Long Weekend

Whew. Long weekend of barbecues. It was a pretty good and relaxing weekend. We went over to Heather's parents' place for hamburgers on Sunday and barbecue chicken at my grandparents' house on Monday. For those of you not in Utah, the 24th is a state holiday and it was celebrated on Monday. So no school, Heather didn't have work. We got to relax and Heather got to read nearly the whole weekend. She's re-reading the Harry Potter series so she can be up to date when she finally cracks the new book. So if you see her, I warn you now that she will violently take your life if you spoil anything for her. So the Summer semester is winding down. We're planning a camping trip to Wheeler Peak the first weekend after finals and then Harold and I are taking a road trip. Probably to Washington state. I'm looking forward to really getting out there and having a ton of fun because I'm taking 16 credit hours again this Fall. Maybe 19, we'll have to see. That's a lot of work, so I need to get my fun in while I can. Toby update: He's still wearing his cone so he doesn't rip his stitches out, but he's made it halfway without incident. This is a good because last time he had stitches he had to trade them for staples so he wouldn't remove them prematurely. What the #### is the Internet?

Hotter Than Hell

I know it's because I spend my time in my dark and cool basement, but I'm not very acclimated to this high temperature this year. It's 104 F in places around the valley today. That's damn hot. So Toby and I hide from the Day Star in the basement enjoying cold beverages. I bought some books for Fall semester today. I was only able to get three of them and the total came to $281.10. When I grow up I want to be a textbook publisher. It's the best legalized racketeering gig in town. I'll try to find the rest of the book on Amazon. They're sometimes cheaper there. When they are, it's by a lot. So kids, look for your books outside of the school bookstore, and remember to buckle up. Toby update: The poor little guy is still kind of sleepy. But he get up and wanders now and again and he's even wagging his tail. I think he's feeling better and he looks like he's on his way to a full recovery. I recall Central Park in Fall

All's Well

I didn't post yesterday because I was playing the part of a worried parent. Toby had his operation yesterday to remove the tumor on his lip. When we got him home he was still a bit sleepy from the anesthetic. Between that and the pain pills he's very sleepy. Poor little guy. So, now that I have my new USB headset, I should tell you all about Skype. Skype is a VOIP (Voice Over IP) app that lets you talk to other Skype users anywhere for free. You can call out or into the Skype network for a fee, but Skype to Skype calls are free, regardless of distance. So I can call my friends in Pocatello and talk with them for as long as I want and I'll get no bill. Which is good because last month I talked to them for over an hour on the phone and forgot about it until the long distance bill came. My little sister lives in Boise, so I can call them for free, also. They just have to set it up (hint, hint). I was able to watch a movie my little brother loaned me, it's an anime called Appleseed. No, it's not about a young man traveling the frontier of early America planting trees. It's set in the future and they use that cell shading animation technique. You may have seen this on the Spider Man series that ran on MTV not long after the first Spider Man movie came out. It's a very cool look. Anyway, I was very surprised with this film and I recommend checking it out. Besides, the case the DVD comes in is cool. there is no shelter here

Lucy...I'm home

We got back just after 12 yesterday afternoon. It was only a three hour drive (versus a three hour tour) to get to where the family reunion was being held. We passed a little town called Sulpherton. Sounds fresh and clean, doesn't it? Toby rode down in his new little seatbelt harness. He got his own seat and was able to look out the window whenever he wanted, so he seemed to enjoy the ride. Actually, he slept most of the way down and back. Eric (my brother-in-law) and I ended up taking our computers down and we played some Rise of Nations in the hotel. I also played his copy of Sid Mier's Pirates. If you've never seen it, you're a pirate in the Caribbean, circa 1660. I watched him play it a little bit and thought it was stupid. Then I tried it out and realized that the gameplay is very simple and extremely addicting. It's a lot of fun. You should pick up a copy. Looking at Feded.com, it seems my USB headset I ordered last week are on a truck in my area already. That's pretty good, considering I shipped it standard 7-10 day and that was Wednesday. Toby update: He's kind of like me in that he doesn't sleep well (if at all) when away from home. He was napping when I left the house. I think he really likes the seatbelt harness we got him. He doesn't get carsick or upset and he's still restrained. It's hard to drive when you have a beagle trying to sit on your lap. Drove downtown in the rain nine-thirty on a Tuesday night, just to check out the late-night record shop.

Robots in Disguise

This just in. There will be a live action Transformers movie out in 2007. I'm totally serious.

More Family Reunions

This weekend I'm heading to another family reunion. I just went to one last week. I guess it's the season. So we're driving down tomorrow morning and staying in a hotel Friday and Saturday night. Should be fun, but we'll have to see about that. My brother-in-law and I talked about bringing our PCs with us. Not because we think there will be Internet access, but just to LAN all night. I think I should just to have something to do. Toby update: His allergies are getting pretty bad. I've noticed it often does when the weather gets hot and it's 101 F today. Wake me up inside

It was all I could have hoped for

Thank you for filling out my simple little survey. You were all very helpful, except for the wacky names. Maybe next time I should require you to log in. So, as far as how I feel about the whole thing? I'm against a new law. I think there are too many "You can't do that" laws. If the state were to lighten up on the drinking laws, I think that there would be less resistance to this law, but people, especially non-LDS people feel very controlled and resist things that add to that. Even if they make sense. It becomes lees about health and more about individual rights and freedom. So, I've been trying to use the podcast setup in iTunes and I hate it. It has one or two redeeming qualities but those are overshadowed by all the crap. CRAP! iPodderX is supposed to be coming out with a Windows version soon. I think I'll hold out for that. In other geek news, I just ordered a new USB headset. They got great reviews so I hope they'll work nice for me. I wanted USB so I can plug them in without having to unplug my THX 5.1 surround speakers every time I want to use voice or game quietly. Late night is not the best time to be cranking my speakers to "11" while playing Battlefield 2. Toby update: I realized he's very smart. He hides in the basement under the air vents and sleeps during the afternoon. Since it's supposed to be 103 degrees F today, I'm thinking of joining him. Don't think 'cause I understand I care

Form of.....A Blog Entry

So I had to take Toby in to the vet today. We've noticed a growth on his lip that has started bleeding. Turns out it's the same thing he had on his paw about 18 months ago. It's just a benign tumor, but the location on his lip means it could scar if he tears it, which is likely. Normally, they go away by themselves. I think we'll have this one removed, just because of where it is. Also, there is a >10% chance that is a malignant tumor. If we remove it, it's gone either way. So, my English class project is a group project in which we create a campaign. We're working on a campaign to ban smoking in bars and clubs. I'll tell you my feelings on it after you answer this survey. 1) Do you ever go out to bars or clubs? How often? Once or more a week. Once or more a month. A few times a year. 2) Do you work in a club or bar where smoking is allowed? 3) Do you smoke? 4) Do you feel smoking should be banned in bars? Why or why not? 5) Are you Male or Female? 6) How old are you? If you could post your result as a survey, I'd be much obliged. I didn't want to hurt you but your pretty when you cry

RATED F

I finished RATED F (by Todd C Noker) on the weekend and I've been meaning to post a review but I've been getting back into school after taking a week off for my trip to Montana and also Battlefield 2 came out and I found out I'm addicted to the online play. But I'm on step 12 now so I think I'm going to be OK. Ever read Fight club? I love that book. There are some parallels with that and Noker's RATED F. Not so much the story as the feel and the style. The plot, interesting as it is, seems to be the perfect vehicle for Noker to make social commentary about censorship, dominant religious cultures, obesity, and anything else he feels like. The reading remains smooth, despite the lengthy and ranting departures from the main story. If anything the rants flesh out the main character and make him a complete person with all the emotions and concerns that we experience in real life. While the world from the main characters perspective is fascinating, I would have liked to see more of how other view him. The story is set in Provo where a video rental store owner gets the idea to edit the "bad parts" out of popular movies. The entire town escalates from there. People start to censor home videos, they start to censor real life using violence, and competing stores start looking for blood. All in the name of decent family entertainment. The satire is superb. My biggest disappointment was the book was too damn short. It took me several days to read it, but that was at 20-30 minutes a day. Normally I sit down for hours at a time to rip through pages and I think I could have finished this in an afternoon. The plot was finished but I liked reading the rants. The language and imagery were very creative and fresh. Over all, I give it an B+.

Stupid Via

Today I had to reboot my PC after installing some stuff and when it came back up I got a 'NTLDR not found' error. The NTLDR was not corrupted, the drive it was on was not showing up in the BIOS. I had to reset it twice before I could get it back up and running. I'm not going to buy another motherboard with a VIA chipset again. Anyway, some less technical stuff. My friends Ryan and Harold are back in town. They were out at their annual training for the National Guard for three weeks. Actually, Harold was gone six weeks. That sucks. I've been doing homework all day so I don't have any cool programs to pimp or reviews to post. Besides, we're on the verge of a three day weekend. Five, if you're me. Mine started today, but all I did was mow the lawn and work on math homework. Tomorrow we're getting together for my brother-in-laws birthday and then Monday is a family BBQ. Tuesday is more homework, but no class. My math prof will still be out of town and his is my only class that day. I hope you all have a good weekend. Try not to blow up too much stuff. Toby update: Today while he was napping under my desk, he did something I've never seen him do before. He was wagging his tail in his sleep. Not like a slow sleepy wag, a fast and tense wag. He'd do that for a few seconds and then stop for a minute. Then he'd do it again. I hope it was a happy dream. Don’t give me songs. Give me something to sing about.