1.30.2005
10:24pm

I feel like crap today. I developed a nice sore throat yesterday and today I had some sniffles. I had to work from 11am - 8pm and didn't get to take a lunch break until 6pm. That's how busy we were today... constant customers until an hour before close. I felt kinda burnt out by 5pm but that's retail for you. I did have some good sales today and Danny seemed to be in a pretty good mood so I think we were in the green. Part of the problem was that Tito and Rich called out this morning, so we were short two guys.

I should really be working on my lab reports due this week, but I'm not in the mood. I don't have work tomorrow night so I should be able to get it done then. On the plus side, I found the paperback version of my Electron Devices book on Ebay for $26.99 + s/h instead of the ridiculous $117.99 the bookstore wanted for the hardback. It should be arriving this week, so I won't have to keep borrowing Ron's.

1.28.2005
12:58am
Robert Guillaume - Upendi

Circuit Theory 2 sucks... or at least the homework part of it. Rolando, Ron, and I spent about 2 1/2 hours working on the problem set from chapters 7 and 8, and we basically had to teach ourselves the material since Dr. Murshid rushes through everything so quickly in class. There were still a couple problems that we didn't know exactly what to do, so it's unlikely we will get close to 100 on the assignment.

The house search continues--Rolando has found some appealing models but none of them have been built yet! He's going to check with some realtors and see if there's anything comparable available.

Best Buy has really been screwing me on hours lately--I've only got 11 scheduled for next week, during the busy lead-up to the Super Bowl! I guess revenue numbers haven't been too great or something. Doyle, one of our product process managers, quizzed everybody on Wednesday about their knowledge of Monster Cables, and he said I knew more than the other people he talked to, including our department senior. Heh. I didn't mention to him that I think Monster is overpriced junk, that's my little secret. I do think it's ridiculous that we're expected to attach $100-300 in accessories on a $300-500 home theater in a box. Very few people are willing to spend twice what they expected on a simple theater system.

1.25.2005
9:09pm
Sting - Desert Rose

Rejected VW television ad. Warning: not politcally-correct. Discovered on Tiemann's blog. Also a link to a nice diagram on Apple's marketing strategy and how the new iPod Shuffle and miniMac fit into the picture.

Pretty typical day; woke up late but made it to Econ on time, had an interesting lecture from Dr. Patterson, and took an easy quiz in Electron Devices. We also had some interviews for Student Ambassadors this evening, and a total of 3 people showed up.

1.24.2005
2:03pm

Sittin' here in the Ambassador's office chatting with Bec and waiting for the hour to be over. I'm done with classes for the day so after this I can go home until the meeting tonight. Rolando has found a new housing area with ~$150k two-stories so we're getting closer to finding something appropriate to move into. I need to find out from Saratoga what the termination fee is for breaking a lease early. Ron has told me that they already have people waiting for his townhouse, so he probably won't have to pay anything extra. Rolando said he's definitely finding a house, so it's only a matter of time. As long as it's fairly close to FIT and Best Buy I think it would be cool to all live together, since that was the original plan until we discovered a lack of 4-bedroom apartments in Melbourne. The neighbors will probably appreciate us moving out, with our late-night gaming parties at Ron's place and reference-level movies at my place ;) Until next time...

1.23.2005
2:35am

Yeah late post, I know... when you wake up at noon and work from 3:30-11:30 your time schedule gets shifted a little. Similar situation yesterday, when I worked Friday night and then went to play Halo at Ron's. Chris was over there yesterday as well, trying to get Rolando drunk. I think he's finally accepted that I don't drink alcohol, so he doesn't bother me about it any more. We also watched Office Space so Ron could see it for the first time. I can't believe he's 19 and had never watched Office Space before. Speaking of Office Space, during my Circuit lab last week our HP Laserjet ran out of paper and it displayed the ubiquitous "PC Load Letter." At first everybody thought I was joking when I said this, but they found out it was true. We had a few laughs about "PC Load Letter, what the &%^* is PC Load Letter?" and other quotes like "why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?" But, I digress.

My boss asked me today how I was liking my job, and if there was a different job I would rather have. I answered carefully, saying that I might take a PC tech job but only because it would be related to my major. He hinted at doing home theater installs, but I reminded him about having class during the day so I don't think it will pan out. It's too bad really, because it would be awesome to be able to set up HT systems for people. Some of it borders on construction work with in-wall speakers and wiring, but at least it would be interesting. Jason is excited about the prospect as well and will probably do installs during the week, even if he ends up still working at the store part of the time. He's full time and only got 27 hours this week, so I'm not feeling too bad about my 23 hours.

I've discovered that Dr. Patterson and Dr. Ports are very prone to shooting off on random tangents while lecturing. It's reminded me of Dr. Morrison from high school who also loved to tell little anecdotes and jokes to break up the monotony. Patterson likes to give examples of Brevard County's history in relation to the events we are studying, and Ports talks about random things from his school days and industry.

1.20.2005
10:38pm

Just finished watching Hook with Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, and Dustin Hoffman. It's been a very long time since I saw that movie on television, and I understood more of the humor that was definitely aimed toward adults. Wouldn't be right without including a few quotations:

Peter: You're a... you're a complex Freudian hallucination having something to do with my mother and I don't know why you have wings, but you have very lovely legs and you're a very nice tiny person and what am I saying, I don't know who my mother was; I'm an orphan and I've never done drugs because I missed the sixties, I was an accountant.

Smee: I've just had an apostrophe
Capt Hook: I think you mean an epiphany
Smee: No... lightning has just struck my brain
Capt Hook: Well, that must hurt.

Betcha didn't know that Phil Collins, Glenn Close, Jimmy Buffett, Carrie Fisher, George Lucas, and Dustin Hoffman's kids appeared onscreen.

1.20.2005
12:54am

Well, I had a nice post made up earlier but WinSCP lost it. Anyway, just some ramblings on about classes and work and such. I had my first Circuit Theory 2 lab today, which took almost the whole period and is the easiest of all the experiments we will do this semester. I'm not looking forward to spending 4+ hours on each lab, not counting the time for write-up.

I rented "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle" on DVD tonight, so I watched it with Rolando, Chris, and Cory. It was pretty hilarious, with lots of randomness like American Pie and Van Wilder, two of the comedies from which it draws main characters. Seriously, what other movie have you seen where two guys ride on a cheetah (CGI but still funny). Sexual themes and toilet humor abound, as expected, but it's all in good fun and the DVD version was unrated too.

1.17.2005
9:34pm

Wow, feels like a long time since I've posted.
Laura's birthday was today, and Jen's is coming up so we sang for them at the Ambassadors meeting and had cake. I also found out from Dan that Chris's birthday was today, so we're going to have to do something for him. It's so hard to find him online that I don't keep up with him very often. I don't have work tonight or tomorrow so I'm trying to get ahead on the homework problems for Circuit Theory 2, which are due Friday. We will also have our first lab assignment this week which means a typed IMRAD report and other junk.

This was so funny I have to post a link here: Numanuma

If you want to waste some time and get some awesome info check out AVSForum.com, especially the Member's Theater Gallery. Warning: you may have to wipe the drool off your keyboard when finished.

1.15.2005
5:02pm

Nicodemus says hi:

1.14.2005
1:42am

I was perusing the High Definition movie trailers at DivX.com and am really amazed at the quality of the video. It's true 1280x720 resolution at about 4 Mbps according to their website. From the screen shot below you can tell there is more detail than any DVD movie would offer. What's interesting is that MPEG-4 in HD can fit onto a regular dual-layer DVD disc, with room for surround sound and extras. So if HD-DVD and Blu-ray both fail, at least they can fall back upon DivX and use that for distribution :)

1.13.2005
4:14pm

Well, last night was pretty cool. I made the trip to Kissimmee in about an hour taking US-192 all the way. My parents arrived at the same time I did, and we met up with Uncle Bill at the townhome he's staying at. He's working on a restoration project for a bunch of units there that got damaged during the hurricanes last year. Of all my Aunts and Uncles he's probably the most spontaneous, and he doesn't hesitate for a second before saying what's on his mind. He will be working on a big construction project here in Melbourne sometime in April, putting in 140 townhomes off Eau Gallie Blvd. We had dinner at a BBQ place because they were open at 9pm on a weekday, apparently uncommon for restaurants near St. Cloud. I headed back home about 10:30 after saying farewell, and the trip back to Melbourne was quite a bit shorter without all the traffic to combat. My car got 44 MPG after having the service done, which is a little better than before at ~65 MPH speed.

I decided to post these two pics I took on the way back from Virginia. It's pretty uncommon for me to see a rainbow, especially while driving.

1.12.2005
3:02pm
Shoutcast - SKY.FM

My parents are on their way down to Tampa with Kobi for the national dog agility trials, so I get to have dinner with them and my Uncle Bill in Kissimmee. Should afford me some entertainment since there's nothing else to do tonight except laundry and studying. I've got writer's block for the moment--can't think of anything else to say.

1.11.2005
11:02pm

This was just so great, it had to be added to the blog. Check out footnote 2 on Apple's new iPod Shuffle web page. And while you've got the smile on your face, check out the new Mac Mini, a $499 introductory PC-killer with a tiny footprint and decent specs. I've always been a PC fan and shunned the idea of using Apple, but ever since OS-X my disposition has changed. I really don't think I'd mind having one of those little Mini guys sitting on my desk.

10:24pm

Second day of classes, so I got to meet my other three new teachers today. My economics professor Dr. Monari seems a little dry, but he jumped right in today with some interactive questions and a historical overview of the market systems in the New World colonies and the industrial revolutions in England and America. I have Dr. Patterson for American History: Reconstruction to the Present, and I've met him before through student ambassadors; he is a great speaker and has a remarkable memory for history. I tagged along with Ron to Circuit Theory 2 lab today, even though I'm not supposed to have it until tomorrow. As it turns out it was a short introductory lab, so I won't need to go Wednesday. Finally, I had Dr. Ports for Electron Devices. Dr. Ports is my advisor so I have met him before, but I had no idea what his teaching style would be like. As it turns out, he's a very goal-oriented professor--having worked in industry for 25 years--and he doesn't care so much about attendance and homework as in quiz and exam results. We will have 8 quizzes over the duration of the class, so at least we won't have to know too much material for each one.

Dr. Ports also gave us some insight into the condition of engineering graduates today. He had a conversation with the hiring manager of the nearby Rockwell-Collins establishment, and was told quite blatantly that current students coming out of FL Tech, Cal Tech, MIT, Georgia Tech, etc were doing very poorly during interviews. R-C apparently asks a few easy technical questions during the interview to find out just how knowledgeable the candidate is, and most everybody just gave them dumb stares. These were not 2.5 level students either, but 3.8-4.0 graduates who couldn't remember a pretty easy question because they didn't retain the knowledge from their courses.

1.10.2005
1:56pm

Done with the first day of classes for the Spring 2005 semester. I had Circuit Theory 2 at 10am with Dr. Murshid, and then Software/Hardware Integration at 12pm with Dr. Kepuska. Murshid speaks tolerable English which is a good thing, but his standards seem to be extremely high. He told us (semi-jokingly) that all the horror stories about CT2 are true, and there's probably more we haven't heard about. Also, he said that scoring 100 on a test never happens unless it is truly a perfect paper, with all the i's dotted and t's crossed. We've got quite a few topics to cover before the end of April and it will be a faster pace than Circuit Theory 1. Software/Hardware Integration wasn't nearly as scary, and Dr. Kepuska seems to have a better teaching style than Dr. Kozaitis. He told us we would not have a final exam for the class, but rather a large project that would be used to evaluate our understanding. Trond will be our GSA for lab which is awesome.

I've got to work tonight so I will have to miss the first Student Ambassadors meeting of the semester, but Best Buy should have my availability changed for next week. We had a training session Sunday at 7am and they discussed all the expectations as we ramp-up again as the Superbowl gets closer and sports fans come out to buy big-screen HDTVs and surround sound. Danny announced that the new senior for our group would be Allison, but he also said we have been dropping in terms of customer ratings. I still feel a little intimidated when he talks to me, but I think he's got our best interests in mind.

Rolando was checking some ads today for houses in the area. His dad is interested in buying a house here in Melbourne, and it would be awesome if Ron, Jason, Rolando, and I could all move in together. The rent and utilities would be cheaper if we did that, and we could pool resources. I'm not getting my hopes up yet, however, because our leases are still active until the end of summer anyway; even if Rolando did find a house soon it would probably be a while before we could move in.

1.7.2005
5:37pm

"The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning." - Aslan, The Last Battle, The Chronicles of Narnia
So ends my own journey back thorugh Narnia, having concluded the 767-page chronology. For me however, the holidays are over and the term is begun; how unfortunate...

11:11am

Well, I woke up this morning and found one of my bettas dead. Not the new one from Petsmart, but the older female that I got last year. I think this time it must have been age because the fish stopped eating a few days ago and didn't appear to have any bacterial infection. I'm sure she went on to a better place.

In other news, my Rio ended up costing $1095 for the service done at the Kia dealer. Dad seems to think this bill is outrageous and I'm sure they overcharge to some extent.

1.5.2005
12:36am

I saw the movie Saved! with Ron tonight, because he had a Blockbuster gift card from Christmas and we were both bored of video games. My Rio is staying overnight at the Kia dealer so we took his car. I still can't believe that the 60,000 mile tune-up is a 10-hour job; 5 hours for the timing belt and 4.5 for the rest of the replacements & checks. They were nice enough to give me a ride back to the apartment this morning in their courtesy van, and they will pick me up tomorrow when the car is finally ready. I'm just grateful that I had two days off work, otherwise I might have been in a bind without transportation.

School starts back on Monday, so everybody should be coming back to town this weekend. Ron wants to have another Xbox Halo night before classes resume, so we might do that Saturday or Sunday night. I'm not that anxious to be heading back to the academic world, but winter break can't last forever. This upcoming semester will most likely be substantially more difficult than the last; I will just have to wait and see how it turns out.

1.4.2005
12:27am

Late Night Blog(tm) - Fueled by sugar and caffeine. By the way, my January National Geographic magazine had an interesting article about caffeine's place in our society and the brain's developed reliance to the drug. Heavy coffee and Mountain Dew drinkers really do have withdrawal symptoms due to the lack of caffeine (dew/do/due crazy English idiosyncrasy).

It's going to take me a while to stop automatically adding the ".2004" to my post dates. Every year about this same time people around the world scramble to cross-out or erase their feeble hold on the past that seems to make its way onto paper in place of the appropriate Gregorian date.

I've got an appoitment tomorrow morning at Boniface-Hiers Kia for my 60,000 mile tune-up. I had the oil changed today at Allied Tires and Service, so at least that part is taken care of. It took me about 20 minutes to scrape off the old Wal-Mart window sticker which somehow magically fuses itself to the glass after a certain number of week's exposure to sunlight. The service tech on the phone told me to drop the car off at 9:30am, but I'm not sure what I will do after that without transportation back to the apartment. It's probable that the service will take a number of hours especially if there's a queue of cars waiting, so I may just take a 45-minute walk back home. It would give me a chance to walk by the new Wal-Mart which is almost open for business; I know this because they even have the soda machines plugged in at the front of the store. There have been quite a few cars parked there recently so they must be training the new staff.

I've learned something new about Best Buy: answering the phone is a dangerous affair, with approximately a 5% chance of an irate customer waiting on the other end of the line. Most of the time they have just cause to be upset, either because of a long hold time or getting transferred from department to department. Dealing with difficult customers is part of the job, but I don't understand why people have to be so stubborn about certain things: like refusing to call the correct telephone number for their problem. Maybe as an engineer I just don't have a clear grasp of human psychological intricacies.

1.2.2005
10:22pm

First post of the new year: woohoo! Hope everybody had a nice holiday and New Year's Eve. I'm watching "The 6th Day" right now because I was bored and wanted a mindless movie to play in the background. We had a pretty busy day at Best Buy, even though our profit numbers weren't very impressive. I ended up staying late to clean up the audio department, but I could use the extra hours anyway; they scheduled me for 17 this week.