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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Overwhelmed

Its an over whelming, unexplainable excitement surging through every inch of my body.


A new song from Jack's Mannequin comes out tomorrow on iTunes. The song is title, "The Resolution" and you can currently check it out here on jack's Mannequin's Myspace. I know some of you are probably like, really Matt? really? On the contrary however I cant even explain how much I am anticipating this album to come out next month. I still listen to the last album, Everything in Transit, almost religiously. This little taste, this one song, a hint of whats to come, is already blowing me away.

I don't have a lot of anything else to write about at this time, but I had to say something about this, the pleasent surprise as I checked the Jack's Mannequin website, and the plans I have tonight, staying up waiting for the EP to show up on iTunes. I highly recommend you guys at least go check out the song on the myspace profile.

Excitement and Fear

Before I get into this post I should probably explain that I was promoted last December to a manager like position at Delta College Audio/Visual Department last November. I dont really manage much or anything, but often when the student workers find themselves over their heads, I am the guy they turn to, to bail them out.

That being said the fall semester is now only a few weeks away and our department is quickly realizing that our entire student staff is leaving, meaning we are hiring an entire new set of students. I've never really been around for this type of large turn over of student employees so it should be interesting. Normally we only hire one or two new employees, we throw them through some quick training the week before and if they run into a little bit of trouble, it is quickly corrected because we generally schedule them with someone that has some experience. However, with an entire new group of students that won't be possibly obvisouly. On one hand I am excited to see who we end up with. I'm hoping of course for some intellegent students that can catch on quickly, but you never know what we might end up with; Thats why I am equally scared. My boss already made a few jokes about buying a good pair of jogging sneakers for the first few weeks of the semester as I can only imagine I will have several nervous, panicked students calling for our help all at once.


The applications start flying in this upcoming Monday and we will start getting a taste of the what our options are. Hopefully all goes well, if not I might be investing in a good pair of Nikes and a large bottle of aspirin.

Its been so long...

Oh to write again....

Moments ago my head literally almost exploded as I tried to think of all the things that have happened since the last time I placed a few words on this site for the world to see. Almost everything about me has changed in some way and at the same time I feel the same. Its amazing to think about really, to watch a winding twisting road similar to a piece of spaghetti dropped on your kitchen counter, and to have at the end of it, something that looks very much like the beginning.

Things are not always the same of course...

Instead of trying to catch you up, and tell you all that there is of the past 14-16 months of an empty blog, I am just going to start with today. I am going to pick up and just go. No baggage, no regrets, nothing to drag out of the memory banks, just today, and today is calm.

Today I began by waking up to our puppy barking at me to go outside. Her name's Emma and she's somewhere around the age of five months. A chocolate lab that often appears more bear like than anything resembling a dog as she constantly gets into any food/trash/random items she can find. She is a funny dog though, refusing to go outside into our fenced off backyard without someone sitting with her, so there I spent fifteen minutes this morning sitting on my back porch.

I moved to the city sometime ago and it is still an interesting adjustment sometimes, pretending to enjoy your neighbors and wave to them as they wave on their way to the great world outside. Listening to the noises of cars, trains, and bicycles going by compared to the sounds of a calm country field. I only really sit and notice it during Emma's "potty" times as the rest of the day I generally stay inside in the comfort of my abode.

After Emma had done her business I came back inside to begin my morning routine of checking fantasy sports, random forums, facebook, all the usually things an iPerson checks. I started playing Age of Conan a few months ago, a new MMO that was just released. Its probably not the most productive thing to do but I enjoy it none the less. We, my brothers started playing the game as well, found some old friends from our World of Warcraft days and started a guild. The one thing I definitely think is interesting about MMO's and guilds in particular is when you are the leader of one, you quickly seem to have to drum up your manager skills or learn some quick. I suppose that's an upside.

I eventually made it to work today, nothing to interesting going on at the college today, except that the payment deadline for classes is going on. This is pretty exciting for those of us working on campus. All summer the halls have been sparceley populated, and now we get a taste of what its like to have people around again. I won't lie I made a few trips around to see the lines of people trying to get into the administration office and the cashier's office. I wanted to see what there was to expect of the entry level crowd coming in this fall. Beyond that my day is slowly dwindling down as I sit here and type away unsucsessfully stringing together random thoughts and pararaphs in this blog while I wait for the eight o'clock hour to approach. It feels good though, the writing that is, or typing in all reality. I think I am going to have to keep this up a little more often.

This weekend is the labadie pig gig in bay city, so I hope to attend that and I will be sure to write down anything note worthy and deliver it to you sometime monday. I might write before then though, you never know what each day might bring and what exciting story I might have. Until then, its good to see you reader.