March 20, 2008

Interesting People

This morning, driving to work, I found myself behind somebody that I would call "interesting." This person had a Breast Cancer Awareness license plate on her car, but when I looked up from the license plate to the driver, I couldn't help but notice that she was smoking a cigarette.

Does this throw up a red flag to anybody else?

Posted by Michael at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2008

Movies I want to see

Here's a short list of movies I'm looking forward to in 2008.

There's probably more, but that's just off the top of my head.


[0] Of what I know about the character and his history.

Posted by Michael at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Big news

Last Thursday night, on a snowy Indianapolis night, Bridget and I got engaged.

Here's the story for those of you interested. Bridget and I went out to dinner that night, I had suggested that we go downtown to eat. Bridget was acting under the impression that we were going to see a movie. However, we had some time until the movie started, so I suggested that we take a walk around downtown. After walking for a short while, we stopped here and I started to talk to Bridget. I got down on one knee[0] and asked her to marry me, and she said "yes."

She was very much surprised and didn't even know that I had been ring shopping at all. We're both very excited about this and the start of this new phase of our lives together.

More details forthcoming when they become known.

Here are some pictures from that night and couple close-ups of the ring.

[0] I got big points for getting down on one knee in the snow. Not really sure why, but I'm not going to argue. =)

Posted by Michael at 12:53 PM | Comments (3)

January 23, 2008

Best action movie of all time

This question was posed to me at work today. It's a really good question.

This is the answer that I've given:

Aliens

What's yours?

Posted by Michael at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2007

Dun da da da da dah dah dah dah da dah

So I got home last week after a work day that was longer than it needed to be, and plopped down on the couch to see what was on. As I was scrolling through the channels, my eyes and ears behold a great sight. American Gladiators was being shown on ESPN Classic. I got to relive some old memories watching Turbo, Nitro, Laser, Blaze, Blazer (j/k) and the other gladitors whoop up the challengers. It was awesome. I now have my Tivo recording it every day. ::glee::

This show needs to come back. Of all my shows that I would love to see again on TV, this one probably has the greatest chance of actually happening.

Posted by Michael at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2007

My dog

A short while ago, I got the sad news that my family's dog had died. Her name was Samantha and she was a purebred Golden Retriever. She lived for over 12 years. She died of thyroid cancer. It's the first real pet that I've ever had in my life. I had Sam when I was back in high school, which seems like forever ago.

I remember her when she was a puppy. She was small and adorable. She had these huge paws. We had put a bow on her for Christmas one year, and I remember a picture of her attempting to chew on the bow and ribbon, despite the bow being about the size of her head. I used to take her on runs. I would strap on my rollerblades and just let her run wild. She would drag me when I couldn't keep up. While thankfully, we never needed her to protect us, I know that she would have done so without a moment's pause. Sam didn't like any serious horseplay going on in her house, and I remember she'd nip my ankles when my brothers and I would wrestle. She didn't like it, and she let us know. Samantha was a great dog and a great pet.

I take comfort in the fact that she did not suffer. She hardly had any medical problems throughout her life. Even a week before she died, she was outside playing in the snow. I am glad that she enjoyed a full and healthy life and that I got to have her for a pet.

It hasn't really hit me completely that Sam isn't around anymore. I am not sure if it will until I go home and she isn't there to greet and welcome me back to my house. It's just going to feel weird walking into the house and she won't be there.

Posted by Michael at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!!!

Here's wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas. Travel safe, have a wonderful time with friends and family and have a Happy New Year as well.

Take some time to reflect on the past year, things you've learned, things you wish you've learned and things you plan on learning next year.

My best wishes for all of you.

-Michael

Posted by Michael at 01:34 AM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2006

Seems like a bad idea

Saw an interesting article yesterday, and I couldn't help but share it with all you people.

Go ahead, read it.

Done yet?

Holy crap, what the hell is this guy thinking. Yes, let's let blind people go hunting. People who honestly can't see what they're shooting at...let's give them guns. Brilliant.

Posted by Michael at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2006

Movies that I want to see

After the pleasant surprise that Casino Royale was, I wanted to make a list of the movies that I really want to see that are coming out in the next year.

Posted by Michael at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

Some people are jerks

Somebody stole the doormat in front of my apartment.

I mean...really? Who steals a door mat?

Posted by Michael at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)

November 15, 2006

Age 25 - A Year in Review - Part the Second

Lots of things have happened in the past year. I'm gonna hit the high points.

One of the things that was reinforced over the past year was how important my friends are to me.

Now I would like to think that I am the type of person that attracts friends of this caliber and that the kinds of people that are my friends are a reflection on the person that I am. In truth, I could only hope to be the kind of friends that the Nelsons and the Heigls were to me. These friends were kind and generous enough to offer me a place to stay in their homes during a very difficult and trying time in my life. And they did it without expecting anything in return from me. I am truly grateful and appreciative to my friends who are incredibly selfless people. I actually had even more people offer rooms in their homes to me as well. I have amazing friends.

I left California for more unknowns and less mountains in Indiana. I have found a place at my new job and I am doing well in this regards. I am learning to do some pretty cool stuff, moving beyond my previous experience in the world of C++. I am re-learning Java and picking up newer technologies[0] like JSP and SOAP, and it's keeping me engrossed. I think I'm discovering the direction that I want to take with my career, and I am getting these opportunities at my current job.

Life is give and take. I've grown up a lot in the past year, I've learned my fair share of life lessons and I'm proud of who I am. Overall, it's been a good year. But it's definitely had its ups and downs.

[0] New to me at least.

Posted by Michael at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2006

iTunes 7: The Good, the Bad and the Not-So-Pretty

Apple had a big announcement on Tuesday which included a new version of iTunes which included their movie store and a couple of other things. Mostly I am going to concentrate on iTunes, since it has a more significant effect on my daily life than the rest of the announcements.

The movie thing is cool, but it won't affect me in any way, shape or form. I'm not going to buy DVD's online.

The Good

Neat little features here and there. They finally allow you to add CDText to burned audio CD's. Very nice. It's been lacking for a while. They incorporated the iPod software update into iTunes itself, rather than having a separate application, which is nice. One less application to separately install. Automatically downloading album art is _awesome_. Lots of props on that.

The Bad

I fell for it again. I fell for Apple's marketing voodoo. They laid claim that my iPod would sync back up with "multiple computers", basically anything that I have my iTunes account authorized on. I was exstatic. This way my iPod would auto-sync all my music from my computer at home to my computer at work.

Yeah, well it only auto-syncs things I've purchased from the iTunes Music Store. They provide a tutorial on how to accomplish this task, so why not just automagically include this in the iPod -> computer sync process??

Bad form.

The Not-So-Pretty

The UI redesign. It's alright, I like what they've done with the iPod page, but I'm not horribly keen on the folder/treeview thingie on the left.

Summary

Overall, definite improvments in functionality and use. Just wish it would be able to sync my entire iPod and I wouldn't have to go through a completely separate process.

Posted by Michael at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2006

You know that one thing

A couple of things have happened in the past week or so and I thought to myself "I should blog this". Not because it was especially important, just kinda funny in an odd way. Unfortunately at this time, all such events of mild humor are evading my brain. Maybe I'm getting old. =/

Then again, they weren't movie quotes or inane trivia answers, so it's really not surprising that I don't remember. Several people have pointed out that my brain seems to remember these things and tag them with an "important" label. The reason my brain does such things are unknown to me. Question for the ages I tell you.

On a completely unrelated topic, the Adult hockey league in Indianapolis starts this month. I am looking forward to actually playing on a team again, as opposed to just pick-up hockey. It's not quite the same thing as playing with the same group for weeks on end. Hopefully there won't be too much rust on my skates[0].

I picked up a new CD by Matt Nathanson. It's a recording of a couple of his live shows. It doesn't _completely_ capture the experience of going to one of his concerts, but it comes pretty damn close. A personal favorite is what he wrote on the inside of the CD:

"So I considered, for a second or two, spending months on end and tons of cash to make the studio album of my career. An album that would have the complexity to keep the listener coming back for more and simultaneously capture the spark and spontaneity of the live shows. Plus maybe a really cool cover painting of me in, like, a loincloth, on a mountaintop, holding a sword...

But that just seemed like a lot of work, so I ended up taping a couple of solo shows and putting out a live record."

I laughed pretty hard when I read this. Especially the "holding a sword" thing. He's touring starting this month and I'd really like to catch one of his shows when he's on his way through.

[0] For those of you unfamiliar with this metaphor, it means "hopefully I won't suck since I haven't played in a while".

Posted by Michael at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Big congratulations go out to my older brother Matt. He defended his doctoral thesis today and is officially a PhD.

Dr. Matthew J. Hawryluk, PhD. Got a nice ring to it, eh?

I'm proud of my big brother.

Posted by Michael at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Can't sleep, might as well post

I know that I've been failing all 3 of you that read my blog, and for this I do apologize. I really don't have a good reason for not having posted. I've seen movies and purchased CDs since my last post, and I know I've still promised a review of Dashboard Confessional's new CD which I still haven't done.

Then it occured to me that I may have in previous reviews made ratings out of a possible 4 and/or 5. I fear I was inconsistent with the maximum rating that I could possibly give something that I watched/listended to/experienced. So, I thought that I should just decide to always make is something that's easy to remember so I keep things consistent. I have to admit, the first thing that came to my head was to do my rating in radians. With 2*pi[0] being the maximum rating. I could have a little picture of the unit circle to say how much the rating was. And then something happened...

Then I thought to myself that I am a huge huge geek. Let's not do that.

So, from now on all reviews will be out of a total possible 10 points (with 10 being the highest).

[0] The π symbol doesn't want to display right on my blog, even though in the preview it looks fine. Hrm.

Posted by Michael at 02:21 AM | Comments (2)

June 28, 2006

Movie Trailer

I'm excited about this.

Posted by Michael at 09:27 PM | Comments (4)

June 26, 2006

Back to normal

The insanity at work has died down, we released version 2.0 of Nabit and we released it on time. Go us!

So, it's time to start planning for the next version and all that assorted fun. It was a good experience, despite all the stress and long hours. Now hopefully I can start spending my nights doing things for me (hockey, climbing, etc.) instead of being at work until 8pm or so. =)

Posted by Michael at 09:41 AM | Comments (1)

May 30, 2006

PSA for the day

Here is a public service announcment brought to you by the Moviegoer's Association of America[0].

"If you have a young child and you want to go see a movie which is clearly made for adults, please leave your crying baby at home. Hire a babysitter, ask a relative or simply do not go. You are ruining the experience of overpaying theater-goers everywhere. Thank you."

[0] Not really.

Posted by Michael at 12:19 PM | Comments (4)

May 17, 2006

I always wanted one of these

I figure I could recoup the costs in a couple days....tops.

Anyone want to front me the money for this?

Posted by Michael at 05:08 PM | Comments (2)

May 15, 2006

Things that annoy me

I read about this happening at the game the other night and I have to say that I am a little disappointed. I would hope that while the fans may not especially care for the other team, that they would at least show a level of respect for the players on that team to not boo their national anthem. Especially since there are (more than likely) Canadian players on the Sharks.

I just think it's kinda shady. I'm embarassed for those "fans".

Posted by Michael at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2006

You've GOT to be F-ing kidding me

I went to Jerry's house yesterday to clean up the aftermath of my broken window. He was gracious enough to let me use his shop-vac to clean up the broken glass in my car. I really didn't have much of a choice though of where to park my car yesterday. I figured that I would prevent anyone from breaking into my car by parking it very close (< 2 inches) away from the wall on the passenger side. Not the optimal solution, but since I wouldn't be able to get my glass repaired until Monday, I really didn't have much of a choice.

I checked my car at 1pm today when I went out to get lunch and some money from the ATM. I was heading out to Jerry and Elizabeth's house around 6pm to meet up for dinner. When I got to my car this time, I found that someone was nice enough to break the front driver side window too. They didn't look through my belongings this time, so I have to assume that it was the same person/people.

I am so pissed off right now. Some jackass decided it would be a [expletive] good idea to break both of my [diety] [expletive] windows the same [expletive] week. What the [expletive]???? No no, don't bother to actually steal anything and look competant, just look like some punk that decides it'll be fun to break other people's [expletive]. I just wish I could punch something, but I'd probably break my hand if I did so.

This week better improve really quick.

Posted by Michael at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2006

ARRGGGHHHH

I was walking towards my car this afternoon, looking forward to getting some errands done that I had been putting off for way too long. When I arrived at my car, I found to my surprise that someone had broken in to my car. The front passenger window was broken and it looks like someone had rummaged through my car. Oddly enough though, nothing was taken. So, I have to deal with getting my window fixed on Monday. Grrr.

Posted by Michael at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Why Indianapolis Is Not a Major City

Over 2 weeks ago, a tornado hit downtown Indianapolis causing some damage to a single building. Basically some of the glass windows and a minimal part of the structure were blown off and fell to the ground. As of yesterday, some of the roads surrounding that building were _still_ closed off to street traffic.

Come on now...there is no reason or excuse that you should have to block off several streets for that length of time for the minimal damage that was caused. And it's right downtown too. I am sure that I'm a bit of a Chicago snob, thinking that it's the best city ever. Well, in my opinion, if you closed off major streets downtown for several weeks for nothing less than nuclear war, Chicago would riot.

In closing, Indianapolis, figure this out. Open the streets back up. It can't be that hard.

Posted by Michael at 01:16 PM | Comments (5)

April 13, 2006

Big news

Gonna keep it short and sweet.

My older brother Matthew is engaged!

There are no words for how happy I am for him and Elena. Congratulations to the both of them! I love you both.

Posted by Michael at 12:08 AM | Comments (2)

April 06, 2006

Lack of Posting Mojo

My faithful reader, I apologize for my lack of recent posting. I know I had a good run back in early March where I would post every other day, or sometimes with even more frequency. It's not because I don't care, but simply because I really didn't have much meaningful things to post. I knew you would be tired of hearing of how my unpacking was going.

My good friend Jerry managed to fix my broken coffee table. Apparantly, it isn't designed for standing on. Who knew? I picked up my dining room table yesterday that I purchased this weekend. It's a very simple 4 chair set. But nice if people come over and don't want to eat in front of the TV. The only thing left that I need to buy is a desk. I got a fair amount of storage containers so that I could at least have organized clutter, which is much better than unorganized clutter.

I will most likely take some pictures this weekend and post them so that you will be able to see my place.

We had a really nice day last week (Thursday) and I actually got a chance to go out and enjoy the nice weather after work.

I went and saw V for Vendetta with friends a couple weekends ago. I really enjoyed the movie. The fight scenes were cool, but it didn't center on them like certain other un-named movies. There was some action in the beginning and some action in the end, with a whole lot of plot in the middle to tie things up. I'd recommend going to see it if you haven't already.

Posted by Michael at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2006

The internets is mine!

Cable company came this morning to set up my internet and TV. I'm connected to the world again. =)

Happy St. Patty's day!

Posted by Michael at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2006

It's nearing completion...

...but it's not fully operational.

My apartment is starting to look a lot more clean. All the moving supplies that were used are no longer taking up valuable space. All the boxes and packing paper have been broken down and thrown out. Really makes a lot more space.

I am just figuring out where I want to put everything. I have a closet/pantry near the kitchen that is probably going to be used for everything that I can't fit anyplace else.

Internet/cable comes on Friday, which will allow me to waste significantly more time in front of the TV or computer. =) Which is why I hope to have my apartment clean by Friday, because if it doesn't happen by then, it's going to be a lot harder to get it done when there are distractions.

I finished reading High Fidelity last night. It was pretty good. Actually made me laugh out loud several times. The movie was very faithful to the book, with some differences, but nothing terrible. It was a pretty fast read. Now I'm just trying to decide what I should read for the next 6 months[0].

[0] Since that's apparantly how long it takes me to read a book. =/

Posted by Michael at 09:24 AM | Comments (1)

March 14, 2006

Settlers and Movies

I was at Joel and Amy's house last night, hanging out with friends and playing some Settlers of Catan in honor of Nate's last night visiting in Indiana when the subject of movies came up (surprise, eh?).

At one point during the evening, I had claimed that Serenity had made its way into my personal top 5 favorite movies. I had even claimed that it pushed Memento[0] out of the top 5. And I loved Memento. At this point, I was asked for my list, but was unable to remember all of the movies oddly enough.

Well, here's the list, and it's not in order.

So, yes Memento was pushed off the list, which is not to mean that it isn't a superb movie (it is).

[0] I loved how the movie was done. Excellent storytelling.
[1] I consider it all 1 big movie, but if I had to pick one of the parts, it would be Fellowship of the Ring.

Posted by Michael at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2006

Umm, yeah...

And of course now it's 66 degrees and sunny outside.

So much for thinking I was clever. =)

Posted by Michael at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

Yay for foresight

It has been raining for most of last week, which was the start of my walking to work every day. Unfortunately for me, I had no umbrella. So I got a little damp on the way to work each day when it was raining. I stopped at Meijer last night to pick up an umbrella just in case so that this week I would not get wet on the walk.

Looking out my window this morning before I left, I saw no rain. I decided that I was going to bring my umbrella to work "just in case".

No more than 25 minutes later, it was raining outside. Who knows if it'll be raining at 5pm today, but I'll be prepared. Yay for foresight. =)

Posted by Michael at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

First night in the new place

After staying a little over 3 months at Dave and Melissa's home, last night I spent my first night at my new apartment.

It was an eventful one for the following reasons:

So I'm not off to the best start, but things should get better shortly. I plan on spending most of tonight doing dishes, hanging up clothes, organizing the place. I want to have it done by this weekend because Nate is coming to visit and he may stay at my place one night.

Back to work. More to come later. I'll post some pictures when I get things straightened up.

Posted by Michael at 08:56 AM | Comments (2)

March 06, 2006

Got my apartment

I signed the paperwork at lunch today. I now have my apartment. =)

Posted by Michael at 11:05 AM | Comments (3)

February 24, 2006

Prayer

From a Church bulletin:

"I want to thank you, Lord, for being close to me so far this day. With your help, I haven’t been impatient, lost my temper, been grumpy, judgmental, or envious of anyone. But I will be getting out of bed in a minute and I think I will really need your help then. Amen."

Posted by Michael at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2006

New Cell Phone number

I think I got just about everyone in a mass-email today about my new phone number, but if I missed you, I apologize.

Email me at firstname.lastname@gmail.com[0] and I will send the number to you.

[0] I trust you can figure this out. =p

Posted by Michael at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2006

Parking for Work

Through work, I have a monthly parking pass at a nearby multi-level parking structure. I normally arrive at work between 9:00-9:15am which will net me a spot on either floor n or floor n-1. However, today I acquired a spot on floor n-3, an unpresedented[0] event in my Indianapolis job experience.

My first thought was that my clock was wrong and that I had arrived at work early. Then I remembered what day it was and the fact that some/most businesses are closed today.

[0] It actually happened in January, but I never blogged about it. =/

Posted by Michael at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2006

Not the best weekend for travel

I finally arrived at the airport in Denver at approximately 2am Friday morning. My flight from Indianapolis to Chicago finally took off at approximately 11:30pm and I arrived in Chicago at 11:30am[0]. The flight from Chicago to Denver left at about 1am. We left the airport in Denver to drive up to Vail and arrived there at about 6am. Ugg, that was a _long_ day of travel.

And now I sit at the Denver airport, waiting for my flight to learn that there is some sort of mechanical problem with the plane. Not sure if I'll be able to get out tonight. They are trying to fix it, and if they can't fix it, hopefully they can find another plane.

This is totally by bad luck travel weekend. =/

[0] Thanks to my powers of controlling the space-time continum (sp).

Posted by Michael at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2006

Stupid snow

Well, I am _supposed_ to be on my way to Denver right now, eagerly awaiting the slopes tomorrow, but unfortunately there's been a bit of a snowstorm in Chicago. So right now I'm in the Indianapolis airport waiting to see if my flight is going to leave. And I have a connection in Chicago, so who knows what the status is. Ugg.

Stupid snow...kinda ironic. =/

Posted by Michael at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2006

The post that just won't write itself

I've been wanting to write something all day, since I haven't posted in nearly a week, but I can't say that anything overly interesting has happened to me in the past 6 days.

Work continues to progress well. Social life...well...let's just not go into that here, shall we?

My bad knee has been acting up this past week, most likely because of an incident last week at frisbee. I had a diving catch in the endzone[0], but landed directly on the side of my knee. Ouch. Walking can be a little painful sometimes, but I've tried not to annoy it too much. I suspect that it will hurt tomorrow night after disc, but when did I ever let something like pain ever stop me?

I'm supposed to go work out tonight, which I suspect will be mostly cardio.

At least it's Wednesday.

[0] A catch which I made and scored, thankyouverymuch.

Posted by Michael at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2006

Apartment hunt

Well, I decided on an apartment. It's very cool. It's a loft in downtown Indy. I totally dig the high (14 feet) ceilings as it makes it seem a lot bigger than it probably is.

On the downside (kinda), it won't be ready until March 6, as the current occupant is still living there. Dave and Mel have been gracious enough to let me stay with them since I've been in Indianapolis and they have no problem[0] letting me stay a little longer.

At least I have all that sorted out though.

The best part...my apartment will be 3 blocks from work. =)

[0] So they say. =)

Posted by Michael at 01:46 PM | Comments (1)

February 01, 2006

Random Guy Singing in a Jeep

So some guy was just driving down the street where I worked blasting Brand New - Seventy Times Seven and _singing_ very very loudly. I can only imagine why, but I still feel a little dirty that I knew what he was singing. =/

Posted by Michael at 12:16 PM | Comments (3)

January 27, 2006

Another has joined the fold...

welcome

Posted by Michael at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2006

Apparantly it's still winter

I don't think I would be the only one to come to the conclusion that this winter has been very mild for us in the Midwest. It was 40 degrees on Christmas and has been constantly wavering between 50 and 35 degrees pretty much ever since. Really, other than that one time back in December, you would harly know it was January. You'd think it was still October.

Temperature when I got into work yesterday: 50 degrees
Temperature at lunchtime: Approximately 40 degrees
Temperature when I left work: At most 30 degrees...and snowing

So apparantly, it's still winter. It's still a very mild winter in comparison to those in the past, but it is nice to see snow on the ground. =)

Just too bad it's not enough to go snowboarding. =/

Posted by Michael at 08:59 AM | Comments (3)

January 16, 2006

Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting apawtments

I started my apartment hunt this past weekend. Most of my searching so far has been on ApartmentGuide and then calling the apartment complexes to find out some basic answers to my most important questions.

and most importantly...

The plan this week is to set up appointments to see apartments. I am going to try to get some done after work, and then hit up the ones that close at 5pm on Saturday.

I am thinking that I want to live downtown though. It'll be close to work and I like being in a city.

I did get a chance to go see an apartment yesterday though, and wasn't really impressed by it. It was nice, but I couldn't help feel like I was being "nickeled and dimed" by little costs here and there when I would just have it included (or be a lot cheaper) other places. It was a larger total considering how much the apartment was each month for rent. Oh well. That's why I shop around. =)

Posted by Michael at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2006

Listy goodness

This list brought to you by the inept people I watch trying to parallel park outside of my office window.

Posted by Michael at 02:35 PM | Comments (5)

December 20, 2005

Your Homework Assignment

If you haven't already purchased Serenity, go buy it.

That is all.

Posted by Michael at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)

Oh Glorious Day!

I have just learned that the restaurant next to my office carries Vanilla Coke on tap. And if that wasn't enough, they also let you do free refills all day.

It's too bad though...I was getting used to not drinking much caffeine anymore. Oh well. =)

Posted by Michael at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2005

Week 3

Today is the start of the third week at my new job and so far it's been pretty good. It's good to be working again and having positive income is definitely a good thing. I've been living with a couple of good friends that have been kind enough to let me stay with them for a little bit until I find an apartment for myself, which I don't think I'm going to have time to do until January.

The hardest thing to get used to at my new job is the hours. At my last job, I was pretty much left to come in and leave whenever I wanted[0], so I was using to staying up a little late and going in to work a little late. My new job wants me in at 9am every morning, which has been a little problematic, but I think that I've gotten myself on a pretty good schedule. There have been a couple hiccups with the whole "waking up early" thing, but I've found that I really don't have trouble getting up when I know that I have to be at work at a specific time.

[0] For the most part, my manager liked us to be there between 10-4 so that people could find us.

Posted by Michael at 09:27 AM | Comments (3)

December 14, 2005

Quote of the Day

Brought to you by Douglas Adams:

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Posted by Michael at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Morning commute

I was watching the news last night and the reporter was saying that we were due for some snow and that it may affect morning commutes. They showed pictures of snow dumping somewhere in Indiana, so I tucked that away in my brain so I would get up a little earlier than normal and be able to get to work on time.

Let me tell you, it barely snowed at all. There was no accumulation of snow while driving this morning. Feh.

On the bright side, my neck doesn't hurt today. Good thing I have a mutant healing factor.

Posted by Michael at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2005

Shoulder/neck pain

I think that I tweaked my shoulder/neck last night or while I was sleeping last night. If I lean my head back, it starts hurting on the lower left side of my neck. I dunno what I did, but it's not comfortable. =/

Posted by Michael at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2005

Really snowing

It's really snowing outside today. It took me over an hour and a half to get home from work when it normally takes me about 30 minutes. It dumped quite a bit, starting at about 2:30-3pm and pretty much going until at least 6pm. Parts of it were worse than other times, but it didn't let up until after I got home tonight, and actually it's probably still snowing outside.

Tomorrow morning will be interesting. Wonder if I'll be able to get to work...cuz you know, that would be _terrible_ if I couldn't. =)

Posted by Michael at 08:42 PM | Comments (2)

December 05, 2005

Odd

According to Amazon and eBay, the book Snow Crash has a category of 'Humor'.

I don't get it. Seems like such an obvious sci-fi book, and if not sc-fi...at least _not_ humor...

Posted by Michael at 07:19 AM | Comments (2)

December 01, 2005

Let it snow

Woke up this morning to find about an inch or so (probably a little less) snow on the ground and my car. Unforuntately, that means extra time on my communte since people are scared of snow and drive (at least) 15-20 mph slower than they would if there was no snow.

I do like the snow though. It's definately December.

Posted by Michael at 07:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2005

One of those decisions

It seems that every so often in life, one is faced with a very important decision. These decisions have far reaching effects that will be felt for a long time, if not the rest of one's life. Over the past week, I have had to make one of those decisions. It has easily been the most difficult and heart-wrenching choices that I have made in my lifetime.

I am taking a job in Indianapolis. I am leaving the Bay Area as of the 21st.

I came out to California alone. All my close friends from school were living elsewhere and I only knew a handful of people, and at that time I didn't even know them that well. For the 3 years that I've been out here, I have grown a lot. I met a lot of wonderful people, and have created strong friendships with them. I played hockey, snowboarded down mountains and even went to the beach (once or twice). Now, I have to pack up all my things and take myself and my memories back to the Midwest.

Read below for the more personal stuff.

The hardest part of moving is going to be leaving one particular person behind. I only knew her for a fraction of the time that I was out in California, but over that small time she became a very important person in my life. I feel so fortunate that I had her in my life, and I can't help but feel like a heartless bastard for leaving. She understands though, which means a lot to me.

Denise, I am sorry that my job got in the way of the two of us.

Posted by Michael at 07:21 PM

November 14, 2005

Ambrosia

I have found what I believe to be the perfect snack. Other than Cheese-its of course. =)

Rold Gold Honey Wheat Braided Twists.

I can't quite explain the taste or why it's so damn addicting, but damn...it's addicting. Like crack addicting, but not in the way that makes your heart explode.

Go to the store and buy a bag....

Now. No, really, I'm not kidding. =)

Posted by Michael at 04:59 PM | Comments (4)

October 16, 2005

Birthday and another playlist

So I'm now officially 25 years old, or at least I was last Wednesday (the 12th). I made a playlist about the songs that have had meaning over to me over the past year and I liked the idea so much that I decided to do it again. The list is a little shorter this year, and 1 song managed to make itself on the list again.

Posted by Michael at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

Final Table

I played a quasi-large online poker tournament tonight (93 people) and did well for not having played in a large tournament in a while. I took 6th place.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours until I was done for the night. Along the way I (somehow) picked up some cheerleaders, consisting of players that had been already knocked out of the tournament, some by me and others by other players at the table.

Was a lot of fun though. May have to try my hand at it again soon...

Posted by Michael at 04:04 AM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2005

I find this offering satisfactory

I told Dell that I was unhappy with the service that I was provided with in regards to my laptop repair.

I am no longer unhappy. They sent me (basically) a brand-spanking-new[0] laptop. It is an upgrade in just about every way possible from my old laptop. Feast your eyes on the specs on this bad boy:

Inspiron 6000
Pentium M 2.0GHz 533 FSB
128MB Radeon X300 Pci-Express
1GB DDR2 RAM
1920x1200 LCD Display
Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b/g
DVD-/+R

It's very nice. I am no longer pissed off at Dell. =)

[0] It's refurbished, but it's their new model.

Posted by Michael at 03:38 PM | Comments (2)

September 24, 2005

Cell phone text messages

On my cell phone, there are a bunch of message templates for sending text messages.

One of the default ones is: "What is your number?"

Does that seem wrong to anyone else?

Posted by Michael at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)

The epic saga of Lappy

Disclaimer: Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I have mentioned in a previous entry that my laptop was having issues. It has hence been fixed...sorta. Basically the problem with Lappy was that it wouldn't boot. Like it wouldn't even post. It would just act like it was going to power on for about half a second, then decide that it didn't want to power up. Highly annoying.

I thought about writing a epic poem about my encounter with my broken laptop, but I'm far far too lazy to do such a thing. And besides, my idea of 'epic' is probably different than other people's idea of 'epic'. But I'm far too lazy, so I'm just gonna stick with prose.

So, the main problem with my laptop was Company[0]. At first I was told that my problem was the motherboard. This was on 9/8. I was informed that they would be sending the motherboard out and that I should have it fixed by 9/12 at the latest. I was pretty happy about this. I was informed that I would be receiving a call by the contracted repair people by that date.

Monday comes and goes and I never receive a call. I call Comany back on Tuesday very confused and wondering what is going on. I was informed this time that they also had intended to replace my processor as well. Unfortunately for me, my processor was out of stock, but they were expecting a shipment to be containing them the coming Wednesday. It would ship out on Wednesday to the contractor and my laptop would be fixed before the weekend. While not optimal, I could definately live with this.

Fast forward to Friday. I _again_ called Company to verify (not check) that my parts had been shipped. After waiting on the phone for over an hour, I was informed _this_time_ that the processors were on backorder and they had no idea when they would be getting them in, but it could be as long as a year. I calmly told the tech support guy that waiting a year was unacceptable, which he agreed. He told me that he could give me a slower processor in the meantime. I asked to speak to his supervisor.

Things with the supervisor always go much better than the underlings. Now they were going to send me a faster processor. It would arrive by the following Monday and they would come fix it right away. I felt that finally I had made some progress. The end was truly in sight. Murphy is an ***hole, and he can take his law and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

Monday morning I get a phone call from the contracted support people wanting to set up an appointment. When I called back, I got a voicemail, so I left a message. I get a call back about an hour later from a different tech setting up an appointment. Apparantly, he was helping out the other tech and only grabbed the processor, not the motherboard[1]. After replacing the processor, it still didn't work. As I expected.

The next day the original tech came to replace motherboard. I would finally have a working laptop!!! Then again, my unlucky streak would continue.

The laptop reports that 'the revision of processor is not supported'. However, other than that, my laptop functions properly. So now on this coming Monday, the tech is coming back out with a new processor which hopefully fixes the problem _finally_.

Note to self: Don't buy a laptop with the processor that is unlikely to be the more popular[2].

Blah.

[0] A company which rhymes with 'Hell'.
[1] You know, the thing that was actually _broken_!
[2] I have a Pentium 4, not a Pentium M. =/

Posted by Michael at 05:23 PM | Comments (1)

September 12, 2005

Home....kinda

Well, I got back from Jerry and Elizabeth's without a hitch....almost. There was a slight problem in the morning thanks to the driver who we will name Magellan. Thankfully I made my flight and got back to CA. Then I had to finish packing up Tuesday night, which I wouldn't have been able to do without my friends, who rock. Wednesday consisted of driving back and forth from my storage space with carload upon carload of my things. It was a really really long day on Wednesday, but I finally (at about 10pm) got everything out of my apartment.

So, now I am staying with the Nelsons. They have a spare room that they are graciously letting me using during my exile from the workforce. Hmm, that's kinda snappy. Exile from the Workforce.

Ahem. Anyways, I have been here since last Wednesday night and it's been pretty good. I have my old desktop set up in my room[0]. My laptop also broke upon my return to California, I guess it didn't like the salisbury steak on the plane either....yuck. So, I have to deal with Dell tech support. It's supposed to be fixed by the end of this week, so hopefully that will be done.

I went and saw Oasis, Jet and Kasabian at a concert last night, but I'll post that in another entry. I need to try to up my entry count. =)

Posted by Michael at 06:45 PM | Comments (2)

September 05, 2005

End of a trip

I'm chilling at Jerry and Elizabeth's house right now (everyone else is asleep actually) waiting for my laundry to dry. I came to visit this weekend because Nate and Tricia and the ever-adorable Rebecca[0] were taking a trip to see friends and family with Becca and were spending this weekend at Jerry and Elizabeth's house. So, I imposed myself here because I wanted to see The Froyds and voila, I am in Indiana again.

I had such a great time this weekend, not only getting to see and make silly faces at Becca, but also to see other friends I haven't seen in too long. I really had such a good time this weekend, part of me doesn't want to go back to California. But I have things to do and people there that miss me too, so I must do what must be done. I'm selfless like that. =)

[0] Her name is Rebecca, but everyone calls her Becca.

Posted by Michael at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2005

Moving piece by piece

This last weekend, Saturday specifically, I moved some of my stuff from my apartment to the storage space that I rented. Basically, I moved all the big stuff (TV, couch, bed, etc.) that I am unable to move on my own. So the rest of this week I need to move the rest of my stuff to the storage space.

I will be staying with the Nelsons after I move out on Sept. 7 until the end of September. Thankfully they have offered their spare room to me so I will be able to save some money by not renting an apartment.

Posted by Michael at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2005

The search continues...

...for a new job. Nothing solid yet, just mostly throwing out my resume to anyone remotely interested in taking a look at it. I have a couple leads, mostly friends who have put my resume through on the inside track at their respective places of employment. I have also been throwing it out on Monster.com at places where I have the required skills (and a couple places that I don't). I also have my resume in with a Headhunter who works with video game companies. ::crosses fingers::

I so want to win my $20 bet with Dave. =)

Posted by Michael at 11:04 PM | Comments (1)

August 22, 2005

Back again

So, I haven't posted in a while, and for good reason. Something has happened in my life and I really don't know how to handle it.

A couple weeks ago, August 3rd specifically, I was laid off from my job. I am still in California, attempting to find a new job and figure things out.

I am lucky and blessed to have family and friends who are willing and able to help me out during this difficult time for me.

I'll definately be keeping everyone posted on things.

Posted by Michael at 02:42 PM | Comments (3)

July 25, 2005

Hockey Rules Changes (Revisited)

The NHL released the rules changes they are going to be making for the upcoming season.

I can say that they have the semblence (sp) of a brain. There will still be shootouts, but _only_ during the regular season. There will be no shootouts during the playoffs. Thank God. I can accept this.

You will be able to ice the puck if you are on a penalty kill. If you ice the puck other times, you will not be allowed to make a line change. They still have the linesman calling off icing-rule-thingie. Have to see that one in practice.

Those are the important ones in my opinion. Carry on.

Posted by Michael at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2005

Too cool to not post

Found this on Slashdot. It was too cool to not post.

Posted by Michael at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2005

It's about frickin time

Hockey is back. Or at least it will be. I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like I'll be able to get my fix starting October.

Posted by Michael at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2005

Don't know what to think

I don't know if I should be disturbed or not....

Chicago Crime

Posted by Michael at 05:51 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2005

Long day

I failed to post about last weekend earlier in the week, so I am going to do so now.

Last Saturday I was in Yosemite with Holly. We we hiking Half-Dome, a short little 16.4 mile trail[0]. Needless to say, it was a long day. The hike was great though. We did it in about 11 hours. We stopped for lunch along the way and when we finally got to the top, spent about an hour up there sitting around and having a snack. There's _snow_ at the top of Half-Dome, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough for any snowboarding to occur. It was about a 50 yard diameter circle of snow on the top, but cool nonetheless.

It was a pretty tiring hike, by the time we got back, all I wanted to do was not stand up. We left early Sunday morning to come back to the Bay Area. I had a great time and am fortunate to have such a good guide to show me Yosemite.

[0] Almost typed 'trial'...would have still made sense. =)

Posted by Michael at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2005

OMGOMGOMG

There is a God. And he wants us to be happy. =D

::glee::

Posted by Michael at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2005

Things that make you go "huh???"

So, I normally don't get so involved in things of this nature, but I felt the need to post about this, mostly because I don't have all the facts and I am sure that some of my more hardware-oriented friends might be able to shed some light on the subject for me.

Today, Apple announced that it would start using Intel chips in their systems. From my understanding, the x86 architecture is crap. So, this is where I would like some input from you hardware guys.

My thing is that Apple has always seemed like it wanted the best components in their machines, and my understanding of x86 is that this doesn't jive.

But then again...it would be badass to be able to dual-boot on my laptop Windows/MacOS. =)

Posted by Michael at 11:37 AM | Comments (5)

May 31, 2005

I am ashamed

And how could I forget to congratulate Nate and Tricia on the new addition to their family.

So cute.

Posted by Michael at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2005

YAL (Yet another list)

[0] George Lucas couldn't write a love-scene to save his life.
[1] Although I do feel like such a preppy hauling it around, and I don't even have my trusty North Face jacket to go along with it.
[2] I took this for a little time before college and really enjoyed it. It's not as practical as traditional Martial arts, but the coolness factor is through the roof.

Posted by Michael at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

(cons (car list) (cdr list))

It's been awhile, so it's LIST TIME!!!!

[0] Actions per minute. 50 = I suck in comparison to those crazy Koreans who play every day for hours on end.
[1] Unlikely, but possible

Posted by Michael at 04:21 PM | Comments (1)

April 28, 2005

Random breakfast story

Here I discussed my last snowboarding trip of the season, well I left out a highlight of the trip. Now some of you might consider what _I_ consider a highlight somewhat trivial, but I say to you, had you actually experienced what I experienced, you would be singing a different tune. What I am talking about...is a Sausage McMuffin with Egg. Now this was no ordinary Sausage McMuffin, nay. This was a delicious, fulfilling breakfast sandwich prepared on Mount Olympus by the Great god of Preprocessed Food.

I have never had a Sausage McMuffin as tasty as that one, and I fear I may never again.

Unfortunately, I will most likely have to wait until next snowboarding season to go, as the McDonald's in question is not really close.

Posted by Michael at 09:57 AM | Comments (7)

April 08, 2005

Hard Drive arrived and Installed

The laptop upgrade that I talked about here I decided was going to be a larger hard drive. I went from a 60GB drive to a 100GB drive. This will allow me to keep everything on my laptop. Previously, I had all my iTunes music on my desktop PC, while using my laptop for everything else. Now I can fit everything on my laptop, making life a little bit better.

My new hard drive arrived via FedEx today. I have since used Ghost to re-image the new hard drive and Ghost was nice enough to resize it as well.

It's a good day. Plus it's Friday. =)

Oh, and I'm going to go see U2 tomorrow night. I've been looking forward to seeing them in concert for a couple of years now, so I am excited about that. I'll be sure to post about it afterwards.

And yes, I still know that I owe you snowboarding pictures.

Posted by Michael at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

I am so moving

My apartment continues to annoy me. Specifically, the electricity is broken in my bedroom. It decides that it's going to break and I have been unable to find any rhyme or reason to it. The electricity decided that it was going to stop working Thursday morning. I go into the office to drop off my rent and inform the manager that my apartment was broke. She replied in the affirmative and I was content that it would be looked at.

By Saturday, nobody had come to see my apartment and the electricity was still non-functional. I called, and the other manager never saw a work order for my apartment, but assured me that someone would take a look on Sunday. Sunday rolled around, nobody came to fix it.

Sunday night at approximately 11:30pm PST, without any provokation (sp) from me, almost miraculously, it started working again. When I got home from work today, someone had left a note on my door saying they had "fixed" the electricity. Whatever. And about 30 minutes ago, it broke again. Sigh....

Time to look for a new apartment.

Posted by Michael at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2005

Back into the swing of things

The last 2 weeks have been very short work weeks for me. The first week I was out 3 days because of my yearly snowboarding trip. The second week I was out 3 days because I was spending Easter with my family. So this week is my first full week of work in what seems to be a long time. I hope I am up for the challenge. =)

I started a fund to purchase myself a Mac mini once its release was announced by the almighty Apple. The money to be put in this fund would come from any poker winnings that I made. So more motivation to play good poker and stuff. Well, I have decided to instead use that money to beef up my laptop. My laptop[0] has become my main computer and could use a couple upgrades, so my Mac mini fund has become my "Laptop Upgrade" fund. It will be a better use of my money I think, considering that I take my laptop just about everywhere.

[0] It's a little over a year old, I purchased it after "the incident" with "the tree"

Posted by Michael at 10:12 AM | Comments (2)

March 09, 2005

Very interesting article

Upon trolling the current poll on Slashdot, I came upon this article. Very cool stuff.

I like swords.

Posted by Michael at 06:23 PM | Comments (1)

March 03, 2005

Skittles and other forces of the universe

So, I had this idea for a post a while ago, and never really got around to it, so here goes.

I was eating some skittles, tasting the rainbow as it were, and started wondering about the ideal combination of flavors to provide one with the most enjoyable skittle experience. There are 5 flavors of Skittle: Strawberry(R), Orange(O), Grape(P), Lemon(Y) and Lime(G). Placing 3 skittles together and then consuming them provides a specific taste. Which 3 skittles (duplicates allowed) provide the maximum enjoyment? This is a question for the ages.

My personal preferences are for RRP, ROP and RPP. Which one of the 'x'[0] combinations is your personal favorite?

Oh, and ding 250.

[0] I tried to remember Disco, but couldn't come up with the math to figure it out. It's been too long. =/

Posted by Michael at 04:42 PM | Comments (8)

February 23, 2005

Mass

As most (if not all) of you know, I am Catholic. Mass, more often that not, tends do be somewhat boring. I feel like I am going to get struck by lightning (indoors, no doubt) for saying that, but I can't really help but feel that way. There are probably several contributors to the fact that I feel that way at Mass, but probably one of the biggest ones is the priests that preach at Mass. More often than not, it is a priest who it is difficult to relate to. Now, I am not saying that their job is easy, far from it. I know it is something that I could probably never do.

So, this past weekend I was in Lake Tahoe with my family (more on that later) and we went to Mass on Sunday morning. It was the first time I really had fun at Mass in a long time. The priest was funny and easy to relate to. He put himself not as this all-holy kind of guy, but just a regular guy, who makes mistakes, sins like the rest of us and tries to accept his faults. It was a really great service and I wish the Church that I went to had a priest like that.

(edit: Sorry angel, your comment accidently got deleted when I was getting rid of spam.)

Posted by Michael at 04:15 PM | Comments (2)

February 16, 2005

Sad day

Well it's official. There will be no NHL hockey this season. It's somewhat bothersome that the two sides couldn't come to a mutual agreement over the course of several (4+) months.

::sigh::

Posted by Michael at 10:53 AM | Comments (3)

February 10, 2005

That ain't right...

So I am going to rip a CD last night. I put the CD in the drive, and await iTunes to open (default behavior) so that I may rip the CD and place its contents on my iPod. Well, after about 30 seconds or so, iTunes is not open. I figure that Windows is stupid and just "forgot" to open iTunes.

So, I double-click on the iTunes link on my desktop only to be presented with an error message.

"The link...blah..blah...'iTunes.lnk'...blah....blah....not found."

I am confused. Obviously the computer is too. I say to myself that the executable in question is safely resting on my D: drive. (2nd hard drive) So, in disbelief of the error message, I attempt to double-click the iTunes link again. Same resposne.

At this point I decide to go check my D: drive in case something odd happened. I open up 'My Computer' only to find no D: drive present. Like...it's gone. So I reboot my machine and watch the ATA100 Controller messages when the machine boots. I should see 2 drives. I only see 1 drive. This my friend, is a problem.

I power down the computer, remove the power cable[0], take the side off the case and push in the power cable and the ATA cable into the second drive just to be certain it is not loose. Plus the power back in, power on the machine. Ta da! Drive found.

And they all lived happily ever after.

THE END

[0] I'm paranoid about this. I suppose that it's ok to futz with stuff as long as the computer is powered down, but I really don't like to.

Posted by Michael at 12:58 PM | Comments (1)

February 08, 2005

Online orders

So, I ordered some stuff online in the last couple weeks.

The first thing I ordered was 2 Dashboard Confessional CDs[0] from Amazon. But Amazon itself didn't have the CDs I wanted. I used their 'Marketplace' thing to order them from an actual store. Or rather they acted as the facilitator of the sale, accepting the money and passing it off to the store. I was supposed to receive the CDs by last week at the latest. And I have not as of yet received them. This is most irritating. So I emailed the store and basically said 'Get your act together and give me my CDs'. That was earlier today and I haven't heard back yet. The next step is if I don't hear from the store in 2 days, to deal with Amazon and tell them to give me my money back.

The second thing I ordered was a couple of poker t-shirts. I ordered the from I'm all in Wear. I just received them today. Actually I think they came in on Saturday, but the apartment manager's office forgot to put a slip in my mailbox informing me that a package had arrived for me. I got 2 shirts, one is a long sleeve, which says 'I hate Jacks' and the other is a short sleeve which says 'You played that crap?'. Personally, I like the 'I hate Jacks' one more, because I have gotten screwed by pocket Jacks _so_ many times. It's the hand I dislike playing the most. It's like I know I am going to lose, but I have to play them anyways.

The last thing I ordered was some Dashboard Confessional import/single CDs directly from Amazon. I'll probably get those before I get the ones I ordered 2 weeks prior to that order.

[0] The 2 EP CDs that I don't own. It should just about finish my collection barring a couple of other songs that I don't have on CD yet.

Posted by Michael at 02:05 PM | Comments (5)

January 24, 2005

Ack! Postage

I hate it when my page gets all bare n stuff. Just makes me want to post.

Well, I have actually been saving this post up, mostly because I wanted it to have a little more substance to it, but I guess I can post it now because my page is so empty.

I have really started to enjoy playing my guitar as of late. So much so that rarely does a day go by that I don't play for at least 15-25 minutes. I think that it probably started when I could actually play something rather than just learning chords and some music theory. I can actually play Wonderwall now and for whatever reason I just think that is the coolest thing. Simple things amuse me I suppose. =)

Posted by Michael at 05:16 PM | Comments (1)

January 14, 2005

Siblings and powder

My brother came in from Chicago last night. He had finals all week and is going to be spending the weekend out with me. We are using this opportunity to go snowboarding _all_freaking_weekend_. It's gonna be a blast. Tahoe got so much snow these past 2 weeks. Mmmm, powder.

As a note to all my friends that travel by air, if you must take ATA[0], please refrain from checking any luggage. We waited at the airport last night for 40+ minutes for his bags. Actually we waited for 40+ minutes for his snowboard. But many other people on the same flight still did not have any of their bags by the time we left.

So he's here until Monday. Much fun is going to be had.

[0] Ususally due to cheap fares. You get what you pay for I suppose.

Posted by Michael at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

Petition

This is a petition to get Irate Nate to bring back comments in some way, shape, or form. Knowing what I do about the size and rinkledness of his grey matter, I'm not buying his reasons, not for more than a week.

So if you want to see comments return over there, sign on it!

(Petition stolen from Nagi)

Posted by Michael at 10:11 AM | Comments (7)

January 09, 2005

Canada rules

Well, not really.

Watch this. It's a Molson Beer commercial that my buddy told me about. It definately sums up how I feel about the lack of hockey on TV.

Posted by Michael at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2005

More work....

Well, I'm back in CA, and more to the point, back to work. ::sigh::

I really could have used a couple extra days off. Really, just 2...that's all I needed. =) It was great being home. I spent shloads of time with my brothers. I played a bunch of poker, Halo2 and just relaxed a whole lot.

One of the definate high points of the trip was when Dave, Mel, Nate, Tricia, Jerry and Elizabeth visited. Dave and Mel had some slight car problems, so they didn't arrive until later, but I had a blast. There was much Double Dash played. We played a couple rounds of Scene It![0] and watched I, Robot. The next day, we had some breakfast, threw down with some Monkey Ball and had lunch. Unfortunately, more time couldn't be spent together, but I am grateful and happy that we all got together, even if it was for a little while. The original plan was to go snowboarding up in Michigan, but the weather decided that it wasn't going to cooperate. Thankfully, I always have a backup plan. So instead we hung around Chicago. I'm really glad I got to hang out with everybody, it's been too long.

I got back last night, but not too late, which was nice. I really didn't want to go to work today, and the fact that the ski resorts in Lake Tahoe got multiple feet of snow in the last couple days wasn't helping. Oh well, I'll just _definately_ have to go up this weekend. =)

[0] Me, Nate and Tricia vs Dave, Mel, Jerry and Elizabeth. It was suggested earlier that it should be everyone vs. me, but I would have definately lost then. Nate and Tricia came through with some answers when my brain was broken. My team was undefeated. =)

Posted by Michael at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2004

Scene It!

I found my place in this world. I played Scene It! with my brothers and friends tonight. Let me just say, I am the undefeated champion. I found a place where my knowledge of just about every movie ever made can be used for the good of mankind....or something....

=)

Posted by Michael at 09:36 PM | Comments (3)

December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. May the food and the company be wonderful. =)

Posted by Michael at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2004

Sweet link action

This is a directory of all[0] the characters in the Marvel universe.

Endless hours of procrastination found within.

Carry on.

[0] Or damn near close enough

Posted by Michael at 02:07 PM | Comments (1)

Supposed to be sick

So, I was originally planning on being sick today ::cough::, for completely non-snowboarding related reasons, but there was too much to get done at work for me to do so. So, I'm going up tomorrow. =)

Posted by Michael at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2004

Weekend Schtuff (in list format)

I think I like the un-ordered lists better.

[0] Something I haven't done since I started snowboarding this season. I figured it was due. =)

Posted by Michael at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)

November 29, 2004

Wendy's Chicken Sandwiches

Without a doubt, I will say that Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich is infinitely more tasty than the Homestyle Chicken Sandwich. I got a Homestyle last night after arriving from Chicago because the Wendy's was out of Spicy Chicken Sandwiches. I was thoroughly disappointed. Completely un-tasty.

That is all.

Posted by Michael at 10:09 AM | Comments (14)

November 24, 2004

Goin' home for T-Day

Well, I'm off to Chicago for the long weekend for Turkey Day. I expect much Halo 2 to be played. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving and if you are traveling, may your trip be safe.

Posted by Michael at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2004

Lists of the ordered variety

I haven't used a ordered list yet, so I thought I'd at least give it a go to see how much I like them.

  1. I didn't go snowboarding last weekend, oddly enough. It's the first time this season that I haven't gone up over the weekend. Since I didn't go, I used the time to clean my apartment and run errands that I have been putting off for 3 weekends. =)
  2. My new hockey season (ie. new teams, new standings) starts tonight. My game is at 9:30pm. So since it's a new season, hopefully I won't still be in the funk I was in at the end of last season.
  3. I started working out again yesterday. I think I may have pushed myself a bit too far my first day back, my shoulders and chest are somewhat sore. =/
  4. I made a modification on the blog to the comment script. So far it has prevented spammers from posting crap to my blog. Hopefully it continues to do so. If not, I may have to take other matters into consideration.
  5. Obligatory movie quote.
  6. I am going snowboarding this weekend, and I'll be doing it with my brand new snowboard[0] too. ::glee::
  7. Got my laptop working. Apparantly all I had to do was take some compressed air and clean out the video card of all dust. Now World of Warcraft runs just fine. I found it somewhat silly that dust was the problem, but at least it's working now.

So I think I have decided why I like lists in my blog. This way I can put a whole bunch of random things together and not have to worry about tying them together.

[0] I'll post a pic of my new snowboard when I get it.

Posted by Michael at 11:52 AM | Comments (1)

November 05, 2004

Feel the need to post

Bunch of stuff is going on, so here we are with another list[0]:

That is all for now.

[0] cuz I want to be like Dave...no, really =)
[1] +1 point for anyone who gets the reference

Posted by Michael at 03:13 PM | Comments (5)

October 29, 2004

Firefox

Everytime I learn something new that Firefox does, I am suitibly impressed.

If you're not using it, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Posted by Michael at 04:52 PM | Comments (10)

October 20, 2004

Funny cuz it's true

I got this off a link off Slashdot:

Although it might be a relatively new discipline, computer programming has already built up a number of sacred traditions, one of which is the last-minute rush to get your work in on time. Subjecting yourself to this stress is an essential part of preparing yourself for the world of work. Relax. Let your work pile up gradually and blithely ignore all the warnings and telltale signs that you’re behind schedule. Don’t let studying get in the way of your life. Don’t duck out of that skiing trip in a vain attempt to make up for lost time. And just when you’re on the edge of the precipice, just when you’ve only got two weeks to hand in a program that you’ve had four months to do, then the code’ll start to flow like there’s no tomorrow.

Posted by Michael at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2004

A first for me

I got a spam phonecall at work today...on my work phone. Can't say that's ever happened before. ::sigh::

Apparantly, I am not safe anywhere.

Posted by Michael at 04:01 PM | Comments (3)

It's fine Scottish weather we're having.

The rain is falling straight down and kind of to the side like.

Yes boys and girls, it's raining here. A lot. I walked out of my apartment this morning to find parts of trees on the ground along the walkway, it was apparantly very windy last night. But I do like the change in weather...one really does get tired of sunny day after sunny day after sunny day. No...really. I like the rain. It's a good day. =)

Posted by Michael at 10:52 AM | Comments (4)

October 15, 2004

This and that

First for the "this". Oddly enough, this blog is still not as high as my old blog on LiveJournal as far as Google is concerned. Somewhat annoying, as it is, but I don't know how to change that, although I am sure that there are ways.

Now for the "that". I inherited my younger brother's iBook this past weekend. It took a dive onto a chair, which unfortunately cracked the LCD. This is most unfortunate, as it renders the laptop highly unusable in it's broken state. Repairs would cost as much as a brand new iBook, so I went with the $20 solution. So I hooked up my old 15" monitor to it and now I have an Apple computer. =) Mostly I want to play around with GarageBand which is a pretty sweet program. Plus it's just cool to have an apple. =) Mac OSX is very pretty, but I am not completely sure what I'll use my new computer for. In the meantime, I'll just hook up a USB keyboard and mouse to it.

Posted by Michael at 02:28 PM | Comments (1)

October 12, 2004

Happy Birthday to me

Well, I am officially 24 years old now. Yes, today was my birthday. Thanks to all who messaged/called to wish me a happy birthday, and for those who didn't[0], there's always next year. =)

Since I'm on a roll with this whole music thing tonight, I thought I'd post some of the songs that have meant something to me this past year.

(edit: ding 200 posts)

[0] shame on you =P

Posted by Michael at 11:59 PM | Comments (4)

Bare

My page looks so bare that I felt the need to post _something_. My car[0] that I got like 6-7 months ago just hit 7000 miles today.

Hockey game tonight, coming back alive is planned. I realize that I haven't posted my Music of the Week for like a month now, and while it wasn't planned, I am aware. To attempt to make it up to you all, I am going to post some of my other playlists that I enjoy listening to as well as the Music of the Week.

[0] Evil .asp inc

Posted by Michael at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2004

Interesting website

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the content in the link contained in this post, and I also waive all responibilities if you decide to do anything which I (Michael Hawryluk) deem 'stupid'. Thank you. We now return to your non-regularly scheduled post.

I got this from Mrs. Schondy and it was so good that I wanted to share.

Posted by Michael at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2004

Plethera

All right class, we've got a lot to cover today, so let's get started.

Posted by Michael at 01:46 PM | Comments (8)

September 27, 2004

Quote of the Day

"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it. " - Andrew Jackson

Posted by Michael at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

Weekend

My friend Samantha from Chicago came out to visit me this weekend. She got in Thursday night and left tonight.

I got to watch a couple movies this weekend. Specifically Man on Fire and The Punisher. Man on Fire was an excellent movie. It was well done and the fact that it was based on a true story makes it so much more powerful. The Punisher was alright, it had a couple of twists, not just "I'm going to kill everyone" and stuff.

We went to San Francisco yesterday and today, spent some time at Fisherman's Wharf and got lunch today in Little Italy. We ate at a place called "The Stinking Rose" that specializes in garlic. I think their motto goes something like "We flavor our garlic with food".

She came to my hockey game tonight to watch my team get schooled unfortunately. =/ After the game, I took her to the airport and came home. It was really great seeing her and spending time with her, especially since we haven't really talked much the last couple years. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Posted by Michael at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)

September 24, 2004

DVD Purchases

I bought a couple DVDs at Fry's last night. I picked up Firefly and Star Wars Trilogy. I feel somewhat dirty giving more money to George Lucas, but the geek inside yearns to own the trilogy. Really, it's just to own Empire but having them all is kinda a necessity. I'm just happy that I never bought any of the VHS releases. Besides, the dirtiness I feel after purchasing Star Wars is completely overshadowed by the sheer awesomensss of Firefly. And yes, I made sure that I bought the widescreen format of Star Wars.

Posted by Michael at 10:03 AM | Comments (1)

September 23, 2004

Final word on Seattle

No dice. ::shrug::

Posted by Michael at 10:55 AM | Comments (3)

September 22, 2004

Seattle Update

The new word on the street[0] is that I will know by Friday. I don't think it's a bad sign that I need to wait a little longer. On another front, I am getting closer to my $20 that Dave may end up owing me[1]. =)

[0] Well, it's not really a street in any sense of the word....
[1] Inside joke, sorry if you're on the outside.

Posted by Michael at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2004

Back from Seattle

Got back from Seattle this afternoon, things went well I thought. I got to hang out with Ryan and Angel a bunch, and that's always a good time. I finally got to watch some of Firefly and like everyone else I have talked to about the show, enjoyed it very much. It's a very cool show and I'm somewhat disappointed that it's not on tv anymore.

I should know what's going on on Tuesday, so stay tuned for somewhat exciting developments.

Posted by Michael at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2004

Going to Seattle

I'm off to Seattle later today for a thing with the place and the people. I'll let you know how it works out.

Posted by Michael at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

Fixed re-direct

http://www.dreadpiratemichael.com/ should now redirect here.

Posted by Michael at 01:41 AM | Comments (2)

September 14, 2004

Somewhat fitting comic

A comic sent to me by Schondy.

Posted by Michael at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2004

Hodgepodge

I was in Southern CA this past weekend visiting my uncle who lives down there. I had a great time. We went to a couple Angel's games[0], one which they won and one which they lost. They played against the Chicago White Sox, so I had _absolutely_ no problem rooting for the Angels. You see, I'm a Cubs fan. And if you're not from Chicago, you probably won't understand. =) Sorry. We also went to the beach on Saturday, which got me a little sunburn. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, I just should've put more sunblock on.

Over the weekend, I kinda realized that I have come around on Apple. I used to think they were pretty worthless, useful only as paperweights, or by those who couldn't use Windows. Well, over the past year or so, I have gotten a sincere appreciation for their computers and other stuff (read: iPod).

[0] He works for the Angels, a very sweet job, imho.

Posted by Michael at 10:54 AM | Comments (2)

September 01, 2004

Geek moment of the day

So, the other day I needed to download a relative large file (2.2GB). I have quite the phatty internet[0] connection at work, so I decided to do it here. But then comes of the problem of getting said file to my home computer. I have a CD burner at work, so I supposed I could have broken the file up into pieces and burned several CDs that way. My second thought was to bring my laptop into work and simply transfer it over the network. Then, I reazlied that I could just transfer the file to my portable hard drive, better known as my iPod, and bring it home that way. =)

[0] Apparantly we aren't capitalizing the word 'internet' anymore.

Posted by Michael at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

Stupid F%@&ing road

The road that I take to work, Lawrence Expressway is the worst road in creation. The lights are horribly timed and as such driving on it is very frustrating. Unfortunately for me, it's easily the fastest way to get to work. There are 9 stoplights in the 2.5-3 miles from my apartment to work on Lawrence. I made 1 of them. Every other light, I would approach and about 100 yards from the light, it would turn yellow. Highly frustrating to have this happen light after light after light. Ug. I just wish there was a better way to go to work. =/

Posted by Michael at 10:34 AM | Comments (1)

August 30, 2004

Weekend Wedding

So I arrive in Chicago at 4:30am on Friday 8/27. I then did not proceed to sleep until 2am on Saturday 8/28. Needless to say, I was really frickin tired. My Uncle Greg (step-dad's brother) got married on Friday and it was a whole day thing. We left the house at 6:15am to go play golf. This included my brothers, and a lot of the bride/groom's brothers. I have come to the conclusion that I am terrible at golf