Goodbye, 2007. Nice to know you.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I spent it with my family as usual. Now its already New Year's Eve, and 2007 is almost over. I just wish that D.C. metro area would have had a White Christmas. Only having rain just really sucks. Having forty two degree weather is good when you have to walk to work, but if I don't have to go any where then I would to see some snow. I've got to get a decent digital camera sometime so I can take some pictures of this area.


So what did we learn this year? If you watched the History channel you would know that scientists have finally discovered a blueprint for what happened during the Big Bang using a probe called the WWMAP, and that there were speeds faster than that of the speed of light. If you watched TMZ then you learned that we are much too concerned with the business of celebrities, and consider some of them "role models". I will admit that I read the TMZ blog sometimes so that doesn't make me a hypocrite. Though why we see those people as role models doesn't make any sense to me. There are very few Hollywood celebrities that I would see as role models for myself, but they really don't apply to me since I am not an actor. My role models would have to be Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as they excel in business and technology. If you watched the news too much then you might be caught up in the fear and sensationalism. Some people say that life is short, but if you watched I Think I Love My Wife then you might believe that life is long and you have to live with the consequences of your actions.


I want to leave this year touching upon two thoughts; the first on a sad one, and then happy a one.


Many sad events have happened this year. I think the worst was the Virginia Tech Massacre. I think that it was the worst event to happen to this country since 9/11. I think the saddest part about it was that it could have been prevented if the gunman had been given the proper psychological treatment. He had been deemed mentally ill by a Virginia Special Justice, and was forced to take outpatient treatment. If he had been made to take inpatient treatment then the massacre might not have happened. But hindsight is always 20/20 vision, and we always wish that we could push rewind.


For me personally: the worst event was when my grandparents left for Arizona. They lived in West Virginia for more than forty years. Other than my mom, they were the ones that raised me from just a baby. Still to this day they pray for me everyday. I have never met my biological father. Even though having him in my life might have made my family more stable financially; I am glad he wasn't there. My mom, step dad, and grandparents were enough.


I think the best event of this year was when the number of deaths in Iraq started to go down. Hopefully this trend will continue. I have family members in the military, and I am glad that my family has not lost anyone in this war.


I've had a lot of ups and downs this year, but the best thing for me this year was that I got to meet some new people. I hope I get to develop some friendships with those people next year, and I hope next year will be better for everyone.

Happy New Year!

Bond, James Bond

I've just watched Casino Royale for about the sixth time, and I think it has replaced The Hunt for Red October as my all-time favorite movie. For me Sean Connery was the best bond, but Daniel Craig's portrayal of the great spy showed a realness of the character that none of the other movies have come close to. Casino Royale is the best bond movie yet. It modernizes the franchise without the use of outlandish gadgetry or over-hyped sex. It's one classy movie.

Video test.

Just a test of my cellphone video camera.

Holy Fucken Woot!

Just awesome!

Awwww.... shit. It's that time of year again?

So I just wasted another two hours of my life...again. Spike TV aired it's now annual Video Game Awards tonight. I'm all for the betterment of the gaming industry, but this is just bullshit. The only people on the show that I could believe that play video games hardcore are Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. Maybe, Samuel L. plays, but the rest I highly doubt it. All the rest of those people I could do without. Just saying that you are a gamer doesn't make you one. I've been playing ever since my grandmother had the bad idea of letting me step into an arcade.

The only thing that saved the show for me was that they had the Video Games Live orchestra there to play for commercial breaks and the two times where they focused on them. Well the half naked girls did help to distract me from the blandness of it all.

I think whats really going on is that the advertisers..ahem "producers" forgot that the people who were gaming when it first started are now older than thirty years old. I don't need to have some waffer thin actress to tell me that games are cool and are now mainstream. Well, thats enough of my ranting, see below for some Video Games Live goodness.


myspace layouts

Got a new outlook!

Well, maybe not a new outlook on life, but I do have new PC. One of my co-workers provided it to me. Its my first real experience with Windows Vista. I am using the Ultimate edition. After a few errors that were fixed in about a day, I'm really starting to like Vista. I need to get a larger hard drive to hold the OS, but for right now the 80 gigs are sufficient.

My only gripe was with the way I had to activate the OS. I had to call up the Microsoft activation hotline, but talking with the activation customer agent was very easy and quick. Other than that the control panel icons disappeared on me, but after a fresh install that was fixed. Since the new install I haven't seen any errors since.

I love the new Dreamscenes gadget. Its like icing on top of the cake. I have several Dreamscenes that I can choose from that are really cool. I currently have a mountain waterfall as my Dreamscene background. The new PC is better able to handle instense software, such as: Window Media Center.

World of Warcraft is running really well on the new PC. I wish I was seeing higher framerates in the main cities, but its expected since they are highly populated.

All in all, I'm really liking it.

Well, hopefully this won't be only post I have for the next six months.

The man who sold the world.

I'm back after what seems to be too long of a time. It's around 9:00 am here in Arlington, and I have had not one bit of sleep at all. I'm sitting here, at my desk at the NSF, listening to the Nirvana Unplugged album. So sit, drink pennyroyal tea, and let me tell you about the man who sold the world.

So the job is going fine on my end. I have no complaints, except for one that I can't mention here. I have been promised that this month I should be getting a raise, and then another one in January. Plus, in November, I should be getting a decent bonus as well. I

t's September 12th, the day after 9/11. It's already been five years since that awful day. I was in University 101 class at West Virginia University. My dad was working close to the Pentagon when it happened. I was so glad to hear to his voice that day.

The Redskins lost against the Vikings in their seasonal opener last night. It was disappointing , but there is still the rest of the season for Joe Gibbs to pull them together. All hail the great and almighty Gibbs. After week 1 of the fantasy football season, my team leads our league at 96 points. I know it's only the start of season, but I'm feeling good about this one. Well, that is enough for right now, but I'll post again later.

Completed the War!

So I have finally beaten Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360. I'm not very good at first person shooters so I had to beat it at the easy level. But I didn't use any cheats so thats pretty good. Although, some of the stages were too easy so much so that I didn't die once. Maybe my "mad playerz skai-izzells" (is that the correct teenspeak spelling) are improving. I know I will never beat Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. What I need to keep ahead in team based single player, like B2:MC, is strong programming that makes me feel like I don't have to babysit the ally AI. I really like B2:MC for it's multiplayer gaming, but the single player really leaves alot to be desired.

Happy 4th!

So, I hope that everyone is having a safe and great Independence Day. This is a day that celebrates our independence from a country that really wasn't that smart. This certain country (the UK) during that war thought that wearing camoflage didn't make a big enough fashion statement. Even though I make fun of the UK; I do feel like I have a connection with that country. I was conceived there. I was conceived in Brittain, have Polish genes, and drink true russian potato vodka. I'm more European than Madonna.

What are you are doing this 4th? Most people do a picnic, visit with friends and family, or go to the mall for the fireworks show. I didn't do any of those this year. I just slept in, relaxed in front of the TV, and tried to keep one of my loosely closed windows from letting in a torrential downpour. I was playing my Xbox 360 with Call of Duty 2. Then all of a sudden I heard a boom that was louder than the explosions on my TV. It started to pour rain so hard that I could not see two feet in front of my window. Thank goodness this rain only lasted about two minutes, because if it had lasted longer then we would have a serious flood problem. So, the rain ended and I finished the Brittish campaign.

And onward. The places the I've been to since I have moved to the D.C. area. Well, I revisted the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I love this museum, and it was the first time in years that I had been there. But this visit didn't live up to the hopes of my old memories. My last visit to the SNASM (doesn't that abreviation just roll off the tongue :-} ) was when I was in fourth grade. Being that young, I really didn't appreciate the feats and sacrifice symbolized by those museum displays. But now I know the level of greatness that those men and women achieved. However, the museum disapponted me on this visit as an adult. What really stood out was that most of the displays had not changed since my last visit. In the area showcasing the fighter aircraft of a Carrier was a simulation that allowed people to try out landing one of those fighter craft. But the graphical software that was in that simulation was very outdated. They could have just modified a old version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, and that would have better.

I shopped at the Pentgon City Mall, but other than Apple and Sony stores it's just like any other mall you've been to.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Plus, my wireless mouse needs to be recharged. So goodnight.

I love this thing.

This is best blog site I have tried out. It's not as good having a visual editor for the template, but thats okay. The template actually works well with modifications to the code. But still I wish I had a working web visual editor that does what it is supposed to do. This is much better for the time being though.

Test

This is just a test, but the site is starting to look really good.

Wha..wha..what is this?

Is it bird, is it plane, ... is it Superman?

Hell, no its your friendly blogger, Joel. After beating the warpath back home from Pittsburgh, I lived back at home for awhile. But now I live in the D.C. Metro area.

It's been almost a year since my last post. Well, whats new with my life? You might have noticed the new site. Let me explain. I did like my old site, and it was good to me for a while. But I tried going back to it, and updating it. That was just too hard to do. I don't know whats up with the Bravenet coding, but anytime I tried to modify it; it would just start to act up. I just decided to start up on a new more simple site. I hope you like it. I don't know if will do any more tech posts considering I work all day long with computers. But if I find something really interesting I might just give you all a heads up.

So on with the news. I'm not dating anybody, still single. I did date someone for about two weeks, but I just didn't feel that we had any emotion connection between us. My grandpa keeps asking when I am going to meet someone, and start having kids. Oh, about my grandparents, they moved to live out west with one of my aunts. This really sucks, because the center home of our family was West Virginia. But that will just have to change now.

I have a great job working for the National Science Foundation. I am one of their tech support people at the NSF's helpdesk. Living in the D.C. Metro area has really been a blessing. To tell you the truth I really wanted to live close to D.C. all my life, and now I have that. Score one for me. I share an apartment with three other people, but I have pretty decent room by myself. The only thing that sucks is that I still don't have a clothes washer/dryer in the apartment.

Anyway, I hope you all like the new site. Please feel free to post comments.

Next: What I've done and where I've been thats interesting in the D.C. Metro area.