$76.50

Yeah, so that is how much my ticket is going to cost, for having my license plate lights burn out on my Explorer without my knowledge. Here's the best part, the cop who pulled me over on the side of the road because of this told me if I got it fixed and showed it to a police officer it would be reduced to $7.50. Turns out first of all she wrote down the incorrect statute number which is not a reducible one and even if it were it would be reduced to only $54. So, guess how much the light bulbs cost to replace: $3.50. WTF! If I would have known they needed to be replaced I would have done so, it took me a whole 10 minutes to do it. Its nice to know in a town that is filled with theft (I don't know if I told you guys, my office was broken into in the first month of working there), drugs, murders, and prostitutes (a couple have tried to get me to pick them up, I didn't if you're wondering, and I've seen one be picked up by someone else) they have time to hassle an honest tax payer who has never gotten a ticket before because his frickin license plate lights burnt out unknown to him. I'm a frickin great driver and safe too, it even says that on my license which is a CDL Class A. I drive for a living almost, this is ridiculous. Here's the best part: I got the ticket last Tuesday and on Friday after three weeks of waiting I finally got my Camry. Its really nice, but could have come 3 days earlier it appears. I left a message for the officer who pulled me over, but she doesn't get back to work until Friday, and even when she does, I don't know if there is anything she can do about it, I at least want to inform her of her own penal code and what it means to have something be reducible because she obviously doesn't know.
In other news, some of you might have noticed that I now have a girlfriend listed under my status on facebook. This is indeed the case, although it happened fricking fast. I had only known her a week when we became "official" but we've been hanging out almost every night. She likes the Office too so we've been watching that together. I'm already having doubts about the whole thing, which I don't think is a good sign. I like her, but I get the feeling she likes me a Lot more and that kind of bothers me. I'm already over analyzing things, like her height--she's 5'4" which why that bothers me, I don't know--and silly little things like that. So, basically I have no clue what I'm doing and she has had multiple boyfriends and--gulp--even been engaged once and has been hurt because of some of those relationships. She's 23 and currently a kindergarten teacher in Ormond Beach. I just don't know what is normal...I mean I've never dated anyone before and I was at Taylor for the last 4 years where the girls didn't want to date you unless you were a stud or future president of a fortune 500 company (ok, slight hyperbole but you get my point). Obviously, its too soon to tell about anything, but I definitely think I need to be doing a lot of praying and talking with her and others. I think things should slow down a bit, but I guess for her this is slow, so I got to figure that out too. I'll probably get in trouble just for posting this, but I trust all of you guys and really value you're opinions on everything.
I wish I could have made it back for Silent Night, I hear it'll be like Homecoming x2. Anyway, I hope that those of you who still have finals and paper coming up get everything done and I'm looking forward to catching up with you guys during Christmas break, even if its only on the phone. ~Hoseef

Hoseef is now fully a trucker, and has the gut to prove it.

So, I passed my CDL Class A drivers test on Saturday. That was pretty cool. There were 3 parts: a pretrip, vehicle control, and then on the road. I got a 40 out of 47 on my pretrip (which I only needed a 35), hit only one cone for a 2 point deduction on my backing part (I was allowed to miss 12 points and I just barely hit the last cone, didn't even knock it over), and aced the on road portion. The on road portion was the one I wasn't the most sure about, but I think the tester must have been with new driver students all day, so I probably seemed great at shifting and turning and everything else comparatively speaking. He actually said if things don't work at Cast-Crete I could try becoming a driving instructor. I don't think I am going to take him up on that though. So, I'm thinking great I passed in one try, we submitted the paperwork for my company car a week ahead of the test, I'll probably be getting my car sometime this week, I mean it was probably the largest reason I took the job in the first place, even more so than the salary which I could have gotten at a couple of places. BUT, it turns out that the regional manager (the guy who is my boss's boss's boss and reports directly to the owner of the company) had his lease just expire on his 700 series BMW, so until he gets another one, he'll be driving MY car (which I just found out is a silver metallic car :). NICE! Really though its not that big a deal, I shouldn't have to wait more than 2-3 weeks before I'll be able to get it and I've already waited 5 1/2 months so a couple more days isn't that big of a deal. I have been getting more and more paranoid lately though, because things have slowed down so drastically, even since when I started I am wondering how much longer the company is going to want to keep me on the payroll when I'm just learning things and not making them all that much money. Then again there has got to be a dumber trainee than myself out there, well I hope at least.
Anywho, now I'm focusing more on the delivery part of the job which means I still have to drive my semi and this time with a load on and take it to job sites. At least I don't have to work weekends more than once a month now. The day of my test was my 13th straight day of work and a 10 hour day at that. Good to hear you were all doing well and homecoming was an absolute blast. Same thing next year? And as always if the 40 degree weather up there isn't treating you well, you should know its 80 down here, if you ever wanted to visit and go to the beach that is, granted it has been getting down to about 45 late at night so bring at least 1 long sleeve shirt. :)

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