Bill Shakespeare

Sigh no more,
ladies, sigh nor more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never;
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into. Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties,
sing no mo,
Or dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into. Hey, nonny, nonny.

from "Much ado about nothing"

santa stuck in a chimney

This is my Gremlins story, or "Why I hate Christmas".

I don't really hate it, I'm just bummed on it this year. First of all, something bad is happening to someone really close to me, but I can't speak about it because its not my business to tell. Just trust me that it's bad and it hurts me a lot. Second, my whole family hates each other. My brother isn't speaking to any of us, my stepmom and my sister hate each other, and my mom hates everyone. It doesn't make for a very family holiday. I was talking to a friend, who also dislikes this holiday, and I explained to him that it doesn't suck that much for him to dislike Christmas, because he doesn't care. I really want to enjoy this holiday. I wish I had a big happy family that loved each other, with lots of aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins and spouses and babies running around. I wish there was a turkey and stuffing and ham and mashed potatoes and presents. No presents for me this year. Except from my sister and Lynne. Who loves ya baby?

check me out

You're&nbsp; either gonna think I am the dopest shit around for this, or it's sheer nerd-dom will amaze you.<img src="http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r134/aclauer/mario.jpg"><br>No big deal, you may be saying to yourself, just a little mario bros. Nostalgic, maybe, but nerdy, never. Well, if you'll look closely at the top of the screen you'll see the standard windows menu bar. Thats right, I'm playing mario on my computer. I got what is called an emulator, which contains the entire Nintendo Entertainment System in a standalone executable of about 745Kb. That's less than a song. After that it only takes a bit of hunting to get what are called 'roms', essentially the information contained in a game cartridge. Those files are about 40-50 Kb. Amazingly small by today's standards. But wait, there's more. Maybe I should explain why I'm doing this. I have a computer in my bedroom with a lovely flat screen monitor on which I sometimes watch downloaded movies. Ultimately my goal is to make this machine a media center. I have a TV tuner that I shall be installing as soon as I can talk Dan into letting me split the cable line and wire it into my room. I also have a dvr (actually in the same machine as the tuner). I installed XBMC, also known as Xbox media center. That's a media center originally designed for modded xboxes to hold media files and such and manage and play them from a single interface. As is usual with software people have upgraded it and tweaked it until it is now available on all formats including linux and mac. People have written plugins for it that will also manage your emulators, should you so desire. I do. <br><img src="http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r134/aclauer/marioland.jpg"><br>I also downloaded a Super Nintendo emulator, as you can see from the Super Mario Land screenshot above. I will get to Nintendo 64 soon, as well as sega genesis (strictly for Sonic the Hedgehog), and I have also got an original atari emulator, but I haven't downloaded any games for that yet. In case you are interested in doing this yourself, know that the game roms are actually copyright protected and can be hard to find. But not that hard. Oh, and one more thing. I bought this:<br><img src="http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r134/aclauer/snes_usb_controller.jpg"><br><br>Looks like a regular Super nintendo controller, right? Look closely. That's a usb connector on the end. <br><br>Commence Worshiping Me.<br>

my vacation

I am about finished with my cleaning, I will vacuum and some other stuff. Feels good! I also gave myself a mani- pedi. I have been staying up till four or five watching tv, an on demand movie here or there. I plan on installing XBMC on my tv machine, it's a media center originally designed for the xbox that has expanded and now is the next big thing. I'll also organize my room a bit and buy some pictures for the walls to make it more homey. I have a tendency to ignore my bedroom. I have to make a conscious effort to pay attention to my room or it'll be a bit boring and bland. All in all I'm enjoying having no obligations. I will also read a book here and there, hopefully. I'm not sure what, but they will be completely unrelated to any of the subjects I study in school, I'll tell you that. I also may play some video games on my roommate's PS2. I think tomorrow night I'll get drunk. I love, love, LOVE having all this free time. Today I cooked butternut squash soup. It was a bit hairy at first, didn't turn out like it usually does. I added too much water, so it was awfully thin and sort of bland. Usually when I make it, it's thick and sweet and full of flavor, so I was a bit worried. I managed to rescue it, though, I just added about a half cup of brown sugar and some roux and it turned out fine. Tasty, especially with the sour cream topping! I also made marinara, one of my specialties. Tomorrow I will finish the marmalade I started today. You have to soak it overnight and cook it the next day. The marmalade is a real experiment for me, never made anything like it before and don't know how it will turn out. Three whole weeks of this aimless and drifting existence, and I am thrilled. Let me know if you have any requests.