Just finished the Knoxville Expo 10k in a time of 51:53. I had really wanted to be less than 51:11 to break my PR for that race. I was running in memoriam of a 3 year old that was killed on 05/19. Hunter was killed in a car wreck and his mom is a Mary Kay consultant who Jen knows. I made a shirt in his honor, I hoped he liked it.

Still no word on the job front, seems like everytime I find something good in Knoxville, it gets taken up. Sheesh. I have started a home business, which will be a supplimental income, after a find a job. More on that later.

I put some pictures up for the Myrtle Beach Marathon and for the Mardi Gras Marathon. You can get to those via the running link above.

05/26/04
I have been unemployed for 3 days now, well 5 if you consider Sat and Sunday.

Jen said that I should share this because she thought it was rather humorous. On Sunday we went to a funeral for one of Jen’s fellow consultant 3 year old who was killed in a car wreck. Well, we were late for funeral and I was hauling Xterra butt to get to the church, right when I passed a cop. I knew that he had me, but , no lights came on and no pursuit in progress.

After the funeral, we went to the grocery store, when I discovered my license was missing, so it was a good thing that I was not stopped, because this is why I did not have it: “Sorry, officer, I know that I was speeding, but we are really late for a funeral. I don’t have my license with me, because I needed it to register online for unemployment.” (By the Way, they denied my unemployment claim).

As for the job search, I just had a phone interview with Experian in Atlanta. I am going to send out my resume to three of the local community colleges for adjunct faculty. Other than that, no real leads.

I got my grades for the semester and I have 3 As! WOO HOO, another 4.0 semester. Why couldn’t I have done this before? Anyway, I only have a week left here at the SCC before my funding runs out. And actually, the people that are replacing me and my colleague, Julie, will be here on Monday. That means I will no longer have fast access to a computer here on campus.

The job scene is not very fruitful right now. The strongest lead I have right now is for Special Agent with the FBI. If I continue on this path, it would be in August that I would go to Quantico for training (providing I made it that far). It would also mean that we would defnitely have to move. I am hoping that something local will pan out before I have to commit to anything. So pray for me.

Well folks, I have graduated from The University of Tennessee with a Masters of Science degree in Statistics. I am now looking for a job in which I can utilize this new found knowledge in order to acquire some dead presidents to get me some bling-bling.

This was Jen’s first Mother’s day (as a mother to human children, not ferrets) this past Sunday. The weather was nice and so I hope that she enjoyed it. I got her a gft certificate to her favorite massage place (can’t go wrong there) and Eric got her a picture frame that has a clay impression of his monsterous foot, now preserved for all of time.

This past Saturday, I ran in the Race for the Deaf 5k in which I finished in 22:28 which was sufficient enough to get 2nd place in my age group. I won a mug from the Tennessee School for the Deaf and a certificate noting my accomplishment.

I must say that my April was very busy on all fronts. School was very taxing this month. I had my Master’s project presentation, my Time Series project in addition to normal homework. The few things I have for the next week is to finish writing the paper to my Master’s project and the in-class portion of my Time Series class. That is it! Then I will be graduatin on Friday May 7th at 6pm on campus. I will awarded a Master of Science in Statistics and that should be with one of the Laude’s attached to it.

My time series project was to take a data set and analyze it using the methodologies that we studied in class. The data set that I chose was near and dear to me: it was data on the number of miles that I ran during a month for the time period of Jan 1999 to Mar 2004. What I found out was that the best model was a complicated model that invloved 3 different models. Results of the project suggest that I should run about 200 miles through Sept of this year.

Speaking of running, I completed the Trideltathon on Apr 25th with Gray Lipford. He beat me once again, so he has me 2-1 in overall victories. Maybe next year. I am not sure what my running schedule is going to be since I am looking for a job at the present moment. I figure that I have a few more runs here, if we eventually move. Regardless, I want to do a fall marathon. I think that if we are here that I’ll do the Richmond Marathon. That way everyone in Va will have the oppurtunity to come see Eric.

Since I have been very busy with school, I have not had a lot of job leads. I do have a good lead in Atlanta right now with a UT person who was a year ahead of me. When I get more information, I will pass it on.