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New Guy

This new guy's been hanging outside my apartment building for the past couple days. He's pretty cool once you get to know him.

I really like "King Kong". I'd recommend it. For anyone that wants to know how to fight three T-Rexes at once while saving a girl, this movie is the movie for you.

My life depends on your

My life depends on your freshness.

Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, was great. I'd recommend it.

Three new movies

Rent has a pretty touching ending. Chicken little is goofy. Pride and Prejudice has lots of dancing and people getting married. For those of you looking for a goofy movie with a touching ending about people dancing and getting married, no one movie has it all. You're going to have to see all three.

Masked gunmen capture Iraqi city

But in the past fortnight more than 200 Iraqis, mostly civilians, have been killed in suicide blasts and car bombings (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

Pizza

I ordered a pizza ... mainly because I wanted something to eat for breakfast tomorrow.

It's been awhile.

A lot of great things have happened lately, but sometimes great things are hard to write about. Whether you want to call me lucky or blessed, I have much more than I deserve. I'd call it blessed and I owe my thanks to God.

I don't think I've written religiously on this blog before, but if you'll bear with me while I share something, we'll be back to movie reviews for Rent and Narnia in no time.

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.

Go Potter

I always think its funny the way movie titles are abbreviated on ticket stubs. This one was "H.P. Goblet." It was a good movie. I didn't know what was going on some of the time, but I'd recommend it. It seemed like everyone was falling in love during that movie. ... Well, I'm off to bed, it's 3am.

Nintendo

Wow! That's small.

Show a little concern

I think we should all boycott sony for awhile because of the root kits. You know, a good old fanshioned boycotting. It's really simple and probably involves less work than you might think. You don't even really have to do anything, you just have to stop doing buying sony stuff.

I would suggest not buying anything until after the PS3 comes out. If first day sales of PS3 are really low, and second day sales are higher, I think they'll recognize what's going on.

Make your boycotting forefathers proud.

Another Great One

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail138.html

Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story

For those of you who like Dakota Fanning and Horses, Dreamer is the must-see movie of the year.

Most of you have probably already seen Seabiscuit, and if this movie satisfied all your horse movie related needs, you can probably pass on Dreamer. However, if Seabuscuit left you wanting more in the way of horse related cinematography, Dreamer is definately the answer you've been looking for.

Same goes for Dakota Fanning fans and War of the Worlds. If War of the Worlds left your glass of Dakota Fanning related cravings half empty, then Dreamer is just the kind of movie that can fill the other half of your Dakota Fanning cup right to the brim.

Good movie. I'd recommend it.

Nintendo

I like this picture. He looks like a guy that knows what's going on. I've always been a big nintendo fan. I'm reading an article now. It's at IGN.com, a really great website.

The new Nintendo revolution should be a lot of fun. I'm really excited. ... I should have waited until I finished reading the article before I started writing a blog about it. ... I'll be right back.

Ok, I read it. It's good. I'd recommend the article. I like the part where it says, "Nintendo Revolution is decidedly not running in this race. Not because we can't afford the entry fee. But because we don't want the prize."

They really are looking for a pretty big change. I think it'll be a good change. I think there will be a lot of new games out there. Some will be a hit, others will be a miss, but overall all, it's times like this that I just like to sit back and watch technology amaze me.

Test 2

Cool, now I can take a picture with my phone and post it on my blog.

Happy Halloween

Short 3 minute movie by my room mate and me.

Even Newer Book

I got another new book. It's called, "Multivariate Statistical Modelling Based on Generalized Linear Models." It's over my head, but hopefully that just means it has a lot of good stuff in it. So, it should be good. I'd recommend it to anyone familiar with linear models, but looking for something more generalized.

I saw the movie, "Proof," last night. It's got a mathematician that goes crazy in it. If I ever go insane it will at least, perhaps, mean that I am finally becoming a good mathematician. Overall it was just an ok movie, I wouldn't really recommend it. The whole time I was like, "Come on, when are they going to show the proof?!" They didn't show it until the very end. And even then, just a couple pages of it. I would have liked to see a little more of the proof, but maybe the movie was targeting people that "aren't that in to proofs."

New Book

I bought the book, "Where the Wild Things Are" today. It's a great book. I'd recommend it. I had my room mate read it out loud to me (not the room mate that's the Psychology PhD student, the other one). He enjoyed it. He liked the part where all the wild things were acting fierce and Max is just sitting there all unimpressed.

Movies

The first half of Wallace and Gromit is pretty good. I fell asleep about half way through, not because it was boring, just because I was tired. The best part was, however, the short clip before the movie started - a five minute segment with the penguins from madagascar. I didn't stop laughing from start to finish. It was really hilarious. It's worth the price of the movie ticket just to go see a penguin slap a blowling pin in the face and say, "I'll deal with you later." It's really good. I would definately recommend it. Even if you go see another movie, it'll be tempting to sneak into wallace and gromit just to watch the penguin clip.

Pyramids

A pretty cool picture of the pyramids in Egypt.

Why study when you can write a blog

It's getting late. I've been studying as much as I can these past few days. I have a big test tomorrow. The chapter is called, "Survival Distributions and Life Tables," but that's just a fancy way of saying "Chapter 3: A few uninspiring reasons to memorize lots of formulas". It's late now though. I'm leaving in a few minutes to pick my roommate up and I'm getting too tired to do some serious studying. We get to use a formula sheet, so if I make a good formula sheet, there shouldn't be very much memorizing at all. In your face, Chapter 3!

I caved in and got the internet for my phone. It's kind of cool, but slow and unreliable. Kind of like a Tortoise that never keeps commitments.

An ape using a branch.

Check out the article at: news.bbc.co.uk

The Geddup Noise

Funny, funny, funny:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail136.html

"It's positively dreamy."

Be sure to click on the chair at the end.

The Wall Street Journal

The WSJ is undescribably bad. I got five papers this past year. That's it, just five. Not five a week, five total. I'm pretty sure I subscribed to more than five papers. Yes, I did call and tell them. And no, they didn't do anything about it. But don't worry, I will definately recommend the WSJ for people that want a yearly subscription that consists of 5 papers a year.

-S



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Tuition

I paid my last tuition bill on firday. When I first got there the line wasn't too long, so they had three registers open. After about 10 minutes the line started to get really long so they let one of the cashiers go home. It'll be less confusing with only two registers I guess.

I saw "Roll Bounce" and "Flight Plan" saturday night. I think roll bounce was better. If you have to pick only one to see, I'd recommend "Roll Bounce". Don't take it too seriously though. Best movie about roller skating that I've seen in a long time, that's for sure. If you're looking for a movie about roller skating, don't go see flight plan. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Flight Plan doesn't have any roller skating in it at all. ... I don't think it even mentions roller skating. The writers of flight plan definately didn't have roller skaters as their target audience.

Now for all you Airplane fans out there - I'd recommend flight plan.

XBOX

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000100059811/

Another veteran of the video games industry has something to say about Nintendo’s newly revealed controller – and it is praise from a surprising source. Peter Moore, vice president of all things Xbox, told gamesindustry.biz recently that he hopes the Revolution will “bring people in that, as Iwata-san said, are either lapsed gamers or gamers that are intimidated by the complexity of the controller.”

Of course he would want more consumers in the games industry (especially those that might later consider picking up an Xbox 360). However you interpret his statement, it does come in stark contrast to a certain Sony head honcho and his feelings on a certain Nintendo console.

Full article.

Google Print and a mission to the moon

Just two things today.

Roman numeral one: Google Print, has a search engine that let's you search books. It's kind of cool. A lot of the classic books are already online anyway. I'm not sure how many books it actually has available for searching. The more the merrier I guess.

Roman numeral two: We're going to the moon.

NASA planning moon launch for 2018

It will cost $104 billion over the next decade to send astronauts back to the moon, NASA's chief said Monday, defending the price tag as an investment the nation can afford despite the expense of Hurricane Katrina.

www.chinadaily.com

I guess Hurricane Katrina thought it could stop us from doing something 13 years from now. Well, think again Katrina. As long as there are no more big hurricanes during the next 13 years everything should continue as planned.

One more article on you-know-what

Here is one more article from our good friends at www.g4tv.com. Don't forget, the Nintendo Revolution has 4 Game Cube Controller ports. So, if a third party isn't interested in motion sensors and all that, it's totally not a problem.

I'm definately looking forward to it.

IGN

http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651275p1.html

It is essentially a wireless, square remote that works something like a computer mouse would in 3D space.

Thanks to http://360.yahoo.com/afullzip

Ok, So, ... Hmmm.... Interesting.

So I guess it works for left handed people too. To get all the details go to: www.macworld.com

Review of "The March of the Penguins"

I really liked "The March of the Penguins", but this review is really funny.

really bad
by rosenb499

I thought the movie was really bad. I mean, I do like penguins, but not that much that I would want to see a movie about them. The movie seemed like one of those movies that you watch at school or something. I guess you really have to be into penguins to really like the movie. In my opion, don't go see it.

Lol, this is great. I like the part, "I guess you really have to be into penguis." Who would have thought so many people were "really into penguins"? Oh man, we need more people like rosenb499.

A little midnight snack.

So, in case anyone was wondering if there are any useless things or people out there, ... there are. I had one of each tonight. Number one on my list of useless things is the print option for Matlab. Evidently, if you don't want your graphs to print out, just go to file and click on print. This is especially useful when you have a homework assignment that you have to print graphs for. It's also really great the way the computers are on the fourth floor and the printer is in the basement.

If Matlab's print option doesn't meet all your printing needs, there's more. If you ever want the guy that works in the lab to sit at his desk and not do anything, just ask him if he can help you print something out. He's really good at not getting up and doing anything useful. So, there you have it. Two especially useless things.

The evening wasn't a complete loss. After stopping to get a delicious milk shake at steak and shake on the way home, it's now 12:30am and I get to do the homework assignment again. This time I get use my own math program, Maple, which is (when it comes to printing options) infinitely better than lousy Matlab. Maple is a fabulous program and I would definately recommend it. My printer is similar to the ones on campus. The only feature that my printer has that the ones on campus don't have is the PRINT option. You'd be surprised how often that comes in handy.

Anyway, I'm a little bitter, but fortunately I'm getting better at ignoring lots and lots of things.

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

I finished the Laguna Seca Raceway in 2:30.287. Check it out at www.laguna-seca.com. Helio Castroneves has the current record. The thought that I might be able to beat his record someday is just one of the reasons why I would recommend Grand Turismo 4 for the Playstation 2 and video games in general.

A quote from Dan

It's not funner than going off a ramp on a bike.

-Dan, September 9th, 1990

Nintendogs

Yeah, I bought it. Nintendogs. I was worried that it was going to be really girly, but it turns out that it is only a little bit girly. I really like it though and would recommend it to a friend. It's only $30 and it uses the DS microphone. I got the Dachshund & Friends version. So there's 6 dogs to choose from: Miniature Dachshund, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Pug, Siberian Husky, and Shih Tzu.

I chose the Golden Retriver. He's pretty cool. I named him "Lucky". He comes when I call him and he knows the command "sit". I thought it was a pretty cool way to take advantage of the microphone.

It's a relaxing game. Maybe it'll get boring someday, but so far it's been nice to come home after a busy day, turn on the DS and go to the park and play frisbee with my dog. All virtually that is. Lucky's even won a couple frisbee competitions. He totally kicked butt at a competition last night. I gotta teach him some new tricks sometime.

So, in conclusion, Nintendogs is a fun game. If you get tired of shooting people, give it a try. Not as girly as you'd expect. I'd recommend it.

U of I Geologists

As the earth turns, the center of the earth turns even faster.

Confirming assertions first made in 1996, a team of geophysicists are presenting data in the journal Science today showing that the earth's inner core, a ball of solid iron larger than the moon, spins faster than the rest of the planet. Over a period of 700 to 1,200 years, the inner core appears to make one full extra spin.

That extra spin could give scientists information about how the earth generates its magnetic field.

The inner core, 1,500 miles wide, sits at the center of the planet, ensconced in a sea of hot liquid metal known as the outer core. With nothing to hold it in place, the inner core can rotate independently. Nearly a decade ago, two scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University said it did just that.

Other scientists, however, questioned the analysis, which was based on the speed of earthquake waves passing through the earth. Subsequent attempts to pin down the inner core's rate of spinning produced a wide range of answers. Some said it spun, but at a much slower rate than the Columbia scientists claimed. Others said they could find no sign that the core was out of step with the other parts of the planet. Some said it seemed to be spinning at a slower rate, not faster.

The same researchers who made the original claim, Paul G. Richards and Xiaodong Song, now a professor of geology at the University of Illinois, led the new research, which they said should remove any remaining doubts.

While it does not precisely pin down how much more quickly the core is spinning, Dr. Song said, "what this particular paper shows is it cannot be zero."

The New York Times

Nintendo Revolution

So they say, "the Revolution is compatible with GameCube controllers." Dailygame.net

C. S. Lewis

If I have not directly helped the cause of reunion, I have perhaps made it clear why we ought to be reunited. Certainly I have met with little of the fabled odium theologicum from convinced members of communions different from my own. Hostility has come more from borderline people whether within the Church of England or without it: men not exactly obedient to any communion. This I find curiously consoling. It is at her centre, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests that at the centre of each there is a something, or a Someone, who against all divergencies of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.

-C. S. Lewis

Update

The trip to Arizona was fun and summer is quickly coming to a close. During these next two days I hope to complete a variety of errends. Little things like taking out the trash and doing laundry and pretty big things like working out the details of full time employment after I graduate in December.

The new chicken sandwiches at McDonalds are bad. I wouldn't recommend them. Oklahoma toll roads are just as bad. I wouldn't recommend them either. Who ever heard of a three dollar and fifty cent toll. It's ridiculous. If that's their way of saying, "Welcome to Oklahoma," they can count me out next time. I'll go around before I do that again. I'd rather drive through Texas anyway.

Zelda won't be out till at least April 2006. Gamespot

In two days I'll drive back home to see my sister. She challenged me to tetris attack. Unless she's been training with some sort of tetris expert these past few months, I'm definately going to win pretty much every time. Tetris attack is a great game; I'd definately recommend it.

Just testing out my new phone.

Just testing out my new

Just testing out my new phone.

Texas was great by the

Texas was great by the way, complete with boots, cowboy hats, and pretty girls that said, "y'all".
Scott's Phone

New mexico isn't flat, so

New mexico isn't flat, so it's definately the prettiest scenery between here and chicago.
Scott's Phone

That last post was my

That last post was my most beautiful blog ever.
Scott's Phone

A quote from dave, "scott,

A quote from dave, "scott, i'm not gonna be impressed, . . . no matter what you do."
Scott's Phone

Cool Friends

I watched "The lost skeleton of cadavra" with my friends. They didn't seem to like it. Except for Alisha. Alisha laughed. She's definately my new coolest friend.

Scott with binoculars 

Chair

My roommate accidently broke my chair. It was a good chair. I was sad to see it go.

Classes

Sometimes I forget what classes I'm taking in the fall, so I'm going to post them here for future reference.

Intro Differential Equations - MATH 385 11:00 am - 11:50 am MWF Henry Administration Bldg 156
Actuarial Theory I - MATH 471 3:00 pm - 3:50 pm R Altgeld Hall 341
Actuarial Theory I - MATH 471 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm MWF Lincoln Hall 106
Actuarial Risk Theory - MATH 476 9:00 am - 10:20 am TR Architecture Building 302

I'll probably try and switch the Thursday discussion section to 4:00 pm instead of 3:00 pm. That way I can work at State Farm from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm on Thursday and 11:00 am to 5:00 pm on Tuesday. I think that's all the class info I wanted to have a reference to. I should really put this on my website instead. I was thinking about putting my bookmarked websites on my own website, that way I could quickly go to all the places I need even if I'm at another computer. Ah well, what's done is done.

Here's a picture of me and a co-worker at the park. I have a dumb smile, but it's a smile all the same. Good times, ... humid and good times.

Volleyball

Yesterday we played volleyball. It was way too hot to play volleyball. Why did we play volleyball you ask? It all started about a week ago.

It was a nice cool summer day and I was busily working at the Gladiator Arena. It was thursday and I had to get the lions really angry for tomorrow night's fight. The lions were a fierce and dangerous match for most, but not for someone with strength and valor such as mine. As I fearlessly ... I think I'm getting off topic. A messenger came with word from Gladiator management.

On July 25th, the interns for the Bloomington Gladiator Arena will be visiting us here in champaign. They will arrive at 11:00. At 11:30 we will have lunch at Papa Del's, after which we will be playing volleyball at hessel park. Bring clothes to change into.

No one would have known how torturously hot it would be the following week. Well, next week came, like next week always does, and I think I almost dehydrated. Three bottled waters were no match for the blistering heat that day. I was left dizzy and fatigued. Plagued with a mind-numbing headache, I desparately tried to carry on. Only time would heal these near fatal wounds.

I'm exaggerating a little bit, I don't really work with lions.

Good times

http://noonecanstopusnow.blogspot.com/

I try not to spend money on sunday...

scottch1980: I always forget to get food to eat on sunday.
JimmyKidsRule: That's rough.
JimmyKidsRule: This summer I've slipped into a seriously bad 2 hour eating schedule. Where not only do I need to eat every 2 hours but I need like a meal every 2 hours. I am taking in so many calories a day you'd think I would be doubling in seize every week... yet I remain the same. My metabolism is somekind of energy destroying monster.
scottch1980: My room mate's a little messy. He has a tough time remembering to clean up his stuff, so the kitchen is usually messy. I usually just get fast food. But then sunday comes, and I don't have anything. ... energy destorying monster huh? Don't let the military get a hold of you. Energy dependent countries, (or what I like to call, countries) would be done for.
JimmyKidsRule: Or what I like to call countries lol
scottch1980: I think i could make speghetti, but I think all the pots are dirty.
JimmyKidsRule: You could just eat it dry and then drink some boiling water.
scottch1980: lol hahahahahahhah
scottch1980: hah haa haa hoo hoo
scottch1980: hee hee
JimmyKidsRule: No pots to boil water though... might need to drink some water and swallow some matches?
scottch1980: aaaaaah...
scottch1980: hahhahahahhaahhaa
JimmyKidsRule: Ok calm down
scottch1980: swallow some matches..
scottch1980: hee hee .... aahhhhhh.
scottch1980: I'm just going to sit in the oven.
JimmyKidsRule: Oh that's not a bad idea either.
JimmyKidsRule: LOL or... you could just take a bowl of noodles and water and go sit in a sauna until they are done.
JimmyKidsRule: Or just go sit in a hot tub with some noodles.
scottch1980: I bet the hot tub thing would really impress the ladies.
scottch1980: then when the speghetti is done, bam! I already ate it.
JimmyKidsRule: Oh yeah... it's a step beyond dinner and a movie. It's dinner in a relaxing tub.
JimmyKidsRule: Ha
scottch1980: some day, dan, some day.
JimmyKidsRule: That's for sure.
scottch1980: Can I post this on my blog?
JimmyKidsRule: Sure

The best meeting I've been to in a while.

Meetings with the Property and Casualty Actuarial Department are pretty cool when you get to see all the new high tech cars that are coming out soon. I was pretty amazed. It's good to know, though, that when you're driving your new 2006 Corvette, there's dozens of microprocessors trying to make you safer when you're driving three times as fast as you probably should be. Even the muffler is computerized. http://www.chevrolet.com/corvettez06/

The Society of Actuaries

I scored an 8 on Exam FM. I'm glad that's behind me. I'm twice the Actuary I used to be. Watch out world.

Day 30 or so. 

I'd recommend it to a friend...

War of the Worlds. It's a pretty cool movie. I always think it's good for us to be prepared for things like that.

Mario Kart Double Dash and Viewtiful Joe 2. Fun games. I like 'em.

Kirby Canvas Curse. If you like drawing rainbows, this is the game to have.

Togo's. It's open 24 hours a day and has breakfast sandwiches that don't come from McDonalds.

Nintendo DS and PSP. I got a nintendo DS yesterday. My brother has a PSP and in my opinion, PSP is about $100 cooler than DS. PSP can play music and movies, but DS has a touch pad and a weird microphone that can tell when you blow on the screen. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The System is down

It's been busy this week. I'm tutoring math again now. It's fun, but with work at State Farm all day and tutoring all evening, it doesn't leave me with much time to get in to trouble. Ah well, I guess it's for the best. That last post about the pizza was from my cell phone. I think that's pretty cool. I guess if I'm ever in danger, and all I have is my cell phone, and I can't make regular calls, but only text messages, and there's no computer around, and people visit my blog all the time, I could text message a distress signal to my blog and someone could come and save me. I don't know what the rest of you are going to do in a situation like that. You're on your own I guess. Which reminds me of a song from Spamalot called, "Where are you?", if I remember correctly. It's the one where the girly prince is hoping someone will save him from being forced to marry against his will. It's a pretty funny song. I love the part where Lancalot charges in and the king yells, "Who are you?" The prince answers, "I'm your son," and the king says, "Not you!" It's a funny song. I'd recommend it if you're looking for some good laughs. I heard from two sources that they said on the radio that Actuary is one of the top ten jobs to have. In my opinion, it's pretty great so far. I'd recommend it along with Spamalot's "Where are you?" I signed up for this online class, but they haven't answered my e-mails in 2 weeks. I'm starting to question the efficiency of virtual academia. All in good time I guess. Well, I'm off to tutor. My break from the business of life is over. The system is back online. And I'm back to work.

I just got a free

I just got a free slice of pizza at antonios.

Spamalot

No, I didn't get to go see the musical, but I did get the CD soundtrack. And I gotta tell ya, this is pretty fantastic. I would encourage everyone to get it.

I'm just testing to see

I'm just testing to see if i can txt msg a post 2 my blog.

A couple days

I had a big exam last thursday. I got in a little car accident. My car should be fixed in a couple days. I've ridden my bike like a million miles. It was my birthday on saturday. I got some really great presents. It was a relaxing weekend. Someone charged $6,000 to my credit card though, ... so that was a little weird. I think the bank is looking into it. I also got a new case for my PC. It's got a cool blue light. It was a little tricky taking all the parts out of the old case and putting them all into the new case, but it all seemed to go smoothly. There was only one thing that I couldn't figure out. The case has two front side USB ports, and I couldn't figure out where to attatch the wires to the motherboard. I'll look into it though. I had to get a new case because there was something wrong with the power supply. The new case came with a new power supply.

I think that's all the news to report. Car, PC, Test, Birthday, Credit Card. To me, it seemed like a lot of events considering I was only really planning on taking that test and aging one year.

A special thank you and salute goes out to all our heroic war veterans on this Memorial Day. You're an inspiration to us all.

Waterfalls 

WIMPE

This is mainly just a reminder for myself. WIMPE is open from 11am to 8pm. Parking is free in the parking garage after 5pm and on weekends. Call to make reservations. Raquet balls are $4 or so for two balls. They have treadmills and exercise bikes. Basketball courts, indoor track, and pool. And they got some other stuff too.

Day 3 

Day 2 

Adventures are beginning in cyber space. 

Another test

Another test

Now is the time

This (among other things) would be a cool clock to have ... like if your birthday was coming up soon.

Fish Bath

www.fishbath.com

Insights on teamwork

the people who do the least work usually come up with the most criticism

-V. Nambiar

Loss Models

I have a big test tomorrow morning at 8am. It's for a class on loss models. This final exam is exclusively on Credibility Theory which isn't too bad once you get to know it. Kind of like an abrasive friend who opens up once you get acquainted with each other. I should stress, however, that no matter how well the studying over the next few hours go, a friend of mine sarcastically said it best with, "sounds like a fun thing to be tested on at 8 am."

My plan is to study until I'm really tired and then make a taco bell run and study some more.

Insights on teamwork

-V. Nambiar

P. Shah demonstrates how to create and post a useless audioblog. (I'm just kidding around champ)

Books

These would be two really good books to have ... like if your birthday was coming up soon. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.

Another try

Nope, still cut short. I'm sure it'll work right eventually. ... You haven't seen the last of me, AudioBlog!

This is really cool. I can just dial 1(661)716-blog, and it will post an audio message to my blog. It works from any phone. It's too bad I couldn't think of anything creative to say.

QRIO

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/
This is a really cool robot. He seems a little slow, but .... he is just a - wait, actually he can do this little jog thing and keep a pretty good pace. I think I could still probably out run him since he's only about 18 inches tall. He's toddler-safe according to www.theaustralian.news.com. I think Sony is actually more worried about the toddlers hurting QRIO than QRIO hurting any toddlers - www.engadget.com. The only downside is at this point, he evidently only speaks japanese.

Max Weber's Spirit of Protestantism and the Rise of Capitalism

This consciousness of divine grace of the elect and holy was accompanied by an attitude toward the sin of one's neighbour, not of sympathetic understanding based on consciousness of one's own weakness, but of hatred and contempt for him as an enemy of God bearing the signs of eternal damnation. -Max Weber

Plans

This week: two homework assignments, two projects, two presentations at State Farm
Next week: Study for finals
The week after that: Finals
Next month: Take the second Actuarial Exam, register for last gen. ed. online
June: Study and work
July: Study and work
August: Study and work, a couple weeks off, go on a trip
September: Fall semester, three classes left
October: Study for third Actuarial Exam
November: Take the third Actuarial Exam
December: Graduate
January: Replace studying with work
Febuary: Work
March: Work
April: Work
May: Work
June: Hopefully by this point, I'll recognize a pattern and come up with another plan.

19th century sarcasm

I don't know about you guys, but I really like the way this guy writes . . .

"There is no difficulty in proving any ethical standard whatever to work ill, if we suppose universal idiocy to be conjoined with it; but on any hypothesis short of that, mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as to the effects of some actions on their happiness" - John Stuart Mill

NASA

Describing NASA as an agency “in transition”, Griffin said that more changes would be needed to “reshape” NASA to “head down a new path” that includes returning to the Moon by 2020 in preparation for eventual human expeditions to Mars.
www.space.com

This would be exciting.

It turns out I'm really kind of fat when I let Scott - the star of Invasion Iowa - borrow my shirt. He's an awesome guy and was willing to talk to us for almost an hour about the show. 

What?! Where's Billville?  

This sign ended up in Murphy's Bar and Grill. The funny thing was, they were watching Invasion Iowa on TV when we got there. 

Murphy's Bar and Grill. Great for Cyborg bar fights and french fries. I had a cajun chicken sandwich and it was actually really really good. I'd definately recommend it. 

They wouldn't let us brake any of its windows either. 

The creepy made-up gravestone that started it all. 

The Kwik 'N E-Z. Gas, Jerky, and Racoon Manhood. 

Remember to look both ways before you cross the street ... even if you are the degena- degenert- degenerat tra- degeneratrics 3000. 

Maybe Po-Po could just have small wings and that's ok. 

Iowa

I'm a big fan of Invasion Iowa. We went to Riverside for a little visit.

Comment only blog

I have a comment only blog on xanga. The plan is not to make any posts. Just comments. So far there are only two comments. It's a blog for the people, by the people. You can make a comment or sign the guestbook. My work as the creator is done. It's in your hands now. Only time will tell what this monster will become. It's a revolution in blog technology (actually it's pretty much just a newsgroup now that I think of it).

Post a comment on my comment only blog. Every blog comment counts. I like to call it a blogment. We need your blogments today!

Roth IRAs and 401Ks

Sometimes I forget how helpful older brothers can be. Mine was kind enough to answer a ton of questions about Roth IRAs and 401Ks.

It was funny, I asked him about how regulations on retirement accounts might change 50 years from now. He said new programs could be developed that money could be rolled over to, or who knows, we could be socialist and have to give half our income to the poor. He said that that would be an interesting legal case. I thought that was funny. It might not be too funny if we really are socialist 50 years from now, but it was funny at 11:00 tonight.

Thanks to my other older brother, I'm going to Iowa next week to see something called Invasion Iowa. I don't really know anything about it, but according to a friend it has something to do with William Shatner and a fake movie. Don't quote me on that. I think you can get more info at www.williamshatner.com

It looks kind of funny.

-Scott

Multilple Linear Regression

I'm having a little trouble solving a math proof this morning. Like so many other things in life, one too many square roots and not enough squares.

Ten minutes til the bus arrives

I have ten minutes until the bus gets here. I wanted to take a few minutes -- well ten minutes actually -- to post a blog in hopes of become addicted to this internet blog thing. So here goes. You can time me if you want. If it takes longer than ten minutes, please tell me to go catch the bus.

A blog commentator once said, "A blog is not a journal. You have people to entertain." . . . Interesting thought. You know, some journals are interesting. Like Curt Cobain's. The blog commentator is right though. Most journals aren't. So in order to leave you with something entertaining, I'm afraid I must appeal to a higher authority, at least for this blog. Perhaps at some future date I'll have the creativity and pizazz to leave blog readers undescribably entertained by a few witty comments. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but don't hold your breathe.

So for all you champs from cyberspace I leave you with perhaps my favorite website:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail127.html
Have fun.

My second blog

Today is wednesday. A friend of mine told me an interesting story over lunch today. Evidently back in the 70s, a 13 year old child was found that had locked in a room, isolated, for her entire life. It sparked my interest. I asked him what the girls name was and jotted it down on a napkin in hopes of learning more about it when I had some time to google the case. He told me her name was "Ginie" with an "i". It turned out to be "Genie" with an "e", so thanks for making me waste a good 15 minutes searching for the wrong name. Part of what was interesting was how this case related to human speech development. Also, I was curious as to what has happened to her since the 70s. Has she learned to talk? Has she recovered? Basically, I wanted to know what happened and how. I'm in the middle of reading a documentary on the case at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html
Check it out when you get a chance. It's a long read though, so make yourself comfortable.
That's it for today.

Saturday March 26th, 2005

Hey mom, I brought home some lemon cake. It's pretty delicious