zomg no power

today has been really interesting. i had no power as of 3am due to some wicked ice storm.

it went out at 3am so i went to bed thinking no big deal. woke up and it was still off. i haven't done nothing for a whole day straight. literally though, aside from doing homework in the freezing cold i sat under a blanket by the fire in the living room and just thought. it was weird. later we got hungry and were tired of cooking stuff over the fire. yes...we used the fire to cook. soup, coffee, hot chocolate, and bread. my family knows how to survive. after scraping a 2inch layer of ice off my car for an hour my dad and i went to pizza hut. took forever to get there because of the roads but it was nice.

it is odd to see everything still for once. no power. trees not moving. no one out. really cool too. all the trees are covered in ice and dangerously sagging due to the weight.

fortunately, some of our friends invited us over so we could watch american idol and take some hot showers. a hot shower means a lot when you think about it. especially when the temperature of your house creeps down to the outside temps.

after we left and got ready to bundle in for the night, the power came back on, and here i am.
being warm and blogging.

sleeping in

i need to stop sleeping in on saturdays. it makes me feel like a lazy bum. i need to set a cap @ 9.30am. for real. kinda feels like it's getting outta hand. when i get up @ noon then have to be at work around 4 it leaves me no time to really do anything. i can't get too far into something because then ill have to just get up and leave.

new years resolution addition.

get up early.
even if i do go to bed late.
and...suck it up.



this is going to be [h]ard.

two eighty five

it's been a good day.

minus, going pale and almost losing my cookies in the pool during beginning swimming (keep in mind i swam nationally for 10 years) ... yea.

coming home to a nice package filled with goodies. two of those being the wonderful nvidia geforce 285 video cards. they are quite yummy. crysis has never looked so good. very high settings and anti-aliasing pumped all the way up is splendid to look at. even my dad was impressed, and I don't think he's ever played a video game.

after this.
i went to an art show
then
to subway
then
i watched american idol (hilarious as always)
then
i watched my new favourite tv show called Lie to Me. it is going to be amazing.
no joke.

now i am here.

i forgot

i forgot to blog.

too much free time.

100 days done

ive been eating moe's southwest grill for 100 days straight due to my woman thinking i couldn't do it.


ive done it.




lol

brandt russo

i came across this video that is just amazing.



there are amazing people left in the world.

lighting schemes

a while back I changed up the lighting scheme in my room to accomodate for the extra monitor that I have on my computer. I wanted to alleviate the problem of eye strain that I was experiencing during long sessions of gaming and computer use.

but, what I think is happening is that it is affecting my mood. I think lighting tends to have this affect on me. If someplace that I am going to doesn't have good lighting or a cool feel to it right off the bat (right when i step in the door) then I don't like where i am.

I think this is what is happening to me. It is a weird mood, as if the lights are affecting my thought process. since most of my time is spent working on something at my command center (computer) it affects me outside of what I am doing too. it's weird I know. probably slightly crazy, but I am myself and someone else is their self. (that didnt make sense) ... I am telling you, this lighting is messing with me.

Ill change it up a bit the next time I feel like moving stuff around, then I will repost to see if I get any different results.





also. a computer should not be called a computer anymore. it should be called an information processor...but, we live in america, and changing our minds on something that we have been saying for so long...just wouldnt happen. sadly.

today

today has been an interesting day. as was yesterday. but today was exceptionally interesting.
here's how it went.

programmed a robot in my first day of programming class. cool eh? we made the robot move forward, pick up a batch of socks, put them in a hamper and then exit the room. that was cool. it was my first programming experience too. I am really going to enjoy this. i know i am. after that my anthropology class was intriguing. we talked about you know...humans. kinda cool to be honest. after that was swimming class. yes, i am in college and I am taking a swimming class. it was the only one that was left open after my meeting with my advisor and being the past swimmer that i am i joined it. it is weird though...it's beginning swimming. so everyone but the two that I grew up swimming with on my club team and high school team are beginners. i guessed i assumed that all people knew how to swim like me. i was wrong. very, very wrong. so swimming was cool, especially after being out of the water for over two years.

after these three classes i had my lunch with my regular group of people. dan, lucas, and dan's woman lindsey. it was fun as always.

then, i came home in eager anticipation, only to wait for 2 hours for my new keyboard (which i am typing on at the moment) to come. i like this little thing alot. after all this i went to ship my first ever eBay sale...to no place else than russia. yes, russia. i actually didnt ship it. USPS's site is very misleading and led me to believe that it was only going to be roughly 40usd to send it.

wrong.

try 500 dollars.

so i said forget it. i want good rep, but not if it costs me my sale, plus 250 extra dollars. i am nice, but not that nice. i there in turn refunded the russian man's money. hopefully he understands and doesn't give me bad feedback for my first sale.

and now i am here waiting for my dad to get home to cook our deeeeelish hamburger helper because i do not know how to cook anything. and that's a fact.



skool

skool starts tomorrow.
2nd semester of my freshman year at college.
exciting...or is it?

dunno.

let's be true to who we are. organic


.

iCold

anywhoo...

i usually get sick for a day or two a year. i just get warn out for some odd reason, although my physical activity level has drastically dropped. oh well, a lot of thinking, late nights, working on computers, warcraft, are probably valid excuses for getting slightly sick.

apparently though,

i have an eye cold. it's where your eye gets pink and other "gross" things happen. i don't really know my illnesses so i am not good with pin pointing what certain things are. it sucks to be honest. it especially sucks because i start the semester again tomorrow. oh boy, this will be awesome. but, this morning, it spread to the other eye. so i have a dual eye cold. or what i like to call "iCold". unfortunately i had to sit through church this morning, which seemed absolutely, insanely, way too long, before i got to go to the after hours clinic.

at the after hours clinic. "i magically got better". it was a 2 hour wait in a lobby full of sick people...i figured i could wait. and that is what i am doing at the moment. sitting here watching football. ugh.

oh well.


on a more positive note. the new sims 3 game for pc comes out in a bit over a month. i can't wait. i really can't. ive been stuck playing sims 2 while i wait. i think a new game is rivaling warcraft.

trucks

i hate pick-up trucks. ford, chevy, & dodge.

simple.

day off

having a day off is like, well...having a day on(?).

today i got my oil changed, cleaned up the house, played some WoW, celebrated my girlfriend and I's one point five years of dating (wooo!) with none other than moe's southwest grill, watched a movie with my friend clark (in bruges), and now i am scouring the intra webs for some stuff. not really anything exciting by many's standards, but i am still alive and well and that makes it exciting for me.

sick

i was sick for monday and i am still kind of sick as of now. i dunno what really defines sick, but my head hurts, my throat is killing me, and my body aches. that sums it up.

since then, the tek world has been ablaze.

macworld is happening. nothing exciting there. and again i am going to say it. i can't justify the price that apple is charging for a mere laptop. the new 17" mbp is based @ 2.66ghz, 4gb ram, 320gb hdd space. i spec'd it high just to see the cost. the jump from 4gb to 8gb of ram is 1,200 dollars. those aren't pennies either, those are plain ol USDs. that's ridiculous! for real. you can build a sweet gaming rig desktop for 1,200 no problem. mind you...this is a laptop, but still. heck, you could build a gaming pc/workstation and buy a netbook for that much.

up next, the hdd/ssd upgrades.

okay, i have a 64gb ssd drive, i got it cheap off eBay. but the price for a 256gb ssd on newegg.com at the moment is roughly 450dollars. no surprise there. but a 900 dollar upgrade to 256gb ssd?! outrageous. that's 450 for the drive, and what 450 f0r labour? gah.

i know i know. apple builds superior products, i am not bashing them there. but you have to draw the line at some point. for real. and yes, i understand, people pay premium for something new, or people need a power house laptop because they travel. but, when i see teens spamming the space or facebook of "oh i cant wait till i get a new mbp so i can watch youtube ultra fast" i cringe. have daddy buy you a netbook, or a mid sized laptop, then use the couple grand that you save to go to college or take your significant other on a date.

gah.

aside from that. i have been getting a few customers with computer help or wanting things explained, and even a few with builds. this is cool. my work and knowledge is proving useful in my rather small city that is surrounded by a bubble to the outside world thanks to the illuminati. lucky for me, this just turns in to bettering myself as a technician for things down the road. you can't diss on experience.

also a new site that i found. whatyououghttoknow.com

funny stuff about common things that we don't think twice about.

netbooks

i am a very big fan of netbooks. they are truly great little computers. i may be biased since i am a small"er" person compared to most, since i dont have a problem using them. but, they really do get the basic job done. if people know, when looking for them, that they are only going to be using them for typing papers, editing text stuff, watching youtube or hulu, or just surfing the web, then they will find the netbook perfect for them.

as i said. i have the hp mini 1000 netbook. i have windows xp, 1gb ram, and a 60gb hdd. ya ya ya i could upgrade to 2gb easily and throw in a bigger harddrive, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of mine. i just use it to check some forums and read up on stuff, as well as write a paper for school. i have the 10.2 inch screen size too. this helps a lot, i really cant see how people use the 8.9 inch screen. this one is just right for me. i will probably load vista on to it here soon. i have read around and heard that vista is snappy on this. i wouldnt doubt it since xp runs just fine.

the keyboard on this model is splendid. all the other netbooks ive come across have really small keyboards. hp has taken there's from side to side. it's a 92% keyboard. plenty of space to type. the speakers sit on a bar in front of the nicely glossed screen as well. they actually sound pretty good. of course, they are just two tiny driven speakers, so you can't expect much out of them.

like i said i only use it for email and internet. that being said, firefox, thunderbird, object dock, and ventrilo are the only four programs i have on here. oh, and miranda im. all work just fine. as far as i am concerned they are snappy.

if you are in the market for an ultraportable, i would totally suggest one of these little guys. they get the job done, and you feel cool doing it.

washing machine posts tweets when done

this is probably one of the coolest things someone could ever do. although this promotes heavy internet use, which doesnt bother me, it's also unique.

hit this
link for a read

CES 2009

i have always wanted to go to something like ces or e3 but i never have known how. i especially want to attend this years ces. i think it is going to have a lot of awesome stuff...that will pretty much be obsolete in a few months. i think it would be worth it though. oh well. it's only 5 days away and i am tivo'ing the whole deal on g4. woo.

my superhero



scouring the internet today as a wait for a package, i came across marvelkids.com. this is what i look like after dark

work

i work at starbucks. to be honest, it is not some dream part time job like some people rant and rave. i live on the border of indiana and kentucky. it's about 20 mins to cross the bridge from ky to get into evansville. and with the holidays, all of northern kentucky (they think in unison, i am convinced) decides it's awesome to flood into evansville to christmas. i had my first day off in 4 weeks for new years. i didnt even know what to do with myself. really.

i serve kentuckians who don't know what coffee is, college kids who are the nicest of the lot, and just downright rude people. i dunno what it is. this isn't to say that all people that roll through my drive thru are pompus and arrogant, in fact. it's pretty hit or miss when it comes to the different types of people. they come in hordes too. they come from 5.30am all the way to midnight. non stop, hungry for coffee, mad from shopping, and ready to go home.

i also work with a bunch of people whose moods can change in a split second. i have been told that there is something different about me. i just dont get mad at things. i am pretty calm. am i the only one that has come to the realization that we work at a very popular "coffee" chain in america that everyone seems to like, no matter how ridiculously overpriced we are. i do get tired but i just think that eventually we'll close for the night and i can go home and sleep. that's what keeps me going.

what i am getting at is tonight. we were dead. all our closing duties were done before 11. we were waiting to close for once. we all did everything really fast like we were used to and we got everything done. it was weird. it was eerily quiet. ...everyone probably ran out of money.


economic recession. pfft. come work with me and try to keep on thinking that.

that's why i own an ipod

too bad for the zune. locked up a day or two before the new year. that is why i own an ipod. lucky day though for the audiophiles, they unlocked themselves. weird

link

important information

kind of an about me:
i am knate and i spend the majority of my life listening to music, reading, tinkering with my computer, or sitting in awkward silence with my girlfriend (jk). i am an aspiring computer builder and programmer. i don't really have the resources to build full fledged works of art like the guys over @ voodoopc. but, i do what i can. my setup is ever changing, just like...well...hardware.

currently it is:
intel core i7 940

asus rampage ii extreme
3x2gb corsair dominator ddr3 @ 1600
2xnvidia gtx 260 sli
1x64 gb g.skill ssd (OS)
1x250gb wd caviar hdd (everything else)
plextor slot loading dvd/cd
silverstone st70f 700w psu

housed in a lian li pc-v1200b case
cables sleeved with murderware

displayed with 2 samsung 2253 BW monitors

i use windows vista 64 bit. i don't really care about the opinions of others when it comes to vista. i enjoy tweaking it to my specifications. i really enjoy computing in general. i know nothing about how it all works, but, that is why i am going to school. it is a passion of mine. i spend a lot of time on my computer and/or connected to the web in some fashion. i do a lot while sitting in this comfy chair. i listen to music, work in photoshop or illustrator, check sites, read on things i would like to know about, play WoW ( a lot ).

i also have an hp mini 1000 netbook. which is awesome. i use it to surf the web or write papers, nothing else really. the majority of people that i know always ask "why not a mac?". simple. i can't justify the price to performance ratio. yes, my system is rather expensive, but i can just as well slam the macs on the market. albeit the higher end mac pros. plus, my little netbook isn't my main system, it's my kick back computer for laying around. i don't really see the need for a macbook/pro if all someone is going to do is surf the web.

i frequent:
engadget.com
hardforum.com
facebook.com
myspace.com
biblegateway.com
newegg.com
flickr.com

i use:
twitter.com (/knateb)
lavabit.com for email
an iphone
an ipod
a pair of akg k701 headphones
glasses

i listen to:
the flashbulb
fall of troy
lower definition
swimming with dolphins
my children my bride
a rocket to the moon

programs i use:
world of warcraft
age of empires 3
ps cs3
illy cs3
object dock
firefox for web
thunderbird for email
zune for music
ventrilo for voice
fruity loops for writing tekno
vuze for the occasional torrent
steam
miranda im


i always wear skinny jeans, two tshirts, zuriick shoes, my glasses, and i always keep my phone on me. i keep a low carbon footprint and i dont spend extravegantly. i dont use my cell phone while driving and i am nice to my girlfriend. i eat moe's every single day and i try to keep up on exercise. i am a creature of habit and I couldn't be more happier with where i am.


coming and going

well, it is now 2009. 2008 just closed the door a few hours ago. It was a great year for the most part, no complaining on my part. I am on the same page with others in terms of new years resolutions. I wiped my old blog and decided to start this new one. New year, fresh start, clean slate.

here are a few:
.1 keep this blog up
.2 get a bike
.3 stop worrying about useless things and enjoy
.4 keep being technological inclined
.5 be cool
.6 love
.7 be different

I dont think these few things are going to be "that" tremendously hard to follow. My mood did start to go south as school ended. I dunno what it was, but, I felt like a different person sucked up into society. I was finishing finals (which i most notably procrastinated @), working 35+ hours a week, sleeping through church because i worked so late, not seeing my small group guys, not getting any exercise, not playing enough WoW, and not seeing my woman. My eating habits lost their footing too with one, maybe two meals a day. ick.

oh well, jesus pushed F5 on my life and I am set straight.