SPlog

If you talked with me about my career path within the last 6 months you would know that my eyes were set on Missouri S&T in Rolla. For the last several years, my focus has been on civil engineering; I have taken several physics and mathematics courses along the way. I’ve toured the campus 2-3 times already, and even had a job lined up.

I had my classes lined up, a job secured, and even found a local church of like faith. The only thing that I needed was my living quarters. It seemed that everything was lining up perfectly. It was clear that God wanted me to go, or was it? For the last two months, I fought with doubts, and kept going back and forth. Was this move actually good?

I was considering the field of structural engineering, possibly even a focus on earthquakes. It was all very interesting. I enjoyed learning about it. Enjoyed the physics applications that were taught in calculus, and even enjoyed the real life situations that were brought to me in Mr. Berry’s physics classes.

I enjoyed learning it, however, I didn’t enjoy actually doing it. The more I immersed myself into it, the more I found that I disliked it. Yes it was really cool to learn about the science of forces, measuring how much energy and mass an object would have at any given location, and the rate of acceleration. But actually solving the problem was not my cup of tea. Yes, I liked knowing that if the ball’s speed is given as it rolled toward the stairs, that I could calculate what step it would bounce off of. But I didn’t like calculating it. I thought to myself, do I really want to be doing this my whole life?

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Physics is very interesting, and I do think that it has been beneficial to me. But lately I’ve been questioning myself on my future. I understand the problems, I can solve the problems, but it doesn’t appeal to me, neither do I enjoy the process.

I have been very interested in programming for a long time. It started out with building my first website. I taught myself all the basic website programming languages. I have been working with websites for so long, that I generally keep to directly coding it myself, from scratch. It has been an interesting journey. But it is something that I work in every day.

Lately I’ve been learning to program and develop Android apps, but I soon realized that I need more knowledge of programming before I can make a successful app. The more I researched, the more it dawned on me that the science of programming was what I needed to study. It appeals to me, I understand it, and I can actually do it.

The more I researched, the more I was convinced that it was the perfect match. I finally found something that I really enjoy doing. But there was one problem, I was already registered for classes, and everything ready to graduate this spring, then transfer to Rolla in the fall.

So I prayed for a whole week, trying to find out what God wanted me to do. I was given peace about this new career path, something that I had not had these last 2-3 months. I went ahead and signed up for the extra classes I needed at OTC. I will say that I was never so excited to go to school as I  headed to my first programming class. I couldn’t wait for the next class. I even read two chapters ahead of the class schedule. I had not been so enthusiastic about classes since my first college class 5 years ago.

Right now I am working on a technical degree in Computer Information Services. I will be learning website design and software programming. This can then be put toward a degree in Computer Science, or Software Engineering.

My degree that I am now working toward is software engineering. It is very similar to computer science but different too. Although the shady boundary line is crossed from both sides, and both degrees do the same type of work, CS is generally approached from a mathematical standpoint, fun algorithms and analyzing problems, while SE is more hands on software programming.

I view it like this, computer science is like the civil engineer, software engineering is like the architect, and graphic design is like the interior designer. The civil engineer lays out the ground rules of what can or can’t work. The architect draws up the whole plans and architecture, creating how the user’s experience will be. And the interior designer works on the eye appeal of each area, taking special care as to how things are presented.

Was all those classes of physics and math wasted? I surly wasn’t supposed to take them, right? I don’t really have a great answer right now. I do know that I did believe it was God’s will at the time, and maybe I WAS supposed to take those classes for some unknown reason. Maybe somewhere in my future I will be thankful for those classes. I don’t know. What I do know is that, it is all behind me, in the past. I can’t change it, and it doesn’t matter now. Most of the classes will transfer over to my new degree, so there is no loss academically. I know that before me is a career that has been given to me. A new goal, one that I am very excited to embrace.

It is already the year 2012, and time has really flown by. This year a lot has happened. Especially in the last few months.

School has been really crazy lately. I can’t wait to graduate and head on out to Rolla, MO to finish at MO S&T. I am really excited. The last few weeks I had to work on a formal report in a group. The report had to be at least 25 pages long with a minimum of 20 sources, 6 of which had to be primary interviews. My group was given the hardest topic, “How the occupy movement affects Springfield, MO”. My group pulled through it, regardless of the 2 week deadline, with an oral report (and power-point presentation) at the end. We got an A on the whole project, which was the biggest stress reliever all month.

Are you ready for 2012?

I’ve still been busy with church events as well. I volunteered to direct the children’s Christmas play this year. It was a really fun experience. We simply did the whole Christmas story, which had not been done for a while. The kids did a great job, and the play went well. The only thing I noticed was that the kids sang a lot louder during practice than they did when it came to to actually perform the play. Overall it was a really good play. I had a lot of help from other teachers, and even had a friend work on all the costumes. She did a wonderful job, as the costumes were awesome! We had more kids participate this year than ever before, so it was a little bit more difficult to direct them all.

I’ve been working on building android apps lately. I am still in the middle of learning to program them. I following a book that leads you through each step, learning new skills and concepts n each chapter. Throughout the process of the book, you build a game app. It really has been going very well, but I’ve only been averaging a chapter a day, and the book has 24 chapter.

You will eventually see app reviews, and such on my blog as well. I decided to start reviewing apps that I thing are worthy. I am very picky about my apps. Whenever I am looking for a particular app function, like for instance a twister spinner (in case you lose the one that came with the game) I will download all 8 apps that are on the Market, try each one out, then choose the best one. I did that for a music player once, and had a lot of interesting results, but that is another topic for another post.

Last October I had my 21st birthday. There were so many reasons that I was excited about turning 21. The fact that I can now purchase a handgun is still at the top of that list.

Plans for this coming year include life guarding, moving to Rolla, Summer Camp, and TaeKwonDo instructor certification.

I plan to look for a part time life guarding job this summer. I’ve been really wanting to lifeguard, but was too busy last summer to do so. But this summer I really am going to try for an evening shift. I got my lifeguard certification last year but missed the lifeguard camp that is required for the Public Parks Pools.

Since I plan to go to school at Missouri S&T in Rolla, MO, I will be looking for an apartment this summer. By God’s grace, I already have a job lined up. My current employer is willing to keep me on as a remote employee. I hope to find an affordable studio apartment that I can use. Personally I want it big enough to have room to stretch and work out a little.

For the last two years, I’ve been going to Bible Camp with my church as a counselor. I love it and try to clear my schedule each time. I am planning on going this year, so far. I am excited to get to help the kids get their talent and sports ready. It is something I look forward to each year, and if the Lord allows it, I plan to attend every year that I possibly can.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I am currently a second degree black belt in TaeKwonDo. I am also an instructor trainee. Unfortunately during college, I was unable to attend regularly due to homework and such. However this coming semester I plan to work on obtaining my 3rd degree, and also get my instructor-ship papers. My idea is to then instruct TaeKwondo while attending school in Rolla. This is to keep me healthy and fit, while also keeping the knowledge fresh in my mind.

The year 2011 ended with a lot accomplished, now I await for the events to unfold in 2012.

This Christmas kind of snuck up on me. With college and work up until the week of Christmas, I didn’t have much time for most of the family traditions that we normally did to prepare for Christmas. Also not to mention that my best friend got married the Monday before Christmas. I have been so busy, then I realized “On no, only 4 days until Christmas” time to get the Christmas shopping completed. Anyway, this Christmas I tried my best to remember the real reason we celebrate, not because of shopping, or gifts, or even the manger, or the angels. The real reason I tried to focused on was why he came in the first place. I think that this could be the best Christmas for me after all, even though I didn’t do my regular “traditions” I kept my attention to the cross, and what Jesus did for me.
We still had a great Christmas day. It snowed all night, and we had our first “White” Christmas in over 5 years. Our Church had a candlelight service the night before, and my quartet was privileged to sing two of our songs. The whole family came over for Christmas Dinner, including both brothers, and their family. We then opened all our Christmas presents. Our main gifts were given by playing the “Dirty Santa” game. It was a blast! I ended up with a $15 gift card to Subway. YUM!!
The family stayed until late that evening/night. We played video games, and board games, computers, and iPods. It was fun. My mom and dad got each a ipod touch for Christmas, that we got to play with, getting it working for them, and showing them how to work it. My mom literally jumped up and down when she found out she can access all her facebook stuff from her touch.
I enjoyed spending a lot of time playing with my niece and nephews. They are so much fun and joy. We ended the night by watching the Disney Pixar movie, UP.
Now Christmas is over, just as fast as it started, and as I end the day, I sit back and thank my God for all his blessings He’s given me… A wonderful family, Time to spend with my niece and nephews, great in-laws, the peace and joy we shared today, Heat from the cold outside, but most important for the sacrifice that makes Christmas worth Celebrating, not because he came, but why he came, so that I could have a personal relationship with God.
<!–Sam Paasch–>

This Thanksgiving fell on my Dad’s 50th birthday. So we went to his home town, Garden City KS, to celebrate with his twin brother. Everyone.. even all my cousins, aunts, and uncles on my Dad’s side were there (for the first time in about 10 years). It was amazing to see everyone in the same place. We spent all day Thanksgiving with family, and were able to take wonderful pictures of the whole family, and even put on a concert. It was very nice.
The following day we also spent there. Spending time with all the family. It was kind of weird now being older and watching the little kids play around with the stuff that we used to play with. It made me be thankful for what great memories I had with my family.
<!–Sam Paasch–>

Well while I knew School was getting ready to start up, and that my summer job would end soon. I started looking for another job. I found Palen Music. I always thought it’d be cool working at Palen, and I even tried once before at their old north location. But I never thought about getting the position I have now. Palen Music hired me to work on their graphic and web design (which I love to do anyway in my spare time.) So now I get to work, doing what I love to do, in an environment that I love, music. To check out my work on their website go to palenmusic.com

<!–Sam Paasch–>

This year was my last year being in the teen department at my church. I went to camp being a high school senior. My church goes to Sagmount Baptist Youth Camp. It was great all week long. We had an awesome time, and a great spiritual revival. My church brought 5 guys, and about 15+ girls. (yeah.. outnumbered again!)

For sports most of the games like volleyball and basketball, we just used the 5 guys. (Yeah that’s right no subs) Technically we were supposed to have 6 for volleyball, but we decided to make do and fill in the gap ourselves. We actually won our first couple of basketball games, witch was amazing because some of the games was us 5 against 10-15. One of the games we were against 5 small churches combined together.

Our volleyball games were the same. No subs, so we had to play the whole game. It was actually to our advantage because the good players were rotated more quickly on our team, compared to a team of 10-15. We had several close games, but all-in-all we amazingly took first place. It was awesome.

I was entered in several talent categories, including piano and preaching. I got superior ribbon for piano. For preaching, I set a new camp record; longest sermon. It was my last year, and last time to be able to preach in front of 200+ for awhile, so I didn’t abide by the time limit, and preached four minutes overtime. I got the lowest score because I had 120 penalty points. Anyway I also did a piano duet with my sister, and halfway through we switched places (it was cool), and toward the end I got to much “into the song”. People told me that I started to bob my head a little. I told Abigail before to just relax and go with the flow, so I guess I took my own advise a little too seriously.

Every year there’s a Bible quiz for those who choose to participate. We study long ahead of time, and then at camp take the quiz. Then on the last day the top three teams (2-4 people in a team) battle it off in a quiz-off. This year the team I was on got to be one of the three. So we studied harder than ever and ended up taking first place in that too.

Although this was my last year, I really think it was the best year I’ve ever had a camp. And I really thank God for the chance I got to participate, and for the people who took time off to make it possible.

<!–Sam Paasch–>

This past June my truck broke down, so I had to get another one. Well I’ve been looking for a job for a while, but then I had to really get a job real quick. I was able to get hired for the summer at ArborCare of the Ozarks, the best Tree Service, period. This meant that I would be working outside the whole time, which I was used to anyway with mowing. So I started working 40 hours a week.

I liked working for ArborCare. I somewhat liked the physical labor, and I got to know my co-worker real well too. When my mom found out that part of my job would be operating a log chipper, she then didn’t want me to have the job. My Grandma even told me not to show up for my first day of work. But I got through it without any serious injury…lol. (I have to admit that the first week on the job I had a little roping problem and got smashed against a pile of logs and the curb.) But I still loved working.

I got to know my co-worker real well during this time. He climbed the trees to cut the limbs while I dragged them off to be chipped. He trained me how to effectively cut the lower “suckers”, and to crown clean the tree. I got to run the chain saw, gas trimmers, and even the stump grinder a couple of times. The only thing he couldn’t teach me was climbing the tree, (if only I had worked there a bit longer just to climb at least one tree..)

I really liked the boss, and the owner, (small inside joke). They were really good to me and I can see that they really take care of their workers. They really made the experience on the job great. My summer went by quickly because I was always busy, but I will never forget this job, or the people I worked with.

<!–Sam Paasch–>

Saturday February the 28^th, was a fun day. It snowed early that morning, but regardless, we had a church activity going roller-skating. The church rented out the whole rink, and we only had to pay $4 per person, then $3 more for in-line skates. We got them on and got ready to skate.

My brother was in charge of the music. He was told to get some good peppy, Southern Gospel songs. So the background music was right up my alley. I loved singing along with the songs while skating.

At one point I decided to skate backwards a little. It had been a few years since I last skated, so as I started going backwards I started to get a bit proud. I could still skate backwards! But God has a funny sense of humor. I started to weave a little and, well, I lost my balance. Then I tried to regain my balance by picking up my feet and… you guessed it.. I fell down; right on my back. I fell right in front of my pastor, and whomever he was talking to.

Halfway through everyone stopped for a devotion that my youth pastor gave. All the kids sat down on the side during the devotion. Afterwards the main lights went off, and the spotlights and disco balls were lit. We all skated backward during one song, and then we also speed-skated during another song. At the end of the speed-skate my youth pastor lost his balance and fell down in front of everyone.

At one time my friend and youth pastor started a snake (or chain). More and more people attached themselves, making it hard to maneuver. Eventually the chain broke in the middle when someone lost their grip. That teenager fell and got trampled by two others. He wasn’t hurt bad, just a few bruises.

After the last song, everyone was tired and sweaty. It was a fun two hours of spending time with other church folk. We thanked the skating rink for having us, and left. I loved every bit of it.

Friday evening, the 27^th of February, my family decided not to go to a concert, but to stay home and relax a bit. My sister was gone at a church activity, so it was just the three, my mom, dad, and myself. We got a phone call from my grandma that said she was coming over. Soon she was at our door, and behind her my brother and sister-in-law and nephew.

It was a nice surprise to see them. Grandma got to hold the new baby for the first time. We got pictures. We then called my other brother (Matt) to bring his family over. So we ended up having a little family reunion. It was also the first time for Matt’s family to see the new baby. We got several family pictures of the grandparents (my parents) with their grandkids. It was a nice evening.

There was a work day at our church (Hillside Baptist). We’ve been building a new building, and the outside needed cleaned up. So I showed up on Thursday, Feb. 26^th, with 4-5 other men to clean the church grounds of all metal, trash, brick, and sand. We stored any good metal studs and pieces up in the rafters of the bus barn.

We then picked up all metal and threw it in the back of a truck to get it hauled off. There were several hundred pounds of metal that had to go. It was hard work. We then ate lunch at a restaurant and then got back to work. We picked up all the trash and dumped it in a burn pile. The brick was and other dirt was dumped in a huge dirt pile behind the church.

We did our best to flatten out the gravel parking lot with tractors. I eventually got to drive one and do a little flattening myself. It was a hard but satisfactory work day.

At the end I had originally planned for piano lessons, woodworking, and discipleship with my youth pastor. But we didn’t have much time, So I gave him the piano lessons, then we went over discipleship, and skipped out on woodworking.

I had Taekwondo that night, so I was exhausted when I got home. Almost fell asleep in the shower.