Shouzer

I was looking forward to this Sunday.  I really was.  All of those 7-8 teams in the NFC vying for the last playoff spot meant tons of drama today.  Instead, the whole thing was decided last night when the Giants beat the Redskins.  I’m not at all pleased that the Giants got the spot, but I’m really upset that it was decided on Saturday night instead of on Sunday afternoon.  It would have been much better if all the games were going on at once so that all of the games would at least seem to have significance.  These Thursday and Saturday night games need to stop.

I just got back from a short vacation to San Diego, which is a gorgeous city.  It reminded me of Sydney in a very good way.  Balboa Park is a must see if you ever get out there.  They have lots of museums with beautiful old architecture.  The weather there was great, but I guess it was pretty nice in southern Illinois as well.

We also got bumped up to first class for one of the flights due to an airline screw-up.  All I can say is wow, that is the way to fly.  The seats are much more comfortable, and the service is tops.  I never looked into the prices before that flight, but I did so after that wonderful flight.  I only looked at one flight, but it cost about 10x as much.  I guess I won’t be doing that again unless the airline screws up again.  One can only hope.

I just read over this list of the 2006 “Bill of Wrongs”. It’s basically a list of the things the US did in 2006 that were outright illegal and generally ignored people’s supposedly inalienable rights. Once I hit #6, I honestly figured it couldn’t get much worse. But then it turns out that once in my life I underestimated our asshole in chief. I just don’t think you can find many things like this from other presidents. What’s the most ridiculous, though, is that even with Bush’s exceedingly low approval rating and the Dems just taking over Congress, another Republican will probably be voted into office in a couple years. You’d think everyone would learn.

San Diego has a pretty sweet theme song for their football team, The Super Chargers. (Or is it Superchargers). Anyway, it’s a pretty awesome disco rock song that you should check out. It’ll take all of 2 minutes.

In other news, I lost my first game in the eliminator tournament today. I won the tournament, because I was the last one to avoid a loss, but I wanted to go 17-0. Number 1 no more.

Well, I’m home again now, but this week has been pretty crazy.  On Tuesday, my roommate and I gave a presentation on Controller Area Networks for professional development credit.  All of the ECE majors must go to 9 of these things before they can graduate, and the department has been pretty slack on providing opportunities.  Speaking of that, I forgot to get my form stamped.  I should make a note in my calendar….  Anyway, if anyone wants my thrilling power point presentation on CAN, I’d be happy to post it.  I figured no one would care, so I didn’t bother.  The presentation went well, except this one jerk kept asking questions to try to trip us up.

Wednesday and Thursday I was up in Chicago for more interviews.  Those are always fun.  I’m about ready for all of that action to be over, even though I am grateful to have the interviews.  It would suck to have none, that’s for sure.

I finished up my first project in robotics today too.  It was a line following robot, and mine did decently.  I didn’t have any time to refine it because of the aforementioned business.  Plus, I was out of town 3 days last week.  Anyway, I was just glad that it worked at all.  I didn’t get to test it, so hopefully I’ll at least get a B.

We’re heading up to North Dakota today to visit some family over Christmas.  It’s pretty long drive, but it’s always nice to see everybody, so it’s really no big deal.  The major downside to is pretty much the difference in weather between here and there.  Sure it’s cold here, but it’s a hell of a lot colder up in North Dakota.

When I think about it, it’s really amazing what technology has done for us.  Seriously, before everybody had cars, I really doubt anybody would have been planning week-long trips to somewhere that’s like 1000 miles away, especially in the middle of winter.  For the most part, too, you don’t even have to worry about the cold when you’re in the car, because you should have working heat.  It’s great.

And it feels pretty great, to be honest.  I just finished up a nice game of NBA 2k7 (Kyle, I finally bought my own copy, hehe), and I figured I’d get on here and post.  We always tend to slack off over breaks, but that’s not a trend that I’ve ever liked..

I went to a Borders for the first time yesterday, and right off the bad I like Barnes & Noble more.  Sure, they don’t have the same selection of DVDs and the like, but what they do have is much, much more organized, from what I saw.  I was looking through Borders’ DVD section, and it was a giant waste of my time.  I couldn’t find anything I was looking for, because it was all over the place.  It’s a good thing I did my real shopping online.  That way I can just type in the name of whatever I’m looking for, and boom..  There it is, ready for checkout.

I finished up my finals yesterday, and today I’m starting out my break by going up to Chicago for a Bears game.  It seems like a pretty good way to start out my break, I’d say.  In addition, when we looked at the weather up there a few days ago, it was supposed to rain.  Today, though, they’re only listing a 10% chance of rain, and it’s not supposed to be that cold.  Nice.

As I mentioned before, I had a final on Tuesday and then nothing until Saturday.  Well today’s Friday, and that means it’s time to study.  It’s surprisingly hard to get myself to study after I’ve had to day to just sit around and decompress.  I could really go without it.  I’ve taken a couple finals before without studying for them, but this one is 40% of my grade, and I know I need to study.  Ah well, I’ve got an insane grade in the class, so I really shouldn’t need to worry that much.

my last final was horrible. its a good thing the class is curved because i estimate my score on it to be in the low-to-mid 50s. on top of that, i just got a letter in the mail from Macy’s who declined to give me a job offer. this was the place where i felt i interviewed the best and was also the one place i really wanted to get an offer from.

Ahhh, finally a little time away from studying.  I’ve been studying quite a bit since Thursday for all these crazy finals I’ve had.  I’ve gotten 4 of the 5 out of the way now, though, and my last one isn’t until Saturday.  Anybody who knows me knows that I’m gonna be taking the next few days off to just sit around.  It feels so good.

Of the finals I’ve had, only one really kicked my ass.  I had my CS 433 final this afternoon, and it was pretty crazy.  Based on the way the midterm went, though, I figure everybody had the same problem, so it’ll end up getting curved quite a bit.  I got about a 79 on the midterm, and that ended up being an A or so.  I can’t complain too much about that, I suppose.

The NHL all stars are decided entirely by the fans via online voting. This year, there is grassroots movement on the internet to get a no-name player into the all star game. Check out a you tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsUcUDWUO3o.

Also, check out http://www.voteforrory.com/ to learn more about the movement and to learn how to vote for Rory. Go vote now. Do something special. You know you want to.

If you’ve known me for the past year, you know that I frequent a little site called SlickDeals way more than I should. While I have reached unhealthy levels of messageboard reading, I have gained new and creative ways to shop. Never again will I pay MSRP for an item. Let me give you an example.

There’s this Christmas present I’ve been wanting to buy for Ashley and its MSRP is $350. That’s a load because if you check any of the major retailers (Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Depot, Staples, Amazon, Buy.com, Target, Wal-Mart), you’ll find that half of them have it listed at $300 on a weekly basis. There’s the first trap you could fall into: not shopping around. So 300. That’s still too much for me. Check the online retailers. Amazon, Buy.com, and a few other specialty stores. Find 275 here and there. Nope. Try Pricegrabber.com and Froogle.com (they need to become your friends). Find a real nice price at 254.99. Do I purchase? Of course not? I’d be leaving some savings on the table. Go to Staples.com, home of the 110% price match. That means if you find a price that is lower than their, they’ll drop their price and give you 10% extra of the difference between the two. For an added bonus, I check eBay for coupons. Sure enough, there’s a $30 off $150 coupon for $3. Get that. Call 18003STAPLE. Talk to a CSR. Will you price match? Yes, but I have to include the overnight shipping price ($16) in the lower total. Bull. Hang up. Call again. Will you price match? Yes, I will. The new lady only needs to include 2 day shipping ($2). That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Ok, do the PM. Add the coupon. Call it a day. So that MSRP of $350 got shaved to a slender $236 with just a little work.

Online shopping really is where it’s at.

Quite possibly the single greatest innovation that is a direct result of the internet is online shopping. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if you can still call it shopping. Somebody might want to check that. Every time I go shopping, my feet end up hurting from standing around all day. Shopping online results in little more than the lower half of my body going to sleep as I sit for hours at my computer.

I’ve almost finished getting gifts for everybody on my “list”, and I barely moved. There’s really only one word for that–glorious. I suppose fantastic or amazing would work just as well. So there’s about three words. Just the same, it’s great. Oh, there’s four.

Anyhow, I’ve lost focus. Not only is my hand the only thing moving when I order online, but the stuff gets delivered to my doorstep. I don’t even have to walk to a register. It’s just here. They usually give me a tracking number and everything so that I know when when it should be here. Everything should be that easy

To top off the whole experience, I could have been in nothing but my underwear; my skivvies, if you will. Oh sure, I was fully clothed this time, but what about next time? Or the time after that? It’s hard to tell. It might be something to keep in mind when you’re unwrapping my gifts.

A few things here. First of all, I like Dave Melillo six track album “Talk Is Cheap” quite a bit. I have to admit it’s a little frustrating that he’s three years younger than me, but I guess I should get used to that. I’m over the hill, haha.

Second on the agenda is The Shins. One of my buddies sent me a link to their new single Phantom Limb. Check it out if you’ve got a chance. I liked the song quite a bit, so I’m probably going to have to grab some of their old albums. Give it a listen if you’ve got a chance.

Now on to games. I’m a gamer, and that’s all there is to it. I love playing games. I’ve been playing Kyle’s copy of NBA 2K7 for 360 recently, and it’s great. I started a franchise with the Jazz, who I guess are more or less my NBA team now. They’ve got a couple players from the Illini of a couple years ago, and that makes them the only team I care about.

I’m also about 30 hours or so into Final Fantasy XII. I haven’t beaten it yet, but in my opinion it’s the best FF game so far. They’ve added a few new game mechanisms and have made it a fully 3d game, which is nice. If you’ve got a PS2 (or, in my case, your roommate does), I’d recommend picking it up (or, in my case, letting your roommate buy it and then play it when he’s not).