I am (sometimes)

was awesome.

We had the career fair today, and though I printed off a few resumes with bad margins (cut off part of the 'A' in "CA" on one line), it went pretty well. Well, the Microsoft guy did. I came in and went straight to him. He recognized me, which is good, I've seen him three times now at department events. We talked a bit, and he got right to the big questions. "Where would be your dream position at Microsoft?" "What can you do for us?" I really should have been more aware of htis and prepared for the questions, but I was not - at least consciously. I said I'd like to work on C# and language development. Developmental tools. It's really important to make it really easy to design applications. Things are going to become more modularized, and it needs to be as easy as possible for the average Joe User to be able to throw together a shell script, or add functionality he needs. There will always be Skript Kiddies, but we need everyone doing this. This is what drove the uptake of Visual Basic. It was simple enough that it could be used to throw together a program. We need to make it even easier. I was thinking about graphic artists a lot as I was saying all this, though I didn't mention it, unfortunately. Jeff stopped me as I was talking. He said they'd be interviewing in the next few weeks, so I'm crossing my fingers.

I was surprised how much the other companies just looked at what classes I had taken. I guess they weren't really expecting experience or anything like that; not too unreasonable, considering we're all still students, but still. Our department's got awesome people in it with great resumes.

I went to a production on campus tonight of Shakespeares' The Tempest. It was pretty awesome. The stage consisted of a square platform in the middle of the room with seating on all four sides. I'm usually not a fan of this type of stage format, but they pulled it off quite well. Their props were boxes and a trapeze. They had fairy stagehands as invisible minions of Prospera (yeah, Prospero was a girl, she did it well) move the boxes around to the relevant positions on stage: under feat, as walls, for sitting, for sleeping, etc.. It was a really cool format, and a well-done production. And it had some really cute chicks. High praises all around.

Chorus: "What is beautiful is what is always loved." - Euripides' Bakkhai

You know how your parents always talk about how fun dating is? About how it was so great just meeting new people and doing things with them? Well, they're lying. Dating is lame. Awesome people are awesome (needed some deep reasoning skills there). And hanging out with them is great. The problem is finding these people. There aren't a lot out there, and most of them don't go looking for me. Anyway, to bring everyone up to speed:
I'm taking a comic-book class with Laura this quarter. There were two cute girls in the class. Where Laura always sat (as she got there before me) the fluorescent light flickering annoyed me. We moved next to the cute girls. One started sitting behind me, the other next to me. I started talking to the one next to me. We were going to have coffee on Tuesday, but her coworker skipped town so she had to take her place, after closing down for ten minutes to run and tell me, and reschedule. I thought that was a good sign. I get there today on time (a tad early too), and there's this other guy with her. She introduces us and says he was keeping her company - he skeddadles right away. I note it, but no biggie. We talk, she mentions an art thing she's going to tonight with this artist she has a crush on. What? I guess that clarifies things, though it confuses me as to earlier actions to quickly reschedule. I mean, on Tuesday she could have just not shown up and appologized and explained in class. But to close shop to come see me and reschedule before I even had a chance to suggest it? Women. And she didn't even talk much. I ended up talking most of the time - which I hate. I'm a listener. I know most people feel better, happier, and more comfortable when they're blathering on about whatever, but I don't. In debate I love talking, but not in normal conversation. Please, tell me about yourself. Well, I guess I found out enough; looks like this may be for the best because she doesn't seem my type. She is very artsy. Don't get me wrong, I like art. It can be most awesome. Artists can be great. But, she was just so... artsy - as in not a lick of math or science in her. Don't get me wrong, I have friends who aren't big on math and science, but they still understand it a bit. I can talk to them about technical things without them raising their hand and asking a totally unrelated suggestion or making a joke which doesn't really apply. I curse my impuse (and followthrough on <sight>) to try to laugh. She seemed cool, but I need someone I can talk to. Someone who knows what I'm doing with my life as a Computer... whatever. Don't get me wrong, she seemed interesting - just not what I want need now.

"Don't leave home without your sword - your intellect." - Alan Moore

So, I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Java, the programming language, I hate it. C# is a million times better. It does everything Java does, but it's not a little whiny bitch about it. For one, in C# everything's an object. That means in C# you can use any data-type into a collection (like a list or a queue). In Java it means you can't. You have to arduously copy them to wrapper types. For things like ints, it's not a big deal to just have one value wrapped, but for arrays, it's a pain in the ass. It makes your code contain blocks like this:

ArrayList fuckingObject = new ArrayList(newAdj.length);
for (int fuckMe = 0; fuckMe < newAdj.length; fuckMe++)
    fuckingObject.add(newAdj[fuckMe]);
adjList.add(fuckingObject);

Makes me want to rip someone's spine out. Java is like that little kid who offers you a cookie, but then hides tobasco sauce inside it and drinks the last of the milk just as you take a bite. Worst thing in the history of Java though, is J++. Somehow Microsoft imagined it would be a good idea to jump on the Java bandwagon and implement the language improperly, never provide support for the thing, and create a language that tried to be as good as the original rat dropping. Fortunately, C# came next totally raped J++ into oblivion. Unfortunately, Java still remains. Hopefully that won't last long either. (For those of you wondering about Javascript: Javascript is one of my favorite languages, and has nothing to do with Java.)

<Kicks a midget>

Okay, I'm feeling better now.

Yay! Brandi came in this weekend. Jo and Brandi took a lot of pictures. Twas a good time, though it would have been better if Brandi stayed longer. Why can't people visit forever??? Oh yeah, 'cause they have to come out here first. No, I'm not bitter towards any of you Simians.

"If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution." - Robert Sewell
"Take a cup of coffee and add three drops of poison and what have you got? Microsoft J++." - Scott McNealy