Category: Life

Wow, I don’t know what to do with myself now that I have a day off. It reminds me of the part in Office Space when Lawrence asks Peter “What would you do if you had a million dollars?” and Peter replies “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

I did spend a little time working on the website today. I finally got around to adding some of those cute little buttons that everyone else uses (look on the right side, under Links). I stole most of them from Taylor McKnight’s site. On that same site, there’s a like to the origin of these buttons at Antipixel.com. I never really knew how that all got started.

Thanksgiving was great. We had lots of good food with grandparents and parents. I’m really looking forward to making turkey and dressing tomorrow for family and friends. I even got a call from Michael yesterday evening. It’s always good to catch up with everyone around the holidays.

I can’t wait to have people over for turkey and dressing tomorrow. Look for pictures of turkey and friends (our friends, not the turkey’s friends) tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Geoff and Tony are both in town for Thanksgiving. Last night they stopped by for a visit and we went out to eat at Denny’s with Ben and Paula. Here we are all posing while Paige takes a picture.

It took over an hour for them to make our food, so we had plenty of time for socializing…

Yesterday was my last chance to actually learn something in college. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. That’s right, classes are officially over for me. All I have left to do now is take a final exam on Monday and give a presentation on Dec. 3.

It’s funny, I’ve been taking classes in Commerce for the last two years now and all I got out of it is several thousand dollars of debt and a silly piece of paper to hang on the wall in my office.

Of course, that degree on my wall will translate into a lot of money for me, but you get the idea.

One more thing – there will be turkey and dressing at our house the Saturday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29). Pretty much anyone who reads this site is invited, unless you’re some kind of crazy internet stalker…

Since I got 3 comments on my previous post about being sick, I thought I’d better put something up here to tell all of those concerned that I’m feeling better now.

Also, I (finally) got my graduation information in the mail today. Everyone needs to be there December 13th. Yes, everyone.

Being sick sucks.

I only have to attend classes 6 more times until I graduate. I can’t wait for it to all be over.

My group () has to give a presentation on November 19, then our final presentation is on December 3.

The final in my other class is going to be the Monday before Thanksgiving – November 24. I wish I could go ahead and take it today, but I guess after working and going to school for two years, I can wait another two weeks.

There are so many interesting weblogs out these days, it’s impossible to keep up. I stumbled across an article on one today that was particularly interesting to me: The Talent Show: My Alma Mater Salutes Hitler

That article was written by Tom Neely, a fellow 1993 graduate of Paris High School (although in those days we called him Tommy). Last I heard he was living in California, so the news of the nazi flag at PHS must have really spread.

His memory of Paris High seems pretty accurate to me. It’s funny that he mentions the “two Asian kids”, since at the time he was dating one of them.

Tom was always an amazing artist. I’m hanging on to one of his paintings so when he gets famous I can sell it and retire. Until then, you can check out some of his work at his website: http://www.iwilldestroyyou.com/. Did I mention he has a strange sense of humor?

It’s funny how I ramble on about things that don’t matter on this website, but when something really important happens to me I forget to even mention it.

Just in case someone is reading this who hasn’t seen me in a few weeks, I got a little trim.

The nice lady who cut my hair asked “How do you want it cut?” To which I replied “Short.” I think she did a pretty good job.

Of course, the next few days were kind of strange. Paige said it was like the phantom appendage thing that people get when they have something amputated. I kept reaching for my hair even though it wasn’t there.

Also, everywhere I went people said things like “Hey, you got a hair cut!” I guess they thought maybe I hadn’t noticed. Then they usually said something like “I really like it.” Then, afraid that I might be offended, most people quickly followed that with “I liked it long, too.”

I was a little worried that all of my technical skills were in my hair, but thankfully they were not. The rumor at work was that I got my hair cut because I was looking for a new job. Only time will tell on that one…

Wednesdays are the worst for me. I’ll drive around 200 miles before this day is over. I came to work at 8:00am this morning. I’ll leave work at 11:30am to go to class in Commerce, then come straight back to work at 2:30pm. I’ll leave work again at 4:30pm to go back to Commerce for our CSCI 440 class meeting. That meeting is over at 8:00pm, which means I’ll be home around 8:45pm tonight.

The good news is it’s October now and I graduate in December. Only 9 more Wednesdays to go.

How would you like an MIT education? What if I told you it’s free?

MIT has a new program called Open Course Ware. At this site you can find free information on 500 different courses. This includes a syllabus, lecture notes, problem sets, and even the textbook in some cases.

Keep in mind that you won’t get a degree from this, but some of us like to learn things just to better ourselves.