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August 1, 2004 - Just kidding

This afternoon, I took two naps and hung out with people instead of putting up pictures. They're in the works though, I promise. Soon.

August 2, 2004 - A start

Allright, I started the pictures. I think I'm going to do them in installments, mostly because it's a lot of work to do them all at the same time. Oh yeah, and to keep getting people to come back for repeat visits :)
So without further ado, please check out the first two days of RAGBRAI 2004!

August 3, 2004 - A bit more

I did a little bit more tonight. Check out day two of RAGBRAI 2004!
And back in the real world, going back to work sucks. I'm for sure not a fan. Fortunately, only eight more days of it until I'm done for the summer. It's just too repetetive, and I don't have the attention span to work from 8 to 5. But, like everything else, I'll slog my way through it.
I had to give a presentation yesterday morning to all the uppity-ups in IT, and I think it went pretty well. Our CIO wasn't there - something to do with a surgery for his son, so I think that lessened the pressure a little bit. Then Ryan, Solomon, and I got taken to a 'thanks and goodbye' lunch, so that was pretty awesome. Oh, and this Friday I give my Friday Forum presentation - five minutes to all the other interns explaining who I am, what I do, and why I'm here. It should be cake, so I'm not worried.
Hope everyone enjoys the week; I'm going to try and keep putting up more RAGBRAI pictures as the week goes on.

August 4, 2004 - .... Nope

Yeah, I lied. no more pictures tonight. Sorry, but I'm tired. Goodnight.

August 5, 2004 - Major picture action

Allright, a slight 'life update' here:
Yesterday, I went golfing with Marie, Jeff, and Mike. It was ... rather soggy, shall we say. It had rained Armageddon-style on Tuesday night, and then it had rained most of the day yesterday too - it was even raining when we got to the course! And of course, we played Bos Landen, so it was a losing battle from the start. This was one of those days where you just didn't keep score; I got my one par for the day and I was happy. Funny story about that par, though: 115-yard par 3, way downhill. I hit my 9-iron, and it lands about 15 feet from the pin ... and sticks. Not 'sticks' as in, hits the green and moves two inches. No, 'sticks' as in, hits the green and buries itself halfway into the green. Never have I had such a ball mark.
This week is crazy at work - it's hella crunch time for me. Every aspect of my project is coming to a head, and I'm having some trouble keeping up. To make things even better, the entire team (who I need to talk to regularly for miscellaneous wisdom) has all-day training Tuesday through Friday of next week, and I have to give no fewer than eight training sessions next week to people I don't know on how to use this new tool that I'm providing. Problems: I don't know what I'm going to cover, who's going to be there, or how long it's going to take - and we don't have any of the data we're going to need to do this. And training starts promptly at 8:30 AM on Tuesday.
Oh well. We all know the real reason you're here, and that's for pictures of Day Three of RAGBRAI 2004!
And while you're at it, check out the pictures of the food drive and the RAGBRAI water bottles on my Pella Interns pictures site.
And for reference, I archived July.

August 7, 2004 - More pictures

Since not only did I not put up any more pictures last night, I also didn't even have the common courtesy to put up a message about it, I decided to put up two days' worth for you. So do check out Day Four and Day Five of RAGBRAI 2004.
Marie moved out today, and Ryan left last night. Those are the first true signs that this summer is coming to an end. It's been awesome though - I don't think that there was a dull moment the entire time. I basically did nothing but have fun every moment I wasn't at work - and much of the time that I was. I met some awesome people and did some amazing things... it's kind of upsetting to see it come to an end. But, this is what happens with everything I suppose.
Oh, and Solomon and I golfed today. I was horribly inconsistent; one birdie, one par, two doubles, a triple, and a nine. Yes, that's nine strokes on the same hole. Oh yeah, and two twenty-plus-foot putts. And two missed three-footers. I felt pretty good about the round, and it was a perfect golfing day; I just wish I could be more consistent. Oh well.

August 8, 2004 - Still more pictures!

So I put up one more day's worth of pictures, leaving only the final day. So check out Day Six of RAGBRAI 2004.
As for what I did today, my biggest accomplishment was going to the grocery store. I never even showered. I love weekends.

August 9, 2004 - One more day of pictures

Yep, I got the last day up. Hit Day Seven of RAGBRAI 2004. Now there's just a little bit to write up about the post-ride, and I'll be done with this section. Huzzah.

August 16, 2004 - Wow

Allright, I haven't been a good boy and updated this is awhile. But I have some very good reasons ... at least I think they're good reasons. So, the highlights of the last week go like this:

• Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were crazy days at work. I gave eight separate training sessions in those three days, trying to teach 100+ people to use the new system that I put together this summer. Some people were more enthusiastic than others, of course, but hey, now I don't have to deal with them anymore. I kinda feel bad for Nate and Travis, who I hung out to dry - "If you have any questions, call Nate or Travis" was at the end of all of my training sessions.
• Thursday we had our Intern Appreciation Banquet at Pella. They treated us all, and all of our managers and mentors, to a very nice lunch, a couple good speeches, and they gave us all a nice picture frame with a group photo of all the interns and co-ops. And then was the big event: the presentation of the $5000 grant awards. Pella gave out five this year, and Solomon, my RAGBRAI-training partner and fellow IT buddy, got one of them!
• Our remaining group of six (myself, Sol, his wife Jessie, Janet, Lisa, and Mike) had made previous arrangements that if one of us won an award, that person would buy drinks for everyone that night. So we raced out of work Thursday, went golfing at Bos, then headed over to Dr. Salami's for dinner and drinks. Huge props to Sol for buying the drinks - and I must say, I very much enjoyed my first couple Jagerbombs.
• Friday was awesome, too - Travis and the team took me to lunch out at Bos, and then we left work at 3:00 to go golfing! Madd props to Travis for covering the round of golf and the beverages - even if he and his brother destroyed Nate and me in our improvised best-shot competition. I'm glad we made it out to golf at least once, though.
• Friday night brought a whole ton of cleaning and packing - note to self: Next time, start packing sooner. I crashed at about 2:00, and was up again at 7:30. Saturday was a long day.
• I rented a minivan from Enterprise to move myself, which worked out wonderfully. I left Pella at about 11:30, got into Ames, unloaded all my junk, ran over to Emily's house, got my junk from there, unloaded that, and then headed back to Pella to grab my car, the last of the stuff, and do a little bit of cleaning too. Finally got completely out of Pella at about 5:30, tagged Ames real quick to drop my stuff off, and then headed up to UNI to hit Marie's birthday party. Stayed there a couple hours, then headed back to my apartment, which had nothing but boxes everywhere. I slept on the couch in my sleeping bag because my bed was covered in boxes. It was mighty interesting; all told, I drove well over eight hours on Saturday. Like I said, a long day.
• And then yesterday was a whole lot of unpacking. I got up at nine, and twelve hours later, I pretty much had my apartment in working order. With any luck, pictures will be forthcoming.

August 21, 2004 - Woo! Site changes!

Allright, ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. You'll be drawn to the new and highly improved (at least I think it's highly improved) navigation system on the left side. I think it's clearer and better - and in following the good principles of web design, all my navigation links are text instead of images. That's a big no-no that's needed to be addressed for awhile now. Oh, and you'll also notice the brand-spanking-new Picture of the Day section! I created this tonight, and - here's the important part - it actually will change every day! I've made a script that selects a different image every day and never repeats one, so now you actually do have a reason to come back and visit my site every single day. And lastly, I made RAGBRAI its own separate section. Yes, I know it's not finished yet. Working on it.
And yes, I did do this on a Saturday night. Before classes start. When I have no other pending obligations. Hmm.
As for this week, it's been wonderful. I sat and played video games for a solid three days, then finally got up the energy to do such complex things as buy my books, get my oil changed, and go to the grocery store. Unfortunately, my days of pure laziness are behind me for now; my roommates have moved in, my folks came to see me for a couple days, and classes start on Monday.
Speaking of classes, I've yet to figure out exactly how I'm going to negotiate trying to be in two places at once for four hours a week. Meh, I'm sure it will work itself out.

August 24, 2004 - And it begins. Again.

Yep, school is back in force. Classes so far have been fine, I suppose - though three of my five profs said "This class will be the most important class of your college career" in their opening lecture. For those keeping score at home, that means a lot of work, and probably little fun. But I've managed to work around the conflicts thus far, and I got to sleep in until ten this morning, so it can't be all bad, right?
Not much around here to report. Ran some errands, cooked some food, did some work, etc etc. I spent some time mucking with the site yesterday, since I know I'm not going to be able to when the classes kick in, and I made everything (almost everything, anyway - some of the scripts need a bit of work) standards-compliant. If you're curious what that means, click the little buttons at the very bottom to find out. Basically, it's better, and more uniform across browsers. Some things might look a tad different, but it shouldn't be too bad.
You really should keep checking out the Picture of the Day section, since it actually changes every day. And eventually there will be a way to get to all the old days' pictures, too. I'm working on it.
Another 9AM day tomorrow. Bring it on.

August 29, 2004 - Definitely not keeping up-to-date

So I haven't been updating this. Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry, et cetera. And so I haven't finished up my RAGBRAI section. And so I haven't made it so you can see the past Pictures of the Day. But what I have done is made the navigation bar and the footer a bit smaller. And I updated my resume. And you should all be very happy with that.
Let's talk about school a little bit, shall we? Firstly, my schedule stinks, as I have four hours a week where I am supposed to be in two places at once. Naturally, this is very difficult to do and I often find myself in only one place, when I should obviously be in two. That said, though, the professors have been very agreeable and willing to accommodate my circumstances, so thanks to them. As for how this week went, I think my classes are going to be enjoyable ... with the caveat that they're also going to be a lot of work. At least three classes don't have finals, but instead have massive semester-long projects that will be far more work than a final would be. Senior Design is more or less a two-semester-long, start-to-finish project that I get to work on. We got to put in a request for which projects we want, and depending on what I am assigned, this course will be either very fun and exciting or an excruciatingly painful experience. We'll find out in two days. Many of the other courses involve programming projects, which again, are fun and enjoyable, which means that I will do them and enjoy it, but they're also a lot of work, and I'm guessing that I'm going to find myself with little to no time by the end of this semester.
But for last week and this one, I have contented myself with playing massive amounts of video games, doing a little racquetball, hitting up Buck Burgers at a bar in Campustown (a first for me!), and other general slacking off. I should have an update to the gaming section in the works soon, detailing what I've been working on.
Hope everyone enjoys the week. I suppose I'll actually start getting assignments and the like pretty soon - and I am most unhappy about this.