Andrew Nieman's Journal

An Update...
Since I helped someone join at work today, I thought I'd write in the journal so she'd have someone show up on her friends list. Now she can have friends...

Been working all summer as always, nothing too tough. Doing some database work and general programming solving problems they've just been living with for years.

So anyway, Jen, here's your update so you have a friend's entry on your list...

Bigger is Better...
Basically making a xerox copy of the school week from last week...had a project for the Computer Graphics class I'm taking. Then some other stuff...we got a new TV yesterday...It's a 61" and pretty much makes the living room like our own personal movie theater. Combined with the stereo hookup it sounds about like a regular theater. Watched American Pie 2 last night...
Also bowled in the Armco Tournament at Sports Bowl yesterday. I had a 155, 224, 205...not bad for only bowling at Sports Bowl three times.
Had to help rearrange the living room today...and I'm going to do some work for our friend who bought Trenton Florist tomorrow.
Might get that homework for Tuesday and Wednesday done tonight...

Long Time, No See...
Well, it's been quite a while since I wrote anything, so I'll recap briefly.

-Finished semester at Miami University...I'm now a senior with the parking pass to prove it. :-)
-Family was in from Texas for Christmas. Good time to have them here, but it makes the house feel cramped when they're in.
-Hung out with the "group" of commuter students a couple times over the break and, as always, I have the interesting stories to prove it.
-The big thing is the DJ software I've been writing. It's going to be one nifty suite of packages when I get it all done. Lighting, Cueing & Music. I'm going to get away from the Win Amp DJing since it doesn't look nice compared to what I've written over the past few weeks. Just finished the cueing software this weekend and I'm still working out minor details of stuff I want it to do, but it works better than I could have ever imagined.
-Didn't get any of the work done on the panel truck due to the family being in and being busy with everything else that I've been working on.

Hopefully I can get all of this stuff taken care of and keep the school work up, but it's hard to do school work when you're working on something that's so fun, applicable to my life and innovative...

Couldn't sleep last night...went to bed around 11:15...fell asleep around midnight and then woke up at 2:30. Haven't been back to sleep yet...I just buried Skippy in the backyard...have to put some markers out there when I get home later today, but I didn't want to have to do everything this afternoon...plus I feel a little better getting it done...

It's so hard to convince yourself that you did the right thing even if you know that you did...

Going to go shower and then go to school...I still have a headache...

Current Music: Old Dogs, Children, Watermelon Wine

I Want To Thank You...
Today has been one of the worst of my life...after fifteen years, we had to have our dog, Skippy, put to sleep tonight...He wasn't able to walk and he hadn't eaten anything for two or three days.
It's hard to say goodbye to a pet who has always been a part of your life. I got Skippy when I was in the first grade and he almost made it through my entire educational career...he was always in good spirits for the most part. Except for his bad hips and some of the times when he would bite at people for invading his space...
It's just weird to know that you need to do something...but feeling that what you're doing is cruel in some way...
The place we took him to tonight was nice...and a girl I went to high school with ended up being the person who took care of him...so that was good. I heard a couple of songs on the radio while we were there...the first one that was ironic was You've Got A Friend from James Taylor and the song that was playing while they were giving him the shot was Thank You from Dido. Both of which fit nicely...
I've been upset for the past few hours and I've had the feeling of needing to be sick and I also have a headache...
I'm going to bed now and hopefully things will be calmed down by the morning...

"I want to thank you for giving me the best days of my life..."

Current Music: Thank You

"I just want to be bigger...that's all"
Been having a pretty decent time...Finished the COBOL program for today last night and I've been helping some other people get theirs done. Been getting yelled at in Economics for Christina and I talking during the lecture...which is amusing...

I'm currently talking to Jessica about breast implants...never thought I would be having a conversation like this, but it's interesting...

The commuter group I've been with all year, including Jessica, is going bowling at Fairfield Saturday night for the Thunder Alley...should be a great time since we always have so much fun with each other...

Need to work on the 274 program and get some more work done so I'm somewhat free this weekend...

Been going to school and doing some DJing and that's about it...

I have a few special projects in the works...some of them are completely insane and complex and some others are fun and simple...

Doing some research on what I want and don't want in this one project I have in mind. The more I think the more complex it gets...hehehe...but if I were to actually finish it and get it done...it would kick some serious ass...

Having an issue with Forest Hills about their Halloween party...I left a message for Friday, October 26, 2001 and went on with life...found out from a friend of dad's I saw at the credit union it's scheduled for Saturday, October 27, 2001...normally that's not a problem, but I'm doing a wedding and I already told the lady from Forest Hills about that. Not sure what to do...hopefully they got someone else, otherwise I either need a DJ for Saturday or they go without us... :-)

This DJ program demo I downloaded FINALLY got through going through the drives searching for mp3s...it's a shame I haven't even used the program, but it's been running for 25 minutes...hehehe

Getting ready for bed so I can be refreshed for the Movie Day tomorrow in the commuter center where I'm showing Meet The Parents on the laptop...hehe

Been going to school...and car shows. That's about it. Bidding on a couple things in eBay I found that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. A 1957 Chevy Panel Truck that is for the U.S. Mail. I found it somewhere else, but it was cheaper on eBay. The current thing I'm checking out is a 1955 Chevrolet Panel Truck that someone is trying to outbid me on. They're not going to win because I have one of those in real life and I've never seen one in a model. All I have to do is get to the reserve...hehe. Other than that I think I have two programs to due for Monday & Wednesday next week and I need to put a water pump on the '57 today for Sunday...

Current Music: Dude Looks Like A Lady

James Dean Country: Where cool was born...
Had a test in Economics & my Modeling class on Wednesday. Got the Modeling test back...45/50. Got a 29.1/30 on my COBOL test from a few weeks ago. Turned in the Big Numbers program for my C++ course. Have a test there this Friday and hopefully get the Economics test back Monday...

Last night I went to Oxford. Stopped by Amanda's first and tried to figure out why two cable splitters were giving different results on her Road Runner working while she got ready. Then we went to Ryan's and picked him and his room mates up to go to the Miami After Dark deal. Had a good time there, but decided around 11:45 to Cruise down to Millville...Just his room mates and I while Amanda and some other people stayed at Shriver. After a failed result of the cruise, we came back and then dropped everyone off at their homes and came home.

Got up at 8:00 today and went to Indiana for the James Dean Car show and the Ducktail Run. Two shows with over 2,000 cars a piece about 10 miles apart. A car lovers paradise. Saw my future '55 Chevy (A 7 second quarter mile street legal [the guy drove it up from Muncie] 1955 Chevy Sedan) that is just too bad for words...

Have to do a COBOL program for Monday and get some Economics stuff done then I'll hopefully be about set for the week...

I think it might be bed time...

Another week bites the dust...
Had a pretty laid back week at school. Have a program due Wednesday & one the following Monday. Also have two exams on Wednesday and one the following Friday. Took a test for COBOL on Monday.

Bought a new desk chair since my other one broke a month or so ago and mom kept complaining about me stealing her chair. Also bought a cable to fix Lissa's problems on her computer. Fixed cabinets in the kitchen that were over their Gross Product Weight Limit... ;-) Renewed soundsquad.com for two more years, bought a mini-keyboard for Percy.

Went to Aunt Cindy & Rick's new house tonight and helped paint. I painted the basement stairwell since no one else is tall enough to paint it. Only needed a 2x4 temporary scaffold deal for a little bit of the corner. I was about a foot or so short of getting to the top.

I'm going to try to get most of my work done this weekend so I can feel somewhat caught up before the hellish week of tests and programs comes upon me. Also have a Cruise-In tomorrow night and Monday night.

I think it's time to retire for the evening...

Current Music: For Your Love (ET)

Heart Operation & Getting Blown...
Went to the Germantown Cruise-In last night...pretty good show for the small size of the town. Today I got up and started working on Percy's heart (engine for those who aren't in to personification)...Dad just ran up to Farm & Fleet to get some gas line and bolts so we can tighten the carburetor down and get everything run...hopefully today will be the day he gets to come to life momentarily...

The more I think about it...the more I want to pay the extra $2,500 and get Percy blown...In this case getting blown means fast...

PS: Reminder, Percy is the name of my 1955 Chevrolet Panel Truck...don't worry, car people tend to name their vehicles...

There's really not much more to be said...
I was going to write about the weekend DJing in Detroit...or the Drag Races on Sunday...or the Cruise-In on Monday...but I'm just going to do this...

Went to bed at 12:30 after getting everything ready for today. Have my bag packed, the Explorer loaded...getting ready to shut down the computers and pack them up. I'm taking major arsenal just in case, since Detroit isn't exactly a hop and a skip away...

Bought Tawna's gift from the MU Bookstore yesterday, I hope I bought something she'll like...

Just realized why this client won't recognize my song Winamp is playing...it can't find Winamp...hehe. Oh well...

Guess it's time to get ready to leave so we can get to Detroit and sit without a hotel room until noon or one. Then I get to DJ and come home at 1:00 a.m. this morning.

Listening to Street Corner Symphony, a Doo Wop group from Cincinnati. It's the Doo Wop Acapella CD I won off of Cool Bobby B's Radio show Saturday night. It's pretty nifty and I like some of their versions of popular songs...Pretty good deal.

Getting ready to go to the Car Club meeting...oh, joy.

Have to come home tomorrow and do some work on the truss and then get everything packed for the trip to Detroit Saturday morning. Coming home Sunday morning in time to make it to the drags...

I want out...

COBOL & PERL & C++...
Been doing a lot of programming today. Worked on my COBOL program for 275 this evening and then found out the way I was typing it screws up when I actually transfer it to the VAX, although I don't care for typing everything in on the VAX. Figure out how to get that all cleaned up tomorrow...

Finished Phase 1 of the project this evening also by finally getting the Perl SendMessage utility to work. Now I can send my messages to WinAmp and I converted some of the C++ stuff over to Perl since it was faster. There are only a few minor things to work on and then that will be complete. Then it's time for phase 2...which is a bit more complex, although it should be easier to implement.

Cut the grass earlier and got stuff cleaned up for the car club's arrival tomorrow. Not sure how many cars we're going to have, but the yard and my room are clean. Going to clean the garage tomorrow morning when dad wakes me up...which will probably be around 9:00 a.m.

I think it's time to retire...

Current Music: For Your Precious Love (JB)

Haha...listening to the Doo Wop Shop on WGRR...called in and answered their trivia question...get some Doo Wop CD...get sent out this Tuesday.

Original song Why Do You Have to Go was by the Dells...

Finished the B-Version of my 274 project last night...have to convert it from reading user input to reading from a file. Then I'll have the A-Version done. Also need to add comments/documentation.

Working on the COBOL program tonight...hopefully I'll get it done and then I'll be pretty much finished with the work for the weekend.

Almost have my DJ stuff that I'm working on in "Phase 1" completed. Just have to get some little things done on the programming and I'll be ready for the next phase.

Going to go put some Turbo Blue (Racing Gas - 110 octane) in the '55 now. Then I'm not sure what's going on...

Fuel Pump Excitement...
Never had such a problem putting the old fuel pump on as what I did today. The damn input/output ports on the pump were different than the old pump. And they had adapters in kit to change them, but the line running from the pump to the carburetor wasn't one that would take an adapter...so I put two together...and then I had a clearance problem. So after I threw the new pump on the ground and got pissed...I went back again and got the damn pump rod that's in the engine (Stupid ass Chevy designers who came up with that damn rod idea need to be shot. Put a loose rod in an engine that's coated with oil and has to be lifted up with an inch gap to get to it...brilliant...let's notch it the next time so there's a place to hold it and move it up)...

Got that taken care of and the car is running...but it's not running better...in fact it's worse and it died on me a couple times. But I'm going to buy a new line and make a new pump to carb. line and see if that doesn't help it.

Stopped by Leap Realtors and talked to Tawna for a bit. Loaned/Gave her my Accounting books so she can get some learnin' on that topic. Found out that I can actually contact her on her Nextel without being on her fleet...and without paying more. Which is nifty because I haven't had anyone worthwhile to talk to since I got the phone...

Had dinner with mom and then came home to work on some stuff...

Mr. Mechanic...
Been a relatively busy week, but not too bad. Went to Taylor's Performance last night and got a fuel pump. Also got prices for a two things and already spent over $3,000...hehe. Going to go put that fuel pump on the '55 now and hopefully that will get it one step closer to being ready for the drags...if I make it. Also have to meet mom at the credit union at 4:00...and take Tawna some accounting books...

I like this song...whatever happened to the Kentucky Headhunters...they still making music? This is the last album I recall hearing from them...

Current Music: Kentucky Wildcat

Didn't accomplish too much today. Took care of all the stuff that I think I had to get done for class tomorrow. Sat around and worked on a couple projects...have a party this weekend for a cousin...Aunt Cindy & Sara were here tonight...that was nice since I haven't seen Sara since November?!? Can't remember...

Can't wait to get tomorrow over with so I can try to take care of some other stuff that's on my mind...

Current Music: If You're Gone

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