i had a good title for this earlier

you know those weekends that you just expect to do nothing? i thought this was going to be one of those weekends. turns out, it wasn't. althought i did nothing on friday night and was planning on playing solitaire most of saturday night. then david's like, "taryn just called and gab is trying to convince me to go to bloomington. wanna go?" i was like, "sure, why not?" so we went.

it was great! i saw so many people i hadn't seen in a really long time. there was taryn kaiser, kelly kaiser, heather knobloch, gab roeschley, katelyn thames, tricia plattner, laura barth, jeremy hodel, david thames, logan hangartner, david wuthrich (oh yeah, you knew that), and a few others that i didn't know too well. oh yeah, britni and kayla showed up a little later too. a few of us went rollerblading down the constitution trail at night. we left from the crossings and made it all the way to the other side of veteran's parkway, just past pier one. and then back again! some may call that intense; i call it a death march. not my rollerblading style at all. i like to stop and do jumps and whatnot. that's what my blades were built for. but it wasn't too bad after all. sure, i was sweaty and tired, but my feet were never uncomfortable. the coolest part was on the way back. i was going at a pretty good speed just to get back and get the death march over with. there were parts of the trail that are covered with trees and at night, that makes it a pretty dark tunnel. i couldn't see the trail or anything around me. all i could see was the light coming from the next street that the trail crossed. i just set my sights on that light and headed straight for it despite the darkness around me. it really reminded me of a christian's life. we have darkness all around us in the world, but if we set our sight on the one true Light at the end and "blade" the straight path, then we'll make it to the promised land.

i also heard some sad news that night. jonathan aupperle (aupps, the auperator) was in st. louis with the peoria yg and was racing his sister allison down some stairs when he tripped and fell down the stairs. somewhere in all the falling his knee hit one of the stairs and jammed his femur up into his hip thus breaking the femur. he had surgery today and he mumbled something in his phone message about not needing a cast(?) i'm not exactly sure what he said because the injury sounds extremely painful so i'm sure he had some good painkillers in him when he left the message.

sunday, i went to church with david in morton and my old roommate adam was there! he's working up in madison now at a software company that he calls the next microsoft. he said i should apply there and he'd put in a good word for me. he's also thinking of buying a house. not because he's making buttloads of money, but because it's on a lake despite being pretty rundown and cheap. he says he'll fix it up in the evenings because he has nothing else to do. i also got to talk to the halo guys from morton (jed, ben, tate) and we chatted movies, video games, and music. after church we (david and i) went to the local dairy queen and met taryn, kelly, laura, dane, daniel and jeremiah plus a brief cameo from paul.

now i'm back home, trying to work on my final paper due tomorrow that could make or break my class grade. i think i'll be fine. i've lived, breathed, ate and pooed this project. well, not really the last two because it's not a cooking class and silicon chips don't taste as good as they sound. ok, back to work.

tagboard

i've added the tagboard on the sidebar. man, that was annoying. took me 3 1/2 hours to get it the way i wanted it. the first one i tried had too many popups and advertisements with it. i tried making my own with ms frontpage. i finally found a different one with custom modifications that i really liked. if you'd like one too, let me know and i'll show you how to do it. one last thing: your post may not show up after you submit it but don't worry, it's there. just refresh the page again and it'll show it then.

christmas miracle in july

i haven't had much sleep in the past few days and it's all my project's fault. i finally did the demo yesterday and it went much better than i expected. i believe it was all the prayers that helped, so those of you who remembered to pray for me, thanks. i'll need them again this afternoon at three for my presentation. (i get to wear my suit and vest!)

anyhoo, this story takes place last night between 8:30pm and 1:30am. i had been working on my powerpoint presentation and decided that my software flowcharts needed re-working. i saved them as jpg's and closed ms visio. unfortunately, i discovered that it cut off some of the flow arrows that i needed plus other mistakes. then i discovered that visio only opens jpg's as jpg's. duh. i couldn't edit them! so i had to start over. i had just finished with the second one and i clicked on save and my computer shuts off. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! it rebooted and said there was an error with a driver. two minutes later, another spontaneous reboot. after the third i decided to boot in safe mode (without drivers and fancy extra stuff). the only way to fix it was to restore my system to an earlier point and i had never done this before so i wasn't sure what was going to happen. i didn't know if my files were still intact or if i would have to start all over from the very beginning after five hours of work. while it was restoring, i lay on the floor and prayed for it to work. God totally blessed me and all my work was still there, even the file that i saved as it was shutting off the first time. praise God! He deserves all the credit for this save. anyhoo, i'd better go now. have a wonderful day y'all. i hope mine is too.

the death of me

this story is proof that international students are bad drivers.

so i was walking home from the lab around 8am. i was walking on campus on a 6-foot wide sidewalk with a bikepath right beside it. the first guy i saw was riding his bike on the bikepath, but he was staring straight down at the ground. i watched him ride like that for about fifty feet and the eyes never left the ground his front wheel was touching. the second one was a chick riding her bike wildly on the sidewalk with no regard to anyone else and no thought of the bikepath. i had to walk on the very edge of the sidewalk as she rode past me. i would have been safer walking on the bikepath. there are some crazy international people out there. scary.

great stuff

we tried to play volleyball tonight. and by tried, i mean we toss the ball straight up about 2 feet and the wind carries it 1/2 mile, switches directions and carries it back over the net. perfect serve. well, we got one game under out belts and called it quits. just in time too, because then it started to rain. so we went to the shaker and ended up playing euchre/musical chairs. erin (aerin) and caleb (cale) were partners for all three games, but i had three different partners (loren, kat, meg). i only lost the last one and that was only by one point. good times. good times.
but the best was aerin's random comment. first, i'll set the stage for you. having just ran into the house in the middle of a downpour and having drunk some good iced tea, i saw this poster/t-shirt that a girl (i don't remember her name, help me out will) had made last time i was there. it was originally a snoopy poster that said "be happy" on it, but she ripped it so that it was a t-shirt that you could wear. so i put it on and wore it the entire time. we had all just received our cards and everyone was quiet as they were figuring out whether to pass or play and aerin says: "i just wanna rip off your shirt!" having lost my wit, i just laughed. stupid me.

stress

ah, such stress. and such stressful times. only a couple days to finish my project and it's still not working. i worked on it for three hours tonight and i still don't know what's wrong with it. i almost thought i had it at one point, but i was wrong. if you've gone to my project page and wondered why nothing has changed in the past month, it's because i haven't turned anything in for the past month; i've just been working towards the final demo on thursday. i'm ready for this project and class to be over, but it's going to be one craaaaazy week.

side note: to those few of you who read this and have signed my guestbook: thank you. to those who read this and have not signed my guestbook, please do. i like to see who reads this even if you don't have an account to be able to comment on my posts. thank you all and have a nice day.

family weekend

so i just got back from my family vacation weekend. it was alright. kyle and tara showed up early on saturday to see my project. we spent saturday at the children's museum. it's definitely a children's museum. jay, neal, and i practically ran through all the exhibits. it took us 2 hours to go through the museum. pretty boring. we spent the last hour in the cafeteria with a mocha and some $8 optical illusion playing cards. we finally left and went to the hotel. it was a sheraton...it was niiiice. chad and i hit the pool and hot tub for a little while. then jay and i hit the swanky mall attached to the hotel. i bought a pair of nice $20 jeans at gap. and then we were going to go out to eat at a nice place. unfortunately, we ended up at applebee's. it's not like we have any of those around here. anyhoo, we hit the pool again after supper and the ice cream. sunday was church in indy. it was actually pretty full because shawn wuethrich got married yesterday and that attracted a lot of visitors. i saw kent levy, mark zeller, clint steffen, keith schambach and his fiancee emily bollier. and joel zeller has two kids! who knew?! and then on the way home, i showed the rest of my family my project and took those who stayed to za's italian eatery and they loved it.

well, that's my weekend in a nutshell. and that's all that's new with me.

update on justin

my mum called me this morning and gave me an update on justin wiegand. turns out, he broke his neck. another 1/4 inch in one direction and he'd be a quadriplegic. thank God! but he still has a long ways to go in recovery so he still needs lots of prayers.

volleyball

oh man, now that's some volleyball. you think you've played volleyball, but you haven't played real volleyball until you've played in the sand pits of the university of illinois. you know how you're amazed when the ball goes back and forth for five times. well, tonight i saw volleys of double that at least. people were diving all over and making amazing saves. good spikes and great digs. it was some of the best volleyball i've ever seen. amazing, simply amazing.

other news: leo. i was thinking of hopefully going out to leo the week before the sale. i've snagged a little interest, but i'm looking for more. so i'm calling anyone and everyone that is free that week to go out with me. but in all reality, i'll probably end up going out myself. but that's ok!

last news: justin. actually, i really don't have any new news about justin. just keep praying for him!

justin

i have this friend from gridley. his name is justin wiegand and he just graduated from high school. his parents and older sister are members, but he is not. he does, however, enjoy christian music and calls himself a christian. and now for the bad news. this past weekend he was on vacation in colorado with his family and apparently they were skiing. justin fell off the ski lift and broke several vertebrae. he has temporary paralysis in his legs right now, but he can still wiggle his toes so that's why they tacked on the temporary label. he gets a cat scan tomorrow (tuesday) and hopefully it's good news. he needs our prayers over the next few weeks as he recovers.

bloop

yeah, titles are dumb. why do they put that at the beginning? anyhoo, result of gridley invite? meh. the work project got over early and not many out-of-towners showed up, but there was a ton of volleyball! unfortunately, it was grass courts and i had to wear long pants and it was 90 degrees out. but it was still fun. and i was pleasantly surprised to see kent levy, ben schlipf, and ryan graf there! i hadn't seen them since my last visit to purdue or possibly college weekend. and somehow my feet got really dirty from playing volleyball. i should have had someone take a picture of it; it was really weird. people were calling me names (it's normal), the most popular being "hobbit" and my favorite being "huck finn" (i rolled up my jeans just a little so i wouldn't trip on them). i also met morgan langhofer from phoenix but right now he's volunteer coordinator at gateway woods. i wish i could have come out there this summer, morgan, but this class has me tied down! he's a great guy, i recommend getting to know him.
then on sunday, after they all left, david and i went to hang out with the lovely brad and patti hodel family from roanoke including a meal at everyone's favorite restaurant: chili's. we played a game called "curses!" later, it was full of pirates/mr t/scooby doo/drill sergeant craziness. craziness, heh, that's the only way to describe that game. that's what it is.
i suppose this is lengthy enough and i'm sure you all have other blogs to read so i won't keep you any longer. updates to come later in the week! oh yes, the title. i still don't know what to put for that.

ciao

update

so i don't have much news, but i'll report what i've got.
i'm making lots of progress on my project! i was at the lab from 10 till 2 wednesday night/thursday morning and from 11 till 4 thursday night/friday morning. it makes me tired, but it's starting to work! i just gotta fix some code for the microcontrollers. and then test range. only two weeks left until demo time!!
other news....hmmmm....
gridley weekend is coming up! starting tonight! but i won't be there. some friends are coming down and i told them i'd hang out here with them tonight. plus david is working tomorrow and he's riding with me to save on gas. because it's sooo expensive!! arg! plus that bluffton weekend is taking all our invitees away from us. d'oh!

ciao

coffee

so i was bored too, and found the quiz that traci took and here's what it said about me:

You are a Black Coffee
At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable
At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty
You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it
Your caffeine addiction level: high

the last two are a little freaky because that is exactly me (when it comes to coffee and caffeine). i was like "whoa, this stupid, cheap internet test really knows me after answering a few questions." but you know who knows me even more? God. in fact, He knows everything about me. He knows that i'm drinking mountain dew right now and that i really should be at the lab working on my project. He knows where my current roommate is even if i haven't seen him for days. He knows where that cd is that i lost months ago. He knows how much i weigh at any given moment to the ounce. He knows...well, everything. so why do i keep thinking that i can figure stuff out on my own? it's just the human nature that keeps coming up that i need to deny (only with God's grace, of course) constantly! and just because God knows all of our imperfections, doesn't mean we disgust Him. no, He just loves us even more.

well, i hope all that rambling made sense. my thoughts tend to burst out all over the place and it's usually fairly difficult to tie them all together.

ciao

weekend

i only have a few minutes before i have to leave for work so i'll keep this short.

it has come to my attention that the gridley weekend is going to be just that: a gridley weekend. many that were invited cannot come so i am taking the liberty of inviting anyone and everyone that reads my blog. so tell your friends. tell your friends' friends. tell anyone who doesn't have plans this weekend. it doesn't matter where you're from. you're all officially invited. if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, you just send them to me.

friday, july 15th
singing @ arlan and amber's @ 7:00pm

saturday, july 16th
work project
meet @ church parking lot @ 9:00am
working on horse barn @ salem, dry wall, trimming bushes, housework
supper @ chris, josh, & victoria's @ 5:00pm
singing and speaker around 7:00pm

sunday, july 17th
church @ 9:45am
snack directly following church @ fellowship hall

so now you know and you can't complain about not having anything to do this weekend.

ciao

project

so i was working on my project today. it's pretty much all i have to do this summer. and i'm still not getting it right. bleh. i at least had something working last thursday, yet when i try to add to it today...nothing. it's pretty frustrating, but i'll get it eventually.

and now tonight, i'm going to a picnic for a birthday of a friend of a friend. i'm supposed to bring something, but i have almost no food. unfortunately, i can't take frozen pizzas so i'll probably just end up taking my mountain dews. they're hard to part with, but as long as they make someone happy, then i'm happy.

anyhoo, check out the links on the left <----- and don't forget to sign the guestbook! (megan's feeling rather lonely by herself in there)

ciao

le premiere

yes, i finally succumbed. so tell all your friends so you can all come and laugh and point. actually please don't point, that hurts my feeling, but laugh away. until your sides split. so i was hitting link after link of blogs (it all started at megan's after she finally figured out how to put up links). anyhoo, i realized that kansas was represented, indiana was represented, central illinois was represented so i figured i'd stand out for good ol' urbana/champaign. yeah, so this post is pretty boring, i know. feel free to ridicule me or fall out of your chair laughing again. just don't hurt yourself...or do, it's a free country after all.

ciao