Month: January 2006

Hello everyone!!

Thought I would stop by the ol Misty Castle and give you all an update on whats REALLY up in Colorado.
Mom and Dad make everything seem sooOOOooo glorious. But I’ll tell you what people, its not easy! Its not easy waking up every day and looking at these snow covered mountains, basking in the sunshine and thinking…”man this place is cool”. This is not light stuff. Seriously.

*rolls eyes* Alright, im done being dramatic for a bit.

Actually things are finally starting to come together for me here in the ol C of O. I got a job working the front desk at a Veda Salon here in the springs. The job its self is not much to brag on but the people I work with are a fantastic good time. Heck, part of my “training” this week was to get a free massage and facial. Believe you me, it was Ah-mazing. 🙂

Im also waiting tables at a Bar & Grill near my house, for a bit of extra bling in my pockets. Its basically a sports bar so we get a lot of the crazed Bronco fanatics on the weekend..which makes for a pretty amusing and fast paced time..I enjoy it.

Theres actually been a lot of other things changing in my life as well, God has been challenging me in almost every aspect of my life. I’ve let a lot of things slip over the past several years and it continues to be a process to get me scraped off the pavement and put back together.

I believe God has given me a real understanding of how beautiful He truly thinks his daughters are.. and perhaps in the future – a ministry opportunity for me to bless his beloved girls. This may sound a bit odd to you, but its something I’m just beginning to unravel. I own several books about the value of a woman, but I’ve never read any of them. So I’m delving into anything I can find, with this sudden thirst for insite on a womans worth through GODS eyes. I dont think its any coincedence that I got this job at Veda. I see so many women every day, some are overly confidant in their outer beauty which takes away any ability for the rest of us to see her inner beauty. Some radiate from something, somewhere inside..from some happiness that makes them impossibly beautiful to the eye. Every woman wants to be beautiful, whether they admit to it, or say they care or not..there is a place inside every single woman that longs to be called beautiful. We were made that way.

So heres to our search for beauty. 🙂 May you discover it not in the sweet nothings of a lover, in the disguise of foundation, eye liner and mascara, or in the lies we tell ourselves to make life easier. Instead may you find your true worth and beauty, wrapped in the arms of a Heavenly Father who loves you more than you need to understand, and who is thrilled by your striking and overwhelming beauty.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Love Always..that one crazy girl..
Kristina Marie

I’m back in the groove wearing a “student” hat again. Pressing on towards the Masters degree. I took last semester off which was a nice break but it put me behind schedule a bit. This semester includes two GIS classes which both happen to be programming oriented. This is technically a good thing since I’m already fairly adept at programming and should be able to breeze through. Although, I am finding my skills are a tad rusty. The courses cover Object-Oriented Programming in C# and Relational Database Management Systems for GIS.

The C# (pronounced C Sharp) programming language is a much more modern version of the original C which I used back in the late 80’s…wow… what a scary thought…that was nearly 20 years ago. Side-trip down memory lane…. I even had hair back then! Anyways… it’s really the same old stuff just with different words and slightly different methods. It seems to have gotten more “foofy” and less technical.

Largely I think it’s because it’s very “Windows” oriented. But it’s still fun to build something from scratch and actually have it do something. If you want some sort of idea what all this GIS stuff is… take a wander over to GoogleEarth and download the free viewer.

Then take google earth for a spin. Plug in the address of someplace you used to live or went to visit. You’ll see a good example of what “Geographical Information Systems” can do.

I am fortunate to work for a company that believes education is important and provides a tuition reimbursement benefit. In fact, they upped the annual benefit from 3K to 5K this year. I would be pretty foolish not to take advantage of it.

Here’s a little code to glaze your eyes over….

// This is the callback function for TcpClient.GetStream
// Begin to get anasynchronous read.
private void DoRead(IAsyncResult ar)
{
int BytesRead;
string strMessage;

try
{
// Finish asynchronous read into readBuffer and return number of bytes read.
BytesRead = client.GetStream().EndRead(ar);
if (BytesRead < 1) {
// if no bytes were read server has close. Disable input window.
MarkAsDisconnected();
return;
}
// Convert the byte array the message was saved into, minus two for the
// Chr(13) and Chr(10)
strMessage = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(readBuffer, 0, BytesRead - 2);
ProcessCommands(strMessage);
// Start a new asynchronous read into readBuffer.
client.GetStream().BeginRead(readBuffer, 0, READ_BUFFER_SIZE, new AsyncCallback(DoRead), null);

}
catch(Exception e)
{
MarkAsDisconnected();
}
}

Josh has a new toy. A 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer. This was your basic SUV back before the word (acronym) was even coined. The K5 Blazer, not to be confused with the later Blazers (glorified station wagon), was a rugged, 4-wheel drive, off-road vehicle based on the venerable full-size Chevy pickup truck. Shorten up the bed a little, chop the top off and you’ve got the basics of the K5 Blazer. Sort of like a convertible pickup truck.

The nice thing about Colorado is there are still specimens of these around and they are not all rusted out. The one Josh found was a little rough on the inside but basically a straight truck with a lot of potential. Originally a basic green color, it currently sports a primer gray paint job. Equipped with the stock 350 cu-in V8 and a 3 speed automatic transmission it has plenty of power for getting around in these rugged mountains. This one has already been “lifted” to give it more ground clearance.

The motor needed some help to get it past the emissions test. What started out as a simple tune-up evolved into a rather protracted event ending with a rebuilt carburetor, electronic distributor, oil pan gasket, and valve adjustment. It reperesented several days/nights labor but the end result was worth it. It runs much better now, doesn’t leak oil, and it passed the emissions test.

Of course, this is only the beginning. These sort of projects turn into big money pits if you let them. But, working on old cars gets in your blood and the rewards and sense of accomplishment are in the “doing”.

.