It Is Finished

The massive printing project at the shop is done and I'm no longer working nights. Tomorrow will be the first day since 26 June that I have not worked at least part of the day (counting a day as 00:00-23:59). Given that I've seen more sunrises in the last month than I have in the last few years combined, I'm planning to start going to bed a bit earlier now.

I have a new computer, an HP Pavilion DV9657cl laptop, being the first complete computer I've ever purchased for myself, and the only one I've owned that had 100% stock parts. This will change when RAM goes on sale as I'll upgrade it to 4GB and possibly rip the entire thing apart and apply a tube of Arctic Silver 5 liberally to all the hot parts. It's got a 17" screen, HD-DVD drive, 320GB of hard drive, an nVidia 8600M GS video card, and most importantly a numpad. It weighs slightly less than a textbook and I get 3+ hours of battery life when in the balanced power mode.

Dark Knight for the Win

Last night we saw Dark Knight at the Valley Drive In. We were expecting to have to wait until after Journey to the Center of the Earth to see Batman in the double feature, but they decided that since most of the people going were planning on seeing Dark Knight they were going to show it first. It was also the busiest I've ever seen the drive in, with the gates opening a half hour earlier than planned just to accommodate the extra crowds. Sadly it was not dark enough to see it well for the first half of the movie, so some of the darker scenes were very hard to make out. Also it took us a while to get the sound at an optimum balance of bass and treble to hear it well. Neither sound or video were that bad but they definitely detracted from the movie experience as a whole. I will therefore reserve judgment on the quality of the movie until after seeing it in IMAX next week. Other than that, it really was a very good movie and very much deserving of it's new record for the highest grossing box office receipts for a single day, estimated to beat Spiderman 3 by several million dollars.

Three in a Row

Last night was the third night in a row I went to bed before sunrise. I’m really tired of my work schedule right now, but not because of the hours. I’m tired of it because I’m really tired on the days that I want to do things with people, because it means getting up many hours before my body is ready to wake up, thanks to being used to going to bed between 5 and 7 in the mornings.
What else seems important right now..? My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this past week. I got my truck fixed with my grandpa’s help so it should get me from point A to point B for a few more years to come. I acquired a new computer thanks to eBay; I’ll completely finish it with parts from Fry’s Labor Day or Thanksgiving sales, but I’ve got more than enough parts sitting around to make it fully functional until then.

Weird

Last Sunday I had one of the weirdest experiences I’ve had in very long time. I was talking with random people at church after second service and noticed my mom and sisters talking to some random woman I’ve never seen before. One of my sisters comes over and says something to me that I can’t remember. My mom then points to me and mentions that I’m her other son. Then the lady asks if I’m the girls’ younger brother.

I’ve gotten used to people asking if I was my brother’s younger brother since he’s been taller than me for years and has been gaining weight so he’s bigger than me too, despite the fact that I’m 2 ½ years older than him. But this was the first time anyone has asked if I’m the younger brother of my baby sisters (they’re 9 ½ years younger than me). It might be one thing if they were bigger or taller than me, but I’ve got them beat in every measurement.

Goodbye Sonics

On Wednesday a settlement was reached between the city of Seattle and the owners of the Sonics and the team will be leaving for Oklahoma City. As I’ve never cared for basketball, other than for a Super NES basketball game, I’m rather glad to see them go. Now I don’t have to worry about programs on the TV and radio being preempted by basketball games. Many people are panicked and angry because this might mean the end of professional basketball in the region. To that I say “I hope so.” What I would really like would be for Seattle to acquire a professional hockey team instead. I have fond memories of attending minor league hockey games with friends and family in the past and would actually go to see hockey games if they were available.
The city is hoping that the state will raise some tax to give them half a billion dollars or so to renovate Key Arena in order to try to persuade a new team to come to Seattle. I vote that if a new team wants to come here and are dissatisfied with the current facilities (where were completely renovated 15 years ago or so at great expense) that the owners pay the full expense of these desired upgrades.

Happy Birthday USA

As everyone knows, Wednesday was the 232nd anniversary of the independence of the American colonies from England. Although we observe (with illuminations) the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th every year. I vote that we continue to celebrate both days as long as we are legally allowed to do so, and then even more so after that point. There are those who claim that our independence is not something worth celebrating, I say that they can move to Palestine or Cuba or some other 3rd world crap hole that they admire more than the US.

Frogpole

Here's a picture I took of a frogpole (not quite a tadpole anymore, still not quite a frog) on Sunday.


Right now Deviant Art is my only real hosting service for pictures, and I've been posting new things to Deviant more frequently than I've been blogging in recent months. I'm taking a short break at the print shop right now and will be getting back to work momentarily.

Working

I'm sitting at the print shop right now for the sixth night in a row. Babysitting laser printers isn't very hard or exciting after a few hours; they will run unattended for over an hour. I need to keep emptying the top tray so that there's still room for more paper to come out. I also keep the paper trays full so there's no risk of running out of paper. Once I have a large stack of books printed I take them back to the cutter and jog them up, cut them in half, and box them for safe storage. During the rest of the time I keep busy with random tasks and I keep myself entertained here alone by listening to music and audio books on my headphones. I just started The Golden Compass. I'm working 6ish to 3ish every night and try to wake up by noon every day. That's my schedule until further notice.

I'm also keeping myself busy by reading books on various Adobe programs. Right now I'm going through a book on Illustrator CS3. I know a bit about Illustrator already but I really would like to learn how to do much more than I can at the moment.