Life Revisited

Moving

2008-11-01T20:47:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-11T13:30:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-04T22:43:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-16T12:04:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-09T23:38:00.004-04:00

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

2008-08-09T23:14:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-06T14:06:00.001-04:00

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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2008-08-04T17:19:00.001-04:00

Overwhelmed

2008-08-04T16:39:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-30T16:45:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-07-29T18:57:00.001-04:00

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.

For John

2007-04-25T22:24:00.000-04:00

America, you are indeed Retarded.

2007-04-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

First off, I want to just say my sympathy goes out to all the families that are feeling pain and loss after the VATech shootings. I just want to make that clear before I get to far into this rant and people decide I am heartless.

America, can I ask you something? How can you be so proud of your way of life when you are so willing to give it up like a girl on prom night? It seems that we as a country cling to our freedoms and liberties, but the moment tradgedy strikes we practically beg our government to rape us of our rights and oppress us so that we can be "safe". This is probably something that reaches back much farther and longer than I have been around, but since I wasnt around, I dont care. I am going to start with 9/11, since this is really the point that I started paying attention to how things work.

September 11th, 2001 some planes ran into some buildings and killed many people. I am stating this very plain and simple because I am going to make the assumption that you, the reader, either has knowledge of this event or has had it force fed down your throat. 9/11 happened and quickly there after there was an outcry of the people, scared, miserable, and insecure. Everyone wanted to be protected, to be safe. Our government decided to find ways to help us with our dilemna and found this great tool called the patriot act that they would put in place to help good guys, catch bad guys. Now America in a sober state probably would of thought twice about the bill but because we were all drunk with fear and self pity we didnt think anything of it. Finally years later, we the public finally make some connections and basically come to the, " fuck, did I really?", conclusion. Good for us.

This sounds like things are looking up for us, as we sober up from this drunken drive down the road of our future.

Then this shooting happens in Virginia. 30 some people are shot and killed on the campus of Virginia Tech and now what do I hear amongst the hallways and general whispers of conversations as I walk down the hallways of my college? Thoughts and complaints about how we need the government to watch us more closely, how we need to be protected. While I think your hearts are in the right place, I have the overwhelming feeling that we are headed into the same bar we scored the last couple drinks of sorrow at in '01. People are complaining that they should of stopped this crazy guy from shooting all these people, stop him prior to the crime, but truth be told America, you cant arrest someone for something that he might do, and more importantly I dont want people to be able to arrest me for things I MIGHT do. This isnt a Tom Cruise movie. We can't see the future. You cant just arrest people because they seem fishy.

I guess I am ranting, and I apologize for that. The main purpose I am trying to say here is, men and women died to give us the freedoms and liberties we have today. They fought to free people from a controlling opressive form of governemnt. Now we seem to want to slap them in the face because some people died more recently. Stuff is going to happen, People will die, and we will mourn their deaths, but for the love of god do not use it as a reason push your own political propaganda, dont use it to strip this country of all the things that supposedly make it great, dont tell me that because I had a rough day at work and I am grumpy that you are going to arrest me on suspicion that I might do something bad. I am ranting.. Its all gibberish... I hope someone understand this...

Tired, Boondock Saints, Art Show

2007-04-16T23:46:00.000-04:00

First off, I am tired, its 11:45 and I have just suddenly felt the affects of a long day. Honestly though I didnt make this thing to complain to you guys about my sleep issues.

I saw "The Boondock Saints" over the weekend, a movie from back around 2000. I liked it a lot, it had some interesting scenes and I ended up watching it twice, and now I am kind of thinking about watching it again. I always figure if you are willing and wanting to watch a movie more than twice, then it must be a damn good movie, and it is.

As it turns out, my connection lost poster made it into the art show at Delta. I didnt win any money or anything but I am pretty pumped to just get in the show. If you want to check it out, I am pretty sure it is going to be trapped in the S-Wing lobby until August, so stop by and look.

Its been a long day, tryin to help adam with some logos for his videos...then sleep...after laundry...after nashville game...sleep

Awesome

2007-04-10T14:40:00.000-04:00

I over drafted my checking account apparently, and when I went to check it out today, becuase I thought it was a bank error I discovered, that no, in fact, I suck at life. They slapped me with an eighty dollar over draft fee. That was pretty much awesome.

I finally went to the gym today, the first time in close to a week and a half. I was doing amazing, running on the treadmill faster than I usually do, going through all my sets of weights like it was my job...then when I was doing leg curls I realized I did not feel very good. Then it got worse, and soon enough I realized my stomach was not happy at all and I was pretty confident I was going to get sick. I took a break and bought a propel. I decided just to finish with the cooling down on teh treadmill and I skipped leg extensions and the lateral weight lifting or whatever. It pretty much sucked again.

Just about finished my paper that was due about forty minutes ago in economics. So now I think I will just go ahead and turn that in on Thursday. I am also suppose to be at a sexual harrassment informational meeting for audio visual, which reminds me of a issue I have with this shithole. Why do they expect so much for so little? We get paid minimum wage with no bonuses or quirks like free school or anything like that such as the janitor kids have. Nope, just minimum wage, which is cool or whatever, but then they are constnatly on us expecting us to just be the best technical sport this side of the missippi and have crazy customer support skills and be all these things. I am sorry but when you think about it, some kid somewhere puts fries in grease and is probably making more than me, so I apologize for not jumping to be the best that I can be, particularly when my night manager knows so much less about the equipment that I am pretty sure she sometime struggles to turn some of it on. I dont mind minimum wage, but people, delta, you get what you pay for. I bet Dell's tech support in India makes more than I do, or at least has a decent support system of managers in case they dont know the answer to a problem. That was a rant. I am sorry. BLEH

MYSPACE IS GAY

2007-04-05T23:31:00.000-04:00

So I finally figured out why I keep getting my account blocked on myspace and one of those wonderful educational messages about phishing. As it turns out whenever I go to post the link to my blog in a bulletin, it flags my accounts as phished. HOW RETARDED IS THAT.

Can't Believe this

2007-04-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS WEEKS SCRUBS DO NOT READ

I honestly cant believe they killed of liverne (sp?). I mean I just assumed she would eventually pull out of whatever but then bam brain dead, and now they all say goodbye to her and stuff and like this is crazy depressing. I decided today that I hate girls again. I realize how random this is sounding. Anyways glad you were here to read this yayzors.

So a little while later

2007-04-04T13:16:00.000-04:00

Alright so this is where I am at right now with the project, I added some words, a few more wires and inverted the colors and adjusted them a little. Toss some feedback at me.

New PS Project

2007-04-02T19:05:00.001-04:00

Need some critiques

The Good Shepard

2007-03-30T11:34:00.000-04:00

So I watched The Good Shepard yesterday, and I am here to tell you it is awesome. For anyone who doesn't know what it is about, the movie stars Matt Damon and tells the story of the founding of the CIA. The overall movie is a little lengthy but the ending is great because it leaves you wondering who did what.

Other than that I haven't been up to a whole lot. I went to Buffalo Wild Wings last night for the first time in a few weeks and watched the wings defeat the predators. Afterwards we watched some tv at adam's and called it a night.

I have a new project to work on in my digital imaging class, this project is suppose to be our most important one and it deals with either time lapse or metamorphisis, maybe I mentioned this already. I didnt really have much of an idea until yesterday while I was watching a movie and doodling. If it comes out the way I sketched it and want it too, then it should be a pretty sweet piece. I will keep you posted on it.

Something new

2007-03-27T00:10:00.000-04:00

Alright, along with putting off posting, I have been procrastinating checking out this newish site called twitter. Finally got signed up today and it is kind of neat. It isnt something I would necessarily say is cool on its own but when used with other things, like your blog, it becomes a cool way to have a status feature like facebook. A way to keep a live update of what you are doing, where you are doing it, or what you are thinking. You can text twitter via your cellphone with your updates, so you dont even have to be on the internet. Check mine out in the top right corner, and check out twitter at www.twitter.com.

Miss you guys

2007-03-26T15:09:00.000-04:00

Alright, I want to apologize for non-existent in the online world these past few weeks, I have had some financial stress, and just overall been exhausted. Here I am though, ready to write and toss out all my ideas and adventures back to you the reader. BE EXCITED!!!!!

Alright first up, I have been checking out this new website, www.justin.tv, and I am enjoying it a lot. It is a guy who has a video camera attached to his hat, using a computer in his backpack it constantly streams live 24/7 to his website where you can see what he is doing. He also has his calendar of events up for the day so you can see what major events are going on, and what time to tune in.

I also checked out the new turtles movie, and while I enjoyed it, it reminded me of how much I loved the old movies, and I miss the big fake suits and everything with real people in the movie. Other than that sudden flash back and a single tear, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It had a decent story and it had a couple really cool fight scene. The CGI was well done.

I joined a gym, well more specifically my family joined a gym for me. My first workout day was friday where I met with one of the guys that runs the place, and he put me on a basic program to start me out. I also went back sunday and did the same routine and probably am headed there tomorrow after racquetball at delta. If anyone is curious to what gym it is, it was formerly powerhouse gym, and then elite gym, now currently something family gym or something like that over by meijer on wilder rd.

Those are pretty much the key points I have right now. I have to work on a photoshop project with a theme of either metamorphosis, time lapse, or something else I forgot. I currently have very little idea of what I will do for it lol.

Hey the weather is awesome today, I missed the sun.

ZOMG I W1N

2007-03-13T00:12:00.000-04:00

so I was playing marathon mode on tetris on my DS like I always do. I almost always lose around the 130-150th line. Tonight at 12:05 am I made it to the 200th line on the 20th lvl to beat marathon mode on Tetris, I wasnt aware there was an end to marathon mode so this caught me off guard a little bit. Also my old high score was 247,982, but now my new high score is 336,181. Ya I am pretty much amazing, and I had to come post about it.

The Black Donnellys

2007-03-12T23:00:00.000-04:00

So I dont know if anyone has been watching this new show on NBC Monday nights after Heroes but I started checking it out this past week. The first episode I saw didnt really grab me that much but now the more I see it the more it drags me in. It is very Sopranos meets network tv but I enjoy it none the less. If anyone is interested in checking it out you can see this weeks episode at NBC.com HERE

Yay A New Day

2007-03-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

So first off, I dumped Kubuntu, it was a rough break up but after a few days of fighting I think we both new that it was coming. I mean all I wanted out of the relationship was to play Unreal Tournament 2004 and apparently all it wanted was me to learn the entire Linux language. Way to much of a commitment. So I gave Kubuntu the kick and called my ex-girlfriend Windows XP up and had her settle back in. I still am not that big of a fan of that windows gal but at least she lets me play UT2004 whenever I god damn feel like it.

Onto other things...I found a new website called Virb. Basically its myspace or facebook, or myspace and facebooks offspring that offers the best of both worlds. I started my profile yesterday and have been working on it since. At first I wasnt too sure about it, but the more I play around with it the more I like it. Check out my profile at www.virb.com/matt4tw. Seriously though, its pretty customizable, but at the same time it can be as easy to customize or as nitty gritty difficult as you want. The music player is neat, and I like the idea of playlists. A lot of the cool factors that are in Virb I have seen people put on their myspace profiles from outside sources, and addons and stuff but this is all built in which adds to the convenient factor. I dont know check it out. www.virb.com

I also bought the new Relient K cd, Five score and seven years ago. I wasnt going to because money has been a little tighter lately but I had been looking forward to it for some time, and everytime I walked by a cd store it got to me a little more and then finally I just picked up a copy at Target for 10 bucks. So far I like it a lot, I tossed some of their songs on my playlist on virb so check it out there if you want.

The Long Awaited Weekend Update

2007-03-05T16:31:00.000-05:00

Except this is actually last weekends recap, which means this news is pretty much a week old. Ya If I did this professionally I would be fired I think. I dont though so you guys can just deal lol.

Last weekend we celebrated Adam's B-Day and so he planned a trip to "Clyde's", a hamburger restaurant on the other side of the Mackinaw Bridge. In theory we were to leave Saturday morning kind of early and be back in time for JR to work at 5 or 6.

Things got under way pretty flawlessly, Shelson and I both crashed on Adam's couches from the night before so we were already in the designated meeting place, JR also showed up on time. Unfortunately Greg is a little MIA and we were worried that we might fall behind the schedule, but luckily Greg was only a half hour late or so. We piled into shelson's suv thing and began the trek north.

The over all ride went pretty smooth, everyone was pretty comfortable, shelson has a fm transmitter for his iPod so we were making on the go playlists and joking around. We made one stop at a gas station maybe half way up. Most of us grabbed drinks or munchies, but Greg and Adam didn't think we should eat anything because the hamburgers were to be THAT good.
Some time went by and as we were joking around, someone made the comment about Clydes possibly being closed. The thought quickly pushed its way into all our minds and Adam began calling his sister Donna. Adam asked Donna to try and find a number for Clydes, and after a little bit of digging she found it for him. JR made the call on his phone and unfortunately no one answered the phone. Its funny how when you see the outcome that you don't like making an appearance you find excuses and reasons to explain the events. We soon decided that maybe they just weren't open for the day yet, or maybe they were really busy and under staffed. Eventually we got another phone number for the B&C Pizza in the same town. Adam made the call.

"Hi, this might sound weird but is the Clyde's restaurant open?"

Then it came, just thirty miles before the bridge, the answer we had all feared. "Nope, Clyde's is closed for the winter season." Adam was crushed. It was unbelievable, so unbelievable that Greg thought Adam was pulling some sort of joke on us. After a few minutes of disappointment we decided to turn around and at this point just find anywhere to eat because, frankly we were starving. A quick decision was made to eat at the Big Buck Brewery in Gaylord, it wasn't to far behind us and at least it would be something mildly more special then taco bell.

The brewery had alright food, and one of Shelson's friends from school that lived in the area came and visited with us while we ate. Even with the disappointment of not having Clyde's famous hamburgers I think everyone enjoyed themselves and we returned back to the apartments and continued on with the rest of the schedule, as kari was planning to have people over later that night to see her new apartment at waterside. That's another story, for another time though.

Threw these pictures together from the car ride, enjoy.

During some Scrubs action

2007-03-05T13:08:00.000-05:00

I was watching Scrubs on comedy central and noticed this commercial for a movie called "Reign over Me", maybe you guys have seen the trailer? The movie starts Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. You can check out the whole thing on the internet movie database HERE. The movie apparently comes out the 23rd and I kind of would like to check it out.

This weekend

2007-03-04T14:02:00.000-05:00

Its Sunday morning and the weekend is coming to an end, but not without a weekend finale of Jim Gaffigan tonight at 7. It should be pretty awesome. Outside of that we have played some crazy racquetball, watched Wild Hogs, and also watched An Inconvenient Truth. At this minute Adam, John, and I are watching the wings lose 2-1 against the colorado avalanche. I dont really have a lot to say here, I really just wanted a reason to post this cool picture I made in comic life.

Wow....

2007-03-03T01:46:00.000-05:00

So tonight I joined the other five people in the world that watch last call with Carson Daily. I mainly found myself watching because Masi Oka was on ( Hiro from Heroes) so I wanted to see his interview. Unfortunately in the process of curiously watching the show I discovered how horrible the comedy is. Also is it just me or does Carson look like he could afford to eat a hamburger? skin and bones, skin and bones. Anyways Masi Oka is an amazing guy, Carson Daily scares me. Thats my current verdict.

Posting from my new Kubuntu PC

2007-03-02T15:36:00.000-05:00

So I am running kubuntu ( a branch of ubuntu gui for linux) on my pc. Its a pretty exciting time. Everything seems to work. Making games and stuff work might be intense but I look at it as a learning experience. My brother thinks its just because I am set to run every OS possible but I just like to try new things. Anyways here is a picture.

Wow this is Crazy

2007-03-02T10:37:00.000-05:00

I was cruising digg.com today and saw this story about facebook. Its a bit conspiratory but an interesting watch none the less, check it out HERE and let me know what you think. Maybe they are just digging a little to deep and are a little paranoid or maybe there is some truth behind the madness.

Weird

2007-02-28T00:31:00.000-05:00

I am writing this to kind of see if anyone else has had this experience. I often find myself driving down the road and as I approach a street lamp it goes out. At first it was always this one particular one which I just blamed on a bad bulb, but now it has become much more random, sometimes they are lights in town and sometimes they are just those lights at intersecting roads. Its really odd and I am kind of curious if anyone else has ever noticed lights do this to them. Also I would like to add that sometimes the lights come back on after I am a ways away.

Its a case of the Moooondays

2007-02-26T14:07:00.000-05:00

So its Monday, and its snowy out, therefore I didnt go to delta since they are bound and determined to be open no matter what. I do have to make the treck there by 4 for work but until them I am just kickin it. I am pretty pumped about heroes tonight and I think everyone else should be too, if you dont know why, here you go.

First off, Peter has finally become awesome and able to use all his various powers, and last week he was amazing. I was rediculously excited when he started doing all the crazy matrix stuff lol.

Secondly, Tonight we find out a lot about Claire's fake dad and why they are tracking all these people and everything because Matt Parkman ( the psychic cop), Ted (the nuke) and some crazy chick who can go anywhere on the internet without a computer are camped out at Claire's house and caught Claire and her Father as they walked in. This episode should explain a lot of questions people have had going since the first episode.

You all need to watch it tonight at 9 on NBC, and when you get done leave some comments or leave some comments now I dont care, but lets discuss how awesome this show is.

I am also working on getting my weekend recap up, but I am going to try and include some pictures, and I also am lazy, so it just hasnt happened yet.

Kind of Funny

2007-02-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

So I got to watch this dishwasher get dropped and was fairly amused by it, so here you go.

Oh Snap

2007-02-22T22:55:00.000-05:00

So a few months ago my video card broke on my PC, I finally decided to send it back to newegg before my warranty ran up. Unfortunately they informed me that my video card was no longer in stock or discontinued so they could not replace it. Instead they refunded my original amount paid. Interesting that they didnt just replace it with a slightly better video card considering by giving me my full refund, I now can buy a video card and get a brand new warranty on it. Anyways here is my new vid card, on its way expected to be here monday or tuesday.

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card

Its Wednesday, the top of the hill my friends!

2007-02-21T14:55:00.000-05:00

So seriously, I haven't wrote in awhile, I don't really know what to attribute to that because I definitely haven't been busy. Basically just to give you an idea of major stuff going on in the last week, my birthday was Sunday, ghost rider came out Friday, and I have been on again off again emo or something/have a migraine.

It is kind of funny about the migraine thing because I never used to get major headaches or anything and migraines kind of seemed like a foreign thing to me, but for the past two to three days I have had this headache non stop. Sometimes it is not so bad other times it makes me not even want to focus on objects. It is pretty much intense. I am not sure what is really causing it other then maybe stress because I have to take an econ test and maybe me being emo I don't know.

You know what I forgot to add to the list of major events in the past week, Heroes. Heroes was pretty much amazing Monday because Peter seems to have control over all the powers he has absorbed now and pretty much owns. If you don't know what I am talking about you definitely need to check out this weeks episode.

On topic though, to cover the other major events. My birthday was Sunday like I said, I turned 22. Not a huge number or anything but I never really like the numbers going up anyways ha. Adam and the crew took me out to buffalo wild wings Saturday and paid for my dinner. After eating we headed over to the midland theater to watch Ghost Rider, which I thought was actually pretty decent even though Nicholas Cage is in it. I should also note that I tend to like the heroes that aren't perfect and tell people to fuck off once in awhile, i.e. the punisher or ghost rider.
Sunday I went to my grandparents house to have a party with the family, there was cake and ice cream and all that jazz and I think everyone had a pretty decent time. After that I stopped over at the Davis's and just hung out there for awhile until I went out to midland to watch "The Marine" at JR's. The movie was ridiculously unrealistic but if you are into that kind of crazy action movie then you probably wont be overly disappointed.
This upcoming weekend we are celebrating Adam's birthday so to start it off I think the plan is to see the number 23 that comes into theaters Friday. I imagine there will be a lot of other festivities but I don't really know the exact details.

Tomorrow is pizza night at work. Hopefully Lisa remembers that it is her week to tip the pizza guy so she brings money for it.

Owned

2007-02-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

So I went to get another cherry coke from the kitchen in Adam's apartment. When I went to enter, Adam was trying to get in there as well so I talked some smack and slapped my legs and somehow caught my manhood a little bit and fell down.. Picture courtesy of John.

Good Times

2007-02-16T11:08:00.000-05:00

It was a slow Thursday night at the Audio/Visual. James was listening to some song on his iPod, Lisa and I were playing sudoku on my laptop and listening to iTunes, and Angela was hovering around waiting for the 9pm to strike. We soon noticed that James could not hear us because he was rocking out that hard. Angela decided to hand him a yardstick and the fun insued. Watch the video.

Alright

2007-02-15T09:53:00.000-05:00

So I am just going to write a little something down for you here. Lets start with digital imaging yesterday, yesterday being valentines day, the holiday that only applies to some percent of the population that doenst have me in it lol.

Prior to digital imaging I received a box of Necco Conversation Hearts, which I began eating. While I was bored in digital imaging, I consumed the entire box. It wasn't that I was bored with the class, I like photoshop and I enjoy learning it, but we were making Earth Day posters for Delta and it kind of melted my brain cells so the candy helped me through it. Then about the third hour in my tummy made a rumble, as it turns out my stomach does not enjoy all the sugar I suddenly had in abundance. I turned to my friend Ben and stated the problem and he kind of laughed about it. He is a pretty funny guy, yesterday in the middle of class he made a comment about something about someone named charles, and I started singing/humming the charles in charge theme song, which he picked up on and also began singing it was kind of weird but hilarious at the same time. The entire back two rows of class I am in are filled with some really funny guys so we always have a mildly good time.

By the way, if you didnt look at the last post, it is my earth day poster that I have to turn in monday, leave some feedback on it so I know what to change.

So catching us up to today, I have a little economics coming up followed by the lovely night ahead at audio/visual which will probably make me want to pound my head through a wall. Honestly it shouldnt be that bad, because its thursday and thursdays are always pretty laid back, pretty much we get everything done by 6ish, then we relax and hang out.

My birthday is this sunday, so it is my birthday weekend as Adam reminded me which means I get to make some calls on what we do while we are all hanging out this weekend. So far the only demands I have made is racquet ball on saturday and ghost rider. If anyone wants to come hang out this weekend or whatever and needs a little info give me a call, if you dont have my number try to find someone who does or email me at reidic@gmail.com because honestly not going to just post it lol.

Cereally though I am going to wrap this randomness up and let you get on with your day, after this weekend I will have a nice blog entry detailing all the events probably so check back.

LEAVE FEEDBACK ON EARTH DAY POSTER

Calling all Critics

2007-02-14T19:31:00.000-05:00

So basically the assignment is designing a poster for Delta College's celebration of Earth day. We have to use the delta green, use the pine tree in some way, and include the saying " where are color will always be green" Discuss!

The Wall of Quotes

2007-02-12T19:23:00.000-05:00

So a few weeks ago Adam put some large sheets of paper up on his wall of his apartment for everyone to write on. The idea was that whenever we said something funny or worth remembering we would write the quote up on the wall. Today we took that idea and put it online so everyone could read the random comments thrown out there. Feel free to check it out at http://thewallofquotes.blogspot.com/

New Phone

2007-02-11T20:19:00.000-05:00

Well I got a new krazr through cingular Friday. It is a pretty awesome little phone, and I like it a lot better then the nextel phone I had. I still have the same phone number so no one has to change my number in their phone. I think my favorate thing about the phone is the fact that I can just toss mp3s onto the phone via the bluetooth and use them as a ringtone, basically I will never have to buy a ringtone ever again.

It is kind of funny because the agent at the bay city cingular told me that it would take anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours for the number to be changed over from nextel to my new phone. I waited an entire day and at 3pm the next day (Saturday), I left Adam's apartment and headed straight to the midland cingular, and as it turns out it would of been done the night before if the agent would of remember to have me listen to the contract over the phone and agree to it. Nice.

Serious though, if anyone is thinking about switching cell providers an plan on switching to cingular, or need me to talk you into cingular let me know so I can get some referance money towards my bill lol.

Almost Forgot!

2007-02-09T00:49:00.000-05:00

Today I reaffirmed that I may indeed show some minimal signs to being psychic. I was standing at the desk at audio/visual and I turned to James and ask, " dude did the phone just ring" since he was standing in front of it and didnt answer it. He looked at me kind of funny as if I were crazy and stated that in fact it hadn't. There was a bit of a pause with some odd expressions exchanged and then it happened, the phone rang. The look on James face as he looked at the ringing phone, then at me was pretty intense to say the least. After he answered the call, he looked at me and told me, " that was creepy...dont ever do it again". That was that. True Story. (I say that a lot or so Lisa informs me)

Viva la Ubuntu

2007-02-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

So my brother made the switch to Ubuntu Linux today from Windows XP. He originally wanted to update to the new Vista, but the more we hear the more it sounds like a bad thing, so in search of something new and different we checked out Linux. So far he is enjoying it, everything is running smooth, and it was really easy. If anything goes wrong I will pass the word onto the world.

I would also like to say I did try to covert him to mac, but he doesnt really have the money to buy a whole new computer, so it wasnt really an option considering he cant install OS X on his pc lol.

Current Photoshop Project

2007-02-07T23:01:00.000-05:00

This is what I am looking at turning in Monday for my digital imaging, leave some feedback on what you think.

Eureka

2007-02-07T21:51:00.000-05:00

So I have had a bit of writers block for a few days, kind of lost focus due to some other stuff and frustrations, but that has calmed down so here we go. First off let me start off with how pumped I am about ghost rider that comes out 2/16 which is the weekend of my birthday, I definately want to see it. Secondly Heroes was AMAZING the other night. I just want to say, " I told you so" to everyone who I told Nathan Patrelli was Claires dad.

Onto real life, it is sounding like this weekend holds some racquetball on friday followed by some season 2 of scrubs. I am sure there are some pizza rolls involved too, which is awesome. I havent done much else yet this week. Every weekday consists of Delta, then coming home, eating, and watching Scrubs. It sounds kind of repetitive and boring but I enjoy it.

Thats really all right now, I am sure more will come later. Be sure to check out the new mac commercial poking fun at Vista's security features.

Lorem Ipsum

2007-02-06T19:40:00.001-05:00

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Mauris vitae odio. Vivamus risus. Morbi turpis. Sed suscipit. Donec posuere lobortis pede. Praesent et odio non sapien congue varius. Ut placerat, leo vel sagittis condimentum, urna dui rutrum ligula, quis aliquet sem neque elementum urna. Fusce augue massa, volutpat nec, ultrices eu, blandit ac, nibh. Nulla facilisi. Proin convallis, metus ut hendrerit blandit, quam ante viverra mauris, eget facilisis lacus urna non tortor. Nullam neque massa, molestie eu, consectetuer in, commodo sit amet, sapien. Integer blandit felis at elit. Donec dolor. Donec nec enim.

Integer nec sapien. Donec quam enim, consectetuer et, elementum a, adipiscing vel, ante. Phasellus tellus massa, cursus imperdiet, lobortis auctor, blandit vel, urna. Aenean tellus. Maecenas consequat, turpis ac gravida accumsan, metus dui pulvinar dui, a tincidunt augue est sollicitudin nisi. Maecenas sed dolor. Phasellus vitae tellus malesuada lacus euismod tristique. Phasellus pharetra convallis tellus. Maecenas et enim. Donec commodo, leo at porta vehicula, lectus odio accumsan enim, quis auctor mauris sapien pellentesque ipsum. In eget lacus. Nam dui nisl, pulvinar sit amet, lacinia eu, volutpat sit amet, augue. Vivamus ipsum sem, pellentesque sit amet, congue sit amet, mollis et, augue. Curabitur ac metus. Fusce porttitor velit sed purus. Nulla mollis vulputate quam. Quisque euismod venenatis orci. Aliquam volutpat.

Super Bowl Weekend

2007-02-03T13:34:00.000-05:00

Alright so its saturday morning and tommorrow is the big football game. While most people are pumped about some great rivalry or some history making head coach stuff blah blah blah, I just want to see the new commercials lol. The only downside is the shitty half times ever since that whole Janet Jackson thing.

Meanwhile I did see "The Messengers" last night after eating at buffalo wild wings and watch the red wings game. The movie was pretty good, I enjoyed it, I also jumped out of my seat a few times, Shelson can attain to that. It reminded me another movie I saw a few years ago, I am pretty sure it was Cold Creek Manor. The story lines were very similiar, but the way they shot certain scenes, and the accompaning music was well done in this newer movie.

Nice!

2007-02-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

So I added, what I think, is a cool feature. Basically it will tell you the stories I am "digging" at digg.com, so if you see something interesting you can click on it and it should take you there.

Give it a try, keep an eye on it, and let me know what you think.

Also I love Digg.com and I recommend everyone give it a try for a week. Its free and everything, its just a really neat community driven news system.

Ellipsis

2007-02-02T01:54:00.001-05:00

Main Entry: el·lip·sis
Pronunciation: i-'lip-s&s, e-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural el·lip·ses /-"sEz/
Etymology: Latin, from Greek elleipsis ellipsis, ellipse, from elleipein to leave out, fall short, from en in + leipein to leave -- more at IN, LOAN
1 a : the omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make a construction grammatically complete b : a sudden leap from one topic to another
2 : marks or a mark (as...) indicating an omission (as of words) or a pause

Good Buy on iTunes

2007-02-01T12:37:00.000-05:00

Alright so I heard the new Relient K song a month or so ago, and decided I liked it so much that I would go on iTunes and purchase it. It turns out you can only buy the little mini album it is on, this album consists of two songs but costs the same as buying a single song. Basically they are packaging their current single with this other song called "Fallen Man".

The first song, the one I actually intended on purchasing, "Must Have Done Something Right" is pretty good, and is a basic poppy happy song about liking some girl or something. BLAH BLAH IT'S SAPPY AND GIRLS SUCK ANYWAYS. Anyways, I like it, and it is catchy.

The second song, "Fallen Man" which, like I said, came packaged with the first song, is AMAZING. I like it a lot, it basically talks about this person he has hard feelings with and how they are lucky its God that judges them and not him, but also there is always a second chance to redeem themselves.

Its pretty much amazing, seriously, check it out.

LKSFJOIHSO

2007-02-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

BLAH BLAH HATE HATE GRRRRR BLAH BLH LDLS

Down with the sickness

2007-01-31T11:31:00.000-05:00

Alright so I haven't been feeling well for a few days now. It started Tuesday morning as I was about to get ready to head to Delta. I woke up and noticed my stomach kind of hurt, first thoughts on it being that it may need some food. I quickly tossed a wheat bagel into the toaster and then began getting ready while it toasted. Eventually it was ready, I added the cream cheese, consumed the happy little thing and then it began. My stomach decided that it actually didn't want food at all, and did a little twist inside. I quickly decided to sit down and not move, at this point I also noted the headache.

Headaches aren't very unusual to me anymore, it seems like I get them more and more all the time but this one was horrible because when I closed my eyes it was free admission to the Millennium Force typically found at Cedar Point, but today running through my living room.

I scrapped my plans to attend my classes but did go into work around 4pm. The entire time my tummy still did not feel happy with me but was not causing any serious threats at that time. I came home around 9:30, ate a peanut butter sandwich, and went to sleep about an hour later.

Day 2

So my stomach once again does not feel normal and has an overall weak feeling to it, this in turn caused me to miss digital imaging this morning, which makes me not happy. Instead of learning all the magical things of photoshop, I am here listening to my tummy rumble. Bleh

Apple Gets Me Again!

2007-01-30T09:37:00.000-05:00

It all started back in the fall of maybe 2005, an innocent trip to buy a mp3 player. I in fact refused to buy an iPod at the time, as I wanted to not give in to the conformity apple had in the mp3 market. I had planned on buying an iRiver or something like that. I called various best buys to find one in stock, the midland branch apparently had two coming in on a truck friday night. I rounded up my friend Zach Fitzgerald and headed to midland. After arriving we checked out the various mp3 players, noticed the size of the iRiver and then decided, screw that I am just going to get an iPod, and I did. Happy in my purchase I ran home to try out my new toy. No sooner then setting foot in the door I learned that they were coming out with iPods with colored screens sometime in the next month. NOOOOOO! It was alright, I dealt with it, and continued to use my plain iPod with its monochrome screen or whatever you call it.

Some time passes, a year or so in fact. A few friends were pretty heavy into macs and the more I talked to them the more interested I became. I soon had my eye on an Apple Macbook. I drooled over this little laptop for a good half year waiting for a chance to get one. Finally I ordered a beautiful black macbook, after about a week it arrived on my door step and I was infatuated with it. The following day I check in on apple.com, and to my surprise they revamped the macbooks to give them a slightly better processor and twice as much ram, (mine came with 512, the new ones come with 1g) Oh Snap! Apple got me again.

Honestly, I must not be informed enough or something. At that point I decided to try and keep as up to date with apple as I could to avoid any further mistakes like this. I watched the macworld keynote address several times, read every random apple rumor that comes across digg, and finally I decided to iPod shop again. Being a little more active now, I decided I wanted an iPod that I could easily wear around no matter what I was doing. I loved the size of the generation 2 shuffles and decided that was the route I was going to go. I ordered my tiny piece of happiness and it arrived yesterday. Today I check apple.com, and guess what? The iPod Shuffle now comes in colors. Science damn you Apple. You have done it again. Even though I am pretty sure I would of ordered the silver one anyways, it still makes me laugh a little inside at myself.

Tired

2007-01-29T15:19:00.000-05:00

Alright, so here we are at another horrible, sluggish Monday praying for Friday (for me its actually thursdays). To help alleviate some of the mediocre processes of your afternoon I thought I would write a few things down about my weekend and toss it out there for you to read at your discretion. I am using bigger words than usual, dont get to excited about it, I am sure I will dumb down any moment.

First I should start with any updates I have for some of my other posts from the past week. My iPod shuffle came this morning, just before I left for Delta. I charged the little guy up and tossed a playlist on it and have been trying it out since then. This iPod is my favorate by far, it is rediculously small, even if it manages somehow to unclip itself from whatever you have it attached to, it weighs so little that it will not unplug itself from the headphones. Speaking of the headphones, it appears apple changed them a little bit, this may not be that new but it's definately new to me. My youngest brother Zack purchased a nano a few months back which still had the typically white ear buds with a tube like thing attached to the disc shaped ear bud. Now the ear buds I received with mine actually smoothly move from what once was the "tube" to the disc and also they have a more rubber feel to them overall instead of the hard plastic of old. Anyways, back on topic, the shuffle is amazing, if your looking for the most portable iPod to date this is definately for you.

Another update, I did make it to IHOP yesterday in Mt Pleasant. The newly opened resteraunt was very easy to find, being right on M-20 or whatever that main road is that I have taken so many times to the Soaring Eagle Casino. Adam, John, Melissa, JR, and I all went together, most of us ordering pretty much the same thing, a breakfast of eggs, hasbrowns, and a meat of our choice followed with three pancakes. JR decided to try the all you can eat pancakes, the record for that resteraunt being 27 pancakes. Even with our coaching JR only managed to eat 12 pancakes, but in doing so he beat our waiters record of 10, and also that was the most that waiter had personally served to a person. I think we are going to have to prep a little better so that next time we all can try.

I went to a Saginaw Spirits game Saturday, and watched them defeat the Windsor Spitfires, five to four. I think we all enjoyed it a lot, I personally liked that it wasn't a blowout but instead was close all three periods. After the game we all headed out to Lucky's to celebrate Eric Gies's birthday. Everyone had a good time I think, and it was fun to see everyone out there. From what I've heard Eric didnt have such a good time the following morning.

That pretty much highlights a few things from the last time I posted. Today the plan is to make it through work, race home, and try and catch Heroes in hi-def (our DVR cant record hi-def shows). I also have this weird bump on my head, I have no idea where it came from as I have no memory of hitting me head at any point this weekend. I noticed the bump last night and its somewhat noticable to anyone that looks at my head. Its not a bruise and doesnt hurt at all, unless it is what is causing this horrible headache, in which case it hurts a lot then.

Outlook beyond today is pretty gray, I dont have a lot of plans, so if anyone has any ideas on something fun to do, let me know.

Nothing accomplished, and yet I am tired

2007-01-27T11:50:00.000-05:00

So I did absolutely nothing yesterday outside of watching several episodes of Scrubs and then back to back to back CSI Miami on A&E. Today hopefully will be better, since I shall actually be leaving the house. The plan being to hit up Apple B's and then a Spirits game.

My iPod shuffle is in flint, so hopefully fed ex will get it here monday.

I watched a new show! Its called the Dresden files or something like that. I think its on the Sci Fi station. I say "I think" because I just downloaded it through iTunes, which is free right now so everyone should go on there, find it, and then download your free episode and watch. The whole show is about this guy who has wizard like powers and uses them to help solve crimes and stuff. Ya its pretty much a male version of buffy/charmed. I like it a lot better then either of those shows so hopefully you will too.

Tomorrow I am having people over to watch the wings game on the big screen, originally I advertised this as wings in high def, but then I realized we no longer get stations in hi definition because my mom didnt want to pay the extra 10 bucks a month to charter. Its fairly understandable because we dont watch the few stations they have in HD very often, plus HD shows are rediculous big to tivo and I never get to watch shows when they are actually on. On the bright side (literally) the repair guy came out yesterday and replaced the bulb in our tv so it isnt so dark anymore, and doesnt take half a lifetime to warm up.

So anyways, thats about it. Check out The Dresden Files and let me know what you think about the show.

It's Snowing

2007-01-26T11:55:00.000-05:00

So I had big plans today, which included going to get my check, placing that check in the bank, and then therefore paying some bills. Mother nature saw my plans and then smited them into the ground with an unruly snow fall straight from the depths of where ever snow comes from. Instead of heading out I have decided to sit home, watch scrubs, and probably shower, not necessarily in that order. Meanwhile....

My iPod shuffle isn't here yet, but it has only been two days so thats fairly expected, I am excited none the less. Have you guys noticed the new iPod commercial on tv now? Its the one Steve Jobs showed at MacWorld, I like it a lot, I am not sure why but the song fits the commercial real well, I guess its some british pop band or something. I think I am going to hunt it down.

There was some other random thought I had to write about but I forgot it. Ya I know amazing right?

End of the work week

2007-01-25T11:03:00.000-05:00

Well, its thursday, which is my friday for anyone that didnt know. I decided to drop the iPhone campaign I had going, instead I am just ordering a shuffle and going to get a regular cell phone when I switch to cingular. Apple already shipped the shuffle, I got it all engraved with my name and stuff. Adam is pretty pumped becuase we are going to be "shuffle buddies" .

The plans for this weekend include a trip to the Ihop in Mt Pleasant, and watching the wings game sunday in Hi Def. Its also Erics birthday so sounds like we are headed out to the bars saturday possibly.

That's about it for exciting news, I need to have a bunch of self portrait pictures taken this weekend for a project I start monday in digital imaging, so I will probably be employing all friends in the near area with my camera to take many pictures.

Woah! What is Up!!!!!

2007-01-22T19:47:00.000-05:00

So I am sitting here at work listening to some 311, and kickin it with my buddy James and I thought, " I have left my blog readers in the dark for days!!!!!" So as you all fairly deserve, here is a little piece of my life in print.

First things first, I havent been feeling too good, lots of headaches and stuff. Not sure what that is about but I am just throwing that out there now.

Second, I finally watched Pan's labyrith, and outside of reading the entire movie, it was great. Surprisingly they are far fewer alice in wonderland like scenes then I expected, and the majority of the film takes place with real people in real places. I personally liked it a lot and I think Adam and John enjoyed it too, so when you get a chance you should check it out.

Third, There may be a strange picture of me on my living room floor and I want to explain it before it gets on the web. I was dead tired yesterday after only sleeping like four hours the night before at adams on his couch. I came home and relaxed by getting into some comfy clothes, and watching the Fox sunday line up. Next thing I know, I fell asleep on the couch. I heard zack saying something or laughing at me, so I stood up and intended to walk and get something to eat. Instead I looked down at the dog and knelt down to pet the puppy, next thing I knew I was sleeping on the ground with the dog. Mom and Zack apparently took a picture. Thats that. So if you see it sometime soon that is the story.

I think I had more to write about, but I forgot. I have been spacing out a lot lately and kind of havin some form of A.D.D. I should have some cool photoshop stuff done soon and probably will toss it up on here for people to check out.

2007-01-20T14:14:00.000-05:00

Haven't wrote in a few days.

2007-01-17T22:51:00.000-05:00

So just to throw some recaps out about my week, I thought I should toss a new post out.

First, I just got done playing a little World of Warcraft on my brothers account, the expansion was released tuesday so I was checking out the changes and additions. I have to admit I miss the game a little, and more importantly the people I played it with. You dont have to worry, I dont plan on returning to it anytime soon, to much time consumed.

Second, I auired a copy of Pan's Labyrinth through various connections, literally. I have yet to watch it htough becuase I am waiting to watch it with adam and john. They were fairly interested in it too so I am trying the whole patience thing. Anyone who knows me knows I am horrible at waiting for anything. When Heroes is on NBC Adam records it and we all go to his apartment to watch it on tuesdays, accept I cant wait a day so I always watch it monday night by myself. Thats just an example of the impatience.

I am rambling about nothing. If you take anything from this post, take with you what I learned today from digital imaging, Apple S, Apple S, Apple S. Always.

Need some Website Help

2007-01-15T12:08:00.000-05:00

If anyone knows much about website design, and maybe a program that doesnt require a phd, let me know. Basically I am looking to put together a website with a left side navigation menu, with drop down categories from each nav button. I also want various people to be able to sign in and post on their own specific blogs or pages on the site. My knowledge is pretty limited so any feedback or pointers on how to make this possible would be great. Thanks guys.

Snow, Snow, Snow

2007-01-15T11:24:00.000-05:00

So Delta is closed until 12 today due to the weather. I think its funny that they think I am going to come in then, because if they didn't notice, its still snowing out, and it is suppose to continue snowing right on through until tomorrow. Then lets think about the wind, whatever they plowed is definitely drifted over. In short I think today is going to be a sick day.

Pan's Labyrinth | Official Movie Site | Picturehouse

2007-01-12T17:36:00.000-05:00

Pan's Labyrinth | Official Movie Site | Picturehouse

This movie looks intense, I just saw a commercial for it while watch The Colbert Report. Cant wait to see it, check it out and leave some comments.

Back and Forth

2007-01-12T16:30:00.000-05:00

So after a few comments and horror stories of razr phones working great at first and then going to hell a little while after I started searching up cell phones again last night. My brother Chris and I searched up a cell phone review website and read the pros and cons of about every phone in the market. We argued back and forth and debated what phone would work and finally Chris pointed out the problem with all the cell phones we were looking at and told me why I didnt like them. It went something like this:

"Matt your retarded, no cellphone is going to be good enough because apple doesnt make it"

He also stated that I am overly opinionated on brands.

Anyways I am now back to my original plan of trying to save as much money as I can by June and seeing if I can manage to get the iPhone (I heard a rumor they are changing the name to avoid the lawsuit brought up by Cisco though).

What does this mean to everyone else I know? Less eating out, and probably not going to Florida with Eric and crew. Thoughts and comments are welcome peeps. I am also still looking for any cingular subscribers to let me know what their service is like, so if you are one of those people drop some knowledge on me.

Thursday Afternoon

2007-01-11T15:40:00.000-05:00

So I am kickin it here at Delta College in between class and work. Not much has been going on the last couple days outside of the frustration over the price of Apple's IPhone lol. Seriously though I think I am going to switch to cingular anyways at the end of the month and probably get a razr phone, anyone that thinks this is a bad idea please leave a comment suggesting why I should avoid either the phone or the service provider.

I also wanted to find a good news article off digg today to discuss but since digg facors apple news a lot there isn't much there outside of the IPhone craze. Actually though, I don't know if anyone else has heard or read this, so I will go ahead and toss it out there; Apparently Cisco systems already had the name IPhone patented and is now taking apple to court over copyright infringement. The whole thing is kind of interesting, worst case scenario apple will probably just call it the apple phone instead of "IPhone" kind of like there new tv add on isn't ITV but instead Apple TV.

That kind of wraps up everything thats on my mind right now, that and LEAVE COMMENTS. Its easy to leave comments on my blogs and you dont even have to register so DO IT!

So...

2007-01-10T14:42:00.000-05:00

So now that they announced the price, and its substantially more then I had planned for, I am thinking I am just going to get a regular cell phone for now and maybe wait a few generations before getting the apple phone. It looks awesome but I am just not ready to have a phone that I would have to sell a body part to afford. Thats the update on my search for a new phone.

The IPhone

2007-01-09T13:34:00.000-05:00

My new phone has been announced hopefully ( assuming I can afford it) Check it out here :

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/?

MacWorld Kickoff

2007-01-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

So this might not interest everyone as much as it does me, but as a more recent convert to apple I am pumped to see the new products and find out what Steve Jobs unveils tonight in his keynote address. Hopefully my new cell phone gets announced, if not I will be a sad panda. Tonight around 10 or 11 the news should start pouring out so I will probably be posting to let everyone know how it turned out, and what products will be coming out this year to help convert you all to the apple!

2007-01-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

Some Movie Reviews

2007-01-07T16:38:00.000-05:00

So I have been checking out a lot of movies over the weekend and I thought I would just leave my opinions on each of them to help you guys pick out that rental this week at blockbuster or netflix.

First movie up was "The Naked Mile" or "an excuse to show naked women". The movie was alright and kind of funny here or there, but overall was fueled mainly by indecent exposure. The plot wasn't that amazing and its definitely a movie that was just tossed out to help collect revenue from the popularity of the American pie series. If you are a guy, and are looking for something that doesn't involve much thought to watch with your buddies, this movie is for you.

Second movie I watched this weekend was "A Scanner Darkly". The movie stars Keanu Reeves ( I have no idea if I just slaughtered his name). The film basically is about an undercover cop trying to expose networking of a drug called "d". The movie has a unique and fascinating style using computers to go over the actual character and give them a cell shading affect. The movie was kind of crazy and weird, but I liked it. If your looking for something out of the ordinary, this is a good rent or buy.

Third movie this weekend (ya I accomplished a lot) was Crank. I talked this movie down repeatedly when it was in theaters simply because it looked like another transporter movie with a different name in the previews. My friend Adam saw it and told me it was pretty good though so when i noticed the ad that it was coming out on dvd this week, I thought I should check it out. Most of you probably know the basis of the movie, a man is drugged and has to keep his adrenaline going to stay alive and negate the affects of the drug trying to stop his heart. He also does this while trying to seek revenge on the man who put him in the situation. There are of course a lot of crazy action scenes, and if your looking for a fast pace action film with drugs, sex, and guns, then this is your pick for the week. I liked it overall but the ending was kind of sketchy, when you check it out, let me know what you thought of it.

Fourth Movie (I need to get out more maybe?) The Night Listener. The movie has Robin Williams portraying a radio host from new york. Going through hard times a friend recommends him a book written by a abused young boy. Through the phone Robin Williams builds a relationship with the young writer and tries to meet him face to face. The movie is based on true events, and as many true event movies do, it leaves itself somewhat open ended. When the movie was done I really felt like I wasted an hour and a half of my life. I admit all I probably would of been doing would have been watching "The Illusionist" instead which happens to be the next and final movie.

Fifth Movie, "The Illusionist". If I had to pick one movie for you to watch over this next week, this movie would be it. The story follows a young magician who falls in love with a girl from the higher class of society. Threatened and told to stay away from the girl he leaves town to come back years later as a great illusionist. He runs into his childhood friend who is now almost engaged to the prince. Using his powers of illusion he tries to find a way to be with his childhood crush. The movie's ending was amazing, and I overall enjoyed every minute of it.

So that's all I have watched this weekend, odd that I put my favorite at the bottom of my list, but hopefully everyone reads that long to see it. Check back later for more random writings, and if you watch any of these and agree or disagree with me, toss up a comment.

Day 2 1/2

2007-01-07T16:28:00.000-05:00

So the ads are working, which is kind of cool. I got all the various google stuff working with this too. Unfortunately Digg hasnt said anything back about the problem blogging news stories, but I also understand its the weekend so I might not get anything until tomorrow or tuesday.

Speaking of tomorrow, the winter semester at Delta College starts up. My first class is Mass Media at 8am, I am not much of a morning person but at least its my only 8am class this semester compared to every morning during the fall. I also get back into a regular schedule at work and will be at the audio/visual department from 4pm until 9pm monday through thursday, so if for some reason you are strolling through be sure to wave. This first week is probably going to be rough so I might be sleeping with my eyes open or grabbing some mountain dew amp to get through the day. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on how it goes and how the semester outlook pans out. Be sure to check back, I hope to write on this hopefully once a day. Also check out the ads once in awhile and make google (and I) happy.

One last thing, you guys can leave comments without register or anything, so if you shy away from it because you dont want to sign up, dont worry. You can even be anonymous if you want.

A few hours in...

2007-01-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

Alright so it has been a few hours now and I have spent a majority of them kicking and screaming trying to get the digg.com "blog this" feature working with blogger. I emailed the techy's at Digg.com and hopefully they will respond with something useful but its mostly looking like I am going to be stuck without it for awhile but thats alright I will still figure out how to get everything on here I want to talk about.
What time I didnt use being frustrated with the digg, I used eating burger king with adam and working on his dvd player. A trip to the BK lounge always helps clear the head and clog the arteries. After eating a delicious double whopper we came back to the apartment to discover adam's dvd player no longer works. The lovely little cyberhome player decides to instead make a strange beep noise at us and to keep the gladiator dvd forever. Naturally we did a bit of operating and got the dvd out but I think the poor cyberhome has breathed its last breath.
Anyways, I am going to wrap this up quick so I can return to the epic struggle of combining Digg with Blogger, and after that I need to get those google ads working on here, so wish me luck and keep checking back.

Day 1

2007-01-06T14:43:00.000-05:00

So my buddy Adam just showed me this site, and I got pretty interested so here I am. I like posting my random thoughts on stuff, and never was overly impressed with the myspace blog stuff so maybe this will be a better fit. I am also a big digg.com fan and they have the ability to link news stories to blogger so you can blog about the story, which is kind of cool. You'll probably see a mix of news stories I have thoughts on along with just random personal blogs. You'll enjoy it I am sure, so check back, I am going to try and post as much as I can, I take my MacBook with me everywhere so it shouldnt be a problem.