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  • 2005

    Well, another year has passed, and it seems like they are, as usual, just flying by.  I can’t really say that 2004 was a good or bad year, there were definitely high and low points.  For the coming year there are definitely things I want to do differently this year, and/or change.  I don’t really want to get into it here (I’ll probably get an “expectations meeting”), but those of you who know me, know some of the things I’m thinking of.

    Anyways, for New Years, I headed back up to Chicago (2nd time this week, but still on the same tank of fuel).  I stayed at Ann’s place, and since she knows more people in Chicago than I do, I left her in charge of figuring out what we were doing for New Years.  Well, she knew some people that lived downtown that were having a party of sorts.  Now, this place was right downtown (as you can see from the link).  The part that makes this funny is that the people that live in said apartment are newlyweds, one is a school teacher, and the other is in law school at UIUC no less.  Also, there’s the fact that they own this place, and not simply rent it.  Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that they own it, more like their parents.  And I can only imagine how much they paid for this place that is like one third of the size of my apt. 

    Anyways, we had a good time, and we went outside (in the chilly weather without coats) to watch the fireworks display from the lake.  Lake Shore Dr was backed up all the way because people were just parking their cars on the road to watch the fireworks.  It was pretty nuts.  Anyways Ann hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before and so when we headed back up to the apt, she started falling asleep on the couch.  Well, the group had decided that hanging out in the apt was a bust, and instead wanted to visit a bar.  Being right downtown doesn’t afford you that much in the selection of bars, as I had already found out on Monday night when a family friend and I had scoured the area around Wacker.

    Needless to say, the bar was pretty dead, and Ann was about ready to fall asleep on here stool.  I told her we should get a cab and head home.  Crazily enough, I didn’t receive any disagreement from her.  So we headed back to her place, and when we got there, her roommate, Evan, and his friend were watching The Rock.  In under 5 minutes, I swear that all of them were asleep. 

    That’s pretty much my night.  It was fun, could’ve been different, but being a “nice guy” has it’s benefits and downsides I suppose.  Who knows.

  • Bacon!

    Today I ventured out of the house to find the restaurant supply stores that we have here in the area.  Needless to say, I found both of them.  Now, the reasn I did this was to find a cookie sheet that doesn’t suck.  The ones I currently had, had a lip around the edge, but the corners weren’t closed.  Therefore, cooking anything that needed a solid edge was out of the question (i.e. bacon). 

    Unfortunately, my small oven won’t support a full sized sheet.  Therefore, I had to go with the half-sheet.  What really sucked, was that both of the supply stores didn’t have cooling racks for half sheet pans.  However, they did have smaller cooling racks that I can nicely fit two of into the half sheet pan.  I even got a deal on the pan and cooling racks, under $20.

    Now, what does this new sheetpan and cooling rack get me?  Bacon!  I’ve had a slab of bacon in my freezer for awhile now, but I’ve been unable to cook it because I haven’t had a closed wall cookie sheet.  Yes, I know, I could’ve done it on the stove top, but talk about a mess.  I also could’ve done it on the grill, but it’s been too cold out.

    Needless to say the cookie sheet and cooling racks worked wonderfully.  The bacon was nice a crisp, not squished up on itself, and not loaded with fat (the bacon on the cooling rack allowed the fat to drain away).  The BLTs that I made with the bacon were delicious, even without the tomatoes.  Yum.

  • Chicago Tolls

    This is just a public service announcement to remind everyone that goes to Chicago as much as myself (i.e. not very much), that tolls prices are increasing.  Come the first of the year, I believe all, tolls are doubling. 

    All the signs on the interstate are reminding people.  It makes me wonder what size piece of the pie Jewel gets for selling the speed pass.  I mean, that’s essentially what the city of Chicago is trying to do, get everyone that uses the tollroads to use the speed pass.  It makes sense though, fewer toll workers, less congestion, etc.  The only down side now is that it looks like the city is fleecing tourists even more, since they’re the ones that are going to be paying the majority of the toll increase.

    Just curious if anyone knows, but is the Skyway toll going to double too?

  • The Booty

    Well, Christmas is over and it’s time to find out what everyone got. I got

    A set of very nice knives
    Boxers
    Socks
    Scarf
    Sweater
    Elliot Smith – From a Basement on the Hill
    and “cool stuff” for my apartment consisting of some vases

    I think that’s it, but it’s always hard to remember. 

    The one thing I noticed was that lime green must be the “in” color this year, since, I think, all the clothes I got had it in it.  For those of you that have seen my winter coat know that I actually enjoy green a lot, so it’s not a problem at all.

    So, what’d all you guys get?

  • Merry Christmas

    Well, tomorrow is Christmas (actually only 6 more minutes here), so I thought I’d wish everyone a Merry one.  I’m chillin’ up with the family for the weekend, and then heading back home Monday-ish.  For those of you that are also driving, drive safe and tell everybody hi for me.

  • New Music

    Where does everybody go to find new music? Obviously you can’t really listen to the radio to find “new” stuff, since they play the same things over and over (not to mention 90% is crap).  I’ve been visiting allmusic.com and amazon.com and following the links of what similiar people have bought.  This takes a lot of effort, so I was curious how others happen upon new stuff.

  • Inside Temp

    With the temperatures getting colder, I was just wondering what everybody keeps their thermostat at?  Usually mine is set to under 65, but I also live in an apt, so I can live off some of the other people’s heat.  In other news though, my power bill for this month was about a third of the price as it was a year ago.

  • Girls =! Engineers

    I was walking back from one of the buildings that I tend to, to my office earlier today (consequently, my office is located right next to the dorms), and I overheard a conversation someone was having.  Actually, I didn’t overhear it, I was made a part of it because she was blabbing on her cell phone, but that’s another topic.  Anyways, it was obvious she was talking to her parents, and she was talking about various aspects of school.  The one that really caught my attention though was when she started talking about how difficult UIUC was.

    Somehow, she then progressed on to how the engineering school is practically impossible.  At times, it was hard to not to laugh out loud.  But wait folks, it gets better.  Because the engineering school is so hard, that is why there aren’t any females in it.  It’s because they can’t take the pressure.  Now, at this point, I’m starting to think to myself, “What makes males and females different that one can take the pressure, and the other can’t?”  Granted, I’m not a female, so I can’t really say anything from their perspective, but from mine I can’t think of any.  I was tempted to turn around and just flat out ask if she thought females were less competent than males, because that’s the impression I was getting.  Then, she went on to talk about how she has a bunch of friends that were going to be doctors, but because of their grades, they weren’t going to be able to follow that path, and instead become nurses.

    Now, in my mind, this girl was obviously a freshman, along with many of her friends.  It just seemed like such a closed-minded thing to be babbling about.  It definitely made me wonder what her major is because after she talked about her friends wanting to be doctors, she started fighting with the person on the other end about her not wanting to be a pharmacist, but instead a medical researcher. 

    I don’t know, that sounds like a lot of pressure, you think you can handle it?  I mean, you are female. 🙄

  • Weekend Nerdiness

    On Friday I got a copy of Knights of the Old Republic 2 (KotOR2).  Needless to say, the weekend has been dominated with playing it.  Amazingly enough I still haven’t finished it yet.  For those of you that didn’t play the first one on either xbox or PC, go do yourself a favor and get it.  It’s by far one of the best game I’ve ever played.  Needless to say, KotOR2 is pretty much more of the same. 

    Now, I know that a lot of you are thinking, “What?  It’s just more of the same exact game?”  Well, in a nutshell, yes.  Granted there are a few improvements, but 95% of the game is exactly the same, just with a new/continuation of the story.  What’s really nice, is that they pretty much took everything that everyone wasn’t a fan of in the first one, or stuff they wanted, and put it into the second one.  The ability to have two weapons config set and ready to go, longer gameplay, dual-bladed light sabers, more weapons, etc. 

    What’s really creepy is that it seems as if it’s using my saved games from KotOR1 to fill in the story for this one.  I’m not sure if it really is or not though, because it’s been so long since I played it, but you go to some of the same planets in both, and it’s crazy because how the story has progressed.  If you haven’t played KotOR1 yet, you really should play it first before 2, just to appreciate the way the stories blend so well together. 

    I actually never beat the first one because I got to the end boss, and since I didn’t have light saber throw, I was practically impossible (I was light side).  Then I tried to beat it again on the harder level and didn’t even get to the end boss as the dark side.  So far, I haven’t had any problems with this one, so I’m imagining it’s going to be like the first.  At least in this type of game it makes sense.  I mean, at least in the last one, you were combating the strongest being in the universe.  I suppose I shouldn’t have just been able to roll over him, but it would’ve been way cooler.

    Now, I’m just hoping that they don’t have a max cap on the level of character you can have in the new one, because if it’s anywhere near where it was in the first one, I’m about done leveling up.

  • Yet Another Redesign

    This is for all you RSS readers.  I’ve done a mini-redesign yet again on the site.  I definitely like the use of white space better now, and the color scheme fits me and that site better.