Truck Blues

The truck is still broke. Ford quoted $850 or so to fix it. So it ain't going to get fixed by Ford. That's total crazy talk. That's like me asking $100 for each line of code I write. Oh wait, I think my employer charges the government close to that for each line of code I write. Now if only I saw even a small percentage of that I could afford to pay Ford to fix my truck. Man I should have left it dead when we found it on the road. Good thing I got inlaws that go out of their way to fix stuff. At least I can repay them with some Hayley time.

Turn your back for 2 seconds

Hayley loves playing in the spice cabinet so while she was playing in it I made a sandwich for lunch. When I went to the fridge for milk I looked down and I had a green daughter. She'd got into the food coloring. I was in shock for a while afterward. I couldn't believe it. So I spent the next 1/2 trying to get her clean. Good thing the stuff comes off pretty easy. Although she ended up with a green mouth and tongue for a few hours. 

Graduation

Yep it's finally over. I went to the ceremony last Saturday and I thought it was actually kind of cool. All the professors lined up and gave an ovation as we walked into the gym. Our degree program was the last out of 450 students to walk across the stage so that took some time and I was 4th from the last overall to walk across. One thing I didn't know until graduation is that Master graduates get caped. Something a little different then undergrad. Now I can push for a promotion at work. We'll see how that goes. 

Minor Cross Roads

I made the decision yesterday to move to a new project. I was working on a legacy system, which basically means the software has been completed and I was working on minor enhancements. My new project will give me the opportunity to work on new development and I'll have the opportunity to refresh my design skills again. It's been a while since I've worked on a new development so it should be fun. The software I'll be working on is a UAV ground station platform. So it should also be interesting.

On another note, I've finished grad school and I'll be attending the ceremony on Saturday night. It's been mentioned in my blog about 10 times now so I'll leave it at that.

Sunday a Mike, Scott and I are heading off to Milwaukee to attend a Twins - Brewers game. It should be fun as long as the 5 hour drive doesn't wear us out. Monday we're going to try and get a tour of the Miller brewery. We'll see how that goes. We're pretty unorganized right now so we'll be playing things as they go.

The Short Bus

I joined a different crowd to lunch today and as we were walking to our vehicles I was shocked to see someone drove a bus to work. It was friggen hilarious. We all hoped on and headed out to lunch. I guess it's not as funny blogging it as it was in person but oh well, not everyone can say they get bus service to lunch.

One Final Left

After going down in a blaze of fire yesterday during our presentation I can take comfort in knowing that I have one final left and I'll have a masters. I figure if I look back on this five years from now I'll have no clue what happend during this presentation. From misspellings on the powerpoint slides to running over our time limit. But whatever, so now I need to get a 80 on the final instead of a 70 to get an A. I'll add another 20 minutes to my study time.

I really don't know what to think of it since I assumed getting a masters would be a lot harder than this was. But I don't feel to bad since taking classes at Stevens University wasn't anymore challenging. Maybe school comes a lot easier when you only take 1 or 2 courses at a time. All I know is that being done will free up another night so I can play more golf and spend my time with Hayley and Jen.

#1 Programmer on the Planet

When I graduated from college I used to think I was the best programmer on the planet. I was the tech lead on all my college teams and I had an actual programming job so I was heads ahead of the other BCIS students that I knew in experience. All this non-sense came crashing down after I met Ben. He made me realize I had to settle for the 2nd best programmer in the world. (I'm actually down to about 25th best now, Dam LM for hiring smart people) **sarcasm people**

Well Ben is leaving LM for a lesser known company called Microsoft. Ben made this announcement a long time ago but I just finally got a chance to blog so I'm writing about it know. I have no clue why he'd want to the leave the world leader in technical prowl for a MS. If you're interested in why he's leaving you can read about on his blog I'm kind of happy now cuz when my MS apps crash I can call someone to complain about and actually get results. Although with Ben on board, MS will produce the best quality software ever.

I am left with knowing that I gave Ben on good idea to use a Hashtable in his code. He only gave me about 300 ideas.

Well best of luck to ya Ben. Say hi to the last of my 7 prom dates for me while you're there. I think you know her since she's a regular commenter on your blog.

Recent Happenings

Blogging has been sporadic at best since the beginning of the year. Mostly because work is super busy and school. But at the end of this semester I'll have a masters. I'm pretty excited about that.

Anyway here's some happenings:

- I ended the bowling season with 186 average in my Tuesday night league and 182 in my Wednesday night league. I started bowling early in the second half of my Wednesday night league so I had already worked out a lot of the kinks by then. I got an email showing my dad's average is 185 which is outstanding at 70.

- We decided to leave Hayley with the grandparents while we're in FL. Nick is going to hold down the fort at home. Hopefully we don't miss her to much.

- Easter went great. We visited my brother and his family and my sister and her family. We made it home around 1:30ish am. I'd like to thank Lisa for cooking an outstanding meal. I think they were pretty impressed with the progress Hayley has made.

- School is going good. It's a lot of busy work this semester but the work isn't to challenging.

Spring

This winter was one of the warmest on record and definently the warmest that I remember. There was hardly any snow too. I got to use my snow blower twice. But even though it was such a warm winter the average temperature was still in the 20's which is still to cold to spend a lot of time outside with Hayley. Going to visit Jen today at work with short sleeves on got me thinking about last year in FL and how it was so nice to go outside everyday of the year without a coat. I think our families need to move there so we don't have to worry about not seeing them if we move there.

Vacation dilemma

What to do? Jen and I are planning a vacation to FL at the end of April. The problem we're dealing with is Hayley. Do we leave her with her grandparents for 10 days or bring her with. I'm kind of nervous about leaving her with anyone for a night so 10 days is another story. I know it's a super big chore to bring her with but I'd feel a lot more comfortable with her with us. That way I know she's safe and I won't miss her. A guy at work said "You'll enjoy your vacation for 3 days then you'll spend the rest of the time wishing she was there". I can totally see his point. Maybe we need to cut our vacations down to 2-3 day sprints. That'd be nice if flying was cheap.

And for those of you keeping track I bowled my 3rd 600 series in a row today. Let's see if I can keep it up tomorrow. Soon I'll be on the PBA and you'll be able to watch me on TV. ha!!

Another 600

I bowled another 600 series on Wednesday. I got 5 200 games in a row going counting Tuesdays scores. I ended the night with a 181, 2 pins above my average. It was a decend night and our team is in 5th place so we should move up.

This weekend we're planning on child proofing the house with Hayley crawling. I got the Exploder running but I think it's just about at the end of it's life. I give it gas and it slows down. Kind of weird. I'm thinking it either needs spark plugs or the fuel filter is clogged. Or it's junk and needs to be replaced by a Mazda 3. Who knows.

600 Series

Last night I bowled my first 600 series in a sanctioned league. In the past I've been able to put together 2 good games and then I'd bomb on the third game. Last night was different, I improved every game. It took the edge of the losses by the T-Wolves and the Wild. Now I only need like 1000 more 600 series to catch my dad.

Kirbyyyyyyyyyyy Pucket

Today is an extremely sad day. Kirby was by far my favorite sports figure in any sport ever!! I drove from Willmar to the dome on many occasion and sat in the outfield so I could see him play. And who could forget the greatest introduction of all time "And batting 3rd your center fielder KIRBYYYYYYYYYYYYYY PUCKET". Only Bob Casey, another Twins legend could pull it off. The crowd would go nuts. No other hitter since then has received that kind of ovation every time they step to the plate. Since the time Kirby retired there's been a void in every Twins fans heart. The World Series in '87 was one of the greatest moments in Minnesota history only to be out done by the '91 series. We'll miss you Kirby.

New Hutch

Jens neighbor is retired and he does some wood working on the side. Jens dad had him build us a hutch to store all of Jens Precious Moments. I think it turned out pretty good, however, I could not resist the chance to tease Jen about it. You know the usual, "the computer I could buy with the money we're spending on this" or "I think it would look better on that wall". I think after three days Jen has finally cooled off. :) I tried to work out a deal with Jens parents that in exchange for holding Hayley they should buy us the hutch. I thought they were getting a pretty good deal but they didn't think so. Well I'm off to watch the T-Wolves lose another one. Man being a Minnesota sports fan this year bites.


 
 

Nothing Happening

Life has been pretty routine this winter. Since I don't really like cold weather I just hang out indoors for the most. I day dream about the nice weather they're having in FL and I wish I was there to play golf or just hang out outdoors. I think I've worn a nice path in our carpet from walking Hayley back and forth. It would be really nice to take her for walks outside. Oh well. Hayley does a great job entertaining us. She's just a blast to be around. Right now I can hear her banging her feet against the crib. Which is a sign that she's awake and ready to tackle a couple more hours of the day. So I'm cutting this entry short.

Joel's Plethora of Ideas

Joel has been waiting for his college to remove his autobiography from the web for over a year now. I recently checked to see if it was still there or not and it was gone. So I did a Google search for it and I found the site cached but the image was missing. So I'm recreating the page here (with a slightly modified image) on my blog so this will never go away and Joel will have to live with it forever. Man the kids will love it.



My name is Joel. I am a hardworking, focused college senior. I am thoroughly convinced that I was born a mechanical engineer. From earliest memories I have been building things just to see if they will work. This is why I majored in mechanical engineering, and why I am convinced that I will love a career in the field. My current design projects include a wood burning hot tub, a lightweight gas-powered scooter, and a linkage mechanism for an adjustable kitchen countertop. My brain is a plethora of solutions to design problems. I constantly analyze everything around me, thinking about how things could be designed better or how new designs could be implemented with new materials or mechanisms, always keeping in mind factors like cost and life. Although I have been thinking critically for as long as I can remember, my education has taught me to implement acceptable solutions, and effectively communicate my ideas to others in a viable way.

The majority of my days are spent studying and working. Throughout my college career I have held a job. I feel a sense of pride for working longer and harder than other students. Most would see having an extra job as a disadvantage; I think that it teaches a person how to be organized, self-disciplined, and literally, how to work hard. During school when I am able to have a day off of work I feel like I have abundance of extra time. My homework is done early, and I am left to idleness. In reality this is how other students, or as I see it competitors for future employment, live on a daily bases. This rigorous schedule prepares me beyond the scope of anything I will see in future employment, and I think my employers have, and will, recognize this potential. 

Rolling and Jumping

It's amazing that it's been only 5 months and Hayley is rolling over both ways and she has figured out her jonnie jumpup. She jumps like crazy and when she's out of it she tries to jump anyway. It's so entertaining. This weekend we're getting baptized. The weather has taken a turn from the 30-40's we've had to barley 0. (I won't even mention how nice it is in FL) But it supposed to warm up a bit by Sunday so it shouldn't be so bad.

And a big thanks to Green-O for finishing the dishwasher before all the company comes.

Working 60 hours a week

If you're wondering why there hasn't been any posts in a while it's because our project is working 60 hours a week. It's short term so it's not to bad plus the OT is nice.

Hayley is doing great. She's been rolling over to her stomach in her crib and sleeping like that. But I think she get's frustrated cuz she can't roll back and she'll start fussing. We have nothing to complain about, she's just an awesome baby.

I start my last class Monday. After this semester I'll have a Masters. Cool ey? It will be nice to get that out of the way. Not that I mind taking one class a semester. Well I'm off to work again.

What's up?

Keeping up with the blog? Well not lately. I've been to busy, with what, I don't know.

Anyway, some recent happenings: I did get another ticket. This one for not moving my truck during a snow emergency. I was fortunate enough to see the tow truck pulling up to my truck so I was able to run out and move it before the guy could tow it away. I was happy to pay the ticket rather then have to deal with our truck getting towed. If we were in FL I wouldn't have to worry about stupid snow emergency's.

Ticket Outcome

I took the day off yesterday to fight my ticket in Litchfield. When I got there the clerk had me fill out some forms. I asked how it worked and she said:

a. You can plead not guilty and we'll set up a court date.
b. Pay your ticket.
c. Talk to the Prosecuting attorney and try to negotiate a better deal.

Although I think I could've won the case I choose to talk to the Prosecuting attorney cuz I didn't want to take another day off from work and drive the 1.5 hours it takes to get there.

First the Procecuter said he'd drop the ticket after six months if I didn't get another ticket and I pay the fine. I asked if he could lower the fine, which was $140. He asked what happened and I told him my version of the story and he kind of shrugged and said he'd dismiss the ticket if I didn't get a ticket within 6 months and pay a $100 court fee. Even though the $100 still hurts I settled for it.

No I just need to not get a ticket for six months.