Matt

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These people have too much time on their hands.

These people do as well.

Next Sunday, a new series starts airing on Discovery - it'll be footage from the history of the U.S. space program. I've already set MythTV to record new episodes whenever they come on.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but thanks to Pritpaul I finally got MythTV up and running. I can now watch and record television on my computer - like a DVR/Tivo. MythTV also has a crapload of things you can do, like burn onto DVDs, move stuff to a different hard drive or computer, or re-encode it to save space. While I'm not the biggest TV watcher ever, it's nice to be able to watch shows without commercials, and when I actually have time. So far about all I've got is a bunch of hockey games, whose line is it anyway, and mythbusters.

I've got two cards working - I can record something and watch something else at the same time. I'm working on getting it configured better and be able to record two things.

This weekend I'm just hanging around Ann Arbor, next weekend I have to head back to Rochester to help out with the yard sale. Yay?

Comic from shortpacked

It's funny, but only if you've seen Indiana Jones and get the TV show reference.

That goal just scored by Franzen was quite possibly the best individual effort I've seen on a goal since Lebda's goal where he started behind his own net and skated by every player on the ice to score.

Didn't take him long to get back in the groove, eh?

Why, pray tell, does classical music play on my 'Friends Page'?

That

Was

AWESOME!

A pie chart.

Because it's true.

An excellent comic summary on some recent television ads:

http://www.chainsawsuit.com/20080407.shtml

I'd like to dedicate this entry to the greatest science fiction writer ever, who passed away last week.

Thank you for all the amazing stories, and may you rest in peace.

We started on the garage today. In the process, I re-discovered an old tripod that I got when someone moved out of their house. I'd completely forgotten about it - and it's a really nice tripod. With my new-found interest in photography, I think I'll be using the tripod a lot.

There's a whole bunch of stuff that I'm getting because my parents don't want to take it with them. There's a printer, a tent, camping gear, hockey gear, a crock pot, and some other stuff. Would've gotten a TV and a couch, but they don't fit in my current apartment, and the place I'm moving into has a couch already.

We're signing the lease tomorrow! I might be able to take a few pictures and post them, depending on how things go.

And now for your viewing pleasure:

( The official analysis of yesterday's blue screen of death )

I definitely clicked no.

Yesterday and today have been "packing and fun with GIMP"

I've been messing with color/lighting levels on some of my pictures. I'll put the before/after with the best results here:




And then a random GIMP-ed image of kinkakuji:



Now off to pack more

This is just amazing:

Dolphin saves whales

Campus visit went well, I feel. Somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 of the people I just met over the last few days will end up here. Won't really know who that'll be until the fall, but oh well. I guess my class will be about 15-20 people. I found it easier to meet the current graduate students though, which is good because they'll be my co-workers over the next few years. Also got to meet and talk with more of the professors that I haven't had yet. Despite the fact I'm staying in this hell-hole they call the state of Michigan, I'm glad.

And now, I should drive home and help pack more stuff.

Fidel Castro resigns. (bbc)

When I first read the headline, it was rather surprising. In retrospect, it should not have been.

Also, HD-DVD appears to be dead. So Blu-ray didn't go the way of Betamax and UMD... Sony actually got one of their standards pushed through. Back way before Sony released the PS3, I thought that Blu-ray would end up winning. But I also thought the PS3 would end up winning this console generation war, and that's certainly not happening.

Lunar eclipse tomorrow!

I'm gonna sound off a bit on gas prices and the "huge evil oil companies". As I'm sure you all probably know, there was an explosion earlier today (sorry for the foxnews link, cnn was stupid and didn't have the real story on the front page) in Texas. In a spectacular showing of luck and safety, nobody was killed.

When I went out earlier to lunch, down at M-53 and 13 mile, the price at every single gas station on the ~34 mile round trip (except for two, and one later raised to that price) was $3.199. It was actually spectacular how every gas station had been raised to the EXACT same price - it was almost as if every gas station had raised their price arbitrarily to some random value that has no meaning in the supply and demand world. The price seemed to scream "this is the highest you can go before you stop pretending you're too expensive". It was almost as if the gas station owners were gouging customers. Of course, we all know that it's the oil companies are the ones doing all the gouging, but hey, who's counting? I have never before seen such uniformity in gas prices regardless of location.

New Millencolin CD in May! It's about time!

As a follow-up to earlier:

Holy crap, I'm 23!!

Mom and I went out to lunch, I had a birthday coupon left over from a couple of weeks ago. My mom tells the server that it's my birthday, at which point I get really embarrassed. She tells the waitress that it's because I'm sad I turned 23 and that I feel old, and the server offers to take me in the back for a few minutes and cheer me up. O_o

Zomg, embarrassing.

I went out to Ann Arbor yesterday with the three people I'm housing with next year. A couple of the places were a bit dumpy, one or two were really dumpy, and there was one really, really, really nice place. The really nice place is a bit far away (try north of the Kroger on Nixon), but it's AMAZING. It's almost as large as my parents' house here and it's actually cheaper than most of the other places. It's got a gas fireplace, an entertainment center, a 2-car garage, a jacuzzi, and it's furnished. It's just... spectacular. The only catch is, it may or may not be available for next year; we'll know in a few weeks whether the current tenants are staying. If it opens up, we're totally going to snap it up. Such a nice place...

Today's been kinda blah because of the terrible weather. I went out earlier to get lunch, and in the 3 miles I drove, there were 4 cars that had driven off the road. And our garage door tends to freeze shut, so I cleaned some of the ice, snow, and water away from the door. Winter's still hanging on with all of its energy...