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I have but two things to do before this semester spins off into a nostalgic oblivion, but they are major projects, the culmination of a semester's work.

Took the GRE and did pretty well last Saturday. I dreaded it as I've never liked standardized tests. My monitor was old and running at an obvious 60Hz, the noise of keystrokes distracted me all too well.

We picked up some new running shoes the other day and have logged a few miles on them already. Need to keep running until I meet the Air Force standards.

Michelle's mom caught a snake today in the trash can. They positively freak her out so I took it near a creek and let it go. I don't think it was venomous, but it was about 3 feet long.

Saw ol brichi the other day, unshaven and ebullient. After that Michelle and I picked up some Georgia Tech paraphenalia during the 20% off appreciation days. I got a license plate frame for the F-150 and a static cling sticker.

So I've discovered that even while I sleep I can laugh at Friends. Actually, I should say Michelle has discovered this as it's my laughing that wakes her. Took a nap today and left Season 7, Disc 1 playing and she said every once in a while I'd chuckle and sorta shake the bed. That makes me feel like Santa.

Spent enough on the Amazon card to earn a free $25 gift certificate. Think we'll pick up some summer reading material; been awhile since I've had time for that.

Fro, signing off (what did Jeff mean when he wrote that...)

When I was in high school I once noted that no matter what I did (after my first and freakishly stellar year) my teachers seemed to laude me. It was disconcerting in a way; I mean, was I actually still doing well? I made an analogy up, based on a cliche: what I was doing was sailing through smooth waters after powering myself with a few vigorous kicks, just coasting through. Corny, oh yes, but sometimes you say things.

To continue that analogy, it seems the waters will soon meet the shore.

I've been in school for(ever) about as long as I can remember back. I've got one last test to take this Friday, during the final finals period as it were. Then, barring catastrophic failure, I'll join the ranks of the thousands of GT Alums. It's about time; already got a few friends out there.

To my credit I've had a chance to work in industry for what amounts to two whole years. That's been invaluable, and I met some of my best friends doing it. Also, I had an amazing summer with Michelle in Metz, France. I've been friends with a good group of guys at Pikapp, taken some cool trips with Michelle's sorority, been in some clubs, TA'd for a Calc III class, done two semesters of undergraduate research, etc. Perhaps most importantly, I was able to do all of this with the person who means the most to me at my side every step of the way.

Let's leave this as Part I, as I'm sure I'll post something after I actually graduate. Then we're going to look for a house, pack stuff, move stuff, maybe tour the Eastern seaboard in the F150, and start the new chapter that is work.

(to be continued...)

Graduated in the longest, most boring ceremony ever on Saturday. Light rain, lots of cars and confusion. Very good times afterward.

Still waiting for updated grades so that I can know it's official.

We've been packing and spacklin' for the past two days. Hauled a couple major loads in the truck to public storage. So much left to do, so much that's in the air still.

But despite all that it feels amazing to wake up and know that school won't be on the horizon any time soon. No worries, just these good sunny days and lifting of cardboard boxes.

Let's share a little moment you and I. Came in after unloading the couch and some big boxes and plopped down in the leather chair. The windows were open since it was cool outside. The breeze blew in and gave form to the thin curtains we have. I was sipping some coffee and eating a fresh Dunkin Donut.

Okay, let's not share.

Tuned in last night to say goodbye to my Friends. I can look back with chagrin to my high school days when that show started and think about how I liked to talk like Chandler (inflection there). Then while we were in Metz all we could find for entertainment (yes, besides being in a new country...) were rips of the Season 8 episodes some French guy had shared. We must have watched each one 3 or 4 times that summer. Incredibly good times.

I'm just leaving that text up ^ there in becuase I apparently forgot to post it the other day.

The BIGGG news for myself (since I am sole proprietor and user of my site) is that Michelle and I found our first house the other day down in Crestview, FL. Just like that basically--it happened all in the first day of looking.

After returning to our agent's office we debated getting the paperwork going. At Michelle's urging we went ahead and started it, and it was a good thing too since a competing bid came in not more than 30 minutes after ours. Had that happened we would have lost it, then it'd be another day of searching-- and we'd already seen most of the others.

So it was exiting -- still is. We'll be close to the highway, have a nice 20 minute commute, Lowe's and Walmart are not more than 4 minutes away. There's also a boat ramp into the Shoal River for canoeing like 5 minutes away. On the other hand Crestview is not as nice as Destin, but it's less crowded and has all we need (I think).

Still here, mainly updating so that Michelle clicks the link to this page she won't have to say "man, this guy never updates..."

A lot has been going on and I'm not sure where I could start to sum it up. We should be closing and moving within 10 days, which is exciting. Quite a bit to miss here though.

...ok...there's the update. I'm sure one of the next few posts will be made from Florida. That's cwadgy.

Had lunch at Moe's the other day with none other than Brian. I had several parking issues with the truck, Michelle might have made fun of me till I twirled the truck straight into a frickin spot.

Watched 5 women and 1 guy pack our stuff for the move the other day (not the same "other" day as mentioned above). Then today 6 guys came to load all the stuff up. Now it's all sitting in an F-650 Enterprise rental and an International truck from Ryder. Delivery set for the 16th.

Now I'm laying on the floor in a makeshift bed typing, which is pretty cool because I can just lay my head down and sleep when the time comes. See, chairs and desks are a nuisance.

Also, Michelle did some running around today and picked up her hemmed work clothes and got a money order for our down payment on the house. A couple years worth of work in one check; it's quite a sight, and would be moreso if we were depositing it instead of handing it over.

After sitting around here the last two days and waiting on people we're going shopping and off roading tomorrow. It's funny; we're not actually going off-roading but saying so relieves me of some serious effeminations (purposely mangled spelling so that Googling "Steven effemi*ate" reveals NOTHING).

I have yet to miss being at Georgia Tech yet, though an older man who, upon seeing my Tech shirt, asked me if Tech won today kindled some vague sense of camaraderie.

Let's end this. Brian's UberServer is being built and hopefully all this can be brought back up without a hitch. Thanks to ssh I can help out even from Crestview.

A lot has happened. We're settled in our house, I've bought a lawnmower and wielded it already, planted some trees that died, built a wardrobe, laid some wood flooring in the closet, fixed and painted the bathrooms up, and watched a ton of movies that we've rented from the base library.

Eglin is a nice base. Our commute is a solid 20-25 minutes, 95% of it done at 65+ mph. It only slows near the gate and then near our "exit" (John King Rd. just breaks off of 85N near I-10, not a real exit). Any given day I'll see F-16s and F-15s crossing the skies above. The kid in me that fell in love with Top Gun still enjoys seeing them.

Out near the runways and hangars a road leads to a recreation area and the boat dock. We have lunch there sometimes, under the spanish mossed trees. Other times we just go to the library and read magazines (as close as I've gotten to a Barnes and Noble in awhile).

People on a base wake early. The first two weeks we arrived at work at 7:30. Starting this week we're working the alternative schedule (AWS) and we get to work at 6:30 and leave at 4:30. The benefit is having every other Friday off, so there's certainly no shortage of 3-day weekends here. Back at Synchrologic I thought I was awesome for showing up to a dark office at (gasp) 8 am. I'm still training myself to get to bed by 10 or 11. 10 just seems too early though.

Guinness, a fine beer.

Today I finally got settled in with what will be my group for the next 6 months. They do the drone control software that guides drones in live-fire test scenarios. Looks to be a lot of fun.

Ok bye thx.

To celebrate our first hurricanes we bought a few supplies from walmart the other day. Even better, the Base will be closed tomorrow, and Friday's my regular day off...so it's a stormy 4-day weekend.

I spent an hour making sure all the small things we have outside are put up to avoid them becoming shrapnel. Hopefully the neighbors will do the same.

Work's going well, lots of traning, nice people, interesting environment.

Brian's new server spies is up and running the domains of romej.com, brianculler.com, planetblur.org....and blursoft.com!!

We anticipate releasing some great software in the near futchar.

lates.

When I have time I work on the IMP. What it's amounted to at this point is a threaded-daemon-frontend to a new version of MakeGallery, which I've used to make the galleries on this site for a long time.

It's almost done, 0.1.0 anyway. A long way to go till it's what I (and others) would want.

The cool nights here are fading fast. The cold front that pushed Bonnie out was nice.

Michelle, that guy updated his blog. Not too good though.

I was running IMP-RC5 under linux and noticed that the FileSystemWatcher class was causing the app to consume 2-4% of the processor. I was a little depressed because under Windows FileSystemWatcher is unnoticeable, even the Mono version.

After following some leads I found that the Mono implementation uses thread polling if FAM isn't present. I checked the server and sure enough, no fam-devel. After the install IMP consumes next to nothing.

Michelle and I did a local tour of duty tonight and ate at Hideaway Pizza and followed that with a banana split from Hershey's. Both were good, though the hot fudge melted my ice cream.

I worked at a semi-furious pace since the beginning of August to get the Blursoft Image Modification Processor into a usable state. Today, after running stability tests for over 48 hours, I decided it was time for version 0.1.0 to go Golden Master. You can't really have golden master without a cdrom to master from so I burnt one of those.

I'd like to pretend I'm sending the cd off to a major burning plant but it'll probably just sit here. A project page should be up soon at blursoft.com; ideally it woulda been ready already, i know.

Michelle and I took a nap after work today till about 8PM. It's 9 now, and we'll be in bed again by 10. How's that for an afternoon. They pass much too quickly.

Bought some new eyeglasses Saturday and should have them in in a week. Both of our pairs come with the magnetic clip-on sunglass lenses too.

For real. Not just in Lord of the Rings.

Sadly it seems to draw nearer each pass.

It should be weak when it gets here, but if you check out the satellite images the thing is HUGE. I mean, how can that get weak; it's as big as the southeastern US.

Got some supplies at Walmart, put some outside crap inside.

Okay, time for some DVD television action!

Frances passed like right by us, but we felt nothing. The yard is littered with pine needles, maybe even enough to fill a plastic shopping bag, or at least a few ziplock sandwich bags.

Luckily we can joke about it; I've heard stories and know some people who suffered some real damage.

Meanwhile, another Category 4 hurricane is poised to charge into the Gulf of Mexico.

They always come around the weekend.

A lot has been going on on the development front. Brian is reinvigorating the blur6ex content management framework, IMP 0.2 is almost ready for release and Subversion is running on our server.

Currently I'm obsessed with Subversion as a means to track not only source code, but EVERYTHING. It's good with binary files and you can add custom metadata to whatever is in there. I wrote a Subversion HOWTO that I need to post; it's limited, but it's got pictures. Brian was able to follow it with success, and that is an unequivocal testament to its utility.

X.org released a new version of the X server that finally incorporates all the cool features Keith Packard had been working on. Transparency and drop shadows are the most notable.

Time to go wake Michelle The Sleeper up so we can buy some new fluorescent lights for the kitchen. And maybe some secret snacks.

Panhandle not too affected by hurricanes; Opal maybe, 10 years ago.

Steven and Michelle move to panhandle.

Things look good. Life is fun.

The one of the worst hurricane seasons ever begins. All I read is stuff like "worst in 100 years", "hasn't happened since 196x", "devastated", etc.

WTF!!?

Luckily for us the worst part was the 2 mph traffic on I-10 going west from Tallahassee. A few pics are in the gallery

Things are still in full swing as far as recovery goes. Almost everyone in the neighborhood has a pile of tree debris out on the curb. We drove into Ft. Walton Beach this morning to pick up our Penske truck (GMC 6500, Allison transmission, gas powered though) and there was much more to see as far as destruction goes. A few people even had little thank you signs out for the recovery teams that have been coming through to help.

After working up a heavy appetite we stopped by JB's Buffet on 85. It was pretty good, and quite a few of the Chinese dishes combined seafood in some way. Mongolian Crab is better than you'd think.

On the software front things have been going well. Brian and I have come up with some more ideas of things we'd like to make. The good news is that this time around it feels like they'll get done. Back when this started in 2002 we had our first servers up, our first stabs at CVS, and I was just learning C#, which was actually pretty new at the time.

Now Brian has a faster server, we're using Subversion, and I'm much more familiar with C#. Mono has made a lot of progress also and that's all I use. The other day I actually ran an executable compiled with Visual Studio using Mono, which impresses me to no end.

I've also been enjoying some of Paul Graham's essays. Joel of Joel on Software fame has some good pieces also.

See, my self-made blog sucks. I should really be linking to those people, but I don't want to manually type the urls.

The weather has been nice here, things are cooling off. A few hurricanes are out there spinning around, most of them don't look to be a threat, which is nice. I get tired of refreshing wunderground.com/tropical every 3 hours.

The server died the other day. Brian bought a new hard drive and was able to mount the half-dead other one. We've got most of the files and settings copied over now so everything should be fine.

Sorta.

My eyes are so dry, I should really take these contacts out.

COME TO THE NEW BLOG!!!

I'm planning a lot for this blog. Everyday my heart bursts from the excitement I get thinking about cool stuff to do online. I am, perhaps, quite a bit behind others, but I prefer to make my own tools.

The trampoline in our backyard is actually very useful as a bed. We laid out there for a good half hour just watching the lunar eclipse last night. We had Buzzle up on the trampoline, something that scares him dearly. He walked on our chests as if we were islands, afraid of that slippery black ocean surrounding us.

I just got the server upgraded to Subversion 1.1.1. Gah bless ATrpms.

My blur6ex blog is broken, and I don't have the willpower to fix it.

Our Eureka BOSS vacuum is a beautiful machine. Much quieter than I expected, and the carpet actually swells up when this beast passes over.

I recently finished reading Dave Egger's You Shall Know Our Velocity!, the follow-up to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I enjoyed both immensely. I've also gotten to the point where I can't imagine life without C#. Being a Linux user at home, I depend on the mono platform. It's a great way to build XML-based web services under Linux using mod_mono with Apache. Hopefully I can get some Amazon integration going with that (in a less showy way than what I'm about to do).

Our carpet had grown dirty. I will not number the months it had gone without a cleaning (months!, oops, have I said too much?).

After reading some vacuum reviews on Consumer Reports we decided on their Best Buy: The Eureka BOSS Smartvac 4870.

The idea is that we'll soon have hardwood flooring and this vacuum is "friendly" to that sort of flooring.

It comes with the regular array of attachments. The replaceable bags are sturdy and thick (I've had one bust on me before in another vacuum).

The headlight is quite bright, leading me to believe I would have no problems vacuuming in the dark.

A number of the passageways on the side are clear plastic, so you can see the coins you accidentally sucked up as they fly into your HEPA filter.

The powerful rotating brush at the mouth of the vacuum actually acts as a propeller. If you let the vacuum go it sorta crawls along.

It's very powerful and not very noisy.

We utilized the early voting thing today and voted at the Courthouse.

It was freakishly simple; I remember the pictures of the somewhat odd 2000 ballots. Maybe that was another county. Are these standardized? Probably not since they all have local candidates on them as well as the President.

Tried to take Buzzle on a walk this morning (after waking at the very late hour of 9:30) but he stepped into a huge pile of burrs and suffered much discomfort. I threw him in the truck and then performed not-so-delicate surgery on him at home.

He's gotten a few out himself. I know this because they were stuck around the edges of his mouth. Poor bastard.

The Ford F-150 is fast approaching 10,000 miles. Not a single problem thus far. The Accord is almost to 30,000 now, and other than needing a tire rotation and maybe a rotor polish, it's perfect too. I hate worrying about cars so this is all good.

James Haggart came over last night to give us an estimate on a new carpet install. He was really nice and even gave me a few tips on putting in the hardwood we plan on doing for the living room area.

I'm using the Beep Media Player now instead of XMMS. XMMS is fine for me but its unwieldy file selection dialog bothered me. I couldn't view last modified dates and couldn't expand it to reveal all the files. BMP uses the new GNOME 2 file selection dialog, which is pretty user-friendly.

Off to Publix for some good eats. Have you seen this show wiht Alton Brown?

I just finished changing the oil on Michelle's parents 1995 Buick LeSabre. For the last couple of changes I've used Valvoline MaxLife to help keep the engine's oil consumption down. It seems to be working pretty well.

My BMP playlist has been full of the oggs I ripped a couple years ago when the format was receiving a lot of attention.

I'm apparently writing simple sentences. Eternal Sunshine is on so I think I'll go catch that.

Watched SNL's once-every-four-years tribute. Had a Guinness. Crafted a new graft for blur6ex today. Enjoyed a tax-free coffee of the day from Starbuck's. Watched a Toby Keith video full of Air Force footage. Enjoyed a rocky road sugar cone from Baskin Robins. Ate a luscious 8" pizza from Hideaway Pizza on Main Street. Played with Buzzle.

Hoping my vote makes a difference tomorrow. Anxious. Also have a class tomorrow. My dog is nervous. Brian just sent me the worst picture ever--tubgirl. Have you seen this?

I need to mow this lawn. Also, daylight savings has given me light to drive to work in. It has also brought darkness when I leave work. I am constantly feeling it is 8. Only just now did the clock strike 10, but it has been 8 for so long.

Michelle is having fun. I will give her this soon. She has spent part of tonight bouncing Sassy on the trampoline. The poor dog, legs so stout, belly so rotund.

I am re-enjoying my ogg collection. At one time the url was leaked to some guys in russia and I was pouned with hits. I think I was one of the internet's top ogg providers. I will always be known for this.

I have proof of this.

Michelle and I have one of the longer commutes of anyone working on base; in some conversations with certain people at work they sort of pity us for the intolerable long drive we must endure twice a day.

It takes about 20 minutes.

Having lived in Atlanta the last few years this is nothing to us--in fact, it was sort of a selling point.

People's perceptions of all measurable quantities are skewed when they haven't seen what else is out there. That sounds derogatory--it's just as odd in reverse, that I could think 20 minutes of driving is nothing.

Anyway, on the way down to work this morning there was a wicked speedy Chevy Silverado with a noisy exhaust. He kept revving right up onto the bumper of whoever was in front of him, then finally, when the chance came, darted off into the opposite lane and accelerated like a demon for about 15 feet until he was at the next impediment.

I observed all of this from behind him, and I never fell more than 200 feet back. I kept wondering what it must be like to have his brain.

Also, one of the most pleasant things we go through coming to work is our passage into Niceville. Right before John Sims Parkway there's some sort of sewage processing plant that provides a rich aroma for us, morning and evening. I think the plant is there to ward off would-be inhabitants from the lovely little town of Crestview (pron: Cray-vewh).

The small things that happen are often the best. You've heard this, haven't you? Tonight was pretty regular in its events, then, after picking up some stuff from Wal Mart, we decided to go ahead and take Buzzle to the park.

It was dark and cold (of course it was dark--damn sun sets at 4:45PM!) but we had the place to ourselves, a nice open park with swings and trees all basking in the bright lights of the distant soccer field, tons of little kids running around like red ants marching into the night. They disappear to the left and right again.

We watched Bud Lee have his "fun" and we swung like kids. I decided to jump out of the swing again. It took some courage. I don't remember fearing it when I was younger, but part of this new fear was how large my..ass..is now.

At the bottom of my swing my weight presses down and tightens the swing strap, a feeling that had me fearing my ability to fly out of the harness.

I scooted up and got my big arms (I have amazing pyths) on the right side of the chain and jumped at the peak of the arc. I flew up, then down. I landed like a klutz, but I did not fall. It was exhilarting, mildly. So I did it a few more times.

Then we ran and hid from Buzzle. This dog, he loves hide-and-seek. He's so silly, his hair obstructs his vision, so he loses us easy. I jingle my keys when he's staring around, worried. Then he bounds towards us, perhaps not sure *where* up there we are, but sure of the general direction.

He is excited when he wins, which I let him do every time.

Then we settled into the couch and watched disc 3 of season 8 of Friends, or Friends, Season 8. I can laugh almost all the way through an episode, which helps me make up for the general lack of laughing the rest of the day, cept when I eat with Michelle during lunch.

Music, my ogg collection is so good. I should share this with you. Some people have my oggs actually, from a period of about 2 weeks back in 2002. People went ape over them and my server was basically unusable to me.