main screen turn on

I found a very good candidate laptop. It has a 1.8GHz Athlon 64 processor, 512MB of ram, an 80GB hard drive, built-in WiFi, a DVD+-RW burner, and a 15" screen for $880. That's an insanely good deal.

I'm just going over my to-do list before I call it a night. Not only that, but I actually did some of the things on it. I finally replaced my windshield wipers today, and I took care of the rebate crap that went with it. I also found out I can get a copy of my friend's recent music recital, so I put a check in the mail for MSU's recording services dept.

I got some Nigerian scam email today, so I sent them an ASCII middle finger as a response. I wish the tech dept would deactivate my MSU physics email so I would get less spam.

finding freeman

I did finish Atlas Shrugged yesterday. It took my 4 days in all, a new record for me.

Our garage sale might be next weekend, so I have to scramble and get everything sorted. I've got tons of stuff to get rid of and it will be good to get it out of here and make a bit of money on the side.

I'm looking at laptop computers again. I got pretty disgusted looking at the big shots' (Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, IBM) notebooks, but I've stumbled into the mobile-Athlon niche and I think I might find something I like.

status report

It's been a few days now and I think I'm liking this blog thing, it's pretty slick. I'm still working on the pictures thing though.

My iPod is fully charged and that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I wish I had an FM transmitter for it.

I was at the MSU SPS site today and I found I've been a member of it for exactly 14 months. For all the good it did me. Or anyone. I already fired my last salvo at those fools, I just go back for amusement and old time's sake.

I have some stuff to work on this week, but lots of time to do it in and I'm slowly getting my motive power back.

aftermath

My ears are still ringing.

I took some videos along with the pictures at the Hard Lessons concert, they came out really good. They were pretty huge, but DivX brought them down to a reasonable size. Unfortunately they are still too big to consider uploading with dialup, and I don't have a good place to put them, so I can't share them right now.

I am in the home stretch of Atlas Shrugged. I just got to The Speech, so I am saving up my energy to go through that.

the hard lessons

rocking in the name of those who cannot rock for themselves

The Hard Lessons concert was just awesome. I got there early enough to also hear The Nice Device, they are pretty good too. The Hard Lessons opened up with a bunch of video clips from them on their tour, which was cool (and pretty funny too). I took pictures but it's kind of hard because they are always moving around so much. I found and congratulated Augie (Gin) after they finished playing and he said they were going to do a West Coast tour - I told him to make sure they hit Portland.

My ears are still ringing.

all systems go

Well, Atlas Shrugged isn't getting finished today. I've read a little into the second chapter of Part III, but I need a break to enjoy this beautiful day. I'm finding ways to pack even more stuff into my room, and I think I might go to the driving range today. The Hard Lessons concert is tonight, I'm excited about it. I'm going to bring my camera this time.

avionics systems online

I finished Part II of Atlas Shrugged a little early, so I'm doing some cleanup and figuring out what I can get done.

The Hard Lessons concert is tomorrow! I would have gone and scoped out where the club is today, but traffic around here is really bad, doubly so because it's Memorial Day weekend. Besides, I was caught up in my reading.

I have been getting an inordinate amount of spam email. I think everyone at MSU has. Whatever shielded me from spam for 3.5 years is gone now. I would just switch over to Oregon State email but they won't let me set it up until the day I start working for them.

I want to get a laptop. I don't know what to get though. The sticking point is the hard drive. I am willing to get a laptop with a slower processor and less RAM than Riemann Mk. II, but I still need a ton of hard drive space. It doesn't look like most places are willing to let you get a system that is way out of balance like that, so I can either pay more than I want or find an alternate data storage solution. If I get a laptop I'm going to name it Freeman.

I got my diploma today, so I'm official done dealing with MSU.

synchronizing data transfer signal

All I've done today is read Atlas Shrugged. It's been pretty brutal. I have another four chapters to go to finish Part II. Tomorrow I hope to do all of Part III. I feel kind of bad that I'm not taking care of things, like finding an apartment in Corvallis or planning for the garage sale. This is important to me though, and I am not going to ease up. I'll continue working on everything else when I'm done.

Also, the Vin Diesel thread on allmsu.com got killed...so I brought it back.

aligning sensor matrix

I've been graduated for about three weeks now. I'm not sure what to think about MSU now. I beat it. I won. I graduated - with honors, even. I am fairly indifferent to MSU right now though. I am not sobbing like everyone else is about how my carefree undergrad days are over. It is time to move on, there is no reason to look back. I'm recovering and moving on. For me, Oregon State is not just about getting another piece of paper. It's about leaving behind what didn't work, taking what does, and using it as the foundation for the next phase of my life.

I've been up to East Lansing a couple times this week. The weather was very nice, the campus is very green again, and it is much quieter with no one else around. I think that's how I want to remember it.

One more chapter of Atlas Shrugged, then it's bedtime.