Met some great people

Last night I had 5 couchsurfers stay at my house - 2 cyclist where were circumnavigating Florida (2000 mile tripe), a Canadian Cyclist who started in Canada and came down through New York and will end up on the west coast of Canada (a bit longer than 2000 miles) and a wonderful couple who was taking a driving trip from the west coast to find the next place to live.

In the same order as described above, + me:  Jody, Ryan, David, Chris, Cody, Jake:

Chris, Cody, Jake and I went out for Chinese food and had a great conversation on who was doing what and why. I only met Jody and Ryan (on the left) once I got back from dinner. You can read Jody and Ryan's biking blog at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=RrzKj&page_id=175646&v=4 and Chris's trip at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/cfm2010 .

At 2:40 I wandered noisily outside, and Jody joined me and saw the eclipsed moon. It was good for about 2 minutes, then we went inside and back to sleep. It was cold! For Florida....

Advanced to 4rd Kyu

Sensei DiMarco tested me on October 23rd and I am now 4th kyu! Myself, I think it was well overdue with all the time I've put into it - but only timewise. When I left for Pennsylvania for a year and then came back and re-started, I have felt awkward, un-coordinated, and forgetful about the moves - I feel lucky that Sensei advanced me at all. :-) For those that are not familiar with Aikido rankings, 4th kyu is similar to... Orange belt in taekwondo or karate.

Also, Herman skipped a belt two weeks ago and became a black belt! At the Aikido conference last week, Sensei needed to talk to the Doshu first (the family heir of the founder of Aikido) in order to advance Herman. Usually, only 7th, 8th, or 9th Dan are allowed to advance individuals to black belt, but apparently Sensei (when everyone was younger) has trained with half of the trainers at the conference and even though he is a 6th Dan, he's permitted to advance students at his whim. :-)

Best Line Ever

Had a nice day off - kind of. Didn't do anything. It was a nice break - a lot of early and late hours at work lately.

Was watching  some anime about a new transfer student.
F: "He's trading punches with the (200 foot tall) dragon!"
R: "I guess he's a tough guy"

Love of math

I have been trying to learn scheme via DrRacket, and I found a nice website to build my basic programming skills through math problems. I just wanted to announce that I am a level 1 Eulerian! All that means is that I have submitted correct answers to 25 or more problems. In celebration, here is the icon I get to use as a math.... novice.

http://projecteuler.net/

Qu'ran burning

It is about time someone reacted sanely to the burnings of the Quran in Flordia. This whole international 'incident' was caused because news reporters in general are unable to seperate small events from big events. Why should a small group of people acting out their beliefs in a manner that doesn't physically affect anyone have any effect on the world as a whole? This should be rhetorical question that has an answer of, "these actions should not affect the rest of the world." Sadly, the church in Florida has highlighted the failings of the world that reads or hears about the daily news.


There are a few factors that combined to create this big furor. First, this event involves a clearly defined group making a dedicated stand again Muslim extremeism in a way that can be twisted to be an insult on all Muslims. A percieved insult against Islam is instantly newsworthy and ridiculed if it happens in the US, as opposed to insults and law suits against splinter groups like the FLDS.
The second issue are news reporters that don't have the wisdom to choose what issues are and aren't important in the big picture of the world. The issue of a small church burning Qurans should never have risen higher than the local newspaper. Eh, it just seems pointless to talk about this issue, and further discussion just fans the flames, or would if this was read by more than 2 or 3 people. As a personal effort, I already refuse to bring this issue up in workplace discussions or participate in any conversations.

Update: A similar viewpoint on Christian Science Monitor.

Mobile World

This is my first blog from my cell phone! I am touring a hospital pharmacy to get a handle on how the software I develop during work is used in the 'real' world. At least, I will be taking the tour and gowning up for the clean room soon. Right now I am waiting for another co-worker to show up. He got a late start and I showed up here early, so I have some spare time.

I can tell the days are getting shorter. Early July, when I would wake up in the morning, I could tell it was time to wake up by looking at the sunlight filtering through the blinds. Now the only way to know I need to get ready is the fact that I woke up and blindly groping for the cell phone then checking the time.

Last weekend, a couchsurfer I met for lunch called me up and wanted to do something. Neither of us knew what to do so we ended up at a breeder reptile expo. 500 booth spaces of snakes, turtles, frogs, and lizards occupied 2 hours of the day. One booth put up the geneology of the snakes they were selling, and the baby tree snakes that I would have bought if I was going to buy something started at $500 and then went up. The most expensive snake was $9600 and I don't remember seeing snakes under $500. A very high end product. M.m. took VERY nice pictures and I will ask if it is alright to post them. Check back later!

Yay! First cell phone post complete!

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Sleeping Arrangements

I've figured out the almost-perfect sleeping arrangement and my rental in Daytona Beach: Pile up a sleeping bag and pillow an sleep on it! Woo! Actually, I do find that the most comfortable sleeping arrangement. I've never minded sleeping on the floor, so the fact that I don't have a proper bed yet doesn't slow me down in the slightest. Not having a bed speeds me up actually - it is much quicker folding the sleeping bag in the morning.

I've been thinking of starting some new blogs. They probably will not get updated nearly as often as this blog, but I wanted to start somewhere. I am thinking about a blog on programming and a blog on what I'm trying to study in the Bible. Neither one quite fits with my daily life or thought or opinions or life that goes into this blog. Oh well, at the rate I make decisions, I may be another few years deciding to start the blogs.

Couchsurfing

The day after I move into my beachside apartment in Daytona Beach, I had a couchsurfer come down for a big 300 mile nascar race. I have no idea what race it was, and I probably wouldn't have know anything was going on except for a lot of traffic that weekend, but since I do drive by the Daytona Raceway, I saw massive preparations underway about a week before the race. The day of the race, parking was around $40 for a close spot on lawns, to about $10 about a mile away.

Anyway, back to the main topic, I had my first couchsurfer come and stay! Gary came from Michigan for the Nascar race. He spent most of his day at the race, some on the beach, so we didn't actually cross paths much while he was here, but we talked some and I got a picture.

TaDa - My New Apartment

Here are some pictures of my apartment. This first one is from across the street, looking toward the place I'm living

front porch from the driveway entrance.

driveway, looking down the side of the house. My apartment ends a little in front of the jeep. The windows beside the jeep are from one of the bedrooms, and then I have a hallway behind the bedrooms

Driveway again, but looking out over the street


The inside of the house is hard to take a picture and get a good idea of how things are laid out. When I enter the front door, I enter the kitchen.


I walk to the end of the kitchen and pass through the opening and look left, along the back wall of the kitchen, and this is the view I get.


The center of the living room has a fake fireplace (Whoever designed that into the place probably didn't live in FL). You can see the bedroom I use to the left.


This last picture is from the back side of my bedroom, looking towards the livingroom.

Nose to Grindstone Time

I've been nosing around a bit on craigslist putting in applications for jobs, and it turns out that one of those came through! With the grace of God, a job materialized back in Florida just about the time mom was ready to do everything on her own. Neither one of us was actually ready for it, but activities had settled down enough that mom and dad could handle it on their own and my support was just the support of family being around. sigh... it was nice, but chin up! Mom and Dad may be coming down to Florida this winter for a longer (woo!) trip. Margaret probably will (although her nose is broken at the moment due to a workplace accident! She had to have a drug test to show she wasn't drunk or on drugs - due to how her schedule is setup though, she didn't actually miss any work.) and I hope Jesse and Charlessa get a chance to take a short vacation down here. As for the job itself, it involves working with Baxa as an Applications Engineer I. I'll find out soon how much I should say about my job, but I feel safe in saying that it involves some programming and customer assistance.

I'm putting a security deposit on an apartment tomorrow. After checking around and looking at the options, I came to a few conclusions - price is directly related to the size of the apartment with no exceptions I found unless I live with a apartment-mate or 30 miles away from work, I don't really want to live in an apartment complex, and I would rather have a bit more space even though it costs extra just so I can enjoy living somewhere nicer AND friends, family, couchsurfers can enjoy themselves while they enjoy the sun and sand of Daytona Beach. It takes all of 2 minutes to walk to the main beach of Daytona where A1A and 92 intersect. I'm going to have to be really careful to watch how much sun I get. As long as Mom keeps reminding me, I'm sure I'll be fine.  :-)

Here are some not so random pictures of people during the Memoridal Day weekend. Lots of people came to visit and say hi. We had a big family get together on Sunday and then people went their different ways on Monday.Say hello to watermelon on the porch, peaches on the bib, and grill on the table!

Memorial Day (a day early)

Jesse and Charlessa and their kids are up at the grandparents today. Katie is/was/will be here to cook on the grill. It has been a very pleasant today. We are all sitting around the living room, reading, talking, playing with legos, updating blogs, and cooking food. Very nice day. Oops. I just heard Tabitha (10 mo. old) wake up.

Random picture time! (P.S. The date should be 2010 on the picture)

The Way To Advertise

No profession guidelines here! Look elsewhere. I spent the day putting together a blog for the vehicle we're selling. I put together one before for a truck my parents wanted to unload, and it was very convenient to be able to tell people where to look for more information and pictures.

Right now, I just finished taking 15 pictures of the SUV and editing them for the blog. A little more editing on the pictures and I'll have 4 for the craigslist ad.

I got to bed just after 9:00 last night and was up pretty early, so it is only 12:00, but it seems like I've done so much today! I'll have to look at the saying on my bedroom door a little more, "He who hoots with the owls at night cannot soar with the eagles in the morning!" That was put up by my grandmother when she was here six years back.

50 minutes and I head off to a doctor's appointment with Mom and Dad. Time to get moving again!

Enjoying PA Rain

I seem to be in a state of moving. It probably wouldn't seem that way, if I blogged more! My mom had some health problems, so she's going to be out of the action for a while - actually, she just needs to heal up and get stronger, but for a while a helping hand (me!) will be appreciated. Since I didn't have a job or pending job (that may change!), I drove to the parent's house to help out. But just because Mom's under the weather doesn't mean armchair directions are unavailable! Today, I filled up my car pretty well and managed to drop everything off at the library or Goodwill. All except for the vacuum attachment - apparently Goodwill requires the machine to be attached. No lone wolfs for Goodwill.

Margaret's dog Gala had a puppy! I'm sure pictures will be going up on her blog when the puppy is old enough. And I've about run out of steam - even too tired to make fun of Margaret for anything. :-) Right now I am sitting in the Library and I am going to pack up and go home and sleep. (after more re-organization probably)

Gym and Turtles

Had a nice day at the gym. I'm trying a new aerobics workout. Instead of my normal one hour workout, I'm splitting it in two. I felt quite good by the end of the workout. I don't know if that means I'm not working quite as hard, or that the break is giving me enough recovery time to stave off exhaustion. Either way, it went well today, so I'll try it again.

On the way home, right before I got to my house, I noticed to pieces of hanging moss that fell on the road. To avoid them, I would have had to go off the road onto the grass a bit, but I remembered a story that my mom told me once where that pile of debris was actually a stone that looked like a pile. Thus, I decided to go off to the side. When I passed by, I saw that the two lumps were actually two large turtles that were crossing the road. I stopped, but so did the guy behind me, and he helped the turtles to the other side of the road. Anyone know why they wanted to get to the other side?

Florida happiness

Ha, I made it to Florida. I was looking for jobs in DC and PA, when I called up my old boss for a reference. He said, sure, he'd give a good reference, but after a little conversation it turned out that he would hire me for quick contract work. Thus, I am now in Florida, but I've already finished the contract work so I'm back in the job hunting position.

One of the big things I've come to enjoy here is a fully decked out gym, that is fairly cheap. Gold's Gym here runs about $40 a month, plus the $40 for Aikido, and that puts me a packed full of after-work activities. I was taking Tae-kwon-do again, but after my job, I dropped it until I can get another job. It was twice the other two activities combined.

I had a fun night out with old friends a few weeks ago. I've put the pictures up for general consumption and was posting it because it is my first Picasa web album and I'm proud of it! -link-

Back in VA

I made it safely back to Virginia after a lovely visit (again) with family during the new years. I'm was planning to go down to Florida next week, but my mom convinced me to wait until I get an interview with a second job (or more) before heading south.