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I hope everyone has a great Independence Day. Today will probably be a movie/gaming day for me. For some reason I don’t really want to do a lot of stuff outside today.

I played the demo for Prey. It reminded me a lot of Doom 3, but this one could potentially be more fun. I’ll definitely be interested in buying it when it comes out on July 10. I’ll just need to upgrade my old computer or buy an Xbox 360 first. So, I probably won’t be playing Prey when it first comes out.

Time to get some BBQ.

I went to an MSU graduation ceremony for the first time on Saturday. I got two degrees at MSU and never attended graduation. It was interesting but seemed to go on forever. And that was only one of the two ceremonies taking place that day.

I got up early Sunday to spend Mother’s Day with the family. I had lunch with my mother and sister and spent time with other relatives later in the day. It was great seeing everybody again since I hadn’t been home in a while.

I came back to Starkville on Monday. On the way back I picked up a copy of the new new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Stadium Arcadium. This is a great album to own if you are a RHCP fan. It’s a double disk album. I haven’t finished listening to it yet and I already know I’ve got my money’s worth.

Money Magazine and Salary.com researched hundreds of jobs and compiled a list of the top 50 best jobs in America. The factors they considered are: 10-year job growth, pay, stress levels, and “other factors”. You can view the list here.

The number one job on their list is Software Engineer. YAY! That’s the job title I hope to have soon. The teaching job was never meant to be permanent. It’s looks like my Master’s in Computer Science might actually be worth something one day.

The average annual salary is around $80,000 and the job growth is 46%. The grades they gave Software Engineer are:
Stress: B
Flexibility: B
Creativity: A
Ease of Entry: C

Sounds good, huh?

I need to get out more.

create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks.

I’ve been sick these past 2 weeks and I just can’t seem to shake it off. The medicine the doctor gave me doesn’t seem to be doing much good. It’s hard to teach when you are so hoarse that you can hardly speak. I’m sure it isn’t helping that almost everywhere I go is cold – inside and outside. I hate being cold.

I’ll be spending the end of my days in Starkville with a roommate. A good friend of mine desperately needed a roommate and we’ve been hanging out a lot, so it makes sense. I’ll have more money to spend, so that’ll be nice.

Somehow the following entry from December 28 was deleted. I am reposting it here.

Christmas was ok. It’s just not the same without my sister around. I’ve spent so many hours recently watching DVD’s.
For my birthday and Christmas I got:
• money
• Firefly The Complete Series
• Tales of Symphonia (Gamecube game) and the strategy guide
• Pearl Jam Single Video Theory (DVD)
• Star Trek The Next Generation The Complete Seasons 1-7

All in all, it’s been a pretty good year. Next year will be better.

Happy Birthday to me…

Another sign that I have moved into the 21st century is the fact that I did all of my Christmas shopping online this year. Each of the past couple of years I said that I was going to do that, but I always waited too late and didn’t want to risk not getting my items on time. About 2 or 3 AM on the morning of December 1, I ordered my last gift. I don’t think I’ve ever finished that early before.

So last week was Thanksgiving week. I pretty much had the whole week off. I did as little real work as I could get away with. After pouring more money into my car, I drove it to Jackson and didn’t have any major problems. Whenever I started hearing noises, I just turned my music up louder so I wouldn’t hear them.

Some of the highlights and lowlights of the week:

The week after I saw Serenity I started watching Firefly and when I finished I was left wanting more. Too bad there are only 14 episodes. I want to watch the whole series over again. I need to buy the box set so I’ll have my own copy. I checked Amazon.com and it looks like Serenity will be out in time for Christmas. That’s pretty good turnaround considering the movie just came out in September. This week I hope to begin watching season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I hear that it’s not the best season, but I have to start somewhere. If I like it I may watch Angel.

The new book in the George R.R. Martin series “A Song of Ice and Fire” came out last week. I hear that it’s only about half the story it was originally intended to be. I’m not in any hurry to buy it. I have enough books that I need to read first.

Gas prices are dropping.

It looks like I’m going to have more free time beginning now. I’ll have to find some way to pass the time. You know what they say about idle hands. It’s weird because when I was a student this would probably be the most stressful time of the semester.

I started on Mercenaries for the second time the other night. Maybe I’ll finish it this time. No, I am not getting an Xbox 360 when they first come out. It can wait.

I’m looking forward to the new Harry Potter, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and something else I can’t think of right now.

If you own a PS2, you might want to look here.