Well, here we are. Jolayne and I are back in Ohio to get ready for the wedding this Saturday. Hard to believe that 10 months could go by so quickly. It’s really really exciting, but of course there are a few last minute details to get stressed out about. We’ve still got to get the programs done, meet with the DJ, and finish a photo slideshow. I guess it’s not too much stuff, but its going to be really nice just to have everything done. As excited as I am about the wedding, I’m even more excited about Monday morning when we head off for here. Ahhh…. (Yes, I’ve only been forcing everyone I’ve talked to for the past few weeks to look at that. I know, I’m insufferable)

Comments

Comment by Carrie on 2005-04-18 17:40:15 +0000

Whee! I love weddings!

I got a new roommate yesterday, the furry kind that eats a bunch of food, lies around all day, and doesn’t help out with the rent. Jolayne’s (soon to be our) cat Cleo moved in yesterday. We figured we might as well give her a chance to start getting used to this apartment since she’ll be here on her own for several weeks when we leave for the wedding and honeymoon. We wanted her to get comfortable with the place before then. It turns out that was probably a good idea, as the move was anything but comfortable both for the cat and us…

When we went to Jolayne’s apartment to get her, she must have realized something was up because she went straight under the couch. Rather than waiting around for her to come out, I lifted the couch while Jolayne grabbed her and put her in her carrier. As soon as her rear legs entered the carrier she began to let out the most tortured sound I’ve ever heard a cat make. Every 2 seconds non-stop she would let out a loud and desperate meow. Only it didn’t sound like meow, it sounded like “Ow!”. So we’re walking out of Jolayne’s apartment with a cage that sounds like we’ve got a little kid in there going “OW! OW! OW! OW!”. I’m surprised no one called the cops. She kept that up all the way over to my apartment and by the time we got her inside she was throwing herself against the walls of the carrier. We let her out at my place and she just streaked across the floor on her belly looking for a place to hide. Only there wasn’t any. She’s too fat to fit under my couch and we had the bedroom doors closed. She sulked around the apartment for a while, still making that noise every now and then. Finally when Jolayne opened the cabinet under the bathroom sink to put the bag of cat food under it, Cleo bolted into the cabinet and wouldn’t come out for hours. I guess that’s all she needed though, because she’s since come out and has taken to exploring the apartment. It’s kind of been an adjustment for me, I’ve never had a pet before and while I have nothing against cats I’ve come to realize its a whole different thing when they actually live with you. Now I’ve got to learn to keep doors shut because I don’t want her going in the bedroom or computer room and getting hair on everything. (Cat hair + computer fans = not good) She’s pretty much taken over the second bathroom because that’s the only place we had to put her litter box and food dish. She’s a very messy cat and has already managed to scatter food and litter around the bathroom floor. So yeah, there’s some stuff that I’m not crazy about but I do enjoy having Cleo around. Especially since that means Jolayne’s around more often too.

Comments

Comment by Carrie on 2005-03-15 00:19:42 +0000

Hooray for kitties!

Comment by Posko on 2005-03-15 10:47:35 +0000

Good thinking. It’s always nice to have a live source of food around the place, just in case.

I had no idea this was even remotely possible, but here’s a technology demo for a first person shooter done with Shockwave. In a browser. Wow. I mean, I guess it’s just a proof of concept but it seems to be surprisingly well put together. It takes a while to load (I wouldn’t even want to think about loading all those textures over dial up) but once it got going it ran really smoothly for me. That’s just amazing.

Comments

Comment by Carrie on 2005-03-09 00:52:26 +0000

http://www.livejournal.com/users/will_rss/

For ease of reading. 😀

That game is amazing, but I really really suck, lol.

Comment by Tobin on 2005-03-11 08:22:52 +0000

Oh man, I just checked it out, and they’ve taken it down, leaving only the following message:

———————————

PHOSPHOR

Testing for Alpha build 248 is over. Next version should be ready in about a month. Thanks for playing!

Comment by Will on 2005-03-12 11:44:19 +0000

I’ve been syndicated! I expect royalty checks should start arriving any day now, right? Wow, I can’t believe my xml feed is actually being used.

And I can’t believe they took down that demo already

So yesterday was apparently the last day that Subway will be honoring its collect-stamps-for-free-subs program. At least that’s what I found out at the local Subway where I often go from work. Last week they stopped giving out stamps, this week existing stamps are no good. So now I’m wondering, is this official or is this just some rogue loose-cannon Subway franchise? I mean, Subway has always had stamps, right? I can’t remember a time when they didn’t, even though I’ve only started to collect them religiously as of late. I’d been averaging about a free sub a month, but it looks like that’s all over now. Why, Subway, why?

Comments

Comment by Carrie on 2005-03-08 20:25:45 +0000

The Subway we go to still takes/gives stamps.

You seem to be the patron of a rogue Subway.

Comment by Will on 2005-03-08 22:37:24 +0000

Well, see the thing is that I actually wrote an email to Subway (yes, I’m very passionate about this) and got a reply back from some regional promotions guy saying that they discontinued the stamps because people were selling fake cards on the internet. Apparently there’s this black market for Subway stamps that I never knew about. So yeah, it’s definitely more than one Subway but maybe its just a regional thing.

Comment by Posko on 2005-03-09 14:10:50 +0000

I just got stamps two days ago… It’s gotta be just for your area. Bummer man. Just don’t go ruining it for the rest of us! 😛 Hey, I think I’m going to go redeem a free sub now! Muhahahaha!

Comment by Racey on 2005-04-07 17:39:57 +0000

I’m a manager at a Subway… some stores were part of a test market, but the advertisements will be out any day now… All Subways are stopping the stamp program, stamp cards optional but way expensive for store owners.

Comment by Will on 2005-04-07 18:38:59 +0000

Thanks for the inside information, good to know. Although I’m not sure if I now feel better or worse to know that it’s not just my area after all.

Comment by Dan on 2005-04-14 11:46:58 +0000

G’day, I have seen many of these stamps on ebay. one seller has a 100% feedback.

is it the case, he is selling illegal material? if so why does ebay not crack down on it/ or subway.

rgrds

dan

Comment by ed dailey on 2005-04-26 21:39:53 +0000

let me inform you all. that corporate wont spent the time to trace all the ebayers , yes you are not allowed to sell the stamps., but what are the chances of someone faking a fuss. program ends june 30th use em till then

Comment by Tobin on 2005-04-28 13:12:18 +0000

Just ate at our local Subway. They’re giving out the stamps until 4/30/05, and they will redeem them until 7/31/05.

However, the guy I talked to said that they might be replacing it with some sort of swipe card, although he did say “who knows when that will happen…”

Well, here we are at T minus 2 months and counting to the wedding. Things are moving along pretty well, but now I’m starting to realize just how quickly this is coming up. Of course Jolayne has known this all along, but now I’m finally starting to go “Holy crap, we’ve got to do stuff!” For instance, finding people’s addresses. We’ve been realizing that we don’t necessarily have the current addresses of a lot of people we’d like to invite, just because we’ve been out of Columbus for so long. We’ve got to figure out the music for the wedding too. There’s a string quartet, but we’ve got to figure out what we want them to play. Some friends of ours are going to do a song also, but again we’re not sure what yet. At the moment, we’re leaning towards something by Johnny Cash. Then there’s also the matter of figuring out what gifts to get for the wedding party. Jolayne’s got the gifts for her girls, but I still need to figure out what to get the groomsmen. I suppose I can’t really go into any more detail since several of them read this. One major thing that I’ve gotten out of the way is the planning/booking of the honeymoon, and I think it’s going to be awesome. We’re going to spend 9 nights total in Hawaii, 6 on Kauai and 3 on Hawaii. So yeah, all we’ve got to do is survive the next 2 hectic months and then I’ll be on a beach in Hawaii, married to the most wonderful girl ever.

Comments

Comment by Neal on 2005-02-23 22:50:33 +0000

/me feels guilty about not answering Will’s e-mail inquiry yet.

Comment by Carrie on 2005-02-26 04:57:08 +0000

Oooo Hawaii.

*jealous*

Comment by Phil on 2005-02-26 12:08:42 +0000

Hey, do you need our address for the invites?

Comment by Benjamin Lewis on 2005-03-05 09:51:27 +0000

Hey you stole Kaui from me I will get you Will you will regret it. Oh and by the way I dotn have any of those addresses you needed but I can find Chris’s I am sure.

Comment by Posko on 2005-03-09 14:15:21 +0000

They closed Hawaii… You’ll have to settle for a Honeymoon in Nebraska. I hear it’s a wonderfull place to go!

Jolayne and I saw Modest Mouse at the Uptown Theater tonight with Mason Jennings opening. Mason Jennings was alright, kind of like a less hippie-fied Jack Johnson singer/songwriter guy with a backing band. Not without its moments, but not great either. As for Modest Mouse, it was a good show, although not quite what I’d been hoping for after waiting so long to finally see them. For one thing, the sound was a little off (not too bad though). The real problem was that the Uptown is all seated and while that’s nice for certain shows I’m sure, it just didn’t seem right for this. Also, Jolayne and I ended up in the balcony which has a nice view but is pretty far from the stage. So even though there was a lot of energy on stage, it didn’t really have as much impact in the balcony seats. I still really regret not going to see them in Columbus when I had the chance a few years ago. That was in a smaller venue and probably would have been more of the experience I was looking for, but tonight was still enjoyable.

Thanks to Microsoft, now parents everywhere can learn l33tsp33k in a misguided attempt to relate to their wayward adolescents.

“Hey Timmy, why don’t “j00” go “pwn” your homework to get “m4d sk1llz” so you won’t be a “n00b”. Way to go, son!”

“Timmy! Where did you get these “w4r3z”!?”

“I learned it by watching you, dad!”

They also have a list of tips for dealing with griefers for gamers, but more useful would probably be a “What to do if your child is a griefer” guide. Though the obvious answer is to spawn camp the little bastard till he quits.

Comments

Comment by Neal on 2005-02-17 14:43:39 +0000

rotflmao!

Comment by Will on 2005-02-17 17:21:01 +0000

I just submitted feedback on the page saying that I was totally pwned by that article.

Comment by Will on 2005-02-17 19:12:05 +0000

Ok, and I’m commenting on my own post too much but I just had to add this – What they don’t tell you is that they compiled the list of l33tsp33k terms from messages left on defaced web sites running Microsoft IIS. Zing!

For Valentine’s Day yesterday, Jolayne and I skipped over the traditional flowers and gifts (and yes, it was a mutual decision. No, seriously!) and instead opted to go all out on a really amazingly good dinner out. We went to a French restaurant called Café des Amis in Parkville, MO a town which is home to quite a few other good restaurants as well. (We went to Piropos there for Jolayne’s birthday and enjoyed it too). I would have to say that this was easily the best meal that I’ve had in KC, by far. Everything from the appetizer to the main course to dessert was flawless I thought. I couldn’t even say any one part was my favorite, they were all so good. Combine all that with the company of Jolayne, and I couldn’t have asked for a better Valentine’s day. I am, however, certain that my high school French teacher would have been shocked and disappointed had she heard me attempt to order with what I’m sure must have been horribly mangled pronunciation. All things considered though, it was good enough to keep the server from laughing at me so I consider it a success.

Comments

Comment by Phil on 2005-02-15 23:58:30 +0000

Sacrebleu! (and some other French words)

Eh, I always thought spoken French sounded like people talking with a mouthful of pudding.

But that’s just me.

Comment by Tobin on 2005-02-17 08:22:50 +0000

I was looking at their menu… What did you order?

Comment by Will on 2005-02-17 11:12:55 +0000

Phil – Don’t you mean a mouthful of mousse? 😉

They had a special menu (http://www.kansascitymenus.com/cafedesamis/valentines.html ) for Valentine’s Day that was a 4 course meal with choice of appetizer and entree. We both got the same things: The puff pastry lobster/scallop filled appetizer and the filet mignon/lobster tail entree. Them’s good eatin’

Comment by Sarah on 2005-02-17 12:48:23 +0000

Would Mrs. R. really be shocked? Or are you exgerating?

Comment by Will on 2005-02-17 19:09:13 +0000

Well, I may be exaggerating a bit but my French skillz have been in sharp decline ever since I finished high school.

So now that Gmail accounts have become more ubiquitous and less exclusive (I’ve got 50 invites sitting around on my account) the question of what to actually do with them begins to raise its head. Of course I’ve got one that I kind of use as a secondary email for convenience. But of course the promise of a free gig of space was much too tempting to get just one, and so I actually have several more than that just sitting around. 3rd party tools for Gmail have been pretty common for a while too, including things like scripts that would let you upload files directly to your Gmail account to use as online storage. That seemed like a good idea to me, but always a bit too unwieldy. Not anymore. There’s an app called Gmail Drive (Windows only) that’s a shell extension to add a virtual drive to your machine that stores files in a Gmail account. Pretty slick. You can just drop files onto it, and view files on it as if it were an actual drive. Of course there are a few limitations. For one, there’s a 10 meg individual file size limit, but I think that’s imposed by Gmail itself. Also, it’s currently not possible to open files directly from the Gmail drive. You have to copy them over to an actual drive to open them. It’d be nice to see that added in a later version. Still, its the most convenient interface I’ve seen yet to all those gigs of free storage out there.

Comments

Comment by Nathan Hessler on 2005-02-15 18:35:39 +0000

That is awesome. Love my gmail and this just makes it better, except I don’t use windows.

Comment by Will on 2005-02-15 19:08:29 +0000

What? When did you abandon ship? What’s your OS of choice these days?

A couple of weeks ago Jolayne and I went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and picked out some new furniture: a bedroom set, a table and chairs, and a new desk and chair for my computer. Well, that all got delivered to my apartment this morning, with the time range for delivery set at 7:00am-9:00am. Needless to say, I was hoping it would end up being much closer to 9, but of course they showed up at 7:20. I was supposed to get a call when they were on their way which I had planned to wake up to, but they didn’t call so I was caught totally off guard in the middle of a deep sleep when they got here. Having furniture delivered is a somewhat awkward process I’ve found, as it just feels wrong to me to stand around doing nothing while other people are doing all the work. However, on remembering that I did in fact pay for that service I got over it quickly. The furniture’s all here now, but unfortunately there’s a small chip in the footboard of the bed and a small scratch on the table that’s been poorly covered with wood putty. That’s kind of shoddy, and I’m going to have to call the store to see what they can do about it. It looks like it’s time to get ready for my least favorite sporting event ever: the 100 meter customer service hurdles.

Comments

Comment by Dan on 2005-02-05 08:51:36 +0000

I agree–it does feel weird standing by and letting them do the work. But as they were hauling a couch up my stairs above their heads, I reconsidered my discomfort.

When they delivered mine, they said somewhere between 6-9pm. Then they showed up at 11pm. Poor guys.

Comment by Brett Wilms on 2005-02-05 17:28:38 +0000

This must be deliver new furniture day, because I just got my couch I ordered back in October. Score.