12/03/2002

Back to work.. Thanksgiving et al was fantastic. I had a great time with Kathleen and her parents and hope I can make it out there again sometime soon. For now, it looks like it'll be awhile. Nothing new and shocking there.. :)

Figuring out my phone more and more. I just got the interWeb working on it, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to download images or much else really. Too bad I can't get Slashdot, or I'd probably never put the thing down. Hmm, I wonder if Xanga will work.. It's a bit tough to punch in url's with the number pad, but I'm getting faster.

I got little else to say other than I'm really happy. Things could definitely be better, but I'm pretty content for the moment. Perhaps I can even find something at the diocese to do, and maybe some grad classes will pan out. I think I'd like to take some classes, but I don't know if I really want to go all the way for a a masters or more. We'll see.

12/04/2002

More geeky goodness. I've gone on and on about web standards and w3c compliance, yet my webpages have continued to be invalid code. No more. I'm on the way to goodness by getting my log page (and archives thereof) fully compliant and validated as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. I've got a nice little logo at the bottom of my compliant pages. Good fun. Most pages are not. The pages shouldn't look any different, though I've made lots of changes. I even got rid of a non-standard <blink> tag by replacing it with some nice wholesome and valid XHTML and CSS, which of course doesn't work in IE. Go me.

Not too much else going on. Managed a nice lengthy catch-up phone call with Todd thanks to SprintPCS^SM Unlimited Nights and Weekends©, Free and Clear™. Now if only everyone else would get PCS phones, and sign up for two years, then we could all talk for free all the time, thanks to unlimited PCS to PCS minutes (which I couldn't find a link for..). Guess who pays me?

Well, anyway, work has been pretty light. The stuff that blew up last night didn't blow up tonight, so that's a plus. Mostly it's been Adventures in Code Validation with a side visit to the Land of Todd. Good fun.

12/11/2002

Excitement! Look for a good-sized update once I get home. I got some pictures back from Target today (developing film and getting a CD is expensive.. I need a digital camera.. ), and they should be going up tonight. Some rather old pictures from the end of 2000 in Muir Woods near San Fran, and some shots from the end of last school year at DePaul. Debauchery abounds! Oh what fun! All to be found at the 'Pictures' link over there in the index. Oo, new pages! So exciting! :) So, all that makes for a short update for now, but hopefully something substantial within a few hours. I'll let you know..

Wow, that's lame. An update about a future update. What has become of me..?

12/12/2002

Well, the aforementioned update mostly worked out. I say mostly because of the problems that will be outlined presently. One CD did not have all the pictures from that roll, so I missed a nice picture of Jackie and Scott, among some others. That's pretty inexcusable by itself, but Target went the extra mile by delivering such a low level of quality on all the pictures (see the page for numerous examples) that I asked them to try again, or give me my money back outright. Thanks to the nice gal behind the counter, it should be done is pretty short order, and we'll see if it's satisfactory. If not, I get my money back. So, hopefully, I'll be able to put much nicer looking shots up there in place of the schnasty ones there now. Here's hoping.

12/18/2002

Lesson learned. If you want quality film developing, don't expect it out of Target. They did a bang-up job of ruining the scans of pictures you may find in my most recent photographic update. Apparently my wily charms didn't win over the gal behind the counter. Or maybe they have cruddy equipment and couldn't keep dust off the lens if it were in a clean room. Or maybe both. Regardless, there's a couple more up there now, so take a peek. Anyway, I go to Wolf Camera from now on. Or maybe I'll get a digital camera for Christmas and/or birthday? We'll see how that pans out.

Speaking of the Holidays, John and I head home this weekend. Originally, we thought we'd have to each take our own car, because we're heading home at different times. Turns out, I'm just gonna drive him to the train station in Galesburg when he needs to leave, so we can ride up together, which is rather nice.

So, the plan for this weekend. Friday, we continue the tradition of going around the neighborhood and singing off-key to the neighborhood folks. At least, that's what I do. Saturday is my mom's side's Christmas party. I got him golf balls. I'm so ashamed.. Sunday is the last Sunday of Advent and my birthday and not much else planned, so that means we kids go see The Two Towers. Yah! That'll be at least the second time for me. Monday I hope to have a soiree at mi casa, so if you're in Peoria, I hope to see you there, whoever you are. If you know where I live, you're invited. Tuesday, Christmas Eve festivities commence, followed by the six hour drive back to KC just in time for work on Christmas Day at 3pm. Business as usual I guess. It's all good. My next two weekends are both 5 days, with 3 day workweeks. Then a week of UNIX shell-scripting class, which totally rules.

And Kathleen's feeling pretty healthy. Life is good.

12/25/2002

Merry Christmas from the Sprint PCS Production Control Room! Ho ho ho! Or something. The first Christmas ever for me away from home. I spent most of the holiday time at home, which was great, but the actual day was spent at work. It was pretty slow. I'm really in good spirits despite the tone of the update thus far.

The drive home last night was quite an adventure. The moment I hit I-155 south, I knew it was gonna be interesting. I was driving on unplowed, or practically unplowed interstate for most of my travel. I could hear snow and ice shooting up into the undercarriage of my car the whole way. I felt like I was off-roading. It was pretty fun really. :) Sort of eXtreme Driving. I was sliding all over the place a lot of the time, but most of the time there were lanes to spare. In St. Louis, the lanes kinda disappeared. "What lanes? Ha!"

When I looked at my car in the morning, I noticed caked ice and snow all over the doors and side panels. I was probably shooting up spray for about 300 miles. :) Not to get you all worried or anything. It was fun and I wanted to share. This is an outlet, so there ya go.

I got a new digital camera for Christmas, an Olympus D-520, which seems like a nice camera. I'm having a fun time getting it to work under Linux, but I've read that it's doable. I've just gotta read up a bit and try some things. Once it's working, I should have some much nicer looking pics than Target gave me, maybe even without spaces in the names. :) Should be fun.

Going home soon to get my laundry on. Yo.

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