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May 22nd, 2006

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May 11th, 2006

03:19 pm - The Forgotten Announcements Erin and I have been so busy with getting all our ducks in a row that I forgot to even make mention of WHY we've been busy. As I mentioned a couple months back, we submitted a business case for MESA Technology Group, our new pet business project. We made it into the second round and assembled a full, 23-page business plan-- complete with graphs, tables and other figures. We put in a lot of time developing the document, revising it, "doing our homework" on the competition and some other research, and finished it up about 4 hours before the submission deadline. That document was submitted over a dialup connection from Erin's parents house and we didn't think a lot more about it until the results day rolled around. While we were both really hoping and were excited at the thought of making it into the third round, neither of us honestly, realistically expected to make it. Even with the tightened rules that were put into place for this year's competition, we're going up against MBA's, actual business college students, and others with more experience. The collective total of actual business experience between both Erin and myself is composed of the four entrepreneurship minor classes that she's been taking over the past few quarters. I guess we should've had a little more confidence in our work because we got word later that day that we'd made it into the finals! Down from an original list of 70 teams, we were 1 of 6 to make it into the third round, and the only undergraduate team to make it into the finals in at least the past 3 years of the competition. Wow. After all the initial excitement, we quickly came to the realization that we now had to put together a 15-minute investor presentation for our practice pitch the following week. We didn't even find out the guidelines for the presentation until three days prior, and we didn't have the PowerPoint slides done until the middle of the day before. We were up until 1 am the night before practicing time after time, working out every little detail and figuring out how to split up the presentation between the two of us. Vanessa, Erin's roommate, was coaching us on our presentation style while she ironed our dress shirts. Practice pitch day was very nerve-wracking. Erin claims to have only given 3-4 presentations in her entire life, and I haven't done much more. I'm definitely not a public speaker by nature, and I honestly had no idea what to expect out of the day. My best example was what we had both seen at the Columbus Investment Forum earlier in the year. We arrived, had the car valet parked, and made our way over to the practice pitch room. When we arrived, we were directed to the warm-up room where we could familiarize ourselves with the equipment and do a practice run once without any audience. We made full use of the time and paced ourselves to ease the nerves before going in front of the judges. We were then called to the pitch room which was slightly smaller and filled with about 13 judges and some of the staff running the competition. Our presentation began after a minute of fiddling with the computer. After a rough first minute, things started going pretty smoothly and we finished just short of the time limit. I thought to myself that the presentation went pretty well. Then came the Q&A session. We were hounded with comment after comment, demanding to know our reasoning for our sales projections, criticizing our lack of a picture of the product (even though we're just at a prototyping stage) and telling us that we were going after the wrong market. One judge toward the end of the Q&A session said, "I wouldn't want that in my BMW." Ouch. In the hours after, I made notes of the comments and brainstormed on ways to address them. Erin and I went out with Vanessa that evening to loosen up and let off some steam, while we both collected ourselves and got ready for the work ahead. Earlier this week, I dedicated an entire day to digging up some information on OnStar's origins, their sales figures and their growth. I also spent some time tracking down some supporting information on the car alarm side. I wanted to make sure that if we were questioned on our growth rates and percentages again, I could fire right back. I'm pretty confident that we can. We went to a second investor's forum last night at the Business Technology Center and got to witness some companies going through the same thing we'd just been through. I noticed and even made the comment to Michael Bowers that they seemed more critical this time around than what we saw last time, and he said this was closer to normal for an investor presentation. Apparently ours wasn't that bad afterall. We're spending our time now trying to get some initial feedback and perhaps even endorsements from insurance companies and dealerships alike, and so Erin sent off a note to Dr. Tansky (related to the owner of Tansky Sawmill Toyota) requesting a meeting to talk about our idea, while I had a chat with my new insurance agent at Nationwide to get some inside contact information with the management. Hopefully both of these pan out and we can mention our initial talks in our final presentation next Friday. Everything that we've heard from the judges so far has indicated that the playing field between teams is pretty even this year, so I'm praying that our new research and a couple "unofficial" endorsements will be the ticket to getting us in the #1 spot, or at least the top 3. What happens next Friday could easily decide our path for the coming years. If anyone happens to have inside contacts with the local import luxury vehicle dealerships, please drop me a line as I would very much like to speak with them. Same goes for the big insurance companies. Anyone who wants to know more about what we're doing can also drop me a line and I'd be happy to tell you about AuthoritEye, our flagship product. Very exciting, busy times. Wish us luck! Deebo out. Current Mood: excited

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May 2nd, 2006

10:48 am - The Day After All the Whining It occurs to me that we are in desparate need of a no tolerance policy. I find it so offensive and infuriating that all of these illegal immigrants somehow feel that they have a right to even protest. They do not automatically have a right to ANYTHING while they are here and to go out and blatently present yourself as an illegal and make demands is ridiculous and immature, at best. Earlier today, someone compared their actions to a crazed lunatic waving a gun around in your front yard and demanding that you come outside so that he can shoot you. While it's a bit extreme, the comparison really isn't that inaccurate. Another example is going to the coach of your favorite sports team and demanding to play on the team-- not asking but demanding. He gives you a blank look and says, "you demand?" You insist that you have a RIGHT to demand. You don't care that there is a process to getting on the team or that there are requirements. These illegals don't have a right to stand on our front doorstep and demand anything from us. They need to be arrested just like anyone else who is trespassing. The recent actions of these illegals really goes to show what their true intentions are, and it's not being a "part" of America. The Spanish version national anthem is not only offensive but it's a threat. Anyone truly interested in assimilating into our culture and being a PART of America would LEARN ENGLISH. The protests yesterday represented the true selfish and aggressive nature of these illegal immigrants and how they have no real interest in what's best for our country. Instead, they want to take over-- to bastardize all that we stand for until what's left is Mexico with all the benefits of America. I know that's something in which I have no interest, and I'm pretty sure I could say the same for 90% of the LEGAL population in this country. My fiancee is an immigrant and she feels very strongly offended by the demands of these illegals. She went through all the paperwork. She went through the process. She'll be the first to tell you that it's a pain in the ass and that the system is a disorganized mess, but she STILL did it and sometime in the next few years, she'll be a citizen. She doesn't have the right to vote yet, but she still pays her taxes and follows the rules. Why can't these illegals get it through their heads that they can't just jump to the front of the line because they're already here? Why can't they get it through their heads that our country has laws and that most of them are in place for good reason? Why can't they get it through their heads that we don't look very kindly on people who siphon money our of our country? I, as a tax-paying, law-abiding, American citizen, DEMAND that our officials-- leaders, lawmakers and law enforcement alike-- put into place and fully enforce a ZERO-TOLERANCE policy for illegals. Arrest them and force them to pay back their tax debts and all other debts (including all civil services used paid by taxpayers) through community service or other means. When they have satisfactorily paid their debts, deport them back to their country and allow them to apply for legal status if they otherwise behaved well while in the country. If, on the other hand, they committed any crimes while in the country, permanently ban them from applying for legal status. Secondly, build and enforce a strong and effective border. Arrest trespassers on sight. If they are uncooperative, shoot them. They have no rights and shouldn't be afforded the same protection as those here legally. Thirdly, step up checks of legal status at all government levels. Illegals should not be able to obtain a license or get a job. Their children shouldn't be able to attend public schools. They shouldn't be able to apply for a credit card or a bank account. They shouldn't be able to purchase a vehicle or housing. Whenever there is an opportunity to check IDs and paperwork, an agency should be legally required to verify a person's legal status and report people who are found to be illegal. All of the agencies involved in these checks should then be held accountable if they don't report illegals, to the tune of $5,000 for a first violation, $50,000 for a second violation and jail time for a third violation. If we as a country can't stand up to protect our values, our culture and even our laws, then I truly fear that everything that makes our country great will come crumbling down very soon. Thoughts? Current Mood: infuriated

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March 30th, 2006

11:21 am - The Wedding Just wanted to point everyone to the latest wedding updates at http://erinandderek.wedquarters.com. Anyone who's planning to be a guest in St. Lucia should probably make hotel reservations very soon to take advantage of advance discounts. Otherwise it could get rather pricey ;) The full business plan for the AuthoritEye Car Camera is coming along. It's due on April 9th for consideration in the second stage of the competition so I'll be concentrating on that over the next few days to get a draft ready. The prototype is pretty much sitting where it has been for the past few weeks as I've been busy taking care of other issues (namely money.) It looks like Erin and I might be making a trip up to New York to hang out with the relatives for Easter weekend. Air prices are ridiculous as always but it appears that my parents will be covering it, which is a bit of a relief. (I wonder if they'll pay for the California trip too?) Plans are still to head to Vegas sometime around my 21st birthday. We have a free 2-night stay at a Mariott of our choice as a result of sitting through a ridiculous sales thing, but the date ranges on it are really screwy so I'm not sure if we'll be able to take advantage of it. Around that same period of time, my roommates will go back to being my friends, as freshyq will be heading off to the Marines and qortra will be moving back in with Mike and Chino, hopefully in an apartment not too far away from the house. The furniture should be paid off shortly before that and so we'll likely be getting new carpet put in the living room and dining room before it's all delivered. As a result of putting together some paperwork for friend and local painting contractor David Benton (of Dave's Painting Co., now a bonafide LLC), we'll be getting some free painting work done on the interior of the house in the living room, kitchen and possible entry-way areas. I want to get some of the colors changed as well as patching up a few nail holes, scratches and other damage from causes unknown. I hope the timing works out so that everything in the living room, dining room and kitchen looks amazing by the time we head to Vegas. Somewhere in the next month I'm going to fit in doing some landscaping at the house to clear out various dead plants, weeds, and small trash that has collected in front of the house. I was pleasantly surprised to see that some existing plants have apparently survived, so I'm changing my plans a bit on what to add to the existing design. There's a lot of old dead grass and weeds that need to be cleared out from the brick walkways and back patio. I need to clear out some junk around the AC unit, too, before it starts warming up. Lots of fun (?) Deebo out. Current Mood: busy Current Music: (gasp) Talk Radio

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February 2nd, 2006

04:04 pm - The Obligatory Updates Let's do the run down here. On the one hand, nothing big has really happened since my last update, but there are a number of somewhat interesting things that have happened and some big things that are coming up. A lot of smaller things are changing and a lot of annoying things have happened as well. It seems like about the only thing that hasn't changed recently is that it really feels like I'm bleeding money faster than I can count it. Erin and I picked out our living room furniture set and have much of it on layaway. I was being pretty picky about what I wanted to spend money on, so we got something that would be really comfortable and opted for a charcoal-color microfiber couch, loveseat and chair. I'm excited to get it moved in but probably won't be able to until late Spring/early Summer. We also picked out some glass-top end tables and a matching coffee table, which will go well with the lamps that we got for Christmas. We have this kind of agreement that we made earlier in the Winter that we wouldn't use any of the housewares type items we got for Christmas until she moves into the house, but it's getting to a point where it's no longer practical. The lamps are one example. She doesn't really want to unpack them until she moves in, but they go perfectly with the tables. I also gave her (us) a nice set of silverware for the house but she refuses to open it and use it in place of her broken, dwindling set of silverware. I bug her each time we run out of knives by the middle of the day ;) Shortly after we got the HD cable service at the house I'd decided that we weren't going to pay for it for very long. A $105+ cable bill per month gets really frustrating when we don't even watch that much cable. In a bit of bad timing, our DLP projector bulb died right before I was planning to cancel the cable and order us an over-the-air HDTV tuner. As if that wasn't frustrating enough, the company I ordered the (refurbed) tuner from delayed shipping the unit time after time after time until I finally threatened to have their Amazon merchant account canceled. So magically that showed up earlier this week. It works well, fortunately, but I've yet to actually see how it looks on the big screen. I'm not sure when the projector will be operative again given how expensive bulbs are (on the order of $300!) I've been getting especially tired of my job situation lately and I started a more aggressive job/contract work search toward the beginning of the year. So far, I've yet to actually have any luck on that side of things, but in a bit of an ironic twist, I was offered a part-time installer job on the side by the security system company for whom Erin has been doing sales. I'm not certain that it will be any kind of permanent thing, but in the short term it will offer a side-job that pays really well (around 5x what I get hourly right now) and doesn't involve sitting on my ass all day long. It would have the added benefit of being an opportunity to market our home theater installation and automation services. Finally, we've been working on putting together the car security system prototype as well as the business case that we're submitting for the annual business plan competition hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at Ohio State. We're debating whether we want to directly associate the automation business with the technology design business. On the one hand it could make a better case for this product if we can make the claim that we're running an existing business, but on the other hand, they may question why we're shifting into security equipment design when we were previously doing home theater installs. I'm leaning toward keeping the businesses separate (at least on paper) so we're probably going to call the design side of the business "MESA Technology Group". Below I have a conceptual logo that I threw together in five minutes yesterday. Give me a thumbs up or thumbs down or other feedback about the name/logo. This NEEDS to look clean and professional for the competition, so be totally honest. OH! And one correction/revision/update about the wedding for all those who intent to attend... The wedding date is now set for 4:00 pm on **Friday, December 1, 2006** at the Sandals Regency St. Lucia. (This is a day earlier than we originally had planned because they didn't have a spot open late enough on Saturday.) The wedding website will be updated soon to reflect the change. That's all... for now. Deebo out! Current Mood: sleepy

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December 20th, 2005

01:42 am - The Engagement Greetings to all family, friends and acquaintances, I've got exciting news to share! As of the evening of Friday, December 16th, Erin Zinston and I are now engaged. Although many have said this was inevitable and those closer to us knew that it was in the works, the timing caught almost everyone by surprise. Thanks to all who have supported us thus far! We look forward to announcing more details soon. Those who want to keep on top of the latest and greatest can go to http://erinandderek.wedquarters.com Deebo out. Current Mood: excited

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November 21st, 2005

12:31 pm - Save Arrested Development Normally I don't participate in such things and I'm not sure how many of those reading my LJ at this point are familiar with Arrested Development on FOX, but the show is one of the best things that the network has going for it at the moment, has won numerous awards and frequently been called the funniest show on television, and yet it is at risk of being cancelled over low ratings. If you haven't yet seen it, start watching it (preferably from the beginning so it makes sense) and I think you'll agree. All those who have seen the show and want to see it continue into next season, sign one or more of the petitions currently circulating online, such as http://www.petitiononline.com/Arrested/petition.html or call and plead with your local fox affiliate owners. It would be a damn shame to see such a great show share the same fate as other FOX greats after such a short run. Deebo out. Current Mood: frustrated

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October 11th, 2005

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September 19th, 2005

11:27 am - The House So the Riverpark townhome gang finally has a real house! I successfully won the bid on a foreclosure house on the south end of Hilliard for $155,000 with closing costs included, which is pretty much exactly what I had intended to spend on a house before I started exploring more expensive options. It's a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage house with 1600+ sq ft. and a finished basement. Aside from a little bit of mold that needs to be cleaned up the basement, the house is in perfect condition and only needs some appliances for the kitchen. It's a really exciting time! Assuming there are no major hold-ups, current estimates for a closing/move-in date are late October. I wish it were going to be earlier so that it wouldn't fall right in the middle of the quarter for qortra and freshyq, but unfortunately it's out of my control. House closings just take frickin' forever. Everyone hope/pray with me that nothing goes wrong with the financing and everything will go smoothly for the next month; I know I'm going to have some level of anxiety in the back of my mind until we're all moved in and have the utilities turned on. That's about it for now. Deebo out! Current Mood: excited

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September 9th, 2005

02:24 pm - The Bidding As some of you know, I've been on a house-hunt since a few months ago. As fewer of you know, I came across a great condition foreclosure about a week ago which I started pursuing. Well, the loan pre-approval letter came at the very last second, and the house came on the market this morning right on schedule. Only thing is, it's scheduled to be a one-day auction as opposed to the usual 3-4 days (which is what I was planning around since I'm going out of town this weekend), so it was very lucky that I happened to be slacking off from work and checking the listings site when I did. So now I have to meet with the realtor right after I get off of work today and before I head to Indianapolis in order to sign tons of paperwork and finalize my bid so she can submit it before the deadline tonight. Everything all of a sudden started moving very quickly and I haven't been able to concentrate all day! I guess all that to say, wish me luck on the bidding and that my roommates and I can get this house. I should find out in a day or two if I'm the highest bidder and then even more paperwork starts... My real hope is that we'll be able to wrap up all the financing and set an early closing date so that my roommates and I can get our stuff moved either before school starts up for them or within the first week. It should be an exciting rest of the year if everything works out the way I hope. Oh, and I should also mention, big house warming party if everything goes through :) Deebo out. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Air - Universal Traveler

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August 25th, 2005

02:04 pm - The Launch Modern Entertainment Systems and Automation, LLC (MESA, LLC) is tentatively registered and a fully licensed company now. Erin and I have also been working pretty quickly to get other things taken care of, like the website, company emails, a company mailing address (officially 1799 W 5th Ave. Suite 279, Columbus, OH 43212) and printing of business cards and literature. We are still without an official company logo, but I've recruited a few different people to assist with this task, including our own javababy, and I'm also trying to track down some other skilled individuals with web graphics and Flash experience to prepare a more interactive website. We've also made some random "shopping" runs in the past few weeks to get some more business meeting-friendly clothing for both myself and Erin, and I finally got ahold of a half-way decent, leather-looking (vinyl) binder/planner combination for carrying business cards, literature, notes, contacts, and schedules. All this has basically been in preparation for the meeting with our first official potential client, this coming Monday. As soon as all the literature I requested from Control4 arrives, I'll also need to ship out information packets containing the product specs and company contact information to a couple other buidlers with whom I've spoken. The irony here is that technically my company is still not yet authorized to sell any of the items which we are marketing-- specifically the Control4 line of wireless home automation and home theater products. Working as a dealer for any of these companies requires some reasonable commitment on my part, financially anyway, and I'm holding off on pouring my own life savings into these products until I have someone committed to buying them. So once that happens, I get to place the opening order, fly out to Utah for my dealer training, and finally get to sell the products, install them and (hopefully) make some money. It's all so exciting that I'm finally getting to launch and run my own company, which I've claimed to want to do for the past 10 years or so, but it's also such a mess right now. Talking to so many different people simultaneously, filing so many different forms, and paying out so much money out of pocket right now with no immediate return is a bit of a strain on the nerves. I couldn't be happier, though; things are finally starting to shape up and fall into place. Even without a penny made so far, I already consider this venture a success because it has proven that I have the motivation to commit time to building a business, and enough guts to put my own money on the line to get it off the ground. All that said, if anyone here or someone you know is interested in finding out more about wireless home automation in general or possibly ordering a system, send us an email at info@mesa-llc.com. Deebo out! Current Mood: excited Current Music: Korn - Thoughtless

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August 3rd, 2005

05:29 pm - The Long Awaited Update As usually happens after transitional events in my life, being a graduate and working full-time has resulted in my falling behind again on some basic things like grocery shopping, game playing and livejournal updating. Too much has really happened since graduation for me to dive into many details, but I'll try to cover everything in a kind of point and summary hybrid format. My job officially bores me to tears I hadn't quite realized the magnitude of boredom and mental dullness my job had been creating for me in recent years until I started doing it full-time. I knew I wanted to get out of there a few years back because I just didn't enjoy it like I used to, but it has gotten to the point where I simply cannot force myself to do more than a few tasks per day. I need challenges to keep me sharp and everything at this job has become so trivial. My first real stab at being an entrepreneur is having mixed results Those of you who've known me for a while know that I've wanted to run my own company for a long, long time. I can't stand working for somebody else for the same reason that my job bores me to tears. I need to do something that keeps me on my toes and works my creativity. So, after talking about it for a few weeks, Erin and I decided to start a home automation company-- the name of which is tentatively Modern Entertainment Systems and Automation (MESA). My plan was to become a Crestron Certified Authorized Independent Programmer (in plan English, someone certified to install and setup Crestron home automation equipment, including centralized lighting, heating and cooling, and entertainment systems.) Over the course of a couple months, we had come up with a fairly solid plan; I was going to take the courses for certification starting in mid-September and ending in early October, in the mean time talking to a few banks about obtaining a business loan and, down the line, speaking with local home builders about offering our services to install systems as a standard feature in their higher end models. If only it were that easy. I've been attempting to speak with the Crestron person in charge of their certification program to verify details about what I should know going into the classes, and what I will technically be allowed to do once I am certified, but I left a voicemail and email last Friday and have yet to hear back. About the same time last week, I started calling a few of the local homebuilders to speak with the people in charge of handling third party equipment contracts but only reached voicemail. Again, I have yet to hear back. To make things more frustrating, I received a call late Friday from a person in the Crestron midwest regional office about my literature request (to use both for our own purposes and to show to potential clients to show the systems we'll be offering). I mentioned my plans to him in regards to certification training and running a local dealer, at which point he told me that their certification classes are only available to people already working for a dealer. Of course, I thought this was bullshit since their site and all training literature I'd seen made no mention of any such requirement, and after pointing this out to him, he seemed to eventually back down to saying that the vast majority of those who take the classes are people working for a vendor. Well, obviously. After that he began criticizing my choice to pursue this, claiming that the Columbus area already had a couple of certified people and that he didn't think the market could support more. Firstly, he was operating out of Chicago, so how the hell would he know? Secondly, the existing certified people I've seen don't target residential installations. Thirdly, I hadn't even seen or heard of Crestron until my Uncle, a general contractor from New York, told me about them. I think I'll be the judge of how saturated the market is, dumbass. I'm trying to remain optimistic, however, and I'm continuing to push full-speed ahead with plans to recruit our first few clients by October and have our first installations scheduled for November. Until I get everything sorted out with the certification program and take the classes, I'm reading through as much of their technical documentation as I can so that, worst case scenario, I'll install the systems without certification and just have to convince the builders that I know what I'm talking about. The house hunt is on Rent just really isn't my thing anymore. Not that it really ever was, since I've always known that rent was such a waste. I even went so far as to look at homes last year, but once I looked into the whole home loan thing, my hopes and dreams were shot down since they wouldn't approve me for more than $80k (and what the hell will 80 grand buy around here?) So now that I finally have the means to be approved for a $160k or so loan, I've been keeping my eye on the market like a hawk. I don't want just any house; I want something in a nice location (read: Upper Arlington/Dublin area) which is big enough to house me and my roommates and can be reasonably expected to appreciate 25% over the course of 2-3 years, with the proper restoration work. I found something a couple weeks ago which met this exact criteria and would have been an excellent deal, but it was snapped up so quickly that there were two contracts on it by the time I requested a showing. Finally, just yesterday, I found a new listing on the north edge of Upper Arlington and got a showing the very same night. It was amazing how much restoration and updating work needs to be done do it, but it seems to be in excellent structural condition. I'm not getting my hopes up just yet since I'm waiting to hear from the realtor how much they're going to drop the price at the end of the week and I'm waiting to get my dad's opinion of the place after he tours through it later today, but if all goes well, I may have a house in the next month or so... "Aboot" my trip to Canada I went up to Buckhorn, ON (after a day stop through Niagara Falls) with Erin for about a week, a couple weeks back. Niagara Falls, aside from the US side being a ghetto, was a neat place and I especially enjoyed the Canadian side of the falls. We went to Skylon tower's revolving restaurant for dinner the second night there and it was excellent (though very, very expensive. I mean $120 before tip for two people kind of expensive.) Erin's home town was just as she described it and it was relaxing to get away from the business of Columbus for that time. We also got to rent a boat for the day while we were there and visited with a few of her friends and relatives. It definitely was vexing to pay twice as much for gas and drive 30 minutes to get to the store, however. The Morty-man can As soon as I got back into town, I was told that Chris/Morty/freshyq had managed to get a stress fracture in his foot and would likely be returning home earlier than scheduled from basic training. Unfortunately for him, he is indeed returning in the next couple of days and will have to repeat the last part of basic after graduation. What is it with people and breaking their feet anyway? On a related note, my sister also broke her foot during the time that I was away in an accident (of the horseback-riding variety and not the car variety), so she is now in a walking cast and there is some chance that she will need a regular cast for several weeks. While it apparently hurt like hell when it happened, she does seem to be enjoying her free ticket to laziness for a few weeks. All the same, hopefully it gets better soon. Last, but not least, Erin kicks ass 'nuff said. Deebo out. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Air - Biological

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June 8th, 2005

10:33 am - See you in hell, Traffic & Parking After 5 hours of sleep, rushing around in the morning, a frappucino stop and my last final (which I finished over an hour early), I have one thing to say... Owned! I'm done, baby! Deebo out. Current Mood: bouncy

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June 6th, 2005

01:23 pm - The Thoughts As I was thinking about things I want to do earlier, I realized I'm still coming to grips with the fact that I no longer have to think of my year as being split up into "the summer" and "the rest of the year." It's now one on-going chunk of time I have wide open to me. I still don't like to think about fall and winter, though, even if the terms don't have quite the same meaning as they used to. I guess that's one thing that won't change until I move to a nicer climate. All in good time. So here are some things that I've decided I want (and I'm going) to do this summer: - Travel with Erin and visit her old house near Ottowa - Get renter's insurance so that I can sleep a little easier without worrying about the place burning down or all my junk getting stolen - Get my private pilot's license (or at least make some serious progress toward it) - Write the damn book that I've rewritten twice already without ever finishing it - Fix my sunroof, get the AC recharged, and take care of other little annoyances with the BMW - Fly back out west to hang out with Samir and Ro and spend a couple weeks driving around - Finish the Netify project that has been dragging on and on, and start on some new projects - Find and move into a better apartment (hopefully with more space) OR - Look into buying a house (for real, this time) - Research into the home automation industry and write a new business plan - Gather funding and get the home automation idea and other ideas off the ground - Totally finalize and document the calculation engine and work on another David Bailey contract project - Renegotiate my employment contract with Accuscan to let me work outside of the office and have more say in company operations - Go hiking and rappelling somewhere fun - Get a new laptop to replace my aging, worn out Thinkpad X20 - Get a pair of decent 19-inch, low latency flat panels for my main workstation - Overhaul my main workstation with a new motherboard and processor, move the hard drives to the file server, and replace them with a Raptor drive - Get my hands on a decent projection screen for the DLP projector I'll think of more later. Already a full summer ahead, though, so I shouldn't get bored ;) Deebo out. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Hybrid - Sinequanon

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May 27th, 2005

04:06 pm - Finalized Graduation Party Details When: June 8th, starting around 7:00 pm Why: Because I never have to set foot on OSU campus again Where: Riverpark Apartments complex at Lane Ave and Riverside Dr (ten minutes West of OSU campus) RSVP/Directions: climbingfordollars@gmail.com or 614.296.6697 Grilled food, a wide variety of drinks, movies/shows/games on the projector, and newly renovated pool access will be provided. Everyone is welcome (and encouraged) to suppliment our food and drink supply since there will be around 30 people coming. If you have a request, you're free to suggest it to me, but you may have to bring your own. Absolutely everyone and anyone who knows me is invited, even if I haven't talked to you in a while, but please let me know if you are attending. Hope to see everyone there! Deebo out. Current Mood: excited

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May 20th, 2005

11:37 am - The Last Three Weeks Well, I've finally crossed the point of no return. After some shady calculations the other day, I figured out that there's not much that I could do at this point to screw myself out of graduation, which is relief in some sense or another. Unless you too are graduating (or have already experienced the last few weeks before), it's hard for you to imagine how tempted I am to simply not go back on campus until graduation. Maybe it's because I never really caught senioritus in high school the way that others did. What never ceases to amaze me is how these final few weeks seems to keep dragging along, and yet I still never seem to have the time to get things done. Alas, it will all be over soon. Days until my last lecture: 14 Days until my last (and only) final: 19 Days until graduation: 23 Sometime between days 19 and 23 (June 3rd through the 12th), there will be a party, but details have yet to be worked out. Check back here over the coming days for updates. Deebo out. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Switchfoot - Sooner Or Later

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May 4th, 2005

01:42 pm - The Opening Night Party Everyone seeing the Episode 3 midnight showing (evening of the 18th/morning of the 19th) or just interested in a party, listen up! Simeon is hosting an opening night party at the Riverpark apartment on the 18th starting at 5 pm (or earlier), which will include episodes 1 and 2 on the new digital projector (with 120"+ screen and 7.1 dts-es/dolby digital ex surround sound), grilled food and snacks, and poker games on the side before we all head over to Lennox for the big lineup. Everyone interested, drop me a line at climbingfordollars@gmail.com or leave a voicemail on the apartment phone system (448-1311). Deebo out. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Sneaker Pimps - Lightning Field

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April 15th, 2005

04:47 pm - The Allergies So my body has decided that it couldn't just let me enjoy the first consistently nice weather in months. I'm having probably some of the worst spring allergies that I can remember-- complete with headaches, runny nose and, of course, the sneezing fits. To top it off, I've been having some on-and-off intense wisdom teeth aches over the past week and a half, and have no health insurance until the end of the month. Such is life for me. In other, more positive news, me and qortra's independent contracting work for software development is finally kicking off, after a recent lunch meeting with our client/"boss". I shouldn't talk too much about the details of the project, but I will say this: 30% of net profit between the two of us has me pretty excited. I just hope that our client has as much luck marketing our finished add-on application as he has with the main application. This has finally given me some hint of direction for my life after graduation, which has been up in the air for some time now. I know I want to run a business, but what I want to do specifically or, perhaps more importantly, where to start has been the big question that I haven't been able to answer. At least this will give me a chance to get my hands dirty and hopefully get some name recognition for doing more independent contracting work after this. On a side note, if any of you out there either have a law degree or know someone good with business contract law, please email me at edwards.442@osu.edu so that I can have this contract reviewed before signing it. That's all for now. Deebo out Current Mood: tired Current Music: Stone Temple Pilots - Creep

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April 11th, 2005

01:15 pm - The Spring Paradox Ah, it's finally here. Winter made way for a much more fun season, with clearer skies, warmer temperatures, lighter course loads, and promise of less stress. But as it happens every year, and something which I have to take into account each time around, Spring ends up being almost more stressful. Take my job, for example. I'm a naturally lazy person to begin with; I will do as little as possible and try to spend as little time as possible doing it when I am at work. At first glance, the weather should put me in a better mood and make me work more efficiently, which it does. At the same time, however, I get even more easily distracted by the bright colors outside, the breeze which makes it way through the open window, and my strong desire to go out driving or play golf or do anything but sit inside the neutral-colored, flourescent-lit, dull environment which is my office. A similar effect is observed in regards to my homework schedule. This is by far the lightest quarter which I have had in my academic career at OSU (and thankfully it will be my last). I have very little homework to do in comparison to previous quarters. One class on campus, MWF at 9:30, one class online, one independent study senior project, and one independent study 693 class (which basically involves putting together a satellite dish over the quarter) make up my week, along with the 28 or so hours that I put in at work. Yet, for whatever reason, I find it more difficult to finish my work on time and keep up with reading and watching video lectures than I did during Winter quarter, which was by far the heaviest course load I had ever taken. This creates stress because, although I have very little to do this quarter, I do have to pass all of these classes in order to graduate in June like I am supposed to. Finally, Spring creates stress because of the feeling that I always need to be doing something. It's not good enough to sit and relax. I need to be washing my car, out running around, or otherwise doing some outdoor activity. While I enjoy these things, they are all time consuming and energy consuming. I'm more tired overall this quarter than I was during either Autumn or Winter. Hence, Spring is a paradox. It's something we all look forward to, and yet it's such a busy time. Especially for me ;) Anyway, another post on its way in a bit. Deebo out. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Failure - Small Crimes

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March 8th, 2005

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January 14th, 2005

10:14 am - 20 hours and counting Well, the time has come; the big trip to Redmond/Seattle and second interview with the company-that-shall-not-be-named begins bright and early tomorrow morning. By 6 am, I'll be in the air and starting my around 8-hour journey towards what promises to be a very interesting and (hopefully) fun trip. I've spent the past couple days compiling a list of places to try and things to see, since I honestly don't know what all is out there, aside from the space needle. So far, I have a list of six restaurants for bunch/lunch/dinner and have made reservations to go to a jazz club on Sunday night, and I also plan to hit up a museum or two, one of the parks, and, of course, the space needle. I'm just hoping I can fit it all into the two free days (both time-wise and expense-wise) that I have before my second interview on Monday morning. As exciting as it all sounds, I'm suddenly feeling very anxious and nervous about the trip-- not so much about the interview since I honestly don't care how that goes, but just the idea of the trip itself. I've been preparing for it for weeks, making various arrangements and doing hw/labs ahead, but it wasn't until last night and this morning that it really dawned on me that this won't be like any trip I've been on before. This will be the furthest that I have ever been from Columbus, in a place where I have never been before, where I don't know anyone either as friends or as acquaintances, and I will be traveling completely on my own-- aside from random strangers on my flights-- over a distance of nearly 2500 miles. I will be my own guide when I get there and, while I won't totally rule out the possibility of finding some fun people to hang out with once I get there, it will be full of reservations for one. Certainly, I've been on long trips before with friends-- Texas being the big trip to date. I've also driven on short trips before on my own, but always to places where I knew people. This will be truly unique in that there is the potential for having a lot of fun, but it could also be quite overwhelming. Either way, though, the laptop and the camera will be with me and I should have quite a story to tell when I get back. See you all on Tuesday! Deebo out. Current Mood: excited Current Music: James Brown - The Payback

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January 5th, 2005

08:54 am - So long, 2004 Alright, so I'm a little late, but I'm lazy and proud of it. This post is to say a quick farewell to 2004, which truly was the year of Deebo. Buying my BMW, getting high grades, lots of travel with both family and friends, the first long distance trip I've taken without my family (to Arizona), the summer CPL competition in Texas, the ACM coding competition with one of my roommates and another friend, interviews with potential companies, a sweet winter break (which, although the weather did make the roads suck the whole time, was quite fun), and a good new year's-- the first in a while without a big all-night party and bowling and food, but it was still great. Finally, last but not least (and also just a few days late for 2004), my bad luck streak with women was broken and I found out that the woman I've had my eye on for a while is indeed interested in me (!) All in all, that makes for a pretty good year. With as good a start as this, here's hoping 2005 goes as well or even better ;) Deebo out. Current Mood: happy

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December 7th, 2004

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November 3rd, 2004

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November 2nd, 2004

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November 1st, 2004

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02:39 pm - A Public Service Announcement from the National Association for the Advancement of Democrats I'm declaring tomorrow National Democrat Overtime Day! Work a 13-hour day from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm and show those republicans that you're not the everyday lazy bum that they think you are! Free T-shirt included if you sign up by 12:01 am tomorrow =D Deebo out. Current Mood: excited Current Music: Cake - Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps

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October 29th, 2004

02:40 pm - Weapons not stolen... Remember back when Kerry was spouting off about how Bush shouldn't jump on information without getting all the facts? Well, the cycle of the universe worked out and Kerry's bad karma has come back to bite him in the ass for not following his own advice. The majority of the supposed missing weapons stockpiles in al-qaqaa were in fact NOT STOLEN or missing as a result of not being watched thoroughly enough, but MOVED by our own troops when securing the area. (Check it out on the major news outlets for yourself.) One more reason not to vote for this tool against the zero reasons supporting him. Deebo out. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Simeon - Fumes

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October 28th, 2004

03:37 pm - Ahh, the gunshots and screams So for all of you who have been patiently waiting, San Andreas is out! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you should read up on the Grand Theft Auto series. Chino pre-ordered a copy a while back, and it should be shipping directly to the apartment-- meaning it'll be in the PS2 and on the big screen any time now. Everyone should come over and join in on the fun. Oh, and bring us food too; I know we won't be getting out for a while after this. Deebo out. Current Mood: ecstatic

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