Episode III ticket is in-hand!!

This is the week of graduations; congrats to Matt & Ruthie who are graduating this week. It was a long journey for both of them. Matt’s off to Jacksonville for Residency and Ruthie’s sticking around here to work for NASA–I so proud of both of them 🙂 My bro graduates in August–soon enough, I suppose. One long summer semester.

It’s been a really nice end of the weekend. There was a good bit of rain around here yesterday, but it subsided fairly quickly and manifested itself into a bright and sunny Sunday. I was going to go riding yesterday, but the rain got in the way. Perhaps I will tomorrow.

My brother’s home from Chicago today. He spent a week there visiting cohorts and continuing his attempts to get a job at WGN Radio. Unfortunately, the Cubs weren’t there while he was. Ironically enough, his flight there and home went through D.C., and the Cubbies were playing the Nationals. He didn’t have any time to stop by for a hot dog, though.

I’m downloading a WWI mod to Battlefield 1942 called Battlefield 1918. It should be interesting. Of all mods to that game, though, nothing beats Desert Combat; there’s just something awesome about piloting an Apache.

I got the 1st season of Enterprise in the mail yesterday and swung by the office at the apartment to pick it up today. Despite its cancellation, it really turned out to be a great series; like every Star Trek before it, the show didn’t really fire up until 3rd season. Unfortunately, I think prevailing politics at UPN in conjunction with failing ratings took it down. If it’s the end of Trek, it’s alright–it’s had a good run. There must have been something redeeming about Star Trek, if it’s gone 700 episodes ever since The Cage.

I’ve had mixed feelings about the Enterprise finale. It was an Enterprise episode in the context of a TNG episode. I think in many ways, it detracts from what this series was; the discovery of what’s out there. Everything in this series was supposed to be viewed through the eyes of relative n00bs in interstellar space. I think that, while the show strayed beyond this much of the time, it should have ended in that context–that, and I think they should have shown Archer’s frakking speech during the Federation Charter signing 😛

Even with its demise, there’s still plenty of Sci-Fi out there. SG-1 will probably go a season or two more, and there’s Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. I think that Sci-Fi on network television may be seeing its last days, though. Sci-Fi has a very core audience, which is certainly smaller than most other types of programming. Network television seems to excel at sitcoms and, more recently, reality television. In the end, this seems to be the developing niche for network television. Everything beyond, I think, will end up on the cable networks.

Episode III comes out this week!! Some friends of mine and my bro are going to go on Wednesday night at 12:01. This is going to be frelling awesome. I’m going to take a nap pretty much from the time I get home to about 10, I guess. I’ve been spoiled by the script, but I still can’t wait to see it all go down.

So this week was pretty interesting.

On Monday, I got the bike.. The Trek 6500. Front-suspension, v-brakes, very kewl shifters (one for up and one for down on each side). It was a very nice ride right-off. They fitted me on a 21.5″ bike which was pretty funny because the first time I got on it, it felt like I was getting on a horse.

On Wednesday, Ruthie and I went riding on a path down Old Madison Pike. I had been on the trail a few times before, but only walking. This time, on a bike, the path seemed much shorter–even given that it was extended fairly recently. It was also my third time on the bike. The path begins at the Pike and ends at a subdivision. The road into the subdivision is inclined–I’m guessing about 20%, but that’s just a number I’m pulling out of my arse. On some egging from Ruthie, I decided to go up the hill and shoot back down it. I just barely got to the top of the hill without getting off the bike. After a moment’s respite at the top, I began the trek downward. I began pedaling, just to gain a bit more momentum. Before I knew it, it felt like the rear of the bike exploded on me.. I was still coasting downhill, but I noticed when I pedaled, there was no resistance. After getting halfway down the hill, I finally got off the bike to find the derailleur sheared away from the frame. I really don’t know what happened, but it looked like the chain was toast. Perhaps the assembly (or the chain) took a hit–either that, or I don’t know my own strength 😉

Anyhoo, I took the bike in Thursday and it was ready Friday. That was definitely a hugely uber awesome thing, because I figured it might’ve been out of commission for a week or something. I took the bike out again yesterday morning with Chris on the same trail with more happy results.

I started a new MMORPG this week called Guild Wars. It’s a very awesome game, and it might even persuade me to ditch World of Warcraft. I know of a few people playing, so I could go either solo or party if I wanted to–it looks like this game could be good in either case. Your powers, spells and items aren’t given to you based on level, but based on merit–if you have enough gold, then you can have the same weapons as a level 1 as you do as a level 20. Training is the name of this game, and level is only a secondary means of gauging a player’s abilities. Level 20 is the max level, but that is the point where the game presumably really begins–everything up to that point is basically playing on training wheels 🙂

And the best part is that this MMO is free–after you buy it for $50, of course; no montly fees whatsoever. I think that alone can get a bunch of my RPG buds to switch, not to mention the awesomeness of gameplay.

Right now I’m chillin’ at the parents’. My brother and I got mom some Begonias yesterday for Mother’s Day. She seems to like them, but I hope that rabbits don’t start munching on them. We saw the Cubbies finally break a 7 game losing streak. Poor Cubbies. Something tells me it’s going to be another tough year for them. Watching The Phantom Menace at the moment.. Episode III is right around the corner *wipes the geek drool*

And, yes, I’m glaring at you stupid tractor-driving rednecks who insist on driving tractors with max speeds of 20mph on 55mph roads in the frickin midst of morning rush hour traffic 😛

I was watchin the Cubbies duke it out with the Astros today. When I last looked, it was 8-3 in the 5th. Prior had given up a grand slam and a 3 run homer off of 2 walks. It was not very nice at all. Bleh.

Friday night, I went to see Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with a buncha buds. I really enjoyed it. Martin Freeman did a very awesome rendition of Arthur Dent, and Alan Rickman did an unforgettable Marvin. It was definitely a great beginning to the Summer of Geek 🙂

Saturday I did a little LANing. Like every LAN, it actually turned out to be a whole lot of LANing. We gamed from noon to about 10pm. We played a whole bunch of Desert Combat, which is a game I haven’t played in a while. It’s a mod to Battlefield 1942 which includes weapons & vehicles from the modern day era. My favorite vehicle, by far, is the Apache.

So, sometime this week I’m finally going to get that bike. I’m definitely going to get the Trek 6500. More than likely, I think I will get the one with V-Brakes instead of disc. The best part about that is the bike has mounting holes for disc brakes, should I choose to change that later.

A good bunch of my buds have been gone for the week, so LJ has been relatively quiet. You guys better have some damn good stories to post when you get back 🙂

It’s definitely a really beautiful day. It’s 67 right now, and I think it got in the 70s somewhere for the high. It’s been nothing but sunny. I hope the rest of the week is as awesomely kewl.

I’m starting to formulate the plot for a new story. I haven’t really written since high school, so this’ll be interesting. When I finish, I’ll more than likely post it on my website.

This has been a really superly awesome weekend.

Friday, there was the rehearsal for Matt & Missy’s wedding. It was really quite simple; basically, we did a couple of run-throughs for the main event. It wasn’t all that bad at all, in comparison to the last wedding rehearsal I was in at age 5; that rehearsal seemed to drag on and on and on and.. Bleh. Time tends to drag when you’re a bored 5 year old kid 🙂 Anyhoo, dinner was at a very fancy Huntsville resturaunt called Luciano. I had a ribeye that was quite spiffy, indeed. Their medium rare was pretty much my idea of rare, but it was still quite good. As long as they don’t cook chicken that way, I’d be quite fine with it.

And, Saturday came the afforementioned main event. It was a very awesome and beautiful ceremony. It went pretty much without a hitch. Matt was 15 minutes late in arriving, but it turned out to be a fashionably late kinda thing 🙂 It was a mixed Catholic/Baptist wedding, so it wasn’t a Mass; it was just like a Mass, for the most part, sans the Eucharist. Also, when we said the Lord’s Prayer, it seemed as though the Baptists had a few extra lines in it at the end.

The reception was pretty awesome, as well. Matt had a Simpsons groom cake. I danced a little at the end, but other than that I mostly chilled with his brother Jake, his friend Will, Liz and Josh. Ryan Cantor and Brittney Piertzak were also there; I haven’t seen them since high school. There were four of us non-married chaps there to try to catch the garter; Jake, Will, me and someone else. It was the someone else that caught the garter–the rest of us really didn’t put up much of a fight 🙂

It was definitely an awesome weekend.

Oh, I wish I could be in Rome for this..

One month until Episode III.

It’s almost like when ROTK came out; you’re losing an occasional annually visiting friend or something–instead of every year, though, it’s every three. In that nerdy sort of way, of course. Mainly, I guess now I’m just seeing the movie for the FX and the score, both of which I think, will be quite amazing–it would have to be after a frickin year-and-a-half of post-production *hangs on by a thread to nerdy little hopes*

It’s been really uber nice around here. The last 3 or 4 days have been in the 70s. I think we have shaken off the mild winter for warmer days. Bah, in the end I think we skipped over winter altogether.

I played some poker over the weekend at mwshook‘s bachelor party, and won around $200–of course this was all in chips, so it was merely a simulated game 🙂 Still, being the first time through, that was pretty damn awesome. I haven’t played poker, really, since high school. And, if that was for anything, it was pennies.. We played some Cincinnati, Cleveland (variation on Cinci), Spit in the Ocean, Texas Hold ‘Em, and some draw/stud. It was a nice little party; I really didn’t know anyone there, but it was a really friendly group. Anyhoo, Matt gets married this weekend. w00t!

I think I’ve discovered that if I get 7 or 8 hours instead of 6 or 7 in sleep, I’m much happier. Maybe I should give up my night owl ways, as fun as they are. Of course, that’d mean *GASP* less World of Warcraft time. Oh, no!

Thank you, Slashdot. You have given me whole minutes of hysterical laughter on an otherwise bland afternoon.

An Automatic Computer Science Paper Generator

If only I had thought of this when I was an undergrad; not only would I have had smashing and entertaining technical papers, but I would’ve had an awesome senior project 🙂