Super Happy Exciting Details of My Fabulous Life

2006-08-17T12:52:00.000-05:00

"After each of these prompts, subjects were asked to perform tasks used to asses their creativity, such as writing descriptions of uncaptioned cartoons, interpreting abstract pictures and taking a standardized creativity test." - Seed Magazine article

Those three words just strike me as perfectly silly, a "standardized creativity test". Good grief.

2006-05-18T16:48:00.000-05:00

THIS IS A TEST, THIS IS ONLY A TEST, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK OR ELSE
(ok, nothing dire will happen if you click the link, but nothing interesting either...

Start a voice chat with me!

100 million-th Photo in Flickr

2006-02-15T15:37:00.000-06:00

Two beauties
Originally uploaded by mzan71.

100 million photos in 2 years. Wow. And by a brand new user, they were given a free pro account :)

2006-01-16T18:39:00.000-06:00

The good news: The program I'm working on is moving along swimmingly. Really, it's beautiful, everything and everyone working together, it's an example to all other programs. We're poised to finish this phase of the program at the end of the month, on time and slightly under budget. Did I mention that our fuze board works? Just like it's supposed to?

The bad news: Funding of said fabulous and amazing project has been cut. So basically, we get to finish the tests that we have in progress, and then put all that nicely working hardware into a box, from whence it may never return.

The really bad news: This means that as soon as I finish these last couple bits of documentation, I have nothing left to do.... and my boss is on vacation... for a month. I predict at least one week of utter boredom before I manage to convince someone to let me help with something :P. Blah...

2006-01-11T17:24:00.000-06:00

I rock. I have successfully designed a real circuit which is really going to be used in a real test to really blow something up. How cool is that? Probably even cooler than working on a project with a self-destruct timer, and I'm still pretty psyched about that.

Also, today, I was testing out a big circuit which I didn't design (but did lay out, :P) and it was having problems... with the self-destruct signal coincidentally. I just managed to figure out what the problem was... and it wasn't my fault! Hooray! And I managed to fix it myself, even though that involved a bit of soldering (well, unsoldering). Just don't tell my tech, engineers applying hot irons to the circuitry is somewhat... frowned upon. Best of all, I timed it so that having found and fixed said problem, it is now time to head home, buoyed by success, rather than leaving myself enough time to find the next difficulty.

Pi Pie

2005-12-20T18:19:00.000-06:00

Pi Pie
Originally uploaded by megpi.

Is that not just the coolest thing ever?

Ok, maybe not, but still, a nifty idea.

Yes, I am bored, how could you tell?

Ok, I'll stop talking and go home now.

2005-12-14T17:49:00.000-06:00

Keep your eyes on the conductor
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Naomi had a concert Monday night and did very well. That is the most interesting thing I have to say. Sorry.

2005-11-16T14:55:00.000-06:00

Turkey time! My company is handing out free turkeys today to all of their employees, how cool is that (well, unless you're a vegetarian like my friend Rohit, then it's not so exciting). In other news, I just got back from a little vacation down in Lawrenceville, IL (what do you mean you've never heard of Lawrenceville?), so wander by flickr if you want to see the snaps.

2005-11-04T14:41:00.000-06:00

Hello, my name is Jacqueline, and I'm an idiot. For the past two full days, I've been trying to figure out what was wrong with the circuit I'm supposed to be testing (I didn't design it, but I did the layout and ordered the boards and the parts and everything). It really doesn't work at all, when you turn on the power, bad things happen, like smoke. Well, after two days of hard work on the part of the very very patient tech guy (he spent all of yesterday unsoldering things, testing, resoldering, testing, etc), one of my peers has brought to my attention a teensy-weensie error. I switched the power and ground pins. On three chips. I want to crawl under my desk and hide...

50 millionth photo

2005-10-26T16:59:00.000-05:00

fpu feest job 209
Originally uploaded by Mykey.

Wow... uploaded on Oct 6th, the 50 millionth photo in flickr. Two little kids having lunch :P. I feel like throwing a party! :)

2005-10-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

I did it! I've finally seen the whole internet. I know, because I got here.

2005-10-25T16:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, this is actually a lot more than I would have expected.

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

Just for comparison purposes, my personal favorite blog, James Lilek's Bleat (link up in the right hand corner there) is worth $681,399.78.

Pumpkin Carving

2005-10-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

Pumpkins2
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Boy, I haven't done this in a while... and now I remember why, it's a pain! I think they turned out rather well though. Naomi and I shared the one she's holding, I did the face, and she's putting our initials onto the back. Helen's is a kitty face. Yes, this is the most interesting thing I have to blog about, shut up.

First of October

2005-10-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

First of October
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Geotagging is the most cool awesome thing since... well, since flickr at least (which was of course the coolest thing since sliced bread!). No idea what I'm talking about? Click on the picture, and then on the "Geotagged" link under it. Go ahead, I'll wait.

...waiting music...

See??? It links your photos (and other peoples') to a map of the WORLD. You can see photos from your neigborhood, or from famous places you want to go or have been or or or... I'm excited. I wish I could sit here and go geotag crazy, but I've got to get back to work.

Sniff!

2005-10-07T12:26:00.000-05:00

Sniff!
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Isn't she cute? Luckily I managed to get this shot without any nose prints on my lense :P. Hooray for Friday! I am seriously looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Waking up before the sun is starting to get old - I think we should have to work less hours when the days get so short... Well, nothing much else going on, most exciting thing I did in the past couple of days was close out the library. I know, my life is wild, you wish you were me.

Day In the Life Of (DILO)

2005-09-26T14:53:00.000-05:00

7:05pm Slowing to a crawl...
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Last Thursday was "Day In the Life Of" a Flickr event where cool Flickr people all over the world take photos of their day and post them to a group (here).

My DILO pics can be found here.

Also, check out this cool squared circle slideshow!

2005-09-20T17:22:00.000-05:00

Right
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

It was a good weekend... Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also a long weekend. We all got Thursday afternoon off after the company picnic to celebrate ATK's 15th anniversary (or birthday or whatever it is companies have), and it was an off Friday too. Felt very leisurely. And that's about all I have to say about that.

Next topic: Tomorrow is my birthday! Yay! I don't know for sure what I'm doing yet, Big Bowl has been mentioned :). I wish I had enough vacation time built up to justify taking the day off... but I really don't, so I'll just try to enjoy work as much as possible.

Final topic: Next "Day in the Life Of" is Thursday (Sept. 22nd), so get out and take some pictures! (my last DILO is here if you have no idea what I'm talking about)

Helen and Rebecca

2005-09-15T08:39:00.000-05:00

Helen and Rebecca
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

We got a dog! Helen has been passionately wishing for a dog for so long, when Rebecca came in and Dad said that she was ours, Helen cried. We're not talking a little moisture in the eyes as she jumped around and danced. Oh no, she just turned her face away, gave us a "thumbs-up" and CRIED for a good 5 minutes. Very moving. Rebecca is a 3 year old Irish setter. Her old owner goes to school with my dad and needed to find someplace for Rebecca to live after moving here. He'll be moving back to Chicago next summer, so if we decide that we don't want to keep her, he can take her back after that... but I think we'll want to keep her.

Early Morning Fog

2005-09-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

Early Morning Fog1
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Gorgeous fall day today. Yup, it's really fall, soon will start my first whole Minnesota winter in six years, will I survive?? At least I have a car now :).

Birthday Boy!

2005-09-12T14:09:00.000-05:00

Safe
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

This little cutie used to live next door to us and just turned 4 yesterday. We spent the afternoon at his birthday party. He was very happy with his PlayDoh food making set from his super-cool godmother (Sonia).

Knitting

2005-09-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Dollar Bin Yarn
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Ok, yup, I've gone straight from college girl to old lady. But not really, knitting is for the young and hip now, really! Witness this funky yarn discovered in the dollar bin at Target. You know if it's there, EVERYBODY is doing it, so why aren't you? But seriously, it's very relaxing (except for when things get tangled, grrr) and weirdly fascinating to watch yarn go in and be magically transformed into fabric by a few repetative motions.

2005-09-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

Eeeek! I just had a visitor... A BIG wasp just came flying along and landed on my monitor. He seemed to be pretty happy there - and not likely to leave any time soon. After seriously considering calling security (hey, he didn't have a badge, he might even be a terrorist - I felt a little terrorized), I ended up just trapping him in a styrofoam cup with a piece of paper over the top. After a little conferring with a colleague, we decided to just smoosh the whole thing, crumple the paper around it and throw it away. Luckily I'd already copied the schematic on that paper into Mentor Board Station. Ugh, I feel like things are crawling around on me. Wasps don't bother me so much outside, but there's just something soooo creepy about finding one in the climate controlled interior of an office building. If I ever write a horror movie, it's going to have wasps showing up in offices.

2005-09-08T10:10:00.000-05:00

I hate cell phones. No, I mean it. Not because they're annoying, or because they seem to make people oblivious to the world around them and therefore rude and dangerous drivers, nope, I hate em cause they break. They wait until you're getting used to them, start to depend on them, forget how to live without them, and then they JUST DIE. But it's all right, I can go on without it *sob*. It's harder to get it taken in to be fixed now that I live out in the boonies too. After an hour drive just to get home, I don't want to go ANYWHERE else. I just want to go sit in my nice comfy new house and knit or read or something nice and non-demanding like that.

Grrr

2005-09-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

Grrr
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Ah, to be 7 and adorable in every picture, no matter what kind of weird face you're making. Actually, it's not easy being 7 (or green, but that's another story). She's been sort of a pain lately, but I think we probably all have. Moving is stressful and you just haven't don't have as many coping techniques worked out when you're 7. It's not all bad though, there are 3 cute puppies that live next door who run over to play with us anytime we're outside at the same time, which of course is Helen's current idea of heaven :).

View

2005-09-06T09:31:00.000-05:00

View
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

This is what I see out of my bedroom window at the new house! Pretty nice huh? And that area back there is some sort of wetland, so they can't put houses there, so I should always have my nice view. This weekend was the big move, our old house is pretty much empty now, and the new house is full of boxes, so basically we can't find ANYTHING anymore. The actual moving day went well, we had lots of helpers and had everything moved by around 1pm. After that we fed them all Cuban black bean soup and sourdough bread at the new house, it was like a party! It's a good thing we finished then too, because it stormed the rest of the day, all that night, and half of the next day. The rest of the weekend hasn't been quite as much fun though, we keep finding things that don't quite work, or were poorly done. The last owners weren't quite as handy as they thought they were. Especially when it comes to plumbing :P.

Turtle

2005-09-01T08:36:00.000-05:00

Turtle
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Yay for the new camera!! Here's a turtle I met in the parking lot at work, taken with my full 8x optical zoom and automatic settings (I'm still learning to use the manual settings). Not bad huh? Check out flickr for a few more pics, mostly of Helen and my car. I can't take very many at a time, I can't find my old camera with the 256 MB card, so I'm just using a 32MB right now, which doesn't go very far with an 8 megapixel camera...

2005-08-25T11:28:00.000-05:00

Yay! I found a bug in the code I'm working on, which must mean that I have some idea of what's going on, right? Even better, it wasn't a bug that I introduced :). I'm starting to settle in here a bit more, I've got some photos on my desk now, this one and this one, but I'm still finding it a bit hard to make friends/get to know people... they're almost all older than me and have families and stuff to think about... plus they're engineers, so not necessarily all that outgoing ;). I've been working on getting to know my neighbors though, and that was going pretty well until I found out tomorrow that they're being moved! :( Luckily I don't think I'll be stuck sitting here alone for very long, since the reason people are being moved over to the other building is because we need more space in here. Maybe I'll be really lucky and another fresh-out will move in across from me, and someone friendly and mentor-ly kitty-corner... hey, it could happen!

2005-08-16T16:36:00.000-05:00

New house! My family closed yesterday on our new house. The new address is:

1289 155th Ave.
Andover, MN 55304*

Hopefully we'll be able to keep our old phone number. It's a lot bigger than our old house, 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, an actual dining room - big point in its favor since we have dinner for 13+ at least once a year (maybe more often now that we'll actually have room), an office sort of room, a family room (we're going to put our home-theater type stuff in there), and another room (we don't know what to do with it yet, ok?). By this point everybody's probably falling asleep, so I won't go into any more details. Downside: it's in Andover, which, for those of you not from the Twin Cities, is waaay out in the boonies == extra 15min minimum added to my commute and practically no shopping or anything nearby - especially distressing now that we've gotten used to having a Cub foods and Caribou Coffee 2 blocks away.

*THIS is the right zip. I originally posted with the 3 & 4 interchanged, fixed 8/29/05

2005-08-11T11:32:00.000-05:00

Hooray! I have work! I am in completely over my head! :-P I am finally on a project, with one other engineer and a tech - which means I actually have to get some stuff done (which is good of course, but a little scary too). So the beginning of last week went like this:

other engineer - "So, have you done any VHDL before?"
me - "nope"
other engineer - "Well, I guess this will be a good learning experience then. Here's the code for another project which we'll be borrowing, spend a little time getting familiar with it and then you'll be making some modifications."
me - "ok" (inside - yikes!)

So I've got a good 60+ pages of VHDL code here and I've spent the last TWO WEEKS figuring out what's going on, enough to write about 10 lines of code :-P But hey, I think those 10 lines will actually work, which is something right? Actually I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring out as much as I have. The other engineer I'm working with is pretty great, easy going and just takes my competence to figure things out for granted - but always willing to answer questions and explain in more depth when I ask. Really makes me feel more confident and makes all this more fun.

I'd love to explain all about the project, but I don't think I'm supposed to yet (not classified, just proprietary - plus I don't really know much past my little piece of the puzzle), suffice it to say that it explodes ;-) - I hope I get to go to some of the tests!

Tower of London

2005-08-01T08:45:00.000-05:00

123_2347
Originally uploaded by robbiefaith00.

England pics are up! Most of them were taken by Robbie, so they're all on his flickr site - go check them out! :)

2005-07-20T15:50:00.000-05:00

Boy am I bored... You'd think for the surprising (at least to me) sums of money these people are paying me they'd want me to actually... well, DO something! This is a little unfair, but not by much. I've really had about three solid days of something to do in 2 weeks, I spent 1 full day in orientation, 1 day reading a little book called "Electronic Safe-Arm Design Philosophy" and maybe a little more than a day running through all the OrCAD that I could find and making up some circuits to run simulations on. I do have some exciting news though:
I bought a car! It's a silver 2005 Toyota Prius with all the options :). The dealerships here in MN only have the fully loaded ones left, anything else is a 2-4 month wait. So I've got a navagation system, HID headlights, fog lamps, some kind of fancy stability control system, 6 CD changer AND casette player (kinda old fashioned, but handy for books on tape...), an auto dimming rear view mirror, and other nifty gadgets. It's a lot of fun, so many buttons! Anybody got any good ideas for a name?

2005-06-06T22:46:00.000-05:00

Ok, this is going to be short, because I'm on vacation - from the internet and school and TV and all that stuff. I've been reading, and knitting (I feel so domestic!), and hanging out with my sisters. Oh, and going to job interviews - it's looking pretty good for me to get a job at Alliant (www.atk.com). I'm not sure how I feel about my little vacation here ending, but I'm excited about starting something new, ATK has some really cool projects going, I think it will be fun :).

2005-05-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

Ok, good feeling gone. Tonight is my last final, and it's been one of those classes. You know, the kind where you feel like you've spent the entire semester in water that was almost over your head - and you don't know how to swim. I've been standing on my tippy-toes just keeping my nose clear for months. Every so often it seems as though the water level was going down.... you start to settle back onto your feet, breathe a little more freely - and then you find out that the water was just going out to gather itself into a big wave that proceeds to crash over your head. And now the end is in sight - and now comes the dilemma. You could keep fighting, thrash about and work hard and probably keep your head well clear of the water... or you could just take a deep breath, and hunker down until the water goes away and hope that you survive. Ok, enough of the extended drowning metaphor, the point is that I've got 7 hours left to study. If I work hard, I may be able to get an A, but maybe not - I'd say the odds are 6 to 4 against. If I just give up now and scribble the notes I've got onto my 2 allowed equation sheets I'll probably still manage a B - probably 9 to 1 odds for that.
.
.
.
Nope, can't do it, protestant work ethic is kicking in... must work harder!
Darn, back to studying then.

2005-05-09T21:06:00.000-05:00

In a rather good mood (maybe something to do with one of my last 3 finals being over?) and so I've decided to make a list of things I love (this is a list of things not people or ideals, so don't get grouchy if you think I should have included you or world peace or whatever):

in no particular order:
fresh spinach with blue cheese dressing
rain
down comforters
coffee
funny movies
flickr
bare foot weather
songs that give me goosebumps
new eyeshadow
shooting stars
clean countertops
hair dye
long books
witty/surprising conversations

How about you?

12:05am Welcome to my day!

2005-03-31T15:16:00.000-06:00

12:05am Welcome to my day!
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Go here to see my "Day in the Life" set. On March 21st, people all over the world took photos of their day. You can check out other people's lives here.

It's alive!

2005-03-20T13:19:00.000-06:00

It's alive!
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Hooray! The Mac is back :). It's actually been back up and running for a couple days, but I've been too busy enjoying it to post anything. Spring break is almost over and, as usual, I've gotten much less done than I was hoping to at the beginning of break. I did get my taxes and 4 loads of laundry done though, not to mention fixing my computer, so I wasn't entirely useless. Well, back to my take home exam that's due tomorrow (evil evil professor).

Computer Woes

2005-03-04T20:26:00.000-06:00

Computer Guts3
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

My poor computer is down with a bum power supply. It's been a little more than 24 hours since it went down... I am just starting to realize how much I really really like this computer!! It's driving me nuts having to use other computers. I especially miss the feature where I could just flick my mouse up to the top right corner to see all of my open windows spread out across the screen. I try to do it all the time on windows machines, but nothing happens, you just have to search out the window you want by minimizing stuff or remembering what you called it and then scrubbing the bottom bar to find it since you've got so many things open that you can't see the nmes anymore.. blech! On the positive side, it's on warranty for months and months still, so no worries there, and my project which is due Monday wasn't residing on the Mac's hard drive, so it's safe (whew!), and finally, it was a good excuse to pop the back off and have a look inside, which I quite enjoyed.

2005-02-15T23:00:00.000-06:00

Oh the nifty facts one can learn in a Reader's Digest!

According to the United Health Foundation the top ten healthiest states are (drumroll please)...

1. Minnesota (woo-hoo, go MN!)
2. New Hampshire
3. Vermont
4. Hawaii (since we seem to be told these days that stress is the root of all evil, you'd think Hawaii would have managed to at least be in the top 3)
5. Utah
6. Massachusetts
7. North Dakota
8. Connecticut
9. Wisconsin
10. Maine

Sadly, Illinois did not make the list, luckily we're not on the list of top ten least healthy states either, which was headed up by Louisiana.

Interesting fact #2, "There are over 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, more than the number of McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King combined." But before you get too excited about that, I have to warn that their source was "Chinese Restaurant News."

Well, that's about all I've got, just wanted to share ;).

My first real Valentine's Day bouquet!!

2005-02-14T21:48:00.000-06:00

My first real Valentine's Day bouquet!!
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

I'm so excited :). I've never gotten flowers sent to me before, totally made up for the front desk calling to tell me they'd been delivered 2 hours before I was planning to wake up :P.

2005-02-09T13:37:00.000-06:00

According to this quiz, I'm a catch! :)

eXpressive: 7/10
Practical: 6/10
Physical: 4/10
Giver: 8/10

You are a XPIG--Expressive Practical Intellectual Giver. This makes you a Catch.

You are a magazine-cover, matinee idol dreamboat. Parents love you and want to set you up with their kids. However, first dates are tough because it takes time for your qualities to come out.

You are generous and kind. You think first and act later. You are cool in a conflict, but your practical side means if your partner throws out emotional appeals ("why can't we do what I want for a change?") they will grate on your nerves, even when the conflict is resolved.

You're a romantic. You enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and you don't just fall into bed with anyone. You pay close attention to your significant other's needs, and this makes you an excellent lover and partner. The problem is that your friends and lovers may find it so easy to express things to *you* that they lose sight of whether you feel as comfortable with *them*! This doesn't necessarily make you feel under-appreciated -- you're too well-adjusted and self-aware for that -- but you may feel restless. Thus you seek adventure in your life outside the relationship to prove and actualize yourself.

Of all the types, you would make the best parent.

You are coiffed.

Didja see "Big Fish"? 'Cause you're like Ewan MacGregor in "Big Fish."

Of the 194961 people who have taken this quiz, 9.3 % are this type.

2005-01-25T23:02:00.000-06:00

Note: This was written on an actual piece of paper (strange I know) in class on Monday. I'm typing it in tonight because, quite frankly, I don't really have anything better to do. Well, that's not entirely true, I'm sure I could think of one or two more productive uses of my time than this little rant, but I don't really feel like doing any of these things. Further note, I wrote this while extremely bored, reading it can't possibly make you as bored as I felt as it'll only take you a few minutes, but still, consider this fair warning.

2.6 hour lectures make me want to reconsider my decisions about illegal drugs. Somehow, I think that sitting listening to this blather would be easier if I were high on something. I suppose however that that might tend to negate the purpose of being here altogether (that seems to me to be almost a good excuse for just staying home... I just did it to keep myself off of drugs, honest!). But, once again, I decide against drugs (and using my bed as my "anti-drug" - for now), and turn my thoughts instead to self-inflicted wounds; physical pain being perhaps preferable to this mental torment - with the added benefit of blood being a particularly fascinating shade of red. On the other hand, damaging oneself is more than a little unbalanced, not to mention messy and hard to explain ("well, you see doc, he just wouldn't stop talking"... "have you been hearing voices in your head?" ... "no no no, the professor! On and on with this radio frequency nonsense"). Chocolate might help, but not for long enough (that is without consuming ridiculous amounts, if you're going to eat enough to get the full chemical benefits you might as well just skip to the actual drugs, less calories). In the end, an ordinary, sane, fairly responsible and well balanced (and sadly mature, I just took an online quiz which put my mental age at 32... that's almost 10 years more than I actually am...) individual is left with about 3 choices (although I welcome other suggestions): 1. Drinking water - no calories but it's a very sad situation in which drinking water can be considered entertainment; 2. Day dreaming - much more pleasurable, and in fact tends to be my activity of choice, however, requires a delicate balance between interesting enough to keep one from drawing blood but yet tame enough to still be taking in all of the important information from the lecture; and finally 3. Doodling/composing blog entries - this one covers the objections to both 1 and 2... I'm not really a good enough artist/writer for doodling/writing to be very many times better than drinking water, but it's still easy to get sucked in enough to completely loose track of the meanderings of the professor. So basically, I end up just sitting and enduring for 2.6 hours and wishing for the end. So glad I only do this twice a week...

2005-01-25T16:13:00.000-06:00

** See the photos from my trip here. **

Yes, I made it back to the States, and survived my first week of classes. I was very sorry to have to leave Robbie and his beautiful island, but somehow I managed to talk myself onto that plane, and the next one, and the next one :P. Classes are going fine so far, not much work yet (or anything terribly interesting, hopefully it'll pick up once we get past all the reviewing nonsense). I'm working at the ARC again this semester, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I hope that will be as much fun this semester as it was before. Also, Julia and I got Netflix, so if anyone has movie suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them (can't promise to act on them, but happy to listen).

2005-01-08T14:00:00.000-06:00

{following is from an email to Sonia, but I didn't want to write about it twice, so, sorry Sonia, nothing new for you in this post :)}

Basically, it's gorgeous here. EVERYTHING is GREEN!! and there are flowers all over! It's been pretty much in the sixties everyday, I rarely wear a jacket. Pretty much everywhere you go you can see the ocean, and wherever there aren't houses, the whole island is covered with little green fields which are surrounded by low rock walls, often with cows inside :). Today we ate lunch at a seafood restaurant with a couple of other lieutenants, yum, really yum. We had barnacles for an appetizer - I really really wish I had remembered my camera! After lunch we were going to go to the golf course, but Robbie didn't really know the way, and so we ended up driving up into the mountains (not real huge as far as mountains go, but they're basically the right shape at least). It was so misty up there (it's cloudy a lot here, especially in their "winter") everything looked very mysterious and lonely and beautiful, and then we found some sort of national park type place, and stopped there and walked around a bit. There was a lake full of funny ducks (funny in that they were not species I recognized) and woods that we explored along a rushing creek complete with little waterfalls. It was a very good day.

2004-12-30T07:43:00.000-06:00

Ok, well, obviously a lot has happened since my last post, but I'm going to ignore all that for now, and just talk about the last few days:
Monday: Left for the Azores! My flight to Newark got delayed, so I missed my flight to Lisbon and had to take the next flight, which left an hour late also.
Tuesday: Missed my flight from Lisbon to the Azores by about 15 min, which meant that I was stuck there for 24 hours. Somehow I managed to get my credit cards into my checked luggage, (which I didn't get until the Azores), so I had $25 to last me the day - which I exchanged for 13.20 euro. So, I hopped on the AeroBus (free airport shuttle to downtown), and just rode that until we got to a stop that looked interesting, which happened to be at the "Parque de Eduardo VII." It was a really beautiful day out, sunny, about 65 degrees or so, it felt like spring. Great day to go to the park :). So I wandered around in there for an hour or so (photos to come), and then headed out into the neighborhood. I walked by a lot of little shops, and a car dealership - where I saw them selling smart cars, Naomi! In case you were wondering, they cost 8000 euro. I also visited a church, which was very beautiful, I wish I could have been around long enough to go to a service. Upon leaving the church, I made a critical discovery - Lisbon has a subway system! I also found out that I can read Portuguese, well, at least enough to figure out the rate system and buy a one-trip ticket. So I rode the metro down to a stop called "Restauratadores" (that's probably spelled wrong) and went hunting for some lunch. I found this cool cobblestone street, lined on both sides with little restaurants and cafes, and walked up and down it for a while, just looking and trying to pick somewhere to eat. Since I didn't have a whole lot of money, I ended up just getting a sandwich, and then going to another place and getting a coffee (which is actually espresso there, yum). So, there I was, sitting out in the warm sunshine, sipping espresso, looking around and thinking about how lucky it was to miss my flight! After I finished my coffee, I just set out wandering again. Found a plaza with some fountains and the requisite man on horse statue :), an area with fancy stores that reminded me of State street (lots of Christmas decorations up and Christmas music being played from speakers on the buildings), and roast chestnut sellers! Then I walked down to the waterfront, saw the Stock Exchange building, and somewhere in there visited another couple of churches. Next I set out to try to get to the castle. I had seen it from the plaza, way up high on a hill, and wanted to get closer. Along the way to the castle, I came across a 12th century cathedral! It was really magnificent. The area around the castle is the oldest part of the city, so the streets were very narrow, with interesting old buildings on both sides. It was a fun walk, but tiring, since the roads were also quite steep and I was carrying around my pillow and had an enormous FE study manual in my backpack! Admission to the castle was 3 euro, and it was totally worth it. My favorite part was climbing up into the towers and looking out over the city sitting between those big square blocks, just like the ones I used to draw on my castle towers when I was little. It was just way too cool.
After all that fun, it was time to head back to the airport, where I camped out until the next morning.
Wednesday: I finally make it to the Azores! Even more amazing, is that all my luggage made it there too :). After Robbie picked me up he brought me to the base and showed me around a bit. I met way too many people to remember, and got to see his office - it's really big (kind of plain, but large). After that, he dropped me off at his house and I took a nap while he went back to work. When he got back, we went to a Halo2 party, at one of the captains' houses. That was fun, I sort of know how to play Halo now :P. We came back kind of late from that, and went right to sleep. Which brings me up to the present, since all I've done yet today was to get up and get on the computer :).
Adventures in Portugal, to be continued...

sox1

2004-12-09T00:44:00.000-06:00

sox1
Originally uploaded by Robertp17.

Birthday Sox game photo... it was Half-way to St. Paddy's day at the White Sox!

2004-12-06T10:44:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated. Sorry folks, but the reason for that is simple: I haven't had time. Seriously. In particular, for the last 4 days or so, I had so little time that I was sleeping about 4 hours a night and skipping meals to have more time to work! But now it's over...

I had two final projects due this weekend, you know, the kind that are worth 30% of your grade and take the place of a final? Yeah, that kind. And when I say due this weekend - I meant it. I had class Thurs night - Sun night, every night from 6:25 to 9 or later (10 both Friday and Sunday). So, having finished this weekend, those two classes are over! That means I've only got two classes left... more like a regular grad student :P. So it's a very happy day, although I do still have some work to get done. My presentation yesterday espeically, was awesome, I am so good (little celebratory dance). So I'm pretty sure I have at least 2 A's nailed down, and one more that is probably an A, and two that are at least solild B's. I have survived! And Ucci said I should shoot myself.. HA!

2004-11-12T02:43:00.000-06:00

It was the night of great advances in computing happiness!

First off, got the new non-Beta Firefox 1.0. Why bother with a new browser, when you're all nice and used to the last one which wasn't yucky super-buggy no-tabs IE, you ask? Well, I wish I had a bunch of wonderful technical reasons or I could go on about Open Source (which I do think is cool), but really there were two main things that Safari just wasn't doing for me: 1. WYSIWYG editor in blogspot didn't really work, 2. (and this is the big one) you couldn't ctrl-t to open a new tab, you had to ctrl click on a link - which is dumb, because then you have to wait for that page to load when all you really wanted was a google search or something like that. So, now I can ctrl-t to my heart's content :).

Also, they've got this nifty feature called "dynamic bookmarks," you give a bookmark a keyword, which you can then just type into the address bar. This also works with searches, you type in the search keyword you've assigned, and then your search terms. Well, a Google dynamic search came pre-installed, so I gave it a spin. So I wander up to my address bar, type in Google, and then the most random search term I can come up with.... knickers (which, as an American, isn't a word that I use often... well, actually I think this is probably the first time ever). And rather than the Google search results page I was expecting, I ended up here! Imagine my surprise...

And then, as if I hadn't had enough fun already, I found out that my number one big sad unhappy thing about Apple isn't true! The only thing I've been upset with them for, is that since I didn't have OS 9 (the old version, I'm running OS 10.3 now), I couldn't use many old programs that were written for "Classic Mac" (as opposed to OS X) - like Myst! Whenever people warned me that I wouldn't be able to use any cool programs anymore if I got a Mac, I just laughed them off, because I knew that the only game I really like playing said "For PC and Mac" on the case. But then I go to try it, and it demands this classic version - which I didn't have. So, I finally managed to find out where I could order it from, but they were going to charge me $20 shipping and handling just to be able to run old programs!! Well, as it turns out, they actually sent me OS 9 along with my computer, it was just on a seperate disk labelled "Additional Software." I can't believe I hadn't checked out this disk yet, I mean, it's not like they gave me hundreds of them, there were only two... But anyways, so I popped it in, clicked "Install" waited for about a minute and a half, and presto chango - I now have two operating systems, didn't even have to reboot! So of course I had to make sure it worked, so I tested it with Riven (Myst II) for an hour, or two... And now, I'm going to sleep to dream happy computer dreams. Good night!

2004-11-07T23:28:00.000-06:00

Caution: The following post was brought on by extreme frustration, as such it is highly unlikely to be terribly enjoyable reading, although it might actually be a bit more interesting than my usual blather.

ARGH! People who cannot run computers should NOT be made graduate level EE professors. Let 'em teach philosophy or something where not using comptuers could be thought of as a virtue. The subject of this rant is actually in general a fairly decent professor, until it comes to the whole information-transfer-over-the-web stuff, which is not a good weak spot for prof who would rather lecture to an empty room than come to main campus. We'll start with least annoying first: the syllabus doesn't say anything about where course information might be found on the internet. Turns out that it's all on Blackboard, so this isn't a big deal, but it'd be nice to say something about that (particularly as every other ECE professor I've had has preferred to use their own website, so that this is the first semester I've ever used Blackboard). Ok, so, figured that out, no big deal. Gripe #2: apparenly he's never heard of pdf's. Everything is saved in Microsoft Office - which I don't have yet. Now, the .doc files are no big deal, they actually look just fine in my text editor. However the homework solutions are saved as PowerPoint files, which do not open in text editor, or anything else as far as I know. So, grumble grouch grumble, I move over to Julia's computer since she's not using it at the moment. Open the ppt and guess what? Gripe #3: He took his scanned images of the handwritten solutions and put them on the slides SIDEWAYS! Now, as far as I can tell, Microsoft never really thought anyone would want to rotate slides - and I mean really, why would you? So that you can lay your projector on its side for variety?? So, I've got two options, I can tip Julia's monitor on its side (which i think she might not like so much) or I can go downstairs and print the dumb things out (hey, what's another coupla trees, right?). So, I trek down to East basement, where I discover Gripe #4: Half of the pages were either scanned or saved so badly that they're not legible, and a fourth of the ones that are legible, were scanned all cock-eyed, so that the corners are cut off... whole bits of the problems just gone. At which point, I just want to give up. "I don't care" is just written too large over all of these sheets, it's hard to convince me that I should care when the prof so obviously doesn't - but I can't start thinking like that, because I'm the one who has to be tested on this junk. At the very least, he could have made sure that we got our homework assignments back before the test so that we'd at least have those to work off of. Ok, just had to get that all off of my chest, back to the grindstone.

2004-11-04T16:52:00.000-06:00

Ah... election day is over, and guess what? The earth is still standing, although I heard plenty of predictions to the contrary beforehand (and melodrama afterwards). Granted, the choice of President of the United States is pretty important, but America is a good country and a strong one, it would take more than four years under a lousy president to bring everything crashing down. And, again despite what people make it sound like, neither of the canidates would have been that horrible - they wouldn't have made it this far if they were. Disagree with them on issues, methods, choices, even personalities if you must, but to call either 'evil' or 'stupid' or anything else that you might hear a five year old say during a fight is just ridiculous, grow up people! Ok, that's enough political commentary from me.

Next, I recently booked my tickets to go see Robbie over winter break, I'm so excited!! It'll be great to see him again, and I'm really looking forward to exploring his island, and having some relaxation time. This semester is going fairly well, but it's a lot of work... When things are going well (like today, thankfully), I really enjoy it, but when my homework makes no sense and the tests are flying fast and furious, I wish I could quit. Other good news, I had a fun weekend, went dress shopping with Julia and her mom, aunt, and grandmother. It was a good day, especially since she finally picked out her dress! Pretty exciting stuff, let me tell ya. Working at the ARC is still going well, this is probably the most fun job I've ever had.. except the two days or so before each 308 exam :P. I really don't remember how to do that stuff! But for the most part I'm impressing myself with how much I remember and manage to figure out. I hope that I'm helping some of the students to understand better, although it can be hard to tell, for the most part you just have to work through the stuff yourself I guess, but I'm glad I can be there to help them get unstuck. One of the students who comes in semi-regularly for Circuits 1 help recently got 100% on his test, I'm so proud! :)

2004-10-23T19:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I did manage to get out yesterday and take some photos, you can check them out on Flickr. That's about all I've done though... Oh, I did lose a fun game of Cranium last night too. I'm in the process of trying out a new browser, so there may be more to tell later...

2004-10-21T20:15:00.000-05:00

Fall break is here! I've enjoyed doing very little today besides TV and playing with my computer, but still, I wish I could think of something excting to do. Perhaps if it's nice again tomorrow I'll go downtown with my camera and see what I can find. I just keep remembering how great last fall break was and worrying that I won't even remember this one! Oh well. One of the highlights for today was finding out about widgets :), they're little applications sort of blend into your desktop and do all kinds of nifty things (display photos, scroll headlines, give weather updates and all sorts of other stuff). Way too much fun, right now I've got about 10 of them :P. I'll probably scale back in the future, but for now, it's widget madness! (you can find out more here: http://www.konfabulator.com/).

2004-10-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

Hooray! I survived my the last of this round of exams, and I think it went well. The prof. told us to study our homework, and he wasn't kidding -the first two problems were word for word from our homework, I'm glad I listened to him! After the test, I ate a bleak lunch, we won't dwell on that, and then headed downtown. My cell phone hinge cracked and was starting to threaten to fall off, so I had to go to Radio Shack and turn it over to be sent in for repairs. So, I'm going to have to go back to living phone-less for a bit, guess it'll be good for me... After that stopped by the art museum. Today I went for old Chinese and Japanese art. My favorite piece of the day was a jade carving of a cicada. Apparently they were symbols of rejuvination, and carvings of them were made to put in the mouths of the dead in their tombs - pretty interesting, huh? Reminiscent of Egyptian scarabs, not to mention Silence of the Lambs.

2004-10-17T22:37:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while. I blame this almost entirely on my professors, they seem to think that there are several more hours per day than I am aware of having. I'm almost through my first round of exams though, and overall they didn't go too badly. I'm really rather sad about rushing though this so fast though, as a graduate student you're supposed to have time to really dig in and understand things, and I don't. I think that if I was taking the usual two years for this, I'd be able to do a much better job. On the bright side though, I am more and more convinced that I really like engineering, and might really be able to enjoy doing it for a living! What a relief!

In other news:
I just got back from a weekend at home. Robbie bought me plane tickets home for my cousin Nils's wedding this past Friday for my birthday. It was a nice wedding, but I still can't quite believe that they're married! It seems so strange... I'm happy for them though, and looking forward to getting used to having a new cousin, and eventually little people :). It was great being home and getting to see everybody, both at the wedding and then today at church. Also got plenty of good home cooked food... yummy.
Only thing of critical importance to do this week: test in Photonics on Tuesday morning - and we've got Thursday and Friday off for Fall Break - no 2.5 hour lectures this week, hooray!!
Robbie is back in the Azores :(. I'm happy for him, because I think he finds it much more interesting being there, but it makes it that much harder for us to talk on the phone (costs money, and there's a time difference to worry about), but he now has internet access in his house, so we can chat and I can leave him messages whenever, which is great :).
Finally, I really like my job at the ARC. It's a great place, the people are great, and I really have fun figuring out how to explain things to the students who come in, it's such a challange to present things in a clear way that helps them to really grasp what's going on. Plus, it's great practice for me, I'm much better at even simple circuit analysis than I was at the beginning of the semester, and I don't think I ever understood op-amps or diodes as well as I do now. Now, if I could only figure out how those differential amplifiers worked again... (actually I think I'm even starting to remember that thanks to 425).

New US map

2004-10-07T13:42:00.000-05:00

New US map
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

hehehe

2004-10-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

President Bush on last night's debates:

My opponent last night said our troops deserve better. They certainly deserve better than they got from Senator Kerry when he voted to send them to war, and then voted against funding our troops in combat. . . .

"You may remember his famous quote about the supplemental funding that I sent up to Congress. He said: I actually did vote for the $87 billion, right before I voted against it. . . . Last night, he said he made a mistake in how he talked about that vote. But the mistake wasn't what Senator Kerry said. The mistake was what Senator Kerry did. . . .

"He said he was proud of his vote. And, finally, he said the whole thing was a complicated matter. Then he had a new wrinkle, a new explanation. During an interview this week, he described it as a protest vote.

"When we put American troops in harm's way, they certainly deserve better than to have a candidate for President use them as a protest.

"Last night, Senator Kerry only continued his pattern of confusing contradictions. After voting for the war, after saying my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision -- (applause) -- he now says it was all a mistake.

"But asked a logical question, does that mean our troops are dying for a mistake? [AUDIENCE: No!]

"That's what he said, no. You can't have it both ways. You can't say it's a mistake and not a mistake. You can't be for getting rid of Saddam Hussein when things look good, and against it when times are hard. You can't claim terrorists are pouring across the border into Iraq, yet at the same time try to claim that Iraq is somehow a diversion for war against terrorism. The President cannot keep changing his mind. The President must speak clearly. And the President must mean what he says. . . .

"The cornerstone of Senator Kerry's plan for Iraq is that he would convene a summit.

"I've been to a lot of summits. I've never seen a meeting that would depose a tyrant, or bring a terrorist to justice. . . .

"One other point I want to make about the debate last night. Senator Kerry last night said that America has to pass some sort of global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves. He wants our national security decisions subject to the approval of a foreign government.

"Listen, I'll continue to work with our allies and the international community -- but I will never submit America's national security to an international test. The use of troops to defend America must never be subject to a veto by countries like France. The President's job is not to take an international poll -- the President's job is to defend America."

The Banquet

2004-09-28T19:27:00.000-05:00

The Banquet
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Finally went back and got a photo of that painting I liked so much last time by Rene Magritte.

2004-09-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

Ok, yes, I know, I'm a worthless blogger. Well, can't say I'm suprised (whoa, channeling Eyore there...). But actually, it's a good thing that I haven't been being as good at updating. The thing is, I only really feel the need to write stuff down when I'm not happy - bored, lonely, upset, etc. When things are going well, I don't feel the need to put them down on paper (or computer as the case might be). So, basically, life is good - and I am really really busy with school stuff. I mean, I knew that taking 5 graduate classes would be a lot of work, but sheesh. Also, a lot of my internet time is being taken up with Flickr currently. I really like it, it's just way too much fun. Well, that's all for now, gotta dive back into IC design and Engineering Analysis!

2004-09-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

194_9451.JPG
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Well, I wrote a nice long post on this weekend, but it got erased, so all I'm gonna say is it was great, and here's a little proof.

2004-09-16T01:34:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day. Starting with the end, it's raining now, which smells nice and finally brings the room temperature down far enough that you can think hard without breaking into a sweat. I spent the latter part of my evening (~10-12) keeping Julia company at the coffee shop, drinking a large vanilla chai and getting going on my Active Filter Design homework. The problems are hard, but interesting, and when you've got them right, you know it - the good kind of homework. Early evening wasn't as satisfying, spent most of it trying to come up with an approximation for the number of modes in a given frequency range in a two-dimensional resonator (looks simple, but it isn't). Anyways, between work and two classes, there was plenty of mental stimulation, which makes me cheerful - especially when I get to stop :). So, there it is. Not terribly exciting, but good.

2004-09-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, let's see... Sunday was more fun than the rest of the weekend. I went to church, and then after that they had a picnic :). So, I got to make some new friends AND have some good food. Also, I was sitting next to a cute baby, so basically, I had a good time. Monday was fairly busy, and I had to do a lot of brain work (esp. for tutoring), which puts me in a good mood - sounds a little strange, but I think it's pretty well accepted that humans need meaningful work to be happy. Monday did have it's downside though, I found out that Robbie won't be able to come visit me this weekend :(. Which means that, aside from a Delt party Friday night, I'm probably going to end up spending my birthday weekend alone, it seems like everyone has places to go this weekend :(. I'm thinking that I need to find some more friends, this lonely weekend stuff is no good. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to go about making that happen... How does one actually acquire friends? It's always sort of happened on accident for me before, I never set out to do it. Oh well, we'll see what happens. Oh yeah, and today is going fine too, already done with my one class, so I have the rest of the day to go to the art museum and try to get some homework done...

2004-09-11T20:44:00.000-05:00

Big change today... did you notice? I decided to change the name of my blog, frankly, openly admitting to having a boring life was kind of getting me down! So, I opted for something much peppier, boy is it peppy :). Today has been a lonely day. Everyone seems to be gone. I did get some homework done, but didn't have much fun with it. Now that I'm a grad student, I get to admit that my homework is sometimes fun. This assignment (for Active Filter Design) didn't look like it would be too tough, but the problems got subtly icky in a hurry. Anyways, enough whining. Unless someone calls or stops by with something exciting tonight, I'm planning on buckling down and finally watching the lecture I skipped last Friday, which is a pathetic sounding thing to do on a Saturday night, but hey - it has to be done.

2004-09-11T13:32:00.000-05:00

Remember

Tank Up

2004-09-08T22:16:00.000-05:00

Tank Up
Originally uploaded by Bigdog.

Check out this,and the other cool pics my dad has uploaded on Flickr!
(Click on the picture, and then "Bigdog's photostream" to view the rest of the pictures)

2004-09-08T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody, check out my new photo blog!! You can click here, or follow the link in the sidebar titled "Life Through My Eyes." Enjoy!

P.S. Should I leave the title as is, or change it to match the web address, what do YOU think?

Sunburst2

2004-09-08T18:34:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

Here's one of my fabulous conservatory flower photos, to see the rest of them, follow the My Photos link in the sidebar!

2004-09-07T18:02:00.000-05:00

Now, onto today. Only interesting thing I did today was to go to the Art Institute. Tuesdays are free, and I very much enjoy art museums in small quantities, so I plan on going as many Tuesdays as I can manage. I found one new painter that I like, Rene Magritte, a surrealist. Here is a really bad copy of his painting that I saw today. It's called "The Banquet" and this is the only online copy of it I could find, but trust me, it's much cooler in person. Apparently it's not one of his more famous works (which you can see at art poster stores online, like Barewalls)

2004-09-07T17:16:00.000-05:00

Ok, quick weekend overview:
Friday - Checked out used bookstores up around Belmont with Julia, ate at Clarks, skipped my class (don't worry, I'm going to watch the internet version). Later hung out with her while she worked at the coffee shop.

Saturday - Took the metra out to the suburbs to visit Robert, had a good time, got to meet his parents and Nick, you can check out his blog for all the details. Came home and went shopping at Whole Foods Market, cooked myself a late dinner (spring salad, steak, green beans, red wine - very yummy)

Sunday - Ordered my new computer! Went downtown to see it at the Apple store, but they're not getting them in for 2 - 3 weeks! Went and checked out the new Millenium Park and then ambled over to Grant park to check out the Jazz festival and visit Buckingham fountain. Also hung out at a little park next to the Art Museum and read Frankenstein.

Monday - Went to Garfield Park Conservatory after lunch, that was pretty cool, took some nice photos. Then I went to a gardening store on North Ave. and bought some seeds and potting soil for a container we have.

whew, there, i did it, the whole weekend (condensed version)

2004-09-02T15:36:00.000-05:00

So far, a very nice day. I actually managed to make it to class on time this morning, which is always a plus ;). After lunch I went downtown to open a bank account with Harris Bank since they have an ATM in the MTCC. The building and lobby and everything were very posh, but the lady setting up my account was only running Windows 95, which promptly crashed on us as soon as she finished typing in all my information. After that I figured I might as well stroll across the street and close my Bank One account which I haven't used for three years since I'm too lazy to walk over to the HUB to get cash (that's really only half the reason, the other half was that it was a pain to transfer money into the account - which won't be a problem with Harris since I'm having my paycheck direct deposited). So finally the end of ridiculous ATM fees! Yea!! After that I walked over to The Body Shop and let myself be talked into spending the $23 I just withdrew from my Bank One account, I figured that since it had been sitting there for 3 years already, I could probably manage without it - plus they gave me a free gift :). After that I headed to one of the best places in the city - the Harold Washington Public Library. Such a lovely place, inside and out.

2004-09-01T20:22:00.000-05:00

Two embarrassing things happened to me today, first, I managed to go to my 10am class at 9am. As you would expect, there was no one there. Eventally my class actually starts and then finishes and I go to lunch, where embarrassing thing number two occurs. I got a Caeser salad at the 'International Station' and then decided that a waffle sounded good. So I walked over to the waffle machines, set my tray down on the tray rack along the waffle table, and watched it slide right off and onto the floor scattering my salad and shattering the plate. Apparently the tray rack isn't quite parallel to the ground... It's the little touches like that display Sodexho's genius for making eating such a frustrating experience (right up there with mysteriously substituting blueberry bagels for hamburger buns at the grill without warning anyone). Anyways, life goes on, and the fresh waffle covered in strawberries and caramel sauce went a long ways towards making up for the plate incident. Then I went to work where I'm got paid to sit at a little table all by myself and read My Ántonia, which is quite a good book so far. The great thing about being a tutor is that I don't even have to pretend to be busy, if no one needs help I can do whatever I want, as long as I stay at my table or nearby (for example at the computer). I guess they might frown upon napping, but as long as I can just sit and read a good book, I'm quite content.

Life and love and why
Child, adult, then die
All of your hoping
And all of your searching
For what?
Ask me for what am I living
Or what gives me strength
That I'm willing to die for

Give me a reason
For life and for death
A reason for drowning
While I hold my breath
Something to laugh at
A reason to cry
With everyone hopeless
And hoping for something
To hope for
Yeah, with something to hope for

Life and Love and Why (listen to a sample)
Switchfoot

2004-08-31T18:29:00.000-05:00

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

2004-08-30T19:27:00.000-05:00

States I've visited (26/50)

create your own personalized map of the USA

2004-08-30T18:48:00.000-05:00

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...

2004-08-26T00:07:00.000-05:00

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!

2004-08-24T15:16:00.000-05:00

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. "

2004-08-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-08-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

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!

2004-08-05T12:38:00.001-05:00

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...

2004-08-03T17:06:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-07-25T18:27:00.000-05:00

Today wasn't quite as brilliant as yesterday, but still managed to be quite nice. Church was good, I helped lead singing again with David and Todd, which is always a lot of fun. We had Dad's black bean soup for lunch, whihc is always very yummy. then Dad left to go golfing with Greg, Pastor Rich, and David, so it was just us ladies for the rest of the day. We played some card games, then Mom, Naomi, and Helen went swimming while Sonia and I made fruit smoothies for everyone. I also got to just hang out and do some reading and tried to call Robbie (which didn't work :( ). All in all, the weekend has slipped by far too quickly.

2004-07-24T18:21:00.000-05:00

[Note: Both today's and Friday's blogs were actually written out the old fashioned way and then typed in on Sunday - just to explain any discrepancies between posting on the internet while complaining of the lack of a computer...]

Today was absolutely fabulous. I woke up at 9 (after about 10 hours of sleep) and the weather was beautiful - everything was beautiful. I spent the day reading in the warm sunshine by the lake, playing games with my sisters and Grandma, swimming, and eating good food. The only sad part was my growing conviction that the cabin is the best place in the whole world durning the summer, coupled with the knowledge that my grandparents are planning to sell it next year.

'Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.'
-Robert Frost

2004-07-23T18:14:00.000-05:00

Bah Humbug to phone companies! They all try to trick and squeeze more and more money out of you than they say they're going to take. I've got the phone card blues... I tried to shop carefully, found a card with no connection fee, etc. But the minutes just seem to mysteriously vanish. And now, when I'm up at the cabin and don't have access to the internet to buy a new card [see note on Saturday's post] the darn thing tells me I've got 33 more minutes left to call Robbie's number, and then cuts me off after 4!! Grr.. I didn't even have time to say good-bye :(. I should be able to get over this and be happy with what I've got, lying comfortably on the swing out in the porch, watching the hummingbirds, but I'm miffed.
The hummingbirds are rather fun though...

2004-07-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

Stiff, sore, scratched up, and bruised - I can't believe I'm only getting paid $10/hr. for this while last summer I got paid $24 to sit around and do a whole lot of nothing most of the time! Oh well, it's something to do, right? I sure hope all of these interesting experiences come in handy down the line. It's not all that bad though, all of my opening sentence was true, but honestly, it's a lot easier to work moderately hard all day than to sit around and do nothing while trying to look useful. Leaving the house before the sun rises however, really is that bad. Sunrises are pretty and all that, but I'd just as soon be in bed. Actually, getting up for the sunrise and then crawling back into bed wouldn't be too bad. Well, at least tomorrow is Friday and payday and we're going up to the cabin! So, no blog entries tomorrow or Saturday, I know this will just ruin all of your weekends, but it can't be helped, so try to bear up and hang on til Sunday. Have a great weekend everybody!!

2004-07-21T17:28:00.000-05:00

It's hot today, so this is going to be quick - I'm going swimming. Not much to report about the day. The morning was pretty long, I was stuck doing a very simple, very repetitious task. I actually was doing that most of the day, but it didn't seem so bad once I got to talking with the person working next to me and also found out that the parts were really needed (I was starting to feel like they had just stuck me there for lack of a better place to put me and then forgot about me, I was seriously making boxes and boxes of the dumb things and just stacking them up). Also I had a bit of a break running around helping put owners manuals into a bunch of boxes that had gotten packaged without them (we had run out of one of the parts that goes with the manual, so they just made them without rather than stopping the line and having nothing for everybody to do). Well, that about covers my day, I've been really sleepy all day, so hopefully I can get to bed on time tonight.

2004-07-20T15:44:00.000-05:00

Whew, made it through another day. It's HOT here, and very humid, it feels like you could bottle the air and use it to water your plants or steep coffee in or something. I finally got my room assignment, just as I was beginning to worry, I'm back in Fowler 405 again - this time with Julia. I think that will be a lot of fun, all of her silliness should make me feel right at home (just like my sisters). Well, that's all for now, got a phone date in a few minutes ;).

2004-07-18T19:29:00.000-05:00

Bunches of good happenings this weekend! I finally got to talk to Robbie, half an hour yesterday and an hour today, and my $5 calling card still has 211 minutes left (I got it from http://pinonsale.com/ in case anyone's interested). Anyways, he seems to be doing well, keeping pretty busy and all. My parents came home from their conference safely and had a great time. And I got a new mattress on my bed, so I no longer have feel like I'm sleeping on a prison bed ;). All in all, although not ecstatic or anything, a pretty nice relaxing weekend. Well, it's off to work again in the morning, so I've got to go rustle something up for lunch...

2004-07-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

SATURDAY! Yea :). AND I got a phone call last night (about 2 am) from Robbie's sister who was calling to give me a phone number where I can call him (it's a shared phone since he's still in temp. housing, but better than nothing). Hm. When I started, I thought I had lots to say, but now I've stalled... Well, sister week is drawing to a close, today the parents return (I don't know if I said anything about this before, but my parents have been gone all this week, at a conference down in the Chicago area). It went fine, was a little more work than last year when it was just me home alone for a week, but we had fun. We've got our little pool set up and had a campfire and roasted marshmallows last night. Ok, I'm not going to drag this out any further, I'm just not feeling it. Adieu.

2004-07-14T20:30:00.000-05:00

And life plods on... No further messages from Robbie, I hope he gets a phone soon, I'm all ready for him, found a good deal on international phone cards (Portugal, as it turns out, isn't too terribly expensive to call). Work is about the same, not fantastic and exciting, but not deathly dull or in any way horrible. I dread getting up so early in the morning, but not really going to work, which is a good thing. I do hate however how it seems like I have so little time left between working and sleeping. It doesn't seem so bad when you're thinking eight hours each: work, sleep, and free time; but it doesn't work out that way, I have to figure another forty-five minutes at least commute (total, thank goodness), plus up to two hours sitting reading waiting for my ride (short but dull explaination), and about 20 min getting ready in the morning - which doesn't count as free time since I don't enjoy any of it... sigh. Actually though, I'm making it sound a little worse than it is, since the reading I would want to do anyways, so who cares where I do it, and since I carpool with someone I really like talking to, that almost counts as free time too - except that although it's fun, it's not really free since in either case I'm stuck. Tonight I am quite set on getting to sleep on time, which I think I'll actually be able to manage if I can drag myself away from the computer in some sort of timely fashion. Today is the fourth full day with out the parents, I think we're doing pretty well, but maybe getting a little tired of it, everyone seems a little tired and cranky today, we'll see how things go tomorrow...

2004-07-11T19:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, now a little about today. I got up early (after staying at the wedding until 2:30am last night) so that I could help lead singing at church, and actually even ended up picking the music (we usually do that ahead of time, but everyone's been busy with the wedding). That's so much fun, I love singing. After church we went over to the Sandenos and watched the new Mr. and Mrs. Schultz opening their presents. That was when I really missed Robbie, seeing them just in ordinary clothes sitting all snuggly next to each other having fun and talking and everything, but I had plenty of fun anyways.

2004-07-11T19:10:00.000-05:00

Wow, weddings CAN be fun :). Yesterday was Steph's wedding, for those who don't know Steph is one of the Sandenos, probably my family's bestest friends; she also used to play all the time with my little sister Naomi, and used to be one of the kids I'd babysit all the time. And now she's Mrs. Zack Schultz! I didn't go to the actual ceremony, they only had immediate family at that part, but the reception was a lot of fun. I helped get the food ready, and Naomi made all the desserts, and it turned out great if I do say so myself. The reception started at 8:30 pm, so we just had appetizers and desserts, teriyaki chicken skewers and shrimp and several interesting salads and little mini-cheesecakes and much more. There was way too much food, which I think is usually the better way to go. It was a pretty young crowd for the most part (Stephani is only 19), so, although the setting was actually quite beautiful and the decorations elegant, the party wasn't overly formal. Everyone seemed to have a good time, there was lots of dancing and laughing and talking. I learned some swing moves and just generally had a marvelous time. I of course missed Robbie, especially during the slow songs ;), but at least I had a partner for the last song - another of my former babysitting kids, Steph's older brother Joe :). He turned out to be a really cool guy, I'm impressed. I'm wondering how long it will be before we're going to his wedding (he just starting going out with a girl a week ago or so).

2004-07-09T21:40:00.000-05:00

Ack. I'm falling apart. I thought I was coping well with the whole Robbie going off to Portugal for two years thing. Coping, hah - denial. Well, he's currently on his way (today he flew from Mississippi to Atlanta and is on the Atlanta to Baltimore flight as I write this and will leave from Baltimore to Lajes Field tomorrow at 1:40pm Eastern time) and so denial just ceased to be a viable option. I'm trying to come up with another workable option, but my usually inexhaustable well of happy thoughts is suddenly coming up dry - I can come up with happy thoughts, but they pretty much all just link back to him which consequently just makes me sad again. I'm only just starting to realize how much I've come to rely on being able to talk things over with him, all the little things in life that beg to be talked out but don't really interest anyone but you, and if you're lucky, someone who really cares about you. Hopefully I'll be a little better tomorrow after I get some sleep, I only got maybe 4 hours last night because we went late to the airport to pick Sonia up after her 6 weeks in Bangladesh. I should be really happy about having her back, and I am, but right now it isn't as much fun as it will be since she was travelling for more than two days straight plus having to adjust to an 11 hour time difference and is consequently not a whole lot of fun yet.

I still haven't quite gotten over the whole shock of him leaving so soon, he wasn't supposed to go until the 16th, but he graduated early and they decided at the last minute to put him on tomorrow's flight over to Lajes (he had like 3 hours to pack!). So he called all of a sudden (while I was helping get food ready for a friend's wedding tomorrow) and told me he was on a plane. My first thought was that maybe somehow he arranged to come back up here, which made it even worse... Sigh. Sorry to be going on and on about this, but it's rather traumatic for me and hey, you were warned (see title of blog...). Probably I'm just being overly dramatic about the whole thing. I'll be busy most of the time with school and stuff, have some fun times and some sad times, talk to him and email and stuff as much as possible, and eventually he'll come back. Just reminds me of a song I know though, '...I'll smile from time to time, and sing a song, cause life goes on, but it won't mean a thing, without you and the love you bring...' which is of course a rather melancholy song... Man, I can't believe I'm sitting here quoting songs and all that sappy junk, I'd better stop now before I start making up my own poems or something...

2004-07-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

So, if possible, I'm even worse at this than I expected. In my defense, I'm overworked. Well, ok, maybe it's more that for the first time in my life I have a 40 hour/week job that actually takes some real effort and I'm a wimp! Anyways, the aforementioned glamourous job is assembling paint sprayers for a company called Graco (not the guys who make the baby stuff). It's an all right job, working on an assembly line is supposed to be about the most boring thing there is, but actually I think that there were a lot of weeks when I got much more bored back when I was working as an intern at ATK. That job was a lot of fun when it was fun and just awful when I had nothing to do. It is surprisingly difficult to sit and do nothing for eight hours, even with a computer hooked up to the internet. At least at Graco I'm actually producing something! I feel useful, but I come home bushed, and haven't really even thought about coming down and getting on the computer. Maybe the fact that I'm on today means that I'm starting to adjust (either that or I'm just stalling before going to help clean the house to prepare for my sister coming home). My other excuse is that I spent the whole holiday weekend (including Friday and Monday) up at my grandparent's cabin spending time with my family and Robbie (sigh, that was nice, hard to drop him off at the airport - 'Good-bye honey, see you next May'). One interesting part about that airport trip though, we stopped in at the 'Armed Forces Service Center,' it was a really nice place: cushy leather furniture, free everything - food, pop, cookies, shower, bunks, satellite tv. Well, that about brings everthing up to date.

2004-06-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

I love rain, and not just because it interrupted our hauling dirt from the window wells to the garden. It's such a nice smell, the rain mixed with the dirt smells and the fine aroma of bugspray... probably won't ever make it as a perfume, but to me, it smells like summer. So, with the rain coming down and Helen busy hiding under the porch table with Tony, there's time for me to check my emails and then go snuggle under a big down comforter and read a book, or look at the pictures I just downloaded from my camera - bliss (or at least one version of it). Plus, Dad, Mom, and Helen are going to be going to Redeemer this evening and eating there, so Naomi and I get to scrounge for ourselves. Well, that's about everything of interest I can squeeze out of this day so far.

2004-06-16T02:01:00.000-05:00

Right, so I completely forgot about this blog, for a few months, but I think I'll try starting up again (well, pretty much for the first time), so that friends who aren't here with me can find out what's going on in my life (seems kinda boring to me, but if anyone wants to read they can, and if not, that's fine too). Yep, already starting to run out of things to say...
Absolutely fabulous weather today, maybe 82 and sunny, a little bit of a breeze, if only I had a hammock. (there, how awful, i had to resort to talking about the weather - i need to start taking skydiving lessons or something)

2003-12-02T01:56:00.000-06:00

Welcome welcome welcome!