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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April Oops Part 1

School has been using up alot of my time, particularly our Amerikam project, so the blog wound up suffering.  Sorry.

To catch up, rather than all in one post, I am splitting it into two parts, each covering about a week, then a semi-current post.

So, where did I leave off…

Thursday, the 17th, I went with Dane and Greg to try disc golf.  My brother tried to get me to go for 2 years but it was a semi-far drive to get there.  Here, its about 2 minutes away, so I gave it a try.  It turns out, I like it.

Friday, following class, Jenn and I went to Kalamazoo.  We started off in GR at Cascade Winery to get a bottle of mead, and Jenn picked an apple wine.  We then continued down to kazoo and to our hotel.  We had dinner at Logan’s and stopped by the local bike shop as her parents have been looking at getting new bicycles.  Back at the hotel we tried her apple wine that was pretty good, then my mead that was rather disappointing.  It starts off like honey and water, but finishes very dry.

Overall, Kalamazoo seemed cool, with bike lanes EVERYWHERE and the Kal-Haven trail.  On the other hand, the shopping was spread out sort of weird, and it looked a lot like Saginaw, just sort of run down in a lot of the neighborhoods we saw.

Saturday we headed north toward home, stopping again in GR.  We had lunch downtown at Flannigan’s, then walked to DeVos Center for the Patio and Spa show that was decent, but not worth the money.  Flannigan’s was really good though, and I may agree with their claim of best rueben in GR.  They also have all 3 Guinness products on tap, so I tried a Harp and was very happy with it.

Following that, we went to the Dunhams on Plainfield to buy disks for Jenn and I, as I had borrowed Greg’s earlier, then headed home.

The following week was a lot of working on our project.  I did surprise myself though, by playing disc gold every day that week, Monday through Friday.

Also that Friday was our banquet at the Holiday Inn.  Several scholarships and the senior mock-award were presented, and dinner obviously.  Food was unimpressive sadly, considering the $20 each price (though the school covered half, and we only had to par $10).

I think I will leave it there for now.  The 28th – 2nd in the next post.

Nick

Fubar

So, whats new…

Here is a commercial for the Stanley Fubar, whick is great.  There was no candy in the pinata though.

Last week was class, thats about it.  Weekend was uneventful.  Jenn went to see her parents, I enjoyed a little alone time.

Really excited to see Iron Man when it comes out next month.  Watched Rambo, I Am Legend, and Juno over last week or so.

Really wish I had an internship.

Am watching Ax Men, pretty good show.

Thinking I am going to pull the Picassa alum from the sidebar.  If you want to see pics, can just click gallery.  Would speed up load times and such.  Possibly pull the poll down for a while too. Not permanent, just until I have at least a second reader/voter.  No decisions now, but under consideration.

Thats all.

nick

You Know You're an Engineer If…

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.

Catch-Up

Two weeks, that sucks.  Unfortunately, I still don’t have all that much.

School has been uneventful, just school.  Still no internship yet sadly.

Easter was decent.  Jenn and I went to Bob Evans for dinner and did a bit of shopping at Meijer.  Nothing real great.

Last weekend, we tried shopping for disc-golf stuff, because it thought it was nice out for a while.  We kind of got put off by the prices of real stuff though.  Maybe later, maybe try it with just a frisbee.  We also bought Guitar Hero III for the Wii, which has been fun.

And this weekend, we went to GR for some shopping, though we didn’t but much, two books.  We went for a new SIM card for my cellphone, which is supposedly the cause of my sudden sub-par reception, though it hasn’t helped all that much.

That, sadly, is two weeks.

Will try for sometime Thursdayish, after Jenn’s knee surgery.

nick

2.5, Finally

So, WordPress 2.5 is finally out. All seems to be well with the blog except that my Picasa sidebar widget won’t stay, so that is out for a little bit.

Much larger update either around 10 or sometime tomorrow, stretching back to about easter.

nick

Movie List, Part One

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

Spring Break

So, Bay City went well. Stopped at Jay’s on the way but didn’t really need anything so continued on. Once there, we went up to Bay Med and saw my grandma. She seems to be doing well, and definitely in good spirits. Went and saw my mom, then went to Hooters for dinner and did a little shopping at the Bay City Mall. Come 8, I met up with the guys from the library and Todd at Hooligans for some fun. When they kicked us out at 12, we went for a bite at Texan, then to our hotel.

Wednesday we had lunch at the Wanigan then went to my mom’s for a bit, then to see my Dad. My Grandma had just been released so she was finally home. I fixed their computer and got my iBook set up for my Dad. After all that, we did a little more shopping at Macy’s where I bought a pair of jeans and two shirts.

We decided since we were in Saginaw, we would try taking 46 across home. On our way, we got hungry, so we went to The Eat Place, which it turns out is actually called The Country Inn. It turns out they are REALLY good, like, some of the best food I’ve ever had. Finally though, we made it home.

So, that is about it. Scott, whenever you read this, you may commence the jealousy.

Five Second Rule

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

Where Did That Week Go?

Seems like the week just flew by.

Tuesday night we had our bowling party, all but 5 people from the Mfg. Eng. program showed up, about 20 in all. Seemed like we were all having fun.

A lot of the week was working on Project X, the first of two big projects of the semester. I think most of next week will be the same.

I realized Thursday that Ferris doesn’t have my first degree from Delta on my transcript, and hence does not have my MACRAO stamp. That explains why my advisor didn’t notice it I guess. Am trying to get it sorted out before Fall reg. begins in about 3 weeks. I emailed transfer and reg offices, but both forwarded to a nonexistent email address.

Friday I went to El Burrito with the guys. Was somehow very blah. Dane and I were very not up for mexican, but we were pressured by Conrad. Will have to go somewhere different next week.

I applied to Oshkosh Truck yesterday. Hopefully I start hearing back form at least a few of these soon.

The bakery in Reed City, we found out this week, has pasties. Apparently they made them for years, then stopped for a few years, and just brought them back a few weeks ago. They were really good, crust was best I have ever had on one. I can’t say if they are better than Yooperville, definitely different though.

I think that wraps it up. Till eventually…

nick

Changes Continue

I finally remembered the secret to updating the look of a site: Don’t try and change your old theme, just throw it out and start over. Well, I made some progress on that last night and the results are obvious. There is more to do, and I will try and keep on it.

Yesterday Dane, Conrad, and I went to Schuberg’s for lunch. It was a nice change form mexican, not that anything is wrong with El Burrito. I learned that sambuca is pretty good.

We rented Rayman Raving Rabbids and Trauma Center: New Blood for the Wii, and both are pretty cool. We rented a few movies too, including Bourne Ultimatum and 300, but haven’t watched them yet.

At our last SME meeting we discussed fundraising, and are looking at doing a pancake breakfast. We also decided to have an elementary school do our sales, since nobody can say no to a kid, and give them a share of the profits.

Jenn got the results of her MRI, and the professional opinion was that her knee is “messed up”. She was referred to an orthopedic surgeon and has an appointment Tuesday.

I applied at Trek Bikes, Cannondale, and IBM for internship positions this week. Cannondale sent me an email thanking me for my interest and noting my qualifications are impressive, but they are not currently seeking interns. I don’t know if that means they already hired them, haven’t hired them yet, or just don’t have interns, but at least I am putting myself out there.

That seems like about it. Not sure what else there could be.

OK, till next time then.

nick