I'm not sure, but this may be my last diary until mid-January. As such, it will probably take you two sittings to read through it. That's okay, I like to read my own diary too, and this gives me good material to scan back over once I get back, ya know? Reason? I'm very busy for the next week or so, after which the lab is closing up shop for an entire month. It's really coming at a bad time, too, as the Cycle Show is the weekend right after they close down. How will I coordinate?

Doing without the net for a month will be... interesting. Also, I have added a bunch of people to my address book in hotmail, but if you haven't emailed me in the last three months, you probably won't get through, as I'm having to put my hotmail on the tightest spam-blocker. See, I get 25+ spam emails per day even on the second highest block level, and if you multiply those by 31 days... See? I'll get over 2 MBs worth of spam mail if I don't lock it up.

So you can email but I probably won't get it until mid-January. I will be keeping my other email addresses open, as they don't attract much in the way of spam--maybe 1 every other day.

My Blur CD crashed the computer, lol! Stupid Windows98.

I had a medium-size project to do (actually 2 of them) last week and this week. The fact that I don't have a computer and had to do all my research, graphics (graphs, tables, etc.), and typing IN THE LAB complicated things enormously. The 24 hour lab was also on rationing--2 hours max per person. What a freakin' annoying hassle. It was about 3 times harder to complete these things than it should have been.

The semester is coming to a close. I'm kinda sorry to see it end. I had some very good classes this semester, some of which I'll miss. Biology was WELL worth the money and time spent. Economics was damn good. Even my 'math' class was good. Also met some good people this semester. And I'm expecting five solid As for final grades. Any way you look at it, this was a far better semester than Spring 2001 was.

I want to soundproof my apartment. It's because of my jackass neighbors. They think yelling and talking all night outside in the courtyard is a good idea. The walls and construction make it sound like they're in the next room. God damn, go in your own apartment if you're going to stay up all night showing your intelligence. Beer-blown dumbasses...

What is up with all the slow walkers and campers? People stroll around campus like they're taking in a scenic mountain vista. Meanwhile, others who actually are trying to get somewhere have to wade through their sluggish masses. And I especially like it when a group of four or five will just set up a Junior High chat session right in the middle of the sidewalk!

I never knew all that about Jane Fonda. Wow, what a bitch.

Here is what I had for dinner.

How about this John Walker guy? American white boy. Converted to Islam, went to Pakistan, joined the Taliban, then finally joined Al Qaeda. Says he fully supports the terrorist acts of Sept. 11 and the killing of civilian Americans. I think he probably deserves the firing squad, but I'm afraid this one's going to get caught up in judicial bullshit. He reminds me of a dude from PuF who I sparred with from time to time.

I love these warnings by Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft: 'Something (they don't know what) might happen some time (they don't know when) somewhere (they don't know where) and it could be severe, (but they're not sure) so Americans should be prepared (they don't know how)'. Very effective.

Well, the shit has really hit the fan in Israel this week. Yassir Arafat, terrorist, went too far. Hamas promised that Israelis and Americans would die as a result of the assassination of a Hamas leader. They certainly weren't kidding. And now Israel is in 'take no prisoners' mode. The Peace Process has been killed outright. It will never be the same. Some Israelis favor wiping out the Palestinian Authority completely and forcing the Palestinians out once and for all. Things are ugly and only going to get much bloodier over there.

That new Cinnamon Roll outmeal from Quaker is a home run.

Vanessa Williams and Rick Fox. It must be love. She has her own money and he is one of the ugliest and most vile guys ever, so there must be something besides wealth or looks.

The Mavs played the Lakers in LA. Dirk Nowitzki, my hero, put up a Herculean effort. He was extraordinary. Unfortunately, Finley had a quite sub-par showing, and despite a solid performance from Nash and Manning and a career day for Adrian Griffin, the Mavs fell 98-94. They played the Lakers closer than almost any other team this season. Shaquille O'Neal is such a no-talent hack who shoots free-throws like a 10 year old kid and has damaged the game with his football style of play. Put him back in time say 20 years and he'd easily foul out in the first 5 minutes of the game. But the NBA has changed to accomodate him and his linebacker moves. If he didn't have basketball he'd be too stupid to do anything but dig ditches and if he wasn't big and strong, he wouldn't have the talent to make the Junior Varsity team in High School.

Back when Mega Man was out, we were having trouble with the cyclops gestalt in one of the 'boss levels'. So we called Nintendo Fun Club's help line. The guy told us to 'try different techniques'.

The new music service will suck. $10/month. Limits on what songs can be shared. Limits on how many songs per month you can download. No recording! And obviously the selection is going to be crap.

There are new rules for beggars. Beggars now have to get a permit! And they are authorized to operate in a certain limited area. What the fuck?

This perfect motorcycle weather we're having is getting me down a little.

Jesse Jackson said: 'We are under atack!'... 'We don't owe America, America owes us!'... 'The radical Right Wing is targeting the black leadership!'. Of course he got many rounds of applause for this rubbish.

Jones had The Great Texas Airship Mysterey last night. Except for the surplus of commercials, Jones Overnight is officially whole again.

I heard about a new Rx drug called Modafinil which can enable a person to remain awake and alert for 4 days! The kicker is that there are virtually no side effects and it is not addictive (although reclaiming much of your life might be). A chemical which confers all the physiological benefits of sleep without the requisite lying inert in a dark room for hours at a time?? Sign me up!! Think about it. The ability to live 24 hour days rather than 18 or 16 hour ones without the annoyance of falling asleep, waking up, etc. How much would you pay to add 3 to 4 months to every year you live?? Well, maybe it's not sufficiently advanced to provide all that yet. But in the future? Man, the next century is going to be the place to be!

Wow. This weekend in Dallas there's a $150,000 Counter-Strike tournament going on. Not only that, but it's being covered on ESPN! Read here. Pretty extraordinary.

Want to read my war report from the world famous clan Killing Squad's very first match? Go here. That was 16 months ago. I was taking a trip down memory lane as far as my history with UT. Went and checked up on KS's current doings. They have over 100 team matches under their belts. Impressive. They also have many players and are on several different ladders. Makes me wonder what might have been had I been able to stay on. I see that Warhammer, one of my recruits, is still with the team. Mrukk was my other recruit. He's doing very well with Supreme Cohesion now. I found this interesting picture. I created a monster!

You can also read a couple of war reports I did here for BoD here and here, although the pictures of the graphs from NG and the links to the NGstats are long gone. Fun reads nonetheless, although a little bittersweet for me, because again I think 'what could have been?'

I can't believe the progress that has been made in the worldwide UT community since I've been gone. There are mods that let you record demos as MPEGs and use slowmo and titles. There are mods I never thought would be finished that are almost finished. There are maps that have come out that have become favorites and instant hits that I've never even seen. Proving Grounds has vastly expanded its website functionality as well as the collection of ladders it supports. Look at what I'm missing out on. Of course, my brother duo is going far with his new clan under the tutelage of Stosh (who's in his 40s). He's also got the mapping skilz down. U2 isn't that far away either. Dammit, I feel helpless. I will probably always regret it (talkin all my life) if I don't experience U2, but with no money, I can't get a computer (let's face it, Celeron 624 and Voodoo5 are a joke for a game like U2) and I can't afford DSL. With no time, I can't spend the time I need to spend. *Sigh*. Playing clanmatches, being a regular on a server like 'LoGrav', trying new mods, going on 8 hour playing sprees, participating in the community, meeting people, it's one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. Help. Wish I could go back to Summer of 2000 for a while again. UT, KS, chocolate-chip cookies, RX-7, basketball, money, and time.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission, a fat Governmental Organization has filed a lawsuit against Daisy, manufacturers of BB guns, which would force Daisy to recall... EIGHT MILLION BB guns!

At issue is the 'gravity-feed' loading device. The CPSC says BBs 'could' get jammed in there somewhere, fooling a child into thinking the gun is empty. Out of those 8 million BB guns, there have been 15 deaths (!?!) and 171 'serious' injuries associated with them (not directly attributable to the alleged problem). The CPSC admits it hasn't been able to duplicate the problem after 100s of attempts. Gravity-feed BB guns have been in existence for 100 years.

How could a jammed BB cause an injury anyway? If the gun is used unsafely, of course. I believe the packaging for Daisy air rifles states explicitly that the gun should never be used without adult supervision and that the gun should never be pointed at another human being, loaded or unloaded. Why must Daisy recall 8 million items because some alleged, non-reproducable problem could cause an injury in the event the gun is misused because a parent doesn't use the BB gun to teach proper firearm safety to his or her son or daughter?

Aren't you glad the government is there to save us from ourselves? Your tax dollars at work. Think there are any ulterior motives going on here?

Of course, 'It' (The Segway Human Transport, or SHiT for short) debuted this week, as everyone knows. I was really surprised at all the negative responses to it online. Man, it looks like fun! Interesting the way you make it accelerate, brake, and turn just by leaning your body. I certainly wouldn't buy one at $3000 (!), but I can't wait to try one out. Just wait until Mr. Kamen licenses his technology to Honda. Can you envision a 125cc two stroke being stuffed in there? Imagine 45 mph top speeds on one of those! Hang on! Can you see a high performance model (with or without a gas engine) coming out with real brakes, radial tires, a centrifugal clutch, etc.? What about a race league or series with these things? Stunts? Come on, that might be cool.

To tell the truth, the promotional video I've seen showed people using the SHiT to be lazy--travelling in the office or in the home without having to use effort. My feet would work just fine there, thank you. The last thing we need is more laziness. I mean, how long before someone tries to build a model with a chair built in? But I've heard it can go anywhere from 12 to 17 mph top speed (though I bet it would have trouble reaching half that on the UNT hill). And it may help handicapped people get around better.

Of course, there are going to be LOTS of problems. The first models weigh 65 pounds--a little too much to carry around with you everywhere, but not at all too much for someone to nab outside the store if you leave it there. How are these to be secured? Also, who gets to use the SHiT? Will you need a license? Will there be age limits? Will the safety Nazis force people to wear helmets and other protection? Will they require all sorts of devices to save us from ourselves, such as lights, bumpers, airbags, speed limiters, etc. that dramatically reduce the fun and utility and raise the price and weight? How many employers are going to let 5000 employees recharge their SHiTs every day? Where are they going to be used? Obviously they aren't fast enough for the motorways, but if bicycle laws are any guide, they won't be allowed on sidewalks either. Maybe that's the 'redesigning cities' thing he was talking about. I'm skeptical it will come to that.

I love the entrepreneurial spirit that gave birth to and executed this idea. Damn, ain't that America? Flop or not, I love it.

I think that's probably enough at this point in time. I like to do a 'year in review' post, but I think I'll do that in 2002. Anyways, have a good holiday and a happy new year my friends.