return void;

the first of three debates was tonight. i read through a preliminary transcript since i wasnt able to watch it. i will definately be taping the next 2 (oct. 8th, 13th).

tonights was mostly about international affairs. i listened to some of it while i talked to crystal and on NPR’s website. you would think that after 4 years bush would be able to speak in public without needing his hand held. it sounded like he developed a case of the stutters, pausing for effect like william shatner only to break the silence to say “ugh”. he fumbled on many topics, namely on when he’d expect to pull troops out of iraq. given the facts presented in fareinheight (sp) 911, its starting to look like he’d never withdraw until he found something (or planted it).

kerry isnt much better. the guy stands on the issues like a one legged man on 9′ stilts. one second he’s totally against something, the next he’s for it (partially). but at least he isn’t a draft dodger.

im not sure who i wanna vote for. i’m even thinkin about voting for LIB cause they’re so crazy that at least they have convictions. those guys are nuts, and thats just who i think we need to lead the country. i dont think i’ll be voting for nader again this round; that guy is just a lil too weird. in fact im not even sure he made it to texas’ ballot (missed teh signature deadline iirc).

on a less serious note, i hate a list of my current DVD collection. check it out, maybe we can do some trading. send me your list and your wish list and we can hook something up.

im getting lazy with my blogs, i often find myself not posting for several days. i guess its cause i’ve been so dang busy lately, but its easy to always use that as an excuse.

on friday we finished a project that my boss expected done last week. problem is the work that was expected was about 80% of the total work (just for a demo) and required maybe 3 – 4 weeks with 2 people working fulltime on it. we had 2 weeks and 3 guys and just BARELY pulled it off. when i say barely, i mean that it was finished minutes before we left on friday. everyone that worked on it worked about a 45-50 hour week.

saturday we went and picked out wedding bands. i stuck with a plain solid white gold band. no diamonds, no patterns, nothing. the only thing that i wanted was to make sure that it had the rounded edges. crystal’s had 2 round diamonds in lobster claws and acts as a wrap to the engagement ring. it’s only ironic that hers cost twice that of mine.

we also went test driving this weekend. this time i wanted to drive an Impreza. we went to the northside dealer as its basically the only one in town. walked around looking at the various cars, but wasnt bothered once. when i decided what i wanted to drive, we went indoors. there was a bit of wait cause apparently they were busy. the guy got a ’05 impreza 2.5rs with sport package and i hopped in. only thing was, he let me drive it off the lot without him. so i drove all over town. took some curves, highway, U-turned, you name it. i was VERY impressed. it felt like a sports car. it drove like a sports car. it was a sports car. the thing had more kick than the mazda 3 (which ford said was comparable to the acura tsx) and the turbocharged jetta gls. on top of that, it didnt feel cheap. the interior materials felt well built and sturdy. the seats felt like bucket seats found in real sports cars. bottom line: i loved that car.

even more, i loved the price. brand new ’05 with sport package runs for about 2% over invoice, which came to $20.1K. that’s about $4k under the gls. so here’s the funny part. after i got a final number, i told the guy (a second time) that i wanted to save money for a lil longer for a down payment. i said that if i didnt put down about 25% of the final price, i’ll most likely end up upside-down in the payments. i said i wanted to wait a few more months, but i was very impressed and the impreza was on the top of my list. i said this cause i already had the final number and there isnt much hagglin on a brand new car. however, the second i said this, he went sour. he knew he wasnt going to screw me by financing it himself. he told me earlier that he’d be able to get a better deal with only $2k. that’s funny cause i know the only person getting the better deal would be him. i asked for a pen to write that final number down and he basically refused to help and pretty much kicked me out of his office.

i kept his card, and if/when i go back to get one, i will make sure to speak with him again. i’ll tell him what kind of dick he was, i’ll demand another salesman (or threaten with buying from another dealer). very pleasurable experience, even with a comedic ending.

to those of you who run a ~arch gentoo system, be VERY cautious about upgrading to gcc 3.4.2-r2. if you already have and are experiencing problems, check out this thread.

i updated this week before it was hardmasked, and ended up screwing myself. basically, since its in a new 3.x branch, its another one of those break-updates, so you’ll have to recompile your whole system if you upgrade to 3.4.x.

im currently working to emerge -e system && emerge -e world. i wont be done for quite a while.

i still have 6 invites, if you want one, email me. if you have a nifty Akuma wallpaper, email me as well. any color scheme will do as long as it basically sticks to a single main color. the reason why i mention this is cause i beat SF3 on 6 stars with akuma, as he is quickly becoming my favorite.

i forgot to mention how my jog went today.

today i was determined to jog at least 5 laps, which is about 2.5 miles. i completed my goal. however, by time i made it to the end of th e5th lap, i decided that i had enough energy to try and stick it out for 1 more mile. rounding the first 1/4 mile on my 6th lap, i realized my legs felt like they were made of lead. they were starting to stiffen and felt heavier by the second. by the end of the 7th lap, my legs felt like they weighed a ton. on the positive side, my stomache did not start to cramp up, so i think i finally found a good pace and breathing pattern. running is more difficult than it looks.

i eventually finished, slowly, but i finished. my total time was something like 40 minutes for about 3.5 miles. pretty pathetic average mile, but i wasn’t going for speed, rather to see if i could complete the whole run. so it looks like i wont have to worry about not completing the race come november.

its been about 5 days since my last posting. life has been hectic.

last week was a crummy week for me, hopefully this week will turn around. i didnt make a deadline for work by friday morning, but it looks like we’ll make the new deadline of this friday morning. -5 to stress for that.

we registered at bed, bath & beyond this weekend. this time it only took 2.5 hours to get through, mostly because of the broad helping us out. apparently, she thinks that people give a flyin leap about her wedding. she rambled for what seemed like an hour about how she had an unlimited budget and how her other half was taking such an interest in the wedding. blah blah blah. first of all, its rude to mention money, just plain rude! where the fuck did this girl learn her manners?! dont discuss how you have unlimited funds to people who most likely dont. secondly, i dont give a rats behind about your fiancee or how he went and pretended to pick a tux, probably so he could get some that night. leave your business at home.

i read at blue-ray.com that the PS3 is confirmed to use blue-ray technology. that, plus the purchase of MGM, will definately help push blue-ray as the next standard. its not lookin good for the hd-dvd camp, especially because of all the backers that blue-ray has (they’re all PC manufacturers). nintendo also announced that the DS will have a state-side release of Nov. 21. this is big news as they will beat sony to the market by 6 months, but also before the holiday season. that’ll help nintendo hang onto its stranglehold, but will sony be able to cut into nintendo’s rather sizable pie?

i’ve been reading about how to generate doxygen documents for code, because i’d like to comment my libhaet API as i work on it. it looks pretty neat and im hopin to get some docs posted this weekend.

i decided to stay month-to-month at my current apartment because it will wind up costing me less if i have to break a least come january (after the wedding). i’ll wait till jan and then pick a place.

that’s it for updates. i just beat SF3 on 5 stars with akuma and im gonna try 6 tomorrow. im also lookin at getting burnout 3 (and network adapter) or gradius 5. im undecided as to which game i want to play the most. i guess i’ll make that decision tomorrow after work.

several months ago, crystal’s friend’s mother died of breast cancer. when something happens like that to someone even remotely close to you, it changes your perspective on things. her friend’s mother may not have been close to me, but it still has the same effect. you learn to appreciate life and your good health. a neighbor of my parents is suffering from a relapse of cancer as well (i cant remember what kind).

so i decided to take a more positive outlook on things like this. i plan on doing what i can, collecting yoplait lids and doing charity runs. eventually i might donate time/money as well.

today crystal told me that there was going to be a 5k run in austin for breast cancer, “Race For The Cure”. im sure you’ve heard about it, cause its kinda popular. i’ve never run a 5k before, and now i know why. that’s 3.2-odd miles. my current jog is usually 1.5 miles. when i jog a lap around my apartment complex, i’ve jogged a half mile. so to be able to run 3.2-odd miles, i would need to jog 7 laps. today i wanted to see how many laps i could jog without having to stop. i made it 4 laps before my legs were pretty tired and i was starting to get dehydrated. my shoes also didn’t help any, since they are really really old shoes. i need to buy some jogging stuff, new shoes, shorts (currently, i use wind pants) and an actual water bottle.

next time i run, i intended to add a lap. for now im not concerned with time, just being able to complete the entire 5k without stopping is a milestone in my book.

i borrowed crystal’s netmd this week, i’ve been dyin to get some use out of it. she got it for christmas last year and has yet used it. its a very nice piece of technology, but suffers from some major ailments that make it very crippled.

first, nobody uses minidiscs, which is a real shame. i love the things, they’re so neat. secondly, the format that it stores tracks onto the minidisc is ATRAC, sony’s proprietary format. this leads to the third flaw: communication is encrypted, fairly well from what i’ve read, which makes 3rd party support very difficult. so there it lacks linux support, which is a major downer to me. lastly, it lacks basic functions of a standard cdplayer like shuffle and repeat. how can you skip on that!?!?!

its neat, but it’s a shame that it’s been made so proprietary. that might have to do with its demise. usb devices are so easy to use and the protocol is fairly standard. why they decided to make everything this restrictive is beyond me.

i finally beat Gil last night in SF3. SF3 is a totally different game than snk2. the motion is more fluid with less emphasis on speed. all the fighters seem to be on a more level playing field this time. there is only 1 special system, and you choose which special you want before the match. the only super-human type of fighter is Gil, and he’s not all that good. resurrection is just plain cheap though. ken and ryu’s differences shine through more-so in this game. ken’s hurricane kick is much more powerful than akumas and ryu’s. his dragon punch is way better as well. ryu has the outstanding fireball again. i havent played with all the new characters yet, but Twelve looks the most interesting. having played against them all however, it seems that they just recycled fighting styles for more of the new characters. overall, im very pleased with the Anniversary Collection.