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Currently viewing the tag: "iOS 4"
I went to the Green Day concert at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul last night. I’m still pretty tired because it rocked so hard, so I’m going to keep this short:
IT WAS AWESOME. They put on one hell of a performance. Jimmy Eat World opened for them and they were awesome too. Not to the level that Green Day was, but still damn good.
As you’ve probably already noticed, the header image at the top of the page changes every time the page is refreshed. There were originally only 5 different images, however I’ve just added a few more and my goal is to have at least about 25 different images up there, so you’ll probably start noticing new images up at the top of the page from time to time.
If you’ve talked to me recently probably already know this, but Jessie and I just moved in to a new apartment. The apartment itself is awesome. It’s both larger and newer than our previous apartment and for only $5 more per month than they are currently charging for our shitty old place, not to mention the kitchen and bathroom are 2-3x times as large, we have a garbage disposal and dishwasher, there’s a seperate den from the living room which we’ve turned in to our office, and there’s an awesome little porch with room enough for 3-4 people to have a seat. Not only is the unit itself nice, but we’ve got a garage spot as well as an off-street parking spot (included in the rent!) and we now live within a one minute walk of a strip mall with a grocery store, a walmart, a liquor store, and various different food options including great take’n'bake pizza, an Applebees, a Chipotle, and a Cold Stone Creamery. The strip mall is so new that there’s still a good chunk of it empty, so there’s new stuff moving in by the month. Even Ishtar, who was quite weary of her new home at first, has almost fully adjusted and is no longer scared shitless of looking out the porch door to see what’s going on outside.
That’s really all I’m going to cover about the apartment right now, but fear not! I’m sure it will come up in future posts and I’ll get pictures up here once we’re all moved in and there aren’t boxes everywhere.
Those of you that regularly read Digitally Wise, the media review site that I host and admin, probably already know this, but I felt it was important enough to post here as well…
FOX HAS GREEN-LIGHTED A NEW FUTURAMA STRAIGHT-TO-DVD MOVIE!!!
Don’t believe me? Fine.
Watch Billy West’s Video-Blog from Comic-Con 2005 or read IGN’s article about the movie.
We don’t know much about the movie yet, but myself and all the other crazed Futurama fans out there are ecstatic and hope that Fox finally sees the wrongfulness of their ways. Alas, I still hold some doubts that it will ever fly, as Fox has a tendency to take good things and screw them over, but I’ll keep my finger’s crossed. I sincerely hope that the movie does make it all the way to my DVD player and has enough sales to convince Fox to jump-start the show again as they did with Family Guy.
Let me reword that. It’s not exactly that I hate flying, so much as I hate the airlines themselves. Here’s one of many reasons why:
Jessie and I are in Milwaukee for a friend’s wedding this weekend and because she needed to be in by 1 on thursday to start doing all her bridesmaid stuff, driving or taking the train were both out of the question. We were able to find some great prices from Minneapolis to Milwaukee on Midwest Airlines that were literally half the cost of Northwest and fresh cookies would be served mid-flight. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:55am on Thursday and arrive at around 7am in Milwaukee. Because the flight was so early, we had to get up at about 3:30am, finish getting ready, and at 4am we were 0ff to the airport. We probably got there at about 4:30 or so and everything seemed to be going well. It was in the Humphry terminal at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. Typically we fly out of the Lindbergh terminal, but apparently Northwest has all but taken it over and pushed some of the smaller airlines over to Humphry. Anyways, checking in seemed to go just fine. Getting the tickets went fast, going through security was fast and easy, and when we got to the terminal it seemed as if everything was on-time.
This was when everything went wrong. 5:55 rolls around and they hadn’t started boarding. At 6 or so one of the maintenence guys comes off the plane and whispers to one of the guys manning the gate that something is wrong. They make an announcement that there is a small maintenence issue and it will likely be leaving about 10 or 15 minutes late. Well, 1/2 hour goes by without a single update and they finally tell us that everyone who’s final destination does not include (insert long list of cities) needs to go back to ticketing for rescheduling. This included pretty much everyone and pissed off an entire plane full of people. We walk back through security, down to ticketing and end up somewhere in the middle of a 100 person line which is barely moving. After waiting in line for about 1/2 hour until 7 they make an announcement that they have 4 people in back calling the other airlines to ensure that everyone will be arriving at their approximate arrival time, which seemed kind of odd because our arrival time had just passed. Another 15 minutes go by and we’re finally about 10 people from the front of the line when they make another announcement that all passengers who’s final destination is Milwaukee should return to the terminal. This, of course, meant we had to go through security again, but this time there was a line and they felt that they had to go through Jessie’s backpack because there was a highly suspicious keychain (Obviously a 5′ tall cute Jewish girl fits the profile for a terrorist). We finally get back to the terminal and there isn’t a single Midwest employee present. The LED that says the departure time and flight info is turned off. The best information we got was a rumor from another passanger who had stayed at the terminal the whole time that the plane would be departing at 8. At 7:45 or so, the LED display finally turns back on and indeed says that the departure is scheduled for 8. Mind you, we still have not seen a single Midwest employee. 8:00 rolls around and someone finally gets off the plane and makes the announcement that we’ll be boarding shortly. So, we get on the plane at probably around 8:10 or so, and sit there. Both of us fell asleep for about 45 minutes when we finally left the terminal and headed for the runway.
We’re finally on our way to Milwaukee, only two and a half hours late. The flight was relatively smooth, and we kind of went in and out of sleep for the whole thing, but here’s the worst part: NO COOKIES. Instead we get a fuckin’ granola bar. Given, it was a good granola bar, but I would have liked some fresh baked cookies. We finally get in to Milwaukee at around 9:45 and this was the only part of the entire experience that went well. Right off the plane, they hand everyone on the flight a $75 coupon for the next time we fly Midwest. We get down to baggage claim and just as we get there, the siren goes off to indicate that the luggage is coming. First thing off the conveyer belt: My bag. Second: Jessie’s bag. We grab our stuff and walk outside just as my Mom pulls up to pick us up.
Ok, so this guy walks up to the CompUSA Tech Services counter, today, and plops his $1299 HP Laptop on the counter and says there’d been an accident. Anyways, it’s covered in milk. Mind you, I’ve seen shit like that before, including, “toddler stepped on the screen”, “kitten spilled water in it”, “baby spilled soda on the table”, and my personal favorite, “what do you mean, liquid damage?” Anyways, this one kind of hit a new low. It was two weeks old. I pretty much had to tell him that he’d voided both the manufacturer’s warranty and the TAP (CompUSA Warranty) that he’d payed a few extra hundred on. I have to admit, on one hand it was kind of funny, but overall I felt bad for him. Anyways, this is why I prefer desktop computers. The worst thing Ishtar can do to my computer is shed near the intake fan.
Some friends and I decided to return to Pracna on Main this past saturday night, frankly because they have a sweet view of the Mississippi river if you get a roadside seat outside. This time, we wouldn’t settle for just any waiter. This time we had my friend and former roommate Nelson as our waiter, and although the place was packed, we got great service. The beer was good and cold, I got more than enough of them (and good spinach dip!) during their $2 tap happy hour and I had a great time.
The only downside of night was drive-by splash by a car, but you can’t really blame Pracna for that one. I blame the asshole who had to drive within an inch of the curb when there was no one else on the road. If I had a rock, I would have hurled it at his car.
In case it wasn’t blatantly obvious to you, I’m trying out some new themes for the blog to find the one that suits me best. As it stands right now, I’ll likely be sticking with this new format, but seeing as it’s currently 1am, I don’t have the attention span to really tweak it exactly how I want it. That said, you can look forward to more changes in the future.
Saturday night my friend Nate and I had only two goals in mind: get drunk and talk about our plans to rule the universe. The latter half of that goal went just fine, thank you, but it has not yet reached the time for us to reveal our malevolent agenda so I will have to stop there. As for the getting drunk part of that plan, I can honestly say I’ve never been at a bar during it’s happy hour and had a more difficult time getting drunk. Seeing as our ultimate goal of the night was to come home inebriated, we decided it would be best if we went somewhere within walking distance, so we ended up at a bar overlooking the Mississippi called Pracna. We got there right at 9, when their happy hour started, and naively thought that their two hour happy hour with $2 taps and 20 different beers on tap would be more than enough to do the trick. The place wasn’t that busy and it was nice out, so we seated ourselves at a table outside overlooking the river and after a few minutes our waiter stopped by and we ordered our first round. Good start, right?
Wrong. An hour and a half later, when we finally decided to leave, we had only seen our waitor 4 times, two of which we actually had to flag him down. I barely had a buzz going and Nate was stone sober, so we pretty much just gave up, got our tab, and walked back to my place where we finished the night with some cheese curds and jalapeno poppers from Santana’s (a local market/grill) and a few whisky sours. Long story short, I don’t think I’ll be going to Pracna’s any time soon.
Good news for everyone who’s me: There will soon be an opening for a technician at the CompUSA I work at and I’m the one who will be filling the spot. Right now I’m already working in the tech shop, but in a position called a “Service Writer”, which involves checking in computers, doing the initial hardware diagnostics, doing paperwork, helping the technicians, and I also do some of the upgrades and other easy shit like that. Once we get my replacement hired and I train him in, however, I will be promoted to a technician, which makes me very happy. Basically, the only thing I need to do is become A+ Certified, which involves me memorizing a study-bible sized A+ guide and passing two tests: One hardware related and one software related. The best part is, it’s a lifetime certification and CompUSA is paying for the tests as long as I stay with the company for an additional year, which I was planning on doing anyways because I enjoy my job and I like the people I work with.
Long story short, after 24 years of taking random electronics apart, putting them back together, doing it again, selling, building, and fixing computers for family and friends, I’ll finally be certified to do it, and most importantly: I’ll be getting paid to do it.
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