Happy Thanksgiving!

O hai!

Well it’s Thanksgiving Day, and I’m doing the unthinkable…. Posting something on the day it’s supposed to be posted. Amazing, I know!

Since it is a day of giving thanks, I have spent some time thinking about what I am thankful for. There are a lot of things ranging from the unique to the mundane, so I’ve put together a “best of” list for you guys.


The first thing I am thankful for is my family. My brothers and sisters have made growing up a time of my life I’ll look back on fondly. Even though I may not see eye-to-eye with my parents on a lot of things, we still love each other – and for that I am exceedingly grateful. They have encouraged me in my spiritual life and in my academic studies and life in general, and it’s been a tremendous blessing.

I am also thankful for my church. Like any church body there are those who you may not get along with as well as you would like, but those I know at church are warm, friendly, and are willing to encourage everyone in their spiritual walk. They’ve always been there for my family and me, and it’s been a great blessing.

Item number 3 on the list is my job, as well as my coworkers and supervisors. They have helped take a job that would normally be the ideal job to complain about and helped to make it an experience that I have yet to find a problem with. They have given me several witnessing opportunities, and I’ve gotten to learn a lot about people simply through technical support.

I am greatly thankful for my friends, saved and unsaved. My saved friends are always there for me when I’m working through a spiritual issue, and they’re always ready to encourage me through my trials. I am thankful for my unsaved friends, mostly because they’ve given me ministry opportunities I wouldn’t normally get in my usual circles (that, and they’ve made college much more enjoyable). :D

I am thankful for my country, the United States of America. While I may not favor everything the country does, I am thankful for the religious freedoms we have. I pray that I never take it for granted.

Most importantly, I am thankful for my God and His gift of salvation to me. I am thankful for the missionary who preached that night, emphasizing the folly of a works-paved salvation. Through that message God helped me to realize my need for a savior, and that evening, in that fall of 2000 (kind of fuzzy on the year…), I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, and I’ve never looked back.

I am thankful for the trials I’ve had, both past and recent, as they have shown me things about myself that I would not otherwise have seen. The fire purges the dross from our lives that we may be pure gold for God and His Kingdom – and I am glad to see that work happening in my life. It comforts me to see that the unpleasant events of life have a glorious purpose!


As I said, this is more of a highlight reel than a comprehensive list of what I am grateful for, but I thought I’d share it with you guys. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving (or have had, seeing as it’s almost ten :D ) and I pray that God continues to work gloriously in your lives.

-Kylo

Honesty Tag!!!

I was awarded the Honest Scrap award by bug and Jason!

The Rules:

I need to...

1. Say thanks and link to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share ten "honest" things about myself (in some of these cases, I have discovered that the word "honest" is synonymous with "embarrassing").

3. Award this to seven people who's blog design/content I admire or who have encouraged me, and inform them of their win and of the rules of this award.

My list of honest things:

1. I hate computers, but they're really the only thing I'm good with, so they're my hobby. :P
2. I once had aspirations of learning to play guitar, but that never really worked out – piano to guitar is kind of a rough transition.
3. I really want a Jeep Wrangler, if only so I can make it look like those ones the park staff use in Jurassic Park.
4. My initial interest in law enforcement came about because of Batman.
5. I once spent nearly $200 on a video card for the family computer before I realized there was no place to plug it in on the computer. THAT was an awesome feeling.
6. I love being up high, but I always have this horrible fear of falling to my death (or crashing, as the case may be).
7. No matter how many alarms I set up (current running total of three), I seldom get up with my alarms.
8. I really like coffee now, thanks to strong suggestion from a couple friends of mine.
9. I have read mangas and watched anime, and I don't get why it's so popular in America.
10. If I ever go over to Scotland, I will try haggis.

I award the "Honest Scrap" award to:

Peter, because you're a good buddy o' mine, and if you start a blog you now have material for your first post. ;)

Hannah, because you've been a good friend in the short time I've known you.

Jason, because you also have been great company in the past several months.

Josiah, because you're a fun guy. :D

Bethany, because when I mentioned I play flight simulators you didn't say "ewww you play video games." :P

And last, but not least, to Melanie - because you need to show the spider monkeys some love. :D


...So yeah, they aren't official reasons for the award... but I'd feel bad if I excluded anyone. :)

-Kylo

The Return of Kylo

Well, I'm back. Again, I apologize for being gone so long, but school has been crazy, and again a bunch of personal stuff came up. I'm still alive (somehow), and here to tell you guys about my schedule for the spring 2010 semester.

Monday and Wednesday schedule:

1:00pm – 2:50pm – Unix\Linux Forensics (instructed by none other than Dr. Hartmann)

5:30pm – 7:20pm – File Systems Analysis

7:30pm – 9:20pm – Cyber Forensics and Data Recovery

Tuesday and Thursday schedule:

10:00am – 11:15am – Forensic Accounting (instructed by one M. Upperman)

7:30pm – 9:20pm – Firewall and Network Security (I'm hoping Starnes teaches this one, but I don't know my instructor for that one yet)

Online classes:

Ethical Hacking


...Yes, that's a near EIGHT HOUR gap between classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm pushing to get hours during that gap so it passes faster, but the spring schedule at the help desk hasn't come out yet... so we'll see.

Also, a bit of explanation in regards to the instructors – Dr. Hartmann has been called the “Linux god” by people I know – if you have a question about Linux and Hartmann doesn't know the answer you're in trouble. Starnes is one of the guys at Stark in charge of all the computer networks – one of the higher-ups, and a pretty cool guy. As for Ms. Upperman... don't know much about her aside from that she's teaching my class. :D The other classes don't have an instructor listed yet, so we'll have to wait and see.

I've turned in my graduation application, so as long as I don't fail any classes and none of them get canceled, I'll be graduating on May 16th, 2010. That's when the graduation ceremonies are. Unfortunately that is on a Sunday – I kind of have to be there, so I understand if none of you guys could make it, seeing as it's on Sunday and all. I'm not too pleased about it myself. :/

--- --- ---

In other news, I have apparently come into possession of a new computer! A guy I work with told me that there was an old computer laying around his house, and he'd be willing to sell it to me for $75. That's pretty much free in terms of computers. I lugged the computer from one side of campus to the other, garnering a lot of strange looks from passers-by and security (but they didn't shoot me, thankfully), and now I have it set up in my room. He said to use it for a week, and if it worked ok then I could pay him – I plan on doing that Wednesday. Right now I have the computer rigged up to my 19" flatscreen HDTV, using the speakers and keyboard to my parents' computer that they don't use, and using my own mouse. The hardware specs are below:

1 GB of RAM
2.99 GHz Pentium 4 CPU
180 GB hard drive
ATI Radeon X300 (128 MB)

The specifications are on the lower end, but nothing a little bit of upgrading can't fix. I just need to find the money to do that. :s

Well I suppose that about wraps up this post. More posts are in the works (I mean it this time), so things will be getting interesting down the road... VERY interesting. I should set a deadline for myself for the next post... you guys think Sunday is long enough?

I do apologize if my blog has been incredibly boring up to this point. I'm not all that used to this “blogging” thing yet, seeing as it was something I promised myself I wouldn't do once upon a time. :P

Until next time, take it easy! :)

-Kyle

P.S. I meant to put up the results from that one poll back a week or two ago, but I never did, and I can't find the results. Sorry everyone. :(

EDIT: While it would be mind-blowingly awesome, I do not have a 19' TV - it's a 19" one. :P

And so... uh... yeah...

I'm still alive everyone (if you guys are still interested)... I'll have my next post up the end of this week. Things have been a bit crazy lately. :s But sanity has been restored, as well as (hopefully) my ability to write a coherent blog post.

Stay patient my followers - deliverance is nigh. ;)

-Kyle