2 Bit Hacker

Well, I’m back from my trip to Michigan (been back since Sunday, just didn’t bother to make an entry here.) The trip went well, driving that far isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, though Jason messed up the directions in a few places. My dad was happy I came out, though he wasn’t as surprised as I would have hoped, since he already figured out what was up.

Last Thursday, while I was there, my dad went for his interview to become a US citizen. He passed, of course, but isn’t a citizen yet, they still have to do some oath thing, which he could have done Monday, but he’s off on vacation for 2 weeks. After the interview, we wandered around Detroit for a bit, looking at the tall ships they had docked there. It turns out last weekend was also Detroit’s 300th anniversary, so there was special stuff going on. The boats were pretty neat to look at, though I forgot my camera at home, so I didn’t get any pictures.

That night we went to a fancy place in Detroit for dinner. The food was okay, but not as good as I’d expect it to be in a place so expensive. I have a theory that the more expensive a place is trying to be, the worse their food can become, since people will go there just because it’s expensive (as a special event sort of thing) and it doesn’t matter if they come back, because the restaurant has already made enough money of them. It was fun anyway though.

The next day we had a surprise cookout for my dad at his work for lunch. He didn’t figure this one out, so it was still a surprise. It was pretty fun, I got to see a bunch of my dad’s coworkers that I hadn’t seen in a while, and got to see some of the projects my dad is working on. Hopefully soon we can work out what needs to be done so Andrea and I can work on an update to the company’s website, which I made a few years back. That afternoon, we went to see The Score, which I had seen before, but didn’t mind seeing again.

On Saturday we did some shopping, and took some pictures of my dad’s plane, and my dad and I with our cars. We both drive the same model car, which is odd because I picked mine out after he had his, without knowing he had bought a new car. It turns out one of my aunts in England also drives one. Those pictures are up at my website.

I left from there Saturday night and drive to Batavia, NY to stop for the night, then drove the rest of the way back on Sunday. Driving on Sunday was the worst: there was a concert in New York that had traffic backed up for about 5 miles on I-90 eastbound, but after that it was pretty clear back to Milford.

On Monday, Andrea came back from her 3 week cruise. I went over to meet her when she got home. It was great seeing her again. We’ve been hanging out most of the week. We rented Sugar and Spice on Tuesday, a movie about a group of cheerleaders that rob a bank. Not as funny as I had hoped, though I guess it’s more of a girl movie. As usual, it’s overdue back at Blockbuster again. Ah well.

Not sure what I’m going to be up to this weekend yet. Ralph said I didn’t have to mow the lawn (yay!) I figure I’ll probably go to SimPro and tinker with the new SBC a bit. Saturday night Jason, Dave, Derrick and I will be playing D&D for the first time in 3 weeks. Sunday so far looks clear.

Well, not much has been going on lately. Andrea is still on her cruise, and I miss her. She returns next Monday, the day after I get back from my trip. I can hardly wait to see her again.

Tomorrow I leave on my trip, starting the drive after work. Originally I was going to drive it in one day, but my parents suggested that I stop halfway, which is probably a good idea. I think I’ll have a better chance of finding my destination in the afternoon/early evening than at night. I’m looking forward to the trip, but I’m also a little nervous, since I’ve not driven outside of the NH/MA area before.

My friend Matt was in a car accident on Saturday, he’s fine, but his car is wrecked. It really sucks for him, since he was having a pretty bad week to start with, and that was the cap on it. (Hopefully that’s the worst thing that’ll happen for a bit.)

Other than that, things have been pretty boring around here. I’ve been seeing more movies than usual. Last Wednesday I saw the Final Fantasy movie, which was pretty good. The story wasn’t great, but the animation was interesting, and overall it was entertaining. On Friday, Matt and I saw The Score, which was good.

Well, back to work with me.

Well, it’s been a while since I updated this thing, and a decent number of things have been happening. Yesterday was my 20th birthday, and I was given lots of neat stuff. My girlfriend Andrea gave me a nice Swiss Army Knife with a screwdriver and pliers and other neat things, and a GearGrip-Pro (a strap for my PC chassis which makes it easier to carry places, for LAN parties and such.) I knew she was getting me the GearGrip, but I was really suprised by the knife. I’ve wanted one for a long time, and I don’t think I ever mentioned it to her, and she got it for me.

My mom and stepdad gave me clothes and a large discount on my rent, so I could by a digital camera. I decided on a Sony DSC-P50 2.1 megapixel camera, so I should start having more pictures on my web page soon.

My dad and grandparents gave me money, which I used to help pay for the camera and some accessories for it (case, lithium ion battery, another memory stick.) Overall I’m very pleased with the amount of stuff I ended up getting this year.

Unfortunately, Andrea is now gone for 3 weeks. She’s off on a cruise in the Mediterranean. She seemed really nervous, I hope she has fun. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for nearly a month without her. It’s only been 2 days, and I already miss her. Hopefully she’ll call or email soon. I’ll probably end up bugging Jason more than usual this month, though Matt’s around now, so I’ll probably be doing stuff with him more too now. Derrick’s back on the night shift at Wal*Mart, so I doubt I’ll be seeing much of him. Andrea comes back from her trip about the same time I come back from mine. We’ll have to do something special then, but I’m not sure what yet. I’m not even sure when she’s coming back, it’s either the Sunday I get back, or the day after.

Well, I think I’m going to go have a piece of birthday cake then think about going to bed so I can be up bright and early for work tomorrow. We’re beginning a new project, which I’m not sure I can talk about. It seems interesting, and I have some neat ideas for part of it, I just hope I get to work on them and do something really special, instead of just hacking something together to make the release date.