2010.09.30 Thursday

Yay it's Fri....Thursday! End of the work-week for me.

After work, I went to a place called Apparition Skateboards. It's located rather central in Austin. As I was leaving, I could actually see the UT intramural field lights on. The staff there was very kind and helpful. The only thing I have to complain about is the limited selection, but since they only stocked pro-gear there wasn't much junk to sift through. The staff also was knowledgeable about the various skateparks around Austin. I'm very excited to check out more skateparks.

Went home, Kelc made it into town. We watched some Smallville and called it a night.

2010.09.29 Wednesday

Things finally calmed down at work. Keeping active and interacting with new people is fun, but wears down on me.

Went home after work and (if you couldn't guess already) played some Minecraft. My latest goal is to design what I'd like to call a highway system. In reality I have just built a really long path through the sky in which I will be putting a minecart and rails. If I design it correctly, I'll be able to zoom across a long distance in no time.

I was able to pull myself out of that world and back into real life. One thing I'm starting to get more interest in is HDR photography. Now I don't have a DSLR camera to grab the best pictures, but with some scripting and post-processing, I may be able to produce something half-decent with a point-and-shoot.

Taylor, Habibi and I went off to our kickball game.

[pic of team]

3rd game of the season, against The Inappropriates. They put up a good fight. Surprisingly, our team has been losing the Rock-Paper-Scissors battle at the beginning of the game, but still we start off defending. That's happened two weeks in a row, so I'm not sure what the strategy is there. Maybe they plan on starting off strong and catching us off-guard to rack up points. I still feel like being offense last gives the best chance to get the points and win it at the end. Oh well, we ended up getting that "W" with a final score of 6-4. We had to celebrate at Docs afterward. Also, I needed to treat myself for making it this far through the week successfully.

Upon arriving back at home, I consumed the remainder of my bananas and played more Minecraft. First step in recovering from an addiction is to admit you have one, right? Also watched a bit of the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I'm pretty excited to see how their rally/march turns out.

Remember, we need to keep fear alive.

2010.09.28 Tuesday

Work went by quickly, and things are moving along swimmingly. After work, my fellow Austin classmates and I met up to discuss our latest project. The homework and classwork isn't necessarily challenging, but I believe it is rather easy to not answer what the professor wants. If you miss something he deems important, looking at some points taken off.

I got home later than normal from the studying. I cooked up some macaroni pasta and sauce for dinner, with a side of four-pepper hummus and garlic-parmesan pita chips. Of course, I could not help but play more Minecraft, but at least I worked on homework too.

One thing I have heard at some point in my life is that introverts value their personal time, while extroverts value time spent interacting with others. It is starting to feel like my time to "wind-down", or do nothing, or just plain get bored is limited; so I value time devoted to me. So the question here is, does the lifestyle dictate the personality, or does the personality dictate the lifestyle, or do the two have loose linkage?

2010.09.27 Monday

Things are really cruising at work. It keeps me on my toes.

Took care of a few things around the house, then went outside with Habs to throw around the football and skate some. The weather is freaking fantastic. Texas almost never has the perfect temperatures; it's either too hot, too humid, too dry or too cold.

Went to chik-fil-a for dinner. Mmm meat.

Played some more Minecraft. Watched some TV and called it a night. Big things happening at work...

2010.09.26 Sunday

Again, I tried to sleep in as much as possible. NFL today.

Met up with Kelc's mom and sister at Fowler's to watch the Steelers game. I really enjoy being able to watch so many games at one time, but I'm still unhappy with how the NFL only plays certain games in different regions. The games should be aired everywhere... its the National Football League, not regional.

Stopped by home to pick up mail. Mazda finally issued a recall for a problem that has creeped into their later Mazda3's. Something they changed with power steering, originally to save money, is now costing them millions. I actually started hearing more and more about this lately since I try to take care of car maintenance myself. The power steering system can potentially just stop working at any point while driving, leaving you with a vehicle that is very difficult to drive. At least they are taking care of the problem, and not just making the consumers cover the cost.

Picked up some groceries. Back at home, I went skating for a while, but mostly watched more NFL and played minecraft. My main base in minecraft is pretty awesome now.

2010.09.25 Saturday

Woke up as late as possible. Played some more minecraft, then realized I needed to get off my butt and go.

"Go where?" you might ask. To the UT game with Mark and Nadia, plus a guy named Chris. Chris was able to scrounge up 4 tickets and generously offered to take some people. I was lucky enough to be one of those people. Unfortunately, this was quite possibly the worst game to attend ever. It really looked like UT wasn't even playing. What a let down. At least afterward we went to Five Guys hamburgers and had some delicious grub.

Afterwards, spent some time hanging out with everybody. Found out that Chris's brother was born on the same day, and same year as me. weird.

Back home. Munched and sleep.

2010.09.24 Friday

Super long day at work. Didn't leave until about 9pm. Yeah I typed that correctly. 7am to 9pm

Treated myself to a spicy chicken sandwich, 12 nuggets, waffle fries, and a lemonade from chik-fil-a.

Played some more minecraft, and passed the ..... out

2010.09.23 Thursday

Another long day at work, then top that off with an extra 3 hours of class to make up for another week we had off.

Class is... interesting. I wish I could describe the experience better.

Went home and skated some more. Landed a few smooth heelflips and shove-its.

More minecraft, some sleep.

2010.09.22 Wednesday

Work is picking up, and my blogs are getting delayed. I apologize for that.

Stayed at work kinda late, then went to a late kickball game that should have been canceled. Everything else was canceled.

We had some new people playing on our team. Guess they weren't able to make the previous game. Well, we ended up giving up a ton of points in the first inning, then never recovering.

I need to sleep, but minecraft is calling.

2010.09.21 Tuesday

Long day ahead. Full day of work with a hefty to-do list, plus classes in the evening.

During class we get the pleasure of having pizza ordered in for us, since class goes right over dinner time. Unfortunately, I was not aware of how much of an impact pizza in the stomach has on skateboarding. It definitely felt like it was much harder to push my body off the ground. Also didn't help that the humidity level was an absurd 80%.

Played more Minecraft. I'm starting to wonder how dangerous this game can be. I've heard it described as electronic crack.

2010.09.20 Monday

Ah the week begins. I will refrain from repeating "back to the grind" from now on.

Work was over rather quickly today because things are getting more busy. Just need to keep pushing forward.

After work I went skateboarding. I'm doing pretty well at making this a regular activity once I get home. Two goals are in mind here: One is to get my heart rate up and do something physically demanding more often, and Two is to get more comfortable on the board. Surprisingly, it didn't take long for my comfort level to increase, and I was rolling around just fine. Now I need to work on the tricks.

Ate some food, then watched some MNF, played Minecraft, and worked on my mini-database of music statistics. Simple yet productive day.

2010.09.19 Sunday

Woke up after a solid 8 hours. I consider that sleeping in, but Kelc does not.

Cruised on over to Pluckers to watch the Steelers game. This week, they are up against the Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans. About halfway through the game, the Titans took out Vince. We didn't have audio with our game, so no idea what the announcers were saying. Pluckers only plays sound to one game at a time, and they obviously picked the cowboy's game. LOL, Dallas not doing too well. We had a bunch of wings, sides, and too much dessert.

After Pluckers, I thought "what the heck, let's go to Best Buy and check out some of the new TVs" because I keep hearing about all these fancy new features. Sure enough, I get a salesman that likes to lurk along while I'm checking out the various TVs. Not completely terrible. I'm actually surprised he knew what he was talking about between the different technologies of LCD vs Plasma, or regular vs LED backlighting, DLP... good. -- One thing you have to be really careful about with looking at TVs at stores is that they will calibrate certain models to look better or brighter to help sell them. Almost every single LED-backlit model was super-saturated with color and brightness. Another thing I wanted to check out was thickness and heat; I want something that isn't super heavy and hard to move, and also I don't want a space heater. LED-backlighting looks like it might be better on that front, but the super-brightness just made the image harder to see.

In summation, I have no idea why I'm looking at TVs. I have something that works for my current living situation. If I were to get a TV, I would definitely want to go big. Plasma is generally cheaper, and has excellent response time, but doesnt really get as bright and can be problematic with burn-in. LED-backlit produces very little heat, usually very thin, but also looks fake-white. "Traditional" LCDs are middle ground. And they didn't really have any DLP, I guess that's not doing as well in the market.

Why would I want a TV if everything is fine as is? Probably because TV manufacturers want me to think I need a new one. They've really ramped up with adding new features and trying to keep people uneducated about specs so they can make a quick buck. Does 120hz/240hz/600hz really do anything? Yes. It's synthetic, but it smooths out the image. Necessary? Hardly. Will you actually see something that other viewers may miss because your TV is better? Probably not. You can't create new information "in-between" frames. Every LCD and Plasma suffers from at least some ghosting.

So this guy is walking around with us, talking about TVs and whatnot. Then I eventually get him to walk off, and he comes back like 5 minutes later talking about different specials they have, like free sattellite for 6 months, no interest payment plans, and installation options. One of the installation options he showed was one about setting up a wireless router and "securing" it so people couldn't hack into it. Yeah.... thanks dude. Another thing to note, on our way out of the store I wanted to check out the receivers section to see about sound systems... yeah I couldn't find it. Maybe they shoved all the home theater systems into a small room or something.

Back at home, Kelc and I fell asleep to an episode of Smallville. Yay we get to watch it again later.

Kelc left for Arlington, I played Minecraft into the late evening. Oh, and I started working on some circuits. My room turns into a pigsty when I pull out all my electronics. If I ever get my own place, I need a project room, or a roomy garage.

2010.09.18 Saturday

Watched the end of season 5 of Smallville. Hooray! Halfway done...

Ran by HEB to get some last-minute snacks and food for the game. Had some people over to watch the UT vs Texas Tech game. Fun game to watch because it was close, but disappointing that it was ever close at all. Still got that W.

Up late, skateboarding, hanging out, etc. It was actually a pretty eventful day, just not a lot to say about it.

2010.09.17 Friday

I went home after sleeping for a really long time. I think I totaled about 17 hours.

On my way home, stopped by Academy to pick up some goods. Shoes and sunglasses. I like browsing that store. Every time I see the bike section, I really want to just get one, and then also a motorcycle. Some day...

Worked on some homework, played Minecraft some more.

Kelc came over and we watched some more Smallville. We are nearing the end of season 5. After that, Kelc went to go run some errands while Habs and I played some counter-strike. Not counter-strike source, just regular counter-strike. Out of the few servers still online, we found one that didn't have a bunch of crappy add-ons installed, though the admin would sometimes screw with the gravity and speed. Good times, I still suck at it.

Kelc and I went over to Paul's later to watch a movie and drink some aged Merlot. Most people didn't stay awake as it felt like there were only 20 lines of dialog in the movie. We did, however, acquire some Whataburger that hit the sweet spot in the middle of the night.

2010.09.16 Thursday

Another long day at work, but hey I'm getting shtuff done.

After work, I played a few minutes of Minecraft, then passed out. The long days and short nights have finally caught up to me. Slept from 6 to whenever Kelc came over. Then we went to get some Chik-fil-a, watch a Smallville, and head to her house.

Lindsey and Josh came in town to spend time with her dad. He's not doing so well. :-(

2010.09.15 Wednesday

I've been getting less and less sleep, add to that some workdays getting longer... equals a grumpy Andy.

Good news everyone... I'm no longer making car payments. Booyakasha.

After staying at work late, went to our first kickball game of the season. My sister is playing this time around. Some new faces, some not. We did rather well our first time kicking while the other team was still warming up. Only one thing matters right? Getting that "W". We got it.

Watched some Tosh.O and snacked on random food. I don't really have much to eat around here.

2010.09.14 Tuesday

I'm writing this rather late so some details will be missing. Work was average, and I probably played a bunch of Minecraft in the evening.

I'm starting another song. I tend to have a lot of songs started, but not completed. Similar to how I have projects started and not completed. One of these days...

2010.09.13 Monday

Took Kelc to the airport, the back to the grind.

Work wasn't too bad. Either things are slightly slowing down, or I'm speeding up. Still some fun times ahead.

Went home through some crazy traffic. Crazy drivers frustrate me, but I'm getting better at not being bothered as much. Even when I'm running late, or want to get somewhere quickly, I try to drive responsibly. Is the increased risk of death really worth the recklessness? I think it isn't.

Changed clothes, put in some laundry, grabbed the mail key, and hopped on my skateboard. *GASP* yeah that's right, I went skateboarding. I've lost a good deal of the comfort level that I used to have, which also means there is no confidence behind any flip trick. I really need to spend a few minutes each day just riding around and getting back my "skate-legs". I think I can get myself back into pretty good shape if I just keep at it and don't break anything. My body has retained some strength from all the weight training I've been doing, but since I don't get out and run around as much, I don't think I'm as agile as I used to be. I also should get a bicycle and build up my quads... it was almost disgusting.

Worked on some things with my computer. I'm trying to figure out what all I have left to listen to in my music listening adventure. Not too long after that, I found myself playing Minecraft. There goes the evening.

Later, cooked up some sauteed asparagus, macaroni with roasted tomato and garlic marinara, and some garlic hummus. Yum.

2010.09.12 Sunday

N . F . L .

It's awesome to see how quickly the weekend flies by when football is around. Met up with Kelc and her family at Fowler's to watch the Steelers game. They snatched a win in overtime. A really close game that probably should not have been close.

Quick trip to Dairy Queen for blizzards. Mmmm.

Went back to my parent's to hang out and take care of a few things. Also took a quick nap. Blizzards really suck the energy right out.

Watched the Cowboys game and a couple Smallvilles. I did some homework while Kelc played some Minecraft. Thinking about playing, or watching someone else play just makes me want to play that much more. How long will this addiction last?

2010.09.11 Saturday

Wow. Today is that day. 9 years ago... still remember sitting in Algebra 2 when my teacher turned on the TV to some horrific news, then sat in Chemistry when the announcement was made of what had happened.. and the longest moment of silence I've ever experienced. And then after school I remember having to go to band practice... heartless band directors. Oh well, we won state that year.

Went out to lunch with Kelc to Jason's Deli.

After that, met up with my dad to help out with some things around the house. Then off to the first home UT game of the season. It is very different sitting up on the 2nd level... nobody stands unless there is something exciting happening. And my dad and I would probably the loudest people cheering in about a 10ft radius. UT won, but I think they still have room to grow.

Went to Sonic after the game, ate some food, then met up with Kelc... who happened to be another Sonic location. Spent some time with her friends, then the Cedar Park police showed up. The more you get into suburbia, the more bored the police get. And if you look like you might be young then they don't trust you at all. Were we drinking? no. Smoking? no. Destroying property? Being loud? Causing a disturbance? no. We were sitting around talking. I mean, I respect the cops for putting their lives on the line to keep everyone safe, but their time should have been used more effectively somewhere else. At least they kept it mostly professional and didn't hassle us; asked us how old we were to make sure we weren't breaking curfew, then said to "keep it down" and went on their way.

Oh and we stopped by Wendy's to get a free frosty since some dude kicked a 25 yard field goal. Thanks dude.

2010.09.10 Friday

Well. Silly me, I went to bed in such a haste/haze that I didn't check to confirm my alarm clock would actually succeed in waking me.

It didn't.

Oddly enough, a coworker text-messaged me to e-mail others about being late as well. Funny how the universe sets things up.

At work, I took care of business and pushed through some things that weren't "due" until the end of next week. Hell yeah. Been a while since I had one of those good feelings of accomplishment.

Kelc came over. We sat around for a bit, watched a Smallville. Then I convinced her to let me show her Minecraft. I think she likes it. It seems goofy at first, but the simplicity makes it awesome.

Before we knew it, it was close to 10pm. Time for a late-dinner run to Taco C.

2010.09.09 Thursday

Normalized work day. Actually able to switch gears for once and change things up a bit.

Came home a bit later than I wanted to. Didn't really have much going on. Then I made a critical error:

I purchased MineCraft.

Yep, I did it. Bought at 7:30... then Kelc called to ask if I was watching the NFL Game (which by the way, is awesome that real season has finally started), which I had forgotten about. I turn on the game that was about a third of the way into the first quarter. Then I continue playing the game... next time I look up, there are only a few minutes left in the 4th quarter. Woah. Guess I'll get some food for dinner. After food, went back to playing the game. Next time I look up, it's freaking 1am already.

Time for bed. Thursday evening disappeared.

2010.09.08 Wednesday

Well today was one of those days: forgot my belt. I think that is the second or third time I forgot since I started working full time. I would have to say that it is both comforting and discomforting. Sans-belt, I feel a tad more flexible and relaxed. With the belt my pants actually stay up, at the price of slight discomfort.

Work was, as expected, workish.

Went home late again. Didn't really do much. Another one of those uninteresting blog entires. I remember watching some Man vs. Wild, and cooking mac and cheese.

One of these days, I'll convince myself to get to bed at a reasonable time so I'm more energetic when awake.

2010.09.07 Tuesday

Back to the grind. The long weekend was very much appreciated. I actually didn't know it was coming up, but once it was here, mmm mmm.

Work then school. At least I get fed during evening class.

After class, did a few things for work then made my way home through the storm. I would have to argue that tropical storms are a lot more dangerous. It seems like nobody knew this was coming, and Central Texas roads/drivers are not designed to handle this. Pretty scary. If it was a real "hurricane" then I bet everything would be shut down and everybody would be waiting it out in the safety of their homes.

I spent the evening moving stuff around upstairs. The music room has a lot more space when the unnecessary items are taken out. Where did these items go? Travis's now vacant room. Might as well put a few items in there that I hardly use. Good to spread out some.

Leftovers for dinner.

2010.09.06 Monday

Work... on a holiday. Woo hoo. Spent a good chunk of my day dealing with work that I brought home; one might call it "home work" but that would be incorrect. I also worked on homework for school. Confusing, I know.

I had to play some minecraft. Needed that fix.

I met up with Tyler Matt and Melanie to play vennis. Good stuff. My arms already hurt, so the next few days should be fun as well.

2010.09.05 Sunday

Did an excellent job of sleeping in again. Didn't really get up till about noon. Spike had some interesting movies on all day, including Teen Wolf and lots of Star Wars. Also snuck in the movie A Serious Man. Interesting movie, and funny in a different way. Didn't leave until early in the evening.

Sat around some, played more Minecraft, did a little bit of work, then went to go see if some friends were playing vennis. Slight confusion, but no vennis tonight; not enough people committed. Maybe tomorrow.

Back home, more minecraft. Late night pasta and wine for one.

2010.09.04 Saturday

Woke up pretty late. Last night was rather... crazy. Good to know that my friends are ok and got a hefty unnecessary slap on the wrist.

Took a shower, then went off to HEB to get food. My shelf is seriously lacking in edibles.

I was getting ready for the football game when I got a phone call from Trey. Yep Trey is in town, I just had to pick him up. He watched the UT vs Rice game with us. Unfortunately, the game was rather unexciting and the refs were pretty biased.

I dropped Trey off downtown and went in to work to catch up on some things. I thought I was going to be the only person there, but there was a security guy doing... something. *shrug*

Back at home, I made some guacamole. Packed up some things, then went over to Paul's apartment to watch some movies and hang out with friends, whilst drinking some Cab Sav.

2010.09.03 Friday

Woke up on the early side. Guess my body is used to work-time. Ran off to starbucks to get some coffee and get things rolling.

So I did something awesome. I agreed to do work over the weekend. *sigh* I guess it's nice that Kelc is out of town so I won't feel like I'm ignoring her.

In the morning, I got carried away with playing more Minecraft. If your mouse has a back button that you might accidentally hit, I suggest saving often. :-P

I also ran an errand over to Ace Discount Glass. I've been wanting glass to top off my dresser and nightstand, hopefully to avoid rings from drinks and scratches, but mostly for looks. They told me it would take about 30 minutes, but in reality it took about 20 minutes, counting from when I pulled into the parking lot to when I was rolling away.

Worked on work, listened to music, played Minecraft.

2010.09.02 Thursday

Longer day at work than I was expecting.

After work, made some taco meat for dinner. Yeah just taco meat with tortilla chips, and green beans on the side. Not too complicated.

Also made a trip down to Doc's super far south to pick up some t-shirts for our kickball team. Heavy showers out of nowhere. That made the trip longer than it should have, but I didn't mind that much. I listened to some more music (I'm over 1100 albums now btw). Just so happens that lately I'm listening to a lot of Slipknot. Good times. Surprisingly talented in my opinion. I haven't really listened to them since high school.

I found another time sink. Not that I really need something to kill time, but it's a fun simple java app/game. It's called Minecraft. Check it out, you can play some for free. You will also need java.

2010.09.01 Wednesday

Hump day.

Mostly a typical day of work. Atypical day of work? A tip o cull day?

At home, cleaned up things more. Vacuumed, cleaned some bathrooms, blah dee blah.