University of Michigan

Well, after many long days and nights of searching, I've finally made a choice for the university I'm going to for Graduate School: University of Michgan.  They have a really good physics program, and they will help me at every step of the way.

One of the really cool things it thatt they gave me a really nice fellowship.  Accoring to the email I received, "Your award for the first year will consist of a stipend equal to 50% Graduate Student Research Assistant/GSRA for the fall and winter terms, full tuition, and GradCare health and dental insurance. The award also provides one spring/summer stipend of $8500."  Basically, I'll be getting full tuition, and a $2000-per-month stipend, plus the other stuff.  Now that's a sweet deal.

I'm getting really excited about going to Michigan.  It's kinda funny to think this was one of the last schools I decided to apply to, and now they're giving me such a sweet deal.  Kinda like when I came to Iowa State...

And on top of that, my parents told me they would get me a car.  Possibly new.  Actually, most likely new.  I'll have to be happy with what in the lot when  we go visit, but hey, it's a new car.  That's really cool.

The one thing that's kinda worrying is that I'll have to leave Kristin behind for a while.  Hopefully, she'll be able to follow me, and afterwards, who knows where we'll end up.  We've been talking, and there's a few options, so we'll see...

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Well, recently, I started using this program thing called Twitter, which is some sort of microblog thing that allows you to post updates of your life in 140 character posts.  It's kinda like a miniblog, except that one basically answers the question: What are you doing now?  I kinda like it, although I'm not following very many people yet.  However, it's a pretty good way for people to know what's going on in my (usually boring) life.

Last week (or the week before, I can't remember very well), there was a crash.  IN SPACE!  Now, I don't know what the odds are, but for two satelites to crash seems very unlikely, so that fact that it did happen was pretty big.  Anyway, this has caused a NASA and other space groups to really start considering the problem of space junk a lot more.  This has made NASA's space shuttle be delayed yet again, so this is a pretty big issue.  Come on, people, we have to keep the universe clean.

Everything else seems kinda pale in comparison, although the Pirate Bay has made pretty interesting headlines in the past week.  Oh, and I got a shirt from shirt.woot again.  This one was the one that had a picture of an atom made of dice.  Yeah, I'm definately a nerd...

Life Directions

I'm not entirely sure why, but reviewing one's life goals seems to be quite popula these days.  Many of my friends recently changed their major, or, in some cases, decided that they wanted to pursue a religious life.

Well, with graduation coming up, I've been thinking more and more about my future, and I've been asking myself some pretty tough questions.  For example: what do I see myself doing in 10 years? Do I really want to be doing Theoretical Physics for the rest of my life?  Is there something else I'd really like to do in my life?

Well, I've been giving thought to some different paths I could take once I have my PhD in Physics, and was thinking about industry (also known as the private sector).  Talking this over with my mom, she mentioned that one of her college friends' husband was a physics graduate who now works in Research and Devolpement at Intel.

I'm not sure what, but something about working for Intel (or a similar company) just seems pretty awesome.  I plan to still get my PhD, but I'm not going to limit my career choices to academia.  We'll see what I'm doing in 10 years.

That feeling of blah...

For some time now, I've just had this feeling of... well... blah.  You know, the feeling where I just don't really want to do anything, and just have a few days where I could sleep in the entire day.  Yeah, one of those feelings.  I still go to all my classes and things, and still go to work, but I sometimes just don't care...

The thing that's scaring me a bit about this time is that it's lasted for a quite a while now.  I'd say I've been in this mood for about 3 weeks now.  Usually, I get it every few months, and it lasts about a week.

I don't know what's changed.  Maybe it's because this is my last semester at Iowa State, and I'm scared of what lies ahead.  Or maybe it's something that happens when you grow older.  Either way, I hope that it leaves soon, because I'm starting to notice it's affecting a few things.  I missed a homework assignment for Philosophy (fortunately, the lowest  2 are dropped), and haven't read anything for some of my other classes.

I think this weekend will be good to me, though.  I'm going on a retreat.  Hopefully, that will help with this mood.

Eddie the Golden Phoenix

KQ Team

Well, it's been a while.

Well, the KQ team is forming slowly. I'm just trying to organize things and trying to get people to join. At the moment, we don't have very many people (around 12), but I'm hoping that number will pick up soon. I just made a facebook group, and I asked people to ask people, so we might get a few that way. Maybe...

I also made a website with some info. Right now, it just has the list of member, but it might become our page for the questions too...

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm off.

The Golden Phoenix

Computer Upgrade

Well, I added a PCI card to my computer. Now I have 4 more USB ports (plus two on the inside, which I figure I can use for some wireless things, but really confused me other than that). The upgrade was slightly hiccupy, but ended well. Now I don't have a huge mess of wires on top of each other in a small amount of space because of many USB cables and not enough ports. I can now use my USB splitter for it's original purpose: my laptop. Yay!

The Golden Phoenix

Windows 7: the Good and the Bad

Well, like any computer nerd, I like beta testing. Well, since the new Windows 7 Beta came out recently, I decided to give it a spin. However, I didn't want to just install a new system (at least, not without knowing that it wouldn't completely destroy my computer). So, to circumvent this, I decided to install it inside a virtual machine (a virtual "computer" within an operating system).

The Good: I like a lot of the new features. The new taskbar is pretty cool, and I like the fact that we can make slideshow backgrounds (something which Mac has been able to do for a while). I also like that it seems a lot easier to mess with different settings to change, for example, UAC settings, backgrounds, and other random things that need changing. In addition, Microsoft made it easy to start off by placing a "Getting Started" link on the start menu, which gives you access to some of the more common features. It is also very easy to set up Gadgets, and there is no sidebar (I didn't like the sidebar).

The Bad: Not counting the limitations brought on by it being installed in a Virual Machine (which is more of Virtual Box's fault that Windows 7), there were a few things which could be inproved. First of all, the area at the right of the taskbar (who's name currently eludes me) hasn't changed at all. It seems akward that the icons on the taskbar are all bigger except for these. I think Microsoft should give a choice as to how people want these to look. Also, I was hoping Microsoft would add some virtual desktop support, since that has become standard in every other operating system I've used and/or seen.

The Meh: Paint and Wordpad now use the Ribbon setup made infamous by Microsoft Office 2007. It's something to get used to, I guess. Since I don't really use Paint or Wordpad (I use Paint.net and Notepad++ instead), it doesn't really affect me. It's just something I thoght people should know (if they still didn't).

My plan for the near future is to actually install it on my computer, not just the virtual machine, to get the most out of Windows 7. However, from first impressions, I have to say it is pretty good.

The Golden Phoenix

Back in Ames

Well, I'm back... I'm in one piece. YAY!!!

I can't believe how much I missed this place. I'm really glad to be back. I also can't believe how much I missed Iowa drivers... yeah, I know, they supposedly suck at driving, which is kinda the point... PR drivers are horrible.

Anyway, I'm settling down again. Getting ready for classes on Monday... yay...

The Golden Phoenix

Novena Against FOCA

This email came to me today, and I encourage any who want to, whether they be Catholic or not, to participate, and spread the word about this. Thank you.

Greetings,

Many of you are likely familiar with the details of the Freedom of
Choice Act (FOCA).  A short description is below.
More importantly is to put this matter to prayer as in the form of a
novena as suggested for January 11-20.  The novena prayer of
reparation can be found below and also on the Priests for Life website
(http://www.priestsforlife.org/novenas/prayer-of-reparation.aspx):

Prayer of Reparation

God and Father of Life,
You have created every human person,
And have opened the way for each to have eternal life.

We live in the shadow of death.
Tens of millions of your children have been killed
Thanks to the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Father, have mercy on us.
Heal our land
And accept our offering of prayer and penance.
In your love for us,
Turn back the scourge of abortion.

May each of us exult in hearts full of hope
And hands full of mercy
And work together to build a culture of life.

We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional suggestions on praying a rosary each day for this intention
and fasting for the period are also described below.

Thank you for this consideration and may you have a blessed upcoming weekend,

+ + +

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) could be passed by Congress as soon
as January 21-22 of 2009. If signed by newly-inaugurated President
Obama and made into law, FOCA will remove all limitations on abortion:

1. All hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, will be required to
perform abortions upon request. If this happens, American Catholic
bishops have vowed to close down Catholic hospitals, more than 30% of
all hospitals in the United States.

2. Partial birth abortions will be legal without restriction.

3. All U.S. taxpayers will be forced to fund abortions.

4. Parental notification will no longer be required.

5. The number of abortions will increase by a minimum of 100,000 annually.

Perhaps most importantly, the passage of FOCA will place the issue of
abortion under government control. This could result in a future
amendment that would force women by law to have abortions in certain
situations (rape, Down syndrome babies, etc.) and might even regulate
how many children women are allowed to have.

Catholics and all Christians must stand as one against this menace. We
must stop this horrific act before it becomes a law.

The Plan:

To say a novena ( nine days of prayer ) with fasting, beginning
January 11th. For Catholics, the prayer of choice is the rosary, with
the intention to stop FOCA. Non-Catholics are encouraged to pray their
strongest prayers with the same intentions, also for nine consecutive
days. The hope is that this will branch and blossom to become a global
effort with maximum impact. There is very little time so we all must
act fast. Please do three things:

1. Pass this letter to five or more people.

2. Do it in three days or less.

3. Start the novena on January 11th, and pray with fasting for nine
consecutive days.


May God bless our efforts.

Happy New Year and other assorted things

Happy New Year Everyone!!! Here's to a great 2009. Hopefully, you all have a good year ahead of you.

Well, today I was able to finally fix the family computer. We pulled things out, put things back in, and suddenly, it worked... except we had to reinstall windows. Lucky, the data is all backed up.

The funny thing is, we're not really sure what happened. All we did was moving things and connect and reconnect things, and in the end, edited some things in the BIOS, which seemed to clear things up. The question I had, then, was, what the heck changed the BIOS? It made the computer unbootable. Oh well, we'll see if things work after a while...

In other news, I got to see my little cousin yesterday. He's 2 months old and he REALLY ADORABLE!!!!! And the best part was... I made him smile!! So cute...

Well, that's all for now. More on the computer maybe later, and more on the random things that happens to me later as well. Sayanara!

Eduardo the Golden Phoenix