Just A Rambling, Gambling Man

Concerts for Free - Lucky!

2007-10-28T15:18:00.000-04:00

I have been lucky enough to win tickets for a couple concerts over the past few months while listening to WBJC, usually on my morning commute to work. In May I won tickets to see Renaldo Reyes perform at Towson University's Center for the Arts. And just this last weekend I called in and won some tickets to hear the spectacular performance by the Amedeo Mogigliani String Quartet. The performance was sponsored by the Candelight Concert Society.

Both concerts left me regretting that my piano studies have gotten very lax ever since I entered college. I've tried to pick it back up over the past few weeks, but all I have is a keyboard with a range of only four octaves. Most of the pieces I select to play don't "fit" within that range of notes. Since most of my music collection is back home, I searched for some sheet music online, and came across Piano Street, which has an excellent collection of Free sheet music. They also have MP3s of several of the songs. I also found some more music off this site, mostly from several video games and anime. The author of the site has published a good deal of YouTube videos showing his immense musical talent.

A few weeks back I heard a radio commercial advertising a sale that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was going to have. They were going to be selling some of their pianos and keyboards that had been used in performances, recitals, and rehearsals at the Center. I jokingly told my roommate that a baby grand would look great in our apartment, right in the huge open space where we're supposed to be getting a dining room table in the near future.

Senioritis - Phase 2

2007-09-18T20:00:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought it was safe, that after high school ended it was over, it strikes again. My brain has been stuck all afternoon rattling about my senior seminar paper on John Paul II, jumping around like a bunny pumped with steroids, and for some reason it landed me on my blog. Since at least on my blog I can just type things and not have citations and supporting evidence every few lines.

I have 10 days left of my undergraduate academic career. It doesn't seem real. Maybe I should fail a class so I can stay longer. I don't think that will be the case, as I have too much determination to succeed and a horrible fear of failure to prevent me from doing such a crazy thing. Though plenty of other crazy things have stepped across my mind this afternoon.

I thought my Delta Chi chapter which I had been president of over the past year was going to be fine, and then I hear opinions from several members over the last few days that has made me a little unsure. Their sentiments are likely normal, similar to those I felt when I first took the office. I'm sure they will pass come wintertime. Part of me is lying to myself here as I don't honestly believe that right now, but these sort of things tend to work themselves out.

My thesis project is under the vicegrip of bureaurcracy. To walk and get my diploma in December would be great, but that possibility seems to be slipping fast. Not a travesty, but frustrating things do not go as planned. Part of me fears getting my thesis back and is therefore glad it has still been held up, for the simple reason that I just believe it's not good enough.

I've felt, even this whole term, just a little lonely even though I live in a fraternity house which is always full of activity.

While I didn't care before, I find myself a little disgruntled over new initiates to a honor society which I had applied but was not invited into. Whatever, it's not worth anything to me anyways.

I feel that my productivity has dropped enormously, and that they could be no way I would ever be able to do another 20 credit school term, even though I have had several very successful ones.

Some level of disappointment seeps in when I realize how much of a failure my senior design project was, and that I did not take the opportunity this term to fix up the digital camera and possibly improve my grade. This fact comes to bear especially when seeing the amount of work and effort put forth by other senior design project students this term. Am I comparing myself too much to other people, I wonder?

While my plan for the immediate future (over the next several days) seems pretty secure, I wonder what the following months will hold.

Can I hold to my convictions? Or do I have no backbone to speak of?

I should stop listening to emo music (I bought an iPod shuffle...didn't need or really want, just one of those impulse buys...used for $40...blue). And I need to buy a keyboard (musical, not computer). It's probably about time to return to that structure writing.

2007 Kettering Merit Scholarships

2007-05-29T21:38:00.000-04:00

The New Kettering Scholarship Program

In only 3 years since I was admitted to this school, they have bumped up the value of their Presidential Scholarship from $8,500 per year to $14,000. My tuition hasn't even gone up that much for the entire time I've been there (thank goodness).

Just one more term and I'm outta there. I could rant more but what else is there to say? Kettering screws me yet again....

A Poor Excuse for New Content

2007-05-29T19:39:00.000-04:00

The Everything Test

There are many different types of tests on the internet today. Personality tests, purity tests, stereotype tests, political tests. But now, there is one test to rule them all.

Traditionally, online tests would ask certain questions about your musical tastes or clothing for a stereotype, your experiences for a purity test, or deep questions for a personality test.We're turning that upside down - all the questions affect all the results, and we've got some innovative results too! Enjoy :-)

You are more emotional than logical, more concerned about others than concerned about self, more religious than atheist, more loner than dependent, more lazy than workaholic, more rebel than traditional, more engineering mind than artistic mind, more idealist than cynical, more leader than follower, and more extroverted than introverted.

As for specific personality traits, you are adventurious (100%), religious (93%), innovative (71%).

Stereotypes

College Student 82%
Old Geezer 67%
Punk Rock 60%

Life Experience
Sex 13%
Substances 11%
Travel 18%

Politics
Your political views would best be described as Conservative, whom you agree with around 50% of the time.

Socioeconomic
Your attitude toward life best associates you with Working Class. You make more than 56% of those who have taken this test, and 65% less than the U.S. average.

If your life was a movie, it would be rated PG.
By the way, your hottness rank is 57%, hotter than 39% of other test takers.
TAKE THE TEST
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Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion:

You have low extroversion.
You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.
A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.
You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people.

Conscientiousness:

You have high conscientiousness.
Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life.
Most things in your life are organized and planned well.
But you borderline on being a total perfectionist.

Agreeableness:

You have high agreeableness.
You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.
Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.
You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance.

Neuroticism:

You have high neuroticism.
It's easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed.
You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully.
You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. Your either flying very high or feeling very low.

Openness to experience:

Your openness to new experiences is medium.
You are generally broad minded when it come to new things.
But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it.
You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Jeopardy Online Contestant Test

2007-01-10T23:37:00.000-05:00

Check it out if you're interested. The test is on January 23, 2007 but you need to register at the website before taking the test. It's pretty interesting just to see what the Jeopardy Test is like. I took it a few months ago so I am ineligible until next year. But go here and give it a shot.

As for me, school started on Monday and the busyness is just starting to ramp up. Don't expect to hear too much from me unless I find a huge gap of time somewheres.

21 in Atlantic City

2006-12-28T22:00:00.000-05:00

For my 21st birthday my roommates and I drove over to Atlantic City. (I love having my 21st Birthday on a Friday!). The fools, they put me in charge of directions. Everything was going along swimmingly until we got into New Jersey. Instead of taking the toll roads, we decided to hop off onto the "Atlantic City highway". This turned out to be a 2-lane highway through a very rural part of New Jersey. There were many signs telling us to repent now. We wanted to make it through this part of Jersey before dark. Luckily we had an atlas, and 5 or 6 wrong state roads later we were on our way.

After checking into the seedy hotel we had booked online, we headed into town. It was already dark, and downtown really didn't look like the best place to be. Let's just say it was not as friendly as Monopoly would have it portrayed. I had heard that one of the best casinos in Atlantic City was the Borgata, so we decided to go there.

It really is one of the nicest casinos I have ever been to. Even the cafeteria is beautiful. Coincidentally, this is where we went for my birthday dinner, as all of the other restaurants were way too expensive. We all ate at Fatburger, which does have excellent burgers just as it advertises.

Next, we had to go get my first alcoholic drink as a legal adult. We went to the casino bar (big mistake) and my friends decided on ordering a round of Jaeger Bombs. I had never had one, but was assured that it was delicious. It was delicious, and extremely expensive!! The four Jaeger bombs totalled up to almost $50! I was glad it was their treat :)

We then proceeded to wander through the casino looking for what games we wanted to play. We eventually found the only $5 blackjack table in the casino, and patiently waited as seats opened so that we could play. We had an awesome dealer named Joe and everyone else at the table was a lot of fun. Also, no one did really bad when Joe was dealing. I kept hovering up and down, but eventually lost my $40. A friend lent me $10 which I was able to win back part of my money. But it was all downhill once Joe's shift ended.

Besides the gambling, we of course got our share of COMPLIMENTARY drinks at the table while we were playing. The amount of drinking I felt more that compensated for the amount of money I lost at the table.

After we were tired of blackjack, we migrated over to a roulette table. I now hate roulette as much as I hate slot machines, maybe even more. I'm no good at it, although all my friends weren't doing half-bad. I had dumped $25 into the table in about 20 minutes, and that's when I said enough gambling for me!!

I had wanted to play some craps at the casino, but all of the tables were too high-stakes for me. I watched a $25 craps table for some time. The shooter threw 11 4 times in a row! I was half tempted to place $25 on 11 for that 4th throw, but didn't. Alas, that would have brought in a pretty penny of winnings.

The gambling complete, we retreated to the hotel to crash for the night. The next day, we headed downtown aboard a Jitney. The weather was great, so we walked down to the beach and along the boardwalk. We stopped at the various casinos along the Boardwalk but wasn't really impressed with any of them. We of course also had to play some games of Skeeball at the Boardwalk arcade.

Getting back to the Borgata, we wanted to gamble a little more before leaving. This is the part of the trip that left a sour taste in my mouth, and no matter how much I liked this casino I still won't forget the events that transpired this day.

First, a note about Michigan driver's licenses. They expire on your 21st birthday. So, I went at renewed mine when I was home for Thanksgiving. They gave me a temporary license (a piece of paper attached to my old license and the corner of my old license clipped off) and would mail the new license to my home. When I went to Atlantic City, I was still using the temporary license.

If you look young, the dealer at the table you are trying to play at will ask for your ID. You are supposed to be able to get a stamp on your hand once the guy in the pit has checked your ID to prove that you are 21. However, these stamps proved useless, as security still asked for our IDs even though we had stamps. On my birthday I had no problems with my temporary license. They gave it a second look but said it was fine.

However, when we came back on Saturday the dealer would not accept my ID. He said it wasn't valid (clearly wrong) and that I would have to go check with security. So my friend and I walk over to the security desk. I show the officer at the desk my ID, and she says it's no good. I try to explain that it's a temporary ID but it's still a valid ID. She points out the one sentence on the paper which says I have relinquished all valid IDs to the State. I try to explain that yes, I had to do that when I applied for renewal but this was still a valid license. I try showing her other forms of ID (student, birth certificate, etc) but she won't budge. I also point out that I had played here the night before with no problems, you could still see the faint outline of the stamp on my hand, AND I had signed up for their silly little Player's club card thing. None of that matters apparently.

OK fine, I didn't want to lose any more money anyways. So we go back over to the table where our other friends are playing Texas Hold Em Bonus, a table game not the actual poker game. I'm standing off the carpeted gambling area simply watching what is going on. The guy in the pit who had carded us before says I better move, I can't just stand there, if they catch me I'm going to get a huge fine. So I start pacing back and forth in front of the table. I'm moving, aren't I?!? Not willing to push my luck (and I also felt pretty ridiculous), I ask the lovely cocktail waitress for a bottle of water, and then go somewhere to cool off. My friends proceed to quickly lose their money and we leave.

One last casino anecdote: We went to the cafeteria for Chinese before we started playing that Saturday. My fortune cookie had a dumb fortune which I don't remember, but the Chinese vocabulary word on the back was "birthday", which I thought was kind of neat. So I stuck the fortune in my pocket. As we're getting ready to leave, one of my friends is still playing at the roulette table. As I pass by, I hand him the fortune and tell him to play the lucky numbers listed. 5 minutes later he comes up to me all distressed. He tells me that yes, one of the numbers listed was the next roulette spin. However, instead of playing ALL of the numbers on the fortune, he only played one, and therefore lost. :(

Besides that little incident, it was a great birthday celebration. I only ended up losing $60, but I consider it money well spent for all the fun I had. As for my friends, two of them lost pretty bad and the other came out even.

Even weeks later, I still don't feel like I'm 21....

My Wii Release Story

2006-11-20T19:11:00.000-05:00

Alternate Title: Mii Wii RiiLiiss Storii

A couple of my roommates were planning to go to Best Buy early Sunday morning. Like 5am early (later found out the store didn't open until 9am). We got back Saturday night pretty late after going to see Casino Royale (the only good Bond flick since Goldeneye IMO) and I figured I would just stay up all night and wait to leave at 5AM, I wasn't really tired.

Well, one can only watch the TVLand Star Trek marathon for so long. I fell asleep on the couch around 4AM expecting to be woken up at 5AM by my roommates. Instead I woke up to daylight. I feared that they had left me behind, but a quick check of the parking lot dispelled that. Maybe they decided to go later, I thought. It being around 7AM, I decided to hit up Mass at 730. When I came back, they were gone.

I was a little disappointed (I had just wanted to tag along, I wasn't really planning to buy one). Having left the TV on, I soon found that the Star Trek marathon had been replaced by the Brady Bunch. I then got a call from my roommate. He said they were 66th and 67th in line at Best Buy, there were 100 Wiis at the store and there were still about 20 spots in line. After telling him I wasn't going to buy one, we hung up. I sat on the couch for a few minutes with the Bradys, then decided I would drive down to Best Buy anyways just to be part of the excitement.

About 30 seconds out from the Best Buy, my roommate calls me back:

Adam: Are you still at the apartment?
Me: No, I'm almost at Best Buy.
Adam: Oh...Can you go back to the apartments?
Me: WHAT! Why?
Adam: Ricardo just called me. He wants a Wii. He's crying. (Ricardo doesn't have a car and therefore cannot drive himself to Best Buy)
NOTE: Why my roommates forgot to wake him up still escapes me. The plan was for all three of them to go to Best Buy
Me: OK...well, I'll get in line and buy one for him and he can pay me back. (By this time I am at Best Buy)

Once at Best Buy, I learned more of the situation. When Adam had called me the first time (on the couch watching the Bradys) the Best Buy personnel had begun to hand out tickets to all the people in line (Hence how they knew their place in line). The personnel were still at the end of the line giving tickets to people who entered. I went over and grabbed a ticket. It was number #96 out of 100 available Wiis.

Ricardo apparently didn't have any way to pay me back, he was going to put it on a credit card, so with ticket in hand I went back to the apartments and picked up Ricardo. We got back to Best Buy just as they started letting people in. We were at the end of the line, which meant we got to laugh when people queued up behind us for 10-15 minutes only to find out eventually that you needed a ticket to get a Wii.

I very much appreciate the ticket idea. It's much better than playing the guessing game with the line or stampeding into the store or what have you. It also was excellent timing on my part. If I had chose to stay on the couch until Adam's second call, I can say with certaintly that Ricardo would not be the happy Wii owner he is today.

You may wonder why I did not buy one myself. I figure I can just play everyone else's. Which is what we did for the rest of the day. I was very impressed with the gameplay, controls, everything. The WiiSports are quite fun, boxing is quite a workout! I also played Monkey Ball, which is SOOO much easier and better with the Wii controller than it was on GameCube.

Only got to play Twilight Princess for about an hour, but from what I did play I was very happy with. Some people make the comment that the graphics are not what they'd expect from a next-gen console. But I think they're just fine, of course not the best but that's where the gameplay comes in. Using the sword, shield, bow, boomering, fishing rod with the Wii controller is just awesome. I think Nintendo has a winner with the Wii. I think I'll bug my parents to buy me one for Christmas. :)

Waiting for the Cashier

2006-09-22T09:48:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting in Kettering's computer lab waiting for the Cashier's Office to open so I can get my money for various funds requests I have filled throughout the term, and realized that I have not posted to my blog in a very long time. Now that the school term is winding down and work term starts on Monday, I assume that I may have more time to post here occassionally.

So a quick update since I last left my blog. Wait, let me read my last post....wow that was a while ago. Well, my computer has been working fine since my reinstallation of Windows. Work term ended pretty well, made a bunch of new friends, got to visit DC over Memorial Day weekend. Then I came back to school. Class schedule sucks (as Ian comments every time he sees my schedule on the board). Rushing for Delta Chi went rather smoothly. Attended the 55th Delta Chi International Convention in Cleveland (a story for another post). Got elected President of my Delta Chi chapter. More fun, midterms, brotherhood retreat, late nights with Battlefield 2, long weekend back home, find out I got more scholarship money from the State(SWEET!! Apparently they thought Kettering was a public institution....), get readdicted to Freelancer and now wrapping up finals and some horrid final exam projects. I guess you can consider this post a table of contents for what I will be writing about in later posts. Hey, you might even get some other random thoughts from time to time as well.

I hope to keep my blog a little more active in the coming months, so watch your Facebook feeds! (it was a bit creepy at first, but now I kinda like it) But for now, its 10AM, the cashier is now open, and I want my money.

Talking to India

2006-05-14T12:01:00.000-04:00

I've had some computer fun over the past week. Last Saturday I was happily playing Guild Wars Factions when the game performance sharply decreased. At first I believed it was lag. It wasn't lag. Because soon after it started I got a BSoD saying I had a KERNAL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR. Hmm. Interesting. I restarted and tried to launch Guild Wars again, but soon got another BSoD, this one telling me UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME.

After restarting from this fatal error, once I got into Windows the OS was running horribly slow. The hard drive light was constantly on and I couldn't navigate very easily. Restarting a few more times, soon the computer would not even boot into Windows, simply displaying the UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME BSoD. Frustrated enough, I just shut the thing down and prepared to look at it tomorrow.

I had a hunch that the hard drive was having some problems. Or maybe my installation of Windows had become corrupted. So using my roommate's XP disk, I performed a repair of the Windows installation. This works...for a short time. In this short time, I moved all the data I wanted to save onto my external hard drive. I'm glad I did that then, because I soon wouldn't be able to get into Windows ever again.

Before I lost Windows, I also went to Dell Support and found this article that sounds pretty similar to my problem. With my important data backed up, I fiddled around a bit more, trying different diagnostic utilities which I just recently found out that Dell has put a separate FAT partition on my hard drive with all these diagnostics. I also used my Knoppix boot CD to see what I could do there. Not being a Linux guru, I couldn't do much.

Many restarts later, my laptop would run through POST and then display a message: "A disk read error occured. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." Booting from CD, the computer would also say sometimes "There is no primary hard disk installed." It was time to make that dreaded call, to Dell Technical Support (i.e. India).

I'm still thanking my dad, as when I purchased this laptop two years ago he convinced me (read: made me) purchase a 3-year service agreement/warranty. And it was a smart idea for the most expensive purchase I had made up to that point in my life. This winter my CD/DVD drive stopped working, and I was able to contact Dell to get a replacement sent. I figured the same thing would happen here.

After talking to the Dell AI on the hotline, I got in contact with my first technical rep, Brian. (I don't think that was his real name) At this point I had been able to launch the CHKDSK utility as described in the Dell Support article. After describing my problem and what the computer was doing right now, Brian agreed this was the right course of action, and said he would call me back within an hour/1.5 hrs to check on the status of the test. Well, the test took around 3 hours, and Brian never called back. The test found a few bad clusters, but nothing in the Windows directory, and the problem persisted.

Calling back a second time, I got a technician who decided to put me on speakerphone in their call center. Not smart, we spent 5 minutes exchanging "Are you still there? Can you hear me?" before I just hung up on her. My next technician was Sonal. She had me run the Dell diagnostic utilities, which make the most annoying system speaker beeps you can imagine. After many error popped up, she agreed to send me a new hard drive. YAY! She also said she would call back to help me set up the OS. (not that I needed her help anymore, I just need a new hard drive!) She didn't call back either.

The hard drive came in on Wednesday, along with CDs for reinstalling Windows. I made a separate partition for Windows and a large partition for my games, apps, etc. I didn't have to reinstall all the junky Dell apps that came bundled with my computer before. And now I think my machine is performing much better. I guess it was a spring cleaning for my computer, and it wasn't a big deal, since I was able to save all important data. The lesson to take away from all this is: People in India don't return your phone calls, probably because I don't have a 1-800 number which routes the calls there. :)

Beer Pong

2006-04-08T15:03:00.000-04:00

Last night was my first exposure to this game. While I am not a big fan of beer, I found myself enjoying the game very much. And I actually turned out to not be that bad at this game. I mean, it's quite similar to the game I was exposed to as a child, that being Bozo's Grand Prize Game! Ah, the childhood memories. The KFC buckets my mother used to create a replica of the game for one of my birthday parties. Good fun.

But back to the drinking. I did eventually get used to drinking the Bud light. A couple of the guys took a shot of Captain after playing a round. I wasn't going to be that dumb. Beer befor liquor, never been sicker. Or something like that. I suppose I don't know from experience the validity of that rhyme, but I trust its advice to be true.

As for other business, school term is over and I have been working at my new job for about a week now. Grades came out yesterday and my average actually went up just a little bit instead of the steady trickling effect that usually happens as the terms go by.

I think my blog is dying. I am losing passion to write anything in it. I still remember the password to log into Blogger to post, so I guess it hasn't been killed yet. I'm done, leave some comments if you don't want these excellent posts to stop. I'll try to find some more content to write about soon.

School Term Causes Blog Hiatus

2006-02-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

So my 2 month break in not updating my blog has ended, only because Gookey told me to update my blog, along with other people, and I can't think of anything better to do. So follow me as we journey through the first seven weeks of school. (Wow, only five more weeks until the term is over.)

Anyhow, classes have been going OK. I was first afraid that I was going to fail electronics, as I made dumb mistakes on the pre-assessment and the first quiz, but now I've got some perfect quizzes to balance out those mistakes. Computer architecture (read: architorture) is slightly interesting, but mostly boring for a 400 level CE course. Signals and Systems has been OK, got my midterm back today and only made a few mistakes. Systems programming concepts has taught me more than I wanted to know about the Unix file system, and I still need to finish my chmod program. And finally, Written and Oral Communications II has been incredibly easy, but it's at 6 to 8 PM and late classes suck, especially when I have to walk back to the house and there is a thunderstorm in February with freezing rain and 30mph winds.

As for extracurricular activites: I am still working on the Technician, the student newspaper. I think it's going to die, no one is working on it, including me, and I don't think we have anyone ready to take up the responsibility of editor. One Wednesday Mike told me to go get food for the Society of Women Engineers meeting, which I did. I now go to all their meetings for free lunch, and have even helped stuff envelopes and volunteer with other activities. SWE is going to play WhirlyBall 9th week, I am looking forward to that.

As President of Laser Tag Club (and pretty much the only officer, the other people who were supposed to be officers left the school), I have been responsible in planning our only event, the Laser Tag lock-in, which is hopefully still happening this weekend. We didn't get all the money we needed, but it should work out.

I've also had plenty of work to do as the Secretary of the Delta Chi chapter. Well, not that much work, but just another thing to add to the stack. Last weekend was our semi-formal. It was lots of fun, along with me winning $10 at the craps tables and getting to play for about an hour.

Had myself some Strongbow on Saturday at Paddy's. Mmmmmm....

Still playing Guild Wars from time to time, but I also am having a temporary addiction to Phantasy Star Online. The fraternity had a soccer team earlier in the term. I remember when I last played soccer. I was 8. We didn't do so well then, and we didn't do so well now. We are now doing intramural volleyball. Have a game tonight at 8:30. I like volleyball better than soccer.

There's my mid-term update. Time to head back into the breach.

Throwin' Bones

2005-12-20T13:02:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was the Christmas party for my co-op employer. The party was held at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, a VERY nice hotel located within the Fairlane Town Center. This was a formal affair, requiring me to pull out my suit and tie. I hate wearing ties. They are too easy to convert into nooses...

I was provided with two drink tickets, a raffle ticket, and a casino ticket upon arrival. With my drink tickets (I got a third from another co-worker who was not attending) I had a couple rum and Cokes and also had a Labatt. I reconfirmed with myself that I still pretty much hate beer. I didn't win anything in either of the employee raffles, but that would be awkward anyways, as I am only working for this company for about 3 more days. The buffet was alright; nothing great in the American line but I did get to try a few different kinds of sushi / Japanese foods.

But the best part of the night, besides getting to have some alcohol, was when they opened up the casino tables. Everyone was invited to gamble with their provided chips for more chances to win raffle tickets. The games they had set up were Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, and Texas Hold 'Em. There were only three tables for poker, and I did not get over there in time to play. I went over to a blackjack table and played a few hands. Since the games were just for fun, many of the rules were lax. For example, the dealer had a soft 16, hit as she should normally do, but when receiving a face card (making her hand a hard 16) she instead counted the ace as 11 and called her hand busted. Also, one hand the dealer was showing an ace. I turned away for a second, and when I looked back she was now showing a three! She had just dealt herself another card instead of taking everyone's money. I wish Soaring Eagle or Point Edward would take up some of these strategies...

So I gave up on the easy blackjack and headed over to a craps table. The first table I went to I merely placed chips where everyone else was placing them. I had read the rules a couple times but still didn't fully understand the game. You can only really learn the game by playing it. And so that's what I did for the next 2 1/2 hours. The people at the table were fun and would also be generous, same as the blackjack dealers. For example, if the shooter threw a 7 (which, after the point is out, means everybody loses), sometimes the stickman would merely say "Merry Christmas!" and pass the dice back to the shooter. Call it a holiday mulligan.

Craps, like all casino games, is a game of chance. But it is more focused on probability of the dice. For example, 7 is the most common number to roll with a pair of dice, and thus it is assigned its special property of ending a round of play if rolled. Odds on many of the bets are based on the probabilities of the dice rolling out in that way. I think part of my appeal to this game is the mathematics behind the odds. Additionally, it is a smart game to play; craps, along with blackjack, only holds a small house advantage.

Another reason I think I have found craps so much fun is that it is really a group game played by the whole table. In blackjack, sure, you hope the dealer busts and everybody wins, but it is still a personal game of you versus the dealer. With craps, it is normally an everybody wins/everybody loses mentality. Getting to shoot the dice is fun, too. Although I did not throw very well for our table. Once I threw the come out roll, I threw 7 pretty much right away. And then there was the time I threw boxcars three times in a row, and on the first roll that means everybody loses on the pass line.

I look forward to trying craps the next time I am at a casino. I will probably not be making as many bets as I was with my fake money (I occasionally had place bets on almost all of the numbers [4,5,6,8,9,10], which can be very costly if the shooter throws 7). but it it still lots of fun.

Anniversary of my Escape from the Womb

2005-12-12T13:38:00.000-05:00

Happy 20th birthday to me! What an unimportant birthday, I can already drink in Canada but I still can't drink here in the States...legally. More on that later. Yeah, it was on Thursday, along with the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon.

Tim, Kyle, and I went to T.G.I.Fridays for dinner before we were going over to Gameworks afterwards. They had no idea it was my birthday; also no idea that it was my intention to get my free dessert from wherever we went out for dinner, no matter what kind of show and dance I would have to go through. After I had indicated to our waiter that I wanted my dessert, I was then treated to having members of the waitstaff slowly trickle towards me, wish me a Happy Birthday along with tying balloons to my wrist. After this was done I got the traditional obnoxiously loud singing. And my dessert for dealing with all of this??? Just some vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Oh, and also catching the attention of a group of mid-30s women. Then I was treated to the over six inches of snow that fell overnight which made the communte to work ever so pleasant.

On Tuesday my software group that I work with went out to Fountain Walk in Novi. We were treating a Japanese colleage that was visiting. First we went to Buffalo Wild Wings since they were having a special on wings. One of my coworkers ordered the Blazing sauce on some wings; I knew better than to try one of those, but it was fun to see the reactions of others that tried it. I also got to try Blue Moon beer, which has a distinct taste and wasn't too bad. The stuff looks like orange juice, though.

We then headed over to Lucky's, kind of a sports bar/arcade/pool hall place. Pretty cool place, and the waitress didn't card me or anyone (They carded everyone at BW3's), so I got to order a couple drinks. Some games of air hockey and skee-ball later, it was time to head back. I guess since I'm the youngin', the co-op of the group, I didn't have to pay for anything. w00t!

When I got back home to Port Huron on Friday night, my family and I went out to Bogey's for dinner. They knew how to do the whole complementary dessert for your birthday thing, bringing out a cake with candles and everything. And I didn't have to deal with obnoxiously loud singing either. And to wrap up the birthday festivities, on Sunday we had family and friends over for dinner and dessert.

I got clothes from my mother, and pretty much money from everyone else. Haven't treated myself to buying anything much yet, except when I spend $6 on the Stargate DVD and another $5 for a nice warm hat. Winter sucks. So if anyone has ideas for fun video games, movies, anything tech and digital, let me know.

Falling Confession Rates

2005-12-07T16:23:00.000-05:00

Took my title for this entry from recent news regarding the improving status of the U.S. Economy. More jobs, unemployment rates holding, GDP up 3.5%. But, economics isn't the topic here. What I'm talking about is the alarming trend within the Catholic Church of less and less people going to Confession.

This article from PBS, a bit dated (2002), states that In 1965, a survey reported that 38 percent of Catholics went to confession at least once a month. By 1995, that number had fallen to 8 percent. And is most likely even worse today. Why is this the case? We certaintly haven't all turned into saints overnight and no longer have any sins to confess.

Fr. Jim made this the focus of his homily last week during Mass, and also placed in on the front page of the parish bulletin. An article was also linked from the MSN homepage a few weeks ago as well. When it became a minor plot topic in Boston Legal last night, I knew I had to make an entry about it.

I can't speculate as to why as a whole confessions are dropping off, so I'll just explain my own situation and feelings. Personally, I can't remember the last time I've gone in for a one-on-one confession with the priest in the little room. It was probably the first time I received the sacrament of Reconciliation back in 2nd grade. I've been to Communal Penance on occassion, but still not as frequently as I think I should be going.

Self-reflection is hard. To admit you are wrong and have sinned is hard too. Chalk it up to pride. I hate to be wrong, even on simple things, but when I am morally wrong and have committed sins, then I find myself even more hard-stressed to confess. Dave recently posted on his problems with pride. I think that this is a serious issue for most people. We tend to believe we are always right and hate to admit our mistakes and shortcomings.

But to come forth and acknowledge that we are human and that we have been wrong, this can be a great strength and time for healing. After having all of this attention, I am feeling called to go to confession again, I am convinced it would do me good. Some may also feel that they can simply pray to God themselves, confess in this way, and do not need to go to confession. I fall into this thinking as well too. But there is something different when laying it all over before the priest and God together. A kind of duality is present here, confession on an earthly and a heavenly level. Both levels need healing.

Even if it isn't within confession, burying problems is never the answer for anything. I hope to work on my pride against criticism both from within and from the outside so that I can grow.

Thankgiving Weekend

2005-12-01T11:23:00.000-05:00

Went home to Port Huron over the holiday weekend. Got out of work Wednesday earlier than usual so that I could try to beat traffic. Of course, it had been snowing all day, so the roads were a little messy. However, still managed to get home without any major trouble. Had dinner with the family before taking off to visit June, Sarah, and Ellie to play Pictionary. Then went over to James' house to set up for the LAN! Got to playing some classic Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat (we weren't about to go through the 4 hours of configurations, installs, etc to play Battlefield 2; besides the fact that you can't have computer bots in BF2).

Then, James' father wants to go over to the casino. So we all pile in the van and head over the bridge. The casino was not busy at all. James and I had no trouble finding a seat at the $5 blackjack table. Now, I had said I was going on a Gambling Hiatus until Christmas. Well, I renigged on that agreement, and played with $15. Lost all three hands, bam, bam, bam. James won a bit but eventually lost it all. It was a little less painful for him since it was his father's money. Mr. McGrath wanted us to learn how and teach him to play Caribbean Stud, so we watched a few hands of that. Seemed interesting, but nobody played it.

Came back to James' house where we played a few more rounds of Battlefield before retiring to our respective homes for the Thanksgiving feast to come. We had a small gathering of friends and family at my home for Thanksgiving. Everything was excellent; I helped mash potatoes and did the dishes.

After that we had a large group of friends head over to Paddy Flaherty's. I had two glasses of Strongbow which got me a little more buzzed than I expected. I mean, I had just had the biggest meal I've had in months still sitting in my stomach. I really am quite a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. Hey, but it's cheaper that way, isn't it? I also tried some Guinness, which I had tried before and absolutely hated. But then it actually tasted pretty good. I may have to order it sometime. Still won't be getting an Irish Car bomb anytime soon.

So after we were finished at the bar, we decided to...have another LAN party! At Dave's house this time, in attendance were Dave, Cody, James, and myself. We started a game of Lord of the Rings: Risk. James and I were Good, Dave and Cody were Evil. To offer up this sound advice from Dark Helmet: "So, Lone Starr, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb."

We lost horribly. I know letting Dave have that continent was a bad idea. And of course, Evil forces manipulate the card deck so that both Evil players get a bonus 8 or 10 armies when they turn in cards, and Good gets nothing. It being almost 3am, there was a mild suggestion to go to Meijers, but that was soon stiffled once we realized that it was Black Friday. So we got some sleep.

Woke up at 10am and started to set up the computers. The lower level of Dave's house was cold and we wanted to help with heating costs. It warmed up rather quickly as we started to play Starcraft and Warcraft III. Of course, our map of choice for Warcraft III was the ever popular Tower Defense map Burbenog. We succeeded on beating it on Easy and Normal settings. The party was then closed, as Dave had to head down to his dad's house.

Went back home for a while, then headed over to Brandon's to play Star Wars: Battlefront. Had a very lazy Saturday with lots of sleep, went to church. After dinner James and I went to Marshall Fields to buy a ticket for me for the Silverstein concert he had been raving about. Unfortunately, they were all sold out. Back at James' house, he worked on a DNA model for his brother while I IMed people using his computer. Eventually went over to Steve's and played more Burbenog while watching The Terminal. Krakozhia! Tom Hanks is a funny foreign person.

And that was my weekend. It all seemed like one really long day with periodic naps. I still need a good sleep, but unfortantely work gets in the way of that.

Adventures in Ypsilanti

2005-11-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

As I stated in my last post, I woke up last Sunday at 8am to drive down to Ypsilanti to visit my friend Steve at Eastern Michigan University. It was a very pleasant drive down there, good weather. I took the route I usually take to go to work, and it was so comforting not having to deal with traffic. Listening to Beatle Brunch, I got to Ypsi around 10am.

We left to go over to Christ the King close to 11. Steve and Allan warned me that some other church group had been "protesting the church's existence." I don't know what this was all about, but we came to the church the back way and thus avoided the picketers.

Coincidentally, November 20th was the Feast of Christ the King. David was supposed to be there, but did not get transportation. To be a bit dramatic, it was a Mass like none other I had been to before. These are the few points that caught my attention / i.e. I want to discuss:

Lots of applause: There's a time and a place for acknowledging the hard work of the people of the church. During the homily is not that time. I also thought the applause, when it did come, became uncomfortably long, like State of the Union address interruption long. I'm not exactly sure what my problem is with the applause, I just don't like it.

Latin sections of the Mass: Always cool. I still haven't gotten to go to a completely Latin Mass. It just feels more powerful in Latin than in English.

No "human chain" for The Lord's Prayer: This one caught me off guard, as we all stood up I started reaching for hands and they realized nobody was doing that. I had never been to a church that did not hold hands during the Our Father. So, I did some investigation and read a couple articles on the topic. Apparently the Mother Church has not given any directive as to whether this practice is permitted or not. It just kind of developed when congregations felt they needed to inspire a greater sense of community within their parishes. I still believe it is a good practice, mainly because I have been doing it my whole life at Mass. However, I will look a little differently at people who now do not hold hands at Mass, noting that would rather pray between only them and God.

Standing, not kneeling, during Communion: Ah, Vatican II. Some love you, others hate you. I am neutral on the topic for now, I need to read more. From what I've read, it was more common during the early days of the Church for people to stand throughout the entire service; this whole kneeling business happened somewhere in the Middle Ages. It's surprising how much you think the practices and ideas you grew up with are the absolute truth until your eyes get opened up to "the BIG picture."

After Mass, we went to breakfast at a nearby restaurant. And then headed back to campus where I got the grand tour of EMU. Luckily the weather was still nice and we were able to walk around campus comfortably. Got back to Steve's dorm and played old school Nintendo roms on his pimped-out X-box before leaving back for the apartment. Note to self: Never be a character slower than one Steve chooses when playing Gauntlet. Also, Arthur is the best computer player in Monopoly.

Adventures in Windsor

2005-11-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

It was time for another rousing trip into Canada! 4 other fraternity brothers and friends piled into a minivan, and after having burgers at Red Robin, headed towards the Windsor Tunnel. I had never been through the tunnel, so that was a cool experience. $3.50 for fare was a bit more than I was used to at the Blue Water Bridges.

We made it through the tunnel, but of course Gookey had forgotten the directions he had printed out. Luckily there were lots of signs and flashing lights to direct us to Casino Windsor, and it's right there by the tunnel anyways.

Now I was a little worried knowing that we were going to be at a casino. I had put myself on Gambling Hiatus just a few weeks earlier. I did bring some cash that I was willing to lose at a table should the opportunity present itself. It didn't.

One thing that baffled me at the security checkpoint at the Casino was after our IDs were checked, everybody got a small black stamp on their hand with the letters "CW" on it. Mine was washed off promptly after entering because I went straight to the bathroom. But I still wonder what it was for. If they check you at the door, what further verification do you need? A stamp? Maybe it was if you left the casino and came back you could easily past through the ID check if you showed the stamp. Although that wouldn't be very hard to counterfeit if it's just ink, it was a very simple design. A poorly executed idea.

So the reason I didn't gamble any of my money away was that my personal integrity was so strong I would not allow myself to gamble. That, and the minimum bet at all the blackjack tables was either $15 or $25. Too rich for my blood! However, Gookey was still ready to play, but unfortunately lost. He dropped from $50 to $20 after about 5 or 6 hands, then took a break for a bit. The dealer busted a few times. He kept turning to me and asking, "Should I go in?" I flat-out told him, "The hand that you decide to play in, the dealer will get blackjack." He played. He was dealt 16 and the dealer was showing an ace. I should have told him to bet his last $5 on insurance. But I really hate the insurance bet. Dealer flips blackjack. I think Gookey hates me now.

Scott lost his money on craps, Boyd doubled his $2 at the slot machine but then promptly lost it. And I didn't play at all. Now I see why you guys have so much fun watching me lose. Schadenfreude is a good but evil feeling.

So the gambling hiatus continues. But I will face more temptation Thanksgiving weekend; I am sure of it since all of my friends will be home and Point Edward will only be a stone's throw away.

Everyone was sick of the casino at that point. It was extremely smoky; at least the high ceilings at Soaring Eagle help with that problem a bit. So we hit the streets of Windsor looking for somewhere to drink. After wandering for a bit, we got advertised to by a guy on the street hired to do that sort of thing, not sure what you would call him, a people-grabber? Sounds too kidnappish. Anyhow, we said we were looking for more of a pub atmosphere. He said he knew a place and took us there. It was definitely not a pub. Just some little club with like 4 tables, music blasting with too much bass, and no option for a tab. I had a rum and coke, and we blasted out of there after about 10 minutes.

Hitting the streets again, we made it into Pub 358. Here was a much nice, quieter atmosphere where you could actually talk and keep a tab instead of paying for every drink up front. Live music that wasn't bad nor horribly loud. And there were 25 cent wings, can't beat that. And they had Strongbow. I had that and some shot I don't remember the name (Gookey was trusting the bartender to come up with random shots, the one I had turned out pretty good.) After I had stopped ordering, (seems to be that 3 drinks is the magic number for me for a little buzz, and that's all I wanted/had money for) Gookey and Boyd were still getting drinks. One time after bringing their drinks, the waitress says, with missing a beat, "and here's your Irish car bomb," setting it in front of me. I replied, "I didn't order that, I don't want any part of that!" Anything you are supposed to drink before it curdles just sounds like a bad idea. Turns out it was for a different table, so she took it away.

We left the pub close to 1 and started to head back to the Casino parking lot where we had left the van. On our way there a couple people said that they were hungry again, and started pointing out different places to eat. About 500 feet from the parking garage, Gookey spots a hot dog stand and heads over to get a Polish sausage. Besides the guy running the stand there is another guy just hanging out there, and by his lean you could tell he had already hit the bars. He then started offering to buy all five of us hot dogs. Nobody wanted a hot dog. Not taking no for an answer, he started handing money to the guy at the stand for more hot dogs. When they were ready and we still refused them, as we had been doing the entire time, the drunk said, "You know, that's really *#$*@ insulting to people in Asia, you know, I buy you guys these %$*# hot dogs and you don't %$#^%&* want them! That's rude, that's #$@%ing rude, you know." The guy at the stand is recommending we take the hot dogs, which I think is a good idea if we don't want to get into a altercation. So, we take em, and quickly head towards the parking lot, snickering and leaving the drunk there to buy more hot dogs for random people.

Coming back to the US, we missed the turn for the tunnel and instead drove to get on the Ambassador Bridge. I've never been over the bridge either, two new border crossings in one night! Now, I had always believed that Canadian customs tended to have more pricks working for them. Well, we got introduced to one for the American team tonight.

After going through the usual questions, he collected everyone's ID's, and proceeded to ask each of us our place of birth. I said I was born in Port Huron, MI. He asked what I was doing down here. (Like it's a big trip to the Detroit area from Port Huron) I said I was working down here and living in Auburn Hills. He points to my license and says, "Well, that's not what it says here. Says you live in Fort "(and this is where he just slaughtered the pronunciation of Gratiot) "Grat-tee-a-ought." (something like that) "You're supposed to renew this address, gotta keep in current." I wasn't about to explain to him about Kettering, rotations, blah blah blah. I said something in the regards that all my mail still goes there, I am home every so often on weekends, my room is still there in the house. He finally let us through after five minutes of his nonsense.

Finally get back to the apartment close to 3, James calls me telling me I have to go to some concert with Silverstein and Hawthorne Heights. I get some sleep before getting up at 8 to leave to go visit Steve and Allan at Eastern. But that story is for another post.

Fun With Cingular!

2005-11-18T15:54:00.000-05:00

Thursday afternoon I received a call from Cingular's Customer Service Department. The representative told me that I had a past due balance on my account of $86.73 and was wondering when I was going to make a payment on that amount. I literally had no idea what she was talking about. My bills have always been paid up to date and in full. So I tried to ascertain from her where this charge had come from. She said something about the October statement. I thought OK, maybe one of my parents' checks didn't make it there (they had been mailing payments for the Family Plan that my plan was converted to). So I called my parents later that night. Actually, no, they called me, because Cingular had called home as well. They said all their checks had gone through. I had also logged on Cingular's site to check my account history, and from what it was showing me everything was paid up. Even the total amount that it said I had to pay was not adding in this mystery "past due" amount.

This afternoon I logged back into Cingular.com and looked over my whole payment history. As I had thought about last night, the first payment I had made to Cingular was in the amount of $86.73. Obviously must be some kind of computer error, because I obviously made the payment, otherwise I wouldn't still have a phone.

So I called back customer service and spoke with Tammy. Told her I had some mysterious past due charge. I also alerted her to the coincidence about it being the exact same amount as my first payment. She noted this, but said she could only check my payments as far back as November 2004. So yes, the Customer Service gets access to less information than I do through my online account management. DUMB! Also, Tammy asked me if my phone was still working. I said yes, in a cautious tone. She told me that my account was scheduled to be suspended on the 25th if the balance was not resolved. She also said this amount was 91+ days overdue. Hmm, why didn't I hear anything about this before? Tammy couldn't figure it out, I figure because Cingular just doesn't give that much access to records. So she put me on hold to contact someone else. Five minutes later she comes back on and says the charge has been wiped and that my phone will not be suspended. WOO HOO! My phone won't be suspended although it should have never been threatened with that possibility to begin with! OK, so how did the charge get there?

Tammy explained that their billing program apparently has a bug about every five years. It has something to do with taking a payment that has already been settled and combining, adding it to the current amount due and having it show up as past due. The tekkies apparently know about the bug, can recognize the bug, but they can't fix it. Wow, they need some better IT people I guess. Seems pretty messed up to me, my personal confidence in accounting software has dropped 6 points. And my confidence in accountants...well, that's at rock bottom anyways, it can't go any lower. However, I was very impressed by the way Tammy handled herself through the situation. Very polite and cordial and friendly, we even made a few jokes after the solution was found. +2 confidence in Customer Service. However, -12 confidence in the software and information they are provided to help the customer.

Gambling Hiatus

2005-11-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

So I lost another $20 at the Point Edward Charity Casino last weekend. But I had to show Brandon, who had just turned 19 and never been in the casino, how much fun $5 progressive blackjack could be. I got crappy hands every time, actually. Like 14s or 15s and no matter if I hit or stand, it was still wrong and I lost. Hung in there for a little bit though.

I have been a little disgruntled with my gambling experiences recently. Therefore, I am announcing a gambling hiatus until Christmas. I know I told Cody when we were leaving the casino that it was going to be until February. But I changed my mind. Hey, I need money to actually purchase Christmas gifts for people. And I need to prove to some people that I DO NOT have a gambling problem! :)

So after we came back from Canada last weekend we ended up going to Xtreme Gaming. We played Battlefield 2, and after we got everything working it was a lot of fun. The computer I was originally using had an old version, and then we had to find a server. I don't know how that place stays in business, since it seemed we were the only customers there that night, everyone else appeared to be free-loading "regulars."

I read an interesting Wikipedia article today regarding the gambler's fallacy. The concept, which is simple statistics that I already knew and understood, is that past events do not influence odds on the current possible outcome for independent random events such as a coin-flip or the spin of a roulette wheel. I also read, after following a link to the Ship of Theseus article, almost all of the articles regarding paradoxes. It kept me amused at work for a few hours.

Now, a final note from Family Guy:
Apache Chief (after growing to super size and placing a satellite dish for Peter on top of his roof): Well, that was the highlight of my day. Guess I'll go gambling.

Many silly blog things

2005-11-04T08:55:00.000-05:00

So apparently there's all these quizzes and stuff that people can do to add to their blogs when they have nothing to write about. I have nothing to write about, it's Friday, so let's get some of these out of the way:

Slow and Steady

Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy.

They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder.

It'd really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment.

They expect you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then usually decide against it.

How Do People See You?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Your World View

You are a happy, well-balanced person who likes people and is liked by others.

You question whether many conventional views on morality are valid under all circumstances.

You are essentially a content person.

Sometimes, you consider yourself a little superior.

You are moral by your own standards.

You believe that morality is what best suits the occasion.

What Is Your World View?

Your Observation Skills Get A B+

Your senses are pretty sharp (okay, most of the time)

And it takes something big to distract you!

How Observant Are You?

Your Inner Child Is Surprised

You see many things through the eyes of a child.

Meaning, you're rarely cynical or jaded.

You cherish all of the details in life.

Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Brainy Kid

In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab.

You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you're a total success!

Who Were You In High School?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy.

You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts.

People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused.

But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

OK I'm done with that mindless drivel. Is the weekend here yet? No?? Urrgghhh.

Blogging About Blogs

2005-11-02T15:44:00.000-05:00

So I'm thinking today about all the insane amounts of information we as humans collect, record, document, publish, etc. (Forgive me, I know the Information Age has been going for a while, but I think it's just starting to set in). I mean, who needs all this stuff? Who has time to look at all this stuff?

The forum for my fraternity has had a couple topics going around, asking people what web comics they read, what sites they frequent. There were so many sites, all with plenty of content on them. I didn't recognize most of the sites, realizing there is still so much more on the web than some of the basics I think of.

And then I ponder the forum. All the innane conversations, all the jokes, snide comments, technical rhetoric and what not. All recorded. All sitting there and waiting to be read and revisited again and again. And it just keeps growing. Then we go to my fledging blog here. Also, posts here and there. Then to my Gmail account, where almost nothing gets deleted because I have 2GB of storage. All those conversations searchable, archiveable, indexable, rereadable.

And the truth is, it's all so transitory, so illusionary that it's not really there. I can't and probably never will see the actual servers where my Gmail is being saved. And even if I could see it, big deal, it's just a big box with 1's and 0's. But yet it all means something. And it's important too. I keep in contact with a lot of people over e-mail and other internet means. Conducting business, all that jazz.

But then the catastrophe occurs. Someone decides to go Compton Effect and it's all over with that huge EMP. Wax on, wax off. It's off to the big IBM mainframe in the sky for that information. No chance for recovery.

I guess it's not a big deal. I'm not very materialistic anyways, I know things change, people die, life goes on. It's just interesting when we consider the relative impermanence of everything. Because then one tries to rationalize, why the heck am I writing this blog entry with my time? It's just going to go poof whenever the Blogger servers go down (and they will, someday). Shouldn't there be something I can do that is a little more important?!

And then we turn to religion. I remember from my social science class that religion attempts to deal with issues of impermanence, and some other big word too. I can't think of it right now since I'm focused on the one I can remember. You know, I wonder why I'm not a more religious person if I have all these thoughts swirling in my head. I guess I am still trapped in that illusionary world where it seems like everything is gonna be around forever. I wonder when I will wake up. Until I do, blog readers, you can look forward to reading more random entries like this one.

I've been playing Guild Wars a lot lately. And I mean A LOT. Collecting all these cool items, building my characters to higher levels. But again, what's the point? Once they run out of money and shut down the servers, that's gone too. I'm still going to play when I get home tonight. These thoughts haven't dissuaded me from my super-fun video games...yet.

I suppose all of these transitory activities serve for interaction with other people. That could be one thing that places stock about the rest, and that is my relationships with other people. Golden Rule and all that.

Enough philosophical and theological babble for one day, time to end with a light-hearted joke Father Jim shared at Mass a couple weeks ago:

Fr.(asking the congregation): If I left you today, would you still remember me after a day?
All: Yes! Of course!
Fr.: If I left you today, would you still remember me after a week?
All: Yes.
Fr.: A month? A year?
All: Yes, Yes.

Father Jim went on to tell a few other jokes, something about a penguin, I don't remember exactly, anyhow, it was a few minutes, then he asked:

Fr.: OK, here's my last joke. Knock Knock.
All: Who's there?
Fr.: Geez, you forgot about me already!!

Politics and Cell Phones

2005-10-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

So in case anyone missed the article on the front page of the Times Herald or hasn't heard it anywhere else, the Michigan Senate is currently debating a bill that would ban cell phone use for teenage drivers. Teens could face a $50 fine for talking on their cell phones. Here is the wording from the bill:

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
(1) An individual who is less than 18 years of age shall not operate a motor vehicle while using an interactive wireless communication device, except in an emergency.
(2) An individual who violates this section is responsible for a civil infraction.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!! As the Lansing State Journal Opinions Page puts it, the MI legislature has better things to do than come up with a horrible bill like this. If they want to do something about it, ban cell phone use for all drivers. I see people cruising down Telegraph going to and from work all the time talking away on their cell phones and paying less and less attention to the road. Age is not a factor here. Neither is the cell phone really. There are so many things that can make a driver distracted. The radio, eating, drinking, or even other passengers. Do they expect to make teens have no one in the car, no radio on? That will not fly.

If Michigan is going to go the way of several other states with full bans on cell phones except in emergencies, then it should apply to all drivers. But what are they gonna do next? Eliminate CB radios in trucks, because I'm sure plenty of distracting conversations are going across the airways there as well. This is simply moving in the wrong direction to improve safety on our roads. Also, do you realize how many cell phone towers lie along major freeways? Why build them there if people can't use their cell phone while driving?

Specifically the bill's context reads interactive wireless communication device. I guess that means I can't play my PSP in the car either...

Politics and Traffic Patterns

2005-10-12T13:43:00.000-04:00

I'm coming back from work, around 5 the middle of rush hour. Cruising near Oakland University on Squirrel Rd, a boulevard for those who are unfamiliar. The light ahead turns red, so I begin to slow down. I notice a car sitting in the turnaround in the median wanting to get out. Since I wasn't tailing traffic so bad, I stopped to let them in. The woman in the passenger seat flashes me a big smile; I smile back. Once they have pulled out into the road, however, I see their bumper stickers: "W is for WRONG"; "Kerry/Edwards '04" and the like. My smile turns a little more sarcastic.

Not that I have any problem with letting those with different political ideologies merge in front of me or that I'm ashamed to give aid to the opposition. It's just the fact in seems that whenever I lend a helping hand in the traffic world, it always seems to be a Bush-hating Democrat. I can cite at least 3 examples within the last 2 weeks. It leads me to question; Do Democrats get themselves into trouble in traffic more often than Republicans? Google and Jeeves didn't have an answer for me, so I guess no one has done a serious study about the idea.

But this topic brings up another point for me, and that is the existence of these dated bumper stickers. Somebody please take a scraper to these things!! As quoted from a recent American Dad episode when Roger the alien gets a job as a life-size juice drink:
Hailey (walking away) : Don't blame me for the crappy job market, I didn't vote for Bush.
Roger: Get over it, Hailey!
Hailey (from a distance) : NEVER!

Seriously, folks. He's not going to axe the 22nd Amendment and end up staying in office for another twenty years. You'll get your chance in 2008, stop complaining. I think the truth about the bumper stickers is that people are just too lazy to take them off now. And they can be rather tough to get off. (I had one placed on my locker freshman year of high school...some people should remember that!)

And don't think I'm only pointing at Democrats here. I'm sick of seeing the "W" everywhere too. There's a reason we only have to deal with presidential elections every four years, the rest of the time I don't care. And also all of those spinoffs from the yellow ribbon. There's so many colors and patterns I don't understand what they all mean, what they are for, I have no idea any more.

OK, I think that sums up my mindless rant now. Just remember, if I see a sticker for "Bush/Quayle '92", I am NOT letting you merge into my lane of traffic!

I'd like one Mass...to go, please.

2005-10-10T14:26:00.000-04:00

After reading some of Steve's comments regarding his unhappiness with the faith community of Port Huron, I was a bit disgruntled. I had always been pretty satisfied with Mass at St. Mary's or Newman Center or any of the other churches in town. The 5:00 Mass at St. Mary's Saturday evening changed some of those impressions.

As we moved into the Homily, Fr. Stan began talking about the parish mission. He explained how he had been impressed with the turnout and the participation of everyone and that he is proud of the parish for their hard work. These sentiments took about a minute to pass on to the congregation. Then we proceeded to stand and state the Creed. My mother and I exchanged a quick shocked glance, as did some of the other parishioners. So, Mass ended up ending around 5:40 due to this extremely short homily.

Now I could understand if Fr. Stan had a cold, or there was something drastic that came up just before Mass and he needed to finish quickly. But I don't think those conditions apply here. It upsets me that his homilies have been getting shorter and shorter.

Contrast that with the Mass I attended the week before at Sacred Heart of the Hills Parish. My parents were married by the pastor here, Fr. Mayworm. He gave an excellent sermon and even had a baptism going on within the Mass. As the baby was taken down the aisle to the baptismal font, members of the Parish were asked to mark the child's forehead with the Sign of the Cross. There were points in the Mass where it was simply quiet, peaceful meditation time. The hymms were sung completely. All of these things just stand out from St. Mary's, where we just move through the Mass so everybody can get on with the rest of their day. The community just seemed more united than up in Port Huron. The Mass went from 11:00 to 12:30, but there was no rush to leave, as it seems some people have to take off right after Communion and not even wait for the final blessing and sending forth. There was a pancake breakfast following Mass provided by the Knights of Columbus and even a Pet Blessing related to the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi.

What I really would like to do sometime is attend a Mass in Latin. I have never had the opportunity and think it would be very interesting.

Sometime I will have to come down and visit you at Eastern Steve and see what the church down there is like.

Another Work Term

2005-10-06T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's that time again to start making money to pay for school. At least it's Thursday and the weekend will soon be here. Is it bad that it's only the first week back on the job and I already can't wait for the weekend to get here? Not that I have any big plans.....yet. I might go visit back home, although with my 45 minute commute to work every day, I'm kinda sick of driving. Or I might just sleep; I have been staying up watching Adult Swim and playing Guild Wars most nights. I can operate OK on low levels of sleep; its just the problem of having to get up at 6:30 in the morning. Forcing me to wake up before my normal time of around 8 or 8:30 just doesn't agree with me, and I never get used to it.

Speaking of the commute, I will do the generic complaints about construction and traffic....

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OK, now that that's over, everyone can notice that this is the first post that I've had in a couple months. Yeah, school term got busy and updating the blog was at the bottom of the list. But thanks to my super-productiveness at work, I have plenty of time to surf, update the blog, e-mail, learn Latin, and learn how to type Dvorak.

So expect lots of new posts.

Liberal Arts Suck

2005-08-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to write a paper for my Introduction to Humanities paper all week, and it hasn't really ever gotten started. Monday I passed out intents to bid to some of the freshmen. Tuesday was the Battlestar Galactica recap on Sci-Fi. Thanks Cody for letting me know about it. Wednesday was apparently free wings night at Buffalo Wild Wings, which I found out about 1 hour before it happened. They didn't advertise for it. Trivia Game was fun. Our table won once. Today I at least looked up quotations for the essay, but then had to watch Jeopardy! and play Super Smash Bros. Melee. Well, it's not due till Tuesday.

This weekend the fraternity is driving up to Grayling to Camp Tapico for a Brotherhood retreat. It's going to be lots of fun and relaxing. Unfortunately I have to drive there, and gas is like $2.75. The weekend after that is Laser Tag Club's all night lock in. That is good fun too, but makes me tired for the rest of the weekend. After that I have to consider working on my Religion in Society super research paper that has to be over 20 pages long. I am not looking forward to that as all. (Hence the title of this entry)

I fly back down to Maryland in September for more "interviews." Looks like I'll be working in Southfield again for the fall term, so I'll be able to easily visit everybody on weekends, when you're in school and I'm not.

I guess that's good enough for a second entry. Expect an update in about a month.

First Post!

2005-08-08T23:32:00.000-04:00

So since Steve has been bugging me every day about starting a blog, I must follow the bandwagon of all my other friends from Port Huron and open it up. And I really don't feel like doing homework right now, so that's why it's getting started. That means you're next, Cody!! Dave and James already have started hard at work. Just remember everyone, I'm still taking 20 hours of courses at Kettering and am rather busy, so don't expect any posts on here until I really run out of stuff to do.

It was awesome sweetness today when I downloading some homebrew apps for my PSP today. Now I have a bunch of emulators that work with my 1.50 firmware. So far the Nintendo and Super Nintendo ones are working, the SNES lags a bit though. It's fun to play Mario on a Sony machine. :)

Laser Tag Club is hopefully going to have a lock-in this weekend. I'm surprised I don't have epilepsy yet.

Went gambling on Friday, lost $30 at the $5 progressive blackjack table. Got to play for a bit, had a good dealer. I also was at Denny's at 2AM....it was an interesting place at that time of night.