Tyler Hunt

There are all sorts of puns I could have used for the title of this post, but I’ll leave such headlines to the experts. I had decided some time ago that I would camp out to get a Wii on release day with some guys from work. Aside from a few coworkers dropping out of the plans, Daniel, Spawn, and I were fairly successful in securing a place in line at the Casselberry Wal-Mart. All was looking well, my place in line when I arrived was 43, but it had since been bumped up to 39 after a few people left. The store apparently had 32 in stock, and a truck was supposed to come with another 40 or so that day, putting the total around 70. Then Wal-Mart finally came out and informed us of the situation: the extra delivery would not be happening that night. Everyone after 32^nd place quickly dispersed to find a new camp site. The CFi contingent decided to call it quits (at my dismay).

Fortunately for me, Melissa had to go to PetSmart, and I had her check the line at Target while she was there. “There are only three people in line,” she informed me. I made the decision to give up on the possibility of a midnight release, and stick it out overnight outside Target. The time went more quickly than expected, and the cold wasn’t too overbearing. Dawn came, and someone from Target’s loss control division wearing black windbreaker pants and a white turtleneck (not your typical Target khaki’s and red shirt) came outside to disburse the magic tickets to the first 24 in line. I was number 5. Huzzah.

I picked up a Wii, an extra remote and nunchuck, and a copy of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. So far the experience has been not only fun, entertaining, and almost magical. It’s amazing how simply moving your limbs about a little can bring you so much closer into the game. Check out Opening the Wii for a close-up look at the system and accessories.

Melissa woke up this past Saturday with a really bad stomach ache, which soon progressed into vomiting. These symptoms persisted and progressed throughout the morning, until there came a point when I realized that the pain seemed to be more severe than a case of food poisoning. The thought crossed my mind that it might be appendicitis, I pulled up the Wikipedia page for appendicitis and came across this:

The pain of typical acute appendicitis usually starts centrally (periumbilical) before localising to the right iliac fossa (the lower right side of the abdomen). There is usually associated loss of appetite (anorexia) and fever. Nausea, or vomiting may or may not occur.

This seemed to describe her symptoms perfectly, so I called her doctor and he confirmed that we should make the trip to the emergency room.

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Twice now within the past few months we have found a dog wandering about the parking lot outside the door of our townhouse. And twice now we have taken in a lost puppy until it’s owners come looking for it. Willis, the beagle boxer mix whose real name is Hustler, came to us this past Wednesday. The owners stopped by to pick him up after seeing the flyers we posted.

I’m sitting outside of the brand new Apple Store Florida Mall, waiting in line with seventeen other Mac geeks for the grand opening at 10:00 AM. Several of the earliest arrivals are sitting with their PowerBooks and iBooks open, being among the first to use of the “Apple Store” SSID. The first 1000 people will get the customary free T-shirt, which I’m looking forward to. This will be the first store opening that I’ve attended. The crowd doesn’t seem too excited yet, but as the opening time approaches, the anticipation will likely mount into an uncontainable explosion of geek.

It’s been over five days now that I’ve dealt with this illness, longer than usual for me, so I finally went to the doctor’s today to try to find out what it is once and for all. I hate going to the doctor. Maybe it’s just because of some bad experience in the past, but I’m just not fond of the thought of putting myself into a building full of other sick people for any extended period of time. They’ve made things a little nicer since the last time I went, however. They have valet parking now (which I didn’t use, but it’s nice to know they have it since parking can be so horrible there), and a little old man in a golf cart who rides around and picks people up from their cars to drive them right to the front door. I made use of his services, and didn’t feel a bit guilty about it either, as I am in a considerably weaker condition than normal today.

Checking in was painless. I was asked for my last name and birth date, and that was the only proof of identity required during my entire visit. No ID card, not even an insurance card. I think she may have made a mistake by not checking the insurance card, as the copay was only $10, while the card stated that it should have been $20. I suppose they’ll be sending a bill for that little discrepancy. On the upside, they take debit cards now.

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In the spirit of summer, and in search of some different and refreshing activity to participate in, a bunch of us went to Rock Springs today to cook out and ride innnertubes down the river. We cooked up some mighty good burgers, and no hairs were singed, even with the half dozen overzealous lighter fluid helpers. Then the sky turned black and there was a mass exodus as the spring-dwellers ran for their cars as if their life depended on it. A little rain and a bit of thunder ensued, but despite the moderate monsoon, and some very confused lifeguards, it eventually passed over and we were allowed into the water. With much splashing and screaming, our crew headed down the river in a manner not unlike a herd of water buffalo. Corey did a good job of rounding up the tubes and keeping everyone out of the weeds.

Tonight as Kirby was getting yet another Shrek Slurpee, he made the mistake of filling his cup up to the top. Normally, this isn’t a problem, but with the consistency of the lime-green slush tonight, it was definitely a mistake. You see, the Slurpee was “ultra-condensed”, and after the cup was filled to the rim, it began expanding in the cup. At first it was a slow expansion, as the icy substance oozed forth from the small blowhole at the top of the clear plastic dome. Then it began to spew over the edge and into the nearby drain, longing to return to its source. This continued on for some time, as onlookers gathered to witness the marvel. Eventually, the expansion subsided and it came just a normal Slurpee. The lesson here: beware of the “ultra-condensed” variety, and only fill your cup to the top if you’re absolutely sure of the normalcy of the mix.

This weekend I had the priviledge of attending the cell phone marriage of Daniel and Jeni’s phones. It was a very spur of the moment decision, with no engagement, just the wedding. Alley’s phone performned the ceremony, and while it was short, the vows were touching.

Best wishes to the newly-wed couple.

People are always complaining about how bad parking is at UCF. Sure, there are more people than there are spots most of the time, but I never seem to have too much trouble finding one, even if you have to stalk someone to get it. So today, Daniel and I were getting back after lunch, trying to find a place in the garage. Going down one of the side rows, there were two cars backing out at almost the exact same time, one on each side of the aisle. There was also another car there, waiting for one of the spots.

The weirdest thing happened though. I kind of wanted her spot, since it was a little closer to the stairs where we were going, and for some odd reason she didn’t take it right away like most people would have. She just sat there. And I just sat there. And we both just sat there and stared at each other for a second. Then another car came by and went through both of us and on his merry own way. Then we were still just sitting there, and I started gesturing to her to see if she wanted to trade spots, since she obviously had some issue with hers.

This goes on for a little bit, and then I finally decide to pull up and take her spot, and as I’m pulling in she says some unintelligible comment out of her window, so I pointed her to the other spot, thinking she may not have seen it. Anyways, it turns out she was just trying to be nice, since I was there first and in her rule book I had the right to claim either spot as mine and she didn’t want to piss me off. I thought that was nice of her, but it was still the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had in my three years as a UCF Parking Services customer.

Went to the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival today with Erin. I can hardly remember the last time I went to an art show. You expect to see a certain amount of weird stuff at these shows, but there were a lot of really unique artists, as well. The mixed-media pieces were some of the best that we saw. There was also a guy who glued a whole bunch of odd toys and trinkets together and spray painted the whole thing with black automotive paint. For some reason that impressed me a lot, possibly because by painting everything black the shapes really stand out and take on a color of their own. I found some of the photography to bring some inspiration, as well. And what’s an art festival without a funnel cake? I would have taken a picture of that beautiful deep-fried pastry, but it was simply consumed too quicky.

The following is a story about the highlight of my day. Erin and I stopped by the ATM at the WaMu tonight after our small group, and had quite the good time trying to get the money out. It’s funny first of all because they have two machines stacked up, one right after the other, and as this account will reveal, redundancy is supreme. In trying to be courteous to the other late night automated teller visitors, I pulled through to the second smiling blue screen and popped in my card. Being fluent in the language of these machines, I pressed all the right buttons, only to have my card pop out with an odd absence of cash in the slot below. Slightly dazed, but still persistant, the second, slightly slower attempt disclosed the source of the problem with a friendly error message, stating that “I’ve just run out of money.” The anthropomorphization of these things always amuses me.

So it was then time to throw the stick into reverse and see what the lonlier of the pair had to offer. Apparently, this compadre was of the Latin persuasion, because he spoke to me in Spanish. When my cash was still denied me, and I began to question my comprehension of the Spanish language, the fourth attempt, in English this time, continued to confound me. The issue here was a sagging face, causing a misalignment with the flanking buttons. By the sixth try the appropriate button compensation was determined, and the cash successfully withdrawn. For as much character as ATMs can have, maybe they really do have a soul.

I had an orthodontist appointment today, a month after I should have had one since I was stupid enough to mix up the date of my last one. Anyways, it was an interesting experience. You never quite know what will happen when you go in there. It could be a new arch wire, it could be a new elastic regimen, or something totally new. Today it was the latter, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. When he mentioned what he was going to do, I was a little taken aback at first. Apparently, to fix my bite, my canines needed to be ground down. Normally people do things to prevent their teeth from grinding, so the thought of having it done intentionally seemed strange, but he assured me this was a regular, commonly performed procedure .

It didn’t take much, a little here, a little there, and my bite feels totally different now. He told me there’s enough healthy enamel there that I could afford to lose some, especially because with those teeth, there hadn’t been much wear on them. They were sharp and pointy, but not so much any more. Actually, you can’t really tell anything was done to them. So that was my fun for the day. Maybe I should make a new category for “Medical Adventures.”

So today was another fun Saturday. I really like actually doing stuff on Saturday instead of sitting at home all day pretending to do homework, but actually just slacking off until the evening activities begin. Erin, Lauren, Kat, and myself decided that today would be a good day to wash cars. Maybe the next time we make such a decision it would be wise to consult the weather forecast first. It was overcast all day, but the rain was kind enough to hold off until after the cars were clean.

That car wash place was crazy, though. They give you four minutes for eight quarters to go through ten different settings in the cycle. Washing your car should never be an activity on the clock like that. It takes time and attention to detail that isn’t possible with quarters ticking away. Kat managed to forget to switch the knob from tire cleaner before spraying down her whole car, which was funny. I opted out of the whole experience because it just seemed a little weird having assorted mystery chemicals sprayed at my car from various nozzles and instruments.

Given only an intersection and a time, Kirby and I set out on a quest seek out a computer junk sale this morning. After fearfully rejecting several parking spaces due to concerns over being towed away at the my own expense, we took a chance on a lot for a realtor’s office. Then we proceeded to scout the surrounding blocks for any signs of the mysterious “R*D&SWorkShop” (sic). Aside from the aforementioned realtor building, United Methodist church buildings occupied the remaining three corners, which left us searching far and wide for clues as to the whereabouts of this shrouded meeting place. We stumbled into the unmarked entrance at the back of the charter school building, and were soon transported into a space filled nearly to the ceiling with the biggest piles of computer-related equipment I’ve ever seen.

There were monitors piled in a heap five high and covering a two hundred square foot area. There were dozens and dozens of old boxes lined up in neat little rows, their contents hid forever within their steel, beige panels. All in all the event was a almost total bust. Kirby picked up an old CD writer, but aside from that there was nothing worth even looking at a second time. If you ever hear that I’m going to one of these scrounge-fests again, please take every effort to stop me. There isn’t enough techno-crap in this world to make up for that waste of time (even if it was entertaining to behold such enormous stockpiles of garbage).

Late Knights tonight was a bit of a disappointment. There weren’t nearly as many people there, which might have been a good thing except that there wasn’t anything going on either. The laser tag turned out to be pretty lame—just an inflatable tent with walls short enough to see over. The bounce house looked smaller than the one Corey had at his party. Then food turned out to be a repeat of dinner, and we never found the karaoke. So basically, it would have been more aptly named Lame Knights.

However, there was a hypnotist. Kat was all up for being hypnotized, but didn’t seem to enthused once the request for audience participation went out, so she didn’t get picked. While the skepticism ran rampant, this was by far the most entertaining hour of the night. This guy had a guy pretending he was Madonna, girls thinking they were WWF wrestlers, and guys who thought they were pregannt and actually had a baby. After seeing some of what I saw tonight, it’s hard not to believe that hypnosis is real. However, skepticism aside, there’s no doubting the entertainment value of the performance.