One week from today, that’s where I’ll be (under the sea)…

(didn’t mean to make that sound like a song… you can sing that last line to yourself and it works… i checked)

Wednesday around midnight me and 12 of my closest friends are leaving for Ft. Lauderdale, FL. This will be my second epic road trip of the year, but is being made more epic by the fact that I will be allowed to participate in a submarine embarkation. I will be embarking on the USS MEMPHIS (SSN 691) for the day. We will tour the sub, meet and dine with the ship’s crew, and learn about the important missions our dedicated Sailors carry out around the world, 365 days a year.

The embark is a part of an ongoing Navy-wide program to bring senior business executives, distinguished educators, government leaders, and other members of the community to sea to observe their Navy in action. The purpose of the program is to provide an opportunity to see first-hand the professionalism of our Sailors and the incredible ships they man.

Plus they’re allowing us to bring cameras onboard (to certain parts of the sub at least, which means I’ll be making the most EPIC OE VIDEO EVAR!!1!.

Patent Update:

The patent application I filed within Lockheed Martin 2-3 years ago is finally coming to fruition. The patent attorneys are sending the application to me next week to sign, and return to them, which they will then file with the US Patent and Trademark Office… so I may actually get my patent!

That’s all for now…

I bought a Macbook Pro recently, and I love it.

Today was the first day back to classes after the tragedy that was last Monday. There were cops EVERYWHERE on campus. There were also large signs posted on the entrances to every building door asking the Media to not enter.

It was also weird to see a fence placed around Norris Hall. I’ll post some pictures later.

Last Tuesday night there was a candlelight vigil on the drillfield. It was an impressive site. There were several thousand people there, all with candles lit. I took some pictures with my cell phone, though as you could imagine they didn’t turn out that well. (will post those later as well)

I’m writing this post from my ‘Dashboard’ on my Macbook Pro. Nice little widget called WordPressDash allows me to do this. I definately have no regrets with buying this machine. I’ve got it fairly customized at the moment. Probably need some more widgets, but I’ve found software that replaces most of the Windows software I used, though worst case I can always use the remote desktop program to log me into my work computer. HA! Speaking of which…

…forgot about some CFD stuff I was running… so I just logged into my work computer and changed a couple of things. I should mention I’m typing this post from bed in my apartment. Technology is amazing.

I was gonna write a ‘deep’ post about the universe, and our perceived decisions, but I’ll save it for another time. Teaser though: When people tend to think of multiple universes, they think of people making different decicions. For instance, if you take a job in Denver instead of in Chicago… you might assume that in some alternate reality/universe you took the job in Chicago instead of in Denver. So the universe revolves around you and your decision. Think about that…

M

By now everyone has undoubtedly heard what happened at Virginia Tech earlier today.

My day started off the same as usual… went to my 8 AM class in Randolph (one building North of Norris Hall). I hadn’t logged onto the internet so I didn’t know that a shooting had occured across campus in West AJ. 9 AM class lets out and I go up to the design lab for the remainder of the day… or so I thought.

Billy IMs me around 930 when the first notice pops up about the shooting in West AJ. We have had a bomb threat each week for the last 2 weeks. And now the shooting! WTF. Shortly after Billy’s IM I am walking to do my time sheet (still in randolph) when a faculty member is screaming in the halls to get into the rooms and lock the doors.

Naturally we can’t lock the design lab door once they’re unlocked (a story in itself). But we were safe there regardless. A few minutes later Dr. Hall comes in and tells us that there’s been a shooting in Norris and thats what caused the lockdown. Then information starts slowly trickling in. Billy is feeding me information via his listservs, and I’m getting information from the internet and other people in the room. Early on the death count was 1 dead and 1 injured. I get an IM from Rachel telling me her friend said at least 22 people were dead. I told her that was rediculous, and I wish that I had been right.

All in all I’m fine, and I hope that all of my friends are too. Virginia Tech will pull through this, I dont have a doubt in my mind. Best of health to all…

Martz