Graduating

D O N E. That was the full text of one of many of my recent gchat statuses. What it means is moving forward. Assuming I pass all my classes this semester (failing doesnt seem even remotely possible) I am now a University of Illinois Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate and alumni I guess. Thanks to some good guidance by my father to take a few college classes during my Senior year of high school I was able to graduate college in 3.5 years which is no small feat for being in the third best ECE college in the nation. I don't think I'll be receiving any awards or have my name in bronze in the main library on campus like my mom but it matters not. I believe I was on the deans list for engineering every semester by my first and think the same will be true for this my last semester. Regardless, I feel I performed respectably.

Overall I had a decently good time. I have a pretty good work ethic and because of such I may have spent a little more time studying than I should have and my fun time was decreased as such. That would be the largest part of the reason I'm so glad it's over. This semester was much better only having 13 hours and having all my lectures done by noon but throughout my college career I've been wanting my evenings back. That's why I'm so glad to be moving on to my enjoyable Qualcomm position.

Qualcomm has a great benefits package and great work environment. I had a great time over the summer at my internship with them mostly thanks to the team with whom I was working. In addition to a great working environment Qualcomm support active social lives too. They have Qgroups which are part of their Qlife program, promoting social interactivity, that are groups of employees that share common interests. Qualcomm provides these groups a bit of money to pursue their interest together as long as they show the company the relevance to their interest. I'm sure QCOM isn't the only company that does this but it definitely is a perk of working for them. After all of that the best thing is that I pick my own hours and have plenty of vacation time. I'll finally get my evenings free and once my wife and I find a house to be our own I can start working on projects again like I loved to do when at my parents.

I'm happy to have it done. It feels good to have the weight of working to position myself in a good career removed. I'm happy about where I've been but even happier about where I'm going.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1, WOW

I went to see this movie after having not gone opening night even though I tried but discovered that it was all sold out. Should have known that it would have been. However it wasn't tonight now that it's getting near to its end in theaters.

WOW. So I've read all the later series of the books and the 7th is definitely the best fiction book I've ever read. The whole book is amazing but the first half does seem to drag on a while even though it's extremely interesting, relevant to the books before the last, and extremely important to the end of the book. Well this movie being the movie of the first half indeed has its slow parts. It's probably the most interesting movie I've ever seen in how it's put together. It's almost a series of short glimpses into the story instead of scenes as often the current scene fades completely to black then the next shines into view. All this is fitting of course in the context of the dark time the book and the movies portray.
The emotion this movie pulls is just as strong and even stronger than the book which is amazing! I sound completely geekish and perhaps girlish but the movie puts you in the despair, joy, and danger that the characters experience leaving me astonished. Even now I'm still processing the sorrow, pain, and despair I feel along with the characters. I just cant seem to pull enough emotion to match what they would be feeling if it were real, and I'm left trying.

This movie was a triumph and if the last one can accomplish the same thing this one did and match the emotion stirred by the second half of the book, it will be the greatest movie I will probably ever see. Let's hope such is the case and I know for sure that I will be getting my tickets as soon as I possibly can for the last movie. I know they'll go fast. I only hope by that time I've fully absorbed part 1, for this series is epic.

Awesomeness. Short and Sweet

"The Rally"

My favorite sign from the Rally to Restore Sanity yet.

And a good analysis of what sanity means:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-reardon/a-few-extra-thoughts-abou_b_776515.html

A Couple Pulls from my website

These are a couple of posts I had on my website, gbergsc2.zapto.org, when I was doing development on it and was going to abandon Blogger. I've decided a dedicated blog is better than posting on my website though I'll probably try to pull the posts off here to my home. We'll see how that goes but for now here are those posts (without dates which is an influencing factor in using blogger).

Uh Oh

Well I've moved in, set up a server, and fried my xbox and have discovered that I'm now kinda out of project ideas which leaves me with research to do on things to fill my time. Tomorrow I'll have hw to do, and really will probably be busy with hw all weekend but I really want something fun to stick in random places in between to release stress. Email the webmaster if you have any ideas! For now I think I'll play with xp system.

Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers Continuation

I'm very happy to say that I was able to purchase a set at a reasonable price refurbished from egagroupusa.com. I was so happy when my wife let me know that they had come, but woefully upset when I opened the box and did not find the set complete. All the speakers were there but it was missing both the user manual and the game console adaptor which neither are necessary but the game console adaptor is useful if I ever get a different set and want to use these on a system that doesn't provide 5.1 output as it provides an interface to rca stereo plugs. So I called them quite a few times and sent them an email and was still upset when they hadnt replied all day and being Friday would mean that I had to wait till Monday to find out if I should set up the speakers completely in case I had to send them back. Well I went to their front page at some point and realized I had forgotten about their announcement that they would be out on holiday until Monday. Well that had me feeling a bit more accepting about their non-responsiveness. What topped off the deal was receiving a voicemail from them on Monday during class saying that they would send the adaptor and manual to me! I've yet to get it but I went ahead and set up my speaker system and they indeed provide the awesome sound I had so long been desiring (and below the price I set as limit :) ).

Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers

I'm very interested in obtaining a set of these speakers. I had a set of X-530's 3 years ago but I sold them to my brother who was making more use of them than I could have in the small dorm room I was stuck in, but now that I have an apartment and my current speakers don't have a proper plug resulting in horrible quality I'm looking to find some X-540's for around $60 new/refurbished shipped. Logitech or Newegg occasionally has them on sale for this much but it's such a test of willpower to make myself wait until they're on sale. I've been checking ebay too but the sellers aren't responding to questions.

Gopher Gopher

Well my church search was quick and easy. I've found a church in CO that I like. The church is Bethel Presbyterian and they, like my church in Champaign, meet in a high school except that the high school Bethel meets in has an auditorium with nice seats that don't need picked up every week. I've gone for two weeks and have very much enjoyed the people and the preaching. The preacher is quite a guy. Always smiling and is so animated.

The people are also very good at fellowship and a few families each week invite others over to their house for lunch and more fellowship until their evening service. Yesterday one family had an open invite to anyone who wanted to come. They served pb&j and lunchmeat sandwiches and chips and the rest of the stuff you associate with that kind of meal.

While we were eating I believe it was the family's little girl Caroline that spotted a gopher that had gotten into this family's yard. Because they had a garden in their yard they wanted to get the gopher out fearing that it might mess the garden up. Oh was it hilarious to see 4 little boys around 8-10 years old (I believe) chasing a gopher that can run really fast around a 100 foot fence encompassing the yard. The goal was to get the gopher out a gate since it couldn't seem to find a hole to duck out of quickly. They managed to get it close to the gate but then it ran off the other way obviously not knowing how to get out. After chasing it around the yard a couple times they scared it toward a window well (hole in the ground around a basement window to let light in) unintentionally and it fell down through the grate that was over it. The father didn't know what to do then. He didn't want to kill it and didn't know how to get it out.

Enter the hero...!

He thought I was crazy and obviously wasn't real sure about me risking the animal getting into the house. He said he didn't think I would be able to do it, but I told him that all I needed was a box. We went down to the basement and the window well was quite deep (4 feet or so) so that the window was at waist height on the bottom. The gopher was scared stiff and wasnt moving so it was really easy to take one of the two windows out (Couldnt have been easier, it was at least a 3'X3' opening in the wall) to be able to move the box into the window well. I pushed the box out and slid it under the gopher. Coerced him toward the other window still in place to trap him in the corner and be able to see him. He tried to jump up the window but the box was big enough to keep him within the confines and eventually he fell into the box itself at which point I closed the lid. It was screaming quite a bit as I walked up the stairs and out the door with him. This whole time the father has been video taping me and just "wowing" in amazement that I was able to get him in. Walking down the street with a "screaming box" and the father walking backwards in front of me I carried the gopher to a large ditch that collected all the runoff from the subdivision and let the gopher out down a culvert. Really wasn't that big of a deal but everyone including a vet that was also there, was amazed. What a time.

So I guess I'll be somewhat of a celebrity over the summer and if I come back after my fall semester I'll be able to have a story to tell to remind everyone who I am.

--Gregory

SummerTime

Seems like I'm living a completely new life right now. Other than my infinite commitment to my fiancée everything seems to have changed. I'm interning at Qualcomm in Boulder Colorado for 11 more weeks after having worked one away this last week. I've been having a great time this week. I drove all night last Saturday to get out here, 1000 mile trip. Got to my amazing apartment provided by Qualcomm at 7 in the morning last Sunday and settled it pretty fast. Started work on Monday and loved the "integration", lol. Took a couple days to get stuff together and then got rolling but all along my group has been pretty awesome. I realize I have many more days to evaluate but I'm in love with my job (Not in an obsessive manner or whatever but I didn't want to leave work yesterday...) and hope I can pick it back up after I finish my last semester back at U of I.
Colorado is beautiful in the Spring. Pretty sure most places have beautiful Springs. It's the nature of the season I guess. lol. Gonna have to actually get into shape to go out and enjoy it. It's so wonderful out and I love riding my bike. However, riding my bike out here takes a little more endurance then flat Illinois. I actually put my bike back together so I can shift gears to get up hills that just don't exist in Chambana.

Yeah, random thoughts, cant put enough together to finish this sensibly.

-Gregory Michael