I'm glad I don't have to put up with her. :p

This post and the treehouse one below brought to you courtesy of Metafilter.

Many years have passed since then. Now, I want one of these houses, preferably the first one or the last one pictured.

HailStorm is a group of services, using Microsoft's Passport authentication technology, meant to provide secure access to e-mail, address lists and other personal data from virtually anywhere via PCs, cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants). The catch? Users of the services will be required to pay a fee to them. Analysts said that if the HailStorm model is widely adopted--and if people will pay a premium for security--the days of ad-subsidized Internet services, such as free e-mail and messaging, may be over. HailStorm is a group of services, using Microsoft's Passport authentication technology, meant to provide secure access to e-mail, address lists and other personal data from virtually anywhere via PCs, cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants). The catch? Users of the services will be required to pay a fee to them. Analysts said that if the HailStorm model is widely adopted--and if people will pay a premium for security--the days of ad-subsidized Internet services, such as free e-mail and messaging, may be over. [ learn more ]

Most troubling to AOL and others, Microsoft says it plans to include some support for HailStorm in Windows XP, the next version of its dominant operating system, due out in the fall.

That is unfair, says Barry Schuler, chief executive of the America Online division of AOL Time Warner. He draws a comparison with the battle for Web-browser dominance that sparked the government's successful antitrust suit against Microsoft in 1998, now pending before an appeals court. "When Microsoft feels like it can't compete, it goes back to the old tactic of integration with the operating system to try to kill all competitors," Schuler says. "It's the same thing over and over again." [ learn more ]

There's also some information about next-generation instant messaging in the second article.

* Death of several internet companies. Apparently they just figured out that banner ads don't really produce much in the way of revenue, so a lot of places that host lots of sites are going under. The NASDAQ and the Dow Jones Industrial has seen better days, too; that's for sure.
* Death of innocent bystanders of random high school shootings. Kids just never learn. What the hell is the point of bringing a gun to school and spraying lead throughout the place? 15 minutes of fame? There is absolutely NOTHING that happens in high school that could make someone so depressed or pissed off to warrant the need for packing some heat. What the hell are those kids' problems? How could life suck so much that you NEED to take a bunch of people out? You're a GOD DAMN teenager! Life remains meaningless until after high school! Those bunch of arrogant fucks make me want to puke. Oh oh, I'm starting to get angry now. Next death scenario.
* Death of Ultima Online 2. One of the many second generation MMORPG's in the works, the project got canned in favor of making the first Ultima Online game better (could it be worse? :p). Smooth move, Electronic Arts and Origin. But at least Shadowbane now has a little less competition to worry about.
* Death of my grandmother. My father's mother was up there in the age category. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I wasn't incredibly close to her, so the amount of impact her death had on me was kept to a minimal. But what really sucks is that she's the second one on my father's side of the family to die in the past three months. I had a 17 year old cousin die in a head-on car accident in December. Not only does the fact that she died a week before Christmas suck beyond belief, her boyfriend drove the car when they had the accident, and he lived and was fairly unscathed. Guess who cried the most at the funeral: her parents or the boyfriend? Ouch. What a very depressing trip to Canada I had to make.
* Death of Mir. In case you live under a rock, you would have learned that Mir came tumbling down early Friday or late Thursday, depending on what time zone you're in. I wonder if a similar fate will occur with the international space station, since those silly "Clinton is the Devil" Republicans in Congress would rather suck the oil out of an Alaskan wildlife reserve instead of put money in the budget to complete this project.

Fun fun fun. I hope next week turns out to be a little better.

Great, now I feel kinda bummed out now. And I wish I was in Panama City still. *sigh* Woe is me.

I didn't wake up until 3 1/2 hours later. Heh, I must have been tired.

There's also a random Buffy The Vampire Slayer (actually, all Buffy quotes are Xander quotes, except for one) or X-Files quote generator. I hope to include other TV shows' quotes in the future; The Family Guy will hopefully be my next addition. Unfortunately, do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to find a page with a list of Family Guy quotes? I ain't watching every Family Guy episode and pausing every five seconds to copy down something funny. :p

My original plan with this quote thing was to make it appear on every page instead of just this front page. I want "the system" to pick a quote at random and print that chosen quote for the entire day, regardless if someone keeps refreshing the page or someone else visits. Unfortunately, I don't know how I can do that with my limits on technology. I could let each quote be predetermined by what the current date or time is, but I don't want to go through 46 Buffy quotes before seeing an X-Files quote. I want the randomness thing going on.

So anyways... yeah. There's a quote thingie and a new page up and a few other minute changes you probably won't notice. For my very fine work, I think I will go reward myself with a shiny golden star sticker right now.

Happy birthday, Sis.

my cousin: Ahh we got a kitten
me: nice
me: what color?
my cousin: gray w/ white boots
me: awwwww
my cousin: yeah he is wiked cute!
me: you should fatten him or her up to my cat's size
my cousin: what do you mean cat
my cousin: i thaought it was a horse
me: lol

For your information, my tiger cat is 20 pounds of... erm... "fur." Actually, who am I kidding? He's a 20-pound stress toy. ph34r.

You may remember him from his invention of the stock market (heh), being able to predict the economic future, and his insatiable desire for kiddie porn. Ok, I made the last part up. Maybe.

His critics don't think his 1/2% interest rate cut is gonna save the Dow Jones from sliding down to a net value of -4000, but you just wait. He's the man. You can't fuck with Greenspan. And he's been warning everyone about this huge money "bubble" since 1996. So there. Yeah.

But will there now be a movie / rental tax? Maybe, although I can't seem to find any other information about this supposed tax in any of the local newspapers. "The bill would tax film and game rentals 5 cents each, video game and game players $1 each," whatever that means. Since "game players" will be taxed, are you gonna have to register somewhere to get a certificate that says you have paid a dollar to be a game for x amount of time? Heh. Looks like one journalist needs grammar assistance.

The money goes to "help compensate victims of sexual assault... the tax is fitting, because video games and movies often feature sexual violence or portray woman as objects of sexual gratification." Right. I can see how some movies and TV shows portray women as objects, but I can't think of any games that do so. There are several games out there that portray violence, but sexual violence? Hmm... nope. I don't know of any. I bet there's a few foreign Anime titles in Japan that do, though. But whatever, it's for a good cause.

I stole this link from ShackNews. Reading the comments to the article made me chuckle. All of the "l33t gam3rZ" that visit the site don't understand why video games are being taxed. And New Hampshire is "gay" for this tax idea. WHO CARES? IT'S 5 CENTS! Heh. And New Hampshire is gay, but I don't think this tax makes NH so.

This is friggin' soccer, not rugby. And it's not like you're allowed to hard tackle people during PE class. At least we didn't when I was back in high school and middle school. You just kinda hang out on the field until the ball is in your general area. Then you try to either kick the ball away (on defense) or kick the ball through the net.

And our high school's girls varsity team was one of the best in the state. It probably could beat our boys varsity soccer team as well.

This seller must know people up in high places. $31 well spent.

Suckers. What goes around, comes around.

We stayed at the Bay Point Marriot for the week. That place was beautiful. Private beach, several outdoor pools, 2 golf courses on the property... it wasn't really close to everything else though. Front Beach Boulevard was where all the action was. There was like 6 billion hotels and restaurants and clubs on that road.

There were some down sides to Panama City. When it rains, it freakin' pours. What can you do on a rainy day? Get some beer at WalMart (!!!) and have a little fun in your apartment. Also, the ratio of guys to girls was worse than that at RPI! It was not good at all! But, the good thing is 9 of the 10 girls in Panama City are really hot, as opposed to the 1 in 50 or so at RPI.

Now I have to come back to this dizzily, snowy, 40-degree weather dump. *sigh* If I wasn't in my senior year, man, I might have considered pulling a stunt like the waiter at Pineapple Willy's did: he never went back to college at the end of spring break; he moved to Florida for a year or so.

And here are some fun facts for you:

* Sonic (a drive-in restaurant chain) kicks ass!
* Waffle House is EVERYWHERE in the South, and usually one or more letters in their sign will not light up.
* Grits, a substance I may consume once every ten years, is a popular breakfast choice in the South.
* Steak and eggs are a popular breakfast combo in the South, too.
* Every state smells when you drive through it, although Georgia was more pleasant than most of the others.
* We didn't have to pay any tolls south of Washington, D.C., while New Jersey and New York were toll money bitches.
* Gas was as cheap as $1.219 in parts of Alabama through North Carolina.
* Jon is deathly afraid of Chexx, but we won't get into that. An experience there made him capable of driving from 7 pm to 7 am!
* A lot of novelty shops in Alabama and Florida on the way to Panama City bragged about having butter pecans, boiled peanuts, and bonsai trees.
* Cars are left on the side of the road in alarming frequency from North Carolina through Alabama, especially in Georgia.
* States south of Maryland mark their highway exit numbers by mileage, not by what number comes next.
* My car needs an oil change every 7,500 miles!
* Billboards for fireworks just won't go away the closer you get to South Carolina.
* Albany, NY has way too many overpasses and loops. I want a scaled down model of Albany's road system, put a marble at its highest point, and see where gravity takes it.
* Dr. Pepper replaces root beer when you go to a Southern restaurant and order a drink. What a scam.

Well, that's it for now. I probably have more to say that I can't think up of right now, but hey. It's not like I can't post again.

Friggin' snow...