David Nard

Well it’s certainly been a while since I’ve posted on here!! Since then:

• I went to Las Vegas for the first time for a friend’s bachelor party. Got my first lap dance, played my first hand of blackjack at a real table, slept 4 hours in 4 days, and came home with double the money I left with!
• Ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon with Alyssa. 2:19 for me, 2:26 for Alyssa.
• Got a Nintendo Wii, which has consumed a disgustingly large amount of hours. Zelda is addictive!
• The Penguins have made it to the semi-finals!!!

And tons of other stuff has gone on.

Oh, yeah, I’m getting married 8 days from today!!! We’re both really excited. They say you get nervous as the big day approaches, but I’m fine. My biggest concern is crying like a baby the day of, haha!

Alyssa and I ran the Pittsburgh half marathon yesterday. Holy cow are we sore today! I finished in 2:19:14, and Alyssa in 2:26:15. Considering neither of us trained very much for it (My longest run was 7 miles, but that was 4 weeks ago, and Alyssa’s had a sinus infection for the past week), I think we did fairly well. Our only regret is thinking how was we *could* have run it, had we trained properly. My goal is to break 4 hours in a full marathon, so I’ve got some training to do

A few months ago I did something really stupid and accidentally wiped out my website. Sure, I had backups; but I took the opportunity to pick out a new design and start fresh.

Then I got a bunch of work So I had to put the site on hold. But hey, we’re back up and running now!

Full steam ahead!

You may or may not know it, but Monster.com was recently hacked again. Emphasis on the “again”.

What’s most annoying about this is that a company like Monster.com DOES NOT HAVE IT’S USER’S PASSWORDS ENCRYPTED.

What the hell?! In this day an age, when everyone is concerned about phishing scams, identity theft, and the like, a company like Monster.com that holds a TON of personal information on it’s users (read: addresses, previous employers, phone numbers, emails, etc) has the audacity to not even encrypt our passwords.

So now, my personal information is floating out there in cyber-space, in the hands of nefarious hackers, ALONG with my password, all because of Monster.com.

Thanks, Monster. You fucking idiots.

There’s still a ton of ice outside. I’m really hoping it warms up so I don’t slip and die when I run today. I spent 2 hours chipping ice off the driveway yesterday; unfortunately I cant’ run on *that*.

I recently upgraded to Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Pro, as I’m attempting to expand my programming base out to other languages (C#, C++, more VB, etc). Boy… did this puppy bring my computer to a screeching halt.

I should mention that I’m very anal about my computer; I have a ghost of a clean XP install that I reapply every few months in order to keep my computer running efficiently. I feel this is the best way, as no matter how hard one tries, there always seems to be junk accumulated after several months of testing software, surfing the web, etc.

So, I just did a clean install a few weeks ago, and now I’ve installed VS 2008. My boot time (to desktop) went from about 30 seconds to over 90. 90 seconds, an entire extra minute, because I installed Visual Studio?!

I understand that there are several new services running as a result of this install, the primary being SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.

As a test, I re-imaged my computer with my ghost copy, and installed *just* C# Express Edition and SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. Wouldn’t you know it, hardly any slowdown!

Maybe I should stop grumbling and just upgrade to some more RAM. It has been a few years since I revamped this computer…

A shout out to Pennsylvania Senator Wayne D. Fontana for providing free notary public services! I’m not sure if they all do that, but it was very convenient to walk down the street and have my papers notarized in 2 minutes! As an added bonus, the notary was super friendly.

You’ve got my vote, Senator!

I just finished watching the 2-hour season premier of LOST on ABC, and boy is my brain tired. I love this show, but maaaaan does it get confusing at times.

OK…thus far we know that the people on the island are now moving through time; however I’m not sure if the island as a whole is moving through time as well? Techincally speaking, the island disappeared, so one can assume it moved, rather than simply traveled through time (as it’s a stationary object, if it went through time, it’s appearance would change, but it should remain in the same location). However…if the island *did* move, what happens when the people on it travel forward in time to a point past when the island has already moved? Wouldn’t they just be floating? Or would they time-travel to a location in the future where the island currently is???

The whole “Desmond Hume is my constant” note in Daniel’s journal is now making a bit more sense. Apparently since he’s a constant, his life can be influenced at any point in time,  unlike everyone else. But why, then, did he remember this memory of meeting Daniel 3 years after leaving the island? Why not earlier in order to do something? GAHHH!!!!

Anna Lucia flashing back. Hurley getting arrested for murder he didn’t commit. Everyone coming back together; it’s almost too much to take.

And the biggest question on my mind — how the hell are they going to get Sun to go back to the island? She’s most likely not going to go back on her own and leave her child behind. At the same time, does she want to bring him with her? Probably not.

I think I now have more questions than I did at the end of last season. But…we’ll see where they go with the plot line this season. I have a feeling John Locke aka “Panther” isn’t really dead

Slowly but surely, the weight is going bye-bye

I wish horrible things upon your head.

I am so SICK of slipping and sliding and flailing and falling every time I go for a run because some inconsiderate fool can’t take 5 minutes to shovel his/her sidewalk. There is no excuses. None. Zero. I don’t care if you’re 80 years old. Hire someone to shovel it.

IT’S A PITTSBURGH LAW. FOLLOW IT.

I’ve decided that, from now on, every house I run back that hasn’t shoveled is going to get their picture taken. And I’m going to mail that photo the the Pittsburgh Police to demonstrate their lack of compliance with the laws of our city.

Not to mention the next time I fall and hurt myself I am suing the everlasting shit out of the homeowner.