Sunday, January 8, 2012
HERE WE GO!
I am sitting in my living room in Spokane, wearing my Steelers jersey... rooting on the black and gold. Luv dem Stillers.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Happy New Year!
First post of 2012! Yay!
I just finished up a game of Carcassone with my mother... she won with a 11 city, fully occupied (yep... that is right, all 7 dudes) pasture. It was a good game.
This evening I made my Orange Chicken for my parents! As before, it was a big hit. I am surprising myself with Asian cooking, no only do I not know what I am doing but as for 2 years ago I would not even eat it. Look at me all grown up. Now for the record: The only food that I am 'eh' about is fish. I will eat it. But I am not a huge fan of it. Certainly not for how expensive some of it is. Everything else, I enjoy! Contrary to popular belief, I really do love deserts, and pizza, and Pamelas (Gwyn and Skanda, I am looking at you...). So if anyone wants to make a food suggestion for me to make or try let me know!
In other news, I received the go-ahead from the security team at MIT:LL. It is official, I am not a traitor, and I am not going to become one. Thank you to all of my references who vouched for me. Now I can start the apartment looking search! I am excited, now with the experience of moving 3 times on my own, I know what to look for, and I am stoked.
My break so far has been really relaxing. So much so that I am not wanted to bore you all with the mentality of it. Today I sewed a patch on my bag, took down Christmas lights, watched Joyeux Noel (great movie!) and made dinner. Yesterday my mom and I went fabric shopping for 6 hours. (more on that later...) I have spent a lot of time with family, a lot of time eating (my waistline is going to like living on my own again), and a lot of time playing with Murphy. It is all I can ask for.
Now for some sleep... you know, because I need to be up an at-em tomorrow... whenever I decide to wake up.
I just finished up a game of Carcassone with my mother... she won with a 11 city, fully occupied (yep... that is right, all 7 dudes) pasture. It was a good game.
This evening I made my Orange Chicken for my parents! As before, it was a big hit. I am surprising myself with Asian cooking, no only do I not know what I am doing but as for 2 years ago I would not even eat it. Look at me all grown up. Now for the record: The only food that I am 'eh' about is fish. I will eat it. But I am not a huge fan of it. Certainly not for how expensive some of it is. Everything else, I enjoy! Contrary to popular belief, I really do love deserts, and pizza, and Pamelas (Gwyn and Skanda, I am looking at you...). So if anyone wants to make a food suggestion for me to make or try let me know!
In other news, I received the go-ahead from the security team at MIT:LL. It is official, I am not a traitor, and I am not going to become one. Thank you to all of my references who vouched for me. Now I can start the apartment looking search! I am excited, now with the experience of moving 3 times on my own, I know what to look for, and I am stoked.
My break so far has been really relaxing. So much so that I am not wanted to bore you all with the mentality of it. Today I sewed a patch on my bag, took down Christmas lights, watched Joyeux Noel (great movie!) and made dinner. Yesterday my mom and I went fabric shopping for 6 hours. (more on that later...) I have spent a lot of time with family, a lot of time eating (my waistline is going to like living on my own again), and a lot of time playing with Murphy. It is all I can ask for.
Now for some sleep... you know, because I need to be up an at-em tomorrow... whenever I decide to wake up.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tis the Season :)
I love holidays. I love festivals. I love merry making. I love eating. I love spending time with my family. As such I love 'The Holidays.' Also for the record: I love Jesus. Lest we forget.
With all of this, I have been in full relaxation mode. I have spent a lot of time just simply relaxing. There have been some productive things: The Eastern Washington lecture tour has been put on hold until after New Years. I have been talking with my Dad's Lego league class, Caleb's Math/Science class and all of Chelsea's classes. By all of them, I mean I spent a whole day at CV talking about robots and math. It was great! I have put up my nutcrackers (I might post pictures if you all want them...). I have watched 2 seasons of Dexter (my holiday show of choice. I love it! it is a great show). I got to see Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish (so much Skanking! And I got to go with Danny, the guy who introduced me to SM). And lots and lots of hanging out with family and friends.
It has been wonderful! But sadly there has been a lack of computer use, and as such a lack of writing here. I know you all miss me... but go do something productive. Like spreading joy!
With all of this, I have been in full relaxation mode. I have spent a lot of time just simply relaxing. There have been some productive things: The Eastern Washington lecture tour has been put on hold until after New Years. I have been talking with my Dad's Lego league class, Caleb's Math/Science class and all of Chelsea's classes. By all of them, I mean I spent a whole day at CV talking about robots and math. It was great! I have put up my nutcrackers (I might post pictures if you all want them...). I have watched 2 seasons of Dexter (my holiday show of choice. I love it! it is a great show). I got to see Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish (so much Skanking! And I got to go with Danny, the guy who introduced me to SM). And lots and lots of hanging out with family and friends.
It has been wonderful! But sadly there has been a lack of computer use, and as such a lack of writing here. I know you all miss me... but go do something productive. Like spreading joy!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Last Test
So I just did a quick calculation about my test this morning. I am sitting at the line between and A and B in my MEMS class (89.05%). If I do spectacular on this test (>94 points) Ill bump up to an A. If I get anywhere between 40 and 93 points Ill get a B. As I don't know as much as I should about accelerometers and effective mass, this kills my motivation to study. Dang.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Of future things to come...
To dispel any rumors: no, the Stained Tartan is not going anywhere! It is just going to change a little bit! I am most likely going to take a break for the next little bit, most likely only updating the recipe page as I experiment at home.
I am going to have to change the description text up there though...
As for right now, today is my last day of my masters program. I remember my last day as an undergrad... that was a fun day. Today is going to be fun too! Tonight, after Vespers, there is going to be a good bye party in my honor at the Rock Room. This would be one of my favorite places in Pittsburgh, and home of the $0.15 pierogie night. I am going to be sure to bring my camera to take pictures of me with all of my friends!
I am going to have to change the description text up there though...
As for right now, today is my last day of my masters program. I remember my last day as an undergrad... that was a fun day. Today is going to be fun too! Tonight, after Vespers, there is going to be a good bye party in my honor at the Rock Room. This would be one of my favorite places in Pittsburgh, and home of the $0.15 pierogie night. I am going to be sure to bring my camera to take pictures of me with all of my friends!
My last few days in Pittsburgh
I should say first that I will be back in January or February, so it is not like I will never come back... but I have been in count down mode for a while now. Thursday is the day! I am excited to come home, but I am also sad to leave this place.
Most of my stuff is already at Gwyn's house, her mother has graciously allowed me to leave it in their guest bedroom. The past few days have been spent packing and visiting my last few favorite places. This morning I am enjoying Pamela's one more time with Skanda.
This past weekend was great! I was part of the Pittsburgh First Lego League as a software judge. If you do not know what the First organization is, you should. It is amazing. I really do wish that it was around when I was going through school, it would have been great! The idea is to give children the ability to explore robotics and engineering on their own level. There are three competitions aimed at elementary, middle and high school aged levels. The elementary kids get to use the Lego NXT system to compete in a series of objectives. It is down right impressive. Ill post more about this later when I get the pictures uploaded.
After I got home from that, Skanda and Gwyn helped me transport my dresser to a very nice lady that I connected with on Craigslist. There was some confusion on my dresser situation, and I think I have a picture:
That is my dresser. It served me well. But it is larger that I can fit in my car, so it needed to be gotten rid of. And it want not too expensive when I got it, and I sold it for 50% of what I paid for it. I was happy with the whole system, and am always happy (well kind of... Larry lame explanation of his house lead to me living 45 mins away from school for a year) with c-list.
After that Gwyn and I had a date night! It was awesome! It was our last date/her birthday/Christmas gift date! We headed off to Spoon, a fancy restaurant that only uses locally sourced food. As expected it was amazing. Afterwards we took an impromptu Christmas light driving tour of Pittsburgh. We started driving around in my car, but then quickly decided to upgrade. We stopped by the Rohrer residence to grab blankets, coats, hats and gloves and jumped in the batmobile for a brisk (yet still comfortable) open air light right. It was so much fun!
Well I need to go take a shower so we can make it to Pamela's before it is no longer breakfast time, but lunch time...
Most of my stuff is already at Gwyn's house, her mother has graciously allowed me to leave it in their guest bedroom. The past few days have been spent packing and visiting my last few favorite places. This morning I am enjoying Pamela's one more time with Skanda.
This past weekend was great! I was part of the Pittsburgh First Lego League as a software judge. If you do not know what the First organization is, you should. It is amazing. I really do wish that it was around when I was going through school, it would have been great! The idea is to give children the ability to explore robotics and engineering on their own level. There are three competitions aimed at elementary, middle and high school aged levels. The elementary kids get to use the Lego NXT system to compete in a series of objectives. It is down right impressive. Ill post more about this later when I get the pictures uploaded.
After I got home from that, Skanda and Gwyn helped me transport my dresser to a very nice lady that I connected with on Craigslist. There was some confusion on my dresser situation, and I think I have a picture:
That is my dresser. It served me well. But it is larger that I can fit in my car, so it needed to be gotten rid of. And it want not too expensive when I got it, and I sold it for 50% of what I paid for it. I was happy with the whole system, and am always happy (well kind of... Larry lame explanation of his house lead to me living 45 mins away from school for a year) with c-list.
After that Gwyn and I had a date night! It was awesome! It was our last date/her birthday/Christmas gift date! We headed off to Spoon, a fancy restaurant that only uses locally sourced food. As expected it was amazing. Afterwards we took an impromptu Christmas light driving tour of Pittsburgh. We started driving around in my car, but then quickly decided to upgrade. We stopped by the Rohrer residence to grab blankets, coats, hats and gloves and jumped in the batmobile for a brisk (yet still comfortable) open air light right. It was so much fun!
Well I need to go take a shower so we can make it to Pamela's before it is no longer breakfast time, but lunch time...
Thursday, December 1, 2011
The Dunedain have fought their last battle...
My Robot class is done. Today was the final competition. I would like to say that we killed it, but we did not... our robot(s) decided to puke and decided not to work. Oh well. We got near perfect score for the entire class, but this final competition proved to break our localization in the maze. We just kept running in to walls.
Because of this being over, I am practically done with school. I have one test, next Wednesday (ill have to study on Monday and Tuesday) but it should be ok.
So on to bigger and better things. I started earnestly packing this evening. For the record: I have 79 t shirts here in Pittsburgh. I was blown away by the giant pile on my bed as I was pulling out all of them. I know my mother is going to be rolling her eyes at this, but it goes to show that I really do enjoy T-Shirts. It is true. I love them. They are just so simple, and diverse... they complete my style. And now a side note: If you are someone who has given me a shirt, I try really hard to wear my shirt around you to show my appreciation; however, this winter break I am going to have to limit the number of shirts I bring back with me... this means that I cannot bring them all with me, and this means that you should not feel bad if you don't see me wear a shirt you gave me. I just cant help it.
For those keeping score at home: My father is by far my favorite shirt giver. He finds the best ones. At the moment I am wearing one he gave me, and it is one of my top 5 favorites. It is a black (imaging that...) shirt with a stylized Darth Vader with the caption N00B I am your Father. It was my introduction in to the J!NX counter-culture, a relationship that had been a good one.
I also want to be clear that just because I have a lot does not mean that I am not excited for the next new print or design. I love getting and wearing new shirts! I just need to find time for all of my old ones.
I know I am jumping around a lot -this may be because it is almost 2 and I am still up- but this evening I got to enjoy a lovely dinner and game with Ryan, Debbie and Gwyn. Debbie made us wonderful Waffles and we dived in to 'Shadows over Camelot.' This is a great game! It is cooperative, so that either everyone wins or everyone loses! So much fun! You assume the role of a knight of the round table, and the knights have to complete quests and fend off their foes to secure Camelot. The cooperation adds for a much different style of play, a lot of strategy and team work. It is great! I am so excited about this that I am throwing it out there that my holiday budget is shot... but if someone else (especially in my immediate family) wanted to fund a great group game for this holiday season you should click on that link above! (Dad! There is no robber, there is no blocked pastures... there are no coffee beans... No one else will pick on you! You would love it!) Ok, enough of that. If anyone gets a chance to play it, don't back down.
Because of this being over, I am practically done with school. I have one test, next Wednesday (ill have to study on Monday and Tuesday) but it should be ok.
So on to bigger and better things. I started earnestly packing this evening. For the record: I have 79 t shirts here in Pittsburgh. I was blown away by the giant pile on my bed as I was pulling out all of them. I know my mother is going to be rolling her eyes at this, but it goes to show that I really do enjoy T-Shirts. It is true. I love them. They are just so simple, and diverse... they complete my style. And now a side note: If you are someone who has given me a shirt, I try really hard to wear my shirt around you to show my appreciation; however, this winter break I am going to have to limit the number of shirts I bring back with me... this means that I cannot bring them all with me, and this means that you should not feel bad if you don't see me wear a shirt you gave me. I just cant help it.
For those keeping score at home: My father is by far my favorite shirt giver. He finds the best ones. At the moment I am wearing one he gave me, and it is one of my top 5 favorites. It is a black (imaging that...) shirt with a stylized Darth Vader with the caption N00B I am your Father. It was my introduction in to the J!NX counter-culture, a relationship that had been a good one.
I also want to be clear that just because I have a lot does not mean that I am not excited for the next new print or design. I love getting and wearing new shirts! I just need to find time for all of my old ones.
I know I am jumping around a lot -this may be because it is almost 2 and I am still up- but this evening I got to enjoy a lovely dinner and game with Ryan, Debbie and Gwyn. Debbie made us wonderful Waffles and we dived in to 'Shadows over Camelot.' This is a great game! It is cooperative, so that either everyone wins or everyone loses! So much fun! You assume the role of a knight of the round table, and the knights have to complete quests and fend off their foes to secure Camelot. The cooperation adds for a much different style of play, a lot of strategy and team work. It is great! I am so excited about this that I am throwing it out there that my holiday budget is shot... but if someone else (especially in my immediate family) wanted to fund a great group game for this holiday season you should click on that link above! (Dad! There is no robber, there is no blocked pastures... there are no coffee beans... No one else will pick on you! You would love it!) Ok, enough of that. If anyone gets a chance to play it, don't back down.
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