Oh fuck YES.

Just in case you all hadn't heard, I got married on Friday. Pics will be forthcoming once I get them all developed (from the disposable cameras at the reception on Saturday) or copied over to my comp (from various digital cams).

FDU's Webmail is a piece of garbage, I swear. Errors all over the place, can't log in at least half of the time, a haven for all sorts of repetitive spam (with no filters/blockers), and there's not even a 'Select All' option for easy mailbox cleaning.

Ugh.

Right now, I haven't even been able to log in for the last hour, met with a delightful "Could not connect to JRun Server" error message. Earlier today, it kept crashing whenever I either tried to view a message or delete a batch of spam.

And faculty wonder why I don't ordinarily accept equipment requests and such through our webmail.

Ugh.

Danielle and I saw The Da Vinci Code yesterday and frankly, I don't see why the critics felt the need to slam the film left and right. The only reason I can come up with is that they're afraid to piss off the Catholic Church. I'm willing to bet that the same reviewers that praised the gory and downright mediocre The Passion of the Christ are the same ones slamming The Da Vinci Code. I actually have to give Roger Ebert kudos for not caving in to the pressure and giving an objective review (and a positive one, no less).

Almost forgot to mention another book I finished up last week, that being Eats, Shoots & Leaves by the illustrious Lynne Truss. I must admit, I didn't actually purchase this one, but borrowed it from the library.

And yes, I'm still in the middle of Mil Millington's Love and Other Near-Death Experiences. Not that I don't love Mil's book (I do!), Miss Truss' book just took primacy considering it was borrowed, not owned.

I'm ridiculously jealous of Opie and Anthony today. They've managed to get the Stanley Cup in their studio.

I'll see it live someday, I swear.

Well, after two consecutive almost-all-nighters, I'm almost done with the first part of a DVD project I've been working on. The last major encoding will be finished around 1:00pm at which point I just need to mark chapters and let the DVD itself encode, then complete the burn. Phew. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired. But I made a committment to have this DVD done before Wednesday and damn it, I'm making sure that gets done.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my Red Bull and chug it down so I don't fall asleep at lunch today.

Yesterday, lightning struck a power line outside our house and the house next door to ours burst into flames. It was probably the single most terrifying experience I've ever been though. Their house is pretty much a complete loss, but thankfully no one (except, unfortunately, their dog) was inside at the time. Watching the flames flicker so close to our own house sent me into a near-panic attack, almost causing me to pass out. I swear, I've never been so frightened in my life. I'm just glad it's over now.

Read about it here in the Daily Record.

I just calculated my grade for my Japanese II class and it looks like I've successfully made straight 'A's for the semester! I finished with a 89.7% after the final, which rounds up to a 90% - an 'A-'. Sweet.

Now I can fully concentrate on other things, such as video work that I need to finish up (hi Gary!).

I love my new Viewsonic 20.1" Widescreen LCD monitor. That is all. Yum.

Okay, I normally try and restrain myself from complaining too much about workplace issues and such on here, but this morning just has me fuming.

If you've requested a high-security risk piece of equipment for an event that requires my hanging around until someone shows up to take responsibility for that equipment, give me an accurate start-time for the event!!!

Case #1:
An event was being held this weekend which necessitated my presence for an outdoor portable amplifier system. By coming in to work that day, I missed A) a family gathering and B) precious studying time. I had been assured repeatedly that the event was starting at 3:00pm - that is, of course, until I was told by someone that it started at 4:00pm. I was told this around 3:30pm. So 4:00 rolls around - nothing. 4:15 - nothing. I look inside and notice that the very event for which they had requested my presence was taking place inside - the very same 'inside' which already has the microphones and speakers set in the room. But Kevin, you might say, maybe it was moved due to inclement weather? Nope. It was a beautiful day out. Comfortable temperature, nice and sunny. They just apparently thought it would be fun to waste one of my days off for no reason whatsoever. By 4:30pm, I said screw it and left with my equipment. Time wasted? An hour and a half on a day that was supposed to be a day off. So much for doing weekend favors for that department.

Case #2:
This morning, an LCD projector was requested for a (alleged) 7:00am event. I was here at 6:30am to make sure that everything went smoothly, expecting them to actually be here at 7:00am. Since, you know, they actually said multiple times that they would. 7:00 rolls around - no one. 7:30 - no one. Finally, someone shows up at 7:45am, wasting a grand total of 1.25 hours of my morning.

Case #3:
Another one this morning, this time an LCD projector requested for a 10:00am event. Of course, as would be expected, '10:00am' is apparently university-speak for '10:30am', because that's when everyone decided to stroll in, wasting another half-hour of my morning.

Since Sunday, a complete lack of common courtesy has wasted approximately 3.25 hours of my time. So basically, the university paid me for 3.25 hours for sitting around and waiting for people who clearly don't understand what we mean when we ask plainly and clearly, "What time does your event start? Because we can't leave the equipment unattended and someone needs to be there to supervise it."

Pardon my language, but this is fucking ridiculous. I have a goddamn Japanese final to continue studying for and I have all sorts of words and phrases tumbling through my head. I have enough problems without having to deal with people for whom accuracy and punctuality are mere afterthoughts.

I guarantee you, I should be in a much better mood around 7:00pm tonight, assuming I'll be done with my final by then.

For now I'll have to take some pleasure in the fact that the Ducks took a 3-0 series lead over the Avs last night. Get out the brooms, boys. Quack.

I just discovered that I received an 87% on the Medieval World exam that I took last night and no one is more surprised than me. I knew that I could get as low as a 50% on the exam and still end up with an 86% in the class, so admittedly, I didn't study as hard as I might have otherwise.

But when I sat down for that exam...yikes.

There were some questions where I was 100% certain of my answer. Others, not so much. But I wrote and wrote and wrote, just to make sure I could cover most of what I remembered. However, after completing the exam, I wasn't expecting much more than a 70%, if that.

With that 87% on the final, I finished with a friggin' 95% in the class! This could be a very good semester for me, grade-wise. I know that I have an 'A' in my Hitchcock class, so the only question-mark is my Japanese class. I'm sitting at an 86% in there right now (a straight 'B') before the grades for my oral presentation and final exam. I'm not even sure if it's possible for me to pull it up to an 'A' (I haven't calculated it yet), but I'm damn well going to study my ass off for this Japanese final.

EDIT 5/10/06: I did the calculations and the only way I can really get up to even an 'A-' is to have completely aced the oral presentation (I know I didn't) and ace the final (I know that's near impossible for me). Assuming I got approximately a 90% on the oral presentation (which is realistic), to stay within the 'B' range for my final grade, I could get as low as a 55% on the final exam and hit an 83% (an 82% takes me into 'B-' territory. If I score around the same as I did on my midterm (and I feel somewhat better prepared for this exam, particular when it comes to tenses and conjugation), I'll hit a 'B+'. I could finish with as low as an 80% and still be in that range. Knowing this, I actually feel much better about my exam tonight.

I simply can't function properly today and I owe it all to Kingdom Hearts II. After only 3 hours of sleep last night, I think it's plain to see that I shant be playing any tonight. Ugh.

Nothing like a good ol' homage to Calvinball from Frazz. 'Bedlamball' has a nice ring to it...


Oh, another thing...I think I'm going to bail out of my postseason predictions while the gettin's good. As it stands right now, I've predicted two winners correctly - the Buffalo Sabres (who took their series with a 7-1 stomping of the Philadelphia Flyers) and the San Jose Sharks (who took down Nashville in 5 games). The teams I erroneously picked to move on? Detroit (ugh), Dallas (double ugh), Tampa Bay, and New York. I still have a chance to get things right with Montreal (if they win tonight and force a Game 7) and Anaheim (Game 7 tomorrow night). Otherwise...blech, I suck this year. I blame Andreas Lilja. He's a fine scapegoat.

EDIT: Just as I typed this, Carolina scored in overtime, eliminating the Habs. Ugh. There's another prediction (and a team I was rooting for) down the drain.

Well, that was a debacle. Smyth diving all over the place, Williams getting called for a cross-check (resulting in a non-goal goal), while Winchester is elbowing people in the face in the same scrum, and there's no call.

If disciplinary action isn't taken against Mick McGeough (the main culprit among the refs), I'll assume that Gary Bettman's threat of "call the games correctly or you're out" was completely hollow.

Not the way we hoped you'd go out, Stevie...but if that was your final game, you went out skating. With all that you've accomplished, you'll always be a champion. Don't forget...you did what so many before couldn't: you brought not one, not two, but three Cups to Detroit after a 42 year drought. You've earned your retirement.

We'll miss you.