More cars. I took the day off work to finish up my networking assignment and "study", and decided to drive down to class in my usual 30 minutes at 4:37pm today. Well, it's pretty annoying when the traffic starts right around North and continues all the way to the south loop. It took me twice as long to get to class. Quite annoying. So as the weather gets nicer, more people come to the lake front, which means more traffic. Annoying. I'm a little worried about my sleep schedule, because despite a 2am bedtime, I was wide awake and bushy tailed this morning at 8am. Weird.

A lovely hot weekend in Raleigh, as Tea & Strumpets made it to quarters at 2002 kudzu, losing to eventual second place finishers, BRU. Sunny and hot all days, got some bronzing in. Some great food, as always on T&S trips. A small evening Memorial Day BBQ at Hammerdown ends the weekend, and starts off the last two weeks of school for me. Did my last java assignment and went to my last java class tonight. Networking final assignment and final on thursday and Databases final assignment and final next wednesday. And then another summer. Ah, summer in Chicago.

Felicity ended it's run tonight. And it's one of the few shows that's actually neatly encapsulated as a series. She goes to college, the series starts. She graduates, sorta, and the series ends. All works out pretty well. But the last hour, and using the spell as a means to recap the series, and the actual ending point, of making a choice, sticking with it, and saying good bye to things from college, all very poignant, very neat and tidy, very cool. I liked how they ended it, even if I only watched like the first half season and the last 4 episodes. But still, it was good. Parents are crashing at the condo for the weekend for a nice wedding of a first or second cousin that I'm missing since I'll be in Raleigh for Kudzu, along with missing Russell's Graduation. Congrats, buddy.

Once again, another Tuesday passes and I ask myself, why do I watch Real World Chicago? It's definitely not because the characters are likable. Maybe because seeing Chicago on tv is nice. But Gilmore Girls was good. And now I won't have to tape any TV after Felicity tomorrow for a good long while. I've been hankering to see Episode II again in the digital screen. Yum, digital projection. But in the meantime, the dvd background as I do my database homework is Judge Dredd. Gotta love it. The warranty runs out on my iBook soon, which means a new paint job and quick possibly an overclocking deal to hopefully 600 with a 100 Mhz bus. That'll be sweet.

Went and saw it at McClurg, 7pm showing. Sold out. Long lines. Theatre 1. Digital Projection. Absolutely amazing. I hope they show many many many more films using the digital projector. Really. It's that good. Dinner at Heaven on Seven afterwards. Read on for my thoughts on Episode II, but there will be spoilers, so if you're one of the 6 people who haven't seen the movie, don't read on. So I liked Episode II. It's a good, fun movie. It's a good 2nd film to a 6 film series. It's gotta be hard to go back and start the first half of a story after the second half has been told. But I think Lucas does a good job. Odds and Ends as they come to me:

• I never game much thought to what the Clone Wars would be about or over, or why even call them the Clone Wars, but a republic civil war and using clones against droids? Satisfactory explanation for me.
• I was disappointed that the Jedi didn't kick a whole lot of ass. But that was explained away in the Mace/Yoda conversation to admit to the senate of the jedi's weakening abilities in the force. But that sucks, cause it means we'll never see the jedi at full force, at least the good jedi.
• I feel sorry for yoda, at seeing his padawan learner turn to the dark side. Probably the feeling will come across much worse when it happens to Obi-Wan.
• I thought Hayden did a very good job. It was believable that he was a grown up Jake Lloyd. And a believable teenager with very powerful force abilities.
• Darth Sidius/Palpatine is turning out to be a great character. Very much the puppet master, very much in control of everything that's going on. Everything is going his way.
• I hope Lucas decides to rerelease Episodes IV, V, and VI after III comes out, since the next one is just going to be very very dark at the end, and audiences, well, they don't like seeing the bad guys win. And the bad guys will win in the next one. Hell, they've won the past 2.
• Music they should have had: I will always Love you sung by Whitney Houston, the Hills are alive from the Sound of Music, and possibly the entire soundtrack from Beverly Hills, 90210.
• And, it's true, Yoda does kick ass. Serious ass.
• I was still hoping N'Sync made it into the film. Maybe they're just in costume.
• Good to see how Luke ends up with the Lars on Tatooine.
• Sad they didn't show Anakin's massacre.
• Why are there only 4 colors of light sabers? Green, Blue, Red (if you're evil) and Purple if you're Shaft? I'd love to see someone come with dual light Sai's.
• Hopefully the Mandalorians make a big showing in the next film, or maybe they've just thrown that "canon" out the window.
• I thought Darth Vader is the one who goes out and exterminates the jedi, but if there's only a handful and they're weak, that's not so impressive. I mean if you can take down a jedi with a blaster like Jango did, well, how hard can it be? Balance of the force.

Went to Cafe Iberico with my parents and cousin for dinner tonight. Good stuff. Always good stuff. I did not take any sangria though. I do gotta love wearing my winter hat and coat in the middle of May. Oh Chicago weather. Tomorrow I might do some shopping, drool over more stuff at the Apple Store. Episode II viewing happens on Monday. I did pop in Episode I to prepare. And I caught part of the Star Wars Fan Films on Sci-Fi. I'm also hoping to catch X-Files series finale sunday night.

Well, just about anything is better than homework. Instead of doing it, I ended up playing with my new universal remote, to make the fortress of solitudes A/V setup much more under control, watched Strictly Ballroom, a lovely dancing tale, watched some Gilmore Girls, took apart my cube and put it back together again. All so much more interesting than any database homework could be. I also got my first sony point fulfillment, a sportly looking personal audio system, (boombox) that plays mp3 cdr's, which goes into the trunk of my car, which means music for every frisbee function i'll ever drive to again. Oh, and too many all nighters. The sun seems to rise earlier and earlier, and it's annoying that I see the change firsthand.

After that, no more programming benders with deadlines for grades. Probably for money in the future, but not for grades. Went home to Woodstock for Mother's Day Weekend. Always good, always quiet out there. Very nice. I did get a haircut, and I also drooled over Cinema Displays and new TiBooks at the Apple Store. Finally saw Tomb Raider, not a bad movie, and also finally watched my import of Shaolin Soccer, a very funny movie. Very funny. Just more homework planned for the week, nothing for the weekend.

At least that's what it feels like. Bob San's last night. I may have to make Monday's Sushi Night. Yummmmm, sushi. But pretty much a whole lot of unexcitingness going on this week. Very nice. Relaxing even. Even with the 40 degree temperature swings in Chicago. I really need a haircut, but that's going to wait until Friday, when I can pass by the Apple Store to drool over the new TiBooks.

Won my first ever ultimate tournament, even if it was a sort of chump ass pseudo college thingie. But yeah. It was cool. I'm a little sore now, mostly calves, which makes it difficult to walk. In a pleasant surprise, no homework due this week for my classes, just a smallish project due next monday. Mother's Day this weekend, a little reminder to myself. And I did see Spider-Man over the weekend. A very good comic book movie. Thoroughly entertaining. And I did get to eat a brat at the Brat Stop in Kenosha. Very good. And only a mere hour away.

It's just a little bit off, like 9pm to 5am. I've seen the wrong side of 5am too many times in the past week, like 6. But it's good, cause things got done. Now I get a little breather, head up to Wisconsin, play some ultimate, eat some good wholesome Wisconsin food. The Complete First Season of Friends makes good background audio and video for programming.