Chris' Journal

chris83 @ 2005-11-18T17:46:00

2005-11-18T22:48:19Z

I owe the University of Florida $1.28.

I can not pay with a Visa credit card or debit card.

My credit card and debit card are both Visa.

I could write a check for $1.28...

Or I can put this bag of pennies to use.

chris83 @ 2005-10-16T23:26:00

2005-10-17T03:27:29Z

Photo Gallery - Florida-LSU Road Trip

chris83 @ 2005-09-23T19:12:00

2005-09-23T23:19:31Z

Blue Angels Practicing at Gainesville Regional Airport - Photo Gallery

Best first day of class ever?

2005-08-25T04:19:33Z

I'd been checking every once in a while for the past few months to see if I could get into the section of Administration of Sport I wanted to be in, but no seats were ever available. It's the section taught by the same teacher I had last semester for Sport and Society. So, I went to it anyway to see if she might be able to add me to the class roster or something. She told me she'd try to do it. When I checked this afternoon, I'd been added. Now I don't have to waste time waiting for a seat to open up! Then, it almost looked like i wasn't going to be able to take Coaching Football as an elective again this semester because I took Coaching Offensive Football last semester, and they said it was the same thing. This was kind of disappointing because I was really looking forward to it again, but I thought I had good enough justification for how it actually was different. We're covering defense and special teams now in addition to offense. So, I sent a few e-mails out, had the instructor e-mail the advisor, and now it's taken care of and has been approved. Now my schedule is completely set for the semester and I don't have to worry about adjusting it during Drop/Add. I think that's a first! Then, Matt's mom took Matt and I out to dinner at On The Border and we had a very good meal. Thanks to my re-adjusted schedule, I don't have class tomorrow until 1:55. I do have one class Friday morning now, though, instead of having it completely off, but that's okay since I'd rather have this teacher again than the other teacher who has a bunch of busy work assignments.

chris83 @ 2005-08-10T22:05:00

2005-08-11T02:07:32Z

Finally made a video of my Mustang the other day. Here it is: Exhaust video

chris83 @ 2005-07-26T10:32:00

2005-07-26T20:40:48Z

On Sunday, my dad, Dyane (step-mom), and I spent the day down in Key Biscayne. Our main reason for going was to check out the smoked fish at Jimbo's, supposedly Miami's best-kept secret. I'd have to agree with that claim because it's an interesting place to say the least. It's basically a bait shack located on a lagoon (same lagoon they filmed some of the Flipper tv show at) with some tables set up right outside. Inside the shack, there are two large ice containers filled with beers, then a fairly large cooler filled with sodas. This is also where you request the smoked fish (salmon, marlin, or wahoo). There were a few dogs roaming the area, including a very large one that came by us looking for food every couple of minutes. There were a few chickens roaming around, too, and there were some baby chickens hidden in a nearby bush. The crowd was a mix of bikers, rednecks, and hispanics. Oh yeah, there were about 4 port-o-potties at the entrance which serve as the bathrooms.

I'll set a little background to the story: when we went to the NASDAQ 100 Open this year, I realized they had us parking in a different area on Virginia Key since I had last gone (2003). My dad and Dyane went in 2004 and knew about it already, and they told me to look at the chickens hanging outside a place called Jimbo's. I saw the chickens and Jimbo's, and it really didn't look like much. Later that night, I guess, I started thinking about the road trip show the Travel Channel did from Orlando to Miami. For some reason, I remembered them going down a long road to get some fish at a place not too many people knew about. I started wondering if that place was Jimbo's. So, I searched for Jimbo's on the internet and it came up with 3 reviews, all saying how good the smoked fish was. Bingo! So, Jimbo's was more than just a place that chickens hung around! I told dad and Dyane, and we agreed we should take a trip down there sometime and try their smoked fish.

After reading the reviews, we knew going in we would have to bring silverware and should try to avoid using the bathroom there. Still, I assumed it was a sit-down type restaurant. Even though it wasn't, it didn't matter. The smoked salmon was amazing. We tried all three they had to offer and I liked the smoked salmon the best. I definitely could eat that stuff all the time. I want some right now.

Then we went to the beach for a little while, then we played tennis on the grass courts at Crandon Park. The court wasn't in that great of shape, but we still had fun.

After that, we decided to eat dinner at Villa Habana, which I hadn't been to in almost 10 years, probably. My dad and I used to eat there when I was younger, but then they got new owners and weren't as good, so we stopped. Somewhere along the line, they got new owners again, and they're good again. I had a really good meal there, shrimp in garlic sauce. Oh man. That garlic sauce they use could probably make anything taste good. Yep, ate some good food on Sunday.

Tomorrow is my last day of Financial Accounting at Miami Dade College. I think I need a 65% on the final quiz to get an A in the class. Hah... if Demski could see me now...

Follow up

2005-07-20T19:12:14Z

A few months ago I made a post on here saying I was going to try an experiment with caffeine. I was going to stop drinking sodas with caffeine in it. That meant giving up my favorite sodas at the time, Vanilla Coke and Cherry Coke. I said I would make a post with my results in a month or so. Anyway, this is a little late, but reading an article a few minutes ago about caffeine and fertility just reminded me about my experiment, so I thought I'd update. The article also brought a few things from my experiment to light. So, here's a basic summary of the experiment:

The first few days without caffeine, I felt I was sleeping much better... a little too good, in fact. I was sleeping way too long on the days I didn't have to be up early, and I always felt sluggish waking up. If I let myself, I could fall back asleep very easily and keep on sleeping for hours. The article I just read suggested to ease off slowly (which I didn't do) to avoid withdrawal symptoms (ah!) such as fatigue and headaches.

Fast forward to now. I still only drink non-caffeinated sodas if possible. Waking up is no longer sluggish. Once I'm awake, I feel alert and never feel tired... doesn't really seem to matter how much sleep I get. So, once I got past those initial withdrawal symptoms, everything was fine. I would have to say my experiment was successful enough for me to give up caffeine completely.

chris83 @ 2005-07-13T14:04:00

2005-07-13T18:18:31Z

This is hilarious. I'm here at the Business/Accounting lab at Miami Dade College because I, along with everybody else taking similar classes, have to log a total of 15 hours here in order to pass. The nice thing is it doesn't matter what we do once we're inside the lab, just as long as we're logging hours. So what does everybody do? They log into facebook, myspace, AIM, etc. One girl is even watching a DVD on her portable DVD player... LOL. Looks like Bridget Jones's Diary. I actually bring my homework and do it here. I'm taking a break right now, though, so I visited all those sites myself and am also on AIM.

Long overdue

2005-07-10T01:09:04Z

For the first time in more than a year, I updated my website with pics from our cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas, as well as pics from NCL's new Pride of America. Also redesigned the site just a little bit and updated/reset the poll. Enjoy!

chris83 @ 2005-07-09T13:05:00

2005-07-09T17:08:55Z

I just saw a tow truck take a car out of my neighborhood. Just now. In the middle of a hurricane. I figured my car would be safe from towing during this weather, but I guess I was wrong, so I just moved it. I look forward to the day when I don't have to worry about my car being towed from my own neighborhood.

chris83 @ 2005-07-05T13:04:00

2005-07-05T17:05:33Z

Can you be fired for blogging?

chris83 @ 2005-06-28T12:35:00

2005-06-28T16:48:10Z

I got an e-mail yesterday telling me I won $100 for completing a survey on drugs and alcohol last fall. Woa, an e-mail saying I've won money that's actually REAL and not spam! This is pretty much the first time I've ever won money. There were about 800-900 participants, and 6 of us got the $100 "incentive" money. If I remember correctly, this was the survey that said I had until a certain day by 11:59 PM to complete it and that the last 3 people to complete the survey would receive the money. I figured that small detail would go unnoticed or dismissed as a mistake by a lot of the participants, so I set a reminder alarm on my cell phone for 11:55 PM that night and completed the survey thinking that I would definitely be one of the final 3 to complete it. I received an e-mail thanking me for participating in the survey and saying that the people who won the money would receive another e-mail later. Well, after a while, I forgot about the whole thing and figured I didn't win. Fast forward to yesterday when I finally got the e-mail. It must have been between 7-8 months ago that I did that survey, LOL.

chris83 @ 2005-06-16T16:45:00

2005-06-16T21:05:30Z

I'm at work right now, but there's no "work" for me to do. I've done everything they've asked me to do, and they've run out of things for the moment. So, for the last hour and a half, I've been on the internet. A few minutes ago, I just answered the phone since the other person here didn't answer it. It was the Captain from the Marco Polo. After a little research, I determined that the ship is currently on its way from London to Brussels. In other cruise-related news, there's a lot of excitement around here about the Pride of America, the first brand new U.S. flagged cruise ship in nearly 50 years (most cruise ships are foreign-flagged to save money). It will be christened tomorrow in New York and will be leaving there on Monday. Regis and Kelly will be broadcasting all week long from the ship. It arrives in Miami next Friday, so I might be able to check it out then.

chris83 @ 2005-06-11T14:30:00

2005-06-11T19:02:24Z

A couple of hours ago, I sold the Accord! I'd have to stay I've been pretty lucky with buying/selling cars. First, I bought the first Mustang I checked out in person ... I didn't even realize that until the other day. Then, I sold the Honda to the first and only person that has actually come and checked it out. Actually, it was her aunt that came and checked it out Tuesday night. She actually knew a lot about cars since she worked with mechanics for 20 years, so she was immediately able to tell what was wrong with it. She called her niece and told her what needed to be done, and her niece didn't want to buy it at the time. The aunt, however, said if it was for herself, she would buy it. She left saying she would try to convince her niece and then call me in a few days. Last night, I got the call saying they'd come by today. So, why do I say I've been pretty lucky? Well, these people had checked out a lot of cars and had yet to find one they liked. My Accord was the best one they'd seen, and the niece liked it enough to buy it.

I started work on Wednesday. I'm back at Norwegian Cruise Line, but in a different department. I'm in the Fleet Operations department, and I'm basically the Executive Assistant's assistant, haha. It's supposed to be a 2 week deal, then Jesse at StaffingNow said she'd try to get me back in Customer Relations. I have already been given the option of staying as long as I want, though, so I might stay if I end up liking it.

Went bowling last night for the first time since last summer, then went to Kendall Ale House for a little while ... had a good time.

Other than the constant rain, it wasn't a bad week at all!

chris83 @ 2005-06-09T00:19:00

2005-06-09T04:37:45Z

I was tagged by a2pak7
List your current six favorite songs, then pick six other people that have to do the same.

Coldplay - Speed of Sound
Green Day - Holiday
Audioslave - Be Yourself
Audioslave - Your Time Has Come
Three Doors Down - Let Me Go
Three Doors Down - Behind Those Eyes

I'm gonna tag...
dirtdolldeluxe
elusive_goalie
gatorwhitz
kevb
mr_booneman
swanrat

We'll see who actually reads their friends page on a regular basis :)

chris83 @ 2005-05-05T12:42:00

2005-05-05T16:48:42Z

This weather sucks! I've seen more rain here the past 3 days than I saw in 4 months in Gainesville! I woke up around 7:00 with this really bad sore throat, so I took some Tylenol Night, and that knocked me out till about 11:30. I was going to set up the Comcast internet after I ate lunch, but that might not be a good idea during a thunderstorm. I'm surprised the internet kit arrived so soon, I ordered it Friday night and it got here yesterday. Okay, now this is weird... it sounded like that thunderstorm was getting closer, but now there's nothing. No thunder, no rain, no lightning, nothing. It just disappeared? Maybe I'll be able to set up the internet now after all.

chris83 @ 2005-05-02T16:19:00

2005-05-02T20:31:37Z

Went to SunFest yesterday. All the bands were pretty good (Submersed, Silvertide, Breaking Benjamin, Alter Bridge, and Three Doors Down). Three Doors Down was awesome. SunFest might just be one of the best kept secrets in South Florida... they were showing some of the bands/musicians they've had in the past on the big video screen, and they seem to bring good ones every year. My dad and step-mom got the 4-day pass for $35, and my one-day ticket was $20. You're lucky if you can see 2 bands at a concert for $35, let alone see 5 or more bands a day for 4 days! So, yeah, might have to start going to that every year from now on. My dad and step-mom have actually been to a few in the past.

This morning was FIU's graduation, and I was lucky enough to get a ticket from Adam, so I went to that. I saw Adam and Cathy receive their diplomas, which was cool of course. Might be going out to dinner tonight and then somewhere after.

So, let's see... after getting home late Saturday night, Sunfest yesterday, and the graduation this morning... I haven't had time to unpack and arrange all my stuff! I think I'm going to go work on that now.

chris83 @ 2005-05-01T00:17:00

2005-05-01T04:59:51Z

After having dinner with my mom and great aunt at her condo in Pembroke Pines, I'm home now. What's the first thing I did to kick off the summer at home? I spent about 2 hours trying to find a guest parking spot. Yep, after I unpacked my car, I drove around and couldn't find a spot. I left my car in front of my house for a little while with the intent of trying again later, and that was when my mom told me that they're starting to crack down here in our neighborhood with towing cars. Great! Mind you, last year, I asked one of the security guards at the gate where I could park one night when I could not find a spot. He said to leave the car in front of my house with the hazard lights on. He also said that parking in my neighborhood is a problem because of a "design flaw". There simply aren't enough guest spots. They know this. I think that's why they never really towed that much in the past. I've had to leave my car in front of my house plenty of times and the worst thing I got was a warning in the form of an orange sticker on my window. But now they're starting to tow? How can they tow people who literally can't find a parking spot due to the "design flaw" present? So anyway, part of the other 2 hours was spent going around some of the shopping plazas near my house to see if they were tow away zones. They all were. I went to the CVS Pharmacy and asked some of the employees if it was a tow away zone, but they didn't know. One of them told me to come by during the day to ask the manager then since the night manager doesn't speak English, or something. lol? Later, I went back to the one plaza that has Dunkin Donuts, which is open 24 hours. I asked the girl there if the employees get some kind of a parking decal so that they don't get towed, and she said no. So, by my logic, if there's a 24-hour place in a plaza that is supposedly a tow away zone, and if employees of that 24-hour place are not given some sort of parking decal, then the whole towing thing must be nullified. I mean, I'm sure if someone leaves their car there for days upon days, it'll get noticed and towed. But if I'm just leaving it there overnight, I shouldn't have any problems. I've actually left my car there once before and it didn't get towed. Really, I don't see how they can tow any cars in this place because they don't know if the cars belong to the Dunkin Donuts employees or not. I'll probably start parking there from now on. I'd like to avoid going over speed bumps if possible since the crossover joint on my exhaust hangs pretty low right now. I've been going very slow over them, but I think I can hear it touching every once in a while. The guy at Gainesville Exhaust told me that the whole exhaust system will shrink and shape after a while and said I could bring it back later to see if they can push it up a little bit. Anyway, I can pretty much avoid speed bumps if I park near the Dunkin Donuts in that plaza.

Speaking of the exhaust, my mom asked me why my car "makes a noise." I asked her, "What noise?" She said, "Like a muffler noise." I told her I put exhaust on and asked her when she heard it since I got back before she did. She said she was right behind me when we got back to our neighborhood, though, and could hear it from her car. I was surprised she could hear it considering her windows were up and her radio was probably on, lol.

So, back to the parking situation here. After I left Dunkin Donuts, I decided to look for some parking spots one more time in my neighborhood. I finally found one way over by the pool in the neighborhood. As crazy as this might sound, the Dunkin Donuts is closer than the pool. So, I parked my mom's car there and walked back to my house to find a police car parked in our area. An orange sticker was on one of the cars parked right outside my house. As I rounded the corner, I saw the police officer behind my car, filling out an orange sticker! LOL. I basically told him I had spent the last 2 hours or so trying to figure out where to park. He said I should have put my hazard lights on. I had them on earlier, but geez, I'm not going to leave them on for 2 hours and have them drain my battery! I explained that I had just found a guest spot for my mom's car and that I would park my car in the reserved spot in front of our house, and he said okay, no problem then, and he stopped filling out the orange sticker. Whew, got there just in time I guess. So yeah, this is just something we have to deal with living here. It's really only a problem at night after a certain time, say 8:00 PM. Things should get really interesting when I bring my Accord down. Another rule here is that you can't be parked in a guest spot for more than 24 hours. So, I guess I'll have to move it around every morning, LOL. At least that will keep the battery strong. I hope we can sell it soon.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Sunfest with my dad and step-mom to see Three Doors Down and some other bands. That should be fun. I guess we'll be missing the Talladega race and the Heat game, though. Well, that's about it for now.

chris83 @ 2005-04-28T18:30:00

2005-04-28T22:33:20Z

Finally! Just drove my Mustang home from Gainesville Exhaust! It sounds SWEET! I thought it was going to be louder, supposedly it gets louder as time goes on. I'll have to get some videos soon so I can share with everyone, haha.

chris83 @ 2005-04-27T23:04:00

2005-04-28T03:05:58Z

YES! My excellent preparation for the Management exam resulted in my tearing it up, like I felt I would. This will end up being my 2nd best semester at UF. YES!

chris83 @ 2005-04-27T18:06:00

2005-04-27T22:16:56Z

"Big Day" will have to continue to day 3! Dropped my car off at Gainesville Exhaust around 8:30 this morning and was told it'd probably be worked on late afternoon. Got a call around 4:50 PM saying that their welder is broken and they'll be getting parts tomorrow morning. I asked if I could leave it overnight and the guy said yes. So, hopefully it'll be done tomorrow morning! I've got my Management exam at 8:30 PM, then I'll come home and try to sleep before waking up to study for my last exam at 12:30 PM tomorrow.

chris83 @ 2005-04-27T14:03:00

2005-04-27T18:09:31Z

My Mustang is currently at Gainesville Exhaust. Should be ready by "late afternoon."

So, after receiving all my grades in Sport and Society, I came to the realization that I was 0.98 short of an A. I e-mailed my professor and asked her to reconsider one section of my research paper I felt I deserved more points for. That was basically the only chance I had at getting enough for an A, so I went ahead and gave it a shot. She asked me to e-mail my paper so she could take another look at it and take it into consideration, so I sent it to her. I also told her I volunteer myself for an "A" to benefit the shape of the overall grade bell curve in case there weren't enough A's in the class... lol. Here's the e-mail I got back:

"Dear Chris,

I am happy that you are more than willing to sacrifice for the class!

I have decided to give you an additional .5, which brings you to 89.5, which will be
rounded up to an A.

Have a great summer, and thanks for taking on for the team.
Take care,
(name removed)"

YES!! This makes me very happy.

chris83 @ 2005-04-26T19:24:00

2005-04-26T23:45:20Z

The "big day" will have to be continued tomorrow. The day started off pretty lousy when my car started, then died, then wouldn't start back up. This had happened before, but it had been acting fine the last few weeks. When it did this in the past, it would refuse to start for a long time, then it would start right up after sitting for a few hours. Also, the "Check Oil" light came on last night. This also happened in the past when I was having the same problem. In both cases, I added some oil because it really was a little low. This did nothing to help start the engine, though. So anyway, I was having no luck this morning trying to get it started. I was all set, ready to leave at 7:45 so I could get to HP by 9:00. Due to this problem, I was sitting in front of my computer at 9:00, not HP! I was looking up symptoms on some StangNet forums to see what would cause the car to act this way. Isn't the internet great? Found somebody that had very similar problems, except worse. Not only that, but the timeframe his posts covered on the topic was a few months. Anyway, in one of his later posts, people were telling him it sounded like his fuel pump was bad. They told him to listen for the fuel pump when he puts the key to the "On" position. This was an enlightening suggestion for me since I didn't know that was the fuel pump that made that noise! So, I called Tony and let him know what was up, then went out to my car to try and start it again. This time, I let the key be in the "On" position a few seconds to listen for the fuel pump. I heard it, so I tried starting the engine... bingo. Started right up. Now, I don't know if it decided to start because it was resting for a good half hour or if it was because I waited to actually hear the fuel pump turn on before trying to start the engine... but it worked. Anyway, didn't have any problems starting up the rest of the day.

Dropped off the car at HP around 10:15 AM. I decided I would explore the Orange Park area a little bit rather than waiting in the small office at HP for several hours. I brought my Management notes to study, and I also brought my laptop, hoping to find a wireless network somewhere. Rather than bore everybody with details (since my exploring didn't result in anything too exciting), I'll try and sum the day up in a sentence. I studied inside of a gazebo at Albertson's, ate lunch at Subway, found a few wireless networks that I was unable to connect to, and played Solitaire here and there. It started pouring around 3:30 PM and never stopped completely after that (still hasn't). I returned to HP in a light rain around 5:00 PM. Tony said my engine was pretty dirty inside, full of crud, so they cleaned it out pretty good. They installed the lifters and the main vacuum line. They didn't have time to install the exhaust, so that's why I said the "big day" will have to be continued tomorrow. I'll probably take it to Gainesville Exhaust early in the morning and see if they can do it. The engine is idling real well and it drove great on the way back. He pointed out that the brake booster is leaking vacuum, which also contributed to the idle issues, but he said it wasn't that bad. I didn't even notice it on the drive back.

chris83 @ 2005-04-26T00:00:00

2005-04-26T04:01:41Z

Tomorrow is the big day. Actually, today. If all goes according to plan, I'll be having the lifters and exhaust installed on my Mustang. Finally!

chris83 @ 2005-04-23T18:23:00

2005-04-23T22:35:46Z

Dolphins drafted Ronnie Brown, exactly the guy I was hoping for. I vividly remember the 2002 Auburn-Florida game where Cadillac Williams, who the Gator defense was doing a pretty good job of stopping, went down with an injury. I thought the game would only get easier at that point, but no, in comes Ronnie Brown and he ends up gashing the defense, helping Auburn come back from 16 points down. He has all the tools to be a good NFL back, and I'm glad to have him on the Dolphins.

It's really ironic how my internet decided to go down today. Does it not know I have to watch management lectures online? I mean, I thought about downloading all the lectures yesterday just in case something like this happened, but seeing as each lectures is about 130 megabytes, I was a little impatient and decided to just count on the internet being okay. I mean, it's not like it went down very often at all this semester... maybe once or twice. But yeah, it decides to go out during final exam week! Luckily, I had some other stuff to do before I had to watch some lectures. I decided I would take my laptop to the O'Dome to watch or download some lectures through the wireless network, but the FHSAA Weightlifting State Championship was going on there, so I went to the College of Health and Human Performance instead. I basically wasted about 45 minutes there because I tried downloading too many of the lectures and ran out of hard drive space. It was at that time that I realized my connection back at the dorm was up and running again (thank you, AIM). By my calculations, the connection must have come back 2 seconds after I walked out of my dorm. Go figure. So now I'm back at my dorm and I just downloaded all the lectures to my desktop computer since I've got PLENTY of hard drive space. The last lecture downloaded at something like 1.13 MB/sec. All right, time to actually watch some lectures.