Malware Bites

My computer got taken over on Wednesday. I was working at school when all of the sudden a screen popped up and said I had a virus. From there it was down hill. It shut down my virus scan and when I rebooted in safe mode it still had control. I ended up stopping it with the help of evil twin, but not before it had taken out all access to any programs I had on the computer.

Thinking about this, as I wiped the mind of the computer that night, why couldn't the person who programmed that malware use his or her talents to benefit someone? I know I could use a hand learning the programming I need for my research. And you can do some awesome things with computers, if you put your mind to it. Instead they make malicious software to take advantage of people.

Lucky for me I use a combination of dropbox and flash drives to save my work so nothing was lost that was important. I had actually been thinking about it earlier in the week, what would happen if I lost my computer somehow or it got damaged? It is a good thing that I had thought ahead and taken the precautions so if something were to happen I would only be out the money to replace the computer, not the time to redo all my work.

And to you hackers out there, not that you are reading this, do something good with your talents. If you can't think of anything, get in contact, I can come up with a few.

Financial Aid

I quit my job in April. It was a big step since I had always had that safety net and I didn't have a job lined up for the summer. I felt though I should do it, so I took the guidence of the spirit and turned in my two weeks notice.

When I started school I figured I had enough saved to get me through most of my senior year as long as I got a good job over the summer. But tuition is going up, a lot more then expected. Still I felt the need to quit and followed the spirit.

I didn't know until after I quit that I had received a scholarship for a quarter's tuition for the civil engineering department. There had been doubt because the application hadn't submitted correctly and I figured I would be disqualified because of a computer error. But I was pleasantly surprised a week after my final day at work that one quarter was taken care of.

That still left two quarters to pay for and no job. Soon I got my fore mentioned job as a research assistant. When I started to do research, I figured I could apply for research scholarships during the school year and hopefully get enough money to continue my education. I was glad that I was able to impress my professor enough to ask me to work the summer. My plan is either to work during the school year or try for the research scholarship.

Then yesterday, I got an email from the BYU alumni association. About two months ago I applied for a scholarship. I figured I wouldn't get anything, lots of people probably applied. But when I opened the email I found I was getting 750 dollars for school.

I know that I will be provided for. Don't know how but I have two choices; I could expend my energies trying to figure that out or I can have faith and expend that energy doing what I can to succeed and know that the rest will be taken care of.

No desk... No computer

So I'm enjoying my research as school so far. Monday though I lost my desk to a grad student and I found out my netbook is going to have to do for a computer. I think my netbook would be rebelling right now if it wasn't safely tucked away in my bag asleep. The computer I was going to get ended up going to a grad student that was doing heavy computational stuff. I'm doing light computational stuff with QGIS and Google Earth, so the netbook so far has been able to handle it. Mind you I do have the opportunity to make flash cards or read while it is working. At least I'm getting studying in for my class.

If you haven't already had the chance, take a look at my online link related to my project at ladunham.com. Check out the baseball field. I just found that a couple of days ago. There are four spots of interest in it, can you find all four?

Parked Car

I have ridden my bike to school (actually to the bus stop) every day this quarter so far. Impressive, right? Not so much, the quarter is only four days old. Although my bus stop is about 15 minutes by bike from my house going to school and 20 minutes coming home. Everything is up hill to my house, this is a fact that I have just excepted and learned to love hills.

I haven't let the weather deter me this quarter. This morning as I was headed out I realized it was raining. Instead of grabbing the biking jacket, which conveniently covers my rear, I took my light weight jacket, which doesn't. I got to school and had to sit at my desk wet for the next two hours. Should have grabbed the right jacked for the job.

Going home there is a steep hill that I have decided to conquer each day, if I don't, I'm a super wimp. Already I'm a wimp because I could get off a stop earlier and take the 40 minute route home. Do I? Only when I am feeling really good which has been once since I discovered the closer bus stop. As for my hill, I get half way up this hill and wonder if going up was a good idea. The thought crosses my mind, am I really a super wimp if I don't go up it? Of course it is past the point of no return by the time this thought occurs. And I would have to go up a hill, it would just be longer and not as steep. By the time tomorrow comes around I have forgotten the steepness of the hill and I once again try it.

Not only did it rain today, but I fell. I have clip-less pedals on my bike. Great for going up hills which means I use them every time I go out. There is a passage on a path that has a small opening between a fence and barricade. Normally I can navigate this fairly well, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I ended up not getting around the barricade. Today was that day. I got most of the bike past the barrier and knew I wasn't going to make it. Trying to clip out of my pedals, I wend down before I could get my foot out. Scraped up my arm and hand, probably will feel it in the morning as well, but no worse for the wear. Reminds me of the other thing I forgot today, gloves.

Lost and Found

We got new Husky cards at school. These are bus passes and student IDs all rolled into one. Monday I took three buses to get home and on the last one, just shoved the card into my pocket. No problem normally, my pockets are deep enough so I don't have to worry about things falling out.

Tuesday morning came and I rode my bike to the bus stop. I was standing there and then remembered I needed to get out my card. Wasn't there. Checked every pocket in my wallet, twice. Checked my bag, pockets of pants. Nothing. There was no time to go back to my house and get it, so I had to tell the bus driver that I had forgotten it and I didn't have any money. Normally I have the same bus driver every morning so that isn't a problem. It was a different bus driver, but he was okay with me getting on.

Got to school and scrounged up three dollars for the ride home from some classmates. (Thanks by the way, riding 15 miles on my bike isn't exactly fun and that was the alternative.) When I got home I checked my room, the pockets of my pants I was wearing the day before.... Everywhere.... And no Husky card.... So I checked online to find out what the replacement cost would be in case I had dropped it on the bus, 60 dollars. Yikes!

That is when I hit my knees. I was a bit frustrated that it had happened. I thought through all the places it could be, what I had done over the last twenty four hours. Where I had gotten my wallet out. I went to the local drug store where I had shopped and asked them if it had been turned in. Called the bus company to see if it was there. Nope, nothing.

Luckily I have the old card from last quarter that still has a bus pass good til the end of the month. I calmly accepted that it might not show up, but I would give it a couple of days before I thought of replacing it. I prayed some more that I could find it. 60 dollars would go much better towards paying rent or food then to pay the school for another piece of plastic. Mom offered to pay for my new one knowing that I am getting to the bottom of my reserves money wise. I told her that I was going to wait a couple of days since I had my old card.

So this morning, I was saying goodbye to Mom and looked down to under the couch where she was laying and there it was. Apparently it had come out when I had pulled my wallet out to get my last dollar to give Dad for my share of pizza. (I know, one dollar for pizza is a good deal) I had checked under the other couch since I normally sit there but not under that one. Not sure how it got under there, since it was an odd spot, but I am glad that my prayer was answered.

Why Yes, that was me on TV

Well, at least my shoulder. This weekend I had the opportunity to go to the semi-annual Dr Who pledge drive at KBTC. I took one of my friends and initiated her into the crazy crowd of Whovians. I have been going to KBTC and working the phones during pledge breaks since I was in at least 8th grade. For those who know how old I am, you can do the math. For everyone else, it has been awhile.

One of the calls I took was from an older gentleman from up north. He said that he and his wife had been watching that other PBS station for quite sometime and then ran into KBTC. They enjoyed the programming and were going to give 35 dollars for the senior membership that would get them a program guide. At the end he gave me some advise, don't talk on the cell phone while driving. I told him that I didn't, so I would be following that advise. He then told me how smart I was.

I enjoy my opportunities to serve down at KBTC. over the last few years I haven't had the opportunity to do it much because of school and work, but it was fun to go down and see old friends and catch up a little.

A Little Trip

So the job isn't the only thing exciting that is happening in my life right now. I always mention the job first because it is what I'm doing right now. Mom, if she is there, will always mention the other thing first.

I have been part of Engineers Without Borders for a year now. I went to the first meeting a year and a half ago while I was at Bellevue College, but I wasn't able to get to more then two meetings because life was too hectic. I then got involved while I was going to school over the summer working on a fund raiser.

The group is working in Bolivia on several different projects. I have been working on a water project in Huaraca, Bolivia. The village currently doesn't have any water coming through a system that was built in 1992 because of landslides. We decided that we needed to have second assessment to find a better route that hopefully won't be effected by landslides.

The news is I was chosen to help do that assessment which means I am headed to Bolivia this summer. After the assessment is finished, I am helping with another project that works to replace roofs and stoves to cut down on diseases caused by bugs in the thatch roofs and respiratory illness due to smoke inside the houses.

I am looking forward to using my Spanish again and getting to go to South America. I just have to get through all the reports we have to write between now and then.

Excited about Tithing

So I quit my job of almost 10 years in April. It wasn't working out with school and I really didn't need more retail experience. On faith I turned in my two weeks because without income, I wouldn't be able to continue at school. The job market for interns is intense. There are not enough internships to go around and a lot of my classmates didn't even get interviews before school was up. Luckily I landed my research position.

Since I quit, I haven't had income, which in turn means I haven't had to pay tithing. Now it isn't something that I would think I would miss, but I do. It is an act of faith that I could do every week. I'm one that needs to check boxes sometimes to see how I'm doing and tithing is one I haven't been able to check for a while. So I'm excited about my new job, not just because I really like what I'm doing so far, but that I get to pay tithing again.

For me, tithing is one of those principles I've never struggled with. My dad had a strong testimony of it and would always tell me that to pay my tithing and things will work out. While I was growing up I never had the feeling that we didn't have what we needed. Sure, every summer our vacation would be to visit my Grandma in Provo because we could drive there overnight and had a place to stay. My friends went to Disneyland or the Grand Canyon but I didn't feel we were poor because of it. Since then there hasn't been a time in my life when I haven't had what I need. Want, different story, but need, I always can make my tuition payments, have enough (sometimes more then enough) to eat, have a roof over my head and a car that gets me from point A to point B. I know that I'm blessed because I rely on God's principles to run my life.

I'm looking forward to that first tithing check I get to write.

Geospacial Specialist

This summer I managed to get a position at school as a research assistant. I got the job by impressing my professor that I was competent and able to find landslides on Google Earth and make cool web pages. Yesterday was my first meeting as a paid research assistant. Apparently I will be the Geospacial Specialist. This means I will understand computer program that show geographic information in a visual manner. The programs I will be learning about are programs I didn't know about 5 weeks ago, Google Fusion, QGIS and GRASS to name a few.

I say this because I'm not a computer expert. The stuff I know is because I've had to learn it. I blame this on my older siblings, especially the three that are right older than me. When I was a child we had a Commodore 64. I though was kicked off the computer on a regular basis when the older sibs decided they wanted to play. Therefore, early in my life I didn't have the exposure I needed to have to learn the fundamentals of computers. But I have my revenge, I make them pay for their actions by pestering them with computer questions on a regular basis.

Actually, I think this is pentanance for not going into GIS earlier. I had the opportunity to go into it during my stint at Western, but decided, because I didn't like computers and thought they were too hard to understand not to do GIS. Now I get to learn without the support of someone who knows what they are doing. Should be a fun summer.

Last Warning

Evil Twin and I headed home from running a gun to my Aunt in Utah yesterday. It was a short but good visit. Since I have to enter back into the real world Monday, it was a nice break.

Two things stand out in my mind about our trip. Both happened in the Blue Mountains. The first was an area of curves that if one is not careful, one can lose control of their vehicle. There were signs at the beginning of the curves that said "Slow Down" then gave your current speed. Throughout the miles of curves there were more signs that reminded drivers to slow down.

Later, as we were coming out of the Blue Mountains into Pendleton, there were three signs. The first one read "First Warning 6% grade next six miles". Then "Second Warning..." and "Final Warning..." I was pondering these warnings as we headed down the mountain and through the valley below. It is nice to have the warnings for something that could be dangerous is ahead. The warnings allows us to prepare and take proper precautions. Sometimes it would be nice to have some of those warnings more prominent in life.

This brought back a conversation from earlier in our trip about prayer and scripture study, which can be the hardest things to do at times, but when done everything else will fit together. There is always that spiritual warning we have when we slack and let those two things slip. My aunt said that when ever she has problems in life, she can take a look at herself and realize she is not doing these two things. I too have experienced laziness in my attitude of worship and found myself slipping.

The question is, do we heed these warnings? I spent some times in my life when I didn't. I found myself climbing back to where I belonged as a result instead of being able to achieve more than I thought possible. What keeps us from heeding the warnings? That is something for each of us to ponder further, overcome and achieve the greatness we are meant for.

Hugs for Frogs

My cousin adopted an adorable little boy from Haiti. They were in the process when the earthquake happened and got him out soon after. I have watched his story unfold via the internet and via phone calls to my Aunt. Tonight I finally got to meet him.

Like any three year old, he was a bit shy at first, but was soon jumping around enjoying himself. My sister, Evil Twin, was with me and Auntie and pulled out some paper to make a paper frog. (Something she does for the kids at church all the time... Well, I do it too.) Kids love our paper frogs. And he was no exception. We made a frog of each color paper we had and he counted them and told us what color they were and tried to made them jump.

When asked to give us a hug, he refused. Bribery is not below us, so an exchange was offered, another frog for a hug. Worked, he picked out his color and Evil Twin made a frog. The exchange was made, he gave her a hug and received the frog. I then asked to give me a hug. Nope. Not going to do that. So another frog was soon in his possession.

He now knows he has two cool cousins that make jumpy paper frogs and how to get them if he wants them, offer a hug for a frog.

Officially A Senior or Where I've Been for the Last Two Years

As of yesterday, I'm officially a senior in the Civil Engineering program. If you had asked me a year ago if I would make it this far, I probably would have said, no. I sat in orientation thinking, what in the world have I gotten myself into this time. For the previous two years I had spent my time studying the prereqs at the local community college. But to be going to the UW? It was daunting. Especially since all of my peers were younger, smarter or both. Then the advisor got up and assured us, no one, except those that didn't show up to class would fail out of the program. If you were there, doing what you were suppose to be, you would be fine. I was assured until the first day of class, then I seriously had to doubt her knowledge of flunking.

But, nine months later, I geek out when I see a truss bridge, want to look at the river to see if I can see a hydraulic jump and use words that get my Evil Twin's eyes to gloss over because even she doesn't know them. And I look forward to taking my senior classes and possibly going on to graduate school because I love learning about this stuff. (That is if it hasn't been priced out of range by tuition increases.)

As for now, I have a few days to spend enjoying non school stuff before I start my work as an undergrad research assistant for the summer. I don't know if I can handle three days without my engineering textbooks, paper and mechanical pencils. Luckily I have my EIT (Engineering In Training) test material to study with if I get lonely.

A Whole New World

My brother went to Lippe in Germany about three months ago. Right smack in the middle of a crazy quarter at school. So I have just had time to start processing what he found. And to add to that, I am now working at the family history center again and got a film in from Wobble, Lippe, one that my brother suggested I get since he knew I would find names. He was right.

I went to the family history library on Wednesday, I have at least 15 names of people that are related some how to me and I didn't get through the entire record. The only problem is the German script. It is difficult to read, but I did manage to decipher some of it tonight. I have one more generation on both the Beine and Wendt lines. And several siblings to that generation and their children. I'm pretty excited. This is the biggest find for me. And the fact that there is still more in that one film is pretty cool to think about.

Fred Spreen

From the Quincy Daily Journal Mar 2, 1895

"The remains of Fred Spreen, who died in Atchison, Kansas, will be brought to this city tonight for burial. He has relatives here."

His daughter lived in Atchison, so it makes sense that he would have been there. I didn't have his death date before. Now I have a good lead of where he died and when.

Genealogy Update

My bro got to go to Detmold Germany this last week. I'm still processing all the information that he sent me. About 28 scans, 14 or so unique records all in German script. (If you know anyone that is good with old records, let me know.)

My brother found quite a lot and doesn't realize the significance. He found a generation for three lines plus some. One of the lines I was able to connect up in family search and got four more generations.

Here is a tidbit of what he found and a mystery to be solved.

We had some confusion on an ggggrandpa, August Herman or Franz Kottmann. In a census he showed up as Franz. In birth records of his children that were extracted from Germany he was August Herman. Well easy fix, his real name Franz Heinrich Herman August Kottmann. I have to say this for my ancestors, that line was all traditional in naming. Almost all those in that line had three to four first names. Mind you, the brothers and sisters all shared at least one name, but as someone said, it could very well be an aunt or uncle's name being passed down. Gets a bit confusing as you will see in the little mystery.
Our small myster: This one comes from the Beine family. If you might remember this post: A Sketch of Life - Read down
to him enlisting in the army with his brother. Here are their
Enlistment records: at Illinois Archives. Now this establishes that there is a brother, Fred or Carl F who is older by three years.

Now return to the article and read down to when he came to America. It says that he came with his parents and two sisters. I have a record from Emigration from Lippe to USA that says this (You got to look for the Childern on Second page or for Friedrich Wilhelm Christoph Beine, the father), there is an older sister that died, then two sisters:

Sophie Friederike Wilhelmine Luise Beine 15 Mar 1840 - 28 May 1840

Friedrich Heinrich Carl Christian Beine 17 August 1841

Sophie Luise Wilhelmine Beine 5 October 1843

Friederike Luise Henriette Beine 12 November 1845

But there is no mention of the older son coming. Add to that the parents were married in 1839. Fred or Carl would have had to been born in 1838, unless he lied about his age on his enlistment record. It isn't inconceivable that his parents got together and decided to be married but had to wait for the preacher to come, but why isn't there a record of him coming to the US?

Now Charles, is Fredrich Heinrich Carl Christian. He would have been 21 when he enlisted, and I believe somewhere else I have his birth listed as 1841. Mind you, the two names we have for his brother are Carl and Fred. Of which he shares both names.

So there is our little mystery. Who is Carl Fred Beine? And how did he get to the US?

Bike Club

During middle school I kind of wanted to join the Bike Club, but I didn't have the support of my parents to do it, so I didn't even ask. I got into biking again last year as an adult and told George my niece that if she wanted to join bike club I would be her adult supervision. (Of course we don't know who supervises me) Today was our first ride. Sadly George is sick. But I went anyway, since some neighbor friends are part of the club and I needed to get a ride in. I ended up with the neighbors sixth grader who was going pretty slow, but steady. We were the last ones in, but he finished. George and I are doing a make up ride during her spring break with the neighbors and another friend who didn't finish the ride today because she got sick. All in all, it was a good day. Cold, but good.

Temple Blessings

I've never been a regular attender until recently. I am trying to go once a week and so far have done pretty good. I don't know how next quarter's schedule is going to work well with that, but I will still be trying.

Going to the temple makes me feel peaceful. It has given me an outlook on life that is different. The small stuff really doesn't matter, and when I have faith it will work out. I also don't have the desires to do some things that are not necessarily holy or wholesome.

I listened to a talk by John Bytheway yesterday at work, one of the joys of working early in the morning when all I'm doing is stocking shelves is I can listen to a book on CD. It was the Best Three Hours of the Week. He said at one point that he gave a talk to a group of young women and they were having problems with watching TV shows that were not moral. He asked them if they would give up the worst two TV shows they watch for the Lord. I took a look at my life and the worst things I do. Things that have good content, but they also have bad. Stuff I like, but I have to filter through it on my Google Reader for example. I deleted all of those feeds last night. I had been pondering it, but still enjoyed the feeds, mostly when they didn't have swear words or sexual innuendos.

Back to the temple. The fact that I go on a regular basis has allowed me to share some of the gospel with a friend. I'm headed to Las Vegas for three days to visit and old friend. All my friends are like have fun on the strip. I then tell them, I will be staying with a friend. This friend found out I was going and asked what I was planning to do down there. I felt comfortable enough to say that I planned to go to the Temple down there and that opened up questions. She asked me for a bit about temples and about their importance. She wanted to know if she could go in one and I explained how you need to be worthy, but there would be a temple opening in Vancouver BC soon and they would have an open house. Yesterday I got her a book about temples and gave it to her. That opened up another discussion, found out she was Catholic, Lutheran and then Catholic again. I am reading the same book that I gave her, because I hadn't read it for a long time and trying to look at it from a non member's point of view. I think I will be answering more questions. It feels good to be able to share. I'm glad that I feel that comfortable with her that I could say I was going to the temple when I went to Las Vegas.

Using Pi on Pi day

One more week of classes for this quarter and then I'm done. Yesterday being Pi day, I celebrated with a study group where we did indeed use Pi to solve one of our problems. Later in the evening, Roo and I had Pie to celebrate.

With school and work my life has been quite hectic lately. I ended up getting the Dairy Manager at work, not official yet, but almost. This forced my schedule to get out of whack with taking and evening class and I'm purely exhausted. One week as I said and I have vacation and then classes are much more convenient to my work schedule. Mind you, I won't have a social life still, but I will work most weeks Monday through Friday. It is taking some getting used to having weekends off.

Good Book

Well, at least for me. I've been enjoying listening to books on CD on my Ipod at work when I work in the wee hours of the morning. I've mostly listened to Fiction, but recently I got on a kick of non-fiction. The one book that I've been raving about is the A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It is a history of science. It was interesting and funny. He gives a comedic look on the subject he is talking about. If you like science, I suggest you check it out.

Banana Leaf Cards

My cousin is raising funds for an orphanage in Haiti. She is currently in the adoption process of two beautiful children from that country. Among her fundraisers is some wonderful Banana leaf cards that are hand made by someone in Haiti. This one that is currently up on Ebay is of Obama, and is worth a look if not a bid. So if you know someone that might be interested in these beautiful cards, pass on this link and help an orphanage in Haiti.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/rosenloflo_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

Four Year College

So yesterday was the transfer fair at BCC. I figured that I would go and see if UW could answer my questions about already having my BA and going for my second. Sadly, all they could tell me was I was post Bach and that I would have to go to another councilor to figure out how that effected me. Post Bach normally means more money for them though, which I'm not happy about since I'm doing the same work as all the rest of the students that are paying less. But we will see if that is the case.

Just for fun I stopped at Seattle's two other Universities and asked if they had Engineering programs. Both do, but SPU (Seattle Pacific University) looks more promising because it has a new degree program that is what I'm interested in. The councilor also said that most students can bring the costs down comparable to what you would pay at UW. I much rather have a small college experience then a large college experience if possible, but it depends upon the program and cost.

I was all happy until I did my FAFSA and found out how much I had saved, which is good, that I have a lot saved, but bad if they are looking at how much I have saved and are basing my financial aid on need. If that is the case, unsubsidized loans is all I will get. Although I just read their literature, and it looks like they actually have merit scholarships. Reason to try hard at my classes at BCC (Not that I wasn't.) As long as they take my BCC GPA, I'm good. Western's was good, but not outstanding.

Next step, actually getting to campus. I figure the next time I have a Tuesday or Friday off from work I will head over the lake to Seattle to see about schools.

My Day... So Far

Go to Temple, check.
Do weekly/monthly shopping, check.
Get Recycle and Trash out, check.
Knit current wash cloth, check.
Listen to my audio book, check.
Taxes, check.
Bike ride 40 minutes down to town and back, check.
Go to Target, getting chocolate that I really don't need but want on bike ride, check.
Update household database, check.
Make sure all bills are currently paid, check.
Clean out wallet, check.
Make hot chocolate, check.
Go out to breakfast with Mom, check.
Put on the pot roast for dinner, check.
Calculus homework, well um.
Read Chemistry chapters, I still have time, right.
Read Chemistry Lab, Lab isn't until Thursday.

Audio Books

Lately I've been listening to audio books on my ipod. It is either that or podcasts, depending on if I have a book I'm interested in. My first books I listened to were the entire Harry Potter series. It has been a while since I read all of them and it was neat to listen to them all within a short amount of time and be able to pick up on some of the foreshadowing there are in the first books.

A coworker told me to look on I-tunes for podiobooks.com. He gave me the name of Shadowmagic by John Lenahan. I enjoyed that book. I looked at several others, but I don't want to listen to stuff that has swearing and other crap in it. I finally settled on another, and am currently listening to Iron Dragons by Derek Gilbert.

I also have picked up a couple from the library. The first couple were okay, but not great. I picked up Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson. I haven't started it yet, since I'm listening to Iron Dragons, but I will probably get to it this weekend. I have a couple of more on hold, including some of those classics that I didn't get read yet.

All in all, I'm enjoying my iPod and being able to listen to books and podcasts.