leesharpe2k

Work and Women

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 02:09:21 GMT

Work is going well. The billing project, Freeside, is coming along nicely. Tom rocks for helping out with it as much as he can and does, and I'm doing a whole new interface which is exciting. Everyone in the company seems very enthused about this process. It's pretty cool to make computers do new things and I enjoyed it.

I had wanted to hang out with Kelsey a bit, but she feels compelled to clean her house for this crazy Tolono Fun Day thing. I don't really get it. But she's a neat freak. [Shudder.]

Anyway, this gave me the opportunity to sit at home and watch Beauty and the Geek. Annie says I should apply to be on that show, but I don't know. Some of those guys seem a lot better off than me, and others seem like I'm already ahead of the curve compared to them. But it could still be good.

Ultimately, though, I couldn't do it. I'd either fall for some girl and the show and feel bad. I do find it ironic that while several people on the show are interested in others, that nobody was interested in their partner. I don't this I could go up and ask random girls for their phone number. Then again, it seems like some girls actually don't mind doing that. Of course, the show never covered whether or not the numbers actually belong to those women, either. :) I bet at least one was something similar to 773-509-5027 (seriously, call it).

The guys on the show did get their partners to give them "makeover", however. Diana, Kelsey, and Chris' girlfriend Christina, have all talked about giving me one, maybe I should actually tell them I'm interested and see how it turns out. I don't have $1,000 for it, but good enough. Maybe get rid of the glasses? I don't know. That's all for tonight.

MaRo goes insane

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 01:03:31 GMT

Mark Rosewater, lead designer for Magic: The Gathering, is (deservedly) on the selection committee for the Pro Tour Hall of Fame. He chose to cast one of his five votes for Mike Long, by far the player most well known for cheating and poor behavior in the history of Magic. Why? In his words:

And now we get to the vote most likely to spurn angry letters. Yes, I'm voting for Mike Long. Yes, I understand that he scores lowest on integrity of the twenty-eight candidates. But he scores number one in a very important category – charisma (that falls under player performance for those criteria sticklers). Mike Long has done more than any other player in the history of the Pro Tour to make it interesting. When Mike was involved, everybody cared. Sure they were all rooting for him to lose, but man did they care.

In other words, because Mike cheated, he's worth of being in the Hall of Fame, as rooting for him to lose made the Pro Tour interesting. That's absurd. The Magic Hall of Fame is more that just a list of names that are recognized as Magic role models (something Mike is certainly not), but its members get lifetime invites to all Pro Tours and $500 for each one they show up to. Is this really how MaRo thinks cheaters should be rewarded? I don't think I've ever been more angry with a Wizards employee. The only *possible* exception is the ousting of a couple people from The Process (details intentionally not provided).

No DVDs for Me!

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 22:15:26 GMT

So, Best Buy has seasons 1 and 2 (which I already own) of the West Wing, as well as season 4, but not season 3, which I wanted. I went and bought season 4 anyway, but as it turns out my roommate's DVD player seems to be sucking and is only broadcasting audio when playing DVDs, and not video. :(

So now I'm playing monopoly online, watching Spiderman and soon What Women Want, and I did one load of laundry. And The Dan Band is always good times. They cover women's songs and they do it hilariously. "Turn Around", "Shoop", and "Nasty Boys" are very funny. :)

Some things change, and others cost money

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:04:26 GMT

Funny how things change. Last week I went out four nights in a row, but now this weekend, I am bored doing nothing. I think weekdays are actually easier for doing stuff than the weekend. It's kind of nice to have the time to relax. Unfortunately, not much is open in terms of businesses on the weekend. Well, Best Buy is, at least! I'm trying to decide what to save for: a car, a laptop, or some stereo equipment. I think the car should actually be last on this list, since there is other money I might be able to spend on this, and saving for it means I can't spend money on anything else for some time. My laptop likes to overheat, which sucks. But Brant is taking his stereo equipment with him when he moves out. And I'll probably miss it. Plus, his receiver has no remote, and that's just really annoying. :)

Time to go price stuff at Best Buy. Or maybe just buy West Wing Season 3 on DVD! (Oh, yeah. And do laundry. I keep "forgetting" about that.)

The expensive return of the car, and my brother's visit

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 13:33:15 GMT

I get up at 6:30, and began walking to Sullivan Parkhill about 7:10 to pick up the car. I got there about 8:00, and informed the cashier I would like to go. After a *45* *minute* *wait*, they charged me *eighty* *dollars*, and gave me my car and keys back. Outrageous. I've never going back to Sullivan Parkhill for any type of car work, and I don't reccommend you do, either.

Barratt roped me into working a Des Moines tournament, though he's promised to pay for a flight, which is good since it's about a 353 mile drive. It will give me a chance to worth with L2-nearing-L3 Brian Woerth. He's a strong judge. Last time I was the HJ of a PTQ in Chicago with him, and took the event over far more than I should have. This time, I'm going to be sure not to do that.

At work, the billing project I'm working on may get pushed back to July 15th instead of July 1st. I still am worried it will impact my Origins attendence, but there's not a lot I can do about that. At least I have the following Monday (the 4th of July) off. The project is going well though. Freeside is complicated, and I'm worried about screwing stuff up with packages and servics, especially e-mail. Hopefully it will work out.

My brother Roger came down, and we hung out. We went to Fazoli's, played Halo 2, and watched the movie "EdTV". I don't get to him enough. He's volunteering with Habitat for Humanity this summer. Manual labor can, at times, be good for the brain, so I hope he enjoys it. He left shortly after 11pm to head back to Springfield. I walked him out to his car, and gave him instructions back to Springfield. I then walked back to my apartment...

... when who is standing by the door but Ed, and his friend Kayla. I went back to his place, where Tom and another girl, Kara, were. We hung out for awhile listening to music, and Ed and I watched as Tom, Kayla, and Kara played Soul Calibur 2. Apparantly, from being awake since 6:30, I fell asleep. I woke up and was greeted with "Good morning!"s from the others, so it was pretty obvious I napped for at least a bit. I saw Ed napping a bit, too. Anyway, I decided I should just go home and sleep. I just woke up, checked some e-mail, and wrote this.

Why the hell does they "indifferent" emoticon have a smiley?

No car + no way in apartment = good times

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 03:54:23 GMT

So, I decided as long as I have this thing, I should write in it. After all this time.

Today was exciting. My car's windshield wipers aren't functioning, so I took it into Sullivan Parkhill's service deptartment. They took all of my keys, which ended up being fairly bad. They called me, but naturally my piece of crap cell phone didn't ring when the woman from Sullivan Parkhill called. I finally got the message on my voice mail an hour later and called back. The problem was with my windshield wiper motor which had died. A replacement motor, according to the woman, would cost $250, and after labor the total would end up being $423. That's absurd. I'll get a new (for me, really it'd be used) car before I'd get my money worth from that.

Tom is nice enough to take me over to Sullivan Parkhill after work. We arrived at 5:45, but apparantly the service department closes at 5:30. I go over to the sales office, but the employee I talk to there doesn't think there's any way I can get my car or keys back. He asks around, and confirms this to be the case. So, I call Tom who's on his way back. He turns around and then takes me back to University Commons. I go to open my apartment door... and it's locked. Brant and Craig are gone for the summer, so I call my remaining roommate, Ben. He is in Decatur, but plans to return home withing a couple hours.

So, I go hang out with Tom and Ed. We chat for awhile about various stuff, and they invite me to attend their band's practice and show. I'd like to go, but nobody really to go with, and I need to edit Saturday School for Carter still. So, I head into the University Commons computer lab, hop on IRC, and edit the article, mail it in. Ben calls, indicating he's about half an hour away. I head over to Quizno's and grab dinner. Ben has to work early in the morning, and Tom's coming in to work to late, so I think I'll just get up ridiculously early tomorrow and walk over to Sullivan Parkhill, want to complain about the 5:30 closing time, and then come home, take care of some stuff with University Commons, and head to work.

My brother Roger should be coming down tomorrow night, possibly spending the night, to hang out or whatever various activities we come up with. I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing it will involve pizza and Halo 2. Also tomorrow, I should do laundry. And send out e-mails on judging. And more stuff on the rules. I really enjoy doing everything I do with everything, but it can be incredibly frustrating.

So ends my first post. More exciting than I thought. The music choice is mostly because I was listening to it as I type a lot of this. So what?