The Saga Continues

Gotta Love It

2010-07-13T09:35:00.001-05:00

This is one of my favorite sites for wallpapers for my computer and phone.

in reference to: InterfaceLIFT: Wallpaper sorted by Date (view on Google Sidewiki)

Very Unimpressed

2010-07-12T11:15:00.001-05:00

So ever since LaLa.com was shutdown

a quick moment of silence for the death of my favorite music site….

I have been looking for a cloud music service. I’ve even been waiting to see if Apple is going to do anything with its newly purchased LaLa.com. Hoping that maybe even iTunes would have a cloud version available, but that doesn’t exactly look like that is happening either.

So to solve this problem I have signed up for mSpot.com. Well to be honest, I wasn’t at all impressed.

The bad…

* No Market Place – there are no options at all to buy music to add to your library. The only music you have access to are the files you uploaded.
* No social networking options – lacks any type of integration with facebook, twitter, or its own internal community
* The CD I did upload failed to tag automatically the artist, album, track name, artwork, or any other relevant information.
* General lack of features – there really isn’t much there. Which for some maybe a good thing, but for me and all my nerdiness I want options and cool features that this service just plans lacks.

The not so bad, but not all that good either…

* Very simple – you can very cleanly upload your library and have access to it on most mobile devices or any web browser.
* Free – their base option for 2 gig is totally free.
* Mobile App Integration – they have both iPhone and Android applications that work with the service.

in reference to: mSpot (view on Google Sidewiki)

A Bit Mis-Leading

2010-04-27T16:56:00.001-05:00

After a quick read of "HyperOffice" I think their pro's and con's are mis-leading. This entire article is based off the fact that google charges for more than 50 people. So if you have less than 50 people in your office... please read on. If not, well I still don't buy it but their math begins to hold up a bit better.

I have set up tons of Google Apps accounts and the cost is only that of a the domain for the small business account (50 users). The only setup is to upload a file and edit your mx records. So I think the $5K cost is actually pretty hilarious as there is no recurring cost at all for less than 50.

Just keep in mind that if you have less than 50 employees you can have google apps set up for free. No recurring cost at all. It is a great place to start if you are just trying out some of these technologies.

in reference to: Google Apps vs Microsoft BPOS | Microsoft and Google Collaboration Comparison (view on Google Sidewiki)

Google Buzz (insert scary music!)

2010-02-10T10:23:00.004-06:00

So I tried out Google Buzz this morning.

hhhmmmm.........

Well I got to be honest, I'm scared. After the initial thrill of another new google application subsided, I began to play, make a post or two, and just browse around. In my own opinion the most notable feature is the geolocation feature. In addition to being able to see what your friends are saying, you can also see what people AROUND YOU are saying. With pin point geolocation you could potentially drive right up the door of a complete stranger and give that individual your two cents on the comment he or she made.

Of course there are ways to turn off the feature, but I feel like this really opens the doors for problems and an entirely new set of scams to hit your front door. As our children embrace this new application without their parent's knowledge a simple post saying "See everyone in two week, we are going to Disney World" would not only tell someone how long you're gone, but also exactly where your house is (assuming the post was made at a home computer or cell phone located in the home at the time of the post).

Just food for thought. I'll keep playing with it and try to give some more feed back, but my first impression is to much to fast. Just because technology says you can doesn't always mean you should.

For some more information on the subject...

Facebook VS Google Buzz

Direct Link to Google Buzz Home Page

Ok so as promised... I will continue to post information on this as I find it all very interesting.

Below is an example of the map function I was talking about.

??? To Good To Be True ???

2009-12-22T08:19:00.001-06:00

Has anyone bought anything from this site? Its seems very borderline fraudulent to me. I found this site from some postings on Craig's List where they had mocked some products as being sold in Phx, AZ from this shop.

After some looking around this store is based out of China.

Also something I found very sketchy was they only except 3 forms of payment. All of which are very non-traditional.
- Western Union
- Wire to Bank of China
- Telgraphic Transfer - I don't even know what this one is and I think they spelled it wrong on the site.

in reference to: www.favorstores.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Learning JQuery

2009-09-28T16:59:00.001-05:00

This is a great site to get started with Web 2.0 features using JQuery. It contains examples, documentation, and a lot of other useful information.

in reference to: jQuery: The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library (view on Google Sidewiki)

Again I felt my audience needed this.

2006-10-11T18:20:00.000-05:00

So bad it's good

2006-10-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

Normally I would never post an email forward, this one just needed to be put out there.

The Hoff - Get Into My Car

Glory Days

2006-10-09T15:44:00.001-05:00

Well since my last post I have been all over the place. I went on a road trip with Thomas and Criag out to St. Louis to see Mike and Jon. It was a good time and we toured around the outer St. Louis suburbs, we didn't have a chance to go out to the Landing on this trip. But without a doubt it was a good time, and it was a trip that not long ago I figured would be a thing of the past. Everyone was doing good. I got to meet Mike's girlfriend, and learned a bit more about the wild world of sports gambling. Not my thing, but certainly can be fun.

The following week I went up to Manhattan to see Maurico, who after graduation moved to Orlando, FL (what is with these people taking off to some random place after graduation?). He was in town to see his brother and sister who go to KSU. It was fun, but every single time I come back to Manhattan more and more things change. People, places, and hahaha I swear everyone looks so young! I guess that might have more to do with my 25th birthday coming and a lot less to do with the student body.

As we where having a drink at Fats (the greatest Bar in Aggievillie). I meet up with Rob who is trying to beat my record of 5.5 years in college. He is still on the soccer team and asked me if I wanted to play a game against Southern Baptist College on Sunday. How could I refuse? I told him that I would be more than willing to show and play a bit. I remember being very clear that I said it would be cool to get in for a couple of minutes, but nothing major. I didn't want to take any time away from the players who where on the team.

Well I show up to the field and see a few familiar faces and lot of news one. After talking to a couple of guys I get some key information that I didn't get last night, namely that the KSU team had two games today, one in Witchita and one at home. So this posed a major problem getting enough people to each game. As I'm learning this the hamesters in my head are running as fast as they can to make the connect that ... yep... they are just barely going to have enough people to play. Meaning... I'm going to have to play damn near the entire game. Hahahaha.... well I did have a great time and I really wasn't out of shape (thank God). We ended up winning the game 4-1 and I played most of the game at sweeper. I was a little sore after it was all said and done, but nothing to whine about as far as any bodily functions failing.

Goat... It's Whats for Dinner

2006-09-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

Before I even start I want to say sorry to anyone reading this, because I have a lot of pictures from everything I did the past weekend. I'm still trying to track them down, and that is why I waited to make this post. However I'm tired of waiting so I'll get all this jotted down and post the pics as soon as they get to me.

So I had a really fun couple of days last weekend. Went to Westport again and met up with the majority of guys still in KS from the Soccer Team. We had a blast (we always do) and to my total surprise Martin showed up. He is a friend of a friend and lives in London. I seem to run into him in the weirdest places the most recent of which is of course Westport. That entire crew is doing well and other than continuing to run into people I have not seen in ages there was nothing really going on of note.

Then on saturday the highlight of my weekend arrived. Jarrod W., his brother Jason, and their buddy Adam got a place out in the country and they decided to have a party to break it in. It was nice location being somewhat out in the middle of no where, which actually made it a great location for the party. For all of you who have never been to a party at Duh 'Burg, well your missing out. They pulled out all the stops. We got flat trailer out in the middle of the backyard and set up some speakers and a mic. Then the very talent Josh and Dusty got up and did their thing with some live country music. In addition to the music we had horse-shoes and washers, but that wasn't even the best part. You see Louisburg is alot like the Jamaican Islands. It is remote, it has it's own unique culture, and wildlife specific to that area. Well at this particular party Jason brought a "Louisburgian Emack" and roasted it for everyone to eat. Know I that all of you are wondering what an Emack looks like. Well it has 4 legs, kind of nasty looking, two horns, and it is about 3.5 feet tall. It looks alot like a goat. Well... ok so we roasted a goat and it was the main coarse. I just thought the Emack was funny. Jason told me about it before I got to the party, but he pretty much forgot to tell just about everyone else and just let them think it was roast beef. To be honest I couldn't really tell the difference.

There is no hope for me ...

2006-09-20T11:43:00.000-05:00


Set File = Upload.Files("file1")

If Not File Is Nothing Then
 Response.Write("Oooo the file is not nothing")
end if

It made sense to me the first time I wrote it.

Casualty of War

2006-09-12T16:08:00.000-05:00

So I just got back from lunch I'm very sad to report a devastating loss. I was
very excited to get a meatball sub from Mr. Goodcents. Well during a
preemptive offensive attack on said sandwich, I didn't put much prior
investigation into my enemies defenses and this proved to be a fatal mistake.
After a strong offensive move to devour an entire meatball failed
leaving 1/3 meatball still bunkered inside it's strong hold my nemesis
decided to make a kamikaze-like maneuver and discard remaining said
meatball at its attacker. Direct Hit... Direct Hit... Man Down. The
1/3 meatball rolled all the way down my primarily white shirt leaving
what might as well have been a stain consisting of my own blood
everywhere. After seeking medical help in the bathroom with water and
a paper towell I took a once blood red mess to something closer to an
orange highlighter color stain all over my shirt. My medical staff did
everything it could ...

I will not under estimate my enemy again.

Life in the Working World - Round 2

2006-09-09T16:02:00.000-05:00

So have almost gotten back into the swing of things again. I started my new job for MyCart.net. So far I really like it, but early on the job is going to be a bit stressful since I'm working in a new language, Flex. The scary thing is that this stuff is so new to the market that I can't buy any books on it until October and yet we are going to start trying to roll stuff out here soon (and I'm the only one we got researching it!). That makes the research on it limited to all the white papers, documentation, and help guides I can find online. Ugh, well I think that it will all be worth hard work in the end. So wish me luck. My guess I will be one of probably 50 people to have read that damn F1 Help guide clear through.... YUCK!

Other than that I'm back to joining every softball and soccer team I can find. From the sounds of it I got my first softball league game this Monday with the newly married man Rusty. I'm not sure what will happen with the soccer yet. I tracked down Cody (guy from the KSU Soccer team) and we had a couple of drinks out in Westport last night and I think I might be able to get on with those guys, even if it is indoor soccer.

The next couple of months look like they are really going to busy. I got two weddings, a trip to St. Louis, and a trip to St. Joe all in the next month and a half. It should be fun to see everyone. On that note I'm still not used to all that. What I mean is when I moved out to Pennsylvania after I got settled and mentally got myself around the fact that I was 1k miles away from everyone I knew my mentality kind of changed. I pretty much wrote off ever running into anyone I knew any more. I guess I really just hit the reset switch in my head as far as faces and seeing close friends with any regularity. I know it sounds sad, but I dont mean it to be. It is just kind of the mentality you have to come to when you move someplace far off. Not like you can sit at home wishing for the old days ... right? So anyway, haha well I'm back now and everyone seems so close. No big deal to see Brandi in Manhattan or Mike in St. Louis, because they just don't seem that far anymore since they where all so unreachable prior to the move. Even though I'm still getting used to it, I really do like it. Those great people you meet are hard to leave behind and after having done that it is nice to be able to track them down with some regularity. Which also brings up the fact that is sucks that now I'm so far away from everyone out in PA. What a freaking catch 22. Can't I have my cake and eat it too? How about everyone just decides to make a joint move so I can hang out with everyone and not have to make this such a regional problem here. How does Ohio or Indiana sound to everyone? I'll meet you there, and by the way Rachelle and Merrick since you two are the farthest I expect both of there with no questions asked... it is for the good of the whole after all.

The Twilight Zone ... I call it Louisburg, KS

2006-08-29T23:45:00.000-05:00

So I have officially moved back to Kansas. Crazy. I know to my casual subscribers this may come as sort of a shock. Well there where a lot of factors and even more though put into the choice. In the end I think it is definitely what is best for me right now. I have got a job up in Overland Park, KS working on some Flash & Flex technologies. Wish me luck folks ... I'll prolly need it.

The move went ok. Dad Dunn arrived and I think I had about 75% of my apartment packed up. So we got the rest of it packed up and on our way we went. The trip was really slow going due to the fact that we had a funky trailer with a crazy wielded extension on it. Despite packing the trailer with the majority of the weight in front this thing would start to fish tail everytime we went over 65mph. This really can make a 20 hour trip drag out when you are getting nascar style passed on the highways by those hybrid golf cart looking cars. I lost a bit of my manliness on that trip I think. But in the end we did finally get there and I'm slowly but surely getting moved into my parents house.

On that note ... I'm complete freaking out. I have not called my parents house home since sometime in 2001. Since that time I have either lived alone or with roommates. So now waking up to Mom trying to make me breakfast, dinner, and doing my laundry is well ... crazy, weird, disturbing. Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate what my parents do for me. Heck, let alone allowing me to move back is a huge inconvenience to them, and at the same time I knew they would welcome me without a question when I asked. The problem is that I really feel like I just went back in time. I mean I just went from being 1100 miles away from anyone related to me to ... 10 feet. Eek! With that change went all that responsibility too. Strange how I feel like I don't need to worry about all the adult stuff living with them. Ha ha... in some weird way I think they will just take care of it. So I guess this is going to take some getting used to here. I am in the process of retaining an "adult" residence... be it a house or renting again (which has really got to stop).

To all the great friend I made in Kutztown, PA thanks for all the great memories. You guys really are the best and if any of you ever make out to the beautiful rolling hills and sandy beaches of Kansas give me a call. I'll prolly be either sun tanning or surfing.

I Fear No Man...

2006-08-16T14:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I did battle with a giant vampire bat at work. In full armor I meet my foe on the honorable field of battle. That saga can be read on my co-worker's blog Mandy... oh and there are picture unforunately.

Obligation

2006-08-15T08:21:00.000-05:00

After coming across this I felt it was a moral obligation to all my dedicated reads to put a link to this dramatic tragedy on my blog.

The content in this movie may be too graphic for children under the age of 2 and half.

Snack Mountain

Ryan Makes Friends at Dinner

2006-08-10T16:40:00.001-05:00

So as I alluded to in my previous post I had a lot on my mind. Well after the smoke cleared and the dust settled I decided to take a job back in KS and leave the wonderful world of Kutztown, PA and Sposto Interactive. I'm not going to get into the details of who, what, when, and why. Sorry... but I don't think a blog is place to get into it.

With that being said I know am in a rush to do all the things that I have not done on this strange and exotic planet called "The East Coast". I had wanted to eat some real sea food since I figured that land-locked KS just doesn't get it done in that department. So I convinced Kim to come with me as we in a round about way found the Crab Barn in Reading, PA.

Lucky me ...it was a very nice establishment. What that means in "Ryan Terms" is that they served mixed drinks that costs more than $2.00 and the waitress had actually read the menu. So it just so happened that it was all you can eat snow crab legs and blue back crabs (I might have messed up the names, but it was something like that). After an orderve and a round of drinks Kim and started in my glorious adventure into the Wet and Wild World of Sea Food. It was great, I pretty much lost every battle with the blue crab guy. But since they decided to give me his entire body, we hung out and I had Kim take a picture of him and for a keep sake... he did give his life for me after all and I felt it wrong to just throw him away without giving him just props. Then it was onto the snow crab legs. At this point I had continued to have a couple more beers and I just could not resist playing with my food. I'm just going to say sorry to the 3 other table left in Crab Barn at 8:30 on a Tuesday. It was to much fun and I just couldn't help myself.

In the end I learned that you have to be careful breaking the shells off these guys. I have a nasty cut on my hand from trying to be a tough guy and crack it open without the tool. Also it does take a lot of skill to actually get any meat out of there. I think I prolly would have gone home hungry if Kim had not begun to fed me after I crushed, broke, snapped, and chewed on the all the shell creatures on my plate to no avail.

Change ... does it ever stop?

2006-08-02T15:32:00.000-05:00

Well I've been in the middle of some huge descisions in my life. Funny how the older I get I realize that all I do is learn from past experiences and try to repeat the mistakes I have made.

You all know what I'm talking about ... picking a college, picking a job, moving to Kutztown, PA??? , the serious girl friend, marriage, kids, getting hair plugs ...

Funny how when I get done making a "Huge Descision" I just end up running into another one a couple of months or years down the road. When do I get a break? I look at all these event in my life as opporunities, not good stuff or bad stuff. Simply something that I can decide to sulk about or take it head on make the best of it. I think that as long as I can always look back and learn from it and stick with my the descision I make seeing them through then I'll in the end be happier for it. Any other mentality just wouldn't get me through the day as I see it.

With that being said once again I tenatively approach another full set of descisions. I know what I want, I have a good idea of how to get there, and yet excution of all those thoughts, ideas, and feelings are just never as easy as I think they should be.

I have basically the two little guys that tell me what to do, like an angel and a devil. But not exactly as all these descision are not about right and wrong, but rather more like one is the conservative, safe guy and the other is the ass kicking risk taker. Lets, for the sake of this blog, say that the name of the conservative one is former host of NBA Inside Stuff, Ahmad Rashad. The risk taking tough guy is of course an obvious choice of Phil Collins, the form lead singer of Genesis and my hero. There are times thur out my life where I would proudly describe myself as either. But at a time like this I seem to be listening to Ahmad screaming all the time while Phil is dragging him around. You see Phil does know what is best for Ryan, and so does Ahmad. The thing is that Ahmad is scared of what all has to be done to do what is right for Ryan. Phil doesn't really like it either, the difference is that Phil will do whatever it takes... no questions asked. Ahmad, to be honest here, is so scared he would rather do nothing and just sit here in the so-so situation he is in. So I guess what I'm saying is thank God for Phil Collins.

I never know at the time of descision how it will turn out. To be honest alot of times they don't turn out how I would like them too. The thing is that I always get thur it and I'm glad made the choice I did. I grow a lil, end up being proud I took the risk (even though I have really looked back and thought I was a moron at times), and I hope that one day all this will lead me to that Zen like mental state where I will never worry about a descision. I'll be at peace with everything, knowing full well that I have already came across it and I can just easily pick a route to follow and will make me happy. So until then I'm going to sit back and watch round 3,894 of Ahmad vs. Phil. Wish me luck... I wish I knew which one of them I should bet on this round.

Jonielle & Danathon Batchelder's Wedding

2006-07-20T09:16:00.000-05:00

So Jon and Danielle got married over the weekend of June 10th in Oberlin, KS. I think that I can safely say that the wedding party was just to much for the small rural town of Oberlin. Without a doubt everyone had a blast. The drive out there was long, flat, and hot, but since we stopped to see the worlds largest ball of twine it made it all worth. Weird, but that drive out really did make me miss good ole KS. I got a picture somewhere, but at the moment I'm having trouble tracking it down.

So as the story goes, the rehersal dinner was a blast. Jon's on the fly public speaking skills where comical to say the least. I will not even pretend like I would have been able to do any better. Mike and I decided that since we both came without dates that we had to be an excuse to be a bit wilder than usual. After the rehersal dinner most of the wedding party decided to tour the mean streets of Oberlin. That was an experience to say the least. Bars in rural KS, heck ya!

Before the wedding while the woman folk where getting ready all us guys had to burn some time. What is there to do in Oberlin on a Saturday morning? Well my friend you go out into a field and shoot ground squirrels with assult rifles... that is what you do.

The wedding was fun and very traditional. Mike and I had our usher responsibilties. Which I might add I'm very good at. This is usher gig number 3 in the last two years. I'm about as noble an ushers as you can get, trust me. All the lovely ladies I escorted where very impressed ... or somethinglike that.

The reception was well ... legendary. Honestly I prolly should have not drank quit so much, but well that was the only way I could keep dancing. I think my dance card consisted of something like ... Erin Beando (Erin that was the longest damn running dance ever), Michelle, Mike (he lead), Mrs. Batchelder, Mr. Bailey (I lead), Mrs. Bailey, Megan, Michael (he lead, but I did the dipping). It was a blast to say the least. I'm thinking that after reading all the guys on my dance card I'm definitely bring a date to the next wedding. Congratz Jon and Danielle!!

Excuses Excuses

2006-07-20T09:09:00.000-05:00

Ok so I'm officially back to keeping up with my blog. Sorry I had been away for so long. Stuff has been crazy, work mainly. The amount of hours I have been putting in are insane and (crossing my fingers) it is finally over and done. One the site gets launched I'll but a link to it, but until then I'm just going to keep it under wraps since I really have no idea when the actually launch date will be (I was told by the client that the set date was July 24th).

So know comes the daunting task of relaying all the fun stuff that has happened since. So Ill do my best to get started on it all as I get time. I know the dates will be wrong but you will just have to bear with me.

... More to come I promise

I know ... I know

2006-06-30T17:00:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout out. I know that it has been a long time since I have posted on this thing. Honestly stuff has never been busier. I will get more up when i get a chance, but...

I went down to New Jersey for a grad party.

Went to Jon's wedding in Oberlin.

At the moment I have worked the last couple saturdays with no end in sight. When this project at work gets done and I have get off at normal times I will get more stuff up. Until then...

A Desperate Cry for Help

2006-05-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Ok so lately I have been going out a lot here in the big PA. I've meet a ton of people and I really may having a blast. The problem is that every single person I meet with the exception of Laura (Pete's Girl Friend) has never meet anyone from Kansas. So about half the time I get to talking with these uncultured socialites and they say something to the effect of "So is this pretty different from the South?" or "I like your Southern accent." Trust me this isn't like this has happened just once, I would say that this wonderful topic is breached about 75% of the time I meet some new group of people out here. The first time I was totally confused. Surely they are talking about someone else... but no luck, the moron is talking to me.

So I'm making a formal call for help from all my peeps in KS. What the heck can I do about this. My first response it just punch the person in the throat... but then what kind of ambassador from the greatest state in America would I be?

I do say "Howdy", listen to country music, and people at work do say that I have a bit of a "twang" to my lingo. However I know for a fact that I have no southern draw, I will never be caught dead saying "Ya'll", and even though I do have a couple of fake teeth I sure don't have any gaps in there.

What does the rest of the world think of Kansas? I thought that was/is a really big different between the Mid-West and that oh so Dirty South. At this point I just attribute this brutal conversational recurrence to the fact that most of these Dutch loving Easterners have never ventured down pasted the Mason-Dixon Line and have only been as far West as Pittsburgh. *a single tear drops for them*

No Big Deal Really

2006-05-26T08:34:00.000-05:00

So my modeling career is really taking off. I star'ed in some more banners. It took a while to get the contract worked out this time, since my last banner was such a big hit. But after some heated negotiation my high priced silhouette again appears somewhere in the depths of the abyss that is yahoo.com. Anyone attempting to contact me for photo work may submit a formal proposal to dunn.ryan@gmail.com, principles only no solicitations please.

A Day in the Life

2006-05-22T16:46:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I went back home for Erin's wedding to Matt Webber. The weekend consisted of going out every night I was back and just fighting thur the foggy haze of massive jet lag due to my change in time zones and my 4:15am wake up to make it to KC Friday morning. Without a doubt I had a great time, seeing everybody I had somewhat lost touch was like I breathe fresh air. Crazy to see where everyone has ended up and what everybody is doing. I know every other posts prolly hints to this, but damn time goes by so fast.

So the true craziness of my weekend came on the flight home. I'm just going to warn everyone now... this is going to be a long story. So I get to KCI and board the plane at 7:30pm on my way to Philly where I will catch another plane to Allentown... same old routine. We get out to the run way after a 30min delay and then the trouble starts. Seems that the turbines have a defroster on them and even thought it is 70 degrees it has to be working before we can take off. So we sit for while, head back to the terminal, sit some more, defuel, sit, problem fixed, refuel. All in all it took about 2 hours. In the mean time I started to talking to the guy next to me.
His name is Greg Urwin, a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. We talked for a really long time... nice guy. Turns out he was at KSU for a history convention. I told him my story about graduating from KSU and moving to Kutztown and all that jazz. Turns out that he did pretty much the same thing after he graduated college... the thing is that he lived in Dodge City, KS. Crazy. Anyway it made the time go by a bit quicker.

So of course my lay over is long gone to Allentown by the time we get off the plane. The flight helper lady had reschedules for most of the passengers including me. They had booked me a hotel in Philly for the night and then had be fly out the following day. Well since Allentown is only about 1.5 hours from Philly I decided that when I landed I would rent a car, and just get a refund for the ticket.

Well we land in Philly at about 11:30, and the entire airport is empty. Completely ghost-like and erie. So I begin to implement my plan for a rental car. I get off and talk to a dude about getting my money back for the flight I'm not going to take. Easy enough... I then move on to get my bags. Well since I'm supposed to fly out the next day they have stored the damn things... which seems stupid to me since even though I have a flight the next day I still need my stuff to stay at the hotel. I headed to baggage claim where I explain the situtation to a very large very friendly woman about my age. She proclaims with great zeal with she will find my bag. I thank her as she types on the computer, and she replies "for a customer as cute as you it isn't a problem". I laugh a little and say nothing thinking there is nothing wrong with a little harmless flirting and shrug off the comment, even thought I'm seething with rage from the entire situtation. She leaves the desk in a jog saying to the other worker behind the desk to make sure that "this handsome fella doesn't go anywhere". Again... I smile ... saying nothing. So she gets back with my bags and instead of going behind the counter just comes right up to me. Here ya go, I told ya I got your bags back didn't I... she said. Yep, you sure did thanks alot... was my reply. She then begins to ask me where I'm saying in Philly and after telling her I was driving to Allentown begins to ask me what time and how long I would be standing around. I had no idea what to say to all this... without a doubt she was going for it all here. Of course being I was pissed off with the whole late flight and all... but more than that I was appalled that this chic is trying to hook up with me when I'm a damn customer. I think I pretty much just grabbed my stuff and ran. I feel bad now retelling this story, but I was sooooooo pissed at the time.

So off I went into the depths of Philly's Airport to find a rental car at what is now almost mid-night. Two bus rides later I arrive at Alamo Car Rental. Across the counter from me stood a kid with a pair of lips so large that I'm sure he could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. I explained to hose boy my plan and what I wanted. We began to do some paper work and he took my debit card. After looking at it, he told me that I had to have a credit card because I'm a higher liability since I'm not returning the car to the same location and I cancelled my flight that would force me to return to Philadelphia. I didn't have a credit card on me and I told him that it wasn't a big deal since I still had the ticket for the flight out of Philly the next day. So I told him that he can just act like I'm coming back and put my ticket info into the computer and thus it would cover his butt and get me my car. His response to my plan was that he couldn't do that and then just stared blankly at me. Did this kid not realized that I was quite literally stuck in downtown Philly with not a single person I can call on for help here. So I started to try to think quickly to work this out. I told him to just act like we had never talked and just grab someone else in the back. No dice. I just couldn't believe how inflexible this kid was being since we where really bro'ing it up before we got to this silly credit card business. Again, he was totally unwilling to help me in any way. So at this point I knew I had to make a strong move here for get stuck in Downtown Philly for the night... something I was not going to accept. So I implemented a plan that I never thought I would need to execute.

I took a step back from the counter and looked at him until he made eye contact with me. I then nodded three times at him slowly looking him right in the eyes. He didn't know what to think of that, and then he quickly looked away. I knew it... weakness, insecurity, that is what I was looking for... "ok I said, no worries. Would you mind helping me with some directions?" Sure he said. So turned my back to him and spread a map on a table making sure that he couldn't see what I was doing. Out of my pocket I pulled out a pen and all the cash I had on me, about $30 something dollars. I placed the cash into the map and folder it over. I then wrote hose sucker a note that said "Forget about the card, take this, and get me a car". I then handed the map to Big Lips McGee and said "check out the path I had drawn on the map and let me know if you think that will work". However I didn't hand him the map immediately.... I glared at him just long enough to make him uncomfortable, I felt that I needed to make sure he knew I was in control here if this was ever going to work. Well I gave the map to him and he opened it and read the note. Well turns out that I'm just as bad at this game as you all are thinking. Denied again... "I can't accept that Sir, why don't you try National Car Rental down the street." Feeling beaten, I said "OK, I'll do that", I then reached across and shook his hand. He had beaten me at a man's game of negotiation and I respect him for that. You will get far in life hose sucker boy... far indeed.

Off to National, now the current time is something like 12:45am. I meet a woman and begin to retell my perilous story of travel and adventure. But this time when I get to the part about returning the car I make up a VERY complicated lie about taking the car to Allentown, spending the night at a friend's house, and then getting a ride back to Philly to catch my flight (I failed to mention that the ticket out of Philly was back to Allentown). Trust me, I'm leaving out alot of intricacies to the fable I told his woman... but it worked. I hinted to her that the friend was a fictitious girl friend (*sigh*) and she was like "OOOOhhhhh, ok I can help you out". So after an absorbentant amount of paper work she told me to take any car in the first row. So I went out and picked the most outrageous car I could find. My choice was a Chevy HHR. This doesn't look all that bad in the picture, you just have to realized that it is about the size of a riding lawn mower. So I load my stuff in and take off. Trust me this car is a complete piece of crap, even worse Nation really takes care of their customers... this thing didn't even have a dome light! There was a plastic piece where one should be... guess that costs extra.

So at about 1:15am I'm off on the interstate fight sleep and racing in my HHR back to Allentown. Finally I arrive there and drop off the HHR, get my car, and head home. Complete exhausted, I made it and with a time of arrival at 3:37am. Trust me ... work the next day was awesome.

Other End of the Table

2006-05-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

So work has been flat crazy lately. Projects, new hires, my desk got moved, and the most crazy... I got the ok to interview and hire help for this project that I'm the tech lead for. I don't think I really want to get into details for the sake of professionalism here. I will just say it was a crazy experience to be on the other end of a table with that nervous new person on the other end trying to sum up your every reaction to everything he says. I was pretty neverous right up to the point when the first guy got here, I don't know why but after I introduced myself I was totally fine. Also I really get a kick out of reading resumes from all types of people and how different they all are... and all the mistakes that you see on them.

I think this week I offically got older... eh... I think I'm cool with this time, can't wait til I get my own secretary! jk

More Kutztown, PA

2006-04-29T13:17:00.000-05:00

Kutztown, PA

2006-04-29T13:15:00.000-05:00

People these days... Sheesh

2006-04-24T15:11:00.000-05:00

As you read these posts I recommend singing "I fought Law" by "The Clash" to yourself ... or aloud.

So there has been some general insanity going with those around me and local law enforcement. For a change the police have been actually aiding them instead of the opposite.

So my brother Kevin was walking across the street in front of Fat's in Manhattan
with his girl friend Sarah. As they crossed the street a car
approached. It slowed down as they crossed and then suddenly hit the
gas. Kevin pulled Sarah out of the way of the car. She was in mid path
of the car and when Kevin pulled her out of the way the car still hit
Sarah in the leg. With Sarah on the ground crying Kevin goes over and
checks on her, she is ok just shaken. Kevin then proceeds over to the
car and I'm guessing starts to yell something to the effect of "I'm
going to kill you and eat your family". The people in the car freak
and drive away. Kevin gives chase and as a last leaping attempt dives
to pull off the licenses plate. He only pulls off part of the frame of
the trunk and some of the logo of the car. They proceeded to file a
police report as a hit and run on Sarah. Crazy. More to come I'm sure and
Sarah is fine.

If that wasn't crazy enough my buddy Mike got his car stolen last week.
He came home to find it gone. Since he lives in an apartment complex
he thought that someone had it towed on accident. Turns out after calling
the tow place they didn't do it. So he called the cops and filed a stolen car
report. The next day they found the car about 20 miles out of town. The thing
is that Mike had no gas in it since he just bought a new car. They jacked
the car and then drove off not looking at the gas. The ran out and just abandoned
the thing. The damage report was a broken window and the steering column was
pretty much destroyed. Good thing is that he got the car back and they
didn't look in the trunk to take his golf clubs.

No luck finding the felons in either case... so look out cause they are out there, lurking in the darkness, but don't worry I'm on it.

Knowing When to Say When

2006-04-20T09:46:00.000-05:00

I've had to much to think. Trust me.

It is important to know when you have had more than you can handle... with that being said I'm taking a break.

Finally... State Farm Soccer

2006-04-19T15:43:00.000-05:00

Here is the banner I did for State Farm. Sorry it took me so long to get it up.

The Family Line is at stake...

2006-04-19T15:09:00.001-05:00

So I had a blast over Easter! I got to go back home a day earlier and that open up the opportunity to go up to Manhattan and see some friends. I had such a great time hanging out in Good Ole "Fats". Other than that I got to have some serious talks with the folks and got some stuff sorted out that was in need of sorting... haha can I be any more vague!

Problem is during all the fun my Mom was really sick. She had the flu and was out of commission most of the vacation. So then I flew back to start the daily work grind and I see Jarrett online that night. He tells me that he got really sick, and after sleeping all day tried to get up and go to the bath room and once the lights came on he got dizzy, fell, and knocked himself out on the toilet! Don't worry he is ok after a quick hospital visit the next day. In other related news I got what my Mommy had too, and thus I'm trying to suck it up and go to work feeling like Death is standing on my stomach laughing. Sucks, but hey... could have been sick over break right.

Also I wanted to let my adoring public know that I finally took some pictures of Kutztown and I will try to get them up shortly.

One more thing... this is a link that took me a while to find. This is the solo project for the leader singer of the band formally known as the Urge. You might check it out if you want something a bit new. Steve Ewing

Music for Da Soul

2006-04-11T08:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of some of the music I've been listening to lately. It is just as much for my reference as it is to share with all you. I have put a link to amazon to each of the songs so that you can check them out for free. When you click the link just scroll down to about the bottom of the page to preview them.

Hard Fi - Cash Machine

Citizen Cope

She Wants Revenge

Living Things

Blue October - Hate Me

No Address - When I'm Gone

1000 Foot Krutch - Move ... for some reason I couldn't find this one.

Stereoside - Hey Joe (one of my favorites)

Yeah Yeah Yeah - Gold Lion

Paranoid Social Club - Two Girls

Bran Van - Drinking in L.A.

Spiderbait - Black Betty

Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes (one of my favorites)

For King and Country!

2006-04-09T16:21:00.000-05:00

So today marked my debt into the Leigh High Valley Men's Soccer League. I couldn't have been more excited to compete alittle and meet some new people. To be completely honest I guess I had been to one practice and also an indoor game earlier in the week, but this was the first actual competitive game so you know.

So before I get into the actual event that pertained to the game you need to understand something about my soccer background. I would describe myself as a bit ... raw. I have never really played on an official "high level" team... the closest being KSU. All through high school I played a combination of sports never really focusing on anything for more than that season at a time. The reason I'm telling you this because of how I have to approach new teams. If you are not from America, speak with any ascent, or look strange (for any reason ... tattoos, hair, scowl... then I have to watch out cause you are prolly good). It makes more sense when you think about it and realize that I'm from KS, played more football than soccer in high school, and to be honest am a tad bit girthy for the sport. Again this reference will make sense in a sec so bare with me folks.

So as I get to the game and meet the players that were not at the indoor game and I come across a man through the like of which I have never meet. I got a picture of a very close likeness here. He was from London (or that was my best guess) and he was the captain of the team. This was obvious since the "Knight like" respect he commanded at his 6'5" stature and his weather beaten eyes that cut through a man like a knife. This man had command armies in another life ... that much I was sure. As I was introduce to him he responded with an elegant.. "Nice to meet ja". Apparently he would be playing goalie for us ... meaning that since I play defense he would be working right with me. I was ready. As I hinted before ... many men had died for this man on the field of battle and I knew that soon I would be one of those men. I prepared. As we went out on the field he gave me some instruction for marking the forwards. I simply responded with "Yes my Leag". We commenced battle and thing went about a usually do. Some good some bad... and all the while "My Leag" commanded us and we followed. Like an army with no hope of retreat we fought and continued to fight. With no subs "My Leag" realized that we where tired. He gave us some inspirational words at half time. I listen in awe and looked around for my sword... damn, left it at home. As we walked on to the field "My Leag" pulled me aside and gave me some instructions. Something like "Wat ja need to do is make space and then provide a run option for dat of the mid field". I have been playing soccer for most of my life and I really wasn't sure what he meant. However I responded with "Of course My Leag" and then gave a glorious battle cry and began to charge. He was a man worthy to die for ... I was ready.

In the end the war (game) was well fought. Morale was a bit low, but we would all be back again to fight... no ... to do what had to be done for our country next week and we all new that "My Leag" would lead us. Sadly ... we lost 1-6 and yes "My Leag" in goal was a bit ... geriatric being around mid 40's. Well to honest, they tore him apart. But since I thought that the game was just like a Mid-Evil battle I had a blast. More to come I'm sure... and as I write I got ask ... why do people read my blog. I mean seriously can anything be more random than this, let me honest with ourselves.

Inside my head .... Scary!

2006-03-29T13:07:00.000-06:00

So I have had some really really weird dreams the past couple of nights and I wanted to see if any of my avid readers had any comments for me.

Scoobydo Mystery

So I had this dream that I had to solve this mystery (like I was a PI or something) that involved this crazy complicated plot, all the details of the plot are really sketchy however I remember that every new clue lead me to another clue. It seemed that the there was a never ending trail that we where following. Also I had a whole team of people that each had special skills. He had a chemist for sure, a short guy that did something I was sure of, a whole slue of people that I didn't talk to, and for sure I was the leader (and for some reason I was blonde which made me think of that guy who leads Scooby's team). We never solved it, but I think that point is that this was really random and I don't have dreams very often.

Growing House with Random Roommate

The next night I had an even weirder dream that I remember more of. So I bought this house back home and my mom (who is a realestate agent) and she is walking me through the house showing it to me. I bought it for some reason without ever seeing it. As she shows me the house each room I go into I like and say "Great, this will be my room". My Mom smiles and says "ok, but there is more of the house to see". We continue to go to another room bigger than the first and I make the same statement and mom's reaction is the same. Finally after three rooms we come to the the biggest room I have ever seen. It is about as long as a High School Basketball gym and it has this awesome cathedral looking vaulted ceiling with a window right out of a gothic church. I was awestruck. It was the last room and I told her this was going to be mine. Then she tells me that I have to have a roommate and that he is the father of this guy that I went to high school with but didn't know very well. I through a fit like when I was junior high, but since my mom said I had to I finally just got over it and she left me in my huge room. When I walked into the room alone I looked back at the door seeing stairs that led to a loft above the entrance way. I went up to see an attic looking unfinished area with free weights everywhere and two talking German shepherds. One of the dogs talked to me while I did some pull ups and curls with the free weights. He told me that he was going to sleep on the foot of my bed and his friend (the other German Shepard) was going to sleep up here. I agreed since I really wanted a German Shepard and now I have two of them. At the end of that conversation I woke up.

... Weird ... That is all I can say ...

East Coast Meets The Brothers

2006-03-28T16:32:00.000-06:00

My brothers came to visit over their Spring Break since neither Kevin or Jarrett had seen the East Coast. They got here on Friday and that following Saturday we where off to NYC.

My plan was to drive into New Jersey and then take two subways into the city to beat the traffic. Due to my lack of a printer at home and some slight vague directions our trip to the Big Apple was off to what would be a steadily rough trip, full of wandering and Kevin opening the window for air. After a bit of work and me getting friendly with the natives of the "Armpit State" we did find the first subway and we where on our way to Ground Zero in the heart of NYC. I think that it is more of a shock than more people think because it is pretty ez to realize that the damage done was extensive, because there are plenty of large building right next to this huge gaping whole in the ground.

So then of course we needed to go to see the Statue of Liberty. I figured that was a minimum to any first trip to NYC. After my very calculated and engineering like deduction of the New York Subway System I decided that it was going to take 3 subways to get where we needed to go. For those who are curious. After taking two of them and then finding out that one was broken and replaced with a public bus we did make it after a slight detour heading east on Canal Street. A note about Canal Street... it is pretty much just like Tijuana, Mexico you can buy anything you want just know that it is fake, stolen, or broken and each of your purchases come with your choice of either a joint or complimentary sniff of crack. For those of you who know my brother Kevin ... lets just say that he was not happy.

However after much deliberation and my making more friends in the Big Apple we did make it to the harbor where we got in line to take the boat over. Something else that most of you might be interested to know is that to get over to Liberty Island is just like taking a flight in an airport, you have to go thur all the x-ray machines and deal with the cop that says, "ok Sir walk forward thur the metal detector... HEY NOT YOU JUST THE FIRST GUY! (Officer pulls gun and waving it, everyone screams, then the officer calms down and the line proceeds). You then take a 20 min boat ride over to Liberty Island and there lies the Statue of Liberty. We walked around and took some picture. It was cold as hell of course since it was 40 degrees and we where in the middle of a bay. Of course I told everyone that it would be this cold and so I'm sure you all guessed that both my brothers where well dressed and not freezing their A** off... right Jarret. We then headed back to the main land where we made the greatest discovery of the entire trip... an epiphany really. When we got off the boat and started walking toward the nearest subway station. When we got there we where at the very same subway station that was located at the World Trade Center... how could his be we talked only three blocks?? Well sure enough my well college education and all that math didn't do crap for reading that subway map and turns out that those two subways and 1 bus to get here was totally unnecessary. Trust me Kevin was trilled. We then went to get some pizza and everyone decided that they had had enough and we headed back.

No big troubles on the way back and we did do a bit more than what I just gave for an account of the day, however those are the highlights. Kevin ended the day vowing never to turn to the Big Apple.

The next day we decided that after we all slept in that we would head out to Philly. Which I was much happier about since I'm very familiar with the old part of the city and the historic part so I knew that the troubles we ran into in NYC where not going to reoccur. However for the record I think that trust was alittle shakey. We just drove around the old part of the city and saw the statues and "old world" stuff. I dont think that either one of my brothers had much interest in it. We when went to Geno's and had some orginal Philidephia Steak Sandwiches, and you know that I order them in the proper lingo. After that we headed to South Street and walked around and had a drink in a local bar. Good times, Good times.

All in all I think it was a pretty good trip and it was sure to good to see the bro's. I will post some pictures of it when I get a chance so go back and check this post later in the week.

It Ain't All Bad

2006-03-15T09:39:00.000-06:00

So a couple of nights ago my computer died for reason that I know everyone is dying to know about, but alas I will leave that for another extremely interesting post in the future. So I was left with nothing to do, but go lift and .... ???

Well it was about 70 degrees and it was just starting to rain a little. So with every window in the apartment cracked or open. I ended up reading The Da Vinci Code for about 3 hours before going to bed. Sounds dumb, but I hadn't felt so relaxed in I don't know how long. Goes to show that as much a routine guy that I am maybe I need to break those habits more than once in a while. Oh and this time I'm sure that I will finish the book, as I got through about 1/3 of it before school started.

Oh and I got the computer fixed the next day.

From KS to PA, What you need to know...

2006-03-12T21:30:00.000-06:00

I thought that I would help out my fellow Kansians and create of list of all the crazy stuff that I came across out here that is different from back home. That way anyone following in my foot steps might find this useful. I will prolly add to this list occansionally as my always growing knowledge needs to be shared with the world, seriously.

ATM's are called MAC's out here, just like the Big Mac at McDonalds

Ugh, so Pop is called Soda again. I had a hard enough time changing to call it pop because my parents all it soda in Kindergarden. Geez.

This is the land of classic rock. Just get used to it. No matter what the genre of station they will find a way to play some classic rock. It is so bad that every morning I listen to David Lee Roth's morning radio station. I know, I thought he was dead long ago.

A special ability that I think only us Kansians have is that we instantly know if you are from Philly, NYC, The Bronx, or Jersey. Trust me, just go with your gut everyone, you will be right. I'm good enough to tell them apart yet, but I know you are not from a small town east coast.

If you order a lager at a bar/pub you will get a great beer called Yuengling. It isn't all that light, but it isn't a dark beer either. I would describe it as a heavier version of Shinerbock.

Don't try to understand the code that is involved in ordering a Philly Cheese Steak from inside Philly. You will not understand it without years of training. It is basically like learning Japanese.

For those of you who live in eastern KS, the roads in New Jersey are just as bad as Missiouri ... the only difference is that the entire state smells like a very faint fart.

Also on driving, here in the east coast they don't believe in "on-ramps" on the highways instead they have what I like to call "Floor-it-or-die-entry-points". You would like to think that "oh they will get over", well my friend you faith in humanity will soon be gone as will your side view mirror.

I like the snow here, and winter overall. It is light and fluffy with the temperature drops that are not as bad as in KS. So welcome it.

If you are in an uncomfortable situtation with anyone on the east coast all you have to do is use the word "Reckon". For example, I "Reckon" I'll buy ya a beer... after spilling it on someone. They will instantly ask where you are from. With the combination of being from KS and using this lingo those two things with remove you from fault of any situtation. Using "Howdy" can also yeild similiar responses... use wisely.

I think that the most important think to remember is that we have no accent. Everyone else in the world talks funny so when they say something about your accent stick to your guns people. We from the Mid West read news on TV everywhere to the world and therefore speak english the way it was meant to be spoken!

The Sposto Interactive Team

2006-03-07T12:41:00.000-06:00

Here is the gang I work with. I will list them all from left to right and top to bottom.

Kim, she is the secretary, gate keeper, and candy supplier of the office. Jay, he is a graphic designer, my neighbor, and makes all dress decisions for the office. Tom, he is the man right under Jim (the owner), a graphic designer, and continues to drink with me at lunch. Mike, he is the only other tech guy other than myself that keeps this office running, he does some php stuff, and handles the server. Me ... I'm the man. (Start the bottom row) Keegan, he is the office copy-writer, keeper of all the secrets of Kutztown, and trainer of wild rabbits (crazy but true). Jason, he is a graphic designer, real estate mogul, and owns a big full beard. Jim and Carol are not in this picture. Jim is the owner of the company and Carol his wife who keeps books for Sposto Interactive.

Philly with Mommy

2006-03-05T15:20:00.000-06:00

	Well my mom came down for the week to see how I was doing and basically just hangout for a couple of days. Nothing really to crazy to tell. We did some "Mom Stuff" like go shopping for the random stuff that I just don't think I need ... like that plastic thing that sorts you silverware. Of course I had to take her to IKEA where I racked up another large tab that she graciously helped me out with. The end result being that my apartment looks great! I promise that I will get some pictures of it up here soon. I took a video tour of it, but it just looked crappy so I will give that a second shot here in a couple of days.
	I posted some pictures of Philadelphia. The city is amazing. The old colonial architecture is like nothing I have ever seen. Just walking around downtown I think you can get a pretty good guess at what it looked like 100's of years ago.
	More specifically, some of the picture are of the historic downtown district (those are the really really nice looking row houses), a few picture of just general downtown, a picture of what I guess is the house of the smelliest guy in Philly, and me on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum make the rocky pose on the very same steps that the man himself did.
	The brothers are coming up soon and we are going to go up to NYC so I'm sure there will be more pictures up soon.

Mark Ryden

2006-02-17T14:10:00.000-06:00

This is some really far out art that I came across. Although I don't support how he uses Jesus in some of the paintings I thought that some of you might find this as interesting as I did.

You can find more of his here, and believe it or not it is weird than the stuff I posted on my blog.

And So Begins My Professional Career as a Starving Artist

2006-02-14T09:40:00.002-06:00

This is a conversation I had early this morning via email

Hello,

I am a Psychology student from the University of Teesside in the United Kingdom, I am sending this e-mail to ask permission to use a photograph of yours for decorartive purposes for a presentation of my thesis. This e-mail is also a copyright enquiry in regards to the use of the photograph. Thanks for your time.

Mr J Dodsworth

My first thought was crap. He found one of my super imposed heads and since he is a psych student he is going to put me in his thesis as a crazy person. I knew this would happen and I should know better than to put stuff like this out on the web. So had to protect myself as best I could and determine what this guy was talking about.

Which photograph might that be exactly?

Ryan Dunn

As he replied a grin crosses my rugged handsome face.

http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~ryand/portfolio/art.html it

is the blue chrome eye

thanks

Sure you are welcome to use that image. Thank you for asking.

T.A.F.K.A.R.

Ha Ha! That is one of my only attempts at art and this poor guy likes it. Well I think that pretty much makes the decision for me. I'm quitting tomorrow and beginning a tour in abstract art with an emphasis in mating rituals as I have recently become an expert as Rachelle now knows after I had to explain to her what certain abstract art really meant in certain cases. Feel free to check out my art as I am a professional as of today.

Also as you might have noticed in the last response I changed my name to "The Artist Formally Known As Ryan" or T.A.F.K.A.R. I would appreciate all correspondance to me from now on to address as such, thank you.

2006-02-03T16:07:00.000-06:00

As promised ... me in my debut as a professional street hockey goalie.

The Working World (Part 2)

2006-01-27T16:02:00.001-06:00

A Single tears drops symbolizing the lack of an internet connection at my house...

So I'm beginning to consider myself more and more "East Coast" each day. After work a bunch of the guys from work decided that we should all get together and play some Street Hockey. My response was of course, "Garsh Fellas I'm from Kansas, and thar we don't be playin much of the Hockeyball, but I rekon I'll give it a shot". Jay and I then proceeded to buy some equipment and later that night we meet for my first ever game of street hockey. It was fun, but of course I lacked any skill necessary to play the game correctly, instead I just swung as hard as I could and in the process of half missing the puck I also would nearly break my stick on the asphalt everytime from swinging under it. I'm sure that most of my adoring public will also be happy to know that since my inital introduction to Street Hockey I have since played it again as the goal keeper in full street hockey gear (this means that I have the leg pads, a baseball glove, a few random pads with straps on them, cardboard put in places necessary to preserve my off spring, and a hockey mask). There is documentation of this and I will post these pictures up as soon as I can get them.

Other than that nothing really all that crazy. I finally got work sorted out so that now I feel like i'm doing something productive, which is nice. I'm going to see some family in Connecticut which should be fun. It is about a 5 hour trip out there so I'm taking off right after work with any luck should get there around mid-night if I stop to eat.

The Working World (Part 2)

2006-01-27T16:02:00.000-06:00

A Single tears drop symbolizing the lack of an internet connection at my house...

So I'm beginning to consider myself more and more "East Coast" each day. After work a bunch of the guys from work decided that we should all get together and play some Street Hockey. My response was of course, "Garsh Fellas I'm from Kansas, and thar we don't be playin much of the Hockeyball, but I rekon I'll give it a shot". Jay and I then proceeded to buy some equipment and later that night we meet for my first ever game of street hockey. It was fun, but of course I lacked any skill necessary to play the game correctly, instead I just swung as hard as I could and in the process of half missing the puck I also would nearly break my stick on the asphalt everytime from swinging under it. I'm sure that most of my adoring public will also be happy to know that since my inital introduction to Street Hockey I have since played it again as the goal keeper in full street hockey gear (this means that I have the leg pads, a baseball glove, a few random pads with straps on them, cardboard put in places necessary to preserve my off spring, and a hockey mask). There is documentation of this and I will post these pictures up as soon as I can get them.

Other than that nothing really all that crazy. I finally got work sorted out so that now I feel like i'm doing something productive, which is nice. I'm going to see some family in Connecticut which should be fun. It is about a 5 hour trip out there so I'm taking off right after work with any luck should get there around mid-night if I stop to eat.

The Working World (Part 1)

2006-01-18T13:25:00.000-06:00

Well I guess I will start by describing my job to everyone. I work for Sposto Interactive. They work mainly on advertisement material, logo work, banners, and that type of stuff. They are getting more and more into web and that is where I come in. My official title here is Web Developer and I mainly work on backend scripts and databases that drive these scripts. It is fun since I get to work with a lot of graphic designers and creative type people. I work in a very open area (no cubicle) that is about what you would assume a graphic designer type person would work in. As of yet I haven't really had all that much to do and since there is only one other guy that has similar discipline as I we also end up becoming the tech support team. Which I actually love since I get to work on all kinds of different stuff in a typical day. We are moving to a new office in Feb which is WAY bigger than where we are at now. It is a renovated old shoe factory. From the outside it looks old as hell, but we are on the second floor and it is amazing on the inside. So once everything gets settled I will get some pictures of it.

In other news my transition out to PA hasn't exactly been as smooth as I had hoped. From the looks of it I will be without internet until around the middle Feb which makes me feel all the more distant from home. Also I had some major trouble with my cell phone so up until about 3 days ago I was feeling like I was on a another planet. But honestly every day is better than the last. I joined a gym called ... "The Gym", not exactly the biggest thing you have ever seen, but it has almost everything I need. I think that hardest thing has been changing from Manhattan where I can go anywhere and people in totally random places know me to here where I don't know a soul and it is much harder than I thought to meet people. I have stuff that I'm going to join as soon as I get that first pay check, but that is all down the road and in all honesty I knew that beginning months of making a move like this is harder that it looks from Merrick and Brandi already doing this.

I really got to get some pictures up of the landscape and architecture of the buildings out here. It is totally crazy. I want to tell more, but I just can't do it justice without some pictures so I will wait. Downtown is very similar in shops, bars, and restaurants to Manhattan and I love that. Looks like I might have to make a run or two the some the bars around town and meet some of the local college kids. I have already gotten some major crap for the Kansas DL when I went to buy some beer from a local liquor store. The guy had never seen one before and actually dug out the book to see if it was even real. After I also showed him my KSU college ID he finally bought it.

Whoa ... The Working World (Part 0)

2006-01-13T16:19:00.000-06:00

I wanted to let everyone know that I'm all moved out to my new apartment in Kutztown, PA. I have a ton of stuff to put up on this blog ... pictures, info on my place, works, the move, my new car, and on and on and on.

I promise I will get it all up, but at the moment I don't have internet access (and it doesn't look like I will get it soon), but when I do I will get everything posted. So shoot me an email and I will see if I can get back to ya soon.

More to come ...

A Quick One

2005-11-22T10:03:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to put up some links that my brother forwarded me from his internship at N.A.S.A. there are great photo's at this site. I had never heard of it til now and I thought that some of you might really enjoy checking them out.

GRIN

GRIN - Shuttle Pictures

In other news I'm buying an '01 Durango today. I will post some picture later this week, so I will just wait til then to explain I bought this car so fast. Since I'm assuming most of you didn't even know I was looking for one.

$2.50 ... you have got to be kidding

2005-11-11T10:45:00.000-06:00

I'm just going to cry alittle here.

So I got up on this fine Friday morning just a bit hung over from going out with Maurico and Jaun Pedro last night. It was a fun time, we bar hopped little and then ended up at P.J.'s for some salsa dancing that I decide not to partake in since there where to many innocent bystanders. Anyway back to my morning ... none the less a like I said a bit hungover out of bed and out the door I went. I decided to skip Chem II lab this morning. It had been a very long week and Howell's test had killed about 5 solid days of anything productive other than studying so I think I earned it. So I decided to run some errands.

I first had to renew my DL and the local DMV. No big deal ... I had already filled out the test and so all I needed to do was fill out some paper work and take the eye test. Well hard to do when they are closed on Veteran's Day and worse yet they will not be open again until the 15th! Ah crap... well hope I don't get pulled over til then. So on to the next errand. I had to run to the bank and take care of some stuff. Well right now those wiser than me already know what happens next. Yep, bank closed and worse yet there is a Veteran's Day parade going on in front of the damn thing so needless to say that took a while to get turned around and outta there with nothing to show for my efforts. At this point I'm just thinking cut your loses and go to work you poor fool. So I do get to work without getting into any more trouble. I got up, logged in, and decided that since my brain had shrunk and was dried up from the night before I need something to drink. Well I went down and attempted to get an OJ out of vending machine #1. After two tries it decided that it was hungrier than I was thirsty and eat my dollar without even saying thank you. Irritated I went on to Vending Machine #2 (this one is one of those old rotating ones from the 70's that spins and you open the door you want when it comes around). I did some investigating to the contents of this apparatus and bless my luck stars an OJ came around. So I happily decided to pay $.75 for this delectable juice of the gods. Unforunately it was not to be ... the spinner was old and when I opened the door the OJ drawer was only half in the window thus it could not be extracted despite by best efforts to break the machine and crush the can. At this point I took my morning as a personal challegne from God and decided that I would indeed have my OJ. I was very careful and got the spinner perfect this time inserting the very last of my hard earned cash into the disco style Vending Machine of Satan and took out my victorious OJ. Thus costing me about 20 minutes and $2.50 for the nector I so yearned for. From there I came to type this blog entry which I feel is the only just outlet for such events. A good story I know, but really I don't feel bad about an entry like this because I think that those who know me expect this stuff outta me.

Halloween 05

2005-11-10T12:03:00.000-06:00

I just thought I would let everyone know that I put up some pictures from Halloween. It was fun, we went out both Thursday and Saturday (I think). So the picture are a bit scattered around between those nights. Go to the pic's link above and they are under Halloween 05.

I know ... I know

2005-11-08T12:07:00.000-06:00

I'm not going to appologize for not posting in such a long time, life has been a bit crazy. I will do my best to recap the major points. If I start appologizing for being late with posts to this blog then I will be appologizing every other post.

The major thing that happened is that I got a job. Holy Moly! I will be doing web developement work for SPOSTO Interactive. I'm pumped as all heck about the job. I will be starting on Jan 10, 2006. They are located in Kutztown, PA which will be interesting since since the town is about 6k people ... hhhhmmmm. Wish me luck with any hope of retaining a social life. More about the job, they have about 10 people working there. Right now there is only 1 tech guy ... me being the second. So I should be getting some MAJOR experience working there. I will drop by the blog with updates to the move; apartement, work, and people I meet.

In other news I had a great b-day (11.04.05 if you are wondering). Rachelle your the best. She got everyone (Mike, Jarrett, Kyle, Katie, Sarah) to meet me for dinner on my b-day at Old Chicago. Afterwards we went out the bars and I had a great time, and I'm sure that everyone loved putting up with drunk Ryan. But the way I figure I have baby-sat for everyone there but Katie so I didn't feel to bad.

The next day we (Jarrett, Rachelle, and I) went back to Louisburg to hang out with the folks. It was nice, we went out to eat and shopped at bit. I made a purchase or two that might prove to be interesting if I choose to grace the ville with it, but that is all I'm going to say about that.

o.0

Later that night a lot of us went camping. It was a blast, plus a I got to see Erin. Seems like it has been so long since I had got hang out with ya.

I will try to be a bit better about posting to this, but at the moment life is complete crazy. I have to take a class or two VERY seriously to make sure that I graduate when I want. So that plus preparing for graduation and the move leave me about no time to do anything else.

School, Soccer ... Is there time for anything else??

2005-08-31T12:20:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: I'm going to be whining for the majority of this post, be warned.

Well classes are in full swing, the weather is hot as hell, and I find myself being pulled in about 50 directions at once. However, once again I have no to blame, but myself. Without boring everyone with my list of duties I'm just going to say that I'm a bit worn out. The main offender being Soccer. We have been practicing for 5 days straight and when the week is finally over I will have had 6 practices and a game in 8 days. Needless to say ... my body hates me. It is nice to get back into a competitive sport again. We should do pretty well this year since we got a hole batch of new talent plus most of the core of last years team. The main difference this year probably being the depth of our team.

Rachelle is good well. She graciously accepted my invitation to a wedding back home. Such a trip implies meeting the parents... dun dun dun. Honestly I'm not really all that worried about it. I'm sure it will be a fun trip and with any luck I might get to catch up with a couple of people back home. On that subject I think that it is going to interesting to see how she and I can manage our hectic and very unrelated schedules to find some time to see each other. At the moment soccer it totally screwing up any chance I have with scheduling time to see her regularly this week, let alone any time to get some homework done.

As the front up date goes the news is ... is goes (I guess). Nothing any more solid that a couple of interviews that are tentatively scheduled for later in the semester. Which means that I will just keep trucking applying for anything that is fun and relevant to my career? I'm keeping the wise words of a Computer Engineering Sage in mind and I'm not going to pin all my hopes on a single company. I'm just going to keep looking and looking until I have a solid offer on the table, but the record I do have a couple of favorites picked out.

In case some of my loyal readers are wondering "Where the hell are those stories about the Cow Murderer??" Well I have had about no time to even think of playing out that saga, however as soon as I find time I will be sure to put up next chapter to the Purple, Brown, and Yellow story.

Summer Soccer ... a bit late

2005-08-17T10:55:00.000-05:00

Well I thought that I would just toss a quick post about the soccer team I was on this summer. We played in a 6v6 league with about 9 teams. We got sponsored by Kites (a local bar) and we end up winning the league. We were an unruley bunch.

2005-08-08T20:46:00.000-05:00

There didn't seem to be anything left for Brown to do. Would Yellow's killer walk free?? Brown couldn't shake off the thought of it. He had to find the strength to go on, but where or how? It seemed he was all out of opinions. Hope was never Brown's thing, hard work, long hours, doing what the next guy wouldn't ... that was what made Brown better than that next guy, that simple. That was the worst of it, there Brown found himself asleep in the crime lab, dreaming. No, hoping for a the answer.

2005-08-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

"You killed him in COLD BLOOD! Damn it!" the interigation had lasted just over 18 hours now (some of the men thought that Brown would never sleep, but now it was becoming obvious the stress of the case and the obsession Brown carried for this case was getting to him). I want to talk to my lawyer. I have got nothing left to say to you. Talk to me when you something solid to stand on. Your nothing more than a strung out beat cop Brown, and the worse thing is ... you know it. Purple then got up and walked out, there was nothing left for Brown to do.

2005-08-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

Purple was everything that Brown thought he would be; tough, quick witted, and worse of all he seemed to know that Brown just didn't have enough to pin the murder on him. But that wasn't going to stop Brown from taking out those long night in the Lab on Purple. This was going to take all night ... and Brown was going to enjoy every minute of it. Purple would leave when Brown was good and ready and not a moment before.

2005-08-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

Morning approaches ... the judge has just granted a warrant for the arrest of Purple based on the case evidence that Brown has collected. One piece, however, Yellow's squeaker, was un-recovered which seems to be a bit too convenient for Brown's liking. Nonetheless it is only a matter of time before Brown can break him. "I have been waiting for chance at Purple for a long time. He is the kind of person everyone wants a shot at, but no one can get", says Brown.

2005-08-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

Brown has recreated the crime scence of Yellows death back at the office in the CSI Lab located at 801 Brockman.

It has been nearly three days since Brown has slept. Yet he continues to press on. His only conforting thought being that Yellows killer will be subdued behind bars in matter of days. Tirelessly he continues to work in to the night.

2005-08-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

As Brown works on the case all he can promise anyone is that Justice will be done. That much we can all be sure ... More to come

2005-08-03T22:28:00.000-05:00

Meet Brown. He is brought into investigate the case of the death of Yellow. The graphic nature of this murder implies that it is a homicide, however not premeditated. Brown has a history of case work with the CIA and FBI.

2005-08-03T22:27:00.000-05:00

Again graphic evidence that Purple is a cold blooded killer.

2005-08-03T22:26:00.001-05:00

The next few images may be to graphic for young childern.

2005-08-03T22:26:00.000-05:00

In the aftermath Purple could not believe what he had done. As he screamed in agony he realized the truth of it all ... that he had disemboweled Yellow removing his prize squeeker in the process.

2005-08-03T22:23:00.000-05:00

In the next few moments pure choas ensued.

2005-08-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

One night however Purple had been drinking Vodka and it came up that Purple doesn't have a sqeeker (Yellow has one of the squeekers in Kansas). As the arguement continued Purple became violent and threatened Yellow with his life.

2005-08-03T22:20:00.000-05:00

This is Yellow and Purple. They are close personal friends of Blue. Yellow and Purple have been friends their entire life. They take long walks, enjoy candles before bed, and a nice glass of chardonnay occasionally.

The Web Monkey finally choses a Tree

2005-08-03T10:08:00.000-05:00

As usual not a lot of ground breaking stuff going on. I also want to give a shout out to Craig my other loyal reader. A quick update of past subjects ... Rachelle and I are doing really well, the job search has hit a lull (more like I have backed off a bit, but I will talk more about that later), and I got www.redunndancy.com up and working with a layout that I really like. It is pure CSS with the only graphic being my photo. For the record I don't know what posses me to put up pictures of myself like that. I think that they are funny as crap, but there are always those days when I wake up in a less than stellar mood. Those days I take a look at a picture of myself like that and just shake my head in wonder of what is exactly wrong with me :)

As far as the job goes I found one that I am really really pumped about, namely QuinnStreet, however my zealousness has bit me in butt alittle. They are located in San Fransico which I think it would be cool as hell to live there for a while. I think that this job might cause me to focus a bit more in that area since there are a lot of jobs out there and the more I look at that area it looks like what I'm searching for at this point. Ah well, I think it is funny how I get excited about these jobs, when in all honesty still have no idea how all this is going to work out.

I have got a photogallery up at Redunndancy.com with quite a few pictures of all kinds of random stuff so if anyone is trying to burn some time check it out.

2005-08-01T16:03:00.000-05:00

This is Blue watching TV with Jon and Brian. At 801 Brockman we believe that good posture is important at all times and applies to all residents which is why Blue fits in so well over here.

2005-07-30T12:55:00.001-05:00

This is Scooter and my roommate Jon.

2005-07-30T12:55:00.000-05:00

Working at the SAnToS Lab is tough. We are thinking of forming a SAnToS Lab Slaves Union. Master Todd is relentless in his expectations of us.

Relentless Posting

2005-07-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

What is this, it can't be! A posting back to back days? That is unheard of.

I know, I know. I just couldn't help but spoil all my avid readers out there with another rich post of charades and antiques. FYI: "Avid Reader" = Thomas Overly. The reason for all this posting really is because that I work on a some what neglected machine. By that I certain am not taking a shot at our systems team. They are always very quick in fixing anything that is wrong. I just mean that standards updates are not done on this box. Hence forth when something goes wrong with the Linux server and I can't login I just boot into Windows. Uhh ... well no one does this so I can do little else than check email and run around on the web. No shell options, I'm missing over half the programs I need, and my privileges are about the same as what my daughter's first boyfriend will have on their first (and last) date. Thus I figure I might as well address my adoring public.

Well in some what recent new I do have a girl friend. I know that it is hard to believe, but I actually found a girl that is willing to put up with me. She's great, her name is Rachelle and she was my neighbor for about a 1.5 years. Just in case you are wondering no we are not neighbors anymore. I think that I will leave the details about her out of this post since I feel that I need to protect the innocent, however if you have any questions about her just email me or something.

The job market is finally acting like something other than **. I got a really good opportunity with a company in San Fransico right now. I don't know if it will pan out or not, but damn it is nice to just be in contact with people interested in hiring me. This at least gives me hope that one day I will be employed. The job is in web development and I would be working in PHP. As more happens I will relay more to you guys, but at this point I just don’t want to jinks it.

The Aftermath of St. Louis

2005-07-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

I have been neglecting this thing for quite a while now and I really dont have the time to give a good update and retell the perils of St. Louis journey in one sitting so I will just give ya the STL low down and save all the intersting stuff about me for another time.

Brian, Kevin (my Bro), and Jimmy went with me out to St. Louis to hang out with Michael for the weekend. I'm pretty sure that he (Mike) is totally bored and that the trip was a bit over due. We got out there friday at about 4:00pm, I'm one anal bastard and I wouldn't let anyone drive up or back buy yours truely. We then pretty much just dropped off our stuff and went straight to the horse track. This is my first true experience with gambling and I did my best to take from it everything I could. Brian is an advid gambler and by avid I mean I hate him because he wins enough to make be want to learn this crap. So he and Jimmy explained to me how all this works and I sure as hell bet a whooping 4$ and came away winning back $3 of it. I know it is pretty pathetic isn't it. It was a good time, but take it from me the buffet in these places are gut wrenchingly bad ... if you are thinking "how bad can it be" well I dare you to try it.

The next day we just hung out at the house ... by hung out I mean slept. I got up to eat lunch and then just went back to bed sleeping for a whooping 16 hours. It was glorious to say the least. That night Brian got sick so we went out the Landing a man short.

When we got there the Landing they where pretty much like a combination of Westport (KCMO bar district) and good old Aggieville. Pretty standard stuff, but fun none the less. We started off with a couple of beers on the porch of a bar classed the "Study Hall". Out of no where Mike brings us each a nasty ass Tequila shot. Which we all reluctantly took. We were all a bit irritated at the shot choice, but hey you gotta take what some gives ya and be grateful right! Well lucky for us good ole Mike decided 20 minutes that another round of shots of the same gasoline flavor Tequila would be a good idea. He forgot that char ma is a bitch and when he returned with 5 shots one of our friends had left and thus 5 shots, 4 people ... uh ho. Well there was no way I was going to take that damn thing so Mike said he would take two shots. I specifically remember saying you will puke if you do that. Well he did .... and he did, right in the middle of the front porch of the bar. People where not all happy. hahaha, but I died laughing. So after that little incident we moved on to a couple other bars. In our travels we meet up with a co-worker of Mike's ... namely Allen. He was the one that directed us to bar called Buca's. This bar was truly the most interesting part of the trip. For those of you who are familiar with Manhattan, this bar is combination of Joe's Tap Room and Annie-May's. It was nutz ... rave music, girls dancing on the bar and the waitress where all dress in S&M gear. I had a blast but I think that it definitely was not Kevin's sence. I guess Mike liked it too ... I lost him for most of the stent in that bar, but he was drunk enough to make out with three different girls ... allegedly! hahah well done my good man well done. I hope you called that last one. That pretty much concluded our bar run to St. Louis.

On the way out of Waterloo (the small town Mike lives in outside the city of St. Louis). I got a damn ticket for a total bullcrap speedzone. The cop was a total ass, but Brian and Jimmy split the ticket for which I am eternally grateful. Thanks again guys.

2005-07-04T15:15:00.000-05:00

This is Red ... Kevin's pure bred Australian Shepard (8 weeks old).

What is the password to enter the "Real World"?

2005-06-07T13:06:00.000-05:00

Ugh, the word job search was always something that I actually welcomed in my younger years. It was synonymous with the thought process of what crazy interesting thing might I end up doing this summer? Well I guess those days have officially ended with the near termination of my college career. Since I am truly a totally anal person when it comes to my own life and the events that revolve around it I have started my job search now with my graduation date (potential starting job date) of Dec 05. A whole 6 months in advance. Yes, this is the first round in the bout against "the Man" for a job, but I can already see this is going to be tougher than I thought. I figured with a CS degree and nearly two years of Web Development training under my belt I would be snatched up quickly. Well ... I will let you know when the snatching begin, and don't hold your breath.

In other news ... I'M BORED! Which really isn't fair since I do all kinds of stuff. I just got to used to running around to the bars, soccer, parties, ect going on all the time. Thus, the summer seems so slow. I am having a good time and the lack of social stuff is giving me time that I really do need to spend on my resume and portfolio which are looking pretty good if I do say so myself. I guess in all honesty I think that I'm just freaking out in general since my life is going to be in total upheaval come December.

So all this complaining about absolutely nothing is just a result of the job searching and possibly the fact that I have 1,000,000 weddings to go to. Each of which is accompanied by running into all kinds of people I haven't seen in ages all telling me of there engagements or marriages. But to be honest I don't want to get married right now. I feel no reason to chase something just because a large amount of people are "doing it." admittedly I would jump at the chance for a steady relationship right now, but I have way to much that I want to do before I'm ready to willing take on the responsibility of another person, let alone a family. whoa. WHOA. But on the up side the only persont that I feel has actually succcssfully entered the working world is Thomas and I think that I'm heading down that road with nothing but bright skies ahead, even if I'm going to have to fight tooth and nail to get there.

High on Life

2005-05-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

Well I passed everything and I'm pumped as hell. I pretty much feel like graduating will be no big deal after that damn Spring '05 Semester. Geezus. So consequently I will be a good mood for about a month and half not matter what explodes, any crisises that occur, or whatever else evil could happen to me.

Now my time is going to be spent either at work or attempting to find ways to entertain myself with plethora of resources that await a college student over the summer in Manhattan ... namely, drinking. I do my best to play soccer regularly (prolly 3-4 times a week) and lift on days when I don't. But all that running and lifting goes to crap when I have nothing to do when I get done and someone wants to go to the bars. Cause hell I'm just chillin (in the words of Will Overly) all by my lonesome. So off I go ... every single time. Which is fun, but geez, how long can I keep it up?? Only time will tell hahaha. I really need to find something else to do that doesn't involve a bar in aggieville. I'm totally open to suggestions here folks, so if you got them then lets here 'em. Looks like I'm going to try to get an intramural softball team going, but at first glance you would think oh good job that is something not related to bars or alcohol, but when you think about it all that is going to do is cause more bars and drinking since we are all just going to go out as soon as we are all done with the game ... uuuhhh. It is tough being a college kid.

Ha, in other news since I don't have the normal large posse to run around with I'm meeting more new people and have been lucky enough to have meet a couple of cute girls in my bar excursions. In all my smoothness I also managed a crushing defeat (again) when attempting to extract a means of communication via wireless electronic device upon my departure with one specific female. Ah well, I hate trying to pick up on girls at a bar, but obviously I need the practice so I'm sure that there will be more to come on the female failings of Ryan Dunn. I'm debating how much information I want to give on these recollections since I feel it is necessary to protect the innocent at all cost. So the details may suffer as a result.

Did I earn that sigh of relief?

2005-05-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

Well finals are finally all over with. I couldn't be more glad to be done with them all. However, I might have made a mistake which only time will tell if I did. The problem was that I focused SO much on beating Dan and both of his classes that blew off another one of my classes thinking first that I would be able to pass anyway and further more that information in the class is useless (which is still is). The point is that this class's final was on Friday, and was my last one of the marathon. We will see how I did, but in retro-spec I would have spent a bit more time on that, hhmmm... good thing that I'm writ ting this down. I think that done day I will come back and read this hopefully stopping myself from making the same mistake even if I do get by or not.

In other news (as one might assume) the Aggieville (the bar district of Manhattan) was crazy. I went out on Tuesday the week before and did my best to drink all the alcohol in Aggieville so by the time that graduation weekend came around I really didn't have it in me. Dan, when I turned in cis726 I just about just quit right there, and that was the main reason for celebrating on so early. But as the story goes we were out because any self respecting college student should be having finals all over with. *By we I mean Kevin and I*. We started off our Friday night at Fats which is where we usually begin and end our evening in the ville. Before I continue with this story I want any girl who is reading this to asses the situation I lay out and see if this might convenience the bitchy'er ones of you to react differently next time this happens to you.

We were just sitting there completely and utterly minding our own business at a table in the middle of the room. Out of know were this guy who was so drunk he couldn't stand just hugs Kevin from behind. Kevin turned around seeing that this was unfortunately not a girl and immediately told guy "I don't know you man, get the hell off me". So then I turned to me and tries to hug me. Put my hand in the middle of his chest and respond with the same line as my brother. He then tried to hug Kevin again and when Kevin puts his hand out and stops his approach he falls down. Thus the situation looks like Kevin just pushed down the totally drunk dude, which may in all honesty not be far the truth. However, either way this probably would fall again and had also done so earlier. This is when the trouble starts with drunk a** lying in the middle of the bar floor. His friend picks him up and says "hey sorry he's drunk." Which in my opinion is good form. I respond with "good deal, none of us want any trouble." Thus it looks like the situation is resolved except that this damn blond girl is yelling at Kevin for being an ass to her drunk friend. She then attempts to tell every male in the bar that she has any relation to that Kevin and I "are trying to start a fight." She even told the bounce to kick us out which is great since we know the guy. The end result being that we left, mainly to just avoid any more confrontation that would have been totally unnecessary. The point I want to make with this story is that this blond girl could have really started a large fight, and worse yet was trying to. I'm sure that he was mad that her friend got pushed down and probably with good reason, but I honestly think that she was no idea of the repercussions of a fight and she need to watch her damn mouth next time. I have been involved in damn many situations like this and worse yet if a girl would shut her mouth and not act like we need to be macho and do something then at least a few fights may not be the end result of some unfortunate situations.

Almost There

2005-05-10T11:30:00.000-05:00

Well I knew that there would be times when I let this blog go un-used. But instead of apologizing every time I do I'm just going to keep right on going, just leaving out all the unimportant stuff that happened in the mean time.

The reason for the latency of this post is due to the fact that my good buddy and Professor Dan Andresen has enjoyed taking up all of my free time with the two hardest classes I have ever experienced in college, worst yet taken in the same semester. But hey in the end I'm a better person for it. I learned a hell of a lot and feel like I really got something out of the last couple of months. The main project was a semester long that Jason Pack and I teamed up on. It was a search engine with a ton of features for the Biology Department at KSU. Here is a link to it, but the web server is running on a free version of IIS that is on a laptop so it is pretty unreliable. We finally turned that biotch in on Monday and ever since then I have been one happy camper. At this point I really feel like I survived the semester and I can just step back and take a deep breathe without feeling like I should be studying. That is also the reason that I am hung over as balls ... sorry for kicking you ass last night when I got back Will.

Other than that nothing really to report back to all my avid readers. I have a crazy month of June ahead. Two weddings, a bachelor party, a class reunion, and a canoe trip are in store for me. It totally counters all the lifting and running I will be doing over summer with all this damn drinking and fun. Ah such is life I guess.

The SLT job didn't pan out which is really too bad. Interesting what effects this will have on me and were I end up in five years. Ah well, no reason to worry about it. So that means one more summer (the last with any luck) in Manhattan working for the CIS Department. Fun times, fun times.

Location Anxiety

2005-04-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

I guess I have decided to go a head and make this official Blog telling my life story. Might as well start right in the middle ...

At the moment I am freaking out because of my job situation. I have a very good steady job with the CIS department as their webmaster. Great experience and better yet, I think that it is what I want to do when I get out of school. If I chose to keep this job I would spend what will be my 4th summer here in the always lively city of Manhattan (the population of elderly to twenty-year-olds goes from 1-4 to 4-1 over the summer). Thus you can see my dilemma about staying yet again. My other opinion that seems to be panning out is a job for a networking company in St. Louis. I think that it could lead to a good paying job in a city that I could see myself living in after college. Michael is also living up there so it would be a chance to get in to trouble with him in a new city.

The repercussions of each decision are driving me nutz. I need to just go with the my best opinion at the time being and worry less about how everything will work out.

Other than that our soccer tournament in Wichita got cancelled due to a lack of teams. I would have been glad to play in it since I have been training for it for about 2 months, but I will certainly welcome the new time availability to get all my class in order. It looks like I have just about got everything where it needs as far as classes go except for Dan's cis726 class. Damn that class is harder than shit. Wish me luck.

The Beginning ...

2005-04-18T23:42:00.000-05:00

Well this is the first of what I guess would be many entries. At this point I'm really not sure if I'm going to do this or basically because I don't know if it will get read or not. Until I get into any details of the daily random events that make up my life I think that I will see what this ends up looking like.

I think that it is completely hilarious that I write this with the idea that people will really wonder what the hell I do every day ... seems similar to question "if I die will any come to my funeral" just a bit less dark and serious. huh, well with hind sight being 20/20 I really should have done this in my wilder days. Then again, probably good I didn't.

More to come ... maybe