Shouzer

This is the main quad at Sydney University.

I was listening to some Kutless during class today, as I do, when I realized that some of the lyrics described the way I feel about school and everything right now.

Another year has come and gone but nothings changed
I’ve wasted another year doing the same old things
I want to break out of this and turn my life around
- Kutless, “Vow”

After that, the lyrics get all “religiousy” on me. Those just seemed to fit, though.

Did anyone see Dante Hall drop the ball yesterday? It was great, he was running back a punt, and he got to about the 5. As he was about to take it in for the score, he just dropped it. The Chargers recovered and went on to win the game. Hahaha. I love it.

Well, now that’s I’m back at rose and I’ve got some webspace, I’m going to start posting pictures of my Australian experience. These things are rather large, so please let me know if I should stop due to slow load times.

So, without further ado, here is today’s picture of the day:

Well, I didn’t get the job a Caterpillar. That didn’t exactly make my day, but I’ve had worse news. I don’t like Peoria that much anyway. I’d much rather work in a larger city.

I’m also still jet-lagged, which explains the early timeframe of the post. They say a day per time zone. By my calculations, that should be about another week of this. I guess I can live with that. I’m actually getting better. I slep until 7 today, which is better than the 4 I hit at the beginning of the week.

Well, I need to go finish packing for my trip up to Rose. I’ll talk to you when I get there.

I went to Best Buy and Staples this morning for the sales. As we know, I’m a shopper. <-- A flat-out lie...

Anyhow, I got what I wanted from Best Buy. That’s a 160gb hard drive and a portable dvd player that my aunt wanted me to buy. (She’s paying me back). Then I made my way to Staples where it turns out they have this awesome (read: fucked up) ticket system. It works like this:

You get to the store, tell them what you want, and they give you a ticket for it. You then go somewhere in the store, hand the people there the ticket, and they give you your item. It sounds sensible enough. Then again, there’s communism. It also sounds good when you hear or read about it. As we know, reality is what matters.

The fact of the matter is that this system is moronic. First of all, not everybody knows what they want, so if they don’t ask for a ticket they don’t get it. Period. Secondly, some people may not be sure if they want to get something or not, so they ask for a ticket anyway. That’s just stupid. It turns out that’s what happened with the DVD burner I wanted.. Four dumbshits took tickets and then didn’t cash them in for the burner. So the Staples employees are sitting back there with four burners that are not going to sell.

So at what point do you let somebody just take one? It wasn’t while I was there, because I wouldn’t be that lucky. Dumbass system is supposed to “ensure that everybody who waited in line gets what they want.” Well what if I would have told them, “One of each, please.” What the fuck would they have done? I have the right to those tickets. But that would have just stopped somebody from getting what they wanted. It’s stupid. Bastards stopped me from getting a DVD burner, and I’m actually pissed about it. If other people had actually bought and paid for them before I got there, I wouldn’t be mad. Obviously they deserved it more than me. But I just plain got fucked.

I know it’s not really a big deal, because credit limits can get pretty damn high. However, my credit card’s limit just got raised from $800 to $1300, and I’m pretty proud of that, because it’s good for me. Heh. It’s kind of funny to me that I’ve never requested it or anything, but it’s been raised twice. $500 -> $800 -> $1300. That’s what I’m talkin about.

Tomorrow is the day after Thanksgiving, which is how it works when today is Thanksgiving. I was made aware last year that not only is the biggest shopping day of the year, but stores like Best Buy, stores that were made for me, have gigantic sales for a few hours on this particular day of the year, as well. I went last year and got a few things, and I’ll be going back again this year. Good thing I have a higher limit, because the way they work you is to charge you full price and then they give your money back via mail-in rebates. Bastards.

So as I was lying sleepless in my bed at 2am last night, I realized the major disadvatage of not drinking. You see, when I go out with friends, I drink coke while they drink beer. Unfortunately, Coke has caffeine in it. Caffeine keeps me awake after the partying is done. Oh well, I’m sure beer has some rather unpleasant side effects as well, like throwing up.

Anyway, it’s about time to go get on the plane, so that’s all from Australia. I hope you have enjoyed the experience vicariously. See you in the US.

Welp, I’m officially done with all my classes before break. Yay! Now I’m just packing up some stuff before Al gets done with his exam and we leave.. I’m fairly certain I’m going to forget something. I’m trying not to, but I’ve just got a bad feeling that it’s going to happen. Ah well..

According to this article, Bill Gates thinks he’s the most spammed person in the world. It’s quite possible that he is. What I find funny about this article is the following quote:

“Practically an entire department at the company he founded is dedicated to ensuring that nothing unwanted gets into his inbox”, a company’s Chief Executive said on Thursday.

I’m not really sure what “a company” is referring to. It’s probably not actually Microsoft, but it’s still funny.

So I’ve aced my first two exam for Math 225.. That being the case, I’ve got to admit that I’m not too worried about my grade in that class. Heh. So today I go to class without knowing that I was about to be submitted to a quiz. Well shit, that kind of sucked. I got to class, opened my book, scanned the relevant sections while he’s talking about something, and take my quiz. I’m fairly certain I aced it. That class is a breeze. I wish all my classes were like this.

Break is coming up. In fact, I’ll be going home tomorrow. Yay for that. (There’s no sarcasm in that.. I’m actually very happy). After break, which is a week, we have two more weeks of classes, then finals, and then Christmas break. So the rest of the year doesn’t seem like it’ll be too bad, except that a lot of my professors are trying to cram exams into that last week of classes, which is just stupid. I mean, we’ve got finals like 3 days later, wtf do we need an exam for right then?

Half-life 2 rocks your socks, by the way. By the wizzay, if you will. I’ve heard, though, that the ending is frustrating, which kind of sucks. Oh well, as long as the gameplay is good, I’ll be happy.

Since I have 4 days between my last exam and my fligh home, I’ve decided to spend a considerable portion of that time on the beach. Hah. The water is still a little cold this time of year, but it’s pretty hot. I think it was in the mid 80′s yesterday.

I’m also going to Pacakes on the Rocks today for lunch. They have the best pancakes I’ve ever had. They make all kinds of specialty pancakes. They’re really more like desserts than breakfast food. Anyway, it should be good.

The Rams are getting a lot of praise today for beating the Seahawks again. Sure, I’m happy that they beat the ‘Hawks, but I don’t think they deserve so much credit. Shaun Alexander had 176 rushing yards. That is pathetic defense. Yes, Seattle was stopped 6 times in the red zone, but I think that says more about their offense than the Rams defense.

I didn’t get to see this game, but it sounds like the Rams won because of sloppy play by Seattle not some miracle coaching by Mike Martz.

I’ve gotten this question a lot in the last week or two, so I’ll make it public here. I’ll still hear it some, but maybe that will satisfy at least some curiousity. I’ll be arriving in St. Louis at about 2 PM on Sunday.

The answer to the next question/statement is yes, we should get together and do something during the Thanksgiving break. See you then.

The answer to the third question is sort of, I have mixed emotions about coming home. You should be able to figure out why.

PS. I happened to notice that this is the 400th post. We should have a party. Harlow and Al should post again too. They hardly even get online anymore. I haven’t heard from either of them since I got here. You guys cut me deep. Just kidding.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I haven’t posted in a while.. Heh. What can I say? Halo 2 came out last Tuesday.

I’ve been playing that game a LOT over the last week. It’s consumed a lot of my time, and I just didn’t get on the computer very much over that time period.

I’m currently ranked somewhere in the top 1000 for Halo 2. Not necessarily impressive, but pretty good considering there have been some 100,000 people logged on since Tuesday. I mean, I’ll take it. I played with the guy who is currently ranked #2 and was #1 for a short time, and he *barely* beat me, though admittedly a loss is a loss. I was just happy with my performance. Also, I played with the guy who was ranked #6 and I beat him. Booyah.

Anyway, it’s time for some Physics homework. Now that I’m past my initial Halo 2 phase, I’ll be posting hopefully every day. Heh. Although there’ll definitely still be a lot of Halo 2 played.