xmas stuff

the zoar youth group helped out with the sunshine childrens' home xmas show. it was really beautiful, in its way. i got to be a donkey!

the first leon

Christmas time has been really relaxing. This is a great way to confuse people [hobby of my friend dave bierhup].

Self-mirror-clie picture of me in my suit (post interview).

The interview at TNS/NFO went well today, but the working environment seemed less "me" than the environment at Maritz. Then I sweat at my parents place for a while before accepting the job at Maritz research in Maumee (arrowhead park). The money could be better, but it is a start. We will live. :)

Then I called every service provider who we needed to let know about the transfer of service and such. That took a while.

I am beat. I went to Jen and Dave Bierhup's place in Luckey tonight to see Dave's new (new to him, obviously) 1950 Chrysler. It is almost pristine. Nice car. I want to play with it (and learn how to weld!). Too bad it is so darn frigid.

Job call.

Anne as an intense violin player--from the X-mas party.

I got the job offer call this morning. Of course, life could not be just as easy as that. No, the offer had to be for a far lower salary than anyone would consider reasonable. Man. I really want to work there, but the salary is almost insultingly low for a person with a (soon-to-be-attained) PhD. I wish I had a more complete story about the way advancement works so I could factor in the fact that I would get a raise soon. All I know is that they do "merit raises." But I assume that I would get a "new title" raise before I would see that (because merit raises are only awarded once a year). Argh. I guess I will go ahead with my interview at NFO as well as checking in on getting an interview with yet another market research company that seemed interested in me. Stupid money. I guess I had better worry about it now. If Anne and I are ever going to get a house and have a family and stuff, it starts with having a good enough job to attain a significant amount of money to do so. I add this point because I feel greedy and I am not sure why. It is not like I want to buy a boat. It is not like I am going to get rid of my 1990-mobile with 191k so I can get a new flashy car. I guess that is why I feel so anxious about the whole thing. Money is not supposed to be important to me, but appears as if it has to be I don't want it to control me, but it may influence my job choice. Maybe I'll just be a monk. But even monks get some sort of funding, right?

On the good side of life, I just looked at my dissertation data. They look GREAT. At least my last experiment worth of data does. I will have to post some of the neato graphs sometime.

Now to stop thinking about that money junk and to have a good relaxing evening with Annie. All of this--and I am kind of tired from hockey this morning. Man, I have to get windshield wiper fluid that works in the cold--and air filter cleaner.
And new hockey gloves. My 10-to-12-year-old gloves have finally ripped to the point of not having any leather covering on about 50% of my left hand. Might as well get the second blade sharpening this year while I am at it.

We had a good party at Gerry's with the youth group. We ate, sang, read the Xmas story from a neat perspective, and goofed around/played games. They were discussing hitchhiker's thumb at one point (this picture). I used (fast and easy) red-eye reduction on Anne--it looked weird, so I did the same to Ludwig. I guess Picasa could work that kink out!

I cannot wait to hear from Maritz. Only one day to let me know (I hope)!

Xmas is approaching quickly. I think I have done most of my shopping (or, rather, Anne has done it for us). I wonder what is going on for New Years Eve?

Can't most people do this hitchhiker's thumb thing? People had "whoa" reactions if they couldn't. I thought most people could.

Another remote blog....

We have really cleaned the place up in preparation for moving and the apt
being shown to prospective tenants. Hockey today...now for a movie. Maybe
another mst3k.

post from clie

I am sending this from my new clie only. No computer involved. it took the
picture, wrote this text, connected with wifi, and sent it to flickr.
Flickr posts automatically. Neato.
These boxes are some of the first thngs that we have packed.

Happy birthday to BRADY. Here he is with the Spiderman dragster that he designed. This was shortly after Brady discovered that it does not do well in the water (unlike the boat he brought, which we found out was faster than a bored duck and slower than an annoyed duck).

Today was great for relaxing. Anne and I did very little. We went downtown and hung around Panera (with Gerry) and then went to Ace to get good snowscrapers. We came back and napped. I have been listening to the radio and cleaning (to get ready for the move). I am also trying to eat a lot of the food from the pantry and fridge. Nothing exciting, really. I need to sell my good A/C window unit because the new place has central air. I also have several landline phone things to get rid of. I hope I can hang out with Sal tomorrow. I miss him. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRADY!

The peanuttiest week...interview, oil, friends, hockey.

It has been a nutty week. Anne got me these while we were in Atlanta. Boiled Peanuts. Salt, peanuts, water. That is all. "Stay wet in bag" packaging. They were very unlike dried peanuts, but quite good. It took me one peanut to recognize that the package says to shell the nuts before eating. Anyone else remember eating the shells as a kid?

The interview at Maritz went well yesterday. I went to lunch with the VP of the ARG (automotive research group). He was a very real, nice guy. We discussed: cars (and his mini cooper) plans that they have for newer, faster data processing, the awesome facilities they have to collect data currently, ways they produce/use scales of measurement, and the working environment at Maritz. It was very cool. Maritz is an incredible data machine. They deal with data in responsible ways and are trying to be on the edge of new techniques--many of which are quite neat and very interesting to me. We even ended the interview by going back to his office and discussing Tufte (the graphical display guy). I was rather taken back by the fact that I THINK that the manager who interviewed me before called me "Ben" or something like that. We all make mistakes with names, right? But it is frightening to think that he may look like his misinformed when he says "Hey, how about that Ben guy?" to a hiring committee. Then again, I may have misheard him.

I had one of those "not NOW!" experiences. I added a bit of oil on monday before I drove to Maritz for the first interview. I went and returned--no issues. The next drive was for the second interview on thursday. From the time I heard a "clink" in P-burg just before getting onto 475 until I pulled in at Maritz (abotu 12 minutes), my oil cap was off! It wedged itself in and I did not lose it. However, I had about 3/4 of a quart of oil under my hood. Not a good thing to notice just before an interview. Luckily he drove. :) I left and deftly pulled in next to a van at a Burger King and (while dressed in a suit) cleaned the oil up a bit. Man, what a mess. Remember, TIGHTEN the cap. Yuck. Oily, smokey, grucky, yuck. It keeps dripping onto my front bumper.

I used ebay for the first time since opening my account in 1998. I had to by a stylus for my new PDA. I don't know why I wrote that, other than because I am surprised that I have gone this long without using it.

I hung out with KC and Randy last night. We talked about good stuff. I wish we talked about more personal stuff and less electronics or whatever, but I guess we do a bit of all types of discussion, and that it does not matter too much--everything we talk about it good. It is a privilege to have such good people as friends. I played some Half-Life2. No, I am not a gamer, but I had been addicted to HL1 for a period of time, and I haven't played a game like that for a while. I was really impressed. Not impressed enough to get it for myself or anything (I still have a 5 year old video card), but enough to say "wow." We have realistic simulated physics. That is cool. The models were fantastic.

Played hockey ths morning--I got pulled over for turning at the "no turn on red" in front of my house (S Prospect St and Wooster). It was EXACTLY at 6am--the precise moment when the lights turn from flashing red/flashing yellow to solid red/green. When I pulled up, it was flashing. When I pulled up in front of the policeman, it had turned from flashing to solid, but I was paying attention to the traffic, not the light. He believed my story (thank goodness--because it was true) and let me go with an "ok, I believe you--have a nice morning." If only more policemen could realize that those rare (well, twice-a-day) timing issues (and things like that) actually DO (well, they almost HAVE TO) occur. Now for a day of school, eating sauerkraut and sausage with Gerry, dinner with Jaegers (we will look at the GPS data I collected in Honduras with a UT topological-mapping geologist), and finally a party at Jeff Friedrich's (a super-nice BGSU psyc guy). A good end to a FANTASTIC (yet nutty) week.

I am hungry now. But soooo happy! This is the tofu and veggies dinner I made recently.

I JUST PASSED the proposal! When we last heard of the dissertation proposal, I had gotten approval of my document and approval of the proposed experiment--but I had failed the "presentation." I agree, I had poor presentation skills and a poor attitude toward the importance of the presentation. I worked on this a lot. The youth workers conference did a lot--I went to seminars on how to prepare and give speechs although simply being around such competent speakers for several days probably helped a lot too. Then I redid my presentation. Then I had the CRHP (men's retreat) weekend at which I had to get in front of the group several times--including a 30 minute speech. Then I get a job interviews the next day. Then this talk. Tomorrow I do a talk on personal information management--given to the toledo meetup.com web design group.

Today's was a good presentation talk. I got nothing but good feedback from the committee members. It has been a real change in my life to go from not being able to speak in public well (and, not coincidentally, not having much experience trying) to being able to be comfortable while presenting. I am happy happy happy.

I just got a call from the OTHER Toledo marketing firm--NFO/TNSglobal. Apparently, they want to interview me too. It is a good situation. Of course, I am elated.

I also just ran the last few experiments that I will probably ever have to run at BG. I even got a friend to fill in for me for the last two so that I could practice my speech one last time. I owe Jeff something nice.

In stupid news, the home computer is now completely setup--it took about a week. I have gotten the new clie up and I am carrying it around --not the old one. I still have to get the good Bible software on it as well as the wikipedia. I also need a stylus (it was not included with my floor model, but they gave me $30 off). I also need a brando screen protector.

Man, have I mentioned that I am happy. 11am tomorrow I meet with the VP of Maritz research automotive research group. I certainly hope that goes well. I am very excited about the prospect of working there. Man, I hope I can sleep tonight. Time to snag and aggregate some data from the labs, work on my talk for tomorrow, and then go home to eat some grub.

From outside of the Union on Nov 3rd. Symbolic of how I feel now.

Things are changing. School is getting phased out. I am getting ready to WORK. This sounds like a big task because I have never had an industry kind of job, but I am really really excited. I interviewed on monday at maritz research (automotive research group) at arrowhead park in maumee--for an analyst (statistican) position. It looks very very good. Very neat. Nice people. Nice environment. A friend who works there said that the interviewers were fairly impressed and I have a followup interview with the VP on thursday.

So this was CRHP from friday to sunday. Monday interview. Today (tues) to chill/worry/get prepared for: wednesday re-presentation of dissertation stuff and thurs interview followed by a 6pm presentation at the toledo web design group.

Life is good. But it is tiring. And to wonder why I have been sleeping like Randy lately (that is to say very poorly, because he fights with his breathing machine). What a great time to have transferred over to a new PDA (which is nice, and will be even more fun once I get to play with it more). I HAVE to nail this presentation. I HAVE to prepare now. Oh man. Then I think about the happy move we get to do soon and the happy job prospect. Things are cluttered, but good.

Me. Atlanta. A wall.

CRHP is this weekend. It should be spiffy. I am really excited about it

Allison (Sapp) Lindemann just had a baby boy (named Lucas Lawrence). You might remember Allison as Anne's roommate and a member of our wedding party.

I bought a Clie TH55. I got it really cheap (MSRP was $400 or so--I got it for $210 after rebate). I am trying to use the memory stick pro card I got from Office Depot, but it won't work. I will exchange it soon. [EDIT-the exchage worked--it was just a bad stick] This new PDA is neater than my old, worn SL20. It has a better (and larger) screen, faster processor, wifi, camera, more onboard memory (and allows over my current 512mb memory stick, as opposed to the old 128mb limit), and it has microphone. I can't wait to tear into it and get it all configured.

I went to a UPA (usability professionals association) meeting in Ann Arbor yesterday--a tour of UMTRI (Univ Mich transportation research institute). We saw and could use their "cave design" car simulator. Pretty neat. 30hz refresh of all nearly all possible-to-be-recorded driving data. Man, I would LOVE to do that type of research. It was truly neat--and it really helps society too. These jobs are difficult to get without an engineering degree, though. Oh well. Another event, another resume and contact. One will pan out soon, I hope.

I have two presentations next week. My dissertation re-presentation is on wednesday. On thursday, I present at the Toledo "meetup.com" web design group about PIM (personal information management). Be there! Well, to the second one, at least.

This is all that is left of the Corolla. Ok, this is actually an old picture of the CRX casey and I took a rack from.

I would include a more relevant picture, but I just swapped my main hard drive out for a new one ($40 maxtor from Staples--yes, I went on friday morning). All is well, except that I still have to install several programs and that Picasa (the picture manager I use) flipped out.

We are getting $850 for the damage to the Corolla that was caused by the dump truck. I took it to a place in BG and they faxed it over. I will not ACTUALLY get it fixed, but I will take the case and run. It is perfectly drivable. It is one of those things you justify by saying that "the car has depreciated that much, and this is the way we compensate for that." I am ok with it. Now we can get a new bumper (which was unrelated to the accident, but much more in need of being fixed).

I am working on speech stuff, so that the re-presentation of my dissertation proposal will be nice. It is going well. I heard several speeches about how to give speeches at youth workers convention and I am working from those general ideas. Next week is the last week of classes, so I hope that things work out well with scheduling! CRHP (a church men's group) is meeting this weekend all weekend, so I have to have the material worked out really soon!

I spent a little time last night looking at "church community" website packages that would allow me to pass the context management off to other people. I found xoops, phpwebsite, phpChurch, comm-kit, clearstory, and exponent--all on sourceforge. Xoops looks to be the most promising, but I don't have too much time to check them out. After looking at these sites (and concurrently watching 2 documentaries--"Bush's Brains" (which was a waste) and "Journeys with George" (which was an interesting insight into the 'backstage' of Bush's political campaign--as camcordered by a member of the press corp)), Randy Brown and I went to Fricker's and got some wings. We talked for a few hours--and it was really nice.