In an effort to ease the strain on messenger services, I have proposed the idea of No IM Day to the general-internet-public in hopes that they will sign off together on April 8, 2006.

But really, it’s just for fun, so you should digg No IM Day in hopes that it will grow beyond belief. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

In an unprecedented oversight by ASM, the voting system was unable to handle 15% of the student populace voting, and thus voting has been postponed. Apparently this has much to do with the “high level of write in candidates,” and the system is unable to handle this. So for all who voted for me, awesome, it looks like the system broke down in the process, probably due to the unprecedented support of pyktech readers… or the small number of students actually on the ballots.

Regardless, thanks everyone, and I will keep everyone posted as further election news is released.

Today is the first day of voting for ASM positions and referendums, and voting runs through Thursday (March 30). Given this fact, I will be running as a write in candidate in every category. Check out www.vote.asm.wisc.edu and vote for me in every category. My platform will be the Theodore Roosevelt Appreciation Party, and I stand by the resigning of any position in which I am elected. Happy voting.

As I ponder which classes will benefit me the most during my senior year at the UW-Madison, I have on the side, decided to start a brokerage account with a discount broker, as another side hobby in which to bide my time.

Firstrade.com is my optimal choice for a beginner account, with no-minimum balance and low trade costs (although my guess is ‘slow’ trades). Something to get started with, and possibly stay with if long term investing is the eventual goal (for now it will be some casual trades for learning’s sake).

So with my referral in hand, and with it, five free trades, I will tackle the field of personal investing, hopefully to gain a thorough and complete knowledge of investing that will last longer than those five trades… and maybe an interest rate that is better than the petty fraction-of-a-percent that my current savings account is giving me.

WordPress is really quite the pleasure to work with, so it’s just a matter of time before I switch this page to be the front page to pyktech. For those curious, the above photo is one taken outside the own-and-only Kellogg Middle School in Rochester, MN. The tree overlooks the hill looking down onto the pseudo-track-football field and baseball fields. However, this happens to be a picture of the clouds; why clouds you ask? Well, I pose the question to you. Tell me in the Comments section.

Either that or post insightful political commentary, or perhaps satirical political commentary.

blogging for real. I have thus switched over to WordPress as per the suggestion of many, and the delight of myself. It just looks ridiculously good, both on the backend and the front end. What more can I say?