I know most of you have probably seen it on TV, but you haven't fully experienced the nationwide phenomenon that is Darrin's Dance Grooves until you've visited Darrin's website. It is a symphony of site and sound from the moment you enter the website and are greeted by the voice of Darrin himself, sometimes informing you that you have somehow stumbled upon "the hottest website in the country" (in a sound clip with the familiar "recorded via answering machine" feel), and occasionally letting you in a hot secret, a new personal message from Darrin inviting all visitors to one of his "DDG Dance Conventions".

The site is slow and unreliable (apparently Darrin is a better Bronx Street Dancer than he is a web designer), but from what I can gather these "Conventions", held in places such as Alabama, are gatherings of nontalented preteens looking to dance like Britney and N*Sync. The Chris Hill Festival would like to bring you a live report from one of these conventions, but apparently St. Louis is not a lucrative enough market to warrant our own convention.

You, the reader, can change that. I am urging all of you to go here and contact Darrin himself, begging him to bring his traveling circus to the Gateway City. If the site isn't down, that is. You'd think with all the money Darrin is raking in on video sales he could at least pay somebody (like me for instance...) to maintain his page and keep it running.

Speaking of webpages, I have been getting a lot of random websurfers coming to my page in search of Dashboard Confessional tabs. Apparently I rank highly in Google for not only Chris Carrabba-related things (such as hair), but for anything Dashboard. Thanks to this post, I will also be able to cash in on surfers looking for a deal on Darrin's Dance Grooves video or DVD. Now if only I could find some way to slide some advertising into this site without anyone noticing, I could really rake in the dough from all these new visitors...

The semester is winding down, so I've been putting the finishing touches on various projects. I have a robotics demo and writeup due on Thursday which is the culmination of the whole semester's work on the big red research robot. Right now, no one in my group has contacted me about a meeting, so I am a bit worried that we will get something impressive to demo.

I also am supposed to be putting the finishing touches on WUGrade for use this summer. Somehow these both have to get done by Thursday, which is when grades are due and when senior week begins. I will not have any distractions, though, since regretfully my girlfriend is going home for the week, so maybe I will actually be able to get it all done.

The competition is heating up between Erv and Ab9. Right now James holds a slim lead 9-7. Only a few days left (the contest ends May 3), keep checking to find out who wins...

I, along with David and michael took possession of an apartment this morning. It's over on Clara Avenue in the Debaliviere neighborhood near the Forest Park metro station. This is both good and bad, because while there are occasionally some unsavory characters at the station at night I can now fly home for only a $1.50 metro ride instead of a $25+ cab ride. It's also right on the shuttle route so I can easily get to work/school in the morning.

As a side effect of moving in we had to get the utility companies to turn on the electricity and gas. The electricity came on just fine, but the gas man came to turn on the gas and gave us some disturbing news. The valve on the gas pipe apparently leaks (why this wasn't discovered long before I really don't know). Not only this but his recommendation was to replace the entire gas thingamajig with a new one, and upon closer inspection this appears to be sound advice. There was rust all over everything: pipes, valves, big metal things, everything. It also made strange noises when it was turned on. Debaliviere maintenance, however, will most likely hit it with a wrench, put duct tape over the leaky valve, and declare it good to go, leaving us in a potential death trap. They did give us a nice apartment-warming gift basket filled with Cardinals-themed toys, crack jacks, and peanuts, however, so I'd call it about even.

Here is an email I received today. I left all spelling and grammar as is:

Klez.E is the most common world-wide spreading worm.It's very dangerous by corrupting your files.
Because of its very smart stealth and anti-anti-virus technic,most common AV software can't detect or clean it.
We developed this free immunity tool to defeat the malicious virus.
You only need to run this tool once,and then Klez will never come into your PC.
NOTE: Because this tool acts as a fake Klez to fool the real worm,some AV monitor maybe cry when you run it.
If so,Ignore the warning,and select 'continue'.
If you have any question,please mail to me.

Strangely enough the immunity tool was not attached as promised, which disappointed me. I am very nervous about contracting this stealth anti-anti-virus worm, so if anyone else has access to it please email it to me. I was very lucky to be randomly selected as a recipient of this fantastic computer protection aid, now if only I could actually get it...

I now know the weirdest feeling in the world. For the past couple of days, my watch has kept time that has been slightly slow. My girlfriend thinks it's just running slow because of the battery, but this morning I discovered otherwise. I woke up at around 10:10 and my watch, surprisingly enough, read 10:10. So I read for awhile, took a shower, and put some laundry in the washer, and looked at my watch again. 12:05 it said. Then I looked at a clock. It disagreed and said 12:20. I can't adequately explain the feeling of having 15 minutes go by in a span of seconds, but it is definitely very very odd, almost like some sort of twilight-zony alternate-universe type feeling.

So I started watching my watch to see if I could discern if it was indeed moving slower, and I discovered the cause of the problem. Every minute or so, the second hand "ticks" but returns to its original position. This goes on for a few seconds, then it resumes its normal path. Technology is supposed to be so great, but I dont' recall sundials ever behaving like this.

The promised day has finally arrived. Check out the music page (linked up top) for lyrics to all of my original songs to date and sound clips of a few select classics. Look there for the previously unreleased demo of the Chris Hill Festival classic, Got to Get Her Out. There is also a link on that page to my old band from high school, 3 Ring Circus, if you're looking for some good comedy (and some bad web design). Once we get some upload bandwidth issues straightened out I'll have more sound files, but for now be thankful that there are only the few.

I know, I know, I've gotten a little slack about posting lately. There hasn't really been the much going on in my life that has been postworthy. Also, because of the popularity of -273, my ftp password has been changed and the new one hasn't been working. But don't worry, soon there will be content to add to the music section, so you can rejoice in that knowledge.

My challenge has not exactly generated a flurry of posting, but the tally so far for the contest between Erv and Ab9 is a whopping 6 posts for Erv and a surprisingly promising 3 for Ab9. I've also received word that -273 may be welcoming some new weblogs into the fold sometime soon. Soon it will control every weblog, and then there will be no stopping the power of -273...

Tiger Woods is God according to this website, which features pictorial evidence, Tiger's "10 Commandments", and a weekly prayer amongst other features. Fortunately it is very tongue-in-cheek, but it is still disturbing in both content and web design. Tiger isn't the only deity walking amongst us, however. Check out these other "religious" websites...

Ivanova is God!: a Claudia Christian fansite featuring the dreaded scourge of the internet: Fan Fiction. [shudder] (in case you didn't know, and I'm with you on this one, Claudia is an actress on the sci-fi show Babylon 5)

John Irving is God: Featuring one of the most annoying mouse movement dhtml scripts I have ever seen.

Nick Rhodes is God: Bet you didn't know that a member of the ever-popular BritPop band Duran Duran was a deity. Neither did I.

Dave Navarro is God: Another musical divinity, this time from Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers fame.

Foley is God: Based on the worship of WWF superstar Mick Foley. I am now convinced the wrestling fans are strange, strange people.

Del Pieros is God: The Lord is also apparently a soccer player. Who woulda thunk it?

And finally, I leave you with a site dedicated to proving that God is made of soap, which would seem to contradict the other sites.

The debate rages onward.

I have just returned, along with 7 other WashU students, from an evening of hockey. It was the championship game between Dr. Ron Cytron's team the Blast and their archrivals the Eagles. I say archrivals because all 9 games in the season were played against them. The Eagles took the early lead, but the Blast dominated the 2nd and 3rd periods to make a valiant comeback. Alas, they came up just short and lost 3-2. Some game highlights:

-At one point the Blast had 3 men in the penalty box at the same time, which was more than the scoreboard had room for.
-michael got locked out of the arena for 10 minutes during the 3rd period.
-My aforementioned CS professor/research advisor was on the ice for four of the five goals scored despite playing sparingly. His plus/minus ended up at 0.
-Being the CS tools that we are, someone amongst us printed out a banner for the game that read 'public static void main(String args []) { Blast.Cytron.Go() }'.

All in all it was a quite enjoyable evening even if the Blast ended up on the short end of the stick in the championship game. It has also inspired me to resume my tennis career this summer. If anyone knows of any St. Louis-area tennis organizations that run open tournaments, please let me know.

David has a good post about W.I.L.D. and Team 31 at -273, you should all go read it if you go to WashU. It is utterly ridiculous that this one student group, cloaked in secrecy, has all-encompassing discretion on how to spend a budget of over $100,000 given to them from student funds.

You should also head over to -273 in order to request stickers. No charge, and David will even mail them to you usually in the same day as your order. Stick 'em up wherever you go and spread the word.

Last night I went to Brentwood Lanes in order to participate in some good old-fashioned karaoke bowling. The major problem was that there was no one there to man the karaoke booth, and none of the other employees had any idea where they were. There is only one reason to go to Brentwood Lanes, which is located in the basement of an office building and doesn't even have automatic ball-returners, and that reason is karaoke. It doesn't take a college degree to run a karaoke machine either, couldn't they have just offered someone minimum wage to run it for the night?

Tomorrow is the last class of my undergraduate career. Strangely, it doesn't feel like I'm actually finishing since I will be staying for 2 years of graduate school and staying here this summer to do research with Dr. Ron Cytron, a faithful Chris Hill Festival reader and hockey player. Come to think of it, I've actually been living in St. Louis for the last 21 months, with only a week home here and there for vacation. I still think of sleepy, boring, Stuart, FL as my home, but I've only been there for 5 weeks in the past year and a half.

There is a mannequin in Gregg (my dorm), and it's creeping me out! For some reason, someone has put a life-sized wooden mannequin in the large window downstairs where Enterprise Rent a Car used to be. Ever time I walk by, I am startled by this wooden feaux-human and its spooky pose and lifeless face.

W.I.L.D. was cancelled last night due to inclement weather (lightning storms and heavy heavy rains). Because of the weather, I was not present, but I heard that the drunk half-naked contingent was none too happy at the cancellation. This debacle combined with last Fall totals $100,000+ spent by Team31 and all we have to show for it is a concert by Reese (?? I don't know who he is either) that nobody actually saw. We can't blame Team31 for the weather, but we can blame them for no backup plan and the fact that all of the remaining funds will be spent on who knows what.

Tomorrow is notable for two reasons. The first, of course, is that it is W.I.L.D., as I have previously mentioned. I plan on going but not sticking around for the bands, as they will invariably suck.

The second, and more important, reason why tomorrow is notable is that it is Vanessa's and my 6 month anniversary. The last half year has just flown by. I cannot think of anyone I would rather have spent the last six months of my life with, here's to six more babe.

I have found the one extracurricular activity that will put WashU over the top and vault it immediately to the #1 school in the nation: Livestock Judging.

There was a camel outside of Mallinckrodt today.

While, as I mentioned yesterday, I am the 3rd-highest site at Google for all things Chris Carrabba hair, I discovered that I am not even on the first page of links for my own name, Chris Hill. Instead, here are some of the other sites that are apparently more relevant to me than this one. According to Google, I am...

...the author of the "Chris Hill Tesla Coil Homepage".
...a Michigan State college basketball player.
...a member of the LDS church who runs the Donny Osmond International Network.
...a North Carolina high school senior who died in an auto accident 2 years ago.
...a professional triathlete in Australia.
...the owner of a Memphis construction company.
...the 1997 Australian Fly Fishing Champion.
...a biochemical researcher at a lab at the University of Utah.

...and finally, after all of these, author of The Chris Hill Festival.

Ouranophobe has 3 new posts today to follow up a 5-post day yesterday. Contrast this with Erv and Ab9, which have one quality post each in the last week and a half (where a "quality post" is one that was not made as a reaction to other sites complaining about your lack of posting or consisting only of the word "sleep" with a large number of "e"'s).

With this in mind, I am offering up a challenge to Erv and Ab9. Over the next few weeks (until May 3, when dorms close to all underclassmen), whichever site has the largest number of quality posts will be declared the winner and receive as a prize the spot on the far right of my "community" link bar. If after this period of time neither site has made what I consider to be more than a bare minimal number of posts, I reserve the right to not link to either one. Likewise if they both put forth a strong effort I may consider linking to both.

Let the games begin...

Thanks to the new stats package that has been installed on negative273, I can now see how people are getting to my site. The majority are coming in through my link from negative273, but one person today found my page after doing a Google search for the phrase "Chris Carrabba hair". If you'll recall from an earlier post, Chris Carrabba is the lead singer of Dashboard Confessional. I am proud to say that Google lists The Chris Hill Festival as the third most-relevant page for the phrase "Chris Carrabba hair". Hopefully this post will push me over the top, up to being the #1 page for all things "Chris Carrabba hair".

The real question is why a search like this? Is someone out there looking for a photo to bring to the salon?

Young Indie-wannabee: "Style my hair like this please" [holds up picture of Chris Carrabba and his greased mess]
Hair Technician: "Hell no" [goes on break]

I'll reveal more entertaining web referrals as I get them...

There has been a shocking development in my realm of existence that I must share with you, dear readers. My girlfriend's roommate Michelle has a nickname. No, that is not the shocking part. She was first dubbed Mish Mish by Vanessa, but this has since morphed into MishMash. She even owns a hat proudly displaying the MishMash moniker. However, today it was revealed to me that she has made a bold proclamation: that she no longer wishes to be called MishMash.

This may seem like a mundane statement, but it goes against the very fiber of our society. You see, one does not choose their nickname, the name is chosen for them. And once this name is chosen, it never goes away whether you like it or not. Having a nickname is like getting married, you are stuck with it through richer or poorer, for better or for worse.

When Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs went bezerker on J-to-the-L-O and his record producer and was therefore cast into shame, he decided to try a rebirth under the equally inane name "P. Diddy". However, the majority of the public still derisively refers to him as Puffy. Ditto with Dwight Gooden, who is still Dr. K despite numerous run-ins with the law. Mike Tyson is still Iron Mike, and whatever alien being arose from Darryl Strawberry is still called Straw.

A nickname is a sign of respect, of admiration, of the fact that you are such a great and unique individual that you are deserving of a name that is apart from all others. But most importantly, the nickname must come from without, not from within. You cannot create a nickname for yourself, just as you cannot destroy a nickname that has been bestowed upon you.

Therefore, when I am asked to no longer refer to Michelle as MishMash, it's not that I am being spiteful or uncaring by politely declining. Instead, I realize that I as just one of billions of people on this planet do not have the power to alter the rules that are stitched into the fabric of our society, of our heritage as one human race.

Revel in your nickname, enjoy it for the unique symbol of respect that it is, but do not attempt to erase it from public consciousness. For to do so and succeed would be an unprecedented feat that could threaten to tear apart humanity itself.

Last night I was browsing through the list of upcoming movies for this year, and it should be a strong year for movies, specifically sequels. Star Wars Episode II, The Matrix Revisited, and Austin Powers 3, for instance, all debut this summer along with Men in Black II. Further along the horizon we see Harry Potter II, the newest Bond movie, X-men II, Terminator 3, and of course the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. However, there are also some downright odd movie choices coming up soon...

The Country Bears: Mere words cannot adequately describe this. Let's just say that Haley Joel Osment plays a 10-year-old talking bear, the movie is based on the Country Bear Jamboree attraction at Disney World, and Christopher Walken is also involved. Watch the trailer at the link above, it is quite disturbing. The worst part is, there are also plans for a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Yikes.

Scooby-Doo: This was one of the greatest cartoons ever, so why convert it to a live-action feature in its big-screen adaptation? And why in the world would Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar agree to be in this? The last time a great classic cartoon got live-actioned into a movie was the complete debacle that was Inspector Gadget, and I expect nothing better from this one.

Indiana Jones 4: The fact that this movie is being made is fantastic, I love the first three. However, isn't Harrison Ford getting a little old to be playing action heroes, especially a character he popularized 15 years ago? This had better not be one of those "main character ages and tutors impertinent youngster to follow in his legacy" movies like Mask of Zorro.

The Hulk: Enough already with the superhero movies! Between Spider-Man, Daredevil, X-Men II, and the rumored Batman: Year One or Batman Beyond flicks coming out I think we will have our fill of comic book adaptations. This one appears to have the worst plot and cast listing so far of the group, but others could come into contention as more info is released about them. None of these will ever compare to Spawn, however, which is by far one of the worst movies ever made.

[drum roll please]

This year's W.I.L.D. lineup has finally been announced. Consisting of "four MCs and two DJs" (according to their website), Jurassic 5 will be storming into the Quad on April 19. And of course they will be toting with them their "unique" brand of "old-school revival" hip-hop.

And kicking off the show in fine fashion will be the Black Eyed Peas. I can't actually tell anything about their music from their website, only that there are many many opportunities to purchase their merchandise, but judging from Team 31's booking history they are most likely some sort of generic hip-hop group with little to no "musical instruments" or "popularity".

Normally I would rant and rave here about the way in which Team 31 has completely wasted the $100,000+ that they have been allocated by Studen Union on bands like the aforementioned and Fall Headliner "Reese", but instead I have just one thing to say: Right now I am listening to a CD of shoddily-recorded songs by Billy Corgan (formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins, currently of Zwan) back when he was only 18 years old and a member of a band known as The Marked. The songs are, for the most part, horrible. There is one, for instance, which is a looped drum machine and synthesizer and the words "Zieg Heil" repeated over and over again. In another, aptly titled "Go Play Guns", bassist Dale Meiners sings the line "violence kills, so what the hey" amonst others. The recording quality is not bad, all things considered, but even the most die-hard fans of Corgan consider these songs to be downright terrible. Despite all of this, I would seriously rather see the often-humorous Marked have a reunion at W.I.L.D. and perform than suffer through two more nondescript hip-hop bands. I'm sure I will have much more to say on the subject later this week.

(Incidentally, if anyone would like to share in my enjoyment of the Marked and the hilariously embarassing early years of Billy Corgan, let me know and I'll burn you a CD or something)

Last night I saw Big Trouble, the movie based on Dave Barry's aforementioned "fiction book". It was very funny, as David said in his review, and despite what some of the lamebrained critics have said the airport security scenes were completely outlandish and not tasteless, especially considering they were filmed long before September 11.

My hair is getting so long that I don't even bother to comb it or put gel in it anymore. I just dry it off and let it flop wherever it wants to. This would be attractive if I were an indie rocker, but I'm not (yet), so I really need to get a haircut soon.

Speaking of being an indie rocker, last night I had two separate dreams about playing the guitar. In both of them I was thrust at the last minute into playing a song in front of a few people, and in both I played the songs right but the guitar made weird noises. What does this mean?

The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees twice in a row. Let's hope they can make it three while I am working on the robot all afternoon.

OK, ok, there is no war between the Chris Hill Festival and Ab9 Online. I removed it from the top community link bar for reasons outlined a few days ago, and that is that. David seems to be trying to stir up trouble, if he wasn't hosting me right now I'd have to consider putting him on top-bar probation...

There is really not much other news on my end, so here are some more crazy stories from around the net:

-Who are these people? Good heavens...

-Germans are weird, here is even more proof.

-It's a match made in heaven, the former woman of a wife-beater and the guy who only wears wife-beaters.

-What would you steal if you had a chance rob a home shared by Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake? These folks chose nail polish and a blue and white "Gilligan-style" hat. Ouch.

-Some people have way too much free time.

-And finally, it's official, cows have better beds than I do. What is our world coming to?

Everyone needs to go to the M&M homepage and vote for them to bring back tan. Just click on "write in your own color" and write in "Tan". You can vote as many times as you like, so keep the votes rolling in for the greatest of all M&M colors which was unjustly dropped during its prime.

If you haven't noticed, I have done a little editing to the top bar. The -273 community would like to welcome its newest member, James Brodman, and his weblog erv. I have consequently removed Ab9 Online, since it technically is not part of -273 and my link to his page was never reciprocated. He also did not update his log as frequently as I would like to see. Keep this in mind, James. My link bar is not a right, it is a privilege.

The Red Sox have won 4 games in a row, although all against crappy teams.

Spring has come to St. Louis!!...for now. The weather here is completely unpredictable. Right now it is sunny and for the most part warm, but the low tonight is supposed to be in the 40's. It gets really warm every once in awhile for about a day, then it gets cold again. I don't think mother nature realizes that it is nearing the middle of April.

Speaking of April, this past weekend was one of my least favorite annual holidays: Spring Forward, a time when the entire country (minus rural Indiana and other backwoodsy locations) loses an hour of sleep so that farmers can have extra daylight. In protest to this cruel punishment, I have proposed that instead of conforming to national "standards", we should all turn our clocks back one hour in both the Spring and the Fall. This way we never actually lose any sleep, we gain an hour each time.

Sure, a few years down the road it will end up being daylight at midnight and pitch black at noon, but think of how productive we would be if we worked from 9-5 in the pitch black? No temptation to go outside and lie in the sun or skip class to play basketball. The only alternative would be to sleep, and people already sleep through class anyway. And the business impact would be even more beneficial, since it's already hard enough to do business with Tokyo when they are 12 hours ahead of us. This would synch our clocks with other financial powers every once in awhile.

If this catches on, we could even start turning our clocks back more frequently. Why gain an hour of sleep only twice a year? Why not every month, or even every week? The statistics on sleep disorders are staggering, think of how much extra sleep we as Americans would get. Say I had a paper due tomorrow and stayed up late working on it. Should I get only 2 hours of sleep and risk mental anguish and physical setbacks, or should I just turn my clock back a few hours and get all the sleep I need? The possibilities are staggering.

With a little help from our government, this could be revolutionary. Even more so than "The Duke"'s inane Score Point Five suggestion.

Review: Zwan, The Galaxy; St. Louis, MO 4/7/02

Almost a year and a half ago, after growing weary of the constant heat from critics (and occasionally the fans), Billy Corgan announced that his decade-long multiplatinum band, The Smashing Pumpkins, would be splitting up. This came as a shock to some, but it was clear to those like me who had followed their career from earlier on that their time was up. The Pumpkins were meant to either be a completely underground band like they were before they became popular, or the huge rock monstrosity that they were after the release of Siamese Dream. In the later years, the band fell into disarray with members coming and going for various reasons, and the music suffered. There were some great songs, to be sure, but you could tell that the band was not having fun on stage anymore or in the studio.

Exit the Pumpkins, enter Zwan which consists of Billy along with an assortment of "interesting other musicians" including former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist Matt Sweeney formerly of Skunk and Chavez (no, you've never heard of them, neither have I), A Perfect Circle bassist Paz, and also on guitar (bringing the total number of guitarists to 3) some Asian/Native American-type guy named Pajo who never talks.

The Zwan idea is clear: it's about the music, dammit. First they played 4 heavy rock shows last November, then they wrote about 16 entirely new songs and played 4 acoustic shows in December. After a few-month hiatus, they returned to the stage last Friday for the first in a 6-date "tour" with another set of all new songs once again in the rock genre.

Billy seems rejuvenated by the smaller crowds and lack of pressure to perform "hits", which is what happens when your band becomes wildly successful and makes lots of money. The problem is, after all the success you must continue rehashing the hits ad nauseum even though you no longer need the money. So Zwan is Billy's "out", his way of being in an indie-rock band again where he can do whatever he wants.

Last night's show was a typical Zwan performance. Small but dedicated crowd, lots of tapers since taping is allowed, and lots of amusing lowbrow stage banter. It was a far cry from the days of the Pumpkins selling out huge enormo-dome shows, but infinitely more enjoyable for both the band and the crowd. I did not get a chance to tape (video taping is not allowed despite the lax audio policy), but had a great time nonetheless. Not all the songs are great, but there was none of the pretentious nonsense that seemed to plague the late-era Pumpkins (see Blue Skies Bring Tears, Glass + the Ghost Children, etc. etc.), just an all-out rock show. And the crowd ate it up and fed on the energy.

If you've walked on campus this past week, you've probably noticed the unsightly giant pastel-colored wooden something-or-others that look like angle brackets that have been placed outside of the Biology building. Apparently the wacky wabbit was not enough art for our campus, so the attack of garish post-modern conversation pieces has begun.

While you're enjoying these fantastic works of art, you will hear the pealing of church bells in the background, or at least a compact disc recording that sounds like church bells. Just in time for April welcome, we have repaired our Graham Chapel broadcast system and are using it to pipe fake carillon sounds throughout campus. The best part is that at 15 minutes past the hour it plays one quarter of a song, at half past it plays a little more of the song, at quarter 'til the next hour is plays even more of the song, and finally on the hour it plays the full song.

We signed the lease for our apartment and are taking financial ownership of it on Friday, April 26. Party on Clara Road on the 26th, b.y.o.furniture.

The Red Sox are offically on a 2 game winning streak. Yes this is newsworthy.

There is great rejoicing in the land, for I have finally found an apartment to live in for the next 2 years! Debaliviere called this morning with the news that none of the apartments we chose as our top 3 floor plans are available, but one of the other floor plans is. This will result in a slightly smaller apartment for myself, David, and Michael, but it still have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a reasonably sized living area, and a kitchen. Oh, and the rent is only in the neighborhood of $750-$800 per month total. Tomorrow we're going to go in and take a look again and decide if we want it, then the arduous process of searching for furniture begins. But besides that, this is the last major headache of the semester, and when it is over I can get back to enjoying my last few weeks as an undergraduate.

Jimmy Eat World is not actually coming to W.I.L.D., or at least that's what I gather by the news that they are going to be on tour in Arizona at the time. Cruel, cruel Team 31 and their practical jokes, yet we still don't know what the real lineup is going to be. I hope it's somebody good so I can bootleg it with my video camera.

Speaking of, I am going to attempt to stealth record the Zwan shows that I spoke of earlier. I also just found out that they are playing another show in St. Louis next Wednesday, but I don't have a ticket to it and probably will be busy that day anyway.

Tomorrow night I am performing with my girlfriend's showchoir Dynamix. It will be their final show ever, and I will be playing the guitar during one song, so if you're in the area come and see them perform. Tickets are only $3 or something absurdly low like that. 8:00 Friday night in Umrath lounge, be there.

Last night I took an IQ test online just out of curiosity. My resulting score was a 156, which supposedly puts me in the "genius level" although I'm not exactly sure about the accuracy of a 13 minute online test. I plan on taking it again in order to verify the accuracy or perhaps take another one and see if they coincide. If anyone knows of a good online IQ test, let me know.

We presented our WUGrade project at today's faculty meeting, and the faculty seemed intrigued by the idea but worried about security. Hopefully we will find out soon whether or not to continue development on it. We also found out that while we did not place in the contest, we did finish in the top ten. So close, yet so very very far away...

We did not win the Microsoft contest. This does not surprise me as much as the identity of the winning teams, most of which had lackluster entrants. The first place winner was a distributed rendering program which, in the words of Graphics professor Cindy Grimm, has "no real application". Apparently in real life nobody distributes their graphical rendering to different computers, but in Microsoft-land this is an incredibly useful application worthy of $15,000 in prize money. After examining the 2nd-place entry, I still have no idea what it does. The third place winner looked the coolest of all, as it had voice recognition via a touch-tone phone and other neat features like that. It is the only one I consider better than our entry. The runner up was the worst of all. It is basically Blogger, or Greymatter, or one of countless other weblog programs. Identical to them, in fact, with no added features of functionality. I am embarassed that our entry lost to this worthless program. Damn you, Microsoft corportation. Someday my (as yet nonexistant) company with crush you into oblivion after stealing your ideas, like you have done to so many other business entities.

In other news, I am going to see Zwan in concert next week on Sunday and Monday and hopefully videotape both shows. Zwan is Billy Corgan's new band after he dissolved the Smashing Pumpkins. I have been downloading Zwan shows in .shn and burning them to CD so that I am at least familiar with their old songs, although they have played only 8 shows so far and debuted vastly different setlists at them. I like what I hear so far, kind of like a more emo-ish Pumpkins sound. Michael's girlfriend Rachel is going to see them in Columbia and possibly interview Mr. Corgan, which should be a great experience that I am insanely jealous of.

I have returned from a relaxing Easter break. Meeting my girlfriend's parents was not nearly as traumatic as it is often displayed in movies. I did manage to accidentally flood her brother's room, though. Such is life.

I still have not heard the results of the Microsoft contest that I entered along with David, michael, and Nick. I have a feeling that for the first 3 days of this week I will be checking my email compulsively in hopes for a miracle. We are definitely (in my eyes) amongst the top ten projects out of 100 entrants, but it is up to the judges who ends up walking away with a big cash prize. Three teams win money, then a fourth team wins an X-Box game system for each member. I wouldn't mind winning any of the prizes, but even if we win nothing we still get 3 credits for the development process and are pitching our entry to the Computer Science department on Wednesday. Wish us luck.

Another baseball season has become, and true to form the Red Sox are starting off by playing like crap. I turned on my computer and they were already losing 7-1, although they have now evened the score a little and are only trailing 8-6. I have a feeling the Sox, with their lack of quality starting pitching, will be playing a lot of wild games like this all season.

There is a rumor that Jimmy Eat World is coming to play at Spring W.I.L.D. on campus this month along with Hoobastank and Tenacious D. I have a feeling that this is nothing more than a cruel April Fools prank, and that later this week they will announce that the lineup really consists of 2 Christian rock groups, a homogeneous rap act, and a bongo-playing monkey. At least the monkey would be funny.