After a lot of time, effort, Sturm und Drang I finally got instant messenger to connect from work.  What awaits me in the lovely world of Internet chatting from work, you might ask?  A whole lotta nothing, I would reply.  I was logged on to the aim for about six hour today, during which time I talked to no one.  So I beg of you, please sign on to instant messenger during the day tomorrow, as I will be very, very bored without you.

Speaking of tomorrow, I have some important news to pass on to you.  Tomorrow, in order to "celebrate Memorial Day and show [my] patriotism" I will be participating in a "Casual Work Day."  According to the email I got earlier this week, wearing jeans is all you need to do in order to celebrate Memorial Day (at least in the opinion of the people I work for).  I wish someone had told me this much sooner; I never realized how easy it was to please the veterans on Memorial Day.

Well, that's all the biting criticism I have for you.  As usual, no one I know is online, and I spent a good part of my day checking the websites I usually visit, so I guess I'll be logging off the Internet now.  Clear.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 May 2001 at 5:34 PM

I meant to post a lot earlier than this, but I didnt get around to it.  so looks like its another one of those michael-is-tired-so-his-post-will-suck sort of nights.  oh well.

I went over to my grandparents house today and picked up the things Id been keeping in their basement, and I stayed for dinner.  then I went back and got to carry a carload of my things up two flights of stairs to my room (so a total of three flights of stairs in all).  I might not feel the need to complain if one of the items hadnt been a refrigerator, but oh well.  at least I will have cold soda now.  as for my evening, I watched the cardinals lose a game they really shouldnt have, and I rearranged my room.  Im still not satisfied with the way that everything is set up, so Ill probably move things around again before too long.  I have a double all to myself, and I still cant find places for everything.  that may sound weird, but its because all of the space is middle-of-the-floor space.  and you cant put things there.  so I have a big empty middle of the room, and all of the walls are packed solid.

anyway, Im tired, and I have work to do tomorrow, so this post is over now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 24 May 2001 at 1:19 AM

I've got a question that I hope all of you can help me with.  I've been thinking about learning to play an instrument this summer.  I played the trombone in high school, and I was planning on relearning that during the summer, but when I got home I discovered that my mom had given away my trombone.  Needless to say, I was rather upset.  However, like Bucky in Get Fuzzy says, "when life gives you lemons, throw them at someone."  With this in mind, I'm turning this rather upsetting event into a chance to learn something new (and hopefully a bit cooler than the trombone).  So my question to you is this: what instrument should I learn this summer?  I've been thinking about trying to learn the guitar or bass guitar, but I'm open to suggestions.  Send me an email and tell me what you think.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 May 2001 at 9:24 PM

so now that I have an ethernet connection in my room, I really have no excuse for not posting.  except Im adjusting to a more normal sleep schedule, so Im getting tired, and I want to go to bed, so this post will not be very good.  I think Ill just talk about my day.

work today was frustrating.  the cs accounts that wed been given were all broken, so we couldnt log on to the machines in the lab.  I pretty big problem, except I thought to use the cslab domain and log on as though I was a cs101 student since I knew the password from when I TAed.  only, then the computer didnt have the java media framework installed, so we had to install that.. only to realize afterwards that the cameras were not usb but firewire, and that there was no firewire card in that computer.  since our project required the use of a camera we managed to convince one of the people in the lab to trade computers with us.  only it was a different computer than the one wed used the day before, and for some reason, the code that we had working yesterday refused to work on the new computer.  we then spent the next few hours just fighting with the computers and trying to get the software to do what it was supposed to.  I didnt manage to get a single line of code written all morning.  I eventually gave up and went to a late lunch.  during which I went back to my room and tried with my own computer and my own camera, and after more struggling I finally got things working.  so, victorious, I was finally able to work on my program.  at least until class at 5:30.

class was good, and I think it will be interesting.  the really unusual thing is, one of the students in the class is something like 10 years old.  and Im not saying that he is a college kid who just looks young.  he seriously is a ten-year-old boy.  maybe 11.  anyway, at first I thought it would be neat, but when he started answering all of the professors questions, it got a little irritating.  over the course of the lecture I grew to despise that kid.  At one point the professor asked what the output of an expression would be, I think it was:

(apply cons(cdr'(abc)))

or something like that.  I didnt write it down.  anyway, nobody was answering, including that kid.  and I found myself thinking,

"come on, little kid.  arent you going to answer this time?  whats wrong?  you dont know the answer?  come on.  its (b.c).  what, you didnt know that?  you needed more time to think?  well looks like you arent so smart after all, are you, little-man?  huh?  oh, does baby want to cry?  thats what I thought.  why dont you go home and read the encyclopedia or something, wunderkind, before you embarrass yourself any more.  punk."

anyway, I would win in a fight.  and I think thats all that really matters.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 23 May 2001 at 1:03 AM

Earlier, no one was on instant messenger, and now stupid netzero is acting so strangely that every time someone IMs me, AIM crashes.  ("Unable to contact the NetZero Server, Please try again later."  Click the button below to kill your Internet connection, or don't click it and keep these windows on top of all of your other windows, but let you continue using the Internet.)  So, to everyone who was online that I didn't get to talk to, I'm sorry, but it's not my fault.  Please send your hate mail to netzero.  I'm going to go sign up for a real Internet connection right now.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 May 2001 at 10:22 PM

Okay, so I jumped through the ten hoops and watched the three feature length commercials required for me to log on to the Internet from home, and I started up instant messenger..  Sadly, I do not know a single person using the Internet right now, at least according to my buddy list.  Of the millions of people using the Internet right now, I know 0 of them.  This makes me sad, so I'll talk about something else now.

Namely, Microsoft FrontPage 98, a.k.a. my least favorite program in the world.  (Notice the not so smooth paragraph transition?  It's almost like I accidentally hit the return key and didn't bother to correct the mistake...)  FrontPage has this stupid tendency to refer to html features by it's own made-up name for them.  One quick example: named anchors.  These are the little things that let you link to a part of the page that's about halfway down the page.  They look something like <a href="fred"></a> in html.  However, stupid Frontpage98 refers to them as "bookmarks."  Now, in relation to the Internet, bookmark has a very different meaning than named anchor, at least to me.  I hate FP98.  And I spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how to use FP to put named anchors in a webpage I'm creating for work.  FrontPage has many other features I despise, but it's time for dinner, so you'll be spared a long, long rant about them at this time.

If I'm in a better mood (i.e., people I know are online) I may post again tonight.  But then again, I may not.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 May 2001 at 4:40 PM

My friend Jon Polk sent me a rather long but interesting email about the Lifehouse/Christian rock issue we've been talking about here on negative273.  I'll summarize his email and quote (cut-and-paste) the parts I found most useful to our discussion.

Basically, Jon thinks that the members of Lifehouse "may be Christians in a band, but not necessarily a Christian band."  Further, Jon thinks that

a Christian band is one whose purpose is to spread God's word through music. Not to spread music, and randomly include Jesus' teaching.  I also think that the fact that it is in question whether or not they are a Christian band kind of discounts that status. For me, if you are a Christian band, you WANT everyone to know it, because your entire purpose of music is to glorify God. I don't question that some of the lyrics may be spiritually oriented, which is way cool... I just wouldn't define them as a Christian band. Also as a technicality, they are not signed by a Christian recording label... which may or may not have any importance.

Finally, I should mention that just because Jon doesn't think they're a Christian band in any way means that he "disagree[s] with the way they do their music."

In other fun and exciting news, I bought some dress socks and a shirt for work this evening.  The socks, which I bought at Wal-Mart, came with a sticker that said "TREATED TO HELP PREVENT FOOT ODOR."  So now, should you happen to be around me, you can rest assured that my feet don't smell bad.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 21 May 2001 at 10:40 PM

today I head back to st louis.  I just wanted to let you know that I may or may not be too busy/tired to post this evening.  if this is the case, you will need to look to dave for the interesting content of the day.

(as if you didnt already.)

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 21 May 2001 at 6:53 AM

Im going to go ahead and weigh in on that whole lifehouse issue by saying that I dont think they are christian rock.  this quote I found was interesting because I think it can be interpreted as have both secular and Christian attitudes. 

"This record deals a lot with self-discovery and breaking out of whatever your parents or your boss or whoever thinks you should be.  It's about trying to find out for yourself who you're supposed to be - your purpose, your destiny in the world."

the rejection of authority seems a little non-Christian, but then again that "finding your purpose and destiny" part suggests the album has a spiritual tone.  The thing is, I looked over the lyrics, and while some songs certainly seem like they are about jesus, not every song is, and I dont know if you can be called Christian rock unless the majority of your songs are about christ.

of course, the lead singers parents are both ministers, and the band was originally called "blyss," so you do sort of have to wonder.

anyway, having shared my opinion on that, IM now going to go ahead and whine that I have to go back to st louis tomorrow:  sigh, I have to go back to st Louis tomorrow.  I dont want this week to be over.  now I have to get back to work.  bleh.  oh well, dave has already been working for a week, while I have been relaxing and enjoying myself, so I guess if anyone should complain its him.  no, wait, thats right, Dave is making obscene amounts of money this summer.  IM complaining all I want.

(The following keystrokes are intended to convey frustration and dismay)

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Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 21 May 2001 at 12:03 AM

My friend Luke, when we were burning CDs last night, hypothesized that Lifehouse, given the lyrics to some of their songs, was a Christian rock band.  I had never heard anyone say that Lifehouse was a Christian rock band, but their lyrics, when I examined them in the CD line notes, could certainly be used to support this idea.  If anyone wants to weigh in on this issue, send me an email.

Today was a pretty lazy day.  After staying up past two last night, I slept until almost 11am today.  Then I finished reading the book I had started on Friday and went down and read the newspaper while I ate lunch.  I caught the last four innings of the Cardinals game (they won), and then took a nap until almost 5.  Around six or 6:30 my parents and I went out to eat at Applebee's, then we came back and I watched Malcolm in the Middle.  Now I'm watching the NBC made-for-TV movie Submerged.  I like naval stories, but I'm not too impressed with this show so far.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 20 May 2001 at 8:15 PM

dave believes that, as a rule, a post is better than no-post, under any circumstances.  thaat even if Im really slleepy and I dont have anything to post about and dont feep like posting and just want to go to bed that I should post anyway because readers dont care about quality they just care about posts.  so, readrs, my dear readers, whose stomachs are empty pits, yawning and abyssmal chasms which can never be truely satisfied, to satiate your blind and unending desire for words, I offer you these, which appear from cnn.com in no readily determinable order:

Rescuers and emergency policemen, using dynamite to blow up Didier Pasian and others, swam through the night.  Wednesday evening seven rescuers had said that as the group of students hampered the waters, eight climbed since Wednesday and a teacher from a makeshift border government accompanied them to the surface.  The flood hospital in the Swiss canton of Jura worked day and night.  Alain Gehin, covered in a shower of floodwaters from the power of the cave was transported across the rock ledge by three women from the cave of Paraud.  Rescuers said they would then be experts who used daylight to battle the mouth of Goumois.  The five men spent the next 72 hours in his mouth but potholing forced him to take refuge in Zurich.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 20 May 2001 at 1:58 AM

I finally got some sleep.  As usual, I stayed up past midnight last night, but because today was a Saturday I was able to sleep until 10:20am.  This meant that I got four more hours of sleep than I normally get.  I puttered around most of the afternoon reading and watching TV, then I went to Best Buy and bought the new Weezer CD.  This evening John, Luke and I went to the Two Brothers restaurant for dinner (we eat there at least once a week) and then we came back here and watched some TV while we burned some CDs on my computer.  So in addition to the Weezer CD I bought today, I also got Fuel and Everclear CDs.  I love burning CDs, because these are CDs I would never have paid $10 for, but now I can get them for $0.50.  (The library lets you check out CDs, a service I have definitely used in the past.)

Christopher Walken is on SNL right now.  I'm pretty tired and I want to go to sleep, but Weezer is the musical guest, so I'm going to be staying up until the show is over.  It's not the worst reason in the world to stay up late.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 May 2001 at 10:50 PM

so I think summer is just about over for me.  I have to head back to st louis this weekend, and Im kind of dreading it.  its really not going to feel like summer vacation living in a dorm.  but theres nothing to be done.  at least I had a nice week off.  eh, and its not like last summer was any good anyway, so what was I expecting?  whatever happens it cant be any worse than last summer (I hope to god).

sigh.. all semester I was praying for summer, and now Im dreading that too.  I always get tricked into believeing in lights at the end of tunnels, but really its just one big tunnel.  and Im not so certain theres anything at the end.  well, actually, things are hardly so bad as I seem to think they are; mostly Im just a baby when it comes to doing things I dont want to do, so please dont pay any attention to me.

I hope work will be okay.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 19 May 2001 at 1:48 AM

Today was pretty boring.  I spent the morning putting finishing touches on one of my three website designs, and the afternoon downloading Jasc's Paint Shop Pro.  I also got a voicemail account today.  Leave me a message, toll free, at (877) 778-5487.

The Cardinals had a ten game winning streak (the first time they've had ten wins in a row since 1982, when they won it all) going into today's game.  michael's "boy" Ray Lankford, who's been on fire recently, was batting in the ninth with two men on, two outs, and the Cardinals down by a run.  He hit a slow grounder to second, and the winning streak was over.  Oh well, it's not the end of the world.  The Phillies are leading the NL East, so they won't be as easy as the Pirates, who were 13 games under .500 yesterday (I haven't checked today).  Fortunately, with the unbalanced schedule this year, the Redbirds get to play 10 more games against the Pirates.

It's been really storming here tonight, and the radar shows the rain stretching from here to well west of St. Louis, which I'm guessing means that it will be raining most of the night.  I don't dislike the rain, as long as I'm not in it, but I do dislike the fact that this storm has ruined the reception on the TV in my room.  Of the seven channels I can normally pick up, I can only see one tonight, so I've been forced to watch the Fox 7 news.  It's pretty pathetic, even given the low standards of local TV news.  The sad, sad part is that, rather than the normal half-hour of news that other stations have, Fox 7 thinks it's viewer want a FULL HOUR OF LOCAL NEWS.  Even though it pains me to do so, given my enjoyment and appreciation of television in general, I've decided to turn the thing off rather than watch this crap.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 18 May 2001 at 10:37 PM

so there was a big storm today.  the sirens sounded and the tv said there might be a tornado, but there wasnt one.  which is good, because I dont think tornados are ever very good.

okay, I feel a lot like sleeping, so Im going to go do that now.  then tomorrow I will wake up and do productive things.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 18 May 2001 at 1:35 AM

Chris sent me a link to a really, really funny article about the mysterious "Monkey Man" who has been biting people while they sleep on their terraces during power outages.  The thing is, the authorities don't know if the "Monkey Man" is a man or a monkey.  They have two sketches, in one he looks more like a monkey, in the other he looks more like a man.

I spent my day creating two different designs for the intranet site I've been working on all week.  My efforts are really hampered by the fact that the only graphics program I have is Microsoft Image Composer.  Among other things, it has problems with transparency and making unaliased edges.  I've come to hate it.  I'm hoping I can scrounge up a copy of Photoshop, or at least persuade someone to buy Paint Shop Pro, which will be more than adequate for my needs and costs 1/5 of the price for Photoshop.  I'll probably download the evaluation version of Paint Shop Pro tomorrow.  Hopefully it will make my life a bit easier.

Only one more day of work this week.  This makes me happy, not because I don't like work, but because I have been staying up too late every night this week, and have only been getting about 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep this week.  I plan to sleep a lot this weekend.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 May 2001 at 8:56 PM

Im sitting here wanting to go to bed and trying to think of what to post about, and Im coming up with nothing and feeling a little strange.  today ended up being one of those days that feels like two or three.  its not that particularly much happened, and I didnt even take any naps, but this morning feels very far away somehow.  its strange, because youd expect me to say something like that after a very long day, but today was actually quite pleasant.  Im just feeling a little disconnected at the moment.  Im sure it will pass with some sleep.  so even though its kind of early and I have an email I need to write and a budget to write up, I think I am going to go to bed.

but first, just to weigh in, I think it is fairly certain that bartlett intends to run for reelection.  I know that they left it open, but I dont think it was supposed to be a secret.  I mean, that whole hands-in-the-pockets thing bartlett did at the podium at the end was not entirely subtle.

in closing , I thought Id take this opportunity to wish luck to any of our readers who might, for whatever reason, still be in school and still have finals, perhaps two of them, tomorrow.  also, any students in said position should not play any snood today, as it is a bad wicked game.

that said, good night.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 17 May 2001 at 1:45 AM

I didn't even have time to fiddle with instant messenger today, so I guess I was a bit busier today than I've been earlier this week.  This is definitely a good thing, as I was pretty tired of sitting around and checking my simvesting account every five minutes.  I spent most of the day working on a new design for one of the Whirlpool intranet sites.  Tomorrow I'll work on a different design, so that I have a couple of options to show my boss when he gets back from Italy next week.

The West Wing was great tonight.  After last week I was kind of pissed off about Mrs. Landingham, but this week definitely made up for it.  I'm pretty sure that Bartlett is going to run again, but of course we won't find out for certain until next Fall.  Send me an email telling about whether you think Bartlett is going to run for reelection or not.  I'll compile the emails and post the results next week, just in time for the first West Wing rerun of the summer.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 May 2001 at 9:11 PM

I saw the mummy returns tonight.  it was good, except the mummy never really did that much.  his girlfriend did a lot more.  and it just seems like if the movie was named after him, he should be a more threatening presence.  he should have rampaged some, like in the last movie.  also, dwayne "the rock" johnson played the scorpion king, and I hope Im not giving anything away by revealing that in the final battle, he is incarnated as a large computer generated scorpion monster.  It was basically a giant scorpion with the rocks upper body.  only, the thing is, the creature was entirely computer generated, not just the scorpion parts.  so it was a computer rendering of the rocks face.  And it just looked off.  I think its the first time theyve tried to do that before, and they came really close, but IM afraid that the technology is still not to the point where they can computer animate a human being without us noticing that something is weird.

not to sound as though IM not incredibly impressed with the level of detail that computer animation is achieving.  they showed a preview of the final fantasy movie that is coming out this summer, and I was amazed.  while I dont think we are at the point where we can seamlessly merge computer generated actors with live ones, movies like final fantasy are showing us that we are getting damned close.  go check out one of the trailers and youll see what IM talking about.  And, yes, I know it means I am a geek, but I am looking forward to that movie.

anyway, you probably noticed that tonight I wasnt whining about how much I didnt want to post.  that is in no small part due to the fact that I have dreamweaver installed on this computer now.  dreamweaver 4, in fact, which is even better than what Id been using back at school.  So I am posting in luxury tonight.

Anyway, I think IM going to go to bed now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 16 May 2001 at 1:19 AM

Day two: no instant messenger, no work to do until 2pm.

I had a cup of chili for lunch today and got a base for my monitor (an unneeded base, as I had already rigged up a stand using an old binder that someone had left in one of the cabinets in my cubicle).  These were the high points of my 8 hours at Whirlpool today.  Oh well, another day, another dollar.

Now I have to ask for some help from all of you.  The walls of my cubicle are devoid of anything interesting to look at.  If you have any cool pictures that you could email to me, I would really appreciate it.  If you have something that's not in electronic form that you think I might like, you can send it to me via the US Postal Service to the following address:

David Warner
8526 Talbot Dr.
Evansville, IN 47725

I'll pay your shipping costs, within reason of course.

I had something else I was going to post about, but in the 1/2 hour that it's taken me to get to this point, I've forgotten what I wanted to say.  Oh well, if I remember what it was, I may post it tomorrow morning before work.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 May 2001 at 9:52 PM

I tried to get dreamweaver installed on my familys computer today, but the disk I have is an upgrade from version 3 to version 4, and they dont have version three.  I have version three, but its on my computer which is in its box, and I dont feel like unpacking it.  and even if I did, getting the installer from my machine to my familys would be more trouble than it is worth.  I think the file is too big for a floppy, so I would probably opt for connecting to a phone line, dialing in, and sending it over IM.  but that is a big hassle.  so looks like its more source editing again tonight.  youre probably wondering what that means to you, the reader, so Ill tell you: it means Im cranky and not in the mood for posting.  and that means substandard posts.  except, mostly Im just tired.  I think that probably has more of an effect on my post quality than anything else.  sigh.. I really need to stop putting off posting until right before bed, because all that ever happens is I end up too tired to post and consequently the posts are always about how much I hate posting.

and negative273 readers deserve more than that.  I will make it up to you, though.  there are some cookies upstairs, and if you stop by, you can have one.  as sort of a personal apology.  (please call first, though, so I know when to expect you.  thank you.)

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 15 May 2001 at 3:04 AM

So my first day at Whirlpool was pretty boring.  I spent the first hour filling out various tax and nondisclosure/patent release forms, and then I went up to my cubical.  There was no computer there.  I've been hired specifically as a CS person, so a computer is definitely required for my work.  So the person doing my orientation got me a computer.  It's running Windows 95.  And the monitor doesn't have a base.  (You know, the swivel part on the bottom of the monitor?  I don't have one, so my monitor sits flat on my desk and my keyboard blocks the lower fifth of the screen when I type.)  I fiddled around with my computer until lunch time, doing things like changing the screen resolution to 1024x768 (why would you use an 800x600 resolution with 256 colors on a 17" monitor?) and getting rid of this ugly cloud background that didn't even fill the whole screen when the resolution was 800x600.  After lunch I got Frontpage 98 installed on my computer (I could make a whole separate post about things I dislike about Frontpage 98, but I'm tired, so I'll spare you the rant) and read the Frontpage 98 Getting Started Guide.  At 2pm I went down to the auditorium for a meeting with all of the technology people (i.e., the engineers).  The meeting lasted 1 1/2 hours, and it was pretty boring.  Nonetheless, it was the highlight of my day.

Tomorrow I need to work on figuring out the proxy server settings so that I can run a telnet or ssh session to WashU and check my school email and also get aol im running (so that I can use it on my lunch break, of course).  Hopefully, I might actually get the passwords so that I can start working on a website that they want me to rework.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my cube is in a group of four cubicles, but the other three are occupied by outside suppliers, who are only at Whirlpool a minimal amount of time.  Hence, I'm basically in a room by myself.  It's really kind of odd.

Anyway, it's late so I'm going to bed (I have to get up at 6:20!).  Oh, I should mention that, despite all the complaining I'm doing here, I enjoyed my first day at Whirlpool.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 May 2001 at 10:44 PM

my favorite thing about having a weblog is that even when Im sleepy and have nothing to say, I still have to post.  its an act of love, really.  you readers are like family to me.  and I know how much it would let you down if I stopped posting, even for a day.  but since there is nothing to post about, I thought Id tell you about how badly I need to install dreamweaver on this computer.  Im doing this post by the source code, and its a very annoying thing to do.  dave would try to tell you that its not so bad, but dave didnt see our source code before I got to it.  for some reason or other there were like 100 lines of whitespace between every line of code.  so editing it over telnet was a bitch.  when I had a typo in a previous post, I had to hold the down arrow for the better half of the day just to get to the right spot.  and before I did this post I went ahead and cleaned all of the whitespace out of this file; I swear I must have removed at least a couple thousand blank lines.  my question is where did they come from?  also does anybody besides me and dave care what the source code looks like?  sigh.. it is bedtime now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 14 May 2001 at 2:34 AM

How do I tell when my summer vacation has really started?  By my email.  This is the third summer where I have gone from receiving about 20 emails per day in my inbox (I filter mailing list messages into their own folders) during the school year to an average of .5 emails per day in my inbox during the summer.  That's right, I have received exactly one email in the last two days (and, to whoever it was that sent me the email, no, I don't want to get out of debt fast).

Tomorrow's the big day: my first day at Whirlpool.  I'm a little anxious, but I get that way before every new job.  Everything will be fine, I'm sure.  I'll post tomorrow night (or afternoon if I get bored -- the people I'm supposed to work with are in Italy for all of this coming week, so I may not have much to do) and tell you how things went.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 May 2001 at 10:38 PM

Last night, when I was driving around with Jared and Luke, I saw a group of 14 boys (I counted them) standing in front of the mall.  This is not really unusual, and I wouldn't be writing about it here if it weren't for the fact that every one of them was wearing a white or beige visor (11 white, 3 beige).  Why have these visors become so popular?  More importantly, why did all of these high school kids feel like they needed to be wearing a, in my opinion, stupid looking white visor?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 May 2001 at 4:46 PM

so Im back in town now.  and Im supposed to post every day, so Im posting.  but there are much better things that I could be doing right now, so this is going to be a pretty short post.

memento is a good movie.  you should go watch it.  ouranophobe has a post about it, too, so I wont repeat.  what she failed to mention, however, was the group of guys freestyle rapping on the sidewalk by her car.  it was so great.  when we walked up on the scene this white guy was rapping and these black guys were standing around him laughing their asses off.  I think maybe they had been rapping before and then the white guy showed up and joined in.  if so, he is something like a hero to me.  I have always wanted to be able to do that.  sigh..

okay, Im going to go now.  right now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 12 May 2001 at 10:51 PM

I didn't do too much yesterday.  I had lunch with my Mom at Subway, and then bought some clothes at Old Navy.  I saved 10% on my Old Navy purchases by applying for an Old Navy credit card.  Then I came home, played some Snood, and went to the library.  I played some phone tag with Jared in the evening, when I tried to see if he wanted to do anything.  He was out when I called, and then he called back when I was at Los Bravos eating dinner with my parents, and then when I tried to return his call, no one answered.  Hopefully, I'll have better luck when I try to reach him today.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 May 2001 at 9:59 AM

no rain today.  my grandparents were a little upset about that because now they are going to have to water their plants, but I am rather happy about it because I am not wet.  and while its humid, its also cloudy which helps a lot.  also, my headache is gone, so I feel much better about today than I did yesterday.  Im really really sleepy, but other than that things are okay.

all right, Ive got two and a half hours to get the rest of my room packed up and into my car, so I need to go do that.  Ill post again from home.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 11 May 2001 at 2:24 PM

So here's my problem regarding an Internet connection.  When I'm at home I use netzero, a free ISP, but it puts a large banner across the top of my screen and, this is the part I really don't like, generates pop-up windows.  So I'm looking for an alternative.  Starting Monday, I'll have a high-speed connection at work, so I probably don't really need one here at home.  Nevertheless, a cable modem seems very attractive to me.  But it's going to be at least $40 a month, plus an installation fee, and that doesn't seem worthwhile for the three months I'm going to be home.  What this means is that I'll probably end up getting a dial-up connection from one of the local ISPs.  I think I can get unlimited access for $15/month, which is not much money, but it will be a slow connection.  If anyone wants to try to persuade me to get a cable modem, please drop me a line.

In other fun news, I've finished one of the problems on my take-home econ final.  Admittedly, it was the problem that he gave us in advance, so all I needed to do was cut-and-paste the answer I had written into the document I'm putting my answers in, but I still feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in the work I've done on this final.

In the immortal words of Bob Amar, "Word to your Rhino."

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 May 2001 at 10:49 AM

its so lonely here.  dave and scott are both gone, and I have the whole suite to myself.  its weird to be the last one left.  I dont really like being by myself, but I guess I should get used to it since I will be here by myself all summer.

anyway, Im a little irritated today.  the housing people at my school denied me permission to stay in my room past move out date.  this means that I have to spend tonight and all of tomorrow packing up my things and moving them to my grandparents house.  then in a week I will have to do the whole thing in reverse.  it kind of sucks, but there is nothing I can do about it.

oh well.  right now Im more concerned about the terrible headache that I developed this evening.  I dont usually get headaches, so Im a little confused as to why I ended up getting one tonight.  maybe because of the fact that all I had to eat today was a piece of pizza nine and a half hours ago.  (the meal plan ran out.)  but the two things are probably unrelated.  the sad thing is that dave was the one with the ibuprofen, so I am out of luck.  bleh.

okay, well Im guessing the move-out activity has probably died down a little bit by now, so if I can find a dolly Im going to go pull my car around and load it up with some of the more awkward items, that way I wont have to deal with as much tomorrow when its hot and crowded and possibly raining.

sigh...  tomorrow is going to suck.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 11 May 2001 at 2:24 AM

Good morning.  I've survived my drive home and have, after a great deal of fighting with my modem, managed to connect to the Internet (at a whopping 26400 bps, a far cry from my ethernet access at school, but slow even for a modem.  Perhaps the 20-foot long telephone cord strung around my room adversely affects my connection).  I even have the webcam up and running.  However, because I use a modem to access the Internet here at home, the webcam will only be running when I am home and on the Internet, which basically means it will only be running late at night.

Tomorrow I need to go shopping for some appropriate work clothes, as I don't think the people at Whirlpool would appreciate it if I showed up in the same pair of blue jeans I've been wearing for the past week.  At least not on the first day.

Oh, I got my econ final in my inbox this evening (if you don't know what I'm talking about, please see my posts from Wednesday).  I have until June 1 to get it done.  I don't think I'll have any trouble getting a 60% on it, as it looks pretty easy.  I would share more information about the final with you, but I've been sworn to secrecy.

I am very, very tired, so I'm going to bed now.  'Night.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 May 2001 at 12:29 AM

Well, my car is mostly packed and Dad will be here in about 1/2 an hour to take the rest of my stuff home.  After we get his car loaded up, we're going to the Cardinals game this afternoon, and then we're going straight home.  Yesterday I took two car loads of things to my grandmother's house to store for the summer so things are looking rather bare around here.  Still no word on this final exam situation.  I was hoping to hear something last night, but I didn't.

Anyway, I will be away from my computer for most of the day, so I probably won't post again until tomorrow.  Have a nice day.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 May 2001 at 8:24 AM

I thought I'd update you on my econ final exam situation.  Below is an email I got regarding the final.  I'm going to read between the lines a bit and assume everything will be sorted out so as to best benefit me.

Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 11:54:37 -0500
From: Steven Fazzari <fazz@wueconc.wustl.edu>
To: [edited due to length]
Subject: Econ 335 Final

May 9, 2001
11:45 a.m.

Dear 335 Students:

On behalf of the Economics Department, let me apologize again for the confusion surrounding your final exam. I have taught at Washington University for 18 years and never have heard of anything like this happening. I do not yet know what has caused this problem. I have left numerous messages for Professor Vaughan and associates who are traveling with him. I hope to speak with him no later than this evening (Wednesday, May 9).

When I reach Professor Vaughan, I will work with him to determine a plan for dealing with this mess that is equitable to all of you. As I said in the exam room, this is not your fault, and you should not suffer because of what happened. Although I cannot tell you exactly what is happening at this point, you should go ahead with any plans that you have made. Obviously, we have to accomodate your plans no matter what resolution we finally come up with.

If any of you have specific questions, please feel free to e-mail me personally at fazz@wueconc.wustl.edu. Again, I apologize.

Sincerely,
Steven Fazzari
Professor and Chair, Department of Economics

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 May 2001 at 12:20 PM

Okay, so I was in McMillan Hall to take my econ final at 10:30 this morning, along with the approximately 60 other students who are in my class.  The problem is that the TA who was supposed to administer the exam never showed up.  After waiting about half-an-hour, and complaining to the people in the econ department, we were told by the econ dept. chair to go home.

The thing is, I need to take the final in order to pass the class.  I studied a great deal last night and was ready for the exam.  Will Professor Vaughn (who is away for the week) decide to email the final out as a take-home exam?  Whatever he decides, it needs to be decided fast, because I am going home tomorrow.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 May 2001 at 12:01 PM

My choices are as follows:

1. Watch Star Trek: Voyager


2. Continue reading chapter 5 of Financial Markets and Institutions by Frederic S. Mishkin and Stanley G. Eakins


3. Some combination of 1 and 2, or


4. Sleep.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 May 2001 at 12:03 AM

it is done.  I took my econ exam, and I think it went well, but of course it isnt curved, so Im still scared.  also, I picked up my 260 final.  I did pretty well on it.  and it was enough to make up for my dismal performance on the second exam.  I never thought Id be so happy to get a C.

I am going to go collapse and die now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 8 May 2001 at 1:31 PM

My econ final tomorrow will have 5 questions, each worth 20 points.  The professor emailed one of the questions to us, and he basically promised one of the other questions would be on the time value of money.  I need a 60% or better on the exam.  This means that over the next 22 hours, I need to memorize enough information to let me successfully answer one of the three remaining questions.  I don't think that will be too hard.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 May 2001 at 12:45 PM

I realized that I just posted, but I found a newspaper article that is too funny not to post about.  The article is headlined "Alcohol and buggies form 'wild years' for Amish teens."

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts:

On this night, deputies report "Buggy all over the road ... headed toward [State Rt.] 168 1 mph."

---

And young men deck out their buggies with elaborate stereo systems, cranking up the volume as they "cruise" the countryside on Sunday afternoons.

---

The buggy’s interior is upholstered in royal blue velour. A triangular swatch of the same material is attached to the dash. Silver key chains with colorful emblems - Guns and Roses, Cleveland Browns, and a miniature baseball bat - hang from battery-operated light switches.

Five stereo speakers - including a 12-inch sub-woofer - line the inside of the covered buggy.

On the seat is a selection of old cassette tapes: "The Outfield," "Vixen," and "Hooters."

---

"Do I have to put you in jail too?" Judge Albert asks the 18-year-old woman wearing a shin-length dress, black coat, dark stockings and shoes, and a white bonnet.

COMING TOMORROW: Traffic is hazardous for buggies.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 May 2001 at 5:20 AM

Minnesota has begun to repeal unenforced laws, such as the law that required town board chairmen to capture and castrate bulls and rams that broke out of their pens.  I think this is a great idea, and other states, perhaps even the federal government, should adopt this practice.  Legislators are so concerned with passing new laws that they never think about repealing the old ones.  Perhaps they should set aside a part of their legislative calendar every year to devote to repealing outdated and unenforced laws.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 May 2001 at 5:19 AM

so I figured out the name of the song whos melody had been stuck in my head yesterday.  it was "amateur," by nada surf.  you know that band who did that song "popular" back in the mid nineties.  yeah, anyway, this girl I used to know sent me some of their songs last year, and out of nowhere one of them popped back into my head.  I havent been able to stop listening to it.  kind of strange.

okay, I have to get back to work.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 7 May 2001 at 12:31 AM

I discovered while taking my Cog. Sci. final (which went very well, thank you) that whenever I try to write the phrase "with the" my hand will write "withe."  It must have something to do with the (no pun intended) fact that the last two letters of with are the first two letters of the.  Nonetheless, I had to erase withe about 10 times during the hour I was in Busch 100 taking my exam.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 May 2001 at 11:48 PM

Im trying to remember the name of a song I heard once.  I dont remember the band, or any of the words, but I cant get it out of my head.  it goes something like:

"da da da da da da da da da, da da da da"

if youve got any ideas, let me know.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 6 May 2001 at 8:04 PM

Well, I haven't gotten my 431 project done.  I have a pretty good idea how to do most of it, and it's not due until 10pm tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to get it done.  If you happen to know anything about writing Java compilers in Java, and will be free tomorrow afternoon/evening to answer a few questions, send me an email.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 May 2001 at 8:01 PM

so its almost over.  the 260 test went all right, I think.  I answered every question, and I think I might have even answered most of them correctly, but only time will tell on that sort of thing.  theres so many little details that I could have missed, and I just dont do so well with those sorts of things.

tonight is fiction-writing night.  tomorrow, I study econ till 4, then take the second part of my 468 final, then study more econ.  tuesday at 10:30 I ace my econ final, and then I collapse and die.

also, dave points out to me that I am dressed like a normal person today.  Im wearing a dark grey tshirt and some somewhat faded blue jeans, and he suggested that he in fact has dressed like this before.  I need to do laundry.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 6 May 2001 at 4:54 PM

Have you ever had one of those days where just about everything was fine, but one little thing upset you, probably something that shouldn't even bother you, and your whole day is blown?  Well, that's the kind of day I've been having.  I had these plans to finish my 431 project and perhaps study for my cog. sci. final, but instead I ended up sleeping for a good part of the evening and got nothing done.  So my workload for tomorrow has doubled, and I'm feeling . . . I don't really know how to describe how I'm feeling, but I'm definitely not feeling like myself.  Maybe after I sleep for awhile I'll be feeling better.  I have to hope so.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 May 2001 at 1:48 AM

Tonight I had the great pleasure to attend the St. Louis "Monsters of Rock" festival, and by festival I mean sparsely-attended cavalcade of crappy bands accompanied by Just Add Water, my favorite local St. Louis band. Rather than review the individual bands, most of which are not deserving of more than a few words, I will devote this, my second guest concert review on -273, to the "emcee" (and by emcee I mean "drunk woman from the crowd who is sleeping with one of the band members"). In between sets while the bands were setting up their gear, a very loud woman with an acoustic guitar named "Celia" came out to entertain the crowd. Normally this would have been a welcome addition to the show, as it gets quite boring between sets, but she grew tiring after just a few seconds of her trademark screaming. Her main function seemed to be to repeatedly scream out the name of the band that just played about 15 times, play a few "songs" on the acoustic guitar, and then scream out the name of the band that was about to come out on stage about 15 times. "INSTARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!" she would scream, most likely because she is currently sleeping with one or all of the band members of Instar, not to be confused with NSync. Her songs were possibly some of the worst wannabe-Lilith-Fair excuses for music I have ever heard. It often seemed as if she found words that rhymed, then picked random words to go around them. This made most of her choruses. "I came for your birthday, but you told me the wrong day" for example. She also had obscure metaphors that made even me, a fan of Billy Corgan, cringe: "My right hand's a fork, my left hand a spoon. I am the sun and my love is the moon". Huh? But her crowning achievement, one which I will not soon forget, was when she came out right before Just Add Water carrying a stuffed Armadillo. This was her "monster of rock" she explained, then proceeded to sing a 10 minute song about armadillos, their habitat, their feeding habits, and their scientific classification, a la National Geographic Explorer. Then, as if this wasn't enough to make me fall on the floor laughing, she invited the bartender up on stage to play a song. Let me tell you, I have been to many concerts in my life, but never have I ever seen a member of the venue staff perform a song. Sadly, he was much better than her, and better perhaps than some of the bands. All in all it was an entertaining evening, and as I walked out the door she was wailing away on a harmonica a la John Popper minus 300 pounds. I once again award her zero stars.