Microsoft really sucks sometimes

Had a pretty hectic Saturday.

Some of Ariana's family made a semi-surprise visit (they let us know Friday night) from Massachusetts, so that made us shift plans around a bit.

Lucky for us, they showed themsevles around the Bronx for the most part, but at night they wanted to go see Ground Zero. Me and Ariana were supposed to go to Jordan and Maryann's b-day party but we had to show them the way (plus we hadn't gone to Ground Zero ever, so it would have been an experience just to see it).

So we went, looked around and then showed them how to get to Times Square while me and Ariana headed to Avenue A Sushi for the party.

Even though we got there late, people hadn't started eating yet, so it was cool. Party was fun, saw Christine and Adam which was cool since I hadn't seen them in awhile. After Avenue A Sushi, we headed to Bull McCabs as usual.

I was introduced to the "jager-bomb" which is when you drop a shot of jager into a glass of Red Bull (literally drop the shot in, glass and all). It was actually pretty damn good.

We stayed there for a bit, but eventually had to head out earlier than usual, b/c Ariana's friend Michelle was also having her b-day party that night, across town over at "Pop Burger" (a trendy burger joint).

So we headed out and I thought I was saying my last goodbye's (until the next time he visits) to Goombah, but then I was told they were gonna have one last huge send off next Saturday which sounds like it will have all the ingredients of a bachelor party/night of extreme debachery... should be fun!

****

Watched Raw last night, it was pretty freakin good. and they set up some potentially cool things for next week's Raw at MSG, which I will be attending with Ariana.

First off is Shawn Michaels vs Christian, which should be SWEET. Then we might have a Flair vs Orton match or something (which would also be awesome b/c MSG LOVES Flair and would boo Orton out of the building against him).

Our seats for the show are gonna be really good too. And like I mentioned in an earlier post, we are bringing signs (prob a "So Close!" and a "Orton Sucks! Vote Shelton!" sign) so keep an eye out for us in case we are on the side of the cameras.

****

Had some almost scary computer problems this morning.

Started last night when I got a windows update around 11:30pm which I decided to try and install. It didn't say what it was or how big it was. Just asked "express or custom set up?"

Well by around 1:15am it was still installing (and not even halfway done). It was mad late though and I wanted to go to bed, so I cancelled the install and shut down my computer for the night.

Well this morning I woke up and weather was a mess, plus I had some school work to do, so I called out of my job for the day. So I turn on my computer to get working and it doesn't boot up. Just a black screen was shown... that was not cool.

I tried rebooting, nada. I then was given the option of safe mode... still nothing. I was then given the option to reverting to the last time the computer was ok. This brought back my computer... or so I thought.

Things were acting a bit wacky, PLUS I couldn't connect to the internet, so i was just getting annoyed. Turns out it was b/c I had tried to download the new Windows SP2 Update or something. So I uninstalled it and things were better, except that I still couldn't connect to the internet.

Luckily I was able to call Dell, get through right away and have a really good tech guy, and the problem was resolved in about an hour. Still gave me a scare though, but at least I got through it and am now able to do my work and won't lose a day for nothing (well as long as I don't waste more time blogging away, lol).

So yeah off to (school)work I go!

Lucky for me I don't like chocolate...

Like the majority of people reading this right now, I'm a nosy guy. When people are online and put up an away message, even if I haven't talked to them in forever, I will check their away message (admit it, so do u!).

Well the other day my sister was online and she put up an away message and well... I can't do it justice to explain, so here it is in all it's copy and pasted glory:

-When I bite into a York Peppermint Patty, I feel the cool rush of skiing in the Alps, or skating in Alaska, or bobsledding in Lake Placid! But, while I'm enjoying my York Peppermint Patty, the rush makes me oblivious to the chocolate melting in my hands. The chocolate gets on my keyboard, my mouse, my desk, and every other spot to which chocolate can stick. And when I go to throw away my York Peppermint Patty, I trip over a shoe because I'm too busy looking for a paper towel. I fall over and hit my head on the corner of my desk, cutting it deeply. The sight of my own blood causes me to regurgitate my York Peppermint Patty. Getting up and running to the phone to call 911, I slip on my own vomit, fall down again, and break my neck. And so, my warning to all little children: don't smoke pot before eating a York Peppermint Patty... :-D

I just had to share that...

****

In other news, the Yankees clinched a playoff berth last night. So basically no matter what happens for the rest of the season, they are getting into the playoffs. So that's very cool.

On the other side of the spectrum though, the Marlins just dropped 3 straight to the Phillies basically completely ending their hopes for making it to the postseason. You just gotta feel bad for those guys. I mean stupid Hurricane Ivan made them fall behind in games to the point where they had to play 3 double headers in the span of 11 days. They also have not had a day off in forever. They're just freakin tired at this point, and it sucks cuz if those delays hadn't have happened, they had a real legit shot at making the playoffs. Oh well, at this point I will just continue to root for them to finish over .500 (which would be a first for them in a non-World Series winning year).

****

Was playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic last night, and oh man they just pulled the swerve of all swerves in that game! I'm a big RPG guy, and I've seen a lot of major plot twists, but the one they pulled out in this game had my jaw on the floor.

Bravo, to the makers of this game. I have not been as surprised by a development in a game in a VERY long time. Anyone out there with an X-Box should get this game. You will not regret it.

I don't wanna be an "American Idiot"

Just got back from the free Green Day concert in the city. It actually wasn't IN the J&R Music World Store. It was outside nearby over at Park Place (between Broadway and Church St). Basically Park Place is a wide 4 lane street, so they closed off 3 lanes, put up the stage in the front of the block, had a GA section, then some gates where they had the soundboard, and behind it another GA section. I got there around 4:15 (show was supposed to start at 5:30 but it actually began at 6:20) so I wound up being in the second GA section. That was fine though, b/c I still had a great view.

The show wound up being pretty cool. They played just about an hour and mixed up stuff off the new album with some of their bigger hits, so I had a good time for the most part.

Why "only for the most part" you ask?

That'd be b/c just about 90% of the audience truly lived up to the phrase "American Idiot." Just not in the way Green Day meant it. They're talking about people who support Bush (read: retards), while I mean they were just freakin IDIOTS.

Case in point- as I mentioned there was a divide between the 2 GA sections with the soundboard in the middle. Well as soon as Green Day hit the stage, everyone in the back GA section started to mosh, crowd-surf and just push forward, crushing everyone together against the barricade. Thing is, the barricade wasn't supported well and actually fell over.

Luckily some guards were right there and were able to pick it back up immediately, but the crowd kept being ridiculous and pushing as the guards did all they could to hold us all back.

I was getting pretty pissed b/c thing was, there was NOWHERE TO GO!!! I swear, I wish one of the guards had a sign all like "Do NOT Pass Go, Do NOT Collect $200."

But people kept pushing and crushing me and everyone in the front (I forgot to mention I was fairly close to the front of this back GA section). But if they kept pushing they would have knocked over the barricade again and if they did so would have messed up the soundstage, effectively ending the concert that we all waited around 2+ hours for.

So common sense would say stop pushing right? Well to people of average intelligence it would. But like I said, we were dealing with idiots here and the stupidity among this crowd was boundless. Luckily the crowd was mostly filled with 13-18 year olds who were a lot smaller than me so I was able to hold my own along with some fellow adults that I made acquaitance with while waiting for the show to start, and push people the hell out of our way for awhile. But there were 2-3 bigger guys in particular who were each probably drunk or high that were being REALLY obnoxious. One of them was especially getting on my nerves and I so wanted to punch him right in the face (but I was secretly hoping one of the guards would do the deed for me and kick him out as well, as he was really in their faces too and did not deserve to be there).

Speaking of the guards. It was absolutely obvious that they had never seen or been in any situation like this before. They had no clue how to control or contain the crazy crowd. You could see it on their faces how much they were freaking out. I was tempted to push my way to the front to just give advice to the poor schmucks since I'm pretty much an expert with these things.

But I digress, I'm bitching a bit more than I need to. The crowd calmed down enough by about the third song that I was able to enjoy the rest of the show. Which as I stated before my rant, wound up being quite fun.

****

Noticed something kinda funny but which also made me think while coming home on the train.

There was a little girl (maybe about 2 years old) in a stroller with her father. Being all happy and stuff but quiet. That is until a man sat down next to her with a soda from McDonald's in his hand. The child immediately yelled happily, "MCDONALDS!" Which got an amusing reaction from people surrounding the child. One woman even said aloud what everyone was thinking "Boy, kids sure learn what that logo means right away."

And it just made me realize that is SO true. After a child learns the words "Mama" and "Dada" their next word is usually "McDonalds."

I kid you not, I've seen and heard this before. Kids learn that logo mad quick.

And we wonder why our nation is full of fat-asses? We're RAISED on that crap...

****

Was playing Star Wars: KOTOR last night, and I was in a level with a Sith Training academy and a small town nearby. Well the town had a cantina in it with a sign for it outside. The name of the cantina in question?

"The Drunk Side"

This had me lmao for a few good moments. So simple, yet so funny. What makes it funnier though was I mentioned this to Ariana today and in that convo we both got to pondering how a fun an actual Star Wars themed bar would be.

Imagine, female bartenders looking like Leia (either with the buns in the hair, or for the hell of it the slave girl outfit) or the dancers at Jabba's palace. Some of the tables stands could look like R2-D2, and hell the bouncer could be a dude in a Chewbacca costume. We both found this quite funny. But seriously I think something like that would go over quite well in real life. I know I'd go to one if they existed... although that might just be b/c I'm a geek. ;-P

Not quite great but getting better...

That about sums up how the situation at the Grad school is going.

I went to LC early on Monday to find out the status of my enrollment. While I found out nothing new on that end, I spoke with the professor who teaches Research Methods (which happens to also be on Mondays from 4-6pm) and he allowed me into his class. So at least now I don't have to bother that other professor (b/c she wasn't gonna let me in anyways).

While I'm not looking forward to taking both Research Methods and Fundamentals of Ed/Psych Measurement in the same semester, at least the professors allowed me into their classes and I won't fall behind on anything. Now I just gotta wait for the actual paperwork, officially letting me into the program to go through. But I'm not gonna waste the energy worrying about that, b/c there isn't anything I can do about it yet. So I just gotta pray everything works out.

****

Went to my friend David's graduation party this weekend. Had a pretty good time and saw a bunch of people I hadn't seen in awhile. Food was great too, but later on it didn't agree with me and took me out for a part of the weekend, which wasn't cool. Oh well...

****

Staying in the vein of mixed blessings for the weekend, the Yankees took 2 out of 3 against Boston this weekend. They did it in convincing fashion too and I loved every second of it. However, on the National League side of things, things look just about done for my Florida Marlins. They desperately needed to sweep the Chicago Cubs in their double-header on Monday but all they could muster was a split, leaving them 4 1/2 games out with only about 12-14 more games to go. Their only chance to make the playoffs is to have the Giants, Cubs, Astros AND Padres to each go NO better than 6-6 in their last 12 games and for Florida to do no worse than 10-2, or is it 11-1? I forget... but either way, it's not something likely to happen. Not impossible... just not likely (although I'll root for them til the very end).

****

On the side of totally good things though- I mentioned in the other post that I had registered for the Green Day show at J&R Music World. Well I went down to pick up the wristband on Monday before I headed to LC. So it's official, I'm gonna see Green Day for FREE on Wednesday along with only 500 other people. Whoo-hoo!

****

I just purchased the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD over at Bestbuy and got a free "Star Wars- Insider" magazine with it. I only paid like $35 for it b/c I wound up having a $10 coupon thanks to being a member of the Bestbuy Rewardzone, so that was pretty cool. I hope I'll get a chance to go through the movies soon and pray the changes they made aren't as bad as they sounded. I'm looking forward to that.

****

Just read a review for X-Men Legends. For those of you not in the know, that is the new X-Men RPG coming out for all the video gamesystems. It looks really freakin cool and is coming out very soon. My problem is I'm still playing Star Wars: KOTOR, and I also have Spider-Man 2 to start (and finish) before I could even get to that. And with me in school that's gonna take awhile. Not to mention Halo 2 and GTA: San Andreas are also coming out and I wanna play those too. Damn, why do all the kick ass games come out so close to each other?!?! Oh well, looks like I know what I'll be doing Christmas break, lol.

Trying to not think about "the situation"

Still upset over the stupidity going on about my admission into the Counseling program. I went down to LC yesterday to speak with people face to face to try and get everything resolved. However, yesterday just happened to be Rosh Hashanah and apparently our nice little Catholic University seems to be mostly filled with Jewish faculty. So lots of people were out. I tried going to admissions, they sent me up to the Counseling program office, who sent me back to admissions, who sent me to one of the chairs who wasn't there, so I was sent back to the program office who sent me back to admissions, who finally sent me over to the Dean, and guess what? The dean wasn't in! (and he's not even Jewish! grr)

In the end I spoke with an assistant to the dean who was very nice and gave me an add/drop slip and told me to write a letter to Dr. Keitel saying I was told by personel in the dean's office to speak with the two professors and have them admit me into their classes. Thing is, I basically already kinda asked for this in a round-about way in my e-mails to her and she gave me that whole "you might have to wait til next semester" thing. I feel that she just doesn't wanna step on any toes and force the professors to take me into their classes, and I understand that, but it still screws me.

So I mentioned this fact to the assistant and she understood but also told me that, regardless, it's part of her job and she should do it since I was told verbally that things would be fixed for me once the approvals went though. I still asked if there was anyway I could just speak to the dean though but basically she said, he can't do anything unless I get approved by Keitel. So it's all just a stupid viscious circle. The assistant did tell me that another chance of mine was to speak to the head of the program- Dr. Chen (basically the middleman between Keitel and the Dean) and see what he says. So I went to see him, and of course, he's out for the day!

It's like "umm... it's Dr. "Chen!!" He's Asian! About as far from Jewish as you can get! Why the freakin Hell is he off on Rosh Hashanah!"

So yeah, basically nothing was accomplished... I left the letter for Keitel in her mailbox, but she's not back until Monday, so I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'll keep everyone posted.

****

But enough about annoying things, some good stuff has also happened this week.

-I wound up registering and actually getting through for a wristband to go see Green Day perform live at J&R Music World down near City Hall. That should be pretty cool. I saw Weezer in a similar event (over at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square) a few years back and it was awesome. They played like 10 songs too. So if Green Day does anything like that, it will kick much ass. So consider me psyched.

****

Other things that have me psyched:

-Yankees vs Red Sox this weekend... you KNOW my ass will be glued to the TV this weekend to watch those games. Hopefully the Yanks can take at LEAST 2 out of 3.

-Over in the wrestling world, both shows were pretty damn good this week. Raw seems to be heading to a huge HBK-Christian-Jericho-Edge feud, which can mean nothing but good things. And over on Smackdown- Viscera and Gangrel returned! Freakin Gangrel man! I used to love that dude. His entrance was probably the coolest wrestler entrance EVER. If they keep him around and still use the old music and entrance, I'll be a very happy guy.

****

This is also for you wrestling fans out there:

- I had forgotten to mention last week, but after watching Raw and seeing Eugene getting his ass kicked, we all now know he'll be out of action for some time. Well usually when that happens, WWE will make like a music video thingie to hype the wrestler's return to action. So me and Ariana just thought it'd be absolutely hysterical if when they did this for Eugene they used the Black Eyed Peas- "Let's Get Retarded!"

Tell me you couldn't see them doing it too! I'd laugh for hours straight. Just thought I'd share.

****

In totally unrelated news, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, just keeps getting better and better the more I play. I've just finally earned the skill to effectively be able to handle two lightsabers at once... let the (Darth) asskicking begin!

Grr...

... I'm pretty pissed off right now.

Seems I am once again experiencing first hand the BS of dealing with Fordham politics.

As I stated in previous posts, I'm in the middle of figuring out whether or not I'm gonna be accepted into the Counseling Program of the School of Education here at the Fordham Grad school. The group of professors on the appeals committee met last week, so I went to LC early on Monday to see if there was any update on my status before I went to class that night. I was told by my old professor that it went well but that the decision would have to be approved both by the Dean and the admissions office (something I was not made aware of earlier) and that everything might take anywhere to a few days to a few weeks to be finalized. However, I was told to just go to the classes I had intended to take so I wouldn't fall behind in my work and they would settle everything afterwards.

So I felt pretty good about the situation and went off to class with a smile...

... Silly, silly me... things at Fordham can NEVER be THAT easy, right?

So I'm in the first class (which I noticed is pretty full), and the professor seems very nice, but she does mention that the class is "over subscribed" (read: a bit beyond full) and that anyone not already registered was welcome to sit in the class for the day but would not be able to get into the class in the future. So I began to worry a little, but I still had faith things would work out. I talked to the professor after class and tried to figure out what my chances of getting in would be if I was placed on a "waiting list" to get into the class. She told me flat out that they weren't very good at all. Worry levels began to rise...

I try to shake it off and go to the next class. It was a similar case there, but the professor seems more lenient about my situation (and also the class didn't seem as overly full) but I was still worried that since I couldn't officially add/drop into the class b/c I was not a registered student yet, that my "place" would be taken by a student who actually could do so. Worry levels continued to rise...

I decided to e-mail the professor who has been helping me out through this whole mess about the situation and basically explain to her my predicament. I've only taken the Intro to Counseling 1 and 2 modules so far, and due to pre-requisites required for most classes, I'm only left with a small number of classes to choose from to take this semester. And most classes seem to fall on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Problem is, due to my job, Tues and Thurs are out, b/c of the after school program thingie we do at the middle school at my job, so my only choice was taking classes on Monday.

And like I've stated, the two classes I wanted are full and after checking Oasis, so are pretty much every other Monday classes... leaving me pretty screwed. Not to mention the fact that even if I DID switch out, I would wind up being one or even two weeks behind in the reading and classwork of my new class. Leaving me doubly screwed.

Worry levels had at this point reached Code Red...

So yeah, I send this professor this long ass e-mail explaining everything and just this morning I see her response, which was basically just one paragraph all like "well if you can't get into these classes this semester, you will just have to wait until Spring..." and I also get an e-mail from the professor of that first class saying that I would not be able to enroll in her class."

To which I say:

SCREW THAT!! [read: Worry Levels have now evolved into Anger levels!]

First off, It ain't my fault those fools in admissions screwed up and didn't download my application in time, and that I received my rejection letter too late so I couldn't appeal last semester and have had this issue dealt with back in May! It's theirs!!!

Secondly, I was told by people on that committee that I could go to the classes I wanted to attend and things would be settled later. But obviously people in the department aren't communicating with one another, leaving me screwed out of classes, which is once again- THEIR FAULT! And I shouldn't have to suffer for it and lose an entire freakin semester!!

So now I'm basically stuck between a rock and a hard place. I know it's technically not the fault of the professor's whose classes I want to get into, and I feel bad dragging them into this and don't wanna make a bad impression by basically trying to force myself into their classes but like I said, it's not my fault either, and I'm not gonna stand for it.

So, all day long i've been writing e-mails to people (including another long ass one to that first professor, explaining my entire situation and hoping she has mercy on me) and calling people up but not getting through to anyone. Thus, I'm probably gonna have to take a personal day tomorrow and march down to LC, show my face and try to get things done.

So yeah, to sum up the equation in short:

Fordham + stupid admissions + lazy professors= Me (super-pissed)2


Feel free to respond with suggestions of what you think I should do (note that I've already been advised to use violence, I'm talking about ACTUAL suggestions people, heh).

Looks like we're back to the daily grind...

Tonight is my first day of class for the semester. It's gonna be so weird to go back again, after being off for like four months and getting used to being a vegetable, lol. Hopefully the classes will be good though.

****

Had a nice relaxing weekend for the most part. Woke up early on Saturday to score tix to Monday Night Raw on Oct 4th. We got really good seats too. So good in fact, that if we are on the side where the camera's face we might be visible the entire show (so you KNOW we are bringing signs).

Me and Ariana then spent the rest of the day at the movies. We saw Hero and Garden State. Both were very good movies, I definitely recomend them.

****

Saw the WWE Unforgiven PPV last night. It was pretty solid. All the matches were good (except the Richards-Tomko brawl, which came out of nowhere and had no place on PPV). But other than that, fun stuff and they had Orton drop the title to HHH!! WHOO!!! I was very happy about that development. Now I'm just very curious how the show will go from here.

****

Baseball is still very exciting. The Marlins and Cubs split their 4 game series over the weekend. Which I was happy about. I'm of course rooting for the Marlins, but the Cubs are cool too, and are kind of the sentimental favorites of everyone, so I don't wanna root against them. So the split works out good for all involved! (But btw, how awesome has the Marlins pitching staff been recently?!? This is such a great race for the Wild Card). Oh and the Yankees beat the Orioles, while Boston lost, so that helps put a game between them, give credit to the Yanks unexpected ace- El Duque for that. Now if freakin Vasquez would just shape up I would feel a bit better about things.

I am going to KILL George Lucas...

... granted the man did create the greatest movie trilogy ever made (sorry Lord of the Rings fans, Star Wars still kicks ass, without the benefit of 21st century technology and graphics), but the man doesn't know how to just let a good thing be!

First he re-releases the original trilogy in the mid 90's with some changes. I didn't mind most of the changes. The only 3 exceptions (in my book at least) were the infamous "Greedo shooting first" thing from Star Wars: A New Hope, the stupid ass musical number in Jabba's palace, and changing the Ewok "Yub yub" song at the end of Return of the Jedi. Other than that, no real complaints.

But now according to people who have seen advance copies of the DVD release of the Star Wars Trilogy there are even MORE changes added in.

One sounds like a step in the right direction (apparently they are fixing the Greedo shooting first thing, to both he and Han shooting at the same time... still kills some of the Bad-Assery of Han just blowing Greedo away like in the Original, but better than what they did in the Special Edition).

Everything else though seems like going giant leaps BACKWARDS. The biggest change is that Lucas has now added in the ghostly image of Hayden Christensen instead of actor Sebastian Shaw at the very end of Return of the Jedi. How lame is that???

You can read all about the other changes he made to the three films at this website.

I'm just annoyed that the man feels he needs to keep "improving" his movies. People fell in love with the originals, there was no need to update ANYTHING. They were fine as they were.

The kicker is he feels there is nothing wrong, and it is completely up to him if he wants to take artistic license and change stuff around... fine, I'll grant him that if I absolutely must, but why not release both the ORIGINAL versions along with the Special editions on the new DVD set coming out??? People would buy a huge set like that. I know I would. It just pisses me off that we gotta take the extra crap Lucas feels like throwing in as Star Wars Canon now, just b/c he comes up with a "brilliant idea" he couldn't do 20 years ago "due to limitations in technology." I feel like wringing the man's neck all like "Dude, Bullshit! None of that crap was in your mind back then! Quit screwing with my favorite movies!!!"

Don't even get me started on some of the crap he's thrown into the prequel movies so far... (can any one say "midi-chlorians?" shudder...)

Dare I dream that Episode III: Revenge of the Sith will actually kick ass and please true Star Wars fans?? I hope and pray that it does (b/c Episode 2 was fun) but my faith in that occurring is slipping by the day...

... I can at least take solace in the fact that the Animated Clone Wars on Cartoon Network and the Star Wars: Republic comic series from Dark Horse kick ass.

No news is good news...

... or at least that is what I'm thinking at the moment.

The grad school never got back to me yesterday, but Ariana ran into some of the professors at LC and asked about my situation. They told her things went well, but the decision won't be processed for a few days. So they instructed her to tell me to just go to the classes I wanted to go to and they would fix everything accordingly later on. So like I said, I guess that's a good thing. Let's hope...

****

Got a few fun links to share with people, as there really isn't any other news to talk about. First off-

- Lego Star Wars! You know how they did Monty Python with Lego and that Spider-Man 2 lego thing I posted earlier? Well this is the same but with Star Wars, and it's a VIDEO GAME coming out soon. I am definitely intrigued.

-Joe sent me this link last night, it's pretty funny. It's a Da Ali G Translator. Hopefully most of you have seen or at least heard of Da Ali G and if not, watch his show on HBO, or download some stuff by him- I suggest his interview with Posh and Becks, hysterical stuff. But for those of you too lazy to do that, in a quick summary, basically Da Ali G is a jewish dude who acts all hip-hop. But he takes himself so seriously it's funny as all hell. He also has two other famous characters- Borat and Bruno, but Da Ali G is my fav. Actually the first season of his show just came out on DVD this month, go buy it!

BTW, the translator is funnier if you put it in a serious site like cnn.com, or hey why not try popping my site into it? I just did... funny stuff.

- I get e-mails from Toyfare magazine a lot with offers for exclusive figures and stuff. The latest came with some interesting stuff, like a "Fool for Love" Spike (from Buffy) figure (click the pic on the page for a larger view); a Buffy PALz figure (they're just like those mini-mates that are becoming super popular); and finally a Family Guy Christmas Train (3 seperate pieces to display). I just thought I'd share those items, just in case any of you may be interested.

- Oh and I almost forgot. A friend of mine is selling her practically brand new Pink Mini-iPod and asked if I could help spread the word about it. She said she JUST bought it and maybe used it like 4 times, but then she decided she didn't want pink anymore and wants to exchange it but the store doesn't accept exchanges. She's selling it for $220. And as far as I've heard, at Apple it would normally cost $249 and $268.92 with tax, so it's a pretty sweet deal. Contact her over at digital257@aol.com if you are interested.

Remember how annoying Fordham could be?

... I sure do. I'm currently experiencing some issues with Fordham in terms of my acceptance into the Grad school Counseling program.

Long story short- they screwed up when I applied online back in February and never downloaded my application until my professor found out and informed them of this error in late April. I wound up receiving a rejection letter in late May, and that pissed me off b/c there was no reason why I shouldn't have been accepted into the program (as I wound up getting all A's and B+'s in the classes that I took non-matriculated).

So I made an appeal to one of the deans and he was nice and willing to help me out. However, he couldn't do anything himself and had to wait til all the professors (or at least 8) could meet up to discuss my situation. And he said that wouldn't happen til RIGHT before classes started b/c most professors were away for the summer.

Well today is the day before classes start, and I hadn't heard anything from the guy. So I called him up this morning and I got his voicemail saying "I'm currently on sabbatical until January." He left some numbers to contact and stuff but I was still pretty pissed at this unexpected revelation. I then basically scrambled to try to reach someone to find out what was going on with my situation but every number I tried was going straight to voicemails and most of the mailboxes were full, so I couldn't even freakin leave any messages for anyone.

So needless to say, I was not having a good morning.

In the end I wound up going up to Tarrytown with Ariana b/c she had to go up there anyway to go speak with our old professor to try and help her figure out a scheduele for this semester. So I figured I would speak with her also, since she knew all about my situation and was fully on my side. I basically wound up being told I would not know my answer until tomorrow (Wed) b/c that would be the first day all the professors would be meeting.

Meaning I might have to pick out my scheduele once classes are already started... how annoying is that?

So I'm praying this situation will be resolved in my favor tomorrow and I can just start going to class again. Wish me luck people!

Fran-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tock!

Another busy but very fun weekend.

As I said in a previous post, I had Friday off, so me and Charles (Chaz to all u people who haven't known him for 10+ years) went to New Roc City to hang out. We originally intended to go to the Museum of Natural History but we got a late start to the day and he had to be back by 6pm, in order to get ready to go to his cousin's wedding dinner. So we went to the arcade at New Roc instead and then flipped a coin (literally) to decide whether to see Hero or Without A Paddle. Without A Paddle won. It was a fun movie and a matinee to boot so I was happy with our choice (although I still really wanna see Hero).

On Saturday I was gonna go get my haircut but when I came downstairs ready to go, I saw my sister giving my mom a haircut and the thought popped into my head all like "Hmm... Jenny went to beauty school, my hair is super easy to cut... let me save $10." So I asked her to cut my hair. It came out weird at first (kinda spiky, it didn't look bad, just different) and we got a great laugh out of how I looked (and our reaction to it) but I wasn't feeling it, so I just had her cut it super short like I normally get it, and it came out pretty good.

Later on in the day, I picked up Ariana and Charles and the three of us plus Jenny played some Mario Kart Double Dash for awhile. We set the items to "Frantic" mode, which made the races between the four of us absolutely INSANE. We had a hell of a fun time, and played through the first three cups and then ended it off by playing Rainbow Road (where we fell off the track like crazy). Me and Charles ended with the highest scores although I'm gonna be a bum and claim victory b/c even though we tied in terms of who finished first the most (at 6 apiece) I never finished in last, which he did. So go me! lol

After finishing our Mario Kart Madness, we headed to Joe's b-day party up at Dave & Busters. There was a HUGE group (including some people I hadn't seen in awhile) so we had a pretty good time.

On Sunday, not too much except I treated my grandparents out to a Chinese Buffet and we stuffed ourselves big time.

Finally, on Monday, Patty and Joe organized a BBQ over at Five Island Park in New Rochelle. We got it started a little later than we planned but we all had a good time. We played some frisbee and some Poker (No Limit Texas Holdem), which was cool. But we seemed to finish the food and drinks quicker than we planned. Luckily, Henry and Maryellen arrived later with reinforcements and saved our asses (Thanks guys)!

After we left the BBQ, me and Ariana headed to my place, then Charles came over and we played some more Karaoke Revolution (I so need to buy that game to play with our crew) and then chilled and watched Monday Night Raw.

****

Oh and in other news, thankfully my family in Florida is all safe from Hurricane Frances. Charles found out his house is safe too. He was told a tree fell on it but no damage occurred- can u say lucky?

The hurricane was annoying for other things though. The Marlins/Cubs series was postponed, which sucks for both teams (b/c that is a series which is VERY important to the NL Wild Card). Hopefully they'll be able to make up all 3 games fairly, and the unexpected break won't effect the momentum the Marlins had going for them (but then again they start up again with the Mets on Tues so that should be a walk in the park for them, the way the Mets are playing lately).

Super Karaoke Fun Time!

Charles arrived in NY yesterday and I wound up getting out of work a bit early, so I wound up picking him up from his aunt's place up in Yonkers (who convienently lives very close to one of the high schools I work at) and we headed back to my place for some video game battles.

Ariana arrived at my place shortly after and we took a break from gaming to go get some quick food shopping out of the way, and then went over to "ghetto slice" to have us some bacon pizza ::drools::

We then headed back to my place and played some Mario Kart Double Dash, followed by Karaoke Revolution.

I had never played Karaoke Revolution before, but Charles had told me all about it. It was quite fun. Basically it's like Dance Dance Revolution, but you sing instead of dance. It has a microphone headset thing you sing into and you gotta hit all the notes and hold them at the correct time and stuff. It's got some really recent songs in there too (ie: The Darkness- I Believe in a Thing Called Love, Britney Spears- Toxic, Sheryl Crow- The First Cut is the Deepest) along with some oldies but goodies.

We made some odd rules that someone else had to pick the character you were gonna be in the game, so Ariana wound up picking this guy in a bearsuit for Charles. It looked pretty funny. We also got Charles to sing a bunch of Britney Spears songs, thus dubbing him "Britney Bear." And at the end when we ran out of Britney songs, we forced him to sing Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" which he changed some of the lyrics to and it thus became "Genie in a Bearsuit." It was freakin hysterical.

I didn't wind up doing so great myself though, b/c my throat was a bit phlegmy. However, I tried doing the Darkness- I Believe in a Thing Called Love, just for the hell of it, and wound up kicking ass and getting the best single score on a song out of anybody (I still lost overall though). Ariana did quite well and probably would have won, if not for the fact she accidentally picked the wrong song for her final round (it was something she didn't know) and you can't go back once you select it without restarting, so she fell behind to second place.

But regardless, the game was seriously fun, and would definitely go over really well with a big group. I think i may seriously have to purchase it in the near future.

Damn...

... did anyone else here witness the severe gangbang ass-raping of the Yankees by the Indians last night? 22-0, what a slaughter. I wasn't watching the game (I was watching as the Marlins behind Josh Beckett shut out the Mets 5-0), but I kept hearing about the score. I flipped it on just in time to see the last 3-run homer to bring the score to 22. Hell even the Yankee fans at that point had turned over to the dark side and cheered when the Indians hit that final shot.

So now the Yanks are only leading the AL East by 3 1/2 games over the surging Red Sox... and they only have 1 win from their starting pitching out of 17 attempts!!! Can't say I'm too happy about that. However, my spirits are lifted by the awesome NL Wild Card race. Five teams are vying for that spot, among them the Marlins who are now only 3 games back. And they still have 2 more games against the Mets (who they OWN) this week and then a weekend series against the Cubs (who if they can take 2 of 3 from would be in VERY good shape). So yeah, things are looking very interesting.

****

In other news, my best friend Charles (Chaz to those of you who met him last year), is actually coming to NY today to attend a wedding in his family but is actually staying for a week. That leaves us some chill time which will most likely include lots of video game battles in Mario Kart-Double Dash and going semi "old school" with WWF No Mercy for the N64 (still the greatest wrestling game ever made IMHO). So I'm psyched for that.

-Oh and I also JUST found out that my job is giving everyone off this Friday so we have an even LONGER long weekend. God I love my job!!!