Shockwave's Domain

So I just decided to update all of my info, as I've officially moved, and I started with Ebay...
From there I decided to move on to Paypal, where it told me that I couldn't change info when I had a negative amount in my account. I hadn't bought or sold anything since January. What was with the negative amount?

Almost $9000, that's what!

Seems someone has been dabling in a little identity fraud, using my account. Starting a month ago, there have been some 11 deposits and withdrawls through my account, somehow leaving it in the negative, for an account that shouldn't be able to do so.

Now I need to search all of my credit scores and make sure that I haven't gotten pinged by some sludgeball with a modem.

Some people would feel vulnerable, I suppose. This just pisses me off. I'd love to find out who did this, and meet them in some dark alley. I know it's not the best thing to do, but damn, it would make me feel better.

Well, I managed to get to my apartment yesterday, even after picking up some road debris the night before and therefore waiting around until a repair shop opened at 8am. 7 hours, 45 minutes later I was picking up my keys for the damn biggest apartment I've ever seen- 1300 sq ft. Freaken HUGE. Funny thing is, it's a little cheaper than most of the others, and quite a bit larger. It's an older building, but everything seems to be clean and in working order, even if the plumbing and fixtures are '60s.
 
   My defense of my thesis went well, even if I'm not done yet. Thanks to childofsnow for proofing the few chapters that I had done. As it was, I figured that there wasn't any need to have the rest proofed as it was very unlikely that anyone would get much past the first couple of chapters anyhow- with the appendices, it came in at 320 pages or so, and I still have a chapter to go.

   My stuff hasn't come from Toledo yet (I'll be getting it on Sunday) so I'm spending the nights on an air mattress, and I don't have TV, the internet hasn't been hooked up yet (Shout out to Panera Bread for the free WiFi), so I've been watching movies and listening to music quite a bit. Go, Go Gadget Laptop!

   I managed to forget all of my button down shirts, Docker pants, and my suit in Toledo when I left that morning, and didn't remember until I was in Cleveland. Ethan stopped past and picked them up, but I won't be able to come get them until the 30th. Guess it's a good thing Sears was having their Sears Days sale- I was expecting to pick up a few new pants and shirts, but I wasn't planning on that many, or this soon.

   I start work tomorrow, and I have to say I'm excited to get out and start working. Especially if its working on something that has NOTHING to do with my Dead Leg ®. Poor Ethan, he's the only guy left in the lab, and Dr. Hefzy's only TA as well as his only researcher. Bwahahaha!

I've kind of got my back up against a wall here...
I know what the data should be looking like, and it's most of the way there.
But there's something of an offset, and I don't know why. Doc keeps sending me back down to figure out "why my program isn't working" but I don't think it's in the program... I'm starting to think about "correcting" the program and leaving it at that. It'll give good data, and Doc will be happy, but I can't help but feel that this should be working with out me fudging with the data.

My advisor told me that I was looking a little tense, and that I needed to relax. Great- If I relax, then he doesn't get the stuff done that I need, and I don't get out of here when I need to. Skippy.

I'm planning a wedding
Starting a new job
Moving
Finishing my Thesis

No reason to get stressed out or anything...

I haven't quite decided if my life is falling apart, or coming together. This morning I decided to accept my offer of a job out in eastern Pennsylvania, but they wanted me to start on the 16th. I talked to Doc, and he seemed somewhat nervous- half because I'll be leaving, half because I haven't gotten good data yet... So I'm freaking out about getting my thesis analysis software working before I have to turn everything in this week, while looking for a place to live in PA, sending in all of the needed paperwork, and finishing off a woodworking project that I had. All of a sudden, with a change of an apostrophe, my analysis software works, I've finished off the woodworking project, the day is warm and sunny, and I've got a list of good apartments in Allentown. Yay!

I've been talking to Doc, and he says that I DON'T need to get my thesis done, but as long as I had good results, I could defend, and finish my thesis this summer. Woot!

Well, I got my offer letter today for the company that I interviewed with a week and a half ago, out in Allentown, PA. Looks like they liked me, and they're offering me a fairly nice salary with a decent set of benefits. Seeing as I don't have any other offers...

I guess I'm just kind of apprehensive to move into a slightly different field than I'm used to- I've done work in the orthopaedic field, but I've never done much work with spine implants, and I'm somewhat worried that I'm over my head with this. I wonder if I'll be able to live up to their (my?) expectations.

I wonder if I'll be done with my thesis.

damn deadlines.

So I fly out of Detroit at 7:15 tomorrow morning for Philly, and then out to Allentown, PA. I've got an interview out in Center Valley, and they agreed to fly me out a day early so I can look around and check out apartments, ect. Yay for that, but why 7:15am? Holy crud is that early. It takes about an hour to get to DTW, and there's the security thing, so I'll be getting up at 4am tomorrow morning... Ehhh. The things I do to find a job. On the other hand everything's being paid for by Aesculap, so I can't complain too loudly.

After the better part of a week of parusing car websites, feedback, Consumer Reports, dealerships, newspapers, and the interweb, I've finaly found a new car. I ended up with a '05 Honda Civic coupe, black, with 45000 mi, for just over 10k. Not too bad. It's a 5speed manual, has power locks, windows, remote lock fob, and looks pretty sweet. 
Yay! Now I can get back to writting my thesis!

Ya know, trying to find a new(er) car is such a pain in the ass. I could just go to a lot and pay through the nose, but I'm not sure I've got that kind of money to be throwing around right now. Grr. Both of the specific cars I've been looking at (Mazda 3 and Civic) were sold already by the time I contacted the people. Damn Autotrader needs to be more on the ball.

So I was driving out to visit Emily after work today, and had something of an accident. The Explorer ahead of me braked suddenly on black ice under a railroad overpass. She started to fishtail, and then suddenly swerved into the oncoming lane, right into the path of a double loaded semi. The semi crushed into the right front corner of the explorer, ejecting the motor out the wheel well, and sending the Explorer rebounding into my lane. As soon as she started to lose control, I jumped on the brakes, but on the sudden ice and with guardrails to each side, there was nowhere to go. I slammed into the underside of the Explorer's rear driverside corner. I had my seatbelt on, and the airbags deployed. I beat down the airbags, and after making sure that I was all in one piece, kicked open the door, grabbed my computer bag, and got out.

I was lucky. I managed to hit an oncoming vehicle at 55+, and walk away with nothing more than a set of scratches and a couple of good bruises. The driver of the Explorer and her daughter weren't so lucky. The lady driving the Ford somehow managed to get ejected from the car. I can only assume that she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. She ended up 30 or so feet away, 12 feet up an embankment. When I got out of the car, people were working on making sure everyone was out of the Explorer, so I worked my way  up the embankment, to where the lady lay. I could see she was still breathing and had a pulse, so I called for a blanket, and was calling 911 furiously. She was in shock, but there wasn't much I could do other than trying to keep her warm. I stayed there until the EMTs took her away in the Lifeflight. There were extensive internal injuries, and I don't know if she's going to make it.

Her daughter, however, was more lucky. She got trapped in the Explorer, between the seat and the door, and suffered a broken femur, but seemed to be in ok shape other than that. My car is totaled, but I have full insurance, and I'm alive.

Right now, that's whats important. But for the grace of God I could have bounced into the path of one of the semis.