Can you believe British people put the ? outside the quotes? That’s just weird.

Anyway, soon is obviously a relative term. Speaking of relatives, my little sister graduated from college on Friday. She double majored. She’s really smart. Then on Sunday, my big sister (in the sense that she’s older, don’t kill me!) got married to Ian (who is big, and my bother, but not my big brother). Several people had comments along the lines of “who is that?” referring to me, since almost no one had ever seen me in a suit before. Ah, the look of surprise and recognition. Good times!

Well, I have graduated (for those of you who missed that announcement), and I’m working as a web programmer while I get in shape. Once I’m in decent shape I’m joining the Marines, assuming they’ll have me, and who wouldn’t want me? I have to do things like swim 6 miles with a cinder block tied to each foot and hike up Mount Everest barefoot to prove my worthiness, but I’m getting there. I’ve now had several pistol classes and a rifle class, and I’m getting to be a pretty decent shot if I do say so myself, though there’s plenty of room for improvement in all areas.

And what do I do to unwind after a hard day of 200 pushups and making the world safe for e-commerce? I usually like to relax with a little computational theory work, like writing a program to calculate the numeric constant e to one million decimal places. Yes, I do these kinds of things for fun. More to come when I feel like it.

First, I was a groomsman at Kevin and Brittany’s wedding. I was wearing non-black and was hatless, showing how much I respect them, and they had milk for me to drink during the toasts, showing how much they respect me. I had a blast. A few days after, it was off to Japan with my mom. We had a great time, and saw the traditional and the modern sides of Japan. Almost as soon as I was home, I was an usher in Taylor and Erika’s wedding. Taylor gave me a great card , and I organized a few friends to sing a Klingon drinking song from Star Trek. It was fitting, since my earliest memory of Taylor was at a Star Trek-a-thon.

Aside from my travels and weddings, I’ve been offered a full-time position at work, and I think I’m going to take it. The more cash I can put away for later, the better. I’m not sure what my financial needs will be once I’m in the Corp, but having some money in the bank certainly won’t hurt. The downside is that if I’m not careful, I may end up spending too much time working and not enough time getting in shape.

It looks like I won’t be in shape enough to pass my fitness test and submit my application in time to make the January class, as I was originally hoping. This is due to getting a later start than I anticipated (graduating delayed starting the fitness program until May), several minor injuries, and my trip out of the country. However, I’m still making good progress and I know that eventually I’ll reach my goal and be able to submit my application.

I’ve also been improving my pistol accuracy, as you can see here and here. Both of these targets were 21 feet away from me, and the distance between the 9’s is about 6 inches. I’m trying to work out a time with my instructor to do some shotgun and rifle training as well. More to come soon.

It’s been a while, and I have a lot to report. I’ve joined a small group of people online who subtitle Japanese anime in english for english-speaking fans (such as myself). I’m serving as an editor for the scripts that the translators produce. At work, I just got a raise and became a full company employee instead of a private contractor, so I get more money and less of it goes to income tax.

As for Marines-related news, I’m in much better shape than I was when I started working out 14 weeks ago. Here are graphs of my progress with pushups and situps, which I’ve been working on pretty hard. On the graphs, the bluish “Max” colums are how many I actually did that week, the maroon “PFT” column indicates how many reps I did all at once, in the same style that the Physical Fitness Test for the Marines would require. And finally, the cream “Target” column is 3 times the PFT column, and I use it to calculate how many I should aim to fit in the “Max” column for the following week. The pushup PFT number I’m aiming for is 50, and for situps is 100, which I achieved this past week!

I’ve also been working on my pullups, but they’re harder to gauge the progress of. I’ve been practicing my running, and actually managed to run a set distance at a rate of 10 minutes per mile, and I’ve gone a maximum distance of 2.15 miles. This may seem like a lot or a little, depending on how well you know me, but I consider it a pretty big accomplishment with a whoooooole lot of improvment ahead of me. My goal is 20 full pullups in a row from a dead hang, and to run 3 miles in 20 minutes. These are lofty goals, but they’re standard scores for Marines entering training, and they’re reachable for me within the next few months if I work hard.

I’ve also been visiting the local shooting range every week. When I first went, I was happy to hit the human-sized silhouette target at 21 feet. With a lot of practice and instruction, I’ve gotten to where I can put 10 shots inside a space the size of my hand, as you can see here. The 9’s on the left and right are about 6 inches apart. I’m still pulling down and to the left a little, but I’m working on correcting that. I’ve also been practicing with my new rifle, which I’m getting better with. I’ll try to get some pictures of my rifle targets soon.

And finally, because I know you all just love looking at me (and who could blame you!), I decided to get my mom to take some pictures of me in my new suit that I purchased for the sole purpose of being an usher at my friend’s wedding next month. The safe pictures can be found here. If you like guns, you may want to check out the more dangerous gallery here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Ok, back to training! More to come soon.

I didn’t get to run the Peachtree, but I did get to go down and cheer for my friends. I was inspired! Now that has given way to tiredness. I’ve been working, working out, running, swimming and so on non-stop for a while now, and waking up at 4:50am every day is pretty hard on me. Somehow I’m managing though, and I’m seeing steady improvement. I did 85 pushups Monday.

I think I’m going to participate in National Novel Writing Month in November; it sounds like fun. I also purchased a rifle, and I’ll post some pictures of it at some point. More to come soon.

On Monday morning, during my swim, I managed to strain my left hamstring muscle, such that I have pain whenever I extend my left knee. I’ve had to skip all my leg-related training for the past 3 days now. Since I was worried about being in shape enough for the Peachtree as it was, it looks like I won’t be running it. I’ve got to take it easy and make sure my knee is fully healed, or I could injure it irreparabely. More to come soon.

Hey guys, thought I should let you know I’m not dead or anything.

I’m working for Radius3 again. The guys and gals there are great to work with, and they understand I can’t stick around forever but want me to work there anyway. I couldn’t ask for more.

I’m still planning on joining the Marines. I’ve got most of my paperwork done, and I’m focusing now on getting in shape enough to pass the physical tests. My parents got me a Bowflex-type home gym thing to aid me in that regard.

And on a final note, I just got my packet from the Peachtree Road Race, a 6.2 mile race I’m running on July 4th. I am runner number 62151. See you there! More to come later.

Combinatorics: C. Probability and statistics: C. Earth and atmospheric science: B. Technical communication: A. Computer graphics: A. Operating systems: A. Overall GPA: 3.11, highest ever. Cumulative: 2.27.

The heavens opened up and the angels that weren’t playing instruments were singing the alleluia chorus at the top of their lungs as I turned in the last final I should ever have to take. Joy to the world! I am a college graduate! Now, on to the celebration! LAAAAAAN PAAAARTYYYYYYY!!! This saturday and every moment til then.

Today, I demonstrated my mostly-working project to my operating system’s professor, and he gave me an A in the class. Then I went to my technical communication class, where the professor gave me another A. 5 out of 18 hours are finished, with 2 classes and 4 finals, and whole lot of studying, to go. By this time next Thursday I’ll be done, for better or for worse, and I think for better. And of course, Saturday is the ginormous LAN + Graduation Party!! starting around 5pm. Show up! Help me celebrate!

With 2 weeks, 8 hours left in my college career (I hope!), I thought I’d give you an update on how things are shaping up. I finally got grades from my graphics professor, so I have something to base my grade on now.

Probstat is a C, dispite my getting a 42 on the last test. Believe it or not, that’s a B. That class is pretty bad. The final is 50% of my grade in it, so it’s still pretty up in the air. In my operating systems class, the professor has allowed me to finish the last lab, and as long as he’s satisfied that I understand it, I get an A on the final and thus an A in the class. That saves me the trouble of implementing the giant final project for that class. For my technical writing class, I’ve gotten perfect scores on everything so far, and I have 2 points of extra credit. I turned in my last assignment for the class today, and don’t have a grade on it, but I don’t think it’ll be less than 90, so my A is safe. No final in that class either. From the grades I’ve gotten back in my graphics class, I have an approximate A. Let me stress the approximate part, since I only have about 20% of my grade back. The final only counts 16% of that class, so no huge worries. I have a project for graphics that I have to turn in at the final, and I don’t think it will be very difficult. In Earth and Atmospheric Science, my grade is a high B. The final counts 30% of my grade, and I’m not worried about it at all. To get a B in the class I have to get a 60 on the final, and I don’t forsee any problems doing that. A 30 is a C, and I cannot fail it. And finally, in my combinatorics class, all I have left is my final exam, on which I have to make at least a 48 to get a C, or an 80 to get a B. Lots of studying going into this one and the probstat final.

Basically it looks like I’m going to pass everything, and end up with a 3.0 for the semester. Happy news! Now I just have a graphics project and OS project to do, and studying for my 2 hard finals, and I have 2 whole weeks to finish it up. LAN + Graduation Party on May 6th at 5pm. Be there or be square!

So far, this semester has been an amazing ride. Current state of my grades: Probstat: c. Graphics: b. Combinatorics: b. EAS: a. Operating systems: a. Technical writing: a. This gives me an overall GPA of 3.3, which is probably the highest I’ve had while at tech. I’m not sure I can hold my probstat grade up though. Now it’s past drop day, so I’ll have to give it my best shot. For the Marines, I’m still working on some paperwork and trying to get myself in shape to pass the entrance physical fitness test. More on that as it develops. And finally, spring break! From friday afternoon to sunday night, I worked as a videographer and photographer at an anime convention on tech campus. It was a blast, I had a great time. It was the first anime convention I’d ever been to, and I think working on staff would be more fun than going as a participant. I’ll post a link to some photos when they’re up on the convention website, here. A lot of stuff didn’t go quite as planned, but I think the guests had a good time and that’s what’s important. I, on the other hand, got about 6 hours of sleep total over those three days. Now I’m going to go return the video equipment I borrowed from the campus library, get my gun fixed, and other random stuff. LAN party this Friday!!! I’ll try to post a few times before graduation. More to come eventually.

Ok, I got a 98 on my first combinatorics test, a 92 on my first OS test, full points on my first OS project, full points on my first probstat homework, 100 and 98 on my two EAS labs, 25/30 on my first 3 EAST quizes, 68 on my first EAS test (with a class average of 71), full credit on my first written assignment for techcomm, and full credit for my presentation in techcomm. I haven’t gotten any grades in graphics yet, which annoys me because I turned in the first project over 2 weeks ago, but I have an email in to the TA to check on it. I’m stoked, things seem to be going really well. More to come spring break-ish.

Oh, and happy single awareness day / national day of annoyance.

I guess I should post something now, since starting tomorrow I won’t have time. Due to some spiffy juggling of credits, the D I received in networking last semester is going to count towards graduation after all. That means I just have to retake probability and statistics in addition to everything else I was already supposed to take this semester, bringing my load up to a whopping 18 hours. This is more hours than I’ve ever attempted and will easily be the hardest semester in my illustrious (read: long) career.

As if that wasn’t enough pressure for this semester, I’m in the proccess of applying to become a United States Marine officer. While my academics are where I need them to be for this process, my physical training scores are basically as bad as they can be. I have a few months to bring myself up to spec, and that’s going to take a lot of work. I’ll be waking up before the sun, studying, going to class, working out, and going back to sleep again. I won’t really have time for anything else except maybe on Sundays. Oh so much fun! More to come, probably at spring break.