Once again, I have re-invented kooz.net!  I love this new style of blog!  I hope you all like it!   My last Content Management System was called Joomla.  It wasn’t all that bad!  It did what I wanted it to do, which was to blog, add some links, and have up to the moment updates, but it wasn’t always that easy or seemless.  If you can wrestle with a metaphorical bull whose horn is stuck up your pants and you’re about to show everyone your junk, then Joomla is not so bad.  Oh believe me, I like airing my stuff out just like the next person, but the bull and that horn complicates matters.  I just don’t have the time anymore to deal with it.

And so, I’ve chosen Wordpress as my new blog CMS.  I couldn’t be happier.  It’s easy to use and post content.  Unfortunately, as these CMS’s get more robust, it’s harder and rather time consuming to create your own look and feel.  So, what you’re seeing here is a reflection of an aesthetic choice than a creative process:  I just don’t have the time to create my own “kooz” themed website.   I chose this one called, “”SoSuechtig 2.9,” and I really connected with it because it’s minimal, classy, and easy on the eyes  It was also designed by some dude from Germany.  A hearty, “Gutentag!” to whoever designed this!  If you’ve noticed, some of the descriptive elements are written in that lovely Deutsche language:  I’m debating whether to keep it or not!  I think it adds to its kitchy appeal…we’ll see.  I also like it because us English speakers in the Midwest probably don’t go trolling German websites.  Ergo, my website, for all you know, is unique!  Language barriers FTW!! 

What you will see are more posts, and I’ll be importing old posts in an archive.  Unfortunatley, I lost about 10 months of posts due to a mix up with my web host:  even though they did botch it up, it is squarely my fault because I didn’t maintain backups.  Any web person worth their salt should frequently back up their database.  I had only one database/website backup, and that was from June of 2007.  The good news is that I probably only lost about 4 or 5 posts at most!  W00t for being lazy!

Update: 11:21pm  I’ve disabled registering/being able to leave a comment, even though you think you might be able to (In this case, if you can read German, you might be even more suceptible to this.).

Well, my site went down because my web host said I was using too much of the server’s resources. OK. Hopefully, the database it was connected to will be restored. So, I’m going to take the next couple weeks to evaluate my hosting situation, and then I’ll probably redesign it anyway. I might use Wordpress instead of Joomla… Click here to go to the flickr.com site I created: I’ve uploaded some cool pictures! Peace!

It was actually one of the most fun and challenging semesters I’ve had while at SIUE. From the orginal research to starting sciencecentr.org and creating a design document for a history simulation game based off of the Sims, I was on my toes, but it paid off! Now I need to figure out what I’m doing next semester…

The Nintendo Wii: I have found another new addiction. The Nintendo Wii is digital crack…especially, Wii Bowling. It’s just as delightfully frustrating as real bowling! Changing your technique, consciously or unconsciously, messes up your game just as it would at a smoke filled bowling alley! One moment your slapping down the pins, getting Turkeys left and right, the next thing you know: you’re struggling to knock 8 pins… If you’ve never tried one out, you had better! Plus, it’s great for all ages. Seriously, from a five year old to ninety-five: anyone can do it!

www.sciencecentr.org is a social bookmarking website much like Digg.com for the Science and Technology Center Community! It’s based off of the Pligg CMS: an awesome open-source effort! Check it out!

Ha! Well, I have started entering my old posts from the old kooz.net. Most of the 2000 posts are in and I’ll probably add the rest tomorrow. You can access them through the blog link to the left. I probably could have found a program that could automatically do this, but you know what, I’m enjoying re-reading my posts. I’m getting all sorts of nostalgic and reflecting on what kind of person I was and who I am now. What this creates is a trajectory of hopeful and wishful thoughts for my future…It’s like drawing a line between multiple points and extrapolating what that line would look like if you kept going beyond the last point. I know I’m getting restless (or is that ambitious?), and my old posts provide me with some context for my current wanderlust…

Anyway, I’ve been very busy lately with school and work: both have been quite the challenge this semester, but very rewarding. Hopefully, I’ll be announcing a project on here really soon! I’m going to finish it this weekend. It’s a project that I’m doing for school, but will benefit the science center community!

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Well, tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and it’s the first time in years that I won’t be working at McGurks or at a FIRST robotics competition. Actually, I don’t know if I’m going to celebrate tomorrow because I’ve got a nasty head cold! We’ll see….

Other than that, I want to wish my niece, Megan, a happy b-day! She’ll be three today.

Happy Patty’s day everyone!

Well, here I am updating my website…

I have actually doing more on myspace than here…and that’s a shame.

Anyway, I’ve added a new thing to the site: a twitter badge! What the heck is twitter? Twitter is like a mini-blog: I can update it at anytime from my mobile phone. For you kooz stalkers out there, if I remember, I can text Twitter with whatever I want, and it’ll appear in the box on the right hand side! Cool?! I guess…it should be interesting!

Other than that, nothing much is going on. The next two weeks are dedicated to FIRST Robotics!! I’ll be head referee at the St. Louis Regional this weekend and the Wisconsin Regional next week.

Grad school is going well…I have no complaints there, but it is good hard work!

Well, peace out!

The “Contact Me” link does not work! For some reason, I’m not getting anything from it! I’ll look into it…

No, I’m not addicted to Myspace…

Actually, it’s a food addiction. Every once in a while, I’ll get a craving for a very specific food and I’ll eat a ton of it until I eventually get sick of it (as most addictions go, this is par for the course…unless you’re talking about crack, opium, or chocolate…I’ll never get over my chocolate habit). What confection am I talking about? What is this mysterious food that has bewitched my taste buds and enslaved me?

Tuna.

Not just any tuna though…whole, grilled tuna steak. I’m not talking Chicken of the Sea here folks…I’m talkin’ real tuna. A nice 3/4 inch thick tuna steak cooked medium-rare to rare. I can’t emphasize the importance of the cooking temperature enough. If you want over cooked tuna, buy the “Sorry Charlie Tuna” crap in a can (although, you can’t have a good tuna salad without that stuff though…) as it’s the same thing. Let me state this another way: the pink in a rare cooked tuna steak equals crazy delicious! Luckily, my local Trader Joe’s stocks decently priced tuna and other meaty fish. In fact, I’ve cooked other fish this way too: flaky white fish need not apply. A meaty fish like Opah, Mahi, or Shark is all good! All I do is put lots of pepper (sometimes Old Bay) and lemon juice on the tuna, grill it, then either eat it plain or on a sandwich (which is my latest twist on my addiction). Hmm…tuna sandwich…and I don’t leave it plain…I’ve concocted a yummy, spicy mayo to go on top…it’s 2-3 heaping tablespoons of mayo, a teaspoon of minced garlic, half teaspoon of paprika, and a liberal squirt of Thai red pepper sauce (otherwise known as Rooster Sauce) to add some much needed kick! YUM!!

If you follow the link menu item on the far left side of the screen, you’ll find some of my favorite links!