You've got to have THE WILL to live!
I'm moving to San Antonio. Got a job there as a "Research Analyst" and get to program Java on a Linux platform. I'm pumped. I gave my two weeks notice at my current work. I have all that BS crap to do to document my work for my replacement...
My cousin Dustin is a band, the Sarkastiks.
I think I crammed too much into today. Worked all day. Took a test for two hours. Ran two miles. Went to Best Buy. Bought Chapelle's show on DVD. Watched four episodes. Read a third of Fight Club the book. Still awake. Maybe I'll read some more. Better cut back on the caffiene.
I, Robot wasn't too shabby. Come to find out it's directed by Alex Proyas of the Crow and Dark City. The ending did seem Isaac Asimov-y. You have to see Anchorman and Spider-man 2 before you run off to see I, Robot though.
I met someone on Friendster that is a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk. So she writes him a letter. Not only does he write back, he sends her an autographed Italian edition of a book and a hand-made beaded necklace. Awesome!
I signed up for a grad-level Database class today at the local university. It's a summer class, meeting 4 nights a week two hours each. I hope I haven't overextended myself, working full time. I hadn't really considered there might be a ton of homework all condensed into the 4 weeks. I've been in need of interesting challenges lately though, so I shall attack CPSC 7351 with gusto.
Found this about a kid with a gene mutation that makes him super strong. I'm reading Alan Moore's Watchmen for the first time, so it seemed especially cool.
This site Gnod is interesting. Put in an author, band, or movie that you like, and it gives you this weird floating set of links to other stuff you might like. I was blown away when I put in China Mieville and one of the suggestions was Larry Wall. It seems to operate from quizzes and looks like maybe it gets some data from Amazon.com.
Some movies that get funnier the more times you watch them:
I put the links back on the right that were lost when I made the template change a few weeks ago. Check those blogs out. They're interesting, and they belong to my pals. If you'd like your blog linked let me know, but it may take me a little while to get around to it since editing HTML is a little too much like what I do at work to be fun.
I found what I'm pretty sure is a brown recluse in my bathtub. We will be calling the exterminator and the landlord. Holy moly.
Well we made it back to the US. The trip was a rousing success. The only thing we didn't accomplish was finding out what brown sauce was. Apparently you put it on things very much like ketchup. We asked several people and the only answer we could get was "It's sauce and it's brown."
Our final destination in Ireland was Dublin. We called ahead from Galway only to find that there were no B&B's available. The closest we could get was Kells, which is about 45 miles away. This didn't seem like a big deal to us, but in Ireland that's a significant amount of ground to cover. Our first night in Kells we took the bus into Dublin and tried to come back on the night bus at 3 AM. Turns out there is no night bus back to Kells. So we had to take a bus to Navan, another town, and then get a cab to Kells. It was an interesting experience.
We were baffled by the signs in Ireland. We found several that were quite funny to us as Americans. I'm sure they're mundane to the locals.
Galway rocks. It's a college town with lots of fun clubs, pubs, and shopping that are chock full of friendly, interesting people. We had a very nice B&B called the Hillcrest. Here's a view very near the B&B.
On day two we headed to Cork. We determined that we should do the proper American tourist thing and visit Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone. Blarney Castle was quite interesting and there with several great views from the top.
After flying into Shannon, we headed down toward Killarney. We instantly noticed that everyone was driving on the left side of the road and there were these interesting intersections called "roundabouts."
In the next few entries, I will break down the highlights of my trip to Ireland.
After 24 hours of traveling, I have arrived back home. That was a damn fine trip. Ireland is awesome! I read somewhere that IT is/will be huge there. I think I may look into getting some work there.
This is day 2 I'm spending in a city called Galway. It's really cool, the pubs and clubs were hopping last night, even with it being a Tuesay. What's surprised me the most so far is that since we're really far north, the sun doesn't set this time of year here until after 10. Awesome. But it rises at 4ish I think. I figure there's a trade off during the winter with really short days.
I went home Saturday to visit my family. Watched one of those Kung Fu movies promoted by the Wu Tang Clan with Chuck and Stephanie. Campy. While home, I snapped a shot of a cool picture of my grandpa on a shelf. He's in the middle on the bottom row.
I started clowning with the new templates and lost my customizations, including the comments. Blegh! I'll fix it eventually.
I just made what will probably be either one of my best or worst purchases ever. A foot tall Optimus Prime that is cartoon and movie accurate right down to the energy axe and Matrix of Leadership. $69.99. What a waste! But so cool. I am conflicted.
Damn. I'm a culturally insensitive clod. Last night I sent off a hastily prepared statement of purpose for a Ph. D. program. In it I said I wanted to evangelize for the field of Computer Science. What I meant was I wanted to promote it heavily. I got to thinking about it last night, so I looked up evangelize.
e·van·gel·ize
v. e·van·gel·ized, e·van·gel·iz·ing, e·van·gel·iz·es
v. tr.
To preach the gospel to.
To convert to Christianity.
I drew this comic strip my Junior year of college. I was especially proud of it. Maybe I'll try to get a better scan or photoshop it or something.
I just watched the movie Timeline. I wish I could travel back in time and save myself from the mediocrity.
I ordered a digital camera today. It's an inexpensive one, just $85. A 2MP Fuji with a 3X optical zoom. It got good reviews. Anyway, the point is I should have more and more interesting posts and pictures. I know you were waiting on the edge of your seat.
I went to the movie Hellboy with some friends:
Trekked to Fayetteville last weekend. Had the hamburger special at Sonny's Bar-B-Que in Springdale and then went to a Better than Ezra concert. I think the highlight of the day was the hamburger special. Sunday I saw Dawn of the Dead. Wow, was it ever gory. I thought it was going to just be a rip off of 28 Days Later, but it exceeded my expectations.
Secret Window starring Johnny Depp was good. I read a review that mentioned that there's a scene where he eats A LOT of corn. So I had to see it.
Visited Regina in Austin and she forced me to go to a Longhorns baseball game. And root for Texas. Brock may never forgive me. I was coerced. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I talked to someone today who was opposed to the amendment to ban gay marriage. Because that would be the first time the Constitution has been amended.
Blogger does this thing where it makes all my posts look like they're 2 hours earlier than they really were. So I have to go and change the time if I want it to be right. That's the sort of thing I'm pretty anal about. Really irritating. I should lighten up.
Maybe this blog should be more of a journal than just wacky links and pictures... Or it could be both. Oh, that could be good. But is it anonymous enough for that? Really I've only given the link to a handful of my friends so it could be I suppose. Maybe I'll change the title... Hmm. Really should shower and go to work now.
I saw it fit to record this bizarre dream I had for posterity.
Oh, the blog is moving. Don't know where yet, my comcast account will surely go away soon.
These special hats are handy for keeping alien mind-readers at bay.
My friend Casey is in law school. I told him he should use the Chewbacca Defense in one of his classes. Such advice illustrates why I should not be in law school.
We had to evacuate work today because of an explosion at a chemical plant nearby. An elementary school also had to be evacuated. Why is there a chemical plant that close to an elementary school?
My brother gave me the new Tony Alamo Newsletter today. Here is one highlight:
I finally saw Return of the King. Great movie. The orc general sounded exactly like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.
Return of the King comes out tonight. I'm sure it will be great, but for some reason I'm just not that fired up about it. I will probably see it this weekend. I'm not sure exactly why, but maybe it's because this will be the last on a long list of movies that I've been looking forward to. Well, I guess there's always Spider-man 2 and Kill Bill 2. And Star Wars Episode 3. See what I mean? I'm now looking forward to more crap from George Lucas. What have I been reduced to? Oh, the humanity!
I just saw Elf with Will Farrell. It's directed by Jon Favreau. Appropriate for kids, but also really hilarious. You should see it.
I just bought a set of kung fu type DVD's starring Sonny Chiba. He was Japan's answer to Bruce Lee. Ten movies for $20. So far I've watched Street Fighter, Return of the Street Fighter, and Street Fighter's Last Revenge. They're good, and you can see how these movies have influenced films like Kill Bill and the Matrix. The final battle from the Matrix Revolutions is straight out of the Street Fighter. Well, except for the flying.
