I had a great Birthday this year. I didn't really do anything, but I got lots of love from all my friends and it was great to hear from everyone. I still didn't get a new website design from anyone, but there's always next year.
So thanks to you all (Michael you even got it on the right day). It is nice to be a little older.
I need to get out and take some pictures. All this text is getting boring.
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Thanks Robbie, that's awesome. I have no idea where you find these pictures.
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I just got done spending a weekend at home with my wife's family and my Dad. We really had a great time, it was nice to just kinda hang out and relax some. I also got some of the nicest cards I have ever gotten for my Birthday, so thanks to all involved.
Next week is going to be a busy one. Tomorrow we are going out to celebrate the big birthday, and then Thursday Leigh is leaving for Knoxville for the rest of the week. I don't have class this week, which will be a nice break, so I am planning on using that time to catch up on some SU work I have been putting off. Sucks to always have stuff to do, but in the end it will be worth it. Thing are looking up this week.
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God is on my side.
I got my car back tonight. Two good things:
1. I went to Savannah this past weekend for a friend's Bachelor party weekend (which was insanely fun by the way) and I was suppose to drive. If I had driven I would have spent a good part of this week stuck in Savannah (or somewhere on the road) trying to get my car fixed. But I didn't drive, and it broke down 5 minutes from the Saturn dealership here in Raleigh.
2. The part that got messed up was the cars computer. This was not covered under warranty becasue of oil being spilt on the parts. I also have an extended warranty with Car Max but it wasnt' covered there either because of the same reason. So, Saturn, being the awesome company they are, felt bad about the whole thing and said they would give me the part for FREE if I would pay for the labor.
Cost of the part: $1400
Cost of the labor: $75
I got out of the whole thing with only having to pay around $100 for this and another little thing. If you don't buy Saturn, your stupid.
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Articles like this are just stupid. So there is a problem with the lottery because they don’t' give as much money to people that don't do as well in school. Why does it matter if the people are black or what or any other race? If they do well then they are eligible. Is the writer of this article insinuating that blacks in South Carolina aren't capable of doing well in school and that is someone elses fault?
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You know I was going to try and see how far along I could get without bitching about something on here, but what the hell!! I can't seem to win these days.
As if it isn't hard enough just trying to keep sane with everything I have going, work starts to suck because of stupid people (I have spent all day arguing with a senior manager in another group because she won't tell me the names of two fields I need out of an Oracle table. I have access to the fields, I just don't know their names, and she won't tell me because for some reason she thinks it is secret information. I have had my manager, who is a level above her, call her and ask her what is going on, but still...nothing!).
Then last night while sitting at an ATM my car cuts off and won't restart. I have to call a tow truck to come get the car, and Leigh to come get me, and I dropped it off at the Saturn place. About 30 minutes ago they finally looked at it and tell me that at some point someone left an oil cap off and it spilled all down into the computer. They think the computer is fried and said, "That is going to be a very expensive repair" and it isn't under warranty because it is considered negligence. Of course I haven't changed my own oil, so this means it happened either before I got the car or more recently. Either way, it sucks!
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The new list of the world's richest people is out, and to no suprise, Bill Gates is once again at the top. It is also interesting to see all of the Walton family individually in the list (Wal-Mart does well these days) and that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is now on the list too. Oh, and you obviously knew Oprah was a billlionare, right? I do like this info about Gates though:
Outside the office, world's biggest philanthropist devoting billions to eradicating infectious diseases (polio, AIDS) and developing vaccines through $24 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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These are great!
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Whoohoo, the weather is nice here. It's like 70 degress, sunny and a light breeze. Perfect.
One thing we loved about our house when we bought it was the back yard / rock garden. We have a fish pond and a yard covered in those little white rocks, all fenced it. It is awesome having the back door open and hearing the water fountain and having the breeze blow through. Combine that with some good music playing through the house, and it makes even a day full of cleaning seem awesome.
Tonight we are going to my Uncle-in-law's wedding here in Raleigh. Afterwards, my Dad and his wife are comng to the house and spending the night. Should be cool, it wil be the first time they have seen the house.
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Have you seen those new mini-UPS trucks? They look just like the big ones, but are about the size of the VW Vans. Crazy!
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I think they should invent a device they can implant in your head that lets you control computers. For instance, when I am laying in bed at night trying to sleep I have all my best ideas (like this one of course), but never want to get up to write them down. I should be able to think:
Computer On > Open Notepad > Type "....." > File > Save > File > Close
and it should all happen. Then when I get up in the morning I have this nice file with everything I was thinking all typed out. Sure would save me a lot of time.
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What I didn't tell you the other day is that I skipped work and went to the mountains for the day Wednesday. It was a nice break, but I came to some interesting conclusions. To begin with, I have been snowboarding for 10 years now and I used to live for day trips to the mountains. However, back then the North Carolina mountains were great...things have changed.
Here is an example, when I got to the mountains Wednesday the first thing I did was take the lift to the top of the mountain and haul ass down. You know how long it took me? Sixteen seconds. That's it, 16 seconds and then riding the lift for 5 minutes. It's nuts. I seem to have outgrown the Southeast mountains (at least for a day trip) and am going to have to try and make it out west more often. So I spent about half the day cruising around, and half the day in the snowboard terrain park. It was still fun, but I can't say the 9 hours of driving (about 4.5 each way) is worth the east coast (in this case WV) snow.
Accomplishments for the day:
- Making it down the entire mountain fakie (as in wrong foot forward) without cheating
- Jumping the jumps in the terrain park multiple times and landing the jumps every time
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From the Inbox:
What's up Scott? Long time no talk. Hope all is well.
I wanted to check in and say hi and see if you were interested in doing something around the new Modest Mouse release.
Let me know what you think.
Peace. Tim
Hell Yeah!
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I got one of those Speed Pass things and it is awesome! The pay at the pump function of it is cool, but the really neat part is using it inside the store. Just swipe and go. Anyway, it is cool, and neat because it attaches to whatever account you chose (like your bank account) and isn't a new credit card. Plus, if it got stolen then you are backed up 100% against fraud.
Sounds like a commercial doesn't it?
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Happy Birthday Robbie!!
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I'm baack! So last week sucked as you can imagine, but time to move on. This past weekend I played basketball for the first time in probably 10 years, and it reinforced the reason I played soccer all my life...I suck at basketball! Ok, beyond that I also went to Leigh's Vet School ball, (hence the picture above) which was pretty fun. This coming weekend I am going to try and do something fun with the lady for Valentine's Day, and then next weekend I am going to the wedding of a family member here in Raleigh. After that is a weekend Bachelor Party for my friend Scott. February looks to be a busy month!
On another note, I have picked up a lot of new music recently. Everything from Air, to Incubus, to Courtney Love, to Helmet. Tis the season.
Sorry for bitching all the time and then not updating for weeks at a time. I will try and stop that. Anyone want to design me a new website? This one is over a year old and is getting boring. Plus, I want a little different layout.
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Arrrr, pirates never die!!
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Shit on me, this week has sucked. Yesterday I got up at 6:30, had to change a flat on my wife's car, went to work, was so busy I never got a chance to eat lunch, ran out of time and didn't get to eat dinner, was late for class because I left work late, sat in class for 3 hours with a migraine because I didn't eat all day, then had a 2 hour group meeting, finally got home and my wife was already in bed telling me to stop making noise because she had to get up at 5:30 or something crazy. Sucked.
Today, was about the same, minus not eating dinner and having class. Instead it was go to work early, and stay until almost 7pm just to come home and have to write a paper for school. Now that I am finished, it is bed time.
The rest of the week looks to be the same. The root of all my work stress? XP combined with below average intelligent people = trouble. Ok, maybe that isn't fair to the people. They are not necessarily unintelligent, just not computer intelligent and that can get frustrating when there is 200+ of them.
Enough bitching. I will try to be more positive next time.
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There is a new email (8:50am) blog
SNOW DAY!!!
You Northerners would make fun of us, but man I love living somewhere that when it snows and ices a bit, we get out of school and they close work Woohoo!
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I just wanted to give a shout-out to Robbie and Studiobanks for the rad new Media-Comm site. I am stoked to see Robbie bringing the full Flash action and I love the icons.
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I don't want to enlarge my penis damn it, quit sending me SPAM. I'm up to 1,250 spam emails a week. Enough already.
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It's weird, I don't want to post now unless I can put up a picture up when I post. It just looks boring if there is nothing but text on the page. It is really really cold this winter; even the cat is trying to stay warm.
So what's going on? Bush made his re-elect me speech last night and this quote is what stood out to me:
"America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people."
While it sounds honorable enough, what he is really saying is that 'we won't abide but what the United Nations says if we don't want to. We are arrogant and think no one can tell us what to do and we can justify doing whatever we want.'
That was my whole problem with the Iraq thing. Not that we went necessarily, but that we went around the United Nations and told them we didn't care what they said, we were going to attack Iraq. You just can't do that. That is why people see us as the arrogant bullies of the world. The United Nations was put in place to bring order to the world and to create a forum for countries to work out issues with out war. If enough countries support what you are doing, then it is presented as a United Nations effort, and then you don’t’ have the whole ‘the US attacked me so I am going to get them back’ crap.
I don’t know, some people disagree and think we have every right to go do what we want as a country, but I don’t see it that way. I think in order to preserve peace, we have to submit to some kind of group and make decisions as a group. Look at it this way, Bush said he was going into Iraq because they had nuclear weapons and he was protecting the USA by taking out Saddam now before he could use the weapons. Well we have since found out that he was lying and there probably never were weapons. So we have another president down the road and he has a vendetta against some other country; well he can just make up whatever reason suits the times and then go attack that country. The United Nations is supposed to keep that from happening; it is a sort of checks and balances system. I don’t trust any government administration we have had enough to let them make war decisions on their own. It I just too important to leave to the agenda of one man / administration and we all know war is about politics. Enough, I quit.
This post wasn’t supposed to be about this. Oh well, more banter about my somewhat boring yet insanely busy life…next time.
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Anyone want to go in with me and buy Grand Royal? If we work up a good business plan and get a loan to buy it, then if it didn't work our we could just fold the company we used to buy the label and their will be no personal loss.
Anyone?
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Yesterday was the first time I saw the skin on my chin since August of last year. Sorry Michael, it was time.
I love the Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy from SNL, like this one:
The tired and thirsty prospector threw himself down at the edge of the watering hole and started to drink. But then he looked around and saw skulls and bones everywhere. Uh-oh, he thought. This watering hole is reserved for skeletons.
That's so great. Anyway, we did the 10K Saturday and did pretty well as far as I am concerned. It was quite cold and very lightly snowing part of the time, but at the end of the race we were greeted with warm chili, fruit, muffins, and all sorts of goodies. I had a great time and hope ot run many more races with Jeremy.
At work we are upgrading my department to Windows XP at the end of this month and things are getting crazy with lots and lots of testing. We are also moving to this stuff called Active Directory where they control everything having to do with your PC, including shortcuts, Windows settings, etc based on your login. So people won't be able to add shortcuts and if they delete any or change any settings, they will revert back the next day. THIS IS GOING TO PISS PEOPLE OFF. And since I am the person they get to help with system things, they are all going to fuss at me, as if I had any control over it. Anyway, just some drama.
School also started back last night and boy is that going to suck. The class is Statistics, and the professor is very boring. I already made a mental note to bring my laptop next class so I can at least cruise around on the web while he bores me silly. My other class is Marketing, and I am hoping it won't be quite as bad.
What else? We still have snow on the ground, kinda weird. I think of these little random things to post all the time, but then never make it to a PC to put them online. One of them is I think I have a sleeping disorder or something. No matter how much I sleep, whether it is 8 hours, 9 hours, or more, I am always tired. I have been that way since undergrad and I don’t know why. Maybe I have mono.
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I can not believe this crazy ass North Carolina weather. Last Saturday it was 73 degress when I went running. Tomorrow, when the actual race is, the forecast is:
9AM - Partly Cloudy - Temp 28° - Windchill 19° - Winds at 9 mph
What the crap!! 19 degrees? Are we really going to do this Jeremy?
UPDATE: It is snowing like mad! Can fish survive snow?
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I just cleaned up my Inbox and took it from 190 emails to just 5 emails. I am the Email Master!!
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Another Sunday, and another weekend over. I can't say I really got much accomplished this weekend, saw some movies, watched some TV, and did some cleaning. I am trying to get psyched up for the New Year. Lots of great things to happen in the next year or two; the main thing being the growth of Silent Uproar. I hope to release at least one hopefully two records this year, build up the visitor stats for SU.com, and do some enhancements to the site to increase visitor interaction. Anyway, just lots of cool things planned.
On the more personal front, 2004 will be the year of awesome trips, with a couple already planned, and others bound to pop up sporadically I'm sure. I also hope for this to be the year of running, which will be kicked off with the 10K run I am doing next Saturday, hopefully followed by a half-marathon in March and a full marathon in August. That is if my screwed up knees (torn cartilage in both knees thanks to some soccer injuries that I never got surgery for) hold out on me. We will see about that. I am also looking forward to another year with my wife. Marriage is tough some times, but I can’t even begin to explain how cool it is to have someone so important in my life that is so awesome. For the past couple weeks we have both had a break from school and have ended up with a lot more time together, which is awesome.
Those are really the only “resolutions” I have for the New Year. I am pretty happy with my life and feel like I have pretty good control over it, so there isn’t a lot I feel the need to do. Really I just want to push all the things I have going on and make sure they progress. It is all building up to 2006 I guess. That is when my life is going to change big time.
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Wish You Were Here!
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Christmas is over and I have to say, it was one of the best ones I have had. It was really spread out this year and I got to spend a lot of time with all of my family and friends, which was nice. I also got some really cool stuff including a LCD monitor, a shower CD player, a Lowes gift card, some cash, and the Indiana Jones DVD set. Christmas is fun.
I have been car-less this week because my car is getting some bumper damage fixed. It ended up costing a lot more than I thought it would, but oh well I guess. Leigh has been taking me to work and picking me up every day, which has actually been kinda cool. It is nice to spend a little time with her each morning and afternoon.
On one final note, no one seemed to have any New Years Eve plans, so Leigh and I decided to host a party. We invited a good many people, but you know how may are coming? One person. It just frustrates me because we drive everywhere to do things with people and the one time we try to get people to come up here, no wants to drive. We went out and spent money on things and got reservations somewhere and everything, but... Anyway, I don't know if people just don't like us or if people are just being weird this year, but I think it sucks!
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Merry Christmas boys and girls. Hope you get everything you wanted.
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Well after that long post, I'll make this one short. Today we got off work at 2pm, I ran home and packed like mad, and then we began the drive home (as in old school home...Wingate). After we got here we had Christmas with Leigh's family, tommorrow it is Christmas with my Dad, and Saturday it is Christmas with my mom, then Sunday it's back to Raleigh. Lots of driving will be done. Take care.
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This past weekend was one of the weirdest, most random, fun weekends I have had in a while. It went a little something like this...
Short Version:
Almost missed my flight to Nashville; met a lot of cool people at the party; walked away with the "King of the Crazy Face" superlative as well as winner of "The Lincoln" category; SU prizes were will received; David Bean's art is rad, but cost more than I can afford; Mason Poe is a crazy guy; Ryan Hale does some great art as well; Jeremy C got sick, and may have gotten me sick; bowling can be fun even without beer if you have good company; don't drink old Yoo-hoo; being sick (once again) sucks.
Long Version:
Friday, I stayed home from work so I could spend the day with Leigh and do some much needed Christmas shopping. I then headed to the airport around 3:30 for my 4:30 flight, but I failed to think about the fact that I was going to have to park and take a bus to the terminal, and that I was going to have to wait in line to check-in because I had luggage I needed to check. I managed to make the flight, but if I had been 5 minutes later, I would have missed it. Two hours later I arrive in Nashville and am greeted by Daniel who takes me back to KNI to meet with everyone else.
One of the weirdest things about the whole weekend was meeting people that I have seen pictures of online for over 4 months. All of a sudden these 2D images were live people and it was kinda strange. Once we got everyone together, about 17 of us then headed out to eat at a really good Mexican restaurant. After dinner, it was over to the Untitled Art Show. Most of the artwork wasn't very impressive, but one piece by fellow beard contestant David Bean was really rad. If it hadn't been so expensive ($350), I would have taken it home with me. Anyway, after walking around at the art show for a little too long the group moved on to the next event, the party at Ben Frank's house, which is where things got really weird.
The party was a lot like any other party, well except for the life size cardboard cut out that someone had made of one of the contestants that wasn't able to make it to Nashville. This cut out got carried around everywhere (including the aforementioned art show), and remained a key participant all night. So the party was a lot of hanging out, meeting new people, and just socializing. Somewhere in there we went to the store for a beer run and while in line the cash register lady asked what was going on and Michael told her we were in a Beard Contest. She then proceeded to tell me, "That ain't no beard", which was pretty funny, and compared to Michael is absolutely true. Back at the house, 12am rolls around and the Beard Contest superlatives and winners are announced. The prizes came from a big box of Silent Uproar leftovers I brought, which included some really cool stuff. I took home the "King of the Crazy Face" superlative, as well as winner of "The Lincoln" category. Overall a success. The presentation of the winners was done by none other than Mason Poe and Christopher Wood who were pretty lively. Mason dressed in tinfoil, had a green facial mask, and stars in his beard while Christopher kept it pretty normal. The presentation of winners lasted for an hour and a half, which I think everyone agreed was way too long, but it was fun. The party ended with about 20 people standing around watching Ben Frank shave (see picture above), which seemed a little silly. However, seeing a very drunk Mac Burrus try and achieve crazy angles while filming Ben shaving made it worth it. We got back to Michael's at about 3am and crashed. I slept in the same bed with Jeremy C, which later proved to be a mistake.
Saturday we got up around 10 or so and headed into the city for some breakfast. We got a bite to eat and then walked around a bit, checking out a couple stores along the way. We then went out to lunch with Chad, Michael, Cody, Sarah and the Jeremys for some BBQ in downtown Nashville. Good company and good food. After that we went back to the house to drop the two Jeremy's off and Michael and I took Chad to the airport for his flight. The rest of the afternoon consisted of sitting at the house watching 6 hours of Six Feet Under while Michael slept and I tried to with no luck. As night got closer, Jeremy C started feeling really sick and decided to stay in for the night. Jeremy D had some friends come into town to meet him, so he was whisked away to an evening with them. That left, Michael, Sarah, Jamie, and I to a dinner at Cracker Barrel where I learned that you can actually get a ton of food for under $5 if you know the right thing to order. Following dinner we met up with Mac and headed to the bowling alley. Bowling went OK with each of us having a decent game at some point in the night, but the highlight had to be watching Mac dance as he bowled...funny stuff. After bowling is was off to a party full of people I didn't know, so I stood around talking to Daniel, Michael, Jeremy and Mac. An hour or so later everyone was ready to go, so we headed home and crashed.
Sunday we got up and Michael and I headed to the gas station to get some coffee, at which point I was jumped by an employee as soon as I walked in the door and told about all the one dollar items they had. Weird. By the time we got back to the house and I got my things together it was time to head to the airport, so Michael dropped me off this time with plenty of time to catch my flight. The flight was pretty quick and I was home in no time. Once I got home, I had a yoo-hoo that I had gotten from my parents when I was home over Thanksgiving. Later we ordered some pizza, and I ate a couple pieces and in a sudden fit of nausea I immediately threw up everything I had eaten. I am pretty sure the yoo-hoo is what did it, because that is the only thing I had eaten/drank before and it was too quick to be the pizza. Anyway, I then ate a couple more pieces of pizza and felt fine.
That leads me to today, in which I feel like complete crap. I am not sure if the sickness I have is something I got from sick people here at work before I left, something I got from Jeremy by sleeping in the same bed, or something from someone on the plane, but whoever gave it to me SUCKS!
To sum things up, I thought it was cool how I felt Immediately comfortable around Michael. This is really the first time I have met him except for about 2 minutes around four years ago, but I just felt like he was an old friend. It was cool to be part of his life for a weekend and everyone I met in Nashville (Sarah, Daniel, Jamie, Codie, etc) were all really cool as well. I hope to make it back that way some time soon or maybe Michael could come visit Robbie and I in NC.
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The backend of my website mysteriously broke and wouldn’t let me update it. I don't know what happened and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Then this morning it works. Weird. Robbie did you fix it?
I think I decided I am going to try and look like someone famous when I fly to Nashville. You know how you always see people in the airport of wherever and think "hmm, I think they are someone famous" just because of the way they look? Well that's what I'm going for. I figure I might as well do something for fun since I'm flying by myself.
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Well it is finally over, two semesters down and five more to go. I had my last final tonight and I think I did pretty well. It will be nice not having class to worry about for a couple weeks. Maybe I can finally get some code work done on SU and Leigh and I can spend some time together.
Breaking news, I am flying out to Nashville next weekend for the Beard Contest 2003 Throwdown. It should be fun, although I still can't believe I am flying to TN for a weekend. Thanks to Michael and Daniel for making me feel so wanted. I had decided not to go, but then Daniel called me up at work and gave me the old man speech which I couldn't resist. Nashvegas, here I come.
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Robozo is the personal blog of a pretty normal (boring) guy living in Concord, NC.
