Thursday, September 30, 2010
Happiness...
...is different for everyone. My definition of it changes almost daily. Today it was an empty classroom, sunlight pouring in through a dusty window, earbuds in my ears and not a single constructive thought in my head. Peace of mind is priceless.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
What?
Well, I figure it's about time for me to post here again. As usual, I had planned to post something before now, but I got caught up with a bunch of other stuff that grabbed my attention and refused to let go. Most of my time in the past couple weeks has gone into studying, finding a "real person" job, and spending time with friends I don't get to see very often. Last week was the career fair, and I got some decent leads on possible full-time opportunities. I interviewed with some people from Siemens up in Minnesota, and I'm hoping that I get the chance to look into a job with them a bit further. I'm also planning on following up with OPPD and filling out an application for Rockwell Collins.
Other than that, I had my first two tests of the semester last week, and I think they went pretty well. Human Sexuality and Bioinformatics are not the classes I'm worried about, but it's still nice to know that I've got two tests down. My senior design group has begun meeting regularly to discuss our project, and we've got a rough draft for a project proposal.
A couple friends who live in Minnesota and Chicago visited over the weekend. My friend Brett's car broke down here, and I almost made a round trip to and from Minneapolis tonight in order to get him home, but in the end he decided to wait until tomorrow morning when his car will (supposedly) be fixed. That's probably a good thing, because my car is in desperate need of an oil change due to a combination of a busy schedule and my amazing talent for procrastination. It was a great time hanging out with Brett and Kassie, but I might have overdone it a bit. I've been fighting a cold for the better part of a week, and I was almost over it on Friday night, but I had a mysterious relapse on Saturday. Some have suggested that lack of sleep and consumption of huge amounts of alcohol may have played a part in that, and I suppose the theory has some merit.
In other news, I now have a part-time position at the ISU Solution Center working as a concierge. That means that I greet people coming in for assistance, but I generally don't have to actually help them solve their problem. The hiring personnel who interviewed me seemed concerned that I would be unhappy with the position because I'd know the answers to people's problems and be forbidden by protocol to help them. What they don't realize is that feeling overqualified for a job is kind of refreshing to me; it certainly makes a sharp contrast to an engineering interview. In any case, I have a few friends who work there as tech support personnel, and I'll be more than happy to pass walk-ins on to them knowing that their problems will be solved.
This weekend I'm going back to Nebraska to visit the Omaha crew. On saturday I'm heading down to Peru State College with Jeff to visit his girlfriend and a bunch of her friends. I'm really looking forward to that!
Well, that's it for me. Bed time. No creative writing this time, but I'm hoping that the muse pays me a visit soon.
Other than that, I had my first two tests of the semester last week, and I think they went pretty well. Human Sexuality and Bioinformatics are not the classes I'm worried about, but it's still nice to know that I've got two tests down. My senior design group has begun meeting regularly to discuss our project, and we've got a rough draft for a project proposal.
A couple friends who live in Minnesota and Chicago visited over the weekend. My friend Brett's car broke down here, and I almost made a round trip to and from Minneapolis tonight in order to get him home, but in the end he decided to wait until tomorrow morning when his car will (supposedly) be fixed. That's probably a good thing, because my car is in desperate need of an oil change due to a combination of a busy schedule and my amazing talent for procrastination. It was a great time hanging out with Brett and Kassie, but I might have overdone it a bit. I've been fighting a cold for the better part of a week, and I was almost over it on Friday night, but I had a mysterious relapse on Saturday. Some have suggested that lack of sleep and consumption of huge amounts of alcohol may have played a part in that, and I suppose the theory has some merit.
In other news, I now have a part-time position at the ISU Solution Center working as a concierge. That means that I greet people coming in for assistance, but I generally don't have to actually help them solve their problem. The hiring personnel who interviewed me seemed concerned that I would be unhappy with the position because I'd know the answers to people's problems and be forbidden by protocol to help them. What they don't realize is that feeling overqualified for a job is kind of refreshing to me; it certainly makes a sharp contrast to an engineering interview. In any case, I have a few friends who work there as tech support personnel, and I'll be more than happy to pass walk-ins on to them knowing that their problems will be solved.
This weekend I'm going back to Nebraska to visit the Omaha crew. On saturday I'm heading down to Peru State College with Jeff to visit his girlfriend and a bunch of her friends. I'm really looking forward to that!
Well, that's it for me. Bed time. No creative writing this time, but I'm hoping that the muse pays me a visit soon.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
This is where a title would go if I had one
I have been having an allergy attack for the past 3 days that makes most of those I've had in years past look positively tame. Being the somewhat masochistic person I am, I waited until today to go get meds for it. I meant to pick up the sleep-inducing kind of allergy meds, because anything that helps me sleep and isn't alcohol is pretty great. Of course, being in my current stupor (likely caused by my sinuses increasing my cranial pressure to a dangerous level), I grabbed the non-drowsy Claritin. This means that I will likely be up for another two or three hours, because I'm incapable of sleeping while sick (yay). I can't wait for it to snow so all this nasty junk that I'm breathing in dies and leaves my sinus cavities in peace.
It occurs to me that I haven't done my usual run-down of my classes yet, so here is a brief one:
Cpr E 458: Real-time Systems... This class is kind of fun, though not the most interesting one ever. It's mostly had to do with scheduling algorithms so far, which is something I already knew a lot about from other classes. Hopefully this will be an easy A, though I don't know where it will turn after the scheduling part.
HD FS 276: Human Sexuality... What can I say about this? It's commonly referred to as "sex class" on campus, and that's exactly what it is. It covers everything about human physiology and behaviors related to sex. The teacher tends to make it very fun, and there's a lot of class participation involved (not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter).
Com S 311: Algorithm Analysis... This is one of only two classes I've ever dropped here at ISU, and both of them deal heavily with mathematical proofs. For most people, this class is tough. For me, it is close enough to torture that I actually think it should be illegal for them to require me to take it. This is it, though. I have to pass it this time. We'll see what happens, but I can almost guarantee that it won't look pretty on my transcript.
BC CS 444: Introduction to Bioinformatics... Interesting, relatively easy (so far) class. This is probably my second favorite this semester, next to sex class. It deals with the practice of using computers to map and process genetic data. There is a lot of discussion about the design and use of various protein and nucleotide databases.
Cpr E 491: Senior Design I... This class is essentially a waste of two hours a week. The project is the important part, though, and mine is pretty cool. My team is working on a system called the Homunculus Cam. It is going to be a 360 degree wearable camera system that can be embedded in the clothing of the user. When the system is active, it will provide a view of everything around the subject and relay the data wirelessly back to a base station. We have begun the process of determining our functional/non-functional requirements, and I'm sure I'll be writing more about this project soon.
Cpr E 494: Portfolio Design... This class is another waste of time in my opinion, but they require it, so I'll just have to grin and bear it. I'm going to throw together a website at some point with data on all the major projects I've worked on as a student at ISU. There are only about 5 or 6 major ones that I'm going to mention, but that should be enough to make the teacher feel I've earned a pass.
So, that's my semester. I don't think I have a whole lot to worry about aside from Com S 311. Let's see, what else is going on with me besides illness and classwork? Not much I suppose. I finally managed to finish reading the 6th book in the Wheel of Time series. I loved this book, but the end seemed fairly rushed. I'm hoping that they don't start going downhill from here. According to people I know who have read them all, they stay entertaining. I'll be picking the next few in the series up soon, and hopefully I can find time to read them. Other than that, I think the only other thing I have coming up is the career fair next week. I'll get my name out there and go further down the road to full-time employment.
That's it for now, maybe I'll find time to do some creative writing later in the week.
It occurs to me that I haven't done my usual run-down of my classes yet, so here is a brief one:
Cpr E 458: Real-time Systems... This class is kind of fun, though not the most interesting one ever. It's mostly had to do with scheduling algorithms so far, which is something I already knew a lot about from other classes. Hopefully this will be an easy A, though I don't know where it will turn after the scheduling part.
HD FS 276: Human Sexuality... What can I say about this? It's commonly referred to as "sex class" on campus, and that's exactly what it is. It covers everything about human physiology and behaviors related to sex. The teacher tends to make it very fun, and there's a lot of class participation involved (not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter).
Com S 311: Algorithm Analysis... This is one of only two classes I've ever dropped here at ISU, and both of them deal heavily with mathematical proofs. For most people, this class is tough. For me, it is close enough to torture that I actually think it should be illegal for them to require me to take it. This is it, though. I have to pass it this time. We'll see what happens, but I can almost guarantee that it won't look pretty on my transcript.
BC CS 444: Introduction to Bioinformatics... Interesting, relatively easy (so far) class. This is probably my second favorite this semester, next to sex class. It deals with the practice of using computers to map and process genetic data. There is a lot of discussion about the design and use of various protein and nucleotide databases.
Cpr E 491: Senior Design I... This class is essentially a waste of two hours a week. The project is the important part, though, and mine is pretty cool. My team is working on a system called the Homunculus Cam. It is going to be a 360 degree wearable camera system that can be embedded in the clothing of the user. When the system is active, it will provide a view of everything around the subject and relay the data wirelessly back to a base station. We have begun the process of determining our functional/non-functional requirements, and I'm sure I'll be writing more about this project soon.
Cpr E 494: Portfolio Design... This class is another waste of time in my opinion, but they require it, so I'll just have to grin and bear it. I'm going to throw together a website at some point with data on all the major projects I've worked on as a student at ISU. There are only about 5 or 6 major ones that I'm going to mention, but that should be enough to make the teacher feel I've earned a pass.
So, that's my semester. I don't think I have a whole lot to worry about aside from Com S 311. Let's see, what else is going on with me besides illness and classwork? Not much I suppose. I finally managed to finish reading the 6th book in the Wheel of Time series. I loved this book, but the end seemed fairly rushed. I'm hoping that they don't start going downhill from here. According to people I know who have read them all, they stay entertaining. I'll be picking the next few in the series up soon, and hopefully I can find time to read them. Other than that, I think the only other thing I have coming up is the career fair next week. I'll get my name out there and go further down the road to full-time employment.
That's it for now, maybe I'll find time to do some creative writing later in the week.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
A flash
I could write a lot of boring stuff here about the past week or two, but I think I'll keep it brief and relatively superficial instead. I moved back to Ames, and I've spent the past week or so getting settled in and relaxing a bit. My semester looks pretty good. It's definitely going to be a little easier than I initially thought it would... but I thought it was going to be hell, so really it's not so far-fetched if it's easier than expected.
My classes are all 10AM or later (Tuesday and Thursday I start at 12:40PM... WOO!) so I get to stay up pretty late every night. This is obviously a good thing, since I'm usually awake whether I want to be or not.
As soon as I got back, I started hanging out with friends that I hadn't seen in far too long. This week I've gotten drunk a couple times with my friend Chris, and played some StarCraft II with him in our spare time. Another friend of ours, Stinn, came back to town the other day, so we all went to Welch Ave and drank with him. That was pretty fun. Got to meet some new people, and made a late-night trip to Perkins. I also saw my friend Emily for the first time in a very long time today, ate Panera and tried gelato (which I'd never had before). That was tons of fun!
What else?... I'm grouping with Mike G. for senior design. For anyone who doesn't know, Mike and I have worked together in several classes, so we're used to it, and we are a pretty awesome team. I am anticipating a pretty good outcome to the project. We still haven't been assigned one, but we're hoping for something to do with embedded systems or possibly virtual reality.
I applied for a full-time position at Omaha Public Power District this week. It's for an EMS engineering position that opened up this past year. I'm not quite ready to commit to a company yet, but it would have been foolish and short-sighted to pass up the opportunity to apply for it, and I like to pretend I'm neither of those things... just for fun though, I know I'm not fooling anyone.
I think that's all the major stuff that's happened this past week. It ended up being longer than I intended, even though I spared most of the minor details and occurrences.
A few random thoughts:
-Dexter is a great show and I wish I had known about it sooner. (Thanks, Chris)
-You know that you've come a long way as a person when someone goes right for the throat in a discussion and tries to hurt you, and you just laugh at them. (This happened recently, and yes I did laugh. Apparently that particular hole in my armor has been patched up. Better luck next time)
-Where has gelato been all my life? Seriously, how had I not tried that stuff before?
I guess that's it for now! Bye.
My classes are all 10AM or later (Tuesday and Thursday I start at 12:40PM... WOO!) so I get to stay up pretty late every night. This is obviously a good thing, since I'm usually awake whether I want to be or not.
As soon as I got back, I started hanging out with friends that I hadn't seen in far too long. This week I've gotten drunk a couple times with my friend Chris, and played some StarCraft II with him in our spare time. Another friend of ours, Stinn, came back to town the other day, so we all went to Welch Ave and drank with him. That was pretty fun. Got to meet some new people, and made a late-night trip to Perkins. I also saw my friend Emily for the first time in a very long time today, ate Panera and tried gelato (which I'd never had before). That was tons of fun!
What else?... I'm grouping with Mike G. for senior design. For anyone who doesn't know, Mike and I have worked together in several classes, so we're used to it, and we are a pretty awesome team. I am anticipating a pretty good outcome to the project. We still haven't been assigned one, but we're hoping for something to do with embedded systems or possibly virtual reality.
I applied for a full-time position at Omaha Public Power District this week. It's for an EMS engineering position that opened up this past year. I'm not quite ready to commit to a company yet, but it would have been foolish and short-sighted to pass up the opportunity to apply for it, and I like to pretend I'm neither of those things... just for fun though, I know I'm not fooling anyone.
I think that's all the major stuff that's happened this past week. It ended up being longer than I intended, even though I spared most of the minor details and occurrences.
A few random thoughts:
-Dexter is a great show and I wish I had known about it sooner. (Thanks, Chris)
-You know that you've come a long way as a person when someone goes right for the throat in a discussion and tries to hurt you, and you just laugh at them. (This happened recently, and yes I did laugh. Apparently that particular hole in my armor has been patched up. Better luck next time)
-Where has gelato been all my life? Seriously, how had I not tried that stuff before?
I guess that's it for now! Bye.
Monday, August 16, 2010
I was bored, so I wrote this
siren
ring out over the open sea.
The sun meets the waves,
reflecting as the surf claps firmly
against the face of cliffs.
Hear those fingers quickly plucking;
each note is thunderous,
even above the ocean's roar.
Solitude is her accompaniment;
there is not another soul here,
yet hers still soars.
Her dark hair flows smoothly
with the wind's caress.
Beautiful brown eyes survey
the endless horizon before her.
Sun-touched skin glows
as dusk draws near.
Surrounding the jagged rocks,
the restless sea hears her song.
Ancient wood hums and sings
as fingers and strings dance on and on.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Caught up
Okay, now all of the content from my old blog has been moved over... Well, all the content I want to keep anyway. Hopefully I can start posting more often now that my summer class is over with. I appear to have aced everything, which is good. I don't think I deserved to, but I won't complain if the graders want to help me out here.
Over the weekend I went up to Raddison Lake in Minnesota with a bunch of friends. We stayed at Brett's cabin and did a lot of shooting, off-roading, swimming and other assorted lake activities. I managed to roll an ATV my second or third time riding one. Live and learn, I guess.
I am unbelievably sleep-deprived, but I've had four really fantastic days. Here's hoping the good times continue as the school year starts up again.
Let's see, what else? I suppose I could mention that Black Wolf (my desktop computer) is finally going to get finished this week in preparation for a good StarCraft II binge before homework piles up. If it would cool down about 10 degrees and 30% humidity then I'd probably get a good bike ride or two in as well, but it looks like I might have to wait until next week for that.
I think that's all I've got for now. Sleep deprivation from last week + epic weekend catching up, brain no think good.
-Ryan
Over the weekend I went up to Raddison Lake in Minnesota with a bunch of friends. We stayed at Brett's cabin and did a lot of shooting, off-roading, swimming and other assorted lake activities. I managed to roll an ATV my second or third time riding one. Live and learn, I guess.
I am unbelievably sleep-deprived, but I've had four really fantastic days. Here's hoping the good times continue as the school year starts up again.
Let's see, what else? I suppose I could mention that Black Wolf (my desktop computer) is finally going to get finished this week in preparation for a good StarCraft II binge before homework piles up. If it would cool down about 10 degrees and 30% humidity then I'd probably get a good bike ride or two in as well, but it looks like I might have to wait until next week for that.
I think that's all I've got for now. Sleep deprivation from last week + epic weekend catching up, brain no think good.
-Ryan
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