Saying goodbye

Last weekend, my hamster Herbie died.

He was probably the cutest hamster to ever have lived. He was really good natured too - a little fidgety when being held but never bit anyone or peed on them. Toward the end of his life, he had gained a lot of weight and was having respiratory problems. I knew it was the beginning of the end when he stopped sleeping in the top section of his cage and moved down to the bottom. I will miss him, but I am glad he is no longer in pain. Stephen and I went out on the balcony and he played taps while I burned a candle.

The next morning, I sold the black VW. Forgive me, but I deleted all the pictures I have of it so as to begin the process of removing it from my memory. This was not a bittersweet parting. I am elated to finally be rid of it. All I have to do now is clean up the orange one a little bit and fix a couple little problems and list it. I'm not so eager to sell this one because it's not nearly as much of a pain in the neck. I can take my time finding the right buyer and the right price.

Apparently, regularity is not my middle name

Not doing so well on the old blogging bit am I? The last few posts (including this one) have been over a month apart. It's not that nothing is going on, it's just that it's escaped my mind and I have been quite busy.

Although I generally don't do so, I actually made a couple New Year's resolutions this year. I intentionally left them vague so as not to set myself up for failure. Firstly, I want to read the Bible more. One good way to get to know God is to read his word. Another is to eat more healthy food. More in this case modifies food, rather than healthy. Most of what I eat is very healthy. I simply am not eating enough to properly nourish and build up my body. Finally, I want to exercise on a more regular basis. I think this will help my appetite and help me gain weight.

School started again a couple weeks ago. I am taking two classes this semester. EE564 (Communication Theory) is with the same professor I had last semester and it's about as much fun as being clubbed by a caveman (no offense intended to cavemen who may read my blog). I'm not terribly happy with his teaching style. The notes and homework don't seem to jive and he doesn't reference the text during lecture at all. EE568 (Error-Correcting Codes) is pretty interesting so far and seems to be straightforward. If this semester ends up going well, I will take the summer off and finish in the fall with two classes.

I am still trying to sell the black Bug. Buying it was probably the worst purchase of my life. I have put maybe 15 miles on it in nearly two years and spent heaps of time and money repairing it, rescuing it from the impound lot, and generally dealing with it. I have learned from the experience though and will never buy another derelict car, no matter how much of a "good deal" it is.

I am prospering at work. I have a couple projects I am on that keep me plenty busy in my 24 hours per week. Both are programming, which I do well. I am attempting to expand my horizons in programming and really truly learn object-oriented C++ programming. What I do now is kind of programming in C and making sure it's compatible with a C++ compiler.

YAM (the college group at church) is shifting - I believe for the better. Laura has stepped back as leader and handed over the reins to a diverse group of four of us college students. I think this will strengthen and solidify the group. I taught last week and was MC this week. I enjoy these types of positions and seem to do well at them, but rarely volunteer.

Reflection and Updates

Tuesday was my 25th birthday. I have now been on this earth for a quarter of a century. I consider myself blessed. At the age of 25, I have a good job, am enrolled in a good school working toward my Master's degree, have an excellent relationship with my family, and own property in the most outrageously priced section of the country. I have been mortally ill several times, and have been spared each time. And my mom made German chocolate cake for my birthday :)

Since I last posted, much has happened. Also on Tuesday I concluded my 3rd semester at USC with a final at 8 am. I have a generally good feeling about how the semester went. I completed the final in time and left no questions unanswered. I recently emailed a couple friends from Rolla, neither of whom I have seen or talked to in a while.

At times I think I should have stayed in Rolla. I would have completed my Master's degree earlier, under professors I already knew and had a working relationship with. I do not regret it though. Had I done that, I would not now be a homeowner and my student debt would have been greater. There is indeed no sense in lamenting it. All I can do is push forward with my education at USC. Next semester I am taking two classes. This will be the first time I have taken two 500-level classes simultaneously but supposedly EE562a (the class I just finished) is the hardest EE class there is.

Now that I am out of school, I am working full time and have fewer obligations on weekends or evenings. I hope to accomplish a few things. I would like to get my room wired for surround sound and put the blacklight wiring in-wall. I'd also like to read Schindler's List. I want to progress forward in my Bible study of Haggai so we can start the Isaiah group soon. I accepted a challenge from Laura a couple weeks ago that she mentions here. So far I have been a bit negligent - I have read through Haggai 10 times (which is exactly where I was a couple weeks ago).

Laura gave me her old laptop a little while back. It's a Gateway Solo 2550. I upgraded the ram, installed a larger hard drive, bought a wireless card, and had the battery serviced. After attempting to install Windows XP on it and discovering it was uselessly slow, I installed Ubuntu Linux. This has worked well so far and I haven't found any shortcomings. About all that I do on Windows that I can't do on Linux is game, program (Windows applications for work), and use AutoCAD. This computer is too slow to game or use AutoCAD effectively anyway. At the very least this will be a fun hobby. I've been taking the bus to work since I don't have to ride up to school and it does give me something to do on the way.

Speaking of hobbies, the black Bug is not selling. I lowered the price but no interest. I have sold off some of the parts I have for sale and hope to get some time and nice weather to get the orange one ready for sale.