Surreptitious Opinionation

Well, I constructed my first (admittedly crude) spreadsheet to examine my financial future. It’s not looking stunningly bad, but it’s certainly not stunningly good. I do not anticipate an early retirement.

I should be out of credit card debt by the beginning of 2008, if I pay about $750/month, plus the minimums on other things. Adding that 750 to the minimum payment on my debt consoldation loan would rid me of my remaining commercial debt by the beginning of 2009. This is aggressive, but doable. The student loans will take longer, but really, at that interest rate, I’m not too worried.

I don’t really regret the course I’ve taken to be where I am. If I had anything to do over again, I’d have cut and run from computer science earlier. But I’ve met alot of fun people, and it’s been a foot in the door everywhere I’ve been, so maybe not even that. My inner accountant wails a bit, but he’s a quiet voice amid the hubub.

I would not give up on getting to know Ro, Simon, , , the bay area, , , etc, etc. The idea of unmaking me by losing those experiences just seems crazy.

I met yesterday, on a restaurant review trip. We checked out the Cobra Lounge. An interesting spot. The food is good. It’s basically a bar with food, in terms of selection. They did have an “choose your own” pasta, which is what I got. The food was good, the price reasonable and the service great, though it probably helped that we were the only people there.

is laconic, but friendly. Probably partially due to the brevity of our aquaintance. I look forward to getting to know him better.

In sadder news, it seems that my plans for burlington have suffered a bit of an oopsy. My host-that-might-have-been has a burning-man-in-the-woods event he’s going to called firefly. This means that almost all of the time is gonna be out there, Tom will be otherwise occupied. So, I could come for a period where I could hang out with one, then later hang out with the other, but I’d much rather have the chance to hang out with both simultaneously. I may just save my vermont trip for later.

I still want to hang out with Pittsburgh friends. But the lure of the unfamiliar Pacific Northwest is also high. Hmmm. So many options.

I had lunch with one of the gao folks. Good conversation. Then I dropped by the office and chatted with folks for a bit. I miss the place. Everyone so friendly, and smiling. Some annoyance with work. But it was an affectionate annoyance. They showed me my probable new cube, two down from my old cube, thus reducing the amount of unexpected passers-by. In fact, it’ll go from 3/4 of the bloody office seeing the back of my head, to my cube neighbor and people visiting one or the other of us. That’ll be cool. It was good to walk back in. I’m pretty sure this one will go well.

Well, this weekend has been good. I’ve hung out with , slept on his couch, cluttered his living room, etc. I got to meet and at last. And they’re fun, cute, and sweet people. You should definitely get to know them if you get the chance. I’ve eaten at the chicago diner and at the blind faith cafe with other internet strangers. That was yay.

I’ll be grabbing lunch with one of the assistant directors at the gao downtown. I expect more yays from company and less yays from food. I may also go to two-stepping lessons tonight. I’m sad to be in a town without a smoking ban, but come 2008, it’ll be better.

I’ve managed to avoid any significant pangs of post-grad-school panic. I can feel them scratching at the door from time to time, but I’m keeping them in check. My travel plans are starting to come together and make sense.

I’m having dangerous thoughts about getting back onto the MMORPG bandwagon, now that school is over. FFXI makes no sense because I could only spend a couple days on that, since I can only run it on my desktop. WoW is the obvious choice since it’s already installed on my laptop. But I’m wondering if I really want to have that kind of a distraction. Hmmmm.

Adios, amigos.

I have this sneaking suspicion that so long as I am lacking in contentment with who I am, I will continue to date people because I want to be like them instead of wanting to be with them. Fortunately, the two are not mutually exclusive and often coincide but the first is a terrible reason to date someone.

So, previously, my advisor compared students to rowers. Some did amazing work with crappy oar-substitutes, like disposable cups, challenging your notions of what is possible, even if what they do is not amazing in a broader sense. Others had state-of-the-art oars, but kept paddling in circles.

Guess which one she compared me to. At least it was a novel spin on “Stephen has so much potential, if only he’d apply himself.”

Well, at the peak of my last conversation with her, she extolled my virtues (fun guy, incredibly good at cross-linking/synthesizing information, etc, etc.) and said that some day they’d recognize that my virtues, and make me a manager.

Ouch.

I’m not sure which stings more. =)

Well, I feel like I ought to have a send-me-off thing. Mom and Granny are going to be in town starting on friday evening. Mom is _deathly_ allergic to fur. If she came into our house, because of the bunnies, she’d be leaving on a stretcher or in a body bag. So, can’t have her here. If I have the party friday afternoon, working people can’t come. I’m thinking like 9 or 10 would be a good party time. And if the neighbors don’t like it…. well, who cares, I’m leaving. =)

So all you minneapolis folks, party at my place in a week and 10 hours. =)

“midterm” tomorrow. Really more of a half semester final. Then I’m done with my grad school requirements. At least the pressing ones. I do need to turn in my agenda setting memo, from the beginning of the semester. Heh. Whoops. And put in a little more work revising the capstone document. Actually explaining my methodology instead of leaving it a bunch of pretty pictures with tables. Yeah, but I mean, really, it’s all over tomorrow. No more classes. I’m not sure who I am anymore. I gave up so much in the pursuit of this degree, and it’s now in sight, and I’m not feeling the warm and happy vibes. Graduation isn’t going to do it. I think spending time with friends and family will help.

I think that’s the thing I’ve missed most here. The social angle. Coming to MN early in the summer was probably a bad move for that. If I’d come at the same time as everyone else, I think I would have bonded with them more. *shrug* Oh well, no do-overs on life. =)

But I should take the time and effort to do the real happiness making things for me, rather than the easily obtained pleasures. Real happiness making: extended chat time with friends, preferably more than one at the same time (any wonder why I like LJ?); reading good books, but new ones. Stuff like that. Not that I’m giving up on video games or anything, just keeping them more in their place. =)

While browsing for Marry an American, I ran across this obnoxious website about why foreign women are better wives than american women. 1st, let’s say that gross over generalizations (contradictory between the multiple testimonies) are pretty insulting. Then let’s get into the attitudes these guys have towards women.

Weird, I say, weird.

so, the presentation for my capstone was today. Due to technical glitches and last minute this and that, it needs some serious revision (but not rewriting). Plus I have my agenda setting memo for gay marriage, a 20+ page team written paper on the renewable electricity standard, and a midterm all by thursday.

But the presentation was signed off on.

And ye ol prof has put our capstone project up for an award. Yay? =)

2 weeks until chicago, and no packing has begun. I am soooo screwed. =)