The strip mall near my apartment had a store I had never heard of, A.J. Wright.  I finally decided to see what it was.  You know how a copy of a copy looks a little grainier and isn’t as nice?  A.J Wright is like a TJ Maxx of a TJ Maxx.  There’s a decidedly urban demographic being marketed to with the clothing selection, but the housewares stuff was decent if erratic.  If I ever have little things I need where I don’t really care about quality, I might check them out again.  I will avoid the sale boxes outside, though.  It’s like a herd of chickens fighting over a piece of garbage.

There’s also a Blockbuster in the stripmall, although disappointingly not one of the locations that’s being closed.  I passed by one of the closing ones recently and decided to check it out for any deals.  It was the first time I’d been in a video rental store since college (before, even; I’m racking my brain to think of the last time I’d been in one and it’s at least since high school).  It was odd seeing one so empty, but over all it was lie a crappy garage sale; everything you’d want is already gone and what’s left sucks.  I have never seen so many crappy direct-to-dvd movies and incomplete boxsets.  sidenote: to the person that bought discs 3 and 4 but not discs 1, 2, 5, or 6 of Bones season 4, I hate you.  This goes doubly for the person who left only disc two of Mad Men season 1.

I’ve been twittering more often than I”ve been blogging.  I like the small format, as it allows for more spur-of-the-moment content (although I’m going to try more of that here as well).  A few highlights:

I guess I missed this entering the modern canon:

No magnets at the Museum of Science (WTF), but there was this awesomeness (which is now taped to my fridge):

And finally: food.  Cooking’s become a way to relieve stress and release tension after work.  Even if I leave the office feeling over my head (a feeling which becomes rarer with each day on the job).  Here’s a slideshow of what I’ve been making.  Although I tend to be fairly precise, I’ve suprised myself with the way I’ve been thinking like a cook rather than a baker in terms of flavor profiles and improvisation.  The salad with the roast beef was completely improvised from what was on hand (although I found a recipe for the viniagrette after deciding to make one), and I’ve already turned some of the sauce into a spread for sandwiches later this week.

Have a Kickass Senior Project

Mission Fucking Accomplished.  I couldn’t be prouder of the final product my team produced for our senior project client.  Our client was blown away by the work we did, out adviser was blown away that our client was blown away, and in the end we all got expensive steaks at a very nice restaurant in Terre Haute.  Did we get top senior project, as was my ultimate goal?  No, and while I don’t entirely agree with one of the projects that received the award, I think we got something better.  The week of final project presentations to the juniors, my project adviser (who I have as professor in another class), wouldn’t stop talking about how great my project went.  It came up at least once in every session that week.  I may not have gotten my team on the best project plaque, but I left an indelible mark in our adviser’s memory, and that’s just as good.  I can’t wait to see what’s done with our final product — we were 85% of the way to a professional iPhone app.  The extra 15% shouldn’t be hard to finish on their end.

Get a Job

When Liberty Mutual didn’t work out, I was bummed.  It was the closest I had gotten, but it didn’t go all the way.  I think I knew in the interview, though, that the job wasn’t entirely right for me.  Following up on a job I had applied to using the career center’s website, I got an interview for a QA position with Veson Nautical.  The interview was with a Rose alum, and while things seemed to go good, I had that same feeling of not quite fitting things.  I think my interviewer felt the same way, but he suggested another role at Veson they were hiring for.  I agreed to an interview — the position had the mix of software skills and technical documentation skills I was looking for.  I interviewed for that position a week later, and it went really well.  I knew coming out of the phone interview I was being flown out, and it was confirmed only a couple hours later.  I’ve never had things go that fast with a company.  In mid-April I flew out and interviewed for the position.  I ended up talking with about 1/3 of the company by the end of the day, and had a really good feeling that I had found the right place, even if it wasn’t Seattle like I had been working towards.  After about a week of waiting, I got an offer, which I accepted.  I have a job now!  In an exciting locale!  Everything is coming together and it feels great.  Now to find an apartment.

Cook at least once a month

This wasn’t a goal so much as a reminder to keep being awesome even when CS’s cooking got me down.  I made awesome tacos, shepherd’s pie, chicken soup, and all sorts of other wonderful recipes.  Going to keep this up as I start living on my own, probably with even more frequency.  I should start taking more photos of what I make, though.  That’s a good new goal: more food photos.

Be More Social/Go Out More

I’m still working on this.  SNL Saturdays are good, but as I move to a city where I’m unfamiliar with most people, I need to start doing more to meet people.  Here’s to another year of going outside my comfort zone.

And that’s it, for now.  More blogging when I’m less consumed by packing and moving.  And graduation.

It’s been clear Liberty Mutual has liked me as a candidate.  They reached out to me pre-career fair in January, they followed up a few days after our initial interview instead of a couple weeks as I had been told, and they flew me, all costs paid, to Seattle.  I’m really glad they did, too–it’s made me want to work for them even more.  I can’t discuss the details of my interviews, but I left feeling confident in how I had presented myself, and felt I really clicked with the interviewers.

It’s been over a week since I went, and I think I’m still processing all that went on in that short period.  I’m going to bullet-point a few observations, then talk about what was probably the best 20 minutes I spent in my time in Seattle.

• Holy crap.  I’m an adult now.  That didn’t register with me until I realized I was going to be driving to the airport, flying to a city I hadn’t been to before, and renting a car and hotel room by myself, all in a 2 day period.
• I love living in the age of the internet.  Made me feel totally confident about all of the above travel details.  Not only can I get driving directions and the trip details (Liberty had my entire itinerary in one spot–quite nice), but I can look for landmarks to ease my drives and check out the hotel’s policies beforehand.
• The Hotel Monaco in Seattle is awesome.  They made my (brief) stay really nice, the room was easily the nicest I’ve every been in, and the front desk people/valet made checking in/out a breeze when I’d never done either by myself before.
• That said, I’m still not used to being called Mr. Smith.  Not sure I ever will be.
• Walking in the rain was unpleasant, but meeting with Nick Ohrn for coffee was a highlight of the trip.  I got to see the Seattle Public Market (at least the entrance) on my walk to the coffee place.  Really got me pumped up for the interviews the next day.
• The first part of the flight back was awesome.  I got to watch Planet 51 (not the best movie, but perfect for a flight, and it had its moments), 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation instead of wearing out the battery of my iPod.  It was a nice change.  The second flight, a regional one, was less enjoyable, mostly because the plane was so much smaller.

Okay, enough summary.  Onto my favorite part of the trip (also coffee is a close second): going to the Central Library.

I got back to my hotel at 11:30 or thereabouts.  I quickly changed clothes and packed things up, then headed down to the front desk to see if I could check out a half hour later than the listed time.  This was alright, so I headed across the street to the library.  Nick recommended I check it out if I had the time (and I didn’t need to head to the airport until about 1 at the latest), so I took the chance.  Totally worth it.  The building is an amazing structure on the outside, but it’s just as beautiful on the inside.  It feels like you’re in a sanctuary for literature and information, and I wish I had a little more time to just sort of soak in the grandeur of the space.  With the time I had, I went almost to the top (there was a tour group in the way of the highest point of the library), navigated some of the book spiral (this is an awesome way to organized the books in a constant loop), and bought souvenirs of my time in the city at the bookstore. The volunteer that rang up my purchases asked what brought me to the library.  I explained the purpose of my trip, which impressed her and the other volunteer.  She gave me a 10% off coupon for the next time I’m at the library’s gift shop — clearly she thinks I’ll be back.

As fast as it went by, I loved the time I spent in Seattle.  Now I’m just looking forward to hearing back from Liberty.

To start, a few that don’t require much explanation besides a bullet-point mention:

• Having a single
• Volleyball (finally made it to playoffs)
• Grades (3 A’s and a B+)
• Getting a literature minor (a third one I wasn’t expecting to get until I found out I qualified this fall)

Now for those that require a little more explanation.

All of my other favorite awesome things have to do with my goals I set at the beginning of the year and modified at the midpoint.  Since this section’s going to need a little more reading than the previous section, here’s one of my favorite “blocks” of songs I played on Audiophonic this term.

I am still having a kickass senior project.  Development, while a little difficult at times because we’re unfamiliar with the platform, is enjoyable, and everyone has really had a hand in creating the final product.  I haven’t done much work on the game mechanics side of things, but the UI, learning to use interface builder, and making sure views transition correctly is all my handiwork (although the transitions got a major boost from another part of the team).  I can’t overstate how great our client has been through this whole process–he’s a Rose grad, so he knows that while we get stressed at times, we always produce great work.  There’s a great feeling knowing that even though your client travels a lot, even though you usually get his out of office email reply when you send him a status update, your questions/comments/requests WILL get a response within 48 hours.  Usually much sooner.  He’s responsive, he understands how we feel about feature creep (and hates to do it, but his ideas usually ARE good), and most importantly, he understands how busy we are.  That said, it felt really good to know that we blew him away with what we had done for the version of the iPhone app that was presented at the Senior Projects Expo.  Knowing that he felt really glad with what we had to show him going into the expo really made me feel confident it what my team’s doing.

The expo itself was great–our advisor, knowing our team’s potential to do something creative for the expo, encouraged us to go beyond the typical presentation.  We didn’t get everything we wanted to have at our table, but were still happy with what we came up with.  Our first goal was to have our poster stand out.  Using some of the original graphics from the game for our title/section headers made it fit in with the game, and the backgroun made sure things would stand out.  Our game is primarily targeted at a female audience, and as such, is pink.  We had one of two options with the presentation of the game:

1. Embrace the pink
2. Be Lame

We chose to take option 1.  I knew exactly which poster was ours when I went to pick it up from the printer–the inside of the tube was intensely pink.  I started having some doubts about whether it was too pink–I wanted something that would stick out, but not be retina-searing.  That seemed bad.  I made the executive decision to have another poster printed up with the game’s original gradient (which isn’t as intense, and still looked good), and brought the first version of the poster to our advisor meeting.  Our advisor thought it looked fine and actually liked it.  After talking with him and the group before our teleconference with our client, I sort of went back on my initial overreaction, but it still seemed like a good idea to have the second poster made.  That way we could decide as a group which background better represented the game.  The second poster got botched–no background was visible at all.  We wanted a pink background over a white one, so the carzy poster stayed.  And I’m sort of glad it did.  After four years of looking at the senior project posters, I didn’t expect my legacy in the department to be a giant pink poster, but I’m not sure I’d want it any other way now.  If nothing else, it’s certainly had the faculty talking (Sriram told me point blank at lunch that he didn’t realize how pink the poster was until after the expo).

We also wanted to have some sort of video loop going at the presentation showing the game in action, but couldn’t find good free screen capture software for the mac that didn’t leave a watermark or export solely to Flash.  Our replacement, a powerpoint file that did the same thing and showed the changes between our version and the original game, actually ended up working better and probably was more professional looking than our video would have been.  We also had a soundtrack (well, an iTunes playlist of appropriately-themed songs) for our booth–perhaps not the most innovative of things, but it was another touch I thought our display should have, and aside from adjusting the volume, it seemed to go over well.

The projects got featured on the news and on the RHIT website.  The local news stayed for what felt like 30 seconds and only talked to the booth next to us (doing an educational-themed project that hasn’t tested its interface with actual educators, as far as I know, which seems like an egregious mistake) before disappearing completely.  We got featured because we were setting up in the background and had an iPhone project.  iPhone is still a buzzword.  The news likes buzzwords.  The reporter from the Rose-Hulman PR office was a little better–he talked with our group for about 15 minutes and took a photo of our whole group, but none of the information we gave him or the picture showed up in the actual report.  He assumed both of the mobile groups are working on the iPhone (not true) and left it there because of the secret nature of our projects.  Oh well.  At least we got press.

The other awesome thing in my life right now pertains to that whole “get a job” goal I’ve had all year.  The endgame.  The goal at the end of all this schooling.  I’ve actually got a company pursuing me, and it feels amazing.  A week before the career fair (which I wasn’t planning on attending–none of the companies interested me), I got an email from a Liberty Mutual representative letting me know they’d be at the career fair, the career services office had emailed them my resume, and they were interested in seeing me as a result.  I was thrilled, especially when I learned they had an office in Seattle and a rotational program that appealed to me.  I talked with them at the fair, they seemed interested, and by the end of the week I had been asked to interview in the career services office a couple weeks later.

The more I looked at their website, the more Liberty Mutual fit as a company.  I’m a math dork–others in my major have avoided any additional math courses beyond what was required of them, but I’ve embraced the additional courses.  There’s something really cool about how you can use math to model most things, so I’ve pursued minors in math and computational science, both of which will come in handy–Liberty Mutual is a company that has a lot of data coming in, and knowing how to use that data and creat models from it seems like a particularly handy skill.  I’m hoping I can bring that to them should they hire me.

Anyways, the interview rolls around, and despite maybe needing a haircut, I looked good (or at least something approaching professional).  I don’t recall everything the interviewer and I talked about (and probably shouldn’t, in case there’s a non-disclosure in place), but I do remember a fun part of the interview.  My interviewer saw that I was a DJ at WMHD and asked me to announce one of my favorite songs (I chose 24 Hours) in 10 seconds.  Despite some initial fumbling when I tried to give some background on why I chose the group, I apparently impressed him with my delivery–I sounded “like I’d had plenty of practice” doing that (a year of doing that for 2 shows certainly helped).

I was told I’d hear back in about 2 weeks.  I had a positive response by Friday of the same week.  I must have done something right.  they were prepared to have me do another interview, but needed to know which position I wanted to pursue, a software developer role in Seattle or a Systems Analyst position elsewhere (my work this summer was of a somewhat SA-related nature).  I was confused-I thought the first rotation was a business rotation.  After some emailing back and forth, it turns out I wasn’t able to get into that program (they were filling the last position for that already), and this was a similar, non-rotational program.  I was a little disappointed, but I seem to remember the interviewer saying something about the possibility of getting in on the other program the next time it rolls around as an employee, so all is not lost.  that sort of sealed things for me–I was going to pursue the position in Seattle, as it fit closer with my skillset/goals.  That interview’s coming up sometime this month.  I’m pumped, partially because I get flown out, partially because this seems like a good fit.

So there we have it. Awesome things.  Hopefully I won’t be quite as swamped next term–it’s taken me 3 days to get this post together.  Looking to spring (my last quarter at Rose–amazing it’s already come so fast.  It feels like only a year ago I was moving onto campus and starting a livejournal for back home).  After a term of having a single, I will have another roommate this term–an exchange student.  We’ve talked briefly on Facebook, and things seem to be getting along well.  Hopefully when we meet face to face on Sunday that feeling continues.  On to the final lap–it’s not a victory lap, yet; I’ve still got 10 more weeks to push myself hard to reach the finish.

Here’s what’s in store after the jump:

• Cold Drinks with Cool Profs
• Senior Project Presentations
• In-Person Client Meeting
• I avert disaster
• Finals Week
• Driving Home/Break

I finally got a chance to go to Cold Drinks with Cool Profs.  Hooray for finally being of age!  I’ve wanted to go ever since they were first announced sophomore year–not for the alcohol, but for the opportunity to socialize with my fellow CS/SE majors and profs.  I’ve realized for some time that while I don’t entirely “fit in” with my peers in regards to my interests and career goals, and I don’t want to completely ostracize myself from them.  Problem: I’m kind of awkward in larger-sized social situations.  I like smaller groups, to say the least.  I wasn’t completely out of my depth that night, though–my entire senior project team was there, so I hung out with them and we talked much of the night, eventually joined by our advisor (who continues to be awesome) and a few other students.  I left a bit early with  the member of my group I rode over with (I had no idea where the pub was, and trying to find it at night didn’t seem to be the best strategy), relaxed and ready for the next day’s presentations.

Things learned at CDwCP:

1. Whatever beer I sampled was not to my taste at all.
2. I should find out the name of what I’m sampling before I take some so I can remember not to get it again.
3. Strongbow cider is more to my taste preference.  This is my occasional drink of choice for the time being.

Senior project presentations went really well.  Radio has done wonders for my presentation skills–I’m still a little nervous when presenting, but nowhere near as bad as I used to be.  Since last time one of our group members was wearing a suit (he had an interview the same day), I felt I should continue the tradition and at least wear a blazer.  Aside from some minor technical difficulties when demoing our prototype (the simulator was offscreen when the laptop resolution changed, so we had to make a quick fix), we handled ourselves well and were able to answer any questions.  Our client had previously signed off on our use cases, and was very pleased with the job I had done organizing them.  I’m really happy with where we’re at, and although some of the documentation I had hoped to get done by quarter’s end is still unfinished, we’re at a really good place going into this next quarter.

I don’t want to badmouth any of the other teams, but I was really confused by one of the projects.  Two teams are working on a mega-project, one part of the team developing a game maker for educators and another team developing an online distribution system for games created with the game maker.  On paper, this seems like a good idea–educators working from the same textbooks could prepare a game like jeopardy or something that could be shared.  However, in the demo of their project, I’m not sure they’ve done enough to make their program easy to use.  They’ve changed the names of programming concepts such as “objects” and “actions” into theater terms such as “actors”, “costumes”, “props”, etc., but it’s really not clear how one is supposed to use/create any of these things.  While game ideas such as Jeopardy and Number Munchers were tossed out, the demo they did made neither of these.  Looking at it from the perspective of an educator, it still looks far too complicated–I wouldn’t spend the time to make a game when I can just develop questions and draw a jeopardy grid on the whiteboard.  They mentioned getting a group of educators to act as some sort of advisory committee–I hope they find some and soon before they make something no one will want to use.

With the presentation out of the way, there was only one more major event for senior project this term: meeting the client.  Originally I wanted to ask our client some questions about our non-functional requirements, but once I learned the project manager of the other team being sponsored by our client had suggested Sonka’s Pub (again), I realized this was less formal meeting, more informal getting-to-know-you.  I made a note to e-mail the client my questions in the morning.  The best thing I did pre-meeting: Google search the client’s name to figure out what he looked like.  This was amazingly helpful when there are 8 people who know they’re meeting one of the higherups at this company, but don’t know who he is.  As soon as he entered the back area of Sonka’s we were all gathered in, I immediately recognized him and waved him over.  Our client (let’s call him B as continually typing out “our client” is getting a bit ridiculous) is AMAZING.  So collected, so funny, so warm with all of us.  I was envisioning something more formal, but just shooting the shit with him for a couple of hours about Terre Haute, Rose, our projects, etc. was amazingly relaxing.  When he offered to buy drinks, I remembered what I had learned Tuesday and got a Strongbow (I didn’t drive) to enjoy over the course of the night.  I wasn’t drunk, but the drink helped loosen me up a bit so I wasn’t quite so tense with B.  I’d like to think I made a good impression on him.

There’s been a minor revolt in our kitchen.  CS’s cooking has caused 2 of the 6 who normally dine in our apartment on weekends to go out when it’s his turn.  If I have to lay down one more time from eating something he’s put too much salt in, that number will rise to 3.  He was scheduled to cook this week, and when he was describing what he was planning, something involving linguine and peanut sauce, it didn’t look too well.  His logic behind the choice of recipe (I use that term loosely–I have yet to see CS use a recipe when cooking) was that it was low-fat.  I jokingly accused him of saying I had a weight problem, and he said he had been to Baskin-Robbins.  This is a person who has to get belts in the boys section of Walmart because he can not find the right length in the men’s section.  I can find belts in the men’s section, and I’m only slightly larger than he is.  The claim that we need something low fat is ridiculous.  The night he was scheduled to cook, however, he came in at 5 needing something different, since he’d have to get a lot of stuff at Walmart.  I suggested we make chicken cacciatore with some pre-made sauce I had that only needed chicken and pasta, since it’d be quicker and feed the people he had invited from next door.  I went with him to get groceries, then came back and made dinner while he did the dishes that were in the sink.  At dinner, many compliments were paid to our “collaboration”, as CS put it.  To be fair, he collaborated by driving me to walmart so he could get stuff from the pharmacy section of walmart while I gathered the ingredients and cooked dinner, but I’ve learned to choose my battles at this point.  Disaster temporarily averted.

Finals week wasn’t bad.  I only had a paper and a take-home exam due for my lit classes that Tuesday before I was free to go.  The take-home final was done by 11 am Monday, and I completed 3 of the 5-6 pages I needed for the paper by 2.  I wanted to get in to the prof’s office to have him look at what I had written and the direction I was going before he got swamped with requests, so I headed over to his office, expecting a max wait of 30 minutes.  I waited for an hour and a half (the person before me took 45 minutes to have their paper looked at), but it was totally worth it.  After giving me some good pointers on correcting what I had and suggesting some places to push myself, the prof brought up that I almost have a minor in lit.  After this term, I’ll have gained another minor by accident.  That will be three minors total by the end of the year.  I’m pumped about that–I’ve taken classes that have interested me and managed to profit from them.  I’ve really liked Dr. Taylor as a professor–he’s pushed me as a writer because he knows what I’m capable of.  Hopefully my final paper lived up to that potential.  I’m proud of how I did in all my classes–A in senior project and romanticism, B+ in Computational Science, and B in Modernism, and a GPA that’s now getting close to 3.25 territory.  Now to keep this momentum going.

The drive back went pretty well.  It was raining in a lot of Illinois/Wisconsin, but I can handle rain.  The last part of the drive felt like it took forever–I’m sorry, Wisconsin, but you’re boring.  Really boring.  Break’s been pretty uneventful–I’ve done some Objective-C work so I can be of better use during the coding part of the project this term, gone to the chiropractor, gotten my hair cut.  Thanksgiving was fun–since my aunt that usually does Thanksgiving is moving soon, we just did things for ourselves.  The recipe for turkey with stuffing we used from Alton Brown was fantastic, and the stuffing was delicious (I particularly liked that it used dried cherries), and the pumpkin pie we got from Costco was probably the size of my head in diameter, if not larger.  All in all, a good meal that I’m happy to have helped with.  Met up with an old friend from high school today for coffee and a (bad 80s) movie, and although I was really nervous (something they picked up on), I think it went well for the most part.  As I was driving them home, I was entirely honest with them, and things seem to have been reciprocated.  I’m going to try to move things a little further next break when we get together again.  If nothing else, now I know I can call anytime and should message more often.

I’m ready to head back to Rose and attack winter term.  The drive may be long, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the apartment as well.

As a bonus for getting through this blog entry, here’s what I listened to while I composed it:

• Half of My Heart, John Mayer
• Cheap Kicks, Noisettes
• Fire On High, Electric Light Orchestra
• Assassin, John Mayer
• Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Radiohead
• The Fear, Lily Allen
• Every Now and Then, Noisettes
• Too Much Food, Jason Mraz
• We Talk Like Machines, Savoir Adore
• Portions for Foxes, Rilo Kiley
• Party Hard, Andrew W.K.
• Effigy, Andrew Bird
• Too Blue, 7 Worlds Collide
• In My Place, Coldplay
• Fences, Phoenix
• Don’t Stop Believing, Glee Cast

It started when D’s parents brought a giant orange pumpkin with them when they came to visit.  CS traditionally brings a shite-ton of pumpkins every year after fall break to give away to people because his family grows far too many of them (at least that’s what he claims), and D had scooped him.  It was hilarious.  After fall break (which I spent with D and his family), no pumpkins emerged when CS returned.  It was eerie.  D and I had brought back a white pumpkin for D’s gf.  Again, scooped, or so we thought.

CS had brought back pumpkins, but he was storing them at his girlfriend’s room in another dorm (she has a single).  20 or so went to her sorority, and the rest appeared in the hallway yesterday.  CS chose the largest one because it was all gnarled and “no one else would want it”.  BS.  He just wanted to compete with D’s pumpkin.  I jokingly told D that CS had “pumpkin envy”.  We laughed, partially because it was possibly true, but also because the pumpkin D brought was one of the SMALL ones from his family, and CS’s largest was barely larger.

In my own way, I think I’ve felt a bit of pumpkin envy.  There’s one member of the senior class who isn’t in my major but takes enough of the classes that he’s probably got a minor.  I’ll call him 1-up, since that’s what he always seems to do when I talk with him.  I hate 1-up, but whenever I see him he’s always talking about the offers he’s received or the interviews he’s being flown out for.  And I get jealous–I’ve heard back from Microsoft and Epic, with both saying they’re going to pursue other candidates, and I’m trying to find other places to apply now that my first  choices aren’t really an option.  I know I shouldn’t let his talk hurt me, but it makes me feel just as inadequate as a SE as the pumpkins D brought made CS feel.

I guess if there’s anything to pull from this, it’s that I shouldn’t do what CS did last night.  He carved about 4 or 5 pumpkins which are outside our room.  He’s showing off, and it’s not making him look any better.

Well, for starters, I realized that I wasn’t that great of a programmer.  I’m competent now, but winter of freshman year, I really slipped up with some concepts in CSSE220 and ended up not doing so well in the class.  That class nearly broke me–I considered switching majors (to math), but I decided to give it one more chance in the fall of sophmore year before I completely gave up my dreams of working with computer software.  At the advice of my advisor that spring, since I was looking at doing some form of international experience at the beginning of Junior Year (starting in July and going through November in someplace like Australia), it was suggested I take 371, as I’d likely not find a similar class abroad.  I got special permissions to take the course–I hadn’t taken CSSE230, but the course was mostly writing and didn’t require programming knowledge.  So I took it–felt way out of my depth with the first assignment, but once I got my weird panic in check, I did well on the assignment and continued with the class.  Without that class, I wouldn’t have met my future boss (Nick Ohrn), and I probably wouldn’t have learned that I’m basically awesome when it comes to requirements documentation.  That class re-ignited my passion for Software Engineering–I realized that there are more stages that just coding to professional software development and that I could find a place even if my coding skills weren’t as strong as some of my peers.

I took CSSE372 that year, too–it didn’t seem fair to abandon my project teammate in the next class if the project was to continue.  Then it was announced that projects would be switching between quarters, as would the teams.  My new teammate was the project manager for our project, and didn’t do the best job with it–I remember getting emails 5 minutes apart, one praising my work and the other telling me to step it up.  It was mixed messages, to say the least.  There were a lot of times where I felt I could have done a better job, but we did the best job we could and finished the course.  If nothing else, I learned where to improve my own skills when leading a project.  That’s about the time I realized I wanted to be what Microsoft calls a Program Manager–I need to be knowledgeable about code and what developers are capable, but my strengths lie more in defining the project’s scope and requirements and keeping people on task so that things get done on time and under budget.

The career fair was this past Wednesday, and I had a pretty good outcome from it.  One of the companies I’m looking at seemed really confused by my applying for what they call a PM, though–they don’t consider it a technical position.  The rep was almost nasty with me, trying to force me to apply for the software developer position instead and claiming that they only hire business majors for the position.  I knew for a fact their website listed the position under software jobs (also noting it was open to “all majors”) and that what the job entailed was a perfect fit with what I had been doing this summer, but was so flustered by her attitude that I didn’t bring it up.  I was offered an interview on the spot, and I accepted her offer–it was the first time that had happened at a career fair for me, so I was excited to get that.  The next day, I was fortunate enough to interview with the other person from the company at the fair–one of their developers.  I made sure he knew I was interested in the PM position, and although he was more receptive when I gave him my reasons, he still seemed skeptical that someone “with as much technical knowledge as [me]” would want this non-technical job.  I tried my best to explain to him the benefits of having a technical person who can “speak customer” in this role would be–someone like this can be an advocate for the customer’s needs with developers and an advocate for the developer’s limitations with the customer.  I’m not sure I’m the person the company’s looking for, but I’ve been invited to the next step of the process.  I guess we’ll see.

On another note, when I got back from the career fair, I had an invitation to interview by phone with Microsoft waiting for me–I had worried with them not being at the career fair my application would be lost in the pile of all the other online applicants.  Here’s hoping that one goes well–I’d love to get to second round with them this year.

CS made steaks again.  Clearly, last time failed and he has something to prove, but making the exact same thing as you did last time doesn’t exactly instill confidence in your audience.

I guess, to be fair, I should explain other things that have built this feeling up.  CS and his girlfriend rarely, if ever, try/eat any sort of sweet baked good that D, D’s girlfriend, or myself have made.  There’s been a few exceptions (he had a piece of the bread pudding I made last night), but for the most part there’s been no reciprocation for us eating what they’ve baked.  This is strike 1.

There’s also been a constant debate about the oven.  CS is a perfect cook–it is the equipment he uses that is to blame.  When the oven is set to 350, it clearly isn’t at 350, because the oven thermometer that he placed in there to check says it isn’t at 350.  Nevermind the fact that an oven circulates around a temperature rather than staying directly at that temp (I haven’t had to take heat transfer and even I know how an oven works).  Nevermind, even, that D, D’s girlfriend, and myself have baked cookies/a cake/biscuits/bread pudding at the listed temperature in our various recipes and had things come out fine; occasionally, things take an additional minute or two, but this is par for the course with any oven.  Clearly it is the oven that is broken, and not the baker.  This is strike 2.

Then there’s communal groceries.  One person buys, everyone pays for food that the entire group will be eating/drinking.  Everyone’s been pretty good about paying, except for CS.  CS “doesn’t carry cash” and tries to pay me in groceries/stuff/whatever–this is not the same.  When reminded of a mythical machine somewhere on campus that provides money with the swipe of a card, CS is hesitant to go.  When I remind him that they take credit cards too, he mentions something about interest rates (he’s always quick to use his card, but at the slightest mention of using it to pay me back, suddenly interest is an issue).  When I mention another rumored device, pieces of paper issued by a bank that work similar to cash when written on and given from one person to a merchant or other person, CS replies that his are at home.  I finally get a promise to get me cash tomorrow using a debit card and an ATM.  This is strike 3.

As you can see, I have plenty to be irritated about.  I’ve been pretty patient about all of this, but something finally snapped tonight after dinner.  CS and his girlfriend were making chocolate chip cookies.  The last time they did this, the cookies were semi-burnt and tasted awful, but CS, girlfriend, and some friend of CS thought they were FANTASTIC and wouldn’t shut up about how great they were.  Because these cookies were “like crack”, CS and his girlfriend started on another batch after dinner.  When I walked out into the main room, they were discussing oven temp.  I don’t know why this of all things incited me, but it did.

I suggested they bake the cookies at 350 like their recipe said.  CS argued with me using the arguments from last time of “the oven doesn’t heat up…I know it’s supposed to circulate, but ours is still off”.  I brought up the track record, amongst other reasoned arguments, but everytime I’d bring something up, he’d start up again with “Actually,…”.  I have enough fun playing the “Actually,…” game with my sister at home; when it happens, it usually ends with me saying “Actually, [sister], I don’t care.”  but those weren’t the words that came out of my mouth when CS and I were talking.

Instead, what I said was “Actually, CS, I don’t give a shit.”  Something like a “Then why are you making a fuss about it” came out but by that time I had started going back to my room, too focused about getting away from the negative energy to throw out a “because I have to suffer through your terrible baking” or something similar, but more vulgar (given the mood I was in, this is likely).

Do I feel bad about saying this? Yes.  Did it feel good to say it? Yes.  I just wish I could have thought a bit before shooting my mouth off.  Oh well.  Time to let it roll off my back and move on with a more positive outlook.

The movie was good, but it was what we saw on the way back that was better.  Driving down the road in was what appeared to be a modified go-kart or golf cart.  Plywood/MDF had been placed around the back, listing hours and location of a barber shop.  Music clearly taken from an ice cream truck was playing as he drove down the road with his small, baked-potato sized dog in his lap on a seatbelt harness.

I look forward to being the age where driving a contraption such as this along with my dog seems like a good idea for drumming up business.

That changed after lunch today.

A few of my good friends are part of the Jewish Culture club on campus, which had a table in the lobby because today was Rosh Hashanah (hereafter abbreviated as RH), the Jewish New Year.  He caught D and I on our way out of lunch, asking us to take  RH with him, and that it would only take a minute.  I had wanted to ask him why, for a second week in a row, there wasn’t a music column in the paper (I’ve written one, as has another DJ, and we figured at least one would be in the paper this week), but decided to wait until after what he had to say.

One of the symbolic foods of RH is an apple slice dipped in honey, representing the sweet things in the year to come.  As we had our apple, he talked about how it was sweet, perhaps too sweet, but just right.  He then told us to think about the good things, the things that drive us to do better, for at least the rest of the day, if not the rest of the year.  And that resonated with me, enough so that I no longer cared that my music review wasn’t in the paper for two weeks in a row.  And the message also made me feel at peace.  And I think it did that for D too, who’s been dealing with even more shit than I have recently.

Will the bad stuff continue to happen?  I’m sure it will, especially with my current suitemates and their various hangers-on.  But I think I’m going to try and keep the RH message in mind–focus on the good that happens and the things that drive me–to get through it.