Plans

It seems appropriate to begin this post by saying a Happy New Year to everyone! Yeah, well I know it isn't quite 2006 yet, but at the rate I am going the New Year will be here long before an appropriate post can be made...

Where to start... You might first notice that there have been a few suttle changes to the blog site. Unfortunately the blog site modification learning curve is steep and that directly influences the passage of time, thus, I failed to do all things that seemed like a good idea at the onset (ah, so much like things in life, eh?). In any case the most relevant point here is not so much the additions to the blog site, but rather the newly added picture albums (click on link to right or click here)) and the recent posts on another road trip and the upcoming YWAM experience.

The past few months have been a whirlwind. I completed the month long study session of October culminating at the 28 Oct test day for the Professional Engineering Examination. It was harder than I expected and I had to do a bit more guessing than hoped for, but who cares now, it's done. Of course, once the results come in that may change my attitude on how much I care about guessing - it could be that come next October I will be preparing once again to test. Results will hopefully be in within the next month. To anyone out there preparing for the mechanical PE test here are a few brief recommendations: do go back to the basics and study concepts in thermo, fluids, dynamics, materials and HVAC; work problems rather then read the study guide; obtain practice tests and work them over; work problems; oh, and work problems. There were a few problems that I was stumped on because I during the actual test as I failed to understand the complete concept/theory and thus could not step logically through them (crappy refrigeration-compression cycle). Purchase the Mech PE study guide by PPI (the big blue book) and related problem solutions, practice test, and equation summary book. Obtain good textbooks for fluids, thermo, materials, HVAC, unit conversions, and a good steam tables (i.e. Keynan & Keyes - sp??). Bottom line is to allow enough study time to allow yourself to comfortably work the practice tests. Don't focus on obtaining the right answers to the practice tests, just know how to work the test problems. Don't worry, the test will likely be more difficult then imagined, but shouldn't be more so then a healthy survey of practice tests. Happy studies!

The week following the test I found myself in Fairbanks once again, this time not just to visit some friends but also to officially resign from my work position. It had at this point nearly been one year since I had actually spent a day at work, however, the time had come to make a decision as to whether or not to return to this organization prior to my leave-of-absence expiring. Without regret I did resign from my position with the organization in an effort to pursue life upon other avenues. However, the one regret that I do admit is no longer working with the guys that had formed our small (yet effective) team over the past years - they do continue on, achieving great things and that probably due to their stubbornness to continually do what is right whatever it means.

Well, after those eventful activities I departed for the Lower 48 in early November only to return on Christmas Eve to Alaska. The month and a half spent in the continuous States were eventful, and fun, with a bit of focus thrown in for the upcoming months. In amongst the good times spent with relatives and friends there were occasions made to visit some seminaries and explore options for the future.

It was not until the first week or so of December that I received word that my recent application to Youth With A Mission (YWAM) had been accepted. This was, literally, a last minute application after a cascade of events in the weeks prior. I suppose there is not much to say right now. I have included a more in depth post on the subject below under the YWAM entitled post - please reference that post should you care to peruse more of that decision. Involvement with YWAM will take me to New Zealand in just under two weeks for a period of three months. These months in New Zealand will then be followed by an additional three months in an unknown number of countries (up to eight?). Following this latter three month period the experience with YWAM will end and I may continue to travel until late July of next summer. The experience with YWAM is a Discipleship Training School (DTS) entitled Around the World in 80 Days. There are a few more words about the YWAM opportunity wrapped up in a separate post below.

The preparations for YWAM snowballed after the acceptance into the DTS program and there has been much activity surrounding these preparations including activities related to applying for two seminaries in the Portland area. Granted, the seminary applications are a bit more on hold now then previous weeks as YWAM is now the short-term goal. However, between three different (but somehow related) applications there was no lack of inactivity, notably so when were plenty of relatives and friends to visit and cousins to annoy.

So, the past month and a half has been filled, in addition to the aforementioned applications, with trips to the beach, a grand announcement by brother and his now fiancee' (congrats!), a Thanksgiving feast, late nights of pinochle, trips to Mt. Hood for fun in the snow, countless hours of bowling, dinners out with friends and family, and one fun (albeit long) road trip from Washington DC to Oregon (via the southern route). The recent road trip garnered enough words to justify it's own post, below.

As of now I am back in Alaska, enjoying the cold weather (hey, Oregon "cold" is still above freezing, most of the days), and trying to figure out how to fit 6000 cubic inches of "stuff" into a 4000 cubic inch backpack - I didn't want to take a toothbrush anyway...

Hope everyone out there had a grand Christmas. Stay tuned for shorter, and more exciting posts (they actually won't be about me, but at least they will contain some interesting aspects of somebody's adventures...).