What's going on with me?

8-26-05 - I'm pissed off. Tomorrow's my birthday. I was at Outback Steakhouse a few hours ago and those jerks did not give me a special birthday chair! >:-o

Tomorrow I'm heading to Cookeville. No, I'm not going there for my birthday. I'm just going to see people I haven't seen all summer, people I miss dearly...those are two different groups :-P ;-)

Now that school's back in session, maybe I'll get some decent hits to my site again. People! Answer my survey questions! Submit some, too!

Getting paid is nice, I tell you. I put a substantial amount into retirement this go around and I still netted quite a bit. Life is good :-)

Cookeville peeps, I can't wait to see you all! I'll be roaming Murphy and making some calls and what not. Keep your eyes open for me or call me and let me know if you'll be around :-D Woo-hoo!

8-21-05 - Goodness. I've been up here just over 2 1/2 months. I was gonna go into how it seems like it's been so long, but then I realized it also seems like it's been such a short time and instead of jumping into an awkward pointless narrative that would just make both of us feel awkward reading it, I'll just leave it at this.

Life continues to be good. I turn 23 soon, not that that matters, but I'm sure that this birthday will be so much better than the past two years. Two years ago wasn't bad, it was just uneventful. Last year was terrible. I could die and it would still be better. I'm also an idiot.

I can sightread some 9-footers on DDR now. That's just riduckalous.

The 4-10's schedule is kinda a double-edged sword. During the week, I'm so worn out. I have to go to bed early, and I only have a few hours a night to relax. However, all day Friday, I thought it was Saturday and all day yesterday I thought it was today, and all day today I thought it was Blurnsday. With the exception of the end of that dumb sentence, the weekend was soooooooo nice!

8-15-05 - I'm glad the people at work are picking on you and haven't gotten to me yet about it :-)

Last night Sarah was over watching 24 and I called my mom and we fake-argued for a little while and I told her she had herpes. Hahaha!

I once got a Lite Brite stuck up my nose.

My favorite word to type is complaining.

Today I got my first check for mystery shopping. It was for $23 and change, $16 of it profit.

I was talking to Dale and Elijah the other day and I was extremely surprised at the fact that they had both heard of Osgood-Schlatter Disease, which I had growing up. Bleh, not fun.

I went to a swing dancing lesson with Jessica on Wednesday night and at one point I danced with a gal named Joy (more on that name in a minute). I was wearing my nerd ring and one of my Odyssey of the Minds shirts that I got in May. She was the second person that night alone (and second person, period, to ask about when I did it). She then said, "I see you're an engineer," referring to my engineer ring (heh). I said, "Wow, I'm surprised you know what that means!" I then asked if she was an engineer, as well, and she said that she's a chemical engineer. I just laughed and said, "Good girl!" I found all of this funny because many a year ago, I would just walk around the house singing "Happy, Happy! Joy, Joy!" and my mom kept asking me who Joy was and when we were gonna get married. That last for a long time and was very annoying. This Joy is the second one I've met, as far as I can remember. The first was an old man (hahaha, the only person who'll get that probably doesn't read this any more).

So the other day, coming back from lunch, me, Jessica, and Preston (and maybe someone else) were talking about nerdy stuff and Jessica said something about how she's been trying to come up with an electrical engineering joke for a couple years. She said "I've got the start: 'What'd the resistor say to the capacitor?' or 'What'd the inductor say to the battery?'" Me and Preston (who knows my friend Matt's sister Casey, hahaha) told her that she was going about it the wrong way. You have to start from the end and work toward the punchline. At that point, we were at her building and she started walking inside. Preston and I kept talking about the joke issue and he said, "What'd the resistor say to the capacitor?" to which I replied, "I like bananas." We kinda thought it was funny, cuz the joke didn't have to make sense. We shouted it back to Jessica and just laughed to ourselves. She walked into her building and we were at my building (next door) at that point, and I just asked Preston, "What the resistor say when it meditated?" and he didn't know, so I told him, "Ohm..." We got a kick out of it and I went to tell Jessica, who was a bit perturbed that I had come up with one so quickly. About half an hour later, I came up with another one:

A capacitor and an inductor were running for President. Both of them kept running smear campaigns against the other, had mud-slinging ads on the tv and radio, etc. One day, the capacitor's advisor went up to him and said, "Sir, you've got to see this new advertisement that the inductor has put out. It doesn't make your win look too promising." The capactor watched the commercial and then just pondered to himself and then, realizing everything that was in the commercial was true, simply turned to his advisor, sighed, and said, "Farad."

Hahahaha, I'm such a nerd. I tell you what, it takes a chemical engineer to make a decent electrical engineering joke.

8-8-05 - Today is a very special day, as it marks one year since something great happened. On August 8, 2004, the picture of me riding on a fish, that we have all come to know and love (and it's on my home page) was taken. Many thanks, again, to Kate for having to pee every 5 seconds and to Chris for taking the picture. Thanks to Annie, Julianne, Lauren, and Lauren's dad for taking their pics with the fish, as well.

Wow, I had a long day. I had training for 7 hours on junk I learned a few years ago. That's government money at work. In fact, last Monday, the Secretary of Energy was in Oak Ridge giving a little speech on whatever. Around 1400 employees were cordially required (thanks, David) to go listen to his speech. Now, I thought it was cool to see an important Washington guy in person, but I got nothing out of his speech. Anyway, by my estimates, the government spent (on employee wages alone) roughly $175k for us to go listen to him - and I think that's a lowball estimate.

Anyway, I came home (wow, I've started calling it "home" more and more often) and had time to force down a box of Kraft Cheese & Macaroni before Jessica and, later, Wes came over to play DDR. Wes didn't stay for too long, as he's headed to Chicago for training tomorrow until Thursday night. Jessica ended up staying til around 11. It seems like I've cemented a new friendship, which is always great, especially when you think that said person thinks you're dumb or weird or whatever. We had fun. She put up with all my videos and all this good stuff. I'm gonna teach her how to play Maniac Mansion some time soon.

I had such a great weekend. I saw Lindsay, who I hadn't seen in three years. We went to our friend Amber's wedding, which was probably the best wedding I've ever been to. It was short, entertaining, small, very casual, etc.

I got a 1 GB memory card for my new camera for $60, which is AWESOME (the price and the camera)! I took lots of pictures and videos while hanging out with Will, Kate, and Carrie on Friday night. If Gus wasn't so stubborn about stupid things, she would've been there, too. Gus, I don't know if you read this or not, but for the record: Kate had free games, too. You didn't win this one :-D

Unfortunately, I heard something upsetting yesterday that I need to tell someone mentioned in this post, but I don't know how or if I should do it. What? Who is that someone? Secretary of Energy Bodman, what?

8-3-05 - I'm sensing that this will be a long post.

Man, yesterday at work was rough. Using a spreadsheet that had some basic equations already in it, I set up a system of 49 simultaneous equations and variables. I had to finagle a lot of the equations, and I started getting quite frustrated. It would've been very easy to just give up, but I kept analyzing and tweaking for an hour and a half. After that amount of time (this is after the initial setup which probably took an hour or two), I finally got a converged solution. It was a desirable result, too! I was so incredibly excited, you wouldn't believe it.

I hate the word "sporty."

Today at the going-away lunch for Wayne at Mr. Gatti's, there were a couple people at the table when I got there. So I got my food from the buffet and went to sit down and I saw a gal that I didn't recognize from behind. She turned and I saw her profile and I just continued thinking that I wouldn't know her. All of a sudden, it hit me that it was someone that I hadn't seen in at least 3 years! It was Honey! I was so excited to see her! We were never that good of friends, but since my junior (her senior) year in high school, we'd chat for a while whenever we'd run into each other. It happened a couple times at Tech, but not since she graduated. Over Thanksgiving break (I can't remember if I wrote about this or not...probably not - and I just checked, forgetting that I didn't start this section until December), our mutual friend Amy told me that Honey and Clark were a few months pregnant. It made me smile, as I hadn't really thought much about them in recent times. Well, when I started working at Y-12, I saw Clark at lunch one day and talked with him a little bit. After lunch, I went back to my cubicle and someone told me that he and Honey had their kid, a little boy named Luke. I was so happy for them! I really hoped I'd be able to go see Luke and Honey, but I didn't wanna intrude, so I just left it alone. Well, today I got to meet Luke. He's 2 months and 1 day old and is adorable. It was very good to talk with Honey, and when she saw me (I had to say her name a couple times), she gave me a hug - something that's really lacking for me in Knoxville :-( I just hope that's not the last time I'll talk to her for a while. She knows I live close to her, so hopefully she'll facilitate some sort of communication. I don't wanna intrude since she has a lot to handle with the baby, so I'll lie low for a bit and see what happens.

At the beginning of the last paragraph, I mentioned that Wayne is leaving. A few of you may have heard about Wayne from me, but I doubt that many have. It's a shame, really, because though he's, in total, had a very short time in my life, he's made quite an impact on who I am. Maybe it's not as big as I'm kinda making it out to be, but it's very significant. I met Wayne 5 years ago this month. He was one of the first people I met when I started college. It was two days after I moved into the dorms right before my first semester. Wow, now that I think about it, what seems like the littlest decision at any given time can have such a great impact in your life. When you're new, TTU puts you in what's called an SOL group. That morning, the activity was to go to the main quad, where there were having a religious organization festival so everyone could find their churches and what not. At that point, I already knew I was an atheist, but I still was going to church cuz I didn't have the nerve to tell my parents. Having nothing better to do that morning, I went along with the group (extremely important decision #1), but kind of went astray(extremely important decision #2). I went into the temporary location for the Honors Lounge to check my e-mail. As I came outside, a guy by the name of Shawn was sitting outside with a few other people. I was still extremely shy at that point (heck, I still am now in a good number of situations), and I'm surprised that I decided to take him up on the offer to do a photo scavenger hunt (extremely important decision #3). This is a side note, but somehow within that minute or so conversation, I told him I was into acting and he told me about the Drama Troupe that he had just started the semester before. I told him I'd join (extremely important decision #4).

A side note on the Drama Troupe: I joined for the second semester of its existance and stayed through the fifth, opting out for the next two and then being on co-op for the next two. When I came back from co-op, I decided to try it again for another semester and, apparently, brought some much-needed like and enthusiasm back into the group. I kinda regretted staying around for the 11th semester (last semester), but if you go back and read some of my April (I think) posts, you'll know that I made the correct decision in staying. But back to why this was an extremely important decision - besides giving me something to do for 3 years and lots of memories and friends to see at Tech and helping to make me pseudo-famous with the people that would go to see the shows (mostly people that I was already friends with), it helped me network to my current group of friends here in Knoxville. Five years ago, if you told me that wakling into the Jere Whitson building at that time on that August Saturday morning would've been one of the most important things I would ever do, I probably would've been confused and then just walked away. I just wish I could convey the feeling of relief I get when I think about it. Anyway, enough rambling...

So I went on the photo scavenger hunt. There were five people on my team. Me; Deanna, whom I've never really liked; Sarah, who I kept in contact with for a while, lost touch with, and then saw a week and a half ago at Crystal and Jodie's wedding reception; Cheyenne, who I kept in touch with for a couple years; and Wayne. I couldn't put my finger on it at that moment, but all I knew was that Wayne was just a fun guy. He really made the photo scavenger hunt enjoyable...enjoyable enough for me to do it for two more years (but when I got teamed up with Deanna again, I called it quits). My team won my first two years (man, I keep going on tangents...this is supposed to be about Wayne).

Anyway, I don't think I really talked to him much after that. I just remembered that I had a blast on the hunt. Maybe a few weeks later, I saw a newsletter or something and I saw his picture, and under it was a caption about his being the student body president or something. I was very impressed with that, as he wasn't the least bit a prep or jerk or anything that student government people usually are. He was just a genuine guy that could and did get along with anyone who'd let him.

A guy named Michael that I met that year lived across the hall in the dorm from Wayne that year. I remember hearing the occasional Wayne story from him, in particular one involving Michael's retarded roommate (who was in Drama Troupe with me the first semester, coincidentally).

I don't really remember anything involving him my sophomore year. My junior year, though, my friend Aaron (who I met in my third semester in the Drama Troupe - see how that was an extremely important decision?) invited me over for his Halloween party. I brought David, my then roommate, and much fun was had by all. Wayne just happened to be there, and so David and I had a blast talking and joking around with him. Again, it wasn't for an incredibly long time, but to this day, nearly three years later, David still talks about "that guy at the Halloween party dressed as a doctor with his butt hanging out."

The next semester, Crystal (who I didn't meet through the Drama Troupe) and I were working on a Transfer Science II project, and we were having a whole lot of trouble and we were running low on time. Wayne happened to be in the computer lab and, in a few seconds, showed us exactly what we needed to do to get around our problem, saving us so much time and frustration.

At around that time, Wayne helped Crystal get her foot in the door as a co-op at Y-12 (I think). I just learned yesterday at his going away party at work that he's the reason the co-op program got jump-started there. It was all but dead before he came along, and LesLee is to thank for that for bringing him to Mike's (the senior chemical engineer at Y-12) attention (actually, I think he said he got LesLee interested in working there first). At the end of her co-op, Crystal had landed a job offer. I was very jealous. I wanted to co-op here and when I left my co-op, I had no idea what I'd be doing when I graduated.

In later October or early November 2004, Crystal told everyone in our classes that Mike was looking to hire some people and needed some resumes. I quickly gave her mine and she faxed it in. A week or so later, I got a phone call from Mike, requesting a little phone interview. I felt quite good about it when I got off the phone with him 12 minutes later, especially when he said he wanted to set up an interview with me. The days leading up to the job offers are in the first posts on this page. Anyway, at the end of the phone interview, Mike told me that he had heard a lot of good things about me from Crystal and Wayne, and that was good coming from the two of them. I was unaware that Wayne even had any idea about my performance capabilities in school. Nevertheless, I was happy and thankful.

Fast forward to February: Mike and Wayne came to Cookeville to have lunch with me; Crystal; and Dale, the chemical engineering co-op from TTU that's there right now. It was good to talk to him again. I always forget how much fun he is. In fact, I even forgot between February and June when I started working at Y-12. Besides being fun and making the time go by, Wayne has helped me to survive the first 2 months of my new job. He has taken a lot of time out of his very busy schedule to help, teach, and guide me. Every time I talk to him (and this was true years ago), I'm just amazed by how smart he is. You ask him something and though he usually goes on too long, it's interesting to listen to him explain the situation "to you," which is really just him thinking aloud, but to someone. In his explaining, he makes everything seem so simple, and it almost fools you into actually believing you know what the heck he's talking about! Hahaha!

Either way, Wayne is leaving for Boston on Friday. Today was his last full day of work. He'll be around in the morning for an hour or so, but I doubt I'll run into him. I said my goodbye to him today. I seriously about cried after I shook his hand and wished him luck in getting his Master's and Ph.D. I just kept thinking about everything he's done for me, mostly in the past two months. He's influenced a lot about me, especially my sense of humor...and unless he reads this post, he'll probably never know. I kinda want him to, but I don't wanna be like, "Dude, read this. It's about how much I wanna marry you."

Speaking of which, he's getting married a week from Saturday. I met Lindsay, his fiance, on a couple occasions. One of them stands out, but it's kinda upsetting (not cuz of anything she did) to think about.

I know that my whole story of Wayne makes it sound like I want his body, but it's all good cuz he's a woman. I mean seriously, do any men have cheeks as permanently rosy as he does? I rest my case.

I know I'll see him again in the future. It just really upsets me to think that it'll be in short, seldom spurts. Everyone that knows him feels the same way. I wish the man luck, though he doesn't need it.