Magic Muffler sucks! On my way home from Lubbock the tail pipe weld out of the muffler broke, the girl following me saw it and told me. I pulled over, looked at it, and saw that the only thing holding the piping to truck was the “hanger” near the rear of the truck. I took the truck into the shop and told them about what had happened and they gave me a lame response (as usual)… The muffler only has a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty. Well isn’t that convenient?! These are the same people who didn’t tell me that they had tie-wrapped my brakeline up, and we all know how that ended (broken brakeline). Anyway, I took the truck to another place and they fixed all up for me, so I’m happy. I have to take the driveshaft off tonight so that we can get the dual u-joints fixed tomorrow morning…. Fun stuff.

Well I made it to Sugar Land alive tonight after another 10+ hours trip. I had a bunch of stuff go wrong and was lucky to get home (again). It’s good to be back, but I realized that I cannot stand the freeways here. People are like bats outta hell driving around here and it’s nerve racking. They need to realize that the speed limit is 70mph for a reason…

This morning on the way to work I was almost struck by a cop that was flying down the road. He didn’t have his siren or his lights on but he was going about 70 mph in a 45. He just about hit me from behind but he swirved and got in one lane over…. Then he gave me this look like I did something wrong, I just stared right back at him thinking to myself “I’m going 45 bud”.

I have come to the conclusion that the one thing that makes the internet great (information on demand) is the same thing that sometimes makes it a pain to use. I did a search for some stuff here at work and got a few good results. I went to the sites and the articles were what I was I looking for and as added bonus the articles had links to other resources. The problem was, none of the links worked!! Everytime I tried a link I got a “Page Not Found” error… Since websites move, site structures change, etc. nothing is constant. However, I think that a lot of websites are getting smart and starting to archive their content and make it available for longer amounts of time (some times infinitely). See I can go to the library, get a book and that book may have references to other books that I can look for. Now the book may not be available at that particular library which is why the internet is great, I can simply search for anything and no matter where it is, I can get it. So, as soon as the problem of keeping data in the same place is solved the internet will become a much better tool.

Well I finished my Economics final tonight and I am done with my third semester of college. The Economics exam wasn’t easy and I am not sure how I did (I’ll find out tomorrow). I am just glad to get this semester out of the way.

Some people brought up a good point a few days ago and I just noticed it yesterday… These McDonald’s commercials 1) suck 2) say that there is now white meat in their chicken nuggets… What in the world?! What was in them before!?!!?!? That song “I’m Loving It” has got to go. Never has a rap not made me want to eat something; Till now.

Wow, I woke up this morning and it was 17 degrees outside! The windchill was around 10 degrees, now that’s cold! Amarillo is about to get snow and it looks like there is a slight chance for us to get it but as usual, when they predict snow, we never get it.

I would like to take a moment to send my condolences to the Whitaker family. Two nights ago the Whitaker family was gunned down in their home, Kevin (went to elementary school with him) died at the scene and his mother died on the way to the hospital. You can read more about it here. This really is tragic and I can’t comprehend how someone could enter a house and be so desperate for money to shoot a family. I guess what’s so shocking about the whole thing is that it was in a nice neighborhood in a city that hasn’t really had a problem with major crimes.

Well there isn’t a whole lot going on in Lubbock today… The temperature dropped to 20 last night with a windchill of 12, needless to say the roads were frozen this morning.

Today is the “dead day” or a day of no class and no finals. It is basically a day to study but I doubt very few people actually study though. I am going to study a little for my Accounting test but since I had a review last night I am not too worried about it. Economics will take up most of my time because I want to make an ‘A’ on it.

I have started a log analysis tool for websites using Python and wxPython. It should come out pretty well but who knows, I am really worried about large log files clogging up the code but we’ll see.

Well today is the last day of classes here at Texas Tech University. Am I excited? Oh, you know it…

I have two finals on Saturday, my ISQS (computer) and Accounting. Economics is not till next Tuesday and it is the main exam that I am going to study for, just because it is so important. (That was sarcasm if you didn’t get it).

I am still trying to come up with good software ideas but haven’t been able to come up with anything as of yet.

As a sidenote, I am in the process of trying to fix my truck to the point where it is almost brand new. I think I am going to open up a little donations thing and call it “Operation Fix Stephan’s Tank” or something like that. Probably won’t get a lot of money from it but anything would help at this point. It needs new springs, the interior needs to be redone, the top needs to be taken off, resealed and put back on. Basically it needs to be restored.

Lubbock + wind + cold = dust and an unpleasant time…. The dust has really picked up and the sky is red, yippee . Since I live on the north side of town it is probably really bad over there (because the wind coming out of the north has nothing to stop it. I am really not too excited about going to Economics today.

The temperature has dropped into the low 30’s with a wind chill of 20. The temp last night was 73!!! The weird thing is the temperature keeps dropping by a few degrees every hour, it will probably be in the teens by tonight. Supposedly there is snow on the way but I don’t believe it.

Smooth Fusion had the Christmas party last night and it was pretty fun even though I got lost on the way out there. The steaks were great!!