My grades

Official Grades

Class Description Units Grade Grade Points

EEE 445 Microwaves 4.00 B+ 13.332

EEE 488 Senior Design 3.00 A+ 12.999
Laboratory I

EEE 498 Pro-Seminar 3.00 A 12.000


Semester GPA: 3.830

Career Bound

I accepted an offer from General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ. For all of you hoping I was going to move.. sorry, not this year. I entertained a few offers but this was the best. It will let me work on projects I can be proud of and gives me a little flexibility as I start my career, it pays the most, and I won't have to sell my house in this crappy market.
I still want to leave AZ, but it looks like it won't be for a little while longer.
Finals are this week so this is really all the time I have have. I hope to be able to make a real update soon.. maybe even post a picture or something!

Its that time of year

Its winter. The weather is nice, the holidays are plentiful, and the blue hairs are out in force. Sure, I live in one of the nations retirement capitals so I should expect to see them on the road but now we have been invaded by the most insidious of blue hairs: SNOWBIRDS!
I hate driving snow birds. You may be asking yourself how you could spot one for yourself.
Here are the basics:
Identify the slowest vehicle on the road around you. Notice how they are driving like they have absolutely no where to go, and even if they did they don't know how to get there, and to top it all off, they don't care when they get there. Yah.. its a blue hair. How do you easily tell a snowbird from a normal blue hair? Look for out of state plates. Not all plates apply here, Texas, Florida, and New Mexico usually just mean they are visiting. Their state is already nice and warm, they have no need to move to Arizona for the winter. The ones you have to look out for are Oregon, Idaho, Montanan, the Dakotas, and all plates Canadian. Be especially wary of Canadian snow birds. Not only do they have the same oblivious driving habits as other snow birds, but they also have an innate distrust of our measurement system and will often drive based on kilometers instead of miles. Sign says 35 mph speed limit gets magically turned into a hideously small number because they can't do the conversion in thier head and don't want to deal with "foreign" driving offenses.

Not dead

I'm not dead. I'm just busy. I feel as though I have been in a month long gauntlet, but it should be over after next week and I can get back to my normal pace of too much school and too much work and not time for myself. At least I should have time for sleep again... maybe.
How busy am I? I am waking up early on the weekend to work on homework I haven't been able to get to during the week. Seriously, its 7 am on a Sunday.

Its nice to feel wanted

The job hunt has started in earnest: Career fairs and recruiters, resumes and applications. It is nice to finally see the years of acquiring unique and desired skill sets begin to pay off. I am getting interest from companies now, starting dialogues with HR and hiring managers. This isn't anywhere near the offer stage, more like putting the finishing touches on the roadside before opening the boulevard to a new career. Some of you might think this is premature, since I still have 7 months before I graduate, but you have to remember the really really cool jobs have a 6-9 month hiring process.
I know this is mostly just the lower end HR guys filtering resumes but it feels good to know that mine is getting through the first stage so readily.

Plus today was my 4th wedding anniversary. I do feel wanted today. I love you KK.

Go Cardinals

A new record for most points scored in the first half... for the Bretts.. I mean NY Jets.
Seriously.. I don't even know why I watch anymore. My beer tab is getting huge trying to drown my sorrows. We look like a college team out there today.

Even worse.. Bret is all they sports guys are going to be talking about for ANOTHER week.


4th Qtr update.
On a positive note, at the half I was "motivated" to start on my homework and should have it finished by the end of the game. It is really easy to concentrate on microwave circuits when there is something else I am trying very hard to not pay attention to (but am too masochistic to turn off).
This means I can watch the Redskins hopefully beat up on the Cowboys with a clear academic conscience.


I have skipped 3 intented posts to bring you my feelings on this. Maybe after SD and Washington play I will come back and post the other stuff.. like the huge storm we had and the pictures of all the snapped trees, or how awesome it is to go shooting with Cody. Realistically though this is probably the last you will hear of those two momentous events.
__________________

twitter-esque

In case you where wondering.. formatting 700 GB takes a long frigging time when the platters only spin at 7200 RPM. I now see the real benefit of those RAPTOR and SCSI drives. To bad the really large capacity ones are so damned expensive.
I guess it will be easy for you to guess who has expanded the recording capacity of his DVR. Its a refurb seagate drive, so I refuse to put any mission critical data on it, but I figure recorded TV shows won't really be missed that much if the thing decides to die off in the next 12 months.

Depressing

School starts in 1 week.
How thoroughly depressing.
It was a pretty lame summer. The only thing salvaging it is the Colorado trip and the fact that E and C and e are coming to visit in a couple of weeks.
There was a definite lack of BBQs this year, although helping watching Tom brew beer was pretty fun and I did host a LAN party. All in all though, this summer felt like a let down. It was my last summer and I feel like I should have gone out in style.
I guess I could consider the 52" TV I am picking up tomorrow "style" but really, it is just "stuff".


Maybe a spontaneous trip to Flagstaff would help.

From the deepest darkest depth of..

the ocean.. no wait.. ermm.. THE BASEMENT! Monday I get to learn how to use a SQUID . No no, not those tentacled beasts from the cold depths of the forbidden seas, a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device. I have to wait until Monday because there was a glitch with the hydrogen last week and we are waiting for more. Now right about now some of the more nerdier readers are thinking that helium isn't that hard to obtain and shouldn't take a week. I must point out the S in SQUID. The superconductor needs liquid helium. I know the whole process will actually be pretty boring but as of right now I think it will at least be the coolest sounding tests I have ever run.

Sorry about that

I'm rapidly approaching 2 months with out a post.
I realize this isn't the way to keep readers glued the the tubes, but quite honestly I haven't had alot to post about.
I have been doing alot of stuff, just not things I want to share with the world through this less than anonymous blog. I also don't feel this chunk of the internet needs to be burdened with me talking about electronics, which pretty much cuts out work talk and the interesting to me but boring to the rest of the world software upgrades to my cell phone.
I don't have any hugely life changing events going on like some people we know so I just haven't been able to bring myself to make a post for a while. I can distinctly remember time in the last 2 months where I thought "I should blog this" but by the time I get home and remember I should update my blog (usually a day or 2 later for the remember part) I can't remember what it was I was going to talk about.
I am starting to realize this blog really only thrives when I have impending homework deadlines that are in desperate need of procrastination or they might actually get completed in a timely manner. I think anyone who has pursued higher education can realize the dangers in that.

So to some it up.. nothing really new to report here. Been having fun in the summer enjoying my life while it lasts. In another month school starts up again and I won't have a fun life anymore. I miss working at GD (mostly the money, but also the sense of accomplishment), the wife and I are happy and spend alot of our time planning to spend the mythical windfall of money we will have once I no longer have to feed the state's educational institution and instead can actually earn an income (think window shopping, but more intense.. like window shopping for 'round the world vacations).

Before I forget again, I think formal congratulations are in order to E&C and now little E. I think we can now abbreviate that family as ECe or CEe. Congratulations you two. I am very happy for you. Seriously.. when I think of you two with a kid it makes me happier, usually even makes me smile.

GLAST launches today

The satellite I worked on (GLAST) is launching today.. finally.
coverage at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=media

Conundrums and befudlements

I may have blogged about this before, but if I have the answer still hasn't been brought to my attention. Why does the English language refer to trousers as a PAIR of pants (plural)? At some point in our history was there a singular pant that only covered one leg? How come shirts get a singular term? They cover 2 arms? Pants are a singular item. They can not be split into 2, like say.. a pair of shoes. I can throw a singular shoe at you, but I cannot through a pant at you. I think this is unfair to pants. Pants are getting a bad rap because of the shortcomings of our language.
The same problem exists with all leg wear that isn't female based (dress, skirt, etc.)
I realize these items provide arguments based on holes. A skirt or dress has one individual enclosure for both legs, where a pair of pants has 2. So why isn't it a pant with a pair of pant legs instead of a pair of pants with a pair of pant legs.
English is a silly language some times.

My brain is hung like a horse (still)

EEE 304 Signals and Systems II A-
EEE 335 Analog and Digital Circuits B
EEE 443 Antennas Wireless Communicatns B
MUS 347 Jazz in America A

Semester GPA: 3.4
Cumm GPA: Still hovering around the 3.2 range

This made me laugh.. then think of Scott

Another semester DONE

Yesterday I had my last 2 finals. The semester is officially over.
This means I won't be a super mega stress ball. Just a stress ball. It also means I should be able to post more. Not now.. since I have to go to work in about 20 min, and I still need to eat breakfast but soon.
I have no idea how things turned out yet. I stopped caring about a month- month and a half ago. School burnt out my caring fuse. I went into most of my finals with a B, I have no idea if any of the finals where good enough to keep me there. Probably not, given the amount of effort I was putting in at the end there. All that I even pretend to care about is that I pass them so I can start my senior design project. Thats right. I said senior. No longer do I get to claim I will be done with school in "3 years" as I have been for the past 4 years. Now I have to say "1 year." My wife is very happy about that.

A little somethine for my fans

For C&E

I saw this van on the way to school. As soon as it pulled up I thought to myself "That looks like something Cody and Eve would do." Then I thought "Naw, that looks like something Matt would do to his car with Cody and Eve's help."


This thought was further enforced when I got around to the side of the van and saw the mural there. It is a duck riding on a dinosaur's back while a scruffy mountain man type reaches out in friendship. It is hard to see in the picture but the guy is basically how I picture Cody would picture himself.

I know its been a while since I last posted but that is because I have been busy doing things to post about. Once again I find that I am so far behind that I will eventually just make one post that encompasses all March. A quick teaser of the stuff to come: my spring break (otherwise known as the bathroom remodels), my trip to San Diego for Scott and Serena's wedding (otherwise known as that one time when I tried to kill my liver), a quick catch up on my status as a student and gainfully employed individual, and maybe some more pictures of my niece.
I promise all of this will come as soon as my teachers stop trying to kill me or make me quit school. Some times its pretty hard to differentiate between the two motives.

Things I do to avoid homework:

1. Check my email
2. Check the news
3. Make my wife breakfast
4. Fell a tree
5. Fell another tree
6. Put up more lattice work to make it harder to jump my wall using the electric boxes
7. Plan the bathroom remodel for spring break

I'm turning into Cody

I now have 2 jobs. I am working as a researcher at ASU as well as my GD internship. I am doing RF material characterization and will probably be trying to verify some theories about non-destructive measurements of thin film resistors.

Kristina and I started the South Beach Diet a few weeks ago. Ok.. really Kristina started it and I am being a good supportive husband and doing it with her. My wife is a great cook but damn that was a hell of a lot of fish and vegetables. Don't be fooled by South Beach "mashed potatoes." They aren't really potatoes but pureed cauliflower.
I am happily out of the strict 2 week no carb or sugar (that includes fruit) phase. I hit my "weight goal" and skipped straight to phase 3, so now I pretend to eat like I should have been for the last 3 years. Lots of veggies, natural grains and whole wheat stuff, lowfat milks and cheeses and stuff.

Thats really all I have time to say. I am behind in my homework thanks to my first test gauntlet. I have no life anymore.

Happy Birthday Puppy!

Today is Lenny's birthday. He is 5. He was born as Cactus Yikes but now he is just lazy old Lenny.
He had a pretty fun day today. He got a new toy.

It has a squeaker in each arm and leg, a rattle in its head and a growler in its stomach. Lenny was very confused by the growler at first, as is demonstrated by his wide eyes and perked up ears as his new tow bleats at him. It sounds like the cow noise the Fisher-Price barn makes when you open the doors.

This is not staged, that is really how he was sleeping. He is a very spoiled but very happy puppy.

I don't know how I feel abou this:

2 phone pic posts.. what is becoming of me? Really though, you can't blame me for finding the need to share this thing with you. It is what happens when you tell some french guy to build you a toilet and "make it a throne". Yes, that is a music box to the left of the bowl. It plays tinkly music while you tinkle.

Doh

You know what is silly? Setting your phone down 3 inches away from the charger but not plugging it in. Some days I amaze myself.

I never wanted a camera in my phone. I never found the idea appealing and I still think that there are more useful things to do with the space that circuitry takes up. I do have to admit though, there are times when having a camera on my phone is handy. Take for instance... last weekend.

The first picture is Scott on a bull. The second picture is Scott... no longer on the bull (unfortunately Scott is laying behind the bull).

Z is a good letter to put in a title.

Today was the first day of the new semester. It was the first day of school for 2008. It was the first day of the rest of my life.. ok, not really. It was just another day in the rest of my totally awesome life. A life I started for myself 4 years ago when I decided to stop dicking around, become a serious student, marry the girl of my dreams and move back to Arizona. 2 out of 3 is pretty damn good.
Today was a day that I have been dreading for 2 weeks. Christmas vacation is always odd. It like cracking a 2 liter soda you just spent the last 3 months shaking, releasing just enough pressure to get the foam up to the cap, then screwing the cap back on. I found myself between classes with the urge to just walk back to my car, get in, and drive home. I am starting the 4th year of school and it is really starting to wear on me. The constant suspension of what I feel is my normal life due to the temporal and financial strain the pursuit of higher education is starting to take its tole. I've only been back to school for 1 day and I already need a vacation.

In a completely unrelated topic, the Chargers beat the Colts and are headed to the AFC championship. I have mixed feeling about this. I am really happy the Chargers did so well and where able to pull of the win. On the other hand I have no illusion that they can beat the Patriots to get to the super bowl, especially with the physical toll they paid to get to the championship. I think the Colts have a much better chance of beating New England and my loathing of the Patriots seems to be outweighing my love of the Chargers. I guess I should just be happy I have had a good season. Chargers make it to the championship game, Redskins made the playoffs (barely), and the Cardinals didn't have a loosing season (I know, hard to believe!)