Can someone explain to me who this guy hawking Buicks, Harley Earl, is? Am I supposed to know him? And does Buick really want me thinking that they had to bring some guy from the 50s back to life in order to design a car? It just seems like a lot of extra work to make a rather run-of-the-mill car or suv.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 December 2002 at 10:53 PM

My family and I celebrated Christmas at my grandmother's yesterday. The highlight of this celebration is always the wacky gifts that my grandmother provides. In years past she has always created piles of presents for each of us. More recently, she began putting post-it notes on the piles to indicate who the pile belonged to. But even with the post-its, there were always presents she would snatch away from you after you opened it, and give it to someone else. This year, breaking with tradition, instead of post-it notes with the name of the person who was to receive the gifts, she labeled the piles with post-it notes describing the contents of the gifts. For example, "extra-large shirt green" was a label on one of my cousin's gifts. Anyway, at the end of the day I came home with a cordless iron, a set of brass bookends, a wallet, a bag full of change, a shirt, some boxers, and an oven mitt. Notably absent was the usual soap-on-a-rope, but I consider that a good thing.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 December 2002 at 11:29 AM

With two exams done, I now only have "the exam that I don't really care about" to take on Thursday. As you may have guessed, I don't really care about it, so I'm essentially done for the semester. I'm here through the weekend though, since my family is doing the big Christmas thing at my grandmother's on Sunday. It just wouldn't make any sense to drive home just to come back this weekend.

After a week of telling my self that I must be immune to whatever michael and Chris had last week, I became very congested and started coughing last night. I took a Sudafed 24, and am feeling much better, though. michael tells me that Sudafed is somehow related to Ecstasy and that you can become addicted to it. Which puts my strong desire for another pill and the loopy feelings I was having last night into perspective, I guess. (I also suspect Sudafed effects my ability to type.)

Anyway, I'm going to take a quick nap before the CS holiday party tonight. Speaking of that, go read Ron's post about the CS faculty/staff party over the weekend. It's a riot.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 17 December 2002 at 2:47 PM

I saw Star Trek Nemesis tonight. My only real complaint is that they didn't call it "The Wrath of Shinzon." That would make it a bit more obvious that all they did was remake Star Trek II. Of course, The Wrath of Khan was one of my favorite Trek movies, so this wasn't totally disappointing. And there were differences between the two movies. But the differences were more in the details and motivations. The broad strokes were the same between the two films.

Oh, and Wesley Crusher was in the movie, but he didn't actually have any lines.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 December 2002 at 1:35 AM

For most of the semester, I handled the fifteen hours of CS classes that I'm taking fairly well, but in the last few weeks large projects in almost all my classes (two large projects in one) have been stretching me to the limit. Fortunately, I got an extension on one of them, and after today it'll be the only one that I still need to work on. I think that if I get a lot done on it tomorrow, and it'll be the only thing I do all day tomorrow, then I'll be in fairly good shape.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 December 2002 at 11:11 AM

michael and I, in preparation for the impending weblog party, were carrying some large pieces of consumer electronics* that no longer worked out to the dumpster a few minutes ago. Once we'd dropped everything in the dumpster, we discovered that neither of us had our keys on us. So we were stuck in the gated parking lot behind our apartment. We tried all the doors into the building, because they have a tendency to get caught and not fully close, but no such luck. So michael had to climb over the fence to get out of the lot and go around to the front and buzz apartments until someone let him in.

* a 15 year old 27" television and a 20" sun monitor

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 December 2002 at 2:54 PM

We've been telling people about this in person, but I guess we should announce it here as well. We're hosting a party this Saturday, December 7, to celebrate the two year anniversary of this website. The party will be at the lovely apartment 12, located at 323 Clara. (Directions will appear here later tonight.) The fashionable among you will arrive around 8 in the evening. Food and drink of some form will be provided, and fun will be had by all. Keep checking this site for more details. If you have questions, need a ride, or anything else, fire off an email to either michael or me.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 4 December 2002 at 6:13 PM

To raise money, the University of Missouri-Columbia is now offering its alumni a chance to be buried in an official school coffin. The burial boxes, which feature the Missouri insignia sewed into the velvet interior, are available in wood or long-lasting metal, and cost from $1,590 to $2,390. The university gets about $180 per coffin. "It's one more way to support your school," says the coffin manufacturer.

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Students at Lindenwood University in Missouri can pay their tuition in pork chops. In an effort to help rural students afford college, the school is offering to trade a liberal arts education - retail value $11,200 per year - for any commodity the dining hall can use. Six families so far have taken advantage of the offer, trading their pigs for scholarships.

Two more reasons why I love The Week and hate going to school in Missouri.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 3 December 2002 at 1:00 AM

My stomach is audibly growling. This isn't too surprising, since I haven't had anything that remotely constitutes food or drink today except two cans of Diet Coke. But I have finished the Banana Book (my 530 group project), and have made some good progress on the 511 assignment due on Thursday. So of the seven assignments due over the next week, I'm down to four. Plus a final. But it all seems much more manageable now.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 2 December 2002 at 6:21 PM

I wore my Kurt Warner jersey today, but it didn't seem to help the Rams out. The Rams defense played well enough, but the offense could use a bit of help. The offensive line especially. Why is John St. Clair a starter? They had a third-string guy go in after Orlando Pace hurt his hamstring, and he was doing a lot better then St. Clair. It seemed like the only times when St. Clair's man wasn't getting to Warner was when Marshall Faulk was double-teaming him. They ought to just play me on the offensive line. I'd be just as effective as St. Clair and a lot cheaper.

Warner is obviously still favoring his hand, and he often underthrew the ball. But I think a good amount of his trouble came from the weak line. He was sacked at least nine times today. Until the Rams upgrade their line their going to continue losing games and having QBs get injured. Remember, Marc Bulger was the third quarterback today because his hand is injured. And Jamie Martin was injured earlier this season. QBs seem to be getting injured a lot this year, but this seems a bit ridiculous.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 1 December 2002 at 11:08 PM