I write, occasionally

So I finally hooked my webcam back up, ha. I'm not really sure why I have a webcam... except for the fact that watching me work is crazy-insane (or insane-crazy?).

Besides that, things seriously are insane. I'm finishing my bookshelves, finishing the kegerator, getting ready for 515 Alive, doing Heelys demos, getting the house ready for a party Kari is hosting, entertaining guests, getting ready for my b-day, getting ready for Lollapalooza, etc.

However, I'm finally getting caught up on so many things, which feels really good. So I guess it's time to start an absurd amount of projects again and get them all halfway done.

That's how many separate things I had planned for this weekend. Seriously, it was nuts.

First I was supposed to shoot video at Cliff's matinee wedding in Dubuque. Then, I remembered that I had to go to Jordan's wedding in Indiana the same day. And since I've known Jordan much longer, I decided I should attend his ceremony.

Later, we found out that Victor was graduating college and having a graduation party then. And since he's now family, we decided to go to that instead. However, at the last minute his school was like, "whoops, we messed up your schedule and you are missing 2 classes that you do need." So now he doesn't graduate until October. This went down like 1 week before Jordan's wedding - after we had already …

This is not about a program to edit ID3 tags. It's about tags in reference to folksonomy. (like flickr, del.icio.us, youtube, etc)

I've been wanting this app for quite for a while now, and I'm actually quite surprised that I haven't found one yet. If I had time I'd love to write it but I simply don't... so here it is.

There needs to be a very simple app that runs alongside iTunes. The app would allow users to add "tags" to the mp3 and then store them in the comments ID3 tag. Seriously, that is not a hard thing to do. Just append tags. I'm also surprised that this isn't a built in feature to iTunes yet. If it were, it would be the best thing ever. If they didn't want to use comments, they could even store it in the XML so …

Riverbend Pizza is this awesome place that I worked at from the time I was 15 until sometime during my senior year of High school. Aside from mowing my grandma's lawn, it was my first real job - and it ruled... a lot. So here's a huge collaboration of some of my memories. This is going to be long and I'm not a terrific writer, so I'm sorry if it sucks.

I worked with a lot of people while at Riverbend, so let me preface by introducing them. The most memorable/prominent were Krut, Shirley, Randy, Joey, Boone, Wingert, Morris, Tom, and Bunky. Yeah there are a couple nick names there - we had nicknames for everything really. The giant machine that we used to knead dough and grind cheese was named "Grog." The knives and dough cutters …

Supposedly the Sidekick 3 comes out July 10 and I just got mine - 4 days early, suckers. And what a great time to get a new phone - when I'm home sick. So needless to say, I've been playing with it a lot in bed, hehehehe.

I really really like the SK3. The interface (both physical and soft) is much nicer. It's about 1/4 inch shorter than the sidekick 2 and a bit lighter. So overall it's much easier to hold. The really nice thing about going from a Sidekick 2 to a Sidekick 3 is that you already know how to use it. Most of the commands are exactly the same. There are just some added bells/whistles to learn - which is super easy given Danger's user-friendly OS. Plus as soon as I powered on the device with my old SIM card, it …

I have another freaking head cold. I hate being sick - especially on holidays... so stupid. However, despite my sickness, a lot of things happened this weekend anyway.

Friday, Kari and I went out to "Yankee Doodle Pops" so that I could attempt to take photos of fireworks. Being that this event happens on the Capitol lawn - parking is limited, so we followed suit with everyone else and parked on the grass between the street and sidewalk. About 10 minutes later, 4 proud state troopers walked across the lawn straight to the cars and began ticketing a row of about 40 vechicles, haha. It was pretty hilarious, so instead of moving our car like most, I just took photos and paid $14 for a good parking spot. Thanks for serving and protecti…

So Zach and Amy are married, heh. The weekend was pretty packed, lots of driving, lots of stops, and lots of events.

Thursday we left town, dropped Ninja off in Cedar Rapids, dropped Cedric off in Iowa City to buy a Ducati (which was really nice), and finally continued onto my Parents house to have Riverbend Pizza and hang out.

Friday, Kari and I drove to Peoria to meetup with the guys to get Tuxes for the wedding. I had forgotten my sidekick charger so I stopped by a T-Mobile kiosk to buy a new one. They had a demo of the Sidekick III and let me play - it was soooo rad. I can't wait to get it. The OS seemed nicer and smoother. The chat clients were really nice, and the keyboard seemed much better (believe it or not). The …

Oh man. I have successfully eaten 18 pounds of food again. I am about to pop. I hope that I fit into my tux for Zach's wedding, haha. I think I gained 10 pounds since I gave him my measurements... whoops.

Anyway, this weekend was pretty decent. I went to cky with Kevi at the House of Bricks on Friday. It was a fairly laid back show - maybe due to Kevi's gf being there. Maybe due to us not having enough money to have drinks, ha. ... But overall, a good time. The 2nd band was straight up METAL. I mean, metal. It was nice, but hurt my ears a bit - speaking of which, Dillinger Escape Plan is here soon too, hmmm. So yeah, we met Jess Margera which was kinda rad.

Saturday, my parents showed up and brought me a trampoline which …

OK, there isn't a whole lot of good documentation about this online, so here it is.

If you change your desktop wallpaper with Windows systems (i.e. 2000 and XP) you will probably run into this problem at some point. Sometimes during startup or when you lock your computer via CTRL+ALT+DEL a previous wallpaper will be displayed even if you delete the file from your computer.

This is an Active Desktop issue. The explorer shell displays layers on top of the actual desktop (e.g. start menu, icons, and the active desktop background!). When you lock your computer, the layers are cleared, revealing images set on the actual desktop - your annoying old wallpaper!

For me, this always seems to happen when changing from a JPG to a GIF …

OK, so this weekend was nice, busy, fun, expensive, awesome, etc.

Friday, Tara came into town to attend Lisa's wedding with us. We stopped over to Vicki's house to hang out with my cousins - who were in town for Vicki's hip hop recital, haha. I so wish I could have gone. Later, we had some people over, grilled out, hung out, etc. It was nice. Afterwards some of us went to Cedric's party and then met up with Rich and Sean downtown (who were in town for Paul Wall). Cedric's place is really quite awesome. I had my doubts about it matching his last place, but it is pretty cool - definitely nicer for sleeping and general living, ha.

Saturday we had to wake up and go get some Mac n Chicken with Rich. Then Tara, Kari, and I headed …

My home computer has been running pretty bad lately. It's obviously due to my lack of rebooting... but I have so many things open that I never want to reboot.

So out of curiosity, I downloaded an app to find out the uptime of my home PC: 28 days 7 hrs 3 mins 36 sec.

I think I'm going to reboot now, haha.

And it all begins - again. I have this love/hate relationship with summer. I love the weather, all the hanging out, skating, traveling, driving, partying, etc. But I hate hate hate how poor I get. And even more so, I hate complaining about how poor I get. It is straight depressing. I owe people money. I come home every day and look at all my projects that I can't afford to finish and just get sad. I spend the few extra dimes I have on hotel rooms and gas. It's retarded.

Today I found the car I've been describing for years. My perfect car. Perfect. A white 98 Automatic Eclipse GSX with less than 50,000 miles. Not owned by a kid, garaged, stock, and taken very well care of. Man. It is seriously soooo rad. It's the first …

What is it about Memorial Day that is always insane? Last year it was Mt Vernon and Chicago, this year it is Des Moines, Dubuque, and Iowa City.

Thursday before Memorial Day, Rico talked me into hanging out with him and the British kids that are staying at his house right now. It was a really good time, we all hung out, then went out. They are cool guys. They thought Royal Mile (our 'london pub') was hilarious.

Friday, Zach and I ditched town for a Heelys demo in Dubuque. We got into town and our hotel dude was a skater like us - so he ended up totally hooking us up - better room, cheaper, and free drinks, ha. We met Zach's cousin BJ and my friend Josh at some fest downtown. It was a fun time, then we went to all kinds of …

So I had this "working styles" training at work on Monday. Usually you take it your first year here, but I kept denying the appt and finally got made to take it, haha.

Prior to the training, a survey is sent out to 5 people I work with, they answer some questions and based on those questions this company determines my working style/personality type. Then we learn how to work well with other personality types.

The 4 styles are (feel free to skip these if you don't care):
Analytical - Polite but reserved, logical, fact- and task-oriented. This person’s focus is on precision and perfection. Other strengths include persistence, diligence, caution, and a systematic approach.

Amiable - Devoted, consistent, dependable, and loyal, the …

Thanks!

Yeah, we got married exactly seven months ago and just sent out the last of our "thank yous" today. General wedding etiquette is six months max. But... well, you know.

You've also probably noticed that I never uploaded the wedding photos. Trust me, I've been nagged about it a ton (by lots of peeps). Kari kept saying "upload our wedding pics" etc. To which I simply replied, "no."

My plan was to not upload them until Kari sent out the thank-you letters. This was probably obvious, but my little secret is that I've had all the wedding photos organized, resized, and even ordered for months. Seriously - months. They've been sitting right on my jump drive waiting for me to upload them, haha.

Well... about 20 minutes …

First of all, I am 2 for 2 in polk city, haha. I drove through there for the first time since getting pulled over and got pulled over again, haha. Same reason, same spot, different guy, he let me off. I'm done driving through that town. There is no crime! Dudes gotta pull people over for a missing license plate.

Besides that, the last couple weeks have been pretty normal - busy.

Mother's Day was nice. My parents and Kari's family each visited. We went to Vicki's, out for sushi, and then to a little Jazz bar. It was a good time. Sunday we cooked, hung out, etc.

Saturday Nick and I had a meeting with this dental office in Grinnell. We're doing a site for them, however they are pretty oblivious about the internet. We …

Tonight I got pulled over and I broke the FIRST FREAKIN RULE IN THE BOOK. The FIRST rule. I seriously about smacked my forehead right in front of the cop. I answered the first question he asked me. That question that you are never ever EVER supposed to answer.

I've read 2 books about getting pulled over, and I've been pulled over somewhere around 20 times now. Of those 20 times, I've gotten 2 - maybe 3 moving violations. Thus, I consider myself semi-pro at the act. This is the kind of knowledge you don't gain from Harry Potter books, you gain it from experience - and books that are actually useful.

So anyway. I'm driving through Polk City and see a police car on the side of the road - I'm speeding, but not by much... plus …

ok. this is the most messed up, no-sense making trip ever. seriously, i am so baffled by it that i had to blog it, haha.

kevi's gf is flying up here from florida and kevi is picking her up from the airport. this is where normality stops.

from the airport, kevi and his gf are driving straight to florida. and by "straight to florida" i mean that they're stopping in texas to pick up kevi's mom, haha. then, once they get to florida, they're hanging out for 4-5 days. after that, kevi's mom is flying back to texas and kevi and his gf will drive back to des moines.

obviously this doesn't make a whole lot of sense so i tried to figure it out mathematically.

~700 mi - dsm to mt vernon
~1,140 mi - mt vernon to orlando
~1,400 mi …

So this weekend was Zach's bachelor weekend. Turbo, Rick, and Jake came up, we partied a lot, etc. It was a pretty crazy/good time.

Rick pulled into the driveway Friday and barely said "hi" before he started pulling Coronas, chips, and salsa out of the trunk for Cinco de Mayo, haha. The rest of the night was fairly laid back - hanging out, rock bottom, etc.

Saturday, we woke up, went to look at a Ford GT, and then worked on the pocket bike. We rebuilt the carburetor, tuned it a bit, and now it runs like a champ. After that, a bunch of us paintballed which was a really good time. There was an amish lady playing that had a dress on - I totally shot her, haha.

Later we all met up at my house, grilled, hung out, dropped by …

WTF are bad words? haha - yeah I said that. But seriously, what is swearing? Why is swearing wrong? I've been thinking about this for a long long time. How can a certain word be bad? Who says it's bad? Seriously, it is just a word.

I first started thinking about this in high school. Someone (maybe it was me - I don't remember) said one of those words that isn't quite a swear word, but it's not quite a good word either - like "piss" or something. So I made an argument saying that the word wasn't even a swear word... *ding* I immediately thought to myself, "wait... what is a swear word anyway?" During that ding someone next to me acknowledged my swear word comment by saying, "well yeah but you still shouldn't say that" …