The last week has been really busy, but not with anything really worth reporting, that I can think of. Batch talked me into forgetting doing a linux based domain controller for GT, and that they should buy a Mac. I talked to Scott about it today and we are going to do a demo to show that it can be done before he buys any hardware or software, but he sounded up for it.

I did two events at GT this weekend, along with working at the Bob on Friday, and Monday evening for CYT, so that pretty much killed my weekend. I worked Sunday church as well, and didn’t make it out of there in time to make it to my own Church this weekend. Fortunately, this weekend isn’t shaping up to be as busy, so hopefully I can get some homework done and have some time to recoup as well.

OK, now I think that is really enough … so I’m going to sleep!

It’s late, so I’m going to try and make this fast, but I do want to write tonight.

I made it to FHE last night at with the Murrieta YSA ward. … Maybe I just need to stick with it and make some friends there to feel more at home. Work was actually pretty good yesterday. It was fairly quiet, probably because of the holiday, so i was actually able to get a lot of work done and got my email down to 18 or so messages!

Today was pretty quiet as well at the office, even though i was only there for a few hours. I started trying to sort through the accounting for the equipment lease we signed back in October. It looks like it is going to be a mess as the lessor paid more than they really should have for the gear (they didn’t take the quickpay and the gear list changed multiple times). I was about half way through figuring it out when I decided I needed to leave for school.

Two people tried to kill me a total of three times today. OK, I’m exaggerating more than a little. This morning a bunch of stakes fell out of a truck in front of me on Wichester. Fortunately they just fell on the ground and I was far enough back that they didn’t hit me, but it was still somewhat exciting. Let this be your lesson to not get too close to other vehicles at stoplights and to not follow to closely while moving! Then in Brea on my way to lunch at Islands, this lady in a white Mercedes decided to pull out in front of me. I tried to be polite and only gave her my brights while slowing down to indicate that maybe she should be more careful in the future. Well apparently she didn’t get the hint and decided that after I had switched lanes that she wanted to be in that lane with me. The real problem with this was that she couldn’t do it with any speed, so I got to see what the anti-lock brakes are like in the new Camry! I think I also left some rubber on the ground before the breaks kicked in. Thank the Lord, everyone is OK.

School was alright. Sat through a boring management class about how to analyze a case. Leadership was fairly interesting today. We did some mock counseling sessions which was pretty informative, even for them being fake. We also signed up for group projects — we’ll see how this one works out. Fortunately, it doesn’t sound too hard. And in government accounting, we only went over the homework before getting out about 8:15. It took some of the people over 20 hours to do the problem! I think I only invested about 3-4 hours and while I may not have completely finished, I think I could have finished in another hour if I had put my mind to it. Maybe I missed something?

I met Pyro and Batch at BJ’s for dinner on the way home.

Oh yeah, I think I might have come up with a person to interview for my leadership paper. The trouble has been that it needs to be someone that I don’t know, but I haven’t been able to come up with an idea of someone who I could interview that I don’t know. I mean, I’d love to go interview Steve Jobs. I may not know him, and I’m sure it would be great, but I somehow doubt I could get an hour of his life to ask stupid questions. Well, I don’t actually know the Bishop – or any of the counselors or stake presidency – from the Murrieta Stake, so I was thinking I could interview one of them. Not only are they leaders in the church, and have to deal with personal counseling issues as well (most likely), I figure that chances are high that one of them also holds a position of leadership at work and we could talk about both. I might have to make some calls later in the week.

OK, 11:45 and time for bed now. Good night and God Bless!

Other than our growing pains, I think things have been working out fairly well for the company. The cash flow isn’t quite where I would like to see it at times, but the rest of the financials are looking pretty good. We are going to work on trying to blow out some inventory to build up cash and/or use it for other purposes.

Alright, enough about the company. The biggest news I need to add before I get started is that I bought a new car about a month ago. Actually, it was on the second night of the season premier of 24, which I missed to get the car from Corona! Yes, I said new CAR. Not a new truck. I can’t necessarily put my figure on exactly what really prompted me to do it, but I do know that I was at least partially impacted by rising gas prices and the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. While I’m not the premier member of the Sierra Club or anything, I am concerned about how we have been abusing our planet – and even before watching the movie I had thought about my part. Al Gore presented a lot of good information and some that was quite scary. Even today, I saw an article on slashdot about glaciers melting, but our problems could be much more serious. They are melting, and they are melting quite fast. They could have the effect of putting some major cities under water. They think global warming could be the cause of the freakish weather lately. In any event, we all need to start looking out or there will be nothing left for the next generation.

So, I started looking at hybrids a while ago. I test drove the Civic months ago, but wasn’t happy about it’s above list price and it didn’t seem that one could offset the additional cost. I won’t even go into the Prius, but Toyota released a hybrid version of the popular Camry. I test drove one one week, and then tracked down a rental a few days later. I was planning on renting for a week, but after about two days and 300 miles, I figured that I could handle the smaller car. Costco referred me to Quality Toyota in Corona, and the price they gave me was well below what Toyota of Temecula had offered, and Escondido wouldn’t quote me a price over the phone and had a long backorder. Quality had my first choice model and color in stock waiting for me, so I got my truck back home, cleaned it out and drove up there instead of watching 24!

After a month of driving it, I have been very happy getting close to 40 miles per gallon. I’ve been running about 38 as a total average. It has been really nice to sit in traffic and just use the batteries. Finding a parking spot at Fullerton is even better though, it doesn’t cost me anything to drive around the parking lot for hours on end. (That’s note quite true, but you get the idea.) There have been a few times I’ve missed the truck, but for the most part, I think I’ll be happy. I know I’m happy now only filling up once a week for a fraction of what I used to pay each time I filled up twice a week before.

Ok, enough about the car. I made it to the Murrieta YSA Branch for Sacrament service today. They certainly seemed nice enough. I’m hoping to make it back there for FHE tomorrow night. I don’t think I’ve gone to an FHE since I’ve been home from Idaho. Now that I can go on my way home from work, I hope I’ll have a much harder time finding an excuse not to go. (I just need to get my homework done before Monday night.)

Well, I am going to try and get some sleep so that I can get a start on my new life first thing tomorrow morning. Good night and God Bless.

Today was pretty tough. Other than that though, things have been fairly good. School has been crazy and I’m not sure how this semester is going to turn out. I have a few interesting teachers and a lot of group projects. Fortunately, it looks like I am going to be able to spread them out fairly evenly throughout the semester to keep the impact down. …

Well, I should get to sleep, but I should write more often… I guess there are a lot of things I should do more often. Good night.