(LJ and BM mirrors)
So this weekend was very good, not as good as last weekend, but definately up there :)

Friday was nothing spectacular. Went down to Molly's for a beer...one of Lindsay's coworkers was considering going, but we didn't see her there...oh well.

Saturday I worked all morning and afternoon, being bored off my ass. Got home at 4:30 and powered up the GC to play some Mega Man...FUCK! My savegame somehow got corrupted, this means have to start over again...damnit! Started playing MM6 and left the game on pause as we were headed to the suburbs to see my sister. This is where it gets good :)

We met Caitlin in Schaumburg at The Prairie Rock Brewing Co. for dinner and beer. The dinner was great, no vegetarian selection to speak of (pasta w/ veggies) but the cheese ale soup was phenomenal! To top it off the soup came with a freshly baked pretzel...to die for! The beer wasn't bad either. I had their Oktoberfest brew, Lindsay had their Prairie Light and Caitlin had the Vanilla. Now, I've never had a vanilla beer that I've particularly cared for, but this one was something else. It literally tasted like a creme soda! After the brewery we went to Redmoon, a martini bar in Arlington Heights. Very small place, dark with modern decor (pics forthcoming...hopefully). Caitlin's new beau Jeremy is one of the bartenders and mixed up the most amazing martinis I have ever had. I started with their chocolate martini which had 2 Godiva liquors, Ketel One and Hershey's syrup...amazing. This was followed by the other bartenders specialty, a martini that tasted like grape koolaid! Bloody great! Lindsay had their Extacy martini, which was very very berry, their Chaz (chocolate raspberry) and a Sexy Lady (very apt :)) all of which were great! I finished the night with an Effen Black Cherry on the rocks. Such a smooth flavor with a bit more than a hit of black cherry. Yum. Eventually made it back to DeKalb at 3am.

Sunday we met my parents at Old Chicago for my b-day party-ish-thing. Had a few beers (thankfully I had no hangover) along with a ton of food. We had the sampler platter, two pizzas and I got a "little big cookie" b/c it was my b-day. Two more beers and I'll finish the Oktoberfest tour and get my hat! I had a Becks Oktoberfest and a Lowenbrau...both were good. The highlight was my sister drinking a Ommegang Three Philosophers which was a 25oz lambic/ale mixture which took 3 people to finish! I did get some presents, all of which kick ass. Copies of Rallisport Challenge 2 and Sonic Mega Collection (xbox and gc respectively)...hell yeah! new games! I loved the first Rallisport and played the second a few months ago, it totally blows away the first...everyone who likes racing games should play it! I also got a 256M flash drive and a sweet Prana pullover from my sister. My mom also brought two pies from Bakers Square to eat after the presents. Ugh...so full...gonna die.

Last night we had Jen and Nate over for leftover pie before some much needed sleep!
So that was my weekend...how was yours?

A few weeks ago lindsaycb told me not to make any plans for October 1-2. That was this weekend, and I'm so glad I didn't make any plans!!!

At 6pm on Friday we jump in Lindsay's car and start heading north. Lindsay tells me that we're going past Rockford. (Yay, we're not spending the weekend in Rockford ;) ) Janesville? Beloit? Nope. We're headed to Madison (home of dubnobasswithme who was unfortunately out of town). The drive up there was extremely frightening. Semis going 75, in the pouring rain, at 8pm. Not fun. There were more than a few harrowing moments along I-90 with one semi in particular.

We arrive in Madison at around 8:30-9pm and locate our hotel. The Best Western Inn on the Park. Gorgeous. Right across from the capitol! Couldn't have asked for a better location in Madison. Right down from State Street, two-ish blocks from the lake.

When we get our room (sadly with no view of said capitol) Lindsay hands me an envelope with two tickets to see Whad'Ya Know the following morning! Hell yeah! I listen to this show every week and have for probably 8 years now (give or take). For those not in the know, it's on NPR on saturday/sunday and the host basically has random interesting interviews, audience questions and two quizzes for "fabulous prizes" In lieu of going out, we stay in to admire the cable tv in the room and end up watching Iron Chef...it was the tofu episode...too bad all the entrees had meat..oh well. We had a big day ahead of us!

Saturday morning we get up, get ready, have breakfast at the little restaurant downstairs (kinda sucked...too busy...but cheap!) and started our walk to the Monona Terrace where the show is taped. Such a beautiful building! Frank Lloyd Wright did some amazing things! Showed up at 9:15 after kinda getting lost on the way (followed the signs for parking and didn't actually look as to where we were supposed to be going...oh well) We were handed our notecards to put name/occupation/hometown and a question for Michael (Feldman...the host) Lindsay asked "Do you eBay?" and put "This is so dope!" at the bottom. I asked "Why do buttermilk pancakes sop up so much syrup?" Went into the lecture hall at 9:45ish. Aparantly there were coffee and doughnuts downstairs...had we known that we would have saved money on breakfast :)

At 10am the show starts. The stage is kinda cluttered with old knick-knacks and inflatable cows, and a stuffed ostrich. There were two diner booths in the center (at right angles to eachother) where Michael sat, a piano and stool where John and Jeff play, and off to the right there was a single chair where Jim sits. (there are bio's here incase you were wondering)

The first hour goes by, laughing, groaning, etc ensues. The second hour starts, he's talking to a lady about advertising herself as a "back of the pack" marathoner and how she gets endorsements. Pretty funny stuff. Then came the part where he starts answering the questions from the audience. The second question he answers is about tattoo parlors in Madison. Then he says "Lindsay, from DeKalb Illinois...will you say this for me?" LINDSAY IS GOING TO BE ON AIR!!!!! He walks back to us, Lindsay stands up and he notices the triquetra on her back, so he starts asking her about tattooing! After a short conversation about that, he asks her to say "this is so dope" because aparantly he has never been called "dope' before (maybe "a dope" but never "dope" :) ) LINDSAY WAS ON THE RADIO!! AND YOU CAN HEAR IT HERE (~25 minutes in...real audio format) That totally made my day! My parents taped the show as well, so everyone can hear it (I may try to get a rip of it from my dad in the near future and post a non RA copy)

The show ended and we walked around the terrace for a while. We then walked back to the hotel and got the car. Off to Old Chicago! Wow, they have a ton of different brews at the one in Madison than the one in Rockford! We'll have to go there more often ;)

After our suaree to OC we dropped the car back off at the hotel, went upstairs and listened to the feed of lindsay online :) Somehow, we ended up taking a nap too :)

Woke up refreshed and hungry. Decided to walk down State Street and one of the first places we pass is Peacemeal Vegetarian Restaurant can this day get any better? A place where we don't have to worry about what we're eating!!!! We ate some falaffels and headed out to go bar hopping.

We stumbled into Stillwater's and ordered some martini's (mine chocolate, lindsay's was melon) then ordered seconds :) The bar was nice, smokey as hell, but not overwhelming at all. By this time we both have nice vodka buzzes and decided that drinking more would probably not be the best idea. We wander down state street, then back up again. The bar hopping didn't really happen, oh well...I'm sure next time we're up dubnobasswithme will take us to bigger and better places. Ended up going back to the room at 12ish and passing out (well, I passed out...didn't even take my glasses off passed out)

The next morning we got up, checked out, took some pictures of the Capitol, the terrace and other miscellany before heading back to Illinois (I still had to work at 2pm...no one could cover my 20 minute shift).

So that was the weekend....loads of fun! If I forgot anything...I guess I'll update it :)

My new mobo/cpu/ram came in late last thursday. Hell yeah is what I say to that! Took a few hours on Friday to set it up, install XP, some drivers...all sitting in the middle of the living room (where else?) Tried to run the netgear wireless card and their setup continually crashed. I had a little extra money in the old banking account so we trotted off to Best Buy on saturday and picked up a d-link card...which actually works! Hell yeah there too!

Now I can actually play, and have played, Neverwinter Nights. Now all I have to do is get good so I can play with all my L'ville friends online!

On another note. I have this shitty corporate finance class (required for my major) with a completely incompenent instructor. More than half the class hadn't attended since the first day and last monday was the kicker. It took him an hour and a half to cover 12 basic, single formula, single step questions. Not only that but he frequently told students their answers were correct when they obviously weren't, and when pointed out, he would correct himself. All of this was topped by the fact that he stood there like a deer in headlights for at least 2 seconds before saying a sentence...most of the time it was more like 5-8 seconds...which just makes the class drag on. Example:

Prof: "Let's move on to the next question" (4 seconds)
Prof: "does anyone know the answer?" (7 seconds...4 of which people have had hands up)
"yes.......you"
Student1: "bla bla answer"
(8 seconds...fumbles with papers)
Prof: "correct" (3 seconds)
Student2: "no it's not"
Student2: "its bla bla right answer"
(6 seconds)
Prof: "yes.......that is correct"
Student2: "so which is it?"
(3 seconds)
Prof: "its...." (fumbles with papers...5 seconds)
Prof: "bla bla right answer"
(10 seconds)
"next question"

For an hour and a half! By my estimate, standing at the front door smoking a ciggy, half the class left through the front and at least a quarter left through the back. Wednesday morning everyone gets an email with the subject "IMPORTANT CHANGES" stating that "Mr. Xxx has resigned as the instructor for this course." Great! Now we won't have someone utterly incompetent running this class. From the emails, it looks like we now have Stalin Jr. as our new instructor. Mandatory attendance, no electronic devices (unless used for "bona fide medical reasons") except a TI BA II Plus calculator, and no talking (letter grade deductions for each instance!). We'll see how it goes tonight, but it doesn't sound like it's going to be a whole lot of fun...like finance would be anyway.

Back to work! Tolly ho!

Anyone need a gmail invite?

Message me if you do.

My checkbook is finally in the black, what better time to order a new brain for my computer than now! NONE!

ASUS A7V880 - I love Asus boards, I love VIA chipsets, can't go wrong (unless it totally sucks). Everyone was trying to talk me into geting a 64-bit CPU, but fuck that, I just want to play NWN and burn DVDs with no buffer underruns (like my current POS system does)...besides, I am on a budget.
AMD Athlon XP 3200 CPU - I despise Intel since my second computer (back in the day) had major issues with overheating and ultimately a-sploding. AMD ever since!
Gotta have the RAM, it's a step down in size but a major boost in speed...all of my systems now have at least 1 gig of ram, but this one will only have 512...again, on a budget.

All of this should prove to make one heck of a system when I add my Audigy, GeForce FX 5200, 300 gigs worth of HDDs and the DVD burner...not to mention all the USB shite and wirless crap.

WOOO....I's special now! Moooovin on up! Take that space coyote!

My girlfriend, she's the best! Last night she gave me an early birthday present...Mega Man Anniversary Collection for GC.

Hell yeah!! I'm never doing homework again!

The original Megaman's (1-6) kept me from class my first and third years of college...although, the constant smoking didn't help much either.

(/. really needs a beer topic)
Weekends start on Friday at 3pm. I do believe I started drinking at 5 and didn't really stop until Saturday at 9pm. All of it beer, half of it decent. This isn't counting the beers I had on sunday either. Basically my weekend is kinda blurry until mid-afternoon yesterday.

Friday, Lindsay and I ate dinner together and it all started with a Redhook Blonde. If you're not familiar with the Redhook brewery, they do consistantly good work, especially their ESB. I'm partial to their IPA and Sunrye, but everything is great...has to be my favorite brewery to date. Moved on to a Flying Dog Doggy Style Pale Ale. Again, another of my favorite brewerys, but some of their selections are a bit shady (namely their Scottish Porter...eew). Finished off the pre-bar festivities with a Killians, standard red that Lindsay loves (and recently re-discovered).

Off to see my friends from Oregon where we proceeded to a magazine launch at Fatty's (local bar with a decent selection and Blue Moon on special, can't go wrong with that). The magazine is a new local publication based around the Northern Illinois music scene...but not Chicago. Chicago has enough magazines to cover the whole state, everywhere else has shite. Lindsay designed the ads for the party and her publisher is producing the magazine, thus we had to attend. All my O-town friends came along and treated us all to multiple Blue Moons.

After a few rounds of pool, socialization and brews, Lindsay and I headed back home with her friend Chris for a few rounds of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (best game ever!) and more Killians. Not quite sure how I drank that much...but I did!

Saturday. Tailgating. Bud Light from the time I woke until I passed out at a whopping 10:30p. The football game was cool, NIU vs SIU, we barely won...1 point, could have gone to OT but SIU tried for a 2-point conversion and failed...whew. We sat on the student side amid chants of "Fuck you Southern, You sleep with your cousins" and the ever popular "buuuull shiiiit" at every call that didn't go our way. Interesting to say the least.

Yesterday, Lindsay and I went to Old Chicago in Rockford. For those not in the know, OC has a beer tour. Drink 110 beers (no time limit) and you get your name on the "Wall of Foam" plus other prizes along the way. I had 3 beers and Lin had 4 (Mikes hard lemondade, Redhook Sunrye, and a Goose Island Honker's Ale for me). I reached my 74th beer, for which I was awarded a kick ass glass much (32oz!) and Lindsay reached her 55th, for which she got a t-shirt. Go us!

We went over to Best Buy and were seriously considering buying a TiVo. Very frequently I want to watch Jeoparday and Lindsay wants to watch Dr. Phil (yeah, crackpot Phil)...thus we NEED a TiVo, at least that's what we're telling ourselves :)

Now I'm still kinda hazy, even after a good nights sleep, two cups of coffee and a doughnut (KK at that).

Beer. Yum.

So my elbow, it is broken but I don't have a cast. Thus I can still play games, type, etc...I just can't lift anything. This proves quite the problem when trying to get an 18lb bag of cat food up three flights of stairs.

I love my .Net class. It's bloody easy, and I already know more than half the material thus far. There's nothing better than a GPA booster...lord knows that I've had my fair share of bad semesters in the past (gross understatment). It more than makes up for the other three classes which are terribly uninteresting.

After weeks of fighting with my systems I finally got a configuration that I'm somewhat happy with. Wireless on the baby board, generic board as the server, and no good video or sound card on either of them.

I really should update more...there is more to my life than just school and computers...like my beer fetish :)

i broke my mother f'n elbow

now i cant play games
now i cant type
now i cant move my goddamn arm

shit

My family's cat, Butterscotch, turned 18 in May (Derby weekend) and just went through his second surgery this year for tumors on his neck. The vet isn't quite sure about the tumors so they're being sent out to be biopsied (sp?) tonight. He's being released tomorrow back to my parents. My mom wasn't sure if they were going to be giving him any sort of new meds or painkillers though.

I know he'll live to be 21, then he can drink with the rest of us :D

I can't wait for classes to begin again. You'd think that after 9 years of college I'd be sick of it...but NAY! I do believe I am a professional student following in the footsteps of my Aunt Frannie, who graduated from Duke in the 40s and has been a full time student since (4-5 PHd's, a dozen or so masters and god knows how many bachelor degrees).

So my classes:
OMIS675 Techical Application of Electronic Business - Ecommerce in .Net
OMIS651 Business Systems Analysis and Decisons - how to write programs for non-CS majors
FINA320 Principles of Finance (eew)
MGMT333 Principles of Management (eew)

Not a terribly hard schedule, and it leaves a slew of time for work in the lab, do my own projects (if proper motivation is applied) and study for the GMAT and testing out of the Principles of Marketing class in the spring.

Since switching to the business department I have realized how utterly clueless many business majors are about technology. They have the most pimped-out building on campus (8 labs, wireless networking, smart classrooms) yet a full 50% of them don't know how to double space a word document. Sure, they can audit my taxes and streamline my production line, but without being able to use the tools to analyze data how are we helping anyone? (just now, half the class I'm monitoring didn't know which drive was the floppy...why we're still using floppies is beyond me)

I was chosen to be the only student member of the Technology Funding Committee for this year. It consists of 2 faculty members, 2 Student Associations members and 1 student (me). I'm not quite sure what it will involve, but I'm sure as hell going to lobby against the new managed-print system we are using (and wasted a ton of money on, seeing as how it doesn't work with MVS, UNIX or remote printing, crashes daily (hourly), is overly complicated and doesn't have nearly as many features as it should/could/must)

That's all...carry on.

My computers are being little bitches.

We bought a 200GB hard drive a year ago (give or take) and I chopped it up into 2 NTFS partitions (the logical thing to do). I had one partition for storage stuff and one for miscellaneous stuff to be sorted, tested, etc. Simple enough.

When I bought the new wireless card I decided to pull the drive out reformat the main hdd for that machine, taking the 200GB out for safety (I tend to screw things up like that). So I put it in the server for safe keeping. Well, the partition with all my documents, movies, music, etc decided to loose it's master boot record.

Fuck.

After poking around with chkdsk and looking up error messages from various other software, I found that Active@ File Recovery will be able to recover about 90% of my data! Huzzah! The only problem is that I will have to shell out the $30 to restore any files above 32kb...damnit. I don't really have the money to be doing that, but I also don't want to lose 100GB of data.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery? Other tools? Fire?

In the past week I've not only moved across the street, I've "upgraded" my network to be half wireless (AP in the living room). For some reason, the entire thing seems quite a bit slower than my old 10/100 hub...even for the hard-wired cables. Maybe I just need to reinstall my OS again...that's always a solution for my machines :)

Finished my little DB for the lab, now my work for the fall will drop from 2 hours a week to 10 minutes a week with no paperwork at all.

I have yet to take the GMAT, still can't pay for it...damn people making me pay for a test to tell me that I'm cool enough to be in grad school...hell, I have 215 credits, I should be teaching the classes!

Finally broke down and bought a GameCube. I swear that Mario Kart:Double Dash is video crack. I knew that I was addicted when I played for 4 straight hours with Nate (old roommate) and wanted to play more after a dinner break in which we watched someone else play. Since x-mas I must have played 2000+ rounds of the game...fucking crack I tell ya!

Decided not to build a PVR...not only because I's po' (so po' that I can't afford the other two letters) but because I really don't have time to watch TV anymore...Jeopardy, that's about it.

Back to surfing...or a crossword puzzle :)

Wow, I completely let this thing go.
I've got a few projects lined up for the summer, hopefully at least half of them are completed before the fall session starts.

1) Take the GMAT
2) Finish my lab DB app
3) Build a new computer that will actually play NWN
4) Set up a linux box (pvr?)
5) Play/beat all the Zelda games
6) Get/make a better router/webserver (this one sucks)

Not too much on the plate, but I do play a hell of a lot of Mario Kart Double Dash...we'll see how much actually gets completed

I am down to one computer. The server. This sucks.

The living room computer - Than (my bro) was surfing on eBay the other day when the bastard just died. It wouldn't boot into any OS (XP or Suse 9.1) and when I tried reinstalling both OS's (dual and single boots for both) they wouldn't boot into the OS anymore after the initial reboot. No clue what's going on...it just up and died.

The bedroom computer - The cooling fan is a bastard on it, always has been...seems there's always a problem with it buzzing too loudly. Anyway, woke up this morning to hear less noise than usual...looked inside the case (cause it's open :) ) and the CPU cooling fan/heatsink had detached from the chip!!! The fan/heatsink is held down by a metal brace that spans the cpu and attaches to the socket molding via two brackets...one of the brackets broke making it impossible to reattach the fan in it's present state. So I'll have to get some high-temp epoxy and glue the sync/fan directly to the cpu...not cool.

I'm going to try to change out some parts so that I can get at least one system to work that's not the server (which is slow and I'd have to move around a whole bunch of wires). Then I get to figure a way to get all the hdd's hooked up so I can actually run stuff...fuck...

I guess it gives me a project to do.