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ARCHIVES - October 2003

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10/31/03, 12:12 p.m.: Happy Halloween

It has been a rough week school-wise, but as I was thinking back to last year and trying to figure out what I did for Halloween, I realize that maybe it's not been so bad after all. The top two posts in my October 2002 archive explain it all--I was working 10 hour shifts all week, including one on Halloween itself, followed by going in to work at 1am Nov 1. Not cool. Who says that working is so much better than school?

10/30/03, 1:09 a.m.: Ugh.

I haven't posted in awhile, so you know what that usually means--I'm getting my ass kicked by school. Test on Monday that went horribly, another test this Friday, project due Friday, and another whopper due next Monday...you get the picture. Other than this, I've not really had much time for anything else. Soccer practices started back up again this week as we get ready for Nationals, which will be held in the great Tuscaloosa, Alabama the weekend before Thanksgiving. I will in all likelihood also get to miss about 3 days of class since it will take a whole day to get down there. Then on the way back I think the plan is to stop in New Orleans for a few days of vacationing, which should be a blast. Then home sweet home again to enjoy all the Turkey Day festivities. Can't wait =P By the way, my esteemed co-worker John is having a Halloween Bash at his place tomorrow. Click here for details. (Yeah, that's the man.)

10/23/03, 6:32 p.m.: MIT, here I come ... or not.

Well, I survived the GRE today, and it confirmed what we all feared to be true: I am indeed an engineer. What this means is that I smoked the quantitative section and got completely owned by the verbal, and (in all likelihood) the writing section, too. Oh well, it is done now and I can move on with life...which right now consists of getting ready for two tests and two projects next week. Blarg.

10/22/03, 6:44 p.m.: Good riddance, I say

This is one of those things that falls in the "it's about damn time" category. Now poeple will be able to fall asleep in relative comfort in physics lectures--a luxury not available to me when I took those wretched classes back in the day... Also today I tried unsuccessfully to repair my bike tire again. This time it was the front one so I figured it would be easier, but just as before, I managed to puncture it while putting it back on somehow. Either that, or the wheel is just too rough. Who knows... Ack. Tomorrow I take the GRE. Wish me luck.

10/20/03, 12:45 p.m.: Wayback machine, part 2

The Pond Yesterday was just gorgeous, and after going home to pick up my new 128mb CF card for the digi cam, I decided to take it for a walk through me, Sam and Andy's old stomping grounds, the great Moore Park. It was fun to wander down to the Squaw Creek where we used to go fishing and muck around in the river. Kind of made me wish I was still back in those simpler, more innocent days, but oh well. I took a lot of really not-so-great pictures that I would put in a gallery if I had one, but here's a few of the most nostalgic ones for me: Squaw Creek 1 Squaw Creek 2 Spill Hill The Tower Tube at the pond

10/18/03, 6:10 p.m.: Happy Birthday to me.

I almost forgot...today is the 1 Year Anniversary of my page! I would do some kind of vain tribute to myself if I was sweet like that, but all I can think of is to provide you with a link to my inaugural post. I think I've come a long way since then. Or not =P Well, it's Saturday evening, and this of course means that my long hard week is finally over...and I made it through with minimal damage, I think. Anyway, for your enjoyment (or mine), here's a few observations made since my last post: -- The Scallion (Ames's new Korean restaurant) is my new favorite restaurant. I ate there on Wednesday, and I have to say I was super impressed. The food is awesome; I just hope they expand the menu in the future so I can try some different things. -- I need some practice if I'm ever going to make it to the World Championship of Poker. Poker night was a lot of fun, but the game didn't last very long (and neither did I.) However, I managed to salvage the night by eating my weight in doritos and beef jerky. -- Our football team sucks ... although they did kind of make a game of it in the 2nd half. My prediction is that we win no more games the rest of the year, however. Unfortunately, the other football team in Iowa did not do so well, either, choking against a team with little to no offense (much like the Cyclones.) -- We are having some beautiful weather this weekend. The bad news is that all my soccer games for this weekend were cancelled, even though it would have been perfect weather for it. I guess the good thing is that I have/had a free weekend, which is nice. -- The Kill Bill soundtrack kicks ass =)

10/13/03, 11:15 p.m.: "The weak only strive to be weaker..."

Ack, it's going to be one of those weeks. It was a long and frustrating weekend, what with soccer on both days and one game getting rained out, and studying for today's HVAC test on both Friday and Saturday nights (my only real free time of the weekend.) The test went well, thankfully, but still made for a hectic day today, on top of trying to prepare a presentation for Wednesday. But enough of that--it's been a long day. One major bright spot of the weekend was seeing Kill Bill Vol. 1 on Friday, however. I was a bit apprehensive at first, given that I haven't been a huge Tarantino fan in the past, nor am I terribly fond of excessive blood and gore...but I DO enjoy some good sword fightin' for some odd reason. The movie was awesome, and exceeded my every expectation. The action was incredibly intense, but almost artistic at times; the music was fantastic and had more of a focus than a typical movie; and there was plenty of dark humor and entertaining dialogue to keep the attention. I would highly recommend it. I think I finally managed to get the pictures from my last post working, now, so be sure to check those out. Joy =)

10/10/03, 12:45 p.m.: Skunk

It's been a really hectic week, and next week will be no better. Yesterday, however, I took an hour or so to just zen out and go walk the river like I used to when I was a lot younger. I of course took the camera with me, but in spite of all the nice fall colors around most of Ames, the Skunk River area was not that impressive. I have a few pics, and will put them up if Andy or I can ever hack my old gallery. I think the biggest suprise was how dry the river was; south of the Lincoln Way bridge there is no water in it, and it looks like there hasn't been for quite some time (see pic1 pic2). It was strange to see the bottom of the river with all the crap in it that usually is hidden from view. Definitely cool, though. The mighty Skunk River

10/07/03, 8:35 p.m.: Good/Bad

Yeah, so it's just been one of those days where everything is either up or down... Good: Put a new battery in my car this weekend, and it's been running smoothly ever since. Bad: Managed to pop another tire on my bike; this time the front one so at least it's not my fault for putting it on wrong. And once again it waited until after I got to campus to get flat. Good: Got an A on that big-ass thermo test last week. Bad: Got yet another 67% on a hydraulics quiz last Friday... Good: I have no tests or quizzes of any kind this week. Bad: I have two tests and a presentation next week, with the GRE looming on the horizon for the following week. Next week is going to destroy me. Good: Go to the Iowa State Daily Archives and do a search for "Sam Wong" in the "Opinion" section to get a list of every cynical article Sam wrote back when he was a columnist for the Daily. This includes my personal favorite: "Nintendo--It's there when you need it." Bad: I dunno, fark.com?

10/06/03, 12:26 p.m.: Even better than a wayback machine...

With the exception of the debacle of a football game on Saturday (which I really didn't care much about anyway, strangely enough), this was a pretty awesome, low-key weekend. I slept a lot and didn't do much of anything, which was fine by me. I'm not sure what possessed me to do this, but yesterday I dug up a bunch of old HyperCard stacks that me and Andy made back in the day. We used to construct some fairly-impressive games back then, with some "complicated" HyperTalk coding, as well =) We even had a functional network game, and literally hundreds of hand-crafted icons, too. When I get a chance, I think I'll take some screenshots for y'all, since I'm pretty sure no one runs Classic anymore. Oh yeah, and by the way Fist of Legends was pretty cool, Sam. Makes me really wish I could beat someone up with nothing more than my leather belt...

10/03/03, 3:30 p.m.: "Units, units, units--they will set you free!"

One of my professors actually said that in lecture this morning. Steve and Ross, you guys should have no trouble placing the source of that quote =) So I've been spending a little time lately trying to get my bike and car fixed-- yesterday was devoted to changing the bike tire, which was quite the adventure (see Andy's photo tribute to my efforts.) After popping the first replacement tube on Monday, I decided to check the tire for debris, and sure enough, I found the dirty culprit to be a chunk of glass in the tire. Next, I managed to pop the first innertube of the day when I was putting the tire back on the wheel, and had to go get another tube from Bike World--my third tube since I first popped the tire two weeks ago. But it's all working good now, and the bike at least got me to and from campus no problem today. Hopefully it will stay this way. However, for now it's off to Sears to get a new battery for my poor Avenger...

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