Random links
All courtesy of Ananova, I believe:

* I had a moose run through my backyard once, but I never got wrecked at school by a deer. Ooph.
* Something to be proud of: winning a lifetime supply of toilet paper from a TP tasting contest.
* Why would someone place a sign in a pile of sand saying a baby was buried there? One would assume the founder of the baby would unbury it... Oh wait, it was a prank. Nyah. Silly Floridians.
* Get busted for being in possession of drugs? Eat the evidence!
* What the hell? Prisoners don't want to do their laundry? They claim the prison has poor air circulation. Awww, poor babies. They may want to breathe easier, but PEOPLE IN HELL WANT ICE WATER. You can't have everything you want. :p Can't afford to suffer the consequences? Don't commit the crime.

Writing for the WWW: all too easy
Check out this summer course's syllabus below. This is the class I signed up for and arranged with the professor to send him periodic emails with my work:

1. Find a web site that is particularly effective; analyze it according to the characteristics we discussed, write up your analysis, and present it to the class. Due Monday, May 21. (10%)
2. Find a web site that is particularly ineffective; analyze it according to the characteristics we discussed, write up your analysis, and present it to the class. Due Monday, May 28. (10%)
3. Design a butt-ugly web site (or portion of a web site) that is grossly overdone with animations, sound, colors, etc. The purpose of this assignment is to give you a chance to use all those flashy devices and get it out of your system. Due Monday, June 4. (30%)
4. Design or modify significantly your own personal web site. Due Monday, June 18. (30%)
5. Think of a good way to test the site you developed for assignment 4, find people to work as test subjects, conduct your test, and analyze your results. Hand in a description of your test and results. Present to the class a plan for updating and improving your site based on your test results. (You do not have to actually make the updates.) Due Thursday, June 21. (20%)

Simple. That's why it's a humanities course. :) I could probably do the first four items on this list in a single week instead of one a week if I really had to. Needless to say, that means I won't be putting too much effort into this course. I'm gonna have to find out what "my personal web site" for assignment #4 has to do with assignment #5, though. If I need to have "test subjects" for my site, that may mean I have to update my survey, whcih may be a good thing. Or maybe these so called "test subjects" are supposed to just navigate my site and see look for unclosed HTML tags and broken links. Whatever.

As for assignment #3, can you say Jeff K?

Ooh, looks like assignment #1 is due this coming Monday. I wonder what the discussed characteristics of an effective website are. Hmmm... looks like I'll be doing some BS'ing already!

The IT job hunt
My cold didn't even last for a 24-hour period. Hmmm... I wonder if it was even a cold to begin with. Whatever. At least I can breathe!

I've been mustering up "help wanted" ads online from such places as HeadHunter.net and Monster.com, and here's some of the neat stuff I've found (in regards to webmasters, web designers, web development, that sort of shit):

Excellent opportunity for candidates who are entry level or experienced with OOD skill sets. C++ is preferred. Perl or solid scripting skills are a strong bonus. This position can be full time permanent or contract to hire.

Three cheers for me knowing C++ and Perl.

They currently seek a Web Developer for their North Boston facility. [...] The requirements for this position are:
Strong personal and written communication skills. This role requires professionalism in communication and interaction with others in a variety of roles. Thorough competency in all Microsoft Office Products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) as well as thorough competency in graphical software applications (PhotoShop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc).
Demonstrated success in online marketing graphics, design, and development. Strong familiarity and understanding of HTML and PERL. General aptitude for technical/ computer problems. Enthusiastic personality and ability to thrive in a very fast paced atmosphere and meet short and dynamic deadlines. Able to work independently and exceed expectations with little or no supervision. Familiarity with Unix/ Telnet is a plus.

There's a couple jobs out there just like this in the Boston area, and I could so do that. I suck at making graphics, though, but if it's for a company website, they don't need to be that sophisticated.

One of another webmaster position's requirements: Excellent HTML authoring skills (hand coding preferred)

Long live EditPad! :) Dreamweaver and FrontPage are for ninnies.

I got about six or seven ads that I'm gonna send resumés to. I chose not to send them yesterday or today just because it's the end of the week. I consider that bad karma. :) It's best to get those HR people after they've had a weekend to relax, hehe. :)

Most of my saved ads are in or around Boston. If I hear back from a couple of the places, I hope I can schedule most of my interviews on the same day. Boston is one hell of a commute for me. I'm not sure how far Boston is from Hillsboro, but it takes me an hour to get to Nashua, NH and two hours to get to Davers, MA, just to put things in perspective.

In the world of Garbage
Stolen from Garbage.com:

We wanted you to have this information first. The mixing of the new release has begun and is slated for release late summer of this year. It's official the title of the new album is BeautifulGarbage. The band thanks you for your patience and ongoing support.

"BeautifulGarbage," eh? I really hope there's a typo in this title and that the title will actually be "Beautiful Garbage," with a space. I'm not too keen on the name of the album, regardless. It sounds pretty... uh... weak and unoriginal. While "Version 2.0" was a clever name to use for their sophmore album, I bet there's probably a couple shitty Homestead or AOL hosted websites made by 12 year olds with the title "Beautiful Garbage" (no offense if you happen to be 12 and have a good website or something). "Beautiful Garbage" also sounds like a name someone would give to one of their unofficial bootlegs, much like their bootlegs titled "Complete Garbage," "Live Trash," and "The G Files." Shirley and company could have done a lot better. *shrug* Oh well.

In other Garbage news, it looks they might have a little court tussle with the American Breed. Yeah, I've never heard of those guys either.

I was gonna also gonna include some news about how Rage Against the Machine + Chris Cornell - Zack de la Rocha have ~17 songs written up, so they look like they're in good shape for an upcoming record (sorry, no ETA). Meanwhile, I believe Zack recruited someone into his cult of creating music with a message. But I lost the articles. Damnit.

Microsoft wins
I can get Internet Explorer to break routinely when I'm writing an email using my Hotmail account.

Good job, guys. You can't even get two of your products to work properly in unison. ;p

The X-Files gets another season
And The Lone Gunmen gets canned. Go figure.

Too bad The X-Files was over about two seasons ago. I guess FOX really wants to drag this show out; it must be the only thing they have left. Well, at least they didn't invest in the XFL, haha. And doesn't David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's contracts expire after this season? I doubt Duchovny (Mulder) will have much of a role in the last season (if at all), since he would rather star in B-rate movies involving aliens instead of being on The X-Files. But that's ok, I guess. Robert Patrick (Agent John Doggett) is a pretty cool guy and I can definitely deal with him for another season (or two or three). But with Anderson's (Scully's) character being the centerpiece for the season finale this Sunday, I think she'll almost have to be back for one more season. Unless they kill her off this Sunday... Oops, that was a spoiler. :) Actually, I'm a liar. :) Scully can't die:

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: Still, you're not the least bit curious?
(There is a knock on the door.)
SCULLY: That must be Mulder. Time for the midnight shift.
(She puts her cards down and stands up. She goes towards the door, but then walks back up to Bruckman.)
All right. So how do I die?
CLYDE BRUCKMAN: You don't.
(He smiles as she stares at him. There is more knocking. She looks through the peephole and opens the door. Mulder holds up a folder.)

Awww shit.

This story brought to you courtesy of Jon. Also, read the whole article to learn a little something about The Family Guy. w00t.

It's also the only link you're getting tonight, so you might as well appreciate it.

I gotta blow my nose. Sonofa...

Things that suck
It's a very short list, since I really don't want Frank's ultra awesome site to be considered useless. Oh wait, it already is considered useless? Hehe.

* Colds. What the hell? I got one during the middle of spring break in Panama City that really messed me up for about a week or two. It effectively cut my spring break in half, since I really didn't feel like doing anything starting Wednesday night. But now I got another one. I didn't get it until about noon time, and now I feel like I got the runs in my nose. There's a wonderful image for ya. Heh, you're welcome. I guess I'm gonna have to pick up some NyQuil. Red NyQuil. That's right, I ain't fucking around. :)

* People that refer to articles of clothing by their brand name. For instance, "Those Dockers look great" and "I need to pick up some Tommy's [Hilfiger]." You can often see this behavior in people shopping at Filene's and in Filene's radio commercials. It's friggin' queer. The way to deal with these people is to punch them right in the face. Trust me, they'll stop. And if they don't, they'll get the hint eventually.

That's it for now. Time to find some links for ya.

M$ should stop skewing statistics
I'm willing to believe Hotmail is the most widely used web-based email service, but I refuse to believe that MSN Messenger is the #1 IM program:

MSN Messenger Service recorded 31.9 million unique users worldwide in March.
[...]
In November 2000, MSN Messenger lagged behind AOL Instant Messenger in terms of U.S. users 21.5 million to 10.3 million, according to Media Metrix. From February to March, the service added 2 million users worldwide.
[...]
The Spanish-language version of Hotmail has attracted 8 million unique users in March, according to the research firm.

Bullshit. Let me guess, the people behind AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo all closed down their services for a couple of months so M$ could triple their numbers?

Whatever. Bunch of liars. :p And their numbers will only grow when Windows XP bundles the IM program to it. Nyah.

More Internet stories
With the occurence of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (also known as "E3") going on all this week, all of the head geeks from a bunch of cool companies get to show off their upcoming products to the masses. With that said, you're probably gonna see a lot of software / hardware links here until it starts coming out your ears. Or maybe you won't. There are several zillion sites that are covering E3, but I'll make mention of the items that seem to catch my interest when I was looking for stuff to read online.

Here's a little sample, these links pertaining to console systems:
* All hail the X-Box release date. There's some system specs about it, too.
* But what's this? The Gamecube is going to be out 3 days before the X-Box? The console system industry is starting to heat up!
* Speaking of the GameCube, Nintendo has some info about it on this site. While looking through all of the screenshots of the games to be released for this system, be sure to check out Metroid Prime. Metroid kicks ass. Whoa, I just had a "Justin Bailey" flashback. Damn, I wish I still had that console game.

And finally, how about some porn story links? There seems to be a lot of porn stories as of late; I'm not quite sure why:
* Porn on your PDA. For those of you who need porn while on the road, certain companies are coming up with ways to hook you up using your PDA as the medium. Also in the article is this odd but true quote: "The porn industry has always been at the forefront of technology."
* "It's like calling a prostitute a sex worker!" The women of Cancun are wearing uniforms in protest of a local government law. Wasn't there a protest like this a while back in India? I don't know, maybe I'll try and find that story if I'm excessively bored.

Have some links
It's been a pretty uneventful day, so perhaps the links below will quell yor hunger for news until I have something to say.

* Because there aren't enough of these on the net, here's another United States vs Europe rant.
* Dude! Old school Atari commercials! Yar's Revenge is such a great game. I think I found this link on Metafilter.
* Huh? Everyone knows AOL sucks already, but why must they taint the greatness that is the Playstation 2? It may be a ploy to stunt Microsoft and their yet-to-be-released X-Box, but I don't think many PS2 owners want to surf the web using AOL and the Netscape browser. Then again, I bet a good number of PS2 owners already have a computer with some sort of online connection they can surf with, so who cares?

Actually, I do have something to say: Go Penguins. :) As the number of teams in the NHL playoffs is cut in half after each round, I'm running out of interesting games to watch. And I don't like watching any game where the home team is the New Jersey Devils. The crowd doesn't get into the game. I watched part of the game they had with the Pens when I wasn't watching what was on the WB, and the crowd is so docile and quiet. They are totally not into the game, and they have been that way throughout the playoffs. They don't get too excited when the Devils score. Hell, I swear that when the Penguins score, they cheer almost as loudly as when their Devils score! What the heck is up with that? I can't watch those type of games. The crowd needs to hate the away team and get rowdy when the home team does something cool. I hope the Pens win the series just so I don't have to deal with this blasphemy during the Stanley Cup finals.

Leave me alone
No, I don't have Black and White on my computer.
No, you can't have it.
No, this post doesn't mean I have it still.
No, I can not send it to you for several reasons.
No, I don't know where you can get it (perhaps the store?).
No, I don't know who you can ask to get a leaked copy of it.
No, begging and grovelling will get you no where with me (unless you're hot and female).

I've been getting a number of requests for this game as of late. Make it stop!

So much for Moore's Law
Which states something like CPU power doubles every 18 months. Looks like they have a p3 850 Ghz available at one particular retailer, even though the p4 2 Ghz won't be out until the end of this year. And it's only $160! That's a friggin' steal!

Or maybe it's a typo... Nah... :)

The Internet and sex
Wuzzzuuuuh.

In the last few days, I've managed to collect a good number of links. I've filtered through most of them, and now is the time for me to deliver to you only the best of what the net has had to offer recently. Ain't I such a nice guy?

First off, stories about online computing as we know it:
* The Internet2: because an OC-48 line just might not be enough bandwidth for video conferencing or group collaborating. Coming soon to a home near you. The rates are kinda high right now, though. Heh. Thanks Jon.
* Go figure. Other companies are pissed off at Microsoft's bundling techniques. I don't think I will be using Windows XP when it hits the shelves, especially if (and I quote) "MSN Messenger installs and loads automatically every time XP is run." WTF? I hate AIM and what AOL has done to ICQ, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna use a third IM program, especially if no one else uses it either.
* Speaking of instant messaging, here is a wonderful list as to the type of people you can meet on the net. The "One Line Wonder" is too damn common. So is "Dr. Hardass."

And everyone's favorite topic, sex:
* They call him Dr. Pimp. Well, they should anyways. I think I found this at ShackNews or a similar site.
* Pornstars have needs, too. Hehe. Paradies from The Onion are always cool. Thanks Mike.

On an irrelevant tangent, my room is full of so much crap. And I have a good-sized room, too. I'd say it's about 15 feet by 18 feet, not including the closet. Hell, there are two twin beds in my room along with a bunch of shelves, two bureaus, and my mother's old (but big) office desk. But anyways, onto my crap: Apparently I have amassed a large number of items since high school and I don't have any place for it. A lot of it includes "going away to college" type of stuff like dishes, pots and pans, towels, etc. My amount of formal clothing has increased about threefold. I also kept 37 textbooks in the last four years. And I have a lot of my old schoolwork, some of which I'm keeping for reference (like my Perl and C++ notes), but most of it (like chemistry of material quizzes and environmental engineering exams) are being trashed since I won't use the knowledge acquired in those courses ever again. My room is in a state of mayhem as I try to figure out what stays, what gets shipped into the attic for eternity, and what gets thrown in the dumpster (That's right. Mother's in-house business produces enough trash to require a small dumpster near our driveway.). *sigh* Someone else unpack it all and organize it all for me. I'll give you a dollar.

Graduation day is over
What a long day Saturday was. I'm pretty glad it's over.

I didn't fall asleep until about 1:00 in the morning and I got up at 6:00. Getting five hours of sleep should have done me in, but I must have gotten a good amount of sleep the night before that, because I didn't feel tired. That's key. I was in for one hell of a day and I didn't want to be fatigued at all.

I did my normal morning stuff, I packed even more of my junk and threw it all in my car, but I didn't pack everything up since I had to come back some time after graduation to work out some final things with my roomies. I left the apartment at 7:15; I didn't have to be at the Pepsi Arena (which is where the graduation was being held) until 8:00. I picked up an acquaintance of mine who was staying at the Best Western in Troy, and then I got to the arena by 7:40. I was there so early just to account for any traffic, lack of parking, and in case I got lost on my way there. Heh.

I then stood around in the atrium part of the arena with all of the other walking graduates until show time (9:30). Some pictures were taken of me and my peeps, but nothing incredibly exciting happened.

1,700 people receiving their bachelor's, master's, or doctorate's degree then walked into a stadium filled with an estimated 10,000 graduation attendees. Being one of the first people that had to walk into the stage level of the building, I was quite overwhelmed by the number of people in the audience.

About 3 1/2 hours later, several awards have been handed out, the speakers said what they wanted to say, Bill Cosby was still the awesome guy that he always has been, and 1,700 people in gowns, hoods, and tasseled hats got to walk up onto the stage, get their piece of paper, shake some hands, and get their picture taken. Final words and closing remarks were said, and we were out of there.

I found my sister and her fiancé off to the side before I headed out the same door I came in through, and they told me that the rest of the family was way up at the other side of the arena. They wanted to meet me up there. Sure, that shouldn't be a problem. It took me about ten minutes to get to where they were rumored to waiting for me since thousands of people were trying to get to the area where their sons and daughters were (i.e., it was crowded) and I had to find my homie Ray around section 120 of the arena. I told him the before we got to the arena that I was originally going to meet my folks outside section 120 after the ceremony. I found him there and told him about the change in meeting locations.

This is where the fun begins. I circled around the ring-shaped auditorium with Ray to the other side of the building where everyone was waiting for me. They weren't there, though. We then proceeded to circle the outside of the arena about three or four times, and we went back into the arena to see if they were waiting there for some reason. No luck. We then circled the exterior areas around the building to find my family at least four or five times. No dice. By this point in time, an hour has passed and the inside of the building has been vacated and we weren't allowed back inside. So, they had to be outside somewhere. So, we looked around some more, it started thundering and raining heavily at this point, and then I got fed up with the searching. We took the scenic route around the parking garage in hopes that I might see my mom's car (or my own, heh, I had trouble remembering where I parked! Yeah, I'm a winner.). Nope. Consequently, we hopped into my car, left Albany, and went back to my apartment to pick up the rest of my stuff and resolve any remaining issues with my roommates.

Not too much happened while I stayed at my apartment until close to 4:00. My mother had her cell phone on her; I was hoping she would call so I could find out what the hell was going on. I didn't have her cell phone number. She never called, though. And we were supposed to have a big family lunch together... :( If I haven't heard from my folks this late in the afternoon, I guess it wasn't going to happen. :(

I said my goodbyes to my boys that were around, and then we took off for the magical land that is Hillsboro, NH. We stopped somewhere along the way for food (since we missed out on lunch. *sigh*), I dropped Ray off at his house, and then I went back to my place. It was about 7:00 when I got home.

There weren't many cars in the driveway by the time I got back; my dad was already back home in Nashua. My grandmother and the guy that came down with her (my grandmother never had a license) were still around, as was my mother, but that was it of those who came to see me "graduate." There were no "extras" waiting at my house when I returned. Well, unless you wanted to count my girlie girl (heh) Courtney, who tended the house while we were in the state of New York (my mother has an in-house business taking care of the elderly and/or the mentally handicapped). Hmmph. While their presence at my house was cool, I was still rather bummed out about the fact that I couldn't find my folks in Albany, there weren't any solo or group picture takings with my family, and I had to settle for eating at a restaurant with a waitress that had to be recently hired instead of eating with everyone else. :( The waitress Ray and I had was an idiot; she never got our drinks although we requested them on three occasions and... eh... she was just an idiot. We didn't tip her well. Heh. But anyways...

It was a long day, and it definitely did not go the way I wanted it to. Disaster would have been avoided had my mother and company went to section 120 after commencement like I told them to. :p Oh well. What's done is done.

Now that graduation has ended and I'm back home never to return to RPI again (or at least for a very long time), what does the future hold for me? Well, I have that one humanities course I have to take, I have to unpack all of my junk (not looking forward to that), update my resumé, and aggressively hunt for an IT job. Maybe learn ASP on the side, too, heh. A lot of my job searching has involved positions where ASP is desired. Perl shows up as a requirement rarely, and PHP hasn't shown up yet. That kinda blows this guy's theory out of the water, huh?

Round 3 of the NHL starts... uh... yesterday.
Since I was too busy graduating yesterday and I packed up my computer Friday night, I kinda missed out on the opportunity to report about this on time. But since Blogger is under repairs, I guess it doesn't matter anyways. I was 50-50 in my second round predictions, which goes to show the great parity that exists in hockey. While it is pretty easy to guess which team will win a particular NFL playoff game or an MLB series, you'll only get in trouble if you try that with the NHL. Hell, I remember one year when in the first round of the NHL Eastern Conference the #1, #2, and #3 seeded teams were eliminated. The Western Conference ended up winning the cup that year. :)

But anyways, how about the conference finals of this year?

* New Jersey Devils (#1) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (#6) - I didn't think Lemieux and the gang were gonna make it past the Sabres, so I have to say the Devils will win this series. However, if the Pens can actually beat the Devils, then I'll say the Pens will be the Stanley Cup champions just on principle. Heh. What kind of a comeback would that that for Super Mario? He came out of a 3-year retirement to lead the Pens to a cup victory? I bet he would shit himself.

* Colorado Avalanche (#1) vs St. Louis Blues (#4) - I totally didn't expect the Blues to sweep the Stars in four games. But doing so ended up giving the Blues a nice week-long break while the Avs were struggling to put the Kings away. Now that makes you wonder if the Blues have an advantage or disadvantage going into the series against the Avs: does that long rest make them a lot more energetic than the tired Avs, or are they off their game and losing their edge? Hmmm... I'll say the Avs are gonna take out the Blues, but I have (had?) a roommate that predicted that the Blues would win the Cup. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Go Penguins.

Blogger is still having issues
While now that it's done trying to erase my posts, it won't upload my changes to the website. So, while I am typing this out on Sunday, I bet you won't see the post for a few more days. Heh. Same with the news post below this one. But whatever. The dude(s) at Blogger are working on the publishing part of Blogger (the part that takes your post and uploads it to your site) and making it less resource-intensive or something. Nyah.