CenterLeft.net

Whenever I shred cheese I am always concerned that I will slip and shred my hand by accident. Well, last night if finally came true. Somewhere in my enchilada is a ribbon of flesh from my knuckle that is about the size and shape of a strand of cheese. It’s a fascinating wound though, the grater left a divit that very closely resembles the face of the block of cheese.

It was a fun time up in Chicago. Traffic was a bit confusing and had me all turned around for a while, but we got where we needed to go eventually. Beth’s flight came in on time, for which I am still a little amazed, and we were able to collect her luggage without much problem at all. The problems started though when I made a wrong turn on the way to the hotel. The map we had wasn’t very good for that area and it took a while to get everything sorted out and get to where we needed to be. We ended up not even making it to the hotel and just found a metra station.

Unfortunately, through this whole mess Beth’s friend was waiting for us downtown. Even after we found the station it still took some time before the train arrived and we made it to Chicago. So her friend, bless her heart, ended up waiting for us for about 2 hours.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around downtown. We poked in a few stores and looked at some different things, but mostly we just wandered around the town. For dinner we were lucky enough to get into the Cheese Cake Factory without any wait. I guess we were just lucky to catch it on an off day.

The next day, the only thing on the agenda was the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. Beth and I were on our own this time, so there were a few snags trying to find the place. Eventually we found it though and were able to get it. The exhibit was pretty amazing. I don’t have much knowledge about ancient Egypt, but Beth has done a bit of research and is fascinated by the era.

We didn’t stick around for very long after the exhibit. We jumped back on a train, went back to our truck, and hit the road. Just in time for rush hour…

It took a bit of doing to get out of the Chicago area, but luckily it wasn’t too bad. All in all, the drive was brief and pleasant. We made a stop in Iowa city to have milkshakes with a couple of our friends and see them off. By the time we got back to Cedar Rapids, we were pretty exhausted, but glad to be home.

My truck is tuned up and the room reservations are made. I’m really excited to finally get up tomorrow and get on the road.

First stop on the tour is Chicago, Illinois. I’m picking Beth up from the airport tomorrow at 1, so I’ll need to get out of here pretty early tomorrow morning. We are going to get to spend a couple days shopping, eating, and going to museums.

It sounds like one of her good friends is going to be in the area too, so we’ll have a chance to spend some time with her. I’m excited to meet her. Beth made some good friends while they were in Vienna for a semester, and I am looking forward to meeting some of the people that were important in her life.

When we get back, it’ll soon be time to start packing for me. Next week I’m moving out of my apartment here in Iowa and driving to Portland, Oregon. It’s going to be great to be around the family again. But, I’m especially happy to get my motorcycle out of storage. I can’t wait to ride again.

Everything was going smoothly; I was having a lovely time reading a book and having a nice cup of coffee. But it soon took a turn for the worse as I went up for a refill. While I was waiting at the coffee bar for a fresh cup, I turned around… What I was confronted with was quite likely the ugliest women on earth.

The vision was so horrifying that I can not accurately recreate it for you. I assume that in a desperate bid for self preservation my mind has blocked the image from my memory. Like mothers forgetting the excruciating pain of childbirth, I still retain my ability to see and will someday return to said coffee shop. But probably not until my raw cornea feel less violated.

One step at a time, things are finally coming to an end here.

I took the last exam in my complex class an hour ago. With that done, all that I have left before I get my degree is to finish up the second part to my Physics oral exam and a couple more weeks of an art class.

Then, from there I’m heading away. I finally get to leave Iowa for good. I’m excited to say that I have a position waiting for me in Oregon when I get there. FEI Company has agreed to hire me on as an intern for the next 6 – 9 months so that they can train me to be one of their service engineers. From there, provided they give me an offer, I will be sent to live and work somewhere in either Europe or the USA. It’s very exciting for me. I am going to be trained to service and support some of the newest and best microscopes in the world. With this technology it is possible to see individual atoms, and when yours breaks, I’ll be the guy that comes in and fixes it.

On the home front, I’ve been making a few changes to the website. I don’t know if anyone has noticed though. Most of it has been behind the scenes stuff. A couple new people have come onboard to start writing journals and using this website as their personal blogs. To see the full roster check out the Journals section.

In setting up the journals I started playing around with some new blogging systems. For a while I was using a php solution that I had built myself. The problem was that it was all based in text files and didn’t end up being as flexible as I could want. But, more importantly to get the full use out of the previous system you needed to be schooled in programming. So it wasn’t as user friendly to other guests as it should have been.

Since then I have installed a WordPress engine and I’m really liking it. I’ve setup a couple databases and each of my users gets their own blog to configure as they like. By rebuilding the template to match the style of my website, I’m able to get everything to look just the way I want it. It is now possible to get all of the function of a blog engine, with archives, searches, and online user maintenance while at the same time having a flexible style that matches the form of the rest of the site.

I liked the engine so much, and it was flexible enough, that I have replaced the front page and the archives of my site with a wordpress generated blog. Technically, the way it is setup is so that the front and the archives are two separate blogs that access the same database. But really, all the front page does is displays the most current post. All of the blog functionality is built into the archive section.

So, in the end what does this all mean? Not much. Just that I’ve been playing with some new gadgets and that it’s less work for me each time I make a new post. Oh, and the site has a rss feed now too… woo hoo.

I realize that I just posted the pictures of my new bed this morning (check the archive), but this cracked me enough that I have to make a double post today.

There is nothing that will strike fear into an aspiring pyrotechnician more than the careful distance of the instructor. Mythbusters tonight were trying out some fun stuff that included testing some materials to see if they will be explosive. To help out with the experiments and oversee safety, they brought in a retired FBI agent to provide guidance. What cracked me up was one conversation between the Mythbuster (MB) and the FBI Agent (FBI). MB was carefully mixing the ingredients while FBI kept an eye out from across the room. MB yells over to him, curious why he was so far away.

The fear on MB’s face was priceless.

One of the perks of my roommates moving out is claiming the new space. The first thing to do, of course, is to upgrade the bed:

With a little bit of shoving and grunting, please excuse the innuendo, it’s possible to get them both in the same room and lying down nicely beside each other.

A little bit of hardware from the truck and viola:

A new king-sized bed. Just what every dorm apartment needs. Well, maybe not every apartment, but certainly mine. I think I’m going to turn one of the other rooms into my den.

It’s too bad that I’m only going to be living here for another 3 weeks. I really enjoy the space now.

My girlfriend is an artist.

I think the whole graduation ceremony thing must have been created by one of the darkest minions of hell. Even the very costumes that you wear are designed for your utter torture. The long black robes are sweltering in any sun and leave you wishing for the slightest breeze. But as soon as a puff of wind picks up, you are then whipped across the face by a tassel that is just long enough to get in your mouth as you talk or catch behind your ear. I hope whichever minion came up with the idea for the outfit got a promotion, it’s truly amazing how much suffering it is possible to inflict even before the ceremony starts.

When you get to the ceremony, it is an arduous test of mind and body. We are asked to stand and then sit for excruciatingly long periods of time, all the while, being made to listen to the dull monotony of speech after speech. My frail body is not accustomed to natural light anymore, and certainly not early in the morning. Combining the tortures of body and mind like this must be against the constitution. If not our constitution, than perhaps one somewhere, and when I find out where I will seriously consider moving.

There are a few points of light in this darkness of my weekend though. I have had a wonderful time with my family and the friends’ families that have adopted me over the last few years. This is actually only the second time that my family has come to visit me out here in Iowa. They came once when they dropped me off and then again now when I am graduating. I can’t say that I really blame them though; I mean there’s not much to draw anyone to Iowa. I certainly don’t intend to come back for quite some time.

Today is my last day of exams and I am about to fall down. I have a dinner tonight that is going to be lovely if I can just be awake for it. Hopefully I’ll have time after my last exam to sleep for a couple hours.
Everything is starting to wrap up here. It has gone pretty well and my family will be coming in this weekend to watch me graduate. All that’s left after this week is a couple tests, my oral exams, and 3 weeks for art class.

I’m expecting a job offer in the mail on Thursday and I can’t wait to get out of here and start my life.

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 4:20 PM

Well… I think I passed.