Cubs won again, this time versus the Brewers who are leading the NL central. They were losing the whole entire game until the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs when Aramis Ramirez hit a 3-run homerun to win the game. I was listening to Ron Santo announce the game at work and you could tell that the ball was hit really well because he screamed after the ball left the bat. Cubs and Brewers play again at 3pm today on Fox. Should be a good game.

I dropped a "travel bug" in a Geocache a few weeks ago. Travel bugs are dog tags which you attach to an item and give a 'mission'. When people visit the cache they take the travel bug and move it to another cache which corresponds to its mission (hopefully). A few days ago someone picked up the one I left and said he/she was taking it south. So I'm excited to see where it ends up. Check it out here.

Labels: cubs, geocaching

The Cubs are currently in a 6 game winning streak in which they have been hitting very well. The pitching has been pretty good too, except for a few games. The other night the Cubs let 5 or 6 runs score in the 9th inning. They blew a 5 run lead and then had to win the game in the bottom of the 9th on a Soriano 2-run single. It was pretty exciting though. It seems like this team is finally starting to get good, like they are supposed to be.

There really isn't much new with me. I've just been working and hanging out. I started riding my bike to work now, since it's not that far away. I'll probably do it every day now as long as it isn't really hot out or any chance of rain.

Cubs play the Brewers this weekend. It's a pretty important series since the Cubs can narrow the Brewers lead on the division. Also, both teams are really hot right now so the games should be fun to watch.

Labels: cubs, work

It was nice to have a long weekend, not that I really needed it or anything. It was nice to do stuff outside, watch movies, and that sort of thing. Went to a friends house Saturday to play some multiplayer Wii then spent some time outside on my bike and out on walking trails around Rochester.

I'd like to take my bike to a path near a river about an hour south of Rochester but I think I need to ride it a little bit more before I go long distances. This weekend I went out a few times and it was pretty fun but pretty exhausting. One of the times I ran into an older couple geocaching at a local park. I stopped to talk to them, since you don't see that every day. It was their first time and they were trying to figure out how to use their GPS. I'm not sure if they ended up finding anything or not.

Since I ran into other people geocaching, I thought it would be fun to do today. I went looking for three of them in the area. Two of them were from a park within walking distance and the other was a little further away but also in a really nice park. I actually couldn't find one of them but I'll try again some other time.

I'm watching the playoffs right now. The Jazz are losing by a little bit against the Spurs. I've only seen a few of the Jazz games this year, all playoff games. Deron Williams is really a great player. He's like John Stockton except scores more points. Although I think he does give up more turnovers and his defense isn't as good. But this is only his second year. It will be interesting to see how good he is in another two or three years. The announces constantly compare his passes to Carlos Boozer to Stockton to Malone passes. They run the pick and roll just as well as those two did.

The Cubs keep losing, no surprise there. Their team is really good except for their bullpen. I believe they are near the top of the NL in batting average but their bullpen has lost over 10 games for them already this season. They need to trade for some good relief pitchers. If it were up to me, I'd try and trade Matt Murton. He's really good and young so can probably fetch some decent pitchers. The Cubs have several good outfielders in the minor leagues so I think they could deal with losing one.

Labels: biking, cubs, geocaching, jazz

Well I'm all moved in to my new Apartment in Rochester. I'll post some pictures when I get around to making a page for them.

It was a really busy week last week. First my Dad and I packed everything in the U-Haul. This wasn't too bad except that the couch wouldn't fit back through the doors easily so we ended up taking them off. When we got to Green Bay, we had to unload everything to take the couch out, since I wasn't bringing it to Rochester, and put everything back in. Finally, we got to Rochester and had to take it to my apartment. Then we went to Ikea and a few other places to get some things that I needed. I was surprised that there aren't really any unencrypted wireless networks near my apartment. Because of that we had to live without Internet until Friday when the cable guy came. Finally, we went back to Green Bay for the weekend for a baseball game a Mother's Day.

As I mentioned, we went to a baseball game last Saturday. Hall of fame Cub Ryne Sandberg is the coach of the Peoria Chiefs and they were coming to Appleton to play the Timber Rattlers. Naturally, since my family is all Cubs fans we went to go see the team play and to see Ryne Sandberg. Of course, I forgot my camera and had to take pictures with my cell phone. I might post them, even though they are terrible. The Chiefs lost in true Cubs fashion, 11-1.

Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta started today. I had some spare time this morning before work so I downloaded it and tried played a game. It seems like it will be a pretty fun game when it comes out in September. Halo 2 was good but it didn't capture my attention like Halo 1 did. Maybe Halo 3 will do it again.

Labels: cubs, halo 3, rochester

The end of my junior year, that is. This is the last week of classes for this semester so I'll be free next week Thursday, after my last final. This semester really wasn't bad at all. It might be because I was only at school half of the year, but it really flew by. I think the work experience I had greatly helped me in school work. I seemed to plan out my assignments a lot better which resulted in better code.

I start work again in Rochester on May 14th. I'll move there the week before that to get settled in though. Todd, my parents, and I are also going to see former Cub and hall-of-famer Ryne Sandberg coach the Cubs minor league team, the Peoria Chiefs, play the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Obviously, we will be cheering for the Chiefs and I will be sporting Cubs apparel.

Speaking of the Cubs, they have been absolutely terrible in close games this year. They are last in the division right now at 7-12. The pitching has been pretty good, at least from Lilly, Hill, and Marquis. Wade Miller has been terrible and Zambrano hasn't been himself though. Hopefully that gets sorted out. Hill has been amazing though. He's 3-0 in 3 starts and has an ERA of .41, which is ridiculous. He's pitching tonight so you can bet I'll be watching.

I read a Cubs blog called The View From the Bleachers and they mentioned something I found very interesting the other day. Someone said that he's encouraged by the fact that Derrek Lee has not hit a homerun yet. I'll admit I've been kind of nervous that he hasn't, but he has been red hot in batting average. The point that the poster made was that this means that Derrek Lee is likely to get even hotter than he is now. Imagine a lineup with Derrek Lee hitting BETTER than he is now along with a also very good Ramirez and a Soriano who has to be getting hot soon as well. The Cubs will be able to score a TON of runs.

Anyway, back to Rochester. I'm excited to move back and start biking again. It's been really nice out and I've really wanted to get out on some trails. I'm planning on going at least 3 times a week for long rides. I also just purchased a bike rack for my car so I'll be able to drive to some trails I've never been to around the area.

Labels: biking, cubs, mtu, rochester

Saturday was Nothern Michigan University's Annual Invitational Programming Contest. I went for the first time and I have to say it was a lot of fun. A member of my team got sick and couldn't come so I ended up joining two of my friends who also were down a member. I think we did pretty well for it being the first time any of us had done something like this.

There were six problems to solve in five hours using one laptop and three group members. Basically, the group just makes a solution on the computer and then calls for a 'runner' in the hallway and gives them the files for the judge to test. Eventually, someone returns and gives you a piece of paper telling you if you got it right, if there were presentation errors, or if it was just incorrect all together. Each wrong submission added 20 minutes on to your final total time.

The teams at the end are ranked by how many problems they solved and then by how long it took them to solve each problem (in minutes) added together. No one solved two of the six problems which were very difficult to do in a short period of time. We ended up solving four and coming in 7th place / 24 overall because our time was longer than the six in front of us.

Check out the results here. I'm on the 7th place team, "Word Up". Michigan Tech won the overall school competition though.

I'll definitely do it again next year if I have the opportunity. It's a lot of fun.

The Cubs first game is tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing my laptop to school so I can watch part of the game between my classes. This season looks like it will be pretty good for the Cubs. I hope Prior figures out what's wrong with his pitching and is able to take the place of one of the starters that they are currently using. I'm not sure the two free agent pitchers they signed are as good as they are being paid.

Labels: cubs, mtu, nmu, programming

I always forget how good Hardee's is now until I go there and get a Thickburger. I love that place.

This week has been really busy and this next week will be even more busy. I have a computer networks project due tomorrow which I struggled through for 4 or 5 days. I need to re-educated myself on how to program in C++ before I try and use it again. There is also another programming assignment in another class due at the end of this upcoming week and some other assignments for my remaining classes.

Michigan Tech had a snow day last Friday! Apparently it's the first snow day in a long time. I don't know how long, but I've heard numbers from 8-20 years since the last one. I think they closed school because of the huge snow drifts. We had a ton of snow that day and then Saturday too. We're running out of places to put the snow when we shovel. We have this cool trench going to our cars from our door though. It's getting pretty tall.

I'm excited for Spring Break, which starts next Friday. We're going Skiing on the weekend, which should be fun. Then I'll also be working my normal hours and going to Rochester to find an apartment for the summer. It will be nice to have a break.

Baseball's Spring games have started and the Cubs haven't won a game yet, but they don't really play their starters the whole time anyway. The starting pitchers have done a pretty decent job thus far. I need to figure out how to get the right codecs on the computer at school so I can watch games when I'm sitting in the labs. Otherwise, I'll have to bring my laptop.

Anyway, back to work.

Labels: baseball, c++, cubs, hardees, mtu, snow

A lot has stuff has happened since my last update. I'll do my best to tell you the interesting stuff...

Probably the weirdest thing that happened recently involves my car. On the way home from school one day it stalled once. No big deal, right? I just started back up and went on my way. I figured maybe the really cold temperatures got to it. So a few days later I'm on my way home from school and it stalls 4 times in the 3 miles on the way back to my house. I make an appointment with the dealer and he finds something very unusual. Nothing mechanical was the problem, but the problem was most likely SOFTWARE. Yes, SOFTWARE. Unbelievable. He showed me the description of the update for my car. It fixed some stalling problems and fixed the instantaneous gas mileage reading to be more accurate. Since then, haven't had any problem with it. Crazy stuff.

I'm really excited for baseball to start. I've already purchased my subscription to MLB.TV so I can watch and listen to all the spring training and regular season games. I think this could be their year, as long as the offense stays productive and the pitching stays healthy. Prior is actually participating in spring training this year which he hasn't done the past few years because of injuries and Kerry Wood is throwing in preparation for his new role as a relief pitcher. It's starting to sound good.

I tried out Windows Vista a few times this past month. The CS department at school gives us a free copy of business, which I installed on my laptop but it was too slow for my tastes. My laptop just doesn't have enough memory for it. I then installed Vista Home Premium on my desktop and it runs great. I'm really impressed by it. Some say that the prompts for allowing or canceling something are irritating, but they rarely come up so I don't find it annoying.

Winter carnival was kind of a let down this year. The lack of snow and dangerously cold temperatures in the final statue nights made the statues a lot less detailed than they normally are. It was still fun though. My parents came up as well as Ashley and some of her friends. I took pictures and I'll get them up eventually.

I've become obsessed with skiing lately. I'm taking intermediate and advanced skiing classes this semester and this year they try and get you to take the lessons instead of just showing up and getting your name checked off. I'm really glad they are doing this, I've learned a TON. This past week I think I finally realized how to do the technique for short turns and I'm really happy about it. I'm probably going to take the ski racing class next year since I need more P.E. credits. In the advanced class he had us go down the race course just so we knew what it was like, and it's really fun.

That's all for now.

Labels: car, cubs, mtu, skiing, vista, winter carnival

Now that the Packers are done for the season I'm getting really excited for baseball season. The Cubs are vastly improved this season after adding Soriano and a bunch of other players. Rumor has it that they are up for sale and they are trying to maximize the value that they'd get for the club, but I hope it's just because they want to finally not suck.

My parents got me a brick from Wrigley Field for Christmas, I thought it was pretty cool. I'm assuming it used to be in the outfield area and was taken down after they added more bleacher seats last year. My dad made a stand for it too, it's pretty cool.

I'm disappointed that no one is making a realistic full-featured baseball game for the Wii. The Wii Sports baseball is really fun but imagine playing full games like that with real teams and players. The new baseball games seem to only be on the other consoles. Maybe I'll be forced to get it for XBox 360 instead.

The first week of school was interesting. It's different being off campus now. It's probably actually more productive for me since I have a lot of time between classes. I usually end up reading stuff for other classes in the computer lab. I think Computer Networks and possibly Programming Languages will be my favorite classes. The Computer Networks book is pretty interesting.

Skiing twice a week is pretty fun too though. The whole ski hill isn't open yet, but it's still been fun. Unfortunately, one of the times I have to go skiing is during The Office and Grey's Anatomy. I'll probably end up recording it every week and watching it when I get back.

Labels: baseball, cubs, school, skiing, the office, wii