October 2002

Can you believe it? Intel has a 2.8 GHZ processor out! And I'm still on my lowly dual celeron 466 MHZers. However, they do what I need, so I should be thankful that I don't need to go out and build a new computer yearly, I just need to keep getting new laptops!

Anyway, I'm done with my first ever Graduate Final, that means, yup, one class down and 2 to go. Well, not exactly. I still have a project due for the DB class, but the final went really well (was the first one done, again). The project should be fairly straight forward. I'm looking forward to being done and having a lazy week while all my friends are busy doing their stuff. Not that I like to sit and watch other people do stuff while I do nothing, but rather there's things like looking for a Job that I really need to be spending some serious time on. Ok, so basically I won't have a lazy week.

A few days (maybe a week even) back, I did some website re-orging, and based on my server logs, it doesn't appear that many of you have noticed! I love logs, they're fun. They also make heat when they burn. Anyway, if you look in that left frame, there's this deal called wait, you found it already. Yea, third one down, yup. Don't you feel silly now, or smart because you found it on your own! One of the two.

Hrm, lots of interesting stuff. Yesterday went and helped Jenny with her car, got the oil change done at Jiffy Lube (where I thrwarted all the efforts of the Jiffy Lube attendee to replace stuff that doesn't need to be replaced). Then to the emissions place, I felt like I was in some utopian book, they have the little booth where you wait while they hook your car up to a machine, one of the workers gets in and revs your car all up and whatnot. Then you pull forward and they check your gas tank closure, make sure it seals well, and then again pull forward so they can come out with a paper and tell you that your car passed, and allow you to pay them $30 or so. Finally a trip to Wal-Mart for a new headlight, and I picked up some other necessary items like bicycle tire pump and kleenex. Drove back to campus to attempt headlight repair. Got the new bulb in, but it still did not produce light. So, we switched out with the bulb in the other headlight since we knew it was a good bulb. Nope. Doh! Must be a wiring problem or something. Evil.

Andy's birthday was yesterday. Tim made a nice happy chocolate cake for it, which we ate at Mike's house in the pre-game party. I didn't go to the game, but most of the other peoples there did. Mmm..leftover cake :).

It rained and hailed this afternoon. But the sun is back out and shinning, as it does so wonderful a job here in Phoenix. Perfect weather for having the windows open. However, windows open while it rains realy hard isn't a good idea. We also discovered that our living room window has a bit of a leak when it pours down rain, will have to inform maintenance so that we don't have to put towels in the window.

Bob Siegal, a cool evangelist / apologist is coming to ASU this week for various CA stuff, tonight is pizza & hanging out at Mike's house. Other things include a one-man play wednesday night as part of the regular CALM meeting.

On another note, I visited a different church today, Epiphany Lutheran. It reminded me a lot of Christ Lutheran in Kansas City. I saw my friend Pastor Mike there, he plays organ at their first two services and oversees the music at the third contemporary service. Their Pastor, Pastor John, seemed good, his sermon was pretty good, but there's one thing I've noticed in some of the more modern Christianity trends, the word "just" is way overused. But in all, was a good service. Maybe next week I'll wake up in time to go earlier.

This entry wins the award for entry with the most links.

So I went to bed at midnight last night! Woohoo! Woke up shortly after 8:00 (like before 8:30 sometime). Well, Tim hadn't left yet which is unusual for me to see him in the morning. Anywho, thats all pretty much totally unrelated. The fact is, I've been up for 2-2.5 hours and already done two, probably more, really stupid things.

1. Pooring cereal into bowl. Go to get milk. Think, hrm, fridge could use some organizational help. Stop, re-org the fridge. Leave kitchen. Take a shower. (At least I didn't drwon the cereal in milk, so it wasn't soggy when I went back for it).
2. Taking shower. Grab shampoo. Put shampoo in hand. Put bottle back. Take hands, put shampoo into hair. Realize hair is still dry. Hrm. Well, it worked anyway, I guess that's an advantage of not having tons of hair.

Besides that, I've been searching high and low for the screw driver Jenny loaned me so I can fix my printer. If I were a little red handled straight blade screwdriver, where would I be?

So, I went to bed last night at 1 a.m. I was very tired, and couldn't keep my eyes open. I was trying to read these silly case studies for Database class, when I pretty much already understood what was going on. I gve up at midnight, but once in bed thought I'd give it another shot and well, lets just say I spent more time fighting sleep than actually reading. So, I was laying backwards on my bed because, well because that seems to be the easiest way to read for no real reason at all. I thought "hrm, if I'm backwards I'll have to turn around to turn off the alarm so I won't turn it off and go back to sleep." Well, by now you've probably guessed the rest of the story. If not, then you weren't paying any attention to the title. I've found that feet do a great job of snooze-button hitting. Almost more effective than hands, it's probably a tie. So, after hitting snooze, oh, say 3 times I realized that I wasn't going to have any time to read over my cases before class. Well, I made it thru class nonetheless, and met my mom for lunch, and hung out with her for a wile. Tomorrow will be an insane day, and wednesday will be pretty full too, so I probably won't see her much if any before she goes home.

The rest of this week will be slightly insane. Next Monday we have a group project due, my group hasn't started. Wednesday I have a class meeting at 6-8 PM, so I'll miss most of CALM. Finals are next week too, and then the monday after finals the 2nd half of the group project is due. I apologize in advance if I seem a bit stressed.

Yea, so today, well, yesterday was an interesting day. Slept a bit too late (yup, no class on fridays == sleeping in). Then woke up, cleaned kitchen etc... Then went to my bro's house to help my mom and bro with landscaping, and have lunch. I had an adventure on the way there. The broadway -> I-10 entrance ramp you see is kinda curvey, and my car decided...ok, so I drove it in very poor manor... such that it ended up off the road. This entrance is way away from the highway, so no problems there, but man even everyone else was coming around this corner really fast. In the process of my car coming to a complete stop the muffler came loose (was only held up on two rubber band type things which were going bad anyway), and worse the car was high-centered in back, which meant driving it away wouldn't be possible. However, get this. There was a toe-truck right there. Like, literally within 30 feet of where my car stopped (Thanks God). The guy was so cool, he had a pickup mounted up and ready to be hauled away, but he stopped and unloaded that vehicle to get my car unstuck. He also helped get the muffler tied up since the bands broke, thanks to scrap strap-like stuff laying on the side of the road. At any rate, basically the damages to my car are something like as follows:

• Small Dent in the rear panel
• Scratches from bush - hope that wax & touch-up paint take care of that
• Bumper is slightly mis - shaped from toeing it out (might be able to fix that myself)
• Tires are very slightly out of alignment, but just such that I notice it, other people would probably not think twice
• Exhaust tips are crimpled, see if I can get new ones, shouldn't be too hard.

So anyway, I'm pretty upset with myself for being stupid and losing control of my car, first time I can say I was honestly out of control (of the car I was driving). And it wasn't like I was in a hurry, arg... just stupid. But, alas, got in my car and continued driving on to my bro's house. Interestingly enough I drove other people's cars around the rest of the afternoon, running errands and stuff. No other problems. All is well.

Well, I attempted to make some cookies tonight. While this may not be as interesting as some of Matt's fun times with cooking, it was interesting nonetheless. You see, whne you double a recipe you must double the insertion of eggs as well as everything else. Otherwise, the cookies may end up looking something like this. However, that's not the whole deal. See, you're supposed to flatten them down with a fork too (oops), and with sugar on it (oops again). Well, after the fourth try, I got them. That pic you can see one without fork marks, some with, and in the upper left corner a properly sugared one as well (instead of sprinkled on mid bake). But hey, I've never made anything but Grandma's cookies, so it was an experiment.

Like any bad theif, I was caught. According to Liz, stealing her Journal survey doesn't count as an update. Ok, Liz, this is for you :).

If you've noticed some unreliability in the server, well, I'm partially to blame. Yesterday morning I inserted a random A into the apache httpd.conf file, so the web server didn't know what to do anymore and it stopped working. I got that taken out later in the day when someone pointed out to me that it quit working. Today, I noticed that the whole surver had frozen. I went to restart it, and noticed the video card sitting on top that I had been meaning to switch out. So, I stopped short of pushing the power button back on and took the case apart (easy to do with thumbscrews). After this, I swap the card out and decide to test it before putting everything back together, as a good engineer would do. Previous to that point, I noticed the CPU heatsink to be rather hot, hotter than I'd expect, but I didn't think too much of it. While testing the new video card, however, I noticed that the fan above the heatsink was not spinning. This is bad. Fans supposed to spin, to create airflow, to cool stuff off. So I dinked around with it for a while, was going to try to mount a larger fan in the computer until I could get a replacement, but I figured before doing that I should at least plug it in again and make sure its not working and wasn't just a fluke, and then I notice it. Yes. Another power lead on the motherboard. He shoots... he scores! Yay! So, server is back working again.

In the non-computer world, turned in a bunch of paper stuff for classes today (where paper stuff == papers & group project, not something like a java program or database deal). Still working on my program for work. You don't have to delete data ever right? Everything else is working fine, so far.

Stole this survey from Liz & Becca, sounded good, at least the first question, so I decided yall might be interested too.

Five things you are wearing:

• Shorts (Yea for Arizona!) - of the Jean variety, if you care
• My white "Spirit Weekend 1995" T-shirt, from when I ran 5k in the middle of the summer back in the days
• My mobile phone (rarely leaves me)
• Socks - I love socks, ankle socks at present
• My chain & cross, which rarely leave my chest

• My two monitors on my computer
• Peggy's pooh-dog
• My nice soft bed
• My poster which I haven't put on the wall yet
• The CA shirt I need to take to Steven

• Talking with my mom on the phone
• Hanging up the phone because we just finished
• Typing these things p
• Listening to Andy & Al talk
• Watching for people to come online

• A Bagel with lots of cream cheese
• Fried Bologna
• Chips & Salsa
• Soft Tacos
• Uh oh... only can I think of 4 things, does Kool-Aide count?

• Woke up earlier than I have all year without an alarm (where alarm == Tim)
• Went to church
• Worked on my GUI for work
• Went to a team meeting for my ACC533 class
• Went car-shopping only to find that the dealer had no manual transmission Maximas

• Andy & Al talking about, well, everything
• Tim typing
• The quiet hum of 3 computers running
• Movie theme to "Halloween"
• Tim sighs as he's chatting with someone, I bet it's beth, 'cause she called before my mom called.

• White, the walls are basicallyw hite
• Red & Blue (I know, the evil colors) I have a red cup holder and a blue cup
• Biege carpet (I think that's the best word to describe it)
• Black phone
• Orange on my shoes

• "This music is kinda weird, I bet tim doesn't like it"
• "My mom is coming next wednesday"
• "When will the memory for my laptop show up"
• "Why Andy's talking about weighing a helicopter down"
• "I should be working on stuff for work or my 8 page paper due Tuesday"

• I reject this question, because I can never remember names without thinking of people

• my computer
• my laptop
• Al's guitar
• my desks (so nice to have much desk space)
• File cabinet, organized is good

• "Love All" - impossible to do as a human, imho.

• car salesmen, in general
• people who drive in my way :)
• Inconsisitent capitalization
• People who don't realize they're being incredibly annoying
• "I have something important to tell you....nevermind"

• My other computer :)
• Printer, scanner, zip drive, speakers, computer peripherals
• Phone, desk lamp, pencil jar
• CDR's
• My ASU Bachlor of Science in Engineering plaque thingy

• driving fast
• having opinions (or so I'm told)
• my belief in God
• being from Kansas
• collecting stuff

• get a job
• buy a house
• get married
• finish school... really, I'll be done in may :)
• retire

Uh oh, breaking my habbit I wanted to start already, its past midnight. Oh well, it's for a good cause! Updating current events is goodly.

Anywho, I'm stuck in September. Whenever I date these things I get the month wrong, so if the link points back a month that's why.

So, I changed the photo on the front page. Figured having a 5.5 year old picture of me wouldn't do all that much good, even thou it is my favorite picture of me ever. Well, speaking from a photographic quality standpoint. There's certainly other good pictures that bring back much fonder memories, but too many of those to count. Heck, most of my site is made up by photos besides these current events, so if you expect me to pick from those, you're on the virge of insanity.

I must say that life is going pretty well. Next wednesday my mom comes out, mostly to help my bro with his house, but to visit too. My car is going to need replacing soon, so I'm starting to figure out what will be the next car for me. Such decisions, but I have a good idea, despite whatever my brother says.

If you haven't noticed, I really like the quote "He told the truth, and once you've heard the truth, everything else is just cheap whiskey" - (From the movie Switchback). I'm realizing more and more how true that is. There's so much stuff that we all hear in our life, and even more that we feed ourselves, but it is all so meaningless (not to steal from Ecclesiasties or anything) once you know the truth. And no, I'm not just talking about religious stuff, but any truth. It is also very significant when you are dealing with people. Why would you ever even worry about something that is untrue once you know the truth? It would be foolish! (Yea, I'm a fool too, for I know I do it all the time, but I never said I wasn't foolish). So, now that I've rambled about that, and I don't even like whiskey so I'm glad that truth is the goal and not "once you've heard the truth you get fine whiskey and the rest is cheap whiskey". Ok, ok stopping rambling, I'm trying to spare you from too much randomness...

Life has its ways. You get yourself off track, and it kicks you back in line. Sometimes the kicks are more gentle than others. Othertimes its a bit more harsh.

Habbits are good. Things I'm shooting for:

• TWIG, a.k.a Time WIth God, before classes instead of at the end of the day.
• Going to bed at midnight, or some other time such that by 8 AM I've had 8 hours of sleep, at least Sun-Thursdays.
• Talking to people about stuff that's really on my mind - when appropriate.

I've really got nothing else to say, although it seems as thou I do, not sure what that means. Matt had a really good talk tonight at CA, kinda focused on living the Christian life, and what comes after you believe. Always good to stop and think if you're doing what you say you should be, and whatnot. Anywho, I'm off to eat some food now and a few other tasks before sleepin.

Ok, so today was day of changing oil for my roommates. Neither had ever changed oil before. Note to self - things *always* take longer the first time. A lot longer.

Tim, Andy, & I headed out to Al's place around 2:30. Andy stopped at Wal-Mart on the way, and Tim & I went straight on ahead, so we could get the oil pan emptied as it was full of old oil. No problems with this, besides Andy's experiences with the weekend Wal-Mart crowds.

Tim & I return from properly disposing of the oil before Andy arrives, so we begin draining his car. No problems. We get it drained, and then say "Hrm, I wonder where the filter is". Dave's law of oil filter locations: 9.7/10 cars put them in obnoxious locations. Tim's filter happens to be located right below the exhaust manifold, behind some air conditioning lines. Make it impossible to turn while working from above the engine. From below, its obtainable, but your arm is up in the engine from the elbow on up, so if there's any oil to drain out it's going to get on you. This is where wearing a sock over your hand and arm comes in handy. Also note: what is clockwise from one direction, is counter-clockwise when mirrored. Understanding this basic rule really helps in removing things such as oil fiters. Once those two things were realized, removal and replacement went ok, and new oil was added and one car was done.

Andy's car, however, was not so nice. To summarize, the drain plug required a double-wrench setup to gain the necessary torque in order to loosen the plug, and even once loose it was not free to spin like most drainplugs are. However, that part was easy. The filter, which must be gotten to from below, was not too difficult to get a handle on, but only one hand. The exhaust was mostly out of the way, but not so much so that two hands could be used to get to the filter. This is not normally a problem, as one hand is all it *should* take. Referring to above note, it always takes longer the first time... you see, when you have a shop change their oil, they have all the special tools to way over tighten things like drain plugs and oil filters. Oil filters don't need to be tight, they have a nice happy fun rubber ring to keep them from leaking, they simply need to be snug. After much grunting, and Andy, Al, and myself all attempting to remove the very tight thing Al checks with his neighbor for a tool to remove it. He has one, Al will have to remind me of exactly what it's called, but it was too large to grip on the filter. Solution? Wrap the filter in a rag. Still doesn't work? Try using a rubber gripper in between. Nope? Still slipping? I know, this'll work, use a sock around the filter to make it big enough. No Game. Wait, wrap the gripper around a socket wrench, and place that inside the loop to make it fit tight. Arg!!

Give up, go to wal-mart and buy an oil filter wrench. One would think that the new filter is the same size as the old filter, so we buy one to fit the new filter... it's a special design, its made to fit two sizes of filters! Isn't that special? No! The large size fit the new filter perfectly, but was too large for the old filter. The small size was too small for the old filter. Solution? Of course! Use the rubber gripping thing inside of the wrench to make it fit. Oooh! That works! I got it on, tried to hand-turn it and it was tight...until I get the socket wrench on it and it slips off. No game. All other attempts fail.

And to think, all this after a night of getting cucumuber stuck down the sink, squirting up out of the sink, in the trash can, all over one's shirt :). Who says a bunch of college-aged guys have life all figured out? Well, they're wrong, but it was fun nonetheless.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Also, I know I owe some people an email, that will be coming soon, I promise. I don't have much time, as I don't want to miss small group. Let's just say that the past, oh, week since I've updated has been pretty awesome. Things seemed so clear, so obvious, but as always that never lasts long, back stuck in the mud again.

EVIL ALARM! I turned it off, but yet its beeping.

Proverbs 16:4 - "The Lord works out everything for his own ends - even the wicked for a day of disaster." No matter what goes on in life, its awesome to know that God's in control. Life isn't easy, there are easy times but those often pass far too quickly. But life doesn't have to be as hard as we sometimes make it if we would just "Let go and let God". I'm by no means perfect at it, but I hope I'm getting better.

Reminds me of the movie Days of Thunder, Tom Cruise says he like's racing because he can "control something that's out of control". My favorite line in the movie is when Nicole Kidman (sp?) tells him, "Control is an illusion you infintile ego maniac." Just when you have your life seemingly under control you realize that you're not the one who is in control. It is an illusion for us to think that we're in control. Sure, we have some control over some things, but even things like are feelings are so often controlled by other people or events.