4.09

That is the price of one gallon of gasoline in American dollars where I live.

This is absolutely absurd. Why does OPEC insist on raising the price of a barrel of oil so high. There is going to be a point where people just decide enough is enough and champion other sources of fuel. I know for sure that I will be personally looking into bio-gas in the near future.

It is a good thing that I get paid well and that I live so close to work, or else I would be paying out the nose for fuel. I may just start walking to work when it gets a little warmer out. I tell you what will really hurt, visiting family and my girlfriend this summer. Oh well, at least I get paid well.

Seriously though, this is crazy...

Online TV

When your really bored and there's nothing good on T.V. but you still want entertainment there is always the internet option.

I have a cash of sites I use to watch my favorite shows whenever I want for FREE. This is no joke and no money making scheme. I have spent a long time finding these sites. And, I have never gotten a virus or spyware from any of these sites, and I do frequent scans. In case your worried these sites are completely legal since most of them are run by the owners of the material posted and allow you to download none of the material shown. Below are the sites I use and a little information about them, along with a rating.

Hulu.com

Is an NBC run site that has a myriad of shows and movies; ranging from comedy, to scifi, to documentaries.

Rating: 4 of 5 possible thumbs up

Surf the Channel

I found this one a relatively short time ago, but it offers shows and movies in all genres.

Rating: 3 of 5 possible thumbs up

TV Links

This one has been around for a while but has just recently updated it's look. It is takes a few seconds to fully load but from what I have seen they have the largest list of both popular movies and shows from every genre. If you don't want to look through the huge list of shows and movies you can just type your show/movie into the search engine.

Rating: 5 of 5 possible thumbs up

South Park Studios

If your interested in watching a funny adult themed cartoon then south park studios is your ticket to entertainment. However, the site is a bit hard to use and the episodes take a while to load.

Rating: 3 of 5 possible thumbs up

Family Guy.com

Run by the people who make the show, Family Guy.com features several of the shows from the series as well as many funny clips and musical numbers. Family guy, for those who do not know, is another adult themed comedy cartoon series that has picked up huge ratings in the short period of time that they have been around.

Rating: 3 of 5 possible thumbs up

Wide Angle

For those who are more interested in a documentary Wide Angle has many of their shows on their website. Run by PBS, the documentaries are superbly well done and cover topics that face a wide variety of peoples from around the world.

Rating: 4 of 5 possible thumbs up

Now that you have my personal list of online entertainment you can no longer complain that "There is nothing good on," and be justified as this myriad number of possible shows lie at your fingertips.

Guess What's Comming To Dinner?

Finally!

Oh my lord this took forever for SciFi.com to put up. Well, at least they put it up and now it's here for you to enjoy, just like I promised. Also, I will be putting up a preview of the next episode Sine Qua Non here: Click Here for next episode preview. Enjoy

Battlestar Galactica
Season: 4
Episode: Guess Whats Comming To Dinner?

Google Rocks!

I just discovered something cool.

Go to Google and type in "Matthewzor". The first link will be called "Title goes where?," which is the old name of my blog. The new name is It's Blogin' Time. If you click on it, it will take you straight to my blog homepage. Soooo cool.

I discovered this while messing around on the internet one day and just absentmindedly typed in Matthewzor to see what would come up. But you should check it out, really...

Go do it!

Time Warner Digital Home Phone

Call anyone in the U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico; as much as you want; for one low fee.

No, this is not an advertisement for the service. However, I am giving the service two thumbs up. Since I arrived in Greene a week ago I have fully realized how small this place is. There is less than 5000 people here and I can run from one side of the town to the other in about 20 minutes, if I travel by car it's less than 5 minutes. Even though I plan on visiting the surrounding Binghamton region I have spent most of this week's time in my apartment or at work. As a result of this isolation I have been on the phone quite a bit; talking to friends, family, and my girlfriend.

When I moved in I ordered the cable/internet/phone package, since my cell is a tracphone and you have to buy minutes as you use them. Even though it is an expensive service it has proved invaluable. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone this week, probably on the order of 10-20 hours, and would have a HUGE phone bill without the service. So thank you time warner digital phone people for allowing me to talk to my peeps even though I am miles away.

Maybe I should be on one of their commercials as a spokesman, hmmm...

Work

My job has finally begun!

And now I get to go through the relentless monotony of Orientation. They made me and three other new hires sit in this little room and watch videos and presentations on every kind of useless knowledge ranging from how to safely operate a fork lift to chemical safety (I'M IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING!) to sexual harassment.



After the two days of orientation were over I actually got to go out into the office and labs to do some work, even though I had to have someone open the doors for me because I don't have the clearance yet (its supposedly "in the works").

Anyways I got to work on part of a laser controller that will better allow forklifts to not injure people or property by making it extremely easy to line up the forks. I drew up the truth tables for all of the part we were looking at, and if the parts come in soon I will be building it, testing it, and reporting any errors. We were worried about a possible race condition involved in inputing two logical highs to a quad R-S latch.

Sorry for not updating earlier. After moving in and completing training I have mostly been watching television and running in my free time. However, I will be exploring the surrounding cities on Saturday. Once I get a feel for how to get back and forth I will be able to spend an afternoon in Binghamton, Johnson City, or Norwich. Very exciting I am sure.

I have planned on visiting Ashli not this weekend but the one after, once I get paid. I was also hoping to make a trip up to my home in Massena the weekend after to see family. Other than that I have no real plans other than saving money. Anyways...

I will definitely update tomorrow...

Moved

Here is a walking tour of my new apartment:



Well, I hope you liked that shaky video. Right now it is Sunday the 18th and I begin work on Monday. I am finally starting to get excited. However, they have yet to tell me what time I am supposed to come in for orientation. I even sent my boss two emails. Oh well, I'll just go in at seven to be safe.

If I am honest I was pretty lonely this weekend. I arrived here on Friday evening and unpacked. When I got here the reality that I am in an alien environment with no friends really got me down. I spent the first day fighting the blues and the two following days trying to relax. So far it is working.

All I have to say is: thank God for VOIP phone service. It is one of those time warner deals that lets you talk as long as you want to anyone in the U.S. for as long as you want. I have probably been on the phone for at least 5 hours this weekend talking to people so I don't get to bored.

Well at lest these past few days have been relaxing. Though it has been constantly raining my mood has only gotten progressively better/cheerier. One thing I find odd though is the fact that when ever I go some place in town the people look at me. I don't know if it is the fact that this is a small town or that the people just like to look at each other, but every time I go out and walk past someone they stare at me. Even when I look up they don't look away. It's kind of odd. In any case, I am sure it's harmless. Small town America for ya.

I'll be updating tomorrow about orientation and what Raymond Corp. is really like. Until then I leave you with the above video and...

my thanks for your continual views...

Battlestar Galactica

So I'm beefing with the show...

Now the show they aired recently Guess What's Coming to Dinner was a good one. However, they will not be airing another episode for two weeks and that is very upsetting. To top it all off they didn't put the latest episode up on Scifi.com, so I cannot post it here. As soon as they do I will embed it for your viewing pleasure.

Also, if you were lucky enough to watch it when it aired the preview for the next episode showed Lee with his hand raised in the air, palm out, in facing a person holding a book in front of a crowd.

Wonder what that could mean...

Struck On the Head

So...

at about 10p.m. the other night my girlfriend Ashli and I were still hanging out at her dorm and decided to go out to grab a cheeseburger. So we made our way down to the back of the building and exited the south entrance. We were headed out of the double door and Ashli was walking slightly ahead of me. She pushed open one off the doors and walked through, as I looked down to make sure her laptop didn't fall out of my hands or bang into the door.

As I looked down I heard a loud noise and turned to see the metal pillar, that allowed the doors to lock, hit the ground and bang again. I looked up and asked "did that hit you?!" She replied softly "yes." As soon as I realized it hit her in the head I ran over and checked to see if she was bleeding, luckily no. She whispered "wow," between two little sobs and I helped her to my car where she sat down and held her swollen head.



Now this bar was hefty. It must have been at least thirty pounds that crashed down on her head. She was much more terse than I would have been. Where she let out a few soft sobs I would have been yelling things that would make sailors blush. We decided that the best place to go was her university police station and file a formal complaint, which we did promptly.

After dealing with an idiot clerk that would only give us one ice pack we had to sit through a wanna-be cop's interview. It took him half an hour to figure out what had happened and to write it down. He was content to have us sit beside him as he took his time turning on the computer, commenting about how dirty his slacks were from the dust, and told us a story about his days working at an Ames department store where he was badly hit in the head once. To top it all off, as we left he gave us a grin and said to me

"Take it easy on her tonight Matt... Don't ruff her up too bad."

What a ponce. Well, at Ashli is o.k. now after going to the nurse the next day. The diagnosis isn't grim and it will be a quick recovery. And so ends another harrowing adventure in...

The Life and Times of Matthew Lee

Copy Editing

Even though I work for my school newspaper and have to copy edit my articles before they head out into the world, I never do it when I blog. I guess it is because I just want to get my raw thoughts out there before I forget them. Also, many of my blogs are done off the cuff, so to speak. So I am just trying to type as fast as I think, and I can get what my old keyboarding teacher called "stupid fingers". In any case, this is more of an apoligetic message to everyone for all of the errors I make in writing and grammer. So I hereby wash my hands of any spelling mistakes I make. So if it hits the board its done. So the material is all yours...

spelling mistakes and all...

My Exodus

So,

I know that I have not posted for a while, sorry about that. But, I was spending this week taking as much time out to hang out with friends and my girlfriend as I could. It was worth it, because I had a great time. For instance, the day before yesterday a bunch of people moved out of there apartments down the way and put their furniture out by the trash. So a bunch of my neighbor friends and I snatched up a sofa and a recliner and put them around the bbq and just sat there eating outside on furniture. This was only one of the many fun times we had this week, far to long to write about in a short blog entry.

As for right now, I am finally packing up the last dregs of my belongings and stuffing them into my car before heading home to Massena. You would not believe all of the things I thought I had lost throughout the year that have made themselves easy to find now. On the bright side my father is coming up to let me put some of my belongings in his car so I can get it all back in one trip. One thing I should mention here is a discover I made last week. School books, no matter how expensive or useless they may be, are always a good investment. I say this because you can easily take them back to your place of purchase and exchange them for gas money, which is always oh so helpful.

Anyhoo...

I'll let you know more about my life as I get closer to the BIG moving day(on friday). On Friday I will be moving down to Greene NY. I will be in my apartment before 3pm so I can meet the cable guys. As soon as my phone is hooked up I'll send my new number to who ever would like it. This will be my first time on an interstate highway by myself so I am kind of nervous, but I know I'll be O.K..

I'll fill in the details as they develop...

Faith

Hello again,

I hope everyone is doing well and having great weeks. Mine has been great, I had lots of fun but I'll fill you in on that stuff in the next entry. Below is the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. I think that the writers really shifted into the higher gears on this one. I say this because my attention was sucked into this episode so well along with the fact that significant plot elements are on the brink of being revealed. Anyways, here it is:


Battlestar Galactica
Season: Four
Episode: Faith



Spoilers Below!

Just two questions:

1. Did Kara just totally ignore what she was told?

2. In what reality would Admiral Adama allow an alliance?

Senior Week

hello, ello, ello...

Finals are over and I am still at Clarkson. Why are you still at Clarkson?, you may ask. Well inquisitive one, I will answer your quiry. I am at Clarkson becuase I don't have to leave my riverside apartment until the 11th and all of my brothers are still up here for senior week.

What is senior week?, you quiry me for the second time. Well, It is one of the most rich traditions that the Clarkson students have been practicing for more than a decade. Senior week is the week between the end of finals and graduation that is spent on fun events organized by the senior class. When I refer to envents, I am refering to a luau on cheel lawn, a visit to a microbrewery, wine tasting at Maxfield's, a tour of the thousand islands area of new york, and a few intense bar crawls.


I, however, will not be attending these because I am underage and not a senior. Instead I will be working at the library for two hours a day and relaxing with my friends when they are not out. I will also be hanging out with my girlfriend and other friends. So, I will be having a great time earning money for my new apartment.

Send me a message if anything intesting is going on with you(there is a new message box to the left in the sidebar).

Bye for now,

The Road Less Traveled

For your, and my, enjoyment...

I have embedded the newest episode of Battlestar Galactica. Do not continue to read below the video unless you have seen the episode, or if you wish to have the episode spoiled.

Battlestar Galactica
Season Four
Espisode: The Road Less Traveled


Attention: Spoiler Alert

Now, I'm not going to go into as much detail as I have concerning other episodes of BSG, but I do have a couple of things to point out.

1. We can see how Kara has been affected by the solitude and how she is very jumpy and jittery. This coupled with the cylon Leoben telling her she is not the same person leads me to believe that maybe she isn't the same person. Maybe she is a clone of the real Kara Thrace who has been programmed to be the "harbenger of death for the human race"

2. When the hybrids say that "kara thrace is the harbenger of death" that is not to say that she won't bring the humans to earth, or that she will point them in the right direction. However, it is to say that no matter what she does, even if she brings humanity to earth, it will bring death to all humans.

3. Chief, well former Chief, Tryol shook Baltar's hand. However, this does not mean that he follows Baltar's new religon. It means to me that Tryol is choosing to be the man he wants to be. He showed the audience that being a cylon has not changed who he is as a person. He understands that Chief Tyrol is a forgiving man if forgivness is deserved and so, he isn't allowing his cylon nature to affect how he identifies himself or how he acts.

4. Cylons are tough. Remember how Tory hit Cally and knocked her back into the air? Well, if a female cylon can do that then think of what a big male cylon like Tyrol could have done to Baltar. He had him in his hand choking him. He could have used his cylon strength to pop his little head off, but he didn't. If you watch the footage again you can see how he just lets go and walks away, as if the people touching him had no affect. Cylons are tough motha frakers


Hope you enjoy the episode, and thanks for tuning in...

The Calm After the Storm

Please observe a moment of silence, with me, for those poor souls taken by the punishing torrent called finals.
...
Thank you,

As I begin to finally unwind, and say goodbye to my brothers who are seniors, reality sets in. I have survived again, as I always have. The storm has passed and there is nothing left to do but take a deep breath, pause, observe the aftermath, and collect my things as I prepare to move.


I am happy. I am joyous. I am excited. I may have said this a thousand and one times before but I am finally realxing. The stress has left me and I can function like a normal human being, as apposed to a mindless zombie. All things considered I am ready to take on the next adventure.

In greene...