Moving

Moving to mattgroulx.com for now, testing out some hosting options, depending on how it pans out, could be back here, could stay there, but for now check it out!

F U Apple

Seriously, let me first say, that I , Matt Groulx, have been a pretty avid apple fan for a few years now. Made the switch, enjoyed it, still keep a pc around for the gaming aspect, but love my little macbook for portability. Absolutely loved my first ipod, really enjoy my phone but every now and again I always find that little thing that just drives me crazy. This is one of those times. Actually the more I think about it there are two things I am crabby about on this one. I know this paragraph has random periods throne places, trying to suggest grammatic structure, but basically its one giant fragmented rant of a sentance. Sorry about that.

Now that that is over, lets start. I decided I no longer enjoy the generic text message noise my iPhone currently uses. The sound is kind of loud and angry at me (I beleive I am currently using the tritone if anyone wants to try it out and see what I am talking about.) I made the decision that it would be a lot better if I could get something more mellow. Quickly without thinking I thought, Lets go to iTunes!!! They will help me!! Surprise, they won't, because you can buy ringtones for your phone, oh buy as many customized ringtones as you want, but do you think you could place them in for a text message sound. Who the hell do you think you are kid?

Basically the message apple is currently sending me is something translated like this.

Dear Average Mortal,

We regret to inform you that you may not have that calm piano playing everytime you receive a text message, because we, Apple (Supreme Beings), have already provided you with 6 of the most wonderful sounds to choose from, therefore it would be unimaginable for you to want anything beyond that.


Good day.

AAAAAAARGGH!

Anyways I am pretty frustrated with it, I have been searching all over the internetz but only to find the option to be jailbreaking, which I dont really feel comfortable doing.




One last rant real quick, I mentioned my nice black macbook. The battery currently last like 10 minutes. Ya great. Of course the battery is out of warranty so there is another FU to me from my supposedly favorate computer manufacturer.

Cyclones

So I havent been writing the last few weeks, been crazy busy with work and everything. Delta is actually pretty exciting again with the beginning of the new semester, lots of attractive people I need to work up the courage to talk to lol. The new crew are catching on pretty fast and all seem to be pretty solid, although there has been a few incidents, ie a tv trying to be pulled out of a room while it was still plugged in and snapping the power cord, but all in all everyone is learning.

The bats made a triumphant return after the whole rabie scare. Several began to get into the house, it was really scary and crazy. We have been here for almost a year now and have never really noticed or seen bats around until this point and time. We tried to seal all the openings to the attic and thought for a minute that we had them beat but oh were we wrong. Again they made some paths around the upstairs. Finally we looked at the vents in the attack and found a 1 inch hole in the screen. Replaced the screen with some metal meshy hardware cloth. While that prevented them from getting into the attic from outside, it also prevented them from getting out.... Needless to say they found the only other out they had which was into the house. After a few final days of battle the war was won though, and I am glad to report we have not had a bat sighting in a good week and a half.

The open beta opens this weekend for warhammer online which is pretty exciting, but unfortunately its right when Spore comes out too. I am pretty torn on how to handle all this gaming that needs to be done...

anyways thats a bit of an update for now, hopefully I can get some more writing in soon. Sleep now, Dentist tomorrow, and Warhammer on and off all weekend!

Harvey's

Last night I got to partake in one of my favorite activities at a new environment. Eat. The place of choice.....Harvey's Bar and Grill.

This restaurant just opened in place of the old Fazollis on wilder road. The interior has a classy look to it setting it slightly apart from the shit on the walls places like bennigans (just declared bankruptcy btw) or Apple Bees. The prices are very similar though, so yuo get a slightly nicer atmosphere for the same amount of money.

The food!! I ordered a Barbecue Cheddar burger, It came on a nice light bun, a large hamburger pattie covered in cheddar and barbecue sauce, garnished with some lettuce,tomato, and a large deep fried onion ring. This beautiful sandwich also came with a side of fries, but you could change them out for any other side they had to offer if you wanted, but who does that? To wash this all down I had a Heineken.

I really enjoyed everything about the place and plan on returning there sometime in the future, the service was good, the atmosphere was great, and the food was amazing. The only complaint I think I had with this place is the lighting. Your probably thinking I am being a little ridiculous when I say this but the place was too bright. It helps give people a sense of privacy in their booths if it is a little dimmer and you can not see everyone in the same area as clearly. Also tehy had a really neat fireplace like area in the center that just didn't get its full value used, due in part to the lighting I think. Besides that though, great place, check it out sometime.

Dual Monitors and Gaming Rooms

I went to the parents earlier today and picked up my old HP CRT monitor. I know what your thinking, how shitty is that thing right? Well as it turns out, its amazing, at least the way I have it set up. I hooked the bad lad up alongside my normal Dell flat screen and now use the crt to do my web browsing while playing Age of Conan, (which maybe be replaced by warhammer soon, I'll keep you posted. The ability to just keep things like facebook, google docs, and random forums within view at all times is just the best thing since the wheel. Seriously.


I also got myself a new table to place my monitors on and moved everything upstairs to the new "gaming room" where hopefully other residence will start moving their computers so we can have a small internet cafe in our upstairs. We even have the mini fridge ready to go! So far things look like they will be really cool, I have my desk/table in a little nook area and hooked my stereo up to my computer to replace some dell speakers I was using. The next step is decorating and cleaning up random cords. Once more people are up here and everything is settled I will probably get some pictures posted up of our internet hub.

The Bat, The Hockey Stick, The Dust Pan

So first let me say that this story has been days in the making. Of course due to the seriousness of the events that I am about to unfold before you I was not very eager to place them on the ole blog. None the less this story is interesting enough and I knew I would sooner or later, so while I sit here on a late Saturday night being bored and wondering what makes the world go round, I thought I would tell you the tale of a bat, a hockey stick, and a dust pan.

This story really begins a week ago. Adam, JR, Karen, Chris, and myself were in the living room area when, out of the darkness, a bat comes flying through the air. Reacting how I do to most rodents, particularly flying ones, I began screaming and covering myself with a blanket. Before anyone laughs to hard at me I would like to mention that several other male members of this adventure party reacted in similiar fashions, so I was not alone. Meanwhile JR promptly knocked the bat out of the air with a smash brothers display box. The small creature landed on the ground and started making weird ticking noise. Karen began yelling for the poor little guy to not get killed, so her and JR picked the bat up in a shirt and carried it outside to release it. Obviously this may have not been the best idea, and if I know now what I didn't know then I would of smashed that little bastard then and there.

A day or two goes by without incident. I have been sleeping on the couch more and more during the summer because of the heat and the upstairs being unbearable. Early Wednesday morning I am woke up by Emma ( my chocolate lab puppy ) barking at the ceiling. There I sight my dear friend mr bat, back for another round. He quickly flies back upstairs where, most likely, his insertion point is hidden. At this point I decide just to go to sleep. This is another moment where if I knew then what I know now....

BARK! BARK! BARK! It is 7:30 am and I hear on the ground next to me a tick, tick, ticking noise. Emma standing about two feet away barking fiercly. Guess who was back and over stepping my personal boundries? The bat. I quickly leave my position on the couch and the little winged horror flies into my kitchen, lands on a high cabient, and begins monitoring me. He must of thought he was pretty clever watching me from there.

At this point I quickly decided enough was enough and action had to be taken even though I was deathly afraid of the bat, this new train of thought was mostly inspired by the thought process of my puppy possibly being injured by this wretch. I quickly grabbed my hockey stick that has been hanging out in our kitchen for some time, as I have yet to find a proper place for it. Using the blade of the stick I pushed the bastard into the air. Swooping around the kitchen and circling my head I quickly grabbed the lucky Smash Bros. display box that had found its way to the kitchen as well, and with one great swing I forced the little aviator into an emergency landing, where I quickly found our heavy metal shop dust pan and smashed my shortly acquainted friend. I removed the corpse of my ugly tenant and placed him in his own garbage back and set him in the dumpster outside. I continued about my day...

About an hour later I began to wonder if my puppy had had her rabies shots yet. As it turns out such a shot was not to be administered until about three or so weeks from this point. After explaining the event to the vet, ( my mom made this call actually) it was recommended that we get the bat tested. I couldn't say that no contact had been made between the bat and Emma since I had been asleep during the first initial encounters. Chris found the body in the trash can and took it to the local animal control department where they told us it would take three days to get results.

I didnt think too much about the situation for the rest of the day, or as Karen, JR, and Kyle came over. As it turns out though, as I learned the next day, Rabies can be spread from a dog to a person just by being licked, not to mention of course obvious ways like scratches and bites. Even if the dog is not showing symptoms.



For three days we had to sit and watch our dog very carefully hoping that the results would come back and relieve our fears. If the bat was found to be positive and carrying rabies its hard to say what would happen to Emma, I am sure it would be something along the lines of either a really expensive quarantine, or just being put down. Neither of those options were very good in my mind, not to mention do you know what a person has to get if they are thought to have rabies? Shots, not one, but six, six shots in the stomach. I started to think about how maybe Chris, John, Karen, JR, Kyle, and I could maybe get like a group discount on the doctor visit.

Luckily Friday the most relieving phone call came through around 4pm letting us know the bat was negative. I can not even explain how relieved I was. Its very weird looking at your former favorite little puppy with the thought that they were going to turn into a crazy zombie dog at any moment.

Good Grief

All the way to the apple store in twelve oaks to get my iPhones sound fixed and all they hadto do was clean it....

Sigh

At least I can hear now but while I sit here typing on a bench at twelve oaks I think maybe I could of just cleaned the thing myself....

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