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.
nslyax's avatar

Weekend Snowed In

So, Jenn and I went up to Alpena for her Mom’s birthday over the weekend.  Friday night we met with them for a few hours, then went to a cheap hotel for the night.  Saturday morning Jenn went wedding dress shopping with her Mom, sister, and aunt while I took her car and roamed Home Depot and Staples.  When they were done we met at Applebee’s for lunch, then to a flower shop and back to her parents house.  Few hours later we went to dinner at a pretty good italian place.  Was snowing pretty hard when we were on way, and by the time we got out decided heading home probably not a great idea.  We went to Jenn’s sister’s for cake and ice cream and hung out for a while.  Jenn’s Dad offered to get us a slightly better hotel, so we stayed at the Best Western for the night.  Sunday morning there was a good 8″ on the ground, but roads were pretty well plowed.  We went to a bridal show with Jenn’s mom and sister, then lunch at Mancino’s and headed home.

Jenn managed to pick her wedding dress and her bride’s mad dresses while we were there.  Plus, we booked a photographer yesterday.  We still need to meet with the photographer at some point to get some details and such, but we are getting closer.  Minister, cake, and dinner menu still to go.

Went to BK yesterday and must say, burger shots are damn good.

Being Fat Tuesday, I had me some paczkis today.  Bakery in town makes some good ones.

Safari 4 Public Beta came out this morning, have been using all day.  Overall, works pretty well.  Only problem I have had so far is it isn’t compatible with my GrowlMail plugin.  Oh well, can do without until the fix.  I do have to say though, that having the tab bar on the top titlebar is difficult to get used to, but nice having extra 50 px or so of space.

Hmmm…

Spring break is approaching, about a week and a half now.  I think am heading to Bay City toward the end and doing something “spring-break-ish” with Jon the earlier part.  He said he has never been to Canada, maybe…

I guess thats all for now.  It’s something.

Sno*Drift and AutoShow

So, last weekend was Sno*Drift, the rally race in Atlanta, MI.  Was decent, but very cold.

Jon, Jenn, and I went up Friday night and met Jon’s friend Amber there.  The Holiday Inn Express in Gaylord was awesome.  We had dinner at La Seniorita and then did some shopping around town, including Jay’s of course.  We got a late start Saturday morning, so went straight for the 12:00 repair stop at Atlanta High School.  The next scheduled event was a race at the gravel pit, or a race in the woods.  We went to the gravel pit, which ended up a poor choice, as we were rather far from the cars.  Was still cool, but after that one race we were pretty much done, so didn’t stay for any of the three more that night.  Jon and Amber went there separate way, and Jenn and I went to Big Buck Brewery for dinner, then headed home.

This past week was mostly just school home, repeat.  Thursday was the winter job fair.  That was a complete joke.  There were barely any employers there, and nobody really looking for MfgEng.  Still, I keep applying online, at least 5 a week average.

Yesterday was the Grand Rapids Auto Show.  Unlike Detroit of Chicago where the automakers bring cars, this was more the dealers showing off what’s new.  You get a lot more freedom to inspect the vehicles here though, can get right in, pop the hood, whatever you want.  Was pretty good.

This week we are supposed to be working on a snow sculpture for SME, but the weather doesn’t seem to want that to happen.  Supposed to be 40s most of the week, and get some rain, not ideal conditions.  SHould drop back under freezing Thursday, so if there is any snow left then, we will try sculpting it.

So, thats about it for now.  Hopefully I find a job, will keep you updated.

New Fish Pics

I threw up some new pics of the fish Friday night.  I took them on my phone, so are unfortunately a bit grainy.  Jill is getting huge, and Tiger is doing well.  Surprisingly, the snails are still alive, though I can see some chips in their shells.  Pictures really don’t do Tiger justice, her colors just don’t show up right.

You can view the pics on my picasa album.

One Week Down

So, first week of class is over.  All went well, though I will have quite a bit of work this semester.  Automation, plant layout, and continuous improvement have some big projects, though homework should be limited.  Lean doesn’t seem like it will be too bad.

Jenn and I went to GR on Saturday, which was fun but nasty travel.  We passed quite a few accidents on the way there, and even more on the way back.  We had lunch at TGI Fridays, which I haven’t had in quite a while, and it was really good.  Need to go there more often.  Looked for shoes at Nordstrom Rack, but didn’t find anything I loved.

Cleaned on Friday, as Jenn’s parents came down.  We got most of it Friday, but got laundry and some more yesterday.  Still have a little mess on bedroom floor and the hell that is the office, but may actually get everything cleaned up.

I finally ordered my RAM.  MacBook now has 4GB, and Jenn has my 1GB.  If someone uses PC-5300 so-dimms, and needs 2 sticks of 256MB each, let me know.

That would be about it for now.  Going to enjoy the rest of my day off (no class MLK Day).

MacWorld '09

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

Little Late, lol

Well, I guess I should update.  I haven’t since November 16th, as the Christmas post was actually Jenn.

This past weekend we went to Bay City for Christmas.  We were going to leave Saturday, but was really foggy so we left Sunday afternoon and stayed through the evening.

Weekend before we went up to Alpena for christmas with Jenn’s family.  Drive home was really crappy as it was snowing faster than the plows were cleaning up.

Other than that, have done nothing for the last week and a half, and enjoyed the hell out of it.  It’s my last christmas break after all, I intend to enjoy it.

Exams were not bad, grades came out a 2 A’s, 2 A-‘s, and a B-.  GPA is at 3.72, would like to get it up to a 3.75 for Magna Cum Laude.  Just need 3 out of 4 A’s over winter, with no less than A- in the fourth.

During late November, I made a site for my SME group.  I  also helped organize our Christmas Parade float, which their are pictures of on the SME site.  We were competing for $100 prizes for most festive, most participants, and most lights.  We had a good chance at most lights, but haven’t heard yet (which presumably means we lost).

Also have not heard from UniSolar.  I interviewed with them mid November and was told I would hear by the holiday.  I emailed them 2 weeks ago and was told they would get back to me.  I’m not giving up on them though, with this economy (especially in MI) I’m sure they are looking long and hard before making any decisions.

You would think I would have more after 6 weeks, huh?

I have been watching DiggNation rather regularly now.  I downloaded it to watch on my iPod and got into it.  I had watched a few about a year ago but stopped after 2 or 3 episodes.  I used to watch all of Kevin Rose’s “the Broken” episodes, but with the death of TechTV I lost trach of his whereabouts for a while, and didn’t even realize he was the guy that started Digg.com until about 2 years ago.

Next week is MacWorld Expo, and Steve Jobs is not doing the keynote.  Further, it is to be the last expo attended by Apple.  In the past, Apple’s priority was to keep their user base from migrating away, so attended user expos.  Now, Apple has a large enough base that they can just use their TV spots and stores to build a bigger base.  So, its sad news for lovers of the keynotes, but understandable.  Many of Apple’s major announcements over the last few years have been at special events outside the expo anyway, and there is still Apple’s own WWDC in May-ish.

Only 16 hours left in 2008 right now.  That is a little scary.  Amazing how the year can seem so short and so long at the same time.

My beer came out decent.  Guys liked it, Jenn and I rather enjoyed it, Jenn’s Dad and his friend didn’t, lol.  Its not for people who are set on drinking one beer, and especially if that is a lighter beer.  My “Creative Juices #1” is rather heavy, and a bit bitter.

Fish are doing well.  We had a second Jack Dempsey (Buster), but he passed a few weeks ago.  Our unknown cichlid (Tiger) is doing well though.  Will need to get some pics.  I still really wat a bigger aquarium, and saw an awesome 65 gallon at PetSmart in Saginaw, but need to wait at least until after the move.

Finding a job is looking like it will be a royal pain.  most companies are laying off far more than hiring.  Still, I know they are out there.  Most of the layoffs are production workers while Manufacturing Engineers are exactly what they need to help trim inefficiency and reduce costs.

Went to Birch Run shopping with Jenn and her Mom and Sister a few weeks ago.  Was the first time I had been there in probably 5 years.  A lot of stores that have been there for as long as I can remember, and a few new ones.  I was excited to see a Merrill store, but Nordstrom’s Rack is still a better deal.

Other site work, other than SME listed above, is our wedding site.  Jenn made one up a few weeks ago, and I did a redo a few days ago.  I should have a final composite up within a couple weeks, as well as possibly its own domain.

I think, that is it.  I know there is more, especially after 6 weeks, but can’t think of it right now.  Will try and make my next most a little sooner.

nick

Movie List, Part Two

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