Planning for the future

This has been a pretty good week.  I started of the week trying to fix the TV Tuner at our house.  It just suddenly stopped working.  I must have tried about 30 different things to get it working.  I eventually was able to restore part of the channels by day 2, but that wasn’t good enough for my uncle, so we continued to work on the problem.  We think we came up with a solution on day 3, but then just as we were about to start trying that out, it magically started working.  Oh the wonders of electronics :)

On Tuesday I bombed my test.  I think I have only done so poorly one other time in my college career.  Usually I think of getting a 90% as bombing a test, but this time I just hope I got about an 80% :/  Pray that my teacher will be nice to me.

That day was made even more stressful by the fact that we had a group project due in one of my classes the next day, and my team was performing less then admirably.  One of the team members had done their section so poorly, that I had to do a ton of work to get the project even working.  It was just so stressful.  I can’t wait until I start graduate school, and I don’t have to take classes that are not going to help me any more.  Oh how nice life will be then.

 

Thursday is when I finally made decisions about what I am going to be doing for the next two years.  I have decided to remain at BYU and get my master’s degree here.  My professor is really excited to help me get published, and do a lot of amazing research.  It is both of our goals to help me get accepted to a top 10 program for my Ph.D.  Hopefully with a couple published papers, attending at least one high level conference, and doing a summer research internship, I should be a strong candidate for those graduate schools.

I am excited for all of this.  Like I said I have also chosen to spend two years getting my master’s degree.  I could finish it in a year, but I don’t think that is what is best in my life.  School is good, but I think that I have focused too much on it up to know.  Taking two years to finish my degree will allow me to only take 6 credit hours a semester, plus audit three of math, and maybe a religion class and a dance class.  This will be really nice in that it will  really help me finish all my work in the lab, and then just have time outside of work to do the more important things in life.

With that in mind I have really spent a lot of time settings goals for next month.  I love setting goals!  Now if only I was at good at keeping them as I am at setting them…

 

On Friday I moved where I sit in the lab.  I also took another one of the students graphics cars (with his permission), and now my whole setup is a lot sweeter.  The only thing it is missing is a third monitor, but I got the equipment I will need to set up three monitors at home, so at least I will have it in one location.

 

So that is where I am at now.  I am just in the middle of a transition phase.  Soon I will be starting off life as a graduate student.  I am excited for it, but also a little nervous as I don’t fully know what it will be like.  But, I guess that is what makes life such an adventure!

Fun times

The week started out with my back just killing me.  Apperantly sleep was not the things to help the little back discomfort I felt after our cabin trip.  I must have hurt something snowmobiling.  Sitting down became a 10 minute process of easing into a chair without dying from pain.  And for any of you that know how high my pain threshold is, you can just image how bad this was.

Wednesday was much of the same stuff.  I was just in crazy amounts of pain.  Apparently the pain also makes me stupid, as I forgot that I even had class in the afternoon.  Hard to get more air-headish then that.

The one good thing was that even though my back was killing me I was able to stay pretty focused on my school work.  I was actually able to get completely caught up in my course work.  Yah!

 

Thursday and Friday were pretty normal days.  Luckily on Thursday my back pain was starting to go down.  By then I had probably popped 20 vertebrae back in to place.  On Friday the back pain was nearly completely gone, and I danced around in joy, and promptly hurt myself again!  Ok, that was facetious, I didn’t really hurt myself.

 

Saturday, now Saturday that was a good day.  In the morning I presented research that I have been doing.  I was able to express myself rather well.  I even had one of the professors who was judging tell me he thought that my presentation was the best of the session.  I also had my professor talk about me doing some stuff to help write a paper.  This would probably be the first paper that I will get my name on.  Wish me the best of luck.

In the afternoon I tried doing some planning for the coming months.  I am thinking that I will actually not be going back to China this summer.  The reason is that I still have not found an internship, and I am not willing to wait until the last second to find one.  I have applied to several, and if they work out, then I will go through with it, otherwise I will put it off to next semester, when I am a better candidate for internships anyways.

If I do stay here, I will probably move my entrance date for Grad school up to spring/summer.  It is looking more like I will go to BYU.  I am really interested in the research I am doing, and Rochester lacks a security program.  We will see how it turns out, but this is probably for the best.  I can use my time at BYU to determine the area I want to continue researching for my Ph.D., and hopefully become more appealing to those programs.

I am also probably going to move back into the FLSR.  I really enjoyed my time there, and I still have a bunch of my friends there.  We will just have to see how things fallout.  Hopefully it all works out.

 

That night I got to watch the BYU vs. Gonzaga game.  It was really fun to watch.  BYU really played great defense, and shot wonderfully.  If we can continue to play like that I think there is a really good chance we make it into the Elite Eight and then the Final Four.  I am really hoping for this, as it would be great to see BYU’s current team make school history.

After the game I just chilled with the guys in the Russian house.  Sean suggested the craziest thing I have ever heard.  He wants me to learn the guitar, and then start a band with him, Jordan, and Pasha.  OMG, I actually think I might do it.  I am starting to think I will take two years to finish my master’s degree, which means I will have more free time, and this would certainly be something fun to do.

Maybe our band could be an opening act for the great band LCD

Fun in the snow

I had a really good week this week, with all of it culminating in a cabin trip.  The week leading up to the trip was pretty crazy though.  First I needed to get caught up in all of my work to the point that I could miss two days of classes.  I also worked 20 hours, and prepared a presentation for a research conference that I am presenting at next semester.

On Thursday I even got to help a friend do their programming homework.  It was fun to go back to the basics.  It is also fun to see just how much things have changed.  I remember things like this taking me time to think of, and now it all seems so easy.  I guess I have learned something in college ;)

 

On Friday I headed up to the family cabin.  It was really clear until we actually got to the access road that leads to the cabin.  The snow had melted and refrozen, making it a difficult drive in.  We had to push one of the cars when it got stuck, but in the end we made it just fine.

That night we didn’t do much, just settle into the house.  The next day started the wonderfulness that is the food at the cabin. In the morning we had a fabulous breakfast quiche, followed at lunch by some wonderful homemade soup, with dinner being a delightful parmesan chicken.

The day itself involved some light sledding and watching the BYU basketball game.  Even though the game was a little sad, it was great being able to relax for the rest of the time.  We ended the day by watching Just Right and a Rascal Flats concert that was broadcast on TV.

 

Sunday was quite.  We didn’t go to church because we were snowed in.  It was fun watching feet of snow fall from the roof, like mini avalanches.  We did go for a little Sunday ride.  It was just beautiful how everything look covered in the snow.  I wish I had brought my camera.

Monday was the last day at the cabin.  In the morning I went with my Uncle and some of our friends shooting.  It was an old 22 caliber pistol.  I was the first to  nock down any cans, but we all ended up hitting them quite a bit.  All good fun.  It was been a long time since I have been able to go shooting.

After that several of us went out snowmobiling.  This time was my first time going through the fresh powder.  It was so much fun, though you really have to throw your weight around to go where you want to go.  Certainly not the easiest thing. 

After that we packed up and headed home.  It was a nice and smooth drive.  Overall the weekend was just magnificent.  I feel recharged for the rest of the semester before me.  I did tweak my back a little, so hopefully it will cool down before not too long, but other than that everything is great.

 

Well, I hope you all had as enjoyable weekends as I did.  Wish you all the best!

Two good weeks

Well, I guess I forgot to write my blog last week.  I have been updating a bunch of my programs I use for e-mail and contacts so that they will sync with my new phone, and somewhere amidst all of that I accidently lost the outlook task that told me to write my blog.  Without those I can’t remember anything for more than five seconds. :)

 

I was offered a job by Qualtrix two weeks ago.  After hearing how much Jordan Plater talked it up, I was quite surprised by the low offer they gave me.  Most likely I will not take it, but maybe I will make a counter offer, though it is doubtful they would be willing to accept a counter offer that is about twice what they offered me.

On Thursday I had some really sweet curry.  Cameron, a family friend who is leaving to enter the coast guard, came over and made some curry.  I guess it is in the Japanese style, but whatever it was it was really good.  I certainly have missed by Asian foods since coming back to the “land of butter”, so it was good to get some.  It was also really fun to spend the evening with a bunch of my family and friends.

I had more Asian food when I went with another one of my friends, Naomi, to eat some Chinese hotpot.  It was really good food.  There broth tastes amazing after you have cooked all of the foods in it.  My favorite part is drinking the soup at the end.  The meats were also all really good.  I really do miss hot pot, it is so good.  What I miss most is the individual hotpots they had in China.  Those were just amazing.  It was also fun to spend some time with a friend that I have not seen in two years.

On Friday I helped Jared beat the entire set list of country music for the country track pack on Rock Band.  Is there anything better then an afternoon sitting around listening to country music?  Certainly, but not too many things are.

 

This last Sunday we had my cousin Ashlyn’s birthday party.  Once again it was great seeing all of my family.  That is really what I missed the most being in China.  It is great being so near to my family, and being able to see them.  I also got to play a new game called Spot It.  It really is a lot of fun.  I will just have to make sure to never play it with Brandon Carroll, or he will kill me in it just like he does with set.

This week was one of the most productive weeks I have had at work.  In just this week along, I finished up the main projects I was working on, wrote two new servers, and started writing a new mail client for our code-base.  So in these last two weeks I updated years worth of code, it feels rather good.

Wednesday was a sad day though.  I have really gotten into BYU basketball.  I have to admit that I was worried what not having Brandon Davies would do to us on our game this Wednesday, but I didn’t imagine it would go as bad as it did.  We were killed by New Mexico.  What worries me about this the most is that New Mexico has now kicked our buts twice in a row, and I am afraid another team in the tournament will see how they played against us, and use that style to also kick our butts.  I think BYU’s team is still really good, I am just not sure if we will be able to do as well as we have in the rest of the season.  Sad day :(

On Saturday I went to Zuppas for the first time.  I was actually really interested to see what the food would be like, since I know it is my cousin’s favorite place to eat.  It was actually pretty darn good.  At the prices they have I might just have to go more often.  It was crazy packed at the store though, since they were giving out free desserts that night.

I also decided to be silly and get the chocolate fondue for myself.  It was sooooo good.  It was a little expensive, and I thought dipping brownies in chocolate was a little excessive, but it was delightful.  I am going to have to buy myself a fondue pot and due chocolate fondue soon.  Well, maybe not soon, but rather when I finally have discretionary funds again.

 

So, overall two really good weeks.  I will be going up to the cabin next weekend, and I am really looking forward to that.  Maybe I will even take my camera so I can get some pictures.  Until then, I hope all of you are well.  I can tell that my friends in China are still having sweet adventures.  Thanks guys for keeping me jealous of not being in China ;)