Pushing forward alone

Every day I try to make my life better than the day before. I get frustrated that some of the people around me do not share this commitment. They are content to waste their lives away or ignore the reality of their situation. Things at home are horrible. I am living with people who are old enough to be adults, but are not acting like it.

I want to talk about some of the great things in my life.

Thursday
I got a call from someone at Boeing. They reviewed my resume and want to interview me for a job. I have a phone interview on Friday. This is the first of the dozens of jobs I have applied to in aerospace where I have been contacted for a interview. I am excited.

At Long Beach there is a club that gets students involved with rockets. Through a combination of private companies, faculty support, and relationships with other organizations, students can design, build, and test rockets. Now that my schedule allows me to attend their meetings, I am getting involved with the group. They said to show up to the meetings and ask people if they need help.

On Thursday night I was standing off to the side looking for someone to help. Everyone was busy getting the rocket ready for launch that weekend so I was being ignored. I spotted someone else in the same situation, so I started talking to her. I discovered both of us:

1. Are taking classes in the electrical engineering master's program.
2. Have undergraduate degrees in physics.
3. Went to Berkeley. (She graduated a year before me.)
4. Were in the same physics class in Fall 2006, but have no recollection of each other
5. Took UCI Extension classes in engineering after graduating.

She is taking the same classes I took last year and wants me to help her. I am thinking of things we could do together.

Friday
The license test for amateur radio was held at my volunteer job. Of the 12 people I taught who took the test, 7 passed. People were pleased. A few of those who failed admitted they did not put in the extra time required. Next week I will run an intensive practice session for those 5 people who failed.

I discovered a soda vending machine was giving away free cokes. I wanted to know how much the machine was charging, but after I pressed the letter/number combination it dispensed a can. I demonstrated this for my supervisor, who enjoyed the coke.

That night I had dinner with Kim who I know from Berkeley. She and some friends were in town for the weekend and we ate at the Smoke House Restaurant near Universal Studios. I found the place on yelp and everyone liked it. Then we went to a bar for soju, which is a flavored Korean alcohol. However, they only had one soju left and the beer on tap was still warm. To make up for this, the waiter gave us a free corn and cheese appetizer while we played a long game of Uno. I had not done anything in Koreatown since Salgu and David (some other people I know similarly from Newman activities in Berkeley) were around over a year and a half ago.