Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

5 down...

so... that's one more finished semester... now I'm just cleaning and packing up to go back home...

Good thing I don't have to do everything... It might be pretty annoying if my roommates left me to clean up their mess too.

But anyway, back on topic, now that all my finals are over, and I've finished my fifth semester of college... that really can't be right... ... but yeah, 3 more to go... so tonight I'm just cleaning, packing, and spending some time with my girlfriend before I leave...

snow

it's snowing! That's kinda cool.

I really am having a hard time starting this paper I have due next monday... I know I should be starting it, esp. since I have plans for the weekend, but I just can't get myself to work on it... I always seem to find something to do instead of the paper.

I guess on the plus side, I have written a few little things in Python, which is a programming language I've been wanting to learn. Unforunately that doesn't help me any on my paper.

anyway, maybe I'll start it today... (I've been saying that since sunday though)

yep

So, I'm in class right now, not really doing anything yet, since the professor has yet to show up, that's not all bad, but it's not very interesting when you're sitting in class not doing anything.

So... yesterday a Professor offered to pay me to fix his computer, so I ended up working on it for about 3 hours and made $50.

And a guy in the class... just said to another guy "you were all hot and bothered and all up in my grill about it"

I'm just gonna say, that's a somewhat odd thing to say.

wow...

I can't believe I didn't figure that out...

I really hate it when I miss things that are so obvious. the only explanation I can find is that I have a big paper due tomorrow... so maybe that's messing with me... or maybe I'm just an idiot... I dunno... anyway... I'm really annoyed at myself.

Ugh..

long week

last week... was really long... It wasn't exactly my favorite time, in fact... I didn't really like it all that much, but then you have that sometimes. So yeah, glad that's over, not sick anymore, huge paper is finished, iPod still isn't here, but it's currently in Alaska, so it shouldn't be too much longer (it left Shanghai, China on friday). Saturday I went to the State Marching band competition at the dome, that was pretty fun, Brad (my brother) was marching, so that was pretty cool. Penn got 6th place (10 bands performed).

So, to sum it up, bad week, good weekend.

ipod

Almost forgot, I ordered a black ipod 30gb with video. I'm pretty excited, hopefully I'll be getting it this week...

hmm

So... yeah

I had a nice break, left thursday afternoon and got back sunday a bit after 3. While I was home I got to see my brother in a band competition and made some great pork chops. I had a really nice time and even stated my paper that's due friday... (didn't get much done, but it's started).

Sunday night, after I got back, I went to the Audio Adrenaline Concert. They had a great show, as did Kids in the Way, Sanctus Real, Superchic[k], and Pillar. I had a really good time...

Unfortuanately I've been a little sick... but then that happens sometimes... hopefully it won't last long, but at least for now for now...

cough drops are my friend.

lisp... and other (more useful) things

(defun rev (L) "reverses a list"
(if (null L)
L
(append (rev (cdr L)) (list (car L)))
))
(setf x '(crazy is lisp in programming))
(rev x)
(exit)

Anyway... been doing lisp programming in class. It's a bit crazy.

a lot has been happening lately... people having birthdays, tests for classes, watching movies, forgetting about my blog, etc.

I've been really considering getting an ipod too. I still haven't because I'm not sure I want to spend the money quite yet, but they do have color screens now... so we'll see.

Rain

There is something really relaxing about thunderstorms. Just sitting outside (with good company) during a storm is really incredible. The sounds of the rain hitting leaves, the ripples in puddles as the drops hit, the cool breeze...

wow... been a while

I just realized how long it's been since the last post... Got an A in Client/Server... that was nice, and today is the start of Rush week... Should be fun. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be setting up the hammock in the valley... we'll see how it turns out...

idiocy

so... our AC wasn't working in the apartment... and they were nice enough to come by and fix it this morning...

the problem... they forgot to turn it on...

the reason we didn't fix that...

they locked us out of our closet...

intermixture

It's been an interesting start to school so far. I haven't gotten books yet, although, I only need them for one class, so that's all right. Also, I need to change my schedule, but I couldn't find the professor after my classes today... so that will have to wait. I really think I'm going to enjoy the classes though, so that's good, and I got lucky and pulled "BASIC" as my programming language to ... (report on?) but anyway at least I didn't get something strange like "LOGO" or something... hehe.
Oh, also, this weekend I found out that my credit card was reported stolen... then Walmart cut it up... now... really... if it was declined... and it's obviously mine... is there any reason to cut it up??? That's sorta overkill... Great timing though... the weekend before classes start... right when I need to pay for stuff... like a parking pass, or books... heh...

invious

I'm not really sure how the title relates... it's just a cool word.

Today, and yesterday, I worked on connecting computers to our school network. Some have worked pretty smoothly, some quite unsmoothly, but each one is a slightly different experience, which I like. I prefer that they all work in the end, but whether they do work or not, I enjoy learning why they do or don't work.

Also, I really think that whoever it was that first came up with the idea of a evening walk should be given a more affluent position in history books. A nice evening/nighttime walk can be so relaxing... especially when you're with the right person. ;-)

training n stuff

so... training for ITS was ok. The golf cart relays were fun... and the rest was generally informative... much better than yesterday... not exactly exciting though. So overall not as interesting of a day as I may have liked... except for tonight... first Jared my "flatmate" (thanks Kirsten) came and moved some stuff in, then after that a walk around campus :-) (not with Jared). A little cool tonight, but still really great weather, so between that and the company, it was a great time...

so now.. on to sleep... gotta get up for more training tomorrow...

"Done" with class

So.. class is over now, as of friday, but I still have to finish up my project... I'm getting fairly close... so it'll probably only be another day or so until I'm done...

I had a pretty good weekend... I'm still waiting on the tickets for the game though (the game being the Colts preseason game vs. the Bears... which happened on saturday) so they're really not all that useful. So I helped Amy move into Mansfield... nice place overall, a little old, but still way better than any of the dorms.

Also took a nice walk around campus tonight, it's always nice to walk around here at night...

Into the apartment...

Not only am I moved in... but today I got my key!! So now I'm good to go... tonight I'm gonna have to go out and grab some food and stuff... Should be fun. I'm looking forward using the kitchen... Anyway, that's it for now... Off to work on connecting to a database with perl (using DBD::mySQL I think...)

class

Class has been going pretty well so far... learning Perl keeps you fairly busy/confused, but I'm starting to figure it out. Also I'm working for ITS in the mornings, mostly setting up new staff and classroom computers. So anyway, I'm keeping busy.

hmm

well... back to class... it's actually going good, doesn't seem like it'll be too bad. I really even think I'm going to enjoy it. Also Monday night saw 2 movies "Hot Shots" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", that was pretty fun, both are pretty cool movies...

Windows Vista

This is just my reaction to this article at winsupersite.com.

so... generally decent graphics (although still trailing behind OSX),
"simplified graphical install (which looks a lot like the Fedora Core
installer to me) and my favorite:

"There is also a special version of IE 7 hidden away in the System
Tools folder that loads IE without any plug-ins. Logically named
Internet Explorer (No Add-ons), this version of IE might be useful to
use if your system is compromised in some way and spyware is
preventing you from using the browser normally. In other words, to be
safe, Microsoft has to ship a version of IE that doesn't work like IE.
Cute."

This is sure looking like a great upgrade from XP... hehe... I think
the new graphics will make firefox and gaim look a little better...
hah

nice try MS.... several years behind though...

accident...

ugh... so today we were in the van... and trying to turn left out of a parking lot... and ended up not seeing someone in the second lane (because a silver suv was turning into the lot) and got hit... no one seemed to be hurt... except the vehicles... his was driveable, but our front drivers side wheel was "folded" (at least that's how my mom explained it) So... it got towed... so either it will get fixed fairly soon... or moving stuff to college will be rather interesting...

Canoe Trip

Today we were out on the river... it was a beautiful day. Also got to do a little grilling, it turned out pretty well, good ribs and pineapple.

Tennessee

I'm (as a few people know) in tennessee right now. We spent the day at the pool and went to a baseball game. Got a bit of a sunburn, but it's nice to see the cousins/ aunt and uncle.

Cubs lost...

The Cubs lost their game saturday when we went... but it was still fun. The seats were on the third base side, a bit different than I'm used to, and were actually really nice seats. Dinner afterwards at Gino's East was great... I love Chicago-Style Pizza.
It was really nice to see Amy again for the weekend.

Today though... not the best, not feeling to great for some reason... and didn't sleep all that well either... oh well, what can ya do? Anyway, going on another trip to Nashville this week to visit our cousins. That should be interesting. Then when I get back it'll just be waiting for August... It'll be nice to get back to classes...

Cubs

Only a few(3) more days until I get to go to another Cubs Game!! It's always a fun time, Wrigley is such a cool place.

Until then I'm working on a few different projects... all of which I just started this week... and only one is even close to working...

Our kitchen is actually getting pretty close, a lot of the cabinets are in, and the rest are in boxes in the garage, along with the countertop and appliances.

That's it for now... not much detail in this one... just a general idea of what's going on...

programming

I was working on a program yesterday... and it kept deleting the end of the message I wanted to print out... and after looking through it closer today it seems that (at least in C#) putting a null in the middle of a string deletes everything you put after that... after more looking around, I found that either adding either (char)0 or '\0' does that... now my question is this: Why would you need to do that? ...meh

Saturday

Today^H^H^H^H^H Yesterday was great, It was really nice out, and I spent most of the day with Amy and Yoder. Really nice to get to see her, uh, them.

"Batman Begins" turned out to be very well done, I really liked it. Not that I didn't expect to, I was just impressed. Anyway, that's about it... I should really get to bed.


Oh, and btw, I have just about finished configuring Gentoo with icewm and firefox on the laptop (old Thinkpad 390e) and it really is working out nice...

Paint

The last few days have mostly been spent painting... and we're getting close. We're almost done with the bedroom, and the closet and kitchen don't have a lot left to do (at least as far as painting goes).

We went to the Chicago Cub's Game Tuesday. It was a night game (which I enjoy) and the Cubs won 2-0!! There were a few really good plays, and overall it was a really good game.

That's about it for now... well, except for looking forward to this weekend :-)

Drywall

The drywall guys finally came today (not the originals though... those guys never showed). So now the kitchen is finally starting to take shape. There's still a lot to do, but at least it's moving along...

In other news, I'm really looking forward to the weekend of the 4th! So far the plans are sounding great.

Dvorak

I just decided the past few days that I would take a look at the Dvorak keyboard layout. In fact, I'm actually using it to (slowly) type this. From what I've read about it, and the time I've spent trying to learn it so far (about an hour) I can already tell it is a easier layout. Anyway, other than that, not much is going on.

back at home...

I'm back from the trip... actually have been for a few days now. I finally solved the problem with the family computer (dhcp client was missing), unfortunately the only way I could find to fix it was to reinstall windows... not a fun time. It works now. And speaking of fun times, I had a chance to see Amy on the way back, that, unlike reinstalling and updating windows, was a good time. Also Fry's Electronics is a great place. so anyway, enough rambling...

Honduras

This has been an amazing trip, filled with new experiances...

the good:
charamuscas(sp?)- basically frozen milk with coconut and vanilla
a new understandig of life in central america
the chance to see a burger that costs $57(lempiras, not US)
experiancing a childs smile (esp. one that speaks spanish way better than you...)

the not so good:
a jellyfish sting- very interesting feeling to say the least...
freaking hot temperatures/humidity

but despite the occasional problem, this has been a great trip so far and an amazing experiance

update

It is getting closer to time for the trip... so packing is keeping me busy, well... that and stuff around the house. The house, you see, is expanding, and as a result the kitchen wall disappeared almost like magic (actually in a completely non-magical fashion, in reality it was torn out by two guys, but "like magic" just has a nice ring to it)(p.s. not actually expanding either, technically... nevermind...). So anyway, with all the changes around here, I've kept fairly busy.

Also, I just went out and got tickets for Star Wars III, showing at 10:40pm Thursday. I am really excited about this one, especially since it is "darker" than the last two. I think another way to say that is "indeterminately more violent with way better action scenes and the 'cute kid' finally turns evil". Sounds like a good movie to me!

And in other news, unexpected phone calls can be really nice...

a week

...is about how long I've been home now. It is alsoabout how long I have until I leave for Honduras. So I've got some packing to do...

I've been grilling a lot this week too... I love it... tonight was red chile-rubbed salmon with toasted corn vinaigrette... and it turned out quite nicely... definately the best fish I personally have ever cooked.

It's been nice being home, but I'm already looking forward to next year...

I just realized that this has been a rather random selection of thoughts... hope you enjoy.

done...

Finals are all over!!! and I've already finished packing, now I just have to sweep, and go to a movie :-)

Finals

well, only one more week to summer.

One final done, 3 to go.

Spanish

I took my spanish oral exam yesterday, which went pretty well, and now I don't have any more spanish until next monday! Also, I really don't have any homework tis week, so I'm just about done, I just need to study a little for my finals. Although spanish is a cool language... I really don't enjoy learning it most of the time. I wish there was a way to learn it without memorizing everything...

I really want to play risk again... I already played two games this weekend... and that's a lot of time spent on world domination...

I had...

A great weekend.

Romeo and Juliet
several movies :-)
lunch watching the draft
Encore :-)
Risk - outlived 3 in a 6-man game

Kegs for a Cause!

For anyone near Anderson University:

What:FREE ROOTBEER!! (from the keg) and music

When: April 29 8:00pm

Where: Anderson University (Smith/Martin Courtyard)

WHY: To support charity (donations)

I love Programming...

I just realized that computer programming really is something I love, which is both good and bad at the moment, since I am putting off a paper that is due tomorrow in speech in order to spend a little more time on a program I've been working on.

I think what I really love about programming is the way it is both creative and mathematical. In high school the only classes I enjoyed up until senior year were band and math. I have always enjoyed music, which I guess was my outlet for creativity. Also I love math because it just makes sense to me. I guess I see Programming as a way to combine these two (logic and creativity) in a way that solves a problem.

Ahh, friday...

... such a wonderful day, almost done with the week. I always have a problem on friday though... that problem being that if I don't have anything important, I just want to do something else besides class. Now I know that isn't a good idea, but it is still tempting. Oh well, it's about time to go to class now.

Oh by the way, I updated the website last night.

Breakout Bat!!

I thought this was a pretty sweet quiz. (btw, thanks for finding it Amy!)

I am a Breakout Bat. I am an abstract sort of creature, who dislikes any sort of restraint. If you try to pigeonhole me, I'll break the box, and come back for more. I don't have any particular ambitions, I just drift, but I am adept at keeping life going along. What Video Game Character Are You?

I hate IE

I really wish Microsoft would make IE support CSS 2. I really don't want my webpage to look stupid at strange resolutions... and using max-width and min-width make it look great... however there's no support for those in IE. Firefox supports both, so why can't Microsoft, with all their money, actually add support for standards set by a group they are part of?

(By the way, I am currently working on re-designing my webpage.)

Google is awesome!

I would just like everyone to know that Google is quite possibly my favorite company. Really, any company that provides amazing services, is not evil (number 4), and has a good sense of humor is fine by me.

Spring

The weather today is great, mid 60's and sunny. It finally is beginning to feel like spring.
Otherwise, this week has been really crazy, not only did I have a paper, quiz, and short speech in spanish today, I also had 2 papers due today and a speech in speech class. I still don't really know what exactly I am going to do for that, but I'm sure it'll turn out ok in the end...

Tonight is the apartment room draw, so then we will know what apartment we will be living in next year (hopefully the new ones).

Monday

Today was a fairly good day, as far as mondays go, club was great tonight though... we had officer nominations and apparently someone thinks I'd be a good treasurer or historian. So yeah... I guess I'll think about that...

For now... I'm going to sleep -- seeing as I have a speech exam in the morning, not something I'm looking forward to.

Anyway, sleep, then a great tuesday is in my future (I hope)

Back to school

Well, I am now back on campus. Now I get to start looking into the homework I have put off all week. No idea what I actually need to work on, but I'm sure there's something.

As for now though... I think I'll be listening to some Led Zeppelin while I avoid the work a little longer...

May 19th

"What's so important about May 19th?" you ask, well...

I just saw the Star Wars Episode III trailer, which made me realize that I have to see the movie on opening day... Now, this isn't just because I'm a freak like that. No, I have a good reason. I'm leaving for Honduras on the 20th, so I either see it on opening day, or at least 2 weeks later...

So now the question is just where to see it...

SPRING BREAK!!

As you can probably tell... I am pretty excitied about spring break. It is a much needed change from normal. I am not going anywhere "cool" like florida or cancun or... wherever else, but I am already haveing a great time at home. Today I drove around and helped my brother find a new trumpet. He got a Conn Vintage 1B, and I must say... it is a nice trumpet. Tonight grandmother came over and we are having homemade lasagna. Actually, they are pouring drinks right now (I'm having milk).

man-month

I just finished reading "The Mythical Man-Month" last night, and it's a great book for Computer Science people... I'm not sure anyone else would really be thrilled with it, but it's possible. I read the 20th anniversary edition... which is now about 10 years old. So it's a little old, and some parts don't apply anymore, but they're a neat history lesson if nothing else.

In other news... this week I decided to start Einstien@Home. It is a research project using distributed computing.

powerbook

So... after seeing Amy's new powerbook I would just like to let everyone know that I would happily take one as a gift... for any occasion...
But seriously, those things are not only beautiful, they are amazingly simple to use. Basically, I don't see much of a reason to get any other laptop...

king arthur and lobster

This has been a great weekend, it started out with dinner at la charreada then a movie with chelsea, becky, and jared. then later we watched king arthur back in our room, which I will add, is an amazing movie.

Today I got up around noon, theen went out and played a game of campus golf (Real clubs, but plastic balls, and the "holes" are trees or benches)

For dinner I went out with Kyle and his family to Red Lobster! THANK YOU KYLE'S DAD!!!

Now we're watching king arther again, it's that good...

Gmail

so if anyone wants a gmail account, just let me know, apparently I have 50 invites...

Also... I didn't ever finish the assessment day posts... I didn't win anything... my roommate however won a --- big pause --- bump in registration... so he gets to register for classes earlier... uh... yeah. So at least I didn't miss too much... I would have enjoyed an ipod though. Oh well.

home

I had a really great time at home this weekend. Between the barbecue ribs and the family, it was a really nice trip.
Also, last week I got the thinkpad's wireless working, which finally makes the laptop truely useful...

okay... I'd better win something...

The bribes got me out of bed at 8:30 this morning...

I went and took the "test" and it was a waste of my time... it really wasn't even a challenge...

so now I have nothing to do all day, because classes are cancelled, and I'm awake and it's not even 10 in the morning yet (normally my classes don't start till 10)

So, all I have to say is this:
I'd better win something... or this will probably turn out to be a wasted day

tomorrow

so tomorrow we don't have classes... instead there are optional tests... and they are bribing us to go with the chance to win an ipod... so I guess I'll go...

and also I was bored and made a wish list at amazon.com

eh...

So, I started working on my ibm ThinkPad 390e again. It's a little old, but it has a new battery and has linux installed and I'm trying to get a wireless card to work. I previously bought an Xterasys card, which works really well with windows... but it has no linux support. So last night I bought a linksys WPC11 card, which is supposed to be supported... So hopefully I'll accomplish my goal of making this computer useful for typing papers and browsing the internet around campus...

so far the total cost has been about $155.00 for everything... but I'll be selling the windows-only wireless card soon... ~$20 probably

but anyway, thats what I've been up to lately...

"There are three things that will endure-- faith hope and love-- and the greatest of these is love." ~1 Corinthians 14

weekend

I've actually had a really good week... All my classes are going fairly well, and I signed up for a Tri-S trip to Honduras this summer. As for this weekend, I'm probably going to 90's Encore(a show on campus where they sing music from the 90's). Other than that and church tomorrow There's really nothing planned... which I'll enjoy...

Domain!

So... I bought a domain name. and moved my blog. and if you're reading this, then you've already figured out where it is. Chills42.com!

So that is my big excitement for the day... Also over the weekend I worked a bit on a weather program. It isn't too exciting yet, since it only reports the weather for Anderson, IN. However, eventually I'd like to change that. I don't know exactly how much time I'm going to put into this, but at this point it works well enough that I have it running on my computer...

So that's what I've been doing the past few days, well that and then class today. I'm not sure which part I liked more, fining out that we are getting another test in Computer Architecture, or right after that attempting a Spanish test without studying nearly as much as I really should have...

uh... yeah

hey... yeah... it's been a few days now since I took the time to update this... obviously. I guess there really hasn't been a whole lot going on. Just classes. But as far as classes go, mine are fairly good so far this semester. Some are a little too easy for my liking (finite math) but overall, pretty good.

Oh and I'm having a fun time in my computer architecture class. learning base 16 addition how to add the 2's complement representation of positive and negative integers...

back to school...

So far everything is going well this semseter, between classes with fairly cool professors (and a few that a just nuts) . I updated the webpage, did a little work, and wrote this blog between classes. I'll probably get back to this later tonight... but I'm done for now.

back home...

After thetrip to Pheonix, which was about 55% travel, I'm back. It was a nice trip and luckily I didn't get sick like everyone else. I've got a few days left before second semester starts, so I am spending most of my time relaxing and doing stuff around the house. There's really not that much planned for this week, so I think I may spend a little time working on a winter theme for the website...