Indeed it has. A fair bit has occurred since February 2007. I’ve made more good friends, I’ve seen some graduate, I made the Dean’s List for the second time in my (going on) 5 years here at Tech. Then there was that thing that happened in April. I’m not really going to harp on that too much, other than to say that I’m dealing with it in what I hope is a positive manner, and that my friends and family have been there for me (as I have for them). Things have definitely changed - [one can only hope] for the better.

I’ve been spending the summer in my apartment in Blacksburg, working two jobs. First, I’m part of an undergraduate research team with the Mobile & Portable Radio Research Group that has been researching how to use Ultra-Wideband to improve GPS in forest environments. Second, I’ve been taking measurements for the VT VLSI for Telecommunications Group that has been working on self-monitoring structures. I’ve been having fun, learning, and getting paid, all at the same time. Plus I’ve been able to hang out with my friends more often and get a jump on WUVT work. It’s been a lot better than sitting in a cube in Greensboro programming all summer.

I hope (but can’t guarantee) to update a bit more frequently. I say that all the time, but then sometimes a little thing called an Engineering Double-Major gets in the way.

They only want you when you’re seventeen; when you’re twenty-one, you’re no fun.

   I’ve been lost today; lost ever since about 1:20 this afternoon. Lost? Yes, lost. As someone strapped for time, I schedule my day in advance and then fit things in on the fly, all of which demands an accurate, up-to-the-second chronograph. As luck would have it, the band on my watch broke today, causing it to fall from my arm and crash onto the ground. My watch is okay; my brain, however, is not.
   Boy George wasn’t kidding when he sang the line “time won’t give me time.” I keep turning to my wrist, expecting a date and time report; alas, it is no longer there. I’m merely wasting energy. I feel almost naked without my watch - it never leaves my wrist for more than ten minutes at a time, and it’s been several hours since it has weighed down my left wrist.
   Sure, I can look at my phone, it’s GPS-locked via the tower to the NIST Cesium clocks out there in Colorado, but it’s just not the same as watching the little second hand tick round and round the iridescent face of my silver watch. My phone doesn’t tick (unless I call WWV, which wastes batteries, minutes, and introduces ~500mS delay). Plus the analog feel of a traditional watch, fused with a digital display for the date and other time zones…it meshes with my personality in a way that my other electronic devices yearn to.

I could pull a Flava Flav and wear a clock on a chain around my neck - I always thought that was one of the coolest things ever…

Today’s Post Brought To You By: ABC’s Poison Arrow from the album The Lexicon Of Love.

I feel like I must constantly shake things up for fear of getting too comfortable. Sure, it’s one thing to establish a comfortable baseline from which to work, but to become too comfortable and stagnant is one of my greatest fears. It seems only when I upset the balance of things can I strive for something bigger and better.

Perhaps this is why the thought of suburbia scares me so - millions of people who’ve worked for a portion of their lives in order to become comfortable with their standing in life and thus stop striving for anything more.

There’s your morsel of vague insight from me for the evening

It’s amazing how much my life has changed in the past 3 years. When I sit and look back upon it, there’s been a lot that has gone on, and a lot that has changed and shaped me. Sometimes you feel complacent when you’re in a happy moment in your life, and want to freeze it. But that gets old. So you keep going on. Happy periods, sad periods. They both come and they both go. There’s one constant, however, and that constant is change.