Indeed, it has been quite awhile since I have developed the opportunity to write in my blog. I have found my resources tied up with my move to Georgian Woods and since I was using Jeremy's wireless connection, it made it difficult to update my blog since without any modifications to my system I didn't have access to it and U of M blocked his IP address from any of the school's servers (though there are workarounds for that too).

Last night, the Road Runner technician installed broadband service to my place and from that point I brought my wireless network up. I am still unsure to the routers final home for currently in resides in my "Matrix room" and at this moment I would like to maintain the room devoid of nothing much more than a power cord. Upon other geek matters, I continue to have issues with my three 100 gig hard drives. Essentially, the partition tables are corrupted on each drive thereby preventing me from accessing my behemoth mp3 collection. This distresses me, though I consider it to hold the highest priority of tasks for me to resolve. The issue arose when I tried to install the drives onto a system with a motherboard that did not support drives that large so I used a software overly (EZ-BIOS) to enable them, not knowing at the time that two of them were setup as dynamic drives. I believe the overlay corrupted the dynamic aspects of the drives and somewhere along the way, the partition tables went wacky, though I'm not sure if it was caused by the initial issue or my attempts at resolving the initial issue. I do know that the third drive, the non-dynamic one, worked fine until I mistook it for one of the corrupt ones and in my attempt to resolve the issue at hand, I tossed it in the same category as the other two. On a different system, I am trying to revive a 40 gig drive that has some of its own issues in which I cannot access the data. As I type this, disk recovery software is running and hopefully when I swing by the house during my lunch break, I will make some headway. Thus far I haven't.

I heard an interesting remark this morning in my TigerLan meeting: "We cannot keep people from being stupid." I just read where Barry Manilow thought he was in a Malibu room, woke up, walked straight into a wall, broke his nose, and then lost consciousness. Hmm... I'll say nothing more.

Currently, my workout program is shot to pieces. A few weeks ago when U of M's rec center had to be pulled down for maintenance, my routine was knocked off its path and intricacies that my move to Midtown involved, I have yet been able to get back on track. With my upcoming Summer school sessions on the 9th, I will have to be implementing a new daily routine and considering I'll be getting out of class at 7:30 at night, I may have to make it a morning routine (ugh!). Oh, don't get me wrong, I've done morning routines in the past at the Bartlett Rec, but at this stage in my life, mornings are tough on a computer geek for we relish the night.

Upon other matters that are shot to pieces, my finances are out of control. I went from a mere $700 of credit card debt to over $2000. Moving and living by oneself is exceedingly expensive. But a lot of the costs I have incurred are one-time/rare expenses such as replacing my tires for $400... then there was the $180 5.8 GHz cordless phone so that the transmission would not affect the wireless networks that are in place at our apartments. I need to sit down and redefine/restructure my plans of improvement. Of course, such planning is always a dynamic process since life is full of variables that one should consider.

The life of a bachelor has been great thus far.

Lisa, if you're reading this, times like now I wish the bridge was in place so that we could talk:

And I could shake this static every time I try to sleep
I wish for all the world that I could say...

Another time...

I just finished up an online test in aligning various facets of my personality with Star Wars characters. Though the test was a bit of a novelty in comparison to other tests, I think its results are creative and add a twist to the INTJ results I get in other tests:

Openness — Yoda Very High (90 percentile-High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.) This wise, philosophical, and thoughtful Jedi master challenges the establishment, encouraging his pupils to unlearn what they have learned and see the world in novel, creative ways.

Conscientious — Admiral Ackbar Very High (94 percentile- High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent. ) This rebel Admiral is renowned for his great powers of organization, responsibility, and administrative abilities. He is individual who can be relied upon.

Extroversion — Wampas Low (15 percentile-High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet. ) Reclusive creatures of the ice planet Hoth. They are rarely seen & generally shy, leading a solitary existence

Agreeableness — Emperor Palpatine Very Low (6 percentile- High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.) An evil, power hungry tyrant, he is manipulative, evil, and ruthless.

Neuroticism — Tusken warriors Very High (93 percentile-High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy. ) These inhabitants of Tatooine are unpredictable, temperamental, and excitable, and known to be especially moody in their difficult teenage years.

In other news, I spent most of my weekend moving into my new place. Most everything is in order except for the aesthetics of my server/bed room along with setting up the infrastructure of my computing systems. I have yet to establish broadband Net service, but Jeremy has provided a wireless solution until I can get my own service in place. I'm proud of the mobile TV/Entertainment center that I have. It really was a stroke of luck. Jeremy and I were at Home Depot looking for a bathroom fixture when he spied a tool cabinet of sorts and after taking a gander, I thought I'd give it a whirl. It met in superb fashion the requirements I had for such a system.

No doubt there will be more to follow.

If this year was 1999 or 2000, I would probably find myself driving out of Lexington, Kentucky right about now. As I drove to work this morning, the sun, the sky– even the breeze– felt like that time of long ago. I used various holidays to visit Lisa. In 2000, I saw her high school graduation one night and the next night, I saw KISS in concert at Pittsburgh (I saw Ted Nugent that night but somehow that really takes away from the point I'm trying to make; insight for the day: Ted Nugent and David Lee Roth would complement one another if they were to tour together).

So do I miss her now? You betcha. If you see her, feel free to tell her that since I can't. =) Those weekends always seemed to point to the future to the time in which the two of us would not have to traverse 750 miles to see one another. Overall, I just miss "her". There's a part of me that says we'll never see one another again, and then there's another part of me that says that I'll see her when I'm 74 and she's 71; we'll find ourselves as widowed, and then we'll hook up and pursue my elderly life's dream: grab an RV and head towards Branson, MO!

It's odd, with everyone else in my life with whom I've had romantic interest and/or dated, it was primarily based on a shallow concept of a strong physical attraction, a precept in which does not allow me to care to see them if suddenly they are in their 70's. But with Lisa it's different for I really like who she is and I would be content if we were both glowing orbs of light.

This weekend does mark another special date: I am amidst a move to my new apartment, my first time to be completely out on my own (no roommates) and though the process of moving is a bit tedious, I am looking forward to having my own place setup. I'll probably provide links to pics of the place once I have everything setup. My wireless router should be coming in via UPS today and that will be an added punch to the place. Thus far, the biggest issue I've run into is the placement of the larger couch my sister gave me. It's just too long to implement what I had initially planned to do.