Author: nslyax

nslyaxhttp://www.nicholasyax.com/I am a Ferris State alum currently living in Holland, MI. My blog has been being neglected recently, but I hope to be posting more.
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Mmm, Mexican

Jenn and I went to El Burrito for dinner tonight. I really wanted chicken burrito with green sauce, but it wasn’t on the menu, so I went for a chicken chimichanga, which was quite good. Jenn and I also split a 46 oz raspberry margarita, which was also quite good.

You may notice in the left sidebar a section labeled Tags. New to WordPress 2.3, they are similar to categories, but a little more detailed. I added tags to most posts for the last 3 months, so some are showing up now. I had a problem with going through, that I would use a tag then never use it again and a few other issues. I think I am going to write down 50 or so tags, and try and stick to those. The big problem, obviously, is there are now 496 untagged posts. This sounds way to much like my fun with categories, but I only had to do about 350 of those. The other issue I have, is the tags will be very similar to the abstracts I write for every post. This means for every new post I will need a title, the post, an abstract, categories, and tags. It almost sounds like work. I will figure something out I guess.

Post #495

Yes, we are that far along. Post 500 will be sometime in October, probably about 3 weeks.

So, our weekend was eventful. Jenn and I visited the FSU Bookstore Friday and got some shirts for us and one for my dad. He had asked for one when he was here, and knowing we were going to Bay City over the weekend, decided to pick up.

My Mom and Sue stopped by on Friday. They were in Clare to shop at the Amish General Store, and since that put them already halfway, they continued over to here. We gave them the quick tour of town and enjoyed a DQ Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.

Saturday Jenn and I left for Bay City around noon, and made pretty good time. We began in Bay City at the mall, where Hagen, Dunlop, Labadie, Thelen, and Graff had brought all their used cars for some supersale. There were a few I kind of liked, but nothing great. Next we went to my house for root beer bottles and to visit, then out to Johnson’s Giant Pumpkins to watch their trebuchet and get some donuts and cider. At first I was all “aww, we saw 2x last year, going to be so-so”, but then I did see it, and I was “WOW, I FORGOT HOW COOL THIS IS!!!!”. Yeah. They also had the prototype of the air cannon he wants to build next.

Next up, was Heinz’ fruit market, for some tomatoes and peppers. Jenn really wanted pumpkins, but I made her wait. We then went back to the mall, to see if we could recheck on a car, that was no longer there. We went to Thelen to see if it was back at the dealership, and having finally found it, was informed it had been sold. Oh well.

Finally, we went to the River of Time. We made a quick walkthrough, bought some rootbeer, both independently considered buying an 1800s map of Michigan without knowing it, and left. I have been to like 15 consecutive years of the event, and it really never changes. Maybe we need some new history?

After that, we headed over to Grandpa Tony’s for dinner, then to the Mall again, this time to shop. I bought a $40 shirt for $9, and that was actually all. Next we went to see my dad and give him his shirt. Following visiting with him and my Grandma, we went to see Todd and Ashley at their new house for a quick tour of that. Around 9:30 by then I believe, we headed home.

Sunday, after all the excitement Saturday, we sat on our asses. Not totally, we watched a movie (“Wild Hogs”, good, but not great, I think we weren’t in a real movie mood), went to Meijer, pulled out my winter clothes, sorted through my side of the closet for things that I never wear, and watched the Sunday night Fox lineup.

So, that was the weekend.

A few little blog related posts:
This (as mentioned) is post 495.
Post 500 will be in October, even if I need to make 4 posts in one day.
The 150,000 word isn’t real far off (this post should put around 140,000).
For the first time, Firefox outranks Safari among my visitors.
I have plans for an overhaul of the themes, more info on the way.

That should be all.

nick

Upgrade

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.3. As with any upgrade, if you find errors, hickups, bugs, or other abnormalities, let me know.

The first SME meeting was today. It was a little disorganized, but we got a schedule for future meetings and a little discussion on what we will be doing over the upcoming year.

Other than that, mostly just been going to class. Had a test in 311 today, 341 tomorrow, 340 Tuesday.

Might go to River of Time Saturday. We were going to go Sunday to see Todd dressed as a Voyageur in his cousin’s wedding, but not sure. Maybe I will just find an apple orchard/corn maze type farm around here and call it good.

Jenn and I were actually talking yesterday, and decided we were going to buy a pumpkin farm and have a corn maze and pumpkin catapult and give cow-drawn carriage rides, and charge people $1 for a picture of them kissing our ass (our donkey that is). I have said before, Autumn is my favorite season, and pumpkin farms are the heart of this time of year. Besides, fresh hot pumpkin doughnuts in warm apple cider is just so damn good.

nick

Of Rodeos and Dress Clothes

Alot to cover this time.

Wednesday, Jenn and I went to Grand Rapids for the SME show. Show wasn’t really bad, but not good. Nobody hiring like I was told, but we got some cool swag. Afterward, we went car shopping up and down 28th street. There were a few cars that maybe had some small chance of possibility, but not much. We had lunch at Red Robin, which was pretty good. We did some quick shopping through Woodland Mall, including checking out the new iPods which have grown on me.

After enough of not finding cars, we went to Centerpointe Mall where Jenn bought a new work uniform and I bought a suit and dress shoes. It was originally marked $550 and I got it for $145, not bad. I need to have the pants tailored, but it should be good. After all that, we headed home.

Thursday, Jenn’s parents arrived around 9 am, and after chatting for a while they left with Jenn to GR for their own shopping (Jenn and I avoided shopping because we knew she would be back the next day). So they shopped around most of the day while I enjoyed a day off because my professors were all at the SME expo. Jenn stayed at the hotel that night, rather than driving home, as she worked the next morning.

Friday, I had my class and lab, then sat around for a little while before driving Jenn’s vehicle down to GR. On the way, a semi blew out a tire in front of me, and I accidentally took the wrong exit, but got there OK. Once at the hospital parking garage, I tried to call Jenn and tell her I was there, but had no signal, so I decided to go into the hospital to check if I had some there. Once in, I figured I could try and find her, not realizing the size of the hospital. I actually managed to find the right building, and take the right elevator, but for some reason thought she was on the 4th floor, when she is actually on 5th. Having signal, I gave her a call and found her quickly.

When she was done, we left and headed over to Van Andel Arena for the Built Ford Tough Series Presented by Wrangler Professional Bull Riders Tour (Yes, that is actually the official name) rodeo. So, we found parking, made our way in, and found our seats. It was actually pretty good, we all enjoyed it. The actual bull riding was not bad, but the show between was really good. When you think that 45 people compete to stay on a bull for 8 seconds, thats only about seven and a half minutes of the 120 minute show. From the rodeo clowns to contests and pyrotechnics and all kinds of other things, they fill the time. They even shot bratwurst from a t-shirt cannon (note: spellcheck doesn’t like the word bratwurst).

After the rodeo was over, we tried to find our way back to the hotel, where we spent some time in the hot tub, then went to Steak n’ Shake for a Caramel Apple Shake, which was awesome.

Jenn left for work before I was up, around 6. Her parents woke me up around 9 for free breakfast, then we drove back here where they left me, and continued to Traverse City, then home. Jenn called me around 6:30 (actual, 4:30, but I was asleep, and she didn’t mention it in the message) to tell me that she accepted OT, and wouldn’t be home until 12 – 12:30. Last night, she was complaining she wanted to call in, and then she took a 16 hour shift? Well, she gets out early tomorrow at 3, 4 hours early, so that’s something.

So, I went to KFC for dinner, and was sitting outside after ward since it was nice out. As I sat, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, jumped startled, and it was a deer. As I stare at it, it just stood there and stared back, then her 3 kids walked up one by one and did the same. After a minute of “Whoa! Look, there’s a dude there. Why is he in our yard?” They decided to walk off into the tree line.

So, right now, I am watching the rodeo again and it is really sucking. If I wasn’t mostly blogging I would have turned a long time ago. All the cool between the rides stuff, is not of TV. No t-shirt guns, no pyro, no Enterprise rent-a-tank, nothing. Oh well.

Fish are doing better, ich is nearly gone. Will keep treating for another week to make sure though.

My dad might be by tomorrow, he is going fishing in Baldwin, which isn’t far away.

I think that’s all.

later,
nick

Light Work

I just did a little work on the blog. First, I finally figured out how to include old blog visitors in the new stats, so the visitor count magically jumped from 6850 to 12908 (Scott was 12908 actually). I have wanted to do this for a while but BBClone doesn’t make it easy.

Second, while editing the templates to get rid of the August date the new counter had started, I realized only one of the templates work. So, I did what any lazy webmaster would do, and just disabled all the non working ones. They will probably be up next weekend, depending on when I have free time. Until then, you will use what I give you. For now, Peppers works, I will work on Maple as it is very fall-ish out. That may actually be up within the hour.

Last night, Jenn and I watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters. Let me just say, that the TV show is only about 10 minutes long for a reason. An hour and 29 minutes is just about unbearable.

Other than that, we enjoyed the weekend off.

Will update again when something cool happens.

nick

The Wedding

So, after I got out of class Friday (that was just class, nothing great, though we joked a lot, was kind of fun) I came home and Jenn and I packed quickly to leave. We got on the road, and arrived in Auburn around 5:00. Having an hour until rehearsal, we continued on to Bay City, getting to the mall at 5:25, leaving us 10 minutes to get my tux and her to find shoes. Fifteen minutes later, I had my tux (like we would make it on time) and had tried it on, and headed out to Auburn again. Rehearsal went well, about an hour or so. We were certainly not the only ones late so that was OK. Most everyone else went to the hall to setup, but I was excused to go out for my birthday. Before we left, I received my wedding party gift, an engraved beer mug from Things Remembered, the rest received theirs at the hall, the girls got wine goblets. So, Jenn and I went to Famous Dave’s. I called my mom, brother, and dad, but they had already eaten. We enjoyed our dinner, then headed to our hotel (the Quality Inn downtown Bay City, used to be Holiday Inn). Once there, after our stomachs settled, we got bored and went out for some last minute items, including black socks for me.

Saturday morning we got up, I showered and dressed, and Jenn took me out to the church for pics at 12. She headed back to the hotel to get dressed, get her hair done, and all that. Just after I arrived, all the groomsmen took Todd to the Auburn Motel for a drink, though we all just had coke. We got our pics taken and all that, and finally 2:00 rolled around for the ceremony. Ceremony went well. During vows, Todd was smiling ear to ear and nearly giggling, while Ashley was tearing up. Afterward we hung out as everyone left, then boarded the party bus. While enjoying various drinks, we went to the Waterfall Park, the Friendship Shell, and State Park for pictures. At the Waterfall Park, one of the groomsmen ran into the Tiki Lounge for more drinks, and we forgot he was gone, so he isn’t in any of those pictures. A second wedding party also arrived for their own pictures while we were there. Wenona Park we got everyone in the pictures, and got a Captain pose in too. State Park we never actually got out, not sure on the reason for that. We then stopped off at Northland Bar (I think that was name, maybe Northwoods?) on State Park Drive and we all ran in to the restrooms. We tried to get some drinks, but the girls had no ID, so they wouldn’t serve us.

Finally at the hall, we greeted everyone as they came in, then made our way in and to the head table. I was paired with Todd’s sister Holly (the only person in the wedding party I knew, other than the bride and groom) and we were first, and had no idea how to get across the hall. You would think that at a wedding reception, they would make a path for the wedding party to come across the room, and that the people would get out of the way when they saw the wedding party coming through. Nope. Anyway, we finally made it, and the rest of the party followed. Once at the table, it was time for toasts, with the mugs we had gotten the night before, mine being in Jenn’s back seat, who was not yet at the hall. We improvised and it was OK. Next was food. It is nice being able to eat first. Ashley’s Aunt catered, and did a very good job. Following eating the groomsmen cleared away the head table to make room for dancing, the cake was cut, and the fun began. As much as I hate dancing, I tried. I will only slow dance, because you basically stand there and slide your feet around. During the first dance, as Todd and Ashley were dancing before the rest of the wedding party started, we were watching Todd sing the sing into Ashley’s ear, and she was pouring tears.

So, the rest of the night was dancing and this and that. I actually missed the cake cutting, the garter, the bouquet, and I am sure more. Not sure how really. At some point Todd announced to all that it was my birthday. I had thought they were going to do around the cake cutting, but I guess was wrong. At the end of the night, Ashley gave me my birthday cake. I brought it back to hotel, and then to my Mom’s Sunday morning. I really didn’t want on my lap all the way back here, so ate some and left it there. It was very good, but was a big cake and no box. Other than that, my Brother and Dad showed up for reception, my Dad was at ceremony too. We went to Stretch’s after the reception since they kicked us out at 12. Sunday I visited mom and got my birthday present, then we headed home.

My Mom got me a dwarf orange tree, and I got a card from Dad and Grandma. I am 25, so don’t expect from many people anymore. Jenn got me nothing, but is OK, because I got her nothing, and she put out a lot of money on travel and gifts and such for my friends wedding (although I keep telling her Todd is her friend too).

So, we are home. I was too tired to update Sunday evening, and hosting company was relocating yesterday so servers were down. Right now, Todd and Ashley are in Hawaii somewhere.

I guess that is all. Another update in a few days.

I have a few pics, will try and get those up soon.

nick

New iPods

About an hour ago, Apple updated their entire iPod line.

The new iPod shuffle is available in different colors, with no other changes.

The new nano is smaller, and again different colors. Capacity is up to 4 and 8GB from 2 and 4, and the screen is slightly larger and brighter.

The iPod is now renamed iPod classic, and also has a redesigned case, greater capacity (up to 160GB), and is now in an all metal case.

New to the line is the iPod touch, essentially a phone-less iPhone. It features wi-fi, calendar and address book, Safari web browser, multi-touch interface, and direct access to the iTunes store, without needing to download media to a computer first.

All in all, good updates for most. I am unimpressed with the look of the new cases though. I will wait until I can see them in person, but my current opinion is if I were in the market for a new iPod, I would purchase a now “previous model” (especially with the price drops often seen on previous models).

No real news otherwise. Mostly waiting for the weekend for Todd’s wedding.

nick

Lots of Happenings

So, where to begin…

Over the weekend, Jenn and I went to Bay City for Todd’s Bachelor Party. I met up with them at the texan in Essexville where we had dinner, then bid them farewell as they headed toward Midland St., then to the Vu. From what I heard the next morning they had fun, but I am not much of a bar person.

Jenn and I went to see my dad after that, then to see my mom and Chris. After catching up and all that, we headed for our hotel. Quickly bored, we went car shopping as my neon is not real healthy, and I have that nice refund check coming. We found a nice VW GTI, but as it was around 10 on a Saturday night, the dealership was obviously not open. we then went to Essexville to see if her old apartment had been rented out yet, and it was. Next, we stopped by Ideal Party Store where I found Screamin’ Pumpkin Spiced Ale. Back at the Hotel, we enjoyed our drinks and ordered Roma’s, and watched Feasing on Asphalt.

The beer is good, but odd. It has a taste of clove and nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice. Not bad, but as I said, odd.

Anyway, Sunday morning Jenn and I went back to see the GTI again, and noticed several small things, that quickly added up. It just wasn’t worth the asking price, and even for less you would need to be willing to put in some rather considerable effort. We then headed over to my house to see what was up and wait for my dad to get out of church so we (Jenn, Chris, Dad, and I) could go to Genji. Jenn and I decided to go ahead to Midland to do some shopping, and meet up with the rest there. Of course, my dad called just as we were leaving town, but that was fine.

With some good food in us, we headed to the Midland Mall where Jenn found fuzzy Crocs. As she wears them to work everyday, and the weather will be turning cold soon, they were quickly nabed up and we were on our way home.

Monday, I started school. I began my 2 years at Ferris by being 10 minutes late for my first class, as I underestimated the parking situation. After a mere 50 minutes of Industrial Engineering, I headed home. Jenn and I drove around most of the local dealers, and had some promising news that Phillips Ford may be able to find the car I want, or similar, for the price I want. Jenn then dropped me off at school for my CNC class, and picked my up after so we could peruse the bookstore, which still didn’t have my last book.

Tuesday and today were basically just go to class, come home. Although, today I tried sticking around campus from 11 to 1:30 between my 2 classes, only to have Jenn call me wondering where I was, and remind me my second class is at 3. I still stuck it out, but probably not again.

My classes, for the most part, are OK. My CNC class scares me a little, as I feel possibly under-prepared, but will deal with it. Also, the Manufacturing Program has a rather harsh grading scale, that I will have to deal with. My grades may slip some this semester, but from my Delta average of A, A, A, A-, a little drop is probably OK.

Over Labor Day, we have no real plans. We mentioned possibly going car browsing in Grand Rapids, but I am kind of sick of that. I kind of want to leave it alone until at least after I get money. I want to try and sand and stain the headboard, as it hasn’t been touched in over a month now. If I get that done, it will free up a good amount of space in the office, which would be nice.

Beth emailed all of us tech pages to let us know she got a job at Delta in the Office of Information Technology.

Weekend after this, I go back to Bay City for Todd’s wedding. Will be there Friday evening through Sunday evening.

The 18th, I might go down to Grand Rapids for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Great Lakes Conference. Will depend on if I have a car yet (I should), and what is planned for my second class that day (my first class is cancelled, as the professor is speaking at the conference).

I actually just joined SME online last night. It’s $20 a year, and I save around $100 off my certification test when I graduate. Of course, if I want to remain a member after that, it is significantly higher for a non-student membership. Plus, Ferris’s SME chapter has an annual field trip to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Detroit, and other surrounding areas to see several manufacturing plants. In 2004, they even went to the Trek bicycle plant.

That is probably all.

See you all later,
nick

Some Quotes

At Steak n’ Shake, I wait on you. At other restaurants, the chicken waits on you.

What part of “Sudden Death” didn’t you understand?
(Funnier when you think of Christopher Walken saying it.)

Everyone and their mums is packin’ round here!
Like who?
Farmers.
Who else?
Farmers’ mums.

By the power of Greyskull!

I may not be a religious man Reverend, but I know right and I know wrong and I have the good grace to know which is which.
Oh, fuck off, grasshopper.

You’re a doctor, deal with it.
Yeah, motherfucker.

And are they as big as he is?
Who?
The mum and sister?
Same person.

I could have given you the tour! I’ve been around the station a few times!

With respect, sir, you can’t just make people disappear.
Yes I can, I’m the Chief Inspector.

So what made you want to become a policeman?
Officer.
What made you want to become a policeman officer?

I took the liberty of bullshitting you.

Luckily, my neck broke my fall.

Hey, hey, easy kids. Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes… or perhaps you don’t want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?

If someone doesn’t start explaining what’s going on here…well, there’s going to be some explaining to do!

Wise men say, ‘forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.’

You’re a claustraphobic!
You want a fist in the mouth? I’ve never even looked at another guy before!

Attention. Here’s an update on tonight’s dinner. It was veal. I repeat, veal. The winner of tonight’s mystery meat contest is Jeffrey Corbin who guessed “some kind of beef.”

Look at the size of that boy’s head. It’s like an orange on a toothpick.
No kidding. His head’s like Sputnik. Spherical, but quite pointy in parts.

Do you actually like haggis?
No, I think it’s repellent in every way. In fact, I think most Scottish cuisine is based on a dare.

And in closing, note the new poll.