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Sun, 28 Feb 2010 {1:27 am}
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Quite a lot has been done since our last visit. We came after dark, so we don't have any exterior photos. Not a lot is different on the outside anyways. They've finished drywalling and the "resilient" flooring is in. All the light fixtures are in, along with all of the electrical outlets and light switches. The water heater is installed, and the electric has been turned on. The heater was running and the house was a warm 74 degrees. The kitchen cabinets have been installed, but not the counter tops or any of the appliances. All the bathrooms seemed to be done, or nearly so. The basement had quite a bit of water on the floor, but I think it had something to do with the fact that the yard grading hasn't been done yet and water was building up around the sides of the basement walls.







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Sun, 21 Feb 2010 {6:54 pm}
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I haven't been inside in a couple weeks, but they should be done with the dry-walling, and as you can see with the latest photo, they are finishing up the siding. Last I heard they were working on the kitchen. I don't have a whole lot to say about it since I haven't been inside in a while. I might try stopping by after work sometime and see how things have progressed internally.

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Fri, 05 Feb 2010 {10:35 pm}
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We had our pre-drywall builder conference today. In addition to what was finished last week, they have now completed wiring, wall insulation, and there's a front door. I believe they were having some municipal inspections today and they will be drywalling most of next week. We've been given March 25th as our New Homeowner Orientation and a few days later we should close on the house and be able to move in.

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Sun, 31 Jan 2010 {9:59 pm}
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Not a whole lot has been done in the last couple weeks. They put on all the windows and the sliding doors on the back of the house. The garage floor has been poured, and they built the stairs. Also, the plumbing is in, the furnace is in, and some of the electric wiring has been done. The phone and cable still need to be installed as well as the security system wiring and the insulation before they can begin dry-walling.




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Sun, 17 Jan 2010 {6:27 pm}
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This week they finished the outside walls and got the roof put on. We went into the garage and took a few photos of the inside. They still need to build the stairs, but it looks like they're a lot closer to starting on all of the cosmetic stuff.
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Sun, 10 Jan 2010 {3:00 am}
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We drove by last week but didn't take any pictures. They had the first floor framing almost done. This week they were will working again when we went by, so we only took one photo from the entry of the street. We haven't charged our camera in a while, so this was taken with Ally's phone. They've almost got both floors framed. I imagine they'll begin working on the roof soon.
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Tue, 29 Dec 2009 {2:59 pm}
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And here's the week three photos. Not a whole lot has happened since it was Christmas this week. The space around the basement walls have been filled in and the garage floor has been poured. Also support beams have been placed in the basement.


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Sat, 19 Dec 2009 {6:22 pm}
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Week 2 of construction

And here are some more photos of the basement. As you can see, the walls are up and a small amount of basement plumbing is in. The area around the outside of the walls was dug out, so I couldn't get real close.
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Sat, 12 Dec 2009 {11:22 pm}
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Construction has started on our new home this past week. Right now there's just a hole in the ground with some cement in there.
Here's the lot before construction:

And Here it is after the first week:
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Mon, 30 Nov 2009 {11:08 pm}
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We bought a new home! Well, to be more accurate, we are contractually obligated to purchase a home when its construction is completed. It will be in Hamilton Twp, Ohio, near Maineville. We have a nearly half acre cul-de-sac lot. The house has 4 bedrooms with 2140 sq ft and will have a full unfinished basement. Construction is expected to complete in March 2010.

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Sun, 25 Oct 2009 {11:37 pm}
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Trogdor pumpkin!

I screwed it up, but I think it turned out alright. Trogdor was supposed to be cut out, rather than being the part that was left.
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Thu, 18 Jun 2009 {9:52 pm}
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Our closing date has been changed to July 14th due to a lender delay.

We'll be back in Lafayette this weekend for Father's Day, and again for July 4th weekend.

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Sun, 14 Jun 2009 {8:56 pm}
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We've received a verbal acceptance of our counter offer. w00t! Right now the closing date is set for July 9th. The buyer was out of town today and wasn't available to sign the acceptance document yet, but he's supposed to when he gets back. Hopefully he doesn't change his mind in the mean time.
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Sat, 13 Jun 2009 {10:18 pm}
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We got another offer on the house today. This is the third one we've gotten so far, but most of them have been really low and no one has accepted or even countered our counter offers. Hopefully this one goes better.

When Best Buy delivered the washer & dryer, they decided to install them for us for free. They work pretty well. The washer supposedly only costs $8/year in energy to operate so that's a plus.

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Thu, 14 May 2009 {12:51 pm}
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Well, today (and tomorrow (and another day next week)) is moving day. The packers are here right now, but they're almost done. Tomorrow the truck comes and another group of people loads everything up. Then sometime next week the truck arrives and everything gets put in the house.

I also finally bought a washer and dryer for the new place. They'll be delivered next Tuesday and then I get to install them. Fun, fun, fun.

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Sun, 12 Apr 2009 {1:04 am}
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I guess I ought to update this thing sometime this year. I'm now 25 years old. I bought the new DSi last week. And last month we bought Ally a 2007 Honda Fit.

Take that, Twitter.

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Thu, 25 Dec 2008 {1:06 pm}
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I guess it has been a while. I interviewed at three places (two were different divisions of the same company), received very good offers from both companies, and decided to go with Northrop Grumman - Xetron in Cincinnati. I start work on January 12th. Ally and I will be looking at apartments the week prior and hopefully in a year we'll be ready to buy a home again. We have yet to put our current house up for sale, but we should be doing that in the near future.
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Mon, 03 Nov 2008 {1:39 am}
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As most of the people who would be visiting this website already know, Arxan laid off 23 of its roughly 100 employees on 30 October. I was one of them. The severance package included 2 weeks pay + 1 week for every year of service + payment for any unused vacation. In all, I'm getting 3 weeks pay since I hadn't taken any of my vacation yet.

So, now I'm applying for jobs. I suppose I'll have time to update this as things come along.

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Sun, 24 Aug 2008 {11:17 pm}
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I installed Ubuntu on my PS3 on Thursday. Finally was able to successfully install the kernel that allowed WiFi networking to work on Friday. I applied the overscan fix using fbset on Saturday. And later found out that video playback was horrendous (at least from high def sources, haven't tried SD). I read about efforts to utilize the PS3's GPU from Linux, but apparently firmware 2.10 effectively stopped what success had been had (which came out in January), so I don't have an old enough firmware for it to work. The PS3 also has several Synergistic Processor Units (SPUs), which someone has made a video driver to use, but of course it's very buggy. Some people have apparently had success using that driver with MythTV. I installed it, but something seems to be wrong with my mysql installation (which it requires), but I haven't put in the effort to find out what's wrong.
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Sat, 26 Jul 2008 {1:25 pm}
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I switched to a new web hosting provider. My other one doesn't expire for another two months, but this one was on sale (probably the perpetual sale that says it ends at the end of the month, and then next month you have until the end of that month to get the deal.) But the monthly price is the same as my old one (it's cheapest offering is now $10/month compared to the $4/month I was at). The new host will provide DNS for unlimited domain names, so I can have Ally's website hosted properly (instead of just the GoDaddy redirect to hoam.altoidbox.com). If we decide to do an Allen and Company website, we would be able to host it here as well. Woo.
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Wed, 16 Jul 2008 {7:15 pm}
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My PS3 PSN network ID. Woo.

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Tue, 17 Jun 2008 {5:53 pm}
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Ahoy-hoy. Not much has been going on, so I haven't much to say. The Death Note movie was in theaters in May, and Bleach: Memories of Nobody last week. Quite unusual of the old Goodrich Quality Monopoly to have such things. They were sure to charge extra though, so it wasn't all good. The grass in the back yard has been coming in. I've already mowed it twice. I'd share a picture, but I'm too lazy right now.
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Thu, 08 May 2008 {2:21 am}
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Grades are in.

CS483   A
CS422   A
PHIL206 A
ASTR264 A
Final GPA: 3.81
CS GPA:    3.92
Hours completed: 126
Hours needed:    124

I shall be graduating this Saturday with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. I don't know if they assign degrees for minors, but they are Philosophy and Organizational Leadership & Supervision if they do count for anything.

It only took me 6 years (comprised of 8 full semesters and one summer semester)

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Thu, 01 May 2008 {12:37 pm}
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In other news, I'm done with all but one final. CS483 is the only remaining one, and it is probably the hardest as well. Luckily, I have it at 8 in the morning.

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Wed, 23 Apr 2008 {8:24 pm}
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Here you go Allen, fresh cat:

His name is Fry.
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Mon, 07 Apr 2008 {7:09 am}
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I turn 24 today. Yay!
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Sun, 23 Mar 2008 {11:51 pm}
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Seven weeks until graduation (and starting at Arxan full time).
Five weeks until finals begin.
Three weeks until we close on our house.
Two weeks until my 24th birthday.
w00t!
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Fri, 08 Feb 2008 {12:21 am}
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Our Realtor finally heard back from the seller's Realtor on Tuesday evening. They countered our latest offer changing the closing date by one day (so the seller could save some money on a mortgage payment, or something like that). So we accepted the counter-offer. In mid/late April we'll be moving to 401 Big Pine, West Lafayette. The house comes with all necessary appliances (refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, washer & dryer), so we won't have any big start up costs. And, they were all bought new within the last couple years, so that's an additional plus. There will be some furniture we need to buy, but nothing pressing--I mean, we do alright with what we have now in the apartment.
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Mon, 04 Feb 2008 {7:42 pm}
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Well, we haven't heard back about our latest offer (sent Thursday), and our Realtor hasn't been able to get a hold of their Realtor since Friday.

Unless we do hear back from them soon, I think I'll wait another month before looking at any other houses. The housing market isn't supposed to be getting better any time soon, and we'll be more likely to find someone willing to wait 45 days or so rather than 90 days or more.

Drill was this weekend. Basically, we tracked down equipment that's been on the books but no one knew where it was in order that we could ship it out to other units. Boring stuff. Next month will be more of the same.

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Wed, 30 Jan 2008 {7:20 pm}
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We've put in a couple offers on that house, but their Realtor (Cathy Russel, of all people) or the seller himself doesn't seem to get that the closing date in the offer is the earliest we can possibly close. In their latest counter-offer (after one round gone through already and explaining to them why the closing date has to be when it is), they kept the price where we wanted it, but they changed the close date to the middle of March. Our Realtor talked to the lender again to see if there was any way to get a mortgage for then, but it just ain't happening. I called Bank of America this evening (they sent me a letter about their "no closing cost" mortgage a couple weeks ago), and we would have to close even later than what Countrywide will let us do. Now, I don't necessarily think closing in the middle of March is a good move, considering I'd still have a couple months of school left and we'd have to deal with the payments on the apartment during that time too (in order to terminate the lease, they require 60 days notice, and then charge you 2 months rent extra). I've thought about doing a sublet, but I don't know how much hassle that would be. At least if I could get someone to rent it, I wouldn't blatantly be giving away money for no good reason.

On another, somewhat related note, I'm considering getting a geothermal heating/cooling system installed once I move into a house (providing the installation cost isn't prohibitive.) There is a program Indiana has that will give up to a $2000 rebate to someone installing such a system. Duke energy has a $200 rebate program, and part of the cost I could write off on Federal taxes. I think it would be a good investment, so long as I stay in the house long enough to reap the benefits.

On to homework...

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Sun, 27 Jan 2008 {6:26 pm}
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We looked at those houses yesterday, and today we looked at the second two on the list again. After further consideration, we really like the 401 Big Pine house a lot better than the other one.

The other home (4616 Elijah) after further inspection has lots of stains in the carpets, poor paint in some places, some scuffed walls in certain rooms, they didn't use the door stops so the locks on the door knobs have created dents in the walls, the fencing around the deck seems kind of weak, and it's 400 sq ft smaller.

The Big Pine home has a good paint job, very few (I only noticed 1) carpet stains, a much flatter back yard, and larger rooms. We would have to seed the back yard though as it is now mostly dirt and rocks, but that shouldn't be too bad.

I was kind of disappointed that both homes have low efficiency furnaces and water heaters. I wonder if we can sell them back to a heating/cooling contractor for a discount on high efficiency replacements. Probably not, but it would be nice.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2008 {12:40 am}
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I got a new laptop. Not new per se, but it's new to me. The specs are only slightly better than my old one (save for the smaller hard drive), but it's the XPS M1210 (12.1"). I was getting tired of the bigger Inspiron 1420 (14.2"), and selling it resulted in only a small expense on my part for getting the smaller laptop. It's the same size as my old Dell 700M, which was a little larger than my old Fujitsu P5000, which, again, was slightly larger than my even older P2000.

I'm disappointed that Dell's new small laptops have gone the way of being thin rather than actually being small. The XPS M1330 (13.3", notice a trend?) does not feel like a small laptop. It is very light and thin towards the front, but the back of the laptop is just about as thick as the M1210, and the extended life battery sticks down rather than out, making it even thicker. Why would they put a battery that extends in the thickness direction on a laptop that they exclaim is "one of the world's thinnest". They're completely negating their thinness advantage by extending the extra battery space in this direction.

On a separate note, Ally and I will be going to look at houses on Saturday. We already looked at some houses a couple weeks ago and put an offer on one, but the seller was looking for a quick sell and we can't close until May at the earliest.
Houses we'll look at on Saturday, in order of my preference based on photos and driving by each one.
4951 N 50 W, WL
401 Big Pine, WL
4616 Elijah, WL
1166 Montgomery, WL
1621 Shining Armor, WL

I really like the second house (from photos), but the yard is kind of lacking, and its in a subdivision.
I also like the first one mostly because of the yard and location. I'm not sure about the house yet since there are no interior photos, but it is a split level and is likely very similar to my parent's house, though it seems to be mostly contained on the upper floor with a second living room and utility type stuff in the lower floor. it also has a deck out back.

Well, that's it for now.

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Tue, 08 Jan 2008 {12:10 am}
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Employment news!

I received and accepted an employment offer from Arxan today. I don't yet have a hard start date, but it will be in May sometime. I will continue to work there as an intern during my final semester at Purdue.

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Wed, 02 Jan 2008 {8:39 am}
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Happy 2008!

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Wed, 19 Dec 2007 {9:44 pm}
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And grades are indeed in.

The results:

Software Security:A
Ancient Philosophy:A
General Chemistry:A
Leadership Through Teams:A

Yup. All 'A's, and I'm also on the Dean's List and Semester Honors. Only one semester left until I graduate--6 years after finishing high school.

I still haven't gotten word from Arxan about employment, but I think I should soon.

All Christmas shopping is done, save for one person. And I yet to receive my N810. I actually have gotten tired of waiting for it and have bought a slightly cheaper and slightly more used one off of eBay which should arrive tomorrow. I'll sell the new one when I get it and hopefully come out ahead since I got such a good deal on it in the first place.

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Mon, 10 Dec 2007 {8:17 pm}
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As you may or may not know, I had interviews today for a full time position at Arxan. If you didn't know, don't feel too left out as I only found out myself last Friday. The interviews went well, and (I think) by the end of the week I should find out the results.

Other news...

My Nokia N810 has not arrived. So far as I can tell, it hasn't even been shipped yet, but I did get it for $70 under retail, so I can't complain that much so long as I do get it (this month, preferably).

Apparently, I never updated the quick-links with my Fall 2007 schedule, and now it should be time to put up the Spring 2008 schedule.

Finals this week:
Tuesday - Chemistry
Wednesday - Software Security
Friday - Philosophy

Grades in - Dec. 19

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Sun, 02 Dec 2007 {12:18 am}
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Twice so close together, I know.... Anyways, here's my Christmas list, which may get updated from time to time. At the moment, I only have video games on the list, but I think I should have other things I just don't know what. I wanted tools previously, but Ally already got me a power tool set with a drill, rotary saw, and another kind of saw. I already have a socket set. I guess I could use a wrench set or screw driver set. The drill didn't come with very many bits, so maybe a drill bet set would be good too, but I don't see myself drilling much of anything in the very near future. On with the list!

Ordered by Platform:

If I add anything new, I'll put it at the top of the list as to be more noticeable.

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Sat, 01 Dec 2007 {11:23 pm}
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As you might have seen in the Jabber, I said I was going to try out the E-TEN x800, which I did, see?
It has basically the same features as the Tilt without the keyboard and half the RAM, but it has double both the vertical and horizontal screen resolution, making web viewing easier. Though I've had it for a week now, I feel it's not as good a device as the Tilt. I'm going to sell both of them and go back to my regular phone. I realized that my wife can dial a number (or do speed dial) in a couple seconds while I'm spending 30 seconds to get the number up in the contact list. It wasn't a big problem on the Tilt because I had the top 10 on the main screen on the people tab. Two clicks and I'm done, but the x800 isn't compatible with that program. I really liked the high resolution though.

I found a Nokia n810 Internet Tablet with an even higher resolution (800x480), a larger screen, GPS, QWERTY keyboard, and it costs a hundred and some dollars less. I figure that I don't need my phone and my PDA to be the same device (though it would be handy), especially if my phone is small enough that I'm not carrying two big things around.

Stock footage:

Hardware Specs:
  • 72x128x14mm - 226g
  • 4.13" 800x480 Touch display
  • 400MHz OMAP 2420 CPU
  • 128MB DDR RAM
  • 256MB Flash memory
  • 2.0GB Internal Memory
  • Slide out QWERTY keyboard
  • GPS
  • Microphone & Stereo Speakers
  • VGA (web) camera
  • 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth
  • USB 2.0
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
Software:
  • OS2008, Linux based
  • Mozilla based broswer
  • Included Mapping Software with free downloadable maps
  • Email support (IMAP, POP, SMTP)
  • Media Player (audio, video)
  • Image viewer
  • RSS feed reader
  • VOIP capability with video calling
  • PDF reader
  • More free software from Maemo.org!
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Tue, 20 Nov 2007 {9:57 pm}
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Well, it has been a while...

Thanksgiving break begins tomorrow (or it began at 2:45pm today for me.) I've been playing Super Paper Mario recently. I bought it sometime in May or June, but had only played about an hour until a few days ago, now I'm up to around 15 hours.

Also, about a month ago, I got a PDA phone. I had been wanting a PDA for a while, but didn't really want to carry an extra thing around with me. I had considered PDA phones in the past, but they were expensive and were BIG. Well, they're still kind of expensive, but they're much smaller now. I got an HTC Kaiser (AT&T 8925).

Not only is it a PocketPC, but it has GPS on it too.

For Halloween, Allen & Co. had a fast food theme. I was Wendy:

Ally was the Hamburglar, Allen was the Burger King, Bryan was the Arby's guy, and Steve went as a "runner" from Logan's Run since it was his 30th birthday.

Apart from that, I've been working at Arxan on Mondays & Fridays, going to school Tue-Thur, and not doing much of anything on the weekends.

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Thu, 20 Sep 2007 {1:09 am}
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I've decided to upgrade my desktop computer, and since I got 6 months same as cash financing, I can spread the cost over several months.

I decided to get an Intel quad-core cpu. I had considered waiting until the AMD Phenom x4 processors come out, but I heard the overclocking potential for the Intel Q6600 was great and the price was reasonable, so I sprung for it. I got 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a new TV Tuner/DVR with hardware MPEG2 encoding (whereas my old one had software encoding, though it has lasted a few years and worked well - thanks, Dad). I have been able to overclock it to 3.0ghz (from its stock 2.4ghz) by changing the FSB setting from 266mhz to 333mhz. Since it was running a little hot, I decided to get a new - and better - heatsink and fan. Unfortunately, I had to remove the motherboard from the case to install it, and shortly after installing it, my power supply bit the dust. So now I have to buy a new power supply, though I'm not entirely supprised this one died. I've had it since my last one died, which I believe was over a year ago, I don't remember, but I'd rather spend $30 a year or so to replace cheap and crappy PSU's rather than shelling out $120 or more to get a good one, and needing to replace it every 3 or so years to keep up with the power requirements of the newer systems I'm upgrading to.

Anyhow, it's late and I should be going to bed so I won't be tired for school tomorrow. My old hardware will be on eBay soon, so I may place another post when that happens.

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Sat, 18 Aug 2007 {12:08 am}
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It's been a while since I last wrote. Summer "break" is over. School starts on Monday, and I'll continue to be working at Arxan during the fall semester.

Because Dell was giving $250 discounts on $1000 or more laptops bought by students, and they were giving free upgrades to 2GB ram and 160GB hard drives, and because we were getting a good deal of financial aid, Ally and I decided to get new laptops. They are the Dell 1420 with Core 2 Duo processors, and I've already mentioned the other two most important components. As such I am selling our old laptops, but the auctions are almost over by now.

My old laptop: See it!
Ally's old laptop: See it!

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Sat, 02 Jun 2007 {11:42 pm}
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New games for the Wii: NFS: Carbon, Super Paper Mario (en route), Mario Party 8 (sold out, but I got a $20 gift card at Circuit City for trying to buy it). Games sold: Elebits. Net cost : $65 for 3 new games & 1 sold. Well, I only have 1 of the games and have only paid for 2 of them, but the third is a planned purchase. Basically, Mario Party 8 will be free if you subtract the proceeds from Elebits & the $20 gift card.

Other than that, I've finished 1 month at Arxan, and it seems to be pretty enjoyable. All the other interns are fun folk, and the regular employees aren't too bad either.

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Wed, 09 May 2007 {7:58 am}
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Grades are in: A's across the board. Yay, woo.
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Fri, 04 May 2007 {7:16 am}
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I'm done with finals, will be doing Army Reserve stuff today, Sat, & Sun, and I start working at Arxan on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, I get to find out how I did in all my classes, which two I already know I got an A, the other two are dependent on how well I did on the final.
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Tue, 24 Apr 2007 {4:39 pm}
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The Wii did come in the mail today. I got it set up and played some Tennis, several games of Bowling, and a 3 hole game of golf before having to return to school.

Wii#: 1541 4464 9559 2128

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Mon, 16 Apr 2007 {8:58 pm}
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To celebrate my internship, I bought myself a Wii off of eBay. It was used, but came with
All together, if I were to buy all of this new, it would cost approximately $525, but I got it on eBay for only $400.
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Mon, 16 Apr 2007 {2:50 pm}
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Internship search update:
The Interns for Indiana matches are done. I have been paired with Arxan Technologies in West Lafayette for a summer internship.

Other Internship related news that doesn't matter any more:

I should be starting my internship with Arxan on or around May 7, right after a nice four day Army Reserve weekend.

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Tue, 03 Apr 2007 {1:57 pm}
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Today I had an interview with Arxan which is located in Purdue's Research Park. It seemed to go pretty well, and I was the last of the four interviewees to leave. According to the sign out sheet, one left an hour and fifteen minutes before me. There was a hacker aptitude test, since most of what Arxan does relates to software security, and one of the best ways to test security is to try and crack it yourself. Other than that, not much of anything else happened.

The Interns for Indiana Job Fair was canceled due to lack of company interest. Today's interview was my first IfI interview, and there is only until the 13th before IfI interviews are over, so hopefully I'll be hearing from some more companies in the near future.

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Fri, 30 Mar 2007 {6:15 pm}
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I had a brief telephone interview with Baker Hill this afternoon. And, after talking to Steve, I found out that his brother Charles works for Baker Hill. It wasn't much of an interview, I think they just wanted to talk to me for a few minutes to see if they want to do a more complete interview later. I was told that I should find out in the next several days if I'll be having another interview with them.
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Wed, 28 Mar 2007 {3:22 pm}
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I received a request for my transcript from Baker Hill (who makes software for banks & credit unions) about an hour ago, so I might be getting another interview soon. Though considering how the Interns for Indiana program works, if I get an offer from any of the participating companies which match a list I provide of acceptable host companies, then the offer is automatically accepted for me, and the date for that is only about 2-3 weeks away.
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Tue, 27 Mar 2007 {4:33 pm}
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I had my interview today for a CTI Group Summer Internship position. There were several things they asked about that I didn't have answers for, but they still seemed positive towards the end. So maybe they were more trying to asses what all I knew and didn't really expect me to know everything that they were asking about. They said they wouldn't be making any offers until mid-April. My Interns for Indiana deal is supposed to have all of its decisions made by April 9th, so if I get an internship there, I'll have to won't be able to do the CTI one.

7:19pm UPDATE!
It turns out that the Interns for Indiana Job fair, along with all of the decision making, has been postponed by 1 week. Therefore, I'll have an extra week to see if I hear anything from CTI before I have to commit for sure to the IfI internship.

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Sun, 18 Mar 2007 {4:11 pm}
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Spring Break's Over!!! Whooo!
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Sat, 17 Feb 2007 {2:38 pm}
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I got this on the 7th, actually, but hadn't taken any pictures of it yet.

The "New" Car!

2003 Grand Am GT
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Wed, 14 Feb 2007 {10:45 am}
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Happy Valentines Day!

Ally made me my Valentine dinner early, so we had that last night. Steak covered by bacon, sides of salad and a fried cheese-onion-spinach ball, with an apple tart for dessert. It was teh awesome.

Also, Purdue Cancels Classes! For half of Tuesday and all of today. w00t!

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Thu, 25 Jan 2007 {11:36 am}
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Schedule now here!
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Fri, 19 Jan 2007 {11:15 pm}
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I was a pallbearer in my grandma's funeral today. Bernice Boeckman was born on December 25th, 1929 and died on January 16th, 2007. She has had Alzheimer's disease for several years and was seemingly well past her time to go after being bed-ridden and without conscious activity for a few years.
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Mon, 01 Jan 2007 {6:20 pm}
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Happy New Years!

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Mon, 25 Dec 2006 {11:13 am}
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Happy December-ween Everyone! Oh, and Merry Christmas too.
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Wed, 20 Dec 2006 {8:43 am}
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It's official! All A's this semester. w00t!
FALL 2006
Classification: 6 School: S Major: 73C Campus: West Lafayette
ASTR 263 DSCR ASTR-SOLAR SYSTEM3.00A
C S 354 OPERATING SYSTEMS 3.00A
C S 381 INTRO ANALYSIS ALGOR 3.00A
OLS 284 LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES 3.00A
Grad GPA: 3.72 Hrs: 78.0 Pts: 290.0 Sem GPA: 4.00 Hrs: 12.0 Pts: 48.0
Semester Honors & Dean's List
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Mon, 18 Dec 2006 {6:23 pm}
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Altoid Clock
Gifts from Allen Bol

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Thu, 14 Dec 2006 {9:20 pm}
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Finals are over. I actually finished my last one on Wednesday. On Monday was my Astronomy final, Tuesday was Operating Systems, and yesterday was Algorithms. They were also taken in increasing order of difficulty. Though I'm quite confident that I did well in all of them. I expect to get an 'A' in all my classes this semester, even in my fourth class, Leadership Principles, which didn't have a formal final during finals week, but it did have the Ultimate WAK during the week after Thanksgiving.

I've been working on Ally's new website, Hoam Productions, which will showcase the comics she's been working on so that publishers can have a look at them (and her website in general). It has a "bloggish" look to it on the main page. It has a gallery for pictures or photos, and it allows visitors to give feed back on entries, comics, or pictures as well as leaving general comments on the main page à la my Jibber Jabber. Its nearing completion in terms of the back-end, Ally just needs to input more information and more comics.

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Thu, 23 Nov 2006 {11:28 am}
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Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday was dinner with the Amador's. Friday was dinner with the Boeckman's. Nothing special to report at either. Food, movies, & games. C'est tous.
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Tue, 21 Nov 2006 {8:58 pm}
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Well, would you look at that! A decorated Christmas tree and a loot full of presents and its not even Thanksgiving yet!? You can blame my wife for that. I don't usually do my shopping until about the 20th of December. :) I guess it is good to be done with most of it.
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Wed, 01 Nov 2006 {9:30 am}
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All Saint's Day Palooza

The Monarch & Dr Girlfriend aka Dr Mrs Monarch

Clicking the photo takes you to the Halloween album rather than to that particular photo in the album. We didn't really do much. Handed out candies to children, ate the pork shoulder Steve had prepared for us, had Steve's b-day cake, and watched some good old Venture Brothers Season 1.

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Sun, 22 Oct 2006 {10:57 pm}
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I got married today. Pictures will be in the gallery in the coming days/weeks.
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Thu, 19 Oct 2006 {12:07 am}
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Well, the lappy arrived today, and after running it once to see the results of the problem myself, I promptly began disassembling it. After having it disassembled as far as the instructions go, I found I was not yet at my problem. As it seemed the backlight only came on when the inverter power cord was bent a certain way, but in order to get a better look at it, I had to take the back cover off the display. This proved difficult as I only had a crappy set of Allen key wrenches and the one I needed was the smallest, but using much force and a set of pliers for grip, I was able to get display cover off. There are two wires broken in the power inverter cable. They were just snapped off when I saw them, but I've since unsheathed them in preparation for splicing.


Edited 23 Oct 2006 12:10am
I have since lent the LCD portion to Steve who had volunteered to resolder the two broken cables and put some heat shrink tubing on them. Thanks Steve! (who doesn't read this)
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Thu, 12 Oct 2006 {10:13 pm}
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w00t! After buying one PowerBook G3 and reselling it for $50 profit, I found this wonder of a deal that I plan to keep. It's an Apple iBook G3 800mhz with 640MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, and included AirPort card with Mac OSX (10.4.8) and Mac OS 9.2.2 installed. It does come with one issue: the back-light goes out after the lid is opened to about a 20 degree angle and beyond. I'm hoping this is an easy fix, otherwise I'll be tied down to an external monitor. But even with the issue, it was bought at an excellent price.
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Tue, 19 Sep 2006 {2:31 pm}
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Today is talk like a pirate day. And I took a quiz to find out my Pirate name... Here be.



My pirate name is:


Dread Pirate Rackham



Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network
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Thu, 10 Aug 2006 {1:46 pm}
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On Satuday, Aug 5, I moved out and into an apartment with my newly appointed fiancée. As of now, the wedding date is set for Oct 22 of this year to be held in Battleground (if we can ever contact them) or alternately in Prophetstown. The fall semester starts on the 21st of this month and after it's completion I will be more than halfway done with my college education. Thats it for now, I guess.
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Fri, 07 Jul 2006 {12:50 am}
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Here's what I gave to Ally today (or at least a stock photo of something very similar to what I gave her.)

w00t!

And as proof she said yes, here's a crappy picture of her hand wearing aforementioned ring. Though, being as it is, this photo is probably not capable of really proving anything.

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Tue, 04 Jul 2006 {3:15 pm}
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It's the Fourth! Are you violating any city ordnances today?
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Wed, 14 Jun 2006 {9:35 pm}
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This is a new post, used for testing my new method of adding news to this website. Lets see if it works!
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Sun, 11 Jun 2006 {7:12 pm}
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I got my DS Lite today and gave Ally my old DS yesterday. I'll post pics of my DS probably soon maybe if I feel like it. Its not like you can't see it on a billion other pages by now. And the people who would see it here will probably see it in person in the near future.

Summer school starts tomorrow as does work. I will be working monday - wednesday, 3pm - 10pm in BRNG B281 or whatever that large group of labs is called down there.

Other than that, not much is happening I guess. I've got drill this weekend. So, I'll be heading towards old Danville, Japan at around 7am Saturday morning...

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Sun, 04 Jun 2006 {8:09 pm}
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Summer school begins next monday and so should my work. Though as of yet, I don't have a schedule or heard anything for when one will be available for work, but my two classes will run from 11-noon and 1-2. I thought I ought to just have a little update on here since its been so long.
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Tue, 18 Apr 2006 {10:48 am}
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The week after next is finals week. And then no more school (or work) until June 12th. This weekend I'll be going to Camp Atterbury with my old Army Reserve Unit from Danville. Boring stuff, boring stuff.
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Fri, 07 Apr 2006 {11:13 am}
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Today is my birthday. I am 22. w00t!
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Sat, 11 Feb 2006 {12:49 pm}
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In case you don't already know, on Wednesday Ally, Steve, and I went to Detroit, MI in order to attend a "lecture" by Shinichiro Watanabe, director of popular anime Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. It wasn't so much a lecture as a panel discussion followed by a Q&A with the audience. On the panel were a professor of Japanese culture at MIT, an anime review columnist, and the guy that runs AnimeFest in Texas (whom also acted as the interpreter). Photos were forbidden, but he did do a signing afterword where Steve got a Cowboy Bebop boxset signed for his brother, Ally got her Cowboy Bepop "Spike" shirt signed for herself, and I got a sheet of paper signed for Steve. The photo of Ally's shirt with the signiture is in the photo album.

It was quite an exciting event. We sat in the front row pretty much directly in front of Watanabe and the panel. The professor was long winded pretty much about everything including the questions asked to Watanabe-san which made for difficult translation and discovery of the actual question within his little speech. The anime columnist only asked two questions, the latter of which was pretty much discarded after Mr. Watanabe wasn't sure what the question was, and the professor said it would be hard to answer and proceeded asking a new question. The AnimeFest/interpreter guy's questions were much more concise and to the point.

The audience questions pretty much sucked. It started out with an old man asking if what we had seen (the first episode of Samurai Champloo) was going to be made in to a TV show and if it would be shown in the United States. Of course, the making of that series is already completed and I believe is still currently running on Adult Swim. The other ones weren't much better, but I guess the best one of the bunch might have been about how Samurai Champloo could be bringing together two quite separate groups of people--anime enthusiast's and hip-hop people--with it's choice of music. Which it seems to have attracted quite of few of the hip-hop loving people.

On Thursday, we spent an hour trying to find The Breakfast Club, which supposedly serves the best french toast in Detroit. And it was indeed very good. After that we went to Windsor, Canada and Ally mailed off a post card, we ate at the Canadian equavalent to Krispy Kreme, and got some Canadian candies before returning to the United States. On the way back we stopped at Wizzywig in Ann Arbor to see what cool sorts of anime goodness they had. Ally bought several figurines from the Tsubasa series, a Full Metal Alchemist purse, a little blue enemy guy from Dragon Quest (for Bryan), and a cool tri-level pen(cil) holder with two little pigs on it. Monokuro boo.

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Sun, 08 Jan 2006 {1:15 am}
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I've gotten my work schedule for this semester. Essentially I work 7-11pm Mon-Thur, and 8-11pm on Sunday. I've grafted it into my school schedule and is available for your viewing pleasure here

Night, night.

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Mon, 02 Jan 2006 {10:25 am}
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And a Happy New Year.

I'll post a combined school and work schedule up here as soon as I know what the work schedule is. This is so any kidnappers or murderers are out there to find me, you'll know exactly where I'm at, when, and where I'm going next. Either that or its for my self, friends, and family to know the same thing. But in any case it's only one week until the start of the spring semester at Purdue, and only one day less than a week until the start of work at Purdue.

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Sun, 25 Dec 2005 {1:08 am}
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Merry Christmas!

Oh, and I got Animal Crossing: Wild World for my DS. I don't have any friends with the game, so if you'd like to visit my town, here's my friend code: 2448-7496-8648, and I'm "Joey" in the great town of "Internet" :).

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Wed, 21 Dec 2005 {5:04 pm}
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Only 4 day's until Christmas, and I've only got one thing left to buy. At least I know what that one thing is. Hopefully I'll remember to get it tomorrow so I can give it to Steve sometime before or during the next time I see him. Probably during. Unless I closed my eyes so I couldn't see him before I dispatched my present. Anyways, nothing new. School starts on the 9th, Allen graduated and now seeks full time employment, and I have yet to call up Byron to tell him I want my old job back as a Lab Assistant. I guess that just about covers the last three weeks (not at all).
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Wed, 07 Dec 2005 {5:59 pm}
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Well, I lost my phone today while out and about with Allen and Ally. I went to everywheres that we went to and asked and looked around, but no luck. I've sent it a text message and had my mom and the Borders guy call it, but no one answers. So if you're trying to call me and some guy you've never heard of answers, find out where he's hiding my phone. Thanks.

UPDATE!!! (7:39pm)
The phone has been located at the one place I should have checked, but didn't: The Wabash Landing 9 Theater where I was parked to go to Borders. But my dear mother will be picking it up on the way home from choir practice, bless her heart.

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Tue, 29 Nov 2005 {4:04 pm}
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The flight left about a day early, so after a 17 hour trip to take place all in darkness, I landed at the Indianapolis International Airport at approximately 7:30 this morning. The de-mobilization process did not begin today, but tomorrow we will begin bright and early. Minus the bright, I believe 6:45 is prior to sunrise. It should take 4 days which means I should be completely done on Saturday.
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Sun, 27 Nov 2005 {8:12 pm}
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So far I've had two flight cancellations due to mechanical problems with the plane. I was supposed to be leaving this morning, and then I was supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning, but now it looks like I won't be leaving until Tuesday evening. But if the de-mobilization process only takes 3 days and we start on Wednesday, I might be able to come home this Friday. Though as close as we are to next month, I'd almost rather get stuck here another day and a half so I can get a tax-free December and another $225 in hazardous duty pay. Just one day in a month qualifies me for the whole entitlement. But, oh well, I guess the govt has to get a little money off me.
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Wed, 23 Nov 2005 {7:03 pm}
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Well, after a couple days, I've finally figured out how to update my webpage from Kuwait. I got here on Monday the 21st around 5pm or so. It was quite emtpy the first couple days, but it seems that more people are coming and no people are leaving (no flights home the two days prior or after Thanksgiving). It could be much worse though. Like in Beuhring on the way to Iraq there were whole bunches of people. You had to wait in line for everything. Even the latrine some times. Now there are just no empty seats in the USO and you have to wait a while to use the internet. No lines for food or the PX though, not long ones anyway.

Oh, and the new Photo Album is up, as you can see. I've added photos from the convoy from Danger to Speicher, and it would seem that Allen has been busy adding albums and filling them with photographic genius.

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Fri, 18 Nov 2005 {2:29 pm}
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Ok, some not so good news. I was supposed to be flying to Kuwait today, but that won't happen until the 21st. And I was supposed to be flying out of Kuwait towards Camp Atterbury on the 20th, but that won't happen until the 27th. So I'll be in the middle east an extra week. Other than that, I've decided to scrap the photo album as it was and start anew. I'll put up more from this deployment, but don't expect to see any Japan photos. I think I might make Allen an administrator since he uploads so many photos in the first place, he can add new main albums instead of just user albums.
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Wed, 16 Nov 2005 {5:48 pm}
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Well, as is seems, my host, Ace-host.net, has had a server crash. Lucky for me, they don't make back-ups of anything. So, pretty much everything is lost. I have a back-up of the site from when I was still in the States. Meaning, one year ago. So, all the pictures, blog entries, and jabber comments for the entire time I've been in Iraq will not be recovered. Of course, the pictures are still on whosever computer they started out on, but the rest of the stuff is gone. (Well, I might have the blog stuff up till some-time this fall, but I'll have to check. I don't remember saving it to my mem-stick, but I might have)

:(

A tout alors!

UPDATE! 17 Nov 12:45pm

I have a backup of the blog entries until the one below. Also, as you can see, a backup of the main page. No record of the Jibber Jabber stuff, and you won't be able to post comments or have a photo gallery until I get home. Sorry! Bye.

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Fri, 09 Sep 2005 {12:12 pm}
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My website is now completely compatable with FireFox, even the comments. I'm working on an update that will not really change how it looks, but mostly the underlying code using something that is generally more acceptable than using tables to format everything: CSS.
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Mon, 29 Aug 2005 {11:41 am}
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Today is the best day in Iraq. I guess. I now have internet right in my room and I'm typing this message wearing only my boxers and a brown t-shirt. Much more confortable than full DCUs, boots, weapon, and the Kevlar for the to and from trip. Too bad I've only got about three months left, or, rather, too bad I didn't get it earlier in the year while so I could have been using here all the while. Some sites are blocked, but that's understandable.

A couple of days ago while I was in the DFAC a stray round came through the ceiling and knocked a hole in a plastic chair. Now, of course, the DFAC is really a gimongous tent, so going through the roof is not that difficult. And then this afternoon another stray round hit the window in the post office back by the computer and knocked a little chunk of glass all the way accross the room. We looked but didn't find the bullet that struck the window. My guess is that it stayed outside and the piece of glass absorbed all its energy before flying accross the room. I'll take a photo of the window and post it in a day or two.


From the inside

Th' that's all folks.

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Wed, 17 Aug 2005 {1:30 pm}
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It's now roughly 3.5 months until my return home. It's starting to get busy at the Post Office with every body beginning to send their stuff home in preparation for redeployment. The majority of the people will leave mid to late September and we'll be open until the end of October. The PX closes on the 3rd of Oct, so I should probably start stocking up on Dr. Pepper before then otherwise I'll never get any. I also need to stock up on other things like ramen and mac & cheese, plastic-ware, bowls and the sort.

For those not in the know, I purchased a used PSP and four games off of eBay for $360 including shipping. The games I own so far: NBA (will resell upon return), NFS:U Rivals, Hot Shots Golf, Lumines, Tony Hawk Underground Remix, and Darkstalkers Chronicles. I need to get some cases for the games so I don't have to lug around the large ones they come in. I probably ought to do that before I go so I can lighten my load or at least shrink it a little.

End of Transmission.

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Wed, 13 Jul 2005 {9:53 am}
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Well, Its been a little while. I got to Kuwait on the 9th of June, and didn't back it back up to FOB Danger until the 15th. Also, Danger will be closing somewhere around the first of november, though as far as I know, I still won't be back home until at lead mid-november, which leave approximately 4 months until I'm home. Four months sounds really good right now. I'm on the downhill slope of this thing. Time seems to be moving at a good pace.

It has been hot lately though. The highs for the past week have all been over 110 with some nearing 120. And I just learned yesterday that we'll have to open the Post Office for customer service on Sundays now. Though it'll only be for a couple hours, more poeple will have to work, giving everyone probably one whole day off every two weeks. Maybe we'll institute a whole or half a day off in the middle of the week or something. That would be good.

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Sun, 05 Jun 2005 {5:26 pm}
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Over a month since I posted. Wow. Anyways, like Allen has imitated me in the Jabber, I have gone to Chi-town. I have had lunch on many occations. I went to a Lion's Club car show. I did several other things including a couple I had never done before. And on Wednesday morning, I'll be heading back to Iraq...for another 5 to 6 months. I hope this second half of the trip goes much quicker than the first.
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Sun, 01 May 2005 {9:27 am}
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Those of you who use AOL Instant Messanger should try out the new beta 6.0 version. Just go to this address associated with this link here and install it: Triton. I haven't been able to try it because I can't install things on these computers and I can't connect my own computer to the internet. But I've heard good things.
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Sat, 23 Apr 2005 {10:13 am}
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Latest news: I'm going on my two weeks of leave starting on or around the 22nd of May. I can't really think of anything else of importance that has happened or will be happening soon.
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Fri, 15 Apr 2005 {9:59 am}
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A little thing Ally drew for me with my b-day present. I thought I'd share it. :)

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Sat, 09 Apr 2005 {4:21 am}
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Wow. I think I've spent more time on the internet in the past day and a half than I have the entire rest of the time I've been in Iraq. Since I tried to call Steve this morning and he gave me the wrong phone number, I have pretty much been on the net ever since. I read through all the email's that Ally has sent me since, well, since she accepted my inviatation to go on a date. It was a good bit of reminicing (sp!?) thinking about our first several dates and the other times we were together. It just seems so long until I can be back home for good. It's only been about 4 months, so that leaves about 8 more. One-third finished I guess you could say. There are rumors floating about that we'll be being replaced in November, but I'd actually be suprised if I'm out of Iraq any time before December 16th.
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Fri, 08 Apr 2005 {2:30 pm}
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Well, the first day of pass in Qatar has been an enjoyable one. We'll also see if mail coming from here is quicker than from Iraq. Bryan, although I'm fairly certain you never read this thing, you may well be recieving your stupid little birthday present--get this--before your birthday!

What I did today, in the spirit of a blog, journal, diary, or whatever else you may like to call it. A: I thought we were supposed to go through customs, but I guess we skipped that part at the Doha International Airport. We did wait a while at the place waiting for the LNO (don't know the def) and the bus to arrive. Apparently I'm in a different time zone or Qatar does not recognize daylight savings, so I'm only +8 here. Due to reasons, no one is allowed off post. I've been to the PX, which is nicer than the one at Danger, and therefore picked myself up a couple games for my DS that I conveniently forgot in Iraq which are unavailable at my local PX or even at the PX in Anaconda for that matter. We are not allowed to take pictures outside, and even if we were it is really not amazing at all. Sand, rocks, warehouse-esque buildings. And since there's like nobody here I know, not really much reason to take pictures inside either. I have had the opportunity today though to catch up on all the Real Life Comics and Penny Arcade comics for the last five and a half months not to mention the MegaTokyo for today seeing as how I never quit keeping up with that one. I have yet to catch up on MacHall, but that guy updates his comics like once every three weeks, so I should have approximately (5.5*3)/4 comics waiting for me which shouldn't take too long to go through. They don't have Segovia phones here, so whether or not I'll be able to make contact early in the morning is yet to be seen not even considering the fact that I'll have to be here at 6:30 am just to get a call back home by 10:30pm. And well, that's about all my day. Lunch at Subway, dinner at Burger King, and I still haven't even tried to partake of my 3 beer daily allowance. I guess I shouldn't call it an allowance because I still would have to pay for them, but you get the idea.

Your welcome for the longest post since, well, the last time there was a post this long or longer. Oh, yeah, I watched "big daddy" today too.

~out~

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Tue, 05 Apr 2005 {10:46 am}
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Birthday goodness...

Ally: Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Vol. 1, The Incredibles
Allen: Simpsons comic book
Bryan: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 3 (though I kind of already have it)
Steve: Fifty Nifty Sci-fi classics

I watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians last night. It was...it was pretty bad.

And Qatar is pronounced like: kuh-tar, I think.

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Mon, 04 Apr 2005 {9:33 am}
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Bushong has come and gone back to Speicher. I got my birthday present from Ally today, though I have yet to open it. And on the 7th (the day of my birth) I will be leaving to go on my four day pass to beautiful Qatar. That's about all that's new. I'll bring my camera on my pass so hopefully there's something there to take pictures of. The other bonus is the cpt comes back from warhorse like the day after I leave and by the time I get back he should be on his way back to warhorse.
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Fri, 18 Mar 2005 {10:12 am}
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I've been in Kuwait/Iraq for a little over three months now. So if all goes well, I've got less than 9 months left here. The CPT has been put in command of some Personnell Support people at another camp, so he'll be spending most of his time at the other place (yay!). He just left to be gone for about three weeks. I've heard that he's going to be doing 20 days there and 10 here. He really has no reason to be here now that we have SFC Jackson, but I think he likes having his own decent size room and plus FOB Danger just looks prettier than most other places in Iraq. There was a morter attack today that hurt a few people, but no one was killed. They closed the DFAC for lunch because of it, but since I ate early I still got to eat.
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Sat, 05 Mar 2005 {10:32 am}
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Wow. Two weeks passed. Life is very repeatitive here. I got a few letters from people from the ATTN: Any Soldier thing, but haven't gotten any boxes of goodies yet. Um. Bushong moved here from Speicher. The rest of the unit is at Warhorse. And SFC Jackson is here too. I'm in a different room now, but seeing as how my camera has been stolen, I'll be unable to take pictures with my own camera. But I can always borrow Bushong's. Though mine was better.
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Sun, 20 Feb 2005 {10:07 am}
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Not much new. I guess I'm a day early for posting once per week, but it's my day off. Or it was supposed to be. I spent most of the day watching the contractors paint parts of the house, since we have to have a guard for them at all times. They are supposed to be working almost every day for a month, I believe. Just about everyone from 1st ID have left back to Germany, so the lines at the post office have been, well, there usually aren't lines any more. I signed up for a few things like treats for troops, operation graditude, and ATTN: Any Soldier. Getting stuff from people I don't know for free sounded like fun, so I thought I'd try it out. I also had to go pick up mail from all the mail boxes around camp. Five in total. Most didn't have much mail.

Kellogg and I will probably be guards for the contractors most days, but I guess that gives us a break from the PO. Pretty easy. Just sit and watch them work and keep a loaded magazine in the weapon.

Ugh. I think I'm going to eat at Subway tonight. I don't feel like going to the DFAC.

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Mon, 14 Feb 2005 {12:53 pm}
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Happy St. Valentine's Day
(I love you, Ally!)

I finally got the package my parents sent on the 2nd of Feb today. 12 days. I guess it's not terribly bad. So now I have a holster for my M9 so it is on my leg. I also got ATHF season III and a couple of games for my computer. Alas, today is over...and gmail hates me. Or, segovia hates gmail. One or the other, but I can almost never get to the webpage these days. Though I can download messages though POP, but half the time it forgets it has already downloaded the last batch, so I have to let it download all the ones I saw yesterday and sometimes the day before before it gets to the new ones. And that takes...a...while. At least its free and megatokyo loads relatively well.

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Mon, 07 Feb 2005 {12:52 pm}
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The first week of Feb is already over. At least for me it is. For the most part. All I do (almost) is inspect people's packages all day long. But I guess it's not that terribly bad. I could be working 12 hour shifts like my counterparts in speicher. But still. I don't like looking though people's stuff mostly because they don't like me looking through their stuff. It's time consuming and when I find things people can't send, about half of them try to tell me they could send it before or that it is allowable. It's just annoying. So far I haven't found any pornography or anything, but my commander found about 6 magazines in one person's box. We confiscate stuff of the sort because it is against general order number one to possess material containing nudity (but I guess R movies are ok? I don't know)
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Sat, 29 Jan 2005 {11:39 am}
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Hey, have you guys been having trouble getting to the Photos section. I have had repeated troubles getting there. If I can I would like to upload some pics I got from here. Its pretty awesome looking here. It used to be one of Saddam's old palace compounds. I live in what looks like it was once someone's house. Right now the poeple we are replacing are still here so It is a little crowded but when they all leave we'll have the Captain in a room by himself, SFC Jackson with her own room. Kellogg and I with a room together and SGT Martinez and SGT Aponte together. Each room has a TV and a fridge, and we have a living room with one couch and two nice chairs. We have AFN TV network in the living room, but in the bedrooms its just DVD if you have a player. There's no internet in the post office yet, but hopefully we can get that to change before the end of the year. There is a free internet place not too far from where I live. The PX and a Subway are pretty much in my front yard, and the Post Office is right next door. We'll I'd better get to emailing before I run out of time!
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Fri, 28 Jan 2005 {11:28 am}
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I've finally made it to Iraq, but my trek isn't over yet. I'm just on a little stop in the middle here in Camp Speicher. Final destination: Camp Liberty (formerly Camp Danger), Tikrit. I make the flight via helicoptor within the week or less. Well, too much time emailing. Time's up, up, up.
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Fri, 21 Jan 2005 {5:54 am}
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Time for my weekly updation to keep all interested parties (Allen) from psychosis (Allen). I am still in Kuwait. I was supposed to fly to Camp Speicher Iraq today. I didn't. I don't know when I will. There is a possibility that my unit will not even go to that location. Good bye.
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Fri, 14 Jan 2005 {2:36 am}
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Just a little note to say I have uploaded a number of pictures taken since the inception of my active duty engagement. Also, you'll notice a few minor updates to a few things around the front page of the site. Joey's Blog is A W E S O M E, etc., etc., blah blah blah.

So now the plan is to be in FOB (Forward Operating Base) Speicher (pronounced spiker) up in Tikrit, Iraq sometime before the elections. I just looked at my bank account record, and I've already spent $65 just on internet (not including cash purchases totalling about $15 - $20), and I haven't even been here a month. I hope the free internet up in Iraq is better than it is here. Or I read in the paper about AAFES (the people who run the PX, pay internet, alterations, barber shops, and the fast food restaurants on all the camps) testing out wireless internet at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and that if it went well they would implement it at other camps. It said a monthly fee would be $30, but thats still better than my first month here already.

After paying off my credit card last month (roughly $688), it seems they have mysteriously heightened my credit line by $500, bringing me up to a grand total of $1500 in credit.

This stupid free internet. I can't go to Megatokyo either. I bet I'm already behind on two comics by now. In fact, I can't go to a single website on that Slow Links section I have over there. My favorite websites in the whole world are all...BLOCKED!!! Dang them. Dang them all to Hecka-decka land! At least I got on the pay internet this morning to do my email. And since you can barely do sh..crap at the free internet, the line is now a lot shorter. Oh well.
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UPDATE!!!
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To avoid further confusion, I say this:
Pay Internet: total access ($5/hr and now longer lines)
Free Internet: severely limited access (no email, blogs, personal websites, forums, etc)

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Fri, 07 Jan 2005 {12:14 pm}
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I say hi from the most boringest of places.... Yes it is true, I'm still in Camp Buehring, Kuwait. And I'll be here for a bit longer. I would post some pictures or something, but I'm too lazy and internet is slow or I have to wait too long in line and only get 30 minutes of time to bother with stuff like that and not have any time to email. That last sentance may not have made much sense, but my 2-dimensional greatness will overcome that minor short coming.
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Sat, 18 Dec 2004 {12:17 pm}
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Ok, Allen, because you wanted me to post, I am. I am currently at Camp Buehring (Boring? he he hee) in Kuwait and we'll be doing a few various trainings including a three day convoy operations training session where we actually sleep out in the HMMWVs. When we get to the camp in Iraq though, there will be a select few people to get stationed at some smaller outlying camps that don't have quite the amenities as the much larger camp where most of us will be most of the time. But they are going to rotate people through the smaller camps so the longest anyone should be at one is 3 months. I'd rather go first and then have nice living conditions for the remaining 9 months...or not go at all, either way works for me.

Later, all.

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Sun, 05 Dec 2004 {4:53 pm}
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I LOVE YOU ALLY!


Here's (a rather small version of) my current desktop. Enjoy!

I'm leaving for Iraq before the end of the month, before Christmas, and I'll be pretty busy for the next several days, so in all likelyhood I will no longer be in the United States next time I post here.

Bye bye.

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Thu, 25 Nov 2004 {12:46 pm}
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I've only been back for a day and a half, and it feels as though I had never left. I went on a date with Ally almost as soon as I got back. We went had a little to eat, played pool for a while, ran in to Ryan McDonald and his girlfriend, and then went to see Shaun of the Dead--a very humourous (and british) parody of Dawn of the Dead. I reccommend to you all that you see it, but seeing as it is out of theatres now, you will have to wait for the DVD.

I sold my old laptop to Bushong for $1,000, and have now purchased this laptop from eBay: HP zd7260us. It should arrive tomorrow via Federal Express.

I have very little idea of what to get people for christmas, but if I don't do it now, I won't really have the ability back at atterbury.

Silly pickle, trix are for cucumbers

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Wed, 10 Nov 2004 {4:18 pm}
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Just for you Allen.

That makes Ally and me times three. Three pics of us on the front page :).

I'm-a-coming home from 1200 on the 24th 'till 1200 on the 28th fo' Thanksgiving break. Enjoy me while I'm here for I might be gone before Christmas (though at this point it is looking doubtful). I would actually like to stay past Chistmas just so I get to come home for it, but some would rather get out there as soon as possible and "git 'er dun."

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Wed, 03 Nov 2004 {4:37 pm}
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I'm leaving again. Be back for Thanksgiving? Hope so.

In the spirit of Steve's Birthday and of Halloween, here is another picture of Ally and me.

I LOVE YOU ALLY!!!

(and thanks for the cookies :D)
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Fri, 29 Oct 2004 {8:33 pm}
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I've been here for a week now, so I have decided to take some time to write a little message. I'm actually in my hotel room right now (I found an old phone card I had from AIT and I'm calling in to Purdue's ResNet). Training has been pretty easy so far. I really like the unit I'm with because they are all easy-going, and most of them are pretty friendly. We will be issued a lot of new gear when we get to out Mob station like our desert BDUs, armored vest, and such. Tomorrow is family day and Ally is coming up along with my parents, and afterwords we might find something fun to do up here in Chicago since she took the night off of work to come see me :) From what I hear from some of the people who've been to Iraq already, conditions are a lot better when they left (2-person trailer like living quarters, internet fairly available, showers readily available, and all the bootleg DVDs you can buy, well, I guess the DVDs were there from the beginning). Well, the 42 minutes I had on my card are almost up, so I guess I better get to submitting before I get kicked off.

See everyone this week-end. And where's the stinkin' Goodwill stores when you need one? I finally figured out who I'm gonna be for Steve's party, but no good used clothings stores listed in the yellow pages. Dang these south chicagoans and their desire to buy new clothing!

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Fri, 22 Oct 2004 {5:57 am}
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And I'm off.
-edit: the time should be 4:57am
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Thu, 21 Oct 2004 {5:41 pm}
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The short movie of Allen and I playing air hockey at Eastside 9 with announcing by Steven. Video taken by the one whom I love: Ally.
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Fri, 15 Oct 2004 {7:22 pm}
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If you can see this, I'm on a new server (again). Conrad was getting rid of the old accounts because we never got around to selling any, and there's no way you can separate one account and cancel the other 99. Oh well. This one is a little less but I didn't really need the storage or bandwidth I had before. If I ever need more I can always upgrade. And its hella cheap. $3.95/mo (and I could have gotten way better storage and bandwidth for only 45 cents more)
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Thu, 14 Oct 2004 {2:48 pm}
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I love you, Ally!
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Mon, 11 Oct 2004 {12:57 pm}
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Things have been going pretty slow lately with the lack of school about and the impending deployment.

Ally has created the sequal to Monday Night Wings: Part 1, and you can find it in my Allen & Co. Comics section. And her birthday party was on Saturday, and it was totally awesome, dude. And...we're going on another date this week :D.

I've also been in the process of buying things for entertainment purposes while I'm gone. I've ordered so far Family Guy Seasons 1-3, Futurama 4 (already had 1-3), Aqua Teen H... 1-2, the third comes out in Nov I think. And a new camera!!! Kodak LS753.

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Tue, 05 Oct 2004 {7:31 pm}
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^^^ Stoled from the Predator Turned Prey people. :D ^^^

I found out yesterday morning that I didn't actually need to be there. (They said they send out a new set of orders certified mail, but I never got them.) But since I was there, they had me help load stuff in to trucks and had me come back again today to do the same. I feel stupid for not being able to give dates and places here on the internet, but it is undertandable about the whole Operational Security thing. In a couple weeks I will be going to my unit, and then after a little over a week there we will be heading to our mobilization station for probably around a month, and then we will be off to Iraq. One-point-five years. Damn, that's a long time. I should be back somewhere around Apr '06. Sometimes I feel like cursing, others crying, but I know its something I have to do and I know that it sucks, but I'll be ok. Its the being away from everyone that will suck the most. I sure hope the internet is readily available.

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Fri, 01 Oct 2004 {4:26 pm}
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I smiled all the way home. Or I would have had I not remembered I needed to go to the post office to pick up that data cable I had bought for my sister on ebay.
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Fri, 01 Oct 2004 {11:03 am}
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Señior el Second Date-o is about to begin. :)
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Mon, 27 Sep 2004 {10:06 pm}
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It is seemingly quite official. Off to war I will go. Or at least to an Army Post Office (APO for short). I have three weeks of training I will do in October, and then in Nov, I'm outta here.

But, on to some pleasing news. Ally has completed a comic numero uno for the Allen & Co. comic series, which I have placed in the Allen & Co. Comic section and I have also redesigned it a bit. I don't think it looks great, but it is not at bland as before. I ought to get better graphic creation tool than just MSPaint and MSWord (for the word art, he he).

*EDIT*: The thing I have redesigned and that I don't think looks quite great yet is the page that the comic it on, not the comic itself. Allen thought that was what I meant, and after reading again, that's actually what it sounds like I meant. This is not the case at all. I give the comic two thumbs up!

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Sun, 26 Sep 2004 {6:03 pm}
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We got back here around 10:30 - 11:00 this morning and unloaded the crap. I did not sleep but maybe an hour last night, and that was through my mom steam cleaning the carpet. I'm trying to work on my CS Project, but I have very little of an idea of what I'm doing. My partner's getting pissed at me since I haven't finished my part, and I have my first Phylosophy exam tomorrow, for which I am very unprepared. I wish this semester would just end. And it might very well do so but then I would probably be worse off...overseas...sorting/accepting mail. And then there's the thing with Ally's (and Bryan's) parents and all things associated with that, but I, being one of little knowledge on this matter, will say no more.
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Fri, 24 Sep 2004 {6:13 pm}
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HOLY CRAP!!! It's freaking raining right now. And pretty hard too. I was sitting here, and then I'm like, "It sure has cooled off..." and then I was like, "Feels kind of humid too...", and I heard this gentle rumble on the roof and I was like "There's no way its raining..." and then I looked out the window and was like "HOLY CRAP!!! It's freaking raining right now." and then I checked weather.com, and it didn't say anything about rain and then I checked wlfi.com and it said very little about the possibility of a light scattered shower and the radar looked like there wasn't any rain in sight, but by golly there is a freaking downpour right now and it has yet to let up for the entire duration of the time I have spent typing this.

But other than that, I'm heading to Cincinatti tonight and then tomorrow me, my mom, and my bro are gonna load up the U-Haul, drive it back, and unload it in my Sister's house where my brother will hence forth be staying. Fun. Fun. Fun. Plus I have a CS project due next this Wed.

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Wed, 22 Sep 2004 {9:08 pm}
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At this time yesterday I was putt-putting, but more importantly I was with Ally on our first date (first not only between ourselves, but first with anybody...for the both of us). She wore a black outfit and had some shiney earings and necklace and all in all looked very lovely, not that she doesn't the rest of the time. It all started at 7pm... (cue flashback sequence). First we had a nice dinner at O'Charleys which finished nearly an hour early (what do I know about planning a date?). So then we went to the Putt-Putt place there by Curcuit City and played not one, but two eighteen hole rounds of golf. Après ça, nous avons regardé une filme au cinéma. Translation: After that, we watched a movie at the theater (Resident Evil: Apocalypse). So it was really like a date and a half. But I must say that I had a wonderful time and am looking foreward to numero deux.

"numero duex" means "number two" en français, euh, I mean, in French...for those really, really disinclined to the french language.

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Fri, 17 Sep 2004 {9:09 pm}
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Yes, yes. The First DateTM with the ever so beautifous* Allyson is currently set for Tuesday evening pending some clarification and verification. So very exciting yet at the same time so very "Holy crap! I have no idea what I'm doing!" Though it does make me feel a little better knowing she already likes me, or, rather, a lot better. Actually, it makes me feel really good. But that still doesn't mean I'm not scared, because I am. Wow, I never thought this sort of thing would be so daunting. Or I did, and I just didn't like to focus on that part prior to its realization. I'm full of contradictions (not to mention some other things--oh, wait, that was your line).

* - similar to how wonderful can become wonderous. No guarantee of actual wordliness is either express or implied.

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Thu, 16 Sep 2004 {1:26 pm}
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Has fruition been achieved? Has anything of importance occured since you last read this thing? Tune in next time to find out more on Tales from the Cryptographic Blog.
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Tue, 14 Sep 2004 {11:39 pm}
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Unmotivated. My complete and utter description for the current period of time. I didn't do the first homework or project for my CS251 class. I'm going to drop that one even if I don't drop the rest. I haven't read the book for any of my classes except for philosophy because it at least is somewhat interesting, and also I've looked in my Compilers (CS352) book to work on the first two projects...of which I've got a B on the first and am pretty sure I failed the second.
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Wed, 08 Sep 2004 {9:13 pm}
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Not much new here. School continues to suck. Well, I guess Philosophy class is somewhat interesting. And Psychology a little less so. And the others are just downright intolerable. But anyhow, enough about me.

Heading out to the local BK for dinner this evening, I did see one Lucus Bouwkamp and one Ben Hamilton. Ben is taking the semester off, and Luke is, hmm, either I can't remember what he's up to or he didn't tell me. But come October, he will be moving into a house slightly near to mine. Also, he seems to have mentioned that Chris and Chandler are living together on the West Side somewheres.

Also, Jordan, it seems, will be telling the school tomorrow to bite his shiny metal ass. The thing he doesn't know is that he's not a Bender. It's quite a shame. If they took him up on his word, it would neither be shiny nor metal. But of course, this is true even if they didn't.

If I said you had a beautiful body, would you take your pants off and dance around a little? - Kif from Zapp's book

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Sun, 05 Sep 2004 {6:24 pm}
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As Ally has Jibbered in the Jabber, the Japan! Photos are indeed changed and, as luck would have it, seemingly for the better. With my new host comes a host of new built in scripts and features, one of which being a Photo Album (2 different kinds really, but the one I'm using now seems better than the other one. I tried 'em both.) I think I've finished categorizing everything into their respective areas, but if you find a mistake, don't hesitate to let me know.
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In actual news, I was allowed the opportunity to give Ally a ride to work on Saturday, and I even got five bucks for it. Ain't that the sweetest deal ever. Ride alone in car with beautiful woman; get paid for it. :)

Having a known fanbase makes catering much easier

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Wed, 01 Sep 2004 {10:38 am}
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Looking at my old english assignments: Where's my Cherry Coke... It's almost humorous how much I could stretch a small story about cherry coke being sold out to quite a long opening paragraph. Oh the joy of length based english assignments. I took that class nearly two years ago. I should put my "writings" section back up here. They might suck, but nobody's making you read it.
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Mon, 30 Aug 2004 {4:22 pm}
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If you are seeing this, then that means DNS for my domain has been applied and I am now using a "real" host instead of redirecting to Purdue's servers. Things are liable to be broken during this transition. Email me if your favorite feature does not work. I can also hook you up with similar hosting for $3.00/month, just let me know.
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Mon, 30 Aug 2004 {6:31 pm}
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I feel very unprepared for this semester. About every one of my classes require much reading or work, and I'm having trouble keeping my mind on any one of those things that relate to school. My first project for Compilers is due on Wed at noon. I tried looking at the skeleton code, and what was in the book, but it seems that I am at a loss as to what in the world I am supposed to be doing with the input file. I know what the output should look like, but getting from point A to point B seems treacherous(sp?).

This semester is going to suck. And what's worse is, there's a decent probability that I will be militarily activated before the end of it. There is a "rumored date", but you know, that whole OPSEC thing again.

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Sun, 29 Aug 2004 {11:05 pm}
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Hey, everybody. Hey, Dr. Nick (stoled right from Bryan and the Allen & Co. newsgroup).

So, I had quite a boring weekend, for the most part. I would tell you what I did, but then the Army might get mad for me violating OPSEC (operational security). But I did go to the Mall of America. And it was freaking huge. And I did buy such items for those who are my friends. And I was able to convince to girl working at BK to sell me food, even though they were (supposedly) closed. It wasn't that hard, I just had to pretend I was somewhat upset, and to tell her that I was in line before they turned out the light to the sign. They even still had the rodeo cheese burger. That's the kind of stuff that I want to see at a burger king. No half-assed attempts at a angus burger. They need to bring back the western whopper too. That was one good burger. And also the sour dough bacon sandwich of some kind. Burgers with bacon = mmm mmm good.

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Fri, 27 Aug 2004 {4:28 am}
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WHEEEEE!!!! Who's up for a shower? Too Bad, you're not invited.

Stupid puss crap in the corner of my eyes. Ever since I stopped taking out my contacts everyday. At least I save the 15 mintues trying to make them go back in.

- be back Sunday after 5pm sometime, internet is not expected.

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Thu, 26 Aug 2004 {5:56 pm}
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All sorts of things happening this week. As it turns out, I will not be heading to Minnesota until tomorrow morning. My flight leaves at 7:55a, there's a short lay over in Chicago, and then I get to Minneapolis at 11:08a. For the rest of that day, I'm not sure what we're doing, but I might see if I can go to the Mall of America. Though it might be more fun if I had some friends to go with... I hardly know anybody at my new unit. Also, now instead of being back Saturday, it won't be until later on Sunday.

On a side note, I ran into Jasin's sister at Citgo today. Other than his excessive drinking on International Tuesdays :), he seems to be doing fine, so she says. She was also unusually talkative, considering she had never really acknowledged my existance before. She even invited me to go partying with her and her friends once I turn 21. Yeah, I don't know about that...

I should put a link to my favorite web comics and other sites up here. Seems like an appropriate idea for a blog. Just to give people an idea of things.

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Wed, 25 Aug 2004 {8:47 pm}
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Having already been said on the Allen & Co. group, I'll just summarize: a group of wiccans came and performed voodoo on my car, and it suddenly caught fire. Good thing there were some Shiite Muslums nearby to wave their heads around and make everything better. Needless to say, my car appears to be operational with no money being spent. Not even to park in the dreaded Grant Street garage.

PS - No cars were burnt in the making of this message. But one did fix itself. No mechanics required.

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Wed, 25 Aug 2004 {2:47 pm}
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I changed the Allen & Co. comic page a small bit. Combined the comparison and character pages into one and made it a little skinnier so that it looks better on smaller screens.

I don't think my Dad was too happy yesterday that I wanted to go to Allen & Co. instead of having a look at my car. It doesn't bother me too much having to leave it there in the garage as long as I get his car to drive, at least during the day when he's using the company truck. When he called it seemed as if he had expected me to have already bought a new starter for it. I'm like, I don't even know for sure it is that which is the problem, and I'm not going to buy something based on my own diagnosis with the little experience with cars that I have.

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Tue, 24 Aug 2004 {4:01 am}
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Crappy-dappy-doo-dah. My car won't start. Currently it is sitting on the second floor of the University Street garage. I had to call my mom at 245am to wake her up and have her come get me. She's going to be using my CG until we get my car out of there. It, of course, will be wearing my mom's A permit until that time. I think I'm going to drive my dad's Bravada and just park in the Grant Street garage and pay the ten bucks (ouch) per day for that.

In an unrelated story, I have class in six-point-five hours, and I'm still awake.

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Mon, 23 Aug 2004 {9:19 pm}
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Today was the first day of the rest of my life. Ok, so here's a run down of my classes so far:

Phil 110 - Intro to Philos Sophia (that's greek for philosophy)
This seems as though it will be quite an interesting class, but will require more reading than most classes I take. It will also take more writing than most classes I require... yeah... you can understand if you try hard enough. The prof is definately one to try and make you think, instead of just taking his word for everything.

CS352 - Compilers
I haven't really been to this class yet, but I can tell you that I'll probably learn some stuff here. We're working in Java, which I hate Java solely for its lack of speed. It is so freaking slow since the byte code has to be translated into machine code at runtime. But that aside, I forsee mucho worko, and lots 'o programming.

CS251 - Data Structures
Actually having gone to this class, I will tell you that I'm am going to be totally bored during the lecture. The programming and labs might be good, but I've already got a good share of doodles down the left-hand side of the first page of notes. I once thought about taking my old notebook pages and scanning in my doodles just for the hell of it. They're not that pleasent to look at, but they do exist. And if they exist, then they are true. My philosophy teacher told me so.

OLS 274 - Applied Leadership
PSY 120 - Intro to Psychology
Haven't been there yet, not sure what to expect. But for my OLS class, I had to purchase this remote, almost like one for a TV, but it's only got 8 buttons, and each button corresponds to each of the first eight letters of the alphabet. It says I have to register it online, but I think I need to go to class first and get some special code.

Now, I am at work. I've already answered the phone about as many times as I did all summer, and I think I might have been able to actually help one person. No, wait, that call didn't transfer correctly. Oh, well, I guess they would have called back if they really wanted help.

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Sun, 22 Aug 2004 {8:30 pm}
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School starts tomorrow. 'Tis good, but is also bad. Less time wasted wishing for things better to do. More time spent doing things I wish I needn't do. Add in the complications from the Army, and we have a nice fun filled semester planned. This week, Thur-Sat, I will be in Minneapolis, MN, for my soldier readiness program. And then, at the end of the semester, from Nov 20 - Dec 18 is our annual training which cuts off the last three weeks of classes. Ain't it grand?

Oh well, at least I won't be working too much. 7:30p - 2:30a Monday and Wednesday. Fourteen hours per week. The best part: it's all taken care of in two days.

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