Life – Page 18 – AllisonYax.com

Yay, Google

Post Number, VP Award, Google, and Moving.

First, in case you didn’t know, this is #345, so 350 isn’t far off.

Second, on Saturday I received my Vice President’s List award letter. No fancy certificate, but it’s something. At least I was full time, part time only gets a post card.

Third, I am, as of 1/20/2005, FINALLY on Google. I submitted a sitemap and it seems to have worked. Only seems to be the main page of my site right now, but at least that’s something. Maybe all the blogs will make it up over the next month or so. Then again, maybe I will need to finagle more. On a side note, holy shit, finagle is a properly spelled word.

So, here are some cool stats:

term: position

hooji: 3
hooji blog: 1
nslyax: 35

That’s where I fall right now. Not exactly great page ranks, as those are about the only searches I found myself under, with the exception of copy – pasting from site to google search form.

Computer lab closes Feb 4, and will reopen Feb 13 or 14, I don’t remember. In between I will probably get a lot of work though helping to move and set up.

Ok, that’s all I suppose. See you in a few days.

Tired

School, Work, and MTP.

I guess after nearly a week, I should update. I have been rather busy though. Between school, and work, and homework, and trying to get signed up for my last class, it’s been a week.

Yeah, by Statistical Process Control class was canceled, so got set up as independent study. Problem is me and prof have opposite schedules, so despite trying since before school started, I didn’t meet up with him till today. And, after all that, he has me sign one paper and hands me the syllabus, says “OK, see you whenever”. That’s it, figure it out on my own. Honestly, it might be better.

One of the people in my machining class is an MTP alumni like Scott and I and others. Also, I talked to Jim online a few nights ago. He’s in Washington state right now.

So, that’s about it. School is OK, electronics boring and public speaking scary. Work is OK too, though a little boring at times.

So, there you go. Enjoy.

nick

Happy 2006

Resolutions and such

First of all, quickly, sorry about any blog issues that were experienced today. I upgraded to WP 2.0 and had a few small glitches.

On to the point though, Happy New Year. Yes, it is that time again, 10:41pm, and that means just 79 minutes till 2006.

If you have any resolutions for 2005 that you have been putting off till the last minute, the good news is you still have 78 more minutes till then, The bad news of course is you have wasted about 525521 minutes so far.

Also, it is the time to make new resolutions, unless you consider yourself perfect, or have just accepted you will fail on them anyway.

As for my resolutions, last year I clamied I would

Keep Room Clean
Get in Better Shape
Do better on the blog

Well, my room is not clean, so that didn’t work. I am in slightly better shape, definately lost a few pounds an even an inch here and there, but not my long list of coast guard requirements I had. Better blogging has been accomplished as well, though I did get a little lazy over the past month or so.

Overall, I didn’t do bad. I got better grades, and found a job, and may soon have a car. Thats something.

For next year, I have this

More biking
Get own car
Keep grades up

Yeah, they seem lame, but unless I keep them easy, I will never accomplish them. Hell, I couldn’t even manage to keep my room clean.

So, anyway, a Happy New Year to you all, and I will see you again in 2006.

Oops

Sorry, Christmas, Suchyta, Uptime, Work, Grades, and WP.

Sorry, I have been neglecting my blogging duties.

Christmas went by without too much issue. Jenn and I went to her parents on Friday, her grandmas Saturday, then back here to my grandparents Sunday. Lots of cool gifts from all around, including a lantern, clothes, and cash.

Suchyta is in town for christmas, so I saw him Monday. He burned me a Tiger DVD so I upgraded to 10.4 yesterday. Having fun with that. It’s faster because it’s all newer, better formed code, and I erased HD so bitrot is fixed, but is also slower sometimes due to higher memory use.

So, since I had to reboot to install (actually, like 5 times, as I install, upgrade, install, upgrade, etc…), I lost my uptime. I did manage to wait for a bit of a milestone though: 45 days, 3 minutes. That comes out to November 12th at 10:07 PM as my last restart. In that time, I downloaded 1.8GB of data, uploaded 425MB, read 42.5GB from the HD and wrote 48.5GB. Now, I guess I need to shoot for 60 days.

I am waiting to hear on new job as a tech page at Bay County Library. YMCA just isn’t for me, and the 2 I applied for at Delta’s library didn’t sound promising, most were taken already. Beth Rye at BCLS sounded like I have a good shot though. Should know tomorrow.

My final grades came out as A, A, A, A-. Not sure if I mentioned that. I am needless to say a little proud.

WordPress has a WP 2.0 Release Candidate out. That means sometime soon I will be upgrading from WP 1.5 to 2.0. Not sure if I will mess with the RC beta or not though.

There is probably more, as I haven’t blogged in a while, but can’t think of anything now. I will post again if I think of anything though.

In case I don’t blog again within the next 3 days, Happy New Year.

nick

Let it Snow

Work, Grades, Books, and Poll.

I got the job, start Monday. It was going to be Jan 2nd, but they moved it up. Is custodial/maintenance at YMCA from 7:30 to an hour before class, Monday through Wednesday. Comes out at 22 hours a week. Over Christmas though I don’t fully know when I will be working yet.

I had my final math test today, and feel pretty good about it. I know I have A’s in CAD and Drafting, and as long as I get an 87.4% on math test I have an A there too. Manufacturing is close to the edge too depending on the test we had Tuesday and the presentation later today. So, worst case scenario, I get A, A, A-, A-. Not bad for a worst case, huh? Will let you all know final grades when I get them (Monday or Tuesday I think).

I got my books this week too. I have all but a course packet for my machine tools class. Only cost me around $500.

I need to come up with a new poll, but every time I decided to try I can’t come up with one. Soon, I am trying.

I guess that’s it for now. Enjoy the snow, sounds like a lot is coming.
BTW, uptime at 32 days, 3 hrs, and still going.

nick

Untitled 8

Uptime, and Job?

So, the great debate on my computer has returned. There is a security update out that I have been ignoring for a week now, but with a current uptime of 28 days 1 hour and 16 minutes, I am hesitant to install because I don’t want to restart. You may remember about a year ago I reached an uptime of 21 days 8 hours. I will let you know the final record when i decide to restart.

I was going to mention it last time, but didn’t, but decided I will now. I may have a job. I am at about 99% sure. I applied for work study at Delta and got a referral for a custodial/maintenance position at the YMCA. I went in to fill out the application and have an interview Thursday, and it seems all is set. They even went through my schedule to figure out when I can work. So, I am figuring I will find out Monday for sure, but like I said I am 99% on it right now. It is only $6.50 an hour, but no taxes are taken out because it is considered financial aid. If I get it, I can add a work category to the blog maybe.

OK, I am off to watch some TV, finish homework, and go to bed. See you all later.

nick

Radioluminescence

Tritium-phosphor lighting, and Movies.

Isn’t that a fun word? Say it, Radioluminescence. See, told you so. I am doing a bit of a report on it for manufacturing. We have to pick a product and do a report on the manufacturing processes required for it. I decided on making radioluminescent exit signs, powered by glass tubes coated with a phosphorescent and filled with tritium. The tritium which is a heavy form of hydrogen having 2 neutrons rather than none, decays into helium-3, releasing an electron.

1 proton + 2 neutrons -> 2 protons +1 neutron + 1 electron

That electron strikes the phosphorescent creating a flash of light, in the same way the electron beam in your Tv or monitor fires electrons at your screen, which is also coated with a phosphorescent. The beta particles are mostly absorbed by the phosphorescent, and those that are not are either absorbed by the glass or reflected by it until they are eventually absorbed, releasing no radiation outside the glass tube. By placing a few of these into a housing and butting a cut-out with the letters EXIT on it over the face, you have yourself a lighted exit sign that requires no battery backup, wiring, light bulbs, or any other maintenance whatsoever, and can last from anywhere between 10 and 20 years. Yes, there are some associated risks like vial breakage and gas release, but tritium is actually the safest of all radioactive isotopes, and the beta particles emitted cannot pass through skin and any gas inhaled is passed through with your urine, and not absorbed into your bone marrow. Also, since it is still hydrogen, the gas dissipates in the air very quickly, and there is rather little in each vial anyway. Very cool stuff.

Also, i watched the Jerk today. Very cool movie, very funny. If you have never seen it, do yourself a favor and do so. It is on TV semi-often, or you can just rent it.

Other movies seen recently include Fantastic 4 (good, must do sequel, as there was maybe too much intro plot, and not enough save-the-world plot), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (good), and Elektra (not so good). Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is sitting here too, since jenn fell asleep and missed half of it last time. I liked it, so we get to watch again. Also a very good movie if you haven’t seen.

OK, I guess that is all. Go back about your merry lives till I decided to honor you with my presence again.

nick

Sorry

Not much

Sorry about the sparseness of updates. There really hasn’t been a whole lot going on though.

School is down to 2 weeks. As of my last calculation I had all A’s, though 2 are borderline into the A- range. Still damned good though.

I gave Jenn her Christmas gift today. I figured it gives her more time to use it.

We had Mandarin House for dinner today as well, always tasty.

Hmm…

Yeah, that’s all I can think of.

Sorry again.

I will try and work on new template more, as the fall theme is a little outdated now.

Nick

Happy Thanksgiving

Folding, Mom, Thanksgiving, Jenn, Editing, and Scott.

I am almost done with my Folding@Home unit. I am on step 396 of 400. It should finish up over night.

My mom’s surgery went fine. That was Wednesday, btw.

Thanksgiving was uneventful. Went to grandparents, talked to Tim (he lives 2 doors down now), ate, blah blah.

Jenn went home for the week. Tuesday afternoon, till Saturday afternoon. She shadowed her mom around the hospital for a day and spent a lot of time with her family. Also, she went out with Gwen on Wednesday and Friday night.

I am down to the 18 misdated blog posts. All 278 of the others are edited though.

Scott brought my mom cookies too. They were good, except i couldn’t figure out his secret code. Two M&Ms was marshmallows and 3 was none, or something. Either way, we need to go get some Genji.

I think thats about it. Not much has been going on really.

Maybe something good will soon. I will let you know if it does.

Still More Changes

Site, Weather, and School.

So yet more changes on the website. I changed the colors some, and the headers, and the sidebars are next. I moved the links on the top, and added a path listing under the header. I actually got into editing it because I finally got the template for the blog working, and it was rather hard to read due to colors. So, the new blog template is coming, just so you know.

The other day I realized I passed $0.50 in hosting fees. It took me 4 months, so thats pretty damn good. That comes out at $2.00 a year, which is $97 less than .Mac. Woohoo.

I am now obligated to complain about the weather. Lets face it, it rather sucks. First, it was windy. Then, it was windy but from the other direction. Then, it rained. then, it sleeted. Then, the wind calmed down, but then it snowed. Then, the snow accumulated. it’s crazy. The water in the river was a foot or more higher than normal yesterday, today it was at least 3ft low, probably more. You could walk from the middle grounds to the riverwalk pier all on dry (well, exposed and mucky anyway) ground. Anyway, this is our first real snow, and though it’s, so far at least, not accumulating on concrete yet, it is accumulating on about everything else, and that’s more than the only other snow this season (actually, it was debated that that first snow was actually a frost, which is possible, since I never saw it fall, only white on various surfaces).

In school, hmmm…

I had another math test. Only 1 more of those left thankfully. Not bad on this test, but certainly could have been better. Also, I might lose one of my classes for next semester. Right now, there are only 2 people signed up, out of 25 seats. I will still have 12 credits, so no worry there, but still, it is a required class, I need it at some point.

OK, thats all for now.

Ohh, I will go for another poll soon too. But you all need to comment more I think.

nick