Tag Archives: pre-wordpress

Addendum

Forgot to comment on the Packers draft from the weekend.

I thought it was pretty exciting to draft a ‘blue chip’ sort of quarterback, realizing that such opportunities don’t often present themselves to a perennial playoff team.

At the same time, no matter how many boquets of roses def. coordinator Jim Bates attempts to jam up the Packers fans’ collective ass, I don’t think the team has a prayer of doing anything substantial next season.

Sure, Bob Slowik, last year’s coordinator was a tool, and if he could’ve committed to a ‘system’ that might’ve helped, but man: they’ve got a bunch of underachievers and role players on that unit, and between last August and this past March, it also lost its two best players (Mike McKenzie? and Darren Sharper, respectively).

Meanwhile, Minnesota has done nothing but make a series of fantastic moves to bolster the D in the offseason, and I think you’d be crazy to predict anything but a division crown for them at this point.

*sigh* g'damn packers...

I Feel Like I Should Probably Do This

It’s better to be out among the people on your day off, I guess. I should probably come here more often in general, just so as to appear less hermitic.

I decided I would come to the Union in the afternoon to do homework and some various Internet-ting. This affords me the opportunity to “people watch” as well, and since that is something I enjoy doing (so I’ve found) I think I should move to a more metropolitan area. I don’t think the kids like being seen around here. I don’t really think anyone does. People stay out home. They should go out. For my benefit, of course.

Jen and Joe’s wedding is this week, and the whole spring has pretty much been leading up to it, so the day’s arrival is something of a spectre of the semester’s looming conclusion. Even in terms when the workload is not particularly heavy or undesirable, I hate the end. Inevitably, I feel like I should’ve done something more, or I should’ve done something differently, or I’m forgetting to do something altogether. That may just be my (possibly) clinically-certifiable paranoia.

I was sitting in the apartment yesterday thinking about doing homework and so being distracted by all the things that are wrong with my living space. I am rapidly running out of room on my shelves for DVDs, so I concluded that the best way to free up more room would be to rid myself of VHS tapes once and for all.

To that end, I signed up for Netflix, and within minutes had added all the movies I have on VHS to my “rental queue.” After that, I added more and realized that this might end up being another dangerous addiction.

I totally forgot to get a hotel room for the wedding. Shit.

Wow, the Brewers Still Suck

I was really, really, really tired when I got home from work today. Think it was a combo of low sleep the previous night and plenty of deep thought @ work during the day.

Then I had some coffee about an hour ago. Oi.

Speaking of sleep, I heard an ad on TMJ this morning for some sleep wellness clinic or something saying that adults should be getting like, 8.5 hours a night? Who the hell has time for that? Or need, seriously? 8.5? That’s like, half a day.

One of my favorite things to complain about with regard to computers and the Internet is stuff that you get for free from the charity of others. That sentence does not make much sense. In this particular case, I’m talking about ‘themes’ for Firefox.

There need to be more themes that are better. I want someone to port over a decent copy of the ‘orbit yellow’ theme for Mozilla. Of course, I have no right to request anything, since there is no way I could contribute something myself. I just consume, CONSUME, CONSUME! Like any good American.

Brewers are down, this is gonna be like their 15th straight loss after starting out a solid 6-3. At least we get to listen to Uecker. Gotta love the Ueck. Jim read my email on the air the first week of the season. It was a dumb email, though, I was just like, ‘Hey, they need to bring back the glove logo — it rules!’ Really, I’m just sick of these college kids walking around being ‘cool’ with all their ‘retro’ stuff. Retro. Stuff that was just… y’know, when I was a kid, now it’s ‘retro.’ What is that bullshit?

I finally finished reading this book earlier in the week, and I really think you should give it a try if you’re down with literacy. Jen, if you still read the blog time to time, lemme recommend this one for your ‘book club.’

8-3 now. Damn. I’m going to listen to a CD, and it is going to be this one.

I was looking through some old IM logs earlier this evening, and I was suprised to find that there were conversations with people that I didn’t even know, and things that I said I would never have remembered. This whole ‘writing things down’ operation is screwy that way.

10 PM. I’m out.

No Apologies II

This week for my internet class with Charlie Hill, we read a bunch of stuff about two primary topics (the relation of which is still a mystery to me): internet ‘addiction’ and the global phenomenon (and by ‘global’ we mean ‘United States’) of blogging.

I was only marginally disappointed to find out that, according to the best minds on the rhetoric of the internet that Charlie could dig up, I am blogging incorrectly/irresponsibly.

Apparently, I require an agenda, a strong political opinion, a high level of expertise on a given subject, a propensity to re-post already-published news articles, a membership in an online ‘community’ (gaming or otherwise), a campaign manager, a band, a talk show, a new hit movie, or a childhood acting career.

I have none of these things.

But, as has been documented in this space, what I do have is my very own server and the honest and true disposition that led to people blogging in the first place: a high-level desire to read my own words/listen to the sound of my voice.

I also have a video camera, and I know Charlie Sykes sure as hell doesn’t.

Writey McWriterton

I woke up this morning with my alarm @ 6:30 AM, and I wanted to document the things that I did on this day that I need to get a lot of writing done.

6:30:
Wake to ‘Wisconsin’s Morning News’ on WTMJ.
7:30:
Alarm clicks off after an hour, I turn radio back on, still in bed.
7:50:
Get out of bed.
8:25:
Sykes starts on TMJ, decide to stop reading the paper on the web and make breakfast.
8:28:
Choose waffles, but realize I’ll have to scrub the iron since I haven’t made waffles since the burning fiasco
8:39:
Ready to plug in waffle iron, begin preparing batter.
8:46:
Waffle 1 hits the iron
8:48:
Make coffee, pour glass of orange juice
9:15:
Done with breakfast, load dishwasher, set timer for 15 minutes to allow remaining waffles to cool before putting them in the refrigerator
9:30:
Stop reading the paper again, put waffles away
9:33:
Decide to take a shower
9:48:
Realize that before the internet distracted me, I was going to take a shower
9:55:
Towel off, get dressed
10:02:
Sync PDA
10:08:
Think about turning off Sykes
10:09:
Think about how I’ll have to move the car in 20 minutes
10:10:
Another cup of coffee
10:32:
bottom-of-the-hour news reminds me I have to go move the car
10:34:
Begin looking on the web for an alarm for the computer so I’ll remember to move the car in 90 minutes
11:06:
Turn off radio after the top-of-the-hour news
11:07:
Decide to listen to a ‘CD’ while I work, choose Beta Band’s “Three EPs”
11:08:
Put a link on soloshootsfirst to a Beta Band mp3 on my site
11:11:
Talk to the governor
11:21:
Not getting a lot of writing done yet
11:22:
Decide to “warm-up” by making a list of what I’ve done so far this morning
11:35:
Complete list, post to blog
11:36:
Think about making a video for the site

I Don't Have to Apologize for Anything

I’m in class at the moment, and I was thinking that I haven’t been blogging enough lately, but then I remembered that I’ve retired completely from apologizing for whatever I do on this site. You’re the one reading it. I could point to a whole ton of sites that aren’t updated as frequently as this one. Plus there are areas on soloshootsfirst where you can add your own content.

Eh, whatever.

I smell cigarettes.

I was glad to hear from the eHarmonizers, and they’ll let me out at the end of my current month. So I was glad of that. I’m going to keep working on that problem in real life. I’ve decided that looking online isn’t quite where I am yet. This is not to poo-poo anyone else who’s had success with interpersonal relationships online. eHarmony is, well, to be honest: it’s not fast enough for me. I don’t get the sort of info that I want fast enough, and that is really frustrating.

This ZIP file with my website is taking an agonizingly long time to upload to the class website. I think that’s because it’s full of bitmaps. Which was my bad. I’ll fix that on the next draft.

This weekend is Joe’s bachelor party. I hope I remembered to email everyone that needed emailing. I might not have. I’ll need to check.

I’m going to head home for now, but there will be more to come.

Monopoly!

Is there an exclamation point in the game? No, there’s not… which game is it that has an exclamation point as part of the name of the game? Am I drunk, maybe?

I didn’t eat dinner, but I had a bunch of coffee, so I’m kind of wired at the moment.

FYI — Bryguy is indifferent with regard to Coldplay.

It seems like a lot of the internet away from the blog has been taking up my time lately. I’ve been working on doing a website for a class that I have this semester. It’s about, y’know, the internet and stuff. The course contents are not exactly what I was hoping for when I got there (yes, Wordell, get in your I-told-you-so’s), but it still has served the purpose of being my less important (relative to indie study) class for the semester. Anyway, my site for that class is pretty lame and I’m probably gonna have to do the whole damn thing over again, so that’ll be a treat.

Oh, and the forums. I’ve been putting some things that would’ve been in blogs in forum posts the last couple weeks here. Nothing really substantial, more or less what I’m doing here is endorsing the forums.

The other day, Wil Wheaton was talking about doing a big overhaul on his site, and I don’t know that he really needs it, but whatever, he’ll be doing it, and I was thinking to myself, “Shit — I’m really glad that I don’t think about that much anymore…” This format is working great for me, I hope it’s good for you, too.

I am going to upgrade the hardware on the server later in the spring. I want to have a bigger processor and more memory in there, hopefully it will help with some speed issues in certain areas of the site. But the thing there is, I decided I would put a bigger hard drive in the server at that point, and with the collassal car repairs I’ve had to make this week, I doubt there’ll be money for frivolous things like hard drives in the near future… Maybe I could use my big external drive for the server or something. But I would have to back everything up that’s on there first. I guess I could do that. I have a DVD burner, for chrissakes.

I like Coldplay. No matter what Schneider says.

This will surprise the crap out of some of you: I got back in touch with Jill Pape this week (she’s now “Jill Pape Lemke”). Yeah, buried the hatchet and everything. We talked on the phone on Tuesday night for like an hour. She lives in Green Bay now. Who knew? Man, Green Bay is a hole. If it wasn’t for the Packers, can anyone think of a good reason for Green Bay to exist?

Speaking of the Packers, I’ve got Brewer fever, I dunno about you. Sure, it was the Pirates, the Brewers’ annual competitor for last place in the division, but hells bells: they won their first two, and quite convincingly. I wish I could get tickets for Wrigley this weekend, and then do the home opener in MKE on Monday, that would be sweet. I had to buy a new alarm clock radio this week, too, just so I could listen to the Brewers. My big stereo in the living room gets absolutely no AM reception, even with the ol’ loop antenna plugged in. The clock by the window picks up 620 just fine, though.

Man this is rambling. That’s what I (or rather, you) get for blogging while I’m juiced on the cocoa bean.

I better stop before I say something really random and insane.

PORK CHOP SANDWICHES!!

An Evening of Observations

1. There was a guy in the computer lab where my class meets who left just a few minutes before we got started. He looked like Ashton Kutcher and was wearing a red t-shirt that had a “McShit” logo on the front.

2. Hot-With-Glasses? Girl is truly an enigma. She is hot with the glasses on, and only marginally attractive without.

3. There are times when Charlie should probably just admit that there’s not a lot to cover in a given week of class and say, “Ah, get out of here early…”

4. While keeping all my computers (except the server) off most of the time is saving on electricity, it’s certainly not helping me make sure I get all my shows taped.

5. I have earned the Giant Dumbass merit badge a number of times over. Thank goodness my prof picked up my PDA after I left it in class tonight.

6. Kids might say they don’t mind “group work,” in class, but the truth is that’s because they don’t get dick done during those sessions.

Going Home

Missed an entry yesterday, mostly because of the hours that traveling took.

Wordy and I got on a bus at 7:00 AM EST Monday to go to New York for the day. We arrived in Chinatown at about 11, and then proceeding to walk a very long way, meandering past, in, and around any number of interesting or peculiar sites, until we got to Bethesda fountain in Central Park at about 3 (At least I think that’s about what time it was. I could check the pictures. OK, so it was 3:30. I was close.).

It was after we walked back out of the park to 53rd & Broadway (where I wanted to get a better photo of the Ed Sullivan Theater than I did four years ago) that we decided to pick up a map and brave the New York City subway. It was certainly no more frightening than any other sort of public transit, definitely faster, more crowded than most, but just difficult for a first-timer to navigate.

Anyway, we rode the train up to Columbia University, where Wordy wanted to learn some street names and whatnot, because a screenplay that he’s working on apparently has a car chase around Columbia in it. I took a few nice photos on the campus there, and a cute English girl asked me for directions, which I really wish I could’ve provided.

We asked a university security officer for subway directions back to where we needed to be for our bus, and holy crap – was that ever faster than walking! We got to the bus in plenty of time, even had a chance to grab dinner before it left, and then we both tried to sleep some on the way home. I also read the 2nd volume of the Sin City books, and it was as good as or better than the first.

Today we slept in for a little while after a very long day on our feet. We were up at about 20 minutes to 9, and we were across the street at the Au Bau Pain for coffee and a muffin at 10 after. Ben met us there about 30 minutes later, then at 10:30 or so, we hopped a train up to Harvard.

I had been there on Friday, but Wordy hadn’t, and I was really glad we went back, because the weather was beautiful for taking pictures. I found the ‘Harvard Alumni’ mug that I wanted, and Wordy got a shirt for his roomie that says, “Hahvahd.”

We ate lunch up in Cambridge before heading back to down with a stop at MIT. We all had a marvelous time all morning/early afternoon making fun of the smart kids at both Harvard and MIT. I guess it’s just what you do when you’re dumb/normal.

Wordy and I caught the train nearest Ben’s apartment at about 3:10 PM, and we were to the airport before 4. I was actually at the security check at 4. I waited on going through, though, so that we could have a drink before we took off. At 20 to 5, we said good-bye, and now I’m on the plane sitting next to a cute girl from Friendship, WI who’s a freshman at Boston University. I’m also sort of watching this guy’s DVDs over his shoulder without sound two rows up.

See ya back in ‘Sconnie.

Then Wordell Showed Up

Yesterday Ben and I made it to the airport just as Wordy was disembarking from his plane. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a muffin before we got back on the train, and Ben was right — they have some shitty coffee @ the DD.

We ate lunch at a place called The Screamin Pig. It was a nice English pub, I had a pulled pork sandwich.

Next, we walked over to Wally’s Jazz Cafe, which is one of Ben’s favorite places to hang out, and judging by the awards hanging on the walls, Boston thinks it’s pretty great, too. We were there too early to see anyone play, but the jukebox was an adequate substitute. A bunch of the pictures from yesterday are in Wally’s.

We went to the top floor of the Prudential building, where there’s a restaurant called “Top of the Hub.” The view was neat, but since it was a cloudy, snowy day in general, we had trouble seeing very far out. We were going to hang out there for a drink anyway, but they wouldn’t serve me because (and I’m paraphrasing here) “( they’ve ) never heard of a state that issues you a sticker to extend the date of your license before.” I was laughing about it, I think the people working there were offended, but like I told them — it wasn’t them so much as it was Wisconsin that gave me the chuckles. Silly, cheap, stupid Wisconsin, who doesn’t want you to get a new license, just a sticker.

There were a couple other stops along the way, finally we wound up at a place called Punter’s Pub, where we could throw all the darts we wanted for free (quite a change from WI) and we hung out there until around 1:00. Wordy and I ordered a lunchbox, which we had to tell the bartender how to make (1 part light beer, 1 part O.J, drop in a shot of amaretto), and which grossed out everybody at the bar. It was delightful.

Today the weather is supposed to be better, so hopefully we’ll get some outdoor photography rolling.