my battery though.

2008

It's 2008. Well, it has been for a couple days now, but this is the first time I've posted in the new year. So far it's been a good year. It could be a lot better though. I could have my PSP battery so I can hack my PSP. I could get deep into programming in Lisp and start a cool project. I also could throw a kick ass winter break party. All of which in good time will probably come true.

My birds are still annoying me. My mom talks about taking them back and in the end I think I would like that. I'm more annoyed with them than enjoying them. As soon as they are gone though I might get a kitten. Kittens are fun, cute, and Nicole wants one anyway. Hopefully my mom gets the birds soon.

I haven't updated in a while because nothing too interesting has been happening. I over to Mike's house on the 2nd and stayed over night to yesterday. He has been in Arizona for the last two weeks. That is one reason why there hasn't been a kick ass winter break party, we have been waiting for him. We went in his hot tub around 11 at night (with zero degree weather) and accumulated ice caked hair. It was nice and relaxing, like all hot tub visits should be.

There isn't much to say for now. I didn't get my tattoo yet (because of funds), so I can't post anything about that. I'll post pictures and stories about the PSP and party as it happens.

Way too much free time / Rock Band

and thus the reason why I stopped the Everyman Sleep Schedule. It's so hard to stay awake in the morning and do anything productive when you have nothing productive to do. At 3:20AM, after my shower, I sat there for a couple minutes trying to think of a reason to not just go right back to sleep and I couldn't think of one. So I decided that I would take another core, maybe to catch up on some sleep or something. After that one I had a headache and decided to stop the schedule for lack of things to do. I am a determined person, but not when there are no clear benefits to do it. There will be benefits to it when school does start though, and from my experience it doesn't hurt you too much when you start it (unlike Uberman, which you NEED to start over a break). If I need the free time when school comes around, I'll give it a try. And just for the record, I survived three whole days (24 hour periods) on the schedule.

So, how long did I sleep today? Well, it might have been because of some sleep deprivation from adjusting to Everyman, or because I truly do like sleep and was trying to reward myself or something... but I slept 12 hours. It sounds bad, but it felt so good. I think it reset me back onto my normal sleep schedule. I feel really refreshed and aware, thus all of this typing as soon as I got up and got some Sunny D.

Last night we played Rock Band until midnight with a lot of people over. That game does rock. I highly recommend people go buy a 360 or PS3 just to get that game. It is that awesome. It does have many uses, so I might as well outline them for you in order to convince you to go out now, right now, and get it.

1. You can feel like an actual rock band, and come on, who doesn't want to be in a rock band? Rock bands rock, by definition!
2. People will just come over if you own the game and they think you are playing it. Last night was one prime example of it for us, we just have three random people we knew come over and sit around watching us play.
3. It's fun. More fun that almost any other game we collectively have played in the last year. Galaxy is fun as shit, but this one is co-operative, has infinite replay value, and a social status booster (sorry Mario, you haven't done that for me in ages).

See, now go buy it, I know you want to. And yes, EA, you can send me my check now.

That's it for now, have to go play Rock Band.

Afternoon / PSP

So, I'm in-between my noon and 6PM nap, just got done singing for Rock Band, and intrigued by this PSP that I bought. Yep, I broke down (and by broke down I mean went on a whim) and bought a PSP Slim. The only reason I did though was because I could do with it the same as I can with my Nintendo DS, and that is download and play for free as many games I want (PSX, GBA, and PSP). I found out that I need a special battery or a friend with an already hacked PSP, so I bought the special battery. I hope to be enjoying a collection of Final Fantasy games in about a week. And yes, I know I didn't need to link Final Fantasy, thought it would be funny though.

I probably didn't make it clear in my mentioning of the tattoo that I'm getting that I'm getting that specific tattoo. Well, the more I think about it, the more it becomes a collection of many different things. My past with relationships (crazy and me giving my love away too easily), my current relationship (she may have the key to my heart), and other countless things that I can't seem to manifest into words. I meant to mention this and only leave out the bit about the key part of the tattoo, which is still a secret.

From 6AM to 1PM I was working on the PSP. I could tell I was tired, but like all other things that absorb me... well they absorb me. It helped me push through the morning tiredness that I'm experiencing. If I would have been able to hack it I know it would have helped with the next week. Maybe I'll find something else this afternoon/night to do tomorrow morning. I'm thinking that if I'm still tired like this in the morning after a full week of Everyman I'll try to adjust it a bit. The new schedule would be a core sleep from 3AM-6AM and my three 20 minute naps at 12PM, 5PM, and 10PM. The times would be more equal and I would eliminate some of the morning tiredness (hopefully).

After buying the PSP and special battery I'm broke. This means that I might not be getting that tattoo on Tuesday. I'll get it soon enough though. Yeah...

That's about it.

Start of Everyman Day 3

Waking up for the core nap so far is the worst part of adjusting to Everyman. I think that it will continue to get worse or at lest stay this bad until the sleep deprivation turns away. It might also be the placement of it or some of my naps, dunno yet. Right now I'm having a hard time from keeping myself from just going back to bed and sleeping in. Even with Stephan doing it with me I feel like I'm really pushing against the grain and that this won't have the payout that my weird little mind thinks it will. I'm giving it a week or two at a minimum though, so we will see.

My naps yesterday got progressively better, with the 6PM and the core nap starting pretty good. Between 6AM and 9AM though there was a period of more intense "I'm about to crash" feelings. I made it through though.

I got my final semester grades, and I must say I'm quite happy. I got my 4.0 again! That brings my GPA for SCSU up to a 3.93. I wasn't sure for some of those, I thought they might have been A-'s or B+'s, but I pulled through. Makes me all happy inside. Now lets hope for the same for next semester.

On a last note I'm planning on getting a tattoo soon. It's the one displayed on the right. I'm most likely getting it over where my heart is or on one of my lower arms, not sure yet. The plan for the key is, well, partially a secret and partially unknown. I'll post pics of me getting it and the end result when it's done. I hope to do it by Tuesday.

Well that's about it, I'm out.

Promised Pictures

Here are some of the pictures that I promised. They are the only ones that seemed presentable with a quick run through of the camera.

My grandparent's Christmas Tree

Nicole's family's tree

The Christmas dinner table set

My wonderful grandma

Cool flash/globe effect

My presents

Everyman Day 2/Christmas

Wow, I didn't think I would be that tired from waking up from the core nap. It was pretty hard pushing myself into the shower and out of the shower this morning. I'm decently awake now, but damn. Maybe it needs some slight adjustment a couple minutes out to make sure that I'm not cutting into the core too much (in case I''m falling asleep too late), dunno though. Best thing I can do is just push through it for at least a week before I make too many changes.

Yesterday went surprisingly well. Each nap was me just laying there, I couldn't actually get to sleep. I do remember doing that for a couple naps on the Uberman Sleep Schedule before my body finally kicked in (probably from sleep deprivation) and let me actually nap. This makes a full 27 hours (counting from when I went to sleep for the first core sleep) on Everyman. If the worst it gets is like it was this morning, it may not be so bad (sometimes I'm that sleepy for school, but the rest of the day is fine).

The Christmas food feasts went well. For extra presents I received O.C. season four, House, M.D. season one, and South Park season one. I watched the first two episodes of House with Nicole at my mom's house and I finished the first disk (four episodes) of O.C. season three yesterday morning.

I didn't take any new pictures, so some pictures will be uploaded today (probably after one of my naps). That's all for now.

Everyman Day 1

I just woke up from the first nap of the Everyman Sleep Schedule. Well, I got up, because it was hard for me to get to sleep. I do remember it being that way for Uberman also, I just need to get tired enough for my body to adjust and fall asleep as soon as I want to nap. Hopefully the 12PM and 6PM ones work out better. So far I feel pretty fine, barely like I'm getting no sleep (unlike the first day or two of Uberman). I really think the core sleep part of it helps a lot. That went well too btw; I got up and took a shower, ate cereal, and started watching O.C. season three. I got through the first disk (watched one episode last night before falling asleep). In two and a half hours I'm gonna head on over to Nicole's house so I can have Christmas lunch with them. I'll take my noon nap there and then head on over to my mom's place for Christmas dinner (which is going to be fry bread tacos, nummy), and my 6PM nap. After dinner we might head to the movies, dunno if Nicole will be going with or not though.

On another note, I've been running Fedora for the last couple days and so far I like it. It's almost usable as my main OS, except for a few quirks. The wireless card on my laptop acts a little weird and right now Fedora isn't liking it at all. Also, some programs are pretty unstable. I'm able to deal with that though being a semi-programmer. After I get my desktop I might wipe my laptop and only have Linux on it. The desktop might be only Vista, but then again it might be dual-boot (I need Windows for games).

So far it seems that Everyman is working out nicely. I hope it stays that way. That's it for now.

Actual Christmas Eve

I just got back from the Christmas Eve gathering. I received Smallville seasons five and six on HD-DVD and O.C. season three on DVD (three of the nine things I asked for). I also received a $20 gift card for Wal-Mart. The dinner was prime rib and tasted wonderful. I took many, many pictures, but I'm not ready to upload any of them yet. I will try to by Thursday and with any luck I will have Christmas Day pictures to post along with them.

Tonight I'm starting the Everyman Sleeping Schedule. The setup that I'm going to be trying is a core sleep from 12AM to 3AM with three naps at 7AM, 12PM, and 6PM, each being 20 minutes long. Everything can change depending on how my body adjust to it except for the 12PM nap. That is there because it will be the only possible nap that will work with my class schedule for next semester. I still have to come up with some things to do when I wake up in order to convince myself that I need to stay up. I know that in the long run with school and all that I will really like to have this schedule, but right now my mind doesn't think so when I'm trying to wake up. I really need to get it down ASAP though because the adjustment period is longer than the Uberman Sleep Schedule, which was only around two weeks. This one is four or more weeks.

If anyone can think of some hobbies or activities to keep me occupied between 3AM and 7AM, leave a comment. Otherwise I'm out.

Happy Holidays to all that know me. Hope it's going as good as mine is this year. =)

Christmas Eve

Well technically it's not Christmas Eve yet, because it means the Evening before Christmas Day, but whatever, I'll update tomorrow with the real Christmas Eve stuff (plus pictures). Anyway... I set my alarm for 3AM, after going to bed at midnight, and I actually got up. When I got up though, I sat there thinking what I would possibly do for 4 or more hours and I couldn't come up with anything. If I would have gotten up this would have been my first day on the Everyman Sleep Schedule, but alas it's not. I have to come up with stuff to do in the morning in order to be able to succeed.

Sometimes I wonder why I've kept these birds. To me (now that I've grown up and out of the whole "ohh, they are sooo cute" stage) they seem to be just a big mess (dusty feathers and what-not) and annoying (stretching in the morning and night).

Well, off to the dinner and the present opening.

Pictures with new camera

Here are some pictures I've taken with my new camera (sorry if they are boring):

What I couldn't finish from Famous Wok

A holiday-celibrating croaking frog thingy...

A picture of me (albeit blurry)

Resurection

I'm back. Well, I never really left, but I'm back to blogging it seems. Why you may ask? None of your business. Actually, I'm fine with telling. The reasons I'm going to (try to) get back to blogging is:

1. I have (and will continue to have) free time on my hands
   
2. I like the idea of a blog (even though I continue to fail at keeping one alive)
   
3. What type of geek am I if I don't have a blog?

But enough of me explaining myself. I have a couple updates/things to say in order to get people back on track with my life (though I doubt anyone that reads this doesn't know this info already). I'm still going out with Nicole. I'm still going to SCSU. I still have the same computer, but with a 24" monitor and 5.1 speaker setup (will be getting a new desktop around March). I live in an apartment in St. Cloud now. I'm taking care of both of the birds (all three if you count the former RO playing one, which leads to...). I live with three of my male friends, Jon, Jordan, and Stephan. And that seems to be enough catchup, I'll say more as it comes to mind if I find that I'm talking about something that doesn't make sense.

One such thing that deserves its own paragraph is that Nicole bought me a nice compact digital camera for Christmas. Yes, that means that I will have a constant flow of pictures to post, and they will be of better quality than my previous ones (even though those ones were pretty good quality if I may say so myself). Its max quality is 7MP (mega-pixels), but with the setting I use it at (wide-angle) its only 6MP. It has 10x optical zoom (yes, you read that right, 10x)! I must say its one of the best presents she could have gotten me (thanks babe). Ohh, almost forgot to say what model it is, its a Lumix DMC-TZ3S.

I plan on redoing the theme for the blog. Probably another default one to start and them some tinkering afterwards. That also means an updated profile picture (yay).

Well, that's about it, except for the mention that I will probably be starting the Everyman Sleep Schedule in the next couple days. The mention is mainly pointed towards Quaal. Anyway, I'm out.

More Pictures

Me, posing for myself. (Try not to laugh)

Now how about some of the other pets in the house...

Cats (Mittens [Left], Cow [Right])...

And dogs (Sadie [Center], Shorty [Not Shown])...

And birds (Spike [Center], Max [Previous posts])! Oh my!

Birdie(s)

Look! A birdie on my head. What shall I do?

Now he's on my shoulder, how cute.

Back in his (big) cage.

And now to a different type of birdie... the RO playing birdie!