The Robot's Thoughts

Mosh, Eminem's new music video, his second done by the folks at Gnn.com made it on to TRL today.

Its political and slamming bush. I'm hosting it locally. At least for now. (Can't promise it will still be there when you visit this in the archives). But you can check it by clicking the Title.

Requires Quicktime.

Myhosting.com was upgrading my mail server. Soapbox might've been down the past two days. Stuff will clear up soon enough. Its no doubt working through the back log right now.

I got the G4 processor I purchased off Ebay for $30 bucks. But its for a different type of slot style. In other words, it won't work on my motherboard.
I coulda sworn he said it was a ZIF unit.

Oh well. Only $30. I made that much working an hour of overtime today.
Time to browse ebay for a new mobo.

I totally woke up when Erin called my cell. I had fallen asleep with my iPod on. I didn't even hear the house phone. Its a good thing she called and woke me up, because I realized I needed to put the cheque that's going to pay Pitt inside my wallet.
I ended up doing nothing this weekend. I had all these great plans to work on my website and do some more Cocoa tutorials. Mostly I just did my best to convince Erin she has to take a week off because she's really fucking sick, and read Stranger In a Strange Land.

I ran into SuperSexyKourtev today. He said he got my email but was way too busy to go drinking with me. For the remainder of the semester. I asked him, "So you're too busy to have ONE BEER with me, at a place and time of your liking, until January?" And he was like, "Yep."

This is about the time I noticed the ring on his ring finger. Looks like Kourtev tied the knot. I think he said when I was leaving his office and he was trying to shoo me out, something to the extent of, "I have a wife now, so I have to get all my work done and get out of here."

The good news is that he's offered to sell me his G4 Tower. Dual 1GHz G4s with 1MB L2 Cache, 2GB RAM, Dual 7200RPM 8MB Buffer 80GB Drives, Stock 64MB ATI Radeon (unknown rating) Video Card, and an M-Audio 7.1 Digital Sound Card. All for $1500, which is probably what that thing would fetch on Ebay. And I'll have that kind of cash by the time Kourtev leaves. I'll probably get a decent flatscreen, too. That, along with a 40GB iPod will be my first purchase after I'm doing paying off Pitt.

Which will be January, I'm still on Target. The only major thing I have to do is winterize my car, so that it will survive. New battery. New back brakes. New set of tires. I can totally swing that on my next paycheck. And from then on, its something like $800/mo going to Pitt. And with this $200 payment made, I should only have about $1600 left. So by the END of Jan., I should be totally out of debt to Pitt. I will have a Diploma. My career will be mine. Not that I plan on going anywhere just yet. I really seem to be achieving the quality of work that makes Brian, my supervisor, pleased with my results.

But its nice to have the independence that's coming my way quite soon. And its nice to know that I'm getting out of the hole that I've been in all throughout college. Paycheck to Paycheck for about 3 months, and then I'll be able to save for things.

I'm not one of those people who's all about HAVING money. I'm one of those people that's all about SPENDING money. There's a difference. I just want some quality of life enhancements, like 7.1 surround sound for movies, having a big bank account isn't going to happen for me for a couple of years. Any money that I end up saving for will be for either emergencies or a new car.

I also applied to the Apple store today. I'm applying to the mini apple store inside CompUSA up at Robinson on Tuesday. I submitted my resume alongside the application. I'm probably going to apply on line just to make sure I get noticed. I want to speed up this process of paying Pitt. I also want an employee discount. That's what I'm doing it for -- the employee discount and the fact that someone would pay me to rave about Macs. It means I'm going to be busier on the weekend, but I can handle it. I will just have to be more disciplined about my bedtimes.

Speaking of which, I'm way past mine now. See everyone tomorrow at six, where, if you're free, I'll be showing a bootleg of Team America at my place. And having drinks. Everyone is welcome.

Erin is mad sick. I think she has Whooping Cough. Needless to say, I don't want to catch whatever it is. So no fun for me this weekend. But at least I haven't smoked any cigarettes and I've gotten plenty of sleep. So that's a plus for me. And south park is on, which is also a plus.

I hope I don't get sick.

I've been thinking for quite a while that my birthday this year has been one of the best I've ever had, if not the best. The reason doesn't stem for who or who didn't come, what did or didn't happen, but how I felt. One thing that's almost always linger in the back of the mind during my birthday is that its also the annual anniversary of my first relationship. I started dating my first girlfriend on my 17Th birthday. We'd hung out the weekend before, and there was some definite chemistry. Well, it had been dawning on me for some time there was some chemistry, but nothing compares to that first time you stare back at someone at looking at you; you don't have to say anything.

So I'd spent my 17Th birthday with her, and we curled up on her couch and watched X-Files. It was a good time. There was that first kiss, which was just a quick peck on the lips. It paled even to the second. Every kiss since then has been more confident. Every kiss a snowflake.

And its always been in the back of my mind during a birthday party. She's not here among the gathered and invited. I'm but the mere host of this celebration. The Guest of Honor is missing. This could be our Nth anniversary, where N is the number years its been since my 17Th. 1999.

I didn't feel that way this year.

This movie is attempting to suggest that Bush might have a condition known as "Pre-senile dementia" because his public speaking skills have shown a marked decline, sentence-by-sentence since he took office as governor 10 years ago.
Requires quicktime, but it well worth the watch.

Pay Day is here. Wooo. Now I can "Winterize" my car, so that I won't go skidding off the road during the first snow fall. That's a good thing. And I can pay Pitt. Also a good thing.

I also sold Lisa's laptop on ebay. She'll be getting about $650 for it. Not great, but its more money in the bank. Which is good for lisa. It'll be like payday for her.

I plan on celebrating this payday by hitting up Sushi Two, then seeing Team America. Granted, I just downloaded it, but I believe in supporting artists that aren't just whores of the entertainment industry.


I'm also going to the home coming festivites this saturday. So if anyone who reads this self-absorbed blog is going, let me know. Jason, you should get tickets, its a pretty good time. Hopefully I will remember to call you. I emailed you. Yay communication.

And now, in an effort to actually get to bed early, I'm going to sign off. Peace.

Bill E., this one's for you. Click the Link. Just do it, Bill. C'mon and do it. You know this describes you to a T.

I threw my 23rd birthday party on the 16th. One day early, but nobody's gonna party on a sunday, so its all good. A lot of people didn't feel like coming, for various reasons, despite it having the potential to be the best party of the Year. Some were just tapped out because of a long day. Others had dates with strange gay men. Others I hadn't told until the last minute because I was apathetic this year.
So for those of you who weren't there, I'm not mad at you for bitching out. But to those of you who were there, you made the night. You came out to south side, probably on a bus, never having been to my place, and you stayed with me to toast my birth.

I might've been a planned pregnancy, but that doesn't mean i'm not a mistake.

Lisa gave me some really cool posters from the partisan project. Good old Anti-Bush Propraghanda to warm my heart. Chuck got me Jon Stewart's new book, "America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction". I haven't gotten around to it, except briefly flipping through it. It looks hilarious. Absoluetly hilarious. Can't wait to really sit down and relax with it. Alan got me a TV. I still need the antenna for it, but I've been living without cable for long, I hardly miss it. BitTorrent is so fast that I can get any and all the shows I want the next day.

At my birthday party, I almost died because I did a shot of southern comfort and coughed while it was going down, so it went down the wrong pipe. Its very hard to breathe, and you make an awful wheezing noise until somebody gets you a chaser. There was about 30 seconds where nobody knew what was going on and I was starting to fade.

"No more shots for Chris," said Brian. Everyone unanimously agreed.
At least it wasn't as bad as when I did a shot of Jack Daniels alone and that happened. That was 10 times worse.

It was intimate. Everyone there that night really cared. And since I still have 3 cases of beer left, no doubt a gathering of sorts will happen at my place again. I'm thinking of showing a documentry, such as "Supersize Me" (which didn't show in PGH) and letting people come over and drink my beer.

It was a busy ass birthday weekend. I'll fill you in later today.

Right now, I don't have much time before I hit the hay, so I'll leave you with this little tidbit. I have a PDF of the Bill O'Reilly Lawsuit. Its hilarious what this guy allegedly did. Its worth a read.
So here you go: Just Click This Link and you'll be able to download the PDF. Enjoy!

Monday I got into a car accident. I wasn’t really in the mood to share. I rear ended a taxi coming home from a bad day of work. I was driving extra careful, too. Considering how bad the day had went, you could say that its no surprise that I had a premonition that something of the sort was going to happen. Nobody got hurt. My car took a little damage, most of which could probably be fixed with duct tape. The left tenth of the taxi’s crumple bumper is all crushed inward. Taxis are made cheap, so my $150 estimate on the spot could be ambitious. It could also be over optimistic. Its not like I’m a mechanic or anything.

Needless to say, I was very, very pissed. Mostly at myself.

Monday this week was just one of the worst days in a long, long time.

My birthday party is this Saturday. If you read this everyday, you’re invited. Party starts around 9ish. 8 if you happen to work the door at a really great bar and want to pre-game a little.

Hey,

        I had to work through lunch so I couldn’t call you. I was on a really tight deadline and they definitely would’ve been pissed about me taking 5 minutes out of my day, even on my lunch break, to make a personal call. I went to ask the bossman if I could take 5 minutes to make a call, but he was too busy and forgot about me, about 45 minutes ago. So I’m doing the lowest-risk unauthorized communication and sending you an email. Hope the test went well. I’ll see you when I get done with work.

Chris

In my first car accident where I was responsible. Rear Ended a Taxi Cab coming home from work. Minor Damage. No one hurt. I have insurance. But I'm still pissed. This was the worst day ever.

More later.

Book I'm reading: Stranger in A Strange Land By Robert A Heinlein.
Strange Thing I've done lately: Went to Church of my own free will for a second time. Donated $10.00 to the emergency fund.
I also saw Harvey Alan Sing. It was incredible.

More later. I'm getting up Xtra early on a monday. And I'm going to bed super late.
Here's to caffeine.

First Lina starts reading my blog and joins soapbox. Again. Welcome back Lina. I think you're less crazy!!! (Just kidding. I don't really care if you are crazy. I'm the Chris you didn't date, remember?)

And Abby sent me an email. I'm still digesting it and responding to it. I'd have thought she'd never contact me again. I don't know what prompted the change. This isn't gloating or criticism or venting. I guess its just me waving my hand from across the net and saying hello stranger.

And remarking how odd it was that some old friends popped up in relatively the same time frame. Purcell also called me long distance. I couldn't talk about what I wanted. But I'm sure I'll sit down with him sometime and we'll have a good chat.

Also, Erin got me a John Kerry T-Shirt. It looks pretty good on me. Its just a tight black muscle tee that says "John 04 John". Its one of those things I'd never buy myself, but I like it, so its a great gift. I need more tight tight black clothing. I need to be a stupid sexy kourtev.

mmmm....stupid sexy kourtev. Now there's a guy who could put you in the mood after seeing dead bodies.

what what what?

I think I missed a daily update this week. Shoot me. I'm ultra tired since I really don't drink any caffeine outside of work, and since quitting smoking, I don't get enough sleep.

Speaking of not getting enough sleep, I nearly fell asleep behind the wheel. I dozed off for like 2 seconds. When I saw traffic was slowing, I slammed on my brakes. I didn't hit anyone. Or come close. But man have I got to start going to bed by 9. Lame.

So let me make this quick. I went to the county coroner's office with Erin -- one of her classes is taught by someone who works there, and he was giving a tour. I think it was the Chief Deputy Coroner. The place was kinda cramped, and reeked of several odd smells. Death. Garbage. Formaldahyde. We saw bodies in various stages of decomposition. And when we left, our clothes smelled like the place, so we had to shower immediately.

Normally a hot chick, a warm shower, and me, and you're basically just short a bassline before it becomes something out of vivid video, but not this time. We reeked of death and chemicals. That will take away the urges like nothing else. Dr. Kellog -- the Dr. Kellog behind Kellog's foods, used to have institutions where'd they lock up frequent "self-abusers". He should've just given them a weekly tour of a coroner's office. Its interesting, intellectually stimulating. But normal people won't be in the mood for at least the remainder of the night. I'd be worried about myself if I was.

So besides reckless driving, and seeing decomposing junkies and elderly pre and post autopsy, I also got back on a coding project at work. So I'm psyched. I have a deadline again. I'm doing something besides paperwork. Finally. < switches to Dr. Evil Voice > They Threw me a frickin' bone here. < / switch >

Oh, and Lucky me. I found nearly $50 in the stairwell of Erin's apartment, so I have cash. And I'm getting paid tomorrow. A lot. So Friday afternoon I'll be off to deliver it to the local bartender's. Safest place to deposit your money. In times of economic trouble -- they'll outlast the banks. Its just convincing them to let you withdraw money that's the tricky part. Haven't quite figured that one out.

Hope to see my 21+ buddies there to booze it up with me. My friends are always welcome to crash at my place in south side.
Ciao!

I went to bed early last night, so I didn't get a chance to put together a
blog post for today as I was intending.
There is, however, a lot going on right now in my life.

Today at 10PM will mark 1 whole week without smoking a cigarette.
Michael Moore will be speaking at CMU today. If I hurry home from work I
should be able to make it in time to see him speak.
I've started to work out during the week, instead of just on the weekends.
I'm up to going 3 times a week, every week, but I'm getting there. I forgot
how packed Tree's hall can be during the week. I saw Shawn Stokes there. He
tried to give me that high school meathead intimidation look. I just
returned his look with my "I will crush your windpipe and safely dispose of
your body" stare.

I missed the vice presidential debates, but it's not really a factor in my
decision making. I've been part of the "Anybody but Bush" ticket since he
stole the last election. It could be a Kerry-Hitler ticket, and I'd vote for
it. Its sure better then the Hitler-Cheney ticket that we've got now. And
don't tell me the comparison isn't apt. Adolf invaded countries on a
pretext, too.

Living alone means you're always busy. I rarely hang out with people these
days. I seem to spend all my time with Julie, Chuck, and Erin. I apologize
to everyone for my social isolation. But its helping me get in shape and
quit smoking, so you'll have to bear with me on this one.

My new favorite show is Scrubs. I don't have cable, but I have broadband, so
I can download the episodes. Scrubs is kinda like Family Guy meets ER. It's
a good time. I recommend everyone hit up http://www.suprnova.org and check
it out.

Soapboxers:

We've mentioned getting some kind of project started. I think a user
database, with profiles and such would be a great place to start.
So before I decide what we want to database, here's a list of what I've
got already. We can add/modify this list. Its just to get the juices
flowing:

First Name
Last Name
Age
Town
State
Zip
Occupation
Email
Favorite Food
Dream Car
Favorite Gaming System of All Time
Music of the Moment
Movies of the Moment
All Time Favorite Books
Latest Books
If you had a million dollars...
URL of a pic
Homepage
AIM/ICQ/Jabber
Are you a cuddleslut/Serious Takers Only/I can't, I'm Mormon
Relationship Status
Inspiring Political Quote
Political Compass Score
Fav. Web Site (besides chris' blog)

what does everyone think?

Man,
Best Internet Joke EVER.
(You would've had to watch the debates to get this one)

I ran into a former fraternity brother of mine who I actually don't hate at all. Myke Reiser. Myke's too much of a good person to deserve being there, but he seems to get something out of it worth paying for, so I don't really try to nag him to quit. But he's filled me in on what its like, and all I can say is that I'm glad that I bailed when I did.

Anyway, there was a certain douchebag in TEP that was a polar opposite. We never saw eye to eye. He was a meathead. He's the kind of person who'd sport the "Freedom isn't Free" bumper sticker with no understanding of the current political climate. He just wanted to express his "Yes its okay to send this generation's young people off to die for what they don't understand" point of view while his SUV continues to only get 8 mpg.

Let's term this person NabG. NabG is apparently a 3rd shift assistant manager at some mexican fast food place. That's what you can do with a communications degree from Pitt when you put your silly little frat ahead of it. The only job perk you have is you get to prey on 16 and 17 year old girls who are there, working their first minimum wage shit job before they leave for bigger and better things in college.

Apparently NabG comes back almost every weekend to party with the gang -- maybe because he's a hard guy to like. Hell, let's be honest, it was a miracle that someone so unlikeable made it to such an age without being repeatedly shot in the face, 50 cent style. I blame the assault weapon ban. In other words, he hasn't made any friends after college.

NabG could've not gone to college and gotten a job at PennDot. And then he would be making more then I do. I find it fabulous that some liberal arts degrees actually make you less valuable on the job market because they essentially state "I'm functionally useless."

They say the best Revenge is living well, and to that I say, "Yes it is."

Going out to Jekyl and Hyde's reminded of one reason why I started smoking when I drink. It slows down your consumption of booze.
Not that I can really complain. Last night I got wasted off 3 beers.

Of course, by 3 beers, I mean I had two drinks, then I drank a beer called Terrible. Terrible comes in fifths. The same as a wine bottle. Terrible is also 12% alcohal by volumne, the same as some of the higher strength wines, like Merlot.

You really have no idea what a little bit of Merlot can bring out in some people. Or what a lot of Terrible can bring out. In other words, Terrible is a great way to get lit for the night.

Chuck and I hit up Jekyl and Hyde's with James Wiltz. James had a great T-shirt. It was this shirt from T-shirt Hell.com. I want that shirt.

It was a great time because we were at a great bar. I'm definitely going to go there every friday night. We showed up at 8:30 and where the only people at the bar. We got to hang out with the bartender. Within an hour, the bar was packed and we were lucky if we didn't have to wait 5 minutes for a drink order.

One of Jekyl and Hyde's great features is guest bartenders. Chuck rose to fame in this category. So he and I are doing it on November 2nd. That's right. Come watch the polls close and get drunk with Chris and Chuck as your bartenders. We hope to have red and blue jello shots. November 2nd, 8 pm. Mmm-mmm, bitches.

Chuck also had some game going on. There were some really hot 30-somethings that came
in after us, and Chuck went to mac on them. They were all about him, because he had a sticker that said he worked for NASA. They asked him if he was 28, and he said he was 22. That's when they lost interest. So from now on, Chuck is a professor at Pitt, James and I are his grad student flunkies.

That little white lie, Chuck tell us, will allow him to give his "laser" some more "field testing". Because Chicks did guys who work for NASA. Haha, I just said "Chicks" -- like I know what anyone digs.

Also, at this point, I'd like to congraduate Chuck on becoming a Mason. Remember Chuck: At least its not TEP. Not TEP by a longshot. And remember me, while you ascend the ladder of world controllership.

Its Friday, I shouldn’t be so tired. But today is day 3 of quitting smoking cold turkey. It’s never been this bad, but I’ve never been so frequent with smoking. Some days at work, when it was slow, smoke o’clock was every hour on the hour after lunch. 3 smoke breaks.

Other then quitting smoking, there’s not much else going on in my life. I’m busy at work. I’m thinking about a lot of stuff, but that’s still for me to ponder.

This weekend looks to be a good weekend.