Still no car, but i had to share this

http://www.wesh.com/news/14589276/detail.html

I definitely do not live in Iowa any more. And is it horrible of me to think this is funny? Maybe there is such a thing as cosmic justice, though its a little harsh.

What DOES Scr0d do???

My sources tell me that Scr0d works for a web development company named Ascedia (www.ascedia.com) in Milwaukee as an Application Developer, or web programmer. Much to Slinky's dismay, he actually doesn't make pretty pictures. Instead, he writes the "behind-the-scenes" code that makes interactive websites work.

Depending on the project, he uses one of many programming languages: PHP, C#.NET, VB.NET, ASP, or ColdFusion. He also uses these languages to interact with databases such as MySQL, Sql Server, or Oracle.

... at least that's what my sources tell me.

Slinky - keep spicin' it up!
Hoseef - good luck on the CDL! Kiss that truckin' goodbye!

Take care, guys
- Jarrod

My 1st Bolg Entry Ever, I Think

I'm not much for this blog stuff, but I want to keep up with everyone. And I happen to have exciting news to share. I "caught" the woman I've been pursuing since the end of last spring! Her name is Julie and basically everything about her is amazing. We made the dating relationship official about two weeks ago (you may have seen my changed status on Facebook), and it's going pretty well. Nathaniel has been patiently listening to me talk about her for the past two months every time we have our weekly accountability meeting. Thanks, Colson. I could go on about how God has worked in the relationship so far, but I want to keep this short. The rest of life is going OK, but it is way too busy and I should start looking for a job for after I graduate, which I don't really want to think about right now. See y'all in Florida over spring break when we go visit Hoseef?

Back to Craming!

I am taking my CDL test THIS Saturday at 3. I am really nervous about it and have only been driving for the last 3 months, so I hope its been enough time. The test has 3 parts: 1. Pre-trip: identify 100+ things that I should check before leaving on a trip in a semi 2. Basic Controls: Straight line back up, off set backing left and right, alley dock, and parallel park both driver and passenger sides (I think the last time I parallel parked my own car was in driver training) 3. Road test

I'm most nervous about the road test as I am not very good at shifting, especially down shifting and could run into problems in certain circumstances, right turns are also giving me problems, apparently you aren't supposed to run over the curb in order to complete your turn, or something like that. Anyway i would appreciate any prayers and I'll give you all an update Sunday.

Musings from the working man

Musings is an interesting word. I don't know what it means or the context it was used it but I heard Daryl use it once and since he likes to write I think I'll use it.

So my life is slightly different from the other posters, most are in grad school, One pastor in training, a truck driver, and a guy who tries to make pretty pictures. Actually I have zero idea of what Scrod does but i remember it has to do with web designing thus the comment. I am the 7:30-4:30 or 5 man.

My job is interesting because right now my job is to make this large 40lb box do something it wasn't meant to do. Fun I'd say and I enjoy it. However in between phases of getting this box to do my bidding I take little sets to eliminate myself. I help ship packages to Russia and create programs that allow them to do my job easier. It makes my job easier as well but it's dummy proof for them. Why do I do this you say? Well I wish to leave this current department of mine and move on to the next generation technology. The best way I see to get there? Eliminate myself from the old technology.

This of course begs the question. How do you know you'll be moved to the next generation? I don't. I hope that my work here has impressed my management and that when I am no longer needed here that they need me in the next generation to develop it for a short time and then ship that over to another country while I move on to the NEXT technology. It's a vicious cycle but so far I like it.

And no I can't get you guys sweet phones. Motorola doesn't have sweet phones at the moment..... don't get me started on our mobile devices branch.

As for the rest of life. Day in and day out it's the wife and myself, cooking, cleaning, watching TV, and other things (yes that thing). I can't say I mind the cycle right now. It gets repetitive after a while but thats when you have to spice it up every once in a while. Get peanuts for the chocolate sundae, go out for dinner someplace night, midnight cruise on Lake Michgan (actually really affordable). The people here are my high school friends but like I said before you beat the group I had at Foundation. The one thing I wish was if there was a place that I could just go to and chill with all of the Foundation guys w/o having anyone flying or long trips. That would be sweet.

Well back to work,
Slinky out

Med School so far

Wow, I didn't realize the last time I posted was two weeks before school started. It's been a month since anyone even used this but I'd thought I'd let you guys know what's up, mainly cause Fredrickson's addition to the journal this week reminded me. I haven't studied at all today and thought I'd cap it off with posting, to feel a little productive.

This week we had our third test, indicating my first semester of medical school is 3/4 over and going pretty decently. Sadly, I don't just have to get 50% to pass like Nathaniel but I have enough of a buffer between a failing grade that I hopefully don't have to worry about screwing it up this semester. I'm only concerned about the finals which are all cumulative. Being able to recite everything I've learned this semester in three classes just seems insurmountable. Luckily 2 of the 3 are nationally standardized so I can buy review books but Biochemistry has been ridiculously hard this semester and could get me. Still, I'm passing everything by at least 10 percent, which I'm very happy to report.

As for the rest of life, there isn't much to say. I study a lot (to be expected, I guess) which doesn't leave too much time to socialize. Our class has melded pretty well so we find time to socialize together, especially after the tests. They're definitely not the same as Taylor, but some of the guys are pretty cool. For all the stress that runs rampant, there have been no major blow-ups, at least not yet. As the semester ends, that could change. Most weekends I've found some excuse to leave, which has hurt my studying but helped my mental health. I usually just go back to Indy for a few hours to see friends, but I'm definitely trying to find some time to make it up to Purdue before the semester ends. I might even have the chance to get to Taylor cause our semester ends a week before they do. (But it would mean being there to distract people during finals week.) Just thinking back, Homecoming was definitely the best time of the entire semester. I'm hoping we can all do it again next year, if not before then.

Only five more weeks. I just have to keep reminding myself, only five more weeks.

So the semester's almost halfway over, I've got midterms coming up. This week was our fall break, and I spent most of it in the apartment studying. The rest of it I spent finally buying a car, a '99 chevy prizm. It was relatively cheap and seemed to be in pretty good shape, which is what I was looking for. The interior's kind of beat up, but the engine's clean and runs well. I'm a believer in the chevy prizm/toyota corolla duality thing, so I expect it to go for quite some time. You can look around and find a number of parts that say toyota on them. I feel like now that I have a car I respect I'll actually take care of it, unlike some other cars I've owned in the past.

I think I only have to get 50% on my midterms to still be in good shape as far as passing, so I'm not stressing too much about that. I left my motivation to get good grades at Taylor, every last bit of it, and it's everything I hoped it could be.

I found a church here that I've been going to, but lately the pastor's been striking out. I really like the worship and congregation, but he talks a bunch about parenting and family stuff, and sometimes I don't think he knows what he's talking about. He's not a very organized speaker. He talks right out of the bible, but sometimes he goes on rabbit trails that don't really go anywhere. The pastor is actually Jeremy Camp's dad, and sometimes he talks about raising Jeremy to illustrate points and stuff, it's kind of funny.