Happy New Year!

Chinese new year, that is.
Today marks the start of year 4703...the year of the dog.

The AVHSD honor band concert was on Friday night. It went surprisingly well...we actually sounded halfway decent. I was pretty pleased. My solos came out decent and everyone as a whole did great. They were long rehearsals, but they paid off. The back of my head even made the paper, I'd post a pic, but my scanner is being rather uncooperative.

Face transplant? Umm...no thanks.

Finally! A DIY T-shirt folding machine. Pretty awesome stuff...I gotta make one of those.

Band goes to Disneyland on Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to that (and missing school!). But meanwhile, I'm off to make my t-shirt folding machine.

Minor Scales, Ska, Cats and More...

Life's trudging on as usual. Same old stuff at school...no new bomb threats to report on. I'm practicing my guts out on my melodic minor scales for All State...I have to have them memorized for a live audition. Ugh.

The honor band concert is Friday. We're playing some pretty cool pieces, so hopefully it turns out well. We have yet to actually "rehearse" as a full band, so who knows.

I'm in a ska band! The legendary Chase Wells invited Casey and myself to join his garage/ska band. I'm on sax/clarinet (maybe even flute...who knows), Casey's on trumpet, Chase on bagpipes (yes, pipes in ska...pretty awesome if you ask me) and we have a keyboard, lead guitar, bass, and set. It's pretty cool, but we're just starting. If you know any low wind players who are interested, we need 'em.

Check out the 101 dumbest moments in business. It's a list of the stupidest things companies have done throughout 2005; some are pretty funny to look back on.

Did you see Kobe's 81 point game?! As much as I dislike the guy, I have to hand it to him...that's pretty dang good.

Finally, proof that cats are more fun than dogs. Sorry Emma, but cats rule!

Windows WMF Backdoor?

Did Microsoft intentionally place a backdoor in Windows Metafile to gain access to machines? Security expert Steve Gibson thinks so. Recently this "vulnerability" has been getting a lot of press, so people have started looking into it. Some think it's more than just a programming error, but an intentional backdoor. Take a listen, and see what you think.

We went to Vegas this weekend to see my sister and uncle, as well as take home Princess the dog. The visit was short, but good and the food was awesome. I finally got to eat at the Hofbräuhaus, which was really cool. The dog has a nice new home (not ours...my family+dog=I don't think so).

If you wanted more info on MacWorld, TWiT did a nice podcast covering most of it. Check it out.

I haven't actually tried it yet, but this little app looks to be pretty cool. It's a space simulator, and from what I hear, it’s another hour killer like Google Earth (new version available).

Back to school tomorrow...hopefully I won't get blown up.

More Threats Plague QHHS

We made the news again...

Rumors of Friday the 13th violence spread like wildfire around school. Apparently there was supposed to be pipe bombs set up at various locations, but it turns out that was a hoax. The only "bang" heard at lunch was a M80 (nothing too unusual for the 100 quad at lunch). I would say that only about 60% of the school had the guts to show up today, in my Photoshop class there were only 13 people (out of 35). All this while everybody’s still freaked out over last month's little episode.

And on it goes...

Back to it...

School started again on Monday. I have absolutely no idea how a three week break flew by so fast. Oh well...at least it was a good one.

Everything at school is pretty much the same. Back to old studying schedules and procrastination habits. At least math appears to be slightly easier (as I begin pounding on the nearest wooden object). We actually have a "real" PE teacher this semester. At least I got to enjoy one year of PE McQ style, but so far this new "real" teacher is placing herself in the same PE teaching league as McQ.

As noted by my last post, I made All State! I was the only one from QHHS this year, and possibly the first ever. It'll be tough, but I'm looking forward to it.

MacWorld Expo began yesterday with Job's announcement of the new MacBook (could they think of a stupider name?) and iMac with the new Intel Core Duo (talk about stupid names) chip. Pretty exciting for all those Mac freaks out there. CES was also last week, but apparently that was kind of a flop this year.

Links of the week:
-DIY lockpick...truly geek style made from an old toothbrush
-Update your XP look & feel...pretty smooth, I like it so far
-Glad I'm not at the U of Alabama...a glitch sent an email the every student telling them they were dropped
-And of course: 25 reasons to switch to Linux

I MADE IT!!!

I'm Back

No broken bones!
All limbs are fully attached, unlike this time last year.

Colorado was great. Between the cabin, snow, movies, reading, skiing, burning food, and 8x8's from in-n-out, it was truly an awesome trip. As requested, I posted some pics from the trip on my newly created Flickr. Check them out...some are self explanatory, others not so much.

By the time your reading this, there's probably a totally different feel to the blog. I found a new template, wrote in some changes (talk about an html headache), and whala: a new feel. Hope you like.

That's it for now...I'm gonna go enjoy the rest of my winter break doing my favorite activity:
absolutely nothing.

Happy New Year!

Off to Colorado...

I'm off to Colorado again with the whole family. We'll be up at the cabin for a few days of relaxing and skiing. Hopefully this year I'll return with all limbs attached and where they're supposed to be.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and have a happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a great Christmas!

"Colombine Type Assault" Plotted at QHHS

LANCASTER, Calif. -- Two boys accused of seriously planning a "Columbine-" type attack on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day, at the 3,400-student Quartz Hill High School have been arrested, authorities said Friday.
An investigation began on Wednesday when a student contacted the vice-principal and said two former classmates were planning a "Columbine-type assault" on the campus, said Sgt. Darrel D. Brown, of the Lancaster Sheriff's Station. Read More...

Here's the frontpage story from the AV Press.

Pretty freaky stuff.

So Close...Yet So Far...

Welp, we lost Grand Champion by 1.6 points. Yes, 1.6. We beat 'em fare and square last week, so I guess we got what we wanted, but a Palmdale banner would have been nice. Oh well...there's always next year.

Finals next week. Grrr...don't remind me.

Three week winter break in one week! Yes! Remind me!

0% Christmas shopping completed. Compared with last years 0% at this time...we're right on schedule.

Only two weeks, then:

• Colorado!
• Cabin!
• Snow!
• Skiing!
• Christmas!
• Any other great thing I forgot!

Finally...somebody sat down and actually wrote out the difference between a Nerd and a Geek, and got it right. Maybe people will stop calling me a nerd, and get it right: I'm a Geek (and proud of it)!

Grand Champion...Almost

If a place known as Santa Monica didn't exist, we would have taken grand champion yesterday at the AV parade and field tournament. We did the best we've done in at AV in a long time...first in parade and second in the field. If we keep it up for next week, (and my rank learns how to flippin guide...but that's a rant for another time) we're looking at Palmdale grand champion, so hopefully I'll have the same title next week sans the 'almost'. It was a long, cold (make that extremely cold and windy) yet, as always, fun day.

Only two weeks of school left! That's the good news, the bad news is only one week before finals. Argh.

You know all those annoying Microsoft 'Send Error Report' windows? Well, you ever wondered what they do with them? Check it out...its pretty funny.

This site has all of the real games from the golden age of gaming. Tons of games from the 80s and early 90s. Lots of Nintendo and arcade games run right on the site... a great way to kill a few hours.

Tis all for now- see ya next week.

Black Friday

By far, one of my most favorite days of the year. This year was awesome. Karl and I got up at a quarter to four in the morning and waited in line at Best Buy for an hour. It was definitely worth the early morning wait; we both came out with a Sandisk Mp3 player and an external 160gig hard drive, together coming out to under $120. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Thanksgiving break was great...although I wouldn't complain it were just a wee bit longer. Hey...only 3 weeks until Christmas (oh...excuse me..."winter") break. You always know how a few days off are going to be by the first few hours. Tuesday afternoon I had a camera stuck up my nose and down my throat (laryngoscopy...always so fun), so you could tell it was gonna be a good one. My entire Mom's side of the family was here, plus my sisters and the guys that usually tag along with them. We had a good time, and it was a lot of fun.

The great mystery of why ketchup first will not come out, and then gushes out may be on the road to being solved. A very interesting read and examination of people with way too much time on their hands (sorta like me).

Welp, only 27 shopping days until Christmas...I better get to work.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a happy turkey day!

Happy Button Day!

Yup...button day. Your guess is as good as mine. Too bad I missed National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day (Nov. 15). Hopefully this Saturday you won't have a bad Have a Bad Day Day.

Life trudges on as normal. Not too much new to report. This Friday will be loads of fun: Algebra II/Trig test, Spanish presentation, English quiz, and Chemistry test. Can't wait.

Apparently future Intel P4's will allow for multiple OS's to run simultaneously. Now that is just plain awesome. There's no other way to describe it. Do I see Vista, OS X, and Linux running simultaneously on one box in the future???

Check out the 200 gig Nano.

A province in central China has found a new way to get wanted criminals known in public: put their faces on playing cards.

Of course we can't forget the $130,000 truffle, the sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes, and the first dog to get a prosthetic limb.

That should keep you busy a while.

1:43:03

One hour, forty three minutes. That was my official time on for the Santa Clarita Half Marathon that I ran on Sunday. I ran the 13 miles with Karl (my bro in law), and my dad. It was a lot of fun, and I think it may turn into a family annual event.

The night before (Sat.), band competed (well, maybe "played" is a better word) at the annual Heart Rampage at College of the Canyons. Although it was fun as it always is, we did pretty badly. Actually, we did really bad. Oh well, there's always next time.

I feel like ranting, so here goes:
I hate sitting in the front row. Not only is it in the front (which sucks for obvious reasons), but your right there where the teacher can see, breathe, spit, cough, sneeze, or whatever else they might do on you. Especially when they are sick. Thanks to a certain English teacher (who's really not all that bad as a teacher), I've been battling this cold for a week. Fun.

Happy 1st birthday, Firefox! May you live long, prosper, and continue to take back the web.

Just FYI- Clarkville is down for some odd reason. I'll get around to fixing whatever the problem is this weekend.

Well, off to prepare for my 15 hour day tomorrow. It's the last football game and everybody is riding the whole day out. Three day weekend coming up!

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

The fear of long words.

How ironic is that???

Overall, last week was a pretty decent week. No complaints besides the usual (school, hw, etc). A good weekend, too. Andi and Karl came up, and Karl and I ran (almost) 11 miles on Saturday. Oh the wonderful feeling of sore legs and crunching hips. Then my other sister had a pumpkin carving thing last night, so that was fun.

Next week is the Santa Clarita half! I'm running with Karl, so that's why I'll be a walking corpse on next Monday. That is, if I'm walking.

Dodger owner Frank McCourt decided to dump the guy responsible for purging practically the whole team last year providing for this year's pathetic close. That's right folks, Paul DePodesta is gone. It's about time.

In the spirit of Halloween, check out the Pumpkin PC. Some guy had way too much time on his hands.

Check out the first laptop ever. I gotta get a hold of one of those.

That's it for now.

100th Post

Yep, it's TCF number 100.
I think...I didn't actually count; I'm trusting blogger on this one.

We took 1st in our division the Apple Valley band competition yesterday, but no sweepstakes. Barstow was nice enough to take care of those for us. It was a very long (try 11 hours), yet fun, day.

Everything else in my life is pretty much the same, that is: busy. Very busy, but I'm still here, every Sunday and the occasional Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to a weekend...oh wait...we just had one. Oh well, there's always next week.

Mandriva Linux 2006 came out a few days ago. It's their latest big update to the OS since 10.0 came out a few years ago. I'll probably get around to installing it over Thanksgiving break.

For those you still in Redmond, check out the top ten reasons to switch to Linux.

On that note, happy 20th birthday, Windows! PC Mag had a special this month...it was really interesting (for some of us at least) to see how it all developed from Windows 1.0 to the upcoming release of Vista.

Well, that wraps up the 100th post.

The Video Ipod

It happened. Apple released a video ipod. Only 5 weeks after the nano, here comes the fifth generation ipod. Check out all of the new specs.

I went to Vegas last weekend to see Andi and Karl (my sister and bro in-law). It was a lot of fun...we went to a renaissance fair, Fremont Street, and of course, Fry's. I ran with Karl on Sunday and was actually able to keep up; we did 7 miles in under an hour, which is pretty cool.

Check out the 100 most requested/downloaded fonts. Pretty awesome.

I'm beat, so that's about it for now...while you run out to buy your $50 1gig flash drive, I think I'll take a nap.