news

My news, Fall 2003

(current news)

(31 December 2003) Made it all the way back to Illinois, just in time for an orthodontist appointment. After that, I bought a Jimmy Eat World CD to see what I could learn from it. Upon being finished with errands, I once again unloaded all of my gear. There's not really room for it in this house! I had a good long conversation with my old drumset, and even jammed with my sister a bit.

(30 December 2003) I had some down time in between family activities, so I picked up "Crime and Punishment" again, this time reading it on my Pocket PC. I got up to the third part, and then I got busy getting two relative's computers running smoothly. That was fun to do again; I hadn't done much computer service lately.

(24 December 2003) Almost all of my dad's family is here, so my grandparent's house is quite lively. The weather here has been on the warm side. That's today's news and weather.

(22 December 2003) This morning, I attacked my program with a fresh mind. I finished around four, and then headed into Pella to help move furniture out of my great grandma's old apartment. And to eat. When I got back, I tested the program, worked out the little bugs, and got the pictures section ready. This evening, I hope to relax. I wonder if there will be even more 'groundbreaking' Saddam Hussein specials on the TV tonight. Then again, maybe I'll read a book.

(20 December 2003) In the morning, I recorded the vocals for "Expressionless", put on the final touches and uploaded it to the music section here. I spent the rest of the day programming, pacing and eating tasty-sweet snacks. I had made very good progress on all three when my uncle and his fiancée arrived. I coded for another hour, then decided that three hours past midnight was enough.

(19 December 2003) I travelled in a two vehicle caravan most of the way to Pella. Just knowing someone else on the roads makes them that much less tiring. I arrived safely at my grandparents house around three o'clock yesterday. Safely, although my truck was dripping with mud and my ears had adjusted to the road noise and competing music. Today I converted their basement to a studio with my computer and guitars. I recorded a little, then put on some OC Supertones and programmed the rest of the night.

(15 December 2003) Before I get to see the Return of the King, I'm going to take one more final and write a paper. I'm fired up for at least one more semester of this whole college thing. But before that comes a big long break. Maybe I'll get bored enough to practice some music and get that picture program working. I think I'll make some hot chocolate and find the instructions for that paper now. Haf a gute day.

(8 December 2003) This Sunday, I found out that my truck can go over 100 mph (45 m/s). I was trying to get the snowy mustache off of my hood. I kept going faster, but it still stayed stuck there. My speedometer was barely at 90, but a friend was following behind with a more trustworthy dial. It must be that 89-octane ethanol gasoline that's cheaper than the regular stuff in Iowa.

(1 December 2003) I finished the Lord of the Rings. I packed up. I ate more good food. Then I drove for many hours. Then I unpacked. Then I paced back and forth across campus.
Then my friend Mason came. He had a marshmallow gun. We had fun. The end.

(26 November 2003) I had to knee drop my laundry to get all of it into a big blue bin. Then, I copied the pictures off my camera and loaded my PocketPC with much good stuff: Five Iron Frenzy, braveSaintSaturn, Guerilla Rodeo, Project 86, twothirtyeight, Element 101, Switchfoot. Plus a couple of New Testament books in MP3 format. Rock on. And in case my clutch goes out or I run out of gas, I've got "crime and punishment.lit" and "phantom of the opera.lit". I'm also going to take a guitar, a bass, two amplifiers and a bowling bag full of cables and pedals. I feel like I'm addicted to something, but I know I can quit anytime.
I'm worried that I might accidentally leave my textbooks in my dorm. Onward to Pella and family and turkey. w00t!

(21 November 2003) It took me a trip across Des Moines and back before I got directions to Clive, but I arrived at the venue just in time for Five Iron Frenzy's last Iowa show. Ever. Reese Roper could hardly sing anymore, but they played a very good set of songs. I got to my grandparents' house a little after midnight, and had a great time hanging around Pella with them the next morning. The trip back was scenic, so I got lots of practice taking pictures without drifting into the shoulder. Then after a two days of classes, the weekend uponned me. I started on the right foot, I guess: after a good and thorough cleaning, my dorm looks less like a living space and more like a storage room. Just give it a few days....

(18 November 2003) Five Iron or Bust.

(13 November 2003) Vacation was good. The North Dakota trees retained a fresh snowfall beauty the entire weekend. I ate some wholesome food that had been lovingly prepared in small quantities. A nice change. I had time to ponder and to sleep. I read a nice little chunk of the Fellowship of the Ring on the way back to Dordt.
This week is a bit stressful, and I'm balancing quite a few longer trains of thought. Today I registered for seven classes for next semester, to be narrowed down to only four or five eventually. Spanish, which was enlivening in high school, did not make the top seven list. Physics, which is still quite galling, will not be considered until next spring, at the earliest. My schedule is turning out to be heavy on the creatively technical emphases.

(6 November 2003) I'm running today on two three hour naps - one under a blanket fort in the Campus Center and one under the laundry that's drying on my top bunk. "Songs to Burn Your Bridges By", by Project 86, is here.

(3 November 2003) My weekend was much busier than I imagined it would be. On Friday I watched Signs [my thumb up] and another movie I didn't like much, epcept that it was funny. At times. I worked most of Saturday, getting lights ready for a fun...activity. If you look past the cheesiness and realize how much fun so many people had, "The Price is Trite" doesn't look like such a dorky idea. Fun...hmmm... That reminds me of a book I read Saturday. "Bear v. Shark: The Novel" is still on my books-to-read list, because I intend to read it again.
On Sunday, I went to a worship-based service on campus. Unexpectedly (for all the Dordt students I chatted with), masses from a nearby college came, which was generally agreed to be really neat. Today was Monday. Today was anything but "back to the grind". Even though I fulfilled all my scholarly 'obligations' and might even study a bit yet tonight. I'm saving the longest stretch of "The Fellowship of the Ring" for a five-person vacation to North Dakota planned for next weekend.

(31 October 2003) Done with classes for a bit. Not quite sure how to celebrate Reformation Day. Either read more Tolkein or try to make some pictures-meet-web code in C++. Media Player is trying to shuffle randomly across my music collection. Kind of.

(29 October 2003) My week is starting to wind down class-wise. I've read a bit more of The Fellowship of the Rings and some material on C.S. Lewis. Been listening to braveSaintSaturn, Michael Card and Switchfoot. Took pictures and made plans for this website today.

(25 October 2003) This week I read Lord of the Flies, Geronimo: His Own Story, and started a few books about space and time. Listened to Project 86's Truthless Heroes album while waiting for their next album to ship. On Sunday, I got to play a few cover songs on bass before Sonburn and By The Tree rocked Dordt's Campus Center.

(once upon a time) My blankets and sheets currently reside at Dordt College. This semester, I'm taking Physics 201, Elementary Linear Algebra, Philosophy 201, and Gen 100: Kingdom, Identity and Calling. I'm participating in voice lessons, a Spanish conversation class and a club called Positive Airwaves. I write and/or copy edit for the Dordt Diamond, and play in two student-led worship teams. I've gotten to know some new friends. I'm learning more about God, people, myself...life in general. People are trying to teach me other things, too, but most of it is too practical to apply to real life.

Site news, Fall 2003

(current news)

(31 December 2003) Improved a couple of site images. Removed banner from each picture's page for nicer presentation.

(29 December 2003) Work applied to the music section. I found a mostly finished song from last May and added it to the online collection. Having thoughts about posting 'some thoughts'.

(24 December 2003) Added just a few more pictures.

(22 December 2003) It's Pictures Monday! Be sure to let all *your* pictures know how much America appreciates them. I gave thank-you cards to all my pictures, with Applebee's gift certificates inside.
(midnight addition) The behind-the-scenes workings of this site have come along quite nicely. Now that I've got the software and structure nearly nailed down, I'd like to fine tune the look-and-feel and put up a few more features.

(20 December 2003) Today I put the beast to rest. I couldn't expand the program I had started yesterday. Not like I needed to, not even for a deranged but useable monster. So I started over. It has turned out excellent so far, with few caveats save that it doesn't produce any useful output. Yet. PICTURES MONDAY???
I did add a new song to the music section today.

(19 December 2003) As alluded to for two months, significant progress was made on the pictures section. That is, today I began brewing a program that has produced some picture pages from a template. I need to make the code more ugly, and then the beast should be ready to produce some pleasant results. I hope to have the whole shebang up tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in.

(15 December 2003) I looked around for the questions for a paper I'm going to write, but I couldn't find them. I was feeling pretty useless, so I put up the music section here instead. See my personal news for the latest 'no pictures' excuse.

(25 Nov 2003) Check out the pictures section. But brace yourself for disappointment. What that page means is that I have picked out about fifty pictures and given many of them captions. But it looks like I'm going to have to hack together a little program to build pages for them. Unless I can get a volunteer to do it by hand?

(13 Nov 2003) No pictures yet. I've been doing some research on picture cataloguing in general. I plan to use XML behind the scenes for this site, and have a great book to help me out. Maybe this weekend I'll get started?

(31 Oct 2003) Little touch-ups here and there.

(29 Oct 2003) Got an updated design ready for uploading. Design still not finished, nor are pictures up. But my homework's not done either.

(25 Oct 2003) Added a bit to the Axstar page, still needs more work. I am eager to get a pictures section up, but have been pretty busy.

( 8 Oct 2003) This site is sorting itself out as the layout progresses. Many sections are still unprepared.