I will be away from the internet for a couple of days. I'm moving to my new home in Hartington, Nebraska. I'm starting my new job on December 1st. Wish me luck on the move!

Oh, BTW, to everybody who's complaining about the banner: Get a life. There's far more important things to worry about than a stupid banner.

I got a job in Hartington, Nebraska! I was interviewed for it a month ago and I got the call today. It's for the telecommunications company there and their computer company. It'll take all day before I'm back to Earth.

I have started to upload my pictures from Oklacon. You can check out a few already on my gallery. I've also been uploading videos to my YouTube channel. The address is http://www.youtube.com/dragonkid463 . There are currently 4 videos on there, with a few more on the way. My Flickr account will have the full sized pics over the next few days. That address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonkid .

I made it back last night from Oklacon 2008. I had a blast! I will do a post con report in a few days after I take the pictures off of my camera and the videos off of my video camera. All pictures will be going to my Flickr account, while all videos will be going on YouTube. See ya later!

~DK

I'm just now heading down to Oklacon at Roman Nose State Park near Watonga, Oklahoma! This will be my first ever con, so wish me luck! See you all Monday!

Stolen from LOTS (including  rakeesh).

1. Open your music library.
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.
7. ???
8. PROFIT!

Songs:
Opening Credits:
“Judas” – Imperative Reaction (Great, I start by betraying people right off the bat!)

Waking Up:
“Life on the Edge” – Eli (My life must be on the edge of a cliff…)

First Day At School:
“New Sensation” – Neuroactive (What is this new sensation!?)

Falling In love:
“Foot Chase” – Trevor Rabin (I must love being chased!)

Fight Song:
“Enforcer (Nimm Das! Remix by NamNamBulu)” – Syrian (I’m enforcing why I’ll win!)

Breaking Up:
“Laughing in the Rain (Midihead’s Cloudburst Mix)” – Midihead (This doesn’t seem right…)

Prom:
“Lose in Wanting” – Iris (That should be interesting…)

Life's OK:
“Hanging by a Moment” – Lifehouse (That doesn’t sound like life’s OK!! )

Mental Breakdown:
“Celebration” – Raze (This is just not working out!)

Driving:
“TWiT/TSS” – Ashley Witt (Apparently, I’m Doin the TWiT while driving…)

Flashback:
“Eclipse” – Apoptygma Berzerk (I don’t remember any aliens invading the Earth!)

Getting Back Together:
“Love Like Razorblade” – Junkie XL (This won’t end well)

Wedding:
“Aurora (Alexia Meatshop Mix)” – The Echoing Green (Sounds like it takes place in a meatshop…)

Birth of Child:
“Independence Day” – Mindless Faith (EVERYONE SHALL BOW TO MY KID!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

Final Battle:
“Humanity” – Accessory (Evidently, more than just me will battle to the end.)

Death Scene:
“House of Joy (Midihead’s Rivithead Mix)” – Monolithic (Why is everybody celebrating???)

Funeral Song:
“Ghost Regen (Fractured Coils Mix)” – Velvet Acid Christ (I have come back to haunt you all!)

End Credits:
“Carpe Diem (DJ Energumeno And Sergio Mesa Mix)” – Silica Gel ( .______.() )

(Stolen from  vgm22 and  dracoofzeradaith )

Fake Friends.
No offense, but ... People are getting too fake on me . They only want posts, comments, or to see how many friends they can get. So let's see who will actually repost this. This is a test to see who's paying attention. This is a test to see how many people in my friends list actually pay attention to me. Copy and repost in your own journal. Lets see who the true friends are and I think I know who you are... Repost this if you are a friend...Don't reply... just copy and paste this in a new journal as "Fake Friends'

True friends will read and repost this. Fake friends will just ignore it.

I'm done with Firefox 3. It's crashing on me way too often. I even did a complete reinstall of it, removing every known piece of it from my system. After launching the clean and vanilla install of it, it crashed 3 minutes later when I was looking at my Yahoo mail. Before today, it even crashed when I wasn't using it. I'm using Maxthon now.

I am finally starting to color again! We'll see how long it lasts. I'm hoping that it lasts for a while so that I can catch up on coloring "Free Lunch." I got a long road ahead of me if I want to color that entire comic, But I'm willing to take the challenge!

Also, since my title says Twitter, I thought that I would let people know that I have a Twitter account. I try to update it at least once a week, which I have been successful at. My Twitter address is http://twitter.com/dragonkid . For those of you that are wondering what Twitter is, it's a cross between a mini-blog and an IM service. That's all the news I have for now. See ya!

I'm off to Colorado for the Memorial Day weekend. Here's were I'm headed: http://tinyurl.com/5e5dzy . I hope that everybody has a fun and safe weekend! I know I will. ^^

(Note: I should have posted this at the beginning of the month, but forgot.)

This is a contest in which you can try to win a brand new laptop-ish computer. It is put on by Buzzcorps. Go to this address for more information on how you can participate in this sweet contest: http://www.31daysofthedragon.com/. Here's the computer details for those who are interested:

The Prize: HP Pavilion HDX 9000 "Dragon" Entertainment Notebook

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64
CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 (2.80GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Display: 20.1" WUXGA High-Definition HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen (1920×1200)
Memory: 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
GPU: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS
Personalization: HP Imprint Finish (Dragon) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone
Networking: Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth™
Hard Drive: 500GB 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (250GB x 2)
Optical: Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
TV & Entertainment Experience: Integrated HP HDTV Hybrid TV Tuner and 4 Altec Lansing speakers + the HP Triple Bass Reflex subwoofer
Battery: 9 Cell

Software Included: Microsoft Office 2007, Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X2, Corel Painter 4, Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus
Games Included: Viva Pinata, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Microsoft Flight Simulator X Acceleration Expansion Pack, Gears of War
Movies Included: Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End (Blu-Ray)

This is a total value worth over $5000! The website above has a list of websites that are participating in this contest.

My day got a little bit better today. I saw, followed, and was followed by Google's StreetView car! In Ulysses, Kansas of all places. Ulysses has a population of 6,000, so it's amazing that they are here! This is the vehicle that I saw: http://www.stormbear.com/wp_images/.....7preview_0.jpg

EDIT: That is not my picture!

Does anybody out there have a copy of Half-Life 2 that they don't need? I'd be more than happy to take it off of your hands, if you happen to have a Steam account. I'm only asking because I currently can't afford to buy it myself, mostly because I have bills that come first. All you have to do is "Gift" it to my Steam email address. PM me for that address. Thanks!

It's been awhile since I updated this thing, so I thought that I would do now while I'm in the mood. Things have been rather interesting over the past few weeks. First off, my job at Pizza Hut is going well....sorta. Apparently, everybody hates/dislikes the store manager. I've already figured out why. She has the ability to be a bitch at will and unfortunately, she's that way all the time. From what I've gathered 5 people have quit because of her attitude and she's only been there since last year. And because there are so few people working there, she won't fire anybody. This one other driver that I work with hasn't been there for over a week. And she is suppose to start again today. Thankfully I'm not working today or tomorrow. I just hope that I don't have to be there until my apartment lease ends. ><

The second piece of news that I have is that I decided to try out something interesting last night. After much deliberation, I downloaded the Half-Life 2 demo, just to check it out. Here's why it's interesting: I am in no way, shape, or form a gamer, especially in the realm of FPS's. I like puzzle-style games. The only FPS I've played before is Portal, even though it isn't classified as a true FPS (I think). But because I've been drawn into the Half-Life series from watching walkthrough videos on YouTube, I figured that I would take a shot at the HL2 demo. Unfortunately, I'm not in much of a gaming mood today, so I'll have to try again later.

The third piece of news that I have is that tomorrow I will be attending a funeral in my hometown at the high school for somebody I knew in high school. He died Saturday morning at a friends apartment when he over the railing on the balcony. It was at least a 15 foot drop. The drop ruptured his liver and caused him to bleed to death. He was only 19 years old and was attending K-State University in Manhattan, Kansas. The high school is going to be filled tomorrow.

~DK

Here's why: At around 5-6 pm every day, the internet slows to a crawl. Now, while somebody might say that it could get slow when everybody is home watching TV or surfing the net (or both), that it would be slow. I would love for that to be the case, except that even at midnight, it's slow. How slow you ask? Well, let me tell you this. I use a download tool called FlashGet and it helps me see how fast a file is downloading. Most of the time, if it's a small file, it'll stay there for at most 10 seconds. I'm currently downloading a 19 MB file and it's telling me that it's going to take 9 minutes to complete. The speed is 14.0K. But that's not the worst of it. One night I was downloading a 66 MB file and it said that it was going to take 6 hours to finish at a speed of 0.42K. 6 hours?! I've already called the help desk and they have said one of 2 things: (1) it's their service provider's fault (which is Cox) or (2) since my modem is not one of their modems, that they can't help me. They've also tried to get me to test my internet speed on their speed tester, and according to it, I'm getting the speeds I'm paying for. There is a flaw with using their speed tester: Their building is .5 miles away from my apartment and it is still in town.

I keep wondering to myself: And I'm paying $80/month for this? That cost is cable TV and the internet, because I have to have cable to get cable internet. I could go DSL, but for the same speed (6 Mbps), I'd be paying over $100/month. *screams*

--DK

Despite the fact that I have been working at my new job for 1.5 weeks, It's not going the way I thought it would and I'll be quiting it on Friday. The major reason as to why? My new boss is a real jerk to his customers. He's mean and childish to them when they aren't there. He's especially disrespectful to me with the fact that he practically thinks that I should know how his business should work when he hasn't basically showed me how he does his business. It's way too frustrating and stressful to deal with this guy. Plus, I am the only employee to him, so it's not like I have somebody that can help me through this. He's even questioned my education to the point that he wants me to believe that I just wasted all that money for nothing and that my degree is worthless. I take that as an insult.

So what will be my next job you ask? Well, I'm gonna start my own computer repair business with possible one-to-one computer training. It'll be strictly computer repair at first, since there is too much competition in the area of building computers, especially with companies like Dell, HP, etc. If somebody wants me to build them a computer, I'll do it. I'll also be working part/full-time at a second job, so that I can have an apartment and internet.

But I need everybody's help!! I need a name for my business! I want it to be a catchy and good name. Please help me achieve this goal of mine!

I found a job!! It's with a somebody who calls himself the Computer Alchemist. He owns a local business about 20-25 minutes from my hometown in a town called Ulysses, Kansas. I will begin working there on about March 3. The biggest thing that I will have to adjust to is that I will no longer be living about 40 minutes from a big city. Now that has turned into at least 3 hours! I will also be losing my ability to just hop into my car and go to Wal-mart or Target, just for the sake of doing so. Those stores will now be about 45-75 minutes away. I will still have access to a RadioShack, so if there is something that I need that instant, I can go there. I will lose a lot of food options as well, like Applebees, Chili's, IHOP, as well as the fast food places such as Taco Bueno, Quiznos, Arby's, Long John Silvers, BurgerKing, Dairy Queen, etc. I will, however, still have Subway, McDonalds, Sonic, and Pizza Hut. I guess we will see whether this will work out or not. If it turns out that this job is not for me, I might start the search all over again. Let's hope that it doesn't come to that. That's all for now!!

I got word from my parents that my great-grandma passed away last night at about a quarter to midnight. She was 100 years old. The funeral will be sometime next week.

R.I.P. Enda Westerman (June 9, 1907-February 1, 2008)

~DK

I found out this morning that my great-grandmother was submitted to the hospital with a terrible illness. To put things into perspective, she turned 100 this past June. She is my last great-grandparent and is one of the sources of my heritage. She was born to German parents and as such, it means that I'm part German. I don't understand the language, but she does. I was told by my parents that she is not expected to live much longer due to this illness. When I talked to my parents tonight, I got an update that she rebounded this morning when they said that she wouldn't make it through the morning. I'm told that her memory is starting to go. Could I please ask everyone to keep my entire family and great-grandmother in your prayers. I'll update this as details come available.

~DK

I received the rest of my parts for my new computer yesterday. I put it all together yesterday as well. Here's a list of what's in it:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad - Q6600 (It's not the new Quads)
GPU: EVGA 8600 GTS (Superclocked)
Monitor: Acer 22-inch LCD
Mobo: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution
Speakers: Logitech Z-5300e 5.1
Case: Apevia X-Cruiser
PSU: 750W (Modular)
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800
HDD's: 500GB & 250GB
Drive: DVD-/+RW w/ Lightscribe
RAM: 2GB PC2-6400
OS: Vista Ultimate

It's running far better than my current PC, which is what I'm typing this on. My current is a P4 2.4 GHZ with 1GB PC-2100 RAM. I'm amazed at the speed of my new system, which is something that I'm not used to. I now have the long process of moving all of my personal files from my old computer to my new one.

As the title says, I am almost home. This is the first time I have been on the internet in 6 days. We are currently at a Super 8 hotel in Tallahassee, Florida. We hope to be home on New Year's Eve. We have been off the ship since 10 am EST. I will be giving a full report on the trip when I get back to my computer. See you all later!!

I'll be gone for about 2 weeks and will be unreachable during this time. I might log into a open WiFi network with my Archos when I'm in a hotel, but as soon I get on the cruise ship, I will be unreachable until I return back home. Have a good and safe Christmas and New Year's Everybody! See you in 2008!

After 2 1/2 years, I have finally finished college!! For all those who are wondering what my degree is, I now have an Associates Degree in Computer Science. The specific area of my career is Computer Support Specialist: Hardware. Now that I have finished college, I will be receiving a new computer as a gift. I will be building it, but I have to wait until after the first of the year, because starting this Friday (Dec 21), I'll be traveling with my family to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to board a cruise ship on Christmas Eve. Here's where we are going:

December 25: Key West, Florida
December 26: Cozumel, Mexico
December 27: Belize City, Belize
December 28: We're on sea
December 29: We arrive back to Florida

And speaking of December 29, I will be turning 21 years old! That is currently the only news that I have for the time being. I'll update later with what I'm probably going to get for my computer.

I survived the storm. Working while the rain was falling was a nightmare. I got completely soaked, which when combined with the freezing temps, made me really cold. I just know that I was starting to develop hypothermia. After work was done, I was able to stay online on the computer until the power went out at about 12:30 am. I went outside to take a look and you could just stand outside and hear it. I was hearing the sound of branches off of tress breaking off and crashing to the ground. That was an eerie experience. I went to bed and woke up at 4 am because the power came back on, which went off again after I went back to sleep. It was off until about 9 am and didn't go out again after that. I went out and took some video footage of the downed limbs all over town. My internet was out all day yesterday and just came back up this morning. The sad part is that there are still people in town without power. Yesterday, when I watched the news, they said (at the time) that 11,131 people had no power. I hope I don't have to go through that again.

When the snow and ice invade! This time it's going to involve more ice than snow. What I mean is that we are under an Ice Strom Warning. This means that we are going to receive at least an inch on ice, which will cause trees and power lines to snap. So if I'm not online for a day or two or longer, blame the ice. To see what the weather is like here, go to http://www.weather.com and enter the zip code 67501 or the city name Hutchinson, Kansas. The local news stations here are http://www.kwch.com , http://www.kake.com , and http://www.ksn.com . The newspaper here is http://www.hutchnews.com . Go figure that this would happen during finals week! Please keep us in your prayers!

~DragonKid