Saturday, November 27, 2004

I finally played Halo in Cooperative Mode. I know I'm a little late in my review, but this has got to be the game of the year.

Monday, November 22, 2004

It did turn out that barebonekit sent the wrong motherboard. They were out of stock and claim the one they sent me was an upgrade. I'm hoping I'll finally install the new hardware over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

I also got the new website up and running. I'm still using Blogger, but masking the domain with echomoche.com. A cheap service for buying domains and hosting is GoDaddy.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Today was the first day in a long time I didn't have any commitments. So instead of sleeping late and playing video games, I woke up early and had to do chores. It was a scene from some bad sitcom. I guess it felt good to get some work in around the house. But just think of all the ancient aritifacts that went into the wrong hands because Indiana Jones wasn't there to stop it.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

I had two silent auctions to go to tonight. If I get everything I bid on (by "I" I mean my wife), it'll be around $300. But I guess they're for a good cause.

I received my new motherboard, processor, and RAM from barebonekit. I think they sent me the wrong mobo, as these sites generally are known for. And as convenient as ever, their site isn't working and they sent no packing slip. So, I guess a call is in order. Hopefully they have a phone number somewhere, and that it's working. I would like to upgrade as soon as possible.

Friday, November 19, 2004

I went to a black belt test tonight, probably the one I would have participated in if I went to class consistently. After seeing some of them perform, I'd rather be a red belt for the next 5 years than test when I'm not ready. I know that to get better you have to try new things and make yourself get to the next stage, but I would personally rather get excellent at something before moving on. In any case, watching the black belt candidates has motivated me to try harder and prepare better.

Now to stick with that plan...

Thursday, November 18, 2004

I finally beat Secret Weapons Over Normandy. In general, very good game for historical reference, very poor ending. The game stopped have way through WWII! Maybe there will be a sequel, which I doubt I'll even download.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Not having a boss and no projects at work is a very dangerous combination. It's amazing what you can learn on the internet.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

I'm bad ... I skipped karate to watch movies.

I always thought it was difficult to get a gmail account, but I was wrong. I set up echomoche@gmail.com today ... now to get that my website up.

Monday, November 15, 2004

I looked on my calendar, and tonight was the only night in the next couple weeks that I don't have anything scheduled. As much as it hurt, I had to pull myself from the Xbox to do some house chores.

I started reading another vampire book. I got hooked on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles a while ago. I found another series by Michael Romkey. So far it's not as good as Rice's.

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted (my goal is every day). The wife was out of town for several days, which pretty much means I was in a foggy haze during waking hours.

We had a karate tournament today. It was a very long day, but quite fun. I was in team form, which we got first place. I also got first in fighting for men's red belt.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I got sucked into a 6 hour marathon of Spiderman 2, and this was after work. I'm taking Friday off of work. It's a shame there are only 24 hours in a day, because I'm sure I'll be playing it all day.

Tuesday, November 9, 2004

We practiced for the karate tournament coming up on Sunday. This is the first time I've particpated in team form, which is a creative form comprised of parts of standardized forms and "fight scenes" with four people. I didn't think it would turn out as well as it is. It should be a fun time.

Monday, November 8, 2004

I've got the base installation of netinstall of Debian. The netinstall will install the bare minimum of the operating system and then download the rest. The unfortunate thing is that I can't get networking to work on the laptop. It doesn't help that I'm trying to do this wirelessly. It also doesn't help that I don't know much about Linux, either.

Sunday, November 7, 2004

There's got to be a better invention for cleaning gutters. I'm sure my neighbors are thinking the same thing as they watch me hanging over the eaves with a 35' inevitable fall in store for me.

I went to see Dave Mordall and Kathleen Madigan tonight. They were on Last Comic Standing. It was frickin' hilarious. I wish I could remember some of their funnier bits to post.

Saturday, November 6, 2004

During study season, I create piles of paper that I need to sort out later. Things like bills, financials, etc. I was shredding a lot of paper today, including PIN's and account numbers, which got me to thinking. I know my PIN for various accounts, since I use them frequently, but what if I forgot one day. Then I thought of the longest string of digits that I have memorized. I came up with 16 from credit cards ... although I do have pi out to about 200 digits.

Friday, November 5, 2004

Ahh ... the joy of no commitment. I left work a bit early and then stayed up pretty late playing Mafia and Spiderman 2 on Xbox. Everyones got to have a time wasting hobby, right? Some people shop, or garden, or watch sports. Mine (right now anyway) is video games.

Thursday, November 4, 2004

I have Mandrake installed on my "play" laptop. It's a good distro to explore linux, but I wanted something more. So I tried to install Debian and I think I'm in way over my head ... but what else am I going to do?

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Not studying sure feels good. Since it's slow at work, I've been doing some personal finance at work and home. I've really neglected it for the past few years, mainly retirement. It may sound odd, but I really like playing around with the numbers ... anything but studying.

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

I voted today, which I normally don't do unless coerced. More importantly, I rediscovered Craigslist and spent way to much work time looking around.

Monday, November 1, 2004

I got the first three movies in the mail from Blockbuster. It seems that there is a local distribution center, so hopefully future turnaround will be quick. I also stopped by a friends to pick up DVD X Copy. I might need to invest in more hard drives...

Sunday, October 31, 2004

No posts in the past few days, I must be having a good time. I have many projects to do now that I don't have to study, but I spent my first free moments not doing them.

Sunday night is movie night. Not to say I don't watch movies other times, but it's mandatory on Sunday. Tonight was Scarface. I was ashamed to say that I have never seen that movie, and that it took me this long to see it, but now I have. What a great film.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

I got absolutely no work done today. It felt good.

I noticed that Netflix decreased their monthly price to $17.99 and figured it was time to join the revolution. I quickly checked Blockbusters mail subscription ($17.49 plus two in-store rentals), which is what I went with. I did find NumberSlate intriging, though. Maybe I'll check it out once I give Blockbuster a try.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

I can't tell you how relieved I am to have the test over. I think I passed, but don't want to jinx it. So now that the test is over, I have to make up for lost time. Hopefully, I will have a few more interesting things to say than before. In any case, my brain is still mush ... not only from taking the test, but from enjoying a few too many brews as well.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Brain too full ...

Monday, October 25, 2004

I have thousands of pages memorized and less than 10 hours left to study before my test on Wednesday. My prediction is that by Wednesday night I won't be able to remember my name.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Ho hum, another day of studying. Although someone brought in a Razor scooter to work, which led to some interesting study breaks. Fortunately, the weekend security guards didn't have one and couldn't catch us.

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Well, the Karate test is over. I'm sore, bruised, and beaten. Did I mention bruised ... and sore? It was definitely a test to remember. I did the best I could under the pressure and circumstances. Now onto the next test. Unfortunately, the next one is graded on a curve, so I have to perform better than others. Anyway, I'm way too tired to continue tonight.

Friday, October 22, 2004

I won't bore you with the details of my night, because there are many. Just kidding, there is one detail and it's called study. I am anxious for my tests to be done. In about 12 hours the Karate test starts and 106 for the actuarial ... but who's counting.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

I worked out for about 2 hours cramming for the Karate test on Saturday. It's going to be interesting to say the least.

Also, my boss came back from a weeks vacation, which means I'm going to have to learn PHP on my own time now.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Much of the same today. I’ve started studying in the exam room because I heard there was an article that claimed those who studied in the same room as the exam room (or one that looked the same) versus those who did not, scored much higher. It had something to do with making the room comfortable and less stressful during the exam, or associating things in the room with answers.

I think it’s because the students taped the answers under the table, or coded the answers on the table and walls.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Karate test is this Saturday and actuarial exam is the following Wednesday. Oddly, I'm not nervous for either ... yet. It is down to cramming time, which I think I've got experience in.

The wireless network is almost back to normal. I've got all computers up and running, except for my laptop, which is running linux. I do like these kinds of problems though. If only I didn't have to study, I could devote all my efforts to learning linux ... which I guess is studying anyway.

Monday, October 18, 2004

I can't believe I missed each post during the weekend. It actually went by fast, which is usually the case the last two weeks before an exam. I spend months studying wanting the test to come, but then the last two weeks I wish I had more time.

Friday, October 15, 2004

It's Friday and that means ... study time! My life is grand.

Well, I got at least one computer to find the wireless network, and it happens to be the one that started this whole thing. It turns out that the configured laptop IP was not in sync with what the router was expecting. And when I tried to manually reset the router, it got confused. Anyway, after connecting to the router via old fashion cat5, the wireless seems to be working... although my linuxbox can't connect after enabling WEP.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

I didn’t get to post last night due to network problems. I tried to connect a new laptop with built in wireless. At one point I had my wireless laptop and the new one next to each, with mine working. After some random clicks, neither could connect. In fact, our desktop computer wouldn’t connect, which is also wireless. I’m going to have to try rebooting the router and see what happens next.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Don’t you hate when products try to become too smart or have too many functions in an attempt to make you life more convenient? I see this mostly in Microsoft products. For example, VBA has been pretty much steady since version 5, but there are features that are so complex and have to be set up just right for everything to work. Sometimes I’m guilty of this as well. When I build an application, I assume the user is a complete idiot, and that I must code a feature to automate every conceivable possibility. But when I use an application like that, I tend to do a lot of manual overriding to get the result I’m looking for. Well, I noticed this with the copy machine at work. It probably costs about as much as my car, but it takes more work trying to figure it out than just using the crappy one right next to it. In fact, I modded the new one to be nothing more than a common stapler and a paper clip holder.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Today is a good day. If you don't know, I have two Maxima's and I've been trying to sell the crapier one for about three months. Well, I met the kid, got the cash, paid off the loan, and watched him drive away in it.

I did have to ask him for a ride back to work, perhaps I should have thought that through a little more.

Monday, October 11, 2004

I noticed that when your boss takes the day off, not only does his work not get done, but mine doesn't either. I spent the first half learning how to code in Blogger, the second half messing up the blog, and the third half catching up on the internet.

I also learned a new trick in Access. You use a Crosstab query to build a "spreadsheet" view. But if your data is similar to a Crosstab and you need to do a "reverse" Crosstab, you can use a simple Union query. I guess you had to be there.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Refer to previous post for today's activities, less the working out. Perhaps this blog project wasn't such a good idea. It documents how anti-adventerous my life is. Hopefully I'm saving up my energy for after my exam...

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Ahhh, another great day. I worked out, studied, and watched a movie. Will it never end?

Friday, October 08, 2004

I don't think I'll ever understand the opposite sex. I probably shouldn't go into details in case the opposite sex stumbles across this blog. Suffice it to say, I've reconfirmed my attitude towards big picture thinking. You shouldn't get worked up about trivial or, more importantly, inferences. In the end, it just doesn't matter.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

I found out today that my boss and his boss are leaving the department. This of course leads to many questions; what is the reporting structure, where do our projects come from, will there really be nobody checking up on me, what web sites aren't blocked for me to surf all day.

But for now, I must sleep. I worked out for 3 hours tonight and am already sore. At least it's Friday tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Went to a local bar tonight, which definitely qualifies as "not studying". A friend, who decided to join the military, came in from out of town. Worthy cause as I see it. And to top it off, I saw a frickin' MONKEY walking around the lake! A picture would have made this a much better post.

So, how do you prepare for many important events, knowing there isn't enough time to do so? I guess you have three options.

1. Do all of them at the minimum requirements
2. Do your best at some, failing at others
3. Go into berserk mode like Wolverine and take no prisoners

I just keep telling myself it's only til the end of October.

October is usually a stressful month. I've been taking actuarial exams for several years now. There are nine of them, starting out with basic college courses and ending with advanced actuarial concepts. I'm sitting for Exam 6 now, which is at the end of October. Also, I've been practicing Soo Bahk Do for a few years. There are 10 belts before black belt, and I have two more to go. I have a test for the next at the end of October. Needless to say, I've been studying for both pretty hard...

Although, I did manage to find an undisclosed amount of hours to pass Red Dead Revolver this weekend.

Ah, the first post. Like most of my projects, I never know what's going to happen until I begin. So, here is the beginning.