Cars, RoR, & Weekend

Pictures shouldn't be allowed on here that are going to make me want a covertible (thanks Brian!) :) Although I had considered an RX8, I started thinking about the winter. A sports car like that + winter roads = a potential chaos. And at least for right now, I'm looking for a car for year round. Although Brian's car is quite nice and does make me want to have one!

I started playing around a little with Ruby on Rails. If you have only heard of Ruby, you need to check out Rails. It's Ruby but you can do so much more with it. It's pretty nifty. Although I wonder if I'll be obsessed with it like the people who use it on a regular basis.. lol. This is pretty hilarious though, and being a Java developer, I could completely appreciate it -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbuyKUaKFo.

This past weekend was spent in Allegheny National Forest with John and his brother. We just headed up there for some camping and (attempted) fishing. We hit up a place called "Buzzard Swamp" that people usually rave about - although it was a unanimous decision that none of us were up the 2 1/2 mile walk to the pond that - was supposedly - only supposed to be 1 mile away. We fished a bit at the 2 ponds that were at the 1 mile & 1+ mile marker, but didn't have much success. But if we attempt that again, at least we'll have a better idea of what we're in for.

Then Sunday was my little brother's birthday. He turned 14. I got him a video/MP3 player - something he has wanted for a long time. He was SO excited :) The look on his face was worth every penny and more. It made me really happy :)

Cars cont.

I have to thank Alan for the short, little advice about the car - which was actually a lot of wise advice. I think sooner or later I did need a reality check. Especially because this will be my first brand new car, I could easily see myself going overboard a bit, and I certainly have that potential. He is right though - it isn't an investment. I do want something small and fuel efficient, but if I started tacking on all these extra little "goodies", I could end up with a car priced around what a cheap Jag could be, and the thoughts just go downhill from there. I also found out that we have the option of a Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge. At this point, I'm leaning towards a Mazda. They are one of the few that have the option of getting a manual in, and they are fuel efficient and cute :)

Weekend & New Car?

Why has it felt like it's been forever since I've posted? Oh yeah, because it has! This weekend was fun. Saturday I attended the President's Award of Excellence ceremony that I got nominated for, and it was really cool. You could bring 1 guest, so of course I took the boyfriend. It was one of those things that makes you feel ..like rich for a day almost. There was an open bar for about 2 hours, servers dressed in black & white uniform came around with all sorts of fancy hors dourves, and we even got professional pictures taken with the city or the stadium as our background :) The meal was very good, followed by the ceremony, and then a huge chocolate fountain to dip all kinds of crazy things in. John and I had thought about just staying down there for the night, then we realized it was the US Open and spending 2 grand for a hotel for a night wasn't exactly our cup of tea!
Sunday was spent with the fam for father's day, and we also ended up at a graduation party that entirely too many people were at. Sunday was also the last day I was giving myself to trade in my DS - which now I have decided against because word on the street is that there will be a third DS. This one is supposed to have a bigger screen, but I am curious as to what they will do about the resolution if that is true. I guess only time will tell.
I also am thinking about buying a new car! My company has this program where you may purchase a car at/around invoice. I can pick from the following makes: Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, Volvo, Mercury, Land Rover, and Jaguar. I'm tossing around a Mustang or Mazda but still have some thinking/debating to do. There are a few options I'd want, such as heated seats, remote entry, manual transmission, but then I start thinking about extras like "convertible" and while I'm pretty sure I'll be able to afford the car, I should also consider if I will be able to afford the insurance :) I'm also torn about the color. I don't think I want red, but that's about it.

Fishing and Strawberry Days!

I can't believe it's the end of the weekend already! It was a fun one but a very fast one too. John's family is a riot. They are all so cool and so fun. I think I like his family more than my own sometimes. Saturday we got up bright and early to start our fishing tournament on a pontoon boat with about 5 others. I only caught 1 fish which was a perch, but the fish weren't really biting. Regardless, we had a lot of fun. All kinds of things happened - we temporarily lost a pole to the Great Pymatuning Lake, we almost sunk the boat, I kept catching trees, John caught the motor of the boat. It kept things interesting and gave us stuff to laugh about. Then for dinner we all ate the fish, in addition to a ton of other things. The amount of food there was crazy!
Also this weekend was Strawberry Days in Grove City, and I decided to stop in for a bit today coming back from camp. The main reason I stopped was because I wanted to get a strawberry pie for John. He loves strawberry pie, and it seems like a likely thing to have at a little shindig called "Strawberry Days", right? Wrong. I looked and looked and could not find a place selling much of strawberry anything. Finally I found the stand that was for the general event. and I asked the lady about the pie. Her response was a point and "Uh.. I think there may be strawberry flavored ice cream over at that one" What Einstein decided to call it "Strawberry Days" when there is virtually no strawberry-related stuff there? I should start a petition to have the name changed.
I also now know the names of my anonymous posters (the other told me offline). Not that it was a big deal though because a blog is indeed online and made to be read so I think it is cool that anyone would even be interested in reading it! And Brian, you don't have to feel "stalkerish" at all - I know of and have an idea of some who read it, only difference is you actually post comments :) You shouldn't be so hard on yourself either, I remember you in school and you were very smart. One thing I didn't know though is that you're a gamer. Very cool.

Fun Weekend Ahead!

A correction to a previous blog: "Trace Memory" is not an RPG. I'm not sure which game I was getting it mixed up with when I bought it, but apparently I either misheard something or just wasn't thinking. Or both. So if you were expecting something like my personal favorite RPG, FF Tactics, then you may be sadly disappointed. However, it is a neat game nonetheless, and I still plan on playing it until I beat it, because there are supposed to be a few cool things 2nd play through.
So today, my boyfriend and I head to Dick's Sporting Goods where he bought for me my very own fishing pole and reel *grin* I'm mostly German, but I also am part "hick". Yes, I like to fish. Up until now, I had been using his fishing stuff when we go fishing, and he decided I should have my own. We're headed up to Pymatuning this weekend where many of his many family members congregate, camp, fish, and drink beer. All weekend. I'm already packed, and I can't wait!
We also this week got to see Pirates 3. I'm really not a fan of long movies. I knew going into it that it was a shade under 3 hours, and that I'd probably figure that it could have been much shorter. It could have been. I'm not going to give anything away, but one area they could have shortened up were the battle scenes. There just wasn't enough content in them to justify dragging the scenes out like that. It is a movie you have to pay close attention to, which is another thing I found odd - because it's a children's movie. For myself, I liked the plot. In fact, I would probably give that the highest rating because of the creativity and complexity that went into it and all of the irony that came out of it. But it was not a suitable plot for a children's movie IMHO. As for the rolling credits.. that roll.. and roll for eternity, I absolutely recommend Alan's suggestion of staying until they are over to see the "last part" of the movie. So much that I think that should have been in that actual part of the movie. All in all, a recommended watch, but not my favorite of the three. Now with all this Pirates talk, I'm getting the itch to watch the first one again :)

A Random Monday

In response to yesterday's blog's comments, I have to say I agree with Alan on preferring the "geek" terminology versus "tech freak". Although when writing the conversion app, ^[M](rs?|s)$ Anonymous seems to have remembered the null terminator for the ending of the hex string. Kudos to you, because the first version of a converter I had written a while back, I forgot about that (though the conversions still worked, technically speaking that is the correct way). Although, I guess it depends on what you write it in (ie what functionality you have access to) or if you overwrite any of the methods.
In other news, on my way home this evening, I (again) hear this song "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavra- er whatever her name is. And the DJ informs the listeners that she was "intoxicated" when she wrote the song. Not sure if she is just saying that for publicity or what, but all I could think was if that was the case, this chick should stay sober for the rest of her entire existence. That song is terrible.
I also started playing the second game I bought yesterday, Trace Memory. It's an RPG. Granted I've only played it a bit, but so far, I am really liking this one.

Pirates and Video Games!

Having a blog is sort of like having one of those virtual pets, like those little nano or gigapets that came out a few years back. Nothing will happen if I don't post things on here, but I feel I have some type of quasi-commitment to it. Like every once in a while I should dedicate the time. But at the same time, what if I don't? Nothing will *actually* happen. I have to laugh at the situation a little, but alas, I sit here writing.. :)
So anyway, the boy and I tried to see Pirates 3 at the drive in. We went and stocked up on snacks, brought a few brews, and we were ready for a nice, romantic, fun night. Then it starts to pour just as we were pulling in. I mean POUR. We attempted the movie for a bit, then decided it will be much better when we can actually see it. And hear it. Although from the little we did see.. looks a bit stranger than the first two. But we decided that we will make a later attempt sometime - so we'll see what it's like on the rain-check - no pun intended.
Today I finished up a little shopping spree. Work gave out our <sarcasm>ever-so-large </sarcasm> bonuses, and I decided to just buy a few things. Nothing really huge, just some stuff I wanted. It started late last week with a Starbucks French coffee press, cinnamon roll-flavored coffee, and clothes. Today, I ended up at Sally's Boutique buying way too much there, and I ventured to EBgames with two DS games following me home: Brain Boost (which seems kind of lame so far) and Trace Memory which I have not yet played, but seems to have a cool plot from what I've read. I also found out that later this month they will be releasing Big Brain Academy for the Wii. Excuse me while I get a tissue for the drool........ Ok, I'm back. Then I was looking at the DS lite. Yeah, I want one :( I have a DS and EB will buy it from you for $40 normally, but they are running a special until the 17th that they'll buy it for $60. Do I need a Dlite? Nope. Does that make the decision easier? Nope :)