(5:10 PM CST) Angel Fire Ski Trip
If you're thinking, "Hey! Didn't that used to say Taos Ski Valley instead???" - you're right, it used to. Thanks to Taos not having too much lodging space to begin with and then then the number 2000, Taos is pretty much full. So, we're heading off to Angel Fire, instead. Advantage is that if you want to go snowboarding, Angel Fire will welcome you with open arms...well, if not arms, then cash registers...

Expect George or myself to be getting in touch with some of you. The plans are starting to finalize.

Download the latest edition of the trip plans.

(3:58 AM CST) IMPORTANT - MAJOR DISCLAIMER
Okay, there something that HAS to be stressed about the plans. They're completely preliminary. Everything can change, depending on what the conditions are up at Taos, and what the conditions are down in Sugar Land (cost, parents, number of people, etc). Let's say this again:

EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE.

Now, having said that, keep on telling George or myself about anything in the plans that you have a concern about. We'll adjust the plans as best as we can...we're just trying to get everyone up to New Mexico for really sweet New Year's skiing.

(2:38 AM CST) Taos Ski Trip
Okay, done with the first part of planning this trip. After this comes making reservations, and we'll be set. For now, spread the word about the trip - we won't need the first payment for a little while.

This'll give you a general idea about what this whole trip thing is all about, and what's been planned so far. NEED FEEDBACK. We've tried to think of everything, but you never know...

Download the PDF file (1.06 MB)
If you need the Acrobat Reader, click here to download that, too. (something like 5 meg)

*whew*

Just a few rounds of phone calls and I can start paying some attention to studying again...

(11:42 PM CST) Adobe Acrobat 4.0 - Again
Hunaid let me know that the setup file for Acrobat that I posted yesterday was corrupt...go figure. I stuck a new copy on simplenet, but since simplenet has been having some pretty nasty speed problems lately, you can also grab it directly from my server.

(10:41 PM CST) Welcome, APS'ers!
If you're coming over from the bio, first of all, I'd like to apologize for the bareness of this site...as luck would have it, you guys are catching it right before a renovation. Such is life...

But to show that Collections has seen (slightly) better days, I resurrected some of the older pages:
(10:27 PM CST) Mini Biography
I'm running for Historian of the premed group I'm in, so I spent about an hour making out a little bio for the electorate to look at... take a look and tell me what you think...

(11:45 PM CST) Happy Birthday, Louis!
And as this 1 hour fast-forwarded day comes to a close, a shoutout goes to Louis, who on this day comes a year closer to not having to rely on others for his monthly (weekly?) intake. Welcome to being 19, the age of no new special rights...

(12:00 AM CST) Adobe Acrobat (Reader) 4.0
It's out - faster than the old one, a little better integrated with a web browser, yadda, yadda, yadda. Go ahead and download it, PDF files are becoming common enough to need this... (5.20MB)

(1:03 AM CST) Darkvangelion 3
This is just a fixed version that doesn't have the hard edges that the old image had - I didn't notice the problem until I got to Steve's computer, since his brightness is set higher than mine. Anyway, a couple of you use this as a background, so you might want to this. (Oh! And the files are zipped up this time - much smaller :)

Tip: Match up your background color to grey so your icons blend into the grey band - that's what it's there for. =)
If you know what to do, set it up for R:38 G:38 B:38 and it'll blend right in. For everyone else, right click your desktop -> Appearance. For Item Desktop, click on Color -> Other, and in the right side, under R, G, and B, type in 38.

Darkvangelion 3


True Color:
Download - 640 x 480    800 x 600    1024 x 768   
                1152 x 864  1280 x 1024

256 Color:
Download - 640 x 480    800 x 600    1024 x 768   
                1152 x 864  1280 x 1024

(1:44 PM CST) Quick news
Just a little bit on what's going on in the Big Blue Room:

  • Kosovo
    • Unless you've been living somewhere extraordinarily isolated (read: Canada), NATO's bombing the hell out of the place. Latest big thing is the capture of 3 U.S. soldiers. We'll probably get them back...I doubt they're stupid enough to execute Americans... =)
  • World pop - it's getting up there. Expect 8 billion of us by the time 2026 rolls around. Times Square is going to be CROWD-ED on that New Year's.
    • Advantage: By my calculations, there will be around 266,842,393 people that you would find interesting enough to date. :)
  • Child abuse - declining.
(1:02 PM CST) Free T-Shirt
Microsoft is giving away free tshirts to whoever fills out a really simple survey. Hey, it's worth it...don't have to do laundry for +1 days.

(1:51 AM CST) Monitor calibration
Okay...this is the THIRD freaking time I'm trying to write this - the other two times, my computer crashed just as I was about to save. Of course. Grrrrrr...pos....

Anyway, I noticed that most people's monitors are usually not setup the way they ought to be. Chances are that your brightness is up too high, so blacks are kinda grey, and any pictures you see seem washed out. It's pretty easy to fix...



First, turn your contrast up to its max - it's the control with the split moon symbol. Then the brightness - there are two sentences above. The first one is visible on every system. You should turn your brightness up to the maximum, and then lower it until you can no longer read the sentence. You might be able to make out a letter or two, but if you can't read the sentence, you're close enough. My monitor is setup for 52% brightness, 100% contrast, and I think it's right - I've run it through several calibration tests.

If your setting was way off, things should start looking a little more normal now... =)

(1:39 AM CST) AOL IM 2.01 Beta 1
There's a new version of Instant Messenger available now - the key new feature is the ability to transfer files to your contacts. Hmmm...sounds an awful lot like what ICQ's always had....

Download - 1.66MB

(11:07 AM CST) Huh?!?
Hey, we're in April already? Who hit fast forward on March? I know one of you did it...

*eyes narrow*

(1:00 AM CST) I think I've mentioned this before, but...
...I love User Friendly. :)



Click to enlarge

(12:06 AM CST) FTP Server
...is getting a bit of a face lift. Let's see...
  • Renamed the main directories for better organization
  • Zipped up the huge software programs - no more downloading 1000+ files if you want to get Office 97 or Adobe Acrobat anymore. (This is hypothetical, of course - I would never actually put Office 97 or Adobe Acrobat on the server - piracy is illegal, of course)
  • uploaded some of Andrew's CDs (again, hypothetical only...Andrew is a fictitious person)
  • uploaded a lot of filled requests and new songs from when I went on a mp3 frenzy a couple of days ago (insert favorite disclaimer here)
  • archived the Christmas music (yes, finally) ... that collection will make a reappearance at the obvious time.
If you get any errors such as "access denied" or anything of the sort, you need to refresh the directory listing, since I've changed around the names. If you use CuteFTP, just right click and hit refresh and CuteFTP will be happy again. Oh, and take a lesson from Shang and -use- the Requests folder if you want a particular song. She was looking for a somewhat hard to find song...I came across it while I was filling requests, but didn't download it because I didn't know anyone wanted it. Of course, I found out later that she had wanted it...but I searched around for it later anyway and found it (blow on nails and buff them on shirt ... why do people do that, anyway?). You get the moral of this discourse.

(1:33 PM CST) Gotta love UF.
Posted here for your benefit, today's User Friendly strip.


(click on image to enlarge)