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Through The Horse and His Boy

I finished up the third book of the Chronicles of Narnia this past Sunday and I’m working on Prince Caspian. I’m starting to get into new territory, meaning I haven’t read these books before, so it’s all fresh and new and I’m really enjoying it. Normally, I’m not a big “fantasy” or children’s lit. fan, but C.S. Lewis just does such a great job painting word pictures and articulating concepts through metaphor that it’s impossible for me not to enjoy his writing.

California: attempt 2

Well, I’m going to try to go to CA again next week. This time, I think it’ll happen and the timing seems pretty good. I’m going to e-mail my co-worker out there tomorrow so he can give me a list of places to go and things to do while I’m out there. I figure I’ll use it as sort of a field-trip to learn about L.A. and that general area. It’s been about, oh, 20 years since I was out there, so we have a lot to catch up on.

The Passion

Well, I’ve been itching to see it since I first heard Mel Gibson was working on it and I’ll finally get to catch it tomorrow night. I’m going with a friend who’s already seen it, but he says he’s excited to see it again. I’ve already heard lots of opinions on different aspects of the movie, but the great thing is that I already know what happens, so I can watch it simply to appreciate the gravity, intensity that the movie is said to create.

Pay day approaching

I get paid again on Thursday afternoon. This way of life is so different from being a college student, I still can’t get used to it. In college, my bank account would spike once every four months or so, then it would slowly decline as I spent my scholarship and loan money. Then, as a new semester began, so the cycle would recycle. Now, I get a fresh influx of cash every two weeks and I have a lot of freedom regarding how I spend or invest it. Right now, I’m focusing on paying back my student loans and the other “debt” I incurred this past year at school. I say “debt” in quotes because although it is technically debt, I’m not paying any interest on any of it, so I don’t stress about it too much. If all goes as planned, I’ll be paying back all of this past year’s living expenses by October without having paid a penny of interest on that money. Then, I can start whittling away at the real debt.

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El Segundo on hold for a bit

Well, we had a meeting at work today wherein it became obvious that I should hold off on going to CA for training. Basically, it’s just not a good time for me to leave my responsibilities here and it’s an even worse time to try and get people to spend one-on-one time training me out there. We’re gonna’ try it again in a couple weeks.

Actually enjoying work?

I’m actually enjoying one of the projects I’ve been working on. I never expected to hate or really dislike work, but I also never expected to enjoy it. This work thing is turnin’ out to be all right. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t think I’ll be an engineer “long term”, but I’m content with this profession for now. I work for a good company, on a good program and with good people; I don’t think there are too many other things I could ask for.

Computer desk

My computer desk arrived today… it was in two large boxes and weighs 300 pounds. It’s a good sized desk, but it’s smaller than one would think, given its weight. I’m kinda’ enjoying buying decent furniture rather than the cheap, “made for college kids” stuff I bought back at school. I have to say I’m not particularly enjoying assembling it, but I guess that’s just part of the deal. I hope to have it all done by Saturday when my couch and loveseat will finally arrive.

Guys’ night

Tomorrow night will be my first official guys’ night since I’ve arrived in Texas. Two of my friends–the two guys I roomed with on Project and then co-opped with the following summer–and I are going to watch the Georgia Tech vs. Maryland game and get a bite to eat or something. It should be a good time and I’m looking forward to going out and hangin’ with the boys.

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Headed to El Segundo

It looks like I’ll be spending next week in El Segundo. I’m pretty excited about it because I should get some time to go into L.A. and have a look around. Also, I get a pretty good deal regarding a per diem and accommodations and all that.

What I’m not looking forward to is being without a computer and internet access. My weblog will probably be on hold and I’ll spend a lot of time watching TV and reading at night. I guess I can’t have it all, but it sure would be nice anyway.

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Plano: Day 13

First off, I’ve decided to stop the monotonous “day count” at 14. I figure after that, everything will be best chronicled normally. Other than that, I don’t have too much goin’ on. I didn’t go to church today because I’m trying to find churches to visit, but I didn’t find anything for this morning. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to go for next Sunday morning. I mostly just laid around watching TV, playing GameCube and messin’ with TiVo for most of the day. In fact, I don’t think I left the apartment.

I spoke with a couple friends on the phone and that was nice, as always. It’s good to know that I have allies back east and that they’re thinking of, praying for and lookin’ out for me. It sounds like a friend of mine is coming out sometime in March, near the end of “Spring Break” (for the college kids). I figure I’ll be getting back to Plano around that time, so I should get to hang out both here and there with friends from there. That should be a good week.

Digital Camera shopping

I don’t know how soon I’ll buy one, but it seems like I should go ahead and get one while my life is still in transition. As I look around me, I see things that are so ridiculous that they need to be captured on film. The pile of boxes in my dining room is so big, a friend of mine said, “You buildin’ a fort?”, as soon as he saw it. I’m sitting in a computer desk chair with my feet propped up on a coffee table. My computer is to my left and my TV is in front of me. I’ve been sitting here, checking e-mail, surfing the web, doing some online shopping and messing with TiVo for several hours now. Not to mention that the place is a total wreck and I don’t see an end to that coming for a few weeks now (as that’s when the rest of my furniture will be arriving).

More work

It’s midnight and I’m still up, though I’m finally getting tired. I’ll be up at 7 for another day at work and I’m hoping to be doing something interesting soon. So far, I’ve just been reading documents, looking over drawings and looking through some training material related to my project. Once I’ve ingested all that background stuff, I should be ready to head out and start working with the actual equipment. Hopefully, that’ll happen tomorrow.

More Wardrobe

I’m still reading the Chronicles of Narnia and enjoying them very much. I’ve slowed down recently–mostly ’cause I haven’t been home much during the week–but I intend to get back on track this week. I’m having to pace myself, though, ’cause I don’t want to exhaust this source of intellectual entertainment too quickly.

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Plano: Day 12

I did a whole lot of nothing today. I went to Best Buy this morning to get an ethernet to USB adapter, so I could put TiVo on my network until it downloads the drivers it needs to use the wireless adapter I bought. While I was at Best Buy, one of the employees said, “Man, we need to get you a special discount or something… you’re in here all the time!” I replied, “I just moved here from Florida and it seems like I need something else every day: a cable, an adapter, a GameCube, whatever.” Anyway, I realized I’m in there entirely too much if employees are starting to recognize me. But, I’ll have to be in there again in a few day anyway to take back the little ethernet to USB adapter, so I guess they’ll be seein’ a little more of me.

Emotional Transition

I’m not sure what’s up, but this transition hasn’t been as difficult as I’d expected. The first couple days were rough, but not even as rough as I thought they’d be. Then, I guess I just got so busy I didn’t really have time to think about transitions and who I missed and what was going on in Florida. Anyway, I’m expecting it to hit me pretty soon, so my weblog will probably become bogged down with flowery rhetoric and depressing psychobabble. Fortunately, I’ve got enough stuff to do to keep me busy for a while.

Bedtime

I woke up at 8:30 this morning, even though I went to sleep at about 4 last night. So, I took a nap this afternoon, but I’m still tired. I think it was that I had caffeine with dinner, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I figure since I’m tired already, I might as well go ahead and get to sleep, so I don’t have another ridiculously late night. I think one of the most difficult things about my transition so far is adjusting my sleeping patterns. I have the hardest time getting up at 7 am, but I can’t seem to go to sleep before midnight (usually closer to 12:30). Something’s gotta’ give.

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Plano: Day 11

I’m officially back online and I don’t know how I ever went without the internet. Anyway, I had been keeping my weblog on my computer, so I’ve posted the past 10 days’ posts. Most of it’s really boring, I’m sure, but I thought it would be good for me to record my transition to DAL for future reference. I’m not sure how, but I feel that I might eventually learn something from all those posts.

Up late

It’s after 3 am and I’m still going strong. My coffee table/end tables arrived today, so I went ahead and put them together tonight. I’m really happy with them aesthetically, and they’re pretty sturdy, too. They’re not “real” wood, but are apparently a combination of various woods and “veneers” or something. Anyway, they look good to me and I hope they last.

The dining room set I ordered was cherry wood, so at least that’s the real thing. The color of the woods should match pretty well, even though they’re not the same. Regardless, I’m ready for my stuff to get here, but I’ll have to be patient and keep comfy and occupied while I’m waiting for it to get here.

I’ve also been working on getting my TiVo online… It’s a pain ’cause the stupid thing was designed specifically to use a dial-up connection to download the information it needs to get for daily programming updates and such. There is a workaround in that it has USB ports that can be used to connect it to the internet over a wired or wireless network, but that’s turning out to be a hastle. I’m hoping to get a little adapter at Best Buy tomorrow that will allow me to get it all setup. Once it’s setup, it’ll be pretty super, but I have to be patient until then.

Spring Break

I’m thinking about taking some Paid Time Off (PTO) during UF’s Spring Break. I guess I need to find out what all’s going on, so I make sure I don’t waste a week of PTO to go hang out in an empty city or by myself on the beach. I told my boss today and he seemed to almost encourage taking some time off and he said it wouldn’t be a problem. Right now, plane tickets are about $300 American, but I’m hoping that’ll drop a bit before March.

Along Came Polly

A friend and I went to see this flick tonight and it was pretty good. It’s definitely not Ben Stiller’s best work (I think he was much better in Zoolander and The Royal Tenenbaums), but it was still a funny flick. Jennifer Anniston did a great job and was fun to watch. Philip Seymour Hoffman was funny and constantly impresses me as a character actor. Anyway, it was nice to get out and do something and I discovered there’s a huge Cinemark movie theatre about a block from here; it has reclining seats and everything.

Ok, I’m going to try to get to sleep now… I’ll have to see how that goes.

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Plano: Day 10

Best Buy hook-ups

I made my daily visit to Best Buy today and bought about $240 worth of stuff. Well, I say “bought”, but what I mean is “got”. Turns out the TV I bought just went on sale (both in store and online) and it’s about $200 less online (where I bought it), than it was two weeks ago, when I purchased it. Well, I was able to get store credit for the difference and, since I happened to be buying a bunch of stuff anyway, I went ahead and applied the store credit. Also, I got $30 in rebates with the stuff I bought, so it turns out I got $240 worth of stuff for about 10 bucks. Incidentally, I also got a Best Buy Rewards card… I wish I’d gotten it before I spent a couple thousand bucks on stuff there. I think I can get some of those purchases “retrofitted” onto my Rewards card, but, for most of it, I’m up a creek.

Not much else goin’ on

I spent some time on the phone with a friend tonight and played Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 for the rest of the evening. I know THPS3 is old-school, but it was only $15 and seemed like a good game to get for my first.

I’m going to try and get to sleep early tonight. We’ll see how that goes.

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Plano: Day 9

I reported for orientation on Monday, then went to meet my boss and get my assignment on Tuesday, then went in today and got a new and different assignment. I think this one will stick. I think this assignment will be challenging and allow me to show my superiors what I can do. Also, I’ll be traveling out to El Segundo, CA (right outside L.A.) for a couple weeks of training (probably two one-week sessions). I am glad I’ll have something challenging and interesting to do.

Furniture Fiasco Finale

I think I’m done buying furniture for a while. I bought a dining set (table and four chairs) at Ashley Furniture tonight. So, I’ve bought everything I planned on buying before I came out here: Sofa/loveseat, coffee table, two end tables, dining room set and TV stand. I still need a couple lamps to put on the end tables, but I don’t really consider those furniture. In retrospect, it would’ve been wise to begin furniture shopping before I left Gainesville. Two of the three stores I bought from have a three- to four-week lead-time on delivering my furniture. Obviously, if I’d done my shopping and ordered the furniture before I left Gainesville, I would’ve had it by now. Of course that’s not totally realistic since I’d never seen my apartment before I moved in and it would’ve been difficult to buy furniture for a place I’d never seen or been in.

I also bought a Nintendo GameCube today. I’ve been wanting one for a while and I figured I’d splurge in the interest of keeping myself occupied in the apartment. It didn’t come with a game, so I thought I’d start with Tony Hawk: Pro Skater 3. It’s pretty fun and, even more fun, it was only 15 bucks.

Sleep troubles

When I actually get in bed, I sleep just fine; but I’m having trouble getting tired enough to get in bed, lately. I have to be up at about 7, but I can’t seem to get into bed before midnight. I don’t know what my deal is, but I know I’m gettin’ sick of bein’ so tired every morning at work. Hopefully, I’ll get into a routine or something pretty soon.

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Plano: Day 8

TGIF: I’m scheduled To Get Internet, Friday

After about 11 days without internet, I should be online sometime Friday. It’ll be nice because that means I’m back on Instant Messenger and that means I can chat it up with my friends. I’ve been having a hard time keepin’ in touch ’cause I ran outta’ cell minutes about a week ago and I can only make so many calls between 9 pm and when I go to sleep (seems to be about midnight, so far). Also, shopping for stuff and finding good deals will be a relief, since I’ve been sort of wandering around in the dark while buying all the stuff I’ve been buying lately.

Speaking of buying stuff…

I decided to go with the Olive sofa/loveseat combo. I took a survey of seven or eight people and all but one said the olive is probably the best solution for my living room. Plus, I feel the olive will be more daring whereas the hazelnut woulda’ been kinda’ normal and blah. Of course, there’s something to be said for normal and blah, but I’d rather save my saying for the crazy olive I’ve chosen.

I am still buying necessities and other stuff for my apartment. I went to The RoomStore today and bought a coffee (“cocktail”) table and two end tables. That was just after I’d blown 100 bucks at Wal-Mart. I feel like all the stuff I bought was good: Toaster Oven, knives (six steak knives and some other big ones that all came in a big wooden block), a little “kitchen kit” sorta thing with a couple spatulas, a bottle opener, can opener, measuring cups and spoons, and then stuff like dish soap and sponges for scrubbin’ the dishes. I felt like I needed all of it and I’ve decided my kitchen finally looks “lived in”. I still need a dining room set, but I think I know which one I’m going to get; I just have to talk myself into going over to Ashley Furniture and signing the papers.

Good credit is super duper

I got my first credit cards about five years ago. Since, I’ve made sure to pay my bill in full every month (with a couple small exceptions–mostly just me forgetting to pay the bill or something stupid) and I’ve made sure to pay all my utility bills and rent on time and stuff. I always figured it would help to build my credit and now I’m finding out why that was so important. For a lot of the furniture I’m buying, I basically just show up at the store, pick something out and then, when it comes time to pay, I say, “I’m hoping to take advantage of your financing option.” Then, they run my info. through a computer and come back to tell me I don’t have to pay for the stuff for several months . It’s such a relief that I don’t have to find ways to pay for this stuff now since I’m so busy trying to get settled and since my finances are in such a transitional state. I generally don’t like the idea of buying stuff with credit, but when I’m not going to pay any interest and I know I won’t have any problem paying for it in the allotted time, it just gives me some breathing room to get everything else in order right now. I guess good credit was responsible for helping me get an apartment with no deposit, electricity, cable and DSL with no deposit, and my cable turned on even though I forgot to leave the check for the technician when he came0. I’m glad I got those credit cards and paid ’em off every month. I thought it was nice just getting my “cash back bonus” at the end of the year, but it has other benefits as well.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

I’m going to start reading it now.

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Plano: Day 7

I woke up at 6:45 this morning; that’s the earliest I’ve been up in a few years, I think. Anyway, orientation was uneventful and mostly review as I expected. It got out at 2, so that gave me plenty of time to go workout (is “workout a verb? or should it be “work out” or “work-out”?) and finally do some productive furniture shopping.

More furniture stuff

(The following will seem particularly trivial, but it was significant to me anyway) So, I prayed about that furniture situation this weekend. I was getting really frustrated with not being settled into my apartment and, more importantly, not seeing a light at the end of the settling tunnel. Anyway, I decided I’d go back to the store today and see if they could scrounge up the set I liked in the color I wanted. Turns out they could order it from the “Florida warehouse”, but it’ll take a month to get here. So, I ordered the hazelnut couch/loveseat… but I think I’m going to call tomorrow and change it to the olive set. I feel like I need to live a little, spice up the living room, do something daring, go with something that’s not quite neutral. All of those things can be accomplished by getting the olive instead of the hazelnut. My living room is nothing but versions of white–off-white, tan, eggshell, regular old white–so I feel like I need to add some color, and hazelnut ain’t gonna’ do that. More importantly, if I decided the room was just too drab with the hazelnut, I’d have to go buying all kinds of accessories and throw pillows and all that, and I just don’t feel like doing that junk. So, I figure the olive couch/loveseat will add a little color and save me a bunch of time trying to add color to the room. Plus, I like the color (even though I can’t help but think that I’m going to eventually look at pictures of this furniture and wonder what I was thinking getting something the color of olives or, worse, something close to the color of split-pea soup. Regardless, I like it now and I figure this furniture ain’t gonna’ last forever (I wasn’t expecting long-term quality when I went shopping at Rooms To Go), so why bother buying furniture in a color that I think will be “in” ten years from now? Long paragraph, huh? Yeah.

As for the rest of the furniture stuff, I have pretty much decided on a dining room set from Ashley Furniture. It’s cherry wood, has a pretty small table (really, it’s perfect for this apartment’s little dining “room”), and I like the way it looks overall. I have also pretty much decided on a coffee (eh hem, “cocktail” table) at a place called The RoomStore. It’s basically a dark wood (maybe cherry, I dunno’) and I think it’ll definitely compliment both the couch/sofa and the living room very well. Now, I just gotta’ order the tables and stuff and then go find a couple lamps for the end tables (’cause I ain’t payin’ 80 bucks each for lamps at Rooms To Go or the RoomStore); Target, here I come again!

I’m diggin’ TiVo

That’s all I have to say about that.

No reading today

I didn’t get any reading done today because I basically ended up having some great conversations with friends on the phone. I wasn’t expecting it, but I had some great talks and got a chance to catch up with some of my friends. I was reminded how much I left behind when I left Florida; but it’s good to know that I left those things behind only physically, and I can still keep in touch with my friends and continue building relationships with them.

I better get to sleep. I gotta’ be up for work in 7 hours.