NicholasYax.com

Hello all, and sorry for the posting lapse, hopefully not a sign of the year to come.

OK, lots to cover, so where to start…

1. Happy New Year

Yes, though it is the 9th already, perhaps 10th or 11th by the time you read this, I haven’t said it yet so there you are. A new year’s post just wouldn’t be the same without resolutions, so lets get on with that. I learned to aim low, so I said I would buy a car, bike more, and keep up my grades. Well, I bought a car in June, I raised my GPA by 0.5 since then, and I did fairly well at biking. For next year, I propose the following:

• Bike more
• Keep up grades
• Survive move and not freak out at all the changes

That would be pretty impressive.

I will post a 2006 in review next time.

2. The Gap

So, why did I not post until today? Well, Tuesday I caught one hell of a flew, becoming actually sick around 2 am Tuesday. I spent almost all day Tuesday in bed or the bathroom, getting around 20 hours of sleep. Wednesday I was supposed to go to the Christmas party for work, but thought eating wasn’t in order yet. It wasn’t until Friday I felt I was near healthy. Saturday I went to Saginaw for a family picture that my grandma wanted. Sunday I realized I had to be in school the next day and vacation was over, so I did nothing, and I have been in school since. Also complicating matters was that 20 hours of sleep I mentioned, which had me screwed up to the point of waking between 3 and 5 PM and not going to bed till between 9 AM and noon. Anyway, I was sick, lay off.

3. School

So I went at 7:30 Monday morning and set up my independent study for Industrial Safety, that took about 10 minutes and I woke up for it. At 2:00 at was back to school for physics that was quite boring, then a 2 hour break that was boring, then CNC that was boring. Hopefully that doesn’t persist. Today I had Physics, that was slightly less boring. Tomorrow I will have strengths of materials at 8, that will be very early and I predict boring, and on Thursday I have Physics again, with a good chance of boring. On the non-boring front, I managed to only need 1 book this semester. For my IS the professor borrowed me his book, in CNC we were told the book wasn’t necessary and he didn’t plan to use it (it had been assigned by the previous instructor, who isn’t teaching it anymore apparently), and in Physics I asked and was told my old book from 3 years ago would work fine.

4. MacWorld

Hmm, the first MacWorld keynote I have ever seen with no Mac introductions, disappointing. The Apple TV was released, which is cool if you have an HDTV, but would be better with a built in 802.11n router maybe, or DVR functionality. as a box for the sole purpose of streaming from my computer, why spend $299 when I can get a $29 cable to connect laptop to the TV? Hell, if I had an HDTV I could just get a DVI cable and be done. The iPhone I admit is very cool, but more than I would ever need or could ever afford.

Where was iLife, iWork, Leopard, updated computers, updated software, anything mac related? I don’t know. With Vista approaching, Apple should have had something. WWDC may have the final OS 10.5 preview, as it could land as early as May and be in time to preview Leopard and still give a 30 day shipping announcement, but otherwise some sort of “Special Event” would be necessary. I have been afraid since the iPod began to grow that Apple may start to move too far from the Mac and get over-focussed on other devices, and this mac-less MacWorld brings that fear back all too strong.

OK, thats all from me today. I will try for something during the weekend.

nick

Back on Tuesday my iBook turned 4 years old. A few more months and I will be replacing it, but it has been quite good to me.

I was cleaning up my room some and started to go through my old textbooks. Looking through them, I really wondered why the hell I decided to keep them. Most have information that is easier to access online, and the rest are largely just of no use. Granted, I have a few that are useful, but most are not. Now, of course, Delta has moved on to a newer edition and they are useless as far as selling them back, so I don’t really know what to do with them. I wonder if I can donate textbooks to the library? That or I can take them camping, that’s always fun.

Anyway, I cleaned my room some, that is an accomplishment. Not like “Wow, your room is really clean, Nick”, but more of “Wow, you have a floor? I never knew.”

Yesterday I took a nap on the couch before class. The problem occurred around 4:30 when I woke up and it was dark out, and I realized I went to sleep at 4:30, and it was 4:30 both times I woke up and checked what time it was. So, it was actually about 6, and my class was beginning, and I decided screw it.

Alton Brown has a new show on food network in case any of you haven’t seen it yet. It’s called Feasting on Asphalt. He and a camera crew are riding motorcycles across the US over a month, and eating at roadside cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars, drive inns, and diners. So far there have been 2 episodes and I have really been enjoying it. Sadly, it seems it will end after the month, but who knows. It’s on Food Network on Saturday night.

Friday Jenn and I went to the Pig Gig. We were there around 12:30 so admission was free so we were able to spend some cash on food. I had a $6 pork sandwich and her a $5 skewer of overcooked shrimp, plus a $5 lemonade and $3 refill and a $3 french fry. It was all good (except overcooked shrimp), just not worth the money we payed.

Sunday we were going to go to the Fish Sandwich Festival, but since we had little cash after Pig Gig and the bank was closed, we decided to go shopping instead. On the way to Saginaw, we changed out mind and went to Flint instead. First off, to make sure nothing got in the way of it, we went straight to White Castle. We got the 3 burgers, flavored chicken rings (ranch or tobasco, we got ranch) and drink combo, plus an onion chips and a fish sandwich (for Jenn). After eating all that, we went back for 3 jalapeno cheese burgers and 2 more fish sandwiches. I didn’t try the fish, but everything else was good. If I were to return, I would go cheap and just get the regular burgers in a greater quantity perhaps. Chicken rings and onion chips and special burgers are good, but if you can get a $0.54 burger (I think it was anyway, between 51 and 59, the point is cheap), take it. After filling up, we went to the mall and we both found shoes, and they were buy 1 get 1 half off, so we saved some $$. Mine were about a year old, so it was certainly time.

Since I received my pell grant and such, Delta decided I didn’t need work study, so I am waiting for them to process my re-review form and get me set up. If I remain a library employee, I will stay at $5.70 an hour until October 1 when minimum wage rises, then I will go to about $7.50 or so. If, however, I get my workstudy, I go up to $6.50 on August 28, pay no tax, and go up to around $8.30. Now, that probably wont happen, since I doubt the increases will be increases over the new minimum wage equal to the amount over current minimum wage, but it is fun to imagine.

Which leads up to today. I went to the mall with my mom where she got some sandals, and I got a folding rocking camp chair since mine broke the last time we were camping (which we need to do soon). I fixed out doggie door for the second time, had lunch at Kingfisher downtown, and made shrimp, pineapple, and peach skewers with fresh mint, over coconut rice. It was as good as it sounds.

Also today was WWDC 2006. Leopard looks good, what we saw anyway. Mac Pro and XServe updates are cool, but unrealistic for me. Good news is Leopard is supposed to ship come spring, in time to come on my MacBook next summer.

And finally, I think I fixed the display problem. I figured it was CSS related, and just before going in to look over the code I decided to first check that it was still valid, and sure enough it wasn’t. Apparently Safari is more relaxed on validity so I hadn’t really noticed the problem, but Firefox and IE both choke a little on it. As I said, should be OK now, will check at work tomorrow to see for sure.

I suppose that is all.

nick

So, a week later and I finally write about it.

Saturday, as you should already know, I had off work to go with my mom to the funeral home for paperwork. Having the rest of the day free and needing something to keep my mind off recent events, I had told Jenn to be ready to go away at 10:30, and bring a bathing suit and towel.

We ran a little late, but did leave around 11:30 to a destination Jenn had no idea about. We headed off first down US-10 to Clare, where we stopped into Jay’s for a look around. Lot’s of camping stuff to wish for and inflatable boats to think long and hard for, but I ended up with a pocket chain saw and a rawhide cows head for the dogs (this thing was like 18″ diameter hunk of rawhide, with ears and everything). We then wandered next door to General Jim’s as I had never been there. Lots of cool things in there, military surplus and military pride and all that. They even had a 15 person life raft in the plastic case, like they throw off ships and auto-inflate.

Next we got back on 10 and for a few minutes I was excited that they redid 10 into divided 4 lane but that was quickly dissolved when we reached the freeway end and went down to a 2 lane road. After a while we came across a rummage sale and decided to look around. Among old dishes and clothing, there was a box of X rated tapes that were clearly recorded. We wondered if they were recorded from TV, copied form rentals, or home movies, but regardless purchased nothing. Further along the road we reached Reed City and turned south. We passed the Yoplait yogurt plant and headed down to Big Rapids.

Holy crap is Ferris big was the first impression. We stopped to look around the Alltel store for Jenn’s mom and I found a Big Rapids phone book to bring home. Next up we drove around the downtown area to look for somewhere to eat, but settled on Qdoba. We really didn’t want to eat at a chain restaurant, but at least this was a chain we had never eaten at. We really had wanted to eat in Paris, but the only restaurant was Pizza in Paris, and that wasn’t what we felt like. Anyway, Qdoba turned out to be very good, and now full we decided to drive around Ferris’s campus to see what we could. We never even got out of the car, a real campus tour will be come fall, but at least we got to see stuff. Following that, we headed toward the freeway, and down to Grand Rapids. On the way we saw a really bad accident, a trail blazer about 100ft off the freeway upside down. Sadly the paramedics didn’t look to be in much of a hurry.

GR is a big city, and our first stop in the big city was the museum. Very much on accident actually, we just saw it and were like wow, lets go. It turned out to be 4:40 though, and they were going to close at 5, so didn’t go in. Next we looked for the hospital, as Jenn would be working there. We found what we thought might be it, but kind of thought no, so kept looking and driving around, then gave up and went to find the mall. This took like an hour since we had no idea where it was. We went through some rather ghetto areas, but nothing bad, and got to see quite a bit of the city. Finally, we decided oh well and started heading for home when we decided to try 1 more exit, and after a ways we found the mall. Jenn went into DEB for a shirt, and when she came out I went looking for the Apple Store, but found it no where. I did find a shoe store with some nice shoes I would be dragged away from. I called my mom, and asked her to look up where the GR Apple Store was, and it turned out we were in the Kentwood Mall, and needed to be in the Woodland Mall, ACROSS THE STREET! We had come so very close. So, we headed out and across the street to the MUCH bigger mall. We had thought Kentwood was rather empty and blah for the mall of GR. So, we went straight to the Apple Store, having already walked around 1 mall that day, and went to drool at the MacBooks. Jenn decided they are too small, but I do like them. The graphics chip does scare me a little though.

Finally we decided to head for home, this time on I-96 to Lansing, the I-69 to Flint, and I-75 home. Just onto 69 we stopped in Perry to get something to drink at the Burger King. When we returned to the car, it wouldn’t start. I called my brother and Jenn called GM and nothing really amounted from it. GM was of the opinion it seemed that the car was there only concern, and what we did from now till Monday when it could be fixed (this was Saturday night remember) was our problem. Jenn got upset, and eventually GM sent a wrecker form Birch Run (to us, near Lansing) with an estimate of 90 minutes. I finally decided to give what my brother had suggested a try, since Jenn was not very focused at this point, and low and behold it worked. I got the engine started and as I understood it, it would be fine so long as we didn’t shut it off. This meant no White Castle, sadly, but oh well. We headed home and dropped Jenn’s car off at Dunlop to await repair on Monday. We tried starting it again, and it started right up fine, but decided not to risk it. We ended the night with Texan breakfast buffet with my mom (we went to Euclid, center used to be much better one, was left very disappointed).

So that was Saturday. I did see the Pere Marquette in Clare, and the intersection of Pere Marquette and White Pine in Reed City. As was suggested to me by Jenn, Big Rapids is still really far but much more logical goal the Mackinac, at least for now. That’s not to say I am canceling Mackinac or anything, just considering alternative near-term options.

Yeah, that’s about it.

Ohhhhh!!!
My mom fixed the iMac, she got a PowerBook. 1.67GHz, 15″ PowerBook G4, 80GB HD, 512MB RAM, and a SuperDrive. It’s the last PowerBook model made, and was a refurbished model too, and is now a “previous generation” which all add up to a hefty discount.

OK, see you later, hopefully a little sooner though.

nick

So the Tour de France has been an exciting one. Tomorrow is the final individual time trial that will likely shake things up quite a bit, then Sunday is the final day of racing.

Jenn and I are going to Grand Rapids Sunday, staying there that night, then going to Big Rapids Monday. I am not fully sure what we are doing in all, but will let you know afterward.

I have been sleeping way not enough for some reason. Not as bad as Jenn trying to switch from working nights to working days.

I really have no idea what to put up as a poll. If you have an idea, comment it and I will be happy to post it.

Other than that, not a whole lot. WWDC is coming in about 2 weeks now.

Yeah, that’s it.

nick

Sorry for that gap in posts, has been a weird week.

My uncle Steve came in on Friday night (I think was Friday) with my Aunt and DJ and Pat. They just left last night at 12. My grandma is having some health problems and they wanted to come visit and see us all. They are supposedly returning in 2 weeks for the Munger Potato Festival.

Jenn and I went to fireworks all 3 nights. Saturday we went to the middle grounds, then Sunday and Monday we went downtown behind DoubleTree. DoubleTree is definitely the better spot, though if you are in wrong area the bridge can block some of the view. Monday night’s Fireworks were some of the best I have ever seen. I enjoyed the hell out of them. The wind was just right both nights to give us quite a whiff of the gunpowder too. Jenn even got an elephant ear Monday, as she has wanted one since St. Stan’s 2 years ago. it was good, almost worth the $5.

Wednesday at work I almost killed a few people for not knowing the date. Independence Day is actually more often referred to as July 4th or 4th of july, yet these schmucks don’t know the date of the following day? What the hell?

We found out the Beth, my boss, actually knows most of my family. My Uncle John used to hang out with her brother, and through him she met my Mom, and Uncle Steve, and Grandma. I have actually met her brother and parents at Rudy J’s a few times. Beth’s Dad was once a police officer, and was honored Monday as one of the people to organize Bay City’s first fireworks festivals.

I was looking around the online Apple Store, and realized that right now, they have one hell of a deal, if you do it right. If you were to purchase a MacBook, an iPod, Microsoft Office, and a printer, you can save several hundred dollars. On the MacBook, you save $100 just for being a student, then you get a 2GB iPod free, or $179 off any other iPod. Then, even with Office already discounted for students, you save another $50 by rebate. Finally, you save $100 off several different printers, including a nice photo printer with wifi. But… I cant afford anything right now because I bought a car. Besides, I don’t really need it now, not till next fall, so if I wait for next summer when they will probably run nearly the same deals again, I will have a 1 year newer computer, printer, ipod, etc… And maybe there will be an intel native version of Office:Mac then (think Office 2007 is supposed to be native, but that probably won’t be out till March ’07, which would be too late, but we will see).

Uhm, also, Jenn went home for July 4th to see parents and such. I would have gone with, but she stayed night and I had to work Wednesday.

We are working on figuring out when we can go to Ferris. We have 2 possible dates, but I don’t remember them.

OK, that’s enough for now.

nick

Lets start with the car. Few days ago I decided to try and accomplish something with it so started with my trunk. The lock is jammed so the key wont work, but the release in the car does work. I lubed it and what not, and even tried disassembling it, but all to no avail. Then I pulled off my door panel to see if the missing speaker left dangling wires that were shorting, in hopes of getting the stereo to stop shutting off. Turns out, no, there weren’t. I did find out how shitty of a job Graff did at attaching my door panel though. Next I tried tightening up my spoiler, and found that of the 4 stud bolts attached to the spoiler and bolted to the trunk lid, 3 were not attached to the spoiler. On top of that, when they came loose the previous owner used a hot glue gun to try securing them. Not only did this not work, but it made for a bigger mess for me to clean before even starting. So, the trunk lock is still jammed, my stereo still shuts off randomly, and my spoiler is now in the trunk and 2 pieces of masking tape cover the bolt holes to keep out water. I am going to pick up some epoxy to reattach the studs, and see if chris can figure something out with stereo.

Powertrain apparently lost 360 some of its 750 employees to the buyout offers. When Scott and I were there, they had 1000 employees. There is a certain, small, chance that they could hire, but the more likely is they will be receiving transfers from plants that are scheduled to close.

The chances of me riding to Mackinaw seem to go down more that up. I realized when we went camping how much of a problem the hills, heat, and bugs may be. I am not saying I wont do it though. I would actually like to do it in say late September, when its cooler and the bugs are gone, but with school and work going on by then I don’t think it would be a possibility. I am afraid of trying it in August or July though.

In a related note, coverage of Tour de France begins on OLN on Saturday, that’s day after tomorrow! It really doesn’t seem like a year. I swear it was mid-July to mid-August, not early to early. Whatever, it here and I can watch it.

We are also down to about a month till Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. There are already rumors and supposed leaks of Tiger and possible specs of new PowerMacs (“MacPro” is current consensus for new name) and XServes. I almost wonder if it would be more fun to stop reading rumor sites now and wait to get the full surprise, but know it won’t happen.

I do plan to fix the template, since it appears to only display properly in Safari. IE, Firefox for Mac and Windows, and I presume most other browsers do not display it like it should be seen.

And finally, this post brings me to 100,150 words, by current count. That’s not bad.

later,

nick

So, I am sitting in our room in Gaylord, at the Baymont Inn. We just returned from the wedding and are going to head to the reception soon. Jenn looked very nice and I should have some pics in a week or so. We forgot Jenn’s camera at her appt., and Jenn’s mom forgot hers here at the hotel, but will get some pics at the reception.

Yesterday we went to Jay’s and there was far too much that I wanted, but I resisted and didn’t buy anything. This morning I went for a walk and stopped in the local bike shop to waste some time. They had some very nice Cannondales. I also window browsed at the local computer shop and they have a MacBook in there. Wow it’s nice looking. Smaller than mine, but widescreen. I want.

OK, I am off, maybe a further update later tonight.

nick

In the last post, I forgot to mention that Jenn made some very good mexican food on Saturday. Chili rellenos, tacos, and corn fritters, yum.

I got The Radioactive Boy Scout from the library, is a good read so far. When I return it, you should maybe try it. Need to request from Auburn or Pinconning, but only takes 2 days.

Apple released the updated iBooks yesterday, now the MacBook. Available in white or black, though black costs a premium of about $155, not sure why. I am a little disappointed that there is on aluminum “Pro” version, and quite disappointed at the Intel integrated graphics rather than a dedicated card. Other than that, they are nice laptops. Finally a 13″ widescreen, finally support for extended displays (so an external monitor will display an image other than what’s on the laptop display, as mine does), as well as audio in and gigabit ethernet. When I buy my laptop for ferris, I will likely be picking one up.

I have reviewed some of my summer goals, and have come to the conclusion that 3 of them need some changes. First, building a kayak/canoe isn’t very realistic. I have nowhere to store and no way to haul such a thing at this time. At some other point in my life, I may reconsider, but for now it is a no go. Secondly, making a hammock was to be done do to the cost of buying one, and the good folks at campmor have several that are very affordable. Besides, I don’t have much of a place in the backyard for one. Thirdly, the Mackinac trip will be delayed some, as it is unrealistic to think I can be ready by late June, only 1 month away now. This is partly due to me being over eager in planning, partly because of a week straight of rain, and partly because I don’t have and can’t yet afford some semi-crucial gear (namely panniers).

I have not yet made it to State Park, though yesterday and today both presented excellent opportunities. I am getting lazy and need to kick myself out of it. I am going on a ride with Todd later today down the river walk though.

OK, thats all for now.

nick

No, I’m not going to write some farce in trickery, I just need to update, and it happens to be today.

Today is also, btw, Apple’s 30th Birthday.

Tuesday I skipped speech, and half of electronics. It was really nice out and I decided I should have a day off, since I was sick through spring break. I went down to the end of Johnson and explored the bit of trails hidden there and shopped a bit at Meijer, then drove around with the windows down for a bit. Then some homework to make it all even out. It was quite nice out the past few days. Kinda cool and wet today, but better than winter.

School is coming closer to a close, which means an increase in final projects and such, which I am not appreciating.

I did a little biking Wednesday, 5.5 miles. I was a little tired when I left so not that far, I know, but is a start. I really really want to do more biking this summer.

So, that’s about it for now. I will try and be back within a week.

nick.