WOHOOOOO!

Yes yes yes....life is going ok. What with a subject heading like, "WOHOOOOO!" you'd think that something great had just happened. Well it has kinda. First off, we have been waiting for our $#%! insurance card for the better part of a month now. 3 weeks is a long time to go without insurance for a car. We held off driving it for a week or so, the agent promised the card would be there by the end of the week. Friday, nothin, Saturday, nothin, Sunday....well, you get the picture. I called him back on Monday and was all ">:o". He was like, oh, there was a hang up, you'll get it this week for sure. The policy has gone active though, so you're covered as we speak. So again, waiting, waiting...nothing. I call him back again the following Monday, having already been driving the car, I have to be in Rockford every day, and Andrea is working....so I we HAVE to drive that other car. So when I call him, he's "busy" but I leave a message and wait a call back. Nothing comes that day from him. I go to school the next day, do my thing, get done and start driving home. My phone starts beeping with "new message". I check it, it's our insurance guy ... again! " Another small hang up, but, you should have it in a few days....AGAIN! Sooo.....then, like five days later, i check the mail, like I have been doing EVERY DAY for a $%#!ing month...and what do my little eyes behold....but a nice little envelope all covered in gold! Actually, it was covered in white and green, but FINALLY, we have the insurance card for the Saturn. Then....after I open it, i notice that it says, "policy active on January 27th at 12:01am. >:O WTF!!!!!
So it wasn't active this entire time. Been driving without insurance. I hate large corporations...and the way the do...or don't do things.

If ya made it through all that....congrads. My check from Northern came today too. Soooooo, rent is paid till May now. Thank goodness for financial aid baby.

I am slowly taking over my cooperating teacher's classes. It is a little hard figuring out lesson plans quickly, but hey, I suppose it is good practice. I am teaching two classes tomorrow, and three on Friday. WHEEEEEE! Hope it all goes smoothly.

So I get to work tonight, and there are ladders and wires all over, hanging from the ceilings and what not. The covers are off all the florescent lights...and all kinds of piping and bulbs laying all over. This place looks like a construction zone. The lab is STILL not 24/7 which makes people angry, because instead of being 24/7 it's now....uh, 2/7...haha. I kid you not, the lab is open between 2 or 4 hours everyday, until they fix this thing up so it can function as a 24/7 attendant-less lab. Oh, and the printers are down again. WHEEEE!!! So I put some signs up saying, "Printer DOWN, sorry". And this is what people had to say about this.

"Uh...is that sign true?" reply, "nope, it's a conspiracy, set to prevent you from printing.....muahahahahaha"

"Why can't I print" reply, "the same reason no one else can....i don't like you"

"I just hit print on ALL of my stuff, and none of it showed up" reply, "the printers are down....i put a sign up about it" their reply, "so when will this lab actually be useful" reply, "as soon as you leave....sometime after that"

"I don't have power point...how can I print a powerpoint in my room, if I don't have it?" reply, "just unplug one of these computers and carry it upstairs. I won't stop you...dont' worry. As a matter of fact, if you wait till 9, I'll help you carry it."

Anyway, all kinds of questions like that were asked of me, to the point where, I decided to put up 2 more signs. Now the doorway looks like this.

----XX----
----------
X--------X
----------
----------
----------
----------
X = sign


In order to walk in the lab now, you physically bump into the signs. People brush past them, and walk up, "so, are the printers working tonight." I'm currently searching for some sort of blunt object to end my suffering. But, since I cant' find one, I decided to update my Blog instead.

Hope ya enjoyed it....if ya don't hear from me for a few weeks, it's because I found that blunt object....and am in a better place.

-Dan out-

Back to Work

Well, I am officially working again. From now until May something, I will be working on Sundays from 3-5pm, then from 6-10pm. WHEEEEE!! There is just something about working a 4 hour shift in a computer lab....it sucks! I'll manage though, because this is the one job that lets me do basically anything I want within reason. So, tonight, I will probably be looking up lesson plan ideas for the next 7 weeks of teaching K-5th grade.

This weekend, I started the insane project of cataloging all of my comic books. I loaded up Access and created a database. Then I created a form that I can just input all the vital data into, and it is then sent over to the database. It is pretty slick, and I should have done this a while ago. I am putting in such important data as, the publisher, the title, the cover price, the artist and the writer. This will be nice when I am looking for a specific comic and then, unknowingly, but it when I already have it. I plan on cataloging all of my comic Scans as well. I figured I have around 550 comics. I'm about through 60 so far. I'm having fun though.

I watched Alien vs Predator yesterday. WOW....it was kinda bad. Not that I expected much from it, but, hey, I'm the guy who went into XXX hoping for more than Vin Deisel throwing one liners at the screen and blowing things up without his shirt on.

The latest LOST episode was pretty good. I think we have learned about everyone's background so far. Everyone except for Hurley. We also got to see another huge CGI polar bear. Good times were had.

This next week of teaching is a full week of justice. No Monday off or anything :(
And with that...I'm gonna sign off until the next post. Andrea is making a rock-tastic dinner tonight of ham, baked potatoes and salad....and I'm gonna take off and go eat it...before I go back to work at 6. Oh , that reminds me, I don't get to see the SuperBowl either. >:O That angers me a bit, but I'll survive.

-Dan out-

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

Well, that was a great beginning, and so far, this semester has had an OK beginning. I am now at my first student teaching assignment. I get to help set up and instruct a huge number of students...something like 300 or so, and I get to be in complete control in a little over 3 weeks. WHEEEEE! I'm sure I'll manage somehow. So far, it has been going well, but I am only 2 days in so far, so I do not have a real feel for the teacher and the students yet. I'll keep ya posted.

I've been wondering just how many people really read this thing. I mean, I know that my buddy Mark does, and I know that Andrea does, but other than that....who knows. Well, here's to you Andrea and Mark, thanks for reading and I'll do my best to keep you entertained! Also, thanks Lindsay....I heard you read it as well!

My Halo2 days have been DRASTICALLY diminished! I'll manage, although I'll be thinking about how good it feels to snag dual SMG's and unload the entire clip into an opponent's body armor! I had typed a much more gruesome description as to what occurs when I have those dual SMG's in my hands, but I thought i'd spare you the details!

Still keeping up on all my shows......thanks to Efnet and their abilities. I simply hope that everything stays as it is now until June 15th! I have faith that it will.

So I'm sitting at work, "working", and there is this like ENORMOUS line waiting to use the print queue station....it's a little ridiculous. I think it will be amusing when I go, "the lab will be closing in 20 minutes" and everyone looks at their watches and see that it is 9pm. I'm hoping that everyone will be all pissed at me....like i decided to only have the lab open 4 hrs a day!

Hmmmmm, what else is going on...still don't have the car insurance card. In theory, it is active....but, we still do not have the stupid card to put in the car. I am driving it though....because I HAVE to! I called our agent today, and left a message for him to call me, although I'm not to sure what it is that he can do.

So I looked over at teh print queue station, and the screen currently has like at LEAST 50 print jobs pending sitting there. People are RIDICULOUS when it comes to print-outs!


That sucks that Chad might be leaving and going to work at John Deere. Not because he will then have money, and be able to rest easy again, but, because A: He's not gonna be around.....which isn't to horrible, since I don't have alot of time to really do anything with anyone as it is....and B: Mark will be left all alone in his humble little apartment. What will Mark do with himself.....well, I'll leave that up to everyone's imagination...hehe, (good ol' mark-o).

24 is getting kinda good. I am enjoying it thus far and will finish this season...like I always do, because I am a sucker...and I get sucked into these sucking grounds of TV shows. This show could be the biggest pile of crap EVER, and I would most likely not even notice. I'm lost in the world of 24, and no amount of crapiness will push me away...except if Kim gets kidnapped again...if that happens...I'M OUT!!

Snagged the new Astonishing X-Men by Whedon and Cassaday, and it wasn't to bad. Some kid holds the key to the whole mutant "problem" and these aliens that are trying to annihilate earth.....and well, he just killed himself. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT!!!! I also snagged the latest Pulse comic, written by Bendis. Haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I was just over at Marvel.com, and I noticed that Ultimate Spider-Man #71 is out, and I do not have it. It came out today and it is gonna be suweeet! I have em all so far, and lets face it, I better keep up with them. Now where did I put my piggy bank!

Other than all of that stuff, not a heck of a lot is going on. Played some X-Men Legends with Mark and Chad the other weekend, and that was quite the blast. Better than that though....was when we busted out Burnout:3. This game always sucks me in whenever I play it. There is just something about driving someone into the wall at 160mph upon which, you fly by them with Motion City Soundtrack blasting out of your half totalled car. WHEEEEE!!!

Tonight, Andrea made this like Chicken and Biscuits thing out of a box. It was pretty darn good, and I could see myself wanting to eat this again sometime. Never let it be said, that you can't eat in half an hour out of a box, and have it be good.
I'm not sure who has said that, but whoever they are, let it be known that they are WRONG!

And with that scrap of wisdom....I'm outta here. My job is calling me back...er, is it my gameboy...i'm not sure. Let me go see.

-Dan-

One week left

There is one week left until my last semester of college begins. This should prove to be an interesting one, simply because I will not be taking conventional classes, but teaching grade school and jr. high conventional classes. Good times will undoubtedly be had in a great abundance!

Andrea and I got cell phones the other week, and so now, our old land line number is no longer relevant. If you do not have my new number, e-mail me, and I'll hook you up with it.

I've been calling the insurance guy a little bit lately trying to get the 2000 Saturn that we are buying off of Andrea's grandmother switched over to our account. WHEEEE, more bills. He should be calling me back any moment with some feedback on the status of the insurance card. I kinda need to use the car starting next Tuesday....hopefully it all goes through ok!

Today marks the beginning of the re-designing and re-vamping of my website. She needs a update, and I need to get all of my art work up as well as the other links that were or are going to be present on the site. That there site has been in a constant state of "under construction" for the past year.

I'm taking Suse....the white cat, to the vet tomorrow so maybe something can be done about this cold she has had for like 2 months. It is getting kinda old for us, and I"m sure it is already old for her.

I loaded up Battlefield: Vietnam the other day, and have been playing that quite a bit today. I love that game...and I should play it more often...and now I plan to.

World of Warcraft has been put on hold until maybe summer,....or later. I will have NO time to play that game, and so....my poor little dwarf will die....haha, at the hands of Blizzard. Long live Congar!

WHEEEEE, the insurance will be here in a few days....and then that car can be driven. Actually, it can be driven right now I guess, since it went active on the 8th....but, we'll wait till we get that card, so we're officially legal while driving.

Well, Jarod just IM'ed me, with "HALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", so I must answer his call.

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your complete waste of about 10 minutes.

-dan out-

New UPDATE finally!

Shut up...i know, i don't update often enough. I have a life...that is all that it means. Had a good Christmas pretty much, hanging out with the family and Andrea's family are always good times. Got into playing World of Warcraft, which is a blast, but won't have enough time to put into it starting in a week, so that will be put on hold probably till summertime. I got quite a few cool gifts for Christmas, including the Spider-Man 2 game for xbox, and the Spider-Man 2 movie! Thanks Andrea!

My sister has been up here for the past week hanging out, so we've been doing just that. Alot of HALO 2 has been being played as well, because Jarod is usually on LIVE to play with most every afternoon.

Well, my friend Bill is now over in Kuwait :( That really sucks, but it's something he has to do I suppose. We all went over to Chad/Mark's apartment for a last "hang out" session which was fun, a few weekends ago. It sucked when it was over though, and I try not to think about it. WE did have fun though. We played some Halo2, we played some Poker, we played some Euchre.....and good times were had. Hopefully Bill is doing fine. I am going to e-mail him later on today.

Well, I start student teaching a week from this coming Tuesday in Rockford. That will be really weird, but I'm ready for it.....because that means one step closer to being GRADUATED!!!

This next week, I plan to revamp my website over at HakesDesign.com. Look for some actual updates in the next week or so.

I finally was able to get this program working again, that lets me find new comic books that have just came out, and even old ones. So, I have been snagging a bunch of those. If ya get a chance, read the series Y-Last Man put out by Vertigo Comics (DC). This series is so good. Every male on the entire planet dies from this plague, and there is only one guy left. Chaos breaks out....and good times are had. Check it out if you enjoy comic books.

MAtt and I went over to the like only remaining comic book store in the QC that we were able to find, over Christmas, and well, it was not a pretty site. It was the most unorganized business I have EVER seen in my life. I've been in a lot of comic book stores, but this one was in shambles. Needless to say, I will not be returning to this store again. I may not be able to find my way out of there again.

I also got a chance to hook up with Jarod and Dave over break for some Halo2 over at Dave's House. I got to meet his girlfriend, who was nice, and hang out with the two of em. Matt came along as well, and we had some GREAT 4 player games. I love Halo2 :)

We got a ton of snow this past week, and Andrea was hoping that school would be cancelled.....but, no such luck. Alot of places cancelled, but Andrea's work refused. BOOOOOOOO!

Other than all of that, not a lot has been going on. I will probably play some Battlefield Vietnam today, I just installed it last night again, and some Halo2 with Jarod this afternoon.

Until next time....I'm outta here.

-Dan-

Thanksgiving of Snow

Well, it seems to be snowing alot here in good ol' DeKalb. IT is probably snowing back in the QC as well. Andrea and I will be leaving in about half an hour, when i pick her up from work, to drive back home. I am about to begin the loading of the car with such necessities as, the cats, clothes, and my portfolio, which I'll be matting this weekend. WHEEEEEE!!!! Gotta love spending money on school!

HOpefully this Thanksgiving will be fun. I'm sure it will be, but since the cats are along for the ride, it'll be pretty fun. People are always happy around cats...at least usually. Well, when they aren't ruining something of yours or fighting right on top of whatever you are working on.

HERE is a picture of what it looks like outside as of 4:00pm. Gotta love snow.

I'll talk to all of you guys when I return. If you're in the QC, perhaps we can get together sometime this weekend....but, looking over all the work i gotta get done....we'll see...haha.

Take care and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

-Dan out-

New Video Games Worth It?

I talk about video games alot. I play video games quite frequently. It's safe to say that I enjoy picking up a controller, or sitting down at a mouse and keyboard, and playing a good game. Now, I tend to play alot of Multiplayer games, simply because I enjoy the idea of working with other people to complete a mission. However, there is nothing like a good single-player game to take your mind off any and everything that is worrying or stressing you out. However, usually what happens is that I spend time playing a game when I should be working on the very thing that is stressing or worrying me.

Chad and I had a discussion today about buying into new games or not. We decided, and more Chad decided then me, since I hadn't really thought about this until he mentioned it today, that there is really no need to switch from a game that you love to death, to a "NEW SHINY GAME" that boasts better framerates and better bump mapping and better gameplay. All to often, these games are nothing but a huge advertisement for their genre, not a new game at all. It is all well and good that new games are always coming out. There are kids growing up, and they are finding their "Galaga" or their "Civilization 2" that they will continue playing until they grow old. I dont' know if I HAVE reached the point where new games just do not entise me anymore, because Half-Life 2, Halo 2, and Vampires - Bloodlines just all came out. I want them all! Now, I think that the reason for this desire is simply because I played their predecessors and am really looking for more of the same type of gameplay and sheer fun. However, does 10 hours of fun justifiy the $50? Usually not. Now, for games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2...there is a nice multiplayer aspect of it that should prolong the shelf life, or CD-Spindle life. I look over all the games I love and have loved over these, oh 15 years or so, and still am seeing games that I LOVED but got pushed aside because I was enticed by some new fancy, shiny game with a nice "IGN-9.4" rating stamped on the front.

One game that I loved to death was Tribes. This game created hours and hours of fun my Senior year of high-school and my Freshman year of College. When I was playing this game, nothing else really mattered except getting that flag, or destroying that enemy team. Then, of course, Tribes 2 came out. I enjoyed it, but not to the level that I enjoyed the first one. Something had changed. It seemed that they had tossed out the working gameplay aspects of it for new and improved graphics and gameplay types. However, I just did not have the same feeling about the sequel then I did the first. THEN of course, the III tribes installment came out. This game feels sooooo much like Unreal Tournament, it might as well be. Since I already had purchased UT2k4, I saw no reason to get Tribes:Vengeance. And another game series goes by the "I don't care" wayside. I think when that happened, I started to realize the need for stability in my gaming life. I have since gotten Halo 2. Now, I love Halo 2 to death so far, and for some reason this game seems to be an exception to the rule for me. Mark, I know, "SCREW HALO 2".....haha, but seriously, there is something about this game that really keeps me coming back for more. I think the fact that it is slower paced then most FPS games, helps me enjoy it more. I don't feel like I have to be the FASTEST at the game to be successful. Alot of times when playing UT2k4, I am overwhelmed at the sheer speed that these players play at. It's just bullets flying everywhere and then poof, time to respawn. There is little or no reaction time allowed in games like that. This is probably why Tribes 3 does not sit in my CD-Rom drive every night like the original did.

To sum all this up, newer video games are not needed when you have such a library of truly awesome video games to last you for years and years to come. Now, whether I can fight off the desire to buy the new bright and shiny game and be happy with the classics that I already have, only time will tell. Chad has his triumvirate of Rome Total War, Sims 2 and StarWars Battlefront.....what will mine be? What will yours be?

Half-Life 2 Mayhem!

NO....I don't have the game...yet. Sometime, when the fundage appears miraculously, I'll pick up that game. Yes, I want it very badly, and have been reading all the reviews quite obsessively. We'll see if this game lives up to all the expectations that have been made about it. According to Gamespot, it already has, but I'll let everyone else make their own decision about this game.

I did not want to go to my class today, but, that is a sort of normal feeling everytime I get up in the morning. This weekend, will be all about the lesson plan writing, and also all about the Project making for my ETR class. WHEEE, can't wait!

I've been playing Halo 2 almost every night for a few rounds. I am still loving this game, and recommend it to anyone who has an XBox and a LIVE connection. Hey, even if ya don't, snag it, it comes with a free 2 month LIVE card in it.

I talked to Mykey today a bit and told him I'd do a little write up on my opinion of NFS2. I just got a copy of it last night, and have yet to load it up. I'll be checking out the PC version, so it'll look a whole lot better than any of the console versions. But, I'd imagine that if you liked the first one, you'll enjoy the graphics of the second one.

Watched that $25 million hoax last night again. Funny show, but the Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance was funnier. This show seems like, there isn't enough time for the family to get really angry with the person playing the hoax on them. It will only be like 3 or 4 episodes long. Lame! Ah well, Amazing Race starts tonight. Another reality TV show, I know, but this one is pretty good, usually.

Not sure what is for dinner tonight, but I'm sure something can be conjured up for us to eat.

Another game that came out today is Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines. I would have to say that I am even more excited about this use of the Half-Life 2 engine than I am about the actual Half-Life 2 release. I mean, yeah yeah,....Half-Life 2, game of the year, best game ever, MUST PLAY THIS GAME....blah blah blah. It'll be good, don't get me wrong, but, I was so hooked on Vampire: Masquerade, as was Matt, that when I first heard that a new game was coming out using the Vampire: Masquerade license, I was stoked! YEAH FOR VAMPIRES! (these types of games should not be played by children....that means you Bill...and Mark).

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I can not WAIT for a nice big heaping plate of Turkey and all the fixin's. I know, I know, the poor turkey. Well, don't worry, as I eat him, I'll think of all the other nice turkeys that are completely oblivious to the fact that they are being grown for us to eat. :) I'm so sensitive!

Anyway, I gotta jet, I'll talk to everyone later.

-dan out-

The Sunday before Monday's Yesterday!

Sittin at work ...again. I seem to only really update this thing on work days. Either way, I am over the lost post thing that happened on Thursday, and decided to throw another new post up. Today was an OK day. Got up, did the church thing, then chowed down on some soup and sandwiches. Then it was laundry time, little bit of homework time, dinner time and work time! Busy, busy! On Friday, Andrea and I went out to my sister's and we all went out to eat at Fudruckers. I am still trying to find the badword that is hidden in there, but I have yet to uncover it. So, after the bell was rang on the way out, we drove to Dave and Busters. For those of you who have not been there, and Mark, you were right about it being fun, it is this almost like Adult Chuckie Cheese Place! You walk in, and after getting carded (since we arrived past 8pm), you go into this HUGE restaurant area which looked pretty nice, and probably pricey. Immediately when you walk in, you see a counter where they are selling these credit card type things that you put money on so you can go play games and stuff. So, we bought the card and ptu on 130 credits (most games take about 3 to 6 credits each play), and walked past the restaurant and into the main gaming room. This room is ENORMOUS and looks kinda like a casino! There is a huge bar in the middle, and all kinds of games all around the outside. Brian and I hit up Time Crisis 2 and played that for about 1/2 hr until we beat it (30 credits each later). Then we walked around and played some other random games that gave you tickets depending on how good you do at it....just like Chuckie Cheese...eh..eh, told ya! After using up most of our credits, we combined tickets with the girls, who had been doing nothing but playing ticket games, and went into the store to see what we could buy. We ended up getting a toy for each of my nephews and I got a nice foam disc launcher thingy to shoot at the cats!

On Saturday, Andrea and I cleaned all morning, and then cooked all afternoon to prepare ourselves for the arrival of Kate and Andy, two friends of ours. When they finally got her, (since they drove from the QC - 1 1/2 hrs), Kate and Andrea sat around talking in the kitchen and Andy and I sat down for some good old fashioned Halo 2! I got schooled over the course of a few rounds, and then we sat down and ate. After a pretty rawkin' meal, thanks Andrea, Andy and I went back to some Halo 2 where we played swords! That is a pretty freakin' sweet game-mode. There is this sweet lunge variant you can do with the sword which creates like a insta-kill. Very fun. Then we through in Burnout3 for some wacky destruction. We decided that a minimum of a 27" TV was really necessary to play that game properly in the two player race mode. We then messed around with some of the crash modes and tried to destroy as much property as possible. Good times were had. Then...well, you predicted it, we went back to Halo for another hour. After we exhausted our video gaming, we sat around talking about video games...haha. About 9:15pm, Kate and Andy took off back to the Q.C. since they had a nice 1 1/2 hr drive ahead of them....and probably more like 1 3/4 hrs. Andrea feel asleep on the couch, and I went and played Halo on PC. I gotta finish that up before I start the Halo 2 campaign.

So we arrive back where we started, and I'm still at work. Oh...I forgot. On Friday during the day, Chuck and I were supposed to go to Rockford's Jefferson High School to finish up our observation hours for this semester. I need like 3 more, and Chuck was actually finished, but needed the teachers signature on our clinical sheets. We were almost there, when Kathy called Chuck and was like, "uh...the faculty parking lot is empty." Chuck was like, "ummm, ok, well we'll be there in a few mins." We pulled up, and realized that the school was closed for some reason. Now, our hours are due on Monday, for some reason, and now about 5 of us will not have all of them. >:O Kathy called Leslie, the grad student in charge of this whole Rockford observation program, and she was like, "oh...my bad, guess you'll have to go back next week." She offered to e-mail our insructor to let her know what happened and why we won't have our sheets for her on Monday. Hopefully that occurred and we will not get penalized or something on Monday. I don't know what they are going to do if we do not have them tomorrow. I mean, it's not like they can just kick us out of the program or something. We'll have them in exactly a week, so there shouldn't be to big of a problem with some of us turning them in late. Buuuuut, I can just see it being this huge deal and them threatening to not let us student teach and all this other bull#$%!. Lets hope that this does NOT happen :-\

Other than all of that, I have had an OK weekend. I am NOT in a good mood about having to go to school tomorrow morning, but, it just brings me closer to being graduated....as long as these late forms don't effect us in a bad way.

I'm gonna go do something else now.....talk to everyone later.

-Dan-

I HATE Internet Explorer

I had this whole post typed up pretty much all ready to go, and POOF,



THIS

screen popped up on me!

Needless to say, I lost the post and I refuse to retype it right now. I'm to pissed...haha.

-Dan-

Wednesday night....again.

Wednesday again, and I'm pullin the ol' 8-10pm shift. This workin thing has its benefits, doin homework, messin around online, getting paid for it....but, it also has it's disadvantages....being stuck in a lab for up to 4 hours at a time, putting up with annoying questions about random computer things, getting "reviewed" by random people who try to assess whether or not you are doing your job properly and other things of this nature. Well.....it still pays the bills....sorta.

Halo 2 was picked up yesterday, and popped in last night to be tested out. I hooked the box up to LIVE and let me tell you, Halo 2 online is pretty freakin' fun. Not only is the ability to wield dual weapons sweet, but being able to grab someone and throw them out of a hovering Banshee Spacecraft is just something that has to be experienced. Someone was trying to pull me out of one, and I started flying down over the edge of this cliff in hopes that I would hit bottom before he got me out. Needless to say, I never made it in time, and he flew off smiling in his new Banshee, and I fell to my happy death at the bottom of the canyon. This game seems to be rockingly action packed....if that is even a word, and really is worth the $$$ for the multiplayer aspect of it alone. Now, I am STILL not done with the original Halo, so I will not be playing Halo 2 campaign just yet. Although, Andy is coming up this Saturday, so maybe I'll load it up so we can play some coop, since the set up to play multiplayer is not exactly ideal for friends and what not.

Andrea and I had a nice ham, baked potato and caesar salad dinner tonight, which ruled and then sat down for a little Smallville. I always miss the end of it, so it hopefuly got taped. There are actually three shows that are on Wednesday nights that I have been keeping track of. The first is mentioned above, the next is Lost, and the last one is Jack and Bobby. All great shows and worth the time I suppose.

Well, my lesson that my friend Chuck and I taught in De Kalb High School on Monday went well enough. There was this one kid who had a serious issue with being told to do anything, but we didn't let him get to us. After that, we got the priviledge of watching everyone else teach their lessons....and let me tell you, THAT rules!....er...well, actually it's pretty boring. It is fair though I suppose, since everyone else had to watch our lesson plan. Ahhhh, education.....so necessary yet so hated at times!

If I forgot to mention it before, I'll do it now: Check out Billy's Blog o' Military Justice.

Other than THAT...take it easy ladies and gentlemen...I'll be back later for more boring updates coming STRAIGHT TO YOU from Dan's twisted mind!

-Dan-

Nov 9th was a pretty good day I'd say.

Well, I woke up this morning, got ready, and got to work by 7:50. I then opened up the lab, and did a little homework during work. Next, I went to class, only to discover that I had a SUB.....yes that's right, a SUB in class today. I don't think I have EVER had a substitute instructor in college as long as I have been here. Very odd! So, our "sub" gives us this quiz we were supposed to have today, and then let us all go early. Apparantly our instructor got her finger smashed in her garage door or something...i dunno. So, I look at the clock when I got out of class, and it said, 11:20am. I'm thinking, hmmm, do I have enough time to run home, grab my car and get to GameStop allowing myself enough time to get back to be on the bus by 12:30pm? I walked out of my building and saw my bus driving by. Well, that idea was then shot, and I decided to screw it and just go eat my lunch and go to GameStop after work. Well, my desire to see my very own copy of THIS in my little hands go the better of me. So I hop on the bus at 11:40, get to my apartment at 11:46, and run out to GameStop. I snag my copy, with amazing ease, because there was only a few people in line ahead of me, and hop back in my car to leave. I then ran to Best Buy to snag a Crossover cable, so I could hook my XBox up to the net for some much needed LIVE action. I then drove back home. I was racing against the clock at this point because my clock said 12:20pm and the bus comes at 12:26pm. I get back to my apartment at like 12:25pm, only to see the bus pulling away. I'm like....doh! So I knew that I'd have to cut it close now and catch the 12:46PM bus. I messed around with how to get the XBox hooked up from my computer to the XBox and to the TV for a bit, and figured that by stretching a cable from the computer room to the bedroom and getting a longer COAX cable, I should just be able to make it...thanks to the wireless controller! Anyway, it should work. Then, I grab my bag and run out to the bus stop just in time to see the bus coming up. I hop on and wait for my stop. I then jumped off the bus, and briskly walked about half mile to my work in about 10 minutes. I strolled into work around 12:58pm and punched in. SAFE!

Other than that, my day has been pretty uneventful. Mark and I are hoping to play a little Halo 2 on Thursday night with Chaddy if he's around. So THAT should be fun. Andrea's friend Kate and her husband Andy, who is a pretty cool guy, are coming up on Saturday in theory, and he and I will probably play some Halo 2 a little bit that day. I'm kinda looking forward to getting done with this whole school thing. I have like a little over a month left to finish up all this stuff, and HALO 2 will sadly be pushed aside, except for a few random times when I pull it out to play a little bit. More important things are at stake here, then the destruction of every COVENANT member trying to destroy Earth!

Until next time,
-Dan-

New musings that will tickle your ear hair!

TODAY, the day of Justice, because my week is basically over, has been a relavitely ok day. So far today, I typed a little paper for a class I had at 11, ran to Jewel to get supplies for Calzones tonight, and watched the new episode of Lost. While searching for a picture of a Calzone, I found THIS picture. He kinda looks like Peter Pettigrew off Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I picked up a few new comics today that I believe came out yesterday. The new Ultimate Spidey, of course, the new Astonishing X-Men which rocks simply because Whedon is writing it, and the new Ultimate Fantastic Four. These Ultimate Series' that Marvel is putting out are just tearing it up story wise and art wise. I could not be more interested in a comic than I am in the Ultimate X-Men, Spidey, and FF.

Aside from all of that, I have been doin pretty good. Been trying to beat Halo before HALO 2 comes out next tuesday. I have had the game for quite a while but never put in the time to beat the single player part of the game. Well, since the net has been so flakey lately, I decided to put some time into single player games. Come tuesday, I'll be popping in HALO 2 though and seeing if all this "hype" is worthy of the game.

Andrea and I had her brother, sister-in-law and two kids up for a rawkin' weekend last Friday and Saturday. We had fun hanging out, checking out the Pumpkin Fest in Sycamore, and playing some Mario Kart: Double Dash. We also ran out to this pumpkin patch on Saturday morning, but it was so windy and craptastic out, we left after like 20 mins. It was only over in Malta, bout 10 mins away, so it wasn't to big of a loss. Come Saturday night, I went over to Mark and Chad's for some hanging out-age, and we watched an episode of Alias, since that is their new daily series of choice now that 24 season 2 is finished, and then started watching Halloween 2 in spanish! I think you really seem to get alot more out of it when you have no idea what the characters are saying and you have to try to figure it out based solely on sound effects and the visual elements of the movie. Not that Halloween 2 was THAT hard to figure out. As Chad so eloquently put it, "His motivation is, he's a psycho and he is going to kill people,...and you get to watch." That about summed it up.

Tonight, a new episode of Survivor is on, and Dawson's Creek part2....don't ask, is on, so I spose I'll be downloading the latter, and watching the first one. Then, probably some HALO single player, to try to finish that up on time.

Until next time,

AHHHHHHHHH!

Been busy lately.....

Well, these past few weeks have kept me pretty darn busy. I have been writing lesson plans like a mofo, writing papers, working on projects, studying for tests, and going to conferences with various teachers all while trying to get sleep and work. Needless to say, this is the first true down time I have had since the California trip! I'm surviving quite well though, and somehow am keeping on top of things relatively speaking. About a month and a half left of this semester and I'm through with classes, FOREVER! Well, at least until I decide to do some sort of master's thing...whereupon I'll be back in class. Hopefully by then, I'll have learned how to not procrastinate everything to the last possible minute before it is due....but probably not. In and out of school work and regular work, I have managed to get a few rounds of HALO in, which has helped relieve some stress. Never underestimate the power of a little HALO. Speaking of HALO, Halo2 comes out in little over a week. That will certainly be fun over Winter Break!

HAHAHA, Chad just sent me something really hilarious....but, I don't think it would be appropriate for this. Ask him about it, and he'll send you the link.....or ask me about it and I may or may not send you the link....depending on if it is your type of humor...haha.

I started reading the Ultimate X-Men comics I haven't read yet, and realized that this series is pretty darn good. I should have given it a better chance when I first started reading it. Ah well, I can catch up now. I guess there isn't really to much to say right now, I'm gonna go read.

-Dan out-

Workin, workin, workin!

Back a-workin again. Gotta love work. Without work, you wouldn't be able to pay for stuff. IF you didn't pay for stuff, you'd die, which would then make it hard to work....to pay for stuff that would be pointless if you died....thus making it hard for you to work....to pa....ok, I think I'm stuck in a loop here.

Punisher SUCKED! The new one is the one I am referring to, although the first one blew too back in the 80's. That was the first "R" rated movie I ever saw. I was over at my long time buddy Jarod's house and not knowing what the "F" word meant at that point, made it so that I was not embarrassed when I heard it about fifty times. We were probably playing G.I. Joes at the time anyway. Back to the point though. This movie was just completely horrible. I have only seen Rebecca Romijn in two movies where she was a good actress, X-men 1 and X-men 2. She needs to cease doing movies outside of the X-Men genre and concentrate on what she is good at....being blue and shape-shifting-ish. The guy who played Punisher was also horrible. Every line he said was so friggin serious sounding, that it made his character seem so lame. It was like having Terminator try to show emotion....doesn't work to well.

The Sopranos though is still rocking. I'm almost done with Season 2 and I'm lovin it still. Yeah yeah yeah....it's a soap opera......so bite me!

I gotta get back to my Book now, so I'll let you sit and ponder about some of the profound things I have mentioned in this post. Enjoy!

Tuesday of JUSTICE!

Well, today is indeed a Tuesday of JUSTICE. AHHHHHHHHHHH, COPPER!!!!!!! Ok, he left, so anyway.....I have a nice big fatty test at 11am this morning, and here's hoping that I pass it! She told us it would be moderate to HARD! I hate tests, and never do very well on them. If it was a paper, I could sit there and mill over it for a few days, but tests, (sigh) I do not usually do well on. But hey, maybe this one will be different.

I sent out my second "LINKS FOR THE WEEK of" e-mail to all the guys. If for some reason you are reading this and did NOT get the e-mail, leave me a comment, and I'll put you on the list. There is a nice wide range of different links today. Hope everyone hates it!

I have to take this 1 hr ethics quiz for work that is mandatory for all employees of the State of Illinois....so THAT should be fun! Other than that, not a lot is going on. Andrea and I got back from California just fine, and managed to pull into good ol' DeKalb around 11:10pm on Sunday nite. We were tired, and to be honest, still are tired. Anyway, I have to go study for this test....2 hrs to go baby..here's hopin'.

-Dan-

In California

Well, I'm sitting here in the hotel, TollHouse Hotel, in California. So far, this place is pretty sweet. We walked down town and checked out some shops in this lil quaint town where Andrea's cousin's wedding is, and it's definately a nice little mountain town. On the flight out, we flew over, or by to be more specific, AREA 51, which was cool. The pilot pointed it out to us. Just stepped out of the rehearsal dinner for a bit to put up a post. Tomorrow we are gonna check out this town some more and maybe check out the beach before the wedding at 4:30pm. Then it's off to the reception till who knows when. Should be a good time.

Fly out of here on Sunday morning and hopefully get back to good ol' DeKalb by 11pm Sunday nite. Here's hoping that all of that goes well.

So yeah, I forgot that I had 4 pairs of scissors in my book bag when I was packing for this weekend, so they all got confiscated by security...after they laughed at me for having four pairs of scissors in there...haha.

Well, I had better get back in there and snag some more free beverages!!

-Dan out-

KERRY

ahhhh, the things I can do while at my job....haha!

Another Thursday at Work

Well, it is another wonderful Thursday sitting in Neptune Computer lab. As often as I sit here, there is never anything truly entertaining that happens. Luckily, I have a nice new computer to work on whenever I'm working in Neptune. The enabled the USB drives this year, at least in a few labs, so I am able to snag things off the net faster than at home. Yes, it's true, Broadband is a thing of the past this school year. It was a nice run, but that money can be used for more important things like food, bills and buying a car for me to drive to student teaching all next semester.

Tonight, Andrea and I are driving home to the QC for one night. Tomorrow morning, we fly out of the Moline Airport to San Francisco! Andrea's cousin is getting married, and since she came to our wedding, it is only fair that we go to hers. It'll be nice to get away from dreary DeKalb today, since this is what it looks like right now. To bad we're only out there for two days.

Well, I went over and hung out with Mark, Bill and Chad last night after I got off work. We played some X-Box and then watched some 24 goodness. Good times were had. Billy is leaving on Saturday, and since I won't be around after today, I said "take it easy" to him last night. It still blows that he is leaving :( but I'm willing to bet he isn't to enthused about it either. Anyway, enough talking about that, to much of that talk bums me out...haha.

I printed out the Fable strategy guide from Gamespot last night. This game is alot of fun, as I've said before and I wanted to figure out a few things such as how the heck do you get into any of those Demon doors. I've only managed to get into one of them so far, and I have passed a TON of them. One of these doors, told me that in order for me to be able to enter, I had to perform a truly evil act in front of the door. Sooo, the guy who I was currently helping, and happened to be standing right next to me, was a good person to use to show this demon door that I am the one evil mutha! I cut this guys head off right in front of this door. I then talked to him again, and apparantly, that was not EVIL enough for his liking. I am creating a new plan to be even more evil next time in hopes that this Demon of "only evil people can enter the door" will let me in.

Other than that, I manged to fix the Doom3 trouble I was having. Apparantly, Athlon XP chips do NOT like cheap ram. I had some K-Byte ram in there and well, it was cheap, and it is cheap apparantly, because my processor did not like that ram. I threw in my old PC2100 ram, and poof, Doom3 ran GREAT! Hopefully Rome Total War will also allow me to play it without the every 10 minute crash to desktop I have been experiencing. Now if I can only get Outlook working right. . .

Well, that is about all I have to say for right now. I'll get back to the ol' workin thing I got goin on around here. Talk to ya on Monday.

New, Easier Blogging

Well, as most of you know, I tried creating my blog on my main page for just to see if it worked. Now, it worked just fine, but I couldn't get comments, I couldn't update very easily, and well...it just was not that user friendly. Having to sift through code to update my site every few days was such a hassle, it almost made me not want to update it that often. Well, I was just over at my friend Mark's BLOG and realized that his site blog is sooooo simple to update. Well, I decided to give up for a while and just use one of these crazy template things. Once I figure out how to allow for comments, and all kinds of other fun things that have absolutely no purpose whatsoever, I will go back to my main page. Until then, this is the new blog page. http://www.hakesdesign.com/blog.html

Enjoy!

-dan-