Rocking out at PSU with kcon staff

So I called a kumoricon friend for lunch, and he was at PSU going to the meeting. So I figured hmm.... this is not far for me. I hopped on the bike went down, sat through the meeting, when they broke out into groups I took some fliers to pass out then went with a few people to go play rockband in the basement.

The smith center basement it so cool. There is an xbox 360 there (two actually) with the drums for rock band mounted on the floor. Also the screen is a huge projector and the audio was actually quite good. So Rocked out with 3 other k-coners even did a weezer song singing and playing base at the same time. I did not fail!! I also didn't look at the words the whole time.

portland cooling = global warming?

So I got my natural gas bill today. One of the things I noticed was it said.

Avg temp april 2007 (50 degrees)

Avg temp april 2008 (46 degrees)

The Journey.... hmmm

So I was somewhat unimpressed by this church gathering.

I came in and the first song we sang was cool but we did sing a couple of 7 / 11 songs which I detest. (7/11 = seven words repeated 11 times) It seems shallow to me to voice worship in such a way.

The venue was really nice, and everyone looked all trendy and nice. It was a bit overwhelming to see a group of ritzy dressed people. But like the worship seemed to me the whole experience was a bit shallow. After the singing, the worship leader said that if someone is nearby you go and talk to them. The people I came with left off to say hi to someone so there I was standing all alone, first time to the service.

One dude no backup, easily approachable right?

Guess not, no one talked to me not at all. Several people walked right by me and avoided eye contact. One dude even snagged the chair my friend had gotten and sat at a table with cute chicks. I tried to tell him that the chair was taken but I guess I wasn't loud enough.

However, the pastor gave a really good message about riches. It was very applicable focused and pointed. I can tell God has gifted him in such a way.

So, I am not planing to go back, time to wipe the dust off my feet, however I might be bumming around portland foursquare's site to listen to sermons in the near future :)

Dr Dan is a crook?!

So there was always this old hippy looking guy who was in charge of the electrical and computer engineering lab equipment for as long as I can remember. I was talking to one of my classmates and mentioned him apparently he was fired this year!

Dr Dan steals machines donated to portland state and sells them on ebay

portland state school news paper of dr dan scandal

Back in School

So I've been going to school on and off for quite a while. My latest struggle has been the ellusive BS EE at PSU. I started trying to tackle this fish in 2003. In 2004 I got hired full time at Intel and couldn't balance my full time classes and full time work so had a crappy term that time around.

So fast forward to 2008, I'm finally retaking one of the classes I failed that term. It is a new teacher, with a new book (I now have 3 electronics books). Luckily the classes are monday and tuesday. If I can pass this class and the next term I'll have the biggest hurdle left in my PSU BS done with.

Wish me luck!

Scientology in the workplace

So we had this bbq here at work. I saw a little pink flier next to the Portland tribune someone left on a table in the cafe. It was a personality quiz, one was supposed to complete it and mail it back with their address to the local church of Scientology.

I read some of the questions to my coworker while he was munching on his burger. I am kinda not really about Scientology and explained that it's founder was a man who was convicted of fleecing his members and died in hiding, a fugitive. There also was an offer for a paperback of L Ron. Hubbard's book Dianetics for only $7.99 what a bargain.

Anywho, I seriously thought someone planted that there, and so I tossed it after a brief explanation as to why. Walking out, I saw numerous Portland tribunes laying about with pink fliers next to them. Apparently the Portland tribune for Friday includes a free personality test this week.....DOOM

=_=

Super Arcade plans

So I've been pondering getting an arcade box to play games and perhaps maybe make some coinage if possible. However, even the used ones that I actually like cost like $300 plus to ship. New ones cost $1000s of dollars so that's just nuts.

Anyway, There is this dude that has a company that makes MAME boxes.

Dream Arcades His things are new and a whole lot cheaper than ebay.

Basically, a setup like table pac man with a computer inside that has a bunch of emulators to play game age. It costs a bit extra to have PC set up so I've been pondering just setting up my extra pc but figuring out the open source software to run the emulator is not coming easy to me.

I can't really afford to get one right now but it doesn't hurt to dream.

Also, the possibility exits to just grab a box and mod it. I need to figure out how to set up MAME on a PC and get the proper hardware.

There are videos, this for example... Mame setup video

A complete everything-you-want version of this can run $5000-$7000 I see them at this site, really nice!

Fancy Mame