Pandora

So i was recently introduced to this website called pandora. You tell them a band you like and they play you songs they think you'll like. you can rate the songs and then you get better music. Im sure that there are hundreds of sites like this, but I think its pretty sweet none the less. Anyway, check it out if you care.

Is it worth it?

Let me work it. Put my thing down, flip it and reverse it....
So, here I am a single male living in North Carolina with a meager $Blah,000 income per year (grad student salary) Anyone know if it is worth it to get someone to do my taxes for me? I've always done them myself-- and mostly just done the easy version. And I've always gotten some money back. Im just not sure that i'd get back enough to pay someone to prepare my taxes... which of course would defeat the purpose. Any knowlegeable people are welcomed to comment.

Bowling

So, I joined an intermural bowling league here at UNC. Last night was our first meet. We lost unfortunatly, however, I had the worst game of my life, followed by the best. The scores should indicate the limited amount of bowling I have done before hand:

1st Game: 96 (ouch)
2nd Game: 146 (Booya!)
Now, I understand that even the combination of my score is only a moderatly good score for one game for a profesional bowler. But whatever, get off my back.

Finances.

Well, I thought about buying some finance software like Quicken or what have you, but I decide that no matter what program I got,I would still have to do lots of manual entry... so I just worked out my own little excel spread sheet. I know, I know... I am a mighty HaXor.

Do you see what I see? Thats right, Im quite a bit in the hole right now, hence the scrutiny on my finances. Now, you'll also notice that I marked out the amounts. Thats because the only important thing is that I have spent a good deal more than I have. Lets all just hope for the leveling out of the Total bar.

Sigh!

Well, everything is going according to plan so far. I got my new credit card in the mail today and did my balance transfer. It is, in one sense, relieving because the card came in time for me to avoid any huge finance charges. It is in another sense a reminder that I have only 15 months in which to pay off this new debt. May I be ever more financially responsible.
Amen.

Shoot the J!

I have a few new flickr photos uploaded. Here I am on the floor of the dean dome trying to win a car.

Its Here!

UPDATE: Here's my laptop.


And what am I doing right now? well I happen to be blogging while watching tv (on my computer that is) and being signed on to AIM. This Computer is the BOMB. I just found out that besides all the cool things that I knew that it had, it also has a memory card slot that is the same type my camera has. That makes downloading pictures pretty fast and easy. So Im still getting everything set up but I will have some updates soon.

Well its ordered.

At least I think It is. I have a confirmation email and all that, but When i go to dell.com, I can't track my order with my order number. Thats wierd.
Anyway, Its pretty sweet and I would show a picture of it, but then your computer might die of envy, sadness or shock.

Come on people!

Ok so, I have a few Choices for computers in mind. There is, of course, a mac powerbook which all you snobby macophiles will perhaps recommend thinking that I am made of money, or pehaps that I excrete money (which i don't). This costs over 2 grand. Then i found a Dell with 2 gigs of memory, 80 gig hard drive and such for 1300. Now, As long as this dell has usb and fire wire, then I am in. But At the time of looking i could not determine. I think I am going to wave off a sony inspired by inconsistant praise of their machines. (incidnetally, the 2 grand mac had only 1 gig of memory but was expandable to 2) Please leave recommendation with reasons.

The computer is dead, Long live the computer.

Well, dead isn't the most accuate word. Blind might be more appropriate. The Screen on my laptop went dim. In a lighted room I can make out the screen just barely. (i would have thought that i might best see it in a dark room, but not so.) So everything else seems to be ok. This is just another sign that It might be time for me to think about investing into a new computer. In the mean time, I will need to get this ancient adding machine of mine fixed, and so if any of you know of a place I should look at to get it fixed, or a place I should NOT go to then I would find this information very welcome. Your sympathies and charitible donations can be sent to my Paypal Account and a memorial service will be announced when the time is right.

Here is Apple: King of the Juice

I haven't uploaded any new pictures to my flickr account, however, I did finnally figure out how to give myself a recognizable url. Now, The title was just something I thought of that was funny and also completely unrelated.

But hey, why waste a post? I'll go ahead and tell you all about my new online store where I will creat highly personalized items that are marketable to only a handful of people in the world (namely me and my friends, and allow you to buy them -- not knowing why in the world you would want to). You will understand when you see the products or product as I should say for the moment. However, if any of you decides that this is a good gift idea for your family and friends then i want to hear about it. for tax purposes.
The first (and only so far) item is this:
FRONT:

BACK:

anyway. Its for my parents. You can always get one if you want to, but your folks might think you were wierd.

Sorry Fat Man.

The New Scminegan's Dimention is the wave of the future. I predict that in the future, every home will have two copies of every strip. It might even outsell the Bible for all time best seller. So you just crawl back into your cave if you happen to still walk erect Mr. Coln. I-Live-in-the-stone-age-and-i'm-such-a-freaking-purist-that-i-can't-appreciate-when-the-best-thing-that-has-ever-happened-to-anyone-in-the-history-of-life-comes-around-I-can-only-critisize-and-ultimately-seek-its-destruction-because-i-don't-imediatlly-understand-it-with-my-primitive-cave-man-like-mind.-you-know-I'm-like-those-guys-in-plato's-cave-who-kill-the-guy-who-comes-back-and-says-that-the-world-isn't-merely-a-shadow.-except-that-i-wouldn't-know-that-story-because-im-so-freaking-dumb
Saunders.
They may even abolish alpha-numeric symbols and replace the way that we comunicate with only Schminegan's Dimention comic strips. Then you'll be sorry.

Flickr updated

Check it to wreck it...


This was a mug that I made for my mom partly in protest, and partly because I knew that she would love it. She is in the habit of getting gifts for me like sweatshirts that say "What part of the quantum theory don't you understand?" because they reminder her of me. I happend to mention to her that while i appreciate these gifts, I have enough of them now. She thought that was funny. Thats when I knew what I must do.

Schminegan's Dimention

Hey guys. So I messed around on photoshop for a little while and decided that I can produce an acceptable version of Schminegan's Dimention. I know that most of you have already seen this one, and I can't promise that I will keep making them after I run out of oldies, but enjoy them... or don't.

Comedy Platinum... in Mint Condition.

Imagine Comedy white gold-- the mixture of comedy gold and comedy platinum-- smothered in comedy diamonds--made into a boat that sails only on comedy black gold-- crude comedy oil-- and you have Schminegan's Dimention. This was a comic strip that I would make during physics seminars back at JMU. Last year I recreated some of them. Today, I found many forgotten orignials that were so funny that I now have to wear a colostomy bag. I'll spare you the details. Here's the rub. I don't have a usable scanner so I will have to find some appropriate way to make computer versions of these bad boys without betraying their awesomeness in anyway. If you have sugestions I'd be happy to take them.