Ryan's Currently Unnamed Blog

Well, 2 weekends ago... I got away from my 'regular' daily life a little bit. Of course, I wanted to write about this weekend MUCH sooner, but life, being what it is, just wouldn't allow me the time to do that. So, digging through the fog as best I can... I'll begin to recount the weekend as best I can. This is probably going to be boring for just about anyone, but I wanted to get some points down so I would have something to remember the weekend by.

First off, shortly after getting into Wisconsin, we were greated by some of the local recreation areas. I knew about all the Adult Book Stores, and Mars' Cheese Castle but I didn't know they were THAT liberal.. LOL Yeah, yeah... its actually not about that at all, I know.. but its still funny! One of these days... I'll really need to take a drive by there and see what its really about!

Thankfully, the trip out there was relatively uneventful. Once I got in the area, there was actually all kinds of contruction and closed roads. Thankfully, my GPS Device was able to reroute me around all the unexpected detours and the (many) missed turns.

First thing that I did when I finally arrived, was get right to work on getting things setup. Its actually quite a bit of work and I wasn't really with anyone that wanted to do the work so I got started on things. After about a bit, we were right back in the car, to head out to pick up some food, beverages, and supplies for the weekend. The first stop was off at a Starbucks though, were I had quite possibly the best Blackberry Green Tea Frappuccino ever! And while we were in the store, we noticed that they had these machines where you can recycle cans and bottles. We had a few bottles and cans, and donated the proceeds to charity. Wasn't much, but made me happy to be doing a little bit of good with something I would have normally just thrown out!

Finally got back to the campsite and put away the rest of our stuff and kinda chilled out for a while. Most of the weekend is a blur as to what we talked about and what we did. At one point, the conversation turned to business stuff, and I actually got quite a few ideas of ways to expand on some of the current ventures. So yay for new ideas! I'm really convinced that getting together with people and brainstorming about things will lead to many fantastic ideas... just by letting the conversation go whereever, and then capturing that information and later reviewing it to determine what makes sense (lol, depending on our mental state... it might not!) and what is feasible to get done. So yay for new ideas. It means I have a LOT more to work on, but the potential is really bright!

Anyway, we hoped back in the car and wanted to get a hold of some gear so that we could climb some of the boulders and more sheer rock faces there. The first place we called said that they would have everything we needed, and to come on by. My GPS got us there with no problems, but as soon as I walked in, some old guy asked if he could help me and I told him what we needed. He just looked at me and said, 'I wish you would have called... we won't have anything until Monday.' This, of course, did us no good since we were only there for the weekend. I politely told the guy that I DID call and that we were told to stop on by. The guy apologized but said there's nothing we could do.

Got back to the car and we noticed a cop following us. Of course, this made us paranoid that we were somehow going to get busted for something, but after about 5 minutes (which seemed like 2 hours) he finally turned away. Not like he had anything on us, just really didn't want to deal with anything. Anyway, after searching through the GPS for some alternate stores to stop by, we finally found one that had what we needed, but they were 30 minutes away, and they closed in 45 minutes. They didn't sound all that convincing and we really didn't want to waste all that time to get out there to find out that they didn't have it. Called them back and they assured us it was going to be OK.

Thanks to the roads being messed up in Wisconsin, we turned off of the expressway when we were supposed to stay on it... but we still made it to the store 5 minutes before they closed. Got our stuff, and headed back.

I really should have taken more pictures while I was out there.. got some videos and some pictures, but nothing that can or should be put out in public. So, sorry about that... I know you're terribly disappointed!

After more chilling out, we decided that we wanted to go get some real food. So, we ended up finding a restaurant to drive to. For being what I perceived to be out in the middle of nowhere, the food was absolutely incredible! I'm not sure if it was the company, or being waited on, but it was definately something that stands out from the weekend.

That's most of the good things that I can remember from the trip. And unfortunately, there was quite a bit of bad too. I had some time to myself, mainly at night before going to bed. Normally, I work until I pass out from exhaustion, and I have little trouble getting to sleep. And also, since I normally keep longer hours then most people, I was on my own. I physically wasn't far away from some of my best friends, but yet I felt isolation and very very alone. Not sure what to really make of it, because its gone now. Maybe its why I keep myself so busy, so that I won't notice that, but I definately caught a glimpse of something that I normally never ever see. And, to make matters worse, when I was breaking down things to get ready to leave, I managed to cut myself. Was a fairly deep cut on a finger near the nail bed. I actually felt it scrape along something, either bone or the nail, i'm not really sure which. It bled for a while, and wouldn't really stop. I don't think I lost that much blood, but combined with a weakened (and probably very dehydrated) state from being outside in hot humid tempuratures all weekend, my body reacted very negatively. I can remember passing out and coming back in a state of terror, unaware of where I was or what was going on. Kinda embarressed to have something like that happen to me in front of my friends and it definately wasn't a fun experience, but at the same time I feel like a new bond was established. I've known for a long time that there are many people who are around for the good times. Its the bad times that expose who your real friends are. The people who are there for you without a second thought. That will drop what they are doing to come to your aid.

A few years ago, i would have laughed theories that the whole world is connected. I, being the logical person that I am, would have scoffed at the existance of something that we can't perceive. I still have the fortune from my fortune cookie... and I thought nothing of the fortune when I first received it. But now, its profound:

"True friends are there for you when they would rather be anywhere else"

(Or something similar, going to update that when I get home. -- well, i was close enough.. leaving my version there!)

For a long time now, I've signed just about every single email that I've sent. A lot of times people ask me what it is... and sometimes they even think its a virus or something.

If you really want a good explanation, there's a few good writeups of the whole process that you can read.. I'll post those at the end of my discussion and I'll probably cover most of it here.

First, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption system that's designed to be about as secure as you could expect, given that you don't have much control over the people on the internet. Encryption is actually a fascinating topic, and if you're at all interested in the history, political impact, or how this stuff works, I HIGHLY recommend The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh. It goes all the back over 2000 years ago and does a very good job of simply explaining the challenges to strong encryption systems, and how one would go about trying to break such a system. There are some technical parts, but also some entertaining stories so its not mind numbing like a textbook. My non-technical friends will still find the book enjoyable... Go! Read it! Now!

There are many strong encryption algorithms that are nearly impossible to break by simply trying every password due to the large number of the possible passwords and the processing time to attempt a decryption. Some systems thought to be strong have been defeated after finding a mathmatical shortcut which dramatically reduces the number of possible 'keys' or by the tremendous growth in computing power. Things that were considered unbreakable during World War I, due to it taking hundreds of years to work out the decryption by hand, can now be broken in seconds on a computer that's considered worthless and obsolete.

With that said... today's algorithms are strong, and it would take hundreds of years on the largest supercomputer clusters to defeat them. A far better strategy is to steal the password. Before the advent of Public Key Encryption Systems... the same password was used to encrypt and decrypt a message. This raises the question of how does one go about communicating the password? Remember the guys in spy movies with briefcases handcuffed to their wrist... well.. PGP is a modern day version of that!

But what if you don't trust the messenger? Even if the key to the briefcase is sent seperately, how do you know that there isn't some conspiracy to get at your stuff? As a mental excercise... try to come up with some solutions to that problem... How would you send a locked container to someone so that only they can open it?

I have lots more to write about, and there's a point to why I'm talking about all of this... I'll get to that in a later post... Bonus points to anyone who gets the answer right a comment (and if I told you the answer already, you don't count! don't give it away)

Well, there simply isn't enough time in the day... I'm still planning on writing about my recent weekend trip out of town (sufficiently vague to protect those involved, of course), but wanted to post something here since its been quite some time.

First, comment spam is essentially GONE here.. which is good.. but trackback spam is getting more and more annoying and I'll have to find some better way to prevent that.

Also, last night I made my first visit to the Safe House up in Milwaukee and I definately plan on going back sometime to grab some food there. Its only a short 45 minute drive or so, and its a place where I could probably spend days there and still find interesting things to look at and do there. I of course cannot dilvuge much more info then that, so that's about it on that.

Hopefully will have more time in the near future to put some thoughts out here. Oh... hopefully might be rounding up a group of friends to go see the new movie that's opening up this weekend, America: Freedom to Fascism. Its only in Chicago, New York, Kansas City, Tampa, and Austin. So, if you're around there, you might want to check it out. I'm hopeful that it will get some good exposure and be well received. From what I hear, its pretty well done without being too over the top or 'out there' to reach the American public, and it has a goal of trying to Wake Up the masses to the lies they have been sold. Having spent many hours in Aron Russo's presence, I'm withholding judement until I can actually see it, but it can't be THAT bad!? or can it?

I support the MPP and so should you. Not because I want the whole country to become pot heads or that I think its ok for people to waste their life away in altered states... but its another one of those victimless crimes. And in the cases where there is a victim, the crime wasn't the drug, the crime was the action. For instance, if 'Timmy the Pothead' gets high on something and goes nuts and kills 20 people... he's a murderer, regardless of what he had put in his body before he committed the criminal action. Actually... in that altered state... I'd say that Timmy is more likely to sit on the couch or make make some nachos then he is to go on a killing spree... It just takes too much effort. And, before you bring up the drug-related gang violence... let me ask you who created the black market that makes selling the drugs on the street so profitable? So profitable that people are willing to fight to protect their turf? And all that money they make goes to good uses... and gets taxed too... riiiight...

The reason you should support the MPP and any other organization working against all odds to fight the machine... is because the 'War on Drugs', like most of the other wars congress has been fighting on our own land (Poverty, Education, Terrorism, etc...), the War itself does FAR more harm then good. Education hasn't improved in this country... We aren't any safer against terrorists, and have given away most of our freedoms, and the erosion of the middle class and expanding poverty proves one thing... Congress should get out of the War business.

So, I get this email from the MPP... and it has this ad in it... and perhaps this War on Drugs is far worse then you might have imagined. Watch this video, and tell me that you think that we are choosing wisely when we make our policies.

Discussion is welcome, and stupid cliche responses will be either made fun of, ignored, or deleted. Have some substance to your viewpoint if you're going to make a comment.

Wow... I'm only 5 years, 1 month, and a couple weeks late to the party... but i just found out that my birthday has been designated as Towel Day.

How the hell did I miss that? Probably because I don't hang around enough DNA fans. That's Douglas Adams for those of you that don't know. Ya know... Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? (which is FAR more then the 'just a movie' that was released last year)

If you really don't know about him... take some time to Read up on him over at the wikipedia.

That is all.. much to do and I'm making little headway.

Its been a while since I caught up with Wil Wheaton's blog... like 9 months... before he went into exile. He made this comment in his recent post (wow, he's such an awesome writer... i could read him talk about every day stuff forever... i'm willing to overlook him not responding to my secret PGP encoded fan mail like a year ago.. lol):

On my way through the casino, just after midnight on a Monday morning when the weekend travelers had gone home, I noticed that Las Vegas can be an intensely lonely town when you're here without someone, which is incredible, considering the nonstop party that this place is. There are people everywhere, but it can be like standing in a torrential downpour, and somehow not getting wet at all. I'm glad that I'm here with PokerStars, who are really like an extended family to me, so I don't have to experience those moments of lonely isolation that are so common in the flashing lights beneath the ever-present haze of smoke.

Wow... how very true... and I've had some time alone in Vegas and had those exact thoughts... but could have never have put it so eloquently. Makes me wonder how much he stuggles to write that, or if it just comes out of him naturually.

So, yeah, I don't really know what's been going on with him for the last year or so, but its always good to catch up with an old friend... even if he doesn't even know you exist.

Its kinda crazy how things often run parallel... I saw that he has been doing work for Suicide Girls and on his profile page he lists the Dresdan Dolls among his favorite bands... wow...

Ok.. finally getting around to writing about my second trip up to Summerfest.

Really wasn't anyone I wanted to see on Sunday... the lineup was pretty lame compared to some other days. Lots of country acts for some reason. Came to the realization that pretty much ALL types of music is represented well at Summerfest... except for Rap... and Metal... wtf!?

Anyway... show was set to start at 7... we got to summerfest around 7:30.. Didn't really care much about seeing Bauhaus play... they are alright, but mainly for the innovation they did like 15 years ago. They felt more like aging has beens then the legends that they should be. Its a shame... and its always sad when people are still going far past when they should really stop... Either that or the whole European thing didn't seem right to me. We completely missed "Peaches"... which looks like a raunchy solo act... that quite possibly may have been a guy at some point. Might have been mildly entertaining.

Anyway... we parked, and made our way in... grabbed a few drinks, and made our way toward the stage. Now, this is when I noticed that they were frisking people on the way in, and had a guy on a bullhorn announcing that no cameras were allowed (among other things). So... I ducked into the bathroom and strategically hid my camera, and successfully smuggled it in. Really don't know why they care so much... And it isn't like every cell phone isn't a camera now anyway (a crappy camera.. but still a camera). Anyway, I never use the flash at a show.. so I almost never have any chance of getting caught with mine. But I just couldn't pass this one up...

Some people should really honestly look at themselves in the mirror before they leave the house.... and before they start drinking (whatever is sooner, assuming that they get dressed before they start drinking). I simply had to risk using the flash on this one, and it simply had to be recorded and posted on here. So, my apologies for putting your heinous image on the web.. whoever happened to have a ticket for section 2, row FF, seat 36 (i think). Wow.. that's heinous. Right after the flash went off... I became aware of 2 security people standing right behind me... I quickly turned the camera off... threw it into a pocket... and enjoyed the show.. they left a few minutes later, thankfully. I'm not sure what would have been worse... seeing this behemoth from behind... or from the front... I think behind is a lot safer.. and less nightmare inducing. My personal BBW collection is growing! haha

Anyway... it wasn't long before Trent took the stage, and it was the usual NIN show... brutal and intense... with only a few brief interludes that offered a little relaxation before being plunged back into sensory overload.

My only real complaint is the lack of a projection portion of the show... was really looking forward to seeing the video that gets played along with "Right Where It Belongs"... by far, one of the most powerful songs I've heard in a while... especially with the video that goes along with it in concert. I simply must find someone who has a good bootleg of it.

Regardless, the only visuals were provided by some LCD panels at the back of the stage, and a cage like curtain that dropped over the front of the stage and provided some low res LED imagery... Not bad, and made for some cool effects that didn't turn out quite as well as i'd hope they would on the videos I got. Oh well.... I do have to say that i was quite impressed by the closing of the show... with the cage/curtain coming down, with the NIN logo on it... as Trent and company destroyed their instruments on stage. Wow...

So, its been brought to my attention that trackbacks are broken... hmm.. wonder if i just broke it by adding the comment stuff....

I'm thinking it works (and it still a potential way to spam me... will probably have to figure out some way to prevent that)

OK, so... it only took a few weeks for my blog to get HAMMERED again by the comment spammers. Yay... So, I looked around and added a small Turing Test (For those that don't want to read, named after the Brilliant Alan Turing, a machine that can pass the test can fool a human into thinking that the machine was human). Basically, i'm trying to keep people from posting automated comments to my blog with links to their casino site or whatever else they are selling.

So, from now on... you'll have to enter in one of those annoying little verify the number things. I used one that should be really easy to read and not annoyingly difficult. I might even make it so that if you are registered on my site (just have to give me a name and an email address, nothing too invasive) then it will skip that part, but for now, I just wanted to stop the bleeding!

On another note, You probably noticed that I'm working with placing images in my posts, and getting them to display nicely. I came across an awesome looking piece of CSS code that works well in all browsers. I was having some trouble with a few of the implementation details, and sent off a not to the author, and amazingly, I got a very detailed response! So, this post will probably appear to be fairly broken as I try to illustrate some of the problems I'm having with using his work. Perhaps its something in the CSS on my side, perhaps there's some browser issues at play as well. So, I'm going to have some random images sprinkled throughout this post, and I'm trying to ramble on long enough to have some filler text that goes around them.

So, i get to post of the pictures from my recent trip to Florida on a post... never did get around to recording my experiences there.. and now that its almost a month later, its already turning to mush... oh well...

Now, when I post an image within the middle of a paragraph, it breaks the current paragraph. My current configuration wraps all paragraphs I type in a <p> tag but I'm not so sure that has anything to do with it as I think the div is what's breaking the flow of the paragraph. Its nothing major, of course... just not sure what's causing it. I haven't yet begun to change any of the overflow properties that are preventing the images from being displayed outside of the column containing the posts, and I have to see if that setting is critical for anything.

This picture is the same exact code only aligned to the left instead of the right. The left ones work, but the right ones don't, but I want to check this post out in IE and see what it looks like. (Aha! The right aligned ones DO work in IE, but I'm pretty much a FireFox only person... so Scott was right, the right aligned stuff does work.. but not in FireFox! ) So, I've just been sticking to the left side for the pictures. Also, the flow seems uninterrupted when I started this paragraph with a <div> but that may just be because of the way that b2evolution wraps each paragraph in <p> tags. Lots to look into.. fun fun.

So... sorry for the technical detour.. but I'm working on some stuff and without a public post showing some of the strangeness, its harder to test out. And a big thanks to Scott for helping me out with this and for spending a lot of time on his little gem. I'm well aware of the amount of time and effort that goes into writing elegant and cross-browser CSS.

Ok, So I Made two trips up to Milwaukee for Summerfest the self proclaimed “World’s Largest Music Festival”. It’s a short 45 minute drive without traffic, but ended up taking us a little over an hour.. yay for traffic!.

First band I was there to see was Sid Maudlin. Missed a little bit of her show due to leaving later then we wanted to and traffic, but still was good to see her. A little disappointed in the sound and the size of the crowd, but playing earlier in the day at Summerfest, you can’t really expect much. Its actually a huge thing for her to get that kind of exposure and I’m hoping that things pan out for her. I picked a CD she was selling because it had a handful of new tracks on it that weren’t on her website or on the other CD I bought. That, and I always try to support the artists I like, especially the smaller ones that don’t get the respect that they deserve.

After Sid wrapped up, we had a few hours to waste before the Main Event for the night, Cowboy Mouth. We ran into Luis (thanks for the spoons!) and chatted for a while, and other then that… we just wandered around… listened to some mediocre cover bands, drank lots of Miller Products, looked at the crap they were trying to get people to buy, and even played some Quake 4 on some Dell Machines and entered their contest where they are giving away a laptop. I’d certainly take the laptop if i were to win… but I’m really looking forward to getting an email (SPAM) from them to ‘dellsucksass@rkware.com’ or whatever address I made up when filling out the form.

The did have one promotion that got me thinking… It was a golf thing… Pay $6, get 3 balls. There was a little island 135 feet off the shore, and they put a hole out there. First Hole-in-One got a brand new car, next 3 got a free round trip on Midwest Airline in the continental US. I’m sure that the airline tix were donated, and maybe even the car, but even so… judging from the drunken idiots who think they could golf… I imagine that little booth was quite profitable. Not sure what their expenses are, but there was a long line of people wanting to try. They even had some poor idiot sitting in a tent out on the island watching the hole for a winner… Yeah.. I’d be loving THAT job!

That day happened to be the first game of the second Cubs/Sox series. My office encouraged people to wear jerseys to show support for their team, and i didn’t change clothes before going up to Summerfest. Was REALLY funny to me that i had about 20 people make some kind of White Sox comment. About 90% of them were white sox fans also (where the hell were THEY 2 years ago?) and wanted to have conversations of some sort about the team, and if they beat the cubs that day (they did, of course!). I’ve worn similar stuff other places before we won last year, and I barely got ANY comments, and when I did, they were from Cub Fans that wanted to mock me for some reason. The best comment by far was from some guy from Milwaukee… a Brewer fan… He wanted to make fun of me for being a White Sox fan, because his girlfriend was a Chicago Fan (White Sox, i think, but I don’t remember now) and he somehow tried to put us down. I just laughed at him and told him that I LIKED the Brewers because we got Scott Posednik and Luis Vizcaino for Carlos Lee… a trade that helped BOTH teams a lot… and the fact that the Brewers took 3 our of 4 from the Cubs also helped bolster my opinion of them. he was a bit too drunk I think to follow the logic… so I left him with a well, maybe my Sox will play your Brewers this year in the World Series… to which he laughed… mainly because there’s no way in hell the Brewers are making the World Series.

Anyway, 10PM rolled around, and we waited for some ‘World Beat’ band that had a surprisingly large following to wrap up, so that the crowd could clear out a bit and we could get a spot somewhere near the stage. Well, I guess most of the people there were Cowboy Mouth fans… as they didn’t budge at all. I guess that explains why they were so into their music. lol

Fred and the gang played for almost 2 hours, and they could have gone on much longer. I was kinda concerned about the bleachers that were bolted to the ground, but it actually worked out quite well, even though we were standing on the ground between the second and third row with everyone standing on the bleachers, we actually had a really good view of the stage.

That is, until some fuckwad decided to stand right in front of us… Right during “Everybody Loves Jill” too… grah… pissed me off for a bit, but we managed to find a spot all the way at the other end, standing on the bleachers… was a challenge to not fall off with 20 people bouncing on a 40 year old piece of metal. Didn’t get any pics with my camera since I instituted my “No Camera” policy during CM shows since my last one was nearly destroyed.

Made a return trip for Nine Inch Nails on Sunday… I’m going through pics for that and will be posting about that soon!

Ok, I finally found some time to write up my Fourth of July activities. Well, some of them... Still going to post about Summerfest... need to go through some pics and figure that out....

I spent my Fourth of July with my parents, leaving to catch my local fireworks display. We ended up walking there, and even though its a two minute drive, srcwe discovered that there are no sidewalks for most of the way and we were walking through constuction zones! Oh, and it was about a 2 mile walk, and it took us about 45 minutes... haha.. oh well, we DID get to see the neighboring towns fireworks, and ours started about 5 minutes before we got there. Was kinda surreal walking towards the fireworks, with a few other people also wandering towards them. Then afterward, there was a HUGE exodus which made me wonder what percentage of people came out for them, and how many homes were empty at that moment. Anyway.. holy tangent! My local fireworks display was really kinda cool, since there's a good sized lake with an island in the middle where they launch the fireworks from. So, there's a lot of places that make for great viewing angles. There's a large festival area that was far too crowded. I can't stand being stuck in a crowd, so we walked to the other side of the lake, plenty of room for us to lay down, watch the fireworks and see them reflected in the water. Definately cool and gave me a chance to use the 'fireworks' setting on my camera which worked far better then I expected.

Anyway, at my parents, we dug into our supply of old fireworks. Its been a few years since we've done anything destructive, and we could have planned it out better, but we had some fun and, of course, we caught it all on video! All the standard disclaimers apply... we know what we are doing and you shouldn't try to do this unless you too know what you are doing and I'm not responsible if by reading or watching this you get some crazy ideas yourself and get in trouble or hurt someone.

With that out of the way, picked out a Silver Salute and a Cherry Bomb... and decided to pit these two forces against some household items. A roll of toilet paper, and a feeble Coke Can. I wish we had put the roll of TP on something hard and had a more sturdy 'lid' then the flimsy aluminum pan. Not to save the grass from getting a hole burned into it, but rather to allow less of the explosive force to escape from the side of the roll. Anyway, thanks to my new membership with YouTube, you can watch the video here if you have flash, or you can download it too (5.29MB, 1:25, Windows Media).

Wheeee! Make sure you watch to the end to see the slow motion part!

Next up was the Cherry Bomb. We got a little smarter and used a brick to put the can on. After enlarging the mouth of the can to get the cherry bomb into it, we were able to set it off. Again with slow motion and zoom and the end, and you can download this one too (4.32MB 1:09, Windows Media).

Not much left at all of the can! haha... well... We had our fun! On a completely different note.. i need to see if Sony Vegas 6 can produce video in some more open format.

OK... first of all... Let me start by saying that I typically am a very busy person. I have tons of things to do... more then can possibly be accomplished in the time that we have in this world, but I do what I can.

To that end, I don't sleep much during the week... sometimes I get as little as an hour or two of sleep, but I don't pull the all-nighters anymore unless I can really help it. I tend to catch up a bit on the weekends, but during the week, I get by on a few hours.

So, I generally consume lots of caffeine. In the winter, this is normally in the form of coffee, however... I normally only drink that during the colder months. Instead, I've turned to the nerd stable: Mountain Dew. (have other preferences, but that's the best option that's in the vending machine here at work.)

Now, when I started last time, Pepsi (bah, can't believe I've sunk so low as to consume Pepsi Products... My fridge at home is still stocked with Coke though...) was in the middle of a promotion where they were giving away cars and free $20 gas cards. Your entry was in the form of a code on the caps, and they gave away a car every day, and a free gas card every 10 minutes. I had intended on entering all the codes in one short period of time, in the middle of the night, during the week... but the contest ended before I could do that.

Well, they started again, this time giving away a Motorola Razr Music Phone (bah.. my SK3 is better! by far!) and free ring tones (which probably won't work for me anyway A quick check of their website, and sure enough.. no Sidekick support.). Ok, back story complete... no on to why I have absolutely no luck and why I choose to not leave anything that I care about at all up to chance.

The Promotion started on May 15th, and since then, I managed to consume 52 Bottles of Mountain Dew, and I have 52 Caps. According to their official rules, 1 in 12 caps is good for a free bottle of Mountain Dew when you buy one. Guess how many I have received after 52 bottles? Statistally speaking, I should expect to have won 4.333 free Mountain Dews by now. But no... I have 52 codes that are completely worthless to me. Well, maybe if I win a phone I can sell it on ebay or something.

So, what are the chances of getting 0 winners with a 1 in 12 chance after 52 trys? 1.0839% and if I don't win on the Next one, I'll be below 1%. Yay!

Oh well.. if it weren't for Bad Luck, I'd have No Luck at all!

And, I can't really think of anything else to add... so here ends my most pointless entry yet. Still want to post a few pics from my Summerfest encounter and some Fourth of July craziness, but haven't had time yet to go through the pics and stuff.. Soon!