NicholasYax.com

I think I may have said it before, but when I started this all I had no life, which gave me nothing to say but all the time in the world to say it.  Now, I have a life, am doing stuff, but always have something better to do that write it all down.  That and Facebook gets most of the little updates now.  I do mourn the loss of my record, that I could look back on when something happened, or reminisce about whatever event.  It would be nice if I kept that up.

Regardless, today is nine years since I began the blog, and it will stay only for at least another year.  I will put some thought into what happens beyond that over the next year though.  Does it get converted to some different format, does it stay online, do I start using it for another purpose, or does it all just get archived to my hard drive?  I have a year to decide.

In life type stuff, for those unaware, I have a permanent job (since July), a house (since September), and a dog (since November).  All are going well.

So, thats about all I have for now.  Too much to update on everything thats happened in the months since I posted, so I will just leave it here.

If you actually read this, let me know, so I have an idea of weather anybody reads and how worth it continuing to post would actually be.

nick

So, in the final Apple keynote of a MacWorld conference, Apple introduced iLife 09, iWork 09, and the 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro.  The only one I care about is iLife, particularly iPhoto (I don’t own a digital video camera, other than what phone or point-and-shoot can do, and have never really touched GarageBand).  So, part of iPhoto is now the ability to do facial detection, geo tag decoding, new slideshow themes, a new book, and the ability to sync with FaceBook and Flikr.

I use FaceBook, but seldom put pics on it, as when I started on FaceBook it required the person viewing to be a member as well, and made sharing a pain in the arse.  Instead, I put all my pics on Picasa, owned by Google, which I generally like except for very poor iPhoto syncing.

The idea of Flikr has crossed my mind several times in the past, and the new features of iPhoto make it even more appealing, except for one issue: Yahoo! owns Flikr.  Since about a 18 months ago, I have been rather anti Yahoo!, and am actually closing in very near deleting my Yahoo! account, as it currently is used only for a spam email box, which I can obviosly do without.

I understand why Apple made the choice of Flikr though, and it’s related to a release from the day earlier (Monday).  Picasa is a 2-part operation, the downloadable program as well as the web-albums.  On Monday, finally, Google released Picasa (the App) for Mac.  This program, for storing, sorting, categorizing, and sharing your pics to the web sounds incredibly similar to iPhoto, and is its newest competitor.

So, despite the fact that one of Google’s founders is on Apples board of directors, and that Apple uses Google maps and search as the default in over 20 apps on both Macs and the iPhone/iPod touch, there is no support in iPhoto for Picasa Web Albums, because it is a competing product.

So, I have 3 options:

1. Keep iPhoto and live with poor Picasa Web support.
2. Keep iPhoto and switch to Flikr
3. Switch to Picasa (the App) and keep Picasa Web Albums.

None of these are ideal, but I will most likely end up with #1.  I like iPhoto, and I generally like Picasa Web Albums.  Maybe I will give Flikr at least a try, before I end my Yahoo! account.

Anyway, moving along…

I went to Bay City today, was gone about 12 hours.  Nothing real big, visit  with Mom and Dad, fix Grandma’s computer, come home.  Roads weren’t bad, but other drivers seemed to think differently.  One guy was actually going 30 on the freeway at one point.

Watched several movies: “Zombie Strippers”, “HellBoy II”, “The Dark Knight”, as well as the entire series of “Clone High”.  All were pretty good.  I must recommend “The Dark Knight” to all, and “Clone High” as well.  ”Zombie Strippers” was pretty much just as fucked up of a movie as it sounds.

Bought my books for school yesterday, $208 and change for 3 books.  Good nes is, thats the last time I have to by text books (until grad school, 3 – 5 years maybe), yay!  School begins on Monday.

By my count, there were 45 posts in 2008, averaging to a post every 8 days or so, so not even once a week.  I think I can beat that this year, but who knows.  It is already the 8th, and I am only making my first post.

OK, thats enough for now.

nick

So, this has been sitting in my drafts for a few months now, so I suppose I may as well just post it.  You may or may not remember, but long ago, back in the spring, I was making a list of movies everyone should see.  This was part two, that was never really finished.  Yeah, just adds eight.  There are still a lot missing.

It continues…
Number 38 -

Hot Shots
Hot Shots, Part Deux
Die Hard
Die Harder
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Live Free or Die Hard
Brewsters Millions
the Toxic Avenger

Not alot has happened.  Went to school for a week, pulled an A on my MATL test, played some disc golf.  Went to a party last Thursday at Miles and Mike’s.  Then more school for a week, and a party at John and Frank’s.  Saturday we went to Bay City and saw my Mom and Dad, went to the Johnson’s Giant Pumpkins and the River of Time.  Had dinner at Famous Dave’s with Dad and Grandma then came home.

I got two new discs last week.  I actually do quite a bit better with them.  We were out discing one night and decided to play highland games with some logs, and ended up quite filthy from them.  Greg and I ended up tying though.  Neither of us could get the log to flip, just land and plop.

This weekend we are going up to East Jordan for Jenn’s Aunt’s wedding, and reception near Gaylord.

Uhm, think that is it.

More some other time.

nick

OMG!

Check this out.

Neil Patrick Harris in a musical about a mad scientist!

1. It’s my birthday.
2. School is good so far.
3. Still one class I haven’t been to, will have it at 4 I think.
4. Going to Chicago Thursday for IMTS.
5. Updates resume and started thinking about jobs this past week.
6. Put down deposit, Wedding is officially 10/10/09 at Garland Resort, Lewiston, MI.
7. Began considering where we want to live in 9 months.
8. Fitness/Medicine balls are fun.
9. Going to have homework this semester, which is a change from Winter.
10. Did I mention it’s my Birthday?

Last Friday in class, standing around talking, I pulled out my Ti spork to show Dane I had it for our Friday lunch.  Travis was there and asked why I had one, and I responded with “why don’t you have one?”  We continued a bit and I started on a discussion of how the spork is the best food for fried ice cream, and any ice cream really, as the fork tines help break through the shell and through the hard ice cream, yet the surface area of the spoon helps to hold more ice cream and pick up the semi-melted parts that would slip through a fork.  Travis’s response to this was “God, you are an engineer.”  I guess I have to be to put that much thought into something so, uhm, sporkish.

Disclaimer:

This is a list of movies that I feel everyone should see.
This is NOT a list of the best movies made, or even necessarily good movies.
This is NOT an ordered list.
This is NOT a comprehensive list. There are many movies I have not seen that probably would be on this list had I seen them.

Some of these movies are really good, some are very quotable, some are really funny, some are incredibly stupid, some are just classics that everyone needs to see for no other reason than everyone else has.

That said, here are the first 20 of about 100.

Down Periscope
McHale’s Navy
The Stupids
Super Mario Bros.
The Sandlot
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Hackers
WarGames
The NeverEnding Story I
The NeverEnding Story II
All 6 Star Wars movie
All 23 James Bond movies (24 come November 2008)
All 10 Star Trek Movies (11 come May 2009)
All 3 X-Men Movies
all 3 Spiderman Movies
Clerks
Clerks 2
Mall Rats
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
History of the World Part I
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Blazing Saddles
Space Balls
Judge Dredd
the Jerk
Natural Born Killers
the Usual Suspects
Dirty Harry
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Dr. Strangelove
RoboCop
the Terminator, 2, and 3
House on Haunted Hill
Lord of the Rings 1, 2, and 3

OK, thats 82, not 20 (84 within 12 months). I am counting it as 37 though.

Regarding the movie series, if you had seen some, and didn’t care for them, don’t bother with the rest. If you have seen some and didn’t mind them, see more. If you have never seen any of them, at least watch the first one or two.

Second note, research to movies. If there are moves by the same producer, see them in order: ie. Mallrats, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks 2 (note that they were made with Clerks first, but Mallrats does take place the day before).

More to come later, not necessarily next time.

nick

I was kind of waiting to post this entry until after I got WordPress 2.5 installed, which is supposed to be released today. Sadly, nothing has been heard yet, so may as well go ahead. I have done a little more work on the blog today while waiting though. I made some little theme changes, and removed the Wayback section from the sidebar (you know, the 1, 2, 3 years ago). I figure with the random button up top and the monthly archives in the sidebar, it’s good enough. Besides, it drops two plugins by removing the one thing. I also went back to tagging posts. I have tagged through the end of August 2003, so just 43 more months. I’m not saying its a little daunting, but this is the 529th post.

Anyway, the five second rule, what the hell? Does it really matter if food lays on the floor for 3, 5, 30 seconds? Even several minutes? If a gummy work falls on your kitchen floor, and lays there for 30 minutes, is it really any dirtier than it was the instant it contacted? As I see it, there are only 3 circumstances where time actually matters, and in at least 1, it still doesn’t.

1. The food/surface is wet or moist.
   In this scenario, wet ground will cause a soggyness in the food, or a wet food will increase dirt adhesion to the food. In theory, a wet surface, with time, could cause the food to become inedible due to becoming too soggy. To be honest though, if you drop your food in a puddle, does in matter how long it was in the puddle? No, not really.
2. The food becomes stale.
   If you drop a chip lets say, and don’t find it for at least an hour, and it has become stale, then the time did matter. To e honest though, who eats day old food off the floor?
3. Insects
   If you are out camping, and ants invade your food that was nicely nested on some grass, then time mattered. You have to beat those bugs to your food, or just forget about it.

As I see it, those are it. Granted, anything over about a minute is still a little weird. Although, there was this one time at Meijer in Saginaw, I ate a skittle off a cash register. It a have only been there 5 minutes, or a month, I don’t know. Jenn giggled ad her parents looked at us wondering why, but obviously we didn’t say.

Anyway, the past week…

Last Saturday my grandma was taken to Bay Med because she started coughing up blood. Apparently she has a lung and liver tumor. They are both inoperable so she is coming home today or tomorrow. They are starting her on chemo and hoping that will do the trick. She is my last grandparent, so losing her would be a major suck. Don’t think it has hit me yet though.

Thursday I spent 13+ hours at school. Left home 9 am, got home at 12 am. Class, McDonald’s (walked), class, Project X. Thank god we finished it. I actually spent until about 2 am doing finishing touches.

I am beginning to wonder if I should accept a weekly update schedule, but don’t really want to. It’s not like I am that busy, just forget mostly I think. Would help if someone other than Jenn read. May have a kind of fix for that soon though, more later.

Jenn worked last week, knee seems to be 99%. She spent the weekend in Traverse City with her mom, sister, and niece and nephew. Did some shopping and such. I had almost as much fun being alone. Not that I don’t like spending tie with her, but after 2 weeks of her always home kind of needed it.

Tomorrow Jenn and I go to Bay City for the day/evening. See family and friends and such. Will probably spend day tomorrow with family, then Hooligans at 8.

Hmm, what else…

This is why I can’t accept once a week, because I know I am forgetting stuff that I wanted to post. Need to just post it when I think of it.

Next blog, I will begin a new feature: Must see movies. I started thinking about for Jenn, but mind as well post them. I want to post 100, though it may be spread over 5 or more posts. Will shoot for at least 20 on the first 2 installments, then a little less as I run low.

I think, maybe, thats it.

Yeah, thank so.

Ooh, Qdoba brownies are AWESOME!

Blog was down for a few hours yesterday due to issues with the severs apparently. Not a problem of my hosts, but the building owners they lease from apparently. They went down just as I went to updater the time offsets for DST too, luckily I remembered to try again this morning so I don’t need to edit the time of several posts and comments like I did 2 years ago.

Uhm…

Yeah, later.

nick

Every now and then, I think back to different memories. Perhaps thinking about them helps me to remember them better, or not. In doing this I try and focus on what is the earliest memory I have, how far back can I go? Two of them are in the running.

One is late at night at my parents apartment on Farragut. I was up for some unknown reason and Johnny Carson was on. Thats really all I remember. My mom and dad were there, but I don’t remember any conversation. I actually remember a few things about the apartment, but none of them from that memory. I remember this step stool that looked like 2 huge blue shoes that was in front of the window so I could watch my grandma leave. I also remember this really weird green outdoor carpet that was in my play room. I remember my brothers crib and the light switch near it, but that may just be a created memory form people telling me that it was near the light switch. As I said though, those are separate memories than the Johnny Carson one.

The other possibility is being in my Grandma’s backyard on my swing-set singing “the weed whacker song” (more on that later). I had peanuts form St. Laurent Bros. that I was eating and would throw for the squirrels now and then. I remember hearing news about my brother in the hospital, but am not 100% sure what for. I think it was the day he was born, or have for a few years. Truth is though, he could have been getting tubes in his ears or his tonsils out though. I am rather sure that I did not live at my grandma’s though. The bad part is the only person who was there that could have confirmed what was going on would be my Grandma. Honestly, even if it was his birth, I wouldn’t be able to say if it was before the Johnny Carson memory or not.

As for “the weed whacker song”, I would sing it when I was on the swing, and it consisted solely of the word “weedwhacker” over and over again. OK, so I wasn’t real creative musically as a child, I’m still not.

Anyway, those are my earliest memories, I think. If it was my brothers birth, I was not quite 3 (2 years 10 months 1 day, 1035 days old). If not, I was still under five. If I remember to ask my mom when we moved, that will give me a better idea maybe.

Ok, that’s all for now.

nick