Finding Neverland Review:

Last night Taylor, Chris, and myself went to a sneak preview of the movie Finding Neverland. So, I figured I'd write a review in case someone curious about the movie came here by way of google.

Before I get into a review, let me say that I won't be giving any spoilers in the review, so read without fear of having the movie's plot details ruined. However, I will be talking about the general plot... as in what the movie is about. So, if you're the type that likes to know nothing going into a movie, I suggest you move along.

Johnny Depp plays James Barrie, the Scottish author of the play Peter Pan. The movie follows the story of Barrie's relationship with 4 children and their mother, and how their relationship influenced his writing Peter Pan.

Johnny Depp was excellent in the movie. He played the part so well that when his character spoke of neverland, or played some imaginative game, I almost felt that Johnny Depp believed in neverland. I guess this is the way movies are supposed to be. Audiences are supposed to lose sight of the actor's identity and identify them with only the character. However, this rarely happens throughout a whole movie. In Finding Neverland, my thoughts never wandered to reality. With everyone playing their characters so well, I never had time to think... this person is a bad actor, or Johnny Depp has an accent. It was so natural that you just think... James Barrie... neverland, peter pan...

The kids in the film were also great. They were all believable, and interacted well with each other, and one child imparticular worked well with Depp. It's extremely hard to find a group of kids in a movie that all play their roles so well.

Apart from the acting, I thought the idea of the movie was well thought out. The plot wasn't too fanciful, didn't drag at any point, and had a good mix of comedy and drama. I guess this should be expected since the movie script was adapted from a play. Regardless, I was impressed.

I think the movie comes out November 12th. It's worth seeing. If you want more information, or other people's opinions on the movie, go to www.rottentomatoes.com compilation of multiple critics opinions on the movie.

The trick to getting the shell off a hard boiled egg.

Today, I learned the trick to peeling hard boiled eggs without ruining the white of the egg.

You tap it on a hard surface, making sure to tap hard enough to just crack the shell of egg. Repeat this on all areas of the egg until it is cracked all over. Pinch a small area at the top or bottom of the egg, and pull gently back. The shell will start to peel off without scarring, ripping, or splitting the white. Pinch any other pieces that remain around the piece of shell you just removed, and they should also come off with ease. Doing all this under running water will help... or at least it did for me.

I didn't think there would be any kind of trick to peeling the shell off, but it turns out it's trickier than one would think.

Acrobat Reader 6.0 (and 6.0.1) freeze and other performance problems

My parents home office computer has had all kinds of problems with their ability to read PDF files for about 6 months now.

The last time I was in town, before I left my Dad mentioned that Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0.1 was having problems getting past the splash screen. He said it would load the splash screen, then freeze, and you'd have to kill it manually to get it to go away. So, in an attempt to fix the problem I did the first thing you should always do when a program is being nasty. I cried like a baby. Shortly after that, I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it to see if it was a setting that had been changed, or some kind of freak incident. Well, that didn't do it and I didn't have time to look at the problem in more detail.

So, today I sat down once again to fix it. I installed and uninstalled it... no good. It still hung up on the splash screen and would use about 89% of the cpu consistently until I ended the task with CTRL-ALT-DEL. So, I did the risky thing, and went into "regedit" and deleted any registry entries that I thought might be related to adobe. It was a longshot, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I looked around online a bit and found that some other people had fixed similar problems by deleting temporary files from their C:\Documents and Settings\(Username)\Local Settings\Temp\ directory. It turns out that Adobe, for some reason, created all these temp files... maybe for every PDF file that has been viewed... who knows. Deleting all these files, numbering in the thousands, alleviated the problem.

Windows Explorer locked up on me when I tried to delete all of them, so I went old school on the problem and loaded up the command prompt. I did this by going to the start menu, select run, and type "cmd" in the box and hit enter. After this, I navigated to the directory listed above with "cd C:\Documents and Settings\(your username here)\Local Settings\Temp\" and hit enter. The command I used was "del *.tmp". This just deleted all the files that ended with .tmp. As soon as I did this, the program started up with no problems.

Lastly, I found a method for decreasing the load time dramatically. You can find instructions here. It worked well for me, and I hope it works well for anyone else who stumbles across this page. Note that in the article it says that using this method will disable the ability of acrobat to read encrypted PDF files. However, in all my days of reading PDF's, I don't think I've had need to read one of those. Also, I think it may have stunted my ability to update acrobat... but you can just switch the folder names back, and update... I switched the folders back, tried to update again, and it updated as it was supposed to.

Auction Intelligence

I need to look into this auction intelligence thing. It's a free trial, so what could it hurt?

I really just wanna see historical data for toys around christmas. Maybe they'll have it.

Ryan Moats Video

Johnny sent me a link to this video earlier today. It's Ryan Moats talking about his football career, why he chose tech, and various other topics.

For anyone who doesn't know who Ryan Moats is, he's the running back for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football team.

McDonald's is good.

No, McDonald's is not good, it's great. Not the food, but the service, and believe me... the service makes all the difference in how a fast food restaurant performs.

Why is it that McDonald's can have such good service, while other fast food restaurants here in Ruston can have such terrible service?

I don't like their food, so I don't go there much, but every now and then I go through the drive-thru with Katie.

You pull up to a window right off the bat. There's none of this talking to a big menu. You get to talk to another human being without having to yell, or repeat orders over and over.

After dealing with the first person, who is always friendly by the way, you pull to the second window. Here, you pay. You don't have to sign anything, and you don't have to wait for anyone to fix a drink, yell to other employees or answer the phone. You just give them money, or your card, and that's all there is to it. Once again, you get a "Thank you and have a nice day"... and a sincere sounding one at that.

Lastly, you pull up to the third window, where another person has your food ready for you. If the food isn't already hanging out the window, you've got no more than a 30 second wait in your near future. It's the way fast food was designed to work. "Thank you and have a nice day" again!? Outrageous. Courteous.

The people at Burger King act like I'm imposing on them by daring to order a combo meal. I feel like I've interrupted their social hour at burger king when I go. They smile and laugh when talking to other employees, then turn around and snatch the money from you like you didn't deserve to have it in the first place.

Wendy's here in town runs out of burger meat, fries and chicken nuggets at least once a month.

The fast food places here in town need to take note of the way McDonald's employees act, and the way their system works. If you don't have employees that will be courteous... get different employees. If you don't have a manager that can manage inventory properly, get another one. If you can't do either, shut down.

Today's Tests

Physics was pretty tough... but I did my best on the test. We'll see if it's enough to get me through to diploma time at the end of the quarter.

Discrete went pretty well. I was able to answer all the questions without much trouble, including the bonus. However, the teacher sometimes has a problem with the way I explain some of my proofs. I went back after I finished and rewrote some of them in a way that he might be able to understand better.

I hope to get a B on the test, and an A would be absolutely great.

Test day of horror.

In a surprise twist, my two most difficult classes scheduled their second tests to be on the same day.

This day is tomorrow, and I'm nervous.

Physics is, of course, giving me trouble. If I don't make the grade tomorrow, I'll consider dropping the class and staying an extra quarter. However, I've tried to prepare for the test so that won't happen. Let's hope I prepared the right way.

Discrete is looking much better, as I've got a firm hold on the concepts. It's just translating those concepts into some different form, depending on the test question. I think I'll make it out of this class.

Cross your fingers, your toes, and your eyes... I'm in for a short day tomorrow, after a few long ones spent studying this garbage.

Football Sunday

This weekend Sami came into Ruston to watch some football with us. We planned to grill some burgers, and porkchops.

We ended up watching the first game that was shown locally, Jacksonville Jags vs. The Indy Colts. It turned out to be a great game, though I think we all really wanted Indy to get the win.

The post game entertainment was provided by Sami and Taylor who continued their everlasting argument on whether animals can reason. Everyone ended up being dragged into the fight, and Taylor was the only one who tried to defend the position that animals can reason... because he is the master of opposition. If he hadn't tried to quote sources that came from places like the Animal Liberation Front, or any other group that values the lives of animals above those of humans... he might have had a fighting chance.

It was just like the good old days. Sami yelling his points at Taylor, and Taylor getting red in the face in his replies, and ultimately ending up no closer to the truth than where we initially started. Ahhh... those were the good old early years of college.

After the great debate of October, the other games on didn't really interest anyone, so Taylor and Sami headed into a battle of the video game egos. Sami has been making the claim for some time that he can beat Taylor at any EA sports game, and the time came for him to back up his claim. Of course, they had a great time playing, and probably more so arguing with each other about what they were "trying" to do on the previous play. The game went into four overtimes, and Sami ended up winning because he missed a 2 point conversion, which Sami did not when his turn came around.

We went to get some food at Subway, and had a good time, as is the norm when it's the four of us... The major conversation piece these days is Sami's arranged marriage. He's been talking to a girl in Jordan, and if everything continues as it's going now, he'll be going over there to propose in the near future. It's really interesting to everyone, how things work in different cultures. Coming from American families, we don't have any experience with these kinds of things.

Lastly, to cap off the night, we took some pictures so Sami could have some pictures to send to his prospective bride, and so we could have some to remember the weekend too. We did a lot of stupid stuff in the pics, but most of them turned out alright.

Here are a few of the pics.

Dear Canon

Dear Canon,

I would appreciate it very much if you were to send me a Canon S1 IS. The camera is just what I need, and I feel that we would complement each other well. I'll write a big article on how wonderful the canon S1 IS is. I'll even give you my trusty Nikon Coolpix 775.
You see, you are a large corporation with deep pockets, and I am a simple college student with pockets so small that adding a single gnat's hair would stuff them to capacity. Doing a good deed such as this would bring publicity... and karma... and a company can never have to much of either.

For Your Consideration,

Jojometal

Emotion Eric

On this site, Eric displays a different emotion in each picture he displays. Send in your favorite emotion for Eric to enact.

My favorite so far is Taking Candy From a Baby.

Top Ten Songs I'm Currently Infatuated With

1. Elton John - Funeral For a Friend
2. Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin
3. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Life By The Drop
4. Metallica - Hero Of The Day
5. Cold - Suffocate
6. Metallica - Ecstasy of Gold (S&M)
7. Matchbox Twenty - Long Day
8. Stevie Wonder - Fingertips (Part 2?)
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y-Control
10. Mase - Breathe, Stretch, Shake

Naps in the NFL

David Fleming wrote an article about how the current group of NFL players all take naps frequently to improve their performance. It's a good read, and quite funny to boot.

I enjoy my frequent naps... and will curse the day when I'm no longer able to take a quick 3 hour nap to refresh my body and mind.

Site06.com

This is the most amazing site design I've ever seen. That's not just exaggeration. The whole concept of the site navigation is great, and the concept works very well.

Have a look.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

I really enjoyed watching a clip from a recent episode of crossfire. Jon Stewart, the host of the Daily Show on comedy central, appeared on the show to promote his book... sort of.

The interview started fairly well, but drifted when Stewart started to interject his opinions on how shows like crossfire are hurting the american public. They pose as shows committed to openly debating the issues important to society and government, but they end up only being ego driven shouting matches with nothing ever resolved. Stewart kept pressing this issue, and Tucker Carlson, the young kid with the bow tie that hosts crossfire, kept prodding Stewart to be funny, and making comments about how he seemed like more fun on his own show.

Well, the result of these two snipping at each other ended with Stewart's quick wit making Tucker Carlson look like a fool.

Since reading the transcript and watching the video, I've come across a lot of blogs and sites that fault stewart for hiding behind his show being on comedy central. A good deal of the comments I've read pertaining to the issue say that Stewart is a hypocrite, because he is soft on politicians, and because he's also partisan.

My answer to that issue is simply that he is on the Daily Show... a comedy show about politics on comedy central... and this is exactly the way he defended himself. Yet, some people say he's hiding behind the fact that his show is on a comedy network, and that his show is a comedy show. That's entirely the point... people don't watch his show to get their information about politics or current events (though sadly I've read that a lot of young people may be starting to do just that). People watch to be entertained, and that's how the show is marketed... that's the difference in essence.

The daily show does not take itself seriously, and does not expect anyone else to do so. However, shows like Crossfire, and Hannity and Colmes make themselves out to be open forums for discussion of the issues. Most of the time, though, the shows are just there for entertainment also. People watch the shows to see Sean Hannity yell at a college kid, or cut off a disgruntled guests mic. They are not there for any purpose other than to provide drama to the people who want to see it... and maybe have someone yell their viewpoints louder than they're able to.

My last comment on the matter is also related to this point. I read another comment that said that it's not the fault of CNN, or any other network for that matter, for putting garbage like this show on TV. It's what the people want, so they have to do so. Of course, you have to give the people what they want. Sometimes though, you have to give people what is better for the viewers, an open discussion presenting more than two sides of an issue (idealistic, I know). You can't just let the public dictate your programming... if the public wants something that's unhealthy for whatever reason, you may have to abstain.

Today's Embarassing Event

As I've mentioned here before on the blog, I'm a Senior Computer Science Major in my last quarter of school. In order to get out of here I have to take Discrete Math this quarter, and it's been somewhat difficult so far. The only other bit of information necessary for understanding this story is that I missed class last wednesday, of a class that only meets mondays and wednesdays.

I showed up to class today and saw my professor bent over the desk at the front of the class, rifling through a big stack of papers. I take a quick look around the class and see that everyone has their desks cleared, or are in the process of clearing their desk. These are the first two signs of my impending doom. The teacher says "Unless a large amount of people show up soon, I think we'll have enough for everyone".

I think to myself "Oh boy, this isn't good, I think there may be a test.",but when I hear "Please grade us easily on this", I knew my assumption was right. This statement came from the girl who sits in front of me, who says this before every test and in every mention of the test by the professor. So, I panic... the teacher rescheduled the test while I was sick, and I haven't studied at all. CRAP. Making a spur of the moment decision, I leave the room before the professor can hand out the tests.

I get back to the house thinking that I'm gonna have to graduate a quarter late because I missed one stupid class, and because I slacked off that day. I talk to Taylor about how I should approach the problem. I talk to Sami about it. Every resource at my disposal was consulted.

Ultimately, I decided I'd go see him after class and ask for a make-up test, or for the comprehensive final to be counted twice. After all, the material would be tested and graded, so what would it hurt? This is a student talking here though... most teachers don't see things so logically.

Waiting that hour and a half was probably the most gut wrenching activity I've had to endure while in college. I knew, I just KNEW, that this guy was gonna tell me, "Well, it states clearly on the syllabus that if you miss an exam for any reason, without an excused absence, you will get a zero on that exam." Lemme tell ya, today was not a good day for the ol' nerves.

I mustered up the nerve to get in the truck and take the trip back to campus to find out whether I'd graduate this quarter or in the SPRING (they only offer this course twice a year).

When I got to the building, the professor was still in the classroom, answering questions that the students had after the test. So, I waited outside for about 15 minutes, trying to plan my best strategy for evoking compassion. Should I cry? Should I get on my knees and wrap myself around his leg until he agrees to a make-up exam? No, I'll tell him the truth, and he'll understand that I'll have to postpone graduation by 6 months and spend thousands more dollars to complete one course. After all, students in trouble always find consolation in the fact that our professors are "human"... most of them.

He came out of the classroom, and I just walked up to him and told him I had a few questions regarding the test today. To which he says, "Test today?".
"Yeah, the test today. I missed it."
"There was no test today. We moved the test, but we moved it back a day to next Wednesday"
"But, I showed up to class today and you were getting ready to hand out these papers, and I heard a girl ask you to grade them easily."
"Well, I'm sorry, but you just misunderstood."

An enormous weight lifted off my shoulders, and all I could do was smile. I'd made a huge fool of myself in talking to the professor and admitting that I ran out of class at the first signs of a test. However, I'd rather have my diploma than my dignity. Now, I can get back to just worrying about passing physics 2.

My Fair Lady

I watched My Fair Lady for the first time last night, and I have to say I was surprised at what a good movie it was. After all, it was a musical, and there aren't that many musicals that I like.

A young girl, Eliza Dolittle, is a common flower seller. She meets a man named Professor Higgins, a professor of language and dialects, and his colleague, Colonel Pickering. They make a bet that they can turn her into a "lady" who speaks proper english in six months, and pass her off as a lady at a ball at buckingham palace. The rest of the movie is detailing the long, arduous process of teaching her to speak, and act like a lady.

All the characters were very well written. I find it hard to believe after the type of movies that are made nowadays that I liked every single character in the movie (except the student of Higgins at the end, who was supposed to be the target of contempt). It's rare in movies today that all characters seem to be likeable with personalities that shine through. Higgins came off as a male chauvinist, Pickering an aloof english gentleman, Eliza as an outspoken cockney girl, and Mr. Dolittle as an immoral, but humorous father.

I especially enjoyed the song "I'm an ordinary man". I believe this is what Katie's mom imagines going through my head. I figured I'd share the song lyrics...

Well after all, Pickering, I'm an ordinary man,

Who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance,

to live exactly as he likes, and do precisely what he wants...

An average man am I, of no eccentric whim,

Who likes to live his life, free of strife,

doing whatever he thinks is best, for him,

Well... just an ordinary man...

BUT, Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through,

she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome,

and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...

Let a woman in your life, and you're up against a wall,

make a plan and you will find,

that she has something else in mind,

and so rather than do either you do something else

that neither likes at all You want to talk of Keats and Milton,

she only wants to talk of love,

You go to see a play or ballet, and spend it searching

for her glove, Let a woman in your life

and you invite eternal strife,

Let them buy their wedding bands for those anxious little hands...

I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling

than to ever let a woman in my life, I'm a very gentle man,

even tempered and good natured

who you never hear complain,

Who has the milk of human kindness

by the quart in every vein,

A patient man am I, down to my fingertips,

the sort who never could, ever would,

let an insulting remark escape his lips

Very gentle man...

But, Let a woman in your life,

and patience hasn't got a chance,

she will beg you for advice, your reply will be concise,

and she will listen very nicely, and then go out

and do exactly what she wants!!!

You are a man of grace and polish,

who never spoke above a hush,

all at once you're using language that would make

a sailor blush, Let a woman in your life,

and you're plunging in a knife,

Let the others of my sex, tie the knot around their necks,

I prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition

than to ever let a woman in my life I'm a quiet living man,

who prefers to spend the evening in the silence of his room,

who likes an atmosphere as restful as

an undiscovered tomb,

A pensive man am I, of philosophical joys,

who likes to meditate, contemplate,

far for humanities mad inhuman noise,

Quiet living man....

But, let a woman in your life, and your sabbatical is through,

in a line that never ends comes an army of her friends,

come to jabber and to chatter

and to tell her what the matter is with YOU!,

she'll have a booming boisterous family,

who will descend on you en mass,

she'll have a large wagnarian mother,

with a voice that shatters glass,

Let a woman in your life,

Let a woman in your life,

Let a woman in your life I shall never let a woman in my life.

My apartment of horror

Let me start by describing the current situation. It's 8:10 PM and indoors it's about 88. I can't really explain how it's 88 in here, since it only reached 82 outside, but nonetheless, it's hot.

The air conditioner gave up the ghost about two days ago. However, in it's last dying act, it managed to leak into the basin beneath the unit, soaking the surrounding carpet. I didn't realize that it happened until that afternoon, and despite my best efforts the carpet mildewed later. It wouldn't be so bad if this was an isolated incident with the A/C- it's not.

The air conditioner runs on freon, yes, freon... the stuff that air conditioners ran on when my grandpappy was knee high to a grasshopper. It goes through the stuff like Ted Kennedy through a six pack. The unit apparently has a leak, the kind that you can't repair apparently, because the landlord hasn't seen fit to fix it or replace it in two years. Every few months it will run low and be hot for a few days until the landlord can get out here to have a look at it.

On the rare occasion that the air conditioner is cooling the apartment, the poor little thing is worked to the point of exhaustion. Sometimes at night, I hear the little bugger whimpering outside during it's rare hiatus from slave labor. You see, our apartment is so poorly insulated, that if it weren't for the wood paneling on the walls, I would have to say that the whole place was insulated with saran wrap.

The mailman snickers each month, I'm sure, when he delivers our electricity bill. This month, $130.00; last, $152.00; before that, $140.00. It's out of control, people. My parents have a house about 4 times the size of this place and their electricity bill is about $80/mo. If you were wondering, our rent to electric bill ratio is just under $2:$1.

I've got a few more months till the brother and I graduate, and until then I don't think we'll go through the hassle of moving... besides, in the winter, we usually don't use much heat. Since we don't run the A/C, it means lower bills, and since the rent is pretty low, it will make sense for the next few months anyways. After that though, I'm gettin out of here... and when I do... Mr. Air Conditioner, we're gonna have a little man to machine talk... and I doubt you'll make it out unscathed.

It's ALIVE!

I finally got the design to look like I wanted it to. I had to change a few details, such as the width of the containing div, and the spacing between some of the other elements, but over all, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

After playing with the divs for a few hours I realized that the mystical method of using the clear: both actually has some merit. It solved my problem.

I have three divs that are responsible for the structure of the content portion of the site: the container div, the side bar div, and the blog content div. The container was not stretching to fit the content of either of the two column divs (side and blog content). So, I created another div after the two column divs, clearfix, with the clear attribute set to both (clear:both;). Apparently, that makes the rest of the content of the container div remain in the normal flow of the document. It stretched the container div to the actual content.

I have to say that this method is completely non-intuitive. The content of the div should have been stretched to contain any content that was within any children.

More web work

I'm in the lab at school working between classes to get this design working. I should've tested it at home with a large amount of content to make sure that all my div's would stretch to fit the content. They don't.

If you're viewing this at the date and time of publishing, you can see that the content of the blog overflows it's containing div.

I haven't figured out a way to fix this problem as of yet, but I think it has something to do with the position attribute of each of the tags. I first thought that it was related to float, but I'm not really floating anything. Anywho, I've seen some possible solutions, but none have worked, so I'm still looking for a solution.

I have to be in class for physics in about 5 minutes, so I'm off to that now.

thesneeze.com is good people

I came across thesneeze.com today thanks to taylor's link. The site has a group of pretty funny articles, two of my favorite are listed below.

Unbelievable HS football player highlight reel

This kid , Noel Devine, is a high school sophomore that ran for about 460 yards over a two game stretch. Just watch the highlight reel, and be amazed. Supposedly, he's in the hardest conference in Florida.

I can't tell if it's sloppy tackling, which is always present in HS football games, or if he's THAT good. You can see, though, that he is extremely fast, and he does have some open field moves.

Noel Devine's Highlight Reel (from some other site)

Website design block

I've been working on different design ideas for this blog for about a month now probably. After changing it from the original plain blue banner, I decided to just switch the banner to something more colorful.

Now, it's time to move on. I've used this theme long enough, and I'm in need of a design that reflects more of my personality. I just can't get anything going though. I'll usually get excited about a design, then work it out in photoshop, or sketch in on paper, and by the time I start designing it, I'm reluctant to put the design up.

Anyways, I'm looking for the perfect colors, a perfect image, or set of images, and layout. I need some divine inspiration here. Without it, I'll be forced to keep the site the way it is, and I really don't like it.

Tums lasting effects

Tums lasting effects may be the nastiest substance to ever pass these lips on the way in... and I'm pretty sure as a kid I ate mud, crayons, and if things got really crazy muddy crayons.

Pieworks of Ruston

Last night Katie and I went to PieWorks for dinner. I don't think the restaurant has been open for very long, maybe two weeks, if that. Anyhow, if you've never heard of Pieworks, it's a small franchise of pizza places that specialize in unique pizzas, though they sell other items like sandwiches.

I had a "rosemary roast pie" (they call all their pizzas pies), and katie had a bacon cheeseburger pizza on wheat crust. My pizza was absolutely delicious. I have a fondness for black pepper, especially freshly ground black pepper, and the pizza I ordered was sprinkled with a healthy amount of it. The pepper was the most dominating flavor, but there was a slight rosemary flavor, along with the thinly sliced beef (coulda been lamb too I guess). The flavors were not overwhelming, and the pizza was crisp, without too much oil. All in all, it's the best pizza I've had in a long time.

Since the restaurant opened, they've been busy every day, with a 5-10 minute wait being normal. They're doing good business, and I can see why, with the quality of food they're offering. Now, if Ruston only had 5 or so more quality restaurants, it might not be such a task to have to eat out here in town.

Sonic's new patty melts

Click Me!

To you, Patty Melt, I say that you may be the most diabolically delicious burger that I've ever tasted. You, in all your double pattied goodness, with your gratuitous abundance of gelatinous mayonaisse, may, in fact, be the greatest meal ever conceived.

The chest pains I'm experiencing now are nothing compared to the joy I experience when I take my first bite of you. I would gladly endure clogged arteries in order for my taste buds to telegraph the tasty messages you send my brain each time we meet.

I hope to see you soon (in relation to a purchase, not post-processing, to clear up any misconceptions).

Yours Truly,
Jojometal

Mitch Hedberg

For the first time I can remember, Tech hosted a well known comic. Mitch Hedberg came through Ruston tonight and put on a great show.

He's starting a tour with stephen lynch on the 8th of October, so he agreed to come do a show so he could test out some material, and get used to being in front of an audience. Most of the new stuff that he had was great, and even the stuff that wasn't all that good was funny because he always had something funny to say after a joke would bomb.

The only bad part of the show, as usual, came from the audience. There were probably 10 people or so who, when he was between jokes, would yell requests for some of his old jokes. He told most of the requested jokes, but it was annoying us, and annoying him toward the end. He was just trying to get his new material out, and see how well some of the jokes went over before he took the new stuff on tour.

The show was great, even with some small annoyances from the audience. I'm gonna be on the lookout for his new cd, cause his new material is hilarious.

This can't be real

A Japanese woman, enjoying her boyfriend pillow.

Great Day Yesterday

Yesterday I took a trip to Monroe with Dr. Choi, who I've been working with for the last two years developing search engine technology. We were to go along with Dr. Guice, Louisiana Tech's VP of Research, and Mr. Rawls to CenturyTel's corporate headquarters in order to make a presentation of our technology.

It was an extremely beautiful building, which is surprising considering the fact that they're located in Monroe. It looks like a building was transplanted from silicon valley. Inside it was very open, with plenty of light pouring in from the tower. It's one of the nicest work places I've ever been.

Anywho, Dr. Choi gave his intro to the technology, and I presented a live demo of the search engine. Everything was well received, with lots of interesting questions, and comments from the people who work in their IT department.

So, with everything going as well as it did, I hope I can turn the situation into some kind of employment opportunity. As much as I wish I could stay in college, I need to get out and make some money... which I'll have to promptly hand back over to the people who paid for my college. Regardless, money is good, and I'm anxious to be out accomplishing something, moving on to the next part of my life.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

Yesterday, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs beat the Fresno State Bulldogs (ranked 17th in the nation)28-21. Of course, when the best game in Tech's history is played, I'm not able to go because of work, but I'm excited for Tech nonetheless.

There were two main factors in making this upset possible. First, our D played amazingly (according to Johnny B, who was there). We blocked a kick, which led to our first scoring drive, and at the end of the game we got an interception that led to our winning score. Second, Ryan Moats. This kid is amazing. He's the lead rusher in the NATION, folks. He scored all 4 of our touchdowns last night, and in getting us into scoring position, he rushed for 236 yards. He's just plain amazing.

BTW, I think we need a new kicker, we may have been up by 6 more if twitchy legs mcgee had made any of his field goal attempts. He also had a field goal blocked, but since I wasn't there, I'm not sure whether it was his fault or not.

Anywho, I'm glad we're doing so well, but if Boise State keeps playing like they are right now, we won't take the WAC, and this good season will have been for nothing.

Respect.

This is a personal, but public post (read: I'm getting this off my chest, and it probably won't interest you).

I got a call tonight from Katie, who is in Shreveport, while I'm stuck in Ruston because of work.

Sami, Katie and her Mom got into a "discussion" about whether or not I'm a bad person, with Katie's mom defending the position that I'm capable of strangling crippled kittens. Apparently, I lack respect for Elders, and I treat women poorly. She also has insight directly into my future. If this relationship between Katie and I ends up working out, when the romance dies... which it apparently has to in her world... I will no longer treat her with respect, or love.

How she knows any of this, from the very limited amount of time that she's spent with me, is a complete mystery, to me and everyone else involved.

Anyway, I didn't sit down and write this post to defend myself and talk about how I do respect my elders, or treat women with respect, or any of the other snide comments she had saved up to dump on Katie and Sami. What did catch my interest from the whole situation was what I found myself wondering about. What really deserves respect? Why is it that some people get respect, in anything they do, while others can't seem to buy respect?

There have always been certain people throughout my life that have garnered respect from just about everyone. The common thread throughout those people's lives and character usually involved some type of single event, reputation, or respect from people I already held in high esteem. These ways are probably the most common ways that people I know, and respect have earned my high regard (not like it's a big honor or anything:)).

As more time passes, I become more resolute in believing that respect isn't just something that's given to a person because they have a title in front of their name, or because they've survived for 40 years. It's how you got the title, or position you're in, and how you've lived those years you've been alive. Most importantly however, I think that as soon as you respect someone else, especially coming from someone in a position of authority to a person in a lower position, you develop a mutual respect. This mutual respect can easily form the building blocks for a lasting relationship... It's probably the best way, in my opinion to gain someone's respect.

I can still remember working with my Pappaw on a broken piece of his fence when I was about 10 years old. My brother and I were running around like little rugrats while he was trying to fix the fence. After watching him for a little while though, we came up with a suggestion of how to do it (though I think it turned out to be wrong). He listened to us, and considered the idea. He showed us that he respected our opinion, however naiive and uninformed it may have been. I know that that's not the only reason for my respect for my grandparents, or Pappaw in particular, but I know that situations like those where I was shown respect went a long way in my showing them respect, and consequentially knowing how to respect other people, and their ideas and opinions.

Ahhh, I started to ramble on my blog again. So, to answer my own questions from above: What really deserves respect? No one person deserves to be respected above any other person based on title, position, name, money, etc. . A person deserves respect for achievements, and character they've shown in reaching those achievements. If anyone thinks that they "deserve" a certain amount of respect no matter how they treat another person, or how they've conducted themselves, they're just plain wrong.

The second question I was wondering about was, "Why is it that some people get respect, in anything they do, while others can't seem to buy respect?" As much as I want to bring Rodney Dangerfield into some kind of analogy, I'll leave him be. It seems to me that people who show respect to other people always get respect back, whether they actively seek it or not. Those who show respect to noone, or only to a select few who are above them, are not likely to get much respect from the majority of people. I think that's the main difference between the two type of people.

Wow, I've managed to do two things here: ask and answer questions myself... in written form like a crazy person, and to set the record for the most times a site this small has used the word respect.