So I took my last final of the semester on Friday. With any luck, it'll be my last final forever. I don't think I find out what grades are for quite some time. They do graduating senior grades early but I'm not sure how early. Regardless, I should now have time for that blank projects page and regular posts on this blog. Interestingly enough, I have no idea what I want to post about.

I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D, so maybe we'll talk about that. Also, the AutoCast (tentatively titled BlackGear) team is in town. Provided the recent snow clears up, we'll talked about getting together for a live broadcast. I guess in there are a lot of things to discuss.

While you're waiting for me to post again, hit up one of my friends' blogs on the sidebar. I don't know why I'm plugging them in a post, I don't get anything for it. If you're in to Japanese living/culture/stuff: I just started reading "The Hopeless Romantic" thanks to Danny Choo. Hopefully you won't realize how horrible my blog is after seeing all these others and never come back. I really need to plan these posts out because obviously my stream-of-consciousness rantings don't lead anywhere positive when it's late and I have nothing to say.

1. Run
2. Play Tennis
3. Push-Ups
4. Sit-Ups/Crunches/etc.
5. ???
6. Die at 46 anyway

Some would argue that Step #5 is the critical flaw leading to Step #6 but I disagree, look at the alternative plan:

1. Run
2. Play Tennis
3. Push-Ups
4. Sit-Ups/Crunches/etc.
5. XXX
6. Die at 46 anyway

As you can see, you get the same result. In addition, I'm trying to eat smaller portions and drink plenty of water but the real important thing is that I have a big...ehehem...ego. Random? Yeah, that's how I am at times...

So currently, I'm set to take breaks on Tuesday and Saturday. Monday is tennis night and the rest of the days are training days. Today is Wednesday and I have followed through for my first half-week-kinda. I'm hoping this blog-post-thing will help keep me regular, well this and then heavy fiber intake.

What about cheating? Taking an extra day off? You don't - schedule around your exercise and don't try to fit it in. I don't work Friday through Sunday and Saturday is a break day. That means, while all my friends are at work, I can run and I don't have to worry about Saturday because I should be resting anyway.

What about eating junk food and drinking soda? Who cares? Seriously, I'm not a model, actor, or even a club-level athlete. Go ahead and cheat just make sure you exercised first. Personally, I plan on rewarding my runs with some Brownie Chocolate Chip cookies from Trader Joe's. Just don't eat a family-size bag of chips or a tub of ice cream and it'll all balance out - at least I hope it will.

That's all I got - well it's not but I can't talk about the other stuff right now. Good things are coming, please be patient.

1. Playing FFXI - I stopped blogging but not playing. I'm level RDM39 now and back to leveling my subjobs (WHM and BLM). So I'll probably be around Qufim for most of my XPing getting THF, WHM, and BLM up to snuff. 
2. Street Fighter 4 - I missed out on the C3 tournament but I've been practicing a lot. I found a Tournament Edition stick and dropped the 150 for it. I took up a stick building project that has yet to be completed but I have all the parts for it. So many set backs have left me with a broken frame and useless wireless 360 PCB. Now, I need to cut a new frame and wire up the FightPad I bought to replace it. Shame for the FightPad? Not really, my practice circle has deemed my FightPad wonky and I personally have issues with it anyway. No real loss there.
3. Personal Stuff? - I don't know what to call the mash-up all the other crap I deemed just personal questing. Trying to figure out how to get where I want to go and actually motivate myself to do it. Good thing I'm still in college...wait...that's not a good thing...

So yeah, nothing terribly interesting going on over here. Not yet anyway. What is there to look forward to?

1. Game Design - I've been reading a lot of people's thoughts on modern game design. Maybe I'll chime in and repost it here.
2. Social Commentary - Personal questing has left me with a lot of generalized conclusions about the world we all live in. Maybe I'll be a giant bigot like many other bloggers and shove my short-minded views on a variety of topics there's no way I could possibly completely understand (meaning of life, careers, relationships, economy, society, etc.)
3. Boring information about my life and what I've accomplished - this is probably what will happen. Using my blog to catalog daily/weekly accomplishments sounds like a good idea right now (minutes to midnight where all the really stupid ideas seem pretty good).

What will probably keep me from posting here:

1. Final Fantasy XI - Usually if I'm bored I can find a reason to log on and join a PT. Good way to destroy four hours of time that isn't really free and should be used to study or work.
2. Street Fighter 4 - The backup to FFXI, I always need more practice on my arcade stick. Oh yeah, and I picked up Guile to complement my Cammy so I have to work on switching fight modes mentally.
3. The Internet - it's like TV for me. I get online and just burn hours double checking my e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Engadget, and Joystiq. Hmm, maybe we need no-internet days? I like it. Lets start tomorrow - I'm going to shoot for no-internet every other day.
4. Television shows - I recently grabbed True Blood Season 1 and I'm watching the latest Burn Notice.
5. Really Bad Movies - Death Race, Never Back Down, and Max Payne are my latest conquests. It's kinda where I'm at right now, I really enjoy watching movies I know are bad. Oh yeah, I also just defeated Fast and Furious (The Fast and the Furious 4) - that was a classic (sike).

"OUT Dried parsley and basil. They’re worthless."

That really hit me as a I have a fairly large bottle of both items. In addition, I'm guilty of a number of these crimes including: bottled lemon juice and boxed bread crumbs.

I'm always looking for ways to speed up my cooking because I end up creating a ton of clean-up as it is right now and considering the level of my skills, it's not always worth it. Last night's salad fell victim to an abundance of juice (from the shredded baby carrots and diced cucumber), shredded cheese that didn't really work out, and the recently realized crime of bottled salad dressing.

The only good move I did make was to hold off on purchasing balsamic vinegar. Now I know, to go with expensive vinegar or sherry vinegar.

One day, I'm going to stop this half-assed cooking business and get proper tools. If working on my car has taught me anything it's that when you need something, go ahead and pay for it because if you skimp you're just going to have to make a second trip and waste time and money.

My plan: To cook every meal, every day unless I'm out to a restaurant. I believe, if I do this properly, I will end up saving a lot of money and eating heathier. With any luck, I'll enjoy the food more as well.

If you have any bit of tech-savvy, start your own web design group. Why? Because apparently people that suck at it are good enough to land over 10 contracts and afford to advertise on Facebook which is remarkable considering the quality of their work. I just feel like ranting a little because it's depressing the quality of work people get paid for. Having already been shafted by some random Indian group, I feel that was expected -- outsourcing sucks. However, to find out a Chicago-based operation throws out just as crappy work targeted to the same small business owners I'm no longer upset with foreign outfits. It's the local chop-shops that set the bar of entry so low.

Where's the lesson in all of this: 1) It's very easy to get paid for doing work, even if that work sucks. There is no reason to be unemployed. 2) Do your research -- know the company and the product their offering. There's too much available for information to be paying for crap work these days. 3) If a professional job costs too much, do it yourself. If it doesn't turn out quite as well as a hack job at least you didn't pay for it and learned something in the process.

Oh and for the record: Hodoorgan Web Design inspired the rant. That's right, I'm calling out names. They suck ass. They're probably nice people though. Shame they don't show any sign of talent.

How do I notice now and not before? Well when you're watching movies and tv in HD, you gawk at the crispness and then keep watching the show. When you're doing any sort of graphic design you're maximizing your desktop space and in my case, comparing the graphic prototype to the HTML creation.

At first, I thought that the color I selected was not HTML web-safe and consequently displayed in two different shades. That happens. However, I dragged the the windows around and low and behold, they are not two different shades.

This problem isn't super uncommon. In fact, I would bet that a lot more people have this issue and they just never notice. I've had this monitor for almost a year and just finally noticed. You have to really be paying attention and know that the two colors should be the same. Black doesn't really work because it's widespread knowledge that monitors don't always spread a uniform black.

What now? Nothing, I continue finishing this site design and I live with the fact that my top and bottom will always mismatch. At least now I have reasonable incentive for a new 24" or better yet a quality 30" behemoth.

So, not suprisingly -- it's creepy to offer someone a seat in your car while you wait at the bus stop in the cold.

Why is it that random acts of kindness are creepy? Stupid question - a lot of not so kind people run throughout this world using a mask of kindness to do "bad" things.

I occasionally find myself wanting to do randomly nice things - like offer people rides up the hill or help people carry bags/books but I know that it would actually be perceived as weird. Now, I already know I should stop being weird. This is all a side-rant based on what brought me to write this piece.

A bit more than a month ago, I unwittingly took (for me) an extreme act of kindness. Working at the library, I let a random stranger borrow quite a few books on my account due to her inactive membership. Without taking down any information, I wished her well and thought nothing of it.

Reconsidering my actions, I realized that I'd be charged if she had been a horrible person. The total amount would be in the neighborhood of $500 dollars. I did have to renew the books once, but in the end - the books were returned. My kindness has been satisfactorally justified. Or maybe, I was just lucky she didn't play me for a fool. Either way, I am relieved and impressed.

Here's hoping we're two steps closer to a friendlier world.

NOTE: Sappyness aside, I was a 'tard for letting random stranger #83 borrow on my account. Don't be like me. Seriously...I feel so lucky.

Speaking of other projects: those in the know have heard of my AutoCast project. Basically an Internet webcast on the subject of performance cars and motorsports involving them. Well, after a long time of planning and postponing the first webcast has been done!

I have the file -- and to be honest it came out kinda crappy. My mic didn't pick up so well and that is the last time I try to record using Audigy and the Stereo Mix channel. I either need some hardware to feed the channels in to or I need to purchase some software. All of us could use better mics as well (though that most-likely won't happen because we're not at that level yet.

Anyway, the first session has been recorded and I plan on releasing it more-or-less unedited (I need to boost the volume) and calling it Session #00 until we can do a structed session where the voices come out much more balanced.

EDIT: Also, important tidbit, I have been playing Fallout 3 and I will post my conclusions after actually playing the game.

So the bill failed. I don't expect it to get passed now after such a big loss today. Mr. Smith has to be sitting pretty in his grave right now. Lassiez faire economics at its best. My post-undergraduate life just got all sorts of crappy now. With banks not hiring, consulting and research are the only fields really left to a finance-minded person like myself. Honestly, I've always considered those jobs to be fake jobs -- huge wastes of money. Consulting and research is great and needed but not to the extent of ridiculous 100-200 grand salaries.

This is all a sign, stop traveling the path of a suit and return to your game development fantasies.