Hooray. Wireless router number 3 is installed - a US Robotics 802.11g. I have Internet just in time now that I'm off the New York project and will be spending a week (or more)in Atlanta.

Now a brief word about work. Looking back over my approximate first year of work (including my internship) I know one thing for sure. I use Microsoft Office and its spawn like a crack addicted lab rat. I have slept, eaten, breathed, evacuated, and made sweet love to the Microsoft lineup. Not that the M$ prodcuts are bad, but somehow I feel as though I'm betraying my earthy GT/Fitten/Fortress roots. ha ha, that's right... I work for the man now.

Anywho, I am very encouraged by a sweet little product we are selling that will replace much of the scattershot M$ stuff we do. It sits very nicely (supposedly) on top of the Patient Account systems of the hospitals and turns all that nasty data into pretty reports that smell like lavendar and jasmine. No longer will I have to mess with text file dumps in Access and Excel. Now I can use my education to solve world hunger or something like that.

see? that's what i was talking about.

Mark and Jeremy, I can't thank you guys enough for helping with the wedding. I most definitely underestimated the scope of my tasks so when the shit hit the fan, it was mainly Ian, Jeremy, Mark, Rick, and the dozen or so old ladies that enabled the 1 hour complete wedding ceremony setup throwdown. To give further detail for those that were absent, the ceremony was planned with the expectation of wedding music. The wedding music was my department. So, I picked up an external USB Audigy 2 soundcard and a 7.1 computer speaker system and planned on setting up the laptop to run the music from iTunes. Well, my first mistake was leaving he subwoofer in Atlanta, so the other 6 speakers I rememebered to bring were useless and we were left speakerless. Ian picked up a 5.1 system at Circuit City earlier that day, however, so that problem was solved. We also didn't even pick out all the music by Friday evening, so Ian helped gather that up at midnight the night before off a dial-up connection through iTunes. This download session, mind you, occurred during the other last-minute session of writing, designing, and printing of 110 programs for the wedding.

Since my high school friends are all lushes, and a wedding ceremony wouldn't be nearly complete without decent alcohol consumption, I was also charged with the task of setting up a beer tent. Unfortunately, we had to position said beer tent about 100 yards down the beach from the hotel where the reception was held to avoid the tide, which came up very high at night and threatened to spill into the tent area, thus washing the beer to sea. Despite this obvious deterrent of extreme distance to get a damn beer, Mark and Rick helped me setup the tent in 90 degree weather.

Since the nice tent was now setup, it was determined during ceremony setup time (read: 100 chairs, archway, flowers, etc) that the ceremony would take place right in front of the tent. This, of course, was 100 yards away from the King and Prince Hotel and our only hope for electricity. Which brings me back to my responsibility for providing music. So, after 50 chairs or so had been setup, I entered the scene around 4:30 looking frantically for an outdoor electrical outlet to run the music system. The placement of the wedding ceremony completely hinged off the electrical access and range of our extension chord. So, after finally finding one and testing the sound system, I ran the 100 yards to the setup in progress and pissed all the ladies off immensely when I told them the ceremony would have to be moved down there. So, in 45 minutes, the entire sha-bang was moved. I can't believe I didn't catch more hell. Thank god Ian took the fall and called Barbara, Roxanne's mother, to tell her about the new ceremony location. I heard it was a very colorful response indeed.

At any rate, after everyone thought the wedding would most certainly be delayed by an hour or more, the shit was thrown down and ready with time to spare. We even changed into our tuxedos and everything. And, as Jeremy so nicely recounted, the ceremony was excellent. So thank you so very very much.

Martin - So it seems it wasn't the wedding that was cursed it was you and I that were cursed. The wedding was perfect and the bride was indeed beautiful. The groom is a great guy. That little sore throat I had Saturday morning has blossomed into head exploding congestion.

Usually this wouldn't be so bad, but I got quite the scare on the plane Monday morning. Not realizing that my sinuses were choc full of gooey goodness I sleepily boarded my plane and went into nap nap land. As we began to descend I felt the rather ordinary pressure build-up in my ears. I opened my mouth expecting that familiar pop and relief of pressure. Nothing happened. Mild pressure became discomfort. Discomfort became pain. Pain became mind splitting, face contorting, robotic bug lodged in your ear canal pain. Just as we were about to land the plane pulled up because of traffic on the runway. So I got to circle around and do the whole descent thing over again.

So I still can't hear 100% but I'm hoping that it's because I'm still super congested. I guess I'll be visiting the doctor if it stays that way.

well.

matt's wedding was perfect. it was utter insanity during every instant except for the actual ceremony when everyone was serene and everything was still utterly raucous and random -- the sea crashing, nosy beachcombers ambling up, birds shitting everwhere, kids digging in the sand.

i don't think that this is going to be the speech that i didn't give at the reception and then didn't give at the brunch. that might have to stay secret. but watching the whole event unfold and seeing roxanne come down the aisle, eyes ablaze w/ tears, and the couple being so lost in the moment that we may as well have not been there was something apart from the rest of my experience. perfect.

setting the bitch up was a whole different story. being in the wedding party is fucking awesome. everyone should do it. and you should do it for your least organized (or "most laidback") friend. it's not quite the same otherwise. i'm not the event planning type, but i do have a personality that encourages me to run and fix what's broken in a party situation. i think that a lot of my friends are. so when that was my actual job, it was great: i spent time setting up and breaking down (though everyone -- even old ladies w/ walkers -- took chairs up from the shore), running covert missions to 'decorate' the car and the room, taking pictures, shmoozing with family, friends, etc.

so yeah, i don't have any quaint little memories from any part of the event except for the ceremony where i peeked around ian's head to see what was going on between the lovebirds, which was all i really needed. but it's exactly what i wanted it to be.

congratulations, matt and roxanne

To: Daron
Re: pop




its coke.

Damn, Martin. Karma was just not on your side. I hope for you that you will be up and running at full sprint in a short while.

In other news, I had a blast at Matt's wedding. Even with being misinformed as to the general plans and sleeping on the floor one night it was still a great weekend. After the festivities I went to JAX with Matt's mom (chuckle) and dad. They are some of the friendliest hosts ever. They remind me of my grand parents. Which is cool.

I have arrived in C'ville as the locals call it. It is quite warm though not hot like Houston is at this moment. I am next door to a sorority. UVA is located somewhere over there (points out the window). I am feeling very tired right now even though it is only 7:30. I have not gotten enough sleep and have had far more alcohol in the last few days than I have had in the last few months. I have my old 404 cell phone number back. If you want it... just email me.

I'm looking for pictures from this weekend. Hope all of you are well (or actively getting better Martin).

Mark

So I gots some bad news. Apparently I should have stayed at the wedding, because in true Martin fashion I fucked up my left knee the second point of playing in Athens. I doubt that anything major is torn, it feels like a sprain, and isn't unstable (although it is swollen a ton so that might have something to do with the stability). I CAN walk on it, but not very well. I'll go see the doctor later on this week when the swelling has lowered. Hopefully (keep your fingers crossed) it isn't a tear and no surgery, only time and lifting, will be needed to get it better.

M

Well, I am done with my last "class" all that lies ahead is finals . . . and fear, lots of fear. Not really, however I am a bit uneasy because although I have a contract for next year my status will be quite different. First I will be picking up a regular physics class which will be strange, second there will be another person teaching honors physics. Both of these things mean that I no longer have sole determinination of how my class is run and that kind of sucks. I have great ideas of what I want to change for next year, but will now have to run them by people and worse I might have to try to conform to anothers person's concept of what honors physics is. That blows . . .

You know what else blows. . . destroying a fuse at 11:30 pm while trying to fix your dryer.

You know what doesn't blow . . . that I'll get to play videogames to my hearts content within the next week.

M

ok. so i finally have bandwidth again. i went last week without it in a new city with no friends to show me around. needless to say, i got alot of reading done.

i'm in cedar rapids, iowa for the summer, doing an internship with rockwell collins. they do technology work for airlines and the government. specifically, i'm working with their formal verification group on a really cool nsa sponsored project. it involves making a compiler for a newly designed haskell-like language that spits out machine code and a proof that the machine code and the original source code are semantically equivalent. it's quite an ambitious project, and i'm glad to be working on it.

rockwell has put me up in a furnished apartment that makes the robot factory look like the fort. it has beige walls and beige carpets with plastic brown floarboards, and all the furniture seems to be pressboard. there are benefits, though. i'm just a few blocks from work, i have a washer and drier, and my new cable modem connection is screamingly fast. it's also nice to be back in a place where people know that pop is called pop.

i'll be traveling alot this summer. i just booked a flight to atlanta for memorial day weekend (friday at 7pm to monday at 8:10pm). 2 weeks after that, i'll be in holland, mi for my little sister's wedding (it's the year of the weddings for the vroon family). i may also be traveling to michigan for a friend's wedding on july 3. after that, it will just be a few weeks until i move back to atlanta.

People having fun and enjoying themselves over the weekend? What's that all about? I've finally hit that consulting wall where you have to be careful about it sucking your soul through a tiny coffee straw and then spitting into a blender. What the hr people call work/life balance. I fell off the beam this past week while attempting a triple back flip.

I did have time to watch Kill Bill vol. 1 this weekend which reminded me in some part of zombie movies with all of their hilarious gore. fun.

I'm certainly looking forward to getting away to St. Simon's.

despite being 'well educated' at a 'smarty-pants school' resulting in my 'well-rounded-ness', i don't feel that i am usually (and especially right now) very 'eloquent'. that's too bad because i want to talk about what an incredible experience the second anual ripe festival was. i won't try. i'll try to wake up a little first. or maybe i'll just wait for matt to describe the event and add pithy comments. that's how i faked my way through the afformentioned school, anyway.

Well, I participated in a Grand Tournement this weekend for Warhammer 40K. I placed somewhere in the lower 50%. I did have a good weekend of fun though. I received four player choice votes. So, that means that four of the five people I played this weekend thought I was their best opponent. Thats flattering. I had a Mighty Victory, loss, loss, loss, and win. So, overall I started well and ended well. In other news, I'll be packing up my shit to get the hell out of dodge sometime soon.

Mark

You know what sucks? Listening to Rich talk about his new job at ISS. Apparently, ISS is that get-drunk-on-tuesday-and-race-your-razor-scooter-around-the-office job that everyone heard about in the mid to late 90's. They told him that there is a very "liberal" drinking policy, which basically says no hard liquor (but the guy who told him that thought it might have been more of a dare) and dont get drunk. Unless you're funny when you're drunk.

But anyway. Right now I'm in Savannah, which is also plenty boring (right now, anyway) and I'm not getting paid for it. I'm thinking of taking a trip to Japan sometime before I start working. It really depends on how cheap I can get some plane tickets. At this point, I know enough people to sleep there in the free to cheap range. It might even involve taking a plane to Tokyo and riding trains all the way down to Kyushu. Which I hope can be done in about a day. (Map of Japan)

oh god i am bored. work is totally sucking today.


.... i got nothin.

So I just had a little scare. It turns out next weekend (Roxy's wedding) is the same weekend as graduation for the high school I work at. Since I am a senior advisor I HAVE to be at graduation, sitting on stage, waiting to shake hands with the kiddies as they get their fake diplomas. Well, fortunately crisis averted since Roxanne is basically my sister (as Jason is my brother) so the wedding is a family affair (when you only have one person in your family you get to invite new people to join in case you guys didn't know that). End result is now I am free of Graduation responsibilities, including sitting for 3 hours on stage. St. Simon's Island here I come. The only drawback left is that I have to leave to go play ultimate on sunday. Sigh, why is life never simple. Oh well, at least I can play more DDR when I get home.

Only 13 more days until I get crazy with the video games. Tick tock.

M

Yeah. This new interface sucks ass.

For some reason, everything Brad says is some sort of concentrated laughing juice that goes straight to my brain and infects me with Crutzfield-Jakob Disease or Kuru or some shit.

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA BRAD GOT A LAP (LAFF) DANCE FROM A DWARF/MIDGET/LITTLE STRIPPER AHHAHAHAHAHHAHAA

Matt the phone conversation we had after y'all went to the Cheetah was hilarious. I wish I had a way to record my cell fone calls, especially the part where you reassured me you went into the Cheetah and had big ol' titties all up in your face and got all ten fingers instantly stuck in ten (10 - I specifically asked for clarification on this point) different pussies. MATT YOU SO CRAZY.

I'm glad y'all had a good time, it was a riot to get the (mostly) hourly status updates.

Dudes. This new blog is AWESOME. Martin you are so wack. What is up?? LOL :}><

I've always wanted to make a post like my sentence above. I felt the timing was right. I send my heartfelt apologies to all those who had to read that. As for my real feelings about the new blogger format... I don't think I used the old one enough to see any differences. It's pretty much the same to me. I don't mind the new look too much.

Matt's Bachelor Party was quite fun. I did enjoy the lap dance from the little person. At first I thought she might have been too tall but apparently 4'10" is the cut-off to be considered a dwarf. She was definitely shorter than that. One thing that was funny though was that she kept laughing. I know I'm goofy, but really... one might say that I got a laugh dance and not a lap dance! har har. Whew, sometimes I kill me.

Shoot, I guess I need to get a vacation day for Monday after the wedding weekend. It's not often I get to party with Mark.

Well I will just say what everyone else is thinking. This new blog is the worst thing ever and is the herald of a dark age of evil to come.

With that out of the way. I've been hard to track down the past few weeks, and haven't blogged in a while. Stuff at the new place is coming together slowly. We now have a media center, and a DDR pad. More (FREE!!!) stereo equipment is on its way. I've been grocery shopping. All in all it is starting to feel like home, which is nice.

Hardcore gaiming will commence soon. Job will be over for the summer in the next few months, which will give way to much more working out and much more video games. Both are good things.

In other news, the place now has a name. After a long selection process that involved M.A.S.H. techniques the place at the biltmore is now known as the Robot Factory. Jeremy will have to fill you all in on what "code blue" means, but from now on the place is called the Robot Factory, the Factory or RF. Oh, this coincides with us having a functional phone.

Finally, Matt's bachelor party was awesome. It was easily the best time I have ever had at the Cheetah.

M

yeah, i don't like blogger's new interface either. although i've figured out how to get where i'm going in the same number of clicks as before, i did like the unified console of the previous design. i dig the new look and feel, but i'd like to be able to see/edit old posts all in the same window, as i could before. i see that there's a preview button, but i'm a little hesitant to click on it just yet...

also, there is some broken-ness with the current look and feel -- dimensions are wrong, images and/or background colors are not loading consistently or correctly, etc.

but i can still blog and you will still read it. so it's all good.

He can still run for governor of california, right? After 5 years of not living with my parents, and after a week of living with my parents after those 5 years, I'm beginning to find this situation has its pros and cons:
pro: free room and board
con: I live with my parents

pro: nifty things like big screen tv's with 200 - odd channels
con: I live with my parents

pro: theres always beer in the fridge
con: I live with my parents

One thing I liked about the old Blogger interface is the way I could scroll down and look at whats already been posted.

So, first things first... Blogger.com has changed their website and it looks really stupid to me. There is now an extra step to create a post. Bad form. Maybe its just that I'm resistant to change.

I like the plan to hook up with the crew on friday. That sounds fun to me. I guess my only concern is that I do arrive rather late. Like 10:00pm. I mean... I'm in bed by that time usually. Not looking forward to an hour.five drive. But, as the day nears, we shall work out all plans. Suffice it to say, please don't forget about me!

In other news, when are the "you're never going to be president" pictures going to show from the party (or Par-Tay, as it were) in web friendly form? I wanna see proof of the guys night out.

Hope all is well.

Mark

whoooaa nelly, that was some bachelor partay.

thank you all so very much for that. ted, mark, your communication throughout the evening was much appreciated. ted, i was told we had a long conversation after the cheetah.. i have no recollection of said phone call but i guess it was something like "never have i seen titties like those, ted." brad, i hope you enjoyed your lap dance from the midget as much as i did. you know, i realized this morning that strippers are the perfect target market for something like the scrotey totey. it sure would be nifty for drunk idiots that decide to tip with susan b. anthonys and sacajaweas. the obvious problem is how to keep the crotch attractive. maybe they could just serve as a foot adornment. thoughts?

mark, i'm so very glad you'll be attending. i have two plans to propose. the first plan is that i or someone else present on the island on friday come pick you up and take you back to st. simons that same night. i have to meet the preacher that night, but there's a chance i could make it and i'm certain there will be others who could. the second, less exciting, plan is for my cousins to pick you up and take you back to my house in jacksonville for the evening. what will probably happen is some random person will pick you up and bring you to meet up with us at brogen's (bar). also, i commend your decision to stay until monday morning. you are indeed correct about the beach drinking and hangovers. also, roxanne and i plan to have beach activities for sunday (sand castle contest). so you should have a great time kickin it after booting your bad job. btw, congrats on landing the gf9 job! that sounds like a lot of fun. probably way more fun than concrete.

stupid hangover.
oh, and HAPPY MOMMA'S DAY!

Well, Ted, you are a loser for not making it to Matt's wedding. I mean, I'll be there. Which, by the by, I fly into JaX at about 10:00 pm Friday night. So, I either need to get together with the bachelor party crowd at the airport at that time -or- I need to rent a car and get to some place where the fun is -or- I need to get picked up by Person X who happens to be going to the wedding tomorrow. I'm going to just throw this plan out and see who jumps on it first with the best option.

I fly out from JaX Monday. Early. Like drop me off at the airport the night before and let me sleep in the terminal kind of early. I will then go meet my sister in Baltimore who is then going to fly to Italy for three weeks. I'll be taking care of a house, a dog, and a job while all three are unattended. I'll be working for a company that makes gaming accessories. Check them out here.

So, thats my plan. What happens after that? Tune in next time fellow bloggers. Next time!

Also, there is going to be a big party for those of us not stressed about getting married, right? I mean, there will be drinking on the beach and hangovers on Sunday right? That is the reason I got a flight for Monday and not Sunday. Are we going to have a chance to play games and raise a little bit of hell?

Ted - does this house have a nice big yard with grass?

I hope Mark's Big Adventure Part II isn't a lame sequel. I'd like to see a franchise with merchandise, tv shows, and spinoffs.

I think Ryan and I have gone through our second US Robotics Wireless router and right when I finally get off my lazy ass and decide to get wireless card for my laptop. It seems like everytime there's a big lightning storm with fires and carnage and destruction our router craps out and dies. The modem went as well but at least Bell South gave a new one for free.

WAY TO GO, MARK!

There's very few feelings quite like the elation of putting in yer Two Week Notice with a job you don't like. Except maybe actually walking out of the job you don't like or your friends taking bets on if you got laid last night or getting laid or a nice cold Negra Modelo on the back porch.

Matt, it looks dismal for Nikki and my prospects to make it to St. Simon's Island, which I feel bad about. Right now we're in the process of buying a house (and have been for a few months) so we're strapped for cash. I'm still checking into what I can do, and I really really want to make it, but we'll see.

And if everything goes well, Nikki and I will be taking posession of the house (which we are currently under contract) in late June, hopefully to have a big housewarming party/combined birthday party for Nikki and myself in August.


I changed the copyright notice in the bottom because zombies are public domain.

well shitdamn. so that means that matt's wedding is going to be the start of mark's great adventure part two. that's awesome.

mikex0r -- whatever happened with your course substitution? or are you content to stay at tech for another time unit?

meanwhile, i'm supposed to be working now, but just can't bring myself to. i'm busy thinking about jumping on one of those inflatable moon-walk things.

Its nice to see brad back in the loop. As for hotels with X.... hmm... that can't be good for the insurance. So, how are the mini bars in your rooms?

I think that with the zombie theme (by the by, I'm all for switching up themes every so often) you should take off the spiderman copyright hey hey at the bottom of the page.

Lastly, I submitted my two week notice to my employer. My last day as of now is scheduled to be the 20th of may.

Mark

So I did pretty well this semester... 2 As and 2 Bs. But the B's were 4 hour classes and the A's were 3 hour classes. oops

you get little bottles of X in your hotel in new york? no wonder everyone loves it there so much.

Jetsetter Brad. That's like one a dem oxymoron things ain't it? What's great is that I get to sit in the back (and I mean back) of the plane with all the cool kids. It's awesome. Oh wait, I'm not in third grade anymore and all the cool people sit in the front now. Can't anything ever stay the same!

I think maybe I should collect as many bottles of hotel shampoo, soap, conditioner, X, etc. as I can and then make some horrendous modern art sculpture. Then I could write a poem about it. I haven't done that in a while.

2 weeks straight posting.

Well, I am glad to come. But, I do think that 5 hrs one way in the car with Martin would be better and more fun than 1.5 hrs in the car with your mom or someone else. I'm not knocking your mom, but its just that Martin and I have more things to talk about and I feel the percentage of cartalk time would be higher with Martin. I think that your mom and I wouldn't be talking all that much... if you know what I mean.

Anyway... that is why I'm making plans now to evaluate this sort of stuff. So, Martin... what the hell are your plans?

Mark

Brad wasn't lying about his jet-settin, hotel-rompin, ny-lady-killin lifestyle. I had the pleasure of using his john this weekend and witnessing the 40 bottles of fine hotel soap.

In honor of Brad, I have changed our slightly lame Spiderman theme to zombies.

Mark! I'm very happy and honored that you're making an effort to attend the shindig on May 22. The closest major airport is Jacksonville International Airport, which is only 1.5 hours away from St Simons Island, as opposed to 5 hours from Atlanta. So, there's one option.

Goddamn, check out the jet-setting brain on Brad! Working in Brooklyn for a French company, livin large in Lawrenceville on the weekends, eating dinner in Bupyong, South Korea, tea with the Queen, spareribs with Fitty Cent.

NIGGA GOT A STRAIGHT FOTEEN KARAT GRILL.

Everything I've heard about Bubba Ho-Tep is that it fuckin rules. Hain't seen it yet, tho.

mmm...beer & Pocky.

Well, I'm really glad that Brad is not dead. Thats a good thing. Its too bad he is living in two homes though... thats kinda dissapointing.

On the subject of zombie movies, did you see Bubba-Ho-Tep? I have not but I've heard that it is very good and very funny. You know, zombie movie funny.

Lastly, there is a shin dig going on the 22nd of May that I intend to attend. But, I do not know how I'm going to arrive at said event. Martin- When are you leaving for the drunken bash? I'd like to get a flight to ATL and ride with you. But, if thats not feasable... let me know. I'd like to have some plans firmed up sooner rather than later.

Hope all is well with you. I'm kinda in a holding pattern right now with my life. Got some coals in the fire and we'll see what happens.

Mark