This afternoon, for about 2 hours, my dad and I played computer tech. My old Compaq would not boot up. So, we took that hard drive and placed in the old Dell. The Dell would only take one hard drive. So, my dad swapped them out. My Compaq's hard drive is good. It's just the rest of the computer won't work. And Windows 98 wouldn't work with the flash drive nor the CD burner. I guess as soon as I get my financial aid, I'll be getting me a new Dell with a tower that can support more than one hard drive. I also need to get cracking on working on the Dell out in the shed. Someone at school suggested that the drive isn't bad; the problem is how the XP installation is formating the drive. It's such a shame that they aren't teaching me this stuff at school.

I finally downloaded Picasa for my laptop. I have so many pictures on this computer. I need a way to go through them all.

Beth's getting on me to clear out her closet of my stuff. Her room used to be my room. I just don't know where to put the stuff. The closet in my room is full of Nicki's stuff. Beth remarked the other day she wished Nicki would just move out with her boyfriend so we could have more space in this house. I sort of agree. I'd have a lot more room in this room if I didn't share it with Nicki. Oh well, I'll be out of here, hopefully, in a year and a half. Even if I stay in Savannah, I need my own place.

Ok, off to quickly shower before my pizza arrives! It's Pizza Hut and it's not the DeRenne Pizza Hut bringing it to us! About time we got the other Pizza Hut to deliver here!

[♪ Listening to: "It Matters To Me" - Faith Hill]

Yesterday was a busy day for me! I've got to say it was a blast!

Midday yesterday was the the ACM welcome back cookout. I spent about 3 hours working on that. First, I helped with setup. Then, I took plenty of pictures. I had about 160 pictures from the cookout. I took the shots for the upcoming ACM website. I put my favorites on my Flickr account. They are mainly pictures of the people I know well at school.

I had classes yesterday, too. Because of the cookout, Special Topics didn't meet. Calculus did meet. 3 of us are repeating this class from last year. We all recognized each other. The other 2 didn't know about my mother. They understood why I'm retaking the class. They remembered that I wasn't there for the final. And we all made sure to show up at class today! We remembered we did a project the first day of class last year. The professor didn't do it this year! We were all, we could have skipped! We specifically showed up to do the project! We're doing the project Tuesday. I know I will do better in Calculus this semester.

During the break between classes, I took the photos to the ACM president and gave him the pictures. Then, Matthew and I went to lunch/dinner at Logan's. After the meal and a trip to Target, I went into Gamble Hall to bum around. I didn't bum in the lounge because the computers are down at the moment and He Who Shall Not Be Named was in there. I knew he was on campus when I saw his truck at the same time my brother picked me up for our meal. So, I went in my lab and used that computer. Oh, the perks. And during this time before class, I ran into a lady that was in JAVA 2 with me. She was also in JAVA 2 with He Who Shall Not Be Named. She said I looked like something was up. I told her I was happy. She asked me why, and I told her the truth. Yesterday, I was beaming. I was having a great day. I did have a brief encounter with He Who Shall Not Be Named. It was mainly a stare between the two of us. I like to think I showed my strength and ability to survive in that stare. Plus, I was having a great day! Nothing was going to bring me down.

Then, it was time for Client/Server. Except for 2 people, I have been in class with everyone else in that class at least once. The professor went over the syllabus and took our pictures. Yes, he had us hold a sign with our name and took our pictures. The good thing was the class was only 20 minutes long. :thumbsup: We were all happy for that. All my pal, knowing I had a Hootie and the Blowfish concert to attend, told me to high tail it to Hilton Head.

Matthew and I got to Hilton Head in time for the concert. I took the backroads, which has very little stop lights. In fact, once I got past Rio Road in Savannah, I didn't have another stoplight until I was in Bluffton. The perks of knowing the roads like the back of my hand. As we were in line for the trolley, I see this young girl walk in right behind us. I guess I asked my brother the question of "Is that Mindy?" a little too loud. Mindy's father said yes it is Mindy. I don't recall ever meeting her father, but I know Mindy's mother. They're cool people, and it seems like everyone knows this family. And, we bump into them at the silliest things, so, it was cool to see them at the concert. We chatted briefly and caught up on events since the last time we spoke to them. We parted ways after the trolley because our seats were in different sections.

I enjoyed myself at the concert. However, I have got to get a buddy that likes concerts. Matthew is such a killjoy at concerts. He hates them. I had a chance to see Hootie and the Blowfish back when I was a junior in high school, but I didn't go. I think I've made that mistake up. i didn't know all their songs, which is true when I saw Maroon 5, Train, and 3 Doors Down, but I enjoyed the show. Hootie gave us 3 encores! They sang the songs I did know, like "Let Her Cry," "I Go Blind," and "Hold My Hand." They did a few cover songs, like "Losing My Religion," and sang many of their new stuff. The weather, for August, was enjoyable. It was cooler than most August nights. We had a little breeze going on, too. I would go see them again, with someone else, and would go to another concert out on Hilton Head it was someone I really want to see. If Richard Marx came to Hilton Head, I would be there ASAP, trying to get a table and a group of Repeat Offenders to come to it.

Finally, here's the Thursday Threesome:

Onesome: Free-- isn't always free! What "freebie" have you discovered over the years that really isn't? Nothing I can think of at the moment. Maybe just free cats.

Twosome: Amazon-- It's been a bit since we've done our Amazon Survey: do you use Amazon? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Yes, I use it. I usually have no problems with it. That reminds me, later, I have to order some school books from it. I love the Marketplace! Saves me money.

Threesome: Prime--Time! Are there any shows you are looking forward to seeing in the Fall lineup on TV? (okay, football counts <g> ). Probably just How I Met Your Mother. I like to watch it when I can. It's a show I do want on DVD.

[♪ Listening to: "Stronger" - Britney Spears]

Growing up, Beth was into dancing and pageants. We mainly did them for the travel and the escape they gave us from our life at the time. 10 years ago, my grandmother lived with us. She had a stroke in 1993, so after that, she needed care. My mother was the only one that could take her in. Looking back at that time, I can understand why I was depressed. Who wants their friends to come over to be around their senile grandmother that would do silly stuff. Pageants gave us a way to escape from Grandmother for a few days.

Well, I think most of us in the US know that what happen nearly 10 years ago on Christmas day. A little pageant girl named JonBenet Ramsey was murdered his home. Yesterday, a man was arrested in her murdered. Now my mind is wandering. If he did do it, how did he find her? She was just a baby when she lived in the Atlanta area. Being familiar in the area, the area her family is from and the area the suspect is from are in different parts of the Atlanta area. So how did he find her?

One of JonBenet's last pageants was one in Rome, GA. Her family came to Georgia for Thanksgiving and she entered the pageant up there. Some of our pageant friends also did the same pageant. One of the friends got the video of the pageant Christmas Eve. We went and saw it right after the new of JonBenet's death occurred. At the time, we didn't know she was at that pageant. It was as we were watching the pageant that we realized the little girl from Colorado with the weird name at the pageant was JonBenet Ramsey.

I guess if she was picked out at random, where did he find her? Could it have been at this Rome pageant? If that's the case, could it have been one of our friends that could have been the victim? Scary to think, isn't it? Questions I don't want to be asking I find myself asking.

As for pageants, Beth stopped doing them around age 12. By that time, she had a new love in her life; the piano.

Today was the first day of school for the Fall Semester. My Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes are UNIX programming and the History of Film. Both the professors recognized me. I've had my film professor before, so she knows who I am. I've never had my UNIX professor, but since he's involved in helping with a lot of the School of Computing/ACM events, my name and my face aren't hard to figure out. I'm that chick that does everything. In both classes, we mainly went over the syllabus. I'm one of 2 ladies in the UNIX class. There are like 3 guys in the film class. And the best parts so far? One, Leslie was able to get into the film class. This is her last semester and she really wanted to take it. It was nice to see her get into the class. Two, certain people I was hoping weren't in my classes today aren't in my classes. I highly doubt they'll be in my classes that met tomorrow. Things look rosy for me.

Before class, I went to the radio station and got my Hootie tickets. My dad says I should just skip Client/Server tomorrow. I need to go. I want to see who the other 18 in that class are. I pretty much know who the others are. Last night, the family, save Nicki, went up to Hilton Head. I have never been there before. I wanted to know where the Sea Pines Resort was. We found it. We also stopped at the Outback on Hilton Head and had dinner. I just looked that seat chart. My seats for the show aren't bad. I'm in the middle of the venue. Tomorrow is going to be busy.

I got my Snakes on a Plane call today. Funny stuff.

[♪ Listening to: "Someone To Call My Lover" - Janet Jackson]

I've been up for less than 2 hours. However, I've had a busy day.

My day started with a trip to the bank. They had 2 desk people and 2 tellers. One teller was helping an old lady that must have had 8000 business transactions. So, that left 1 lady to do all the other transactions. After making my deposit, I had to wait some more to start the process of getting a check card for my father's banking account. There was this old man that wasn't waiting in the waiting area. He was at another desk. When the open desk lady called for the next customer, I did the right thing and let the old guy go. I should have been rude and gone first. It would have been best for the sanity of the desk lady, the other ladies waiting, and myself. The old man wanted access to his safe deposit box. He brought the keys. The keys were marked Wachovia. The bank was Suntrust. The guy was not in the system with a safe deposit box at Suntrust. The old man kept getting angry everytime the desk lady told him he wasn't in the system and the keys were from Wachovia. He kept shouting that he was in the system. He wants to try another name. It was borderline absurd what was going on. The ladies that were waiting and I couldn't help but giggle. Finally, the poor desk lady asks the man to sit aside until her supervisor finished her customer and the 2 of them can solve the dilemma of the keys. That way, she can help other customers while in a holding pattern. The guy starts screaming that he's a customer and that he shouldn't be put aside. The lady calls me and apologizes for what just happened. I made things easy on her. I had the account and my ID ready. It seemed like today was a bad day to go to the bank.

After the bank, I had to take my dad's truck to the shop. His tires need some work. So, Matthew and I went to take care of that. On the way home, we had Kiss FM on the radio. Thursday night, Hootie and the Blowfish will be on Hilton Head performing. If you were the right caller, you won Hootie tickets. I took a chance on it. I grabbed Matthew's phone and started dialing. I was the correct caller! I won the tickets. The show is Thursday at 8PM. It takes about an hour to get to Hilton Head from Savannah. Class ends at 7:15, but I don't expect us to spend the whole class time in class. It's the first day of class! I think it's just syllabus day. So, I will be doing a mad dash up to Hilton Head from school. I might ask my father if we can go up there this evening to find the venue. I'll get the tickets tomorrow in between classes. Thursday will be a busy day!

[♪ Listening to: "What You Want" - Richard Marx]

Well, Matthew's and mine start Wednesday. K-12 public school started today. I went to the school today to get some work in under my belt. I talked to a few other people today, too, while I was out there. This week is going to be Catch Up week.

Yesterday, my dad and I spent the day together. We went shopping at Sam's Club. The new one just opened down the road from our house. Samples of stuff were being given away. I got some good stuff while out there. They even had a sample of Sticky Fingers out there. I liked the sample I had. Beth loves the place because it's a rib house. They girl an eat a whole rack of ribs and still be hungry.

Well, I have people to contact and catch up with.

Update: 7:10 PM 8/14/2006 I didn't want to do a new entry for the rest of my day. The mail came after my post. In it came some prints of the pictures I found on the Gateway. I got 4 copies each of the picture of my parents. When my dad came into my room get his copies, tears welled up in his eyes. I specifically did not tell him the prints were coming. I think he was touched by the fact I ordered them. After I gave them to him, I went out to Wal-Mart and bought some picture frames. In addition to frames for his copies, I got 2 frames for myself. On my dresser, in matching frames, are the pictures of my parents. I ordered the prints from Flickr, and they came out nicely. I would order from them again.

Also coming in the mail was the used copy of Exposé's Greatest Hits I ordered. As soon as I showed it to Nicki, she wanted to listen to it on her computer. When I got back from Wal-Mart, neither Nicki nor my CD could be found. She herself went to Wal-Mart and took the CD with her. Well, I thought her favorite Exposé song was on the CD, but it wasn't on it. As to why I have Exposé, well, I do like my '80s pop music. I thought I'd flesh my music collection from that era out a bit.

[♪ Listening to: "What a Fool Believes" - The Doobie Brothers]

Old Building
Uploaded by peachy92.

Harri is an alley cat. Matthew and I, independent of each other this morning, found her in the kitchen trash trying to find something to eat. I took her out to the shed and fed her some wet food. My dad laughed at the story. He really loves her. Hopefully, she'll outgrow the alley cat factor and realize she's got plenty of eat. At least she's not like Scooter. When he was a kitten, he would growl as he ate. Harri doesn't do that.

So what's today's picture? Last night, Beth and I attended the Eagle Scout ceremony of her friend, Lee. It was out in the Burnside Island area of Savannah. I took my camera along. Within sight of the church hosting the ceremony, there was this old building. I thought it was interesting. I don't know what the business was used for, but I like the sign on it.

The ceremony last night was interesting. Kudos to Lee for getting his Eagle award. He's a nice kid. He took Beth to her junior prom when her date backed out. He's there when she needs him. Last night was something her wanted her there to witness. I got nostalgic for my Girl Scouting day. I mumbled to myself about the American flag during color guard presentation. Last night made me realized how close I was to my Silver and Gold Awards. Because we moved during my last year in Cadettes, I never had the chance to earn the Silver Award. Moving here pretty much ruined Scouting for me.

[♪ Listening to: "I Can Tell" - BBMak]