return void;

stumbling through teh interweb, i came across this rather interesting site, which sparked further interest in the topic…

apparently some japanese mothers go through great lengths preparing lunch for their children.

to think, all i ever got was a bolognia or peanut butter sandwich…

there’s apparently a big culture behind it, even mothers to try to make everything look like art.

but it has proposed the interesting topic of moblogging. kinda neat, and if/when i ever get a cellphone, i will make sure to set my blog up so i can take at least 1 interesting picture a day.

2.5 hours left, then i gotta go and work on my independent study

josh kindly donated a machine today, basically a gutted 733 intel box. my intention is to build a fileserver out of it. i pulled together the missing parts (hdd: 6g, video: crappy) and i am trying to install gentoo as i type this

perhaps i should get a hdd cage for my ide drives i want to use for network storage…

i dont know if anyone has noticed this, but it scares the piss out of me. i kinda dont want to carry a cellphone anymore.

this weekend was good, relaxed. the mrs. and i celebrated 3 years of dating on saturday, if you believe it. unfortunately, we were both irritable all weekend and ended up arguing several times. still, i love crystal more than life itself. she also finalized the draft for our invitations. i’ll post a link when we get a copy online.

took the family to bennigans, my treat. i had the chicken pasta plate which was awesome.

i neglected my stego homework, have to work on it during my “lunch” today.

back to work.

so im lookin at creating bitmaps manually, and here’s what i’ve come across to assist me in doing this in Java (/me shivers):

Component.createImage
MemoryImageSource

don’t know how that first link/blurb got in there, quickly removed it.

goin back to austin again this weekend. kinda left in a hurry last week. i forgot that i agreed to meet with my stego team to do part one of the project, so i wasn’t able to take my dad out for dinner. i felt bad because it sounded like he was looking forward to it.

anyhoo, first, i wanna make a list of things not to forget to take back. i’ll just check this list before i go back to make sure i got everything:

* deimos (my gentoo box with the dvd burner and big hdd)
* stack o’ dvd+r’s
* mpeg papers (various written works about how mpeg actually work, personal research)
* netflix dvd’s (ahh, netflix account + dvd burner = mucho love)
* diablo 2 (haven’t played in a while)
* laundry
* check book

that’s all i need for now, i’ll add it if i remember later.

btw, the netflix thing, is the best idea i’ve ever heard. ironically i heard it from someone who doesn’t usually garner (sp) much respect (from me at least). it’s a brilliant way to expand your dvd collection at $.80 a pop. i’ve already added roughly 20 movies.

unfortunately, there isn’t any decent applications in linux for what i want. if i didnt have enough already on my plate i’d do this myself. dvdshrink is a wonderful, bug-free (outside looking in), windows application that copies all the features (read multiple titles/title-sets) from a dvd to the hdd. it even strips the region code. the main goal of the program is to shrink a dvd down to fit on a dvd5+r disc. since $13 dollars for the dual layer discs is not much of an option, im willing to use dvdshrink for this purpose.

however, since i dont have a windows install, i have to wait till the weekend to get access to the laptop, which is with crystal in austin.

so i got 3 more movies i gotta take to austin.

if you want to setup a trade-circle for this thing, leave a comment or email me. it’d be a great way to share the love.

i just got done taking a mensa practice exam. got a 24 out of 30. according to them, that’s a very good score and it is likely that i would pass the entrance test. (for those who dont know, usually, you get only 2 tries to take the entrance test)

take the test yourself, tell me what you got (post a comment). no liars, you wont be given karma points for lying about this.

i finished in under 20 minutes, and i skipped like 3 or 4 (the word modifier problems get me, im not creative like that). stick to the time and be honest.

and i still think i was right on the last one.

‘Leaked’ Xbox 2 spec no hoax, claim developers | The Register

that’s interesting, considering that they’re talkin about releasing the XB2 in the end of 2005. you would think now would be the time for them to start the hype. they should at least have the development machines out already so developers can get to work. unfortunately they dont, which leads me to believe that they actually wont beat sony to the market on the next generation of machines.

microsoft has a lot to learn about being a weak competitor. im glad sony is there to beat them like the red-headed step child they are.