Thursday, 5-8-03 at 3:03
I’m the best at posting. I get a gold star.
I took my last final today. Woohoo! Done with class. Now I can concentrate on all the important things: shooting, fishing, working on cars, and ham radio. All in all, I think I did pretty well, but only time will tell for grades.
Projects over the next few weeks: get APRS working well, play with Echolink, get my laptop fully functional with network and USB capability, and program a ton of skywarn frequencies into my radios.
Speaking of Skywarn, I’m going to be volunteering at the Blacksburg NWS office as the net control for Skywarn. I’ll also have other responsibilities at the office, but that is just one of them.
I used up the rest of my flex today; bought some cheesecake, and entire poundcake, a salad to end all salads, and 25 small bags of chips. WOOHOO FOOD! Time to get fat!
Come to Montgomery street this weekend; Stan’s band and a few others are playing. Should prove to be quite entertaining.
Saturday, 5-2-03 at 5:51
Check out the shooting page for some exam relief that Nusbaum, Carly and I participated in!!
I’m staying awake to go to Courtney’s graduation. I didn’t get up til 6pm Friday, so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. CONGRATULATIONS COURTNEY AND JULIA!! Graduating rocks.
Another year winds to a close. This year was a year of major changes for me- for the first time in like five years, I did not date anyone the entire school year. It just really hasn’t been worthwhile yet, and I enjoyed my freedom. I switched into MSE, and really like it; I’m considering metals or electronic materials. I’ve met a ton of new people. I have a job that pays the bills. I’m gonna go storm chasing in June. Ham radio, working on the Nova, shooting and fishing take up most of my spare time, the way it should be. What did everyone else think of this year?
Wednesday, 4-30-03 at 11:52
Storms rock. This was the first storm of the season and I chased it to Roanoke. I got out of my car and got hailed on (around pea-sized hail or so). The sound of hail hitting a car when you are in it is incredible. The cell was just a simple isolated system, but it caused an incredible amount of lightning, some hail and rotation. I have pictures and a short MPG showing the rotation on the weather page.
I got receritified for Skywarn tonight, while I was in Roanoke, watching the sky.
Tuesday, 4-29-03 at 3:33
I hate spam. I hate telemarketers. I hate Dell kid wannabes who get a job because old people think they are young and cool, and then they produce things like spam, telemarketing and reality shows. Consolidate my debts, find term life insurance, enlarge my breasts, visit your webcam, apply for an auto loan. Whatever, you are offering me nothing new, and even if you were I’d still tell you to screw off.
Sunday, after I got off work, I said ‘Where does this trail go?’ talking about the Huckleberry Trail. I live less than a half mile from the library, and I figured, let’s find out. I walked all the way to NRV mall and back, around 10 miles. Go me, way to not be fat.
Speaking of walks, I went for one this one time and saw that in Blacksburg we have a time capsule. I always thought those were cool. I’d really like to put some time capsules into space or at the bottom of the ocean- just hide them and wait for them to be discovered.
Combining paragraphs 1 and 3, I think we should put spammers in time capsules. And by time capsules, I mean lava.
Friday, 4-25-03 at 23:47
Oh man, busy week! Everything in the world is due Monday and Tuesday, so that’s what I am doing right now. Monday: Research Paper due, Metallurgy Lab Report due, Electronics Lab Final. Tuesday: Physical Chemistry final, Physical Chemistry Matlab book due, Metallurgy Final, Meteorology Quiz. It’s go time!
My brother bought a replacement for his totaled car; he got a ’92 Ford Escort Hatchback. WOOHOO!
Speaking of cars, I was looking at my car the other day and realized it’s time for new tires.
Tuesday, 4-22-03 at 0:15
If there is anything cooler than APRS, I don’t know what it is. Thanks to Jason KE4NYV, my APRS rig is set up!
For stupid cars, what a good commercial.
Saturday, 4-19-03 at 13:57
Thus begins the two hell weeks of this week and next week. The hours will be long, the sleep will be short and the frustrations will be plenty. WOOHOO!
I have made my final MotorCity Online post as the game will be discontinued in August. Nobody is playing it- it’s like a sinking ship, so I cancelled my account as well. RIP- MotorCity Online!
My trip to Bisset Park a week ago as told by my GPS.
Wednesday, 4-16-03 at 17:50
Jason Rausch KE4NYV is coming to help me get my packet/APRS up and running soon. Oh man, fun times!
This semester is already winding to a close, so time to evaluate: was this year fun? Discus on the message board! I think it was, it went by so fast, and having my “own” place was definitely cool. I met lots of new people this school year, changed majors, etc, so I can’t complain too much.
Monday, 4-14-03 at 20:51
I forgot to post yesterday, so now I will post; Yesterday was Brad’s birthday. It appears Mr. Canada himself turned 22, so I made a picture. It might be too mean to post, so we’ll vote on the message board!
Mercado and I went fishing this weekend. We didn’t catch anything at the New River or the duck pond. Have to try again, I suppose. We used some lures and crawdads as bait. Apparently, crawdads come out at night, since none were under rocks and all were out in the open. I saw the biggest one ever, I think he is the king.
Deforms test tomorrow. Boo that.
Thursday, 4-10-03 at 18:32
Deleted.
Thursday, 4-10-03 at 14:44
An interview I conducted with VT Parking Services
Master of the Universe: So you are from parking services?
Parking Services: Yes.
MOU: Explain what you do there.
PS: I enforce the parking rules on campus.
MOU: The rules you created?
PS: Yes.
MOU: You call yourself ‘services’. What service do you provide?
PS: We sell parking permits to people so they can avoid getting tickets. We write tickets too.
MOU: So, basically you are into extortion.
PS: Well, um, err, that’s not-
MOU: You say “buy my services or else you’ll pay for it”, I think the mob uses that line too.
PS: Well, yes, I guess that’s true.
MOU: So what do you do in your spare time?
PS: I like to count things; Sometimes I bust open a bag of rice and count the grains of rice.
MOU: That’s worthless. Anything else?
PS: Well, I also enjoy molesting puppies and watch the Bachelor.
MOU: That figures. So what do you plan to do with your life?
PS: I hope to some day move into an office where I can think up new ways to screw over students.
MOU: Have you considered therapy? Like drinking antifreeze?
PS: What does that mean-?
At this point, I body slam him into a bathtub full of scorpions that just happened to be there. Remember kids, it’s bad to hate, unless it’s a extortion ring that is run with your tuition dollars. Pay in pennies.
Wednesday, 4-9-03 at 6:43
I went to church on Saturday and then to some park in Radford on the river and took a few pictures: Me I sent that one to my grandparents and some ducks.
Kroger is selling ice cream at 99 cents a half gallon. BOOYA!
My radio is ordered- three to four days from tonight I will have an Alinco DR-135TP 2M FM transceiver with APRS. This rules oh so much.
Friday, 4-4-03 at 13:07
Looks like I’m gonna volunteer at the National Weather Service for a bit this summer- should prove to be a good time!!!
I added a few physical chemistry pages- I mostly use these pages to try to help me study, and I just had a test yesterday.
Tuesday, 4-1-03 at 3:47
Updated ham logs!!! Two new countries this weekend: French Guiana and Venezuela.
Vote for Laura, Erica’s cute sister to appear in Maxim. She’s the 3rd row up from the bottom, or the hottest one on the page.
Sunday, 3-30-03 at 19:49
Upon noticing my hits drop by well over half, I decided to get back on IM- I forgot most people access my page by clicking on the link in my profile.
We got like 3-4″ of snow today, and I have pictures up under weather, as well as the radar image from the time of the snow. I left Kroger this morning at 8:30 and took a few pictures and short video clips while driving home. How slippery were the roads? Here is leaving the parking lot. Sorry to disappoint you, I didn’t hit anything, but I did slip enough to knock the tripod over.
Saturday, 3-29-03 at 14:44
Until further notice, I will not be using any instant messenger service. If you want to get a hold of me, you know where I’ll be. It has come to my attention that a) I waste too much time on it and b) I unintentionally annoy people with it, so I signed off and don’t feel like signing back on. I ran an IM tracker to see who even bothered to click on my profile link, and basically the same four or so names appear- and I can contact them by other means anyway.
I didn’t go to church today- I drove around for a while trying to find the Radford one, since there was nobody at the Christiansburg one, so I just gave up and went home. Guess God didn’t want me to go after all, haha.
Saturday, 3-29-03 at 4:38
Long time, no post once again.
I did miserable (68%) on my meteorology test. I musta switched the inbound/outbound directions on one type of graph- it’s the only way I could have scored so low.
With the help of Chris Brenton, I got my Nova to the point where it won’t clunk out on corners. I was getting water in the air intake, and once I moved the airhose, it worked beautifully.
I’m gonna go to church today.
Monday, 3-24-03 at 7:09
I rode around this morning and got some pictures of the sunrise: they are listed under my weather page (then sunrise/sunset).
Sunday, 3-23-03 at 20:03
I finished my metallurgy report today, and after we turn them in, and get them back, I’ll have a page on precipitation hardening.
I updated a few things at K4NRW, such as put the VA QSO Party stuff up. Check out the pics of Rob climbing the tower!
MotorCity Online goes belly up at the end of August. I think I’ll finish out the rest of this month (since I already paid) and then give it up. I went on last night and there were only four people instead of the normal 200-300. All in all, I’m sad that the game is going, but at the same time, it’s one less expense.
Friday, 3-21-03 at 18:20
Updates: I got an email from Merv & Barb. Not 100% sure who they are, other than fans of the page, but they sent pictures of their parakeet and their turtles (which are on the turtle page). Thanks guys! I also added a page about the formation of martensite in steel.
Work is going well- I like this whole get paid weekly thing. I have to make sure my taxes are taken out correctly after the next paycheck, but it’s all good.
Thursday, 3-20-03 at 20:28
My logs are updated from the VA QSO party. I will have more stuff up sometime soon- pictures, including Rob climbing a tower, etc. I have a few other updates I’d like to get up as well.
Rough draft of the research paper is done- 15 pages in all. There will be many more in a final draft I believe.
In case you didn’t know, we are at war. Good. Not that I like war, but if Iraq has weapons, I see no reason to go disarm them. I think our generation wants a civil rights movement and a Vietnam to protest. I won’t participate in a walkout or anything else either.
Tuesday, 3-18-03 at 20:28
Long time, no post once again. Been pretty busy.
The Virginia QSO party went well! We went down to Radford to Rob’s house and worked quite a few stations. I personally talked to Haiti, and Australia, which were new ones for me, and I also worked Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico, which are always a pleasure.
Kroger night stocking isn’t too bad. This post will be cut short cause I gotta work though. I’m on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights from 9pm-5:30am, and Saturday nights from midnight to 8:30 Sunday morning.
I have a new bank, a new job, a new plan. BOOYA!
Friday, 3-14-03 at 0:40
I talked to Jamaica for the first time from my car in the commuter lot. Yay for radio!!! The Virginia QSO (contact) Party is this weekend, so I’ll be doing that when I’m not working. Busy busy!
I have training at 7 am tomorrow- I already did most of the training on Monday, but there’s more! I get to learn to use some power industrial trucks or something. Should be fun.
Did a little shopping- stocked up on meat pies: I bought 20. At 20 cents each, how can you go wrong. It’s meat, it’s vegetables, and it’s good.
Wednesday, 3-12-03 at 6:30
Training at Kroger begins at 8am. WOOOOHOO! Work! Looks like I’ll pull around 32 hours a week working there.
I got two tests back yesterday: my Physical Chemistry Retake was an 80%. I made a few notation errors, missed the given on one problem and completely botched another, but that 80% is a whole lot better than the 23% I had before. Physical Metallurgy was a 46/105, which despite the way that looks, was good for a C. The test was set up funny, so the average was like a 61 and anything below a 61 was a C, 61-70 was a B, and above 70 was an A. I thought I did better, but a C is a C.
Oh man, 72 days left.
Monday, 3-10-03 at 13:23
Apparently the doctor has called several times and never got through- he did this morning with the bloodwork I had done like a month and a half ago. Upping the thyroid dosage once again…
I got done my electronics prelab with relative ease, once I realized I had set V = I/R instead of V = IR in one step. Stupid mistake, but now I have a beautiful emitter follower.
I added a countdown to the trip on the main page- scroll down and see. Oh man, I can’t wait for this trip…
Saturday, 3-8-03 at 14:06
The turtles needed some new dirt, so I did that today. Check out the pictures I added in the turtles page. The dirt here is red clay, which I think they will like better- they like mud more than dirt, so I’m hoping that the clay will retain moisture a little better then the dirt I used before.
The weather here has been beautiful the last few days! It’s like 64ºF outside and a little breeze. Good Frisbee weather!
The interview at Kroger went well, and I have the job as soon as my drug test comes back. Booya!
I put up a strengthening mechanisms link in Physical Metallurgy. This is pretty cool cause I can study and expand my stupid webpage at the same time.
Thursday, 3-6-03 at 20:57
Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!!!!!!!
So temp work is almost over at the bookstore, and I have an interview tomorrow at Kroger. Yay for night stocking!!!
I added a vacancies link to the physical metallurgy page. Yippiee for school work and studying!
Sunday, 3-2-03 at 4:23
Ugh, I’m pulling an all-nighter since I slept in yesterday and have to be at work at 7:30 today. hehehe good old work.
I have been playing with my police scanner software, and I programmed in ALL storm spotter frequencies for the following states: TX, OK, KS, NB, MO, AR, IA, IL, LA, TN, NM, AB, KY, IN, OH, MS, CO, SD, ND, and MN. All in all, it was 795 frequencies, which I saved to a file. Now, when I want leave for the midwest, I connect the scanner and click the mouse and I have all the Skywarn frequencies that could possibly be used on the trip!!
Two new additions: a scatterbrained definition of ham radio under the ham radio page and an annealing page under metallurgy lab (materials science). The annealing page has some pretty cool pictures, if you are interested.
Hooray for free tire-irons. I found a tire iron today that had been sitting in the hall for hours. If anyone dropped their tire iron, let me know. It hasn’t been used, I don’t think.
Saturday, 3-1-03 at 15:17
Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted last!!!
We are on spring break started yesterday, and I’ll remain in Blacksburg, since this is where I have plenty of work. Speaking of which, I’ve spent quite a bit of time at all the bookstores doing data entry. I think I did well over 25 hours this week, and I did about the same last week, so it’s not too bad. I’ve met my goal for the storm chasing trip, and now everything I earn is spending money/upgrading equipment for the trip. I’d really like to get a new video camera battery and a wide angle lens for my digital camera. Maybe even an APRS rig/kit, so that you could track me online- the radio sends the GPS coordinates automatically to a station that records the position and then you can check it on a website!
Today marks the 11 year anniversary of me getting my first amateur radio license. Go me!
I’d like to call your attention to a worthless site: Goods For Guns. The liberal media thinks thugs are turning in their guns (which will be melted down) for coupons for food and gas and other goods. They also say that poor people are turning in their guns and getting much needed food. So, let’s recap. A poor person decides he or she does not want a gun. He or she can a) turn it in to these idiots for a $50 coupon, or b) sell it to a store for several hundred dollars, where it will most likely fall into the hands of a legal, responsible owner. Furthermore, the gun goes through background checks at either place, so if you turn it into the turn-in, and you have used it in a crime, you’ll be sorry, so it’s not even getting the “guns off the streets.” Also, these guns that are melted down are turned into ‘artwork.’ One piece of ‘artwork’ is a bunch of inoperable guns (yeah, I already thought if they were operable, I’d chisel a few out) in a totem pole. This leads me to believe that The Gun Totem and Feminists should get together and we’ll let the commies fight each other.
Saturday, 2-22-03 at 15:03
I added a ‘Radar 2003’ page and corrected a few mistakes in my radar galleries, and mobile radio log. Go me!
I got in quite a bit of time at work this week, and I have some hours tonight and tomorrow as well. Yay for work and money. I might not be able to go on the trip this year, not sure yet… but if I don’t, my car will be that much more outfitted for a future trip.
In other news, DC got NUKED!
Wednesday, 2-19-03 at 01:12
New snow pictures added, including several of the ice storm we just had.
I think I am going to do everything I can to go storm chasing in May with the group. Whether or not I go, I will definitely go next spring, and if I don’t get to go this year, that means there will be that much more money to outfit my car for next year’s trip. The pictures of the snow in the mountains above were taken on I-81, while moving around 70mph, using a tripod/mount that was stable enough to even dampen out the vibrations of the car.
Tuesday, 2-18-03 at 19:48
Found my old ID. After just paying for a new one. God has a ‘sense of humor.’
I went to a career fair today. I want those few hours back, but that time is gone. It’s just gone.
Back to Physical Chemistry corrections for me. Apparently, we all failed the test, so I’ll get all the points I can on the homework.
Saturday, 2-15-03 at 01:11
I have some extended hours at work now; I work Sundays and Wednesdays. Yippie for work. Speaking of work, today was payday, time to do a little paycheck math.
$5.73/hr * 11.460 hr = $65.66 Base Pay
-5.02 = $60.64 Taxes.
-2.00 = $58.64 Direct deposit paperwork hasn’t gone through (filed weeks ago), so check must be cashed with $2 fee. Back to VT.
-15.00 = $43.64 Lost ID replacement fee. Back to VT.
-30.00 = $13.64 Parking Ticket, since there were no parking spots left. Back to VT.
-12.00 = $1.64 Bloodwork fee for the on-campus doctor I visited. I still have not received the test results.
That’s right folks, after two weeks of work, I have a whopping $1.64 left after VT mugged me. Go Hokies.
Also, if you ever wondered what metal looks like up close, go to my materials science page/physical metallurgy lab/metallography to see some pictures taken at 500x.
Friday, 2-14-03 at 00:36
Hooray for flag day! First Annual Cupid Slaughter!
Every once in a while, the mob is called in to point out the obvious: Mob Tip #16.
Thursday, 2-13-03 at 19:50
Updates: Mobile Log, 10-X Log, and several other ham logs. It’s about time I put my recent contacts in there.
I wonder how I did in my physical chemistry test today…
I’m doing my research paper on lead solder versus lead-free solder. I’ve found plenty of references and this thing might just write itself.
Wednesday, 2-12-03 at 00:45
James (my younger brother) has spent the week so far down here, and it’s been fun!
This might be the happiest day of my life. “Dude, you’re going to jail!”.
Wow. Busy time. But I’ve got a few good things going over the next few weeks…
If you have any spare change, bills, or gold bullion, please donate to the ‘Seth wants to go storm chasing fund.’
Thursday, 2-6-03 at 19:40
It’s time to post again! I forgot to mention that Sunday I spent all day working on my car. It was beautiful weather, and I got the PCV valve changed, worked on the brakes (to no avail), replaced the fuel filter, changed spark plugs, cleaned the carb and the air filter and re-routed my antenna cables. Not too shabby for a day.
Tuesday, 2-4-03 at 7:55
If you’re a cordless phone, and you don’t work right, don’t come down Green St.
I added two turtle pictures (a good one of Rocky swimming), a picture of my redtail shark, and several pictures of the January 30 snowfall. I’ll have more updates as I get time, including a metallography page.
Speaking of pictures, here’s a good site for weather pictures in the DC area.
Saturday, 2-1-03 at 20:39
The space shuttle Columbia broke apart at a height of 200,000 ft today over Texas, as you all know. All seven crew members are presumed dead. This is a sad day for science, space exploration, and mostly for the families of those killed. Most people don’t know what they were doing in space, but they will never be forgotten.
Saturday, 2-1-03 at 9:46
Julia is down this weekend! Well, at least for Friday and part of today. We had a good time!
The 10-X contest is this weekend. So far, I’ve only made four contacts. If I make 25 from my car, I’ll be able to get the ‘Mobile QSO Certificate’ which would be cool. 21 more to go… The four I made were at weird hours, so I’m hoping that the middle of the day will be good and active.
It’s been busy this week. Hopefully, next week I will have a cool metallography page. We take pictures this week of our samples that we made in physical metallurgy lab.
Tuesday, 1-28-03 at 7:58
Finally, my fish tank is ungreen. I updated the current fish page, since I can now see my fish. Sometime, I’ll go get a few more.
Other updates: I started working on a car repairs page so a few of those will be listed under the cars page. These are just the way I do things.
Metallurgy lab was pretty cool. We polished our samples with several grades of polish, the used acid to etch away some grain boundaries. Then we looked at the structure under a microscope. I’ll have pictures sometime on my webpage.
Monday, 1-27-03 at 9:10
No luck getting an extension on the bookstore job. Oh well, I’ll have to come up with something else I guess. I applied at Walmart and will call them in a few days. I have an application ready to go for Montgomery County Hospital as well.
I’ve been pretty responsibility free for a few days, so I moved the Aquarium Fish and Turtles to a new server! I have some other updates I’m almost ready to put up as well.
I spent a good portion of yesterday hanging out with Carly, Donnie, Phyllis, Eric, and Jesse. The Superbowl pretty much sucked. It was a bad game and only had a few good commercials, like where that guy kept tackling people. ‘Game time is pain time!’
Friday, 1-24-03 at 20:26
Whew! Busy week!!! I finished all of the homework in time and now do not have anything due until Tuesday, and do not work again until Wednesday! Free weekend! Expect some updates…
Mob Tip #15 A correction to Mob Tip #14.
Tuesday, 1-21-03 at 18:53
I updated my MotorCity Online page. Not that any of my audience actually goes to that page… but some day MCO will be cool and everyone will go there.
I will have more updates soon, but for now I will leave you with this:
Mob Tip #14.
Sunday, 1-19-03 at 23:45
Today’s productivity list: a few hours of work, physical chemistry hw, part of my electronics lab hw, my radio log updates both local to my computer and online. Not too shabby for a day.
The bookstore isn’t too bad. I’ve emailed my boss about going part time after the temp period expires. It’s pretty slow these days, not like a week ago. All said and done, college students are way more patient than other groups of people, leading me to believe that old people are whiners haha.
Friday, 1-17-03 at 23:57
It is supposed to reach between -5 degrees and -15 degrees windchill tonight. Stay warm, Blacksburg!
Thursday, 1-16-03 at 21:11
Oh man, I’m totally in that meteorology class. This is gonna rule so much. I got an 8 of 10 on the first quiz already. It’s a four credit course, so a decent grade will help my GPA so much!
For those of you who care, the BT radios operate on 453.625Mhz. 159.000 is the VA State Police. With the snow we got today, the scanner has been quite active…
Thursday, 1-16-03 at 07:44
Yesterday, I was in Shultz and ran across a flyer for a class called “Applied Meteorology” and it talked about storm chasing in the midwest- an optional trip at the end of the semester. Wow, sounds familiar to what I want to do…. so I dropped Polymer Engineering and added it! I don’t know much about the course yet, it says it’s an online course CEE 2984, and that’s all I know about it.
Tuesday, 1-14-03 at 18:31
Major event! My brother, James, was in a bad car accident! He’s ok… but his car and another one was totaled. Here are some pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Amy came down for a few days and it’s been fun! I introduced her to Rejected, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Rally Racing!
MSE rules.
Saturday, 1-11-03 at 11:14
Don’t miss the nuked Iowa and Nebraska link below, I forgot to post last night, so there are two posts here and one is just that link.
I did some testing first thing this morning and yes, the antenna is bad. I strung it between two trees outside and got the same SWR.
Good songs of the week: Rage Against The Machine – Freedom, Grateful Dead – Touch of Grey, The Who – Eminence Front, and since everyone else posts song lyrics…
The Eagles – Take It Easy
Well, I’m a runnin’ down the road, tryin’ to loosen my load,
I’ve got seven women on my mind:
four that wanna own me, two that wanna stone me,
one says she’s a friend of mine.
Take it easy, take it easy,
don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.
Lighten up while you still can, don’t even try to understand,
just find a place to make your stand and take it easy.
Well, I’m a standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see:
it’s a girl, my Lord, in a flat bed Ford
slowin’ down to take a look at me.
Come on, baby, don’t say maybe.
I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me.
We may lose and we may win though we will never be here again.
So open up, I’m climbin’ in, so take it easy.
Well, I’m a runnin’ down the road, tryin’ to loosen my load,
got a world of trouble on my mind.
Lookin’ for a lover who won’t blow my cover,
she’s so hard to find.
Take it easy, take it easy,
don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.
Come on, baby, don’t say maybe.
I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me.
Oh, we got it easy,
we oughta take it easy.
Friday, 1-10-03 at 23:08
Apparently, Nebraska and Iowa got nuked!
Friday, 1-10-03 at 14:55
I started work yesterday! It’s not too bad. The register can be stressful as always, but it’s not too bad, college students are the most patient group of people I think. I met some cool people too, so it’s all good.
I updated my Motor City Online page. I got a truck for it and it’s the definition of awesome.
I have brought back a homebrew 28MHz dipole. I keep trying to string the thing up indoors and my SWR won’t drop below about 1:2.6. It was 1:1.9 and when I transmitted, the mouse pointers on my computers would disappear and Brad’s light would turn on or off. While this is somewhat cool, it is undesirable. I measured the impedance between the center conductor and the shield and it was high Z as to be expected. Also, it appears to be low impedance from coax to element. The ONLY thing I can think is that this place might have concrete floors or some array of metal rods between levels that are being coupled to the antenna. Any other ideas?
Wednesday, 1-8-03 at 22:54
Back in the ‘burg yesterday. My fish and turtles survived just fine without me thanks to Brad and Eric M.
I have uploaded some pictures from home. Be sure to check out the weather page: snow pics and sunset in the mountains are new. They turned out really well for the most part.
Thursday, 1-2-03 at 02:21
Deleted.
Monday, 12-30-02 at 21:34
First off, Congratulations to Kelly and Josh! They got married on Saturday! I wish you well!
Nerds are the best candy ever. Except on the moon. On the moon, nerds get their pants pulled down and are spanked with moon rocks!
Good songs: Incubus – Drive and Echo. And The Who.
Speaking of music, Strummer, from the Clash passed away a few days ago. So much of the summer after my senior year was listening to the 2 CD set of the Clash’s greatest hits. He was 50 and had a heart attack walking his dog. The music world won’t ever be the same.
Wednesday, 12-25-02 at 01:12
Merry Christmas all!
Monday, 12-23-02 at 11:14
I have started the ‘spring 2003’ news and anything before today has been archived below. I know it’s not really spring of 2003 yet, but hey, it’s close.
I have my grades from last semester: I didn’t do as good as I would have hoped in some classes, but for the first time, ever, I passed a 3 credit electrical engineering class on the first try. In fact, I passed two: Electronics II and Electronics Packaging I.
Next semester’s schedule is set I believe. I will be in Fundamentals of Materials Science, Kinetic Processes, Physical Metallurgy, Physical Metallurgy Lab, Polymer Engineering, Deformable Bodies, and Electronics II Lab. I even have my exam schedule, so I have some tentative plans for my midwest trip!
I’m using the computer I used my junior and senior year of high school. I’m not sure of the processor speed, but it’s a pentium, with 64MB RAM, Windows 98, Homesite 4, and a version of AIM so old that I actually had to go to the website to update it, because it didn’t have the annoying “update” feature that all the latest versions have.
So far, this has been a good trip. I’ve got my CD changer working on a decent set of speakers (which I’ll probably take back for our living room), my computer is up, I’m working on getting the filter to this 5 gallon tank running, going to Courtney’s then to work at Horne’s at 2, blasting Filter and Megadeth… I feel like I’m back in high school!! It’s crazy!!
An Engineer in the World 