Kill Assassin Maximum

I saved a ton of money by switching to blogger for my car insurance blogging. I haven't played with my blog since July, so yeah... dropping gamgames.com and saving $80 a year was a good idea.

What to say... what to say...

Jenny won tickets to see "Zombieland" and I won tickets to see "9." Is that right? "9." I really want to write "9". It just looks cleaner. You know what, I'm writing "9". I'm not gonna conform to your standards. If Cormac McCarthy can take a big stinky poop on convention by leaving out all quotation marks but still win a Pulitzer Prize, then I can put my goddamn punctuations after the quotation mark. /tanget So yeah, Jenny and I are raking in the free movie outings.

The optometrist I saw in Terre Haute about my glass-chipped eye said the blood would be gone in 2 or 3 days, and to see a doctor if it looks worse. Actually, he said "See a doctor if it doesn't get better or doesn't stay the same", and I wonder why he didn't just say "See a doctor if it gets worse." I keep making truth tables in my head, but it gets confusing.

My eye didn't get better and it looked worse, so yesterday I saw an ophthalmologist at Huntsville Hospital. I told the nurse about the Terre Haute doctor's diagnosis, and she said "Oh no, these things take 2 or 3 weeks to heal." Then I saw the doctor, and she said "What? Oh, no. These things take 2 to 3, sometimes 4 weeks to heal." Terre Haute, minus one point.

I'm going to Rose's career fair next week. I'll be there Tuesday evening through Friday morning. I'll probably go to Sonkas for dinner every night.

Cameron's wedding is at the end of the month. Jenny can't make it, which means I have to find someone to bunk with. Anyone looking for a hotel roommate?

I like roasted red pepper hummus. It is good.

This is ridiculous!

What happened to the news this summer? Has it always been this terrible? I don't ever remember the headlines being so obnoxious. After the election ended I thought we'd be in store for more interesting news.

First, we have the swine flu, and everybody freaks-the-fuck out. Huntsville practically shut down for three days because four people got the swine flu. Hasn't anyone ever had taco night before? A little diarrhea probably won't kill you.

Then Michael Jackson dies. Dolphins evolve opposable thumbs and invade New Zealand but nobody notices because we've all gone ape-shit over the death of a man most of us never really respected when he was alive. Half the headlines on my CNN newsfeed were regarding Michael Jackson, most of which were frivolous. Sure, report about his career and his memorial service. Report on the twitter and facebook statuses regarding Michael Jackson? That is the precise moment when we should have realized there's nothing more to report. I hope Eric Clapton gets this much attention when he kicks the bucket.

Now we have this Gates/Crowley debacle. This is what I gathered from the very first article: Gates is a douche bag, Crowley is a douche bag. I've never seen so many headlines about a misdemeanor arrest. At the end of the article I thought "That's it?" and I moved on. America should too. The only person in this situation, President Obama included, who didn't seem to make any mistakes is the lady who placed the 911 call. Good for her, keeping an eye out on a neighbor's home. I refuse to click on any more headlines regarding this story or regarding Michael Jackson. It'd be like the time I accidentally clicked on the Avril Lavigne YouTube video and felt guilty for giving it another view.

Meanwhile, the dolphin overloads contract swine flu and New Zealand is liberated, but no one notices because the new iPhone is released.

New Blog

I'm convinced. I registered this website eight years ago to do lots of things with it, but now all those things are free services provided by other websites. So it goes, my hosting plans expires tomorrow and my domain name expires in September. RIP gamgames.com. That $80 might go toward Super Mario Bros Wii or a charcoal grill.

For continued reading, to www.georgeamills.blogspot.com.

This Blog

I need to renew my hosting plan and domain registration this month, but why pay $80/year when sites like Blogspot and Flickr will allow me the same service for free? I pay because I like owning a unique domain name and I enjoy scripting webpages, but my imminent homeownership has me thinking frugally. The $80 I'd save could buy 2-5 used videogames, 1 or 2 camping trips, 6-9 six packs of beer, Road Hazard Insurance for my new tires, a bicycle trainer, a charcoal grill, or 16 blowjobs from your mom. Is it worth it? Hmm...

Homeowners

Ta-da! Jenny and I are buying a house. We sporadically researched houses out of fanciful leisure, but the sudden knowledge of the $8,000 tax credit and our increasing disgruntlement with our apartment complex pushed us to consider homeownership more seriously.

Our first (baby) step: we contacted a realtor and happened to view the perfect home our first day out. An offer (not ours) was accepted that same day. Well, frak.

Then we got our shit together: laid out our finances, got pre-approved, yadda blah yadda. We found a second perfect house last week (one block away and a mirror image of the former perfect house). There's no room for a man-cave, but I can start homebrewing at a level beyond Mr. Beer.

Well be moving in August. Perhaps Labor Day weekend will mark a suitable time for a house-warming party (e.g. keg, pizza, some Wii, and perhaps Nazi zombies).

P.S. We watched Dod Sno last Saturday, and it's the best movie I've seen all year.

Adieu GMD

Today was the last day I had to work for Boeing GMD. I'm not going to explain what is GMD to any non-government folk. It's far too boring to talk about during work, nonetheless a Friday evening. Boeing had to make some serious staffing changes due to some serious budgets cuts, and in particular they couldn't afford to contract me anymore. Fortunately I work for Dynetics, and starting Monday I'll be working on a Lockheed Martin contract. Same pay. Shorter commute. More interesting work. I never thought getting my job cut would be so great.

The Hops Must Flow

I went to Founders Day last weekend. Did some work, did some car bombs, had some fun. No particularly outstanding stories, but a general good time had by all. I think I've grown to love car bombs. But car bombs are a sometimes food.

A car bomb at the bar: $7 - $12

A car bomb at home: Priceless... er, about $2

The Alabama senate passed the Gourment Beer Bill yesterday. Now we just need the governor's signature, which is likely since he just signed a bill raising the ABV limit on wine. I'm looking forward to a much wider beer selection at next month's Magic City Brewfest. I'm buying my tickets today, and Jenny and I are going to spend the night in Birmingham. Dark Lord Day taught me a 1 1/2 hour drive home after a beer festival is a long car ride.

I bought my tickets to the Music City Brewer's Festival. Now that is going to be one heck of a brewfest.

Jenny's aunt made us a set of glass coasters. I'm pretty sure they're in a package I just picked up from the leasing office. Now Jenny's going to make me use coasters. Nothing against coasters, but when you have a blue shell barreling down your ass the last thing on your mind is where to set down your friggin' beer. And seriously, it takes one person to knock over a glass of beer to undo the cumulative effort of using coaster for like what? The entire year?

I finished the first five Harry Potter books, part of an insignificant goal I have. That gives me two months to read The Half-Blood Prince before the movie comes out. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll make it.

How about that rain we've been having? I know, right?

DLD ‘09

I went to Dark Lord Day 2009 last weekend. Yes, it was awesome. The golden ticket process was really efficient. We arrived around noon, an hour after the doors opened, and got our beers in under two hours - contrast that with last year when we arrived two hours early and had a four hour wait.

This year's Dark Lord limit was four bottles per golden ticket, so I bought myself eight Dark Lords at $15 each, three Popskulls at $12 each, and a single Dreadnaught at a very reasonable $10 to fill up the case.

I told Jenny I'd bring her back a Three Floyds beer she likes, but the bottled beer for sale was rather limited (especially if you don't like bitter beer or barleywine), so I'll probably pick her up a Chateau Jiahu when I'm in Terre Haute for Founders Day.

I'm especially happy to still  have six 2008 Dark Lords left, on top of my eight 2009 Dark Lords. Think of it them a fine wine; I only crack one open on special occasions, and the value appreciates over time. You can find 2009 Dark Lords selling on eBay for over $40 already, and I once saw an auction for a 2006, 2007, and 2008 Dark Lord trio selling for over $300. Not that I intend to sell any of mine, but it beats the hell out of the stock market.

The best surprise of the day was finding out each golden ticket gets you four Three Floyds beers on draft, not just the one beer the website advertised.

mooninites!

He must have seen them, he was there!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/20/ufo.conference/

But we did still land on the moon, right? Jenny and I are in the middle of watching "From the Earth to the Moon" and I'd hate to think it's all a waste of time.

Three years ago his astronaut status might have made his claims more credible, but then that crazy chick had to drive from Houston to Florida in 8 hours wearing a diaper, and she ruined it for the rest of them.

Pwnd!

I found some hilarious YouTube videos featuring pwn@ge:

Word of the Day - Pwned

Jesus Pwn3d U

The Jesus video is super funny, especially after drunken Mario Kart. Jenny and I watched it four or five times in a row on Friday night.

In other news, the best beer selection we've found in Huntsville is a BP station. Someone told us he thought he saw Magic Hat #9, which Jenny really likes, at the BP in Five Points. "BP? The gas station?" we asked. "Yep" he replied. We detoured through Five Points on our way back from a movie last Friday just to check it out, and it is flabbergasting. It's like walking through the wardrobe to enter Narnia, except you walk into a rattly little gas station to find a refined package store. I had Sierra Nevada Stout and Dry Hopped Saint Rogue Red this weekend.

R.I.P. Rose Laptop

Well, that's it. My RHIT laptop is kaput. Last December I spent $40 on memory and a new wireless card for a computer not worth $20, and now it's a paper weight. With all those stickers, I might be able to pass it off as modern art, slap on a $1200 price tag, and sell it through an art gallery; but that's unlikely.

I had troubles with the display, the same troubles that routinely popped up in college, but without IAIT I endeavored to fix it myself. Hoping it was a cabling problem (because I'm not paying $300 for a 6-year-old laptop's display) I dissembled the laptop just to inspect. As careful and meticulous as I thought I was, I turned the problem from discoloration to a perpetually blank screen, and soon came the sharks.

Now, my Rose laptop has an appointment with the boiler house. See you at Homecoming.

I’ve Got a Golden Ticket

I never thought my life could be
Anything but catastrophe
But suddenly I begin to see
A bit of good luck for me

'Cause I've got a golden ticket [to Dark Lord Day 2009]
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye

I never had a chance to shine
Never a happy song to sing
But suddenly half the world is mine
What an amazing thing

'Cause I've got a golden ticket [to Dark Lord Day 2009]

...

P.S. Happy St. Patty's Day.

Pi Day ‘09

Happy Pi Day 2009! Now with Congress approval. I always felt a little dirty celebrating a holiday not endorsed by the federal government.

Let's check my To Do list, shall we?

☑ Set this post to publish at 1:59AM (Get it? 3/14 1:59)
☑ Wish Albert Einstein a happy birthday
☑ Run 3.14 miles
☑ Eat pie
☑ Eat pizza pie
☑ Drink The Physics (the most mathematical beer I possess)
☐ Draw a perfect circle
☑ Make Apple Pie Shots
☑ Watch Donald in Mathemagic Land

I'd watch π if it weren't so boring (once was enough), so I'm substituting "Donald in Mathemagic Land" in its place - though I don't recall that cartoon discussing Pi... whatever.

It's funny, I've been eagerly awaiting Pi Day for months, but don't seem to care at all about St. Patty's Day. Then again, I drink beer every weekend; but pie, pie is a rare occasion.

DST Sucks

Switching back to standard time sucks. All it does is eat an hour of my weekend. Why can't it take place at 4PM on Monday? Oh look, it's 3:59. Almost time to go home. Now it's 4:00. Wait. BAM! Five O'clock, time to go home. Catch ya later, suckas.

Five Inconsequential Things

These are five inconsequential things I haven't had time to do. Here they are, in no particular order, with no particular importance, for no particular reason:

• Write my "25 Things" on Facebook


• Play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess


• Listen to The Invisible City with Brad Posey


• Read the Harry Potter series


• Beat Okami

DLD’09 is GO!

Just yesterday, Three Floyds posted an official announcement of Dark Lord Day 2009. I've been anticipantly checking the website every day since New Year, and getting worried because I've read a lot of rumors about the event being canceled due to financial or logistical reasons, the event date being changed to a weekday, and whathaveyou. But now it's offical, and IT'S ON! WOOH!

Dark Lord won't be sold on the first-come first-serve basis this year. Instead you have to buy "Golden Tickets" first-come first-serve (I've got a golden ticket /
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye) online starting St. Patty's Day if you want to be guaranteed a sale; and I'm certainly not risking a trip to Munster, Indiana just to end up empty handed. What's most exciting? Three Floyds and Dogfish Head (two of my five favorite breweries) are jointly brewing a beer called Popskull which will be on sale at Dark Lord Day. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Oh my! It's going to be so much fun!

RHIT Info Session ‘09

Dynetics is sending me to conduct an info session at Rose-Hulman next Wednesday, followed by interviews on Thursday. The HR recruiter who would normally lead this task has an eight-month-pregnant wife, thus I'll be flying solo on this one. I have a feeling it's going to be frakking cold up there.

Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day everybody. Let's celebrate by getting drunk then shouting at our shadows.

ZOMG ZOMBIES!

I got this sweet text from Rodzik:

"Omg someone hacked a street construction sign to say caution zombies ahead. Rofl"

Then I googled "zombie construction sign" to find this. Lollerskates.





In other news, Dead Rising comes out on the Wii this month. Awesome.

4! Years Old

I did it. Today I'm for 4! years old. My next goal is make it to my 5! birthday, a much more difficult endeavor.

Engineering Schools Are All The Same

Jenny and I had dinner and drinks with some Missouri-Rolla grads yesterday, and in conversation they brought up RPS - or Rolla Princess Syndrome. I mentioned that at Rose we called it RGS - or Rose Goddess Syndrome. We all found the similarity to be pretty funny.