Spoon

So like Anthrocon and stuff :D

Will be leaving tomorrow (Thursday) at 1pm. Have a fur from the area who needed a lift so I'll be bringing him. (Which will be nice, won't be alone on the voyage.. like 5.5 hours >_>)

We pick up Izzy at the Pittsburgh airport at 7pm then its fun fun fun! Leaving early Monday morning.

So, its official. I've graduated.

Bachelors of Science in the Computer Science field, cum laude. :)

Party was nice.. can't wait to open all the cards...

*chuckles*

So, on the 25th I'll be 22 already. Man, it's incredible how fast the time goes. Lots of neat stuff happened in my 21st year, got a motorcycle, got a software developer job, did tons of computer stuff, traveled, and had my first year of being able to drink! Woo woo!

But now, my driver's license is expiring, I'm gone to school/work every day from 9am-10pm, people count on me to get a ton of crap done, and I just wish there were 40 hours in a day!

Ah well, have to go take a Geology exam... later!

Okay, so I got this from Tilly. Its a music thing. You're supposed to post songs you know which start with a letter someone else gives you. So in my journal, I give you a letter! I *got* the letter 'n' from pointytilly.

No Rain - Blind Melon (wonderfully weird intro >_>)

New York, New York - Frank Sinatra (wonderfully old)

Nice Weather For Ducks - Lemon Jelly (wonderfully trippy)

Night Moves - Bob Seger (wonderfully classic)

Name - Goo Goo Dolls (wonderfully depressed)

So reply here, and I'll give you a letter! :) You're supposed to make a journal too then, but its cool if you just post it here :)

Obama!

In lieu of the awesomeness that the USA did in electing him, does anyone else here believe, the Obama campaign owes SERIOUS money to the creators of 'Bob The Builder'?

"Yes We Can!" - Like 10 cents a pop I bet XD

1. Record the current amount of free space you have :3

2. Get Updates - Run Windows Update and get all the most recent updates to your computer. Including SP3!

3. Clean Up Windows Update - After it installs and you're satisfied everything is still working, do the following:

Open windows explorer to C:\Windows\ and delete EVERY folder that looks like '$NtUninstall....$' (sort the folder by name, it helps) The icons will be shaded, and the text will most likely be blue (which signifies the folders are compressed).

If you don't see any, you need to enable seeing hidden files and folders. (Tools>Folder Options>View>'Show hidden files and folders')

If you've never done this before, there could be literally hundreds of them.
Double check before you press the delete key that the only files you've selected are Those $NtUninistall.. folders. If you see one called $hf_mig$ you can delete that too.

Tip: Use [Shift]+[Del] to skip the recycle bin

Next, there is a folder there called ie7updates. You can nuke that, its just like the $NtUninstall.. folders. Keep digging until you see 'ServicePackFiles.' You can nuke that.

Once this is done, we should have freed you up ooohh maybe 1-3GB.

But we're not done yet! :D

4. Temp Files - In the address bar in windows explorer (if you don't have one do View>Tool Bars>Address Bar. You may need to move it over by clicking the text so you can drag it bigger) type in %temp% and hit enter. Also, if you have multiple users, you'll need to do this for every user!

Close all your open programs ('Cept the browser). Microsoft programs like office, outlook, visual studio, or other ones like Photoshop, paint shop, video editors, whatever, will write files to here that you can't delete (because they're in use) and cause hell when you try to delete stuff.

Do a [ctrl]+A to select everything in this temp folder and delete it. If you do get errors, just skip the offending files. (Stuff like 'Perflib_PerfData..' or ones like '~de984.tmp' just skip over those and keep deleting)

This should get you ~1-2GB

Still not done!

5. Clean Up System Restore {for users with system restore enabled (on by default)} - First go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore and create a restore point right now.

Close it when done.

Now, open disk cleanup by hitting [Windows Key]+R and typing in 'cleanmgr' and hit enter.
Select the drive which windows is installed on (C:\ 99% of the time). Let it 'calculate' for a few minutes. Go get a drink and a cookie and then come back :)

Go to the More Options tab and click 'Clean up...' under System Restore. Click yes on the message box.

This step alone can theoretically save you up to like.. 7GB of hard drive space.

Back in the main window, go back to the Disk Cleanup tab.
You can check everything in there EXCEPT 'Compress old files'. DON'T BE TEMPTED BY IT.

Let it do its thing and now check out how much free space you just earned yourself :D

6. Last things - These are small things usually, but *can* have a substantial hard drive paw-print.

C:\MSOCache (a hidden folder) This contains Office setup files, so that if you want to install new features that weren't installed the first time, you don't need your CD. So if you still have your CD, you can safely delete this. Mine was 464MB

C,D,E..:\{various} (sometimes hidden) Look for folders in the root of your partitions that have long names with numbers and lower case letters only. These are temporary extraction spaces for updates or programs. You can delete these safely. I didn't have any this go, as I deleted them before. Probably 500MB

C:\Temp, C:\Windows\Temp (not hidden) These are places older programs store temporary data, and the *contents* can be safely deleted. 0-100Mb

C:\i386 - This one is up to you. This is the Windows XP installation cache folder. Nothing in here is needed to *run* windows after the fact, but if you don't have an XP disk, or certain OEM computers, plugging in a flash drive, scanner, printer, whatever can require drivers from this location. Most of the time, it is left over from an OEM install of windows, and you really don't need it. This one will get you somewhere between 500MB-1GB.

Clear your browser cache(s). Yes, IE too, even if you don't use it!

7. Recycle Bin - Empty it.

8. IMPORTANT! Defrag! While defragging may only free up 1 or 2 Mb of free space, it is an important step after deleting as many files as we have. Run it once, and then run it a second time right after to further densify the files. This can help with performance..

9. Report to me with how you made out! :D

So yesterday at school, I figured I'd update Windows on my laptop. Considering over the summer I maybe used it for a total of an hour or something, but I managed to not stick SP3 on it.

So, I'm at school and I figured, ahhh what the hell. Installed off of my flash drive, no problem.. I went to restart and BAM my pretty XP style is GONE.

Ohh yeah, I forgot, I had to use a patched uxtheme.dll file. Argh. Anyway, thats what I'm gonna be fixing...

By reformatting and installing XP Pro. Oh yeah, the Linux side also needs to be nuked. Its 2 major releases out of date.

( Don't read, disgusting furry babble.. )

I've also had Panama stuck in my head for like.. days..

Here are some pictures of my new car, and the one which it replaced.

Corner shot
Tis a sexy little car! :D

Engine
You'd never believe this thing had only 53000 miles on it, until you actually looked inside the engine compartment. o_o

Rear End
I got INF LOOP back! :D

Dash
Typical 2002 Dash layout, there is no room on the floor for a container thing, but Chevy designed into it a whole slew storage places.

-----

License Plate
Ahh yes, the old Infinite Loop, how I loved thee.

Rear End
Here you can see my Eisen Dragoon sticker and on the far side, my Furry Inside sticker.

Side View
...Aaaand truckfox on the back window.

Corner Shot
Its sad, I really liked the blue...

Today, got a call from the guy at the dealership, I was approved by wachovia bank for financing.

Woot! :D

Only catch, the bank's rate is a staggering 16.9%. o_o

I ran a quick calculation based on the payment amount and the duration of the thing, 16.9% will add something like $4,000 to the overall cost of the car. DAMN. (Which is over 50% of the base cost of the vehicle)

So I said to myself, well, we're just gonna go crazy and try and pay it off in the next 2 years and save some bank. I considered trying to find a bank loan at a lower amount down the road, but there is one plus to having this sort of loan. GAP protection. As the guy explained to me, if I was part-way through paying off the car and lets say it gets wrecked. Well, the insurance company is sure as hell not going to appraise the car worth what I'd still owe on it, so there'd be a gap between coverage and balance owed. Gap protection makes up the difference so I wouldn't have to come up with a huge sum of money or continue paying on the car after it was totaled.

Lets just say, I haven't been in an accident, or even a moving violation in 3 years I've had old blue, so maybe that will reflect into the future and I wouldn't *need* gap protection :p *knocks on wood*

Other good news, gas has come down by about a quarter here. Thats cool. :)

Well, today, I went down to the dealership to test drive, have another look at, and finalize everything with the car.

Took a grand down there as a down payment, got that all resolved. It was late so not all the lending banks were open, so I'll know if my current credit can get me approximately $6600. 66 hundred... funny...

Have a look at this, which is from the invoice I got...

54,666...

And of my current mileage on the truck...


I SHIT YOU NOT, my truck's mileage when the dealer took it around to get it appraised said 46662.

Wtf. SHOULD I BE EXCITED ABOUT THIS PURCHASE? DX

Well friends, this is it. My truck has failed state inspection.

I have 2 options and until the end of the week to get rolling.

1. Take it in the butt and go for the near $1,000.00 repair the truck needs to pass.

2. Get a new vehicle.

I'm going to do #2 I think. *right* after my truck failed, I drove over to the local used car dealership and theres this pretty little SUV sittin' there... http://images.cars.com/main/DMI/177663/V8032.jpg (not it, but same thing) 2002 Chevy Tracker ZR2,

They want $7,000 for it, which at this point, I feel better about spending money to go toward something new and not trying to shine shit, which as my neighbor says, 'you can't shine shit.'

When Monday comes, hopefully if everything goes right, I'll have a new car, oil leak free... and air conditioning.

Top 10 irritations about being a .NET developer

Number 10... What is inetmgr?
Number 9... Code-behinds
Number 8... VB Arrays use ( )s
Number 7... TableAdapters
Number 6... "C# Intellisense may not work properly until the solution is reloaded"
Number 5... Lack of comments
Number 4... Web/App.config
Number 3... lolSubversion
Number 2... DBNull, null, Nothing, empty
And the number 1 irritation about being a .NET developer...
Number 1... THE .TOSTRING() METHOD

( Wtf is .NET? )

EDIT:
Number 0: Error message; 'Name __o is not defined'
Still don't know what this means XD

This week we're pushing a new website at the company, and well... all I can say is, I'm so incredibly glad I get over-time pay.

So yeah, the plans are all set, my friends have their ways here pretty much figured, so it'll be a great time.

Went to my first ever furmeet at lupine_fox 's place out side of Allentown. That was incredibly fun. (First fursuit hugz! ^_^) Going to go this Friday after work for the next one. Going to be a fursuit making and games meet, I'd like to learn some stuff, maybe get the skills to make a tail for AC.

Speaking of work, I no longer work for Geek Squad, I'm now a software developer for www.babyage.com , Woot.

I need glasses. Im sketching more, and I discovered the awesomeness of photoshop support for tablets o_o;;

To anyone who actually still cares, I'm still alive, and sorta kickin :)

2007 was an interesting year for this wuff, lots of stuff happened and I really enjoyed it. *shrug* Hope 2008 sees me just that much better :)

Recently got a nice 27" LCD TV from best buy, (for $100 XD) It turns itself on randomly every once in a while, but I can deal with it :p Ready for the digital switch in 2009! Woo! :D

Next up on my list o junk to talk about.. Well, I'm gettin' a new motherboard and CPU for my computer! :D A friend asked me to help him pick out a new video card and he was like.. hey, would you like my old one? (Old card was a Radeon x1950 Pro) I was like.. helz yea.. Then I remembered.. Oh yeah, my desktop doesn't have PCI express! So I had to deal with that...

Decided on this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188015 and this processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115029

The card I'm getting is ATI, but I prefer nVidia stuff myself, so I chose an SLI capable board. (not crossfire.. crossfire can su--.. go to heck) It will run the ATI card by it self no problem, so I'll have the option to upgrade in the future :D The board also supports the Intel Quad Core if I ever get my paws on one, it can take up to 8GB of ram... its fast as hell... So yeah. I'm way excited. I just hope my bud gets on it and sends me the card soon :3

Other than that, I'm more or less back to being my lone wuff self again. I was carrying on a long distance relationship for 6 months, and I dunno, we had a talk and everything seems to have just gone to shit for me. I feel like this had been brewing ever since I met the guy and got into such a long distance thing. So I guess.. I was never really not a lone wuff, just had someone nice to talk to and stuff over that period of time. I would like to find someone closer than 2500 miles, to maybe hang out with once in a while, you know, give me something to look forward to again... Which reminds me..

ANTHRO CON! YEAH! XD *gonna be going* Booking a room with a bunch of net pals including izixs and hdorriker and a few others. So far so good. It's a long way off but I'm still super excited.

I guess thats everything for now. Koda (yep, I decided on a furry name, thats me!) out!

Stolen from: shadowwolfie

Make a list of all the characters in your icons. (Although you may have more than one icon of a single character, they only go on the list once.) Alphabetize it. Take the first two people on the list; that's your first pairing. Second two people; second pairing. Etc. Then write your reaction to each pairing (or a snippet of a hypothetical fic featuring each pairing).

Bending the rules cuz I've only got like 3 distinct characters...

Anthro HaTcH
Color-changey (slashy) Shadow Fox
Cute Shadow Fox
Feral HaTcH
Jack Nicholson (in the shining)
Shadow Fox

Because originally, I was paired with myself, and SF was paired with SF.. had to play around with names a little to stagger everyone up! :D

Anthro HaTcH + Color-changey (slashy) Shadow Fox:
Holy crap the pants awesome!! Pairing made in dreams o_o;

Cute Shadow Fox + Feral HaTcH:
Well, feral HaTcH was originally designed by Tilly, and was supposed to be a kitty (I'm just saying its a wolf cuz thats more better-r), but... hmm.. mechanics are even harder to imagine, a kitty and a zoid... but still very hot and still very dreamy! :p

Jack Nicholson (in the shining) + Shadow Fox:
All I can think of is HERES JOHNNY. And that Jack and the fox go out and meet aderangedhyena and Brad, and go terrorizing the innocents with blades and axes and fun stuff like that :D Not quite.. made in my dreams, but it works in a pinch!

Had I followed the rules:
HaTcH
Jack Nicholson
Shadow Fox

You can see the dilemma there.

Been over a month since last post, sorry bout that ^^;

Got busy with school and stuff and kinda.. forgot to blab on here about myself.
I've done some art, programmed some programs, coded a website.. You know, the usual. ;)

But Still here, and still kickin!

I forgot to mention... In a conversation with Jammer over AIM, I was inspired to draw a pic of my truck.

Click for Pic

but then I decided to (still in the conversation mind you) draw myself! OMG! A self portrait you say? Hah! If you can call this crap 'portrait.' But hey, I can draw nice and angely stuff... I just have a rough time with people, especially faces. (hence the sunglasses 8) )

Once I got done drawing she showed me this:

Lemon Jelly

HOLY CRAP IS THAT COOL!

Also uploaded the rainbow color changey fox av to LJ.. Next up, the old Ampersand '&' avs I came to the place where the highway meets my road. Apparently the township did. Gasoline Price: $2.35/US Gal Car efficiency (new filter/oil change) ??mpg

Hmmm..

Why hasn't anyone registered tedstevensisthefreakinman.com ????

That guy seriously needs some sort of fansite as theres more material than 'Gold Fever' samples.

http://downloads.ligersunion.com/images/koto/

Did a photo shoot of the progression of building the zoid. It's really freakin cool.

The designers though of everything.. I mean... at the shoulders (fore and hind) they put disk brakes! Disk brakes! OMG

And it's so posable.

Right now (not in pics) I've got it acting like a pointing bird dog on top of my receiver. Cuuute!