Gotta be fast, I'm exhausted. I had a really awesome Sunday today. Had a good walk on the treadmill; I made progress on my work benefits information (it should be easy to finish tomorrow); I went grocery shopping; pressed a shirt; and I watched the Great Muppet Caper while I made/ate a sweet breakfast of eggs and pancakes. Finally, I decided to nuke Windows off the face of my hard-drive - and I'm officially using Linux. I tried the dual installation, but it was acting unfriendly, so by making Linux the only available OS I'm forcing myself to get it right. Work is going really well so far; my coworkers are all very relaxed and friendly. I'm working in my mentor's group, so I should get a lot of help on all this work I don't know how to do. Fortunately, the volume of information to learn is so "insurmountable" (according to a 8 year mech engr veteran...) to nobody really "knows" what they're doing. It looks like self-help and learning whenever possible are going to be cornerstones of my work there. For the mean time, I'm working on pollution-removing equipment, so that's cool. Anyway, I'm beat and I need to get up early for work. More updates later.

Coolest ties *ever*? I think so. Tie shopping is about to become a very tangible reality... maybe a graduation present from me to me? Maybe. Anyway, looks like a cool product.


One more thing. Remember my previous post about "Urgent Tactical Strike", where the military wants to be able to hit any target anywhere on the earth within 20 minutes with "smart bomb" precision? Well it looks like they're one step closer now; the experimental scramjet engine for the X-51 successfully fired on the ground, and it achieved a steady-state cooling temperature (which is important because at that speed it should be melting itself to pieces). This is important because this option, unlike putting conventional heads on current SLBMs, doesn't scare every other nuclear power on the planet so much. I don't quite understand why; this thing should be able to carry nuclear weapons just as easily as a ballistic missile. Oh well.

Other things on my *long term* to do list:

i) Working out a lot/dieting. This is the most I've ever weighed; I think school-stress almost killed me. I need to get back on the cholesterol-lowering-train. Bigtime.

ii) Fixing my bike. It needs a lot of work. It's a nice bike, but riding it in snow and rain for a few years kinda junked a lotta parts (gears, chain, suspension). I flew over a curb doing about 30 and I need new wheels since mine are now bent outta whack. But my favorite is this one: on two separate occasions, I've crashed the bike and flown over the handlebars so that the bike landed upside down, cracking the gear-shift knobs: so I need a whole new shift set (up till now they've been blobs of epoxy and metal - Jethro, anyone?). But the straw that broke the camel's back is a tiny pin within the rear axle that broke inexplicably while I was riding normally; so now you can't even walk the thing because the wheel is locked up. Long story short - the bike's getting a complete overhaul, and it's gunna do a body good to do the work myself.

*insert joke about $110K mechanical engineering degree and bicycle repair*

iii) Also, turning into a Linux God. Well, maybe just a Linux ninja. We'll see how far I get. What's for sure is that I'm sick and tired of Windows security flaws. I don't use my machine for gaming much; I just want to websurf, write computer codes/do nerd stuff, use office software, and edit the pictures I take with my digital camera (which is done with mozilla, scilab, OpenOffice, and GIMP, respectively, in Linux... for FREE!); and I don't want to feel like my computer has technological VD when I'm done. Is that so much to ask for from a $400 piece of software, Bill Gates? I guess so. Linux just seems like a great option; it's incomparably stable and secure, completely customizable (by definition), there's limitless technical support (via online forums, and an army of nerds just waiting to insult your h4cking skylz), and say goodbye to software piracy (the GNU license actually grants you permissions to edit and redistribute any piece of software as you see fit). Plus, Macs are too trendy for me (sorry Stacey and Mandy - I just feel that way). Wish me luck. Seems like quite an adventure.

"Tux", beloved Linux mascot.

iv) Volunteering at Big Brothers Big Sisters. Tom Shaw, you are a badass - what a great idea! I'm terrible with kids, and I've been given a lot of very important advantages in life. Actually, almost every important advantage in life; it's hard to be oppressed when you're a young white upper-middle-class male. Anyway, seems like "killing two birds with one stone" to me; there are a ton of worse ways to spend a few hours a week. Hopefully I can pick it up soon after I get to KC.

P.S. - Yes, blog, I realize that these three things are all waaayyy bigger than the other stuff I mentioned before. So these are all going to be much larger commitments. Feel free to chime in with support on any of the above...You have to realize I'm at a cross-roads in life and I'm thinking about long-term stuff again.