Pretty relaxing day. Went to the newly remodeled gym and worked out at 8 this morning, came back, showered, made coffee, ate a scone, and eventually wandered over to class at 10. After class I ate lunch, then came back to my room, read for a while and took a nice long nap. Read some more and went to dinner, then the grocery store and now I'm back in my room wondering what to do with myself until bedtime... I have a feeling that there won't be many of these days in the future, so I'm enjoying it now.

"But they understand that the Republican party has to be an imperfect vessel for many points of view, because that is the nature of political parties. ... George W. Bush is the best option available in the range of possible options given the fact that we are at war. John Kerry is the best option for those who are in denial about the fact that we are at war." - Jonah Goldberg

""Does anyone really know where John Kerry stands on the war?" A most pertinent question. I think the answer is no. I cover and analyze politics professionally, and I'm not sure I know. I believe he stands with the anti-war Left, but must trim his sails — his windsurfing sails — for reasons of electability." - Jay Nordlinger

States I've visited (26/50)



create your own personalized map of the USA

So, big news this week: I got a job. I am now an ECE tutor at the ARC (Academic Resource Center for the non-IIT folks). I started today, 1pm to 4pm. I'm scheduled to work 9 hours a week: 3 hours MW, 2 hours R, and 1 hour F. Today was pretty easy, found some equivalent resistances, compared phase lags, and in between people tried to study BJT amplifier circuits in case anybody decided to ask about those (which they didn't, thank goodness). Other than that, classes are fine, don't have any of my textbooks yet, the food isn't great but it'll do. I went to my first frat party ever this weekend, it was ok, pretty much what I expected. Sunday I did lots of nothing, spent 4 hours sitting at the coffee shop, reading and keeping Julia company. I'm glad I got the job at the ARC, but I still think working at the coffee shop would have been really cool...

Well, today was the last day of orientation, tomorrow we dive in. All in all, it was pretty successful. I am almost completely unpacked (which never really happened last year), registered for classes, I got in an application for a job at Global Grounds, got my U-pass, etc. Didn't manage to order my books yet, I think I'm avoiding that because I don't want to have to spend all that money. Went rollerblading today, and then out for sushi which was fun. Dinner was steak and shrimp over at the Delts, so today was a great day food-wise. I've probably spent more time over on the quad this week than ever before, which was interesting. Well, that's about it... Good night to all and to all a good night!

Back at school. Just finished registering and setting up the bar today. I'm taking 5 classes, 16 credits: Analysis & Design of Integrated Circuits, Photonics, Electrical Circuit Theory, Active Filter Design, and Engineering Analysis Ib. Not much else to report, well, Sonia left today for Russia, lucky duck. Bekki delivered her first baby and got a puppy :) (I'll try to put the pic of the puppy up in webshots sometime soon, very very cute). Yup, that's about it... I'll finish out with a funny section I got from James Lilek's column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

"Even though at the end you're sucking cardboard and licking plastic, everyone loves Push-Ups. If I were Bill Gates I would spend however many millions it took to load up a plane with Push-Ups and deliver them to everyone serving in Iraq. Here, guys: have a Push-Up. And they'd all say "Thanks, Bill! Now do something about Windows' inability to recognize file sizes greater than 2GB in FAT32 drives, OK? Jeez." And I'd fly home, bitter. No matter what you do for people, it always comes back to Windows. Like they'd have a computer without me. Fine, use an abacus to send your e-mail. See if I care. "

All right, let's see... It's been almost a week since my last entry, but I think I can pretty much sum up in one sentence: Work, work, work, blah, blah, blah. Ok, now that that's out of the way, on to the important stuff. Tonight is my graduation party!!! :) I'm excited, it should be a lot of fun... It's funny, it's really been 4 years since I've had a big party thrown for me. It's been so cold up here this week, I keep feeling like the party is for my birthday (it seems more like autumn than summer). Despite my summing up sentence, this week has been made kinda fun by the anticipation combined with the weather. Summer is great and all, but I have decided that I absolutely love fall. It's just so much more interesting. I like the contrast between the indoors and outdoors, and fall gives you that, but without the edge of winter. And it smells so good... I can't really describe what it smells like, just really good. Somehow the chill outside makes me feel more alive, anyways, the point being, I like it. Today it's a little warmer, which is good news for the party, but even today a little nippy is ok, since the party is planned to sort of concentrate around the bonfire. We're starting at 7 pm and having desserts and smores and hot dogs and hot coffee... just 3.25 hours from now! I just really hope that lots of people show up. That will be really fun. I like parties.

Let's see, I've gotta make this snappy so that I can get to bed. Spent pretty much all day Friday and Saturday at the Conference of the Holy Spirit, which is an awesome conference put on by Lutheran Renewal. Hmm... how to describe, basically we alternate worship (mostly singing) times with teaching times. One of the speakers this year (and last) was a man named R.T. Kendall, a pastor originally from Kentucky who spent 25 years as the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London. He's a great speaker, very intellegent and sort of scholarly, but so down to earth and funny. He basically spoke about being open to change and not getting stuck in the ways you've always done things, or the way that you think things 'ought' to be done just because that's how it was done when you were growing up, but also about being humble and realizing that God's in charge. Last year he spoke about forgiveness, which is something I'm pretty sure EVERYONE could do a lot more of and be much happier. The other big speaker was John Paul Jackson, who spoke about how God speaks to us through our dreams. As he put it, 'You sleep for a third of your life... that means that by the time you're sixty, there's been thirty years God could have been talking to you!'

Sunday, went to church of course. Had a lot of fun singing with the Praise Team, we had some good songs this week. I've only got one more Sunday at home! Yikes... Sonia basically gave the sermon today by telling about her trip to Bangladesh, she did a really really really awesome job. After church our whole family (plus one of Sonia's friends - Missy) went out to a chinese buffet (very yummy). The rest of the day I've basically been just lazing around, did a little shopping with Mom for thank you notes (my party is next weekend), and some reading. I'm currently rereading Anna Karenina (such a good book). Also got to talk to Robbie for a half hour :) and did some chatting with Julia and Bekki. Well, that's about it for now, it's almost bedtime and I still have to make breakfast and lunch!

Vacation time! I got off work today at about 9:15 am, and don't have to go back in until Monday morning! We ran out of covers, and apparently they don't think they'll get any more in on time, so they just told all of us temps to take a break (the permanent employees can stay if they want). So, kinda sucks to loose those 13 hours of work (ie money), but it's rather nice to have a 3.5 day weekend, and now I'm thinking that I might not take the whole last week off, so I can maybe work that off... Let's see, other big news is.... Robbie's going to be in Alabama from Aug 31 to Oct 13th!! That means that he'll be in the states for my birthday!!!! Yea :)!

On a seperate note: Robert - I couldn't get to the post a comment page on your blog, so I'll write it here. Bet you wish you were a Twins fan this season, huh? 10-0 on Monday (or was it Tues.) and 6-3 yesterday to put us 6 games ahead...

Wow, a whole week and change since I last wrote anything. Well, let's see. Last week went by SLOWLY. Luckily, the worst work day of the week was cut short. It's my theory that Tuesday is always the worst day. Monday you've got memories of the weekend to sustain you, and it's not so bad just because it's different; by Tuesday the weekend has faded away, you feel like you've always been at work and then you realize that the week is not even half over yet! Anyways, as I said, last Tuesday was cut in half, we ran out of a fairly insignificant part, but still, couldn't do anything without it, and so we were all sent home at 11am after only 5 hours (isn't that obscene, by 11 I've already been working for 5 hours and awake for 6). So that helped, but still the week seemed to drag more than usual. Saturday was fun, I spent most of the day over at my friend Cassi's, we've been planning a Lord of the Rings marathon since we saw the first one and Saturday was the day. In the end though, after watching the first and second movies in their extended editions (around 7 hours worth of movie), we decided the third could wait a week or two :). Sunday, after church, we went over to the Sandenos and ordered Chinese food and hung out there all day with Greg and Trina and most of the Lindeman family. That was very nice and the food was not bad (not as good as Three Happiness of course, but quite edible). This Monday went quite well actually, seemed to go by pretty quickly. Today of course is the dreaded Tuesday again, I am glad to have it over with. The first two hours were pretty good, but after that... The best thing I can say about today is that I got to talk to Robbie and finished a very good book (The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas - I highly recommend it). Robbie, by the way, moved into his new place yesterday and it sounds great. He can see the ocean from his window! Well, that pretty much covered the highlights.