TJ checked out his room on the ResNet thing, where I found my room number for school, and he has the same room as me. I'm glad, I would not want to be surprised with a different roommate when I got the official form assignment.

Today was pretty much spent looking at cameras, going to stores, and wasting time. As many of you know, my digital camera is getting pretty old and slow. Oh yea, it's also about two times the size of most new cameras. I think the camera has been decent over the 6 or 7 years we've had it but it cannot compare with the speed of the newer cameras. I think I've decided I'd like a new one so I can actually carry it around (when we go interesting places) and get use out of it in college - I'll probably have to tap into some saved up money from work though. It should be worth it as the camera will probably last me a long time.

Right now I'm thinking of getting the Canon Powershot S1 1S camera. After experiencing a 3x opitcal zoom I've decided that it isn't really enough to take pictures of objects that are further away. This 10x zoom should do the trick provided the "image stabilizer" works (according to reviews it does work). Even with my current camera and a telephoto lens I experience a ton of blurry pictures if I move at all. From what I've seen, the image stabilizer will fix that fairly well. The camera also has a swivel LCD screen which I am very fond of. The Nikon camera I have now allows me point the lens in a different direction than the LCD screen and I really enjoy it. This camera allows basically the same thing but in a much smaller size. Finally, I also like the fact that this Canon camera uses compact flash memory and normal AA batteries. I hate proprietary memory like xD or memory stick and I also hate proprietary battery packs.

Basically the rest of the day I spent doing things with my family and playing games. One thing I've noticed is that ABC brought Drew Carey back with new episodes! Drew Carey has always been one of my favorite shows and I'm glad to see it back. While watching I also saw an ad for Who's Line is it Anyway? which is also coming back to ABC. It looks like ABC is trying to get people to watch their dying network by using Drew Carey in multiple shows.

The Cubs lost a close game today but they are still pretty close to first place. They play the Astros again tomorrow with Prior pitching - it looks like it will be another good game. It's on at 1:30 CST on WGN is anyone cares (which you probably don't).

I tried the old D-Link router last night to see if it has everything I want/need for school and I ran into numerous problems. First of all, I can't access the administration panel for the router. That wouldn't be all that bad I guess if it assigned IPs like it is supposed to. But no, it doesn't do that either. Even when I changed my computer to pick its IP it didn't work at all. Basically, the router is shot and I have no idea why. This again proves that D-Link makes the worst products out of all the networking companies. This is the third networking thing we have bought and had either fail or just not work at all.

I began my search for a new wired router last night too. I was really interested in a Netgear router so I ended up finding this router which looks like it's their only non-wireless router. I'd like to buy a wireless/wired router but I don't really want to be accused of running a wireless network at school, even if I turn the wireless function off. I also took a look at Linksys routers but their main wired router was $60 pretty much everywhere. Because I'm so impatient when it comes to buying things I decided to buy it. There's a rebate on it (until tomorrow) so it ends up being at a pretty decent price. Hopefully this one doesn't fail too.

Today has been okay so far. We've been washing window screens, cutting the lawn, and other stuff around the house. It's getting pretty hot out though even if it is only 80 something.

Earlier I registered my computer for the Internet Access at MTU and I realized they had a status section that showed a spot for a dorm and a room number. When I filled it out the space was empty but I checked again today and it had my information. According to this I'll be in the dorm I wanted and on the third floor, which sucks but I wasn't expecting any better than that. I just have to check with TJ and make sure he has the same assignment. I dont really feel like rooming with someone I haven't contacted right when I get there. I also need to check out my router today. I said I would in an earlier post but I never got around to it.

After a pretty busy morning, it looks like I have nothing planned for the rest of the day. We took the Pontiac to the dealer and picked up the dog from the kennel early on this morning. Only about 2 hours after we got the car there we got a call saying it was ready. I thought the recall took an hour and a half to install, but I guess not. Oh yea - the recall was something in the ignition that stopped the car from starting on fire if you turned the key to start the car and kept it there for several minutes. I don't know what kind of idiot does something like that but I guess someone did or else they wouldn't be recalling it.

We also took a look at the cars at the dealer. Sometime in the future, maybe Junior or Senior year I want to buy a car so I thought I'd look around and check prices. If I'm still up at MTU I'd probably need an all wheel drive or four wheel drive car but they are so much more expensive than cars like the Grand Am or Sunfire. Pontaic's Vibe is really the only car that seems to be reasonably cheap with all wheel drive. I guess it doesn't really matter right now anyway, prices will change in the next few years.

I don't understand Cerulean Studios at all. They have Trillian, a great messenger, and they NEVER update it with any new features. They always release patches for security holes or connection changes but they never release anything that changes how it functions. I recently tried the "main" Yahoo! client and it is pretty cool. It's just too bad that Trillian doesn't update their client as much as Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ, and MSN do.

I'm back from Chicago now. It was pretty boring - not that many people I really like to talk to. The hotel was pretty nice and according to my parents, pretty cheap as well. It offered free high-speed Internet so I was online for a little while when we were just sitting in our room. It was REALLY slow in the morning, I don't even know how they can call it high-speed.

Today we went around Chicago looking for college stuff while my mom was with my Grandma at church. We ended up going to a bunch of stores: Office Max, Circuit City, and "The Container Store". I ended up getting a few things like a laundry bag at that store. We were mainly looking for the TI-89 Titanium edition calculator because Green Bay stores don't really have it out yet. It wasn't at any of the stores I listed but we ran into a Best Buy accidentally and went in and they had one of them left. The calculator is really weird compared to the TI-83+ though. When you turn it on it goes right to a menu instead of just a calculator prompt. You can change it, which I did, but it was very much different than the other calculators. I guess these calculators can do a lot more but I'm going to have to read the book on it.

Tomorrow we have to take the Pontiac to the dealership for a few things. We're leaving it there for an oil change, recall part, and a new muffler bracket. The muffler bracket just randomly decided to break so hopefully it will stay on until we get there. It has probably been like that for a while so I'm sure it will.

Well the Jazz screwed up that pick I was just talking about, the 7'5" guy. They traded him for a future first round draft pick from the Mavericks. I don't know what they were thinking. The Mavericks have an outstanding team now and are after Shaq too. If they get him they will be very good for the next few years at least. Their first round picks are most likely going to be at the end of the first round. So basically the Jazz just gave away their pick for no reason.

I won't be home this weekend because we are going to Chicago for my Grandma and Great Aunt's birthday party (they are both 90 now). We'll be there until Sunday night, but I have no idea what time we are getting back. I may be online occasionally because our hotel is supposed to have free high-speed Internet, which is pretty cool. I'm planning on bringing my laptop down so I can use that if they have it installed yet.

After debating about it for a while and receiving another e-mail from MTU, I've decided I am probably going to bring a router to school. I don't really care that much but I just don't really want to use up another plug since we are going to have very few of them. If I bring the router it will be much easier though, so I'll probably bring it. Now I have to decide to bring my older crap router or to buy a newer one. I guess when I get back this weekend I'll try out the older one and see if it has the options I want/need it to have.

The Jazz got some decent players in the draft today. One of them is a 7'5" center from Russia! The guy is gigantic. Hopefully he can play a lot so the Jazz don't have to use Ostertag. All Ostertag does now is complain.

MTU e-mailed me back and said I could connect my XBox to the Internet with a router as long as I registered the router's MAC address and not the computer's. I thought that was against the rules but I guess not. There's a feature on the XBox that allows you to alter the MAC address to I e-mailed back asking if I could use that instead. I really don't feel like taking up another plug in my dorm because I need a router.

Oh, and the NBA Draft is actually free. I don't know what I was reading when I found that wasn't on ESPN because it is on ESPN later tonight. Watch it!

According to an e-mail I received back from Simon Malls, none of their cards can be used for online purchases that require a billing address. The lady in the mall where I bought my card sure had me fooled. Oh, and Yahoo? They sent me an e-mail telling me they only except credit cards and debit cards. Yea, thanks Yahoo!, I already know that. Obviously they can charge my card since they charged it $3, so I e-mailed back asking for a refund of the charges. I'm sure I'll be able to use the card in seven months, but it just bothers me that I'm stuck with the card instead of cash.

I've been looking at MTU's ResNet website for any information about using a game console online but I haven't been able to find any. I sent an e-mail off asking if it was allowed and how. If they aren't allowed then I'm going to be very annoyed when I get Halo 2 in the mail and can't play online. I'm assuming the school can just add the XBox ethernet address to my account though.

I decided to tall the support service for the mall gift card about buying stuff online. Some foriegn sounding guy answered the phone and told me that the cards purchased in the mall aren't personalized and can't be used online while the cards bought online can be used online. He said I could probably return the card to the mall and get a refund or get them to send me a personalized card. Little does he know Yahoo! already charged the card so I'm thinking I'm stuck with it. Whatever, I'll figure it out later.

The Cubs lost in a very entertaining game. The 6th inning took forever as the Cubs scored 6 and the Cardinals scored 3 (I think). They were leading 9-6 and the Cardinals came back to win late in the game with a final score of 10-6. Hopefully they can win one tomorrow.

Today has been pretty boring so far. I woke up with a headache and I've felt a little "loopy" most of the day. I went to the mall and Target earlier to browse. Target's website has the TI-89 Titanium calculator (the one I'm looking at for college) but their store didn't have it. Amazon and some other sites have it so I may just end up buying it online. It doesn't really matter, I have a long time to get it.

At the mall I took a look at those Simon Mall debit cards. I've been thinking about getting one so I could buy things online without my parent's credit card. Well the lady at the service desk told me she knows a lot of people who come by and buy them just to shop online so I figured they must work online. I got home and tried setting up a Yahoo! Wallet account and realized the billing address of the credit card is not the same as my home address. I tried anyway and got an error telling me the zip code has to match that of the billing address of the card. Next I tried the mall's address and I got the same error. I e-mailed Yahoo! and Simon Malls asking what in the world I'm supposed to do so hopefully they actually e-mail back. After trying to find information on that problem for about an hour I decided to look up my balance on the card. Well Yahoo! charged me $1 each time I tried to setup the card. Yes, EACH time. So now my $25 card is worth $22. Normally websites charge the $1 when you set it up and then give it back when you buy something, so that better be the case in this event. No matter what happens, I'm still pissed at the lady in the mall. "Oh yea, a lot of our customers buy these to make online purchases!" - yea, sure lady. Next time actually know what your talking about instead of making up crap. So now I have $22 of money that expires in a year. Hell of a deal if you ask me!

In other news, the Cubs are playing tonight. They beat the Cardinals last night and are only one game behind first place now. It's going to be on ESPN so everyone better watch it. I didn't get to see the game last night because it wasn't on TV in Green Bay but I watched the live updates that CBS Sportsline offers. Also, the NBA draft it tomorrow and of course it's on "NBA TV" so you have to pay to see it. We paid for the NBA League Pass channels last season and I can't believe they want us to pay even more for one more channel. The NFL Draft is free, why isn't the NBA Draft?

I'll post more on the gift card thing later. My money is on either both of the companies not responding to me, or at least one of them not responding.

I just got my Michigan Tech. orientation book today and there's some pretty good information in it. I guess you have to be "approved" to use their high speed Internet connection and that process can take up to two weeks. It's pretty obvious I love the Internet and I think I'd die without it for that long at school. They have a URL to sign up early though, so I'll be doing that soon. We also have to read Frankenstein before we get there because there will be discussion groups that we have to participate in. I'm just hoping the book isn't hard to read.

The Charlotte Bobcats expansion draft is today and I wish I could watch it. Some pretty good players are expected to be taken. The Jazz didn't protect their first round draft pick last year so he's up for grabs. He's not that good, but really young so he could be good in a year or two. According to ESPN the Jazz are working out some deal with Charlotte and maybe other teams so that they can get the pick they want in this year's NBA draft.

Well I think we're cleaning the window screens today so I should probably go find out about that.

So far this week has been pretty boring. After a pretty uneventful morning I basically just sat around the rest of the day. There wasn't even a Cubs game to watch on TV! Later on in the night I went over to Steve's and he had a fire going. No one really showed up so we ended up playing co-op Halo.

I've been playing multiplayer Propeller Arena a lot with my brother lately and I have to admit that I'm addicted to the style of gameplay. I never really like arcade-ish style games on home consoles, but this game is still pretty good. It's just really fun to dodge buildings while you are being chased or chasing your friend in an all-out dog fight. Too bad online play doesn't work.

Guess that's all for now. It's getting harder to write in this -- or maybe I'm just tired.

Well Wal-Mart still hasn't called. If I don't end up with a job there, I don't know if I'll be getting one this summer. I'd love to have a job right now so Summer would go faster. I really am excited about college and learning more in computer science - as nerdy as that sounds. Plus, when college starts there will only be about three months until Halo 2 is released.

I was talking with the manager of the local Gamestop today about Dreamcast and older games. We talked about Propeller Arena and how it wasn't released becasue of 9/11. Surprisingly the game is actually pretty good, at least the bit I have played of it. I'm kinda surprised they just didn't take out the city level and release the game.

So now I'm back for the day and I'm already bored. I guess I could work on a layout for this thing, but I'm too lazy. I saw that Blogger wants you to use "Atom" or some weird crap-news feed instead of RSS. They offer a URL to a RSS addon, so maybe I'll get that on here soon for all the nerds who want to read this blog.

Anyway, I think I'll go try some more of Propeller Arena - maybe more posts later.

As some of you may know, I hate coding in CSS with a passion. I constantly see it not working right and it is really hard to follow if you didn't actually write the code. I was trying to create a new table on the sidebar (a green one, not white table) but got irritated after realizing I had no idea what each table was named in this template. I guess the way I have it will have to do for now.

I've added links to my websites, Orkut (maybe other sites later), and some of my friend's blogs on the side. Since probably only friends are going to read this it doesn't really matter anyway.

I guess I could start out by telling what I did yesterday, eventhough it wasn't interesting. After sitting around pretty much the whole day I remembered Chad's graduation party. I went over there for the rest of the night and didn't do too much. Talked with Jackie for a while and then watched TV in the basement.

I expected Wal-Mart to call on Friday - according to some of the people I know there, they are always hiring. They probably won't call on the weekend so hopefully I'll get a call Monday.

As you probably noticed, I picked a template from Blogger for this blog. I don't really like picking templates instead of doing my own design, so I'll probably get started on a design sometime soon. I still have to redesign Connection Network and figure out what exactly to do with it, so I have my hands full I guess.

After using Orkut for a few days I've noticed how similar Blogger's new profiling system is to Orkut. If they combined the two services then I could definately see Blogger and Google going very far. Anyway, if you want to join Orkut please let me know in an e-mail or comment. I feel like a loser because I only have four "friends" on it and everyone else has many more.

In other news, I'm getting addicted to 16-bit era games after working more and more on my newest site, Void Online. Everything was so crisp on those consoles compared to some newer games. I've been looking for a while at possibly doing/getting two things. One is creating or buying a small and weak computer with a TV-out plug. With this I could make a box for the TV with Genesis, SNES, and other consoles games on it. The thing about this is I already have some Dreamcast emulators to help me do this. The second thing I'm thinking of getting is the Sega CDX. Honestly, I have no idea why I want it. We already have a Genesis and Sega CD so we don't need it at all.

I guess that's all for now. Leave a comment or something.

Obviously I didn't use the blog when I published the previous post. I've decided I'll start posting occasionally and see where that takes me. I'm a nerd so I'll probably put a lot of stuff I'm doing with my sites and/or computers. That should help me get going on writing.