"I have this girl named Amanda that calls me constantly....I call her Fat Amanda. But I don't know any other Amandas in Iowa City. But she's so fat, it wouldn't be right to just call her 'Amanda'" --Mike Wilson

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April 2008 News Archives

April 07    April 09    April 18    April 21    April 22    April 23    April 28    April 30

What I am listening to as I type this:  K-Ci & JoJo - All My Life

April 30, 2008

10 years ago today.  I can't believe it was 10 years ago.  Do you realize how short of a time span ten years can seem?  Not in that I haven't done a lot since then, I have; it just seems as though I can easily remember every given detail of that day.  I have to admit, I can deal with this now.  Forever I just wished I'd be able to say, "I'll never get over this."  I'm not sure why I wanted to feel that way.  Being "over it" doesn't mean I don't miss Ryan any more than ever, but it means I am able to live my life in a positive manner and accept that he isn't here any more.  In that sense, I'd say I've been "over it" since I switched my life into being more positive 5ish years ago.  I can see good things in what happened even though it still makes no sense at all why his life had to end when he was only 20 years old.  I'm not sure why his family has to live their lives without him in it any more.  I will never understand it, but what I am "over" is worrying about it.  I can't dwell on it because I have to accept it, and I have.  Ryan is not coming back.  I've had two amazing dreams in my life in which have shown me he's watching us and smiling.  I know he is ok with being in heaven instead of being on Earth, and knowing that, I am at peace with it.  I am lucky to have known him.  I am happy to go to his grave each time I go back to Iowa, and I just sit there and talk to him like he was literally sitting right there.  I will continue to do this.  I will continue to see his parents when I'm around (here we are at an Obama speech in Carroll this past Christmas).  I will continue to realize that I am lucky and not take my friends for granted.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Marilyn Manson - I Want To Disappear

April 28, 2008

Weekend wrapup comes first ... good weekend.  Renewed my ski pass on Friday morning then drove down to Hays, Kansas.  Felt good to be on the road again, driving alone.  It's been awhile since I've had 10+ hours alone in my car.  I flew home for Christmas.  Fabi was with me for RAGBRAI, so yeah, it's been since Christmas 2006 since I'd done that.  I adore this kind of time alone.  Driving.  Daylight. Open roads.  No traffic.  Perfect driving conditions.  Windows down.  Music up.  Stopping at random Taco John's restaurants for a taco.  Listening to Royals games on XM.  Chili Fritos at gas stations.  Watching my car's odometer creep ever so slowly to almost 240,000 miles.  Country music.  Thrash metal music.  German tutorials.  Singing along.  Passing cars.  Refusing to use cruise control.  Exiting to take a camera-phone picture of a sign then getting right back on again.  Shitty hotels.  New bars.  Friends I rarely see.  Not having to worry about driving anywhere once I reach my destination.

It was good trip.  Jacob and Miriah's wedding was a wonderful time and it was great to be a part of it!!  Met some new people that are truly incredible, hilarious people.  I hope to keep in touch with these new friends!!  We had a Hummer limo after the wedding for 1:30, that was sweet.  I really hadn't been in a limo before, so that was good times!  I couldn't have been more tired last night when I got home, sleep was mandatory.  And now I still have another week with no school before life will again kick me in the ass for 8 weeks, after which, I will get a 9 week break, and I'm on a downward slope in this grad school thing!  (although I did have my recurring dream nightmare about college (dream #1) AGAIN last night, this has been haunting me nonstop since I was 18, awful stuff).

I have no travel plans for the next two months.  I can't remember this happening before.  I feel blah.  I feel bored.  I feel bland.  I have no plans to go anywhere or do anything exciting until late June when I go to Minneapolis.  Now'd be a good time for a 2-month girlfriend that I can break up with after that so I'd have something to do besides homework and guitar hero.  But the more I think about it, I really, truly don't want a girlfriend right now.  I'm bored.  I get depressed when I'm sitting still and not doing anything.  Hopefully my new bike helmet gets here soon so I can start riding, I need something to do.  Now.  I'm bored.

I can't decide what I want to do.  I'm finally to the point where I know I can afford to buy a house.  No more debt, spending has decreased, and the market is down.  I can do this.  But now that I know I can, I feel like buying a house closes so many doors.  I'm tempted to permanently rent in Denver and buy a place in Breckenridge.  Or, even though Fabi and I didn't turn out the way either of us thought we would, I am still damn tempted to pack up shop and move to Switzerland in a couple of years.  After spending time over there and through talking with a couple of people, I realize I need to live a life where I don't need a car every day.  I want to live in either a small town where I can walk to work, the store, to go out to eat, etc. ... OR ... I need to be by a kickass train system.  I don't know what is for me.  I have no idea.  I know I love the mountains and need them near.  Everything else in Colorado is disposable to me.  I'd be gone in a second if there were no mountains here.  Switzerland is so perfect for me, but it's so far away.  I moved 700 miles from home once already, and that was hard, but I can go back in a second in case of emergency.  That wouldn't hold true for that move, and that is the only thing that scares me.

I'm in a shitty mood today.  Not like a "Bad" mood, but something is just off kilter today.  I feel like an idiot saying this, but something just "feels cold".  Similar to how Luke Skywalker can feel when something isn't ok, that's how I feel today.  I've only felt this way a couple of times in my life, but bad thoughts of things that "might have happened that I just don't know about yet" keep running through my mind.  Not sure what's going on here.  I figure I just need some good exercise to clear my mind.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Rammstein - Morgenstern (Morning Star)

April 23, 2008

Your update today is an email from my teacher of MSCD 642: Oracle Backup & Recovery Using RMAN; he was the author of the textbook of the course.

Have you ever asked yourself, "Who is halfway through their master's degree program in Computer Science with a perfect GPA?"?  I could tell you, but I think you can figure it out for yourself.

And lastly .....

Avs.  Wings.  The best rivalry in all of sports.  Meeting in the NHL playoffs for a 7 game series for the first time since 2002.  Prepare for excitement ...

What I am listening to as I type this:  Die Toten Hosen - Heir Kommt Alex

April 22, 2008

Well my week's stellar workout plans have gotten off to a shady start.  I planned on taking a class over lunch yesterday and lifting weights after work, then going for a run.  But I forgot my f**king shoes.  Honestly, I like my old scrappy gym, that was free, and where I had a permanent locker (where I kept extra clothes/shoes in case I forgot mine!) ... MUCH better than my "nice" gym with TVs stuff.  Scrappy gyms take the cake over these nice places any day of the year.  I was more motivated to go work out in the old place, it ruled.  This new place rather sucks, kinda. Regardless, I did run about 6 miles last night after I got home and did some stuff with my dumbbells.

I love my driving polarized Arnette sunglasses so much, I've decided to replace my Smith's I use for sporting stuff with some Bolle Recoils I tried on yesterday, they're are comfy, have awesome lenses, and my eyelashes don't hit the lenses (the selling point).

I get my bike back tonight, but my new helmet isn't here yet, which is frustrating as I spilled gasoline on my old one (don't ask) and it smells entirely too bad to wear ... plus it ate a partial hole in the side of the helmet.

Why won't my doctor call me back? Does he not want me to have surgery?

Lastly, small Earth Day random thought today:  As much as I detest the notion of "organic" anything and everything (I go out of my way to make sure things I buy are not labeled as "organic"; that whole concept bothers me that much) .... anyways, I must say that I think the concept of plastic bags in grocery (or any) stores must go away .... now.  Whole Foods ... a store I will never go into because I fucking hate the mentality behind it so much ... banned plastic bags today.  I have to swallow my pride and give them kudos on this.  By the way, I'm a hypocrite on this as I use plastic bags every time I go to the store, I really need to get some cloth recyclable bags one of these days.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Deftones - My Own Summer

April 21, 2008

Homework consumed me this weekend more than expected, didn't get to go to closing day at Breckenridge :(  Hopefully I can hit up A-Basin once or twice yet this season, but I am headed to Hays, Kansas this weekend for Jacob's wedding.  Funny how that drive will cost me as much as my recent flights to KC, Minneapolis, and L.A.  Stupid gas.

Anyways, worked on my final from about 9am-7pm on Saturday with a few brakes here and there.  I finished it around 4pm yesterday.  Got an A on my course project, that was unexpected.  It feels good to be half done with my Master's degree, feels damn good actually.  I know I complain about all the work, but it is the first time I've felt accomplished.  Even undergrad was pretty much a cakewalk.... there were minor stresses here and there.  Not sure why it's so important to me to get a high GPA ... I'm realizing I'd have HATED it if I cared about grades my whole life, it really takes a HUGE chunk of fun time away from you!

Watched the Avs beat the Wild on Saturday night, looks like if the Sharks win tonight, we shall be playing the Red Wings in the next round.  Well, I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to play those wastes again!!  Plus Theodore is on fire lately, he's really fun to watch right now.

I'm going to spend the majority of my 2 week break from school getting back into shape and cooking some healthy and good food since I actually have time now.  My goal is to run at least 25 miles in each of the next two weeks, attend 4 classes at the gym, and lift weights for 2 hours a day 6 days a week.  I feel just pathetic with the amount of exercise I've gotten in during 2008 ... basically I've gone to the gym over lunch 4 days a week.  I weighed myself for the first time in a year the other day.  176.  A hundred and fucking seventy six pounds.  This isn't that much, as I normally weigh around 172 ... but one must realize how much muscle I've lost.  Three years ago I could bench press 315lbs, now I'd be hard pressed to get 250 ... in fact I'd almost guarantee I can't throw up 250 any more.  As for food, I started strong yesterday already.  I made some oatmeal in the morning, shrimp penne for lunch, and had cooked carrots & onions, and a chicken/brown rice concoction with this awesome beef-onion sauce with peppercorns. Yummy.  Leftovers for lunch today.  Have leftover sauce of the shrimp concoction I made last night, might just eat that tonight with the leftover rice.  And for only the second time since Fabienne left, I'm all prepped to make a batch of muesli tonight.  Yee haw!! I miss having free time, I have a feeling this 2 week stretch will go entirely too fast.

I was considering going straight through and taking a class during July & August (over RAGBRAI) for preparation for my thesis, but then two things happened:
1) I decided to enter a battle with the school trying to get me to take classes instead of doing a thesis.  It'd cost the same, and I have NO DESIRE WHATSOEVER to do a thesis.
2) If I do have to do a thesis, the first prep class can either be july/august or sept/oct.  I'd rather have this during Sept/Oct when I'm in the Dominican Republic and have the break.  If I took it during July/August, I'd have a to take a lab-based class while I'm in the Dominican, and I really don't want to have to worry about that.  I can read and research while I'm there, but I don't want to be logged onto a computer doing lab work in 80 degree weather in the Carribbean.

Guitar Hero.  I was playing it again this weekend for the first time in awhile. I slaughtered it last night.  Finally broke 200K and 88% on medium-Dragonforce, giving me 4 stars on it.  So I have 5* on everything on medium besides Dragonforce.  On Hard, I beat Metallica and Iron Maiden leaving me with one song left before the final battle.  Slayer - Raining Blood.  As much as I love Slayer and love this song, it is killing me.  I'm going to end up breaking my TV over this song.  I'm not even remotely close to being able to pass it.  New video is on the front page of this song on this level; if anyone has tips on how to pass it -- I'll take 'em!  I guess I just have to work on my hammer-down a bit more.  Shoot.  All google searches point to people quitting the game because of this song.  It is not simple.

Lastly ... bike.  I brought my bike into the shop yesterday.  I get it back tomorrow.  I can't wait to see it, it's going to look slick.  Green handlebars.  Neon-green brake cables.  I'm going to spray-paint my water bottle cages green.  And Corey thinks I should buy this, I think I agree with him.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Silence

April 18, 2008

Itemized update.

I had a dream last night, you can read about it here.

I came pretty close to this guy last night on my way home from work.

I am very busy at work.  Need to get RMAN configured quickly.

My final exam for MSCD 642 is due by Sunday. After it's done I'm done with school for two weeks. Not thinking I'll get an A in this class :(

California was cool.  Was good to see Funks and KTO.  Meetings went well.

This roller coaster kicks ass.  I went on it about 6 times.

It snowed a lot the past 2 days.  It is gone already.

The Avalanche are up 3-2 over the Wild.  I hope they win this series.

Closing day at Breckenridge is Sunday; I probably won't go.

My bike will be completely reformed by next week.  I might buy a lime green neon light for it.

Gas prices are insane, I'm thinking of moving closer to work.  Will probably wait until mid-summer.

I need some sport-wear polarized sunglassses.  I love my current polarized sunglasses, but they aren't for active things.

I am going to get in rock* shape in 2 weeks since I have no school, look for several 3 hour days at the gym.

Haven't yet consulted with my doctor on when to get surgery, should probably get on that.

Got the paperwork ready to set up a money market account, pretty pumped about that.

Haven't played my Wii in 10 days.

Going to disconnect my bedroom TV this week, I've turned it on roughly 4 times in 6 months. Not sure why I pay $5/mo for it.

Decided to keep XM radio for the summer so I can listen to Royals games.

Made a decision that from now on I will not live anywhere without hardwood floors.

I want a garden so I can grow peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, spices, cucumbers, and other things similar to this.

I really need to get to work, stress is a bitch lately.  I've never experienced stress outside of college until recently.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Lacuna Coil - Fragments of Faith

April 9, 2008

I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that nobody here did what I did yesterday.  I'd bet none of you have ever done it, and this was my second time doing it as I did it when I was 17 as well.

Yesterday I woke up around 7:30am (2 hours later than normal).  I showered and hopped in my car.  I braved rush hour on Santa Fe Blvd. and made my way into downtown Denver.  I arrived at Kaiser Permanente.  I checked in.  I took off  my clothes and put on a robe or two.  I then went into an x-ray room and, in about a 3 minute time span, drank between 4-6lbs of a liquid version of the element with the atomic number of 56, Barium.  You would not imagine how your stomach feels from going from empty (hadn't eaten in awhile) to having literally 4-6 pounds of liquid barium in it.  You can just feel your stomach literally sinking down further into the body than it's supposed to.  You feel everything on the inside of you stretch.  It is an unpleasant feeling.  I drank in excess of 2 gallons of water yesterday to try to get it all out.  Needless to say, I did not go to work yesterday.

You see, it is impossible to x-ray the outline of an esophagus without coating it with something which will appear on an x-ray.  A few of you know about my condition.  I used to not like talking about it to the point where I just flat out wouldn't talk about it and if I had problems, I'd literally hide.  I'd lock myself in a room or something.  The problems all started when I was probably 8 or 9?  I could never swallow pills, not even the smallest of pills.  When I was 16 I'd be taking 8-10 children's Tylenol when necessary as they were the only things that were chewable and they weren't very strong.  I would just choke for no reason on food as well.  Not because I didn't chew my food enough, in fact, we really didn't know why for a very long time.  I would just be eating, and suddenly I couldn't swallow any more.  I could still breathe, but I couldn't even swallow saliva.  I never knew when or how this would fix itself, so until it did, I'd lock myself in a room, or a bathroom, and spit into a bucket or the toilet for hours until whatever was stuck would come up or go down.  No saliva would go down.  It was awful.

This probably happened 20 times or so, and then one day it happened at school.  I left my tray in the cafeteria and said I was going to the bathroom as I knew what was happening and I had to spit up saliva very quickly (if I didn't spit up saliva it would build up in my esophagus to the point where it'd block my windpipe, and then I couldn't breathe).  So I go hack up a lung or two, then go to the nurse and tell her I have to go home.  I truly loved our nurse, she'd let us go in and sleep during study halls and stuff.  She was always nice to me and I was nice to her, but this day she pissed me off.  She kept wanting to diagnose it. She wanted me to go to the emergency room.  She wouldn't let me go home because she said I couldn't be alone.  I think I finally screamed at her something to the extent of, "Leave me the fuck alone!! I'm going home and was hoping you'd excuse it but I'm just going to leave, just call my Mom and I'm positive she'll tell you I know what I'm doing."  I left and drove home.

Once I got home on this particular day, I think I sat there about 3 hours and nothing happened.  The food neither came up nor went down.  I got frustrated.  I went to the fridge and grabbed a Mt. Dew.  I figured I'd just drink a bunch of liquid and it'd push the food down for me and I'd be clear again.  This is probably the worst decision I've ever made in my life as far as risk goes.  I drank the Mt. Dew and immediately panicked.  Shit.  I cannot breathe.  I cannot get this Mt. Dew out of my throat.  I am alone at home, I cannot breathe, I am gasping, I am turning blue.  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.  It's starting to go into my lungs. I'm drowning!  I sprinted next door to the Drees' house and pounded on the door, luckily Mr. Drees was there.  He Heimliched me and I could breathe again.  I was embarrassed, I felt like an idiot.  Who almost dies from drinking Mt. Dew?!  After dealing with this condition for 10 years perfectly, why did I have this horrible lapse in judgment?  After discussing all this with my parents, we decided this had to be addressed.

I had a series of tests done in Carroll.  They couldn't find anything.  Swallowing barium.  Swallowing barium-coated food.  Doing Upper-GI tests and other random things.  Nothing.  One doctor said I had a stricture which may just contract at various times, closing my esophagus.  I ended up getting referred to a guy in Des Moines.  After more tests, he discovered that I simply have a narrow esophagus, which may or may not randomly contract.  A normal person's esophagus is 2cm in diameter, mine is 5mm.  My esophagus is 25% the size of a normal person's.  That winter-summer (right around when I turned 18) I had a series of surgeries to stretch my esophagus.  What this consisted of is me going to the hospital, them spraying me with something that numbs my gag-reflex, testing it to make sure I can't feel it when they shove things down my throat, then they put me to sleep.  Once I was out, they'd shove a dilating tube down my esophagus which would contract and stretch my esophagus out.  This would tear and scar the inside of my throat to a point where even I would whine about pain.

My Mom & Dad will tell you that I have a high threshold for pain and rarely complain about anything as far as being sick or hurt goes.  I will say that after these surgeries, I wouldn't eat anything ... wouldn't even drink water ... for around 3 days at a time, minimum.  After that I might eat some applesauce or cottage cheese or something for a day, but that hurt.  These surgeries hurt like a bitch.  I've fallen head first through a fish tank after a 10 foot fall while landing on (and breaking) a recliner.  I've had a (mild) concussion in high school football (I literally saw stars, that was pretty cool!).  I've split my chin open playing football more times than you can count.  I've knocked out my front tooth in a mosh pit.  I've been punched in the face while shattering my ankle and falling several feet down onto the concrete in the face of moving traffic.  I've had pneumonia a few times.  I've collided with people countless times at high speed on my snowboard.  Nothing hurts.  Nothing ever hurts  I will admit that when I pierced my tongue I told the guy, "I can't lie to you, that hurt like a bitch!"  But that was just a 1 second "OUCH!" thing, that wasn't pain.  With all that being said, nothing could possibly be as painful as it is to eat food after one of these surgeries.  I did this 3 times in 6 months.  I'm not looking forward to doing this again (or am I?), but it needs to be done.

I can no longer swallow my pills (vitamins).  I've had a few close calls with food again lately.  This needs to be addressed again.  I'm going to be really pissed off if I'm looking at my life from my grave and think, "I died from drowning from food?!"  What a stupid way to go.  I'm not letting this happen, so it's time for me to again get some surgery done.  There is a HUGE benefit to this for me... a really fucking huge one.  I get to go under anesthesia again!  I honestly think that besides snowboarding, that is the coolest possible thing on Earth.  I would do it 3 times a day if they'd let me.  Getting put to sleep is beyond awesome.  I simply cannot describe it.  I am not joking when I say that a few weeks ago I dreamed that I died while in surgery for my esophagus, I woke up a bit scared.  But even with that lingering in my head, you won't be able to slow me down on my drive to the hospital to get surgery done.  I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to get put under anesthesia again.  It's just awesome.

I remember the first time.  I was lying there and the guy put the needle in me.  He's holding a conversation with me and acting a bit surprised that I'm not tiring or going under.  He says, "Are you feeling anything at all yet?"  I say, "No".  He says, "Do me a favor and sit up for a second."  So I sat up on the operating table.  The feeling I got when I sat up was the best feeling ever.  If this is what a heroin junkie feels, I can't blame him for not kicking the habit.  I sat up and he says, "How do you feel now?"  My response, "Fucking awesome".  I think I fell back and was out 1/8th of a second later.  Being put under is incredible.  You don't feel as though time passes.  When you go to sleep at 10pm and wake up at 7am, you feel that 9 hours have gone by.  When they put you under and you wake up 8 hours later, it feels like 2 seconds ago that the anesthesiologist put the needle in your arm.  I'm trying to explain this but am failing miserably.  Just trust me, I am thrilled to have this surgery done and cannot wait to get it scheduled just so I can experience being put under again.  It is so incredible.

That too much information for you?  With that, I'll holler at you in awhile.  I'm going to California for 6 days, so I might holler at you when I get back.  We'll see.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Three Days Grace - On My Own

April 7, 2008

I thought I'd be sad today, and something happened this morning which would normally piss me off, but I just had to look up into the sky and laugh ... I laughed hard.  You see, today would have been my friend Ryan's 30th birthday.  I realize I talk about this way too much, but I don't care, I'll never forget him.  So on my drive to work this morning, for the first time in recent memory, I got pulled over.  I had no idea why.  I passed a cop on Kipling about 3 miles from home and I was going about 43mph in a 45 zone.  I was honestly thinking, "What is this all about?!"  I pull over, got a damn window tint ticket.  Apparently you can have up to 80% tint here and I have 84% tint.  Kind of a picky ticket in my opinion.  I got like 4 tickets for this in Iowa because you cannot have any tint on your front windows there, but I've never gotten one in my 7 years living in Colorado.  I guess the cop had nothing better to do at 6:30am.  He flat out told me, "You can take your pick, a $5 fix-me ticket where you pay $5 and come to court in 30 days to prove you have this fixed, or you can just get a $67 fine and you're on your own."  Doesn't take a genius to know that there's no way in hell I'm taking that tint off, so I took the expensive ticket.  I figure if I have to pay one $67 ticket every 7 years to keep my windows tinted, that's fine with me.  What does this have to do with Ryan?  Dude got pulled over more than anyone I know (ok, maybe not Armando).  He lost his license a few times, got speeding tickets and seat belt tickets all the time, the guy was a cop magnet.  I even got a damn possession of alcohol ticket with him when we were 19 in his apartment parking lot of all places.  So basically, I had to laugh that I got pulled over for no reason on Ryan's birthday.  I think he was playing a joke on me.

Excellent weekend.  Lloyd came out to celebrate this year's opening day with us, which was far from uneventful.  The Rockies lost, but the day isn't about the mere game, it's about the beginning of the season, so that was far from a downer.  What an awesome day.  Not sure if I've mentioned this, but I broke my camera in KC so I have no pictures of this wonderful event.  Probably won't buy a camera until RAGBRAI time again.  I tried fixing this, but I cannot, the gears which retract the lens is broken.  I was proud of my disassembling and reassembling of the camera, though.  That was kinda fun.  I obviously took this picture with my phone.

Went to the baseball game yesterday, too.  We lost again.  Royals are in first place! This is extremely awesome!  Seahawks signed Marcus Trufant and Lofa Tatupu to long-term deals, this thrills me.  I cannot watch the NCAA Championship game because if Kansas wins, I honestly think I'll get physically sick.  I'd rather see Duke win 5 championships than those fucking Jayhawks even go to the Final Four once.  The only thing that could possibly be worse than Kansas winning it would be if Iowa were to have won it while Haluska was on their team, luckily we didn't have to worry about that.  ANYWAYS .....

Got some new green stuff for my bike, brake cables and handlebar wraps, those will get put on this week hopefully, should look pretty OK I guess.  Leaving for California on Friday afternoon.  Flying into Orange County and driving down to San Diego via rental car to stay with Funks and Katie O.  Heading back up to Anaheim on Sunday morning for my conference, will be there until Wednesday night.  Have a few people I'd like to see while there, hopefully I'll be able to find time to do so!

There was always a 80% chance I was doing this, but this weekend I decided there is a 100% chance I'm going to the Dominican Republic in October for Corey & Andie's wedding.  Going to put the deposit down next week.  Going to stay here, should be beyond awesome.  The only thing disturbing about this is, I don't know what to be excited for!  Should I be more excited for this or for RAGBRAI!??!  I lead a difficult life sometimes, don't I? :)

New home stereo time!  I've decided to finally buy a new receiver and home speakers.  Bought my current Denon AVR-2000, used, when I was 16 or 17.  I've decided to go with the Denon AVR-3808ci.  I like it for it's 4 HDMI inputs, networking capabilities, USB inputs (can plug hard drive or flash drive DIRECTLY into it to display pictures, videos, or play music), and several other huge things.  Now just debating whether or not to get it from Adrian's friend or to take my chances on Ebay; Ebay would save me probably $250.  As for speakers, I've decided on Definitive Technology BP7006 Bipolar Towers.  Looking at a mid-May purchase of the receiver (thanks Tax rebate!) and a mid-summer purchase of the speakers.  Will get the rears and center channel in time ... maybe a year or so.  Can't wait, absolutely cannot wait.

Things are busy busy busy here.  Basically only have 2 weeks left of my RMAN class, then it's on to PL/SQL.  Half done with the Master's degree. I've got to say, if I get an A in this RMAN class, it'll be a gift.  The 4.0 may be going away soon :(

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