This blog is on its way down and out.

Short version:
I don't use MySpace for anything any more except for posting blogs and keeping up with only a couple other people's blogs. For this and other reasons (see "Long version" below), I'm relocating my blog to calebwallen.blogspot.com. (MySpace is blocking this link, apparently, so you'll have to type it in yourself: http://calebwallen.blogspot.com - no "www" at the beginning.)

I suggest that if you want to keep following me, bookmark that new location and/or start making plans to use the RSS feed on my new blog. For those who aren't familiar with using RSS to keep track of people, I do plan on creating a post (which will be on this MySpace blog) that will help you get started with RSS subscriptions. The quick-start tip is to just go to reader.google.com, sign in with your Gmail (Google) account information, and start messing around. You'll probably figure it out in no time at all.

Long version:
I don't use MySpace. I don't really like MySpace. OK, I mean literally, I don't use MySpace... for anything... at all. Except for the few folks who actually post blogs that I check. I never update my profile any more, and frankly I don't plan to. I figure I'll leave that page just as it is, sort of as an archive of that stage of my life.

I use Facebook for any "real" (interpret that as you may) social networking. I have way more friends on Facebook, and it is really a lot nicer, in my mind. It doesn't suffer from the ugliness that permeates the MySpace profile arena. No annoying profile songs automatically playing whenever you go to somebody's page (yeah I have them disabled, but there are ways people can still have songs play automatically). Facebook has beaten out MySpace to me because it just seems so much cleaner, smoother, more refined, less plagued with junk messages and spammy friend requests, and in general just a better user experience.

Yet for all its good traits, I don't feel compelled to use Facebook for blogging, which I believe I could do with "notes", or some such feature. In that area, I actually do prefer to have a little bit of customization and Facebook falls short. Also, I want to be able to have the RSS feed, but I'm not sure that Facebook Notes support that. I don't want the fact that I've posted a new note/blog to show up in everybody's home page "stalker feed", but I want it to be visible to anybody even if they are not a member of whatever I'm using to host my blog. Basically, there are just too many things about using Facebook to make me want to even bother looking into it.

I considered using my MobileMe (formerly .Mac) account to create a blog using iWeb, but that would require that I always have the same computer available to me just by the very nature of the iWeb/MobileMe combination. That's a limitation I don't think will be very good for me in the future. I have to be able to access and update it from wherever I may be and from any computer I may get to use.

During my freshman year I had played around briefly with Blogger.com (now owned by Google). This is the same service my sister ended up choosing, too, when she decided to take up blogging. I had helped her set up a MySpace for doing it, but after looking around and trying a few things out, she decided Blogger best suited her needs. And now it seems that it best suits my needs, too.

Some things I like about using Blogger are multiple blogs (I won't elaborate on that this time), multiple authors for specific blogs, nice RSS capabilities, great Google integration (go figure), and of course its slick looks. Oh, it's free, too. It also focuses on the blogging; it is ever so aptly named. I don't care so much about the social networking for this thing: I just want to be able to post a nice, clean blog. I'll have my social networking accounts point to it, and that'll work well enough for me.

As for the folks who still post blogs on MySpace that I want to read... there is actually a way to use an RSS reader with MySpace blogs, too. It just isn't implemented in the typical way. So for the most important people, I'll add their MySpace RSS feeds to my RSS aggregator (I use Google Reader) so their new posts will automatically show up for me. For most, though, I'll just have to remind myself to log in to MySpace now and then to check for new posts. [Ritzy, you're assured of being one of the ones I add to my RSS subscriptions :) but who knows, maybe you'll want to do something similar to this down the road, too, and switch to a real blogging service!] I did just do a quick check and found out that any Preferred Lists that I'm on will have to be specially checked, too; those will only show up when I'm signed in to MySpace and won't show up in the RSS feed. Darn.

And for the folks who care enough to keep following me even after I stop blogging here, I suggest you get with the program! RSS subscriptions are really handy for following friends' blogs, getting news delivered right to you, or seeing the latest articles from some site you enjoy reading. As I mentioned in the Short version (top), I'll be posting a little Get-Started With RSS guide in the future before my final switch to the new blog. If you want to start playing around with it before then, you can try Googling for other guides that are probably out there, or just go check out Google Reader, which is currently my RSS aggregator of choice, and start having at it. It isn't really that difficult, and once you start getting a few RSS subscriptions, you'll notice more things to which you can subscribe and it will just increase in utility.

Grrr... see, this is another reason I'm ceasing on here: the link to my new blog is being blocked by MySpace! I realize the need for that with all the spamming and spoofing and phishing going on (and all the stupid people who use MySpace and don't know any better than to just enter their password willy-nilly whenever any little page pretending to be legit asks for it), but come on, sometimes it is really annoying when you are linking to a safe site.

All for now...
//C.

Spring quarter begins tomorrow (today?... no, tomorrow.). This is the last quarter of my senior year, and don't let anybody tell ya any different. The fact that I have one extra quarter I'll have to complete in the fall has nothing to do with this still being my senior year. And this is the last quarter of the year.

Anyway, here is my schedule for this quarter.


(click to enlarge)

AFN...
//C.

[Updated: the timestamp on this post was wrong, so I updated that. Nothing else is changed.]

Intro
Background
If you aren't already familiar with the "old" plan, you can read about that on this earlier post from August 23, 2008.

Pro-tip (time saver)
This blog ended up being a bit lengthy, so if you want the short version, just skip to the last section, which shows the new timeline.


The New Plan
PLC Out
Since I'm not in shape yet, I won't be going to PLC this summer. (If I had gone, it would have been the PLC Combined program.) Since PLC is for college students, it is not an option for me after I complete my degree. Ergo, since I'm not in shape and not going this summer, PLC is no longer an option for me because by next summer I will have completed my bachelor's degree.

NFO Out
My old plan was to sign up for an NFO slot at first, complete PLC, use the money from PLC to pay for corrective eye procedures, then switch to a pilot program. Captain Blaine (my USMC recruiter) only had one NFO slot for PLC available and zero slots available for graduates this year. I was the only one interested in the NFO slot for this summer, and since I'm not going, the slot remains open and won't be filled. Additionally, he knows that they plan on cutting back NFO slots so next year he doesn't even expect to have the 1 slot for PLC candidates and expects to still have zero for graduates next year. So, I can't go as an NFO.

Navy?
While at a career fair at DePauw University last week, Cpt. Blaine spoke with the Navy recruiter there and found out that they are "hurting" for NFOs. Cutting out extraneous details, he had the Navy recruiter call me.

Here's what I found out from him:
* it would be __exactly__ the same NFO program - at Pensacola, FL with the __same__ instructors, classes, everything; Navy and Marine candidates sit together in the same classes under some Marine instructors and some Navy.
* the physical requirements are easier with the Navy - 1.5 mile run in 11:30, 47 pushupds, 58 situps instead of the Marines' 3 mile run under 24:00, minimum 10 pullups, and minimum 70 crunches (and just hitting all the minimums won't give you enough points to pass, but that is another story).
* I could have my ASTB scores transferred from the Marines, and they were good enough for the NFO/Pilot program.
* I could apply for the slot, then pass the physical, and go on salary right then. The Navy would start paying me right away while I finish up college. After I finish my degree this Thanksgiving, I'd go to the 13-week Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, FL, likely beginning in January or February. Upon completion of the OCS, I'd receive my commission as an Ensign (O-1) and begin a 6-week air indoctrination program wherein I'd begin specific training as an NFO or Pilot, still in Pensacola.

That sounded like a really good option for me. My parents especially liked the part that I'd be going on salary right away. They're uneasy about my current plan for the summer. (More on that later.) It would get me to the same place: I'd still be an NFO or a Pilot, but without the more difficult physical requirements the Marines demand. I also liked that there were more plans that had NFOs, so maybe once I started training, I'd find that there was some other aircraft I'd prefer that wouldn't be available to the Marine program.

But there were a couple drawbacks.
1. I'd basically have to go with NFO right from the beginning, and I wasn't sure how I could switch over to Pilot.
2. I'd be in the Navy instead of the Marines. The Marines are the best; they're the top-of-the-line, most respected branch of the United States Armed Forces. I've personally never held the Navy with such high esteem, especially with the knowledge that the Navy has been used as a way to avoid combat if a man was drafted for the Army. Below are two clips from A Few Good Men (view IMDb page) that demonstrate the attitude I've had towards the Navy and their uniforms. It is interesting that this movie features Marines and the Navy.







The Resolution
So I called Captain Blaine to make sure I was clear that there was no way I could enter as an NFO after I finish my degree. What I found out was very encouraging, and it made me glad I took the time to call him rather than just assume there was no way I could stick with the Marines.

First off, I told him that one of the reasons I was unsure of this was that I'd be in the Navy instead of the Marines, but I'd do it if it was the only way. He clarified that he really believes I'd be a great Marine (look, I know you're gonna say, "Caleb, that is just 'recruiter fluff'", but I'm telling you it's not). He said he just doesn't want me to be stopped because I can't do some stupid pullups. [The Navy recruiter who called me even said outright he wasn't trying to pull me away from the Marines because "we're all on the same team" (his words), but based on his talk with Cpt Blaine, he wanted to let me know about an alternative option for getting me in the air.] But if I was dedicated to being in the Marine Corps, he is willing to keep working with me to get it done.

So here's the scoop, and it is a big scoop, too: while they won't have slots for Marine NFOs, they have plenty of slots for Marine pilots. *lightbulb!* That's what I wanted to do anyway! So rather than starting as an NFO and then switching over, I'm now going to just go as a pilot right from the beginning.


The Next Steps
In order to do this, I still have to pass the same physical requirements as aforementioned in various places. Before all this stuff happened this week (the last 3 days, really), I had already been making arrangements to stay at home this summer, work part time, and spend most of my time at the YMCA getting into shape. My one summer goal is to pass that Marine Physical Fitness Test (PFT).

Another hurdle is that my eyesight is not good enough for the pilot program. But, as specified in the old blog linked above, there are two corrective eye procedures (LASEK and PRK, but not LASIK) that I can undergo and still fly. I must be 6 months post-op before I can pass the Flight Physical for which I'll have to go to Pensacola to be examined by the Flight Surgeon. The Flight Physical is distinct from both the PFT and the medical screening at MEPS.


Timeline
Before June: undergo corrective eye surgery. Possibly during the second half of Spring Break in April after I get back from Las Vegas (trip with my roommates already paid for), or perhaps in the first week after graduation, though this would not be ideal.

Summer: get into shape. Some people have suggested getting a personal trainer at the Y to help me make sure I meet my PFT requirements on time; that's probably a good idea. Once I can meet the requirements, I'll go through MEPS, take the PFT, get all my paperwork done.

September-November: finish my bachelor's degree. There will be 3 courses yet to complete before receiving my degree, though I will be participating in the Commencement ceremony at the end of May.

After Thanksgiving: pass flight physical. Once I am 6 months post-of from my eye surgery, I can go down to Pensacola to be examined by the Flight Surgeon there.

Once all that stuff is done, all the paperwork, all the physical evaluations, and my coursework, I'll finally be ready to go to OCS and begin learning how to be a Marine, and then a Marine Pilot.


I'll close with this commercial for the Marine Corps:




AFN...
//C.

Quick summary
QTR: 3.0
CUM: 2.75

This marks the first time I've gotten a B average or better for two consecutive quarters since the very first two quarters at Rose, when I had a 3.41 and a 3.53. Every quarter since then was below 3.0 until only last quarter. I had even been on academic probation a couple times, though it was only "single probation" (you get a strike for a CUM and/or QTR GPA being <2.0, and I had only ever had my QTR too low). I think it has really helped that I switched majors; I belonged working with computers instead of being a Civil. I've always said, "do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life": now I am finally living what I've believed and it feels great. :)


(click to enlarge)

//C.

James Boyce, a freshman civil who played football. Alcohol is suspected of contributing to the accident. Read the full story here.

The stories about previous students our Rose-Hulman family has lost can be found on this blog post.


//C.

On Tuesday, the following email was sent out to the Rose-Hulman family from Dr. Jakubowsku, our school's president:


I regret to inform you that we have lost a member of the Rose-Hulman family in an automobile accident.

Fatih Ilhan, an international exchange student from Turkey, died from injuries suffered around 6:20 p.m. on Monday, December 1 in an accident on Wabash Avenue just east of Indiana 46, in front of the Rose-Hulman baseball field. He was a passenger in an eastbound car when it slid on slick pavement, crossed into the westbound lanes and was struck by another car. Two other Rose-Hulman students with Fatih refused treatment at the scene, but were not seriously injured. The three students were returning to campus from WalMart.

Please join me in extending your thoughts and prayers to Fatih's family and friends.


Today, this link was turned up by my Rose-Hulman Google Alert. Click to read the article in the Terre Haute Trib-Star.

This marks the 5th major accident in about 10 months involving members of the Rose-Hulman family. Here are the previous ones, three deaths and one left barely alive:

September 5, 2008: Cory Salem

April 8, 2008: Brandon Couch

April 5, 2008: Nick Lee

And while our prayers continue to go out to the families of all those affected by these deaths, we give thanks for the progress made by Drew Christy, who was injured in an accident on February 22, 2008. I finally was able to track down this news article about the crash, which I had been unable to find in my previous searches: story from the Greencastle Banner Graphic. Updates on Drew's progress can still be found on this Caring Bridge page.
One thing I just realized: the Thursday night that Drew left for home was the same night that I drove to Indianapolis for the Intern Open House at Midwest ISO (this is the only blog I found about MISO). I remember how bad the weather was on my drive up there! We had snow out the wazoo and the roads were very slick. He was driving to Indy about 5-6 hours after I was.

When I think about how I had been in that area just a handful of hours previous to him, it makes me quite grateful that I wasn't involved in any kind of collision! What's more? I had been planning to go to WalMart on Monday night at just about the same time as the accident involving Faith. But I was caught up installing some software for a class which delayed my departure until after we had heard about the accident. Seems I keep getting spared... considering these two crashes could easily have been me if the timing had been different, as well as my good fortune when I did a 360 on I-465 around Indy in my truck back when I was a freshman (view the blog entry). And then the fact that I've hit two animals while driving, the coyote on this most recent trip back to school and a deer while I was in high school, both of which could have ended much worse than they did, I really believe that God has been protecting me for some reason. Thanks, God.

Anyway... I really need to do some homework. Nothing is due tomorrow, but I don't want to be up all night tomorrow night trying to get it all finished up for Friday.

Peace.

// C.

Here is a picture of the coyote I hit. Don't look at it if you just ate, or are about to, and have a reeeallly soft stomach: there is some blood on the street (not lots, though).




(click to enlarge photo)


I came over a small hill, and there it was, right in the middle of the lane. It was still alive before I hit it. I had a bad feeling about this drive, I really did. I just knew something wasn't going to go right, so I made sure I had all my emergency stuff packed before I left! Blankets, food, water, flashlight, fully-charged phone with GPS, jacket, gloves, hats, I was all set. Luckily all I needed was the flashlight and the gloves for when I walked back to find this creature. So back to the story...

It was right in the middle of the lane, and it was down on its haunches, as though it was preparing to pounce. However, I saw it trying to move but it was only just barely inching its way along, so I figure it must have already survived one hit by the time I saw it. I mean, it just looked like it had already found out, "hey, whatever made me want to cross this road was totally not worth it; I really just want to get out of here."

I wasn't following anybody closely at the time, and nobody was right up behind me, either. I had the cruise control set to about 72-73 (in a 70 mph zone). It was night time and fully dark; the sky was overcast, but there was no fog and no precipitation at this point. I had both hands on the wheel when I saw the animal, and I started to swerve out of the way, but I realized that if I swerved, it would just go under a tire, but it was already laying all the way down on the ground right in the middle, so it had a good chance of just going right through underneath the center of the vehicle (the PT Cruiser this time). There wasn't time to swerve enough to completely miss the creature, which I quickly identified to be a coyote, or at least I thought it was. I showed the picture to my roommates when I got back and they agreed it is a coyote.

So anyway, I just went right over it, right down the center of the car. I heard it hit the underbody about 2-3 times as it passed below me. There were no bumps, though, only thumps, if you catch the difference I mean. For a second, I debated not stopping since the car still sounded and felt fine. But then I thought, "no, I better pull over and have me a look-see, just to be sure."

It hit the little black thing underneath the front bumper and caused it to deform and detach in the center, but it does not hang low enough to touch the ground (about 3 -6 inches clearance if I recall correctly). Unless it was that way before I left, but I don't think it was. The piece is still connected at the ends, near the wheels. Overall, it looks like I hit a small animal: there is some scratching on the bottom of the plastic, maybe a little fur here and there, nothing nearly as disgusting as the dear I hit in the Intrepid on the way back from Tennessee while I was still on my learner permit. I'm sure glad it wasn't a deer. That car wouldn't handle a deer well, methinks.

So once I verified the car seemed to be okay, I decided, "you know what.. I've always wished I had gone back to see what was left of that deer: I'm gonna go back and take a picture of that coyote!" So I did. I was probably about a half-mile back before I found the little bugger on the side of the interstate. Speaking of the interstate, this occurred between the 57 and 58 mile markers on I-70 westbound between Indianapolis (approx. mile 75) and Terre Haute (exit 11). It took me a couple tries to get enough light from a passing vehicle to be able to see anything in the photo, and I'm glad it worked on this one, because this was going to be the last picture I took whether it was good or not. The first two are just about all black with some streaks of tail lights. My shake-light flashlight just wasn't bright enough by itself.

The poor little guy was about 3-3.5 feet long, I'd guess. If anybody happens to know off the top of their head just how large the wake-you-up bumps on the side of the highway are, you might be able to use those as some kind of scale.

All for now...
//C.

My class schedule for the Winter 08-09 Quarter. Finals aren't known yet, so they aren't shown.



(click to enlarge)


Peace...
//C.

I freaking hate it when I type up a whole blog entry and then when I go to try to post it, MySpace loses it.

Whatever.. I was just going to say that if you want more updates, you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/allencw.

It is limited to 140 characters so you'll never get long entries to read.

If you have a Twitter account, just click Follow. Otherwise, you can subscribe to the RSS feed using any of a number of programs, including Safari, Mail, and Firefox on a Mac and Outlook or Firefox on a computer running Windows. There are also third party apps available for both platforms but I don't know much about any of these. I'm only just now starting to look into using RSS feeds as my news source and am testing out various approaches to it.

I can post pictures and my location (using GPS) from my iPhone, so sometimes you'll see things like that come up, especially on trips. For example, I was in Kentucky last month completing my PADI Advanced Open Water certification and I posted a couple pictures and my location. Pictures are uploaded to Twitpic.com and a link will take you right to it. Location links will take you to a Google Map to see where I was. If you look at some of my older "tweets", you'll see some examples from that trip.)

And now it is even later/earlier than it was the first time I typed this post, and I want to go to bed even more now. It is 0409: good song. She's real fine, my 409! She's real fine, my 409! My foouurrrrrr, oohhhhhh, niiiiiinnneeeee!

K...
Peace.


OH PS: There is.. one more thing... After my only final next week (view schedule + finals schedule), I'll be going to Greenwood Municipal Airport to spend some time with Major Carlson who is a pilot in the United States Marine Corps and I'll get a chance to fly a Piper Navajo aircraft. I'll actually be sitting in the co-pilot's seat and I'll get a chance to control the plane for about 15 minutes; I'm really looking forward to it.

AFN...
//C

Yet another Rose-Hulman student has died, this time in a motorcycle accident.

Read more on Rose-Hulman's website or the article in the Terre Haute Tribune Star.

Has anyone been keeping track of how many kids we've lost now, in the past 12 months alone? I don't even want to go back and count them...



AFN...
C

Fall 08-09 Schedule
Easy thing first... here is my schedule for this coming quarter.

(click to view full size)


USMC
In other news, I'm joining the United States Marine Corps. I think I've told the reasons to most of the people who would care (Ritzy, I figure I'll fill you in when you get here), so I'm not planning on writing them all out to put on here unless I start getting several people asking about it. Although, I did have to write a 100 word (exactly, not approximate) essay about why I want to join, and I saved a copy of that, I just need to scan it. But even though all I said in that part is all true, it barely hits the surface of all the reasons I'm doing this.

Anyway, so today I took off work and went to Indianapolis to take care of some medical paperwork (medical history stuff basically), and I also took the ASTB (what is the ASTB?) and an inventory PFT (physical fitness test). Yeah, tons of acronyms, and I barely know any. Yikes, haha.

Oh, but yeah, I guess I should mention that I'm not stupid - I'll have a 4-year degree, so I'm joining as an officer, not an enlisted man. So my starting rank will be Second Lieutenant when I receive my first commission, not Private. Additionally, I'm currently going to be officially pursuing the NFO (Naval Flight Officer) spot, but what I'm probably going to do in the next year is switch that to the pilot's program once I get eye surgery to correct my vision by one of the two approved procedures, which are PRK or LASEK, but not the older LASIK. (I didn't ask why; that's just the way it is.)

How will I pay for the procedure?
Next summer I'll be attending PLC (Platoon Leaders Course) in Quantico, VA (Learn about PLC). It pays enough to cover the operation. So once I get back from PLC, I can get the surgery to correct my eyes, and then I can get the paperwork done to swap me from NFO to Pilot, and then I can do that after I graduate from Rose.

Even if I don't do the surgery (for some reason), I can still be an NFO with my eyes the way they are, which would still be cool. As an NFO in the USMC, you are guaranteed to fly a jet: either the Hornet or the Prowler. (Those are the only two aircraft that have NFO's in the Corps.) But as a pilot, I could end up in any of the aircraft that the Corps utilizes— hopefully still a jet, though!

OK, right, so back to my stuff today...
I can't do pullups right now. I need to be able to do a minimum of 10 dead-hang pullups. I also need to do a minimum of 70 crunches (not full situps) in not more than 2 minutes, which won't be a problem, but the more I can do, the better my PFT score. And I have to be able to run 3 miles in not more than 24 minutes. Needless to say, I'm not quite there on the run yet either. But I can work back up to it. Captain Blaine (my OSO [Officer Selection Officer], aka "recruiter") and I ran 4 miles today. Whoo.. my legs are still sore.

Workout regimen...
So he gave me this site here: http://www.indianamarineofficer.com/prep.htm. Note: Scroll down to where it says Physical Training. MySpace is gay and wouldn't let me link to that bookmark.
I'm going to be doing the "Ultimate 5K", "Killer's Crunch Workout", and before too long I'll start the "Armstrong Pullup Program". I can't start the pullup program yet because I can't even do one at this time. So I have to get myself up to doing 3-5, and then I can start that program, and it'll get me up to 15-18. I just sent Marcus the links earlier this evening, and he says he's down for doing it with me.

OK... that is probably well enough for now.

One more thing, though, is that in October, Cpt Blaine is going to try to get me in touch with a pilot he knows who will be in the area and try to arrange for me to get to go up in a small plane a little larger than a Cessna just to see what it is like up there in the cockpit. I'll prolly even get to fly that sucker a bit :) It's gonna be awesome. He said he'd call me when he had more news about it.

K... I think I'm gonna go to bed now. I'm going to the hardware store tomorrow morning to look around at some options for building a ladder for our loft (cuz we still don't have an accepted plan for getting up there!)

Peace:
out.

So for those who didn't know... yes, I bought a pair of Samsung TVs that I found on Craigslist.com, but I never intended on keeping them. They didn't meet my criteria (>37" diagonal w/ 1080p resolution), but they were just such a great deal I couldn't pass them up. Anyway, those are both sold and so tonight I made another purchase....

I bought a Sharp LC-37D62U 37 inch Aquos for $779 + $49 shipping = $828 total. You can read some more about this model on CNET at http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sharp-lc-37d62u/4505-6482_7-32334936.html.

So yeah, thats it. Just thought I'd share.


Oh, so side note...
Sara was here for my birthday this weekend! She drove up on Saturday and only stayed the one night, but she, Marcus, Ben, and I went out to Texas Roadhouse, then we hit up Sonka's Irish Pub and then we went to Charlie's Bar..? I don't really know what the official names are. Then we came back here and played euchre for another couple hours. Then we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Well, Ben and I watched it. Marcus had already seen it (and had consumed enough while we were playing euchre) so he just went to sleep on the nap couch. And Sara just kinda laid there with her eyes closed, but still laughed at some of the funny parts, so I'm not really sure how much of it she actually saw. Anyway it was good times, good times :) Thanks to Marcus and Ben for taking me out, and special thanks to Sara for making it all the way back from Oklahoma to join in on the fun! :)

And then after Sara left for Fort Wayne (she'll be home for a few days before she heads back west to start school) and then a couple hours later Marcus left for Indy, Ben and I were soooo boorreedd. It was bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s, bananas. I bought the shirt.woot! half because it was cool and half because I was just so bored. Here's the design:



Anyway... we're cool now. Working some will help us out tomorrow.

Pumped about getting my new iPhone next weekend! Woo!

Peace...
Callen

The following was my reply to my brother's email asking how I'm liking my job. After I wrote it, I thought some other people might be interested in reading it, too. So here it is. I'm going to play some bball in my new shoes now, so I'm not going to proofread it. haha.

Peace out...
//C


Well, I'm really enjoying it. In addition to the project I mentioned in my blog about the first week, I had another assignment to write a script in a language I hadn't heard of before (Korn shell "ksh"). Anyway, I spent some of last week and then a lot of Monday and Tuesday doing research on how to do things in this language. And I had to use the Korn shell script (which was actually being called from a Bourne-again Shell "bash") to run some more stuff in yet another language. It was quite interesting to learn about how to do all that stuff! Anyway, today at 1655 I got it all working! It was very rewarding to start in on something I had no experience with and figure out how to get it done.

Tomorrow I have to put in a "test promote request" to get it implemented on the next level up the tree. The tree is, we developers write our programs, scripts, whatever, etc in the DEV environment. Once we get them ready, we put in a request to have them promoted to the TEST / STAGE environments. (TEST and STAGE are basically the same thing, but I won't get into the details about the differences between them.) Then if there are any problems in TEST, we take it back to DEV to resolve them. Then once its good, send it back to TEST, and if it works there, then the developer makes a request to promote it to PROD (production). And if it gets approved, then it goes to an Admin who will follow the directions you laid out to put the stuff into production.

I got a new pair of b-ballin shoes tonight at Finish Line at the mall.




click to enlarge

Thats not a bad picture considering I took it with my phone, eh?



Click here to view the item at the FinishLine website

First Week of Sony DADC


General Notes:

I have been carpooling with Sean Marriner, a junior CPE (ComPuter Engineer) at Rose who is one of four people staying at the Triangle Fraternity house for the summer. We trade off days driving.

I hope to start riding my bike maybe by my third week, as I want to spend some more time investigating the locker room and locker arrangements as well as bike parking and entrance stuff. Once this begins, I will probably drive the car at least once a week to make sure I have some clean clothes and stuff to leave in my locker, since I plan to arise early, bike to work, then take a shower there.

I have my own cubicle right beside Sean's and directly across from Wayne, who was the man I spoke with at the Winter Career Fair and who is directly responsible for my interest in the company. See Figure 1 for the cubicle layout in my little area.


Figure 1: IS Department Layout



I work in the Information Systems (IS) Department. Contrary to what my documents from Orientation said, it isn't actually the IT department. And I'm not working with fixing computers at all; I'm working with Oracle databases and scripting in PL/SQL. I'm also learning an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) software suite called Informatica PowerCenter (note those are two different links).

So this is what my project is:
There are three Oracle databases (that I will be working with), one for each production "shop" floor, one in my building, the second across the street from us, and the third in New Jersey. The deal is this, now, currently if somebody wants to run a query, for example, to find out the total production of Blu-ray discs across all three plants, the person would have to run three queries, one on each database. This is a problem: the solution is to combine the databases so that one query can give aggregated results.
My job is primarily to work on combining those three databases and finding the best way to do it.
However, along the way, I have to do more, of course. I previously mentioned Informatica PowerCenter; we own a license for version 6.2.1, but the current version is 8.6. The tool is currently in use but only in a very small, very specialized manner. So what I am supposed to do is learn the software (I know, sounds easy right?), see how else it might be able to be implemented, then research the new version and give a report of my recommendation regarding the prudence of paying the multi-thousands of dollars for the newest version. But thats not it, not only am I supposed to learn the software so I can see how to merge the databases manually, then decide whether this particular task would be best completed using the Informatica tools or using PL/SQL scripts written by hand.

So, thats what I've been assigned with. What have I actually been doing though?
Day 1:
Spent the majority of the day trying to figure out why my (provided) laptop wasn't working right. It was an old Sony Vaio (go figure, all the laptops are Sony Vaios) that had 4 keys missing, but the rest of the keys didn't even work anyway. And I got an old 15" monitor that weighs like 50 lbs (okay, not quite that much, but a LOT for an LCD). But then, software stuff kept messing up, and the network wasn't working right for it, and all kinds of junk. It turned out that the laptop was supposed to have been retired, but my supervisor, Peter, had saved it in his office. At about 1000 the following morning I finally got a desktop computer. It also sucks, and still the monitor is not great, but whatever.

So they gave me a few things to read, including some general information about relational databases as well as a couple books about Oracle and PL/SQL that I read through, despite them being quite dated.

Day 2:
Once I got my computer, Wayne had me go through and practice some common tasks with PL/SQL on the Oracle databases, such as creating and modifying a table, writing a function that can add and update table data, writing a procedure that calls the function, and combining the two into a package. Download the files I made by clicking here.

Days 3-4 (and 5-6) :
I started working my way through the tutorials that came with Informatica. I got the first two done, but then late on Thursday, I hit a wall. The next step wouldn't complete because something had changed in the way the servers were named since Informatica had been installed on the server back in 2005, and now a certain aspect no longer worked, but had not been discovered yet. So, what I could turn into quite a long story, I will summarize with this: I spent a while on Friday, and the entirety of Monday and Tuesday (today, as I write this) doing quite literally nothing.

The good thing about having nothing to do on Monday was that I was able to monitor the WWDC 08 Keynote by Steve Jobs. Bottom line, I'm getting an iPhone3G on July 11. It will be AWESOME.

Day 7:
Finally today (Tuesday) at about 1630, I got something else I could do. Its not like I wasn't trying to get a hold of Wayne and Peter, they were just so busy or not in their offices. Anyway, now I have something I can work on. So thats good.


What have I been doing for lunch?
Day 1: Taco Bell
Days 2-3: Cafeteria
Day 4: Arby's
Day 5: Fazoli's (catered in to the cafeteria in the building across the street)
Day 6: Cafeteria
Day 7: Burger King (Tuesdays are apparently 69 cent cheeseburger day)

Hmmm.... feels like there might've been something else I was going to say, but it escapes me at this point in time. If it comes to me later, I'll-- oh!

We had lots of rain over the weekend (mostly Friday night) and there was some flooding on campus. Nothing like the kind of damage that there's been elsewhere, but it was quite enough to cause concern. Ben, Peter, and I (Peter is our summer suitemate taking Marcus' place for a while) went out and filled and placed about 100 sandbags around the SRC. Then afterwards, I took them out to go ride my bike around in the floodwaters. My photos are available here, and Peter's photos are available here.

The SRC was closed for a couple days as a result, so we had to find alternate means to get some exercise. Obviously, we counted the bike riding for Saturday. Then Sunday we watched Miracle, which put me in a hockey mood, so I skated around with my stick and puck and puck while Ben rode my bike. Since the SRC opened for the summer on Day 4, we have gone down and played some basketball , except for, of course, the aforementioned two days. I've been working especially hard on improving my left hand, which, as I found out on the first day there, has lost a significant amount of dexterity since I played in high school. Or even since winter quarter when basketball was one of the intramural sports.

Well, this is about the time I like to go to bed now, so I'm going to go ahead and post this and then go to sleep.

I hope you guys who had wanted a post about my first week are now quite satisfied! And Lisa, sorry I didn't answer you email directly. As I was getting ready to leave for Terre Haute, Mom said, "Caleb I want to hear how your first day goes." To which I replied, "How about I'll tell you how my first week goes." And then when nothing of any importance really happened on that first day, which was really what I was expecting anyway, I didn't want to start typing one thing to one person and then forget who knew what and leave people out, ya know?

Ben says, "Put down, 'Ben says chickens and cats.'" Then he said not to, but it was too late.

All for now...
//C