by Matt | Aug 23, 2001 | Imported Entry
Well, this would be the last post before I pack up the computer for the trip tomorrow. I hope everyone has enjoyed their summer, I’ve certainly enjoyed parts of mine, mostly the ones I got to spend with my friends.
Chris, have fun with your last year at VT. I hope that job offer comes through, though it would be cool to have you around NH permanetly, keep chasing those girls, you’ll catch one soon. Thanks for all the great concerts and shows at Avalon, they really made my summer.
Chip, it’s been fun as always, have fun at Valvcon, say hi to Dave & Dave for me, have fun with Andrea, so long and thanks for all the fish.
Nick, thanks for spending what little Milford time you had hangin’ out with me, I know Alaska was fun and I’m sure Europe will be to, try not to get lost in that big giant world out there, but I do envy you for getting to see it.
Dave, Jeff, Derrick, Jason and Heather, I only got to hang out with most of you once or twice but it was fun non-the-less, Dave have fun in school, Derrick, try to to get stuck at Walmart forever, Jeff, have fun at work and try not to crash the new car, Heather, sorry I couldn’t fix that email problem, have fun in school and remember its all in your head, Jason, don’t bug Chip to much and pick a damn car and stick with it. 🙂
Ok, here we go… another jont down the coast and through i95 traffic. Let the fun begin. See you all on Saturday, well, virtually at least. Later.
Current Mood: Anxious and tired 
by Matt | Aug 22, 2001 | Imported Entry
Well, Chris is gone, Nick is gone, and I’m working then I’ll be gone. Today I got the oil changed in the Olds’ and will probably pack some more when I get home. It’s weird, this summer has “flown by slowly”, meaning that each individual day has crawled and been a pain in the ass, but the summer as a whole has been a giant blur. I can bearly remember the Ani concert in Cental Park that I went to in June, or the first month of work, or the movies I saw at the begining of the summer. Odd. Oh well, it’s almost over and I can get back to Savannah and my wonderful girlfriend. Yah! I can also get back to a decent internet connection and finally be able to check my email in under a hour, or play a little CS.
Current mood: pla 
by Matt | Aug 21, 2001 | Imported Entry
OMG!!! Matt made his very first application skin! Oh no… could this mean yet more time in front of the PC, cranking out cool custom skins for all his favorite programs? Probably not. I actually just wanted to give it a try. The program I mentioned a little while ago, SkinMem, is insanely easy to skin for. Actually, let me back up for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about when I say “skin”. A “skin” is just a replacement interface for a computer program, much like how you can change the face plate of a cell phone, you can change the look of some applications. The most widely known “skinnable” program is of course Winamp. With Winamp, you can download custom skins to change the look of your MP3 player. But, for me, having never tried to before, skinning for Winamp is a little bit tougher than one might think. So, for a first attempt I turned to SkinMem, a program I’ve been using for a couple weeks to keep track of how much system memory my computer is using up as I do things. The skin system for SkinMem is so easy that all you have to do is make a single image file and an INI file to go with it that defines things like transparancy and font location. So, basically, you can make this little sucker look like whatever you want. If you’re interested, you can get the program here and I’ll make a new section of the web page for skins so you can d/l’em if you feel like it. Maybe I’ll wait till I have a few more first. We’ll see.
Ok, tomorrow is my second to last day at work. Yah. I plan on being completely useless and trying not to do much of anything. At any rate, I’ve got to work from 1 till 10. Then I get to come home, go to bed, get up and open the store on Thursday. What fun. Ok, g’night.
Current Mood: Sleepy 
by Matt | Aug 21, 2001 | Imported Entry
Today has been a long day of packing. I started packing up all the non-essentials (books, DVDs, kitchen stuff) so that I would have a lot less to pack when the time comes. I also dropped off 7 rolls of film at Camera Land this morning. Those should be ready by tomorrow. I was surprised by how much stuff I’ve got and I hope that come Thursday night it all fits. Obviously I left the computer and my clothes alone and those will be pack last.
Oh, has anyone seen my Half-Life CD? I haven’t seen it since the last LAN party. It was either Chip or Derrick who were borrowing it… I don’t remember. Do any of you guys still have it? I hope so, otherwise I lost it.
Also, my partner in crime, Chris, left this afternoon to go back to Tech. Hope the drive goes well. Also, Nick leaves tomorrow for WPI. This summer was certainly fun. All the concerts Chris and I went to, all the fun I’m sure Nick had in Alaska. With a few minor (major) acceptions, I enjoyed most of this summer. At least hanging out with the guys anyway. Job, car, society wise, this summer really sucked ass. Hard. But, it’s almost over. Friday I’m on the road and by Sunday I’ll be sleeping in my own bed in a plush little apartment in Georgia. Ok, enough of that. I get to have some curry for dinner, one of my favorites, gotta go eat. Later.
Current Mood: Hungry 
by Matt | Aug 20, 2001 | Imported Entry
Oi… what a long day. I ended up getting out of bed around 8 and getting on the road after some breakfast and picking Chris up around 9:30. We headed up i93 into the northern part of NH and as we drove the clouds began to form on the horizon. Large piles of mist that circled the mountains in the distance and loomed overhead as I drove towards them. Passing through Franconia and the national forest we took the split between the mountains past Echo Lake up towards Sugar Hill. We stopped for a late breakfast or more of an early lunch at Polly’s Pancake Parlor, a regional favorite in the way of hot-stacks and home made maple syrup. The pancakes were more than filling and made us both tired in a post thanksgiving sort of way. Around 1pm we were back in the car cruising the back roads of Sugar Hill in search of the illusive “perfect picture”. We stopped at a candidate just beyond the diner were we had eaten, it was a quaint little church in the middle of no where. It was of the backwood, farm house variety and looked both historic and well loved by the surrounding farmers. After a few quick snap shots we were back on the road, stopping every few miles as something struck my eye or artistic fancy. I ended up taking three rolls of film, one less than I had intended but that was due to the storm clouds and lack of good light since the rain was moving up the valley. After a while we got back on i93 and headed back towards the mountains and for home after exhausting most of the light that the area had to offer. A little after 4:30 we rolled back into Milford and dropped Chris off at his house for probably the last time until the new year. Chris is leaving tomorrow afternoon to head back to college and I won’t be seeing him until well into winter break. After that I returned home and crashed on the couch, tired from getting up at an unusually early time, at least for myself.
Later in the evening Nick called and asked if I had plans. I didn’t and so we headed off to Nashua so Nick could look into the purchase of his very first cell phone. At Circuit City we talked to an associate about rate plans and phones and other Sprint PCS randomness. I became interested in looking into getting a newer phone since my old one is starting to die slowly of an old battery and the newer one has more features that I would actually use. But, since there’s technically nothing wrong with my current phone, I guess I’ll have to wait until I have a reason to buy a newer one, well, a reason other than “it’s nifty.” Nick eventually decided to accept one of the Sprint PCS plans and got the cool new phone I was looking at. He’ll have to tell me how it is. After that we stopped at Walmart since Nick needed a few items for school and then I headed home.
All in all it was a fairly productive day. I got some film shot, I got to hang out with two good friends, have some good pancakes, and relax in the splendor of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Tomorrow I’ll probably spend the day packing and getting ready for the trip on Friday, I also plan to drop off the film early in the morning in hopes I can have it processed and contact printed by the afternoon… crossing fingers on that one. At the latest it should be ready Wednesday morning. No biggie. Ok, bed time. Later.
Current Mood: tired and chilled (inside joke… must have been the mint toothpick) 
by Matt | Aug 20, 2001 | Imported Entry
Woot! New graphics card… yippee! Chris and I installed the Geforce 2 tonight. It went in fine but then it was having some AGP power and interupt issues. We moved some cards around in the case and made sure the sound card (the one it was conflicting with) was far enought away. After playing with some jumpers and boosting the power going through the board, we finally got it working. I know that all that sounded pretty confusing for most of you… basically we put in a new card and it didn’t play well with the one of the other kids so we had to seperate them and put them in the corner for time-out. But they calmed down and everything is ok now. Heheh… wow, talk about simplification. Point is that I now have some serious graphics horse-power thanks to Chris and I can play games in twice the resolutions, many more pretty colors and with better video. Huzah. Ok, enough of that. Sleepy time. Tomorrow (today) I’m heading off for the mountains to finish some photo work I’ve been delaying and relax a little. I’m going to take the last of the 6 rolls I bought and put them in to be developed when I get back in the afternoon. I’ve already shot four rolls so it shouldn’t take very long. Later.
Current Mood: very good… and no longer graphically challenged. 
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