Category: Uncategorized

Wacky predictions regarding internet security. Basically, a ‘the sky will fall’ prediction, followed by the notion that either a) we will learn to do things right or b) we will restrict what can be done. I think there are alot of people who are a little too fond of the ‘sound of their own voice’ involved in this one.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/infojunkies/1126794.html

I hate my brain sometimes

Specifically, my tendency to latch onto some things like an iron jaw trap, and never let go.

Last night, it was my intention to do some job hunting, which was why I didn’t go to gaming. So, I went upstairs, discovered the Amazon email & was completely derailed from looking for anything else. I spent most of the evening reviewing C++ class inheritance, and the many meanings of ‘static’ (my brain got fed up with 3: static global, static local, static within class. Is static within template much like static within class?), because amazon was all about the C++, and it’s been a few years since I’ve made active use of classes. I’m pretty sure I learned stuff about multiple inheritance (yay programming languages roomie) that I never knew before. Having reassured myself that class hierarchies and language idiosyncraries did not scare me (beyond templates, which I’ve had less luck with than programming in ML (and that’s saying something)), I emailed the recruiter back with my portion of the “gee, that’d be nice” recruitment dance. And proceeded to do no other job hunting, but did advance my high level, diablo2x character … An Amazon 😉

I went to sleep, got up less than an hour later, and ate breakfast, then checked the time. Whoops. So much for my recent efforts to not eat late at night (and I’m seeing results from it, I’ll keep with it, though I wonder how much of those results are purely in my head). Back to sleep, up at 3:15, and still not back to bed. Considering the ramifications of potentially being hired by Amazon. And coming to terms with the fundamental conflict between ‘very much in debt and wanting to get out of it soon’ and ‘I wanna go to grad school soon.’ Were I to join up with Amazon, I would also be quite tempted to stay until I vested, ie, at least a year or two, which would probably mean that my current applications would be irrelevant. Ugh. Of course, I could just take classes locally in Seattle, evening classes on an occasional basis, which would provide me with more certainty as to my educational choices, opportunities for more academic references (and better ones at that), and, of course, a chance to haul my ass out of debt. It’d be kinda cool to make beaucoup money in an urban center, then go to college rurally and live it up, buy myself a condo type thing in ‘downtown’ Ithaca, NY, or Burlington, VT, or wherever, having housing taken care of, and a stipend as a Doctoral Student.

Plus, hey, Seattle, not an armpit. Amazon may very well not suck as much as Motorola, and judging by mapquest they seem to have their headquarters located in an area where I wouldn’t hate my life (a mile or two north and east of the airport, ?).

And, on the gripping hand, this may all be totally irrelevant, as I got this info less than 12 hours ago, all of which have been non-business hours. I may never hear back from Amazon again, and I may get run over by a bus tomorrow on the way to work (chances of which increase as sleep decreases), but having expressed much of my internal conflict, maybe I can get some bloody sleep now. (5:30am, dear gods, someone sedate me.)

advantages of public transportation

Cute, darker skinned, east asian-y(?, I am so not good at pinning down ethnicities) looking guy with goatee, and a clearly homemade bike, wearing spiky metal bits on leather belt & wrist band, maybe a couple years younger than me? Sits down facing me a few seats away. Eye contact, smile, look away… look back, smile bigger, rinse, lather, repeat, like 3 times. I get up, sit by him, and conversation ensues. He gives me his email address. Woo. =)

Berkeley application & quigley recommendation

So, I get home from work today to an email declaring that I haven’t sent them transcripts, gre scores, and all three letters of recommendation. So, I immediately tried calling them (fuck voicemail) and then walked down the hill to have a little heart to heart with the relevant parties.

Ya see, I’m a returning applicant. They already have all that stuff. Furthermore, I included a letter of recommendation from Ro, in the package they recieved. Grrr. The young lady there (assistant admissions person, she looked familiar, I think she was in my class) was apologetic and helpful, and said she’d do all the right things. I’ll be printing out another letter of recommendation from Ro and having him sign it.

I also zoomed on over to professor quigley’s office, knocked on his door, and asked for him to write me a letter of recommendation. He said, basically “sure, but I’m busy now come back and talk to me about it later.” Woo. Appointment with him a week from tomorrow at 7:30am. Joy. I can now put him on my cornell application and complete it. Before their (thursday) deadline. (2, 2 on time applications, ah, ah, ah…)