I am (sometimes)

Lisa and I went to the Stars concert tonight. It was pretty sweet. The Elected opened for them. They were okay, I think I may have liked them more live than I would a cd, which is a bit odd I think. But I'll give them a real listen. Stars were really cool. They played all their good songs (though we missed "When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.") and Torquil Campbell (lead singer) was really into it. It was really cool. During a vocal-break of one of the songs, he answered some guys cell phone and just held it in the air until the guy hung up. He talked a lot with the people in the front rows. They even came back for an encore. Most excellent. Of course, I still wish concerts weren't so loud. It wasn't as bad with Stars, since I liked the music so much, but it would have sounded better (and been less painful) if it were a little more quiet.

On a sidenote, two of our math-club people won a "Sexy Math Majors" contest. Freakin' awesome!

"We're the soundtrack to your life!" - Torquil Campbell

So, I'm sure I've raved to all of you recently, but just in case I haven't, Boston Legal kicks so much ass I want to explode. Its constantly funny, and the acting, especially by William Shatner is superb. I know, I know, there are lots of Shatner acting jokes. But he does a really good job in this. I started watching this second season, which has a very different cast from how it started out in the first season (which I'm watching now). First season started out kinda lame, it was trying to be a drama and all serious. But Allan Shore just wouldn't have it. After the first few episodes, the writers wised-up to it, and now it's much better. Then they got rid of the lame cast members and added Shirley Schmidt, who's a great foil for Shatner's Mad-cow-infested Denny Crane. Denny Crane! I'm two eps to go, and they still haven't introduced another character from the second season (and booted one of the ones I liked from this), so I'm looking forward to seeing how they do this. Anyway, for those of you who have avoided it, no longer! Tuesday nights. 10pm. ABC. Denny Crane.

"Denny Crane!" - Denny Crane

So, why did I choose Google? I was pretty adamant about choosing Microsoft for a while. I thought the work at MS would be pretty cool, and I really wanted to know the corporate culture at MS. This was enough to sway me initially towards MS. Besides, Google was pretty much ignoring me. The recruiters said they wouldn't even talk to me until after the MS deadline. That was a bit frustrating. So MS really liked me, and they had a good offer. Hooray! Then I actually got talking to the Google guy, and he seemed pretty cool. As he pointed out, if I hadn't been so persistent, he wouldn't have talked to me, and I wouldn't have gotten the internship offer. Good thing I was persistant. So we started talking, he asked some good questions, and I gave some good answers. Now if I go to Google, I know who I'm going to work with. Awesome; most interns at Google don't know. Then Google told me the money. It's a bit more than MS, but there are moving expenses (and a moving stipend), and hassle, and no Stargates with Julia to consider. As I mentioned before, I had talked to Prof. Dumas about grad school. What he said really convinced me I'd love it, and that it was a great path for me. So I talked to Steve Gribble, an awesome Professor I had last quarter (networking), and one of the profs who recommended me to the manager (contact at least) at Google. He had some very good things to say. If I'm seriously considering grad school, and if I'm insistent (which I think I am) about either MIT, Carnegie Mellon, or Berkeley, then I need to have a very good recommendation. Everyone applying will have the grades I do, and a lot will have done some research. So my research with Dan will help, but not guarantee anything. So another letter from someone well-known (potentially the guy I'm going to work with at Google) will be another helpful bonus. That really got me thinking. There's also the consideration that Google won't be this awesome (probably) forever. I do want to get in on the awesomeness while I can - especially since grad school will take some time and it may settle down by the time I'm out. But I'm still not sure if Google has the kind of work I want to do. I think I might be a Programming Language guy. Microsoft has C#. I'd love to work on C#. Or maybe development environments for Javascript (which Google may have). What better way to find out than by working there for a summer? So those were my academic considerations. I also kinda want to know if I still like the Bay Area (especially for raising kids). I really like Seattle, but I remember loving Berkeley as a kid (though now I'm sure I mind the breakins a bit more). With Fuzzy and Ben bashing it, its important for me to know. I should talk to Dumas a bit more - he went to Berkeley way back when.

"Subscribe to National Geographic. Make a list of all the places you'll never visit. Add to that list, Schmidt." - Shirley Schmidt, turning down Allan Shore.

I just sent out two of the most important emails in my career. Certainly the two most important so far.
This past week has been hectic. My classes have a lot more work this quarter than I had anticipated, and I really want to spend a lot more time on my research. Blarg. Last week was worse because I was constantly on campus, emailing, or on the phone with Expedia, Microsoft, and Google. Quite stressful. Of course this is the good stress. Not the agonizing over stumbling over myself at an inverview. No, I was pretty good at my interviews. Obviously. I got three internship offers. After much careful deliberation, I have decided to accept the internship at Google, and decline at Microsoft (and Expedia, which I must say, didn't make it to the top two). I will detail the reasons for decision later, after I have some much-needed sleep.
Gutenacht.

That's the last time I try to assassinate a government official with a turnip and tell the blogger community beforehand.

Horray for Math Club people. We had a party last night at one of the members' houses. It was pretty sweet. We watched a little video on how to turn a circle inside-out without any sharp corners (the surface can pass through itself) and why a circle can't do this. It was awesome. We also watched and thoroughly enjoyed Donald in Mathmagic Land before settling down for Good Will Hunting. I didn't realize before how much I liked that movie. All-in-all, it was a good evening. I need to hang out with these math club people more. David was pretty awesome.

That's the last time I jump out of a window without making sure the flower-bed is at least four stories down.

Dumas almost gor me in trouble on Friday. I had a big homework assignment I was going to do between classes - I didn't know it was as big as it turned out to be. I had a question for him after class, and we ended up talking for the next hour. So I had two hours to do this assigment which a few guys had apparently spent five hours on the night before and still not finished. Naturely, I'm better than that, but still, I was cutting it close. I finally sat down to do it and realized I didn't really know what to do. Dang. After talking to some people in the labs, I was able to figure it out and turn it in on time, but I shall avoid such folly in the future.

Every time I talk to Dumas I love him more and more. I want to have his babies. Or his babies' babies. He's kinda old. Unfortunately, his daughter is only twelve or thirteen at the moment. Oh well. Jo says in ten years I'll be golden. Anyway, if I can grow old and be half the man Dumas is I'll have an awesome life.

PS According to Sam, Dumas has his children in his will on the condition that they get a PhD. Doesn't matter in what, just that they get it. Awesome.

Yay! I have received an unofficial (official will be coming in the next few days) offer from Microsoft to be an intern next summer in the .NET Development team. Freakin' sweet. Though I find it curious, though perhaps indicative of a great deal of confidence, that the day I found out I was more concerned with brushing away some of my lower gums. Yeah, it really pissed me off, since they don't grow back. Once I brush them away, they're gone forever. I did it to my top teeth a few years ago, and was trying to avoid trashing my lower teeth, but all it takes is one night of carelessness. Bah. I'm going to lose my teeth when I'm fifty. Wonderful. Hopefully we'll devote stem-cells to regrowing gums instead of curing hideous diseases I'll never get. (If I will get them, by all means, continue the research.)

I celebrated the internship offer by buying an iPod (5G 30GB). I must say, I'm terribly disappointed. Sure, the hardware is great - I barely notice it in my pocket. But the interface is totally fucking irritating. Not to mention iTunes sucks big, fat, hairy, sweaty goat-balls. Just because I organize my music on the hard drive, I get fucked over. iTunes has no notion of path. I can't put playlists in folders. I can't nest smart playlists. I can't import .avi into iTunes. I can put .mpg into iTunes, but not onto the iPod. Not only that, but the way it stores the music files on disc is totally retarded. It has a hidden folder at the root, and stores all the music with random four-letter names in random subdirectories (ie /iPod_Control/Music/F49/DNYY.mp3) just so I can't figure out which files are which. What fuckers. Not only that, but I can't just drop mp3s into the directories. I have to fucking use iTunes because dropping them in doesn't update the fucking index file. Fuck. I paid $300 for this? What. The. Fuck. At least I can change the serial number by just editing a text file (though I haven't tried it to see if there's a check).



So I saw the sun. Nay, I saw my reflection

So, Sam and Jessica convinced me to take a class from the prof. named Dumas. He has to be one of the best adults (ie, older than me) ever. Last Friday he talked about how upset he'd be if his daughter weren't a gifted student. Today he told a little story about his friend. This guy had been cheating on his wife for four years, and was debating telling her. He told her, she had been cheating on him for ten years, then moved away and took his kid. The moral of the story was that Dumas "loves it when evil and stupidity are rewarded with pain and suffering." Fuckin' sweet.

Just when I was about to declare this dead and gone, I feel like I have to say something. I think I'm going to give up on actually trying to do long, "quality" posts, and just go for quantity here. So here goes.