:: Venting Insanity ::

:: Friday, May 09, 2003 ::

concert tomorrow
Yahoo!! No, not the website.

We're going to a Jewel concert tomorrow and it's in Central Park!!! {{does the happy dance of joy}} I can't wait!

meeting cancelled
Tonight's meeting was cancelled. We didn't have to go. Woopee... {{shrugs}} I wasn't thrilled about going anyway.

yippee!!
I got my grades for both classes tonight!!! I got A's!! I'm so happy! {{does the happy good grade dance, which oddly resembles the "Cabbage Patch"}} ^^;;

anyway
The Brickhouse was loud, as usual. I now smell of cigarettes and beer. That's one thing I've always hated about bars. But, all in all, it was good night.

Now, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

:: Thursday, May 08, 2003 ::

blah
Bored. Very bored. Must concentrate on program...

busy day of nothing
Woopee... Larry and I had lunch. I got Mom's prescriptions from the store. I got my pictures back. I made more iced tea. I got the mail. I fed the cats. I straightened a bit.

Yay...

{{dies of boredom}}

on the otherhand
Tonight's the last night of class for the semester. I have to show my teacher my final project for C, then I check in with Net Lab & Troubleshooting, then we're hitting the Brickhouse. ^_^;; And I have no money again! Figures. I'll hit the bank on the way to class.

Speaking of which, I've gotta run.

:: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 ::

victory for gun owners
KeepAndBearArms.com reported today that six judges in the 9th Circuit Court, the most "Liberal" court in the nation (the one in San Francisco that banned 'under God' from the Pledge), voted that the Second Amendment is an individual right. The case will now be moving forward to the US Supreme Court for judgement.

That's huge! The very same court that banned the phrase 'under God' from the Pledge actually voted in favor of the Second Amendment. O.O;;; All I can say is 'woah'.

wow!
I got a tutoring call. I tutored Keisha in Physics for 2 and a half hours today. O.O;; My brain is on overload right now. I was surprised at how easy it was to read the book, though. I caught up a bit and we were working on vector addition and logarithms. I was a bit daunted at first because it's been a while since I worked with them, but it came back to me pretty quick and I was able to give her a few tips.

slow day
I could *not* believe how tired I was today. I ended up taking a nap before I came in for tutoring. I think Prudy's starting to miss Marbles, but it's hard to tell. I don't know if Ivy will, since the two were so indifferent towards each other, but we'll see.

nature in action
I grossed Mom out the other day. There were several flying ants on our screen sliding door in the back. I happened to notice another bug moving around. Looking at it, it was a spider. Suddenly, the spider jumped forward and snagged a flying ant by the neck. O.O;; Yikes! The ant twitched a few times before it finally stopped struggling. I was telling Mom about it and she started getting all grossed out, telling me to flick the screen to knock the spider off. {{shrugs}} I actually felt a bit bad about flicking it off, but I did anyway because Mom was complaining too much.

It was a bit amusing, actually, plus watching that for real was a heck of a lot more fascinating than one of those nature TV shows.

I was reminded of the incident when I was walking into the building just now for class. I went to open the door and there was a snail shell stuck to the door with webbing. O.O;;; Either a spider or a wasp borrowed the shell to make a nest for it's eggs. Pretty weird, huh?

class time
Time to go learn about the differences between bridges and routers... Yay... x.x;;

baghdad bob
Well, someone got the site working. WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com. Last time I checked the site it wasn't up, but it's up now and filled with all sorts of really funny quotes from good ol' "Baghdad Bob".

space troubles
More trouble with astronauts and cosmonauts as another reentry goes awry. While the landing crew made it home okay, there were troubles with the navigation systems and automatic landing systems as they came into the atmosphere.

it works!
Well, sort of. I got the VK_ENTER problem solved by using Console.GetKey() and VK_RETURN instead. Unfortunately, now the program goes whacky. Before it wasn't doing anything. So, time to go scour more code before Thursday. {{sigh}}

how sweet: a pet retrospective
We got a flower arrangement sent to us today. The vet sent us flowers in sympathy for losing Marbles. {{sniffles}} They're very pretty. I miss my old guy. He was such a cool cat. All my kitties have been really cool.

Mom had a calico when I was born named Herbie. She used to crawl around on the floor with me as a baby. I used to get her to do high fives when I got older. She got kidney disease and we were forced to put her down when she was 14.

We had a few outdoor cats. Perricles disappeared just before a blizzard, but Marvin showed up later. He was a scraggly looking thing that eventually attached himself to us. We figured he was pretty old already. We don't know what got him, probably just old age, but we ended up putting him down as well. We had to give him pureed can food for a while towards the end after he lost all his teeth. We think he had been a stable cat up at the old racetrack when it was still being used, and that he might have been kicked in the jaw by a horse. His bottom jaw had always looked slightly crooked when he opened his mouth and he was already missing a fang when he first showed up.

Prudy was an interesting acquisition. She showed up just after Perricles disappeared, trying to eat his frozen food on our back step. So, we got her to come in. Little did we know that we'd end up with four additions later on. That's how we ended up with Daryl and Marbles. Daryl had been supposed to go to my aunt, and we never did find a home for Marbles. Auntie Lyn ended up not being able to take Daryl. We were going to send Marbles to the pound, but he cuddled up with Dad (only about four inches long from the tip of his nose to the base of his tail) and ended up staying with us. He knew just who to kiss up to.

Prudy's used to have an attitude. She didn't like people coming in that didn't live here. She was extremely possessive and got very jealous when any of us came home smelling of a cat she didn't know. She's mellowed out in that respect over the years (she's almost 19 now), but has gotten more and more clingy over the last five or so. She follows me around the house, yowls at my bedroom door when she can't find me (regardless of the time of day or night). She only comes in the house when I'm the one to come for her. When she was younger and still hunted on occasion, she'd bring things home (shrews, birds, moles, mice, a baby opossum once) and then come looking for me to show me. Man, that was gross. I'd have to congratulate her, of course, but then quietly get Dad to discreetly dispose of the body.

Her four boys are all gone now. The two that had gotten homes are also gone, though not quite in the easy ways the two that stayed behind went. The third in the litter was cruelly poisoned by his family's neighbors, who decided they didn't like him for some reason. The youngest got hit by a car when he got older. {{sniffles}} Poor guys. When we took them in, we had a golden retreiver named Taffy. She used to play with the kittens, wash them, she would sit in the room with them when Prudy wasn't there. As they got older, they used to climb on her and hang from the long hair she had on her tail as she walked around the house. Taffy was their babysitter. Prudy, Daryl, and Marbles missed Taffy a lot when we had to put her down. She had been paralyzed after a second stroke and there was nothing we could do to fix it.

Daryl wasn't much of a hunter. He liked to sit in Mom's flower bed and literally smell the flowers. Mom always called him her 'hippy cat'. He would visit with anyone who came into the house, sit on their lap, talk to them, say goodbye when they left. He loved parties because people would inevitably discover that he had a taste for potato chips and start giving him some. He developed diabetes when he was about 9 or so. We started giving him insulin injections twice a day. He didn't mind. He was a lovable lump of a cat, all 20 pounds of him. We put him down just about two years ago now (on my parents 25th wedding anniversary... what a bittersweet day that was). He came down with lung cancer and there wasn't anything we could do that wouldn't have overly stressed the poor old guy.

Marbles was the second one in the litter, where Daryl was the first. As kittens, Daryl always pushed Marbles to do things before him. Marbles was the first out of the box, but Mom swore Daryl nosed him over the side. We think he pushed Marbles down the stairs that first time, too. ^^;; He ended up being a hunter, even more so than his mother, Prudy. He'd even eat his catch. He was thin and long legged, keeping his prime form for quite a long time. For a while, he had gotten horribly thin and we took him into the vet. Turned out he had gotten a little overzealous with his recent catch and there were "boney substances" in his stomach. >.<;; Yipes. After that, it took a few years for him to catch up to his 'older' brother, but, one really cold winter, Marbles almost matched Daryl, weighing in at 16 pounds. Neither cat was fat. You could still feel their bone structures. They were just big boys. After we had to put down Daryl, Marbles visibly became "Alpha Male". He got a little bigger, he got a little bossier (though Prudy never quite gave up batting them around like they were kids, since they were... LOL). He also became more vocal and communicative with us, where as it had always been Daryl in the past who did the 'talking'. He also became more sociable with strangers.

Ivy Rose is the youngest. She's not related to any of the others, having been born in my grandmother's backyard (under the deck, to be exact). We brought her home just before her first winter. It has taken a long time for her to warm up to Prudy (or Prudy to warm up to her, probably more in this direction), but they're starting to get along. She and Marbles were rather indifferent of each other. Daryl, on the otherhand, had really liked having Ivy around. When she was a baby, he would actually play with her, sitting on top of the footrest and dangling his tail over the side while she hid underneath and tried to attack it. It was the cutest thing ever. We think she got her love of boxes and paper from him. Ivy also likes some odd foods. While she isn't one for potatoes, she does like her fruit. She'll eat plums, strawberries, grapes, nectarines, and peaches. And don't let her get on the table when you have a dairy product. She'll eat the ice cream and drink the cereal milk right out of your bowl. Of course, she does prefer it if you get some whipped cream on your sundae. Like Marbles did when he was younger, Ivy stands with Dad in the kitchen and shares his piece of cheese at night. She had been the runt of her litter, actually developing a limp as she grew. Turns out her right front leg is shorter than the rest. Ivy doesn't let it slow her down, though, chasing Prudy through the house like she's the new queen of speed. It's not a title Prudy likes the idea of relenquishing. Prudy was always known for snatching the table scraps from the other cats with a burst of speed through the kitchen.

I love my kitties. These last two will be missed when they're gone later in life just as much as I have missed all the others and Taffy. I just hope when I get my own place that I can have a pet. I've had them all my life and I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't have one, especially if I end up living alone for a while. {{cuddles Prudy}} She'll be too old to move by then, I would wager, if she lives that long. It depends on how my financial situations go.

{{sigh}} It's amazing how much you don't realize you care for an animal, even if they do vex you at times.

found?
I saw on News 4 and Channel 7, Eyewitness News that they may have found the body of Svetlana Aranov floating in the East River. They still don't think it was her husband.

saddam takes his golden parachute
According to Reuters and several other news reports I've seen, Saddam took the money and ran. Just like the song. He alledgedly had one of his sons head over to an Iraqi national bank and make a withdrawal in cash that needed several large trucks to cart it away. They say it was approximately the equivalent of $1 billion. O.O;;; Yikes. I wish I had an account to make that kind of withdrawal.

amtrak's at it again
There was another Amtrak derailment today. A train leaving NY's Penn Station collided with a stalled lumber truck and derailed, killing the driver, severly injuring the conductor/engineer, and injuring about a dozen or more passengers.

And people wonder why traveling is dangerous.

Thought, statistically speaking, it's more dangerous to drive around your block for a gallon of milk than it is to fly from NY to LA for a vacation. Go figure.

could it be?
US Officials state they may have found a mobile weapons lab. A large truck was discovered with what seems to be remnants of a chemical and biological weapons laboratory.

:: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 ::

zelda rap?
This is really odd, probably even more odd if you don't understand Japanese. Got it off Blogity.

{{giggles}}
Actual comments taken from the windows.h header file in Microsoft Visual C++:

"/* Turn off a bunch of stuff to ensure that RC files compile OK. */"

"/* Leave 4514 disabled. It's a stupid warning anyway. */"

The programmer's command of the English language is just amazing... O.O;;

I'm so frustrated. I can't figure out where the virtual key events and codes are defined. It's telling me that the VK_ENTER is undefined, but I can use VK_ESCAPE and all the VK_(directional keys). I am frustrated... {{sigh}} I need the enter key for my program, but I don't know where and how it's defined. x.x;;

{{goes searching for the VK_* keys}}

finals week
I have finals this week. I handed in my final for Net Lab & Troubleshooting last week and got it back last night. Woohoo! I did really well. I'm happy. That means he'll drop my sucky miterm grade, and I'll still get a good grade for the class. I have to finish up my C project. I'm getting closer, but the calculator part of my program sucks balls. I've got a weird error that I can't figure out. ;_; {{sobs}}

I'm going to try and get that going tonight. I have to submit the program by Thursday.

O.O
Someone stole Harry Potter??? Wow... They think someone stole two copies of the new Harry Potter book (due out in June) and dumped them in a field. "Ron", "broom", and "sacked"... O.O I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means...

i'm a citizen
I passed...

Way to Go!
(Note: In the actual test, answers are given in sentence format; here we've changed the format by offering multiple-choice answers.) You got 10/11 correct.
US Citizenship Test

...can you?

I got the one about the flag wrong.

weddings in the air
It's that time of year. I found on MSN that June is the most popular month for weddings. It's more than just seasonable weather, too. Apparently, there's an poem explaining why people get married in certain months. Unfortunately, the article itself either misquotes the poem or the person who published said poem decided to take a bit of creative license to encourage more weddings in May.

This particular article goes into all sorts of weddings traditions. From bridesmaids to which side you stand on at the altar, religious symbolism to five things from around the world, this 4 page article covers 14 different wedding traditions and what they symbolize. It's an interesting read and helps you understand what all those crazy things we do at weddings really mean.

At least no one tries to rip the dress to shreds anymore...

huggles to all
Thanks to everyone on your kind words for Marbles. He was a cool cat and I miss him bunches already. {{sniffles}} He was my little old man. ;_;

:: Monday, May 05, 2003 ::

break time
A quick post while I'm on break from being reminded about how I need to get my certifications...

Current News on Health

MSN has a thing up in their health section right now about depression. Seeing as how I've had some interesting recent episodes with that again lately, I decided to take a look at it. It's here if anyone else wants to check it out.

new tech
I went to Office Max today and picked up a USB Flash Drive. It's this neat little chip inside a small plastic case that you plug into your USB port. The computer runs Plug-n-Play Install and installs it like a removable drive. So, you stick it in the back of the computer (or front, wherever your USB port happens to be) and voila! You have another drive. They come in 32 Meg, 64 Meg, and 128 Meg right now. I picked up a 64 Meg that, after rebates, is $10. A lot better than the $38 32 Meg drive the school is selling. ^_^ I'm so sale savvy. >P

lunch meeting
Larry and I met for lunch again. We're thinking of definitely going through with this web company thing. I'm kind of excited about the idea. He's supposed to see his friend on Friday, so we're meeting again on Wednesday to finalize ideas like name and stuff.

other meetings
I also got a meeting notice from Rob Valenti. We're meeting again sometime in June to work out some more details. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out exactly what it is I'm supposed to be working on. ^^;; That was never really made clear. Heh...

matrix stuff
When I went with Estelle and Johnny to see Dreamcatcher, we saw that "Last Flight of the Osiris". I went over to TheAnimatrix.com to look though what they had. They've got some cool vids to fit into different periods of the Matrix storyline, including a history of how the Matrix itself came about. It's very cool. *_*

They're releasing a DVD with all the episodes on June 3rd, the same day Jewel's new album is coming out. O.O;; I hope I'll have money then. That way, I can get both. ^^;;; Heh...

class time
My teacher just walked in. I should go.

quizzes


French Guard
I'm French! Why do think I have this outrageous
accent, you silly king-a?!


What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

{{giggles}} You can figure this one out pretty easy. I did it as best as I could without picking biased answers. I don't think I would have tried to get the French, so I guess I did a good job at not picking answers that I knew would get me a particular result. ^^;;

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Snow


What type of weather are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

And I don't even like snow... I mean, it's pretty, but it's so darn cold!!!

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Swords


Which Tarot Suit Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I guess that fits me... I *am* doing really well in school.

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You are Igraine, the mother of King Arthur. You go
with the flow, never putting yourself before
others. Igraine lived by her duty whether it
was to her crown, her husband, or her country.


Which Lady of Camelot Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Not sure about that one...

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Duo


Which Gundam Pilot Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Gee... it's so easy to get the one you want when you know how to read the answers right. ^^;; Of course, they could have used a *way* better picture. >P

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You are Spaceballs!
You have a strange obsession with odd furry
creatures and you need to pick your helmet up
when drinking coffee. You can go from suck to
blow in a matter of seconds, but you're really
just looking for a good time in a winnebago.


Which Mel Brooks Movie Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Another one I could have cheated in. Spaceballs, Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Blazing Saddles, or History of the World, Part 1. And I didn't need the 'view all results' link. >P

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What breed of horse are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

It said I was lazy... {{pouts}} Well, I am at times. Heh... ^^;;

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What Sort of Romantic Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

And that 'realism' has gotten me NO WHERE!!! Figures...

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You are most like Sarah
You are loyal to your friends. Your imagination and
fantasys are what makes you differnt. Your will
to win sometimes can be so strong, that you
come across as cruel.


What Labyrinth Charater are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Sweet-
Your as not naughty as they come.
Your sweet and your innocent.
You're every parents dream.
The world might be a better place if people were as
innocent as you.
But then again maybe you should live a little, life
is too short to waste on innocence.


Are you naughty?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Which VSD fellowship member are you?

this quiz was made by belle

Riiiiight...

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You're a Man, only a Man. Thank goodness.


Are you a hobbit, an elf, a dwarf, an orc, or a man? (Lord of the Rings based)
brought to you by Quizilla

Not a bad picture... heh heh heh...

movie review
X2, the sequel to X-Men, continues the story almost exactly where the first one left off. Rogue (Anna Paquin) has become more a part of the school crowd, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is still searching for his past at Alkali Lake, while Magneto (Ian McKeller) is still in his plastic prison and Mystique (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) is still posing as Senator Kelly, looking for a way to free Magneto. In the meantime, someone from Wolverine's past (someone he doesn't immediately remember) emerges in the fight against mutants, actually having found a way to control them to do his bidding (even if it means killing each other). This William Stryker even goes so far as to force Magneto (still in prison at the time) to tell him everything he knows about Cerebro and the School for Gifted Children. Stryker than stages a raid on the school in an attempt to kidnap all the young mutants.

The special effects were excellent. Jean begins her transformation into Phoenix in this one, glowing with orange fire as she develops her powers through the movie. Nightcrawler's teleporting emits a blue smokey haze in his wake. The character developments kept you guessing. This plot even calls for Magneto and Mystique to join forces with the X-Men in their effort to rescue the kidnapped students, Cyclops, and Professor Xavier. As expected, that joining doesn't last the entire mission as Magneto tries to take advantage of the situation Professor Xavier is in and tries to kill all non-mutants. There's even a scene where we catch a glimpse of Mystique in 'normal' form. In otherwords, it's Rebecca without her blue make up. I almost didn't recognize her. LOL.

movie review ii
Dad and I spent some time right after we got home from the vet watching Novocain with Steve Martin (L.A. Story), Helena Bonam Carter (Twelfth Night, Planet of the Apes), and Laura Dern (Jurassic Park). Talk about a twist! It's a comedy in typical Steve Martin style, but with a mystery plotline about Frank the dentist (Martin) who runs his own practice. He's engaged to be married to Dern's character, but gets tangled in with a drug addict (Carter) who comes in for a root canal. Soon, missing office narcotics, false prescriptions, and murder find their ways into poor Frank's life, and he finds himself on the brink of losing his license.

Steve Martin is his usual funny self thoughout the movie. The plotline has a couple of really cute twists and the script offers up some really good laughs.

busy weekend?
Yeah... big time busy.

Friday night, John S and I saw X2. We got there at ten after seven and everything was sold out up until 10 pm. So, we bought the tickets for that showing and walked over to Chili's to grab some dinner. That was an hour and a half wait. I really didn't feel like driving around on a Friday night trying to find a place that had less of a wait time, so we just hung out. Plus, we still had three hours until the movie. So, we ate and saw the movie.

Saturday started surprisingly early with a morning vet trip, followed by working on the trucks all day with Dad. He's been pulling stuff he wants to keep off the grey truck and putting them on the red/tan one. Then, I went with Cathy and several people she knows to Dave & Buster's. We hung out for several hours, had some food and drink... None of us went for any video games this time, though. I guess we weren't really into it.

Yesterday, Dad and I did more work on the trucks (after I finally woke up). I was so tired. {{sigh}}

it's done
Well, Mom and Dad made the decision. Yesterday morning, our trip to the vet culminated with having to put poor old Marbles to sleep. He was going completely blind and we had him on four different medications. Between falling down the stairs and wandering around outside without a clue as to where he was, Marbles really had no quality of life left for him. My little old man is off with his littermates now. I told Prudy she'd better not make me have a decision like that, not that she really understands me. Dad was really torn up. Marbles was *his* cat, after all. It was a rough morning. I ended up not going to the computer show with Larry that day, staying home and helping Dad out with the trucks instead.

night out
We hit Dave & Buster's Saturday night. It was a pretty sedate evening. The guy I was supposed to "not meet" was pretty nice. Mom said that Cathy told her Tom thought he made a bad impression on me. I don't know. He's a nice guy, but he smokes. I'm not a smoker. I've dated smokers in the past and it really gets in the way of a good kiss. Not to mention the fact that *my* clothes begin to smell like I'm the one smoking. It's not really something I want to get involved with again.

Again, maybe I'm being too picky, but he just seemed like another guy at the restaurant. There really didn't seem to be anything worth trying for. At least, I didn't get that feeling. {{shrugs}} I don't know. Maybe it's me.