In the Life

Once More Unto the Breach

2008-06-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

Seems like I'm moving blogs again .... finally going to keep this one semiregularly updated, particularly as I'm now a graduate of UC Berkeley with a BA in Astrophysics. So, faithful few (any?), head on over to blog.revealedsingularity.net for more prattlings and ponderings from this end of things.

Six Months Past

2007-11-16T01:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, looks like I really havn't updated this blog in a while. I suppose its been a combination of "busy" and ... well, just busy. Even my LJ hasn't seen quite the update-action it should. Last updated in May? Oh my.

So lets see. The summer was, actually, a lot of fun. Shortly after the May post, we had the Great Egg-Drop Experiment, in which Sara and I won. Yeah, shortly before that Sara returned from her trip to Costa Rica and was back at living in the Mansion (she makes an excellent housemate, for the record). The summer flew by ... the first half was dominated by D&D with Rob and Alyssa before their move to Santa Cruz, much hanging out with the Fabulous Melanie Lieu (now in Korea), an awesome camping trip, oh, and class and research were thrown in there. I managed to complete the image segmentation routines for Kepler, and more-or-less (using Ms. Mintz as a medium) asked out a girl I met two nights prior (turns out she left the state for good two days later. Sigh. Temporary residence in CA). Celtic Studies was actually useful, Classics a bit dull. Much hanging out with Ms. Mintz et al. There was a wee bit of drama, but nothing worth noting. I would have to say, though, this was definiately the best summer I've had in a very long while. I also ended up purchasing a desert kingsnake for myself, which I named (with some help from Sara and Jessica) Heisenberg.

We hit September. School's started, Pancho is MIA and Kepler is put on hold. Its not too bad, though 105 is in Goldman at 8am and the professor is mediocre at best. 110 is interesting (more on that later), NE looks to be interesting but .... different .... German a bit more intimidating than I was betting on, and, of course, the DeCal is going great. My 21^st comes and goes without incident -- definitely my most sober birthday at Cal. Natasha and Jessica and I begin a new D&D campaign, which is still ongoing. 111 is busy as all hell, much as last time, but at least the experiments are a damn sight more interesting.

October rolls around, still bloody hot, and its time to start graduate school applications, midterms and homework are going at full force, and who has time to breathe? Certainly not I. Things go to hell in a handbasket for a bit, calm down, and its the little things that keep me going.

GREs, reserach, midterms, problem sets, and everything has blurred the past two weeks together. Arguably the most notworthy thing in my mind of the past month and a half has been the delay of my Zune 80 and Opteron 2350 -- both of which have been ordered but have been delayed.

This week is the first time I can breathe in a while. Still, though. Much to do. Tomorrow, I have to give Dr. Padian my CV & letter of recommendation stuff, go the the Vivarium for Heisenberg (possibly with Sarah), possibly work on vector graphics with Sara (yes, I am aware of the horrible confusion of knowing both a Sarah and a Sara. The former is "110 girl" and the latter "salamander Sara", for lack of better descriptions that aren't synopses of my personal interactions with them), and D&D in the evening. Then, this weekend will *only* have two problem sets. Which is actually a reduction from average.

I imagine my next post (regardless of me vowing to update more) will be either about the fairer sex, my next semester's schedule, or research. Hm. Along those veins, next semester will be my lightest at Cal with a "mere" 15 units, and maybe I'll post some research pictures later.

Also, I'm not sure if I'll startup a wordpress on revealedsingularity.net . Kyle screwed around with the domains and such, so fine -- I now have my own domain and storage space (where the Raptors and Sea Monsters site is, incidentally).

I think that's it for now.

Radar Blip

2007-05-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

So, upon retrospection, I've realized that this semester is the first time I've ever made some sort of footprint on the greater world.

I've made my first steps into the world of research. With the Kepler project, some of my work will not only have some nonzero impact on the greater scientific world, but on a particular NASA mission! Needless to say, this is amazing beyond belief.

My paleo paper was apparently *really good*. There's an outside chance that with enough correspondence with Matt Wedel, it may become publishable, according to Professor Padian anyway.

Besides dabbling in Paleontology and Astrophysics, I was contacted earlier in the semester by the Mitt Romney campaign to be a technical advisor. For a primary campaign -- one of the four men that might become the presidential candidate for the Republican party. I turned him down on moral (word choice?) grounds, but the fact remains I was so approached.

My work in general has become noticed: I'm consistently good at computers and websites, build them carefully. I was asked to help found a business with someone. An all-in-one solution, site building and computer repair. Because of my workload, I turned it down, but I was asked to get back to them ... and I was a first choice.

Most recently, I missed a phone call during my final from Microsoft. I was contacted by name and asked to call back, and I left a message (I got an extension to a human being. When does this happen?). By bloody MICROSOFT. By name. That's rather nifty! Probably not anything much, but still .... I get a kick out of it.

Somehow in the past six months, I've become more than a nobody. When did this happen?

Sun's Out

2007-05-10T02:02:00.000-07:00

So, a very long semester is drawing once more to a close. Its 1:30 AM, so, of course the right thing to do is to write a blog entry! Even though I posted on much of this earlier, I imagine there will be some re-cap.

While I know I said just under a year ago that, quote, "there is no way in HELL I'm ever doing 20 units again", I did it. I had high hopes; perhaps, without 111 it wouldn't be so bad! I really enjoyed German 1, so why wouldn't German 2 be great? GR was bound to have a bunch of Astro in it. And really, while it was hard to do 20 units, last year wasn't bad .... in fact, I'd argue it was the *nicest* semester, even if the hardest. And Cosmology! Possibly research!

The semester started with the lull before the storm. January was tranquil, mostly spent with Sara, Marya, and fellow Mansioners. Games and D&D abounded, and much time was spent with my two favorite women. January didn't last long enough, and February just started off *bad*. After about 2 weeks of 8AM German, I remembered that I just didn't learn at 8AM, and that it took about 1-2 weeks to sink in. If I didn't memorize-regurgitate for the test, I did poorly ... and if I did, it wasn't really helpful because it was just memorize-regurgitate. I quickly found that the nominally good idea of 75% homework and 25% project for Cosmo was bad ... it ultimately resulted in 9 homework assignments over the semester, each one worth about 8% of my grade. That's right. Homework assignments that were half or a third of a midterm in other classes. Oy. So, of course, GR got the tail end of things, being due 24 hours after Astro. But it was more mathematical (and the questions in class were mathematical) than I'd been wishing, which took a toll. Comp lit was a breadth, but it was taking way too much time for a PNP class. WAY too much time, too much reading and too much money in obscure books. It wasn't all bad -- Paleo was excellent, having a research position satisfying, and Cosmo was fun and interesting if stressful. I had a lot of fun with my paleo paper, as a matter of fact -- and Matt Wedel, who works on Sauropods, thought it was pretty good, and wants to talk with me more about it later.

Then the second week of February hit. In close proximity, I had a midterm, Liz had a motherboard faliure, Marya broke up with me, and I managed to get a shin splint that I didn't treat and would last for about two months. Things began to pretty much snowball from there. Thankfully, Dr. Padian lent me a spare laptop of his, which was a godsend (though I freaked out when its HDD failed, but I replaced it and reinstalled all the software and such for him). Honestly, without it I probably would not have a passing grade this semester; the two weeks I was computerless I was spending about 10-12 hours on campus a day. As a point of fact, Liz didn't return till last week -- it took 2.5 months in all, because they were waiting on a motherboard. Hey, look, I was right ...

All of this took its toll; I fell a little behind and had to spend all spring break playing catch-up, then the GRE was up and coming ... I'm still waiting on those scores. It finally all came to a head the past two weeks, when I had multiple projects and papers and midterms, all in quick sucession. I feel like I'm somewhat close to burn out - but the semester is done, and Friday's final will be the only true challenge to overcome. The paper for Comp Lit shouldn't be too bad, German will be meh, and Paleo should be easy.

This isn't to say its been all bad. Kit and I are finally going to host our DeCal next semester; "Raptors and Sea Monsters -- Mesozoic Marine Reptiles and Saurischia". I may get paid over the summer to do some research, though I'm a wee bit behind right now. Friday I'm going to take my driving test, and if I pass it, I will finally have my driver's license (though I don't anticipate using it much). Summer school shouldn't be too bad; and I will get breadths out of the way. Sara will be living with us (Well, I suppose with "me" for June) over the summer, and with the first class being at nine during the first session and not having class till the afternoon for the second, I'll start getting healthy amounts of sleep again, be able to do more research, and be able to start going to the gym again. Next semester I will be taking three physics classes including 111, but 111 and 105 will be with Peter. I'm not sure if I'll know anyone in 110, but its E&M and that shouldn't be too bad. A bunch of friends will be in the DeCal, 111 is my only MWF class (so if we finish early, I'll have MWF off), I'll be taking NucE180 with Kit and Jessica. There's a small chance Jeanina from German will be in German 170 (my final breadth!). Next semester is looking pretty strong, though I'll hold verdict on the roomie/housing situation. I do have the GRE general on the 23^rd, but the math looks pretty trivial and should need at most 48 hours review.

If I can survive Friday, we'll see where life takes me the next few months. The clouds are clearing, and things are looking distinctly up.

Ex Post Facto

2007-04-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

Tin of mints, you have met your match and are no more.

In other news, the GRE proper wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'll find out in a few weeks how badly I did on the E&M, but I am pretty confident I got all the Astro and Relativity bits right. Of Peter and Kit, I had the fewest left blank, which remains to be seen as a good or bad thing. I only *know* I got one wrong and one right, I suppose. They gave us a question -- it was essentially "Multiply two of these four matrices we supply you with. What is it now?"; and I got [L_z,p_x] incorrect -- I thought it commuted and marked 0.

Now, I make a call to sustenance. Cheesy sticks, you are to perish in my digestive juices.

On the Graduate Record Exam

2007-04-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of the GRE tomorrow, I will give you the books that I've referenced (for even a single formula) the past two weeks in studying (in order of class):

- An Introduction to Mechanics (Kleppner/Kolenkow)
- Quantitative Chemical Analysis (Harris) [Error Analysis]
- Principles of Modern Chemistry (Oxtoby, Gillis, Nachtrieb) [Speed Distributions]
- Electricity and Magnetism (Purcell)
- Vibrations and Waves (French)
- Optics (Hecht)
- Modern Physics (Serway/Moses/Moyer) [Scattering]
- An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics (Carrol/Ostlie)
- Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (Griffiths)
- The Physics of Stars (Phillips) [Some fluid stuff...]
- Gravity (Hartle)
- Introduction to Cosmology (Ryden)
- Peice of ^%#@ purple REA physics prep book

My *real* introduction to cosmo book (Foundations of Modern Cosmology, Hawley and Holocomb)and my galaxies texts aren't quite so useful, I'm afraid.

I've also gone through about 75% of a tin of mints. Today.

I'll admit I'm a hair concerned about this one.

Computer, where art thou?

2007-03-29T03:56:00.000-07:00

So, I return to this blog in the middle of Spring Break, and after four-month hiatus. This time, there is a reason -- my computer, good old Elizabeth, has been out of commission since mid-February! Thankfully, I should be getting her back next week.

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity. Sara lived with us through January [and, I must admit, was a rather good housemate!], and is currently doing her semester abroad in Costa Rica. Shortly before Valentines day, Marya and I broke up, though we are still friends, I must admit we don't talk as often as I'd like, and probably not as much as Sara and I still do -- despite the handicap of being in different countries! Shortly afterwards, everything went crazy.

Well, I did end up landing the research position I wanted, and I'm currently working on finding a good way to compare predicted and real contrasts across the solar surface; however, time-lag between photographs, rotation of the sun, and normalizing intensities from two very different measurements is being a bit tricky. I think I'm close, though. However, Astro has proved to be interesting -- a class that is 75% homework, which thus robs much homework time from my General Relativity class, which is due 24 hours after Astro but a small fraction of the percentage of my grade. I'm not sure how this will end up reflecting on my GPA! Paleo has proved to be a wonderful class, and I'm reminded why I love the IB department so much. I'm considering looking into taking another class in that department next semester, just because ... I like the material. This semester, however, is taking its toll on me -- I feel habitually tired and my work has been slipping. This creates an excess of work which leads to more slipping, and, on the whole, it is a runaway effect. The result of this is my using this break as a catch-up period, the bulk of which has been devoted to my paper on Sauropods -- which I'll consider posting when its done. Otherwise, after this break (my immediate concerns for the future) are a German test, Paleo midterm, GR midterm, then the GRE subject test the week after that. Whoo.

If this trend continues, I expect the next update to be at the end of the semester. I expect things to be looking up. I'll be taking classes in Berkeley over the summer, and Sara will be staying with us. There is the slight dilemma of finding a new roommate, but I am not overly concerned. Here's to hoping the next post is a rather positive one!

Countdown

2006-12-30T14:39:00.000-08:00

I have come to the conclusion that I must need to be endlessly entertained. I find breaks boring to the point of tedium, and indeed cannot wait for my return to Berkeley -- for more than one reason.

Now, with the personal statement for my URAP application done ... I must learn IDL. But that's all that remains as work for the rest of this break.

I'm counting down the days until I return.

Echos

2006-12-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

So, I find that I've not updated this blog in six months. Oh wow, I'm usually not *that* bad, though I do [by far] preferentially update my Livejournal, since its its nature to be more 'in the moment'. So, what has been going on since June 2006?

For about two weeks in early July, my mom, sister, and I finally went to Europe -- we ended up visiting [despite some complications] London, Paris, and Rome before returning to the states, wallets considerably lighter. The rest of the summer proper was relatively uneventful until the middle of August rolled around, which had a rather unfortunate congruence of a bad cold, a Linux [Ubuntu-style] debacle culminating in a computer crash and a seperate but simulaneous external hard drive faliure, and upon the would-be triumphant retun to Berkeley, Sara broke up with me [thankfully, the whole thing was approached very intelligently on her part and we are still close friends]. Enter the semester: a strange Music 'American Cultures' class, a Quantum class with too-high-level math, and a superb Stellar Physics class and German class. I'll avoid an arduous review of these here, since I speak at rather great length about them in my LiveJournal.

Extracurricularly, I didn't go to fencing or archery anymore, as funds prohibited. My involvement with BCR toned down a bit; I had grown tired of the drama brought about last year, and so I tried to stay close to my friends -- and close enough to be informed and to help when I could -- but I did what I could to prevent any personal drama. I think that I failed in staying properly involved, and came across instead as reclusive; but I avoided any extreme personal involvement in the drama, at least. My efforts on the BCR site still have not reached fruition, as I am having a difficult time working within the constraints of the style system while adding an second menu bar, but with luck it will be up in a few weeks [and fully HTML 4.01 Strict compliant!]. I also took the advice of Sara around the middle of October to begin looking into research. I inquired with Professor Davis, and he forwarded my request to the rest of the astro department, the end result of which is that I am going to be working with Professor Basri on Stellar Microvariability for the Kepler mission -- a search for low-mass extrasolar planets.

Of course, the first of two big things this semester has been, of course, "The Mansion", or a five bedroom house where Kit, Rob, Ben [and soon Melissa] and I live. Its been quite convenient and for the most part, rather uneventful. Having our own rooms allows us whatever degree of privacy we desire, of course, but game nights and such are rather frequent -- though our decline in Halo sessions has in large part to do with my focusing on schoolwork later in the semester. The other "Big Thing" was, of all things, the result of a Halloween costume. Long story short, I met Marya when I was dressed as Data for Halloween, and after some mutual awkwardness born of little experience, we have now been going out for roughly a month and a half.

So, lest I neglect this for another six months, what's up and coming? Well, the research of next semester, to be sure, hopefully a Spring Break with Marya down in SoCal, schoolwork, Sara will stay with us for January and possibly the summer [Well, Marya is an awesome girlfriend who appreciates and is not jealous that Sara and I are still close. And just amazingly awesome in general :-D ], and hopefully the Leadership Conference will not fall through. Perhaps more later. For now -- I depart.

Interlude

2006-06-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

Its been about a month since I posted on this blog ... so what have I been doing since I got out of Berkeley?

Well, I idled the first few weeks... due to strange timing lineups, I wasn't able to resume my Best Buy job (actually a rather good one) until about 6/14 or thereabouts. I went up to Santa Barbara on the 30^th of May to visit Sara, and took the Amtrack back down on the morning of the 31^st.... quite a bit of fun, and I love spending time with her. I also visited her this past Monday/Tuesday in a road trip up to Berkeley with Kit, in which we also moved stuff into The Mansion. That was also very enjoyable ... among other things, it was pleasant to just sit with her when we were at the Botanical Gardens and watch the pool and the little newts and such inside.

Somewhere in there (I don't quite remember the date), Ben, Andrea, Melanie S and I all went to Disneyland for Andrea's birthday .... it was my most enjoyable Disneyland experience in recent memory, which I think had a large part to do that it was just kind of spazzing out with friends. The percieved freedom did a lot, though the activities didn't differ *too* much (though we did a lot more of the kiddie rides).

Well, I go to Europe this Friday for two weeks. It should be a lot of fun, I'm really looking forward to the BMNH, though I'm going to miss Sara terribly.

Back to being productive.

Halfway There

2006-05-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

So, I'm halfway done with college. I managed to complete this semester not as well as I'd hoped (of course), but much better than I'd have (honestly) expected. Fully a 3.0, with 20 units and 8-12 hours of lab a week. C+, B+, and the rest B's. Very solid, even if mediocre. However, there's no way in HELL I'm ever doing 20 units again. That was absurd, and caused me to become reclusive and more distant in many ways.

Event-wise, since I last updated, there was a bit of a going-on in the BCR elections, which I played a part in. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but perhaps this time the ends may justify the means. I think I probably could have found a better but equally effective approach. Otherwise, the month has been one of projects and finals. I spent a lot of time with Sara, largely beginning with Special Dinner on the 29^th, and I'm very happy right now with everything.

Despite the hell of the semester, and all its work, I am actually very very happy with it. The past few days have been amazing, and I'm not sure that I'll ever forget them. A spectacular way to end the school year.

And you know what? Next semester is just looking better.

And the Circle Goes Yet Round..

2006-04-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

As this semester draws to a close, I feel obliged to update this.

Its evident that all of my friends were correct; 20 units is too much to handle. Very strangely, it was Sara that got me through the first few months of class, despite the insanity. However, things did start going downhill after Februrary. March, and CRP, brought in a few new people solidly in the 'friend' category [Lisa R comes most notably to mind], but workloads are indifferent to ones aspirations and social life. This semester, therefore, has seen me retreat into my secure shell, and some of my cast-off "dorm barnacle" tendancies began to return. No new woman has truly in any serious way taken my fancy, which has actually more drawbacks than bonuses from my slight experience.

The scholastics of this semester have been... somewhat questionable. I am honestly not sure where I lie. My labs, no matter how long, how much effort, I put into them, I seem to hover between 85 and 70 on the grades. However, having no concept of teh curve, I don't know where I lie for 111. For 137, the point totals of the homeworks are unlisted, as well as averages, so all I have to base it on is what was a B+ for my first midterm and a probable faliure for the second [still unkown]. Astro I think I'm doing moderately well in, but again, not much reference. English, my professor doesn't believe in giving a grade until the end, so... there that one goes. Gregors class is spectactular, though my midterm grade was average at best. I have a feeling that that one I can salvage at the final to a GPA-boost status.

In my personal life, what I've found is ... well, all sorts of odd things. What I've figured out is that nothing can really be predicted in a serious way, but... ultimately, this isn't the place for it. Its had its ups, and its downs, but there's really only two things I'd change over the whole semester.

That's it for now. Back to Quantum homework (put off for an excellent bout of Capture the Flag), and back to the grind.

Once more with feeling

2006-02-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

So, what has occured, these past few months? My social circle has had a complete upheaval. I had a significant outing with Melissa, which is on the repair, Kit is now dating Louise, and Louise and I had a large falling out over break, a temporary reparation, and currently... the cold shoulder. Instead, BCR has taken on a bit of a larger aspect of my life. Andrea, Melanie (S), and Melissa (J) have all become better friends, as have Chris P, Lisa R, and John R.

However, what of my personal life? I took the plunge and asked out AR on a date last November; while it was nice, nothing came of it and that was that. Scholastics of the Fall of 05 were mostly good, but I did poorly on the finals, which reduced two A's to subpar grades.

Enter winter break... long, dull, but odd. I attended a social event of Liza's(odd enough in itself -- but this was a football watching party), where I met one SW. We hit it off pretty well, and I decided (with some help and prodding from Liza) to ask her out... and it was a smashing sucess. I had a thoroughly good time, while it lasted (We dated for roughly one month); though she recently decided that she's not ready for a relationship, I'd never press her to do something she'd not like, or want, to. I'm glad she's willing to stay friends, because I value that. However, coupled with midterms and a 20 unit workload, this semester has worked out to be quite difficult, and this week in particular hellish. I would like to note for my posterity that I loathe, with a passion, Berekeley Physics 111 Lab, Basic Semiconductor Circuits. Alas, it is mandatory. My other classes are going fairly well; I have Professor Marc Davis for Astro 7B (again! He was great in Ay3), which is quite fun, and Quantum is... interesting, if challenging. I love Dr. Gregor for PS136A, though I find my English class tedious at best.

I've been set back, yes, but I will persist. I will succeed this semester, and I will give it my all. Right now, the big thing for me is resolving myself to my situation -- for I was really amazingly fond of SW, and I can tell already that this recovery will be different than normal. We're on the search for housing next year, and with luck, we'll get this nice place on Northside.

Let's see how the ball bounces. This weekend is CRP, and I think that all bets are off as to how it'll be. Thankfully, I'll be able to see Vanessa, which will be great, though. But otherwise... its up in the air.

Down the Rabbit Hole

2005-11-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I do believe it is time to provide an update to this.

In the months intervening between this post and the last, quite a bit has happened, mostly relevant on an personal scale. This has been largely related on my livejournal, which is not intended as a place for serious, thoughtful, or otherwise insightful ideas. Instead, it is a place to put a comment or tale to all my friends simultaneously, rather than a rigourous journal, which I imagine would be more akin to ideas, theories, and some chronology (though much less of the 'I went on a LAN party Friday' order-of-magnitude).

My job at Best Buy was a complete success, during which I earned enough money to purchase my current laptop (also here). The leftover money has slowly been leaving my bank and flowing out into society as I change my eating habits to result in a healthier (or, at least more-well-fed) me. My 19^th birthday was rather interesting, and my friends were just great. Our social net took a bit of a blow, recently, upon the breakup of Robert and Louise, but we seem to be getting along better, now. After a far-too-long summer, I'm enjoying Cal once more, and performing better than my previous year overall, which is quite heartening. Additionally, I've personally been able to calm myself somewhat, and positive things in my personal life may be on the horizon--at the very least, I have someone to thank very deeply, regardless of how it turns out, for ushering in an era of calmness and relaxation in my life.

Today was the termination of this semester's midterm season (though I still have a single paper to write for EPS), and I'm becoming satisfied in my personal goal to become a Renaissance Scientist of sorts.... I'm still fairly in touch with biology, and my overall knowledge of science, especially that which is astrophysical, has increased by several orders of magnitude. Indeed, this very day I had a minor epiphany event (not the same order of magnitude as last year's General Relativy Image epiphany) regarding the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and through association with some new friends in BCR I've been able to round myself out somewhat. I've finally become satisfied with my level of socialbility, have a stable friend group of which I'm proud of, and I've taken on enough extracurriculars that it feels full-- I still do fencing when I can, I'm attempting to take up Archery, and I'm the current webmaster of the BCR website. I have some things to do yet for it, but I'm nevertheless satisfied for the time being.

With luck, things will go well. I acknowledge that this has not been updated much, and it probably won't be too significantly updated until the Real World ^&tm; comes up and hits me on the back to say hi. Until then, I'll see you on LiveJournal.

I'll be back in a few months.
~Philip

The Job

2005-07-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of the fourth week on the job at Best Buy #183 as a Geek Squad Tech. It's been going rather well, actually. I think I've proven myself to be a hard, adept worker, and I've settled into a routine. It's been fairly established that yes, I can handle customers, but I don't play the little idiosyncracies of the system quite properly, and I sometimes forget to give them a second form I'm supposed to give them. However, I'm learning quickly. I can repair almost any computer problem.... enough that I get really annoyed with myself when I find a problem that I cannot solve, such as a current one involving a RAID setup. However, I think that this has proven my worth, and my skills in the area of computing. This is giving me good money, experience, and will be quite helpful in the long run.

On a related note, I offically dislike taxes that aren't for some constructive purpose like general state taxes. I find the idea that someone is getting the money that I worked for rather irritating... and I hope that "Federal SS-0" isn't social security. I'm not going to see a dime of it, and that was $80 in taxes on this last pay check...

Refrencing

2005-06-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd direct you all to my LJ, which will contain my frivolous and introspective posts. I think I've decided that this blog will contain more....substantive posts, if there is such a thing. Things made to be very very public, with the intent of having it spread.

Therefore, my first statment: Please, do go check out the BCR test website and send me feedback!

The Pheonix

2005-06-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

And like the Pheonix of legend, this Blog has been reborn from the login-forgotten ashes of the first one. Lets see if this one survives.