I got an e-mail about Hoseef's post and that reminded me that we have a blog and it would be nice to let people know what's up with me. I just moved to Cary, NC, which is in the "triangle" area by Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. This is where all the crazy college basketball rivalry goes on with Duke, UNC, and North Carolina State (so I'm told-- maybe I'll start following it now). I am a "Sr. Associate Engineer" for Caterpillar. I just finished training in Peoria, IL, and am excited about working for CAT. Once I get a little more established here, I would love to have people come to visit, if there is any interest. The mountains are a few hours to the west, and the ocean is a few hours to the east. Chances are that I will be stationed somewhere in Illinoise for a few months because I'm doing a rotational program designed to help new engineers jump start their careers and network within the company. Now I'm just hoping that it doesn't take long to find a good church and start meeting people in NC (it won't help things if I have to move to IL for a while). It's a little weird not to be in school anymore. I hope everyone else is doing well. Will anyone be at homecoming this year? I'm not planning on going, but if a lot of Foundation alumni go, I would think about it.
Fredrickson
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
A Day Off
Man a ton has changed since I last posted, quick update, I am now in Jacksonville, Florida, and currently waiting for Fay to get out of the area which she just doesn't seem to want to do, my second tropical storm since being down here, but I did get to stay home today due to the winds up to 60 mph and tons of rain and flooding (Melbourne to the far south of me got 25" of rain!), so far no serious problems for me, and hoping it stays that way.
So, I am now the only salesman for CastCrete for the entire Jacksonville and St. Augustine areas. I got supper lucky, I was only supposed to be promoted to Assistant Branch manager and keep doing the same stuff I was as a Trainee, but I came back from my brother's high school graduation to find out the salesman up here wanted to "chase the south Florida girls" and took a job in West Palm Beach and no one else in the area wanted to move so the job was offered to me. I didn't think I'd have a salesman opportunity for at least 3 years so to get one after only a year was amazing, definitely a huge blessing. I got a pretty nice apartment in Ponte Vedra Beach at an ok rate, just miles from the beach even though I haven't been there yet in the two months I've been here. The job is pretty tough and i have to drive a lot, did 802 miles just last week but its all in my Camry and its very unlikely I'll have to drive a semi again although I still have my license. Not a whole lot of work for me to sell to up here as most of the work is stick frame, and for the first time in my life I get the symbolism of the three little pigs-all these years I thought the wolf was just a wolf. Luckily, my company makes the best product in the state which means i have a lot of loyal customers already and its easy to get people to buy cause they aren't going to buy because of my sales skills but more because of the product I can provide them with.
Found a really different church in Ponte Vedra called Christ the Redeemer, they are a Convergence church which combines sacramental, evangelical, and charismatic influences into their service and is unlike anything I've been to before, which typically I've stayed away from the sacramental type churches, but here I like the blend of everything. They also just started a young adult group that only meets 1-2 times a month which I don't like but it's better then nothing and I've started to meet a lot of the people my age which has been great. Theres also a group from the church called Salt Tribe which has a Wednesday evening church service at the University of North Florida which I am thinking of getting involved with.
Well thats pretty much it, I've been a work-a-holic these last two months and am just now trying to start doing more things with the church and even found some guys to play basketball with on Saturday mornings.
So, I am now the only salesman for CastCrete for the entire Jacksonville and St. Augustine areas. I got supper lucky, I was only supposed to be promoted to Assistant Branch manager and keep doing the same stuff I was as a Trainee, but I came back from my brother's high school graduation to find out the salesman up here wanted to "chase the south Florida girls" and took a job in West Palm Beach and no one else in the area wanted to move so the job was offered to me. I didn't think I'd have a salesman opportunity for at least 3 years so to get one after only a year was amazing, definitely a huge blessing. I got a pretty nice apartment in Ponte Vedra Beach at an ok rate, just miles from the beach even though I haven't been there yet in the two months I've been here. The job is pretty tough and i have to drive a lot, did 802 miles just last week but its all in my Camry and its very unlikely I'll have to drive a semi again although I still have my license. Not a whole lot of work for me to sell to up here as most of the work is stick frame, and for the first time in my life I get the symbolism of the three little pigs-all these years I thought the wolf was just a wolf. Luckily, my company makes the best product in the state which means i have a lot of loyal customers already and its easy to get people to buy cause they aren't going to buy because of my sales skills but more because of the product I can provide them with.
Found a really different church in Ponte Vedra called Christ the Redeemer, they are a Convergence church which combines sacramental, evangelical, and charismatic influences into their service and is unlike anything I've been to before, which typically I've stayed away from the sacramental type churches, but here I like the blend of everything. They also just started a young adult group that only meets 1-2 times a month which I don't like but it's better then nothing and I've started to meet a lot of the people my age which has been great. Theres also a group from the church called Salt Tribe which has a Wednesday evening church service at the University of North Florida which I am thinking of getting involved with.
Well thats pretty much it, I've been a work-a-holic these last two months and am just now trying to start doing more things with the church and even found some guys to play basketball with on Saturday mornings.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
One year down
So my first year of grad school is almost over. It's been pretty good, like Taylor but with fewer people and more math. And by people I mean people that I actually know and interact with, and by math I mean nonsense that no one uses except professors, and them only to pass it on to us. Since my last post I have bought a car, gotten 2 B's, joined an engineering honor society and a cubesat team, watched 4 seasons of The Office, gained 15 pounds worth of oreos and candy corn, gone to 3 job fairs, taught 100 sophomores how to use oscilloscopes, saved the neighbor's russian blue cat from certain death only to let it out of the building to never be seen again, bonded with my roommate, joined a bible study, and road tripped to florida.
Classes this semester have been rough, there is the possibility of having to repeat some of them. I need to do really well on the final in one in particular. If I fail at least it will be easy the second time around. I can slip it into my last semester pretty easily too, so it wouldn't be the end of the world.
TAing has been going a lot better this semester, now that I know the ropes. Actually it's going marginally better and I'm putting a ton less work into it. I'm teaching an introductory electronics lab, so basically I talk for 15-20 minutes in front of 50 or so undergraduates a week and then supervise as they find ways to mess up simple things. It's kind of rewarding to go around with all the answers and handle everybody's questions. The grading takes forever and it's SO BORING. I guess there's the possibility of getting into an easier course where I just have to sit around and answer questions, but I'm already pretty well established in this one. It's a half time TA, but I'm hoping by the last semester that I can get away with putting fewer than 10 hours a week into it. This semester I got a $500 scholarship for being an outstanding TA, but I got the impression it's the kind of thing that every TA that's doing their job eventually gets.
I've been going to Kossuth Street Baptist church since last semester and I joined a bible study there, but it's been a pretty rough semester spiritually, as andrew can attest to. I've really let school dominate a lot of my daily habit stuff I should be doing.
I found an summer internship with a small robotics company in Indy for the summer. I'm over an hour away, so I hooked up with another intern and found an apartment in Indy for the summer. We visited it last weekend to check everything out, and it seems really workable for 3 months. Not particularly in shape or spotless, but big and cheap and we didn't have to sign anything. It's right in the middle of the Broad Ripple area, so there's a lot going on there within walking distance. The guy I'm sharing it with seems pretty easy going, he's a junior in EE here at Purdue.
Well that's it, hopefully someone else posts here before 4 months from now.
Classes this semester have been rough, there is the possibility of having to repeat some of them. I need to do really well on the final in one in particular. If I fail at least it will be easy the second time around. I can slip it into my last semester pretty easily too, so it wouldn't be the end of the world.
TAing has been going a lot better this semester, now that I know the ropes. Actually it's going marginally better and I'm putting a ton less work into it. I'm teaching an introductory electronics lab, so basically I talk for 15-20 minutes in front of 50 or so undergraduates a week and then supervise as they find ways to mess up simple things. It's kind of rewarding to go around with all the answers and handle everybody's questions. The grading takes forever and it's SO BORING. I guess there's the possibility of getting into an easier course where I just have to sit around and answer questions, but I'm already pretty well established in this one. It's a half time TA, but I'm hoping by the last semester that I can get away with putting fewer than 10 hours a week into it. This semester I got a $500 scholarship for being an outstanding TA, but I got the impression it's the kind of thing that every TA that's doing their job eventually gets.
I've been going to Kossuth Street Baptist church since last semester and I joined a bible study there, but it's been a pretty rough semester spiritually, as andrew can attest to. I've really let school dominate a lot of my daily habit stuff I should be doing.
I found an summer internship with a small robotics company in Indy for the summer. I'm over an hour away, so I hooked up with another intern and found an apartment in Indy for the summer. We visited it last weekend to check everything out, and it seems really workable for 3 months. Not particularly in shape or spotless, but big and cheap and we didn't have to sign anything. It's right in the middle of the Broad Ripple area, so there's a lot going on there within walking distance. The guy I'm sharing it with seems pretty easy going, he's a junior in EE here at Purdue.
Well that's it, hopefully someone else posts here before 4 months from now.
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