Hawks

I'm getting a bachelor's in biomedical/materials engineering and possibly going on farther for research such and *I wanna have a PhD after my name* It's essential (in US at least) to do something when you get out of high school unless you're going into a skilled trade (machinist, CAD, etc). I have a few friends who were hired right out of high school to be trained to work their way up in a couple of local manufacturing/engineering companies who also will offer to pay for their college in time. If you get the right combo of high school classes and work ethic you can have a good job right out of high school, but if you're going for something a bit bigger you really do need that college degree right off the bat. Money is getting ridiculous (attending most expensive public school in the state at about $38k a year) and that's something I wish they would fix, you're screwing over the population that gets by but doesn't have a ton of money for extra stuff (ie the middle class) - we don't qualify for free money, and if you're average academically you don't get any scholarships either. Sure, junior college can help that (last I looked $240/cr hr vs $530/cr at my college) but it still costs a lot of money. Edit: My employment after graduation is pretty much guaranteed, [only chem eng in higher demand than biomed] this school (Michigan Tech) is pretty well known for engineering and base pay for any grad starts at $55k a year. That's why I chose there instead of Grand Valley State (my other option).

This cheered me up significantly last night. Just complete weirdness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-LzQ_2e3tw

Chomped by Carl Hiassen. It's been a good distraction from the crap that's been going on around here, and I always like his books.

Just had a complete and total breakdown. Haven't really spent any significant time with my mom in a week or two and I'm leaving on Saturday for college, ten hours away. I'm having a hard time dealing with not having seen some of the people I love the most for a while and knowing I'm not going to see them for a while after this. Got into a huge argument with my dad about the stupidest thing, which way we're going to drive to my uni. I didn't want him to come anyway, for exactly this kind of reason. Plus he has to drag my brother along because of our creepy neighbor. And two cars 700 miles just because he wants to go or whatever. I understand it's really nice of him to care this much but I just don't want him there. It's not because I don't care about him, we just don't mesh very well. It works out usually because he works during the day and is usually not here when I'm here - or there's enough differential time to do the stupid or whatever stuff he doesn't put up with. Whereas I haven't had a good hour with my mom since last week because she's been at the hospital with my grandpa (recovering from open heart surgery, got a leg infection so he's stuck for a while still) and I'm missing her a lot. My brother is here and there, but that's how it always is. I haven't talked to anyone legitimately since... I don't know when. The only person I talked to today was the lady at the eye doctor when I got my glasses, and yesterday it was the cashier at the store. I just don't know. Not happy right now, and I really would just like to hug someone and make it better, but the two people who can do that aren't here right now. The only good thing is that my diabetes has been cooperative so I'm thankful for that.

A lot of people don't realize that. :D Yeah, that'll come up in a future article, I've got some lined up that continue in that vein.

On the fishing guide http://www.tip.it/runescape/?page=fishing_guide.htm the first instance of the word tuna [i crtl+f tuna to find exact location, in the bit about harpoons] is followed by "atch tuna by imply right clicking on the fi" Obviously should be simply.

Tried to figure out what the hell is going on with my medical supplier but the website is so unhelpful. I need my crap before I leave for college in a week. So not thrilled that eventually I'll have to deal with this myself. It's raining quite nicely though. Going to do a bit of art and then maybe write a bit.

I'm not a big fan of the background on that but I was lacking in images.

Cropped to proper size, no credit needed.

Although it would be helpful to post a link to at least Google's config instructions; I just did that and I think it fixed my problem with my slow internet connection. Or it at least made me think it's faster now. Tbh before I saw this topic I had no idea about this but it's really helpful.

must post due to the amazingness that is wongtong being here. I think her rank should be changed to Eater of Glass. Now I should put a bunch of curse words in here to get the mods' attention....

About half packed. My desk and the room contents that I'm taking with me are consolidated into three or four medium sized boxes. Now clothes, bedding, and other crap needs to get put together.

Yep, I did it so I got free shipping on everything which was nice. Otherwise would have cost me an extra $15. I need [more like want] a TV for my dorm though, roommate doesn't have one but has a SNES and it would be sad to waste it without a TV. Considering getting an adapter so we can just play on my laptop. Put the first layer on a mountain rpg/tabletop scenery piece thing. Base is made of furring strips and 2x2's, covered in screen. Then paper mache. First layer's done, probably going to do two more or so. Has two big cliffs so you could stage battles and stuff on it, considering making the top a bit bigger so we could put a tower on top.

Talked to my roommate for the first time today, a bit disappointed that I don't have a TV because she's got a SNES she could bring [but no TV]. Moving in in two weeks I think, just ordered most of my books, but they don't even have my chem book... At the school bookstore. That's weird.

Not sure if you're zoomed out or not, but I get that issue when I zoom out of the page in Firefox. Try holding control and scrolling in to see if that fixes your text issue.

Sort of enthused about the 2nd Law (Muse) but not thrilled with the trailer. The first single off it is pretty good though. Considered Some Nights but got Aim & Ignite instead. I am partial to We are Young though. I think ? Snow Patrol had a new album out earlier this year, I've got it and it's great. Otherwise it's their most recent one. Next time I've got Amazon cards I'll get Foxy Shazam though. Like their stuff a lot.

Looking forward to lunch in a few which will be the other half of yesterday's dinner - oven roasted chicken on Italian with pickles and honey mustard from Subway. Best combo ever. Plus I finally figured out how many carbs are actually in it - 47. Going to make banana cream pudding later today to take to my grandpa with any luck.

It's the nicest it's been in some time, and it's pouring rain and about 14C outside. (67 or so F) We've had ridiculous heat and no rain for so long but now it's been raining for probably 48 hours or so now. Really enjoying it but I can't open the windows because the rain is blowing and getting the windowsill all wet. Sitting at home for the fifth day in a row, doing nothing but Internets. Yesterday I decided to become obsessed with rockabilly so my Last.fm is streaming that stuff. Looking for help on misc tech ideas in T&C and drinking Diet Pepsi! Now you know everything about my day that you didn't and still don't care about.

I have two questions for you, almighty T&C: 1. Is it possible to 'reverse-engineer' an HDMI connection from a TV to a laptop to digitally record something that's on a VHS tape? ie I have a VCR attached to a TV and I can hook up a laptop with an HDMI cable. Is there a [preferably free] method that I can use to digitize my lovely analog, both images and sound? Is this possible in other ways not necessarily involving the HDMI but also not involving lots of money? 2. I have an Acer Aspire 5560 laptop and it has a slightly textured case. I want to get a vinyl decal and put it on it but I was wondering how well it would stick... pic of top of case from newegg That's what it looks like, wondering if anyone has any experience with sticking things to Acers because I recall that most of the newer ones are like this. Thanks.

I have a battle.net account but it's only for playing Warcraft 3 over the internet and occasionally updating the game. Not going to worry about it as it has no personal info attached to it for me.

Go to a hockey store, buy a brand new set of kickass pads and stuff, then rent out a rink for as long as I've got. Invite everybody I know to come play and have the most awesome hockey game ever. If I had money left over, buy a bunch of goalie stuff for my youth hockey association + donate the stuff I used. My 'death plan' includes having my ashes scattered in a hockey rink [presumably one they're building then] so you know. (the plan is to be independently wealthy and donate money to build it with the condition it's named after me and the ashes get scattered in the concrete)

Where did you find that? My brother might enjoy it... Of course I have no idea what kind of tank it is, he'd probably go 'that's a sherman, I don't really like them' or whatever/insertnameoftankhere

My grandpa's doing well, surgery went well, docs confirmed that he's getting out Saturday at the earliest. Everybody seems to be taking it well, although I haven't seen my grandma to confirm how she's doing yet. [she just gets stressed and tired really easily, so she's probably still sleeping.] Yay for that.

Yeah, write 'mine' all over it in sharpie. That does the trick for me [+putting my name on it prominently] My grandpa is having open heart surgery today [aortic valve+ double bypass]. He went in just a little while ago, my mom left to go sit at the hospital with my grandma and my aunt. I think it's going to go pretty well but the recovery is going to be [cabbage]. We're thinking he might be home by Saturday; generally they let you go after four days but he has a whole host of other problems [COPD, type 2, high blood pressure] that will probably add to his recovery time. Hoping to hear all goes well though, and I've got to go to the store to pick up ingredients for banana cream pudding, his favorite food/dessert.

[hide=][/hide] Kinda lame, couldn't find a cool one I liked with decent image quality.