To continue with random bursts my thoughts, here is a bit more of what is new and exciting with me -

In a few weeks, I'm off to spend almost a week in San Francisco, clocking in more JetBlue miles (to no avail - I won't be able to get the free round-trip ticket) to spend my spring break mingling with folks. A rough itinerary is thrown together, but it will get packed with fun lunches, dinners and drinks with people. I'm psyched to be staying at the Hotel Boheme, right in the middle of North Beach. The prices were excellent and right around the corner was where I used to live, so a smidge of comfort of being around my old stomping grounds of last spring and summer will come back to me.

I do have a dopplr.com account and I did tag that I'm going out west but I simply don't travel enough nor do I know many people around the country that would use such a service to maintain contacts who are a bit more "mobile". It's neat, but I'm stuck with the problem of hooking in others to actively use it. Maybe when I'm some wild business traveler it will come in handy.

I've also somehow managed to find myself being more open to mingling with anyone interesting I've come across. I don't know what it is, but its probably a combination of me seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and wanting to use up what time I have left here with those also looking towards the future and possibly finally being able to meet like-minded people. I guess it makes sense that it was bound to happen towards the end of my college career instead of at the beginning, because by now most (well, some) have at least a general idea of what is happening after graduation. RIT is definitely a career-minded school, and those that enroll here generally are on a track for entering the workforce. Still, meeting new people and spending time with old ones is excellent.

I can't wait to join the Kickball league in SF.

Labels: graduating, networking, san francisco

I'm one of the hosts for the upcoming un-conference here in Rochester known as a BarCamp. In a nutshell, it brings tech-oriented people together to present topics that they are interested in. By having those who go present on projects / ideas / lead discussions that they are invested in personally, it will attract like-minded people that would be open to collaborating on the topic. This is the third that will be hosted at RIT's Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences (GCCIS represent!) and the numbers of attendees should be over a hundred (can we break two hundred? we haven't even advertised yet!). I highly recommend going over to the wiki at http://barcamp.org/BarCampRochester3 and learn a bit more about what it is. Put down your name, contact info, a presentation topic and a teeshirt size (it'll be free!) and we'll make sure you're accounted for!

Labels: barcamp

I've tabled my incredibly long stream of consciousness for now. Perhaps when I'm feeling "frisky" I'll look it over and try to clean it up for public consumption. Now just isn't the time. That, and I'm not sure it makes any coherent sense.

Jimmy Eat World is coming to RIT at the end of April. Suh-weet deal.

My next and final quarter at RIT has been planned out classes-wise and it's pretty ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome! I have two classes every day, 2-6pm from Monday - Thursday. My lineup includes re-taking Computer Organization (time to tidy up that GPA) which is half MIPS assembly programming (yay) and CPU design (nay). I still have my book and all the notes/homework from round one, so it should make round two much easier. Next up is Public Speaking, top top off an "Upper Level Liberal Arts" requirement. I could simply take another philosophy class, but the drive to take something a teency bit more practical with a roommate versus getting up at 8am.

I'm also in Entrepreneurship, as part of my "Non-Computer Science Related Electives" requirement, as I've taken a few other business classes and wanted to see what academia could give me versus reading a slew of books on my own. It's a shame I can't minor in Entrepreneurship - I would have been able to, but two years ago I was more interested in taking Wines classes. Nothing wrong with knowing that Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon will trump anything you can come up with any day of the week. I think being able to pick out wines on dates, family gatherings or on business ventures trumps anything I would have achieved with a second minor from RIT.

Possibly the most influential course that I'll be taking next quarter is a graduate level CS course on Grid Computing. It is the first time it is "taught" - its a research class, where I will be digging through papers and presenting on a topic on a whim. It'll be a lot of information to absorb, but the most interesting part is the project that will be worked on throughout the quarter. It will be some sort of group effort where our results won't be something that is graded and canned by the teacher, but will be used by others in research and/or academia to help complete the work they need to complete. The idea of utility computing benefits every sector of research if its easy for them to tap into a large amount of computing resources. Regardless of what I end up working on, being part of the Center for Advancing the Study of Cyberinfrastructure (CASCI) here at RIT will definitely be a miniature capstone for me.

Rock out.

Labels: classes, RIT

I'd just like to point out that when making a nice big promise to put a nice big post up I felt like I was setting myself up for failure. Something is getting kicked around, but I guess it has less of an "impact" now that I've dawdled. Don't throw me to the fishes just yet.

Labels: fail

Thanks to a nifty little program called WriteRoom, I've sat around and punched out all sorts of streams of consciousness. I haven't spent nearly enough time on this blog, from skimming down the bloated blogger template to moving to my own private hosting as well as what the actual content should be. The current pressing issue is deciding on what should appear here. Having information with no "face" causes the material to lose richness. On the flip side, providing a lens into my life is a dangerous thing as this material will all live on forever thanks to the Wayback Machine.

I think I'll end up finding a healthy balance without being so overly vague in what I expose (yay reading over material before posting) and get my thoughts across from whatever danced across my mind. Really though, I never thought to much about how well I've expressed myself. I've thought I've over-expressed myself at times, but really I've ended up saying...well...nothing. This weekend some stuff that I've been mulling about will go up, I promise! It'll be good.

Labels: blog, life

I think I'm a little late to the party...

Labels: christmas, ebay, wii

Where is all the passion? Where is all the drive? Why is there the desire to have things be "good enough" and not constantly improve?