here's a cool link!

Well, soon Walt will be getting out of work and then we'll be off to cedar city. I just wanted to give you guys this link:

http://webf.mypicturetown.com:80/P2PwebCmdController/share.jsp?x=uNekU%255EbKxx9OOiFBlwnVwqsEh%2A8yn1C%3DYCdYS%3D6mC5T-4IGYfUS079qqnvGrfhQciPrOxqogOI%25AgxVVKKCiNEBFEmJu2UdfBmkbYJ_xH%26%3Dtx

this is just a link to one of the albums that my camera has been sending pictures to. Let me know if it doesn't work, I haven't really tested it much. Today after getting new tires on the jetta I went on a wild goose chase to find little cottonwood canyon. I went pretty far off track trying to find it but I did end up seeing a lot of the city. I ended up taking the belt route all the way around the city (sorry about gas, walt, I'll pitch in next time) before I finally found the way to little cottonwood canyon. the road was pretty much one giant hill and after a while the jetta was definitely sick of it, the AC started shutting off and the oil light came on... so I figured I might as well not push it much further and I turned around and headed back but I still got some great views. I'll try to keep you updated with links to all the pictures coming from my camera on our way to cedar city and moab too!

The salt lake city post... Again

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Originally uploaded by matrat

so, you might have read on my last post that my post got deleted. Well, now I'll go through it again. I got in at 12 on Wednesday but walt doesn't get out of work until 4 so I had four hours to just wander around the city and explore. First I took a taxi (no train from the airport) from the airport to "the gateway" which was just a mall. I had to go to the apple store there because my iPod touch's screen died while I was in the grand rapids airport. So I stopped there first and the store was packed because of the iPhone 3g launch. The earliest appointment I could get there was at 4:10. So to kill some time, I found the nearest TRAX (train) station and bought an all-day pass for $5. I hopped on and went to temple square where all the Mormon stuff was. I explored there a little bit but then I had to go back for my appointment at the apple store. So I went to the apple store, it took a while to get help because all of the other people there were having problems with their iPhones and they take a while to reactivate. But once they got around to me they plugged in my iPod saw the screen was dead and got me a replacement. Good thing too! I didn't bring my computer with me so I could carry everything in one bag. Now that I have this iPod I can go on the Internet, get email, and blog like I'm doing now! After the apple store I met up with walt and we got dinner and I got to see the mine where he works... It's huge! But by that time I was ready to go to sleep, I had gotten maybe one hour of sleep in the past thirty hours.

Yesterday, I slept in until 1 or 2 and started exploring the city some more. First I walked to the chipotle near walt's place then I walked to a TRAX station. I took the train into town and finished exploring temple square (which is what this picture is of) and then rode the train out to the university of Utah campus. I didn't really find much interesting to do there and so I headed back to downtown. Then walt called and I met him at a train station and he got an oil change for the jetta. After that we went to walt's friend's apartment and hung out there for a while.

Today after walt gets out of work we'll be heading to cedar city then Moab!

Made it!... But

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Originally uploaded by matrat

well, I made a nice long intricately woven post but I tried posting it and I lost my Internet connection and everything I had written. It's late so I don't feel like writing it again... So just know that I made it to salt lake city and I'll blog about it tomorrow.

well, the parents are in Alaska...

SO I don't remember if I told you all this, but I've been working the night shift at amway's spaulding warehouse where I load boxes into semitruck trailers (it's pretty much a big game of tetris). Since then, the parents have been off in Alaska. The day they left we had three big storms: one happened right when I woke up and it was so dark that I thought I was late for work and another happened while I was packing a trailer with a translucent roof, so I could see all the lightning and hear the thunder and rain. But since those storms, it's been blue skies and not too hot. So over my fourth of july four day weekend I rode my bike a bunch and splurged a bit as you can read in the story below

So here's the story:

Alright, so since the parents are off in Alaska and I'm on independence day vacation, I figured I needed something to do to spend the time. So I just figured I'd get a video game to play over the weekend. but when I was looking at games for the wii (a video game system that I have), I didn't see anything very exciting. Well, I looked at the Playstation 3 and saw there were a lot more games that looked really good. so I splurged a little and bought a playstation 3 and a game (burnout paradise) from Best Buy. Sounds great right? This was only the beginning of the story though...

I brought it all home and set it up, it's pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread... it hooked up to our wireless internet and downloaded updates. Then I realized it was 7 and I was hungry (remember that time). So I made some pizza and I figured I'd cook and eat it while watching movies on the playstation so I put in the playstation intro disc (it wasn't all that exciting just some previews I think) and it froze! Well, no big deal, I just turned it off then turned it back on... I noticed it didn't see the disc but I didn't worry about it and I just watched movies off my computer on it (again, the best thing since sliced bread). After I ate, I tried to figure out what was wrong with it, it couldn't play ANY disc I put in it. So I did everything I could to try to fix it (software restore, soft restart, hard drive reformat). Turns out the problem is the disc drive... it's not spinning! When discs go in, they come back out in the same position. So, I'd better go back to best buy... nope. it's 9, best buy CLOSES at 9. So I guess I'm stuck with it until the morning. So again, this thing is pretty much awesome even without the ability to play discs, so for the night (remember I'm on third shift schedule) I played downloaded demos and played movies off of my computer. In the morning I finally went to best buy where I got a replacement and I've been watching movies, listening to music, and  playing games ever since. Luckily It's all been going pretty well with the replacement and it's been running non-stop since friday. On another note I found out the original hard drive that went into my laptop (which I replaced a while back) is dead. I finally got a torx screwdriver that worked and put it into my computer which gave me a blinking question mark folder icon (which means it can't find that disk a.k.a. it's dead)

Not much else exciting here, tonight I go back to work and hopefully the dog can figure that out unlike last time! Thursday she was so excited I gave her food, she didn't go to the bathroom outside and instead did it in the house (yay!). 

fire baton!

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Originally uploaded by matrat

tonight we were hanging out across the street at the block/solstice/birthday party. we had a great time and I took this picture using the "fireworks show" preset on my camera.

UPDATE: to clear things up, I was the one who took the picture and MOM was the one doing the fire baton.

my birthday!!!

first pic with new camera
Originally uploaded by matrat

this isn't exactly a super-glamorous picture but it is the first picture I took with my new camera. The most exciting thing about this is that I never hooked my camera up to my computer... This was done all by wifi. from my camera I sent this picture to my email, then flickr, and now here! soon I should be able to blog right from my camera!

Something written in the sand...

No really, I'm Brian. It even says so in the sand at Au Train. I think the picture says it all in this case.

The Rathblogs

We finally made a new site to combine all of our blogs called "The Rathblogs." You can check that out at http://rathblogs.blogspot.com/ anyway, you'll see that on the right there are is a blog list but it's also its own blog. Just ask and I'll add you to the admins so you can edit it too!

FAIRBANKS

hey everyone! We had a long day of flights yesterday but now we're here in Fairbanks! I left at 6:30 yesterday morning Eastern Time and then landed in fairbanks around 1am Alaska time so for me 24 hours of traveling! I'll blog again later hopefully not as long as last time

snow day!!

well, it's been way too long since I've posted a blog but with the snow day, I don't have an excuse!

So this morning I woke up for class at 8:45 and slowly started to get ready for my favorite class to have at 9 in the morning: the incredibly exciting intro to computer science II. Well I got back from the bathroom and my roommate who had already been up for a bit longer than I had told me we didn't have school. of course I thought he was kidding but then I saw that he got an email saying classes were cancelled and so did I! So I went back to sleep. And now I am up again and I don't have anything to do today! No classes, not even broomball! I kind of even feel like I am in my own little world here. our window is only now just starting to clear up since it was completely covered in snow this morning.
But there's so much more to talk about here. I have new classes this semester as you can imagine, and I even have bowling for the second half of this semester. Classes are going well, though they seem a bit harder than last semester. here's a lineup:

• Intro to computer science II
• engineering Modeling and Design
• Advanced Spanish for special purposes
• Linear Algebra
• Beginning Bowling
• Physics I - Mechanics
• World Cultures Activities

intro to computer science has been interesting, the first homework assignment, I ended up pulling an all-nighter for with a few friends. the homework was to write a program to find problems with the professors code. We found 2, there were 5 problems with the code. oops! but luckily no one did that well with that homework and he says that usually that's the one that people screw up on. Other than that there haven't been any major problems though engineering is getting on my nerves and really questioning whether or not I want to be an engineer, we'll see I guess.
oh! My desktop is reorganized too! here's a picture of what it looks like right now:


I actually just cleaned it last night. you may see all of the sticky notes on my desk, some of them are about study abroad, which I am thinking of doing but really only in the planning stages. I still need to talk to the study abroad guy to see what I actually need to do to sign up. I know that there are a lot of forms I have to fill out and then I actually have to choose where I want to go. right now my top choice is spain but maybe Santiago, Chile. Really it all depends on what I can get into and when I want to go. I already emailed my academic advisor about it all and she said to expect to be set back a semester though classes I take abroad would classify as electives so that extra semester wouldn't be very hard.

Anyway, this post has gotten pretty long, I'll try to post again soon. I need to work on some things that are due tomorrow.

last days of the semester

well, I should be asleep but instead I felt like I should blog. Things are starting to wrap up here in the fall 2007 semester here at Michigan Tech. I'm already done with all of my labs (math, physics, and computer science) and perspectives. I finished my last homework computer program just a few nights ago, which was just a game of Connect4. Now after this week, four exams and I'm done! First one's engineering at 8am on monday, then Math at 5:30 on tuesday, then spanish at 8am on thursday, and finally intro to computer science at 3 on thursday. well, quick blog for me today, I should get some sleep.

I stumbled on this today on the web:

9v Battery Hack Parody Rate It Good! Please! - video powered by Metacafe

winter in houghton!

Well, winter certainly has arrived here in Houghton. We got back from thanksgiving break on sunday and were surprised that there wasn't any snow. We pretty much jinxed ourselves, the next day it started snowing and it hasn't stopped since, that's Houghton I guess. Anyway, the picture is of my window, It has frost on the inside part of it! And you can see, the snow has piled up against my screen a few inches. It's definitely cold and windy... and I kinda forgot to bring heavier coats after thanksgiving, but what are you gonna do? Luckily none of my classes are too far away, and I can make my way through buildings if I really need to, but it hasn't really gotten to that point yet. I've been writing papers all week it seems, I've been working on a research paper for perspectives and on monday I wrote my last critical response (respuesta crítica) for spanish. Not much else going on here, I've pretty much mindlessly been making my way through the weeks and looking forward to Christmas break.

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No hair and new cellphone!

I just felt like tis was the best way to show both my new phone and my shaven head. you should be able to click on it to get a bigger picture. I'll try to get another picture of my cellphone from the side because it's REALLY thin. Not much else new, as of right now I'm not failing any of my classes (they don't tell me much more than that). I'd better try to get to bed early tonight, class at 8 tomorrow

My side of the room

So you were all talking about how i took a picture of mike's side so i took a picture of mine. It's not that bad and i didn't clean it before i took the picture

New room layout!

We stacked the dressers to make more space in the room, I should also note that I took and sent this to my blog with my new phone which I'll try to point out later.

almost done with the first week of classes

Well, I'm in the Library right now where I should be studying. I just had Spanish, which seems to be turning out a lot better than I thought it would. Surprisingly enough, "Spanish culture and literature" doesn't sound too exciting especially with the size of the book I have for it (see above). So I need to read a few things for engineering, some spanish poetry by Roberto Fernández Retamar, and a pdf for world religions. My next class is intro to computer science at 3. I just had my first lab for that class, they had us run a few commands on the linux computers and then copy down a program he wrote for us and run it. Easy. I guess I should probably go over all of my classes and my first impressions of them since some of you may not have gotten on my email list for my class schedule.

Calculus II monday, wednesday, friday, at 8am. it doesn't seem to be too bad, it's just too early. there's a lso a lab but that doesn't start until next week
Perspectives on Inquiry: World Religions monday, wednesday, friday at 9am. This one could be bad, I have two books for this class and I've already written a paper for it. The teacher doesn't seem too bad though, I guess I might just like his name: Bucky Beach.
Engineering 1101 monday, wednesday, friday at 11am. I'm not sure about this, it seems easy but I feel like it could turn ugly
Spanish tuesday, thursday at 9:30am. I was pretty intimidated on the first day and when I got my book but now I feel like I'm getting it.
intro to computer science tuesday, thursday at 3pm. Being the nerd I am, I'm actually pretty excited about this class. It's pretty easy, they assume that you have had no past programming experience so everything is very simple. the lab is no different.
Physics 1100 tuesday, thursday at 12pm. This class doesn't start until next week.

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at tech now!

Well, I'm here! I'm up at Michigan tech and all this week I have been having orientation. I got up here on friday and the parents got here saturday. Now, I have a bit of a break before my "Advising Meetings" and since I haven't blogged in a while it just seems right to write something. Classes start next tuesday! We couldn't manage to find the crapcam before I left so it looks like if I want to post any pictures I'll have to do it with my computer's webcam. Our room is great now, there's so much more space though I'm kinda thinking of lowering my bed a bit. We'll see. I might just let it be for a while and see if I get used to it. so all is well, here and it's been fun around here. Now I should probably get going to those meetings. I'll blog sooner or later, probably when I find some free time.

Mom and Dad, do you know where my soap dish went? did I forget to take it out of the bag?

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New Shoes!

New shoes! Today I went to Rivertown Crossings Mall, the big one in grandville, in Claire's new car (see the update on yesterday's blog post)! So I still had momentum from yesterday's shoe shopping and I managed to find the keens I was looking for along with the other shoes that I was eyeing yesterday. All in all, a great outing but now I'm a bit shopped out.

Shopping!!!

Well, no picture today. I didn't really have a good one to put up. Anyway, Claire and I went out to the malls (Centerpointe and Woodland). We looked at shoes and jeans (that actually fit me) in a bunch of stores. I was looking for some Keen sandals but everywhere I looked only seemed to have brown, grey, and black. So the Keen shopping didn't bring me any results but I did find some other shoes that I liked! As for the jeans I still didn't find anything, apparently there isn't a guy in the world with legs shorter than thirty...

UPDATE: I guess I just figured it would be necessary to mention that claire got a new car! That's how we got to the mall! So I'm going to put a picture of her new car onto this blog. It's a 2006 Kia Spectra. Click the picture to see more!

the cavi window...

well, just hours after we fixed the power steering, this happened. Not
really sure how, we just went to best buy and tried to roll up the
window when it just didn't seem to go up quite right...