This week has certainly been more interesting than the last.

Tonight, as I left the chinese takeout place across the street from where I live, I got a call from Jeremy at 10:01PM. He was stranded with a flat tire on his motorcycle 10 minutes down the highway. He said that he’d already made arrangements to get his bike home, but that ride was an hour away and he needed a lift to a gas station to buy a drink since he’d been stuck for 2 hours already. 30 minutes and a few phone calls later, we finished dinner at a different chinese place and drove back with his girlfriend and his pick-up truck to retrieve his bike from the shoulder of a highway off-ramp. After the tricky bit of getting the flat-tired-motorcycle up the ramp into the truck, all was well, and since he drives his truck everywhere, he like to be covered in case of an accident so he always have a Las Vegas truck accident lawyer at reach just in case he needed it.

Yesterday, an hour after I finished my latest round of monster.com resume submissions for jobs, I actually recieved a call from one of the employers to whom i’d sent my resume. Unfortunately, it was for a web consulting position, rather than a scientific or engineering spot, but its at least a lateral step, if not one in the right direction. My original meeting with the hiring manager was scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10AM in midtown, but I am supposed to get a phone call to reschedule it since the hiring manager won’t be present. Could this be the end of my late nights and hours of free time during the day? I suppose it depends on what the job is like and what it pays. I’m not thrilled at the prospect of fighting rush hour traffic everyday from here. Holcombe Bridge (the exit I live off of) is gridlocked every day without fail. There are other concerns as well, but nothign to worry about until after I’ve gotten all the information I can first.

The book i’m currently reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is great! I find it really hard to put down once i’ve read a page or two (which is why I was up till almost 6AM last night reading it). As much as I enjoy the Harry Potter books, reading a book like this makes the shortcomings of a children’s series like that all the more evident. All i really need now is a place to read. Beth suggested Caribou Coffee, but Ryan from the gym says that noone goes there, and reccomends the Starbucks between here and the gym. I’ll have to try them both I guess… though I might be done with this book by time I get around to it.

Sarah Burgoyne called me up today. She and her fianceé, Tony (old suitemate of mine) are on their way to Georgia (they are going to wed here next month) and plan to go to Six Flags tomorrow. I’m invited (Sarah remembered that I have Wednesdays off). As long as I take care of contacting the web-consulting people then I should be set. Stay tuned to this space for pictures from Six Flags Over Georgia 🙂

I got an email from Philipp Heinickle, whose Spiderwebs No Doubt bass tab I corrected. He writes:

His tab was pretty already mostly correct. He’s also the 4th person to ever contact me regarding a bass tab I did. I actually have an AIM buddy that found me as a result the tab I wrote for Gone by Switchfoot. She’s an aspiring bassist in a praise band. Pretty cool! 🙂 Maybe one day I’ll get to join a band myself.

Update: I got an email from Valerie saying that she and Brannon won’t be able to make the Stone Mtn trip. Their plans include family which means that Natalie might not be able to make it either. Nicole has to cheer the Falcons game that weekend (she’s an Atlanta Falcons cheerleader). That’s what I get for trying to plan stuff :-/

It seems like these entries are starting to become weekly occurrences. I’m afraid of boring the few folk(s) that do occasionally read (i got my first comment last week) this site, which is why I try to wait until some noteworthy event happens. I could just fill more posts with more introspective material (thoughts, wishes, etc), but I’m uneasy with giving everyone in the entire world potential access to such personal meanderings.
I’ll compromise. I’ll put more personal content up more often, but i’ll password protect it so that only folks who 1. Want to read that sort of junk 2. Have my approval can access it. Contact me if you want the goods!

The icon for this entry is an animated gif of Gwen Stefani from No Doubt’s It’s My Life   video (can you guess the lyrics she’s mouthing?). Its a song I play along with on my bass guitar. I spent tonight correcting and re-writing the bass tab for it. You can take a look at the tab right here. I’ve noticed other errors in the bass tab for Spiderwebs, but its only missing a few flourishes here and there, so I’ll leave it for another night. I guess i’ll have to start putting up all the bass tabs i’ve written on my website (only about 4).

Lacking companions to hang out with, today I went to Galyan’s on the advice of the Events section of AccessAtlanta.com to see a ‘Pugmo skateboard demonstration’. It turned out to be a product demonstration of a product that was so lame that I refused to embarrass myself by participating or taking any photos. Its a skateboard that the rider makes ‘go’ by working the deck like the lever on a railroad hand car. The deck sits about twice as high as the deck on a normal skateboard. They were allowing people to try it out. I don’t think it will catch on.
Bored with the demonstration, I ended up buying a book at Borders. I bought The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, which was reccomended to me by sister-of-a-friend, Meg Andrew. I’m going to start reading it as soon as I finish this entry (and play a game of Warcraft 3 perhaps).

There is a gym-wide trip tomorrow to the Lake Lanier Islands. I already know that i’ll probably sunburn a bit if I go (yes, black folks can sunburn and peel). I’m allergic to sunblock, (clogs my pores and gives me a rash), so there’s no way around it unless i cover up. I went last year and had an okay time. The kids are all great, but I feel like I don’t spend enough time around my peers. Hopefully that will change, starting with the Stone Mountain trip i’m trying to put together. I don’t even know where people my age hang out! Sad, eh? Maybe you can tell me… leave me a comment!

-kevin

Wow, hard to believe that I have stayed away from the ol’ web log for a week… but the absence of entries should serve as a testament to the un-remarkableness prosaic nature of this past week (yes, i know that un-remarkableness is not a real word, but ‘mundane’ just isn’t the word i wanted to use). The class load at work has been low, but with the start of the school year and accompanying cheerleading season fast approaching (2 weeks away), I expect the load to gradually double.

I’ve been a homebody most of the week, but I did see a movie yesterday (Bourne Supremacy) with Beth. Also, on Friday I made it to a different movie theater to hang out with Susi and her friends. An eclectic bunch, that group. Most of them are still in school at tech. Susi mentioned that they were all taking a car trip to Baltimore next week for a convention called Otakon. Thats about a 12 hour car trip! I made the drive to MD from Atlanta once (Leila+BrianK’s wedding). Alone, but i had books on CD to keep me sane. I hope they can all get along for that much time together 🙂

Getting ready to hit the road for a multi-day adventure? Make sure that it’s a fun and safe drive no matter where you’re going with some top road trip safety tips including this article about seat belt compliance.

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I, unfortunately, have misplaced my atm card. Poor Beth had to buy my ticket to the movie! Embarrassing, I know… I didn’t realize that I did not have it until after I tried to buy something. I’ll have to go order a new one on Monday. They usually take a week to arrive, so its leftovers and table scraps for the coming week! Hopefully, i’ll be able to avoid having to walk into a bank branch and withdraw money.

The movie was alright (my review). I couldn’t believe how packed the theater was. Natalie was invited to see it with us, but said she already had other plans. Just as well, since we couldnt’ find any seats! The 9:15pm screening we went to only had seats on the side in the third row. On a tip from another movie-goer, we jumped into a 9:10 screening down the hall. We ended up in the third row again, but this time with decent seats in the middle. The theater and screen was also smaller which eliminated the need to jack up your neck trying to see the entire screen.

Today, I went to church and back. Nothing of note to report. I’ll spend the rest of the day trying to get a trip to stone mountain together via email. Liz said that some of her folks are going there on Aug.14th, so perhaps i’ll shoot for that weekend. I think Nat said something about only being able to make it Aug.24th… i’ll have to check on that, too.

-kevin

To know the most accurate way of becoming a casino expert, you are only one step away from becoming one. Just click here and enjoy! Life has gotten decidedly more uninteresting since the start of this past week. I’m doing better about spending more time productively, but I’m getting the same end result as before; I’m a home-body that spends entirely too much time in my room. Case in point… this weekend got off to a very bland and uninteresting start with work Friday afternoon, followed by sitting around in my room Friday night. (I would have gone to see I.Robot if I’d had someone to take). Saturday didn’t fare much better. I think the only trip out of the houseI made was to the supermarket to make dinner. I sat in, talked to Sarah on the phone (i must have bored the poor girl out of her mind) and re-read Ender’s Game.

It wasn’t a total bust. I did play my bass guitar some, and in my frustration I decided that joining a band would be a good way to get out more. I sent an email to a friend in a band to see if he knows of anywhere that might take a rank amateur beginner bass player (i wont’ get my hopes up too high). I also made the decision to not waste Sunday, and that I would go play some pick up soccer games at Piedmont Park, which is located 20 min south in midtown, Atlanta.

So Sunday I got up, got to church late on account of an impromptu haircut, wasted time at Target and Old Navy, but finally headed to the park around 3:45pm.

It was the strangest visit to the park that I have ever had. I was accosted on three separate occasions by total strangers. I know that its not wierd to meet new people at the park, or the supermarket, movies, other public places, etc… but it rarely, if ever, happens to me. The first person that introduced themself was with a group lounging in the canine section of the park (you’re allowed to take your dog off the leash on 1/3 of the park). We only chatted a little while and I hiked to the soccer fields at other end of the park.

Disaster when I arrived! All the soccer goals were chained up on the edge of the fields, so I took shots at an adjacent softball backstop instead. I was joined by an onlooker who had introduced himself a few minutes before as I was approaching the soccer fields. Soon after, a woman came over to us and invited us to play kickball and so we did. I ended up on a team captained by a ChemE grad student at Tech named Jennifer. Coincidence or karma? She was very friendly and after the game we played some destiny 2 trials of the nine flawless.
So, Sunday ended up salvaging an otherwise dismal july weekend. I came home and played some more bass. I can just about play all the way through “It’s My Life” by No Doubt. The song isn’t that fast, but the fingering is tricky. I’m sure Mr. Tony Kanal could play it in his sleep. I’d like to have chops like that one day, but there is a poor likelyhood of that happening :-(.

Well, another week of work awaits. Back to the job-hunt tomorrow morning. I hope my wireless internet holds up… its been going in and out at wierd times. I think a neighbor may have bought a 2.4 GHz cordless phone or something.

Hmm. Well, although nothing supremely noteworthy has happened in the past few days, I still feel like I should write something for continuity’s sake.

Its the first full week back to work at the gym. As a result of the week off (which I did enjoy), i will have to live like a pauper for quite a while. That means more cooking my own meals. Unfortunately, the last Sunday night after I cooked I wasted about 3 days worth of family dinners due to my forgetting-to-correctly-close-the-fridge-door. An embarrassing mistake :-(.

Other than the gym, I’ve been spending time trying to get back into japanese (I have been trying to translate paragraphs from the Asahi Sinbum VOX POPULI, VOX DEI (An old proverb quoted by William of Malmesbury in the Twelfth Century… The voice of the people is the voice of God). I have also been job-hunting, of course. Its long past time for me to move on and find something, but I have yet to find out what choices or opportunities I’ll have to choose from. A fat lot of good my degree in chemical engineering is doing me. 🙁
From my perspective, noone is even remotely interested in hiring (me at least) an entrly level chem-E. Frustrating.

Maybe the reply emails i’ve sent to far-away friends Leila and Roxanne, whom I haven’t heard from in a while, will take my mind off it.

Imagine owning a business that delivers amazing experiences and never actually taking part. After 3 years of owning Frontline and never playing Airsoft I decided to try it out and then let the world know my opinion. I have played paintball for over 20 years off and on so I knew my way around the field but I have to say it was an amazing experience. It was a nice winter day but still cool. (-4°C) I grabbed one of the Frontline Rentals, loaded up 2 high capacity mags and hit the field with my team for the first game. My preconceived ideas were that my reckless risk taking style of paintball would not match well with the more strategic and defensive style of airsoft. I was apprehensive about getting hit by airsoft snipers or other players not calling themselves out when they got hit. I was also a little concerned that the rental equipment would not stand up. Boy was I wrong on all counts.

Observation 1 – You can take chances with Airsoft and be rewarded

Airsoft balls do travel further and straighter than paintball but that works both ways. We played the D-Day field twice and both times the attacking team won. I found that with suppressive fire and pushing the field, players could advance and take the objective. Building clearing and moving quickly on the field is possible and the way to win the game. (Just be careful not to hit one of your team mates when they advance too far cough..cough Tilley)

Observation 2 – Getting hit is obvious and does not hurt.

This was a big one for me. I imagined that because of the higher velocity of the balls they would hurt. I know on bare skin they can, however, with only fairly light clothing there was no ouch factor at all. That being said it was obvious when I was hit due to the impact and sound of the balls hitting me. A great combination. I imagine with a heavy pack I might not feel the balls but I think I would hear the distinctive sound of the balls.

Observation 3 – Players do call themselves out.

There seems to be an unwritten code that all airsofters follow. In paintball because the ball actually has to break to count this introduces an element of impact without being eliminated that is not present in airsoft. If you hit someone they are out and the players call themselves out every time. Great sportsmanship.

Observation 4 – Equipment is reliable but is affected by the cold

Among our group there were some equipment issues. I had not factored the effect of the cold on my battery and I chose a gun that had a small butterfly battery. It performed pretty well but I could tell it was straining to be able to shoot and other players told me my battery was dying. In hindsight I should have grabbed a rental that took a brick battery and if I had my own gear I would have a LIPO battery for the cold. I played for 2 hours without any incident.

In conclusion, this will not be my last Airsoft game. I really enjoyed the playing style, equipment and the great group of players. I now have a new appreciation for my customers and the sport. I just wish it had not taken me so long to try it. Get out and play in 2016. You will not regret it.

This entry is backdated 24hrs
Catherine Peisher is now Catherine Knight. The ceremony took place at the Milledge Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, Georgia, July 10, at about 5:30pm.

Alex was the best man. My old roommate Chris (Cat’s brother), Michael (also Cat’s brother), Iffy, and Bryan’s brother (whose name escapes me at the moment) were the groomsmen. The only bridesmaids of Cat’s I had met before were Geetha, Nikki, and Jenny (maid of honor). The reception was held at the Terrace Room of the Georgia Botanical Gardens. There was a 4 piece jazz band (replete with upright bass), an open bar (too bad i dont’ drink!), a tiny dance floor and seating both in and outdoors. Not super big, but not small either; a well-sized party. Celebrate your Atlantic City bachelor party on this location where you can have as much space as you need to host an amazing event.

The biggest surprise of the day was the attendace of Susi Rathman! Cat’s old suite-mate from the dorm whom I personally believed had tripped, stumbled and fell right off the edge of world. Noone (except for Cat, I guess) had heard from her in about 2 years but she brought the one most stunning wedding gowns in atlanta I’d ever seen for Cat to wear. Also in attendance were Eric, Angie, McGuiness, Sara (Alex’s girlfriend), and the indomitable Josh S (who knows a bit about falling of the edge of the earth himself). The reception was fun, but a disturbing trend has seemed to develop as a friend of mine at the wedding declined to add me (or anyone else) to her dance card. I was denied the same privilege last year by another friend at my old roommate’s wedding last year: that ceremony’s maid of honor. Hmm, my breath is ok and I don’t have any illegitimate children… what gives, ladies?

After the reception, I went with the bridesmaids and groomsmen to Nowhere Bar in downtown Athens (I dont’ usually hang out in bars). There was a little more red, black, and bulldog pictures than I am used to, but it was on okay way to close out the wedding trip. I left Athens at around 2AM and made it back home a bit after 3 in the morning.

Not too bad a Saturday at all.

So, I am relaxing earlier during my Friday afternoon, trying to enjoy the last bit of vacation away from the gym when suddenly i get a call from Ryan saying that the gym was in fact open and having open gym today. So, after a quick confirmation call to Erik, I get in the car and drive through Friday traffic (rush hour is always early on Fridays) to the gym. An abrubt end to my short, unpaid vacation.

But enough about work.

Tomorrow Cat and Bryan are getting married! The wedding is in Athens, and I am going to attend… though at the moment I am not sure exactly WHERE in Athens it will be. A few phone calls should clear that matter up. Athens isn’t huge, though it is an hour away via a very very cop-infested highway, 316. I will hopefully have a few nice photos to share with whomever is reading this (only me, i think). The wedding is scheduled for 5:30. I wish I knew of someone else in town that was going so that we could carpool. The two folks that I do know are in the wedding party, so meeting up would not be practical as they undoubtetdly have ceremonial duties and commitments.

Crap. I haven’t chosen any clothes. I might go khaki and black shirt. At Leila and Brian’s wedding, 3 years ago in 2001 (man, i’m getting old), I forgot part of the suit i was planning to wear and was inadvertently forced to improvise with suit pants and a black ribbed T-shirt. It actually worked out pretty well. I could probably get away with my black sneakers, but if Cat reads this and finds out I wore sneakers to her wedding then she will sic her ninjas on me! 🙂 I’ll choose clothes when i wake up tomorrow… and make sure I have my gift.

This is my third wedding in 2 years and I have yet to take a date to one.

Well, i guess i’d need a date first, eh?

-kevin

Welcome to WordPress. I made the decision to ‘go native’ with the web log. It looks pretty yucky at the moment… but I will start on tweaking the colors and template to my will.

I have no idea how to use half of the features!. This should be interesting! Beth finally put an entry on her blog. I guess we’re in the same boat until one of us figures out what we’re doing. But just for the start, we will do a horoscope zodiac signs review for you.

Tuesday July 7, 2004, 3:23AM

I didn’t run in the Peactree Road Race. The plan was for Reed to call me later the night before and tell me what time to be up to catch a ride downtown. He didn’t call, so I set my clock for 6AM and went to bed. I woke up very drowsily at 6, my sleep-logic asking why I was waking up so early just to tire myself out in the summer heat, all the way downtown no less. Reed never showed up, and so I fell back asleep… missing church in the process.

Later, at 12:22 I left and went to Iffy’s apt on Clairmont Rd for the barbecue… the barbecue which was actually being held the next day, as a very hung-over and sleepy Iffy told me. Oops. I made a very similar mistake last year for a party that Liz threw… only that time it was a 2-hour-drive-to-Liz’s-place-in-Macon mistake. Believe me when I say that A 4-hour drive is a great way to burn up not only gas, but your entire evening and afternoon as well.

Well, I did make it to the barbecue on its actual day (today), and there was a good smattering of folks there. I was pleasantly surprised to see Natalie-the-ballerina there (not to be confused with the Natalie that I saw Harry Potter 3 with). Natalie was there with Aaron’s girlfriend, Katie. We got to talk a little bit and swam around in the pool some. We raced pool lengths, and she beat me 4 times. I didn’t mind. I’m not a very good swimmer, and I was more concerned with how nicely she fit into her swimsuit 😉 (The few photos I have of the barbecue don’t do her justice). I didn’t drool or stare though, so I should be in the clear. She and Katie had a friend flying in from Vancouver who is going to be living with Katie and Aaron, and dancing at Atlanta Ballet with Katie and Natalie-the-ballerina for about a month. Apparently Aaron thinks that I’ll like her or something. She flew in tonight. I’ll have to try to drop by sometime this week and meet her. Hmmm, I don’t think i’ve ever been out with a ballerina before……. 😉

P.S. – Played my bass after too-long a hiatus. It felt good to do it. I’m going to learn some No Doubt songs all the way through… and tab The Sun by They Might Be Giants… they always perform with extremely skilled bass players with some good, tough lines.

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Saturday July 3, 8:45PM

Well, my week of ‘vacation’ off from work has begun. The gym is closed from July 2 to July 8 for Independence Day.

I started my week away from cheerleading with, what else? (sigh) A trip to a cheerleading/gymnastics equipment supplier. -More about that later, i’m off to meet Erik and Reed for a shirley temple (they’re having dinner) at Bogey’s and then fireworks.

– 10:45PM –
Back from Bogey’s and the fireworks in Duluth. Predicatbly, traffic did not move a whole lot leaving. Especially with the Duluth police department’s 15-minute-per-direction traffic strategy 🙂 Well, I’m sure their intentions were good.

…So, on friday I left the house with Erik to pick up Reed at the Atlanta Athletic Club (exclusive meets well-to-do). This accident was blocking our normal route out, so we drove past the river instead and headed to GMR in Lithonia. Unfortunately, we ventured out into Atlanta traffic on the perimter, through spaghetti junction, during rush hour, on a holiday weekend no less. Needless to say, there was lots of braking involved on our trip :-). We stuck to side roads on the way back via Stone Mountain, stopping at one point to try to get some funnel cake (we were unsuccessful).

Stone Mountain, Georgia

The funnel cake shop was closed even though we visited during working hours

The rest of my day was spent trying to clean the W32.Pinfi virus off of my computer (the scan took 5.5 hours to complete). I discovered that I was infected after Warcraft 3 stopped working properly.

In addition to the virus, I found that my one of my DDR dance pads isn’t working (sensors seem to function, but the PS2 won’t recognize it). So, today I went to find a Multimeter Expert at the hardware store and bought a multimeter and some wire. After spending 40 min resoldering/shrink-tubing the cable that I incorrectly clipped , I unsuccessfully attempted to diagnose and repair the problem with the dance mat. The circuit pathways are extremely difficult to probe, due to extreme cheap-ness. A new one will cost $20…. and replacing the circuit board with one pulled from an el-cheapo controller will cost at least $10, plus effort getting the flat circuit paths connected correctly (translation: pain in the ass). I’ll toy with the idea of constructing my own pad, but that’s more $$ than i currently want to spend on a game that should work already.

Can you tell that a chemical engineer did this? 🙂

Turns out i’m going to run in the Peachtree Road Race tomorrow with Reed and Otis(?). I’m not in running shape and I don’t have a pair of sneakers properly broken in… guess this means i’ll miss church tomorrow because Iffy’s throwing a barbecue at 1’ish… but i guess we’ll see what happens. Stay tuned to this web log!

Monday, June 28, 2004 11:08AM
Good morning folks! Its 10:13AM Monday. Liz and I arrived in Atlanta 12 hours ago last night from Little Rock, AR. After getting dropped off at Brannon’s house, I spent a few minutes with him and the Ramseys and then finally made it back home at 11.

I made it to Brannon’s friday morning a little before 9AM after a sluggish jaunt through morning traffic. The original plan was to leave at 8:30, but we both underestimated the delay due to Atlanta’s horrible rush hour. We departed from Atlanta a few minutes after 9, westbound on I-20. Our route took us through Birmingham (AL), Tupelo (MS), Memphis(TN), and finally to Little Rock(TN). The longest part of the drive was the 4+ hours through Alabama. The most interesting part of the drive were the low-swooping crop dusters than floated around over the highways in Arkansas. We arrived at our exit in Little Rock at about 6 oclock.

We changed and after arrival and went into town and had dinner at the flying saucer. We tried to attend the opening ceremonies, but were unable to get in to see it because the fire marshall was not allowing any more people inside the convention hall to watch. Liz’s tae kwon do instructor hadn’t contacted her about where to pick up tickets, so we ended up missing out on the ceremony. We ended up playing darts at a pub a few blocks down the street instead.

Saturday morning we went sightseeing. Our first stop was the Old Mill in North Little Rock, across the river. We also visited a comic store (i got a comic there, too) the Little Rock Arts Center, the Museum of Military History, the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Old State Capitol. In our travels, Liz ran about 3 red lights in and around Little Rock 🙂 ! We also drove past the Univ. Or Arkansas campus and had dinner close to there. We completed the evening with a movie, Shrek 2, at an 18-screen multiplex down the highway from the hotel.

Sunday morning we checked out and went down to the convention center for Liz’s competition. Judging in her ring started at 11:15AM and went through weapons forms, fighting forms, and finally sparring. Liz ended up taking 3rd place in fighting forms in her division (congrats!). Judging finally ended at 12:40. She picked up her trophy, changed, and then we were back on the road to Georgia by about 1:05PM.

The trip home only took about 9+ hours with a bit less traffic and a lot less rain than the drive out there.

So, that was my weekend, in a nutshell! I will put up a photo gallery, and more detailed description of the trip, linked from this log, when time permits. Hopefuly before the end of the week. Until then, its back to my normal schedule, and work at the gym later today.

take care
-kevin

P.S. The little rock photo gallery is here!
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Friday June 25, 2004 3:00AM

Well, I didn’t get to bed early as I’d hoped. This is a quick little entry before I wake up tomorrow and embark on my trip to Little Rock. Keith just got back from there (he didn’t like it much) and said the drive should take 11 hours. Lovely. I bought a 6-pack of Mt.Dew to be consumed during my share of the driving. I also burned 4 music CD’s and bought an audio book on tape. I got the DaVinci code. The harry potter books on CD (which i borrowd from Jaime) are the only thing that saved my sanity when I made a 12-hour drive to MD for Leila and Brian’s wedding back in 2001. At least i’ll have Liz to talk to and won’t have to do all the driving. I’m meeting her at Brannon’s at 8:30, so I need to hurry up and get my 4.5 hours of sleep and fight rush hour tomorrow. I wonder if i should take the first driving shift or not :-/ Might be better to split it into 3 hour sets. We’ll see, I guess. Wish us a safe trip. I hope to have a new gallery filled with photos from the trip.
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Wednesday June 23, 2004 1:50PM
Just shy of a week since my last entry, but that’s alright… noone reads this thing anyway! Last weekend I ended up driving to Athens with Iffy for a ‘casual party’ thrown by Cat and Bryan (the two in the front), and another couple that are engaged to be married. Iffy was driving, and we took a what I knew to be a wrong turn halfway down 316. Long story short, we ended up driving to Athens through Dacula and Winder, GA and taking the LONG way around the Athens loop. I blame bad signs and mapquest! Erik and Angie ended up making the same mistake due to using mapquest. It usually works okay, but when it misses, it REALLY misses.

I spent my sunday going to, hanging out in, and driving back from Tennessee for Father’s day. My sister and my nephew, Jalen was there, as well as some visitors from Jefferson City. We cooked some food on the barbecue and talked. Lots of driving this weekend, but I surmise that I’ll be logging even more hours in the car this coming weekend. I did some more google sleuthing and happened upon the website for
the songham taekwondo world championships that i’m going to this weekend. I briefly toyed with the idea of entering, but then when I couldn’t find the top to my old gi when i was at home this past Sunday, so I gave up on the idea. I’m waaaay out of practice anyway.

My trip this weekend means that I will miss open gym/work this Friday. Boo-hoo 🙂
Working at a gym isn’t bad, but its certainly not my calling. Nevertheless, check out this clip of me doing some horrible front fulls off of one of our tumble trampolines. (Ok, maybe not that horrible, but i can usually do better). You might need the DivX codec in order to view the clip if you don’t already have it, but the animated gif thumbnail should still work without it (snazzy, eh?) DivX makes a pretty good video player as well. http://www.divx.com.

Fun with the tumble tramp and crash mat at work tumbletramp.avi (2.0MB)

Fitness Nicole is now up! After I hook Nicole up with an html editor (and figure out how to use it so that I can teach her how), we should be good to go. I use notepad, and so am not familiar with the ins and outs of WYSIWYG editors… though I *have* used them to do quick screenshot-type page grabs for dynamic external sites (check my previous entries for examples). I’m going to give her Mozilla composer… but only if it can handle ftp’ing files over to the server. (Makes it easier for her to jump right in)

In other/older news. NO WORD on my shirt. I haven’t brought it up with Kelly in about a week. She claims that she left it in the back room/office after she picked it up and doesn’t know what happened to it. I asked Daniel if anyone had given it to him (per a rumor i heard), but he hasn’t seen it. Time to make some more trouble i guess. I have my doubts about finding it this long after it disappeared, though.
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Thursday June 17, 2004 2:45PM

My roommate took care of the cable stuff, so net access is back to normal.

I spent about 4 hours over at my Aunt’s house last night fixing Shawn’s computer (a P3-450 that I gave him a few months ago). He somehow got a virus on it. I’m 90% certain he got it via email since he was using Outlook Express as his email reader (after i made pains to delete it when i gave it to him)… and it seems to have been a pif virus (natal!.pif). About one hour was spent trying to find/install drivers for the DSL modem (which was already working without my realizing it) via Bellsouth’s horrible flash-driven install program (which crashed and hung every time i used it). The computer was still acting wierd, so I might have to do a fresh install on it sometime soon in the future.

After I got home last night, I looked up some camera reviews on the net for the S410 I ordered. THEN I decided to try and find some reviews on the company/reseller that I ordered my camera from (fotoconnection.com). I was not ready for what I found.

Those are absolutely *the* most horrible reviews I’ve ever read about anything on the net before. Those are just a few of the reviews, and there were many many more, the vast majority of them scathing. There was a whole other site filled with reviews that were just as bad.

Needless to say, I did not have a good feeling about my purchase, and was worried about when and what condition my camera would arrive in. I decided to call in the morning when I woke up to inquire as to: 1.Why I hadn’t received an email following my purchase 2.Whether the camera had shipped. I had my doubts and planned to cancel the order if it hadn’t shipped yet. (I even had a nightmare that night about having to negotiate with customer service to cancel the order and get my money back).

The next morning (this morning) at about 10AM, I called and asked about my order. The sales-person told me that not only had my order already shipped, but it was due for arrival later today! He gave me a tracking number and sure enough, that was indeed the case. At around 1:05PM the DHL guy handed me the package with camera … a whole 4-5 days ahead of the promised arrival date. Nice! Also, with all the proper accessories in the box that it is supposed to come with.
I just got done taking my first picture with it, but I have to leave for work at the gym soon. I will post it with this entry after I get back tonight.

Friday 1:52AM
Not too bad a day at the gym, I ended up taking some video with the camera as well. It records in uncompressed AVI format, so I am going to recompile the 22 second clip with a more compressed format. Here are the picture and video:

First photo: My PPG poster 1704×2272 (888KB)

First Video: Rewind Stunt 320×240 1.78MB

Not too shabby, eh? It was a pain in the but finding a converter for the avi file. I won an auction for two spare batteries on ebay for my camera, but the seller is trying to tack on a $4 insurance charge. That doesn’t seem like much, but besides the fact that they DID NOT say anything about this surcharge via email (when i inquired about shipping costs), and the fact it wasn’t listed or referred to in any way in the auction, and taking into accound that the the grand total (shipping included) is only $13.48… I don’t feel like I should pay it. I guess we’ll see what happens. I’ve already gotten 1 non-payer bidding warning, this might make 2 🙂 (3 and you’re out).

My next task is to find a small case for it that will fit in my pocket and hold a spare battery or two.

-kevin

Wendesday June 16, 2004 12:29AM
This post is being made via a pirated wireless connection! I woke up this morning to find out our cable modem internet access wasn’t working (DNS worked, but no packets or trace routes would). After inspection of the hardware here, a quick chat session online with comcast support (also via the pirated signal) revealed that our account has an oustanding balance (60 days past due). My roommate handles that stuff. Luckily, one of our neighbors has DSL and and Linksys router without any encryption, which is how i was able to: 1. Buy my camera 2. Find out why our internet didn’t work 3. Post this blog

Well, I did it. I went ahead and ordered a digital camera. The Canon Powershot S410 from FotoConnection at a cost of $319. All the ebay auctions I had been following ended around that price. The Best Buys/Compusa/Circuit city stores all carry the exact same camera for $399, so I should be able to easily recoup my investment if I have to farther along down the line. It came down to a choice between the 4MPixel S410 and the 5Mpixel Sony Cybershot W1, which was $349. In the end, I decided that taking 2592×1944 (5 MPixel) shots vs 2272 x 1704 (4 MPixel) wasn’t enough of an incentive to negate the s410’s compact size (which is what attracted me to it in the first place). Instead of the 640×480 movie mode, I get 320 x 240, which is alright by me. The 128MB memory card I ordered with teh camera will also give me a little bit more mileage with a 4MPixel. The total was $386, which included $17 shipping from Great Neck, New York. They said it would get here in a week (which means 1.5-2wk, i bet). Hopefully it will arrive in time for my trip to Little Rock!

Hmm, i probably overreacted yesterday about my lost t-shirt. It is a t-shirt, after all. I talked to Kelly, who wasn’t sure what happened to it. She thinks it was put into a box somewhere, but didn’t make much of an effort to look for it. I tried to track her down after the last class tonight, but she had already left. No matter. I’ll bug her about it everyday till revelations are made. Speaking of things missing from the gym…. Adam said that someone went into his car and took $25 out of his wallet, and his checkbook! He always parks it right by the side of the building. Looks like I won’t be leaving my doors open anymore.
Also today, one of the mom’s brought in a kitten that had been rescued out of a sewer! It had a gaping hole in it’s neck where the vetrinarian had removed a worm from it. Sad, i know. The mom was a little squeamish about applying an ointment to the area, per the vet’s instructions, so i held the little bugger down and squirted it in there (I imagine it was an anti-biotic to prevent infection). Poor guy was mewing from discomfort, but i was glad to help. It sure made me hope that *I* never get worms. You won’t soon catch me going barefoot or running around in a sewer!

I got an email today saying that a friend of mine that runs my bible study is in the hospital, so I am going to visit her tomorrow. I also got a call from my cousin whom seems to have managed to delete the MBR (master boot record) on the computer I gave him a few months ago. I’m heading over there tomorrow to try to get it up and running. Since bible study is now cancelled, i’ll have all night to fix it i guess.

That is all this episode. Time to enjoy my new state of poverty after shelling out almmost ~$400 on a toy i don’t need :-). At least i’ll have some awesome pictures for the website!

-kevin

P.S. Yahoo just upgraded everyone’s email to 100mb (can you say ‘worried about gmail’?). Nice upgrade, but who cares. Pop access would be better, but they still want to charge $20 a year for that. Thank goodness for yahoo! pops

Monday June 14, 2004 11:26PM
Bad mood. Someone took/misplaced/threw out my shirt at the gym today. Everyone I asked said that Kelly (one of the owners) had it and was asking people whom it belonged to. Noone asked ME even though I had it on for almost an hour when I arrived. I discovered it was missing at the end of the night when I was gathering my things to go home. Kelly had already left. 3 calls and one voicemail have produced no revelations as to the whereabouts of my shirt. It better not have been thrown away. They already threw my sneakers away 3 months ago with the lost-and found clothes, which were tucked away in a corner at THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE GYM AWAY FROM THE LOST AND FOUND CLOTHES. Noone reimbursed me for them. They cost $50. That is a whole day’s work for me. Noone has admitted to taking them. They even tore down the missing flyers i put up for them. Remiss doesn’t even describe that attitude for their liability. If nothing ever comes of my shirt, I just might haul them into small claims court. If i charge them for the missing items and court fees, i bet that will put a halt to throwing my belongings away. I hate to take my friends to small claims court, but they aren’t comporting themselves as ‘friends’ in this situation by their relative actions and inaction.

I guess i’ll decide tomorrow after I talk to Kelly and find out where my shirt is.

-kevin
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