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Reminder Reminders

Just in case anyone forgot, Feasting on Asphalt 2 begins tonight at 9 on Food Network, lasting 6 weeks. Tuesday at 9 on Discovery is the Mackinac Bridge episode on Dirty Jobs, and Friday at 9 on Discovery is SurvivorMan Season 2.

I just finished making my first batch of pickles of the year, we will see how they turn out in a day or 2.

Tour de France finished with Team Discovery taking 1st and 3rd. Alberto Contador took first, Cadel Evans was 23 seconds behind him, and Levi Leipheimer (my fav to win, the american on an american team) was another 2 seconds off. Fourth place, Carlos Sastra, was a full 7 minutes and 8 seconds off of first. It was a sad Tour, with Vinokourov stripped of his yellow 3/4 through by being fired by his team, doping scandals all around, and still no real answer as to who won last year.

We ate at Bob Evan’s tonight, which I think is the first time I have been there in about 4 or 5 years.

A new poll will be coming up soon, I just didn’t see the point over the summer, with people having different schedules.

I started reading World War Z. It is pretty good so far.

OK, I think that is good for now. More after the weekend.

nick

It Broke

So, I upgraded WordPress from 2.2 to 2.2.1 last night, and all hell broke loose. I had my 7 themes set up so one had all the template files (the actual code that said where things go, what shows up, what is in the sidebar, etc…) and the rest just had stylesheets (that specify colors, fonts, sizes, etc…) and specified to use that one template also. It was a very nice setup, and I liked it, but for whatever reason it wouldn’t work, it claimed all 7 were dead.

So, I post to the WordPress support forum, and they tell me that feature was killed off back when 1.5 came out. This of course perplexed me, as I had used this system for almost a year, through 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and a few of the higher 1.x releases. In fact, I hadn’t even implemented it until after 1.5 was out. So how the hell was it working?

Well, nobody really knows. I ended up having to duplicate the template files into all 7 themes to get everything back up.

Yeah, nobody knows what the hell I’m talking about, and that’s fine, it just annoys me. How does a feature that was killed over a year ago continue working right up to a minor revision?

Anyway, Jenn and I went tubing again Wednesday. We actually bought out own tubes too. If we go one more time they will be pretty much paid for, so it works out well.

I think that’s about it. See you when I have more to say.

nick

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Widgets

So, WordPress 2.2 comes with Widgets, which are supposed to let me move the elements of my sidebar around easily, without messing with their individual code. The problem, is that the widgets included and that I can find don’t accurately replace what I have in the sidebar. I went through editing the code to work with widgets, I looked all over for widgets to use, and tried creating widgets to serve my purpose, then I turned off widgets because it’s just being a hassle. Besides, how often do I change the sidebar? Is it really that hard to copy-paste a section of code to move an element around?

Anyway, today is the 14th, meaning Jenn and I moved 1 month ago today. Tomorrow, the 15th, will be 1 year since I bought my car. Coming on the 19th, will be Jenn’s B-Day.

I have one more thing, but I am going to wait with it, since I have so few readers lately. It will come in a day or 2 maybe.

nick

Freaking Finally

I just finished the re-categorizing of all old posts. I could have been done with it a year ago, or more, but I am slow at such things and it become tiresome. Still, it gives a chance to read old posts. I will update the To-do list after this post.

Yesterday, I was sitting here online, and the cable box made the “power off” click. As I sat wondering why it went off for about a second, I heard a very loud buzz from behind me. Something like when you are connecting speakers while your stereo is on, but WAY louder. Then, after another second, another buzz. Next, I started to smell smoke. My first thought was the speakers next to the couch were acting up, but quickly remembered they aren’t hooked up yet. Next, was something was wrong with the wiring here and there was a fire in the wall. I looked around, quickly unplugged both laptops as they are the only things not on a surge strip (that will be fixed very soon), and stood in befuddlement (thats a real word, the spellcheck says so) for a moment. I went outside to see if there was anything going on, and holy crap. In the 20+ mph winds, a power line snapped and fell. Not the nice 220 line, but the 11200 volt lines, all three were on the ground arcing and starting the grass on fire. In the other direction, more lines were down, but no power was going to them as the other side was down. Next, I see even more some about a 1/4 mile away, what looked like a transformer fire or the like.

So, fire departments and Consumers Energy were all out here in a few minutes, and traffic on the road seemed oblivious to it all. After about an hour all the fires were out and the lines were back up, but no power for another hour or 2. Jenn was at work and missed most of the excitement, but we drove around a bit later to no avail, as I couldn’t find what the big smoke producer was toward the airport.

Next week, Monday morning, is Apple’s WWDC. It is well known that 10.5 Leopard will be shown in more detail (it was originally supposed to be released for sale about now), and the iPhone is supposed to be released near it as well (announced by Apple and AT&T as the 29th). Other than that, few rumors have circulated. Some said MacBook or MacBook Pro, but those were both out over the last few weeks. Finally, yesterday, the first decent rumor: Metal cased iMacs (brushed aluminum) and the discontinuation of the 17″ model (with price drops on the 20 and 24″). Also, minor upgrades to the Cinema Displays including the replacement of the 23″ with a 24″. There is also some small hope of a MacBook Thin, but that has been rather hushed recently, and may not happen. For the most part though, the keynote will be the “secret” features of 10.5.

Also next week, is the first episode of Man vs. Wild season 2, on Friday. Survivorman season 2 should come as MvsW ends in the fall.

One of the grants I got from Ferris was the Transfer Academic Excellence Scholarship, for transfer students with a 3.7 or higher GPA. I’m not sure how they figured me to have a 3.7, but I’m not going to complain or ask questions. I also received my letter from Delta letting me know I made Vice President’s list again for last semester.

Jenn mentioned maybe camping next weekend, that would be nice. Then again, living here is kind of like camping, with the weird bugs and abundant critters in the woods. I swear I only recognize 1 in 10 insects I see around here. Must be because Bay City sprays for mosquitos and kills off everything else in the process. I also noticed a near complete lack of squirrels around here, though have seen a few in town.

Ok, thats enough for now. More early next week probably.

Nick

You’re Not Reading This

Nobody has read this in, well, a while. Scott is on a leave from the Navy and hasn’t had internet, Sarah is in Bay City or Traverse City with no internet, and Jenn isn’t being counted. That leaves googlers and spiders, and nobody else. I just wanted to point that out to nobody.

So, we have the new sofa, love-seat, and mattress, and they are all very nice. We ended up needing a new bed frame too, as the old one was apparently partially to blame for jenn’s old mattress dying.

Scott is supposed to arrive in Bay City today, until Friday morning. He was supposed to spend a day coming to see me, then going on to see his sister in Wyoming, but she has moved back to Bay City. So, somehow, I am supposed to go see him, but I am not sure enough about my car to be willing to drive there and back. I could take Jenn’s vehicle tomorrow, but I don’t know if Scott has tomorrow free or not, and that is the only day this week Jenn has off and I would be able to take her vehicle.

Apple released new MacBook Pros today, as well as restarting the free iPod with computer purchase promotion. Sadly, the MacBooks are just not up to what I would be willing to buy, and the ones I want will probably not be out until November. The WWDC begins next week, and there have been rumors of another MacBook coming out then (MacBook Thin) that may fit what I want, so there is a chance with that. Either way, I don’t have the money to buy a computer anyway, and if I did it would need to go toward a new car, not a laptop.

I installed Windows XP on Jenn’s MacBook yesterday, since I will need it for school in the fall. I had installed it under Parallels, in emulation, but it was rather slow. I have it installed with BootCamp now, running fully native. You just need to hold the option key while starting up, and you get your choice of OS X or XP. It runs much faster than emulated, and is actually one of the fastest Windows computers I have used.

My present to Jenn for our anniversary (which was actually last month, but was the day before we moved, so we postponed) came in today. I still need to get her a birthday present by the 19th though.

I haven’t started reading either of my books yet. Not for any particular reason, I just haven’t. I think I feel bad sitting here reading while Jenn is working, but I really haven’t cleaned and organized as much as I did earlier last week. I think I was better off without cable or internet, it gave me no other choice but to be productive.

During this post, I am passing 130,000 words. That’s kind of fun.

If you haven’t noticed, the gallery has been totally pulled from my site, and is now only on Picassa. I think I mentioned that before, but just wanted to re-highlight. I posted some pictures of our apartment, and the various views outside. Once inside is neatened up some, I will post some pics of that too.

OK, I suppose that is all.

Enjoy your week.

nick

Happy June

So, as predicted, visit count has dropped quite a bit in the last few weeks as a result of Jenn’s IP being un-counted. I will need to find new readers.

Today, we received our new couch, loveseat, and mattress. We went shopping Tuesday and picked them out. They are very nice, you’ll have to come sit on them sometime.

Jenn received her authorization to test this week. It means that SVSU told the State of Michigan, who told the NCLEX testing board that she passed all her classes and received a degree, and they all approved and she can take her test now. When she takes it is up to her, as long as it’s within about 6 weeks to keep Spectrum happy.

I received 2 more grants today, as my final transcript was finally entered by Ferris. Still waiting for SMART Grant though. As I receive more grants and scholarships, they keep reducing my loan offers, but mostly the unsubsidized so thats OK. I would prefer if they leave my Perkin’s offer alone though, as that’s the nice one.

Last night I made a shrimp salad for dinner. Normal tossed salad mostly, but with teriyaki marinaded shrimp on top. Was pretty good, Jenn liked.

I went for another bike ride Monday, saw at least 6 canoes and 12 tubers. Told Jenn, we need to get some tubes, living right on river and all.

I tried Blue Goat from New Holland Brewing Company. It was pretty good, Jenn even liked and she tends not to enjoy beer. We are actually looking into visiting their brewery and pub in Holland sometime soonish.

Anything else…?

Don’t think so.

See you all later then.

nick

The First Real Relocated Post

So, we have internet. I considered giving you a day or 2 to read the post below, but then I would forget stuff and it wouldn’t make it up. Not that there is much.

First a blog note: Ads are gone. It was going to take years to get a check, and it just wasn’t worth it. Besides, nobody likes ads. Also, the blogversary is coming up. And, I was found on google under national otter day, I love that.

I found a way down to the river finally. The problem is, having made it through the forest, I found a swamp, about 50 foot across still to cross. I turned around and went back up.

We missed all the Sunday shows, which I am very sad over. Fox is the only channel that doesn’t offer online shows. Bastards.

Last night I made yellowfin tuna, tonight was italian sausage and gnocci with tomato onion sauce (homemade sauce, of course).

I picked up the window screen today, so can clean in office without sweating hopefully now.

I have to start applying for jobs. I can’t find anything that I would really like, but have 2 that are semi interesting. May go to Manpower and MichWorks and tell them what I want, maybe they can help. Too bad no work-study until fall.

Jenn is Ok with job so far. Not saying a lot though, because is just orientation. She has learned the hell of Grand Rapids at rush hour though.

OK, thats all I got for now.

nick

Ramblings

So, what’s new? Nothing really. Spent time with Jenn, home in the yard, nothing real big though. Jenn goes for her physical tomorrow at Spectrum. We were going to go to the tulip festival in Holland too, but decided no.

After looking at what we will have to get, pay for, and when she will start work and get first check, we realized we will be very poor for the entirety of May, but situation should improve in June. Sadly, it means a very low chance of camping any time soon, which is related to the no tulip fest mentioned above.

Of course, I am looking for a job too. I think progress on that won’t really pick up until after we are moved. Car insurance, credit card, and car work all take money, and I need a source of some.

I began posting pics on Picasa. I can post higher quality and don’t need to pay for bandwidth or storage. I wouldn’t mind leaving on site if they were viewed regularly, but they just aren’t. It’s only like $3 a year, but still. Also, the ads will likely be gone soon, as it would take about 20 years for me to get up to the $100 needed for Google to send a check.

I went to Delta yesterday, which kind of made me upset because I had rather well convinced myself as I left 2 weeks ago that I would never be there again, not that I did or didn’t want that. Anyway, I was emailed by my counselor that I may need to bring in copies of a few things to get my degree through. So I go out there, go into Records, and they tell me my degree had posted as of about 10 that morning, an hour before I was emailed that it might not go through. There was a point to this paragraph about having to go back after thinking I never had to go back and then having not actually needed to go back, but it was lost. Instead, we will say the point is I do have my degree, on my transcript anyway.

Uhm…

Not as much progress packing as I should be making, though I really don’t have all that much. Jenn is finally packing now, and making somewhat decent progress.

Santa Rosa was launched by Intel today, which means laptop upgrades everywhere. Faster processors, flash-RAM assisted booting, 802.11n standard, and thank god, a replacement to the GMA-950. There are something like 400 new notebooks planned to be released within the next few weeks. Sadly, new MacBook(Pro)s will likely be included in that, with faster booting, better graphics, and more fun-ness. I say sad because I have about a 5% chance of a new computer by year end, with the chance before school starts being less than 1%. The only way I see it happening is if I get a REALLY well paying job, and MTP was as close as I have ever had to that. Then again, maybe it just seemed well paying because I didn’t have so many expenses.

What else…

Apparently I passed 125,000 words a while back. I missed that somehow.

The 4th year of blogging begins soon. Anniversary is May 27th. Then I can add a 4 years back to the sidebar. Seriously, how many people have been blogging for 4 years?

Both counters combined, I am at 12243 visits total.

I need a new poll huh? I just don’t know what to ask really. That will be another loss, I think having the same IP, it won’t let me and Jenn both vote. I will need to mention in a post and give Jenn the poll vote I suppose.

I wonder how long this is? I realize it’s not the 1071 words, but is getting up there. Hmm, only 642 so far (at period of last sentence). I kind of wanted to break record, but I’m not sure I can do 500 more words.

I sent out an email a few days ago with my new address on it, if you didn’t receive it and would like it, let me know.

OK, I think I will leave it off here. See you all later.

nick

Still Homeless

First, I want to mention that if anyone is discouraged about Jenn getting most of the blog records due to being obsessive about checking my blog, don’t be. Since I don’t include my own IP address, and Jenn will be living with me in a week or 2, she will no longer be counted either. This will also, however, mean my visit count will drop to about 50% of what I get now. My mom will now be counted though, and my dad is starting to check in now and then too.

The apartment search Tuesday had rather poor results. We started at Ryan Creek, where we were supposedly accepted. The manager in her vast wisdom claimed that we were incorrectly accepted, due to me being a full-time student and us not being married. We knew this was bullshit, the state only requires that at least one person on the lease has to not be a full-time student, but doesn’t care about relation of the tenants for state-assisted apartments. We moved on to Harry’s Rentals, who showed us a rather crappy apartment that they claimed to be very nice. We also stopped for some information from the tourism/commerce department, a tour of Meijer, and drove by a few other apartments before heading home.

We were called by Ryan Creek this morning and told exactly what we knew, that we were accepted and the manager was wrong. Either way though, we have had about enough of them.

Friday, we are going to look at 3 or so other apartments from Harry’s hoping that they are significantly nicer, as well as looking at Hillcrest apartments. Failing all that, we still have some backup plans, though we are hoping it doesn’t come to any of that. Heck, there are some really extreme options we have discussed.

Uhm, anyone remember Lauren? Yes, no? Search, I have mentioned her. Anyway, she graduates from NMU Saturday, congratulations to her.

Jenn’s symposium is tomorrow, whatever that is. It has been explained as a pre-graduation ceremony kind of. Whatever it is, I am going to it with her family, then actual graduation ceremony next Saturday.

Is there anything else right now?

I don’t think so.

Ok, later,
nick

Yay Summer!

So, here is the latest.

As of 9:30 AM Wednesday, I am on break. I never need to go to Delta again. Final grades are supposed to be up tomorrow.

Saturday Jenn and I went for a walk around State Park, and had a corn dog at Muscle Beach. I had heard they hand dip them, but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Walk was still fun. And, I set up my hammock and enjoyed that in the back yard Saturday night and a while yesterday.

Jenn accepted a position in the GIGU at Spectrum this morning, physical and all that is next week. We are going tomorrow to look at apartments.

I stopped by the library Friday. Yeah, they miss us. They had a 250+ computer day, we used to get maybe 200 in the summer. With the other branches closed, book check outs may be down, but certainly not computer use.

Jenn broke the counter record with 6058th visit, beating old counter currently at 6057.

I signed up on facebook. I was kind of bored Tuesday evening and decided what the hell.

My room is looking more and more empty. I have a ways to go but am getting there.

Camping should be soon. Not sure exactly.

OK, I am sure I forgot some. I meant to update Wednesday night but put it off, then forgot, then lead to this. Updates will probably remain rather sporadic for a couple weeks.

Ok, later.

nick