I hate mornings...

Man I have trouble getting out of bed in the morning... Especially this morning... IT WAS SNOWING!! What crap! The weather teased me just enough with the 70 degree days and clear warm nights, that I am now upset at the 34 Degrees and SNOW this morning! In the fall when the weather calls for chance of snow I get way excited and it never snows. In the spring, on the other hand, the weather calls for a chance of snow, I think nah it is never right, and of course it snows.

In better news, I think everyone should see I (Heart) Huckabees. Now if you didn't like Adaptation, or Being John Malkovich, or The Royal Tenenbaums, ignore the last sentence. If you do like movies like that or have not seen them but like strange 'Mind benders' go see them all! Definitely all of these movies are in my top 5 (of course my top five includes about 25 movies...)

Beware the Dark Side of the Force: Even more now!

I just read a review of Episode III and basically confirmed everything that I have thought about this one.

Read it Here

First line of the review:
"'Revenge of the Sith' is, quite simply, fucking awesome."

I have a friend that promised to take me to the employee screening before release, but I have not talked to her much lately, hopefully I can still mooch that one!

Bushwood Poker Classic

I played in a poker tournament this weekend out at Dalton Ranch, a Members only (sortov) type Golf course. This place can be likened to Bushwood Country Club in Caddyshack. All of the main characters where there playing, even Rodney Dangefield! (Yea I know he is dead... it was just some guy that acted exactly like him!) Anyway it started out with about 24 people with a $25 buy in. Oh man, I'm addicted now... Playing Texas Holdem with a bunch of random people you don't know for 5 hours did not sound like too much fun to me. I was wrong! We started around 7:30-8:00 with three tables. I did my best to play by all the strategy rules I had been reading up on for the last week (when to play, when to raise, and so on...) I took off to an early table lead and, to my surprise, held on to it for awhile. Mike on the other hand, had to buy in again after an aggressive push for a large pot. An hour or so passes and a few Coors Light (man I'm glad I don't drink that stuff regularly, basically it is just really nasty water, but they were $1.50 so I couldn't complain) When we combined everyone to the two tables I lost my high stack status, but was still up there in the count. One by one people call all-in and lose, while I sit quietly in the corner seat. Before I know it I am sitting at the final table with the last 8 players (top 6 Pay out.) My goal for the evening was to make it there, and I did so I began to play a bit more aggressively for the remainder. 3 players got into a raising match and 2 called all in (I had folded out before the flop) huge pot on the line and the player that did not call all-in pulled off the Full house on the river and took a huge pot and knocked out 2 players! Suddenly I was in the money, Well $10 anyway, for sixth. The night played on and I just kept getting lousy cards, 27, 39, J2... For about an hour I never played a hand.. just kept tossing in my blinds and dwindling my stack down. In that hour though 3 more people went out, putting me in 3rd place ($75.) Finally I get a break and am dealt Pocket Kings. I call all in before the flop (I only had about $700 in chips and the min bet was up to $200 so I was pretty much all in if I wanted to play that hand anyway, but with pocket kings that was an easy call.) The flop comes and helps nobody, only one person calls my All-in. Another card... nothing, the river... an Ace... Turns out the guy had an AK and beat my pair of Kings with his pair of Aces. Ouch, Oh well, 3rd place out of 24 and I am walking out with more money than I came with, Ill call it an excellent night.

First place finished slightly after that, $465!! $155 for second that would have been fun to win! There is always next time.

There was a little 'Loser' cash only side game that started with al the people that were out, so we watched that for a bit before heading home. The Rodney Dangerfield character was there and very drunk so that was entertaining (and annoying, I could not believe some of the stuff I was hearing this old man say.) Anyway Mike and I left so we didn't see the conclusion to that game (it was almost 1AM), but apparently my friend Jared walked away with just over $800 from that game! That was bigger than the tournament prize! Way to go Jared!!

This just in!!! OXYGEN CAN LEAD TO HIGHER RISK OF DEATH!!

Stop breathing now!! Studies have shown that if you breath regularly you have a 100% chance of dying within the next cetury! So hold your breath, we will be back after this 14 min commercial break to discuss the benifits and problems associated with breathing with Dr Phil McGroin, the leading expert in the field.

Hot dogs may raise risk of pancreatic cancer

Is it just be or is anyone else a little tired of all this... My own studies have show that hotdogs and other processed meats taste pretty damn good! Basically what I am hearing here is that you had better stop eating hotdogs and processed meats because you are going to get cancer... (but keep Smoking.. we really need the money)

Geek T-Shirts Explained: And a Lesson in how Computers Work

OK, I've had a few people ask what the hell those shirts are about. So I will explain and add some geeky detail.

1: That is SQL Database query. Translated to English: Give me a list of users that have a clue: no entries found.

That one should have been easy.

2. 10 is the Binary representation of the decimal number 2.

Binary is the way computers represent numbers. Because a single bit in memory can only be in 2 states, on or off, There needed to be a way to represent decimal numbers in this fashion. One bit can only represent 0 or 1, two bits can represent 0-3, 3 0-7 4 0-15 and so on.

Example:
Decimal = (Binary)
0 = (0)
1 = (1)
2 = (10)
3 = (11)
4 = (100)
5 = (101)
6 = (110)
7 = (111)
8 = (1000)
9 = (1001)
10 = (1010)
15 = (1111)
16 = (10000)
128 = (10000000)
and so on.


3. #FF0000 is the Hexadecimal code for red in 24 bit color: #0000FF is Blue.

Hexadecimal is yet another way to count. It is based on 16 not 2 like binary and 10 like decimal.

Example:
Decimal = (Hex)
0 = (0)
1 = (1)
2 = (2)
3 = (3)
4 = (4)
5 = (5)
6 = (6)
7 = (7)
8 = (8)
9 = (9)
10 = (A)
11 = (B)
12 = (C)
13 = (D)
14 = (E)
15 = (F)
16 = (10)
17 = (11)
26 = (1A)
27 = (1B)
32 = (20)

Each digit in hex is 4 bits.

To represent colors on a screen you need a combination of red, green, and blue.

In a computer that is represented in by 24 bits 8 for red 8 for green and 8 for blue.
therefore because 8 bits can represent 256 different values you can have up to 256 X 256 X 256 or 16,777,216 different colors (modern systems add 8 more bits to represent transparency raising the total colors to roughly 4 trillion)

So in this example: (the # simply means this is a Hex number)
Red:
#FF0000 = FF(255)Red, 00(0) Green, and 00(0) Blue.

Blue:
#0000FF = 00(0)Red, 00(0) Green, and FF(255) Blue.

White: Essentially All colors Mixed
#FFFFFF

Black: The absence of color
#000000

The rest of the poem is a twist from geek culture. There was an old videogame called Zero Wing that when it was released in the US it was VERY poorly translated to English from Japanese. The line when the bad guys attack it "All Your Base are Belong to Us"

Here is a clip of the scene:

Geek T-Shirts

I just found some great T-Shirts @ www.thinkGeek.com

These are my favorites: (you may need to be a geek to understand)







Im pretty sure I need them...

Must go faster, Must go faster!!

Well Other than my mental state due to the previous post, I had a pretty decent weekend.

On Thursday (OK I know that is not the weekend) I saw Sin City, yet another one of those Love it or hate it movies. Personally I loved it and plan on seeing it a few more times (If I get the chance) because I need to catch up of a few of the plot points that I missed. I highly recommend seeing it. I normally don't like comic book adaptations but this was great.

I spent Saturday doing some necessary clothes shopping and some unnecessary "Feel Good" movie shopping. I totally geeked out with the movies though, I got The Fifth Element (Superbit Edition), Fight Club (this is the third time I've had to buy this move, I cant seem to keep it in my collection. I have the same problem with Magnolia), Jurassic Park, and Star Trek: First Contact (Gotta love the Enterprise-E). I have also recently discovered a great band called Jimmy Eat World, I have one of their CD's on my iPod for years and always love the songs when they come on (I always use random), but I never took the time to realize that all these great songs were from the same band! So I bought two more of their CD's as well. I will never buy actual CD's again though, $30 for two when I can buy them online and Download them for $20 (they just get put on my ipod and I lose the CD somewhere in my junk pile.)

Saturday Night the Abbey Theater was showing Caddyshack. A great movie to begin with, but combine it with a Free Beer included with the $5 ticket and a full bar instead of a concession stand, perfection in moviegoing experience. The whole crowd was into it, hollering and shouting and cheering throughout the movie! Great fun.

Sunday I finally got my bike put back together and went for a ride. It is great to be back on my bike, especially because the weather finally decided to cooperate and was excellent all weekend. Well that's it for now, time to eat some lunch (Mmmmm, Easy-Mac and Coke *Drool*)

Girls Suck...

I dont know how but a few of them have the ability to absolutly tear me apart. I cant speak around them, I say stupid things, I do stupid things, I feel stupid. The really sad thing is I know I am being stupid while I am doing it, which just makes me feel even more stupid. I just dont know how to deal with it. I tried last night and I really feel like crap right now because of it. I try to express the way I feel and it comes out all giberish. It really sucks.

Fire!!

As I am getting ready this morning I can hear a bunch of sirens coming near my house. I don't think much of it until I walk outside to get into my car. The brand new house right across the street is smoking. The house is in its final stages of constuction and actually looks really nice. Anyway my driveway is blocked by the fire hose and the other way out is blocked by the firetrucks themselves. So it looks like I am going to be a bit late to work this morning. It doesn't look like the fire got too far out of control and nobody was living there yet so nothing serious other than a nice brand new house with, I'm sure, a lot of fire and smoke damage to the walls inside.

I just got screwed

I've been using a credit card for awhile (I dont run a balance so I am not getting charged) that has points for use for anything for your car (minus Labor costs.) I have earned $425 in rewards. I was going to use them to pay for a grill guard fro my truck. Turns out that is not allowed, but you can use it for a down payment... So I said ok, Ill use it for that... Nope cant do that either you have 90 days from the date of purchase (which is written NOWHERE except on the form to redeem them, I have now gone back an re-read the terms to figure out where I went wrong)... That expired 6 days ago... So basically I'm screwed. My bad...

I can also use it for maintenance and repairs (but only for parts not for labor) and guess what! I have a full warranty for 6 years!! So I won't be doing that anytime soon!!!

I should have known... Too good to be true. The only reasons credit card companies exist is the screw the consumer, and they just got me.

Quote for today...

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." ~ Rich Cook

Why VERY INTELLIGENT Men Fail With Women

Why VERY INTELLIGENT Men Fail With Women

Im pretty sure I've said and done all of this.

This seems to be the reason why I dont have a date (at least that is what I am going to tell everybody). My friend Andy is in the same boat, just read a few of his posts and it fits.

Pants Party

Never trust the weatherman

On friday morning I checked the weather for Moab, Overcast, 40% chanch of thunderstorms, and high winds through the weekend. So of course I decide to go anyway (screw the weatherman.) Turns out that the wind died down to almost nothing the skies were still overcast and it was a bit colder than I would have liked but all in all the weather was great! The only precipitation was a few (2 or 3) snowflakes we saw on saturday and a little bit of rain after we were asleep on sat night.

I went to see my former college roomate Nate who now lives on a 35' sailboat on the Willamette river in Portland. He and his girlfriend decided to come down to Vegans and Moab for a bit of climbing so I went to meet then in Moab. It was great to see him again, it has been about a year and a half. I could not find any of my climbing gear for some reason so I didnt do any of that down there (the weather was not condusive to climbing anyway.) One thing we did do though is ride the Porcupine rim trail, definitely one of my favorite bike rides ever. My bike is not ready to ride yet for the summer and they flew to vegas so we all rented bikes. Well worth it, I miss riding my bike, I cant wait until mine is fixed and tuned for the season! The best part about the ride is that Nates girlfriend Suzanne Kicked his ass! She was keeping up with me the whole time and we left Nate in the dust! Thats too bad for him, I got to make fun of him the whole time for that!!

I took my Revo down to drive on the slickrock, man was that fun. Moab was purposly put on this planet just for kids like me to play in, it is just a huge playground! At the lower elevation that little truck had at least 25% more power, it was doing wheelies up every hill!

I didnt take any pictures but Nate did, so I should have some of those to post somethime in the near future.

Got home early sunday and Finally got all my chores done that I have been trying to do for multiple weeks now, cleaning the bathroom and laundry were the big ones I have been putting off.

The weather is great today, clear, sunny, warm, no wind, Just perfect! Too bad I am inside sitting in my little windowless cube all day!!

Sky WindPower Corporation

Sky WindPower Corporation

Now there's an Idea!!

There is alot of money out there for this guy to use to get this going too bad most of it is controlled by exactly the people who would not want this to work (Shell, Exxon, George W, ect...)

Goooooooooooooooogle

Quite simply one of the best companies in existence at the moment. They add something new almost every day, and it is always awesome and works! Today they just added satellite imagery to their maps page. Google Maps Not only was their maps interface the best looking, easiest to use and basically just the first one to actually do it right. Now you can find the location then view and actual image of it! I can even locate my car in the parking lot at work! Probably from over a year ago but still! I also can see my dads car in the driveway of my house back home! There was a satellite imagery thing I saw about 7 years ago but it was slow and clunky, but man, when Google does something they do it right!

Oh yea...
Gmail: the greatest thing to happen to email. Hands down (If you would like a Gmail account of your own please contact me and I will send you an invite.)

I wanted SOOO bad to buy stock in them when they went public... $85 - $180 within a month and it is still hovering at $189.50 (at the time of this posting.)

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda.

First weekend off... It was Great!

I finally had a whole two days off in a row, and they were beautiful days at that! Saturday, I spent the day really doing nothing. I drove my RC truck for awhile with my friend Kieth (he is the one that got me started in that unfortunate hobby). We went to a giant quarry with HUGE piles of dirt and gravel. We were jumping these things off the top if these 45-50Ft Piles and landing them 20 Ft from the bottom. 30Ft of freefall, and these little beasts suck it up like nothing!! Unfortunately, my engine was not running very well, Lots of stalling and very hard to start. It looks like the other day when I was out driving it with some friends (We were drinking at the time) I forgot to put the airfilter on the engine and because it was so dusty, a bunch of dust go into the engine and I lost a lot of compression (yet another reason to not drink and drive, Even RC cars.) So it looks like I will be ordering a new engine, or maybe a new piston an sleeve (but for another $30 I get a whole new engine so I think Ill do that).

When we finished that I went on an intense 8 Mile run, for some reason my right knee was really hurting during and when I got back. I think it is the new shoes I bought I've been on then 3 times and it has hurt a little each time, but never this bad. I spent the evening on the couch watching my latest movie purchase (Apollo 13, it was $14 at Wally-world(or China-mart, Wal-mart, Physical manifestation of pure evil, or whatever else you may call it in your area)).

Sunday, with my one hour of lost sleep due to DST, we (Mike, JD, Kristen and I) loaded up the truck @ 7 for closing day @ Telluride. Closing day is basically a big party on the whole mountain almost every local is in full costume and has a case of beer in their backpack and a can in hand at all times. So of course we participated in this. This is the only time I would ever consider drinking before the evening, but @ 9:30 putting on our gear, Grandpa (AKA Rumpelmintz 100 Proof) was getting passed around, that warms one up! The weather in the morning was OK, not cold but not sunny. We spent the first few warmup laps @ around 70Mph Flying down a freshly groomed run, just to get the blood flowing. Mike has got to be one of the best snowboarders I've ever skied with. He may not huck big cliffs or rip up the park, but he keeps up with the skiers, and not many snowboarders can do that. We decided to stop for lunch (AKA cocktail hour) a bit early due to the weather and enjoyed a great meal with some tasty beverages of varying alcohol content. We walked out of the bar, I mean restaurant, and all the clouds had disappeared and it had become a wonderful bluebird day! The views from the top of that mountain are incredible! Everyone must see it at some point.

Here is a panorama I posted in the fall: (you must click it to view its full splendor)


We stayed until they closed the lift, It is truly spring now, no more skiing (unless I want to hike, but I'm a wuss and my bike is just about ready to ride.) All in all it was a great winter, we are still 40% above average snowpack, I cant wait to see the river flood when the weather gets warm!

You owe me

Due to the increasing popularity of this weblog, and the limited amount of time have to work on it. I will now be charging a monthly fee of $2.99 in order to cover my time to write these articles.

This will take effect on in approximately one week as soon as I get the code finalized.

Im Back!!

Whew!! It is about time! I finally got my project checked in and have a few seconds to breath. I have had 2 days off in the last 3 1/2 weeks. I was here for a total of 13 hours yesterday, but Im done.. finally. I am going to go to bed tonight and not get up untill Sunday morning to go to Telluride for closing day. Sorry about the lack of posts lately but as you can see I have not had the time to do any. Ill get back into it very soon.