OK, the voting public has spoken and it looks like it is going to be a topic based forum, however since there was some opposition and someone even suggested something else entirely, I am going to do that. I am going to combine all of the ideas. The board will be threaded, but you can have the option to list all the threads or just view the thread topics or category. The choice will be stored in your user preferences. More information will be available by clicking on Thought & Perversions to the left.

Well, there are only a few people that I know now that have ever seen me without a goatee and mustashe. Well, now is your chance. Skin that is being touched now for the first time in five years is now exposed.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so take a look:

You can now add messages and threads to the forum. Still in Beta obviously... let me know if there are any problems. Cool features to follow. Cheers.

I guess that I should have mentioned this earlier but I hoped people might find it on their own. From the members page, you can now upload an icon (up to 64 by 64 gif or jpg) that will represent them on the forum. (It will appear beside your username... check out the forum for examples. If you do not upload one, then you default to using the echo! rings icon.

Now the icons can be 75 X 75 pixels... you can thank Rage who came over here and helped me figure out a way to make it work. Enjoy.

In the next week or so, I plan to add the ability for cookies to remember your login between browser sessions. Also I will add the ability to add your own links and I also plan to have a calendar of events thing that will allow me to have events such as PI day and whatnot advertised. We'll see how it goes. :)

My links page is up. It is sparse at the moment, but any users can add to the list. Rage, I'm sure this will appeal to you.

So, talks broke off yesterday, so that likely means that we will be a bit still before classes resume. I am starting to get to the point where I just don't want to go back. I am happy just working on my website all day.

In more important news, it is PI DAY! The third month and the 14th day. 3.14. :) So celebrate in style, eat some pie, watch Pi the movie and whatever it is that you want to do to give this powerful number its due respect.

In case you were wondering, the blue thing to the right is a statue thing that was on display outside a place on Spring Garden Monday when Chris and I walked downtown. We both bought sunglasses, yes more sunglasses, I will get some pics up soon.

Check out my AI assignments [dead link removed] if you wish.

That is right. Today from 4 until 7pm in the computer science building there will be a Geek Beer. That is, pizza and beer along with free pop and snacks. Games and other fun activities will be occuring. This one is an early celebration of St. Patricks Day, so I would expect there to be somewhat of a "green" theme happening. :)

PI Day went well... but not as well as last year. I did manage to dig out my old pi shirt from last year, which had bled throught quite nicely. We did it in markers so I guess I'm not really surprised. Still did the trick though.

Now I am off to make sure I can have a place to live over the summer. Cheers.

I would like to invite everyone out to the Grawood tonight from 9 until 1 for a night of techno and house. Featuring Idris with support from DJ Sputnik and Merrill. The cost is $3 and you just can't beat that for 4 hours of floor shaking beats. I was commissioned to do the promotion flyers for this event, so check it out.

I had a lot of fun at the Geek Beer last night. There weren't as many people as usual, and at one point I drove down to Cleves with Josh to get Ping Pong balls. All in all, I enjoyed myself. Oh yes, and a free slice of pizza.

I am going to see Resident Evil today, so I will let you kow what I think of it. I have never played the game, and I have heard mixed review about the movie - some from people who haven't even seen it, but I will be the judge of whether I like it. :)

Well this is the second year in the last five, that I haven't been in Europe for St. Patrick's Day. I'm not trying to brag, just that it seems that this time brings me a bit of nostalga. Oh well. I have some some good friends here to spend it with and that is even more important.

As for Vexant last night: I had a great time. There weren't that many people there, which is on par for any electronic event held at a bar, but towards the end there was at times a fairly large group up dancing. I think that all of the artists did an excellent job. Merrill and DJ Sputnik were both great and unfortunately had a tough crowd to please. Thanks to Devin and Courageous Productions for this event.

If you are a sucker for action or Milla Jovovich is scant outfits then I definitely recommend you take in Resident Evil, the latest in the gamut of video games turned movies. If you have some sort of aversion towards zombies or super intelligent computers, then you can take this off your list, but to everyone else, I would definitely recommend that you go see this one. Considering that the movie was based off of a video game, I would say that the story is fairly well developed and the action is definitely up to the challenge. I personally have never played the game, but did thoroughly enjoy the movie.

Welcome to week three of the Dalhousie Faculty Association strike. No classes, technically, and I am still getting up at 7:00am to go to the gym. I have lost all idea of why exactly I was doing this in the first place.

For anyone who may have seen my AI page thing, I am re-doing the whole thing using Flash. I'm doing this for two reasons. 1. I think it would be great to actually show the path being traced out, and 2. I enjoy challenging myself - this particular "project" is teaching me some aspects of Flash that I hadn't explored yet. Just an FYI, I will link the program once it is in an operable state. :P

Needless to say, my St. Patricks day was spent mostly working with Flash, but I did go out to Hogies for supper. It was a great time and a welcome change from Howe Hall food or Mr. Noodles in my apartment. :)

I just go to work. Of course, I am starting to wish that nothing happens at work, because today was busy. Very busy. It turns out a lot of people want to sublet their apartments this time a year. Go figure. Not only that, but many people have decided that the middle of March is the best time to make their reservations for this summer. Not that I blame them, it just makes for a very busy day.

I also saw "Don't Say A Word" at the computer science movie night last night. It was a pretty good movie. I don't have a lot to say about it... it is a thriller of sorts starring Michael Douglas, and in my opinion he did a really good job.

Ummm... that's about it.

Just to keep those people who haven't signed up informed of the changes to the forum. You can now reply to the threads by filling in the box at the bottom of that page. Links are now automatically "linked" as well. Check it out for yourself though. :)

You can now parse the message board for words of interest. They are automatically bolded for you. Go to the members page to add yours.

Today was somewhat successful. I got to sleep in, then went to the gym. I did three loads of laundry. I managed to get the front part of my computer spray painted to match the sides, I now only have the top left, but that will have to wait until I get more paint.

I also returned my aunt's computer, which is now working. I now have more room in here to throw my dirty laundry, now that I have cleaned it all. And finally, I watched the first half of the Lord of the Rings.

An interesting side note, they have added two more main categories for electronic music on mp3.com. They are Electonic Cover Songs and UK Garage. There may be more sub-categories, but I haven't looked everywhere. And of course, electronic is the only section on there that I am familiar enough with to notice a change like that. Well good night.

Well folks, if you weren't out out to Dusted last night, you really missed a great time. We ended up in Queensland, just past Hubbards at a place called the Seabreeze. The place was not very busy, but it was quite nice. People started ordering drinks, and Chris, Martin, Richard and I started playing darts (which I haven't played in like, forever).

It wasn't however, until Gloria showed up that things got really interesting. She was the woman who did the karaoke and told us that she could set it up for us. So she did and once we started, well, we just couldn't stop. It turned out that we had to "bribe" the bus driver to stay until 2am, when the bar closed. So we sang (sort of) until closing and then piled into the bus to come home. I personally had an awesome time and thanks to Richard, Tracy, Andy, Mike and any one else who had a hand in organizing this event.

But the fun isn't over for me though. Tonight is the first (and only) Glengary Pub Crawl. The t-shirt is the one pictured to the right. Starts around 7pm I believe and then we end up at the Dome if I recall. I will likely have more to say about that tomorrow morning.

So this weekend is a busy one for me. I also am stealing any free moments to work on assignments. The strike continues, but the end is in sight, I guess. I'll tell it like I know it. So far that is all I know. :)

My Brief Scenes of Nudity section is finally up. For those who might be a bit concerned, this is what I am calling my Flash animation showcase. Check it out. I will add more to the section as a have it.

Glengary Apartments had its first pub crawl of the year last night. While the crawl technically started at 7pm, I don't know if anyone showed up for the Thirsty Duck. Planet Pool was next on the list and I heard that a few people were there for that one. Split Crow was set for 9pm and then to the Argyle for 10. That is when I arrived, along with other people from the 4th floor (and Rage).

I must say that the Argyle sucked while we were there. However, Skratch Bastard was set to perform at 11pm, and even Idris was there. Everyone took off to Pacifico, but three of us remained to take in a bit of Skratch Bastard. However we didn't stay long as we were the ONLY people in the entire downstairs dance area. Pacifico was on par for all the other times I had been there - which is to say that it is better than most. Then we headed to JJ's. I had a fun time there, but the upper dance floor (the bad one) was very hot and that was where all my neighbours wanted to be. Needless to say the cool air outside was a welcome relief when we finally made it out. The Dome was supposed to be next, but we would have had to pay to get in (even on a pub crawl) so we just headed home.

I ended up with a donair on the way home and capped off the night in indulgent bliss. That is about it for the pub crawl. I haven't really done anything today either. Oh well... the Oscars are on soon. :)

Tonight is Oscar night and these are my predictions for some of the categories. These aren't really even predictions based on any sort of criteria, just who I would like to see win each category. I haven't seen all of these movies or even most, but here is goes:

Oscars are over. The ones I got right are checked off. The ones I got wrong have the winners listed in blue.

I was wondering if I was going to have to break out the letter V to represent the strike weeks. :) I guess so. However, word on the street (and in my apartment building, and on CBC) is that some sort of deal has been reached (tentatively). I must say though... this whole craziness has certainly given new meaning to "March Break" whereby if we do indeed go back on Monday we will have only had classes one day in March - March 1st. Frankly, I'm not sure how I will be able to handle terms in the future without a month long hiatus somewhere in the mix.

I watched the Oscars on Sunday night. That was fun... I think it was the first time I had watched the whole thing before. You may have seen my predictions page, but in any case, A Beautiful Mind came away with best picture. If you haven't seen this movie, you don't need me to tell you that it is really good. Russell Crowe is amazing in the role which is quite a bit different than his work with Gladiator.

I tried/succeeded at cutting my own hair. I was getting sick of it getting long, so I cut it. Oh yes, I am also too cheap to pay to get it cut and while my grandmother normally cuts it, I wasn't about to bother her with it. She has a pretty crazy couple weeks, not to mention that she is going to the UK tomorrow to visit my aunt. The point being - the back is very hard to do and I am not finished with it, but I think I did a good job on the top. Not an endeavor for those who really care what their hair looks like. Recommended for those with relatively simple styles and a tight wallet. :) Enjoy.

So. It's Good Friday today. At least in terms of the fact that it is a holiday. I also can see from my window that it looks like a fairly nice day weather-wise here as well. That may not be true - often the sunny days are as cold as all hell, but at least it is sunny. I would also like to say sorry for the extended period in which my site was "unavailable" (just like all the girls I meet) and although I doubt anyone suffered any serious loss because of it, I am flattered to realize the number the people who emailed me with concern (and disappointment).

So, we are going back to class. Yea that goddamn strike is finally over. Four weeks it lasted. Of course we would have to be going back on April Fool's Day. This will only lead to a small degree of crazy - if left unchecked. The plan is that we will not have any formal exam period and that all evaluation will be in class. I can only tell you that this is not going to be a pretty ride, and I hope that my seat belt wasn't made by some disgruntled, impoverished employee, who decided that it just wasn't his day. Oh well... I guess I'll have to wait an see.

As far as this weekend goes, my brother is here. I will be giving a PHP and MySQL tutorial at some point today. If you are actually interested in learning about this, let me know and I might be able to squeeze you in. Also there is a CS Easter egg decorating time at 4pm today, so we will likely attend that as well. Well the day is young and seeing as how I found out that the Dalplex is closed today, I should probably try to get a bit more sleep. Cheers

If you find that any of my pages are giving you errors (database errors specifically) then please let me know. I upgraded my security on the site and as such had to move a critical file. The references to this file may not all have been changed to reflect these new changes yet and as such, will not likely work. I tried to get them all, but some are likely to slip through the cracks. Again - sorry for the inconvenience.

Hopefully we won't have another outage soon, but if anyone has any suggestions of what to display in the event that there is another outage, let me know.

Well I am back from denting my bank account. Despite my usual compulsive buying habits I actually spent the least amount of my spendthrift trio. I came back a new CD - electronic sessions > techno, which I will mention is downright awesome. I also purchased a nice pair of Koss headphones (pictured), which replace my currently broken pair of nice Genexxa ones that I tried twice to solder back to life. I also bought the movie Joy Ride on DVD. This was a good movie in the theatres and has four (4) alternative endings (one of which is 29 minutes long).

My brother however, bought an 80 GB hard drive. Why? Because he could. He already has 40 GB in his server and a 30 gig drive in the family computer at home. I could see if he had a high speed internet connection, but unfortunately, we can still only get dial-up at home. :(

And I just noticed that it is starting to rain here. Well, I guess we got back in time then. I hope that everyone has a pleasant Easter weekend, whether you celebrate it or not. Chocolate is a universal obsession. :) Have a good one. Cheers

I have added the highlighting of new messages to the forum and as well, the date and user of the last post is given - not the first one for any given thread.

I have now added the Remember Me check box to the login console (which has been changed to HTML from Flash). When you select this box, your logins will persist after you have closed and restarted your browser, even after restarting your computer. I know this option was planned for a while, thank you for waiting.

Well. Today is Easter Sunday. That only means that tomorrow we have classes again. I guess I should be saying that it is about time. And it is, but I can't help but feel at least a bit disheartened in being jerked back into reality from a content state of apathy. I will be the first to admit that yes, I treated this as a bit of a vacation, but unlike many, no, I will not suffer because of it. Maybe a little haste and compression are what the majority of our classes need. I guess time will tell, but there's not much of it left.

I did however, have an excellent Easter Dinner thanks to Karen. I honestly can't remember what I had last year for Easter Dinner, but I do imagine that because it was from the cafeteria in residence, it likely wasn't very good. :) This year however, Karen's self-described "non-traditional" Easter meal was more than perfect for me. Thank you.

I have more than enough chocolate in the past while, but is that really surprising around this time of year. I would like to wish everyone a good day tomorrow, especially those people, unlike us, who have the day off. :) Cheers