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I mean, I would never do something like neglect my blog for almost a month. Never!

(Ok, so that’s a lie.)

So, first of all, I’ve moved my blog to blogger’s hosting, and started using one of their templates. There were a few reasons for this, most of them revolving around me being lazy or not having enough time. For one, I’d been unhappy with the template my blog was using, but I haven’t had the time to actually redesign the page, since in doing so I want to make use of CSS to make it look nice, which I’m only slightly familiar with. Also, I’d wanted to enable comments, but wasn’t totally sure how to integrate blogger’s comment code into my template. By using their templates, I was able to take care of both of these, and while it’s not exactly the appearence I want, it’s not bad.

I moved the site from my personal web space to blogger’s hosting for a fairly obvious reason: I’m graduating soon, and as such my accounts here at UM will shortly be going away. Eventually I want to host the site off of my own server, and actually buy a domain name, but until I get there, I’m content to let blogger take care of the details.

In typical fashion, however, I didn’t want to post until I had gotten this page configured the way I wanted it (move the hosting, enable comments, edit the template to include the links at the left and some other things). The geek in me just likes to tinker more than the writer in me likes to write, so that’s usually what happens.

So, since I finally got around to finishing up all of the changes last night (when I was supposed to be doing 470, but… yeah…), I decided I should probably actually post, since it had been so long. And those of you that were pestering me to post (which is a very, very short list) finally get your wish.

So I realize that I never posted about the end of my trip to Hawaii, and honestly, it was so long ago now that I can’t remember what happened on what day. Suffice it to say, it was fun, and I made it back safely (and with my mental health intact lol.)

Gah, I hate it when it’s been so long since I posted last that I can’t even remeber what’s been going on. I suppose most of that is just that nothing too exciting has happened. I could make yet another post about how busy I am and how boring my classes are, but there’s just no point. In fact, I’ll make this blanket statement that extends from now until graduation: I have too much work to do, not enough time to do it, and I’m bored with my classes. There, now you’ll be spared from any more posts about why I can’t wait to graduate.

So I said that nothing too exciting has happened… but that’s actually patently false. The week after I got back from break, a company called ViaSat flew me out to SoCal to interview on site with them. And I loved it. The area is great, the company seems sweet, and everyone I met and talked with was awesome. And so, two days after I interviewed with them (while I was at the airport to fly back to A2), they called me and said they wanted to extend an offer to me, and that they would put something together for me and give me the official offer early next week. They did, and I accepted, so in two months I’ll be heading to SoCal, about 30 min north of San Diego.

Getting this offer was, quite simply, a huge answer to prayer, and totally made all the time I spent interviewing and going to the career fair worth it. It’s nice to finally know what I’ll be doing, so I don’t have to continuously worry about sending out more resumes and interviewing with more companies. Not only that, but I get to do hardware design work on embedded systems, which is something I really wanted to do. Yay for using the degree I earned!

Time to do work. Peace out kids.

So originally my plan was to post everyday that I was here, but that just hasn’t happened. Something about (as previously mentioned) not having easily accessable internet in the hotel. For a geek like me, that’s distinctly unfair. /sigh

So anyway, back to Monday. Like I said before, Monday we took one of the bus tours around the island of O’ahu, and got to see and hear about a good part of the island. I can’t really list everywhere we stopped and everything I saw, but it was pretty cool, if reallllllllllllllllllly long (started ~8:30am, ended about 5pm). Like I said before, Sunset Beach was pretty sweet. I didn’t really get the chance to get into the water there (no swimsuit, towel, etc), but the beach was awesome, and it was nice to get away from the crowd and bustle (which has probably been my least favorite thing since I got here). We stopped at a nice little market (which, judging by their products and clientele, is just another tourist trap, but it’s hard to find things around here that aren’t), and got to sample some different varieties of macadamia nuts (mmmmm). They also had some samples of macadamia nut flavored coffee, which was actually really really good. We also stopped at a place (I can’t remember the Hawaiian name) nicknamed Blowhole, where a lava tube extends from the ocean up, through the shore of lava rock, and up to the surface. When the waves come crashing into the shore, the water gets forced up the lava tube, and it shoots out like a whale’s blowhole. I guess it’s not always very spectacular, but when we were there it was pretty cool. We also stopped at the Dole pineapple plantation, which probably would have been pretty cool, but we didn’t really have much time to look around, and it was really more of a chance for us to spend money at the gift shop than anything else.

Tuesday we took a day off from touring, kind of. After getting breakfast, Mom decided that she wanted to take a walk. As it turned out, a longggggggggg walk. I’m not sure what the actual distance was, but we walked all the way from Waikiki to the Honolulu yacht club and back. After lunch, we just spent some time on the beach, doing some swimming and sleeping on the sand. I’d say that we were sunbathing, but that would imply sun where none actually existed. That’s been the bummer so far on the trip. The temperature was pretty agreeable, but it’s been overcast, windy, and (sometimes) rainy. I suppose that’s what you get when you come during the rainy season, but it’s still better than winter in Michigan.

Today we got up early and went out to see the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Let me tell you, it’s a sobering experience. The memorial itself was constructed over the top of the remains of the USS Arizona, which still lies where it sank, with over 900 sailors still entombed inside it. The memorial spans the width of the deck, there are bouys at the bow and stern, and parts of the ship are clearly visable, both above water and just beneath the surface. I’d highly recommend visiting it if you’re ever in Honolulu; it’s something you won’t forget.

I’ll post pictures later, but on this connection (dialup, and 28.8k at that) I’d be here all night. Since I haven’t even gone through Mom’s or my pictures yet, it’ll have to wait. Guten nacht.