SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

by Matt | Dec 25, 2004 | Personal

It’s Christmas day and what does Houston wake up to? SNOW! Gobs and gobs of fluffy white stuff. The weathermen can’t really explain it and everyone I talk to says it hasn’t snowed in 20 years. It’s actually a bunch of snow (for TX). Probably about an inch or two. Enough to cover the ground and to warrent 3 snowmen (and a few snow balls). Everyone is freaking out. The entire neighborhood forgot about their presents and are out in their front yards playing with this mystery white stuff.

And on a personal note. Merry Christmas everybody. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves. We’re getting ready to have some breakfast and open some present.

Take care everybody.

Matt out.

Matt’s 4th Annual Birthday Post

by Matt | Dec 21, 2004 | Personal

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Another year come and gone and I’ve lived almost a quarter-century. You guys know that my birthday has never been a big deal to me. For years I typically stayed in and had pizza and watched Kevin Smith movies. As I get older I realize that birthdays, especially mine, as just another day on the calendar. Only on this particular Monday I get to choose where we go out to eat. Other than that, life pretty much continues uninterrupted.

Actually, I’m having a rather nice birthday. Lauren surprised the hell out of me and got me an authentic Red Sox jersey and a framed Ted Williams photo. My parents also sent me a “Red Sox – World Series Champions” hoodie and a copy of the NESN DVD “Faith Rewarded: 86 years in the making”. It was a very themed Birthday 🙂

Plans for this week are still rather unknown. I have no idea what days I’m working, which ones I get off, and what I’m doing on any of those afore-mentioned days. I think Christmas eve and Christmas day will be spent at Lauren’s Parents house. Apparently there are two rounds of presents. One the night before from the family and one the next day from the extended family who are coming over for lunch.

Other than that, not a lot is going on. I’m getting some money together for a new system. NewEgg finally credited my account for the refund from the graphics card fiasco. I should have about $750 when it’s all said and done. That should be enough for the bare essentials: mobo, CPU, graphics and PS. The rest can wait. I might try and squeak out a DVD burner too if there’s anything left over.

I’ve also got a few weddings coming up. Two in January and one in February.

I’ll be posting again before Christmas, but just in case…

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a great New Year. Drink some nog, watch some DVDs, play some video games. Kick back and relax and enjoy the time with your families. May none of you get the gift of sox (unless they’re Red) and may all your presents be geeky. Take care. I miss everybody. Cheers.

YES!!!!!

by Matt | Oct 28, 2004 | Personal

Oh my. Ohhhh, it feels so good. If you’re not a Red Sox fan you don’t fully understand. “So what, they’ve just won the World Series…” other people might say. Yes, while it’s true that this is a yearly event and having a winner isn’t an accomplishment in and of itself, what these people don’t realize is the magnitude of this event. Let me put it another way: My grand-father, rest his soul, was born, lived his whole life as a Red Sox fan, and died, having never seen them win. All the heart break, all the “almost” moments, all that was swept away in a single instant. This team is more than a team. They are representative of the spirit of the people of Boston and Red Sox fans everywhere. Everyone who ever said “this is our year” only to be disappointed at the end of the season. Just think about all the great players who played and never accomplished this. Ted, Yaz, Fisk, Pesky, the list goes on and on.

Somewhere, Ted Williams is celebrating.

Yes, there IS joy in Mudville. Beautiful, well deserved, joy.

*sniffle* I love you guys!

by Matt | Oct 21, 2004 | Personal

Now THAT was a game. I didn’t want to talk about it and jinx it, not when they were playing the Yanks, but damn. Yanks got farking OWNED!

Tessie is the Royal Rooters rally cry
Tessie is the song they always sung
Tessie echoed April through October nights
After serenading Stahl, Dineen and Young
Tessie is a maiden with the sparkling eyes
Tessie is a maiden with the love
She doesn’t know the meaning of her sight
She’s got a comment full of love
And sometimes when the game is on the line
Tessie always carried them away
Up the road from Third Base to Huntington
The boys will always sing and sway

“Tessie”
by the Dropkick Murphys

Long live the Red Sox. Long live Red Sox Nation.

We Believe.

Courthouse Fun-time

by Matt | Aug 23, 2004 | Personal

Well, Saturday was my day in court for me speeding ticket. I couldn’t sleep the night before so I had gotten up in plenty of time to be extra early. I was able to see the roll call for the 8am docket and was able to see exactly how everything was going to work. Going early is something I’d suggest that everyone do the next time you get a ticket. It’ll give you a good idea about how lenient the judge is being, how not to talk to the judge when you’re up there, that sort of thing. I was glad I went because apparently traffic court in Texas is different than New Hampshire. Here, it’s a 3 step process if you’d like to say “not guilty”. In New Hampshire it was handled all at once. Let me explain. Here in Texas, if you get a ticket, for anything, you have to go to your arraignment trial, as if you’d committed a murder or something. At the arraignment you enter your plea: Guilty, Not Guilty or No Contest. That’s it. You don’t get to present evidence, you don’t get to ask the judge anything, you’re simply there to enter a plea. I found this out by watching a girl who was there for an expired registration try to explain to the judge why she didn’t have her car registered and the judge just kept saying “Mame, all I need is a guilty or not guilty from you.” Now, if you’re going to say “not guilty” the judge asks you if you want a trial by jury or by judge and then sets a court date for a “pre-trial”. This is what I had been to in New Hampshire. At the pre-trial, the cops are there to defend themselves, you get to ask questions, you get to present evidence. Then, if there’s enough stuff to go forward the judge will set yet another court date for your actual trial.

Since I had no plans on coming back to court a 2nd and 3rd time I figured the best course of action was to plead “no contest” and ask for leniency and defensive driving. It worked. For my speeding ticket all I had to pay is the court fee, which I’ll get to in a minute. As for my license plate, when the judge asked “guilty or not guilty” I said “I don’t know, I don’t believe it’s obstructed and I’ve taken the plate cover off but I don’t want to have a trial over it”. The judge kind of looked at me funny and said “ok… so you’ve taken it off, and its not obstructed anymore right?” “Yes your Honor” I said. “Well, since it’s a state fine I can’t dismiss it, but I can lower it to the court minimum of $5…. *slams gavel*… next case”.

So, $5 and defensive driving (which I can take over the internet). Not bad. I was pretty pleased at that point. The next step was to see the clerk at the end of the room and get my papers and be dismissed. Here I found out how much my “court fees” would be. $146. Ouch. $146 for myself to appear. How nice of them to charge me for using my civil rights to come to court. Then again, it’s cheaper than the tickets and I don’t get any points on my license in the end, so it all worked out I guess. I might even take the DD course today, since it is my day off and I’m just sitting here in front of the computer anyway.

That’s about it guys, that was my drama for the weekend.

Oh, and I just want to say a little “good luck” to Nagle, who’ll be heading back to SCAD in a little bit. He survived the hurricane last week and now goes back to try and survive the freshmen hurricane that is the Savannah College of Art and Design. What’cha figure SCAD is, a category 5? I’d say that’s about right. Anyway, good luck to you sir.

Now, wheres my Doom 3 disk….?

Three Questions

by Matt | Apr 14, 2004 | Personal

Via Chip’s journal:

“Ask me three questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want. Then copy and paste this into your journal, allowing your friends (including me) to ask you anything.”