Faster, cheaper, safer

Apple just updated their line of Powerbooks.

Check it out at http://www.apple.com/powerbook

food critic

During the past week or two I noticed that General Mills has moved their entire cereal line to whole grain. This is a move that I am very excited about because it means that cereal now has more nutritional value.

I love snacking on cereal, so I decided to give things a try and test out the new cereals. Much to my pleasure and surprise, everything tastes just as good as before!!

Kudos to General Mills for making their cereals better.

good touch, bad touch

It's winter. I love all aspects of winter...the snow, the cold. I love it all. Almost.

Static Electricity is EVIL. Everywhere i go, I get shocked. Doorknobs, window frames, computers...they all shock me when I touch them. It's even gotten so bad that if I watch closely and I feel a big shock coming, I see a tiny little puff of smoke.

That's just not right.

Great Song

I find myself listening to this song more and more.

Take Me Out
Franz Ferdinand
iTunes Music Store Link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=29410495&selectedItemId=29410594

My classes

This semester is so odd. I have both 100 level and 400 level classes. All of them are keeping me busier than ever. Here is the break down.

G109 - Introduction to Weather and Climate: This should be a breeze, right?

R180 - Introduction to Christianity: I have never studied the bible in a non-preaching way. This class will be very interesting.

E219 - Weight Control and Exercise: I love this class! I wish I would have taken it during every other semester!

E117 - Bowling: Need I say more? This is my friday fun class.

I451 - Informatics Senior Capstone Project part II: I am working with 2 other people and the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics to create a search tool that finds certain patterns in the genome of an organism. If successful, this tool will be used by scientists around the world!! Very cool.

R481 - Instructional Systems Technology Cognate Capstone: This is my concentration within Informatics. I think I will be helping to conduct gaming research. I will also create a research proposal of my own. It should be interesting.

This all amounts to a very interesting, time consuming semester. Who knows....it could even change my career outlook!!

Suggestions?

Okay, I am new to blogging. What direction should I take? I want this to be a fun read for all of my faithful readers.

Please post a comment with your suggestions!

Mike Sassman

Renewed Determination

Oh, this is the start of something good...don't you agree? - Gavin DeGraw

This has been a day of renewal and inspiration. For the majority of 2004, I was successful on a weight-watchers type diet plan where I was watching portions, nutrients, etc. During the holidays I, along with most of America, fell off of that diet. I enjoy eating. I don't deny it, it is a simple fact. I enjoy rich tastes, sweets, barbeque, you name it.

Tonight, as I was eating a mini bag of chips ahoy cookies that my parents sent to me, I tuned to the IU movie channel and I saw a documentary about fast food and it's negative effects on your body. Earlier in the day, I discovered that 3 pairs of pants no longer fit me. Now I know I have to do something about this. I know that I can be successful with weight loss. I have done it before. This semester I have gotten serious about it and I am now taking a class called Weight Control and Exercise. In my class schedule I have 2 days per week where I have time set aside for exercise. This is exactly the structure I need. The teacher is going to help me figure out what different meals I can have in the dorms and still have steady weight loss.

I should have been taking this class since freshman year.

So tomorrow, January 18th 2005, I will embark on a new year of personal fitness. A year that will see me gain more knowledge about nutrition, exercise and a healthy lifestyle. I love to exercise. It gives me time to think and work things out and will become necessary in my life again. I also ate tofu for the first time today......I don't predict it becoming a pivotal part of my diet anytime soon.

Freemasonry Today

I want to expand on part of my introductory post. As I said, I am a member of the Masonic Lodge.

According to www.tryfreemasonry.com:
Freemasonry, also known generally as Masonry, is the oldest and largest fraternity in the world. No other organization has a man walk into a room full of strangers, anywhere on earth, and immediately receive welcome and honor as a friend and Brother.

I have experienced this firsthand. When I became a Mason in 2003, I was in college and decided to visit some lodges in the area. Even though I did not know anyone at the lodge, I was welcomed with a hearty handshake. Every man there was sincerely interested in getting to know me and keep in contact.

Masons in Indiana have several rules in place to keep the fraternity as a whole in line. First of all, no alcohol in the buildings. This helps to make sure that men are not relying on booze to have a good time. Second, no discussion of politics in lodge. Politics can divide a country easily and we don't want brothers to quarrel over politics. Also, this allows the Masonic fraternity to be neutral when it comes to politics.

There are more rules, but I feel that these two give the most accurate impression of what Freemasonry is all about. We want friendly discussion and good fellowship in a place where we can make good things happen in our communities. A few years ago, it was estimated that Freemasons donate around a million dollars every day to charities and communities in America. We tend to keep quiet about it because seeing the smile on the faces of people we help is recognition enough. I suppose we could be called America's Silent helper.

What do Freemasons really get out of membership? Friends. Lots and lots of friends. In these days where Americans are busier than ever, sometimes we can forget how important it is to spend quality time with people you care about and people that care about you. Almost anywhere you go in the world, one can find Masonic Lodges.

I hope this has provided a bit of an overview of Freemasonry. This is a brief description of the World of Masonry. There are many other organizations for young men and women, wives, etc. I encourage everyone to seek out more information about this community of men and women. For more information, see http://www.thelodgeroom.com/

Technology

I love technology. It is part of my every day life, and I sometimes wonder how I ever survived without it. Let me tell you about my average day. First, I wake up to music playing from my new 20 inch iMac G5 running iTunes. I get out of bed, put in my brand new contact lenses and check my email. Depending on the buzz at the moment, or the endless ranting on various mailing lists, it will take 5-20 minutes. Now, it's time to get ready for my day. I launch iCal and synchronize it with my palmpilot to make sure I have quick access to scheduling information at all times. I then sync my 12 inch powerbook with my iMac (all of this syncing is at the push of a button...(Thanks Apple!) so when I am in class, I can have up-to-the minute info about my own schedule. I go through my grooming routine, and finally, I leave.

Off to breakfast. I walk outside and around the building (I live in a dorm) to the dorm across the street for food. If the weather is nasty and the sky is grey, I am listening to my iPod. If the sky is blue, I am wondering why everyone else is listening to their iPods. I go get breakfast and pay for it with a swipe of my student ID (more technology). After breakfast I go off to class. Since the walk is always about 15 minutes thanks to IU's beautiful, large campus I always put my iPod on random and go with the flow. iPods can be quite good at predicting what kind of day I am going to have by playing songs with a common theme (bad, good, spiritual, fun).

In class, I take notes on my Powerbook using Microsoft Word 2004's Notebook view. Great technology. I record my professor's lecture and I type annotations that bookmark the audio file. Later when I review the material, I can skip to a section of the lecture by clicking on the corresponding notes. This is both very useful and cool. After class, I go to the IU Bookstore Computer Connections where my entrance is signaled by a greeting in unison of "Hey Mike!!". It feels like Cheers!

After classes and time at the store, I return home to my iMac, archive my email from the day and chat with my friends using iChat AV. Text, Audio, Video....iChat does it all. At this point in my life, typing is as natural as talking. I am not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing. At any rate, I usually chat until I am tired and then go to bed. Of course I don't go to sleep until iTunes is set to wake me up again for another fun filled day!

Hello World

Hello world, this is my first blog post.

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Mike Sassman and I am an Aries who likes a wide variety of stuff. From computer talk and scifi movies to fraternal organizations and history, I do just about everything.

I am a card carrying, ring wearing member of the Masonic lodge. Yes, I am a Mason. I like to think of it as my scholarly side because there is such an incredible amount of history. Masonry is not just about history and fish frys, the fellowship and fun that I have in this fraternity is amazing. I have met people from all around the world thanks to this fraternity. I know wherever I go in life, there will be a lodge of Masons where I can go and make friends. It's an awesome feeling. Along with my membership in the Masonic lodge is my position as Advisor for Indiana DeMolay. What is DeMolay you ask? It is another amazing worldwide organization for young men between the ages of 12 and 21. The members are organized into chapters and they work on civic projects as well as having fun in state-wide events. A lot of teenagers are looking for something more than what they get in school, and this is it. Check it out at www.demolay.org

I am also a student at Indiana University Bloomington studying Informatics. What? Informatics? Yes, it is a new major at Indiana University that concentrates on creating information systems that are more user friendly and training users on how to use computers more effectively. More simply, bringing computers and people together. This is not only my course of study, it is my passion. I love it when I can teach someone how to do something really cool on their computer and get the "oooh aaah" moment where you just know they understand. In my mind, it is the most rewarding thing in the world to teach technology to those who want to learn.

On the subject of technology, I might as well mention that I am a Campus Representative for Apple Computer at Indiana University Bloomington. Yes, I am a Mac user. Being a Campus Representative (CR) is an absolutely awesome experience. I get to work with people in an awesome company, make amazing friends at other universities, and sell a product that I believe in. I have made hundreds of customers happy and thankful that they chose a Mac. I love this job.

For you girls out there, I am a midwestern guy with strong family ties. I love animals (dogs especially), and they love me. My family has a cottage on a lake where we can all go to unplug. It is wonderful to watch the sun set over the water with fish jumping in the lake. I enjoy the little things in life. I can be just as happy sitting and watching a movie as I can be touring new cities and living the wild life. I guess you can say I am adaptable to any environment I get into.

If anyone has any questions about me, please post a comment!!