Moving

I have decided to move my blog to a more permanent, malleable place. I'd like to show you WinNadeau.com! This will allow me to keep blogging, but it also gives me the flexibility to publish other projects that I might be working on as I move through college.

I will be keeping a close eye on this blog and figuring out how to archive it, as it still holds my old podcast articles. I'll make sure they have a special place to stay.

Anyway, enjoy the new site!
-Win

An update

Whenever I go on vacation, I always tend to read the news a good deal more often. So yes, articles like this one make me sad, while articles like this make me happy. Nevertheless, I can't help but finally listen what I've been hearing for months on my favorite radio station, Groovesalad on SomaFM. I pretty much always have some kind of music playing with whatever I do, and whenever I'm at my computer, I'm listening to "GrooveSalad: A tasty plate of ambient beats and grooves." While this internet radio station plays DOESN'T play commercials, they have had to change that over a big change in government policy. Over the past several months, they've been playing commercials to promote SaveNetRadio.org, a site dedicated to stopping this change in royalty rates. Well, I'm sure you've already gone to both websites that I mentioned since I linked them, so let me just say that if you have ever enjoyed listening to an internet radio station, go to SaveNetRadio.org, find the number for your state's senator, and call them. I have, and I know that will make a difference. The site gives you a nice little script with the right things to say and such, so it's all very easy. Anyway, my only regret is that I haven't really done anything about it until now.

Maine

Yeah, I'm going to Maine for a while.
Cya,
Win

el oh el

First, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to me mum! I love her very much and enjoyed eating at the Puffy Muffin with her for brunch. =) Although, she has to spend the rest of the day in school. booo school on birthdays.

Well, let me just throw out there that Age of Conan is going to rock. With that said, I was trolling the forums and someone posted this article.


62-yr-old man strangles bobcat.

kthxbai!

More of the same

Seriously though, I haven't done much the past few days. I hung out with friends, which was fun... and that's about it. So, I begin this new week with a quote.

"I want to see mountains again, Gandalf. Mountains!" -Bilbo

That's me.

Dentist

So I went to the Dentist today to have a cavity filled. First, they numb me up. It takes not one, but two shots to make me unable to feel the drill. This is fine. They do their thing, prodding my tooth with weird devices. It's all good. Upon leaving I realize that I'm going to have a hard time talking to anyone, as I sound like I have to bite down on my tongue to talk while trying to do exactly the opposite. That probably doesn't make sense. See half of my face is numb, so I can't tell if I'm chewing a hole through my tongue or cheek. This bothers me. Probably should have eaten lunch BEFORE this happened. Too late, I'm gonna have to wait.
FIVE HOURS LATER my mouth is still numb, and I'm freaking hungry. While I've had a good time busying myself by setting up the HDTV to work with my computer, I still can't escape the hunger pains inside of me. So here I sit trying to eat some leftover fried rice with shrimp, not quite sure if I'm chomping on my food or myself. While I'm sure both are equally tasty, one might have more of an undesired effect. Even worse is trying to drink. Half of the drink is cold in my mouth, while the other half is oddly warm. I can tell theres liquid there, but my senses deceive me of ever other pleasure, the nerve of some things. (stupid pun, I'm sorry.) I think I already have a cut somewhere in my mouth from lazy/numb muscles. Oh well, gotta eat.

Social Weekend

A lot has gone on since I last posted. Well, not a lot. Rather, a lot has happened, but I haven't gotten anything accomplished. That doesn't mean I didn't have fun; it just means I didn't get anything done. And that's okay sometimes. But I need to get stuff done.
These activities included playing Wii with my friends all Saturday afternoon, going to a bonfire Sunday evening at Mr. Barnes' house (sophomore english teacher), and OWNING the Boss in Karazhan that I mentioned a few posts ago. Yes, we primetime raiders took revenge on the Shade of Aran for all the pain he caused us. =D
So, this'll be a short post to say that I'm still alive, but not doing anything exciting at the moment. Adios.

Out and About

I've spent the last two days mostly running around town visiting people of importance in my life and goofing off with friends. Thursday night my WoW guild ran Karazhan, a level 70 raid dungeon. We had cleared over half of it two nights before and were hoping to finish it off in a second night. Sadly, we hadn't progressed much at all after 5 hours of trying to take down one boss, the Shade of Aran. Sure, we had our down moments, but there was always some fun to be had. I knew our luck would change if I used my old halloween wands to change everyone into a skeleton... except, we all died shortly thereafter. Although we never were able to get him, we'll be going at it again on Monday night. I'll let you know if things improve (I'm sure they will).
Then Friday night, I saw Oceans Thirteen. Now, I'll save any kind of review to the professionals (check back there, he better do a review on it =p ), but I can still give my opinion. I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed the first two Ocean's movies. Great action, twisting plot, and who can resist shafting a casino billionaire jerk our of his money. If you enjoyed Ocean's Eleven and Twelve, then I doubt Thirteen will let you down. (Also, hooray for the student discount on Fandango.com!)
Now, I think I'm off to a friends house to build a blanket fort in a room. No worries, I'll have my hardhat and monkey wrench.

A Virtual Business Day

Well, I spent much of the day looking at business ideas based on the SecondLife software. There is actually a virtual currency controlled by the Linden Labs group, Linden Dollars. And yes, there is a real exchange rate between Linden Dollars and the good ole USD. And while I could probably write a book about all the possibilities that SecondLife introduces, I'll stick to what I thought through today.
Turns out they actually have an in-world stock exchange too. That's right. Virtual company shares are traded for virtual money, with virtual news and virtual business partners. Sound crazy? It is, don't worry. I also looked at starting a bank with this virtual money idea. The main question: is a "savings and loans" (that could provide risk-free investing for virtual people) actually possible?

Apparently so, as I found several legit banks through the in-world advertisement search; however, it is not without its problems, it seems. For example, most of the "banks" I found were just scams meant to get people to deposit money into a box that has no guarantee of return. Advertising up to 45% interest on deposits... Now that's a little absurd, even for a virtual world. Then I began to think, why would I put money into a virtual bank that's run by a real world company that is out to make a profit like me, and off me. The rules just aren't in place for this virtual banking system. Think banking in the early 1900's: It's probably safer to keep your virtual money under your virtual mattress. It has potential, but as my brother mentioned, the SecondLife would be more trustworthy if the power were placed in the hands of the residents, taking it out of Linden Lab's control. Not until it is a completely self-sufficient country will the more sophisticated business models work. (Well, as self-sufficient as any real world country is these days.)

Summer '07 - an introduction and review

Well folks, after a long, unannounced hiatus, I'm back.

A quick update: High school was great, but it's over, looking forward to college in the fall.

What will be my purpose in starting up this silly blog again? Well, daily updates (hopefully) will keep me on task with my ultimate summer goals. Mostly, this is for me, not for you. Sad.
So what have I been up to in the past week or so of summer?

That's about it, until now. --->>

You see, this book my brother gave me has gotten my entrepreneurial spirit aroused, so I'm not so sure if a traditional job is in store for me this summer. Why walk when you can fly, right? I'll keep you posted on what exactly this means, as I am still trying to figure that one out myself. While I did want to take an online Japanese course from GATech over the summer, that kind of fell through. =/ Japanese would have been awesome to learn, maybe in the fall.

I'll be posting at the end of each day, or maybe every other day, accounting what exactly it was I did that day, just to see if it even matters in a few weeks. And I'll try not to ramble.