I am well into the semester at San Diego State. Things are going well. I am enjoying both my algorithms as wells as my artificial intelligence class. I’ll keep you posted on any interesting developments.

However, I can already tell you that at least in my algorithms class, my peers will be hating me for ruing the grading curve. I managed to get a 107% on the first assignment. The funny thing is that there was no premeditated extra credit. I just did such a complete and thorough job, the instructor decided to give me a little bonus. Yeah, I am that guy. Sorry.

So, it’s been way to long since I posted anything up here.  I have been pretty busy.  Of course the baby works are now in full swing.  We have the nursery just about all set up, although it needs some decorations for sure.  I am still plugging away on my instrument rating for my pilot’s license.  I hope to wrap that up some time soon.  It’s been a fun, yet not much winning Padre’s season, and I have been to quite a few games.  I have been traveling a bit for work, with my latest trip earlier this month to Chicago for a security conference.  I managed to see my broher Vince and the kids while I was there.  And oh yeah, classes start next week if you can beleive that.

So yeah.  I have been busy.  No excuse really.

Just caught a nifty sun set out my front door.  Very nice.

John (Our CEO / My boss) and I made a trip to Palm Spring today to snowshoe up to the summit of Mount San Jacinto.  I didn’t really know you could do any snowshoeing in SoCal, so I was jazzed when he invited me to go.  I rented a pair of MSR’s from REI and scrounged up some of my winter gear (which has been packed away since I move to San Diego).  Just south of Plam Springs is the Palm Spring Areal Tramway which takes you from the valley at 2,643 feet up to the Mountain Station at 8,516.  The tram goes up through the Chino Canyon and is somewhat of a unique tram car in that the floor rotates as you ascend so that you can get the complete view.

Stepping out of the tram in to a completely different climate was quite a trip.  From the mountain station, we hiked over to the ranger station at the beginning of the summit trail and checked out with them.  At that point we just b-lined it for the peak.  There really aren’t any trails to speak of in the winter, you just go where you please.  The acense was probably about 2300 feet through variable conditions.  Just before the top we found a summit shelter hut, which was nifty.  From there we made the last push up to the summit where we grabbed some lunch and enjoyed the view.

We took a significantly different route on the way down, which included a torpedo butt slide dow the steepest part which was to steep to practically snowshoe down.  We meandered down the stream back to the ranger station, checked back in, unstrapped the shoes and headed back to the tram station to get a drink.  We chilled out there for a little while and then caught the tram car back down.

All and all the trail took us about 5 hours.  It was beautiful, relaxing, and some hard work that got the blood flowing.  Not a bad Thursday.  Check out the site here:  http://www.pstramway.com/

Here are some photo’s of the day:

Brian and I did a 5 mile loop up at Miramar Lake Reservoir.  I have been mainly running around my neighborhood, which is better than the treadmill.  But running at the lake was definitely much better.  I didn’t even know this place was here, but it’s only about 10 minutes from my house and much more aesthetic.  It was a great run, and great to find a resource so close to home.

http://www.sandiego.gov/water/recreation/miramar.shtml

Lisa and I went up to the Del Mar fairgrounds to see the dog show.  We are interested in getting another dog at some point in the future, but want to find the right breed for our lifestyle.  We thought going to a dog show would be a good way to meet a lot of different types of dogs.  Plus being general dog lovers, we thought it would be fun.  We were particularly interested in seeing the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.  We had arranged to meet a breeder up there to meet a few of their dogs.

While we were there we met a nice Golden Retriever breeder and took a look at some Samoyeds too.  Here are some pics from the day:

In a somewhat sophomoric moment, I decided to have a GRE Book Burning session.  To be fair, I was building a fire already, and just happened to have the book on hand.  A little puerile for sure… but definitely gratifying.

GRE Burning Video

Well, I got my online application in to SDSU last Friday. Today I finally finished updating my resume and sent that over as well. The GRE scores should be arriving over at the school (and online so I can see them) some time this week or early next week. I need to call the admissions office to see if I can track down my RIT transcript which should have been delivered to them quite some time ago.

Other than that I think I actually got everything in one time. Fingers crossed… I will keep everyone posted.

Well, I finally took the GRE this morning.  After a couple months of off and on studying of testing, I decided to buckle down and just take the test.  Well, I didn’t decide that so much as the deadline for application forced my hand.  Anyway I spent the last two weeks with my nose in the books cramming for the test.  Practice test after practice test.  My brain started to mush by the end.

Anyway, I did awesome on the test, definitely better than I “needed” to do, although I really wouldn’t be happy with anything less than a perfect score!

As a reward, I finally went flying again this afternoon.  I went up with Lisa’s instructor (well, I guess my instructor now) to start to get aquatinted with a retractable gear 182.  The FAA requires specific training to fly a plane with landing gear (among other things) and the flight club requires 10 hours of training in a specific type.   It was great to get up in the air.

So a huge weight off my shoulders from the test, and a good day flying means I am in a much needed state of relaxation tonight!

I got some free tickets to the Chargers – Niners game this past Thursday (along with Rob and Theo from work).  We hopped on the trolley after work and cruised over to Qualcomm just in time for the anthem.  Turns out “Foreigner” was playing a concert before the show and actually sang the anthem…A Cappella.  Not to shabby actually.

We had a pretty good time, the San Diego almost shut out San Francisco, allowing only one score after they had pulled their starters out in favor of the second string defense.  The final was a 34-7 route.  Other interesting highlights included a huge brawl between some Charger fans and Raider fans.  Leave it to Raiders fans to start a fight at a game their team isn’t playing in.

On a side note, it was a bit interesting cheering for the Chargers for a couple reasons.  First, the rivalry between the Broncos and Chargers for the last few years, means I have typically been cheering against them.  Secondly, it was interesting cheering against Alex Smith, who was the QB at Utah for two of the seasons Lisa and I were in Salt Lake City.  So I was in the habit of cheering for him.

Anyway, all of that aside, that was my first regular season NFL game.  Lisa bought me tickets to a Broncos v. Bills pre-season game several years back (which was sweet), but this was the first game I saw that “counted”.  All and all it was  good time.  Here are some pics: