Tuesday, January 30, 2007

SpecTECular

The TEC weekend is over, which is always sad. Working a weekend for the first time in almost seven years brought back lots of memories. It was an excellent time, and I hope to be able to repeat this experience in the future, hopefully the TEC coming in July, as I have several friends who will be applying to work that one. I only hope that this weekend made a significant (and permanent) change to these candidates, because, while it was good fun, having an effect on the candidates is the purpose of TEC.

However, working this TEC was a good step out of my comfort zone. I am a very shy and socially awkward person, so it is often difficult for me to interact with people I don't know. On the Support Team I worked on, I had only met one of the fifteen other people on the team prior to this experience. I had worked with her - Erin - on TEC #37 when I was in high school, back in the day. But that's okay, it's good for me to force myself into situations like this. It's the only way I'll get more comfortable with social situations.

Anyway, it's about time to head home.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Wheel Hath Turned Once More

What's with you, Chromiden's Chronicles? You have a blog posting for two weeks straight, and then drop off the face of the planet? Bad blogger!

Yeah, I know. But alas, now I am back, and with a vengeance. Or something like that. Here's some updates into my fascinating life.

In just under three hours, I will leave work and head to Rochester to start the TEC weekend. It should be good fun. We have 24 candidates coming (at last count) and I hope and pray that this experience touches them in an amazing and powerful way, as it did me when I went through almost 9 years ago (guess who feels old?). I am an adult leader on the Support team (behind the scenes, cleaning and stuff). Our Support team consists of 16 people, including 11 girls. Holy estrogen. :) I will be gone from Thursday afternoon to late Sunday night. Megan will be spending the weekend in Geneva with her mother and niece. The one thing I know about this weekend is that I will be well carbonated.

I am currently reading book 4 of the Harry Potter series - Goblet of Fire. I want to finish it and read book 6 - Order of the Phoenix - before that movie reaches theatres this summer. I've never read a book before watching the movie (with the possible exception of Chronicles of Narnia, but I read the books like 15 years ago). Then I can read book 6 in time to finish up the series with book 7 when that book is released later this year. After that, I plan on reading the three prequel books to Left Behind, which Megan has just recently finished. Then maybe, finally, I'll get back to reading Lord of the Rings.


My computer is on the fritz. It has been resetting itself while playing Everquest. I noticed that the computer was running hotter than normal, so it definitely might be a cooling problem. Then, as a big dork, I accidentally broke the fan off. Silly little me. So I have ordered a new one, with a new heat sink, and I will see if those things had simply been not working properly anyway. Stupid computers, and stupid computer people sticking their fat fingers into a cooling fan.

I am continuing my classes at work. Today, before leaving for TEC, I will do some courses for ASP, which should be good fun and very useful, hopefully. But we shall see. Maybe I shouldn't do any big learning before a TEC weekend, in case all that knowledge falls out of my skull. Kind of like Christmas vacation during high school.


Well, we are in the middle of our volleyball schedule, and our record is not fantastic, at 4-8. Last night, we got shut out 0-3 by a pretty good team, but all the games were close (each game goes to 25 points, and I believe we had at least 20 in each game). That team is spike happy. I think I am improving at the game, but still have a lot of work to do, both in hitting technique and in-game decisions, like where to hit the ball.

Well, there ya go. Have a good and groovy day!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

And Then It All Goes Splat

Well, the Buckeyes even still had a good year, even though they got torn apart in their 41-14 loss to the underdog Florida. I'm sure they'll be back and will be a good team next year. Their defense is young and should be even better. But who knows. At least the Bucks beat Michigan.

On a side note, this is my 50th blog post. Granted, ten of those posts were chapters of a story, but you know, it's still all good.

Anyway, my trip to Salt Lake City was fine. Nothing too exciting. We packed up a bunch of desktop computers, as well as several servers and other computer equipment. It got me out of the office for a few days, and they paid for my food, so what else do I need? I mean, you know, besides my exceptionally good-looking wife.