Happy New Year and all that Jazz. I cooked a nice dinner, which was nice, cause I don't remember the last time I cooked a dinner. Tried out making my first chocolate souffles, but I beat the egg whites too much. I'll remember that for next time. And then watched a whole slew of movies to usher in the new year, Down to You, 100 Girls, Girl, Coming Soon. Also got some numerology done, I guess I'm a 7, have a drive and appearance of 6, a destiny of 3, and a maturity of 10/1. In a nutshell, I'm a loner, thinker, romantic homemaker wanting to be a romantic homemaker and supposed to be a bringer of joy with no karmic debt to pay off. Yeah, new year.

Finally saw Fellowship of the Rings, the first part of Lord of the Rings. Good movie. I did finish reading the book before I saw it, so my take is, it was good. Although from my first relatively cursory reading, the film version missed out on some themes and showed me other things I missed in my reading. Anyway, it was a good movie, didn't feel like 3 hours, and it makes me want to see New Zealand. Nothing too exciting in terms of trailers though. That was a little disappointing. So what did I feel was missing from the movie that I got out of the book? How helpless, or lost, Frodo was. And just exactly how much pressure and weight on shoulders type of feelings he had. They did make him choose to go over or under the mountains, but that didn't seem like a hard choice at the time. To go to Gondor or Mordor, that was a larger choice that should have been made. I also didn't realize that the ring was that expressively evil. I figured it was very sublime, very under the table, suggestive evil. At least when around "good" people. I also didn't like missing out on that fabulous elven tree city. That should have been a whole nice thing with not wanting to continue, having respite, not to mention a great visual. But I found it lacking. I liked the fight scenes. I liked Legolas, just as the archer. Archers kick ass. Green Elf Forever! Scenery was good. John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, impressive computerwork, all I can say. I knew he sounded familiar, but I was extremely suprised to see him in the credits. And Sean Astin, that's pretty cool. The sizing of characters, very well done.

Feels like I'm coming down with something, so I spent the rest of my holiday vacation, well, like I'd normally spend my holiday vacation, sitting on my couch watching movies. I finally saw the extra stuff at the very end of Fast and the Furious, Still Breathing and Beautiful Girls, which has a great soundtrack that I need to get. I did manage to get outside to at least see the sun for a bit, inbetween some napping and movie watching.

Not sure if I'm coming down with something, not sure if I'm getting any better, I'm just sort of surfing that in between point between sickness and health. Saw A Beautiful Mind last night, pretty good movie. I liken it to Shine with math, but I like Genius movies. Went to a housewarming today in Evanston, my old Nanny and daughter have a new place. It's nice. This week starts my second quarter of Grad School, with Electronic Data Exchange kicking things off Tuesday night. I'm headed down to the Apple office in the Merc for the Keynote tomorrow. Aside from the new LCD iMac, which I've seen thanks to TimeCanada, I'm still hoping for something else special.

Another Macworld keynote comes and goes. iPhoto is really exciting, iMac looks pretty good, but beyond that, nothing that pops my top. I did get to find out where Apple has an office in Chicago, which is sweet to see office doors with the single white apple logos on them. I also got fitted for a couple suits today as well, finally, oh, about 2 years after I said I was going to. I figured since I dressed up for the keynote, might as well get some suits while I'm out. And I also picked up some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Ummm, Oreo. Back to school and work tomorrow. For more of my words on the keynote, click more. So with iPhoto, Apple has completed the killer package. Take a top of the line iMac, a digital camera, an iPod, a digital video camcorder, and what comes out? Content. Personal, sharable, easy. This setup takes all the media that comes in, that surrounds people, that people create, the photos, the home movies, the music they like to listen to, filters it, refines it, and spits it out to share. Easily. I look forward to showing my Dad how easy it'll be to take photos, then move them to the web so family can seem them. Because that's what excites him, digital photos, making his own photos, and iPhoto makes it so easy. Apple really does get it. They brought publishing to the consumer. Of course this now begs the question of how many consumers can actual publish things other consumers will consume. But the fact that Apple has this Digital Hub figured out, well, That's exciting for me, because creativity, besides a little cash, is the only limit, not technical know how, just creativity.

But aside from the completion of the Digital Hub, the keynote wasn't very exciting, or surprising. But they did innovate. But nothing shocking. Nothing that caught me completely off guard. Nothing I hadn't read about the night before. No PDA, no new consumer digital device, no tablet, no something else.

First day of the new year back at work, back at school, and back at ultimate. Work's same as it ever was, first class on XML promises to be interesting, and indoor ultimate remains as fun as I remember it. And I am going to be sore, stupid little muscles for lateral movement.

As someone pointed out before class one day, 19 more weeks before the end of the school year. So all my classes are pretty interesting and fun. I'm liking the java, cause I get to use OSX, and the XML, cause the java tool runs on OSX no problem, and the security cause that's just plain interesting. It's taken me a couple days to stop being sore from the second night of pickup, but I'm better. I've still got a nagging type of cold something. Didn't get to see Brotherhood of the Wolf because it was sold out at Webster Place tonight, the line was too long at Piece, so we went to Abril for dinner. I'm going back to Woodstock for the weekend and hoping to check out the new iMac if they have one at the Woodfield Apple Store. By the way, 3 day weeks are killer.

So I stopped by the Woodfield Apple Store on my way back home to Woodstock, and got a chance to step in front of the new iMac they had on display. First thought, that base is really big. Going up and playing with it, well, it's fun to move the display all around, smooth and easy. It'd be really sweet if they could manage to make it telescoping. Trying to talk my parents into upgrading. I also picked up an Airport card, so now the family home is Wi-Fi compatible. I also managed to pick up all my books for the quarter, instead of purchasing them online. A lot of reading, but interesting reading. Got some good sushi for dinner, and slow web browsing over modem lines. Ughh.

Class really starts getting into the swing of things. I might actually have some homework this weekend. I also might finally get around to a slight redesign of the website, actually, more of just an application of Apple's iTools Homepage design to this site. Cheesy, and cheap. Saw the first Real World Chicago, and I get a kick out of seeing Chi-Town on TV. I've decided to watch the season, just for a chance to play where's whitney.

Another week gone. What does Friday have in store? Another trip out to the Apple Store, this time to send my old AC Adapter in under warranty. Probably a movie, most likely Tenenbaums. And probably some homework, cause I've got a decent amount this time, at least in Java. And maybe I should start some Cocoa programming, like I had wanted to over Christmas Break.

Apple Store Genius Bars are sweet. It's my new choice for doing warranty work, sending stuff back, getting replacement parts, all done on site. Very very nice. Oh, and the Woodfield store now has 2 new iMacs on display. Royal Tenenbaums, funny movie. I'm actually finished with my Java homework for the week already. Just have reading for security. Watched Die Hard 2, went to mass, got some pop, started Fight Club before falling asleep, then finished up my homework. Not a bad Saturday. And to think I still have 2 more days to my weekend.

Even though I got up at my usual time, I managed to get some stuff done today. I cleaned up some, I vacuumed, I finished up Fight Club, got some gifts for Al and Nicole, caught up on my Tribune reading, and started learning Cocoa, and also got my portable phone and answering machine plugged in and off the floor. Not bad for a Monday. Although learning Objective C and Java at the same time makes things a little interesting.

I like watching Real World Chicago. I like seeing Chicago on the TV, I think it's cool. That's why I tape it every Tuesday. And I'm going to start taping Gilmore Girls too, I admit it, I like the show. I started watching WarGames last night, in preparation for my Security Class on Thursday, but I haven't finished it up yet. Dinner tonight was courtesy of TBP2. Ummm, chicken fajita.

Another week gone. And for some reason all my profs decided to take it easy on us, having little homework due this past week, and lay it on us hard for the next week. Well, just Security and XML. Had a nice dinner at Piece with friends tonight, yummm, pizza. I looked at jobs at Apple again tonight, and I've got to get crackin' at this Cocoa programming thing. I also managed to watch the episodes of Family Ties where Alex professes his love for Ellen. Very sweet.

So I guess after this week, the quarter's half over. Crazy. I got to play some outdoor ultimate on saturday, which was fun, except that I'm still sore from it, 2 days later. I finally went out and saw Brotherhood of the Wolf. Absurd, but good. Like Hudson Hawk. I've still got lots of homework left, and a quick search of the jobsites out there find no real mac programming jobs. Disappointing. Hopefully things will change in a couple months.

Hello February. Another second month of the year, in what has been historically not the best month of the year for me. Anyway, pulled my first pseudo all nighter of the winter quarter to finish up Security homework. I also managed to get pgp up and running, so that means I have a public key now. I think I might be coming down with shin splints again, so I'm going to hold off on any lower body workouts until ultimate on Monday, so that's a grand total of 4 days off. Supposedly getting a new TV delivered tomorrow morning. I'm still deciding on the first DVD to inaugurate it with. Matrix? Phantom Menace? Something else entirely? Going to see Slackers Saturday, and of course the Superbowl on Sunday.