Snowman Studios
I need to do a review on my weekend driving class, but I just haven't gotten around to it and it's going to take a bit to write about it properly. Overall though, I say it was great and I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you aren't planning on racing. You don't even need a car with a lot of power, there were cars with next to nothing on the power scale. Just don't bring a SUV. It won't work no matter how much you want it to.
Asside from that, I'm in San Diego now and I finally managed to get ahold of the HR person at Sammy Studios (to go and visit and try to get my foot in the door).
I purchased a gallon of skim milk yesterday because I wanted to have milk available, but didn't want to waste a significant portion of milk once I leave town on Tuesday (Carl only drinks skim).
I've already drank half of it. I think it's because skim milk tastes so diluted that it's like drinking water... only not.
I finished eating the left-overs from my first roast, and now I'm in the process of slow cooking the second. This one is bigger, and only needs to last me until Friday. Guess I'll be eating well until then.
The DNA test came back. I've been chosen as the donor.
Well, Last night I went to bed at midnight, a whole 6 hours earlier than I went to bed the night before. I woke up at 1:30, a whole 2 hours earlier. Oh well.
On another note,
these parents are the type who make people feel there should be more restriction on reproduction. Not necessarily because their kids have turned out bad (although they aren't exactly going in the right direction) but more that they show a lack of ability to properly raise them.
My 1st Degree Black Belt test was a success. All I need to do now is do the second half of my essay (the history of Tae Kwon Do) and turn it in.
It's so quiet around here, Evanston feel so dead...
Last night I put Counter-Strike back on my computer. Boy was that a mistake. I went to bed well after the sun came up. Hopefully I will be able to stick to my plan on going to bed very early tonight.
Progress is great. My computer isn't running as fast as it was as it has half the ram (I didn't think I'd miss that extra 256, but it is noticeable). Oh well, once I get the 512 back b/c of a warranty, I will have 768. A bit much, but overkill is rarely a bad thing.
Well, I've only been up for two hours yet I've been more productive today than I was yesterday.
I went to Best Buy and got new RAM. Someone didn't change the price of the RAM from $50 to $100, so when I got to the check out place they tried to charge $100 for it. I told them it wasn't worth that much and had one of the employees confirm that it was listed at $50. Back at home, this was often a problem at CompUSA since the stuff on the shelves always got mixed up and the only way to confirm the price of an item was to compare the SKU. Thankfully, the stickers are more detailed at Best Buy.
After that, I went to the grocery store and returned here to put away groceries, throw away trash and stuff that was no good anymore, and sweep the kitchen so that it is reasonable to walk barefoot in there. Maybe some day I'll sweep the rest of the apartment... or not and leave that for after I've left.
Running tests while working on setting up my machine has lead me to discover that there is a problem with the memory on the computer. As I only have one stick of memory, I will have to wait until tomorrow to go buy another (of small quantitiy).
I have finally finishing burning and backing up files off of my desktop. It took four days and almost 50 disks to do so. Tomorrow I will reformat and start the process of setting up my machine again. Hopefully I will have learned my lesson and not neglect burning data for so long.
I received 6 replacement safety's for one of my pocket knives today. Since the part is very small, it isn't an expensive cost on the part of the maker. Unfortunately, the part is all plastic and within the span of 9 months it had broken on my knife. I had asked them if they had one made with metal, but they said they hadn't. Maybe they will look into that for a future version...
Tae Kwon Do was excellent tonight. On Thursday nights at the school, they have weapons and self defense. The weapon they are doing now is the nunchuck. I learned some basic control drills as well as 7 basic attack forms (along the lines of 1-step sparing, but for nunchucks). Then the self defense was primarily ways to use the uniform belt as a weapon. This doesn't sound that great, especially since the uniform belt as a striking weapon does not hurt very much (although most of the moves were blocks or grabs using the belt). But all the moves could be done with a regular belt, or a length of rope or other comparable item. I especially liked the counter the kick where you loop the belt around their leg, then pull them over.
For those who watch Firefly, I think you will find this amusing: http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040316 . This was contributed by John, if Firefly was a drug then he'd be the dealer.
Mood: Good with a hint of sleepiness.
After doing three drainers full of dishes in the span of 24 hours, I can now say that practically every eating surface in the apartment is clean (the exception being one of Carl's travel mugs that had coffee sitting in it for I have no clue how long, and that's being soaked).
One of the best ways to keep one sane when there is no structure in one's life is to keep busy and set goals.
Prompted by the advice of Carl, I now have a bag of sufficient size in which to carry my GBA, it's charger, and the games I own. It's a Crown Royal bag (read into it as you wish).
Everyone seemed very excited at the blood bank when they found out that I wasn't there to simply give blood. There were a total of 5 people who were taking care of me (two doing the procedure, one learning, one doing administrative stuff and one who did the bandaging).
They put the needle in my arm and there was a valve near the needle to stop or start the flow. Above that there were those pinchers that look like scissors. They filled up the tube with the blood, then stopped the flow with the scissors. There was a cap at the end that was twisted off where they put an attachment to bring the blood to the storage tubes. When they removed the cap, it was kinda weird looking at my blood at the end like I've looked at soda at the end of a straw when you cover the other end with your finger. It made me slightly nervous too because if the pinchers fell off somehow, my blood would be shooting all over the place.
But everything went smoothly, and I was offered food and juice and went on my way with my day.
Nashville was fun. Many, many ancient battles were fought. It was nice to see Pat, again, and Di said Carl was fat.
I found out this morning that I am a potential match for bone marrow for a 30 year old man with lukemia. They don't know if I'm a true match or not, so they are going to do some tests.
All painting projects completed and figures sealed. Granted, these guys aren't based but I can do that tomorrow when I get to Nashville.
My belt test for Tae Kwon Do went well. There is still more involved, including an essay and history report of unspecified length. I figure I'll have time to work on that in Nashville...
The 3 of the 4 horsemen are one step away from completion (I forgot to do the belting), and the other 1 along with 6 more are at the start of touch-up. Since I shouldn't need to go into work tomorrow, I should be able to touch up all of that and seal it before dinner time.
And that'll be the end to the painting of a 40 point Alexandrian Macedonian army (by the Armati rule set).
Last night's painting was less productive in volume, but more so in complexity and detail. I finished the Hypaspists, who were highly skilled hoplites, and then I started on the 4 cavalry figures I had preped.
In the last week, I have painted many soldiers.
Sealed:
10 Ashigaru armed with Spears (25 mm metal)
5 Ronin armed with bows (25 mm metal)
24 Soldiers armed with pikes from Alexander the Great's army (1/72 plastic)
Finished but not sealed:
11 Skirmish infantry from Alexander the Great's army (1/72 plastic)
plus 8 hoplites with the three most significant colors of paint.
