Pipes Network Clog Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

Orthodontists Suck

I've never had a cavity. My teeth are straight, and they should be since I went through the pains of braces and retainers when I was young. My last trip to the dentist they recommended that I go see an orthodontist again because my bite is off. Apparently my first one did a crappy job so now things should be fixed if I don't want my teeth to wear down at a young age (and as much eating as I do, that would be bad). So I went to the ortho today. The short of it? $5900 for treatment that takes 18-24 months. The worst part? Since I'm over 19, insurance won't pay for much if any of it. Decisions Decisions...

"I live for Saturdays"

I realize its not yet Saturday. Thinking about how I have a whole weekend ahead without work, it reminded me of a hat I had as a little kid. It was a garfield hat that simply said "I Live for Saturdays". My mom tells me I always got a lot of comments on that hat by people who agreed (and couldn't resist talking to a cute little blond haired blue-eyed kid, ha). Who would have thought a little kid could have something with so much meaning? Especially right now as my job isn't very fun (only for another week), that statement is very true.

Crazy cat

I was confused this morning. My cat (Mico) is always in my room when I wake up, usually he wakes me up just before my alarm. This morning he was no where to be found. I wandered around my apartment for a bit trying to find him before finally just looking in the closet out of curiosity. Turns out I must not have closed it all the way, and then he pushed it open, got inside, and pushed it closed. Sounds crazy, but the alternative is he figured out how to turn the door knob.

Anti-Spyware

As many people know, spyware has become a huge problem for Internet Explorer users. Recently (actually a few weeks ago I think) Microsoft came out with a new Beta version of their anti-spyware solution. I have been using it on one of my computers since they day it was released, and must admit that I am pretty impressed with it. It has a real-time detection that watches you as you browse the Internet, and monitors processes running on your computer. It also runs a scan every day at a time you specify if you want, which is something the others I've tried do not offer.

I only have 2 real complaints with it so far. First, like every other spyware/adware removal program out there (Spybot S&D & Lavasoft's Adaware in particular), it misses things. I wouldn't think that it should be necessary to run 2 or even 3 different programs to clean up all (most) of the spyware/adware on your computer. This seems to be normal however, since different products release definition updates at different frequencies (Microsoft's new one has updated several times since release, the other two I mentioned haven't updated in a while). My second complaint is that if you run a lot of scripts (like nerds like me often do to backup files, etc) then you have to approve them before they run sometimes. I still haven't figure out how it decides if you have to or not, but some trigger approval and others don't.

Regardless, I do recommend using some sort of protection on occasion.

Spammers Suck

Due to some recent attempt of spammers to plaster my site with comments, it may be periodically down while I make some changes so it does not happen again. Stupid spam crap, those people need to get a life. You'd think they'd have something better to do than try to promote online poker in google. Morons.

Good Times

Good times this weekend with the guys. Got to hit up the auto show again, of which will be here soon if you're interested. Some pretty awesome cars there, even an $870,000 Maserati.

The best part of yesterday though other than getting to hang out with the guys was getting to play in the snow with my 4-wheel drive. We got about 8 inches of snow or so over night Friday, and the roads had not been plowed and it was blowing pretty good, so it was a fun drive.

Nothing Like It

There really is nothing like the feeling on the drive home after work on a Friday. There's just something about knowing that you have the next 2 days off and can relax. Granted, it was better last Friday since I had a 3-day weekend, but its still a great feeling regardless. Unless you have to work weekends...

Finally

Well it turns out I'll finally be switching jobs here in about 2 weeks. Its about time. This one is driving me nuts. I'm looking forward to having things to do, and things I'm interested in at that. Work is over-rated anyway, if it weren't for stupid bills I wouldn't have to work...

More Changes

Well I finally got the archives template so it looks the same as this main one. I still have some work to do (obviously). I need to make a banner, which is a slow process since I'm not a graphic person. I know what I want it to look like, its just a matter of getting it that way I guess.

Thanks to a friend who hooked me up with a gmail account, I have 4 gmail accounts to give away now, so if anyone wants one, let me know. For those who don't know what it is, its google's webmail service that is currently in testing/development. You get 1 GigaByte of storage space plus you get POP3 access if you want it. Pretty darn nice for free, hotmail doesn't let you do that anymore unless you upgrade the account, plus they only give you like 10 MegaBytes of storage.

Auto Show

I made a trip to the Auto Show this past weekend with a friend of mine. I wasn't able to make it last year, so this is the first time I've ever been there. It was really interesting, even if you're not a big car person or don't know a lot about cars. Every car maker from Rolls Royce to Lamborghini to Isuzu was there, so there were LOTS of vehicles to look at. Check it out here if you're interested. Its open through the 23rd, so feel free to come on up and check it out. I wouldn't mind going again, and probably will be next weekend if some of the guys still come up to go.

Its About Time

Its sunny. It may be only about 18 degrees out, but I haven't seen the sun in what seems like forever. Almost every day for the last two weeks has been snowy or rainy or foggy. I'd rather have it be 40 degrees cooler than yesterday morning (like it is right now) anytime if its going to be sunny. Things always seem so gloomy when its cloudy and crappy outside. What an appropriate end to the week and beginning to a nice 3 day weekend!

Fog causes havoc

From Today's Detroit Free Press (www.freep.com):

Thick fog and speeding motorists combined to create a series of highway crashes near Lansing that killed two people Wednesday and damaged nearly 200 vehicles. More weather-related havoc is expected today in southeast Michigan when flooding could wash out roads and wreck basements across lower Michigan.

A 50-vehicle chain-reaction accident and a slew of smaller crashes closed 12 miles of I-96 between Okemos and Webberville Wednesday. The dense fog slowed efforts to get medical treatment to injured motorists, many of whom wandered around dazed, talking on cell phones and waiting for help.

At least 37 people were injured, police said. Ingham County Sheriff's Lt. Jeffrey Joy described it as a "nightmare." Of the injured, the Sheriff's Office said three were hospitalized in critical condition and six were in serious condition Wednesday night.

Are you kidding me? How does fog cause these kinds of problems? It took me over 45 minutes to get home yesterday because it was SLIGHTLY foggy most of the way. Granted as I got close to my apartment it was very thick, but that many accidents is crazy! I'm not trying to make light of what happened since several people were killed in the accidents, but that just goes to show how careless people are up here when they are driving. I would be curious to know how many of the drivers in the 200 damaged cars were talking on their cell phone at the time it happened.

People up here slow down just when it rains, and they drive crazy still when the roads are actually bad. Dang Michigan people.

Hump day

This week seems slow. Here it is only Wednesday. At least I have a 3 day weekend to look forward to.

For those Windows users out there, there were several crticial patches released yesterday, so make sure you have ran windows update to get them.

A while back I wrote something about how Google's IPO turned a lot of the employees rich over night. Today I read an article that put that into a better perspective. According to the article, (which I can't remember where I saw now) about 1,000 of the companies 3,000 employees became millionaires overnight because of the stock value (on paper at least), and at least 2 for sure became billionaires. Can you imagine that? 1/3 of their employees are millionaires. I'm willing to bet a lot of people will be retiring very early from there.

Not that far

I didn't get that far on my site. Its still rather bland, but I did get a start and I do still have ideas. Gotta start somewhere.

Its fitting that its nice and sunny out, as today is my last official day of freedom for a while. Class starts again tomorrow. I'm only in one 4 hour class, but it still is just something always lurking in the background that needs to be done when I'd rather be doing what I want to do. I know its the right thing to do though, because waiting till I'm older would just make it that much harder to go back. So here's to next semester...

Its a Start

Well its still not done by any means, but at least its a start. I finally got my style sheet close to how I wanted it. I am using some of the php scripts I wrote to populate the menus on the side dynamically with files in directories. I need a banner though. I'm not a good photoshop person, so that will take me some time. At least I'm moving along though...

Gettin There

OK, I really am planning on working on this site. I haven't touched it yet today however. Been busy watching the playoffs in HD now. Talk about a night and day difference, HD is awesome. Its like the difference between looking through a screen or not. Pretty cool. Anyway, its about half time so I'm starting to work on it now. Nothing major till tomorrow though...

Do not fear

There have been a few minor changes I have been working on with this site. Most of them are ones you would not notice (such as converting it to be all php output). This weekend is my last weekend before class starts and I get a little busier, so I am locking myself in and doing some work here. So if the site is down for a bit, or you get some weird errors, i'm probably in the process of working on it, so don't worry. Hopefully by Monday this thing will finally be merged with some other pages I've been working on and actually have some content to it. Cross your fingers...

Free Stuff!

OK, these always sound too good to be true. I checked into this thoroughly and it is 100% legit. All you have to do is sign up for a credit card or something stupid like that (some are free, some things cost a couple bucks) and get 5 of your friends to do the same and you can get a free iPod! Check it out here if you don't believe me. You know I wouldn't be trying this if it weren't for real. There are lots of websites (http://www.ratetheoffers.com/, http://www.freeipodscommunity.com/forum/index.php to name a few) dedicated to this. It is real and it does work. So if you're feeling like helping a brotha out, please use this link to do so.