Mario Kart!!!!!!!!!!

Do you guys remember playing Mario Kart all the time? I sure do, and I found this song on youtube that brings me back to the good ol' days.



Enjoy

Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime

It is Christmas season, and you know what that means: Instead of radio stations playing standard rotations of 5 pop songs on repeat, they play their rotations of 5 Christmas songs on repeat. YEAH!

So instead, why not listen to a catchy Christmas song set in the future? (Don't worry, you don't need to buy it, Jon offers the song for free. I'm sure he'd be happy with more money though)

If you would like visuals with it, I'm sure some YouTube goods will help out.

Paul! What's the deal with your alternate life?

Hey Paul, I just watched this video on YouTube, and you've got some explaining to do. I was just wondering when you decided to move to "Chicagoland, Illinois?" Also, when did you gain all that weight and change your vocals? I noticed that you still like to wear red hats at least.

Whew.... Gald I check this place once in a blue moon

Not much happen here in the blog world. It must be way too exciting out there. Me I'd rather be...

One Night, Three Targets.

It was a September night and needed some sauce. Not just any sauce we needed Tikka Masala. They reason we wanted the sauce was friend was over and wanted some because they could not get it where they lived. So the word was you could get it at Target. We go to a Target close to the house find where the sauce should be and no sauce. We ask the a target employee, which was very nice and told us how to find it other stores in town have the sauce. A quick check with the service desk and we find one Target close by has one jar and one Target across town has 12. We call the close Target to check and according to them they have one jar. I make the call and we go to the close one. We get there and no sauce. No space for the sauce on the shelves. We ask an employee and he has no idea. 20 minutes later and across town we hit the jackpot. 12 jars of Tikka Masala. We take 6 and go. Funny thing is I still don't know if it is any good. Guess I will have to cook some chicken :).

Famous People Punching Steve

If you want to make it big on the Internet with photography, you have to have a theme. I guess. Anyway, this guy is no photographer, and the lighting and framing are all wrong, but the shots are still striking nonetheless. Go to Famous People Punching Steve, and I'll guarantee that "You'll laugh 'til you stop laughing!*" (tm)

*Assuming that you started laughing.

The Luke Arm

The Luke Arm is an advanced prosthetic device that is, um, head and shoulders above the rest. You can watch videos about it at medgadget. I only watched part 2, but it provided a nifty and simplified version of how it works. People, listen: This thing can pick up grapes! There was another guy, who had no arms but two Luke arms, and was able to disassemble and reassemble a gun, and then fire it. All of this with minimal training too!

It may be a long video (almost 15 minutes) but there are some really neat things going on.

Firefox tweaks I can use

Personally, I use tips 9 and 10 from this guy's list of 28 Coolest Firefox About:Config Tricks.

Trick 9 is about how to handle JavaScript pop-ups, which differs ever so slightly from the normal method of pop-ups, I guess. Whatever. Ever since Firefox got the ability to open the list of tabs that were in the previous session, I was always a little ticked when I found out there was yet another Firefox window open that had an advertisement in it. Well, no more, Paco!

Trick 10 is useful for me because it enables spell check in all fields, not just the multi-line ones, and I am a horrible speller.

Take this mac

http://www.slate.com/id/2198535/?gt1=38001

Weee

FHSU has an awesome debate coach. Kind of wish I knew the guy.

Payless vs. American Eagle

A few years ago, the accounting club went on a field trip to Payless Shoes and they were talking about how Payless owned the trademark for American Eagle shoes. They were getting ready to start marketing shoes with that brand name, and I thought, wow that sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Well, it took a few years, but here it is. Maybe I should quit my day job and become a psychic. I'm going to need my visions to come true faster, though.

While I am at it ...

Have you ever noticed that places seems bigger when you were smaller. Well I few summers back the family took a trip to the one room school I went too as a grade schooler. While I as there I took the chance to do something I could of never done back then, grab the rim. Note the rim is now bent down so had it not been for that I might of still not been able to grab it. Anyway, I did get it, but I had not planned it out so well as you might see.

Paul's Sidewalk View

So I was looking over some of the videos I have taken with my camera and found one I thought I could post about. It is nothing great. Just my attempt of recording a video while riding a bike. I am calling it "sidewalk view", because it is like Google's street view on a bike. This made me think I should get an eight way camera and do just that. Except I don't want to be sued.

Anyway here is 22Mb of junk to let Google backup forever.

P.S. I also found FHSU has a youtube channel thing, seems like a lot of tablet propaganda.

McCracken Rodeo 2008

Free Army Advertisement Music

There's a great series of TV ads that the Army shows. What makes them great for me is the inspiring symphonic goodness playing as the action goes on.

It turns out the song is called "Army Strong" and it is freely available for downloading at the United States Army Bands MySpace page if you have an account set up with MySpace. If you don't want the hassle of that, you can also download the mp4 at the U.S. Army Field Bands Listening Room. But don't let them con you into getting QuickTime just so you can play the song. (It is official: QuickTime is now higher up on my devil list than MySpace). Just use VLC and don't regret a thing, since it already comes with all the codecs it needs.


On a side note, you might wonder why QuickTime is ranked higher on the "things-I-hate" list. It is simple. If I need a MySpace account, I can use a throwaway email address to get what I need and am then done. QuickTime, on the otherhand, would have to be installed on my machine, and I've had it up to HERE [raises hand to neck level] with it asking me to buy QuickTime Pro.

Classics Corner #16: Speech Recognition

I was searching around the blog and I happened to rediscover Paul's entry on his test of Window XP's speech recognition. It's even funnier if you read it out loud, as if you are trying to use the software yourself. Personally I found it among the most hilarious of our entries, and so far it's comedy has stood the test of time (of two years).

It's harvest time!

Water in a hurry.

A lot of water.

The House that Frank Lloyd Wright Built

Paul tipped me off that the only house that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Nebraska is right here in McCook. It's at 602 Norris Ave. if you want to Google Map it.


There are no markings on it that says "Yo. The same guy who built the Guggenheim built this place." However I'm fairly confident I snapped photos of the correct house because it was by far the least boring house at that particular intersection.

Even the garage is nice.

There are still unanswered questions. Questions like "How exactly did Paul find out about this house anyway?"

Another question that comes to my mind is "How did this guy manage to build 532 homes?" His first house was 1889. During this time he worked under Louis Sullivan (considered the creator of the modern skyscraper) but Frank apparently thought he wasn't getting enough work, as it was later discovered that he was building additional buildings privately, without going through the firm.

His last design was in the year of his death, 1959. That means across the 70 years of his career, he was averaging about 7.6 homes a year, or a little over 1 building every 1.5 months. And these aren't Podunk cookie-cutter-type mobile homes, each was a unique work of art. Frank Lloyd Wright, I salute you!

For Jon

Hey Jon, I bought some of those really spicy chips you really liked, I'll have to send them to you so give me your address some time in the near future (but I wouldn't post it on here).

Shayne's Link-Happy Post #257

Since I have nothing creative of my own to say, here is a collection of someone else's funniness.

• First, we have a comic strip for all you rabbit lovers out there.
• Next up is a collection of Calvin's dad's answers to common kids' questions like why does the sun set. (Too bad the guy didn't just show the actual comics themselves. Man alive!)
• Last but not least is a technical discussion of computer device communication. Thanks to my comp sci background I was able to understand a little bit of what was going on at least.

Hey, I still have some time. How about a rant?

Thanks to Wikipedia, I no longer need to use my brain for knowledge. It has nearly everything I already know. Ever since I came to this realization I now only keep a list of words in my brain that will point me to the various pages of my hive mind knowledge.

And look at me now! I have many more free synapses for use. I can now just focus on using my mind only for creativity purposes.... hey, wait, that sounds familiar. What was it I said at the beginning of the post again? Oh well.

Bye Hays

After six year of studying and fun times I have left Hays KS behind. It is odd how a you can come to like a place you did not at first. I remember after my first day of classes, me and my brother went to pizzahut and I can recall that feeling. That how am I going to make it. Anyway Hays changed me a lot and I will always be glad I sent six year of my life there.

Congraduations!

"Congraduations? Surely that is a misspelling," you might think. But make no mistake! Con is a prefix meaning "with, together" and this certainly fits the bill. We've just had three of our fellow bloggers graduate from FHSU last Saturday. I've already expressed this to Clarice, Jessie, and Paul (notice how I put it in alphabetical order there? Brilliant!), but I would like to say GOOD JOB for having done it. So there.

...
And it is also a play on words. That word I used for the title, "Congraduations," I mean. Most people expect one to say "Congratulations" except this time I didn't and it was so exceptionally hilarious that I had to use an unnecessary amount of adverbs to explain the funniness of it all. Also, it is somewhat late and I'm very tired as I write these words so don't trust me on that assessment.

Anyway. Have many good years of using the skills you learned at FHSU, and look back on those fun times we shared with fondness. I know I did.

...
Perhaps the joke is lost on you. I mean "Congraduations," man! That is some funny solid GOLD right there! I was afraid to even use the pun, because there happens to be a stitch shortage in the medical industry right now, and if you laughed too hard, as the old saying goes, then indeed you would not be able to seek the medical attention you would so desperately require. They'd have to improvise and use Krazy Glue(tm) or something.
...
I just wrote all that. Looks like time for bed for me.

In conclusion: WOOO!

Just a quick update

I`m blogging from my aunt`s house right now. I should also mention that her house is located in K0be, Japan. That`s all for now.

Rant on Hippies

Before I go into the rant, first I want to present the back story. A few years ago I made a blog post, but thinking it was too long already, I cut out a fairly lengthy section on the problems with hippies, but I saved it in case I wanted to publish it later. There. Back story: accomplished.
[Be forwarned: I finished reading through it myself, just now. Don't expect it to make much sense. Or laughter for that matter. Enjoy!]

The Rant

Why is it that hippies can defend the life of a really old and huge plant, such as a tree (or, ahem, several thousand acres of them, anyways), but when it comes to a smaller, more defenseless plant, like cannabis, they can't hack it up and smoke it fast enough? I haven't completely crunched the numbers yet, or, for that matter, at all, but for every tree cut down, approximately 83.11 poor innocent cannabises have their lives stripped away for the people living in Ontario alone. Of course, we're talking Canadian rates here, so it's about 52.9 U.S., which is still a bunch.

Now, let's not get bogged down with "facts" here, such as it takes the average redwood 20 years to grow 20 meters (that's 20 metres, to everyone else that doesn't follow American splelling, which is always, 103% infallible. Remember that.), while it takes less time for the average cannabis plant to grow to its maturity, probably. Or that many more innocent plant lives are lost in the form of corn for cattle. No sir, it's the fact that they're killing, and that they are hypocrites, each and every one.

If hippies were truly concerned for the earth, then they would learn how to live off of air and join the Breatharianism cult. Or maybe become a level 5 vegan. As long as their lifespan is cut horribly short somehow, then I'm happy.

Don't get me wrong again, but the Earth is awesome. I don't know where we'd be without her. Probably floating somewhere in space. And we are but one people living on this 57,500,000 sq. mi. island, most of it underwater, which isn't really island in that sense but I'm being figurative here. If we all do our part and shut our computers off for at least a few hours, close the refrigerator door when not in use, and drive our cars to work which is seven blocks away with our A/C on low instead of on high, then we just might make it until the sun dies and we move to another planet, far far away.

M-O-O-N, that spells Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia!

So maybe you have a fear of long words. Perhaps you have a fear of long games too? If so, then you should give You Have to Burn the Rope a shot. Make sure you have the speakers turned up for the ending song, because it is very much worth it. Good stuff indeed. Its been stuck in my head for days. A big shout out to fellow FHSU homie Adam for letting me know about it.

If you have problems beating the game, they also have a text walkthough in addition to a YouTube video walkthrough listed on the site. There is no reason not to play!... Unless for some reason the game doesn't load properly. That would probably be a good reason I suppose.

From 1 to 1000

In the beginning there was 1. It was a post of post. It came before fhsu even had a blog. It came for one of the Big Three. It came from the MAN! Time has passed into a new age until the 1000. In that passing of time a lot has happened. The Big Three have all left the great fhsu. A few others remain behind, but that is about over to. Who knows what the next 1000 holds. What tales will be written. How many time there might be bring back the blog efforts. Perhaps most important, how many more UT games there might be. Whatever happens it will be good times.

Spring?

So since I don't have anything non-nerdy to write about I will talk about the default the weather. It seems like spring is here but it has not been a nice spring. A lot of wind and cold and rain. Now I know the rain is good, but the wind I don't like. If there were some wind turbines around making power I guess the wind would be ok, but there are not, and I don't understand why. We spend billion on all kinds of stuff why not put a 100 billion in wind and fix these energy problems. Hmm seems I got off the weather there. Well the weather report does have a good look for Friday, and I hope it comes true.

Home Decorating Tips

Looking to decorate your home in an ultra-cool, ultra-nerd way? Check out these ASCII curtains.

Never mind lighting fixtures--they are so last century. Instead, get some sweet light-emitting wallpaper.

And for all your time-tracking needs, get this Jumbo LED Binary Clock.

Strong Bad coming to a WiiWare near you

This is crazy-go-nuts! The just announced Strong Bad game Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is coming in June!

...

Uh, that is all. Really! Yup. No long posts here!

...Although it has been snowing here in McCook almost all day. The ground was warm enough that it didn't accumulate on the streets. What's the deal with that?

I need some help, please

I'm in desperate need of an idea for a wedding anniversary gift for Paul. Last year, I was negligent and forgot our anniversary entirely, so I'm trying to do a little better this time around. And, as I'm sure some of you know, Paul is hard to buy for. I've already used up all my great gift giving ideas on him, and we've only been together 3 years. That leaves a lot of future occasions for which I'm stumped. So if you have any great ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Hays to McCook at 5880 MPH

So I decided to set up a camera as I went home from Hays. Too bad I was heading towards the sun for a good part of the trip, and then went into night for the last part, causing frames to be dropped and intense motion blurring. The effect is still cool nonetheless.

Google Wake-up Kit

From Google:

What's new with Google Calendar

"Just launched!

Wake yourself up with our new Google Wake Up Kit!
Do you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning? We do, too. In fact this problem became so serious at times that it sometimes resulted in lacklustre attendance at team meetings. To help solve the problem we've created an innovative solution called the Google Wake Up Kit.

"I could never wake up on time to get to our team meetings. But thanks to the new Google Wake Up Kit, I'm always on time now!"
Pedro C.

In combination with the kit, you can receive a new type of notification from Google Calendar, called the "wake up" notification. This notification is relentless in ensuring your timely awakening from restful slumber.

The "wake up" notification uses several progressively more annoying alerts to wake you up. First it will send an SMS message to your phone. If that fails, more coercive means will be used. The kit includes an industrial-sized bucket and is designed to be connected to your water main for automatic filling. In addition, a bed-flipping device is included for forceful removal from your sleeping quarters. Learn more "

Bed-flipping device! Sweet! This will solve all my wake-up problems. Hehehe.

Velveeta: Not real cheese, but still delicious

I've got to get something off my chest. I get really cheesed off when people dis Velveeta, all because it isn't technically a cheese, but instead a "cheese product." Personally, the fact that it is or isn't a real cheese doesn't matter. Taste is the prime factor for me. And brother, it tastes awesome.

So back off, processed cheese haters! I'm taking a stand, here and now!



I also have a thing against people-against-using-microwaves-for-cooking, but I'll save that for another slow news day when I have absolutely nothing to talk about.

Ladies' Fair

Last night, I went to the Ladies' Fair. It was insanely crowded with women, and people were pushing and shoving each other over 20% off coupons and free yardsticks. Not to say that those aren't great things, but it was a little scary. Plus, in my hopefulness of winning something, there are now about 20 Mary Kay, Arbonne, Pampered Chef, water softener, home decor, and jewelry salespeople who have my name, e-mail address, and phone number. It's a good thing this only happens once a year!

ARRRGGHHHH

I know you think that when college is over there aren't anymore tests. But you are wrong. I just sat through a 4 and a half hour test on a Saturday for the international code counsels' reinforced concrete inspector test. There are two parts to the test, first part is on the codes and standards and the second part is on how well you can read plans, you have to score a 75% on both parts. I got an awsome 83% on the codes part and became the first person in Terracon in over a decade to pass that part BUT I only got a 72% on the plans part. The plans part is a 30 question test and by my calculations I missed it by one question. Now I have to wait six months to take it again. SOB. That is all that I got.

The Joys of staying home sick

Yep it is that time of year again where the allergens come out in full battle gear and kick butt. I have been stuck in bed since Saturday staring at the ceiling, with the one eye that was leaking like it needs to be replace, connecting the dots in the Spackle making pictures. I am pretty sure so far I have found Nixon, a car, the Devil, a toaster, a pencil, a gorilla, the efile tower, some gum, a spot that is leaking water, and Waldo. Some of it could have been the benidrill speaking since the devil was talking to me. But on the bright side I have completely bored myself out of my body twice and ate some rather unusual soup. I can't wait to get out of my apartment.

Pi Song!

More Pi!

Pi Day!

Time to celebrate pi, on this, the day of 3-14. Let's watch a rap video on it, shall we?

Spring Break

With spring break coming up, it's exciting that the weather is finally more springlike. It's a little sad, though, that this is my last spring break. I'm pretty sure that accountants don't get spring breaks, but hopefully being an accountant is easier than being a student and I won't need a break so badly.

Delicious Cleaning

I tell ya... this is a great time to be alive. Excitement is what I'm verbally exuding, man! I love it so much.

What I'm talking about is hygiene; smelling good to be specific. It used to be so boring for me, but that was before my life was turned upside-down by what some people call "coordinating." That is, using products with a specific theme throughout. And ladies and gentlemen, I believe I've finally found my coordinating theme for cleaning products: delicious, delicious food. I'm all for it! Let me explain it further so everyone reading this article will be fully weirded out.

It all started with Suave Naturals Vanilla & Sugar Shampoo. I then found out about it's conditioner counterpart. It doesn't stop there! I eventually went looking in the toothpaste deparment, and I found Crest Vanilla Mint, along with some Listerine Vanilla Mint mouthwash! I had been using this combination successfully for quite awhile, it made me happy. I always looked forward to shampooing. But something was missing...

But today, shopping at Wal-Mart, I believe I've finally found the missing puzzle piece! That's right: I found the body soap Body Essence Sweet Vanilla Cream. I can only assume that they put a picture of a woman on the webpage featuring that product because that is what it attracts: Women. It attracts them because they are hungry. It makes sense to me, and you can keep your thoughts to yourself if you think otherwise. In any case, I just purchased the product today, so I remain hopeful that this thing is the answer I've been dreaming for. Wow, I need a life.

Eventually this got me thinking about that one Twilight Zone episode with the cookbook. Then they sort of did the same thing on The Simpsons but not really. So maybe I'm not really getting myself clean at all, but in fact I'm making myself into a tasty treat for our alien overlords who have somehow invaded and taken over the hygiene product world.

Happy Spring!

OK, so it's not quite Spring (as Sunday's snowstorm indicates), but it's getting close. It's now Chick Days at Orscheln's! They have bunnies, too, which are arguably cuter. The main problem with the chicks is that you have to buy a minimum of 25. What is a person going to do with 25 chicks that grow up into chickens?!? Eat them? Anyways, I was tempted to stuff one in my pocket, but I figured the cheeping would give me away. So I'll just have to get by with a chick flick instead (which is arguably NOT cuter).

In other news, tragedy strikes: somebody ran over the Easter bunny, so Easter is cancelled. Sorry kids.




FYI: don't be an idiot like me and forget to change your clocks FORWARD (not back) an hour next week on March 9th. Daylight Savings Time = Don't Sleep Time. :(

Left Handed Presidents

So I watch a lot of news, perhaps to much. One thing I have noticed is that both Obama and McCain are left handed. I found a link of other left handed presidents. It appears lately there have been a lot. I don't know what it means but it is interesting to me.

How much?

I hate it when games keep track of how long you've been playing. Take Burnout Paradise for example. I've been playing that on my PS3 for over 55 hours and counting. That's approaching $1/hr for high-quality crashing entertainment.

It's a fun game too, you should play it if you have the opportunity. At first, I was really miffed that it doesn't offer two-player split-screen, but seeing as how I don't have anybody anyway, it is a moot point at this juncture.

But if you would rather not go all out for a top-end game, why not give Desktop Tower Defense 1.5 a try? That game got me hooked for about two weeks, which is impressive for a free flash game. Creating paths for pencil-drawn enemies to get destroyed in has never been more fun.

Television Addicts Rejoice!

Now that the Writer's Strike has finally ended, I can get back to my mind-numbing routine of watching Chuck, Heroes, The Office, and Smallville. Man, I missed these guys! I am still upset that the networks managed to function for so long. . .I blame the epidemic of reality tv shows. Seriously, Big Brother 9?!?!? Who watches this, other than voyeurs? Besides, the whole point of watching television is to escape reality and not to watch an artificial, carefully constructed version of reality. In essence, we are watching people watch each other. And then whine about it later on camera. This stale, suffocating decadence will cause the downfall of society. And that's my rant. I need to go back to writing a paper.

Estradasphere!!!!!

Lester's choice of music for today: Estradsphere



5 guys just having fun with music. They play a little of everything for everyone. This musical piece is 23 min long, so watch it when you have the time, or just watch parts of it. I hope you guys enjoy.

Handheld Linux Gaming, Part 2

It has been nearly two years since my first post on Handheld Linux, and I still want a handy little device that let's me do whatever I want in terms of making software for it. Recently I found out about the GP2X's newest addition, the GP2X F-200. It's mostly the same as the older model, but now with a touch screen, so perhaps we could see some neat physics games that utilize the pointer in some way. Perhaps if I actually got around to making more games than I currently do, I could find the purchase easier to make. Instead, I'll just have to sit at the sidelines and look at all the neat videos. I could do worse with $170 I suppose.

Eat Choke and Die

I rolled into class yesterday and two of my classmates were talking about the campus food service Chartwells. One of them was like I found a facebook group were someone changed the Chartwells to say eat choke and die instead of eat learn and live. It made me smile. The other thing that made me smile is I don't have to eat Chartwells anymore.

It seems sad to me because Chartwells could be good. It was very easy and handy as a college student. They just made some of the worst food and they did not change it up much. I think if Ed ate there every day for lunch and told Chartwells to get it into gear it could be better. But it seems for the most part the students eat there and Ed does not. Well that is all I have. Students still eating bad food and Chartwells still getting away with it.

Postage is going up-again

I saw on the news yesterday that the price of stamps is going up to 42 cents in May. I thought it was safe to buy pretty stamps instead of those ugly "forever stamps" because postage just went up recently, but apparently this was a false sense of security. Now I need to hurry and use all my 41 cent stamps, so if you get any mail from me, you can be pleasantly surprised to see Christmas stamps.

FHSU Bloggination: Nerd Edition

So Paul and I were thinking that perhaps the FHSU Bloggination isn't the best place to talk about our little hobby of programming. Now, I love a good programming joke just as much as the next person (Why do programmers always get Christmas and Halloween mixed up? Because DEC 25 = OCT 31), but it seems to be just outside the scope of the blog, so we've created a new blog over at http://pezad.blogspot.com. But no worries though! You'll still get the same hard-hitting journalistic standards at FHSU Bloggination that you've come to expect from yours truly. For example, here's today's tip: Although widely regarded as better for the environment because compact florescent bulbs consume less electricity than standard incandescent blubs, they do contain mercury and therefore you should avoid eating too many of them if possible.

People use what I post on my webpage?

So I have a googlepages webpage. I put a couple of the papers I wrote for my physics classes on it and figured that was that. I figured I would be the only one who ever looked at my webpage, and perhaps some people I told about it. Well, I was wrong. Today I get an email from some teacher at Sapientia University in Tg-Mures, Romania. He is like I am using your paper on the heat equation and wanted to know about something that was not clear. So I am like hmmmm. People do use the my webpage after. I thought it was cool to get and email from a random guy from Romania anyway.

Morbidly funny typo

Ok, so it's probably wildly insensitive and inappropriate to point this out, but today I noticed a typo that is quite common--and quite funny to me.

I was reading a beautifully written note on facebook about the tragic loss of a someone's dear friend. Unfortunately, the typo made me titter. Yes, I am a terrible person. Anyways, this was it:

"...he was creamated..."

It kind of reminds me of Soilent Green. People are now turned into cream...

So, my anal-retentive inner copyeditor forces me to point this out: the official spelling is "cremated." And just as a side note, Wikipedia mentions that "Contrary to popular belief, the remains are not ashes, but rather bone fragments which are then crushed in a device called a cremulator."

I am sorry if I offended anyone. I mean no disrespect to the dead or grieving. Really. But...people should try to spell it the right way.

some time ago, in a galaxy far far away....

Since last year i havn't done much except:

Beacame a registered geologist in training.
A certified concrete inspector.
Learned how to blast ducks out of the sky.
Learned how to knock down pheasants.
Watched a deer take down a guy at work, (it was hillarious as it sounds).
Got engaged.
Ran a race.
Went to some concert with Shayne.
Broke my elbow.
Drank my raise away yesterday at the Terracon holiday party that was way after the holidays and had an open tab paid by my boss.
Lost an incredibly embarassing bet (it was as hillarious as it sounded).


Oh and I didn't blog that whole time.

Ten Free Windows Tools I Use

There are good freeware tools out there for Windows, but there is a bunch of junk freeware too. Some are buggy, others are loaded with malware, and many are straight up not useful. This list includes nothing that will ask you to pay for the full version, nothing that will spy on you, and nothing that I haven't found useful. Now, on to the list!

1. Ccleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) - Just before you defrag your Windows machine (yeah, I know, you can stop right there, Mr. Linux-doesn't-need-defragging. And who would change their last name to that anyway?), you should clean out your recycle bin and delete your temporary files. Although Windows includes its own disk cleaning utility, it isn't as thorough as this app. It even includes a registry cleaner as well! The only thing I wish it did was remove all but the last System Restore point (I have to use the Windows cleaner for that after I use Ccleaner). Other than that, it works quicker and better.
2. Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx?wt.svl=related) - Are you using the standard Windows Task Manager right now when you hit ctrl+alt+del? This one is better, especially if you do a little programming on Windows. Why is this?
   • Processes are shown in tree form so you can see which process owns other processes
   • CPU usage graphs for every running process, not just overall CPU consumption.
     
   • Shows which processes contain handles on various files and resources
   • Tons of other things I'm still figuring out.
   
   It even allows you to replace the standard task manager so that the next time your give Windows the three fingered salute, it pops this baby up instead. Because it doesn't come as an installer, consider making a C:\Utilities folder to put it in. My only gripe with Process Explorer is it doesn't have a networking meter. Rats...
3. NetMeter (http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/) - Don't you wish that the networking meter that comes with the Windows Task Manager had a few more options? Does WireShark give you too many details when all you needed was a graph? Give this majigger a chance to fulfill your network speed curiosities. It gives you second-by-second stats on how much you downloaded, and it will even give total download numbers. It can even run as slightly transparent, and fades to fully opaque when you mouse over it if you so choose. Why care, you ask? Because this thing gives you solid KB/s numbers, to help you figure out if you are really using all of that highspeed broadband that your ISP supposedly gave you.
4. 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) - Why are people still using shareware for their archiving needs like WinZip? or WinRar even? Because they don't know of the many free (and open source, Boo-yah! [boo-yah? really? What is this, the 90's? -Ed.]) alternatives, I think. Sure, this may not look as pretty as WinZip or WinRar, but it has the stuff that counts:
   • Extracts from many different formats, including zip, rar, 7z, bz, tar, iso, cab, blah blah blah
   • Multi-processor archiving support for the 7z format. Two core CPU? Use this. Or maybe you have four cores, and only want to use two or one? Blam, it's done.
   So there.
5. CrossLoop (https://www.crossloop.com/landing.htm) - So my Grandma calls me. Her computer had been BSODing on her a couple of times a day, and it was getting annoying (Interesting fact: Microsoft chose blue for their screen of death because it was a calming color. 23 years later, maybe not so much.). I had talked her through a few things, but nothing worked. I needed to control her machine. The problem, however, was that she was three hours away. Sure, windows has a remote controlling feature by default, but it is also lame. I installed CrossLoop on my Grandma's machine and my own. CrossLoop transcends firewalls and routers, so all I had to do was type in the connection code that she gave me over the phone, have her accept my connection, and I was in! I was able to clean the computer, perform some maintenance, and install some much needed software (including two spyware cleaners and AVG anti-virus). The result? A smooth running machine. Thank you, CrossLoop!
6. Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) - The standard notepad that comes with Windows is decent. I like it alright. But it doesn't do tabs or session saving. It also doesn't highlight code. Notepad++ does. 'Nuff said.
7. CDBurnerXP (http://cdburnerxp.se/) - Remember back in the day when Nero used to be a great tool to burn CDs? Now it is so bloated you practically need to start one Nero program before you can start another. I just want to put data on a disc, not navigate a labyrinth of options. If you are like me, and you don't need all that extra fluff of transcoding video and making DVD menus, then this is for you. Does data and audio discs for CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD.
   
8. Foxit Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php) - Adobe Reader is bloated. It takes forever to start up. And once it starts up, it has to do a massive update or something dumb. All I wanted to do was look at a PDF document, man! Get it before it gets too bloated itself.
9. VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org/) - It isn't the prettiest player when it comes to playing music or movies. But it makes up for that fact by playing nearly anything, even MP4s or FLVs. You can download your favorite YouTube, Google Video, or other videos using http://keepvid.com/, and then play it with VLC Media Player, no extra hassle.
10. The GIMP (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html) - The new 2.4.x series is finally out, man! Yeah! Slightly easier to use than the older 2.3 series. Although commonly billed as a replacement to Adobe Photoshop, it isn't quite as powerful, but then again it isn't as complicated either. Having said that, it isn't as easy as Microsoft Paint either. Take some time to play around with it, because the benefits won't be immediately realized. Many good sites provide some good tutorials on GIMP. It beats paying hundreds of dollars on Photoshop. (Yeah, yeah I know. But it beats pirating Photoshop too.)

Blatantly obvious: Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/) - I know: you already know about this. It is so recommended by everybody that I didn't put it in the official list. But then again, my list didn't quite feel complete either. Besides, 90% of Web surfers out there are still using some form of IE, so obviously a few more people still need convincing. IE probably is good enough. But I bet you didn't know about that index.dat file (Shout out to Lester for letting me know about that one), a hidden file which I have no idea what it does but probably isn't any good for your Internet surfing security (Ccleaner can remove that file, by-the-way). IE7 does extensions now, but I'm assuming it will never be as popular as the Firefox extensions.

So, do you have any good free or open source Windows apps? Maybe some alternatives to the ones I've listed? I'd love to hear about it.

Name Change

As some of you might of hear FHSU thought about changing there name this year and it got a lot of attention. In the end it was decided not a smart thing to do. This makes me think we should think about a name change of the blog. Perhaps we could have a two facebook groups for and against. Or perhaps make the news. I mean this is a very important blog and all. I bet a lot of people will have an opinion. I don't have a idea of a new name but if I think it needs to be a funny word that has no meaning because that seem to be the way of doing it. Like Google, ubuntu, gentoo, and all the other names you can think of of new tech. products. So bloggers start blogging about a name change.

return paul;

A New Way to Waste Time!

So here I am sitting in class, learning how to open an Access database. I'm really glad I was invited to join this blog, because now instead of aimlessly staring at facebook, I can feel that I'm accomplishing something useful, even if it is just typing meaningless sentences. Plus the people sitting around me think I'm actually working hard and aren't talking to me. This is really cutting down on the amount of awkward conversation I feel compelled to make, so thanks!

Nerd News

So I have been telling Shayne that Cmake is best build tool ever. Today as I was using it some more it just made me more sure of how right I am. So if you want to compile some C or C++ or any task like building you such check out Cmake. If you need some proof cmake it good you should know it is used in KDE4 whch I am sure you are all using. If not you should try. Now that it will work on linux, windows, and Mac you have no reason not to. So download that thing and "be free." So until next time this is nerd talk.

Eating makes me hungrier

It's true; I decided to eat instant oatmeal with fake strawberries in it because I wasn't hungry--and now I am hungry. Anyways, I haven't done much today except go to class and work at the Writing Center. Oh, and homework. I read some of The Red Badge of Courage, and that made me fall asleep, so now I'm reading Stephen King's On Writing, which is a way cool book. You'd probably enjoy reading it even if you weren't that keen on writing. So, nothing as interesting as dropping eggs, sadly.

Speaking of eggs, I found an awesome french toast recipe. If you don't like french toast, stop reading. Take two slices of lightly toasted bread and spread strawberry (or kiwiberry, or bananaberry, or Barneyberry, whatever) between them. Then dip both sides in some beaten egg, milk, and cinnamon sugar (strangely enough, the stuff I use is the same cinnamon sugar, I believe, that Lester gave me when he moved out of Agnew--so thanks, Lester, it's great!). Then just fry it in a skillet and eat with lots of syrup and butter or lots more cinnamon sugar or more strawberry jam. Oh, and it's good to eat with eggs. The toasting is key here since it helps keep the sogginess of the bread to a reasonable level and keeps the bread from falling apart on you as you try to flip it and stuff. The jam is a delightful surprise for people who are expecting regular french toast.

So, sorry for the boring blog that's mostly about food. Blame my instant oatmeal for making me hungrier, I guess.

My Truck

I'm finally getting my truck repaired for damages that occurred a year ago. For some odd reason, I thought it'd be a good idea to drive into the side of a mountain. A whole year later, I finally decided it was time I'd get my truck repaired. Sure, the truck was drivable, but now I can drive it without it shaking out of control if I go over 30 (I hope).
So there's my uninteresting news on my truck.
Oh, also, it has eggs on it.
My roommates and I thought it would be a good idea to throw away the old eggs we found in our fridge by throwing it off our balcony into the dumpster. Unfortunately we couldn't throw that far. And oddly enough, all three of us had coincidentally parked right next to the dumpster. Since we didn't learn our lesson, all three of us continued to throw those eggs until there were none left. They all landed on our cars. That was fun.

Feel the Love

We just witnessed a 243 day lull in our blogging duties. (Thank you, timeanddate.com.) That's a brand new record!

So what's happened on my end in the 7+ months since then?

• I got older
• ...

Yeah, it's starting to come back to me as to why I stopped blogging.

Seriously though, there have been a few cool things. I got to see Weird Al in concert with Jon, Sam, and some family, which was really neat. He even sang a few songs not on any of his albums, such as We All Have Cell Phones, So C'Mon Let's Get Real and I'm in Love with the Skipper.

....Okay, so that was only one cool thing, but still it was quite a ride. Oh, I guess I did also go to a Dave and Busters, a sort of Chuck E. Cheese for grown-ups, where I finally got to play an arcade machine I've been waiting many years of my life to play, called The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Apparently it is based off of some movie. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I wanted to play it so badly. Wait, now I remember: because shooting dinosaurs is awesome.

In conclusion, the secret to happiness is that you will never find it. You have to make it yourself. At least that is what I was able to gleam from Dan Gilbert from one of those TED talks.

FCC started it the wireless auction

After all the talk the the FCC wireless auction started. I checked the news and there was nothing much going on. The sad news it could take months until we know who got what and what it might mean. I guess these people don't know how to auction.

Perhaps next time I will have something cool to say.

Bring the Blog Back!

I agree with Paul, let's bring the blog back to life! I can post about my life in Virginia, and hopefully my life in California when I move there in about a year. And then my life on Mars. Wish me luck guys!

Back in black

So I don't know. I was talking to Lester and we (Or I) decided we should bring the blog back or give it a try. Who knowns what will happen. I don't know how the title apples to this post but it is a notice we should blog. I guess.