LeTourneau

Here are pictures from our fun time if you're interested:

• Facebook | My Photos - First Unofficial LETU End of Finals Skating Party with Friends!
• Facebook | My Photos - First Unofficial LETU End of Finals Skating Party! (part 2) :)

I hope to schedule a skating party with my Alabama friends this month. Hopefully it won't be the last! :)

I've finally uploaded them: Facebook | My Photos - LETU Dynamics Competition Spring 2008 :)

As my friend Nolan describes it:

The long awaited pains have fallen upon the underclassman soul.
They have all conspired against me, and in all of this, I know
Against my will, I have been carried here to where the critters grow.
My heart is racing, and my stomach's weak as I come the near the edge.
I know there is no turning back once my feet have left the edge.
And in the rush, upperclassmen are telling me it's time to take a flying leap.

So, here I go.
I'm diving in. I'm going deep. In over my head I'm gonna be.
Caught in the scum, lost in the foam, in over my head I'm gonna go.
The pond--it reeks. Will I survive? Glaske's water is alive!
So, sink or swim, I'm diving in.

Actually, this is a fun event that my running friends and I decided to do at end of the semester. :)

For all the fun: View the pictures: Pond Dive (very sorry to those who are not on facebook, it seems that Nolan didn't set this album to public, so find a friend if you don't have facebook. ;) ).

I look forward to coming home. I look forward to going to JAARS for 2 months of the Summer. I look forward to coming back next semester. God is so good!

Update: My fellow pond jumpers (and running friends!) and I:

I've uploaded the pictures to my website. So if you don't have Facebook, you can see them here: http://www.elijahlofgren.com/uploads/images/letu-spring-2008/pond-jump/. :)

Are you fed up with church? Tired of Christianity? Well, you're not alone. Read Mission Frontiers for more info!

An excellent magazine that I've just started reading is Mission Frontiers Magazine.

I highly, highly recommend that you click the following link and at least read the first few articles: Mission Frontiers: Are We Losing More Than We're Gaining? - March - April 2008 Contents

I've read "Why are They Walking Away?" and "Are We Proclaiming a Defective Gospel?" so far and look forward to reading the rest of the issue eventually.

Enjoy! :)

• Facebook | My Photos - Whitney's Birthday Party at the Quad (part 1)
• Facebook | My Photos - Whitney's Birthday Party at the Quad (part 2)

Two fun videos coming soon. Check my Facebook profile later tonight. ;)

I just got back from visiting House of Hope which is a woman's shelter here in Longview for women in need of a place to stay for a few days or a few months. If I remember correctly, they have Bible studies and prayer meetings with all the 20-25 women who stay there.

I went with Mrs. Forester (my speech teacher) and 7 fellow LETU students. We brought Papa John's pizza along with salad and delicious homemade pineapple/cherry/coconut dessert made by Bekah Cooney.

I really enjoyed talking with the women who were there and the men who were there helping out with the yard sale they were having this weekend.

I look forward to hopefully going back next semester. It's amazing how happy the women were despite their very hard backgrounds. God transforms lives! :)

I've also heard of a group called S.H.A.R.E here on campus who is mentoring local 8th grade students for 1.5 hours a week. I may try and be involved with that next semester if I am able to make time for it. ;) It sounds like a really good opportunity!

I'm so thankful to be a LeTourneau where there are so many wonderful opportunities to get involved in other peoples lives. God is so good! :)

Yesterday, I talked to Robert Whiting and he said spending a semester + summer doing a co-op with IBM was a very good experience and worth it.

Last Thursday, a representative from IBM came and talked about IBM i. Needless to say, IBM sounds like a really good place to get some industry experience. :)

I've realized that getting out of here in 4 years doesn't matter too much. I think that doing an internship or co-op would be very valuable as I continue to learn and peruse the vocation to which I believe that God has called me. Besides, LeTourneau University is such a wonderful place with wonderful people! :)

Today I talked to my academic advisor, Dr. Baas and he thinks it is a really good idea to pursue a co-op. He said that these kind of opportunities won't be around once I finish college, so it's a good idea to take advantage of them while they are available.

I plan to hopefully do a co-op in Spring 2009. Or possibly, I'll just try for a Summer 09 internship with IBM. :)

I plan to start talking to people I know who work for or have done internships or co-ops with the following companies:

• Jobs at IBM - Co-op and intern programs
• Google Internship Opportunities
• Microsoft College Careers - Internships
• Boeing: Employment - Interns and Grads - Internship Details
• Jobs at HP : Students & Graduates:
• Sun - Student Zone
• Rockwell Collins Internship Program
• Oracle College Recruiting Home Page

In addition, this fall I plan to apply for: SMART - Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation Defense Scholarship for Service Program (SMART). It'd be pretty cool to make it in! Then I might end up spending an extra semester @ LETU taking fun classes like Robotics, Programming Languages, and Computer Graphics (3d programming)! :)

In the coming days, weeks, and months, I plan to talk to Dr. Varnel (the IBM contact person here @ LETU), Robert Whiting (worked at IBM), Josh Bruning (going to work at IBM), Peter Kendall (worked at HP), and two of my friends from dorm 41 who have received the SMART scholarship. :)

God is good! I look forward to serving him for the rest of my short life here on this earth.

In eager anticipation of the future,

Elijah Lofgren

I plan to postpone as much non-schoolwork stuff as I can until Summer so I can hopefully start getting more studying and homework done. So don't expect many more blog posts or replies to non-essential email until May 1st. Thanks for your understanding! ;)

I just have just given a persuasive speech in which I tried to persuade people to switch to Firefox:

My Presentation:

Video of My Speech

Are you persuaded? ;)

God has blessed me this semester! I've turned into a very relaxed social person! :) However, socializing takes time! ;)

So I haven't been getting all my homework done as I did my freshman year. ;)

However, I haven't failed any tests yet or anything. I'm thankful that I got just under an A on my last Calc 3 test despite never completing all of the homework. ;). I've not done well on some Circuits 2 quizzes lately so we'll see how my Circuits 2 grade comes out.

My plan to is to wait in judging on whether I'm too relaxed with regards to homework now (i.e. spending too much time talking to people instead of doing homework) until after I get my finals grades this semester. Then if they are not where they should be, I can plan to restricting my socializing more next semester. ;)

I've been accepted into Honor's housing for next semester and look forward to a much quieter and less disruptive work environment in my room. :)

I've currently in the Glaske Engineering Computer lab, having way too much fun on my Persuasive Firefox Speech which I will be giving tomorrow afternoon.

My plan is to start my speech with this video: This is Hot

And end it with this: Web For All.

I'm having probably too much fun making some of my slides. For example:

At the end of my speech I plan to hand out copies of: this Firefox poster.

My main goal with this speech? Persuade my friends, the Harts, to try Firefox by uploading the video of the speech that I give tomorrow and asking that they watch it along with looking at my PowerPoint which I plan to email to them. I have a vested interest in doing well on this speech! ;)

However, Firefox 3 with many AMAZING improvements is being released in June so maybe I will wait until August or so to try and persuade them to try it. ;)

Yesterday, I was elected to be President of the LeTourneau University ACM Student Chapter for this next school year! :)

I have been attending most of the Friday ACM meetings for about a year. I was considering nominating myself for vice-president or secretary/treasurer of LETU's ACM chapter, but had decided to wait until next year because I wasn't sure how busy I would be next semester. However, I realize that I can make time for those things that I view to be important. I think serving in ACM will be valuable experience that will be work the time and possible B's in some classes. ;)

Kim White (a freshman Computer Science, Cross-Cultural Ministry major who is really good friends with the current LETU ACM president Joshua Bruning who is graduating) nominated me to be president. I was not expecting this, but I accepted. Thanks Kim! :)

I nominated Kris Eggert because I didn't want to run unopposed. There was quick vote (I think there were about 10 people voting of the 10-20 people at this week's meeting) with Kris Eggert and I out of the room and I was elected. :)

As president of LETU's ACM chapter, I will be helping coordinate speakers for our meetings and probably doing some presentations myself. In addition I hope to help get some content on our website. I may also be helping out with petitioning student senate for funds to be used for traveling to ACM programming competitions.

I will be serving alongside the current LETU ACM vice-president, Steven Hadfield (from Quad 3) and the current treasurer Peter Kendall. In addition, we split the treasurer/secretary office up this year and Kim White was elected to be LETU ACM secretary.

Here is a picture of the ACM table from last year at STOMP (Student Organization Mall Party): LeTourneau web - ACM table. Behind the table is the current LETU ACM president Joshua Bruning and on the right is Steven Hadfield is the current LETU ACM vice-president.

Here is our constitution:Constitution of the LeTourneau University Student Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery

I will now be joining the national ACM organization which is understandably required for the president. ;)

I look forward to learning new skills and meeting new people as I serve the LETU students in this office. :)

I have started an ideas document that I plan to add to as I get more ideas for ACM next year: LETU-ACM-Ideas-Fall08-Spring09.

Update: I have created the LETU ACM Facebook group. :)

I've been very busy and I'd forgotten to upload these pictures until I read Laura's Blog post: "He is Risen!!!" just now. :)

Here are the pictures: Facebook | My Photos - Resurrection Day Dinner Celebration With Friends.

On Saturday night we had a large hail storm at Letourneau. It was exciting! Sadly, quite a few cars got broken wind shields and a few windows were broken.

View some pictures: Facebook | My Photos - Hail STORM! - LETU Spring 2008

Below are 2 videos I took:

I'm slightly excited. Let me explain. ;)

I'm borrowing my friend Jon Hersack's old laptop for the rest of the semester.

I asked him if I could borrow/rent it so I could refer to my Circuits 2 and Calc 3 picture notes while studying in the library/Longview Hall/Glaske which have MUCH LESS distractions/interruptions than my room does. I get more easily distracted now that I like to talk. I'm also taking about twice as long to eat! :)

Thankfully, the 2 problems with this laptop are:
1. It will get Blue Screens of Death on Windows sometimes when the wireless is used (therefore I don't plan to set up the wireless so I can't be distracted by checking my email every 5 minutes). and
2. The battery only lasts for about 5 minutes. Therefore I should hopefully not be tempted to use it too much or get very distracted by it. Since Jon is letting me borrow it for free for the rest of the semester, this seems like the ideal time to try out using a laptop regularly for the first time! :) I'm planning to bring it to my speech meeting tonight @ 8:30pm and it will be nice to have our PowerPoint right on it as we practice (our speech is about how we can help the persecuted church through voice of the Martyrs). :)

What's going on with me? Am I buying into technology too much!?!? ;) I'm acquiring a PDA, MP3 player, and laptop all in the time of just about 2 weeks! God is good! :) Let's just hope that I'm disciplined and that this does indeed help me to get distracted less and not more! I think it will since it will allow me to work in the library more, I could even work on my programs in the library now (I often get distracted while trying to write my OS programs).

I definitely agree that Life Is Relationships!. :)

I just came back from the best 1 hour and 35 minutes I have ever spent going to lunch! :)

First I sat down with Eric at an empty Quad 3 table. I enjoyed talking to him about his project and the possibility of taking Robotics with him next fall (see next paragraph!). Then Eric had to run off after 10 minutes to go work on his dynamics project so I had to find a new table.

Today I almost decided to try and take Robotics And Manufacturing Applications if I could fit it into my schedule (I even considered taking a summer class in order to make room for my schedule for it..

The reasons I wanted to apply for Robotics:

• I watched an AMAZING ROBOT video: Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)
• Eric is planning to take it
• This morning I saw Nathaniel preparing to start work on a 7 inch robot (he's taking Robotics now.)

However, I am not planning to take Robotics because it has Dynamics (and therefore Statics) as a pre-requisite. Instead I may audit the class next spring if I have time. :)

After the Quad 3 table, I stopped by the 41 table and enjoyed talking to Benaiah for a while before he finished and left. Then I talked to Josh at his table and found out that he is not planning to apply for honor's housing (I talked to Corey and James and they are both interested). I then went back to the Quad 3 table and enjoyed talking with most of my floor which had showed up. :)

And now, after doing a lot of Google Summer of Code research (in case my JAARS internship doesn't end up happening). I am headed off to SAGA again! :) (I started this blog post at 1:15pm and it is now 6:21 pm ;)

After a very good academic chapel where our Computer Science faculty shared about what is going on and the opportunities in the CS world, I went to lunch. Since the Quad 3 table was empty, I decided to sit near Spencer James who is a fellow Sophomore CSE student (who is planning to study at at Handong Global University (our sister school in South Korea) next semester). He is from Club and I enjoyed talking with the other people on his floor who include an ME and another CSE. So now when there isn't anyone I know at the 41 table I may just sit at Club's table. :)

After my really good friend Jon Hersack invited me to join him in applying for Honor's housing (4 people to apartment), I am toying with the idea of applying to have a quieter and less disruptive work environment. However, I'm not sure if the advantages outweigh the downsides (no sister floor, floor devos, etc) at this point. I plan on asking around for fourth person on Wednesday and looking into it more on Friday.

P.S. Camping was amazing!!! :)

Pictures: My Photos – Spring Break Snow! :)

Speech was canceled today! :)

Now I must pack. ;)

Here are some fun pictures from this week and being dressed up for Film Fest: Fun and Film Fest 2008 - LETU Spring 2008

Enjoy! :)

I think this is the best weekend I have ever had at LeTourneau. :)

I also think I've done some of the least homework I've ever done on a weekend. ;)

It's a strange thought, but I think I'm almost picturing myself as somewhat of an extrovert. At least in respect to initiating conversations. I think I'm almost talking too much sometimes, so I need to be careful. ;) For example, I think I initiated a lot of the conversations this morning while waiting for the church van to pick us up. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to say that with going to Film Fest, the hilarious Harvey Play, and hanging out with friends this weekend, it has been great!

I do have some Calc 3 homework that I need to do for tomorrow, but thankfully I don't have any tests or large projects this coming week. :)

God is good! I'm so glad that He allowed me to come to LeTourneau! :)

May God bless you all,

Elijah

I gave blood for the first time today. It went very well. The people were nice and the process was smooth. With a free T-shirt, free snacks, and "saving 3 people's lives", I think the ~ 1 hour of time was well worth it. :)

Update 3:06pm: My friend Stephen Camp just told me about the "Current probe" component available in Qucs which is wonderful! I've already drawn up my Circuit in Qucs and now need to work on some fine tuning. :)

See: Qucs screenshots

Thank you very much Stephen! :)

Original post:

After trying quite a few programs, I think I just found a way to test my Circuits II design problem (creating a circuit to match a given graph of current) solution:

SwitcherCADâ„¢ III is a high performance Spice III simulator, schematic capture and waveform viewer with enhancements and models for easing the simulation of switching regulators. Our enhancements to Spice have made simulating switching regulators extremely fast compared to normal Spice simulators, allowing the user to view waveforms for most switching regulators in just a few minutes. Included in this download are Spice, Macro Models for 80% of Linear Technology's switching regulators, over 200 op amp models, as well as resistors, transistors and MOSFET models.

More info on LTspice/SwitcherCADâ„¢ III.

Screenshots.

Needless to say, I am VERY excited! I'm pulling myself away from my computer in order to go eat brunch and do devos before coming back here to use LTspice some more. :)

Tonight I had a good half hour to 45 min or so talk with Herb Jacobson who is a senior staff engineer at the Technology Center, and an expert in digital broadcast technology (HCJB Global :: Ministering through Radio and Healthcare - Digital Shortwave Radio (DRM):) while at College Night at the Graff's who served their famous "Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches".

Herb Jacobson was down visiting LeTourneau as part of LETU's involvement with HCJB's Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) project.

It was cool to hear from an ederly man who has spent much of his life serving God by using his radio, computer, and electrical engineering skills to further the gospel including involvement with HCJB.

One somewhat of a side note during our conversation over sandwiches and soup, One thing he mentioned was that one good way to reach African village is through serving the people through helping install a good well (but having the people install it themselves) which dramatically improves the health of the people.

Herb told me some of his background with included teaching electrical courses in Quito, Ecuador and working at HCJB.

In other news, I've filled out the Wycliffe Skills Questionnaire in order to look into a possible 8 week internship this summer. I'm also going to look into applying for an internship with IBM. I heard some guys who done IBM internships speak at a recent ACM meeting.

It's quite amazing to think that I only have 2 summers left at LeTourneau. It will be interesting to see what God has in store for me this summer. ;)

Today I walked out of Bib Lit with Jon Hersack and we headed toward SAGA. Seeing a huge line stretching outside the doors we decided to check our mail first.

I was quited surprised to find a white card saying I had a package! :) It was from my sisters!

After lunch I headed back to my dorm and found a gift from our sister floor waiting:

Yummy Valentine's Day Gifts from D2, our sister floor. :)

I went back to my room, and opened up my package and found something much better! :)

Lots of treats from home! :)