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Bad news about the couch: It doesn't fit.
Like, not even through the front door.
Oh, sure, you can get it halfway through. But then you're stuck, with no way to turn it or get it inside. Much less all the way in to the back room.
So, back on the truck, and we'll have to get our money back.
Damn. DAMN. We really liked that couch.
And nothing couch-sized will fit, so we have to figure out if we want a loveseat (which is a rip-off, being on average only $20 cheaper than a couch), or if we want to stick with chairs, or what.
A huge bummer after all the time and energy invested in picking out a couch we really liked.
I'm, um.... not very good at Strato.
Deal done!! Strike averted!! Huzzah!!
Great news for Angels fans, to be sure.
Less than two hours till the first game of the day... and STILL no deal.
Not good.
Baseball still doesn't have a labor deal.
Um... player... owners... NOW would be a good time, guys.
The countdown to the baseball strike date is winding down.
Personally, I think a deal will be done.
How 'bout you?
Emily and I just purchased a new sofa!! (Yes, we both purchased it, as I'm giving her a check for part of it.)
It's red, comfy, and even transforms into a queen sized bed. It'll be delivered tomorrow.
This also means that any of the OC Krew interested in a trip to our state's capitol or points north is more than welcome to enjoy our hospitality.
My friend Eric has written an amusing review of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
It has some inside BASL references, but should still amuse LOTR fans.
OUCH!!!
Pardon me, I just got back from the Sac State Bookstore and Bankruptcy Center.
I took a trip to campus today to pick up my textbooks for this semester. I'm taking a normal full-time course-load, four classes. Guess how much I spent today?
$460.
Yes. Four. Hundred. Sixty. Dollars. Not Yen. Not Pesos. Dollars.
Get this - that's not all of it!! I already spent $50 getting some of my books off Amazon!! Plus, there were $75 dollars worth of books they were out of and I'll have to go back for. That brings the semester book total to...
$585.
My registration fees were only $980 this semester.
It's a damn good thing that I saw a sign for open interviews tomorrow for part-time on-campus jobs. I'll be going back to campus tomorrow, I can tell you that!!
I'd forgotten just how terribly painful buying school books was. The worst were two of my classes are core classes and each have about a half dozen books. My elective classes only had three books each.
Most expensive single book? $108 for a 580 page hardcover. Other top offender, though? $65 for a 144 page hardcover. I'd say more about that particular book, but it's written by the chair of my department... and he's teaching the class I bought it for. Make of that what you will.
After that, there was one $40 book and the rest were $30 or under, which isn't too bad.
For contrast, Emily and I are going to buy a sleeper couch this week, and that'll run us probably between $600 and $800 dollars. And the couch will be a lot more comfy than my books.
I'm currently watching the History Channel's Modern Marvels show. Today's focus is buses. The lead story? John Madden's custom coach. Funny.
Those who know me know I'm a geek. Once facet of that geekdom is that I enjoy Dungeons and Dragons. Well, I'm excited, as I've found a group to play with up here. It's kinda funny how I found them, too.
A week or two after I moved up here, I went to a local gaming store and asked the girl behind the counter, "Say, do you have a Want Ad board here?" with the intent of putting up my contact info.
As it turns out, she and her boyfriend were also new to the area and looking to get a gaming group going. So, now that they've settled in, we'll be meeting tonight for a character creation session. Her boyfriend (Matt) will run the game, Emily and I will play, as will the gamestore girl (Bo) and a friend of thiers (Ian, I believe is his name). We may have one or two more people in the group through other store contacts.
If you're curious (and I know you're not), I'm planning on playing a human psychic warrior (a combat oriented character who uses his psionic mental capabilities to enhance his combat abilities).
Chris Clark survived "The Portland Experience."
After some trouble with their car, Chris and Vanessa should be on their way now. They got their car towed over to Pep Boys this morning, and by this point, their car should be fixed. Hopefully, they'll reach Portland without further incident.
Chris Clark and his girlfriend have arrived in Sacramento and are now napping in our spare room. Seeing as how they woke up at 3 AM, I don't blame them.
I just got a pop up ad for a product to... do away with pop up ads.
Um, yeah.
Tomorrow, Chris Clark and his girlfriend will be spending the evening with us on their way up to deposit her at the University of Portland. It'll be nice to see a SoCal buddy for the first time in a month.
ESPN.com's ever-insightful Rob Neyer comments on the AL West race.
Go Angels!!
Speaking of which, since the Halos and Yanks are on ESPN this morning, I'll actually get to watch an Angels game. Woo hoo!!
Today is the one month anniversary of my move to Sacramento.
Time flies, eh?
With the conclusion of last nights action, the Angels, Mariners, and A's are in a three-way tie for first in the AL West and/or the Wild Card.
In some ways, excitin'... in others, unsettling.
And, all three have better records than the AL Central leading Twins. If only the top four teams, regardless of division, went to the playoffs. It'd be the Yankees and the Western Three.
What a difference 7 years makes. I was browsing Blizzard's website, and came across a screenshot gallery of their breakthrough game WarCraft, released in 1995.
With the recent release of the outstanding WarCraft III, click the below links for evidence that one day holodecks will exist. Also included below is a shot from WarCraft II, to further illustrate the evolution.
My thought is, at this pace, having indistinguishable-from-reality immersive environments by the 24th century will be no problem.
I've got brownies in the oven right now, and - as I've said before - I make a hell of a brownie. A hell of a brownie.
I just finished watching an episode of "Modern Marvels" on the History Channel. The topic was the Brooklyn Bridge. While interesting in and of itself, the reason I'm posting about is the backdrop for all the modern pictures of the bridge: the World Trade Center.
It's been almost a year since the events of 9/11, and it still amazes me how seeing pictures of a landmark I wasn't even particularly aware of a year ago - having never actually travelled farther east than Dallas - can be so powerful.
September 2nd, the History Channel also happens to be beginning a mini-series on 9/11 and the year since, and this 9/11, my new school Sac State will be holding a community memorial.
Do you have any plans to mark the day?
Frequent visitors to my site will notice that I've re-worked the links menu. Essentially, I put a bunch of my bookmarks on it to make things easier for myself, since www.garyh.net is my home page in Internet Explorer.
Feel free to explore the various facets of my geekdom, however.
Here's one of my pet peeves: Job applications that ask for all the information on your resume, but state "No resumes - must fill out form."
Man, that's a pain in the ass. And I'm sure the person actually reading the application would rather see the printer version than my writing. Plus, my "application writing" takes forever, as my normal writing is virtually illegible to all but myself and I have to take a lot of time to carefully write everything.
Don't ask me, ask Mike.
Oh, and Mike, feel free to burgle me in return.
Sorry for not updating much. Not much going on. At least for me. Emily just took her genetics board examination yesterday, so no more studying every night for her, we can actually spend more time together. This is all relative, of course, since compared to our FTF days, just having breakfast and dinner together is a lot more time than we used to have together. No plans for us this weekend, though, as she's flying down to Glendale this weekend to visit her folks and an old friend who's in town seeing her family from back east.
Recent interesting events with me include resolving (hopefully) a dispute with my former cable and internet provider, playing a lot of Neverwinter Nights (A LOT), and watching much Lord of the Rings.
Recent uninteresting events with me getting some of my school books, and performing various chores around the house.
I'll try to remember to update the site more regularly, even if I'm not doing anything exciting.
Oh, and propz to the Angels for still being in the Wild Card lead (and being just 1 game out in the AL West behind Seattle).
I just read an article in the Sacramento Bee about Jon Miller, ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball announcer. I had no idea, but he's also the everyday radio voice for the Giants.
In any case, the really cool part is that the article mentions several times how he first got started calling games by calling his own Strat-O-Matic Baseball games as a child.
Media propz for Strato!! Woo hoo!!
I picked up Neverwinter Nights on sale today at Fry's, and it's already passed the "good game" test.
I installed it and began playing it at 12:30 PM, thinking "I'll play for an hour, then have lunch and watch Lord of the Rings (also picked up at Fry's today)."
Well, I looked up at the clock at 5:30 PM and I hadn't had lunch, or watched LOTR.
Now THAT'S a good game.
Here's an interesting Rob Neyer article, criticizing the Angels' contract extension of Darin Erstad.
In sad news for sports fans everywhre, long-time Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn passed away yesterday.
Whether you liked basketball or not, whether you liked the Lakers or not, Chick was gauranteed to pull you into the game with his colorful calls and ol'-fashioned expressions. He takes a little bit of the sports world with him in his passing.
On a related note, for those of you still in the So Cal media area: Appreciate Vin Scully for as long as you can. I've already started missing him up here in Sac.