Conveniently Misplaced

A few weeks ago I decided that I truly despise the weird mixed fruit air freshener that was in my car when I bought it. So I started searching for a Nag Champa air freshener. Of course, I had no luck in this endeavor. But my search did lead me to another option, Nag Champa room spray. This looked to be the key. So I searched around trying to find one at a good price. Ebay was eventually the answer.

I found this listing that had exactly what I was looking for at a great price, so I picked it up.  The seller shot me an email saying that it may take a while because of something or another, but I figured no big deal, as I’ve waited this long. Well today, it came. And I tell you all this, this stuff is so amazing. Homemade, high quality product that I’ll definitely be buying more of. No my car doesn’t have that weird smell to it, and I’m very happy. Everyone needs to check out all of cherokeen1’s stuff, it all looks very promising.

 This morning I did what we all would love to do every morning: I went to the post office. It’s been a month since I ordered a book I need for the 2nd half of the quarter and it has yet to arrive. I talked to the people I ordered it from and they said “check with the post office”, so I did. No dice, there were no packages waiting for me there. But since I was there I picked up a passport application, so that will be something i’ll probably work on taking care of relatively soon. Next year we will need it to get into canada or mexico anyways, so I might as well take care of it now before there’s a big rush to get one. It’s $97, but considering that the cost is less than $20 a year to travel to any country in the world (well, a few exceptions), I guess i’ll take it and be happy. So that makes 2 expensive forms I need to fill out at some point. Just more goals set for myself I suppose.

Speaking of packages, I got the bowling shoes I ordered from bowling.com yesterday. I ended up going for the Etonic Tec Mens’ Crankers as they came in my size aren’t crazy looking or gator skin like the others were. So for $43, I got some very comfy bowling shoes. My dad said he has a few old bowling balls around somewhere, so since that’s the next thing on my list, I may have to go searching for one of them. Hopefully all of this will help to stabalize my game, which depending on a million things can be anywhere between 80 and 155. Not exactly consistant.

The nice people of Sterling Heights have decided to send me my court date for the nonsense they put me through 5 minutes after buying my car. It’s on May 15th at 1:30. So I have time to prepare my documents and case for the judge. It’s a Pre-trial hearing. Lets’ hope I can get the charges dismissed and there won’t be a trial or anything of the sort. I’ve gone before a magistrate, but never a judge. This should be interesting.

I’m also in the midst of getting my vacation in order. Craig, Kate, hopefully me, and whoever else are planning on going back up to Barryton this year, first week of June. Last year was just a blast, it’s great to be in the middle of nowhere and not have a care in the world. There’s a few obsticles that will stand in my way. First off, I need to ask for the time off work. I remember dianna saying something about vacations for 2007 last year, so hopefully that all still stands. Secondly, I will miss the final exam for my oracle class. So I’ll have to make arrangements to take it earlier or something. It will be going into the last week of my Java Web Portals class, but that won’t be anything to worry about. I really hope that I’m able to go, last year was so much fun. And this year will be a true vacation, with nothing or anybody else to worry about.

All for now, more later…

We all laughed at the fisher-price looking controller that the game cube had. We all laughed at the slew of kiddie games that Nintendo shoved into our faces at Game Crazy, real estate which could have been used for something beneficial to us.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my game cube, and I love things like Donky Conga and Mario Strikers. And I really love my DS. But overall, Nintendo looked like a sinking ship. Nobody can deny that.

Well, except for Nintendo.

After dominating console sales, landing more developers and titles, and making gaming fun again, things just keep getting worse for Sony and Microsoft. How bad? Billy Pidgeon is saying that the Wii may not meet demand till 2009. Now granted, this is part of nintendo’s supply issue, but still. Imagine having the most in demand Christmas toy2 years in a row. Unheard of.

But I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.

Spring is here, and it’s about time. It’s supposed to get up to 80 degrees tomorrow, and that would be bloody wonderful. It’s supposed to drop to around 50 sometime later in the week, but at least it isn’t freezing cold any more. Hopefully it can stay nice for a while. As in, till autumn rolls around.

I slept in till quarter after 1 today. Not the best idea, I’ll screw myself up for the week so bad by continuing to do stuff like this, but whatever. Last night’s happenings at Marshment’s basement was alotta fun. RZRS played a good show, I got the tape over to jimmy today and we did some editing of it all. Minus-9 was fantastic too, just a drummer and a bass player, but man was that some amazing stuff. As soon as I get around to ripping that video I’ll throw something online for everyone to see. If you get a chance to see them, take it.

I’ve added more patches and buttons to my hoodie. A cock, german drugs, 3 deviantArt patches and a few other random ones. Maybe 6 or 7 in all. I’m quite happy with it. But the thing is getting ridiculously heavy now.

My hearing date has been set. May 15, 2007 at 1:30. Hopefully I can get these unbelievable charges dropped and go on with my life.

In a little continuation of what I wrote yesterday, I look at my life and I wonder how happy I really am. I have great friends, make a good amount of money, and am trying to live life to it’s fullest. But on the other side, I’m always struggling to get things done on time, it seems like I need to be in 2 places at once, and I’m always stressed. Cost of Living Vs. Quality of Life I suppose. It just feels as though I’m really missing something.

For those who know me, you know i’m not much for music videos, but I love this one. It adds so much more to the song to see what she’s doing to this guy instead of just the generic song about it. It’s one thing to end something, it’s another to go out of your way to make it as hard as you possibly can. Love it.

Changing gears to technology, I think it’s great that Dell has started offering XP again instead of exclusively Vista. That’s all kinds of greatness. It’s also a turning point, because it means that Microsoft is losing the power to control the PC vendors, and that’s better for everybody. Dell has also recently started offering Ubuntu. I’ll still never buy their product, but Dell has gained a lot of respect in my eyes.

Anyone who has ever had to write a program for school in a short period of time or give a short presentation has heard the acronym KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. I’ve decided that it’s becoming time to apply this to the rest of my life. I’ve flown off the handle a little bit since I became single last year, spending money like it’s no big deal, a lot of parties and going out, and just general “not-giving-a-shit-ness” about my general demeanor. As a result, my desk is a mess. The trash in my room hasn’t been emptied for about 2 months now. My grades have slipped a bit. I’m getting less sleep. There are people in my life that seem to be causing more problems than solving (despite seemingly good intentions). I am unable to devote the time I would like to things I need to devote time to. And most of all, I have to try to keep focus on everything. It usually doesn’t work too great.

So the time has come to keep it simple, step back from this cloud that i’ve been on and examine my situation, and decide how i’m going to proceed with my life. What kind of life do I want, how do I want to present myself, what kind of person do I want to become, etc. All the little things like that are all literally being formed every day with me. I have high expectations for myself, so I guess we’ll see where this all leads. Thank you to my good friends who have been there for all of my ridiculousness. You guys are the best.

Speaking of friends, for some reason something reminded me of a girl I used to know a long time ago. Elementary/middle school long time ago. I don’t remember what it was or why but I figured I’d look her up, see if I can find her. Thanks to the magic of the internet I did find her. The girl from the other side of the sub division (who always had the classic “girl next door” look) has moved on to Ft. Lauderdale and is going to school for massage therapy and bar tending for a paycheck. Seems like she’s doing great, and after looking at her pictures, all I can say is, guys, the girls next door grow up. And when they do, you don’t want to miss it. I was never really attracted to her when we were kids, she was always just a friend of mine, never wanted anything more, and she was always cool about everything.

Seems like when I was 12 I had a better handle on keeping things simple than I did when I was 21. Go figure that one out.

At work today I actually got to help wrap a truck! That’s what happens when there’s nothing else to do I suppose. It was fun, I’d like to do it again when we have time to finish the thing. It was mildly exciting, and there’s something very theraputic about being able to focus on little minute things without having to deal with anything else. I’ll post a pic when I get one of the finished truck.

In a recent “i’m sick of trying to run multiple copies of thunderbird on multiple computers and make it all work great with the same email accounts” move, I’ve decided to let google manage all the email for cruzweb.net. All I have to say is that I can’t believe I didn’t do this earlier. It’s so nice having all of my email in 1 place. Not to mention google has the best spam filters on the block, so no more viagra, cialis, or penis enlargement ads coming to my email (hopefully, I sure never got them with gmail before).

It was surprisingly easy to set up, and to anyone who likes gmail, I would really suggest signing up. You can do so here. Thus far, it’s becoming a very elegant solution to our the how to handle email everywhere problem. Plus 3 gigs of space for email for free is nothing to sneeze at. Check it out

Lastly, the Lilly Allen gig at the majestic has been cancelled, thanks to ticketmaster for informing me. This does not please me one bit. Not postponed, but cancelled. So I have 2 useless tickets on my hand for a show that’s not going to happen. Then on top of that, they’re keeping my $4.85 processing fee. Bastards and thieves they are at ticketmaster. This is what they sent me:

“Hello, this is Ticketmaster Customer Service with an important alert for your upcoming event. Lily Allen, scheduled at Majestic Theatre on May 27, 2007, at 8:00 PM, has been cancelled.

Your credit card will automatically be credited the ticket price and convenience charges, and should post to your account within 7 to 10 business days.  Please note, the $4.85 per order processing fee and any ticketFast or UPS delivery charges are non-refundable. “

In better news, they also sent me an email saying that the tickets for the ICP/Twiztid show were printed. So at least I still have that to look forward to. But with Lilly Allen out of the picture, i’ll have to find something else to go to. Not like something could have replaced that. Ooh well, serves me and Josh right for plotting to kidnap her at the show and keep her for ourselves.

So something like 3 years ago I wrote a pseudo CMS for a band called The Breakfast. Looking over alot of it now to use for my friend’s band Death Skin Razors, I now realize how rediculous some of this code was and how it doesn’t work with new PHP versions. So I’ve been going over a lot of it trying to get it to work. I’m making some progress, but some of this code is just so gross. I’ll probably end up re-writing all of it. Ooh well, not too bad I guess.

In Brighter news, I got some new shoes yesterday. This will be something for me to wear out, not to work or anything like that. Something nice that matches most everything I own, and has bitchin’ red laces. I’m happy with the purchase. I was also excited to find Matisyahu’s Album “Youth” on vinyl at Hop Topic for $4. Best Jewish Reggae you can find, hands down.

I also sent in my payment for classes the today, so all in all about $850 (between class, shoes, and the other stuff I’ve bought) down the drain rather quickly. Oracle better be worth it, thats all I gotta say. At least I have a competent group for this course, so it should be just fine.

…to write something about the Don Imus ’situation’, but luckily for all of us, Joe Hicks said it all better than I could in a Washington Post article on Sunday. Read it here.

Me and my brother went to go see Blacktop Mourning last night. If you haven’t heard of them you probably will soon, their debut CD is going to hit stores all over the country next month. The show was at some weird MySpace Cafe/concert venue thing, which was essentially an old warehouse where 12 year old emo and/or scene kids can use computers for $5 an hour. The funny thing was that most of them were all talking about myspace and whatnot. Then at some point the internet just went down, thanks to crappy DSL internet service. Luckily there was also a basketball hoop and some balls so me and Tom were ballin for a little bit to pass the time.

We go there at 6ish, nobody played till 7:30ish and BTM didn’t come on till about 10:30ish. We were supposed to meet up with someone there, but she couldn’t make it to the show because of some family stuff (the 3 of us were the only ones that RSPVed, oddly enough). Shame, because she missed a hell of a show. Max, the guitar player is amazing. It’s like watching Warren Haynes play, he’s so into it and so good. After the show we were talking to Joe (lead singer) and he was telling us how Max was playing blues clubs and stuff when he was 12 years old. Crazy stuff. He was also telling us about how it was working with Adam (Duritz), whose label Tyrannosaurus Records is releasing their first album, in the studio and how cool it was working with a rockstar who is so down to earth and easy to work with. It was cool. A weird crowd that I really felt too old for, but a good night and well worth the $8.

Tom called Rebecca and she came out to the show with her friend Lauren, so that made me happy. Outings are always more fun with a group. Amanda was supposed to come but apparently she couldn’t. Or something.

Since we’re still on concerts and I don’t want to change subjects quite yet, me, Craig and Jimmy went to go see Horse: The Band at the hayloft. If you like Nintendo music and hardcore metal, you’ll want to check them out. It was a great show and a hell of a lot of fun. Any time there’s a French-Canadien rabbit names Jean-Pierre who gets torn apart by a mosh pit is a good time. Probably the best concert I’ve seen at the hayloft. Good stuff right there.

Another concert has been added to the list for this year, tix purchased for ICP at St. Andrews in June, so far it’s me and Craig, hopefully more people will get on board. Lily Allen with Josh is still on for next month.Both should be amazing shows.

Back to the Blacktop Mourning show…Afterwards, I realized I left my interior car lights on as we approach the car. So the battery is dead, which sucked. But my Dad came out and gave me a jump, which was good. Then today, Craig fixed the cabs in the back so they are firmly in place, which was also good. The car pounds so ridiculously hard it’s obscene. Loud and powerful, I can’t believe it. I’m sure there will be some tickets in my future The new interior speakers are also sounding great, 2 100w Pioneers in the front and 2 350w Pioneers in the back. Mad props to Ralph for letting us use his shop to go work at…again.

Then no more than 5 minutes later we’re pulling out of the Rite Aide parking lot when some dude backs into my car. Apparently he missed the big fucking Cadillac and didn’t hear the obnoxiously loud sound system. He had no backup lights on his car so I didn’t even realize he was backing up till he was right on top of me, which he somewhat was to begin with. No time to react. The car is fine except for some stuff on the bumper that will somehow have to get pounded back down. Not at all happy about that, but it shouldn’t be a big deal to take care of it. It’s a cosmetic glitch…at least for now.

On a side note, funny how you can go out of your way to do something for someone, in the middle of the night, that keeps you up when you’re falling asleep and they just give you shit in return. I still don’t even know what to say to that, other than some things will have to change. And soon. I seriously cannot believe that.

Back to sanity…

So I spent a lot of time tearing up my server and my wordpress configuration because the page links didn’t work. Only to discover that this theme just didn’t include a method for handling pages. So all the while I’m trying to get this to work and it was the damn theme the whole time. That sucks. But I made my own page handling thing for it all and it seems to be working okay, so at least it works. It really would have been nice if this was mentioned in the documentation before I almost went nuts over it.

All for now, more to follow later.

So I awoke today to find a nice letter from Fon, telling me that because I’ve been such a good linus they are going to send me one of their new fon routers to use for free. Which is cool for a few reasons. A new free router is always good and appreciated. It takes up a lot less space than my old fon router, a generic Linksys Wireless -G thing. It should be faster too, which will be nice. Since I now have this spiffy wireless macbook, I’ve been using it all over the house. So the old fon router will get a new firmware push and will be an access point for the other part of my house. Double Score.

Secondly, Apple has delayed Leopard in favor of the iPhone. This is bad for everyone involved, and will be the 2nd time this year apple has delayed a product (the first being AppleTV). Apple needs to get their act together, and quickly. The many mac users should be more important than potential phone customers, and since I can’t use the iPhone as i’m on T-Mobile, i’m not even all that excited. All I know is that I’m glad I didn’t wait for leopard to get my new computer, or I’d really be upset right now. Then I remember what a nightmare Vista was trying to install it on my PC and I feel better about every version of MacOS I’ve ever used (starting with Systm 7) all over again.

I suppose it’s all for the best though. Considering the iPhone is really a Mac itself (since it runs OSX), or a really badass reincarnation of the Newton (however you want to look at it), you can’t really blame apple for wanting to make it as great as they can, even if that means pulling OS developers off Leopard to make it happen. There are also rumors flying that apple is preparing some new top secret features which won’t be ready until later. That would be awesome, then Apple can say “Well, Vista was years late, and they gutted all their selling points. We were a few months late and added more features. Ooh, and we have the best PDA phone on the planet”. Sounds like a win win right there, but if nothing else, Mac sales have been good as of late (I know that myself and 3 of my friends have all bought Macs this year already. Not to mention the ones that I’ve helped to persuade the people at work buy) and show no signs of slowing down. But an October release of OS Leopard will really help to drive Mac holiday sales. Especially if they release some solid state, touch screen iPods around that same time as well (crosses fingers).