From Afar

First of all... Did you know that afar.com is a website?

I am in Indianapolis. It was a very long travel day. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't taken so many planes. Three I can handle. I did not want to get on the fourth.
I got here and found the shuttle stop full of other TBP-ers and that's how I found the hotel.

To Bagels!!

I woke up and tried finding if there would be breakfast. Asked the roommate. We went to the front desk. From the information that the front desk gave us and what my roommate and I gathered, we're on our own this whole time. We went to Einstein Bros. Bagels. Pretty good.

Roommate: Kevin. (Why do so many people have such similar names in my life) He's a Chem-E from upstate New York. Pretty cool.
I met some other people, and ended up spending three hours on the town with them.

I walked around that full circle

I wish that I had brought a camera.
We went to the capital building. It was pretty awesome. There was a stained glass window at the top of the dome. Very beautiful. I wish I had brought a camera.

Most of the store front that I'm seeing is food. Restaurants everywhere. When it came time for lunch, we had to pick a place. One of the girls in the group wanted an "experience" and not just a chain restaurant. It was decided to ask a lady walking on the street.
"Follow me."
We did. To Scotty's Brewhouse.
It was awesome. The waitress was cool. She helped us all pick what to eat. Gave us the run down. Etc.

And the food was great.

I also went to the job and career fair. Talked to some cool people. Heard some inspiring things. I can work for Cummins in power generation and be in Africa. They're installing generators there. I can get my master's degree and Sandia will "pay" for it. Oooh... Albuquerque anyone? I think that those two are the most interest piquing.

Walking around the city and meeting people from NY makes me want to travel. I want to go walk around the city of London. (Not this year due to the olympics, next year anyone?) But I also want to drive around North East US. I've never been up there and the pictures are pretty. I could drive around the North East then go drive route 66 back to the west coast. Oh. Oh my. That is a plan. All of this travel has been inspired again. I heard a friend say that since he still has one more year of school, he wanted to travel. I have air miles. I have some cash reserves. Worst position ever: travel and have a life experience or take an investment risk (get a job) and have a life experience.
Hmm. Get a job or have some fun this summer?
Does anyone know of places to go?

And so far, other than the short about the job fair and travel, this has been all about food. All I've seen on the streets is food. Food, food, and more food. Eh. Someday more will come of this.

Stressful Gratitude

That sums up the day.
I slept through my alarm for the first time in forever. Thankfully I woke up near a good time so I didn't lose too much productivity. The downside was that everything that was supposed to be completed by 10am was not. It made for a rushed morning.
But! At the gym I was able to bench 205. For the first time, I'm above 200.

Then I went through classes, went to work, tutored someone, went through a day.
I got two homework assignments done, and met with a professor that I wanted to submit complaints too and had absolutely everything smoothed out. Funny how that works out?

I also got the financial request forms. Most clubs asked for a reasonable amount. Some asked for an astronomical amount, so my whole percentage idea won't work. We'll see how that goes tomorrow night.
I'm going to be busy right up until I leave. I hope that I get to sleep on the plane.

Ah... My parents are back, and I got to spend the morning venting to my mother. I feel like a child, but when life comes down on you, two weeks is about all that I can handle without talking to mom. No number of surrogate mothers can take the place of my real mother.
A friend of mine told me once that I had a cool mom. (I don't remember the exact words) I was confused to why he said that, but one major point he said was that my mom cooked nearly everything from scratch, something I have taken for granted. I really didn't think outside of my world and it didn't occur to me how many people's mothers did not do that. Thank you, mom.
Flowing nicely into my next subject... She also taught/inspired me to cook from scratch. I made oatmeal raisin cookies for my upcoming trip. They have dual purpose: food on trip, and stress reliever. If I'm busy, I want to cook. Strange.

Get One Free

Fred Meyer at 8:30am on a Saturday is nice. There is no one there. At all.
Okay, just a handful.

My project group decided to meet and have breakfast. I learned that one of the member's loves to cook breakfast and is a great host. He made sourdough pancakes. From scratch. They were awesome.
We chilled out at his apartment for a couple hours working on the project. I'm not mentioning how the project is going, but then all of the group left. I just sat there mooching his internet for another couple of hours. Pretty chill day.

He's Normal...

Back up: I said that I'd get pictures of the snow and my pumpkin. I now have both, just without a lit pumpkin. I'm thinking about buying those bags of 100 tea candles and lighting one and letting it burn out each night.

The evening: I got home from church, and I wanted egg nog. I saw some in Fred Meyer in the morning. So Steven and I set out. I got my egg nog and was in a very cheery mood. I made an employee chuckle. Then I saw the most dangerous of all shopping words, "Buy One Get One Free"

The banner is proof that I either haven't, or will never have to grow up. In that picture, the third from the left is new, skip one, the next two are new, skip one, the next two are new, skip one, the last is new. My children are going to have a great inheritance of hot wheels and legos.
I'd like to bring attention to a progression of three, though. The skylines. I found the blue one (R34) a while ago, but when I was digging through the bin, I saw the 2000 GT-X. Right before I left, I walked around the bin then saw the R32 and had to have it. (Come on, I spent $3.27 and got 6 cars)

One Step Closer

Be a man!
Latest SOGM activity: move a log pile and stack it. (last night)
You might be thinking carry a few logs at a time to a set location not far away and stack them neatly.
No. We had a water-bucket line spanning 40 feet and we were throwing the logs. It's awfully manly and awesome. And it's outside, just under 30 degrees, but we were sweating.
Follow that up with a man meal of pork chops, and its rounded out.

I also had a club council meeting. They asked, "Does the finance committee chair have a report?"
No.
"Does anyone have any questions for the finance committee chair?"
Nothing happens.
(meeting director) "I have one. When is your first meeting?"
When I get the contact information for those on my committee.

Classic.

Frustrating: when professionals just blow you off. I've made a bunch of calls to various engineering and service firms. One said that they'd respond by today. Nothing. One said that they would contact the firm where the report I was looking for originated. They later called back, said that the person who could help me was out until the end of next week. Besides, "everything that I need is on our website." I called them back less than an hour later, left a message, and have yet to hear back.
The response that I most respect is the response of the originating firm, "you have to call our client to release that information. We can't. Sorry." That may be a no, but it's an understandable no.

Ah, but I am one step closer to letting you see what's going on around me. I took a couple pictures. The next step is to actually put them on my computer. I'll get there. I swear.

A Beautiful Sight

It sure takes a lot of effort to change a habit. Yesterday morning I caught myself telling someone about a recent success.
At least I caught myself.
Actually, just thinking about it, telling people about my successes I think stems from one of my favorite songs: Remember the Name.  All you need to know is "100% reason to remember the name"

Those Megga Muffins were just as awesome 4 days later from the microwave. They made a fast breakfast, too. I may make them on Sunday in preparation for the entire week; Sunday's are traditionally staple meal days. And I'm still in love with the crock-pot.

But... other than that, I did homework on Tuesday.

Today, I've finished quite a bit of homework today, but managed to sit around for an hour this morning. I love having mornings. It's so nice to charge up for your day and take time for yourself.
Ah... Mornings. I'm a morning person. Morning's are sacred.

I also worked today for the first time in a while. Everything worked beautifully. I was amazed what clean data can do. The problem is that I'm still short in numbers of service points. I have to find the leak. (Ha. Pun)

FOCUS: on what has been going on in the background since Sunday - snow.
It's been snowing, and it's absolutely beautiful. The campus looks disgusting; Fairbanks drivers are horrible (-y funny); the apartment is a beautiful sight covered in snow.
The temperature is moderate, as well, which makes it much nicer.

What's Cooking

Boastful: showing excessive pride and self-satisfaction in one's achievements, possessions, or abilities

Unfortunately, I do believe that fits me. I try not to be boastful, but I deal in the extremes. That means if you ask me about something that I'm good at, I'm going to tell you. And I'm not just going to tell you, but I am going to TELL you. Usually because of excessive joy and excitement. Sometimes out of pride.

My apologies if you've been told by me. (really humble, but that just fit too nicely. I couldn't resist)

But that subject brings up an important conflict of interests: isn't a blog supposed to be showcasing one's achievements, possessions, or abilities? That shall take thought to solve.

For now, I've just experienced the first realization of cross referencing the Old Testament in the New Testament. Before this, I've never really paid attention. Jesus was really firmly rooted in the Old Testament.

What's Cooking:
I was going to attempt to make stuffed peppers in the crock-pot. As it turns out, I suffer from laziness so I chopped up the peppers and just turned the crock-pot on.
I'm convinced that crock pots are amazing. They make super tasty food with very few ingredients. Another way to enjoy cooking. (Simplicity)

Anyways, Italian sausage and ground beef mixed with various veggies is excellent. It smells like meatballs when its cooking; taste's slightly similar, too.

Chocolate?

I am not being productive currently. Sleeping for 10 hours produces a nice day, but you end up absent for the duration. I've been sleepy all day and dysfunctional in the coronal region.

But! I found how to solve a vibrations problem after days and hours of looking at it. It's a mess. Who would've thought that a Fourier Series could've actually been helpful...

Correction: Robin would like you all to know for whom I made the totally awesome Megga Muffins Friday night for. (her) And that I spent the entire evening with my totally awesome sister.
She's sort of manly. She didn't get sick from the Man food.

Interjection! I'm scatter brained currently. "Inter-jection. Ouch! Inter-jection. Hey! That's not fair!..." Watch Schoolhouse Rock.
I did manage to play an average word (for me) in Words with friends against Steven on Kevin's phone. Couldn't tell you what it was, though.
On that note, heard today:
"What?! 17 points with only two letters?"
"Dude. It's an X."
*chuckle* That is absolutely hilarious.

www.thesaurus.com - look for synonyms for absolutely. Two that I'd like to point out: 'come hell or high water' and 'sure as hell'. Insert in place of absolutely. "...sure as hell hilarious". That just rolls off the tongue.

Also heard today - between Shira, Steven, and I. Context: yesterday Sh and St were arguing and wanted me to pick a side deeming one of them "right". My response, "I'm right." Then I told Sh to always answer in that manner. This was just a random conversation tonight.
St:"I've made a mistake"
N:"That's what she said"
St:grin... looks at Sh "Would you say that?"
Sh:"What?"
N:"Say 'I've made a mistake'!"
Sh:"I'm right!"  "See? I'm learning"
N:"Chocolate?"
St:"hahahahahahahahahahaha"
Sh:"?"
N:"Ahahaha." Win!

Yesterday was Grandma's belated birthday party. We ate spaghetti, chocolate cake, and watched Dan in Real Life.
The chocolate cake was homemade and was "absolutely" delicious. It earned my compliment of 'excellent'.

Right-o. I'm out. I'm currently exuding so little energy that it's difficult to type. Sleep...

Megga Muffins

I moved 20,000lbs of weight today! Woo! I feel awesome!

Today was no where near as eventful as the last three days were; no matter, it was a good day.

Wait, I signed my first business contract. I can work again! Yeah!

Exclamation mark!

Mmm... Macon

I fixed my brakes finally. It's amazing how you take those for granted. Such a smooth stop now. Ruined only by the noise of snow tires.

And even better than that, I made Megga Muffins. They're megg muffins with macon and veggies. (M's are dropped in for Man; the a at the end means that its extra guyish-a)

In fast summary:

Step 1: fill the cupcake slot? with macon.

Step 5: fill the macon with megg mixture.

Step 8: Enjoy the Manliness!

And if you eat one of these things with an english muffin, its a Megga Muffin McMuffin.

Of Course

Oh... Where do I start?

I've had a billion blessings in 3 days. I cannot wait until tomorrow.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

I own a business. I have an account. It wasn't thought out well on my part, but it's together.

Surreal moment still ongoing.

*smile* (and still smiling)

Continue to the post office. Notice: "mail for Nanook Modeling & Logistics"

Wow. I needed that. I didn't even know that I did.

The next 15 minutes were all about how he knows that the report did not reflect the quality of my work, and that 30% of our grade is for instances where when members of a group drag the grade down, the grade of the individual isn't affected.

"Hey, do you have a minute?" Sure. "How did you do on the paper?" Not well. "(grade, omitted for reasons of my own)"

Professor of class #1 opens door as I walk by. "chance" - b.s. It was an appointment.

Leave work to get the mail - This is where it gets good. PAY ATTENTION.

Oddly enough, I wasn't phased. High of a good test grade, "I don't really need this class", variety of other reasons.

No one at the gym. Motivation at 5:30am wears off quickly if you're alone - Class #1 (like Tuesday) - I had done a homework problem wrong. My business group got a low grade on the report.

Thursday:

Alright. 2 days. Tons of blessings. Ready for the kicker?

Plus the pie was amazing. And primal. True statement.

Told Missi about my blessings, who promptly said "oh! we know people! we can connect you!"

After school and work, went to the LaBean's to make sweet potato pi. (I left that misspelled on purpose because I cannot believe that I made that error. I swear I hit e)

Emailed four professors (3 nuclear's, 1 mechanical) at 6:30am our time asking if they thought it was wise to even consider a degree in Nuclear Engineering coming from a Mechanical background. By 1:30pm, I had all of them respond. "Mechanicals are accepted many times into our program. You just have to take basic courses."

Wednesday:

Then had afternoon coffee with Katie and talked about Oregon State. I'm in the gathering phase of my process. I also went to a bio-engineering presentation for U of M; also gathering. This leads me too

Let's not talk about class #2... Heat and Mass Transfer. I like the material. Boring as all get out to sit through. The book is the best resource. Our midterm was last Thursday.

I swear I messed up the 2nd problem. Apparently I didn't. I feel like a pro.

Did legs in the morning. (I'm still sore) - Went to class #1 - Went to work. Got paid - Went to class #2

Tuesday: 

Accurate Historical Record -

I bet you that was annoying. I didn't say where the beginning was, of course.

Simplicity

I'm not disturbed. I was bored.

I've experienced a nice, relaxing weekend. I watched a movie a day starting Thursday. (Saturday I only finished the last 20min of Fridays) My brain got to veg. How nice. I've entered a week, all planned out, nice and slow, and set up for another relaxing weekend. But noo... My classmates decided that they wanted to give up their weekend to study for an exam. So much for a free weekend. I'll have a mostly free weekend.
I carved a pumpkin this weekend, too. Not quite as, um.. unique as last years, (see pictures) but I like it. I'll hopefully get pictures up later of this years model.

Lurks in the dark...

Devour. What a nice word. "To eat hungrily or quickly". (also to consume destructively) It's two sided. You may fill yourself up now, but without the processing of the prey/food, you'll end up hungry or empty again. Like an unfilled appetite. Anyways... On subject, I've hungrily been consuming books lately: Only the Paranoid Survive (Andrew Grove), I'm in Jesus Culture, (for a book club/bible study/young adult group) God's Smuggler, and the Bible. Preface all of those with "I don't like to read" but I can't put any of them down. There's so much to discover, so much that I don't know. Back to devouring, I sure hope that all of them get processed so that I don't end up hungry again. Hungry in a bad way.

Progress: All is going well. I ate a pb&j yesterday and was horribly unsatisfied. How disappointing. My favorite food doesn't fill anything anymore. After eating, I honestly wanted a ton of cooked greens. Don't ask me. I did use JIF, maybe next time I'll find some Adam's. Or other nut butter.
Also on Saturday, Cookie Jar breakfast, to which Steven succumbed to the mighty cinnamon roll. (I ate half) It's a great feeling being able to know that every once in a while I can eat one of those with little ill effect. Perhaps a step in the right direction...

Hmm... The end of my thoughts.
Cheerio for now

Oh! Hey! My title paragraph. Forgot all about it. I've made two chicken soups in the last 5 days. They were easy, and tasted good. One was just chicken, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. The ratio was slightly off so it was meaty, but amazing. Then today was chicken, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, an onion, chicken broth, and a can of tomato sauce. It was amazing. Why do I love to cook? Simplicity. You can enjoy a few ingredients or add tons of spices and get incredible flavor.

This is Frustrating

Thanks to Joe, I'm now the Chair of the ASUAF Finance Committee.
That means whenever any club asks for money, I get the final say. The best part is that of the 6 people on the committee, 3 of them are engineers or engineering related. Great year for engineering.

I have to wonder how did I got so busy? I have 12 credits. I need to set some time allotments for ENSTAR or they'll fall by the wayside. We'll see how many 10 hour jobs I can cram into a week. I'm up to the base 4: 12hrs class, 10hrs tutoring, 10hrs homework, 8hrs gym time. I want to add: 10hrs ENSTAR, 10hrs TBP and ASUAF. Oh iCal...
Anyone want to vote for a longer week?

I'm feeling pumped about my lifting. I don't know why. I feel amazing. But this is frustrating because I've lost another pound. I'm not sure what my max levels are. If my max has fallen, I may have to start consuming protein powder again. I have lofty lifting goals. I need to start on them. I love the vegetables that I'm consuming, but they aren't helping maintain weight.

I've woken up the past 2 days at 5:00. I fade around 7:45, but it's fun going back to the gym that early. Hopefully my enthusiasm stays. I'm trying to commit to Tuesdays and Thursdays with those guys.

Also

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDAN!!!

You're up online now.

And because I didn't do it yesterday: Happy Birthday Dad.

Revolutionary

I cannot wait until tomorrow afternoon. About 2:30. I'll have another great break leading into the weekend.
It's been a busy week with a Heat&Mass test tomorrow. I've been doing so much reading and studying its nearing the burn out mark. Last night I watched "Adjustment Bureau" because I couldn't stand it any more.

Monday I was able to make a mostly primal pumpkin pie. I learned two things. 1. Soy flour is terrible. Really, really terrible. 2. Pumpkin that has been baked then pureed (and in a frozen state) tastes really good.
Baking with Jessi was fun. I haven't done that in a while. Nor have I had to do so many dishes, but it's nice to be back in the baking world.
The pie was actually really tasty, less the crust.

Tuesday... Studied and worked. Today... Studied (I have a history test in 2 hours) and worked. Both Enstar and UAF needed time today. I love being on call for Enstar. It's the ultimate knowledge test.

It's a third week. See my previous post... http://makingnathan.blogspot.com/2011/09/and-nathan-said-that-it-was-good.html about third weeks. On top of this, it's also a test week. Needless to say, for Sunday and Monday especially, my primal standards have been slipping. I'm not trying to make an excuse; I should be able to overcome this.

My lifting has been ignited lately. I'm pushing more weight than I ever have.

Also, because blogs and the news will be lit up about this for a few days, a (should be at least) national hero has passed.
Instead of morning or assuming that now Apple will go in the dumps, I propose something else: revolutionary thinking. Why don't we try to do something that is so off of the charts that this day/time period will be marked by our actions/thoughts/response... etc? The hero never followed a pattern, created out of the box products, proposed an out of the box building, made an out of the box company. (which was worth more than Exxon) We should all be trying to make something revolutionary. Besides that, look at the time period in which he passed away politically and economically. Do we really want to mark his passing with depression?
Basically, new goal: to do something that will force the world to remember me. Always.

Live By A Schedule

It makes life much easier. Trust me. I try to do the same things at the same time everyday. Patterns are nice. Adjusting to someone else's is not pleasant.
I've been trying to fix my brakes in my car. Arranging a time has been difficult. But I did find a rock jammed in there, maybe that will solve the popping.

Friday night, we grabbed Isaac to hang out. We wanted to take him to "Zipzaps" and play laser tag. To do so, we tried to get more people. Unfortunately, convincing college age and older people to do that is not easy. Plus Steven and I were super exhausted. I feel bad for Isaac. I hope that he had fun anyways.

Yesterday, I made the best breakfast pile of vegetables ever! Chopped cabbage, 1/4 of an onion, 1 shredded zucchini, and bacon chopped up. It was incredible. Plus this will go with any meal, too. (Ah beautiful bacon)
Speaking of bacon, when I went to ASRC today, the guy opened the drive-through window and all I smelled was bacon. Mmm...
Back to Saturday: 2 noted lessons of the day-
1. Never try on a 100% Merino Wool sweater. You'll want it. In Steven's words, "it's like a hug."
2. Don't let cayenne go down the wrong tube. It prevents breathing.

Sunday: I had a lazy Sunday morning. Read a lot of history and Heat&Mass. Went to a pot luck at Jubilee. (Ate moose meatloaf - which I think had smoked salmon or bacon in it) Came home, walked the frolf course, hung out with SOGM, tried to fix my car. I'm back to a lazy Sunday night.

On that note, I'm going to sleep. (how normal)