Getting Married...

Engagement Photo
Originally uploaded by linux_chick.

My dad took this picture of us yesterday with my new camera while we were celebrating Christmas. It instantaneously became our official engagement picture.

We've been dating since May 2003, but as of November 19th, Jeremy and I are officially engaged.

Moving...
In unrelated news, I scored a super-sweet internship with Intel in California. So, I'm taking next semester off from school on Internship credit.

January 3rd is my first day and I'll post as many pictures here as I can of my pad.

To all my KU buds, see you guys in August! To everybody reading, Merry Christmas!
-T.

I Knew We Could Do It...

Congrats to our Seniors
Final Score: 42-13.

What a fantastic season! Merry Christmas everybody :)

Quote of the Day: This One Makes Me Smile

"Hey, if I am [suspended], I am. That would be a discredit to the team and obviously it would hurt the team. It would be a sad situation."

-Terrell Owens on his suspension w/ Phili

Brief Kansas Update: Multimedia
The photogallery from the Nebraska game is up here. Thanks to Jeremy for taking all the great pics!

Video of the second goal post coming down can be viewed here.

Happy viewing!
-T.

1 in 51,000

Final Score
Originally uploaded by linux_chick.

One girl in the very top nosebleed row on the fifty yard line saw it all. I'm not sure if I can stop my fingers from trembling...

Record Attendance
It's true (and fantastic) that 51,750 fans showed up to watch us snap this 36 year losing streak to Nebraska. But what excites me more than packing Memorial Stadium tighter than it's ever been in history are the *real* fans in both sides of the stadium. I actually sat next to a group of KU alumni who graduated 21 to 23 years ago reminiscing about puking in the stadium and celebrating wins by carrying students up and down the rows until officials broke it up. It was so great.

There were so many fans. All screaming loud enough that I struggled to hear the band.

The Events as I Remember...
I watched KU students alongside 40 and 50-somethings rush the field to tear both goalposts down.

My favorite team dominated in the most amazing football game I've ever witnessed.

A kindergartener in a Jayhawk cheerleading uniform squeeled at the top of her lungs, "We got 'em, Daddy. We got Nebwaska!!"

It's a good day to be in Lawrence
I seriously can't stay... I'm going to post this photogallery within the hour so you can catch a glimpse of what we saw today.

I'm not going to talk about stats either, because I don't know them, or care. I was there to watch the event that turned my hometown upside-down in three hours time. I'm going to leave now and go lose my voice with my neighbors. There will be booze and dancing and screaming. Today is *great*.

KU Quarterbacks Wilt Under Pressure

I'm so upset right now, I'm not even sure what to say about game day in Manhattan.

Dominating Rushing with over three times the yardage of K-State, we *still* lose 12-3. In response to our outstanding defensive effort, our offense lost 3 of 4 fumbles and had a collective <20% completion of passes.

Freshman Marcus Hereford was the one Quarterback whose explosive 34-yard trick pass to Gordon and back that got our offensive momentum back... and then we pull him from the game.

Rushing. Rushing worked. Cornish gets it done, but then, we'd have to get him the ball.

How many games are we going to have to lose before our Offensive Coordinator calls the plays that our team is actually good at?

Unrelated...
Just to leave this on a somewhat happy note so I'm not suicidal:

The beta 2 of Firefox is released. Aside from breaking my Adblock extension, it's looking nice. Hurray for dragging text into search bars and links into the tab-toolbar for instant execution!

Man, open-sourced is getting good. ;)

Stay techie,
-T.

KU Starts 0-1 for Conference Play

There's no shame in losing to number 16 ranked Texas Tech in our first game away, but having a passionate comeback putting up 10 points in 90 seconds in the beginning of the second half deflated by a disjointed offensive effort is disheartening to say the least. Final score: 30-17 Texas Tech.

Hats off to the Defense
Absolutely incredible stops that kept us in the game while our QB choked throwing down the field. I can't blame Luke too harshly; as much as I appreciate what Mangino is doing for our program, our play calls are truly a mystery to me. Throwing on a first down when Luke started out 8 of 18 passes in the first quarter and 1 interception. Umm... something isn't working.

Offense that Works
It seemed the only thing that *did* work offensively was the combined running efforts of Cornish and Simmons. We show great potential. If we can get over our clumsy passing game, who knows how this program will grow over the next few weeks? I'm truly at a loss.

See you next week in Manhattan :)

I Want to Be a Coach

North Stadium View

How's Mangino's $600k salary as an incentive to pick up sport coaching? Nice...

Anyway, here are some pics of our new football scoreboard.

It doesn't appear to be completely finished, but still is looking pretty nice. So fans willing to spend the $225/game for season tickets (non-students) will be able to decide which direction they want to crook their heads to see by exactly how much we're slaughtering Nebraska... North or South.

Game 1 is less than a week away... do you have your tickets yet? :)

-T.

KU Gets Kicked While They're Down

Football Media Attention

---

So, I got my wish (sort of).

KU Football is certainly making headlines these days with the Ringwood arrest and allegations that he attacked a forty-something man and his wife outside a concert. This attention isn't exactly what I had in mind in my previous post.

With the onset of this incident, exciting developments of our outstanding freshmen recruits and speculated atheletic growth in players such as Clark Green and our powerhouse Charles Gordon seem to fade to the background. KU's disciplinary actions have instead, receives the limelight... Great.

I haven't decided who I'm angrier with, the 20-year-old athelete casting a shameful light on the institution (and program) I think so highly of under already tense circumstances... or the local media for beating the incident to death and allowing it to overshadow our positive steps forward.

Are Our Freshmen Stupid?

---

While I'm venting about individuals making KU look bad, it seems to me that this wave of incoming freshmen are lacking in the common sense department.

For a little background, I'm working a couple on campus of jobs in the computer/internet trouble-shooting arena at ResNet and EGARC.

In this era of widespread computer accessibility where everyone and his dog owns a laptop, Ipod and PDA, each successive year of new-comers would be growing more and more computer savvy. At least that's what *I* thought.

Favorite Computer Questions at EGARC

1. Can you help me open Word?
   
2. OK, now how do you save this?
   
3. So you guys are the computer people. Can you give me my Blackboard assignment?
   
4. My class isn't in the room it's supposed to be in. Can you tell me where they went?
   
5. Can you give me the video my instructor asked us to watch? She's the short one with brown hair.
   

Favorite Internet "Trouble-Shooting" Solutions from ResNet
Student Question: I can't get to the internet, what am I doing wrong?
Answer: Pick any of the following...

1. You need an ethernet cord.
   
2. (Related to 1) You need an ethernet cord that isn't broken, ie. the plastic terminating end is actually attached.
   
3. When the window pops up asking if you want to continue, click "OK."
   
4. You actually need to *run* the security program you downloaded from our site.
   
5. Try the web-browser.
   

These guys aren't the *norm,* but are more frequent than one would hope. Am I being too harsh?

-T.

Big 12 Stadiums on Google Maps

Gearing up for Football Season

---

Like a good little Jayhawk, I spent a sickening amount of the day complaining about the rise in tuition and book costs while simulatneously opting to foot another $120 for the Sports Combo Ticket in Enroll and Pay.

The Big 12:

---

Jeremy actually compiled this list during the Google Maps craze. So, if you have a few minutes to waste and want to check out our stadiums:

• Baylor Bears
  
• Colorado Buffaloes
  
• Iowa State Cyclones
  
• KANSAS JAYHAWKS (MSN Virtual Earth)
  
• Kansas State Wildcats
  
• Missouri Tigers
  
• Nebraska Cornhuskers
  
• Oklahoma Sooners
  
• Oklahoma State Cowboys (MSN Virtual Earth)
  
• Texas Longhorns
  
• Texas A&M Aggies
  
• Texas Tech Red Raiders
  

Support Our Team

---

No doubt, Lawrence is all about basketball. And with good reason... but with football season less than a month away our local paper is still talking about nothing but freshmen B-ball recruits. Their excuse is pure economics: basketball stories gross triple the hits online vs. football... even in football season.

So visit KUSports and click on some football links to promote more writing. We got the cover story today... Hopefully, this can help get Lawrence excited to see what Mangino and the team can do.

Tailgating, Tailgating, Tailgating

---

I couldn't be more pumped up. With the last season defeat of K-State thanks to our uber-stud coach, all football-fan eyes are set on one thing...

Nebraska ;)

See you at the stadium September 3rd. This should be fun,
-T :)

Hating Bill Gates on a New Level

As much as I complain about Internet Explorer and Microsoft business practices, these guys are psycho.

Andy Martin and the Obliteration of Common Sense

---

The Committee to Fight Microsoft (CTFM) as far as I can tell "protects our rights" as consumers by refusing to accept "bad code" Microsoft forces onto innocent consumers like you and I. Andy Martin, CTFM President says this of Microsoft:

"Bill Gates sells the public defective products, and then expects us to spend years being his guinea pigs, while he corrects the myriad of defects and vulnerabilities in his defective code. This is mass consumer fraud. It is unacceptable corporate behavior."
--Beta News

The solution, you ask?

---

This is Martin's answer: He hopes to force Microsoft into ensuring that Windows Vista will either be free of "bad code" or removed from the shelves. That's right. Martin is asking for Microsoft's guarantee that Vista is bug-free or withheld from the market until it's perfect.

Let's Use an Analogy

---

Martin's logic holds some intrinsic flaws:

1. First, he assumes Microsoft is releasing defective software warranting fraudulent advertising simply because the system can be compromised.
   
   So, if I build a house, and some jerk is successful in burning it down, can I be sued for construction flaws?
   
   This is exactly what virus developers do. They maliciously research ways of compromising software. A successful virus script-kiddie managing to hijack our systems into performing actions never intended is a far cry from Microsoft designing Vista that way.


2. Second, *no* software is bug-free.
   
   Developing is a process; especially when dealing with the amount of code Windows would require. It's a game of programmers against programmers back and forth. We should be happy Microsoft releases years worth of updates when vulnerabilities rise to the surface. Exactly, which OS would Martin like to switch to? Linux? *There's* a bug-free option.


3. Lastly, if you're unhappy with Windows, don't use it.
   
   Hopefully, this doesn't require any further explanation. We live in a capitalist society. XP and Vista are two of many different operating systems and we're free to choose any one (of varying quality) we want. I thought this was a no-brainer.

And my coworkers think *I* hate Gates. Hopefully Martin takes a chill pill.
-T.

KU Construction Hazards and Dashed Techie Hopes

A Dilemma

---

I actually watched a guy fall up the stairs on the way to Bailey Hall. Yep, it was ugly. The kind of fall that sends notebooks flying in the bushes and scrapes knees against the concrete.

I was walking far enough behind that by the time I reached him, he was standing again, braced against the hand-support. That's when I saw blood. And he was no longer making an effort to get up the stairs.

What does a person do in this situation? Do I offer to help him the rest of the way? Or walk past under the pretense that I hadn't seen the incident?

The question is this: Which hurts more: trying to limp up the stairs on an injured knee or the scathed pride at having fallen *badly* in front of a person of the opposite sex?

Internet Explorer with Tabs?

---

That's a nice feature, but I would *much* rather have a browser that is standards compliant like just about EVERY OTHER browser on the market.

Here's a review of IE 7.0 I pulled from Slashdot.

A Subtle Note to Gates:

---

CSS-Support! Just *do* it! The most-used browser on the planet is stuck in the Ice Age. I'm going to bomb Microsoft if I have to include *one* more hack specific to fixing YOUR STUPID BROWSER in my code again...

Ubuntu is so Cool, It's too Bad their Colors Suck

Jeremy and I found a deal at Best Buy we couldn't pass up: 80G Hardrive, Sempron 3000 E-Machine. So we whipped out the credit card and did the "college thing," making purchases we can't afford.

The Service Rep

---

Fending this guy off proved a feat. He was going through his top-sellers-list, "offering" us: a firewall, anti-virus (which all KU students can get for *free*), etc.

When my polite attempts to quickly get out of the store failed, Jeremy stepped in, "Dude, we're gonna put linux on this thing as soon as we get it back."

The rep paled and silenced. Best Buy should maybe train their reps better, so they know a little about competitor products and not just the memorized, stock answers Best Buy wants them to shove down people's throats.

Installing Ubuntu

---

This is my favorite linux distro. that I've tried so far. The Ubuntu community offers a plethera of solid faqs for *every* question you could ever want answered unlike any distribution I've seen. The GUI is intuitive and friendly... but well, unfortunately kind of ugly.

What's with the diarrhea-brown everywhere? C'mon, you guys are *this* close to perfect.

Anyway, we don't have to look at it since we're running it console only.

A $300 toy

---

So, using it as a secure shell/web server sounded like a great idea for us in the store... Fast-foward to today: the thing is set up (on the floor since neither of us have an extra desk), ready to go and we don't have any files we want to put on the thing. Maybe we didn't plan this through very responsibly.

...At least it's fun to play with. :)

Kansas Freshmen

I was following a girl today who had a $10 bill falling out of her right back pocket.

When I finally caught up to her, she was venting to a boy by the Chick-Fil-A stand. She told him she was furious; she had just come downstairs after having to pay an outrageous $3 overdue fee to avoid getting in trouble with the Bursar's Office.

I cut in, "Sorry. I don't mean to eavesdrop."

I made them aware, in case they didn't already know, that I was pretty sure students could renew their videos upstairs as many times as they wanted for free. I told them that although checking out videos are free, the libraries on campus tend to use steep late fees since instructors often need the videos for classes.

I said that I hoped what I said may help for next time.

Both stared blankly at me for a moment and I felt really stupid.

It was the girl who finally spoke.

"Thanks anyway," she said. "Next time, I think I'll just go to Blockbuster and avoid getting screwed by KU's bull***."

So, does Blockbuster not charge late fees?

Bowling Blows

I hate this stupid this game and don't want to play anymore.

Why Impatient People Should Pick Another Sport

---

How much more counterproductive can a game get than launching a urethane projectile at set of plastic rods flipping you the birdie from 60 feet away?

Best case scenerio: you nail 'em all. But don't get too excited because 15 seconds after hearing the satisfactory crack of exploding pins richocheting off the backboard, your crowning achievement is cleared away by a heartless mechanization replacing your conquered pins with a fresh set, white and new and flipping you the birdie.

1. No one wins... *ever:* The purpose of this spectacle is to raise your average. It's not as simple as slaughtering more headpins than your neighbor. This is intended to facilitate the opportunity for newcomers to compete with the advanced. What it actually *does* is create an extremely frustrating game-setting, where the only way to win is to kick your own butt.
   
   Doesn't sound like a night out of fun to me. Hmm, a game where the harder I practice, the harder it will be for me to beat *myself.* Maybe, I'll stay home and clip my toenails instead. At least then I'd have some kind of notion of accomplishment.



2. Everyone's an Expert: Nevermind that their averages are only 20 pins or so above yours. With stale-beer breath, freinds of friends of your father's bowling teammate from '72 that remember you from when you were "this big" will happily volunteer their successful (and often conflicting) bowling tips, leaving you dangerously tempted to test the structural sanctity of the plastic bowling pins against your thrashing foot.



3. Bowling is Monotonous: This game's idea of variety is switching to another lane three feet away that is identical to the one you just played on. Then you get to switch back. And switch again.
   
   

In Short

---

Without divulging too many details, I think it's fair to say bowling could have gone better this week.

An upside is that Jaybowl lets KU students bowl for $1/game all summer long in the basement of the Kansas Union. Hurray for gluttons for punishment.

-T.

Mind of Monotony with Carlos Mencia

Last night I tried out the new Comedy Central show, Mind of Mencia... again. Since it's debut July 6th, I've subjected myself three times to the same watered-down laughs reminiscent of a hispanic Chappelle's Show without the wit. I think it's fair to say I've given the guy a shot.

Not for the Easily Offended

---

This title of his comedy DVD released a couple of years ago is also the gimmick of the show. You'll know this because he will tell you *every five minutes* just before he moves on to broadcasting another tired stereotype to the audience they've long-since grown sick of hearing.

Feigning Indifference

---

Adding insult to injury, Mencia's in-your-face flavor comes across as a desperate attempt to convince his audience that he doesn't care who he offends. Maybe he's trying too hard...

His politically-correct style of alotting nearly equal time to bashing each cultural identity appears to suspiciously reminiscent of a ploy of an entertainer afraid of losing his fan base. The action screams, "You can't get mad at me because I make fun of everyone, so you can't be mad because at least I'm being fair!" This has two problems:

1. It doesn't work.
   Some stereotypes are funnier than others. Why sacrifice the quality of his show for a strained montage of tag team culture-ribbing?
   
   If it comes down to offensiveness, Dave Chappelle's "The Niggars" skit of a 1950s white suburban family with the commons surname, "Niggar" is far more eyebrow-raising as Chappelle tests the limits of how often his audience can hear the word "Niggar" in casual conversation without cringing. It's gutsy, and hilarious.
   
   But then, Chappelle doesn't feel the need to p the Hindus, Arabs, Blacks, Mexicans, Jews and Homosexuals in every show.


2. It leaves no time to develop a joke.
   Mencia's show is 23 minutes long (taking comercials into account). With as many topics as Mencia hopes to cover, he's successful in getting across punchlines suggesting that Arabs are racially profiled as terrorists and Mexicans stigmatized as illegal aliens. Gee, thanks.

On a (Somewhat) Positive Note

---

I'm being too harsh. It's not as if I never laughed. Mencia has a great deal of charisma that is extremely entertaining to watch. Hopefully, he explores his material a bit to find something fresh to present to his audience. As is, Dave did it first, Dave did it better.


-T.

So Long-horn...

Microsoft officially anounced the new name of the Longhorn operating system superceding XP today as Window's Vista. Reported additional features give us home users much to be excited about.

For the Developers and Home Users

---

"Click Once" application technology is purported to beef up Visual Studio and ease application installation securely.

Also, the new addition of "Aero," a dynamic side-bar holding relevant applications to add power to the standard Windows Task Bar. Possibly borrowing from the Apple dock?

For the Gamers

---

Vista implements the new Avalon (API) graphical subsystem for better rendering of 3D graphics based on Direct3D technologies.

If anyone has tried the beta version of this OS and has any feedback, feel free to post your impressions. I'd be interested to know.

Tangent Links

---

Here's some additional readings I found interesting today. If you have a few extra minutes to kill, you may be mildly amused...

• Technology: A friend at work was drooling today over gaming possibilities with the Nvidia GeForce 7 Series. Admitedly, the new video cards look impressive.



• Mindless Entertainment: This is really old, but entertained me for a while today: I thought I'd give a shout out Burger King's Subservient Chicken. Enjoy watching your free video slave "dance like John Travolta."



• In the News: Whoopdie-do for 10 more years of the Patriot Act, signed into Congress today. The justification being, since there were no "atual record(s) of abuse," it *makes sense* to extend legislation.
  

Stay Cool Today

---

At the risk of sounding completely random, make sure you stay cool today. In Lawrence, the heat index is remarked to peak at 115 today. Absolutely dreadful.

Stay techie ;)
-T.

New Banners on this Site?

So, advertisments can be annoying, I know. But, I've decided to syndicate out a piece of this blog to Google's Adsense program to hopefully help me earn a little extra cash and help support my Flickr account. So, if you want to support me and see something of interest in my side-bar, go ahead and follow my advertiser links and make a purchase. I'll be rewarded for it.

How to Block my Banners

---

It may be slightly counter-productive to instruct you on how to make my means of revenue disappear from the screen, but if they're as annoying to you as they are to me, it won't hurt my feelings in the slightest to browse free of them. Follow these steps and you won't see them anymore.

1. Get Firefox


2. Install Adblock. Read more.


3. Restart Firefox.


4. Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences


5. Type: *show_ads.js*


6. Hit Enter and you're done. No more ads on this blog.

For those holding out on Adblock for this page, I want to say thanks for your support.

-T.

On Bowling

It's one of my goals this summer to become a better bowler. So, I joined a league with Jeremy, my Dad and his girlfriend, Peggy.

Setting Expectations High

---

Week 1: it proved a feat to convince my father, a veteran bowler of 25+ years that I was a *terrible* bowler... Not just kind of bad. As if my task wasn't difficult enough, I ended my debut by nailing a 110 average by some outlandish string of luck. Looking into the eyes of my father swelling with pride at having donated genes to a potential "natural" bowler, I cringed. Nothing good can come from this.

Leaving the alley, I gulped down rising stomach-acid overhearing Dad's murmuring in Peggy's ear his delight at their new "secret weapon" on the team... me.

A Steady Decline

---

Luckily, any misconceptions of my bowling aptitude were shattered the following week when midway-ish through the first game of the series I landed my 7th gutter-ball. For those that may not know how league bowling works, the steady increase of one's average does volumes to a team's chances. Conversely, it's *really* bad to lower your average... and mine had a ways to fall.

Fast-Forward to Week 8

---

I've been kicking my butt, pulling extra practices and Jeremy, holding a steadily rising 193 average, has been helping me on my approach. My average is a more reasonable 97. This Sunday, I nailed *confidently* a 97, 104, and 115.

*Plus* The last tie-breaking game was won by 7 pins, which Dad says my strong 10th frame won for the team. It's nice to help the team for a change. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Hurray for Oatmeal Cookies! That's our team name; sounds fiesty, huh?

-T.

Ubuntu-izing Fedora Core 4

I'm on week two of Fedora Core 4, switching from an install of Ubuntu (Hoary) after I completely botched my Ubuntu install... nevermind the details ;). So, I gave Red Hat a go... and so far, I'm impressed. A *huge* reason for Red Hat's success with me is the Unofficial Fedora Guide.

The Guide

---

Let me start off by saying that I found Ubuntu to be very nice, by far the easiest install and user-friendly distribution I've tried so far. It makes *perfect* sense then, for other distros pursuing more shallow learning curves for your average home-user to borrow what's working from the Ubuntu knowledge base.

Hats off to Seb Payne, an Evolution Colt developer that did just that, borrowing from the intuitive style of the Ubuntu Starter Guide to create an easy to navigate, user-friendly FAQ for linux/Red Hat beginners.

Enter The Resistance

---

Sounds like a happy ending, right? I thought so, too. But this solution makes too much sense for Fedora developers who refuse to collaborate with Payne's guide, donate content or even establish a link for users to decide which FAQ suits them the best.

Can't We All Get Along?

---

If we discuss waging an Operating System war, undoubtedly Microsoft wins. With a powerhouse like Windows XP dominating easily 80% of the market, it would seem that Linux distributions would be working together and sharing ideas to have a better chance of carving out a slice of Gate's monster pie. Unfortunately, this is not the case, at least with Fedora developers seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot, letting ideas that show a good deal of promise go to waste.

Thanks Seb

---

So, Payne, this post is for you. Hopefully, a frustrated Fedora user or two will stumble onto this post and give your guide a shot before starting anew with Mandrake or switching back to XP. It's unfortunate you have to coallate a renegade FAQ on your own, but many of us are grateful for the work you're doing; I want to do my part, sending a few more visitors in your direction to show my support.

-T.

Visit the Fedora Guide

Burton's Chocolate Factory a Treat

Could we expect anything less? The director that brought us The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach has outdone himself again with an extremely creative rendition of the 1971 classic. Though, he didn't accomplish this feat alone.

Inside the Movie...

---

For better or worse, you *will* see the following in this movie:

• Deep Roy in yellow spandex involved in a display of 70s-style interpretive dance
  Remember this vertically-challenged actor from The Neverending Story?


• Disneyesque-Dancing-Figurine pyrotechics
  This is the only way I could think of to describe it... you'll know exactly what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie.


• A young boy *attempting* to eat chocolate wearing orthodonic braces that resemble a small-scale torture device.
  Maybe I'm morbid, but I was laughing my socks off.
  

What Works

---

Director, Tim Burton, stimulates intellectually, creatively and aesthetically in this comic production that is so visually involved, the audience can almost taste the toothache from the screen. Not only should this film be advertised as color-stimulant gluttony, but Burton puts forward additional sensory overloads such as shiny objects and juicy candy dripping from a woman's open-mouthed grin that work delightfully.


Johnny Depp demonstrates his artistic versatility through his portrayal of the eccentric, hopelessly naive, reclusive and quirky Willa Wonka himself. Having high expectations going into the movie, I was pleasantly surprised with how tangibly Depp could present this completely unrealistic, fairytale-like character.


What Doesn't

---

Listening to accent discrepancies proved annoying. While evident that Burton cast actors that undoubtedly fit the bill, its difficult to avoid feeling insulted at buying into a family of three generations living in the same house as a cohesive unit speaking English in dialects native to three different countries.


Yes, talents such as Freddie Highmore, Noah Taylor and David Kelly carry out the magnetic performances of little Charlie, father and grandfather Bucket. The unfortunate breakdown from this conglomeration is that these actors are collectively from: Great Britain, Australia and Ireland. In my opinion, Burton unnecessarily reminds us that these talents are just that: good actors and have no feasible means of existing in the Bucket family as Burton presents it... blech.

I'm not going to reveal anymore... Hopefully you're adequately enticed to see the film and judge for yourself.

-T.

Firefox Woes

1.0.5 Under Fire

---

Since its release July 12th, the open-sourced browser has come under fire and received some undue flack. I thought I would address a couple of concerns to hopefully help make Firefox more satisfying.

1. Massive Processor Usage:
   Tabbed-browsing, for its speed and organizational aesthetic benefits can have a downfall if used to excess. Having 20 tabs open in firefox, while not the only cause of inefficient processor use, can easily bring your computer productivity to a crawl.
   
   Solution #1: Try Adblock.
   This solution has many benefits. This free extension blocks pesky advertiser banners from appearing while you browse, whose attention-nabbing images act like leeches on your memory. Also, adblock *will* prevent Spyware from being downloaded to your machine. Read more.
   
   Solution #2: Buy more memory
   It's that simple. If you must have 100 webpages open at a time, your computer is going to need some help.
   


2. No Update Feature:
   At this point, Firefox is pushing out updates seemingly left and right. To stay up to date, a home user has to be conscientious enough to keep up on software news and download the newer version from Mozilla's website. Admitedly, this is a valid gripe.
   
   Solution: Suck it up.
   I don't mean to be quite so harsh, but we are talking about a *free* browser that is safer, faster and far more powerful than its Microsoft equivalent. At least the program is "smart" enough to save all preferences, bookmarks, extensions, etc.
   
   So, yes. It is somewhat annoying to have to visit a website to download a newer version of Firefox, but for all the benefits they provide, I can cut Mozilla a little slack and invest 30 seconds of my day.
   

Spread-Firefox Trouble

---

Unfortunately, Spread Firefox has been breached. If you have an account, you should have already received an E-mail about this. Check your mail and follow instruction. The Mozilla Foundation has issued a statement that this security issue is isolated to the Spread Firefox website and does not affect any part of Mozilla.org. Read more on John Hoke's Blog.

Happy Browsing!
-T.

Rehnquist Stays...

He's 80 and suffering from thyroid cancer... and more importantly arguably the most conservative Justice on the bench. Now with a chance to retire under a Republican administration, William Rehnquist is turning the opportunity down says CNN.

Is this for real?

---

I'm laughing my socks off at the thought that Bush may be so Conservative Right that even our conservative Justices are weary of entrusting the future of the bench to his discretion. I mean, the man is 80, I don't think anyone can demand any more tenure from him.

Politics Rehnquist Style

---

Though he's most well-known (infamous) for his possible involvement in the Nixon Watergate scandal, his stances against the desegregation of public schools during Brown vs. the Board of Education, support of school vouchers, and favor pardoned to the dampening of the division between church and state should probably be equally discussed... if not discussed more. Shouldn't retiring under Bush be this guy's wet dream? *sigh* Politics are sure getting interesting.

If you're Christian...

---

And sick of the Conservative Right, this website might be of interest to you. An affiliated blog was featured on The Daily Show.
The Christian Alliance for Progress

Well, I'm off my rant for the day.

Love,
-T.

Painting

Guest Bathroom During Painting

So the photo galleries demonstrating the progress to the apartment are up!

All pics come compliments of Flickr

So what do you guys think of the blue?

Love,
-T.

I Made Some Science...

I helped MIT today by taking this online survey. If you have a blog, you can, too.

We're painting the Apartment
Jeremy's brother, Jason came into town and is helping with the effort. The white walls are through. Here are the decided colors for the apt:

Living Room: Autumn Arrival (Orange) Computer Room: Coral Expression (Red-Pink) Master Bedroom: Dublin (Green) Guest Bedroom: Seven Seas (Blue) Guest Bathroom: Ocean View (Lighter Blue) Master Bathroom: Saffron Thread (Yellow-Orange)

I'll post a gallery of before/after pics soon, so you can check on our progress. Cool, huh?
-T.

Thank you, Sebelius

I'm not sure how morons like Doug Mays ever attain the position of power and responsibility they do, but leave it to Kansas (the state I've been raised in and love) to always surprise me. So Mays, House Speaker, is under high fire in Kansas over trying to defend why Kansas Legislature has not met their deadline to increase state funding of public schools to the tune of $143 million as promised months ago. Instead of intelligently responding to the arguments at hand, or even better, putting pens to paper and fixing the problem, Mays resorts to immature hissy throwing.

Mays *refused* to convene early with Legislature to come up with an economic plan for school finance before Sebelius' special session on June 22. Why? Anyone's guess.

Worse, he compared the Kansas Supreme Court to Saddam Hussein and is apparently tired of being "puppetted" by the judicial branch. I wish I were joking. Read more

So, we can expect him to be advocating more legislative admendments to the State Constitution to sidestep the jurisdiction of the Kansas Supreme Court. Who cares about the system of checks and balances. We don't need them in Kansas, because we have Doug Mays. And Doug Mays is always always right. Because... well, he's a republican. And he doesn't like Hussein.

Meanwhile, the House is deadlocked in an extended *two-week* session without any plan to show for it. The Court is threatening to close public schools in Kansas, calling school finance unconstitutionally low.


On a Serious Note
Thank you, Sebelius, for working so hard for the best interest of a state that kicks and screams against your every move. Thank you for standing firm in your belief that the education of our children is top priority and necessary. Your humanitarian efforts are probably sinking your career as a politician in Kansas, but some people here are *very* grateful for your incredible service.


Regardless of Your Agreement with this Post...
I realize the issues are too complicated to discuss adequately in this short post. Please get informed and involved:
E-mail Doug Mays
Contact Governor Sebelius

Respectfully,
-T.

Adblock for Spyware

Spyware is bad. At best, they slow down your computer with comercial-interest programs to monitor the websites you visit or occasionally provide you with a popup or two. Worst case, they install keyloggers to your system without your informed consent tracking sensitive passwords, credit card information, you name it.

Fortunately, There are Some Things We Can Do
You could buy a Mac or install and use a lesser targeted operating system, sure... This will work great, but is unrealistic for your average home user who is happy with XP.

May I recommend Adblock?

It's a free extension to Mozilla Firefox's web-browser, that I can't believe I survived without. This will cause you to download almost no spyware, eliminate most banner ads on websites and browse the web faster accessing the information you were interested in reading about in the first place. You are only a few easy steps away.

1. If you haven't already, download and install the Firefox browser here.


2. Using your new browser, go to the extensions page and install Adblock at https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=10


3. Close Firefox and reopen it.


4. Click: Tools -> Adblock -> Preferences


5. Now you may edit your blockable elements. By default, Adblock blocks nothing.
   You can use the sample settings provided by mozdev (the Adblock developers) to get you started here. Keep in mind, that this is a very *basic* list to get you started and is a little out of date. You will want to add to this over time.

You're done! You've installed Adblock and configured your Filter List. Happy browsing with Firefox...

-T :)

Bale-man Steals the Show

To say that Batman Begins is fantastic solely because of one man's performance hardly does this motion-picture gem justice, but to walk out of the theatre and discuss the movie's success without mentioning his name in the opening sentence defies all reason. So here it is: Christian Bale is bowling over audiences world-wide.

Who?

It's tough to fill the shoes that Michael Keaton left behind. Many have tried... Need I mention the abominations to the screen that big-time names like Val Kilmer and George Clooney left behind in their sordid attempts. It seemed gutsy at best, if not suicidal, to cast a has-been teen-heartthrob from the early 90s that has been where for the past 10 years to take a stab at the role.

Maybe not... When I first saw Bale tackling the role in a trailer, I was initially surprised, but then thought "this should be good." This 30-something actor from Wales has got to be one of the most under-rated/cast actors today. I was disappointed in '92 when the musical, Newsies, failed to leave much of an impression on audiences. It was 10 years later that I saw him again in Reign of Fire and Equilibrium.

Unfortunately, McConaughey stole most of the little attention paid to Reign of Fire while I don't remember Equilibrium even coming out in the theatres. It seemed Bale would never catch a break... until now.

Batman Begins is taking the world by storm. It's blown the box office away in the UK and US alike. With a reception like this, I don't think this Bale is going anywhere soon... much to our delight.

More Contributions

Christopher Nolan is the young director that took this project on. Some may remember him from the artsy-thriller Memento in 2000. I can't say enough about his effort in this seamless production. Nolan develops an incredible amount of back-story in a believable and entertaining way, respectful of the comic and somehow makes the effort feel fresh and original.

The sole criticism I would offer is a puzzling scene where Bale seductively coaches a sexy Wayne Enterprise secretary on her putt-putt technique that may have fared better on the editing floor. The scene sticks out like a sore thumb... if anyone can guess its purpose, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Other than that, rising star Katie Holmes adds a believably intelligent, do-gooder love interest holding her own alongside spectacular notables like Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman.

According to the hails at the box-office, odds are you've seen it already; if not, hopefully I've convinced you to run and find out for yourself what all the buzz is about.

-Thia

I feel sick...

That's really the only way to describe how I feel. After coming home from the store, I find my Dell laptop shutdown on its own and unresponsive to the power switch.

Even worse, the entire machine will not pull power when plugged into the wall for AC power.

Browsing Dell's support forums, I see that this is a common problem among Dell laptops and that some people have had to pay $800 to fix it. But their server is getting hammered and tell me to attempt to logging in at a later time. The support telephone lines are just as busy; I have been on hold for 30 minutes.

This is absolutely gut-wrenching. On that note, I think I am going to bed.
-T. :(

Psychological E-mail Profiling

I shouldn't do this, but this is one of the dumbest things I ever read and I don't think I we should pay professors anymore.

Apparently, a Queen's University Professor is working with law enforcement to come up with an E-mail analyzing program that uses keyword/phrases to catch criminals.

"Dr. David Skillicorn’s work is based on the idea that when people are trying to hide something, they write differently than people who have nothing to hide."

--"The Evil in E-mail"

Supposedly, even the lack of certain words is enough to flag potential criminal activity, the idea being that guilty parties may avoid using certain words like "bomb" that is used in common innocent conversation--ie *I just bombed that test.*

The Criteria
So, engaging in the following "suspicious" E-mail activity will get you caught.

"[The program] examine[s] patterns in who e-mails whom. As an example, in criminal networks it is common to find several people communicating regularly with the same person, but never with each other. This is meant to ensure that if one lawbreaker is caught, he or she is unlikely to lead authorities to too many others. But it can also be a clue to suspicious activity."

I can imagine another scenerio this pattern could be indicative of... like a *popular college student.* But that scenerio is probably rare, right?

Wrong...

Sorry, Lieke... you're going down. It's a good thing you're in Germany right now. I, personally, don't know a fifth of the people on your xanga-subscribers list and our floods of E-mails to you are a smoking gun broadcasting your guilt.

Don't ask questions... It's *Magic*
My personal favorite quote is the Professor's absolvement of all responsibility. He's a mere man who designed a magical program that works in mysterious ways that even he doesn't completely understand.

I wish I were kidding.

"Skillicorn doesn’t know all the ways suspicious e-mails might read differently from innocent ones. The beauty of his approach is that he doesn’t need to know. His software is designed simply to look for messages that are different, based on word frequencies, from the mass of e-mails. It needn’t understand the reasons for the differences."

What? Are you sure he doesn't need to know? It could just be me; if we're sending people to prison, maybe someone should know why.

Later,
-T.

I *LOVE* the Summer

My Grades Breakdown
It is so amazingly cool that summer is finally here and that last summer is but a glimmer of a memory that will hopefully fast fade away. Here's the breakdown of my teachers last semester and what I thought of them on a four star system.

Instructor	Class	My Grade	Teaching	Difficulty
Prof. Donovan	SOC 160	A	****	***
Prof. Klayder	ENGL 314	A	***	**
Prof. Schimek	COMS 130	A?	Worthless	An Abomination
Prof. Warren	HIST 128	A	***	**
Mr. Ohle	ENGL 353	B	**	*
Prof. Kong	EECS 210	B	****	****+

I'm not sure why I felt the need, but I gave each of these teachers a full review you can click on to read. Also, I posted my notes for anyone taking these courses to download here. Enjoy ;)

The question mark is for the teacher that still hasn't posted my grade, so I'm not sure what I got, but I expect an A. By far, my favorite teachers were Prof. Kong and Prof. Donovan.

Summer Projects...
This should be great fun! I'm working a bit and taking 3 hrs this summer... Jeremy and I are working on a site together. I will post a link to that soon. In the meantime, check out the new Church Site I'm building here.

Other than that, here's to relaxing and swimming my days away!

Love,
-T.

Shh!! Don't offend the Homophobes

At the Risk of Incriminating Myself as a Big Fat Nerd...
I really hope I'm not the only one that makes use of Wikipedia's "Random Page Search," but many a bored nights, I've found myself surfing them with nothing else to do and not wanting to subject myself to what my boyfriend probably too-acurately calls the "fear-mongering" of the news and mass-media in general.

Anywho, I came across this article: If you don't want to read... that's alright. I'll highlight what I found to be important ;)

So apparently, it's not PC to say "homophobic" anymore. This term has been deemed misleading and lacking in truly portraying the characteristic of a person that doesn't like gay people. The less offensive term is "SEXUALIST."

Definition: A sexualist is a person who believes his/her sexual behaviors are intrinsically superior to another set of sexual behaviors and thus discriminates against people that practice sets of sexual behaviors that he/she deems different from his/her own.

So please, do your part to make the world a better place and when you come across a person fitting this definition, make sure to refer to them under the proper term sexualist so as not to offend them.

Love ya!
-T.

On Kansas Marriage

A White Piece of Paper
I saw a bumper sticker today that read "Kansas: As Bigoted as You Think," and feel an overall resentment from my community, in the only county in the State that struck down the Ban, that Kansas has proven itself backwards and against the times... that the Nation is looking down on us ignorant country bumpkins. Admittedly, many gay-rights activists vocally are.

I thought I would write a bit on my thoughts about the amendment to the State Constitution that banned same-sex marriages. This single-side piece of paper that has received national attention from my home state


I Think We Should Keep Some Perspective:
Thinking about what the amendment actually did for Kansas legal process, I came to the conclusion that:

Honestly, almost nothing. The original legislature reads that legal marriage in Kansas necessitates two consenting "persons of opposing sex."
So, the amendment reworded this phrase to constituting marriage as the union of "one man and one woman only."

Whatever, it's the same thing. Same-sex marriage was illegal in Kansas on Monday and its illegal today, days after the amendment passed.



The Big Picture...
We should keep in mind also, that Kansas is not quite so "backwards:"

1. We are *not* alone. As far as I know, Massachussetts is the only state that recognizes same-sex marriage. As progressive of a city as Lawrence is, does anyone honestly expect that *Kansas* would be next?

2. For some further perspective... overwhelmingly, the global public is somewhat uncomfortable with institutionalizing same-sex marriage. Even areas we typically think of as liberal *cough* Europe *cough* only three countries recognize same-sex "marriage": Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

Although most European countries offer same-sex couples some legal rights, even though their unions cannot legally be defined as a marriage.

For example, Germany, same-sex couples have the opportunity to apply for an Eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft or Registered Life Partnership. This way, couples are offered legal protection similar to that of our common-law marriages. But even in Germany, this is the best a same-sex couple can do. They are not allowed to marry.

Take a look at the map below to view your country of interest. Thanks to wikipedia for releasing this image for public use.






My conclusion...
I understand that its a big deal. This issue is hugely important to me as well. Equal-Rights opponents call our ban "immoral." At the same time, over 100 Kansas Christian ministers openly admitted their opposition to the ban, in spite of the media's portrayal of this issue as a centrally religious debate.

The topic warrants discussion for sure. The word: marriage represents a lot of equally important and emotionally charged ideas personally.

But in my opinion, politically it's a contract. I think it's important for us all to think about the terms under which people can enter. I feel the sentiment that an attempt to "protect it" has become somewhat of a dirty word. I think this is not fair. We *should* protect it, both sides. If we don't set some standards, then the contract becomes meaningless. (ie-should we allow group marriages? polygamy? etc)

With that in mind, my hope is that both sides can chill out and understand that history hasn't been made here. This is an important issue that warrants discussion and maybe then we'll come together to discuss under what terms we *should* protect the legal definition of marriage... of course after all the fuss settles a bit.

-T.

10 reasons why Spring Break Rocks...

Top 10 List of why Spring Break Rocks My World

10. Dillons marks down their low-grade hair color half-off.

9. The Greeks are gone and can't raise tuition anymore this week.

8. I don't have to read Jane Eyre for at least 7 seven days and can devote my efforts to intellectually unstimulating time-wasters like Dean Koontz and Arthur Machen guilt-free.

7. My next-door neighbors took their adorable dog to the boarders during their alcohol-fest in Cancun, so I can open my window and inhale fresh air without the pungent reminder of sweet little Zoe's presents.

6. I can actually get a treadmill at the Student Rec. Center (for those of you at KU, you know what I'm talking about).

5. I can spend hours each day researching new (at least new to me) web-dev tricks... Hurray for HTML template tags!

4. 5 days straight of guaranteed Dr.Phil/Oprah watching... wohoo!

3. Episode III comes out in less than 60 days... Seriously, this movie is going to be scarily good.

2. Finally, the time to delve into my Linux partition and understand better why mplayer is broken by default or research a better browser-imbedded multimedia player... I miss watching my mtv-vids :(

1. My hair is red!! That's so cool.

Something about Kansas B-Ball
Everyone is really bummed about our devastating loss to Bucknell... Who's Bucknell? Exactly. I will miss the seniors. They deserved better...

But in spite of present circumstance, I hope this post was somewhat uplifting. Have fun this Break :)

See y'all on the flipside.

Love,
-T.

Cincy plays dirty ball

So, I am a little peeved that my bracket is messed up for a round because Iowa lost today, but honestly... I thought hacking as a practiced strategy of basketball was reserved for bad free-throw shooters (cough... Shaq... cough), but I stand corrected. The battered and bruised Iowa team was sent home packing in the NCAAs this afternoon while Cincinatti's bullying-tactics earned them the right to progress into round two.

How are your brackets doing? See mine here.

On a plus! Spring Break is finally here, so more time for web-development and cyber-growth overall. Wohoo! My time is mine... muah ha ha ha ha... More soon :)

Love,
-T.

Pleading for Intolerance in a Liberal City

Fear
"Thia? It's Peggy."
"Oh, hey. How are you?"
"Well, not so good..."
"What's wrong?"
"... it's your father..."

I received this phonecall Sunday morning at 10am. My father was in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

In a college town...
Even in neighborhood-friendly Lawrence, Ks there are murders committed, hundreds of aggrivated assaults, and dozens of forceable rapes each year in addition to thousands of petty thefts. Is this surprising to you? It was to me.
[More Stats]

What can we do?
I am becoming more and more an advocate of harsher sentencing. Maybe this won't solve all crime, but at the very least, I think we can stand together as a community as a voice of intolerance against crimes committed with the intent of inflicting bodily harm.

It's humbling to me that I could be fatherless today and the world robbed of such an amazing individual with the flick of a wrist because someone was mad at him.

I think that we have the power to impose some change on this: Last year, one of our local judges, Paula Martin, received an intense ammount of heat for light sentencing (9 months probation) passed on three men who raped at 13 year old girl. Just last month, she passed a 21-year sentence for a local man sleeping with his 13-year-old his babysitter. Quite a positive turnaround.
[Judge Martin's Turnaround]

Sobering Conclusion
My father is so, so very lucky. The bullet intended for his face missed and struck his ear. I am so grateful for the opportunity to hug him again. I think I have a responsibility to do what I can to make this world a safer place for all of us and hopefully help spare someone else this phone call.
[My Father's Story]

What do you think?

-T.

Web-Explosion

Facebook


I hopped on the bandwagon and joined Facebook. I was surprised to find a whole new cyber-network of friends I hadn't seen since high school or even grade school bustling under my nose. If you are nostalgic at all and attend a major university, Facebook might be just the thing for you. If you already know about it... facebook me, I guess :)

Take a Break from Superbowl Festivities to Meet Some Awesome Folks
I've been amiss in sending my friends a cool shout out for all the work they've been doing dabbling in the digital realm lately. (You guys are so cool!) So, everybody should check them out:

Mark


This is a pic of my boyfriend's best friend, Mark, from Florida. Mark, shown demonstrating his masterpiece culinary skills, has completely shown me up in the photo gallery department. We miss you... Move to Kansas.


Paul


Above is Paul, another digi-buddy of mine, from Ireland. He's taken up blogging again after a two year break or so (wohoo!). This super-techie makes for some interesting conversations at insane hours of the day and night over the likes of Machiavelli, radical feminists and all things computer-related in general. He's also posted some very nice pics from his homeland, so click the pic to visit him.

Zachary

OK, so this guy is Zack. I'm not sure what to say about him except that I work with him and he's listed in facebook that this blog (my blog!) is his homepage.... ummm it's not. So, if you're confused about the lack of Zack-rantings, the joke's on you. Don't get mad at me... Kill him ;)

Later Peoples! Thanks for visiting. Catch you later,
-T.

The "Granny Awards" Mystery

Incident Report
The date: January 27, 2004 ~ 6:15 p.m. ~ A school in Lansing, Ks

The Incident: It was the setting of the annual "Granny Awards" where 3rd and 4th graders flocked in their Gap Kids designer outfits to sit and be entertained by live music and dance performances while awaiting disclosure of awards for "Best Musical Giant" and the like.

All was going according to plan until the Fairy-Godmother screamed. Cinderella's slipper had gone missing and Prince Charming had no shoe with which he could find his bride. It was a case of whodunit. Enter the suspects:

The Suspects
Suspect #1:



Name: Elizabeth ~ Age: 10 ~ Performer at the "Granny Awards"

Bio: The singing starlett herself playing an evil step-sister and whose audience-moving solo can be viewed in part here.

Motive: Noted for her sometimes uncontrolled temper, was seen hours before the performance holding the shoe in question in a threatening manner to Jack, the latter cowering behind his beanstock. Apparently, he had made an unflattering remark about the starlett's height, that she would be difficult to see in the balcony without first standing on a box and thus would never make it in show-business. It's suspected that the Elizabeth may have thrown the shoe at Jack in a rage and lost it down Alice's rabbit hole, where it would be completely unrecoverable.

Suspect #2:



Name: Gabriela ~ Age: 2 ~ Attendee

Bio: Quick-witted sister to the Starlett above and attends each performance.

Motive: Recently rejected for the role of Cinderella due to stage age-minimum requirements, this youth may be jealous of the time each of the performers are able to spend with her older sister and thus be sabotaging Elizabeth's career. Mysteriously, this toddler went missing with her diaper bag in tow backstage before the performance.

Suspect #3:



Name: Josh ~ Age: 22 ~ Attendee

Bio: This journalist for the University Daily Kansan was seen peeling out of the Lansing School parking lot at 5:15 p.m.

Motive: Esteemed writer for the Kansan whose article made the cover last week has since come under fire due to an anonymously released photograph of the journalist holding a cup of questionable contents at a party. It may be possible that this upcoming-talent reporter is attempting to divert public attention from this scandal by "creating" news...

The Show Must Go On




Fortunately, minutes before the performance, the drama instructor donated one of her own shoes for the sake of the awards and was forced to hop between sets backstage. The above picture was taken after the show.

The awards proved a huge success. Elizabeth was viewed by all and earned herself a standing ovation by even those in the balcony, Gabriela spent quality time in Elizabeth's arms after the show and played dress up in the latter's costume at home, and Josh wrote an exciting expose on theft at KU in Thursday's edition of the Kansan.

Not so fortunate for the residents in Kansas, a criminal is still on the streets in your midst as this mystery remains yet unsolved...

-T.

Most Definitely Missing the Summer

My Required-Texts Total Tops 30

It's back to school. That means there's *a lot* less time for web-fiddling . And, our fantastic basketball team got our butts handed to us in Philly yesterday with an embarrassing 83-62 loss and shattering our undefeated record. *ouch* Our loss actually made the cover page on the ESPN website today. wohoo!

To make matters even worse, I still haven't aquired 15 of my books, 14 of which because I couldn't physically carry all of the texts out of the book store (as it was I already had two sacks filled). I am missing 1 additional book because my instructors sent out a mass E-mail today that there is another book he forgot to request out to the bookstores that we have to buy online.

Whine, whine... moan, moan. Hopefully the ranting is out now of my system.

On a good note, Chrystal Kemp and Aquanita Burras are studs and helped our women's team pull down our first conference victory against Mizzou yesterday. What a game to win!

A little lop-sided to the negative today (sorry y'all), I'll close here.

Stay warm. Stay positive. Summer is coming soon, I know it!

Love,
-T.

Biracial

Not white, not exactly...

One of my readers (thanks for visiting, btw) caught me out and about in cyberspace, commented on my "unique features" and questioned my ethnicity. I can understand the confusion about my heritage and don't mind answering questions like these in the least.

I am biracial; my mother is white and father, black. Purportedly, I may be slightly more white given my father's heritage may have included a slave-owner, but I can't be certain.

All of my siblings are half-siblings on my mother's side and have no black heritage in their lineage. So, my niece Elizabeth for example, pictured in the "Elizabeth" post is completely white, although she's half-German, so maybe she's "mixed" as well, depending on where each individual draws ethnic lines. ;)

It should be noted as well that I additionally color and straighten my hair just to keep y'all on your toes. To see a picture of me somewhat more natural, click here.

In closing, I feel I'm in good company. Such celebrities as Halle Berry and Eagle Eye Cherry are mixed this way as well.

Thanks for reading!
-T.

Countdown to Mid.Night

Thia vs. mark

The reason I'm so anxious in this pic is because I am trying to take Mark down at midnight. He's accepted a challenge of sorts and I can't think of a single thing I've beat him in yet (the stubborn jerk). This one, I can't lose.

I want to apologize to those of you who read my blog regularly... this post is sort of personal...

So, I have a challenge For mark... and just to be nice, I've posted a nice pic that's a dead give-away of the object in question somewhere on my website. My midnight, Mark, you're gonna have to supply me an answer. But you're gonna have to look very closely and pay attention to my clues to find the link to it. Thia Michelle wants you to find the htm-page devoted just to you and your futile mission... get out the magnifying glass and look behind the laughter. Hmmmm, this is a toughie.

I know that link is somewhere... where did I put it? oh yeah... it's there.

You've still got one hour and 45 mins. Go, Mark, Go!

Later,
-T.

Welcome Thia's Digital Playpen

My homepage is up!... Again
Well... Technically I have had a homepage for almost a year that I was too embarrassed to show anyone. Now, it's a whopping single page with no links and a paragraph of content. Woohoo! But, my skeleton is out there and i will be loading it with useful info over the next few days.

Just wanted to let you guys know that you can *visit me* officially. I had a lot of fun with CSS and GIMP (an open-sourced Photoshop-like program) building it. And yes... that's my neck featured on the page so I'm not snagging anyone else's copyrighted stuff ;). Let me know what you think!

Browsers, blah blah
Oh and to give you the heads up... If you're running Internet Explorer of *any* version, my site won't render properly because Bill Gates is an evil man who is too busy making money to worry about making a quality browser.

OK, so the man isn't satan, but you should run out and install Mozilla Firefox right away. It's free, small, aesthetically *very* pleasing and the tabbed browsing is very addicting. If you already have firefox, you're a genius and beautiful and need no help from me. If you're not, run to it... don't think. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

Jeremy
Also, Jeremy has updated his site with all kinds of useful information about computer-related problems. He has a very nice *and* functional site and was very sweet giving me comments to help me make my homepage more aesthetically pleasing. You can visit him here. Very nice, baby :).

Goodnight!
Everyone stay warm because the weather here sucks still thanks to Mark.

-T.

The Curse of Mark

Blame Mark for All the Ice:

Oh sure, he looks like a nice enough guy, but when Mark came up from Florida, one of the loaded pieces of doodoo he told my mother was that in her words :"he was going to bring up the Florida warm weather, so watch out when he gets back on the plane to go home!"

Sure enough, it was in the 60s here for his five-day stay... a record-breaking winter. Day two without him and this is the cover story for our city paper.

You Guys Rock!

I've gotten several IM's from you guys and even a voice-mail or two about my photo galleries, since I decided not to make the galleries post-able (is that a word?) for commenting, that is probably the only way anyone figured they could let me know.

I just wanted to say *thanks* for checking them out and feel free to comment here on the main blog about them as an additional option.

After posting another small gallery, I am reminded at how seriously time-consuming it is the way I do it, so let me know if anyone can think of a way to make my life easier.

Love You Guys!

Stay safe if you're out on the roads today. See ya later on at the game :)

-T.

Usher in the New Year with Photo Galleries

Happy New Year Everybody!
It's about 5 in the morning, so I hope this all makes sense...

I just wanted to wish everyone Happy New Year and let ya'll know that I've posted a couple of photo galleries with pictures of you guys from Jordan's New Year's party and the Geogia Tech game so far in my sidebar. It took a loooooooooong time to manage all of it, so I'm not sure how many more of these I will post if I ever do again. But here they are and it has to be said that my friends sure are beautiful people. :)

(No! There are no thumbs... Nobody better ask me for any thumbs, grrr. But feel free to download at your leisure/surf.)

*Sniff, sniff* We miss you already, Mark. Make sure you keep in touch with us hicks still stuck out here in Kansas!

Alright, goodnite.

Love you guys!
-T.