4.30.2005

College

So my friend Jeff did a blog just tonight about college memories. So I'm totally copying this from him, who copied it from someone else. Anyway, he listed some good ones of mine, especially from my Sophomore year, which were most of my good memories. The first five were great moments in my life, especially Grease night with "the gang" (not to be confused with "the group" from HS) and the all-nighter/Barren River Lodge breakfast. I think that night was one of my most favorite nights ever in college. Heck, Jeff and I even managed to make someone cry and she didn't hate us for it!

Other than that, I have to say the many road trips my friend Bea and I took (South Carolina, Nashville, etc...) and as an overall, being roomates with Crystal my first year (yeah yeah, we know, you should never live with your best friend...). She got me through it somehow though and we ended up alright. Oh and of course, how could I forget, my dog Ozzie :-)

Okay, so you guys can tell me some of your favorite college memories if you want. And you should want to.

4.29.2005

FireFox Turning 50 (million)

At some point today probably Firefox will surpass 50 million downloads. If you care, and you should, you can watch the live counter here. And if you haven't already, Get Firefox.


So yes, I know it's been like 11 days since I posted, and my last one was about firefox too...so I promise something new this weekend. Maybe a new page, a new post, something different.

4.18.2005

This is why I love Firefox

This post at adot's notblog is a perfect example of why I think Firefox is great. When was the last time Microsoft asked me what they could do to improve Internet Explorer. Hm, well, how about not crashing my computer for starters. I'm not saying that they don't have some kind of forums that asks people...they very well could, but I don't know about it (not that I care at this point). And it's not just the asking. The whole "open source" just makes sense. If I can write some code that will help everyone else, or debug something, or in this case, better the bookmarking system, I can do it and submit it (not me, cause I know nothing of the sorts, but you get my drift). What a thought, my own personalized browser, where I get to choose what features I want to install and use. Man, and I used to think Ross was a nerd. I should have known better. He's always right (haha!).

4.17.2005

Ice Cream Moments

You ever have one of those weeks. You know, the really crummy types that make you just want to crawl in bed for a few days. I just had one of those. Actually, I had a couple or so of those. But, this post isn't about how I had a crummy week. It's about how one little simple, unexpected thing made the past couple weeks so much better. On the surface it may not seem like a big deal, but deep down, it's like the sound of the ice cream truck in the middle of a smoltering hot, humid and sticky Kentucky July.

So yeah, I had one of those days. All it took was a few words from someone I care about to pull me out of the hole I wanted to go hide out in. I actually wanted to cry I was so touched. Who and what isn't important (not for blog purposes anyway). What's important is that we get to have little moments like that to help make up for the bad things. I truely believe that one good, totally unexpected, thing is worth more than any one bad thing.

4.15.2005

Goodbye Krispy!

So Kris is packing right now...moving out tomorrow for the big city of San Fran and her new job that starts Monday I belive. I think I'm dealing with it by not dealing with it really. I'm trying to just see it as, not so much a goodbye (cause of course it's not), but just a little distance. Either way, it still sucks. I'm really going to miss Kris.

As promised

Okay, so in the post about my friend Sam, I promised to blog a little about my online friends and my "message board" (MB) days. So here goes. I'll try to keep it short (although I rarely do).

Sept 12, 1999: I wandered upon the official Friends message board through the WB site. I had became a Friends fanatic not too long before that (I think during a summer of constant reruns that I watched about 13 times a week I counted once). At any rate, it was your normal message board. A nice little community of people who all mostly came there because of their interest in the tv show. People from all over the US and the world. England, Scotland, Denmark, France, Greece, some other random places...and of course from all over the US. I'm sure I lurked around for a few days, reading other people's posts and threads before I finally decided to introduce myself. I'm sure when I did introduce myself, it was as dumb as everyone else who did over the course of the next couple of years that I was there most every day for hours.

Then I had this great idea that I was going to write a short story for my creative writing class about some of these people. I chose the first 5 people to respond: Happytown (Josh), Blid (Chris), Rach (LisaMarie), Nutshell (Lisa H.), and eakarink (Elise, aka, Lisey). Most of them already knew each other cause they were already member of this MB which probably had 100+ regular posters. I never wrote my story, but the 6 of us became fast friends, spending time playing silly games and pranks on our board and on other boards. We once took over the Charmed board during a game of virtual truth or dare. There was just far too many of us and we had too much solidarity (and arrogance about our tv show) for them to even compete with us. Within a few hours, the first few pages of their message board was filled with threads about how much Charmed sucked and various rude comments about the actresses on the show. So anyway, from there, we'd IM (instant message) each other and create chat rooms on AIM and stay up all night long chatting. I once skipped almost an entire week of class because I'd stay up all night online, and barely make it up to go to work at 12 or 2 in the afternoon, much less get up for class. That was at the height of it. At any rate, after about the turn of the new year I believe, 2000, yes, Y2K, Sam became part of our group. Not quiet sure when she joined us, but it was near that time. So yeah, that made 7 of us.

Anyway, these people became a total support system for me. My old roomate Bea used to call them my "imaginary" friends, which annoyed me actually because during that time in my life, I spent much more time talking with then than I did real people. We knew all about each others days, we comforted each other when bad things happened. We listened to each other gripe, gave advice on important life issues. During that time also, Chris and LisaMarie became very close. They were both seniors in high school at the time, and, having a total crush, Chris got himself a scholarship to American University in Washington, D.C. where Lisa was heading to school. They met the summer before that, decided to become a couple officially after they met (cause in their words "it'd be dumb to date someone you'd never met"). Anyway, they've been a couple ever since and recently got engaged. I think they both graduated college, he got a job somewhere, and she's in Law School right now. I think they are getting married next summer.

Oh, another fun thing we used to do was write stories about our MB friends. Some of them were quiet humorous. I even wrote a couple. I also became the "god" of the message board, officially. Someone asked how I was doing one day, and I said, "I'm god...i'm just doing...nothing." From that time one, I was the Official MB Deity (it was even in my signature). Anyhow, these relationships have continued for over 5 years now. We go through phases where we'll talk a lot, and then sometimes none at all. We also have habits. I always talk to Chris and Lisa during the NCAA tourney. Never fails, once the brackets are announced, I see Chris online and BAM! I have a message popping up on my screen. Now Josh, I talk to him the most, nearly every day or two. Elise, we go in spurts. We're not in a spurt right now, but maybe we will be soon. She goes to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She also makes these awesome purses out of Duc Tape. For real. I ordered one for my friend for Christmas in 2003 cause she loves weird purses. Got a nice little hand written note with it. To which I showed to Bea and said "see, they are real!" Went through the same spurts with Sam. I talked to her quiet a bit after I moved out to California. She was in her freshman year of college at that time. When we talked, we talked a lot.

Anyway, all that said, these people are definately "real" people to me. Not only that, they are friends. We take interest in each others lives. Yeah, it's hard to keep in touch all the time, especially when you've never met (Chris and Lisa obviously have met, and Lisa met Lisey as well), but hey, its hard for anyone to keep in touch all the time with all everyone has goign on these days. But we're still there to support each other. For a while, when something bad went on in our lives, we were there for each other. In fact, the one thing I remember most about 9/11 is that I was on the MB that day. And it was just amazing the amount of love and compassion that was there, especially from people from other countries. And it was like I was talking to them because I had to. I was talking to them because it seemed natural. They were people I felt comfortable enough with to talk about my feelings then, and even still now. I love getting random IMs from old MB people, even the ones not in our little group. And I love it when they remember little details about my life that I don't expect them to remember.

So yeah, call me weird, but I guess I don't think friendship is necessarily about how much time you spend with someone hanging out. I've had plenty of friends that I spent tons of time with, and I've had other friends that I rarely see, but when we do talk, even if on the phone, or email, it's pretty special to me. It takes that whole "out of sight, out of mind" saying and throws it right out the window. Sure, it would be easy to forget the people you don't see, but when you make a conscious effort to NOT let them get out of your mind, and lose contact with them, then that tells you that there is something about that relationship and that person that is special enough, and makes it worth it to hang on to those "spurts".

So now, when I talk about my "online" friends, I rarely throw in the "online" part, unless someone asks how I know them. I usually just say "my friend..." because thats what these people are. Call me silly, I don't care. But these people played one of the most important roles in my life at one point, and for that reason, they will always be my friends.

As for Sam, it was such a tragic ending for such a sweet, fun-loving, caring, beautiful girl. However, it is encouraging to see a couple of things. 1. Just how if effected so many people, especially online people. She had a lot of online friends she was close to, so reading blogs, and message boards about it is just amazing. The second thing is that her parents started a foundation, the Sam Spady Foundation to educate people on binge drinking and how to look for the signs of alcohol poisoning. Got a lot of national attention. They were on Dr. Phil and there is an article in the May issue of Seventeen Magazine about Sam. At least now, Sam's life (and death) and have an impact on even more people.

4.14.2005

Kicked out of a bar (almost)...

So I was hoping to get kicked out of The Britania Arms tonight...would have been my first time. See, we got there at 9:30 and I had left my wallet at work, so I didn't have an ID. So they told me I could stay until the kitched closed at 11pm. I kept waiting and watching for the security people to come kick me out tonight...one of them looked at my funny a couple times, like maybe trying to figure out if I was the IDless person, but they were so busy, I don't think they knew for sure, or probably even cared. Would have made a funny story though if they had made me leave at 11pm. Oh and my buddy Scott got called a pimp while singing "love shack" with 3 girs, and my friend Sara B. threatened to punch a guy in the face....oh what a night.

Did I mention we (they) forgot to pay for their drinks too? Now that could be reason to get kicked out..haha!

4.12.2005

I don't know what to say

I was cleaning up my Yahoo home page tonight, going through old bookmarks on there, etc... and found a message board I used to hang out at. I went there to see if it was even still up. To my surprise I saw that there were people still posting that I used to know (it was a private message board created just for us, after we got tired of the WB Friends message board site). Anyway, more about that in a few minutes. I went to a thread and clicked on an unavailable link. I kept reading the replies cause I saw that people were shocked at whatever it was about. Finally after looking at the title of the link, and a comment someone made, I slowly, unbelievingly put it together, as much as I didn't want to. All it took was one name. Here is the article. Read it.

I'll try to put it all together for you here. Many years ago, 1999 or so I met this girl named Sam Spady online through a "Friends" (tv show) message board. I met lots of other people. In fact, most everyone on the board spent a lot of time there and we all became pretty close. However, there was a smaller group of us: Chris, Lisa Marie, Elise, Lisa (in London), Josh, Sam, and myself. We spent many many hours on aim with each other and in chat rooms, playing silly game. This continued for years. In fact, I my friends, Chris and Lisa Marie recently got engaged. They met online. Ended up going to the same university, etc... I still talk to Josh on an almost daily basis. Occassionally I talk to Elise and rarely the other Lisa.

Sam Spady was a cool girl. I spent time getting to know her after the rest of us kind of faded out. Oddly enough, I thought about her a few weeks or so ago. We think we had a mutual friend from Colorado State (where she went to school). He was a Vista in San Jose. I remember talking to her after I moved out here and there was even talk of a visit to Monterey with her friend that knew my Vista friend (also a Sam, in the male form). They didn't know each other really. Just through a friend. But still makes for a small world. I know I talked to her over the summer and perhaps after she was back at school. She was from Nebraska and like living in Colorado so much better. I think the last time I talked to her she had recently wrecked her SUV pretty bad (not her fault I dont' think).

Anyway, I'm going on and on. Maybe I'll talk more about the message board stuff another time. She the 2nd member of our gang to pass away (that we know of). It's just weird to think of someone you don't know, as in never met, having such an impact on your life. Like, when I read this, I was like everyone else who replied and said they didn't want to finish reading it, in hopes it wouldn't be true. I've never really had a "friend" die, or a good friend at least. People I know my age have died, but no one I really had a relationship with, or spent time talking to, getting to know, etc...And oddly enough, this feels worse than that. This feels like an actual friend just died. It feels that way because she was an actual friend. Sure, I never met her, and didn't keep in regular contact with, but I have lots of friends I don't keep in regular contact with, or have even seen for a while for that matter. I mean, my friend Josh from Conn., if something happend to him (as much as he annoys me sometimes) I would be seriously distraught. And the same with any of the rest of the group, especially the smaller group that Sam and I were a part of.

obit.

Webby Awards

Check out the best websites of 2004 at the Webby Awards site. One of the sites I frequent was a finalist in one of the categories.

4.10.2005

RabbitNews.com - This News'll Make Ya JUMP!

I came across this pretty funny satrical site the other night. It's called RabbitNews. Check it out. There are some pretty funny news stories on there.

4.06.2005

Get Fire Fox Already!




Seriously, just try it.

Yes, I don't have anything else to post today, but if you're still using IE, you don't deserve to get a new post anyway!

4.03.2005

Thought for the day...

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

— Brennan Manning

Fits well with my Sunday School lesson this morning, although I forgot to include it in my lesson. I'm so bad about this myself, so hopefully if I post it, I'll see it everytime I look at my blog for the next few days or weeks and remember it.

4.02.2005

Championship game

Illinois will be playing in the championship game for the first time in school history...and 100 years of basketball for them.

Orange and Blue OR Red and Black....you decide.

So, I walked like 3.5 miles today. I started at Lover's Point and walked to the wharf and back. If you're not from around here, it's a beautiful walk. Lover's Point is my favorite place on the Peninsula. Actually, the little grassy knoll is my favorite spot, but its at Lover's Point. And truely, it's not a "knoll", it's just grass, but I've always wanted to use the phrase "grassy knoll," so get over it.

Anyway, today is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've really ever walked on our beautiful Rec Trail. Quiet sad when you think about it. I think I'll start walking more down there (and in general). Not sure what inspired me today. I just woke up in the mood to enjoy the beautiful weather. I did had some other motivators for going for a walk, one of which being my awesome friend Jessica who has been running everyday. I'm super impressed with her. She really sticks to things she decides to do, unlike myself. There were other motivators, but they're just boring.

Anyway, enough about that. It's back to basketball time. Louisville and Illinois is turning out to be a great/close game (which I figured). I officially decided to cheer for Illinios today. I went back and forth all week, after realizing last weekend that my hate for Louisville doesn't really exist anymore. Yeah, I'm jealous they're in the Final Four and Kentucky isn't, but I can deal with that. Now, I'd never ever be happy about Louisville beating UK in a game...we're a far cry from that. However, Illinois has had an amazing season...kinda team you want to hate, but just can't (unlike some other teams like Duke, UNC, Cincy, Arizona, fill in the blank here, etc...). They haven't seemed to let all the talk about them this year go to their head. I think that is due to their coach, Bruce Weber. He seems like a very likable guy. I don't know much about him, except this is his 2nd year at Illini and that he came from Southern Illiniois University. In two years, he's put together an amazing team, winning two straight conference championships in one of the better conferences (along with ACC, SEC, Big East, Big 12). Anyway, as I said, I decided to cheer for the Fighting Illini after subconciously dressing in orange and navy blue this morning. However, that said, U of L is a tough team and deserves to be here. I picked them for the Final Four in all of my brackets. So what I'm saying is that, I want Illinios to win, but if Louisville wins, I'll be happy enough...AND I will cheer for Louisville in the final game against either UNC or Mich St. (same goes for Illinois as well).


FYI, Louisville just took the lead of the game for the first time today. Oh, nevermind, Illini took it back.

Should be fun, with all the orange and blue and black and red running around today. Kind of depressing to know that it will all be over very soon. I guess that is what baseball season is for though!

EDIT: I just found out that Bruce Weber coached as an assistant coach for one season at my Alma Mater, Western Kentucky University under Gene Keady, who he followed when Keady went to Purdue. That was in 1980. It was his first college coaching job according to what I'm reading. Read more about Bruce Weber here. Now I definately like Bruce Weber.