Twev1701.net

I actually sat down tonight and played some Doom 3. I haven’t played this game in months, literally, and I this is the first time I’ve played it since I wiped my OS drive a few months back. Man, I don’t know if it’s just some general tweaks I’ve made to my system or the new video card drivers from ATI, but damn did that game run great. I can remember when I first got it and it played like grated shit. It was choppy and jittery all over. Hell, it would aften crash as soon as I would move! But tonight, I had one nice, fluid experience. Twevman happy!

Here’s an interesting screenshot I thought you might enjoy. I killed one zombie, and then one right after him, who literally died sitting on top of the first zombie. Very weird indeed!

I’m still here. Just don’t have as much time as I used to to actually sit down and blog. I wish I had the time, but I really don’t. In fact, you might have noticed that it’s been about amonth or so since I had a Desktop of The Week uploaded. That’s because my computer has been having a few problems that I just finally got ironed out tonight. On top of all that, Jess’s computer is down and I’m trying to fix that right now as I write this.

I could keep going on about all of the other things I need to get done within the next 5 weeks but I think it would depress you as much as it would me.

It’s all good though. we’ll all get through this together.

The one thing I do want to do though is try and find a little more time to blog. I really like to blog and I miss it when I don’t get a chance to. What I think I may do is keep a Word document on my desktop and just write little tidbits here and there and when I have enought random thoughts together, post it in almost an article format. I don’t know if this will work or not, but it’s the ebst I have right now.

Time to get back to work on Jess’s computer. Later…

I have to admit that I’ve never given iTunes a fair shake. I of course installed it when it forst came out, and then never used it. I uninstalled it when my HD ran low on space and never thought twice about it. Then I built my new computer last year, and I never even bothered to put it on until they ran their Pepsi promotion last spring. While I was collecting my free downloads, I tried using the program as my music player, but I was too used to Winamp. I think I honestly spent about 3 minutes with it as a player and nevre looked back. After the Pepsi promotion was over, I burned all my free music to a CD, and then re-ripped it into MP3s for use in Winamp.

Well here we are again in the middle of another Pepsi promotion, which has once again made me download iTunes to reap in some free, legitimate songs. As was the case last year, I am still without iPod (hint hint), so there was never a need for me to embrace this program. I get my free songs, I burn the CD, I untinsall iTunes. Same story, different year.

That is until now.

I am in what you might call a software rut. I find myself using the same programs over and over for the same tasks. This isn’t a bad thing, but to me, this isn’t a good thing either. You see, I used to try out new software all the time. In fact, my friends always used to rely on me for software advice as to which program was the best for a certain application. But in the past year or so, I really haven’t tried too many new programs. In fact, I think the only new program I’ve really tried and used is Gaim.

Where the hell am I going with this??

I am now using iTunes as my music player. I spent about 15 minutes with it last night, and about a good 2 hours tonight. I’ve played with various settings and I’m starting to really like it. What really enlightned me to it was the fact that when Jess moves in I can build a central music server, install and run iTunes on it, and using iTunes as a client and server app, stream and access all of our music from all of our terminals in the house.

I think one of the biggest turn-offs to iTunes for me was the way the music is arranged. But, since tweaking the interface a bit, I’ve gotten it to a point where it’s more like my actual filing system of my songs on my HD, which makes finding and playing a particular songs much more intuitive then before.

Mom, dad, if you’re reading this…an iPod would be really, really nice to go laong with my iTunes.

I get this way every once and while, and I’m really close again. That being, that I need to visit a major city for a day. The last time this happend, I found myself in Washington D.C. within a few days of a post similiar to this.

Jess and I have been talking a lot about the future lately, and kind of forming a semi-longterm (2-5 year) plan. We have quite a few goals in the next few years, both together and separately. One of those goals is Jess’s eventual post-graduate studies. The school she was looking at is actually in Washington D.C.. I would actually love to move down there. Maybe not the city per say, but right outside the city in either Virginia or Maryland would be really nice. Plus, we’re planning a few trips to New York City this coming year.

I think this is more of a ‘grass is always greener’ thing. I was born, raised, and still live in this small little community. Because of this, I crave the big city every now and then. But I think that if I lived and was raised in the big city, I would crave little small towns like this.

I supposed it’s a good thing I live within 3 hours of New York City, Newark, Philidelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C..

I’d really be screwed if I lived in the middle of Alaska…

Here’s a perfect exmple of how things don’t always go the way you think they are going to go…

On Wednesday night, Jess and I decided to go out shopping for a few things for the house. We picked out a few stores that we wanted to hit, and then off we were on our merry way. We got to the shopping center where a new Ollie’s opened up, and there was a pet store there. Jess asked if I had ever been in that store and I said I had not. She asked if we could go in and see what it was like. I had no problem with this since we weren’t on a time limit and we went in. It was a nice place, mostly dogs and fish. We left after about 10 minutes and headed over to Ollie’s. After leaving Ollie’s, we decided to go to Target next. On the way, there was this one pet store that we had wanted to go in but never got a chance to. She asked if we could stop since it was along the way. I had no problem since they sold fish and we had talked about getting a new fish that night. So, we stopped and it was a really nice pet store. I was checking out the lizards, and Jess wandered over to the kittens. We met up again in the middle and she asked if we could walk around the store one more time. We walked together this time, and she stopped in front of the kitten cages.

“Aren’t they cute”? she asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “but I thought we still have a few more months before we can think about getting a cat.”
She asked me pointed out an all black cat and told me about how it erminded her of her black cat back in New Jersey. I said that cat was nice but the one right next to it was the white paws was really cool too. Immediately, her eyes lit up and she asked the girl if she could hold her (the cat, not the girl). As soon as the kittne hit her arms I could see she was in love. This was going to be a tough one. She held the kitten for a while and then asked if I wanted to hold her. I said sure and the kitten immediately curled into my arm and just laid there, very peacefully. She was now talking to the girl about what needed to be done to get the cat, how old she was (cat, not girl), and where she was from ( again, cat not girl). Jess came over and took the cat from me again and was holding it. To try and drstract myself from the attachment that was quickly growing between me and the kitten, I started looking at the puppies in the kennels since a puppy was totally out of the question. That’s when it happen. I looked over, and in perfect unison, Jess and the kitten looked up at me, both sets of eye glistening…
“Can we get her?” Jess asks.

I fall against the glass separating me from the puppies. “Nothing like putting me on the spot.”

After a few minutes of mulling around, we finally leave the store, and agree to think about it overnight. We get back to the car and I start it. The car is never put into drive. Fifteen minutes later, I turn off the car, we walk back in the store, and we buy ourselves a kitty.

This is Lola.

She is 8 weeks old, and weighs 2.3 lbs.. She’s cute, lovable, and easy to get along with. You can see a lot more of her if you want over in my moblog. —->

It’s rare that you encounter 2 beings within the same 12 months that you instantly fall in love with. I am truly a lucky man!

For some reason, the last few days have been totally draining on me. I’ve been getting up earlier, so I can get some laundry and stuff done before work, and I feel fine when I get up. I go to work, and about an hour or so before I’m off of work, I feel like I’ve been awake for like 3 days. When i finally make it home, I don’t want to do anything but lay on the couch and go to sleep. Even this morning, I set the alarm at 8am to get up and do some stuff, and I had to finally drag my ass out of bed around 9:30am, and even as I sit here, I’m dead tired. I should be doing some laundry or dishes, but I can’t seem to move at all. I have a shit ton of work that needs to be done on the i/o site and start work on a presentation I have to make next Monday, but when I come home, all I want to do is sleep. Add to the fact that my back is still being a pain in the ass. It now loves to pop randomly, and whenever I bend down for something or have to reach down for something, it lets me know it’s there with a nice little pinching sensation.

I need a vacation…

It seems like things might finally be coming togather. I had a decent day yesterday, and today looks to be shaping up quite nicely. I have 2 more days of work after today and then I get to go away with Jess on Monday and then have her here the rest of the week. I still have a lot on my plate that I need to work on, but for the moment, life seems pretty darn good!