Still Alive

Well, figured I would give a quick update since I haven't been online for quite some time. I still don't have regular internet access at my new place, so I decided to make a quick trip to the library to check up on stuff.

I am getting settled in at my new place in Bremerton. After the move, I decided that I still don't like movers very much. The guys that unpacked my household goods have left me a tremendous amount of work to do to before the place looks like a home. I guess I will gripe about that in a later post.

I started working at the shipyard yesterday and have had a few fun-filled days of briefs and videos and power point presentations as well as several long walks through the shipyard to get our group of newly hired people familiar with the area.

That's about all that I have the energy to write for now. Hope that everyone else has had a little more fun over the last few weeks than I have. The last few weeks have been full of the pain associated with moving, but things are looking up again.

Moving On

Moving day is almost here. The movers are showing up tomorrow to haul all of my stuff away. I have been going through all of the closets and cabinets and nooks and crannies to see what kind of junk I can get rid of. It is not as bad as I had feared. I have accumulated a lot less junk than I had thought.

Thursday is apartment inspection day so I will be doing some last minute cleaning after all of my stuff is gone. My parents were here for my graduation on Saturday and my mom decided that I needed some help moving, so she has stuck around to help clean the place up.

Moving day has always been a bad day in the past. I remember when I was packing up to leave Guam. The movers packed all of my stuff into shipping crates and I was supposed to install and sign security seals to each crate after they were nailed shut. The guys doing the moving tried to get me to sign the security seals and let them take them back to the warehouse. They promised me that they would make sure nothing went missing and that I should just give them the signed seals. I wasn't that trusting.

They got pretty pissed when they were nailing shut the last shipping crate which was only about 1/3 full. They kept going on and on about how I should let them finish nailing it shut back at the warehouse. They said they would be packing out someone else the next day and if I wasn't such an asshole, they would be able to pack my stuff together with this other persons stuff and save everyone some money. After spending the day with these guys mishandling my personal belongings, I told them I didn't care if they thought I was an asshole, but the security seals were going on before my stuff left my sight.

Another group of movers irritated me when I left Hawaii. There were a couple of island boys packing up my stuff. One of them asked me questions like "Hey Brah, You don't plan on keeping these golf clubs, do you?" while he was looking at my TaylorMade irons, Callaway driver, and Mizuno woods. I was asked twice if I really wanted to keep the golf clubs. I talked to the guy in charge of the movers and told him this guy needed to leave the house immediately. When the people that are moving you out of your house are eying your personal belongings and trying to talk you into leaving them behind, you start to worry about sticky fingers.

The supervisor talked to the guy and he stopped asking me if I wanted to leave any more of my stuff behind. Then he started bitching about how the last time he packed up a house, the guy that was moving bought everyone a pizza and sodas. He mentioned it about two hundred times. I told him the last time that somebody packed up my belongings, they brought their lunch with them. I talked to the supervisor about this guy again, only I was much louder and my language was heavily laced with profanity. Told him I wanted that guy out of my place immediately. This time, the supervisor apologized and told the guy to leave right away. When the guy told him that he needed a ride, the supervisor cussed him out and told him to call his brother if he wanted a ride that bad. Turns out, the guy had gotten the job because his brother worked at the moving company and he was already on thin ice with the boss. Anyway, he walked off complaining that the world was against him.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I hate moving. Hopefully, the guys that come to pick up my stuff tomorrow don't cause me any unnecessary aggravation. As many times as I have moved in the past, I figure I am due to get some good guys here to do the work.

Washington State University Graduation 2009

With graduation weekend upon us here in Pullman, the population of the town has swelled. There are a lot of family members in town to wish their graduates well. My parents have been here for a few days now to join in on the festivities. If you are ever going to attend a graduation ceremony for Washington State University, make sure to book your hotel room well in advance. I have heard that some of the local hotels take reservations a few years in advance for graduation ceremonies. Pullman is not a very large town and the hotels in the region are booked solid months in advance. Luckily, I have an extra room in my apartment for my parents to stay in for the weekend.

We went to campus to take some of the obligatory pictures in the cap and gown. One of the most popular spots is the sign at the entrance to the campus.

This is a picture of the line to take pictures. It was a bit longer when we got into the line, but it moved pretty quickly. The weather was pretty cooperative. There was quite a bit of rain Thursday, but it cleared up nicely ahead of the commencement ceremony.

There was a reception for the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering graduates yesterday evening. It was a nice chance for my parents to meet some of the other students and some of the professors. We had a pretty good time. I guess I was probably about the same age as most of the parents, but I was only asked once which one of the students was my child.

We have about 2400 graduates going through commencement today. We are divided into three groups. I get to walk in the 3:00 pm ceremony. I am sure that there will be several thousand guests there today. The ceremony is also broadcast on live television here in the Pullman and there will also be a live webcast and the webcast will be archived for future viewing. If you want to know what the ceremony looks like, you can find a link to the webcast here.

It has been interesting going to school and probably an atypical experience given my age. In the end, it has been a fairly enjoyable experience, I met lots of nice people, and at the end, I get to walk out with a degree in Chemical Engineering. I guess it has been a fairly productive two and half years.