I’ve made some progress with the Artwork page (although it’s been far more difficult than I thought).  I tried implementing a couple of things that just didn’t work but I think I now know exactly what direction I’m going to take it in.  It’s kind of a mess at the moment but soon it should look presentable.

Mom and I played “Carol of the Bells” at the Christmas Eve service tonight.  She played piano and I played on the keyboard.  The keyboard was set with choir vocals on the left hand and violin on the right.  I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be but we played it really well.  We got a decent applause which was kind of a surprise since the service hadn’t even officially started yet at that time.  It was fun to perform music again after so many months off.

Tera and I are going to watch Rudolph and probably go to bed.  We’re going to my parents at 8am tomorrow, then my uncles and Kay are coming down around lunchtime, then we’re going to her mom’s at 2pm.  I’m  still trying to get into the Christmas mood.  With my luck it will be December 26th when I really get excited.

Tera and I watched “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” late tonight on Netflix.  Great movie.  I had only seen parts but never from start to finish.  You truly cannot got wrong with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.  We both gave it 5 stars.

I made a few tweaks to the site tonight.  The biggest change on the way is going to be the death of the Media page.  For it’s entire life it has been misunderstood and neglected.  It has had many purposes and always stretched to handle what needed to be done.  Still, the time is coming for it to go away once and for all.  I would do it tonight…but I’m tired.

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic.  I spent some time trying to prepare for my first week at Resource Systems and before I knew it my first day had arrived.  I actually finished my first week (5 days) today.  Looking back I don’t see how it could have gone much better.  Everyone there is amazing and incredibly supportive.  Today was fun as I made a few jaws drop when telling people about the work I was already into.  I think I’m coming along much quicker than they expected which is a good thing.  I don’t feel like I’ve taken on too much but I feel very busy.

Windows 7 is finally available and I need to get it.  The only problem is that there is no machine that I really feel comfortable with installing it on.  My tablet is in decent shape but is not quite up to par when it comes to specifications and our desktop is kind of the same way.  I would say that it might be time to get a new computer but we just got the 360 and tv so another big purchase is out of the question for now.

Tera and I have been watching a couple of movies on the 360 through Netflix.  We watched Flatliners and Prom Night.  Both were decent movies but not as good as expected.  I had high hopes for Flatliners but it just wasn’t very suspenseful.  Prom Night didn’t seem to be to great going in and didn’t do much to make a case for itself as being very good.  The Netflix system is nice though and the streaming quality has been impressive.

Time to get some sleep for tomorrow.

I seem to be slacking on updates but I haven’t vanished yet.  Tera got a new job as a dental assistant in Marietta (aka the big news) which is awesome.  She loves it so far and it will be far superior to working insane hours at Salt Fork.

We saw “Drag Me to Hell” a few nights ago and it was amazing.  Easily the best horror movie I can remember seeing recently.  It seemed to have a bit of everything.  I was skeptical even though the reviews were incredibly positive but it lived up to the hype and more.

The NBA and NHL are each in the finals.  I haven’t watched much hockey recently but I’ve still been watching basketball.  I’m still picking the Red Wings over the Pens in 6 for the NHL finals.  As for the NBA, I’d probably say Lakers in 5 over the Magic.  I hope it’s closer than that but I don’t think it’s going to happen that way.

I’ve been doing a ton of photoshopping recently.  I’ve had a lot of images turn out extremely good.  It’s kept me busy which is something I need.  Time to call it a night.

Got up early this morning so that Tera and I could be at church to meet with Pastor Dave at 11.  We mostly went over specifics for the actual wedding ceremony.  I think we were there about an hour so that wasn’t too bad.  The big day is coming up way too fast.

After the meeting Tera went to her mom’s house and I went to my parents to work some on the site and some other things.  I managed to get my Hotmail account synced with Outlook which made my day.  For as long as I can remember, there was a fee to make it work which I chose not to pay.  I checked just for the heck of it tonight and suddenly it was free.  It’s sad when things like that make your day.

Tera and I rented the movie Doubt tonight.   We went to Movie Gallery with no real idea on what we were going to rent.  We both saw it playing on one of the tvs showing trailers and thought it looked good.  It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great.  The ending was kind of a letdown and sudden but I guess that’s how it was intended.  The movie may be one of those where I need to watch it once more to appreciate it.  It was nominated five Oscars so it has to be amazing, right?

Tera works 8-4 tomorrow so I’ll hopefully start getting some larger things packed and moved.  I have to be sure to watch the season finale of The Office that I missed tonight.  I already know the big shock but I still have to check it out.  I’m sure it will be hilarious.

I finally made it out to get a new fan the other night.  It is by far the nicest fan I’ve ever had. It features 4 timer settings, 3 speeds, 3 different types of wind (I don’t really understand that part), and of course it oscillates. Part of me wants the temperature to warm back up so I can find out just how good it really is.

Tera and I have really struck out when it has come to movies recently. The first in our string of failure was the movie I Know Who Killed Me. The plot revolves around a girl who is kidnapped and found, but she then thinks she’s somebody else. I won’t ruin it but it’s one of the worst movies I can remember seeing. I would give it an D. Tera actually didn’t hate it so it may be alright for some people. The next dud we came across was Lars and the Real Girl. The movie focused on the main character, Lars, having some serious mental issues and deciding to call a doll his girlfriend. His brother and sister-in-law then attempt to help him until the rest of the town embraces the issue to make Lars more comfortable. Tera hated this movie while I only didn’t like it. I’d probably give it a C-. The last movie, Michael Clayton, had a lot of promise. It seemed painfully boring and didn’t make much sense. We were both tired at the time and were fighting to stay awake so it is possible the movie may have been better if we weren’t falling asleep. Either way, I’d give it a D because it didn’t pull me in at all. I kept asking myself “I don’t know what the ending is going to be and I really don’t care.” Terrible. We turned it around yesterday though by watching The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The “Water Horse” was the Loch Ness Monster. The movie followed a boy who discovered the egg of the baby monster and soon became best friends with the hatched creature. It wasn’t anything spectacular but I’d give it a B.

Not too much else has been going on. Andy returns from China next Tuesday night. I complained to him about the 90 degree weather here but he said temperatures had broken 110 for the past few days there. Crazy heat.

Nothing new has been going on lately. I’ve been sick for the last few weeks but that’s been about it. Hopefully it starts to fade soon because it has really started to get annoying.

Weezer’s new album “The Red Album” came out yesterday. From what I’ve listened to so far I’d have to say it’s one of their better recent albums. Considering the fact three years have gone by with nothing new, anything is going to be better than nothing. It’s different but in a good way.

MMA had it’s network television debut on CBS last Saturday featuring Elite XC. The show felt more like WWE than true MMA. I could go on and on about what I didn’t like about it, but it’s better than nothing. If I had paid money for it rather than watching for free I would have been outraged.

Work has been boring lately. There seems to be nothing to do around here besides sit on the internet. As good as that may sound to some, it’s not!

The past week was busier than I thought it would be. One of the other student workers at CNS had some problems and didn’t make it in for most of the week. That led to the front desk being manned by me for about every morning and parts of the afternoons. Not fun.

Tera celebrated her 21st birthday last week. She had to work on her actual birthday which sucked, but we went up to The Funny Bone in Columbus with Mark on Saturday. We left around 1:30 and went to Easton to walk around. At about 5:15 we went in to eat. The food was pretty good but nothing too amazing. 7 managed to roll around and the first comedian came up. We’re pretty sure he’s there all the time and is the usual opener for The Funny Bone. The next guy, Gary Menke, came on and he was hilarious. Probably the best of the three. He finished up and Gerry Dee took over. He was ok. After the show we headed back to Mark’s place and hung out before coming back Sunday morning.

Weezer has a new album on June 3rd which I am very excited for. The new video is definitely one of my all time favorites already due to the vast amount of viral mockery. If you don’t recognize a lot of the scenes then it probably won’t do much for you; however, if most of it is familiar in some shape or form it will be worth watching. Check it out on the media page.

The past weekend was a lot of fun. Tera and I went to Columbus to celebrate my friend Mark getting into Vet School. It was nice to see some people I haven’t seen in a few months. Probably one of the best parties I’ve ever been, too. And surprisingly, there wasn’t a lot of drama.

Sunday is the Super Bowl. As much as I want to pick the Giants to win, I just can’t. My official prediction: Patriots over the Giants 31-17. I hope it’s closer than that. This is certainly a year when I’m expecting to be entertained by the commercials more than the game. There’s been so much hype about the Patriots being 19-0 that I’ve just accepted that it’s probably going to happen.

Duke has now reached a #3 ranking in the polls. As much as I want to believe they’re that good, I’m not quite sure. I would have them in my top 10 but not top 3. The nice thing right now is knowing that they are at least that good. Unlike last year, each game feels a bit more comfortable.

Tera and I watched one of the creepiest movies that I’ve seen in awhile called “Joshua” last night. It was about a family of 3 that just had a new baby girl. The son, who is about 9 years old, starts making strange things happen in order to basically ruin their lives. It was one of those movies that I don’t know if I would recommend even though I kind of liked it. If you’re in the mood to watch a movie that makes you through up your hands in wonder of what the heck you’re seeing, go for it.

Time to get back to homework.

Barry Bonds broke the home run record Tuesday night by hitting number 756 off of Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik. Bonds immediately looked relieved to know that the chase had finally come to an end. Still, questions remain about whether steroids were involved on his way to the record. It is an argument that may never come to a conclusive end. Following Bonds’ record breaking home run, a video was played on the big screen at AT&T Park from Hank Aaron, who had held the record for 33 years, congratulating Bonds on his achievement. As for those who claim that Bonds cheated his way to the top, Bonds claims that “this record is not tainted at all…at all, period.” Bonds added to the record the next night by hitting number 757.

Coaches hoping to text message their favorite recruits will have to restrain themselves from the temptation. The NCAA’s board of directors decided to let the text messaging ban it approved in April stand, not to be touched again until January’s annual NCAA convention. “The proposals were discussed in April and the board of directors followed the advice of student-athletes that text messaging be eliminated,” Division I vice president David Berst said. “I think even then the board realized there might be a better solution than elimination but we haven’t seen any yet.”

Tera and I saw “The Simpsons Movie” Tuesday night. I didn’t have my hopes up because I wasn’t sure if it would be that good, but it was. The movie definitely lived up to the hype. There were many memorable quotes and it never got boring. I highly recommend checking it out.

After a nasty storm last Wednesday night I decided that I really need to make an image of my tablet sooner than later. The storm screwed up at least one laptop that was on campus at Muskingum and required a complete reinstallation of Windows. I don’t want that to be me. If the site seems to be running slow over the weekend at any time, I’m probably ghosting. Last night was when I wanted to do it but more storms were looming in the distance.