November 2002

It saddens me to some respect that we as Americans have a holiday themed at being thankful. Shouldn't that be a daily sort of thing? But at the same time, it is a good excuse to get together with family and Lord knows that we as American's could use some work on that. I'm soon to be off to go join my family @ my bro's house so we can do some hiking... should be a fun family activity, then we're off to my brother's roommate's aunt & uncle's house in scottsdale (not their neighbor's house like last year). Not sure what tonight holds. Tomorrow is dubbed "Black Friday", where stores have lots of really really good sales since nobody is working (besides retail people). So I might try to hit up OfficeMax for some CD Spindles and Jewel Cases. Might spend some mo time with the fam too.

Banged up my knee a tad tonight playing football, it should be fine probably after tomorrow or so. It was fun, but I was having a very off night. Tomorrow I have a presentation in my first class, still need to prep for that a little bit more. Beyond that all is good. G'nite all!

Hrm, haven't updated since wednesday, lets see what's gone on since then... Yea, that's about it. Just kiddin! Friday night was Ryan's Birthday Party, hats off to Beth for hosting it. And of course my roomie Tim for baking birthday cupcakes... yum. It was a fun night with lots of (mostly) good and (most all) interesting conversation.

Yesterday was, hrm, I don't remember what happened. Watched the movie Seven, it's a very good movie. There's a few disturbing scenes, yea, ok very disturbing scenes. Me being me, I typically forget most of the important details in between watching, or moreso I just don't usually pay really really good close attention to movies (they're supposed to be entertaining right?), so I have this ability to watch a good movie several times and still enjoy it.

Today I picked up my mommie from the airport. Oh, but before that I went to church this morning back at Gethsemane. I haven't been there in over a month for various reasons, ok for two reasons. First, I was going to church up in Phoenix with my family 2 weeks, and second I was visiting another church in Chandler for 3 weeks. Pastor John did an outstanding job today of not only doing everything he normally does but also playing the piano during all the songs! I suppose the typical pianist was gone, hopefully just for that Sunday because it was a lot of work for poor Pastor John. He somehow managed to play the wrong song at the close of the service, luckily it was "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", so it wasn't too difficult for most people to just sing along with anyway.

Ok, so my mom. Yea, it was very nice... she called when she landed then after Andy & I had a discussion about how long different sizes of beds are, I left to pick her up. Thanks to my superb navigatability skills, I was at the south side of the terminal right after she had gotten her bags, and I told her I'd meet her on the north side as I was swinging around. It would've been perfect had there no traffic on the north side, so instead it was near-perfect. We then headed to my brother's house, where they were painting the brick on the outside. I got my hair trimmed after they finished, and we went to work trying to figure out what was going on with the hot tub. After some investigation, and taking things apart, we (mostly me) determined that there was an air detector so the pump would not kick on unless the hot tub was filled with air. However, our goal was to drain it because of the nasty stuff growing in the water. Oddly, none of the drains would work in order to get this nasty water out. After some macgyverness, my brother decided to try the old fashioned method of sucking on one end of a hose. However, we weren't able to get all the water out of the garden hose so that didn't work. Ah, we have other black hoses, a little thiner. So we cut one to length and tried again. He wasn't able to get the flow going, although he did get some in his mouth. That stuff was really disgusting looking. So, after that attempt, I got the smart idea of starting the water flowing using a garden hose, placing both hoses under water and removing the "feeding" garden hose, the flow would continue. And Viola! it worked so well we started a second hose going to double the speed of drainage. I was rather proud, and wished I had a camera to capture the excitement, as well as the humerous look of my brother with a hose sticking out of his mouth.

Then Papa Johns pizza & chicken strips, and now I'm home. If you haven't noticed yet, my parents take most any opportunity to come and visit, which is cool... they're just waiting until they can retire here. We'll see in a few years, or maybe a few years after that...

I've been asked by several people what I do with myself on those days that I don't have classes, since I only have class 2 days per week. Typically my answer is "everything normal people do when they only spend half the day in class or at work that I can't do on the days that I'm in class all day". Well, today was a good example, so I shall expand upon it.

9:30 Wake up. Yea, so I sleep in a bit. Caused by staying up late last night and falling asleep with my lights on while I was attempting to read a case. Tim can vouch for me on that, he woke me up asking me to turn my lights off.

10:30 Done with my morning routine of eating, reading various stuff, getting dressed, etc. Now I spend the next 2 hours finishing the case study I fell asleep reading last night and doing an online survey about it for my System Integration course. I then move on to getting my laptop finished with software installation since I had to completely reload everything because of Microsoft's evil IIS. Various other small tasks done in the meantime, and I even spend a little time playing some tunes on piano and guitar. Yea, the piano sounds a lot better than my pathetic attempts at making my (read: al's) guitar make music.

12:30 Eat lunch. Leftovers.

13:30 I'm now on campus, meeting with my supervisor. We talk about various things, like the project his students are working on, and how I can help with that, and getting back to our CRM software development.

14:30-16:30 Read another case study for Cost Management course. So I read really really slow. Yea, it took me the whole time to read 11 pages.

16:30-18:30 Group meeting to write-up a 3-page summary on the case I just finished reading. My group was late, we didn't start until 5. We divided it up into sections and each of our 3 pairs wrote page. Me and my partner were done with our section before another pair had even started writing. Dink around for a bit, waiting for other people to finish so I could maybe proof what they wrote. Decide to add a pretty graph to mine. Still waiting. Up, it's 6:30. They're not done. I leave anyway, and ask them to email me when it's completed.

18:30-19:30 Setup laptop for CALM, make grab a bite to eat from Taco Bell. Make sure my slides match what people are going to sing, help a bit with getting the room setup, etc.

19:30-21:00 CALM

21:00-21:35 Hanging out after CALM. Afterwards, walk to car, drive home hitting lots of fun red lights.

22:10 Put Java assignment on an archaic floppy disk to turn in. Make sure it works. Staple source code, etc. Ok, I think I'm done with all my necessary homework. I should do something productive. I know, I can write in my online "journal" type thing! Ok, doing that And now I'm done, and it's 22:35.

I told myself that after taking a break and hot-tubbing, I'd finish reading my first case study so I could just do the 2nd tomorrow. Well, so far I've gotten another 1/4 page read... too much other interesting stuff going on.

First, this was the best descriptive site I could find on Birth Order & Child Personalities. Interestingly, me being the youngest child I don't feel that I really fit that as described. It makes me wonder if I really had a younger sibling my parents never told me about (well, not *really*) but I do fit the middle child closer, with the excption on being sociable - but I think I'm getting better at that one. Oh, and team sports, mostly due to being unathletic, but I do rather enjoy them. And yes - Cross Country is still considered a team sport, at least at the high school level.

Interesting quote from an email I got, regarding "Hunger & Homeless" week: "Personally experience and learn about hunger from a global perspective. FREE food provided to all participants." And I'm not joking, and I don't think they were either, considering they're holding it at Einstein Bros. Bagels in the Union.

And then, after that great adventure I found that Beth had a fun Religion Quiz which will tell you what religion you should be. Below are my results...

Today makes for a not-typical Sunday. It started off waking up and heading up to North Phoenix (51 and Northern) to walk thru the house my brother & dad's (and others) partnership just bought. See, the partnership is going to sell the house my bro is currently in after they finish fixing it up, and then move into this house. So we spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what sort of improvements should be made to the house, particularly the kitchen. My bro keeps trying to convince me that real estate is where the money's at, etc... oh, and that I shouldn't buy a new or 1 year old Maxima, but instead I should be looking at 3-4 year old BMW's. Right-o. My dad defeneded me a bit, which I was almost somewhat surprised at.

So after the house, the fam went to church. It's a small church, at least in term of people there today. We went to a quasi-contemporary service, it was interesting but humbling. The singing was lead by 2 vocalists and a guy on a Yamaha keyboard, which he used to do the background beat and stuff too. A bit cheesy by music standards, but it doesn't really matter. My dad liked it, and he really doesn't like anything but traditional stuff for the most part, so they succeeded in that. The past 3 weeks previous to that I'd visited another church in Chandler, and previous to that I was at the church I went to today with my mom & bro, so it's been over a month since I've been to the church I "normally" go to. I'll probably go back next week. Dunno. That's a week away.

So after church we went to eat chinese. It was good, although they messed up the order and brought us two orders of oragne chicken instead of general's chicken on one of them, but thats ok. I came home with a big thing of extra chicken 'cause we had way more than we needed.

My laptop is being extremly stupid, it won't let me do windows update at this point, and IE is crashing all the time. Gotta love winXP. Ugggggg. Guess I'll have to re-load the whole thing ;( sadness.

Ok, so tonight had some fun using the Fishy to do some fun translating, and then discovered it was possible to translate whole entire websites to another language (say, Korean) and back to english without having to save any of the intermediate pages, by feeding the originally translated URL back in to the fishy. So, Take a look at my page. It is definitly slightly humerous, and fun to do side-by-side comparisons to.

In other news, my parents are here and we had a very good steak dinner tonight, they're going back tomorrow. But they'll be back for Thanksgiving again (I couldn't keep them away if I tried! not that I would, of course).

Here's a happy fun Quiz:

What Sort of Romantic Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

So I made it thru my fun classes today, along with helping my supervisor getting a server setup for his students to do fun JSP work upon. It was an interesting day, with a lot of running betweeen classes, his office, and the MU for food. After finally getting my supervisor set, I sent to the servant team meeting at 9:00 or so, 15 mintues before the meeting was to end and helped with the calendar, which I want to get all updated and stuff tonight.

So when I made it home, which was rather late considering that I'd been thru 8.5 hours of class without much of a break, besides a little time at dinner, I was rather tired. Of course it's nothing all that bad, I mean working 8 hours a day is typical, but graduate level courses are a bit different than work. Anywho, not to feel sorry for me, I went out and relaxed in the hot tub with my roommates. I cameup with a nice phrase for that... "roommate hot tubbing ritual", it's not any sort of ritual, but its fun to just sit around, relax, and chat (not that we have to go to the hut tub for that, if you've ever been here you know.

I'm going to have to motivate myself to do stuff tomorrow. I need to not be lazy 4 days out of the week, that'd be bad and will catch up with me fast.

Happiness, I have now used Java Beans, and after all my fun learning I have come to realize that they're nothing special at all, just some happy fun automated calls. So with that, I finished the main stuff that I had to do for work for this week.

I've found 95/96 exits in Mario World! There's one more... I'm guessing its one that has Yoshi-Wings.

I've update my list of Classes which is linked to from my front page. That's right, all Tues/Thurs. Hopefully I'll find time for lunch. And if you're on campus from 5-6 and want to eat with me either of those days, let me know!

Christmas break should be here, I just finished finals! When shall it come? Not soon enough! This is pathetic, I just had a week off and I'm already looking for more.

I *should* be sleeping, but instead, I'm posting this survey I stole from Liz, I did it two nights ago so things refer to events of that day and not today. I apologize for the poor formatting, but alas, I didn't feel like making it perfect tonight. So, here it be:

[series 1 - you]
Name: My full name is David Lee Diepenbrock, somehow most of my friends call me Dave, but some call me David. I don't distinguish between the two in my head, so for the most part I couldn't tell you who calls me which.
Birthday: March 30, 1980 AD
Birthplace: Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Merriam, Kansas
Current Location: On my bed, at my apartment in Tempe, AZ.
Eye Color: Drivers license says blue, but sometimes they appear greenish too.
Hair Color: Blonde to light brown, depending on how much sun has gotten to it
Height: 6’1" or so
Righty or Lefty: Righty, my left works well for some things like typing and lay-ups, but could never throw a baseball or whatnot.
Zodiac Sign: Does it matter?
Font: Currently using a happy fun fixed-width font, but Arial is my de-facto font for documents and stuff.

[series 2 - your favorite]
Cartoon: He-Man! Er, not really. Probably scooby-doo.
Color: Blue-Gray.
Slushy Flavor: Cherry
TV Show: TV? What's that? Oh, the thing that shows weird shows before I start a movie. Hrm, Cosby show reruns (so I live in the past sometimes)
Language: Java, although C++ is much better for many things, but Java is nice and wordy.
Spice Girl: *stares blankly* (note: left this comment from Liz)
Subject in School: Networking (like computer networks, not the stuff they talk about in the COB)
Ice Cream Flavor: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, with lots of dough
Roller Coaster: Mr. Freeze, and Orient Express

[series 3 - what is] The first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning: "Ug, it is to early to go to a fire training course"
The last image/thought you go to sleep with: Friends, Family and God. They're all pictured right above my bed.
The first feature you notice in the opposite sex: Hrm, define Feature? Ok, definitly not eyes, not that they're bad I just couldn't tell ya most people's eye color. Probably hair, it speaks a lot about a person. But another important "feature" is voice, and I find that to be a big turn off when I hear a 'beautiful' female talk and either they have an annoying voice or annoying subjects that they are talking about.
Your best feature: My bent knees. I'm told that I'm the cute one, at least when I have things covering my hair.
Your bedtime: 11:30 - 1:00 AM, depending.
Your greatest fear: That I'm not living my life in a meaningful way.
Your greatest accomplishment: College Degree? Sure, that was pretty difficult, and definitly time consuming.
Your most missed memory: So many to choose from.... Too many too difficult to share.

[series 4 - do you prefer] Pepsi or Coke: I'll have a Coke, either pepsi or coke will do just fine. RC works too.
McDonald's or Burger King: Mmm... flame broiled.
Adidas or Nike: Saucony, best running shoes (imho).
Dogs or cats: Depends, very few cats I dislike, and cats are much cleaner pets and more independent, like me. But the right dog is really cool too, and probably more fun to me. In other words, both.
Being single or taken: There's advantages to both
REM or U2: REM
Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson: Huh? Book writing people?
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Ug, neither. Hot flavored tea much better
One pillow or two: two, always. Although oftentimes one disappears to the floor during the night.
Chocolate or vanilla: Hrm, depends.
Cappuccino or coffee: Hot chocolote please.

[series 5 - do you]
Take a shower every day: Yes.
Have a(any) crush(es): Sure
Do you think you've been in love: High likelyhood
Want to go to grad school: No, already there
Like college: I didn't quit after my first 4 years, if that says anything.
Want to get married: Certainly, eventually.
Type with your fingers on the right keys: Since 7th grade. it's the only way to fly.
Believe in yourself: Only becuase I was made by God Almighty, and He has equiped me to do the things He wants of me during my time here
Have any tattoos/where: No, I see no reason to pay money to have something like this done
Have any piercing: No, same
Get motion sickness: No, motion is far too much fun! Especially 18 hour car trips.
Think you're a health freak: Ask my roommates, they'll say no. Ask me, I'll say no.
Get along with your parent/s: Sure
Like thunderstorms: Love them. Bring it on, anytime, anyday, anywhere!

[series 6 - the future]
Age you hope to be married: Whenever the time is right
Number and Names of Children: I'll work that one out with my future wife to be, and get back to you
Where do you see yourself at age 25: Working
Describe your dream wedding: Somewhere, with my wife and friends and family all there.
How do you want to die: However
What do you want to be when you grow up: Tall, dark haired, and handsome
What country would you most like to visit: Australia, haven't been there yet and I think I could communicate with the natives :)

[series 7 - other]
When's the last time you slept with a stuffed animal? last night... my doggy from KB
How many rings until you answer the phone: I always let it ring at least once, typically twice.
How many houses have you lived in: Three houses, 5 apartments, 1 dorm
How many schools have you gone to: 4
What color is your bedroom carpet: Standard apartment color
Would you shave your head for $5000: Sure, I don't have that much to lose.
If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only take three things with you, what would you take: A survival book, A pocket knife, and duct tape (the last two always worked for MacGyver)
What was the best time of your life so far: Living with 3 other CS Grad Students. I mean, how many times do you get a chance to be visited by the FBI and have them joke about how clean your house is, and laugh at rugrats lunch boxes, snoopy blankets, kitchen appliances, etc..?

Success! My car now has a brand new used junk-yard muffler! At least the big thick ruber band-like devices that hold up the muffler are new. Thd old one was injured and determined by Al & Myself to be unrepairable in the incident a few weeks back. Yay! for junk yards, although rather unsightly, and in a not-so pretty part of town with not-so upscale businesses nearby, they provide a great service.

Thankfully the time provided to perform this operation on my car was brought to me by the week-off in between trimesters. That means I have all new classes starting Tuesday. Yes, that's right, not Monday, but Tuesday. I will have 4 classes every Tuesday & Thursday. Basically all in a row, starting at 10:40 and ending, well, far too late. Tuesdays until 7:30 PM, and Thursdays until 8:30 is the current schedule. I'll post the schedule to my main website once classes actually start and they stop changing things around. Sadly, the implications of this new schedule meant that I had to stop going to my small group bible study, which I quit a few weeks back due to finals and other circumstances. Also, I won't be able to make it to CA Servant Team meetings either. Today will be my last one until 3rd Tri, if my schedule allows for it then.

Meanwhile, Monday night I played Flag Football, it was oh so very much fun. I have been sore ever since then, combining that with working on my car. In case you didn't know, I very much dislike having other people touch my car, (where touch == mechanical work). There are a few things thou that I would rather let a mechanic do, mostly things that would either completely ruin my car if it failed, or cause lives to be in danger. And of course, there's thigs that just require special equipment, and then I have to let other people do the work. Anyway, that's my rant on car stuff.

I need to cleanup, going to help the occupants of my brother's old house which are now paying a handsome rent to live there. They can't get one of their computers to connect up to the Internet. Ah, the life of a computer scientist, information management grad student and light car mechanic work on the side.

Ok, so this entry is almost entirely here just so I can say I have an update from another location than home :). I've been on campus since right after Lunch, had to come on this friday to turn in my team's Java project, or more accurately to finish putting the finishing touches on my team's Java project, help them get the documents together and get the deal turned in. Interesting thing about business students, they don't mind doing the documentation and letting me do all the coding :).

Video Scavenger Hunt starts in half an hour or so. Alison & I are taking charge of getting people started. Last year I opted to not participate and instead get the pizza for afterwards. But I did get to watch all the videos, and they were definitly interesting to say the least. Alison & I came up with the list of things to get on video for the year, I hope everyone enjoys the list as much as we enjoyed making it :).

Update: 10:20 PM

Wow, I'm tired. It's still early, but I realized that with the exception of a few moments I haven't really stopped going since probably Tuesday of this week. I get a little time tonight, then tomorrow I'm finishing up my database project, and then I can stop my brain for a week or so. Horray!