Good Day March 25, 2006 02:53:28 AM
Wow today was an easy day! Something must be wrong with the planetary alignment because this never happens. First off, fields was replaced with a guest lecturer, so no new material. Then cont and desc was taught by the TA so it was easy stuff and then she let us out early. After work, i went to an IEEE presentation and there was food there. Well after the event, there was a TON of food left over, and i guess since i knew some of the people hosting the thing, they were like, you want to take any of this stuff with you? I was like, i live in a house with 11 other guys, heck yeah ill take some, ill take what ever you want to give me, cause i garauntee it will be eaten. Me and rob walked out of there with about, no lie, 20 lbs of vegi trays, about 30 lbs of lunch meats, and a tin of hot wings, oh and a case of doughnuts! crazyness!
Today was also our big brother rev for zbt. In this event our newest members are assigned a big brother, but they have to try to figure out who it is based on clues. The theme this time was scavenger hunt. I ended up finally taking a little this time. I am a member of the sean murphy family which is the longest linear family in our chapter, and since i may be graduating soon, i didnt want to be the one to break the family line. Asif Mahmud is now a member of our family. After he figured out it was me, i passed on the family sweater.
In Loving Memory...Uncle Paul March 24, 2006 02:10:20 AM
After handing in my DD project, things have been slowing easing up. At work the other day, while just holding down the fort, I was able to work a little on my site. I completely reworked the blog section again. Though there were no graphic alterations, the back end is totally different. So the only diff you readers may notice, is a much faster load time. Allow me to get technical, but only for a sec, i promise. Originally, every single blog entry was stored in a single text file and seperated by a ':', every time you loaded a page, the server would have to read threw the entire text file and only pick out the appropriate entries for that page. Now, every single entry is on its own text file, so when you load a page, it mearly displays the contents of that file. Also, i can now controll the number of entries per page, ill leave it at three though, that looks nice.
So I talked with the people at Voith Siemens today, looks like its confirmed, I will be working there this summer as an intern again, and with a raise w00t w00t! Too bad this awesome job is in york though, so ill be living at home, with my parents, and my misguided brother; all that dramma :-/
Later in the evening I recevied a rather trajic phone call from my mom, she informed me that there was a death in the family yesterday, and that there would be a funeral on friday in case there would be a slim chance that i could go. My great uncle Paul Sprenkle passed away peacefully in his sleep in his cottage at the retirment village. He was 92 years young and lived a hard life. He was a farmer all his life, had tons of farm land and maintained it up till his early 80s! I guess I wasn't that close to him, but I do have a lot of memories with him from my early childhood. When I was really little, and I was at grandmas like every weekend, back before she moved to the retirment village too, 'Uncle Pa', as we called him, would occasionally pull up in his big red tractor, grandma's dog brandy would start barking like crazy, he would walk in, ask me something in Pennsylvania Dutch, to which i never had a cogent response, he'd playfully make fun of me for a bit, then we'd all sit down in the dinning room and just talk about whats new. He would always sit in grandma's oldest rocking chair, i remember it like it was yesterday. It was this dark brown creaky thing, always had a differnt cousion on it depending on the time of year. wow, wierd how all these memories come back when you just take the time to elaborate on them. So many memories now! ...brandon and i used to run threw his corn fields for the hell of it, we'd hit golf balls into it too when ever we had some, uncle pa had a really long driveway and this one time an air plane landed on it cause they needed fuel! he was hard of hearing on one side so we'd always have to repeat ourselves if we where on the wrong side of him, and even though he lost his middle finger in a corn husker when he was younger, he always saw the bright side of things and always had a smile. my my, now im getting all tiery eyed, We will miss you uncle pa, and may you rest in peace.
St Patricks Day March 18, 2006 02:18:15 AM
I was running late for class as usuall this morning, and I was really hungary, so I made myself a soft pretzel. After microwaving it, my soft pretzel was harder than a hard pretzel :-/ ...no wonder the box was only a dollar.
Completely unknown to me, tonight was the anual st patricks day beer pong tournament. Rutgers guys were here again for this (return home trip this time). Quite a party, tons of people, too bad me, joaquin, and rob were busy doing work ::sigh:: tis the life of an engineer.
A Good Day March 16, 2006 05:34:03 PM
Holy crap today is turning out to be a much better day than yesterday! Yesterday I got a test back that was pretty freaken low, and then a hw with a below avg score, it bummed me out pretty good. I guess if I was exhibiting any signs of depression that was probabbly why; Khine seemed to have picked up on it just from my intonations on the phone. I mean it didnt even occure to me how sub-par my chi was.
This just seems so weird, im saying today was an awesome day, and today i had 2 tests! First, the bio test went pretty quickly, seems like i reviewed all the right things. Then I had a digital design test, and i nailed that suker! I left that test feeling like i got a 100%. Then as im walking out, the teacher hands me my graded project back, 98.5%! w00t w00t.
So work was sort of strenuous. Granted today was the busiest day of work yet this week, I was able to successfully trouble shoot every problem the aoe faculty could throw at me. So today, Im feeling pretty good ;-)
ZBT from Rutgers March 14, 2006 12:57:36 PM
Yesterday, the Rutgers zbt brothers were still crashing at the house (beta delta chapter). They're pretty cool guys, and around lunch, they were grilling up hamburgs and hotdogs and stuff on our grill and offered me some lunch, but i was already running late for class. They're having a ball at our house, wish I was on spring break... Oh and a really cool thing, their chapter is from new jersey, their on their way to FL, and apparently they have heard of me! My room automation stuff is apparently nationally known in zbt. They had a nickname for me that I think i rather liked too, so my new nickname is, ''Hightech''.
Interesting Weekend March 13, 2006 03:50:19 AM
Lets see here, the last 3 days could be summerized in the following fashion:
FRI: Long ass drive
SAT: Dreadfully Sick; Established a relationship with the girl of my dreams
SUN: Partook in a ''couples lunch''; Drove home; Began a weeklong session of hell
Allright, for the break down, Friday was pretty rushed. I was planning to get out of york by like noon, but after getting everything packed, stopping at andrews to pick up forgotten stuff, and feuling up, i didnt get out of the county until like 2pm. So finally, i was on my way to UVA, all was going well until about the last 2 miles on the 495 beltway around DC. There was an accident on rt 66 to end all accidents. I was stuck in traffic for at least 2.5 hours. Turns out 4 lanes were reduced down to 1 because the crash was so bad. When i finally drove past the crash site, I saw a car that was smashed into a cube! the engine was in the front seat, and the trunk was in the rear seat. So its probabbly safe to assume that the passengers of that vehicle didnt exactly make it out allright. And after all that, it got no better, traffic jam after traffic jam. After almost 6 hours of driving, I learned something, a new route from york to uva never to use again! Anyways, once there things got better. Khine and I went out for a night on the town. We had a Tai dinner, walked around the uva strip, got gelato, then watched a movie. It was a very nice evening
So Saturday was the day that warents the ''interesting'' in the title. Aparently there was something in the dinner i had the previous night that didnt belong there because I can usually handle anything i put into my stomache, but not this time. As the day went on, i got worse, stomach pains like a mofo. All day I just kind of tried to ignore it, hoping the pain would subside, it never really did. But the events as told by my stomach were not the only things going on that day. As of late that night, under a sky that cleared itself right up, alone in the quiet center of the Lambeth Ampetheater, Khine and I became an item! (and then i threw up; humiliating)
Sunday, I was feeling totally better, both physically and psycholgically! I ate a decent sized breakfast, and for lunch, Khine and I met up with Pouzou (who was also visiting in UVA) and his g/f, Jane. It was fun times. But it was also the end of the fun times :-( After we all finished at RubyTuesdays, it was time to head back to VT. So I packed up, said my goodbyes, fueled up again, and went back on the road. Only thing to report about that trip was, I saw a girl driving a hurse as her normal car, creeeeppppy. So as soon as I unpacked, the hw-doing commenced.
Recap:
Again, lots of ups and downs, but clearly the ups outweigh the downs this time, because me and Khine are together!
Starting off Slow, Ending Fast March 09, 2006 02:11:03 AM
I went to my grandmother's today (grandpa's yesterday before the dentist), and it never ceases to amaze me how the elderly always have an interesting story to tell. After completely filling me up with rediculous amounts of home-made cooking, she always seems to have something to talk about from the olden days. I also noticed something that never really hit me before, my grandma is doing exceptionally well. I mean like, she is 88 years old, and she lives in her own apt, walks around just fine(a little slow, but just fine), does all her own chores, cooks all her own dinners, shes very sharp for her age, so you can't pull a fast one on her. She even drives yet! She is all about helping people out, so she takes other little old ladies to the doctors and out for breakfast and stuff on a regular basis. She is just so healthy for her age. My grandpa is very bright and getting up there in age too. So if any of this is any idication, then I should have pretty good genes and should be able to live to around 100!
So the other half of the day was completely different. I went skiing! I met up with Chris, Tiff, Emily and Ron, and we all went up to Ski-Roundtop, a ski resort in north western york. Now I was able to get lots of good FAST quality skiing in, but emmy, chris, and tiff decided to go with snow boards this time. They ended up going down the slopes only twice the entire time there! Emmy can ski, she just wanted to try something new, chris and tiff on the other hand, have never even been to a ski resort before, but they insisted on going with the snowboards. Now it is in my opinion, that n00bs, such as they, should always start off on skiis. Skiis are less difficult to learn initially, and can give the users a better feel for rapid progression down the hill. It will also help develop a better sense of ballance since the 2 feet are not latched together. All in all, though, it seemed like everyone had a good time, even if the n00bs did spend 95% of their time on their bums :-)
The Dentist March 08, 2006 01:41:27 AM
Had a dentist apointment today, and I cant believe I forgot how much I hated that place. It's not that its a scary place or anthing, its more of a matter of logistics. It started right after I finnished my x-ray. The pre-dentist says to me, ''Yeah, sorry these things are real uncomfortable'', as she takes the bite-down things out of my mouth, to which I respond, ''Its not theses things i'm worried about, its the sudden blast of gamma radiation directly to my skull that kind of bothers me''. She then defends, ''well you get just as much radiation standing out in the bright sun'', to which I conjecture, ''you also dont wear a lead shield and leave the room when you stand in the sun''. She didnt say much of anything after that.
I also noticed, the person who gets the most money, does the least, by far, amount of work on my teeth. My teeth are checked, scraped, cleaned, brushed, flossed, and x-rayed, by that pre-dentist nurse lady. After she was finally done a half an hour later, I just sat there for about another 30 min, waiting for the actual dentist to arrive and verify the nurse's work. Well sure enough, when he finally arrived, he stuck the 2 metal instruments in my mouth, and litterally 15 sec later he says, ''allright, aaallll done!''. Man he didnt do anything!
Oh yeah, I should also mention how going to the dentist's is always like taking a huge dose of some kind of depresents. The first thing they say to you, as soon as they stick that first litle mirror in your mouth, is something negative. They do such a good job making you feel bad. ''So when is the last time you flawsed youg man?'', ''How did you get plaque in that spot?'' It doesnt matter how good you've been, they have to out do you. ''How often do you brush'', ''Three times a day ma'am'', ''Thats not good enough, You should do it 4!'' ...awefull just awefull...
Ate at LBC for supper again today, I mean come on, I couldn't pass up the half priced quesidillas now could I?
Laaaazy March 06, 2006 11:38:57 PM
Man! I can't seem to get any homework done. I even went as far as to open all the documents I would need to get started, but then lethargy took charge. I guess it's the break it self. Since in school I get like no chances to really relax, I'm completely taking full advantage of the here and now, but I just know if I spread this relaxation out too long, it's going to come back to bite me.
Don and I went to LBC again this evening for supper :-)
Is technology failing us!? Have we just become so dependant on these transister filled pieces of plastic that as soon as one breaks, we are left with no choice but to panic? Today while I was at work, out of no where, our main file server turned it self off! and it wasnt like your typical random crash restart, or your overheated reboot, or even a sheduled shutdown, it just up and decided, hmm, i think im gonna turn my self off. all the logs show that it was a nice clean shut down, all closure procedures were completed succesfully. Wierd eh? So wierd infact, that my boss refuses to believe that it was a random occurance, so he now believes that he induced it accidently with some keystroke combination. 
User:
Anonymous
COMMENT: I always said that when the end of the world becomes overrun by machines somehow Dan would be involved in. I think that you should stop it dan before it think logically and decides that machines and computers don't need humans other then a source of energy. You don't need an EMP bomb. Thats what our good old freind H2O is for. Just accidently spill it on the server. But what if it has infected others, oh god. The end is near. Quickly, someone call the Amish Assocaition With Guns also known as the AAG and the NRA to put an end to this before we are all doomed!