Eric's Story

Phil, Ali and I with Evanescence!

Well you decided to learn about me so here it goes. I am a 26 year old white male with a passion for good root beer. I like to play the flute and I love the bands Evanescence and Linkin Park. I like to write HTML and as of late I am hung up on the culture and people of India. I speak 3 languages and can do several one handed push-ups. I have 2 parents, 3 brothers and 2 sisters alive and well. I am going to BYU.

I got into gourmet root beer because every time I would get depressed I would buy some glass bottle root beer (Thomas Kemper, Ibc, or Henry's) and drown my sorrows in it.

Well the summer that I turned 17 my older brother got into a car wreck which left him in critical condition for a month and then he died. During that time I drank so much gourmet root beer because I was quite often depressed.

When it was all over I found that if I drank canned root beer that I could taste the aluminum in it or the plastic in plastic bottle root beer (I took a blind taste test and I was correct every time). So I only drank the best root beer and I began to look for other gourmet root beers and I am still looking for new root beers.

When I was 19 I went on a mission for 2 years to Madagascar and South Africa. It was quite a life altering experiance.

RECENT NEWS OF MY LIFE

August 2008 Wow two months in a row, I wrote. This is the coming of a new age. So recently I have been kicking back and relaxing. I am working and researching in the evenings but also having lots of fun. My first research paper has been accepted to the North American Power Symposium in Calgary so it looks like another trip to the mystic land of the North. Allow me to take a minute and be all political since this is a 'blog' like format. Congress is inept. The leadership of congress is completely incompetent. As our nation faces serious problems, they are taking a vacation without voting on an energy policy. I mean seriously, let the bill come to the floor, debate it and vote. Is the democratic leadership afraid that their majority won't be able to defeat the energy bill? Are they afraid to vote on drilling because they are too proud to admit they were wrong? I strongly feel that the good people of America should remove the congressional leadership immediately for the greater good. Well that's my rant on that. I am also a strong advocate of electric cars and electric rail for freight shipping. Let the truckers find a new job, they can take the ones that the illegals should give up when we ship them home. Well that's it for my being conservative. No it's not, I lied. We don't need to give up our way of life, we simply need to switch energy sources and technologies and keep on doin' what we been doin'.

July 2008 I know, it has been awhile since I wrote. I have successfully completed my first year of grad school. I am zeroing in on a thesis topic and have submitted my first paper for publication. I am currently working for Puget Sound Energy as an intern in Resource Integration studying the effects of integrating large amounts of wind power in a utility's control area. That is all I can say I think, but it is very cool and challenging. I also caught a few fish today. I am looking at getting some more root beers and changing the layout of this site, but alas, there are so many things to do. I hope at least to update this more often. In a nutshell, life is good, very good.

December 2007 Happy Boxing Day! And all the other holiday greetings except Kwanza, I am serious. So what is cool in my life right now, I met Amy Lee and the rest of Evanescence right before Thanksgiving at a fabulous concert! Also, I finished my finals and thus my first quarter of Grad School! And it gets better, I am going to Portugal to visit my inlaws for Christmas (Portuguese is NOT one of the three languages I speak.) And Go Mitt Romney for President!

September 2007 So I haven't updated for awhile. Anyways, I graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering from BYU. I Married the Portuguese girl, Carla, and I start Grad School at the University of Washington next week. So I am in Seattle now. Oh, and I went to a bunch of different cities over the summer for my internship at Wavetronix. Watch your back RTMS, we're gonna get you.

December 2006 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's. Happy Boxing Day! Happy Hanukkah! Miserable Kwanza. Stupid made up holiday. Anyhow, the semester from Hell is over! Yea! I got to visit my family and take my girlfriend with me. It was loads of fun. I ate much cheese and even got a new root beer to try. I also finished important grad school applications. Now I can relax and coast my way out of my undergraduate career, focusing on work, mischievious (but honestat least,) schemes to make money, root beer and most important, my girlfriend (where do you think all the money goes these days?) Once again life is wonderful. May you all have enjoyable days and God bless us all with peace on earth.

November 2006 So this month I went to Maryland to campaign for the Republicans. It was a free trip with many fair promises about what we would be doing. Sadly all we did was sit in a hanger and call people on the phone for 10 to 12 hours a day. It was pretty miserable. The one night I did get out though I did get to see Baltimore with my new found friends and that was pretty fun. The crab is most luscious. School is hard but I have finally caught up so I am pretty happy right now. Let us all be thankful that we can use the internet. Happy Thanksgiving.

October 2006 Wow, I seem to be updating this less often then Ahmadinejad does his blog, and he even posted my comment ragging on him for his neglegence. And then the German Financial Times quoted me in their article about that blog, so I better practice what I preach or I run the risk of being seen as a hypocrite in the eyes of the Iranians and Germans. So anyhow, this semester is really taking its toll on me, though I am succeeding on many levels. Shortly after my last post I started dating a very beautiful and wonderful Portuguese girl and that is going very well. I saw Evanescence in concert and it was wonderful as well, but, I must admit I have seen better shows. My fridge is stocked with fresh brews to review and the cash is flowing my way at an unprecedented rate. Life just doesn't get much better.

July 2006 This is like, almost turning into a blog. I would hate to become a blogger. Anyhow, I decided that all of my Arabic studies should be on my own. I don't have the time to take classes. That said, I am still working hard researching for two different proffessors now. I am beginning to study for my GRE and have registered for it. Life is enjoyable at all levels now, and I continue to try new root beers. Yea!

June 2006 So I am working like crazy, trying to find the minimum future losses of a non-linear oscilator circuit. I am writing Arabic with my left hand which is rather difficult but the novelty of it all will be more than worth it I hope. I am still working on those resolutions of mine. I have got a couple new root beers with more on the way, I am throwing more parties and hanging out with more people and I visited France, so, I think that I am doing well.

May 2006 Well, I got through the terrible semester and then I ran away to France. What an amazing experiance. I love France. I say that we here in the US need to think better of the french. They are amazingly kind like anyone else. Their cheese is vastly superior to our own as well. In other news I am just working now but I will soon go back to school in the summer and learn Arabic.

Feb 2006 Well this has been one of the most stressful semesters that I have undertaken. I am working way too much but I am getting through. I am comming through with my resolutions well. I will go to France this summer, and I have already reviewed two root beers. I am succeeding in being nice to people for the most part except for ruining internship opportunities for an occasional ex-girlfriend. I also got an extreme make over. A whole new wardrope and hair style and color. What an amazing (and expensive) thing to do!

Jan 2006
Yea! A new year! Sing that Olde Lang Zyne or whatever the song is that no one knows the words to anymore. I am working now as a TA for a circuit design class in addition to interpreting and researching. Taking a very heavy load of classes too. So I am basically not going to have much of a social life this semester, but I will really party hard when I get the chance.
Resolutions for this year: Drink and rate more root beer. I call it getting back to my "roots" Also, visit a new country every year. I call it, visiting a new country every year (as well as expensive). And finally, to be more socially excepting of people and kinder all around. Awww. How sweet of me.

I told you it was boring.

Could you spare a penny?