Beginning of Summer

Oh gosh, it's been a while. Really sorry to ignore this for so long, but you can beleive I've been busy. School ended smoothly with the presentation of our project in Components, and the very next day I was on the road to New Mexico. I drove to Albuquerque to see Zach's track final, and I was rewarded to see him get 2nd place in both shotput and discus, both directly behind his good friend and team mate. I was also there for Mother's Day, so Mom, Dad, and I went geocaching and found a great little path. While I was gone, Ashley had surgery on a cyst, and I came back to Colorado to find her very much in pain still.

The weeks that followed were pretty quiet. I started thinking about Annual Training coming up in June, but mostly I was catching up on some good old computer gaming. One day, Marcy and I installed a new bedroom window, so hopefully it will be more energy efficent and more bearable in the heat. I also had a few bus runs, shuttling a conference from their hotel to NCAR and back. But this past Thursday was a real treat. Kelly came down for the day, and the two of us went to Elitch Gardens and rode the rides all day. Ashley and Jackie won't ride the coasters, and Kristen of course has that whole medical condition of expectant mother, so it was just the two of us. They didn't miss a whole lot, since half of the park was still shut down in anticipation of full-blown summer. We also had several school districts worth of high schoolers taking a field trip. However, we made the best of it.

Friday, Ashley and I both drove down to New Mexico to see Zach's graduation ceremony. The gym was barely large enough for all of the family, but the speakers were generally short and sweet. The reading of the names was horribly long, even with a class of only 300. Since then, we've been attending parties and eating too much cake. After all, your little brother only graduates high school once!

Culmination

My pride, my Army promotion, and my grades are all being decided this week, and so far I'm not doing well. The drill this weekend was fairly normal, nothing too bad except for the company PT test. I started on the push-up event, something I thought I had locked up. But about 10 push-ups in, I started lowering my head and looking at the ground. Almost instantaneously I had 3 NCO's standing around me and telling me to keep my head up and go down lower. With all of the commotion around me, I did a pitiful job, probably one of my worst performances on the push-ups. I didn't even come close to passing there. Disheartened, I wouldn't have even bothered going on, but SGT Murray encouraged me to at least finish all three events. I barely eked out enough sit-ups, and really took it easy on the run. All that preparation on the run with Pritchett, and I ignored my push-ups and failed before the run even started.

This morning was the Arabic written final. I don't think I did a spectacular job, but it was good enough. I did learn a lot this semester, and I do think it showed. Besides, Oustad Aissa is a very compassionate teacher, and he's always willing to help out his students when they need it. My components final is Thursday, and I feel confident about that. After all, it's a computer class, right? How can I go wrong? Directly afterward is the optional project demonstration. My partner and I have been putting together a two-machine pong game with serial-port communication. I'm impressed that we got it working this far, but somewhat disappointed with the results. We didn't figure out how to get the tiny LCD screen to draw smoothly, so we ended up with a quick flash for the ball, and a paddle that constantly changes shape. Not only that, but the collision detection is skewed, so the ball hits a wall, stays next to it for a while, then bounces. The whole program has a mind of it's own, and I don't think programs are supposed to do that. As the programmers, we should have complete control over it and know what happens and when it happens. However, I'm still looking forward to presenting it.

Bad Run

Last night I had a fairly bad bus run. I was moving a conference from their hotel to Folsom Field for a relaxing evening of fun, gambling and socializing. I was driving an articulated bus, which forced me to park awkwardly for picking up the group. I had several ladies in high heels trying to walk down a short, grassy slope to board. However, no harm done, we continued on our way. I dropped the group off, then went back to base and post-tripped the bus and ate dinner. I came back to the bus and drove back to the pick-up point, where I was slated to shuttle for a couple of hours. Very few people came out during the shuttle period. When 10:30 rolled around and I had still only shuttled a fraction of the group back, I began to get a little nervous. However, my trip ticket said I ended at 10:30. Maybe the party went later? They were probably still partying and would find alternate transportation back to the hotel. So a few minutes afterward, I drove out, fueled up, and went back to base.

As I was attempting to park the bus, my boss Scott called me over the radio sounding sleepy and slightly annoyed. He asked if I had picked up my group, and I told him what had happened. He then informed me that the bulk of the group was waiting up at Folsom Field still and very angry that I had left them. I immediately drove up to the pick up point, and was assaulted with all sorts of accusations. I had left 10 minutes early; I waited until I saw people walking out, then drove off; I had spent the last half hour sleeping somewhere. I didn't retort that they didn't have the courtesy to be on time, not even one of them. I made a mistaken judgment call last night, and I took for granted my own obsession with being on time. I wasn't supposed to be a bus service last night, but a chauffeur. I talked to Dien and Scott about it today. Dien, an experienced staff driver, suggested that I could have gone up and checked. Scott thought that my mistake was not grossly out of line, and agreed that the incident might warrant changing some procedures, perhaps including requesting approximate passenger counts on reservations. I don't know what could have helped the situation, but I've learned a little for next time.

Other than that, I've been working hard on my run, with the assistance of SPC Pritchett. He also goes to CU, and he's one of the fastest guys in our company, so I'm glad to have his help. We've been working hard; I don't think I've ever worked my legs this hard over a two-week stint. I just hope it's enough.

Today is the last day of class, and tomorrow is the June drill. Wish me luck with finals!