Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes (and an extra leap second)

So, 2005 is officially over. One year ago today, I was a graduate student (kind of) with half of a one month break remaining. Here's a recap of some of the stuff that happened this year.

I didn't get a part time job at Stanley Works, which was a good thing considering I ended up pretty busy with school and job search.

I completed a thesis in industrial engineering entitled "Optimization of WiFi Access Point Placement." Not just a snazzy title, I actually did some (a lot of) work, looking at the technological limitations of WiFi (they interfere if they're too close) and created a tool (as in computer program) in Excel and C++ that told you where to put APs (little router things) to cover a large building. I made a mad cool Modified Greedy Add heuristic (... umm, code that says "put APs here"). I wrote a big paper thing in like 2 weeks. Ahhh, thesis.

I learned all about Math Modeling and Advanced Manufacturing; Two classes and a thesis gave me much more work than I ever had in college, even in my 20 credit semesters. But I loved all three of them. For three classes, I used 5 programming languages: Visual Basic for Applications, C++, Maple, Matlab, and something for a welding simulator. This got pretty confusing at times, and I forget all of them.

After rejecting an offer that would have been a bad fit, I searched for many full time job for post graduation. I looked applied IBM, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen Hamilton, the CIA, the US Patent Office, a bunch of small acronym companies (IPA, IDA, APT, RCI), and some companies by the name of Criterion and Avtec, plus probably 10 other places. Most of my resumes must have gotten lost in cyberspace, since I never heard from most of these companies again. (Actually, one of my resumes legitimately got lost in the mail, as the top portion with my name and contact info was returned to me with the same-size portion of the envelope around it, decapitated from the rest of the package. It was awesome; it wasn't ripped but it wasn't cut. It looked kind of it had been frozen and shattered, but in reality it was probably just shot with a death ray.) Finally, in April, I got an on-site interview, presented my thesis, wowed them, and got a job offer. Good times!

On the non-academic front, I lived Fort Fun for the second semester, this time minus Maria, but often plus KT and Daryn. Rob, Dan, Matt and I had a rockin house. We played Mario Kart and Test Drive 5. We did donuts in Goodman parking lots. Matt sledded down the stairs. We witnessed the Patriots trounce the Eagles in the Superbowl (sorry matt) for the second Boston championship in 3 months (Go Sox!). Rob's arm doubled in size and spewed goop for a few days. We learned the joy of dominoes. Dan got little motor cars. I got fish: King Boo and The Citrus Blast (I'm sorry guys. I am :-( ). We all went to Rita's. We had a rocking graduation party weekend. And a good time was had by all.

Chris and I found a phat pad in DC with a big thanks to God.

Then we graduated for the second time.

In June, I was a bum for what might be the last time in my life. I kinda wish I had done something, but my bummin' days are over.

In July, I moved to DC with Chris. My mom helped. Stephen, Brad, Chris and I learned the joy of wiffleball, and then of cutoff man wiffleball, then Jedi wiffleball, then Slow motion wiffleball, then golfball baseball, then the Rootbeer Mile. Oh yes, and of course Bip. Darn you Stephen. Steph visited, and we didn't go to a Scottish festival. Poor Brad. Oh yeah, I also started work. August consisted of more of the same as July, plus hanging out with the LBGs (they are actually g-i-r-l-esses!). Chris started work, we had a Lord of the Rings marathon, Scotty came to visit. We started going to National Community Church in the local movie theater, which is sweet. The church, not the theater. September had Birthday parties (Thanks for the birthday card!), a visit from Gene-o and the start of the Greenhouse group, where more very cool people reside and where we studied Christly Confidence, which rocks. Ian moved down here and started working! October included a visit from KT, trips to Boston and Lehigh, and good times with awesome friends. Sam moved down here (the weekend we were in Lehigh, ironically!).

November was highlighted by a David Crowder concert, a trip to the art museum, and a visit from Rob and KT (with the saltiest Pesto ever, giant jet engines, dominoes, THE American Indian, and Brad biting into an onion just to make himself cry (He failed)). Also had the Granddaddy of holidays, Thanksgiving. November/December included meeting MORE awesome people at church, a trip to the national Christmas tree (and a zig-zagging run through the empty streets of DC at night), a rockin Christmas party or two, Old Man Jazz, Danny and Lou Malnatti's Pizza, and many other good times. Also included Christmas in MA and all sorts of new clothes (thanks mom!). And finally, I just got back from Onething, an awesome conference in Kansas City where we worshipped-in the New Year.

So that was my year, and I'm sure I've missed many other cool things, but goodbye 2005, and here we come 2006!

Does anyone else think the whole leap second thing is awesome? I just think it's crazy that it takes us 365.25 days to get around the sun, and then it's off by only a second. God is in control.