So, let’s start easy.

• Record my version of Quickly by John Legend
• Prepare a guitar version of one of the songs Ron wants to cover
• Code my site’s redesign (with a reviewing component)
• Run 4 miles (I said I was starting easy, 4 miles over a week should be nothing)
• Workout (requires me to go to the gym, could be difficult)
• Work on Jenny’s site (at least 2 hours)
• Write one more blog post
• Look into making an iphone app (SDK already downloaded)

I need to do all of that by the end of the week.  Very doable.  To support that Ron and I are probably going to stay in next weekend.  This will help us save money for a trip to see Adam and be productive at the same time.

I also went to a meeting for Virginia Tech’s Alumni Seattle Chapter yesterday.  Met some cool people.  Nice thing about the west coast is that the Alumni chapter is a tight group.  In Arlington/NOVA/DC there are so many Hokies that it can be really intimidating to get involved.  I think I’m going to be heading over to one of the couple’s place for Thanksgiving, and I’m hoping to do some night photography from their place to.  They have an amazing view of the city from the roof of their building.

About to get off the ferry.  Adios.  Expect big things…

As for my list of things to do… I’ve only made progress on numbers 1 and 4 (Jenny’s site and Video games, respectively)  Ron and I beat Gears of War 2 playing co-op.  I think we did it within 24 hours, but we took a big break in between.  Overall gameplay time was probably closer to 8 hours.  It was good.  Graphics were awesome, haven’t tried xbox live yet.  I spent yesterday playing Fallout 3.  I really need to get out more, hopefully do some photography and hiking and whatnot.

A new thing on my list is to trim down my music collection and delete all the songs I don’t listen to/don’t want.  I also need to re-rate a lot of my music so I can get my playlists and order.  When I ran the 2 miles last week I also noticed that I need a running playlist, something with a good beat that I can use to keep pace with.

I think that just about covers a good portion of an update for me…

• Work:  Decent but I’m not busy enough
• School:  n/a
• Personal:  Needs to get “shit” together

Cheers

Work out here is pretty cool, although I’m not as busy as I’d like to be.  I haven’t done too much sight seeing other than going to different bars/clubs out in Seattle with Ron and his friends.

I’m staying in Seattle for Thanksgiving (I think Ron is too, so I shouldn’t be too lonely), but I’m going home from Dec 25th (leaving Christmas Eve around midnight, yay…. //sarcasm) and staying on the east coast until Jan 5th.  That way I get to spend Christmas with my family and New Years with my friends.

Ferry is pulling into the dock, will write more later.  Oh and…

BIG CONGRATS TO HOLLY AND BRYCE

I’ve been telling myself for weeks now that I’d write a new blog entry.  Can’t do it tonight.  Have to get up at 4:30AM to support a test.  Here’s my to-do list, in order of importance:

1. Work on wifey’s site
2. Start Running/Working out
3. Start making music
4. Fallout 3/Video games
5. Get my “shit” together

Oh, and if you didn’t know… I’m in Seattle now until January 16th, 2009 (got here a week ago today).  Tomorrow is the presidential election.  I hope Obama wins.  Good luck… more to come later (thursday?)

M

Night

I just bought some new music too… I got Staind’s new album and also downloaded an album by a group called paramore.  Pretty good stuff.  I also bought The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (I’ve never read it… figured it should be good for plane rides).  As far as tv shows go I also ordered season 2 of Psych and season 1 of Burn Notice (two great shows on USA Network).

Not too much else going on… starting a racquetball club at work, hopefully playing on thursday.  And I should be Level I Acquisition Certified by the end of the week (could be tomorrow at the rate I’m going, but wednesday is more likely).  What does that mean?  I’m not entirely sure… I just know it’s one of my requirements that I have to complete before my 2 years in this program are up.  I think most people take a year to get to Level I but I’m getting it quick (because I can?).

I’m excited to do my first external rotation, but I also don’t really want to leave here.  I’ll be missing a lot of stuff and still have to work out some logistics.  Like what do I do about my guitars, or my xbox.  I’d like to bring both, but wouldn’t want to put them on the plane.  Can I carry guitars on the plane?  I wouldn’t want to ship them, or check them.

Bedtime for me.  See ya

I moved up here June 25th, and right away I met some people I’d be working with at a happy hour.  I met the person that was going to escort me on my first day, by freak coincidence there too.  I spent a lot of money at ikea… and then turned around and bought a 52″ Samsung 1080p television!  It is awesome (i’m sitting in front of it now… I feel like I’m at the olympics).  Eventually I got a PS3 (for the blu-ray player) and a new iphone 3g, both are pretty sweet.

Anyways… I started work July 7th.  My boss is pretty awesome.  I’m the first person in the program that he’s supervised but I can’t tell.  I’ve been to Newport, RI and Newport News on business travel.  Next week I’m going back up to Newport, RI to observe some stuff.  I’ll also get to travel to Groton, CT and a few other places.  I’m doing some pretty interesting work.  My major project has the potential to be very big… and I could “make a name” for myself, so long as I don’t screw it up.

My first external rotation is going to be to Keyport, WA (near Seattle).  You know what that means??  It means I get to see RON FORBES!!  I’ll be there for 12 weeks.

I feel like an alcoholic now that I’m out of college (I’m not, I just feel that way).  The Navy Yard peeps, and my VT friends, all like to go out to a lot of happy hours and just have some classic good times.

Joe moves in this next weekend to the apartment and Travis has been here since he started work (same time as me).  Don’t get to see too much of him though.  It’ll be nice to have all of us here finally, but it’ll be weird when I go on my first rotation and being away from all of my friends and stuff.

After writing all of the above… it doesn’t seem like all that much has happened (though I am leaving out a decent chunk of stuff… such as what I actually do at work and some other personal stuff).

OH… I cooked Chicken Divan last night… it turned out great.  And Chris Hicks is in town, so I’m going to hit lunch and/or a happy hour with him tomorrow.

More later… promise…

Captain Crunch French Toast… from what I can remember:   eggs, heavy cream, sugar, cinamon, and vanilla go in the batter, then the batter soaked bread is dipped in crushed captain crunch… served with whipped cream, green apple slices and berries on top.

From the Blue Moon Cafe in Baltimore, MD.

While I’m at it… I saw a commercial for an applebee’s quesadilla burger.  Would be pretty good/easy to do too.

BUT… I’m bored out of my mind here in Blacksburg. I’m going to start going to the gym A LOT. I was going to start today but when I was in Arlington I pulled something in my back sleeping on Brian and Andy’s couch. So yeah, I went up to Arlington last weekend. I went up on Friday and signed the lease for my new apartment and got a tour of it. I took a video, of which the camera work is crappy and I didn’t edit it at all, but here it is:

New Apartment (unedited)

I’m really excited about it (yes, again) and the apartment is actually a lot nicer than I was expecting.  The weekend up there was great.  I got to see a lot of my friends and I met some new ones too.  I move up there June 25th.

I also received my first bass guitar, and it’s awesome (not the best picture, i need to take one without the case):

Adam has set up his recording equipment and recorded some tracks, and I’m going to try and do some bass tracks to go along with them.  I’m going to start experimenting with that tomorrow.  We’re going to calibrate our recording setup with Jimi Hendrix’s - Hey Joe.  Ron has yet to pick a track to calibrate with us, but he’s moving in a week so he’s a bit busy.

It hasn’t quite gotten hot here in Blacksburg (not stifling so in the apartment at least).  I’m dreading when it is.  Hopefully my remainder here I’ll get lucky.  I need to figure a few things out before I start work.  First I need to buy a set of dress shoes.  Then I need to figure what kind of backpack or briefcase (do people still use those?) that goes with a suit.

I used Google Sketch Up to make a 3d render of my apartment.  Google even has this virtual “warehouse” of user submitted stuff.  A lot of people have rendered a lot of IKEA furniture.  Which is great because that’s what I’ll be getting for my apartment.  I determined I couldn’t fit the dresser in my actual bedroom, so I’ll put it in my closet.  I also figured what desk could go in my room (it’ll have a glass top = sweet) and what size bed I can fit.  Then I took the liberty of seeing how best the living room could be arranged (for both furniture and speaker placement).  Placing 7 speakers in an odd shaped room is pretty difficult.  I couldn’t believe how handy the user generated ikea furniture was.  Now I know what tv stand and everything I need to buy

Hmmm what else.  Oh yeah, I graduated last weekend (again).  Long ceremony.  Pics are up on my flickr page.  Amy and I walked, then us, our parents and billy met up at O’Charley’s for a post-graduation dinner.  Good times.

Oh!  I also finished my ninja report.  I got it printed at kinko’s… and it cost $150 to do it.  Wasn’t expecting that.  Definately should have done it on campus, probably could have gotten it done for free.  Live and learn.  I defend May 27th

I also bought my first bass guitar.  Should get here next week.  I’m pretty excited about that because then Adam and I may able to finally start recording some stuff for Cascade to Chaos.  Ron said he wants to join in on the action too.

Mike moved out too :(  He’s back in Jersey for now.