I am awesome... okay, not really

So I just got paid by the owner of the mill to fix the wireless network! Is that awesome or what? I am going to go bask in the glow of success for a bit.

Today was a crappy day... but I got free coffee

Today, as a day sucked. Woke up and was feeling rather sick, went to find something to eat and realized there was very little food (that wasn't ramen) in the house at the time, went to pay my internet bill and found out I was being charged twice for the same month of service... Bills suck.

I then decided that going to the Mill was an awesome idea, and Mark was working so I got free coffee! Sweet! So my day has sucked far less since I got to the Mill, where I am now studying French and laughing my head off. I should get my French books tomorrow, if I bother to pick 'em up.

Ryan's party is tonight, can't decide if I should go or not. I don't have much else better to do, but in my current state of mind I'd probably make fun of Nick a little too much *evil grin*

Anyhow, back to my French I go!

Music

These are my short, random thoughts on some of the CD's I've listened to lately.

Kevin Max - The Impostor:
Its far less "trippy" then his last two releases, and it almost makes up for him writing a book called "Divine Erotica"... on second thought, nothing could make that up. Its a decent album, worth a listen, just be ready for something a little different (more normal) from Kevin Max, The Impostor isn't anything like Stereotype Be.

Flyleaf - Flyleaf:
If you like somewhat bitter, just a little bit angry chick music, you'll like Flyleaf! An interesting style, but not my cup of tea.

Falling Up - Dawn Escapes:
The first track starts out sounding somewhat eerie, that effect is quickly ruined when it escalates into more of a techno dance beat... I think Falling Up has matured into a more defined sound with Dawn Escapes, but the songs are hit and miss, I don't recall there being any two songs back to back that I liked.

Chasing Furies - With Abandon:
The one-album wonders of the late 90s... Okay, so maybe they weren't wonders... At any rate, they sound a lot like Gretchen, or Barlowgirl... Very chicky for the most part, but unlike Barlowgirl they didn't have any songs that made my ears bleed ;-)

That's all for today...

*evil laugh*

I finally got my LCD around 4ish, so I then proceeded to install it (which took all of 15 minutes).

These are the parts I started out with...















I then attached the screen, bolted it in place, and connected it to the motherboard...



Then I replaced the keyboard and all the other random little parts....



And now the moment of truth!!



It works just fine, I got things right the first time too! I didn't have to take it back apart and try over again, so I was very happy with myself *grin* I'd forgotten how cool a widescreen is, Photoshop is so much easier now!

Why hath UPS forsaken me?!

My package from UPS has been floating around Lincoln since 8 AM this morning, it's status is marked as "OUT FOR DELIVERY" ... Good deal, now where is it? Normally I get my shipments from UPS by 10 or 11 in the morning, its almost 2 in the afternoon and nothing.

Anyhow, I should probably go and eat lunch while I wait.

Sweet monkeys!

I got published in Snaps again this month! Woohoo, that's twice in a row I've been published *grin*

Ick...

Today it rained. Rain can at times be very cool, today's rain was not one of those times. I thought about taking some pictures, but everything was bleak and bland... Not so hot for good pictures.

Last night was a rather long night, I stayed up and watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy while designing a website... Fun times.

I got up at the crack of dawn to drive 50 miles to a meeting, it was a very boring drive, even though I had no idea where I was going because the lady gaze me crappy directions (and MapQuest couldn't even find the address I was driving to), but that's beside the point. It rained, and rained some more... and it was very cold, my feet are still frozen. Once I arrived I drank a pot of coffee, that's one plus side, I then made my pitch and got offered money... it was sweet. Then I drove back. More boredom.

So I've got Bible Bowl tomorrow, and the weeks been rather busy so I haven't had a chance to look at the text. Oh well, I managed to get through Bible Bowl without studying when I was a student, I should be able to pull it off as a sponsor ;-)

36 to 6

36 hours on 6 hours of sleep... Not doing so hot right now.

Yesterday was a long day, and last night was an even longer night... I need coffee.

Turns out UPS sucks and I won't get my LCD screen till Monday. Bugger.

So I sat down to work on that website the other day, and then the world fell apart... again, so yeah, still don't have it done and its due tomorrow, I frankly could care less about it right now, but it pays the bills so I guess I should care. Bleh.

Oh, now that makes sense...

eBay announced their Q3 earnings today, and yes, they made more money than last year (40% over last years 37%) and so in typical Wall Street fashion the stock went up $1.59 per share, to just over $42 a share. Then come market close the stock dropped $2.73... what the crap? Apparently eBay's investment in Skype is still plaguing them. So for a few hours at least my stock was making me big bucks ;-)

I just found out that TDWaterhouse is offering a free iPod Nano in order to attract new traders. The catch? You have to deposit $50,000 in your account to get it, does that make sense? If I had $50,000 to drop on stock would I care about a free iPod? I could just go buy one.

So my LCD screen is supposed to get here on Friday, then comes the fun task of installing it... heh heh...

In other miracles that need performing, I have to have an entire website designed and filled with content by this Saturday. Do I look like a freakin' miracle worker? Guess so... Wish me luck, I'm off to get started.

The things we do...

Call me strange, but most times, I come to the Mill to study or hangout with some friends and chat over coffee... Apparently, other people come here for completely different reasons... Take for example the couple sitting across from me, they're about to cause me to puke all over my laptop, they seemingly came here so she could sit on his lap and they could suck face. What the crap?!

On the side of less sickening things, the college student next to me came here to defrag his harddrive and listen to bitter music.

Anyhow, enough about that sort of thing... I just spent $279 on a new LCD panel for my old laptop... dun dun da! Hopefully I'll get it before the end of the week, I'm wondering if I actually can remember how to install the bloody thing (I took the laptop apart more than 4 months ago), so wish me luck with that.

I've been toying around with Photoshop CS2 and so far I'm fairly impressed, at first glance not a lot has changed from CS, but there are a few sweet new features (or feature enhancements), no way you'd catch me buying the full version without a student discount *grin* Sadly, I'm no where near as good with Photoshop as I would like to be, but I've been learning some awesome tricks from my friend Matt, real basic stuff mind you (and those of you who are masters of Photoshop will scoff at my excitement I'm sure), but I at least feel like I'm getting a better handle on things.

Well, my coffee's cold, so I need to go get a refill. And I probably should get back to studying as well... bleh...

Oh yeah... I'd forgotten

I was standing in my small kitchen talking with my roommate earlier tonight, when I happen to glance at the ugly lampshade that's sitting on our dining room table, when suddenly it hits me... There's a stinking wedding this Saturday, and yes, I'd completely spaced it. Word.

As for the logic behind that lampshade causing such a revelation, well, it belongs to the lamp that my friends and I bought for the happy couple (I think it's ugly, but they'll like it... at least the bride will).

Anyhow, I went to buy that LCD screen for my old laptop, but it was sold already. Bloody muffins! Found another one for $400, but that's insane, I could get a whole new unit for $550 if I felt like it. Grr. So that plan and my plans to take over the world have been put on hold for the time being.

Oddly enough...

It strikes me as rather odd, perhaps even a tad ironic... but I just bought my first item on eBay, and I own friggin' stock in eBay. Shouldn't I have taken the plunge to support my investment sooner? Maybe, but logically I figure I spent all my money on stock in eBay, so I didn't have any extra to spend buying stuff off eBay... hey, that actually makes sense! (To me at least)

At any rate, I bought a new power adapter for my old laptop, since the adapter broke along with the LCD when my laptop took a tragic fall off a desk *sniff* But it works fine when plugged into a monitor, so it has its uses still (or it will once I get the new adapter). I'm also looking at buying a new LCD for it, cause I'm just cool like that. I'd just like to say they're bloody hard to find, that's for sure!

Speaking of spending money... I was thinking about getting an Apple computer at some point to use for my graphic design stuff and since I'd like to dabble with some video editing as well. Anyhow, I had this idea when sitting at the local coffee shop, and after spending 20 minutes looking at my options (and crying because I'm poor), I happened to look around at the people at the tables around me and I noticed something disturbing... Everyone who was using a Mac either looked preppy or looked like a professor, if I get a Mac do I have to pick a side in this? On the plus side, everyone of them had a nice car, so maybe there's a direct correlation between owning a Mac and having a nice car! (Most likely one of those things where if you have the money for a Mac in the first place you have the money for a nice car... or else you just like the feeling of being in debt)

It's 3:47 in the morning... normal people would be sleeping right now... I guess I should be pretend to be normal for a couple hours.

Fun stuff...

Today was like any normal day when it started. I woke up (slowly), took a shower and headed off to teach some people how to design websites. Exciting.

After that I took a trip to the Mill for some coffee and an afternoon of figuring out how to use Photoshop CS2, a couple hours in the internet went out. Very sad. So I asked the dude working to reset the router, and he did... still no dice, nobody could connect to the network.... dun dun da... So then I asked him if I could go check out the router (located in their basement) and he said "sure", I was surprised they actually let me take a look at it (I guess I am in here enough after all), so 5 minutes later (after a bit of yelling at their computer in the basement) the internet went back up, yay! So that's my fun story of the day, or maybe even the week... we'll see. Thankless work to be sure, not even any free coffee for me! Oh well, it was fun anyway. Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I'm the new admin of the Mill's network, cool, huh?

Well, Conroy's closes in half an hour, so its time to go get some donuts!

p.s. Yes, I know, I only posted to brag :P