Great T-shirts!

I saw this ad on Facebook for a really cool t-shirt. It's a "you're killing me Smalls" t-shirt. Seeing as how "The Sandlot" is one of my most favorite movies for-e-ver, I couldn't pass up sharing this.

Oh, but it gets even better! If you go to the link for the shirt, they have the whole scene quoted. THEN, on the "related products" list for this shirt, nothing other than a Rick "the Wild Thing" Vaughn jersey, Jamaican bobsled team shirt, and yes, from one of my favorite trilogies, an Adam Banks jersey.

For those not hip to these movies, they're respectively: "Major League," "Cool Runnings," and "The Mighty Ducks." The dude who thought of making shirts from these movies is a pure genius. If I had money I'd buy one or two, or three.

Oh, how things change...

I started writing this post about how I realized the differences in my class taking habits between undergrad and grad school, but it started sounding real lame. Here's a recap:

Undergrad: Get A or B while skipping as much class as possible and never starting assignments early.

Grad: Actually learn what's being taught.

I was writing a bunch of stuff up on this when I realized that while I am trying to learn more rather than just pass these days, my classsroom work ethic hasn't improved too much. I still usually start homework the night before it's due, and if I have an afternoon test, I'll usually start studying that morning. There are exceptions. When I'm in a very time consuming class (where we get 2 weeks to complete an assignment), I'll actually start the homework 2 days before it's due. I guess that's a big improvement...

Gainsville Photobooth rental!!!

Oh yeah, and if you're planning an event, I highly recommend renting a photobooth. Linnea had one at our wedding and used it as our guest book. Guests went in, then the attendant glued their photos in the book, and our guests wrote to us next to their pictures. It was one of the biggest things at the reception, right up there with the dance floor and the hosted bar.

So anyway, you should especially get one if you live around central Florida. One of my good friends Taylor just helped start phobooth.com. They even have props and everything!

Thanks, Delta

I was going to post about this a while ago, but I've been extremely busy with class and work. I haven't even been keeping up with my photoswap scavenger hunt. It's unfortunate because anyone who was by chance keeping track of it probably isn't anymore... Oh well. Anyway, back to the post at hand. Linnea, Louis and I went to Atlanta on December 26th to visit her Dad's side of the family. It was a really great trip, and Louis was really great on the plane, but that's not the point of this post either. So what the heck am I posting for? I'll tell you...

We're walking through the airport, I can't remember which at the moment, when I see these Delta people signing travelers up for something. I spot a teddy bear being handed out, so we walked over to their little table to check it out. That's when I spotted the travel coffee mug. Bingo! They hooked me with the teddy bear (for Louis), and they reeled me in with the coffee mug. It wasn't a big deal though, as they said it was a sign up for sky miles. Awesome, no harm in signing up for that, at least until they made me put my SSN on the form. What? They said something about confirming my citizenship, and I think that's awfully strange for an airline miles program. Oh well, I went with it for the mug.

Well I SHOULDN'T have! What do I get in the mail a few weeks after we get home? A "skymiles rewards" Discover card. A credit card, not a frequent flier membership, a credit card. That sucks, I don't need a credit card with +10% above my other cards. So I sighed in disgust, and since I'd have to inconvenience myself by calling and cancelling the card. Luckily it was really easy since I hadn't activated it yet. At least I still have the bear and the mug, and they didn't get any money from me...

Unfortunately it didn't end there. After I got that card in the mail, I remembered the previously forgotten travel mug. Woo hoo! So I used it. The first time I used it some coffee was dripping down the side as I briskly walked from the parking garage to class. I shook it off. I do tend to walk hard, if you can describe walking as hard, and I also thought that it was on account of me trying to drink while walking hard. But no, what happened the next time I used it? It freaking spilled EVERYWHERE!!! This is coming off a long night. I needed that coffee to make it through class. I tried my best to fix it while walking "hard," but nothing was working, and I was making even more of a mess. Oh, I had gloves on too, so that was great, they're now mocha black instead of black. I finally determined that the o-ring wasn't seated properly. I was fed up at this time. I threw the cap in the next garbage can I passed, dumped some coffee to avoid splash-over (on account of my hard walking), and tried drinking as much as I could before getting to the last garbage can before class, in hopes that it would keep me coherent enough to at least copy all the notes down.

That sucked! I don't even want Louis to play with that bear anymore. I think I'll throw him away (with his bomber jacket too, stupid Delta bear...). Moral of the story: Don't be an idiot. If they hand out free stuff, it's a credit card.

Tweet, tweet.

I just signed up for Twitter today. I figured since I can get an app to easily update it on my iPhone, and I always want to blog about random things throughout the day but don't get around to it, that Twitter would be the perfect solution.

Keep an eye out, one of these days I'm thinking of having a Twitt-a-thon where I would update just about every single thing I was doing on a given day. It would be interesting to see how awesome or boring that day is...

UPDATE: See it on the sidebar --->

Patience is a virtue

Sorry to Taylor, or anyone who in the future feels the urge to comment on one of my posts, but it seems to only be Taylor. He's probably the only one who has my blog in a feed reader, so he's the only one who knows that I actually started posting again. Oh well...

Anyway, "gooooood girl" keeps posting about how amazing she thinks my blog is, but I've uncovered her dubious scheme. Her picture is a fake! I thought it looked cartoonish... Well, it's all a ploy to promote full tilt poker's website, as that's the only information on her profile. That's funny, because I've used full tilt poker. But, I got sick of seeing her fake-pictured comments on my blog, so now I'm moderating them.

I know, it sucks when you post a comment and can't get the instant gratification of seeing it on the page, but I'll try my best not to take too long screening them.

Facebook

I just realized how amazing the facebook iPhone app really is (oh, besides the fact that it always crashes). So for those who don't have it, if one of your friends changes their phone number in fb, the newsreel on the app will tell you, and also says "it has been added to your phone book."

At first I thought there was some fb phonebook I've never used, until one day, when someone who actually mattered changed their number. I went to my phone's contacts to change the number and it was already done! Facebook did it automatically!

Holy crap. That is phenomenal. Maybe one day after I delete all the "friends" I've never even spoken to in my whole life (for another post...) I'll actually add my phone number to fb so iPhone users can enjoy automatically receiving my contact updates.

Commencement?

Since I'm so awesome and finally deposited my thesis this December, I'll be graduating with my B.S. and M.S. all in one shot. I participated in commencement on Saturday. What are we commencing though? Is it simply the cliché "rest of our lives?" I'd rather think of it as an ending to all the crap I stressed about, because if it's a celebration of new beginnings, then I'll just get more stressed about all the crap I'll be getting stressed about while trying to earn my Ph.D.

Oh well. I "commenced" mainly because my Mom wanted to see, as I never graduated after my undergrad since I was in a combined B.S./M.S. program. I would have been completely fine with the whole thing had the guy not completely butchered my name. I mean, it was unrecognizable. I don't know how he turned 5 syllables into 2, and he forgot "the third," which made it even worse.

I guess the one consolation I have is that I got to wear this sweet-ass hood for being a M.S. graduate.

Trying email posting

Okay, so the LifeCast app blows. You can only do either text or pic,
and it stopped working! So, I'm trying direct posts from email instead.

Done, kind of...

Okay, I'm finally finished. It took 6 1/2 years, but I'm finally a college grad. Oh yeah, and throw in a MS too! Turning in my thesis on Thursday was one of the best school related feelings I've had. Too bad I followed it up with an incomplete final on Friday night. Oh well, that will count toward my PhD, so it doesn't really affect my happy feelings, since I rocked a 4.0 MS GPA. Anyway, life goes on and I have to pick back up with getting some manuscripts publishable and workng on my PhD research, but I took a relaxing extended weekend. That was nice.

Also, I'll be resuming my photoswap scavenger hunt today, so make sure to check out the pics I find!

Happy Birthday Linnea!!!

Movin' on up

I'm 6/10 of the first page of google links for "Louis DiBerardino" right now.

I say "Ha!" to you Louis DiBerardino the architect and Louis Diberardino the accountant without the capital B!

Now back to the thesis :(

Photoswap scavenger hunt!

I noticed a lot of people like to do scavenger hunts with the Photoswap app on the iPhone. It inspired me to make my own. It's not a competitive thing, rather just me seeing what pictures I'll get in return. I plan on creating a series of themed hunts (after the first one, "40 things"). Have fun keeping track of the things I find here!

Testing, 1 2 3

Testing the "LifeCast" app on my iPhone.

Posted with LifeCast

Parenting tip:

Do not make your child laugh after eating cereal (like the mushy rice cereal infants eat, not "grown up" cereal). They might spit some up, and cough, at the same exact instant you're leaning toward them to make them smile more, and a tiny little piece of regurgitated cereal mixed with applesauce (thank God, but it still tasted bad) will fly right into your open mouth. You'll freak out because it tastes so bad and because you'll think "what are the odds?"

New one

A guy from my class was talking on his cell phone during our break. He was peeing in a urinal at the time, his phone wedged between his cheek and shoulder. Then he left without washing his hands.

I know, you know how to pee without gettng it on your hands, but that doesn't mean all the germs on your hands don't exist.

Too long...

Sorry for the huge gap between posts. I guess it's been a busy month. I assume that since I haven't posted in a while, nobody will read this anymore, except the possible few who might subscribe to the feed. I find my free time dwindling, and when I do get some, I'd rather just relax or hang out with my son. There have been countless things I've experienced since my last post that I really wanted to write about, but just didn't pick up the computer. Maybe I'll add a list at the bottom of the post. Anyway, my iPhone is still great, a month later, except that it needs to get charged at least every other day. That's a little annoying. Man, that just reminded me of something else I've been putting off. I have $50 from my birthday to buy music, which I haven't done for 2 weeks. I really need to re-stock my collection.

Ok, so as a recap of the last month (since my last post), I gave 2 conference presentations (that took up way too much time, now I'm behind on my thesis), Linnea was Matron of Honor in Angela's wedding (where Brandon and I made quick friends with bartender Tom, and got free shots for trying a "cement mixer," and my iPhone rocked it out so we were able to keep track of the Illini tear it up against Indiana), We went to a Chinese Halloween party (where Louis dressed up as a horse, and Linnea and I dressed as babies, diapers and all), we had a great birthday dinner for me at a decently cool pizza / arcade place with ok pizza, started going to a bi-weekly bible study / dinner with people our age at church, witnessed the Change (we'll see if I believe in it, but at least the next Pres is a Sox fan!), turned 24, Louis got baptized, Illini football sucked, Louis went to his first Illini basketball game, and most recently (i.e, right now), waching the Bears blow chunks against the Packers. Absolutely horrible. Oh yeah, and I told Linnea not to let me buy Call of Duty: World at War until I finish my thesis. I'm thinking now that that was a big mistake.

Finally, a list of random thoughts that have popped in my head since last time. Why do I see some girls riding their bicycles wearing skirts? Why do people talk on their phone while riding their bicycle, in the middle of the road, almost getting hit by cars? Why do people cross the street without looking, assuming the drivers see them, rather than being safe and waiting for them to stop? Why does EVERYONE constantly talk on their phone while driving? Why doesn't my iPhone have a video camera? Why did I see a girl driving a sport motorcycle with a dress on? Why are people dumb? Is it a stereotype if it's true? And finally, why do some girls ride their bicycles wearing skirts?

That was quick...

So 2 days after I start writing a post about how I long for an iPhone, what happens? Linnea cracks and we go get an iPhone! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It's sickening that I'd rather read web pages on the little iPhone screen than my computer right now, but I'm completely infatuated with it. I guess I should plug it in and put some songs on it, but I'd rather browse the internet or whatever else with it. Plus I never re-installed iTunes after my last reformat. Hopefully I'll get around to adding music to it before I actually find myself wanting to listen to music...

iWant iPhone

I've wanted an iPhone since the first commercial I saw on TV. I still remember it. It was some brief teaser ad, and it confused me more than anything. What? An iPod phone? How does that work? Get me one! Too bad once they finally came out it cost $400 with an extra $25/month on the cell phone contract. I resigned myself to the idea that I couldn't afford one until I left school and got a real job. But I still wanted one...

Anyway, with a recent budget making session, Linnea and I have figured out how much weekly "allowance" we can have for random spending. I can easily cover the now $30/month ($35 if I want to text) with part of this allowance, but how do I get the $200 to buy the phone in the first place? Now the excitement is brewing and I try to develop schemes to get that money. Luckily my birthday and Christmas are coming, so I can just ask for cash. I still want it NOW though, ever since we learned I could afford it, I've noticed myself in multiple situations per day where I could really use the email/internet the iPhone offers. Not to mention my dreams of watching movies on it on a plane, for example.

Since I want it so bad, it's really easy for me to rationalize getting it now: I need it so I'm not bored between sessions at the conference this week, we need it so we have GPS going to Angela's wedding next weekend, etc. We'll see what happens I guess.

NOTE: This is post dated because I literally wrote all but one sentence on the date it says, and I finished it right before the next post, ironically.

8:00 AM

I just realized that I make my Eight O'clock Coffee brand coffee at eight o'clock every morning.