Summer classes

Well, as Eric blogged earlier summer classes have begun this past Monday. Eric is taking one 10-week course so he has it a little better. All of the classes I am taking are 5-week classes or with Memorial Day weekend, 4-week classes. I took two this first 5 weeks and it is crazy! One is Monday 8-12 in the classroom and 1-6 online. The other is Tues-Thurs. 8-12. I basically have two tests every week and a quiz everyday. So far though, it is not that bad. I like the fast pace and the get it all done in a short time concept. It cuts out the bullcrap busy work they like to give and it makes the teacher cover only the important stuff. I am soooo looking forward to August since I get the whole month off from school and we are going home to Michigan to visit friends and family! We are looking forward to meeting the two new additions to our family and friends. Babies are fun! Luckily in the meantime one of my friends from school has a lake house that she is going to invite us too during the summer so that will break up time. This 4 day weekend is a great break from school too so I am going to enjoy some free time, but of course I also have tons of reading to do.

Back to School...Back to School...

My summer class starts today. It's sort of weird when someone from the office called it "summer school" the other day. For whatever reason, calling it summer school carried with it a negative association in my head. Probably left over from my high school days when summer school meant you had failed something during the regular year.

Textbooks are still a scam. I purchased a used 200 page hard cover this semester that cost $90. I could get a brand new book at Barns & Noble with the same characteristics (probably roughly the same material too) for $50. Thank goodness my employer pays for the class AND the books:)

GAP commerical

Does anyone but me want that girl in the current GAP commerical to be wearing just 1 or 2 less shirts?

I'm melting..........

Today in Huntsville, Alabama it is 90 degrees with 80% humidity. It is sunny but too damn hot and muggy to enjoy! You step outside for a minute and you begin sweating bullets. My dogs don't even want to be outside because they start panting right away from the intense heat. I have had many arguments with my fellow nursing classmates that have moved from the north to Florida and lived there or in Alabama for several years and they are always saying that they love it and that "it is the best." I am always saying that I personally miss the snow and experiencing all FOUR seasons (yes there are four) that they have in Michigan where I am from. One of the main reasons for the title of this blog (which Eric came up with) is that it is sooooo hot down here from May until September that it is like burning in Hell. I love to garden and today I had to replant some flowers in bigger pots and I also bought a couple more flowers to place in the old planters. I was outside for a minute just putting things in order to begin and to sweat buckets. I do not consider this kind of weather nice or pleasant, because you cannot enjoy it! Even if you have a pool or lake house you cannot stay out too long because you would get heat stroke or burn up. Even if you are abnormal and do not sweat like a whore in church, then you get tons of skin cancer! I miss the less humid spring time when you can sit outside and read or go for a walk or jog during the day and not die or have to change your clothes. And I am sorry, but Christmas with out snow is abnormal! I can never get into the Christmas spirit down here until we go back home the week before and see the beautiful snow. Going to schoold down here is not the same in the fall. On my old campus, the beautiful MSU, I would walk to class everyday for 20-30 minutes sevearl times a day and I would not mind. It was so beautiful to look at all of the beautiful colors the leaves produced. Ahh the good old college memories.......

Troy

I saw yet ANOTHER commercial for Troy, so I had to put in my own two cents about the movie. Kien already beat me to all the good points about the movie, so I will just have to settle for a few basic thoughts on the movie (SPOILERS AHEAD):

• Generally I thought this was a good movie. The last 20 minutes were pretty boring since you more or less knew everything that was coming. Giant horse... wooohhhh....Achilles heel...blah...blah...blah...



• Apparently armor is absolutely worthless. I'm not sure why anyone wore armor in this time period, since I lost track of the number of swords and arrows I saw go right through them. On the other hand, I think this is the ONLY movie I have ever seen where armor blocked ANYTHING (I thought I saw Brad Pitt's armor block a single swing of a sword). Come to think of it, I am not certain I have EVER seen a movie where armor really protected ANYONE. Take star wars. I'm glad all those storm troopers wore that useless white armor. Never actually saw it stop anything other than their ability to run though.



• Near the end where Orlando Bloom is the man with a bow and arrow, I just kept thinking, "I've seen this movie. It was called the The Lord of the Rings"...



• This movie was clearly made by an atheist. I thought the entire theme of the movie was either, "faith in the Gods leads to defeat", or perhaps less cynically, "The gods favor thoses who favor themselves". The Illiad is rife with gods meddling in everything, but in the movie their is only 1/2 an appearance of one (I was not sure if Achilles's mom was supposed to be a god or not)



• Fuck Brad Pitt. Fuck the fact that he is in such good shape, looks so good, gets to play the greatest warrior in the history of time, and gets to have sex with Jennifer Aniston. And I hate the fact that he is a good actor (this movie doesn't show that). Really good looking people like this should be brain dead morons to compensate for the fact that they are so good looking. Otherwise the universe ends up out of whack and then there are all these ugly, toothless retarded hicks in the world.

Atlanta anniversary trip

Well, Eric and I went to Atlanta this past weekend to continue celebrating our anniversary and we had a blast. Our intention was to go there and visit some techno clubs that we wanted to check out. We arrived early Saturday morning and we went to the CNN studios to take the tour they have. It was pretty cool. They take you behind the scenes and explain how they collect all the news that ends up on the TV. We didn't get to be on TV but it was still fun to see. It was especially cool to hear about how the weathermen do the weather with those big maps behind them. After CNN we went to Centennial Park to watch the little kids run through the fountain. We discussed how disturbing it is that some parents dress their little girls like miny whores. I swear there was one girl who was about 10 or 11 and she was wearing a hooker/porn star dress. It was tight, had a very low v drop in the front and her back was bare. I have seen strippers that wear the same outfit on the pole. There were also too many little girls 6 and under in halter tops and short skirts or shorts. I personally think that no girl under the age of 15 needs to wear a bikini or halter type top of any kind. Whoever started this fad needs to be punished. When we walk around in the malls I am always frightened by all the girls under 15 that walk around dressed like professionals. Anyway, that is my rant. Back with the Recap.

We went stopped by the Undergound on our way to the hotel. We took a preclubbing nap since one of the clubs we wanted to go to opened at 11pm and closed at 5am. We tried to go to Eleven50 and we were disappointed to find that it had been rented out for a wedding party. These people must have had money. So we walked around and went to a smaller bar called the Vortex first to get drunk. It was and ok bar, but no techno. They had some band that was ok and they played some rock songs, but most of the time you could not understand what they were singing. We enjoyed the beer and had a shot of Jager for the Huntsville Party Posse!!! After we were nice and toasty about 1:30am we went to the club Backstreet Atlanta, which was conveniently across the street. It is a techno/gay dance club that does not serve alcohol, just water and juice. It was an excellent club though. There were many straight people there and a lot of Asian people, strangely enough, most of which I think were all on some type of fun drug. Apparently, I am very hot to Asian population in Atlanta. I was "attacked" by about 6 or so of these guys. At first it was all in good fun and a little nice for the ego but later Eric had to grab me and hug me while we danced in order to keep them away. It was a crazy night. There were about three people with glow sticks doing light shows, but they were not very good and they did not have the cool glow sticks to work with. The club itself has some very cool lighting effects and the strobes were so bright that you would be blinded for a minute. It was pretty cool. Eric and I danced the night away until our feet were yelling at us and blisters were formed. All in all we had a great time in Hotlanta.

The next day we drove an hour south of Atlanta in to the middle of nowhere, literally, to see my best friend Mo and her husband in there new house. She was not kidding when she said she lives out in the backwoods of Georgia, but it was pretty nice there. We got to visit with them and give them a gift for their baby that is due at the end of August. We then drove on very small desolate roads before we could work our way to a highway that went in the right direction of our house.

The whole weekend was a blast! I think that Eric and I will be frequenting Atlanta more in the coming months. We will have to get more people to join us next time. We will look for dates when good DJ's will be at the clubs of Atlanta.

Post Anniversary Info

3 years. It's a little hard to believe that Sue and I have really been married that long.

We had a nice dinner at O'Charlies last night (best bread in town) and then on to presents. My plan to spring a completely unknown present on Sue worked like charm. I got her a green CareBear sweatshirt from Hot Topic, complete with a giant four leaf clover in the center of the shirt. What I failed to notice until she put it on is that it actually includes little bear ears on the hood:) It is quite cute. You will all have to ask her to wear it for you some time:)

Sadly, no gimp hood (sorry Ryan) or leather whipping products were exchanged. I got a belt from Sue and I got her a leather purse. We are so yuppie and conforming:)

Heading to Hotlanta this weekend for clubbing and dancing, then to Sue's best friend Mo. Thinking about that is sapping all will I have to work. I think I need about something else...

Anniversary Eve

Blogger (the site that this little web log resides on) has finally added their own comment system to their system. I've changed to their system of comments from my old comment system, since the new version has some cool new features. But this means that all the old comments are now gone:( Sorry everyone. Don't think for a sec that I did not appreciate all the comments. Hopefully Sue and I will come up with some good content for you all to comment on.

On a lighter note, tomorrow is our 3 year anniversary. For those unaware, the 3rd year gift is traditionally leather;) Guess that means I need to head down to the local "dancer" (spelled "s-t-r-i-p-p-e-r") shopping outlet to find a suitable gift:)

Seriously, I hope Sue likes the gifts that I got her. I swear some times that Sue has a sort of ESP when it comes to gifts. And while I am sure that she could easily guess 3 out of the 4 gifts, I know I have one that she has no idea about... Cross your fingers and hope I am right:)

Work and School

I'm diggin work lately. Like most software developers, my favorite part of my job is making new software. The least favorite part is writing documentation. Documentation sucks. Thankfully, the place I work is not a very documentation oriented sort of place (it should be, but we have no process control to speak of). And thankfully, we have so many signed or nearly signed contracts that each project is rapidly becoming just one developer per project.

I actually prefer working by myself when it comes to development. Not that my coworker aren't great, but I find development something that I have to "get in the zone" to complete. That means a lack of distractions for a good 5 - 10 minutes, something that is harder to get when there are more people involved. Generally, I can actually measure my productivity at work via the music I listen to. On good days, I will get through at least 3 or 4 complete CDs (that is still only 4-5 hours of music when I think about it). On bad days, and I have had more of these then you would believe, I will not get through even one CD:(

School is done for this semester. I only take one class per semester, so unlike Sue the end of the semester is rather anti-climatic for me. I've started my Master Thesis, which I am super excited about. I'm actually annoyed with my advisor, because he is so slow to do anything related to the project. My thesis is that I can create a neural network (sort of a pseudo-brain built in software) that can find interesting differences between high resolution images of 2D Protein Gels (you have to ask Sue what that is; something to do with biology). Fucking cool if you ask me! The best thing is that the neural networks are not really programmed. They actually learn based on the inputs you give them. Its some of the closest stuff we have to a model of how the brain learns.

My List

Well, if Sue is going to have a "stars you can do it with list", you can bet that I am going to have one too!

Mine (in no particular order) would be:

1) Nicole Kidman: Any movie, any time is fine by me.

2) Tina Fey: She does the news on SNL for those unaware. I know this one is weird.

3) Salma Hayek: Desperado Salma Heyak if I can pick

4) Eliza Dushku: Especially In The New Guy on the horse wearing the bandana as a shirt if I can pick, but I would also take the rubber suit from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, or even the cheerleader outfit from Bring It On:)

5) Tiffani-Amber Thiessen: Not Saved by the Bell, but anything else of her recent stuff.

Sue's Baaack!!!

Yes I am back. I am proud to say that I have survived my first year of Nursing school and I have come through pretty well. I don't know what my grades are yet but I am pretty sure I did pretty well this semester. I took my last final for the semester yesterday and I get a 3 week break before I take summer courses. Mmmm.... 3 weeks of doing what ever I want. Yeah!

Yesterday, Eric and I met some of my classmates for some drinks to celebrate the end of year one and it was fun. We started talking about our star list. You know the list of 5-10 celebrities that you would do if for some small chance you came face-to-face with them and they wanted to sleep with you. So who is on your's? Mine is:
1.) Dave Matthews
2.) John Cusak
3.) Ewan McGregor
4.) Brad Pitt
5.) Johnny Depp
Not that the time would ever come in real life. We had quite the conversation when we began this issue. It is quite interesting to hear who people pick and why they do.

Well, now I must think of something else to do today. Of course I have some chores to do. Cleaning must be done. Later all.

Back Yard

I'm sitting on my lounge chair in my backyard right now relaxing and admiring my mowing job. There is something DEEPLY satisfactory about owing and taking care of your own yard. Yeah, the actual job of mowing the yard is dull (Note to self, need to invest in a headset and some sort of portable music player to make it bearable), but the feeling of pride I get afterwards is worth it. Its silly that I get pride from it really, but I do.

Of course, newly mowed grass smells nice too. Maybe that is why I like it:)

We need to have some people over I think. I know most (might even be all actually) of you have never seen my house, but we have a pretty big back yard (big enough for a game of boot even) and really large paved area right outside the back door for grilling, lawn furniture, and general revelry. Its really built for entertaining. Need to talk it over with Sue. After Monday, both of us will be done with school for the semester. A afternoon weekend party sounds like a good way to blow off some steam.

I want to work for a ski resort

Any business with a howitzer is ok in my book:

CNN.com - Army asks ski resorts to return its howitzers

Good Weekend Part 3

Last post about this weekend, I swear. As I mentioned in Part 2, we meet up with Dana and planned a night of dinner and dancing. Dinner was great at The Corner, where I had a gyro for the first time in a while. And our waitress was so nice that I actually had her bring out her manager just so I could tell him what a wonderful waitress we had. She was happy and so was I. Not only was the food great, but the conversation was great as well. I know it was great because at one point I had the following conversion with the waitress:

Waitress: Can you do me a favor?

Me: Stop saying the word "whore" so loud?

Actually, she just wanted me to turn on the overhead fan, but it was still indicative of the good conversion we had. We then headed out to a local bar named Alans ( I think, but I'm not sure), were I preceded to immediately become the "pace car". For those unaware, the pace car is apparently southern slang for the person who has had 2 more drinks then anyone else in the place. The single guys I hang around with typically use it to refer to the drunkest girl at the bar when they are looking for a girl;) Anyways, I was way ahead in terms of weight divided by alcohol consumed by the time we left that bar and went to Vinyl. Vinyl is the pseudo-dance club in town. Picture any dance club you have been in: slutty girls in tight clothes spanking and dry humping each other, the single old guy dancing around the stage, men trying to pretend that they are not fascinated with girls spanking each other, alcohol that costs $4 a bottle, etc.. Your typically dance club.
I said pseudo before because the DJs mostly suck although as I got drunker throughout the night, I thought that the music got a lot better. I danced like a typical drunken white guy for most of the night with Sue, Dana, Ryan, and Geoff. I had a lot of beer. I think I peed 8 times while we were there. What a great weekend:)

Good Weekend Part 2

Continuing my good weekend, Sue and I headed out to Panoply on Saturday. For those not from round these parts, Panoply is a annual art festival held in Huntsville. It is actually really nice. We ran into Dana and planned to meet up later that night for dinner, dancing, and drinking (more on that later). Sue and I got a bunch of stuff, both for ourselves and for other people (no one who reads this, so don't be expecting any artsy gifts from us). The best thing we acquired was a great 8x10 painting. The guy selling it is telling me about all the old testament religious symbolism and how the different elements represents different emotions, and all I am thinking is:

<butthead voice>uhhhhhhhhhh, I like pretty colors, uh, huh, huh. Red is good. huh, huh</butthead voice>

Anyway, I have to report that I am also a clumsy oaf. I dropped a cute turtle made of glass that we got not 5 minutes after we got home. ARRGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!! STUPID ERIC!!!! STUPID! I'm telling you this so that if you ever come to my house you will not ask, "What happened to this turtle?" and have me break down right in front of you. It will be awkward for both of us, so just let it go. Despite the fact that I dropped this, Sue still loves me. She shouldn't, cause as previously mentioned I am a clumsy oaf. But she does and I love her all the more because she could forgive me for that.

Good Weekend Part 1

What a good weekend! First, Sue and I rented Kill Bill Vol. 1. She hated it, but I actually really liked it. I know it was bloody; pointlessly bloody. But it was stylish, brilliant sound, and classic Tarantino. I loved all the conflicting imagery. I especially like the initial shot of them fighting in the living room with the camera shot through the picture window to the suburban screen in the front yard. I loved the fact that the soundtrack would be completely disconnected from the scene playing out. It makes some of the really graphic stuff seem less disturbing.

And you have to like Uma Thurman. She is bad ass in this movie and at the same time completely lovable. That is the essence of every Quentin Tarantino movie. A series of dichotomies. Good people driving you nuts, and the bad people becoming your hero.

It did have some flaws. I was not a big fan of the Anime, although it was clearly necessary (don't want to fuck up a kid actor for the rest of their life). But that part of the story could have been left out. And blood seemed to spray out of people like it was under 500psi. Maybe it does spray out like that, but it seemed like it was just way too much. And why the heck were they bleeping out her name? What is the point of that?

We also rented Anger Management. First reaction: Sucked. It was boring. It was totally unbelievable. It was ridiculous. It did have some really good moments, but they could not overcome the fact that my suspension of disbelief would not suspend itself long enough to enjoy the movie.

Insights into the Mind of Eric

I found the following two quotes funny today. I think they both will give all you out there an excellent insight into the sick, twisted abstract that is my mind:

"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"

"Why kill the poor when you can feed them senior citizens and ride them to work?"

Reading them again, I think I should point out that I don't agree with either of them. They are just really funny to me:)

I Miss Slurpees:(

According to this link, I live almost 300 miles from the nearest 7-11. That is almost 3 hours if I could average 70mph the whole way. DAMM IT! How can that be so?!?!?!?! Why must this state be without 7-11s?!?!?!?! I want slurpees!

I do have to admit though that the lack of 7-11s means that I actually look forward to trips to places like Phoenix or Ft Hood. There is nothing better than the first sip of Coke Slurpee after 3 months going without.

Work Sucks Today

I hate days like today at work. First its Friday, so in general I am not feeling particularly productive. Second, I had a major ship deadline yesterday of my software, so today I do not really have that much to do. Those two things combined have made today really long and boring so far. I need to focus. I need to work on keeping the flow going. Finally, I had Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. Since it was a buffet, I naturally stuffed myself like a wild pig, which is only increasing my need for an afternoon nap.

Must... resist... urge to post constantly to the blog and surf the web for the rest of the day...

Not a fan of reptiles

One thing I do not like about the south, is how big the snakes and insects get due to the nice weather. I do not like these critters to begin with and they are huge. I definitely have a phobia for spiders and snakes. Today I found out the hard way how much I hate snakes. We had a pretty big thunderstorm roll through here and it dumped about 3 inches of rain at once with hail. I had to duck out on the front porch to save some hanging plants and some planters on the ground from flooding. I was opening the door to the back to make sure my little trees and ivy were still standing and I did not look out the window first. When I opened the door, a 2 foot long snake was at the door trying to get in!!! I saw it just in time to slam the door just in time. Eric got home just after that as we watched it slither up on the side of our house. Eric tried to grab it to fling it back in the woods when it crawled under the brick by our heater. EGH!!! UGH!! YUCK!! HATE CREEPY, CRAWLY things!! I didn't really want Eric to kill it but I sure as heck did not want it near my house. I will try not to have nightmares!!!