NicholasYax.com

So, what have we got this time…

As cool as Northrop Grumman sounded, their deadline for for intern applications was already passed and they weren’t really looking to mfg. eng. anyway. The job fair went a little better. I talked to a few companies and handed out my resume, will see if I hear anything back. The problem I saw is a lack of employers looking for manufacturing engineering, they come for welding, mechanical, facilities, and electrical, and talk to us because we force them. Over the weekend I sent thank you emails (right after the job fair actually) and applied for a few more positions online.

Friday was El Burrito day with Dane and Conrad, plus Jenn and Conrad’s fiance. Was pretty good. Not sure if I want it again next week, maybe something different.

Saturday was Meijer’s shopping, and laundry later in the evening. Sunday was the start of dishes, and some relaxing.

This morning, Jenn woke me up to let me know that I didn’t have school, due apparently to ice. She went out to her vehicle and left, but I heard her alarm go off as she went to vehicle, must have hot on accident. I checked that I really didn’t have class, then called to say hi to her, and found out her alarm went off because she slipped on ice and hit the button on her way down. She also twisted her knee around pretty bad, and was hurting. She considered going to hospital here, but decided just go to work and see how it goes, and f it gets worse se is at a hospital. Well, about 3 hours later she was home, MRI scheduled for Wednesday and a slip for no work today or tomorrow. hopefully it’s just a sprain and not a tear.

Between waking up at 5:30 and Jenn getting home around 8:30 or 9, I worked on the site a little. The calendar and comment links are AJAX now, which is cool, and obviously the colors are changed. I have more, but I am closer. Maybe over the coming weekend.

I think that’s all. More some other day.

nick

Tomorrow is the Ferris Winter Job Fair, so here’s to hoping for luck at that. I am going to an informational meeting tonight with Northrop Grumman too. You may have heard of them, make a few little things like the B-2 Bomber and most of the Navy’s aircraft carriers.

So last weeks, I woke up Thursday and felt a little itch in my throat, like beginnings of a cold, too bad. We had the day off though thanks to a few inches of snow, so I met with Dane and Conrad at El Burrito Loco for lunch and some margaritas. We had a lot of fun there, then it was home for some Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Friday was class, and I was feeling a little worse. Luckily I was home around 11 and sat around and rested. Saturday and Sunday I felt progressively worse. Monday morning was cold as fuck walking in, actual temperature was -18 at 8:30 AM, thank god no wind. It actually warmed up 30 degrees over the course of Monday.

Yesterday was more class, and a haircut and some shopping at Meijer. Made some sloppy joes and tater-tots, greatest food ever. Was getting slippery on my way home, especially back roads. Jenn was lucky enough to miss the heavy traffic on the way home form work, had she left 2 hours earlier she would have been stuck in the 1 hour traffic jam.

Grand Rapids Rampage arena football starts Monday, March 10th, with a second game that Friday. I really want to go, would be cool to see and arena game I think. Need to find peoples to go with though. Maybe Jenn, maybe my dad and/or brother, though he would probably be working on a weekday so probably not.

No site work, since as I said was sick and mostly laid around. Do want to try and get something done, but probably not this weekend either.

I realized that with Jenn not counting, Scott on tour for a month, and that being everyone, I have no readers right now. My cousin Cindy reads, and my mom, but they seldom comment. Oh well.

Still loving my MacBook. Still haven’t really gotten the iBook ready for my Dad. I did get him a wireless router though, but I probably already mentioned that.

Jenn and I have been watching Dead Like Me, originally on Showtime I believe. There was a marathon on some channel over the summer and I watched several, and with TV sucking I downloaded the entire series. Best part is, no commercials.

Despite the no readers, I am pissed that I go a week without updates. Being sick is almost a valid excuse, but it has happened more than this once. I will try and do better.

I think that is all.

nick

So long as this post is 637 words long, I will reach 150,000 words in the blog on this post. Quite a milestone.

I am going to try and work on the theme for the site this weekend. I have some ideas I want to try and think I can get it more decent looking. I also downloaded a rather good looking theme I might try if I can’t get mine right. I really don’t like using pre-made themes though. I know I can do the coding, I just have issues with the little touches, and having no artistic ability. I can make it look good, I just don’t know what good looks like.

New MacBook is over a week old now. Along with being incredibly faster, it has Leopard, which is like a new computer all by itself. It doesn’t have the big features of some previous versions of OS X, but it did get a lot of little tweaks. Tabbed chats in iChat, better looking icons, key commands to sort icons in a folder, multiple desktops (that I haven’t really used yet), Quickview of documents without opening an application, preview icons of pretty much everything, and 294 more apparently. Plus, the computer is new, so its REALLY fast, and my battery is new and lasts longer.

School has been going fairly well. I was a little lost in stats, but he cleared that up this morning.

So, with all the words above, the post count comes up to 159,654, only halfway there. So, what else…

Superbowl was OK, but not great. I was unsure who to root for, since the Patriots were undefeated, but the Giants were the underdogs and I generally go for them. Unless Green Bay is in it, then they are always my choice. Commercials were so-so, some good ones but not as many as normal.

We rented Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Pretty good so far, although the trampoline judging is way off. You can suck ass and get 1st, or have the best routine ever and land 7th, is just weird.

I cleaned most of the apartment Sunday afternoon, vacuumed and moved around the furniture in the front room. It needed to be done. Still need to do office and bedroom.

Current count is 149,793, just 207 more.

I didn’t realize it was this far away. I was kind of done with this back at 159,650, and it just seems like it is dragging on and on.

Ferris is having a job fair on the 14th, and supposedly Northrup Gumman will be there, you know, the largest defense contractor in the US, the guys that make battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, tanks, aircraft, satellites, and more. Will be fun to talk to them. I don’t know that I would want to move away for the summer, think I really don’t actually, but do want to keep my options open, and they would be interesting.

OK, up to 149,900 right now, so down to like 90 more words by now. So 90 words, just 90 more words to reach 150,000. What 90 words can I write… Hmmm. OK, thats not very productive.

Apparently WordPress 2.3.3 is out, I have a little reminder to update on my screen. I think 2.4 was supposed to be out las month, but was cancelled because of decreased development over Christmas break, so they are skipping over to 2.5 in March. It is supposed to have some cool features from what I have heard and seen.

OK, so the word count is now up to 150,012. Yay, done!

See you next time.

nick

Classes and events for the remainder of today (Wed., Jan. 30) on the Big Rapids campus are canceled. Non-essential personnel have no need to report or remain on the job.

WOOHOO!

As I began this post, I had a mere 675 words to 150,000. Right now, I am up to 149376, which is lower than I thought. Maybe I will just leave it here, at 149393.

150,000 next time!

nick

First of all, I apologize for once again neglecting my blogging duties. I got obsessed with a few things online and suddenly it was a week since a post again. Truth be told, I should have posted my 150,000th word by now. Soon, it should be coming up soon, along with the 15,000th visitor. Maybe I will strike until I get the visitor? Stop at 149,999 words, until right after the 15,000th visit, then just post “word”. That could be sweet.

I was talking with Mom and Dad and Jenn and with my fin aid refund coming in tomorrow, I am getting a new computer tomorrow. My grandma is borrowing me some money and my Dad is buying my iBook from me. The problem I am having, is my refund is going to Catholic Federal, which is 100 miles away, and they limit my debit card to $1000 per 24 hours. Since my computer is more than that, I am stuck. The Apple Store accepts checks, but my checks have my old address and my drivers license my address here, so I don’t know if they will take it. I do have a credit card from Fifth Third, that they decided to give me after I got my car loan, that is totally open. That only has a credit limit of $1000 though, so I would need to split it across two cards. I also thought of the option of buying $600 or so of Apple Store gift cards tomorrow, then buying the computer Saturday, so that my debit card is not charged more than $1000, but I wouldn’t be able to buy until after whatever time of day I bought the gift cards. Since we are going to Grand Rapids after my class, it will already be later in the day, so wouldn’t be able to buy computer until 7 or so Saturday night, and need to stay in GR all day Friday and Saturday. Will figure something out.

In preparation for the new lappy, I bought the MacHeist II bundle. It comes out as $490 something in software for $49. It ended yesterday, but none of you use macs anyway. There were 3 apps I really wanted, and 2 of them were worth more than $49 anyway, so the other 11 were all gravy.

I need to do dishes, and make dinner, but a Hungry Man is sounding better. I need to do before we leave tomorrow either way though. It sucks when you neglect your dishes for a day because it doesn’t look like there are many there, then suddenly there is a giant pile.

OK, that’s all for today.

nick

I had 3 posts in the first week of the year, then I crapped out. Oh well.

I talked to mom and we moved in with my Grandma in May 1986, just before Chris’s first birthday. This leaves both options as possible first memories, likely just a few months apart. I kind of think the Johnny Carson memory was first, just because I can’t recall Chris being around at the time.

You probably noticed theme change. It was just some color switching, nothing major yet. I want something more at the top, as it is too bleh. Just seems like one giant blog of sameness up there. Maybe some pinstipes or an image. Will work on over time.

MacWorld 2008 begins tomorrow. The keynote presentation with new product announcements will be Tuesday at noon eastern, 9 AM pacific. It should be available about 4 PM to view online. If everything works out, I will be getting a new computer shortly after. My Mom and dad are putting in, and I making up the difference. this was actually offered to be around December 10th or so, but I held off knowing the possibilities MacWorld brings. We will see.

Yesterday Jenn and I were bored so we went shopping in Grand Rapids. We didn’t but much but had fun. I drooled at the Apple Store, especially knowing I could be back within a week.

Today we are supposed to do laundry, and make french onion soup, but are lacking in energy. Knowing I have school tomorrow is making me want to go to sleep.

Will have details of first day of school tomorrow maybe, if not they will be thrown in with MacWorld details Tuesday night.

Nick

So, I did some little tweeks to the blog today. I updated to WP 2.3.2 finally, which should have no effect on any of you. I also added a plugin to visit a random page, which you should see on the left. The problem is when you go to a random post, there is no sidebar on the single post pages, so you can’t go to another random post. I plan to fix this soon, possibly within the next hour or so.

Just thought I would let you know.

nick

So, first post of the new year is about…

stuff I forgot to post last year.

In the past couple weeks, with TV utterly shit-tacular, we have been renting more movies. Spiderman 3, Superman Returns, SuperBad, and Balls of Fury just to name a few. They were all pretty good. Superbad actually surprised me, I thought it was going to be incredibly stupid but managed to be pretty good.

Since Jenn bought me the Lego set for Christmas, I have been kind of obsessed with them. I found a few good sites online including BrickSet that list pretty much every set since the 60′s and PICSL that has original instructions for most all sets. With that information, I picked up all my old Lego sets from home and am trying to reassemble as many as I can find the parts for. I will try and post pictures of them all when I get a few done.

Of course, a New Years post wouldn’t be complete without resolutions. I survived to move, didn’t freak out too much, and am doing rather well at Ferris, so last year’s are good. I didn’t bike much though.

For 2008, I want to try and get in contact with a few more people that I used to talk to but haven’t in years. Facebook is helping alot with that already. I still want to bike more, but we will see. It won’t be too hard to do more than this year though. I want to blog more regularly too. I’m not saying back to every 3rd day, but more than once a week. Maybe will think of more for next post.

And finally, I am considering a new theme. Depends how much time I have in the next two weeks. I am just getting sick of these, and I am technically plagiarizing the pics I use at the top of the page. Besides, it’s me, I am amazed I made it over a year with this set.

You may have noted that there are ads again on the right. I decided anything is something, and if the site can actually pay for itself I should at least try. I only need to make like 2 or 3¢ a day after all.

OK, that’s all for today.

nick

Bender’s Big Score will be available on DVD Tuesday. Yes, this Tuesday. The first of 3 Futurama Movies, later to be chopped up into 9 episodes to be shown on Comedy Central, as Adult Swim is loosing the contract to air it next month, but will have a very long marathon.

Anyway, yeah, Futurama movie on DVD Tuesday.

Also, I just broke 145,000 words.

nick

Well, I changed my theme as you have seen I’m sure, and now today is snowed all day. No accumulation except on my windshield, but still snow.

Either tomorrow or Saturday Jenn and I go to her parents for Thanksgiving. We kind of want to go tomorrow and come back early Sunday, but Bill (Jenn’s sister’s boyfriend) has to work Saturday so we can’t have dinner until Sunday afternoon.

On my way back from Meijer, I once again saw the “Bridge May Be SPIcy” sign. I giggle every time I see it. I realized I should take a picture, next time.

So, thats about it. Class and home, class and home this week. Yesterday was 6 months since we moved here.

Update on the weekend Sunday or Monday.

nick