Classes

Intro to Anthro: likely drop. I really have to admit the professor makes so much difference in classes. The professor in this just seems to be too academic.

OS: Likely hard and ballbuster. Want to make it through. Can do on sheer perseverence.

Special Topics Prob & Computing: now 12 units, for more fun! I cringe when I hear them describe it as the "honors" alternative

Computational Discrete Math: Anything called "251 on steroids" also scares me. Though Klaus rocks.

Computational Physics: could be very cool. Heard it's hard from past people, don't believe them yet.

Stars, Galaxies, & The Universe: Anything with Peterson is cool. Who else has a picture of himself on a bike at the south pole on his website? Plus we can check out telescopes for personal use.

Peace

Matt

Bring on the pain

Tomorrow classes start. Theoretically I'm excited for all my classes, but I will have to drop one, or grow amazing powers of getting stuff done.

Summer was great, and fortunately it doesn't feel that it was too short.

Peace

Matt

Goals for this summer - End of quarter report

Get to San Francisco 5 times: 100% (Actually 6 or 7 times)
Go to Alcatraz: 100% (went with parents)
Get white water rafting at least once: 100% (With Matt and Justin)
See Krista at least once: 100%
Have fun: more than 100% accomplished.
Read 20 books: 90% (Only read 18)

Other things that I got done that were really cool:
First pilot's lesson
Went to Lake Tahoe for a weekend
Went to Santa Cruz many times
Built a spud gun with Matt and Justin

Summer is almost over, but not quite. If only the air conditioning were working here at Club Wilkins.

Peace

Matt

At Carnegie Mellon

I'm back at school now.

Desk setup

I went on campus yesterday and it looks so nice when I don't have classes. Saw the people from housing, got my new ID, and stopped by the garage.

I'm also the airport shuttle for a few people.

Justin said the same thing when he got off the plane that I said when I got off the plane in New Hampshire "Wooooooo humidity!"

Peace

Matt

Under 7 days in Maine

And I'm on the road again in a little bit. I'm going down to see family in Massachusetts, then staying at Monica's tonight, and then she and I are driving down to Pittsburgh. It is nice to be home, but I'm itching to be at school, even though Scotch 'n' Soda took the fence.

This semester looks tough, 63 units (though 9 of those are currently waitlisted) including
Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe
Computational Physics
Computational Discrete Mathematics
Operating Systems
Special Topics: Probability and Computing
Intro to Anthropology (that's the WL)
Weightlifting

Anyway, apparently travelling south sucks, so I leave now. It's been nice to be home...

Peace

Matt

Panoramas

SF and the golden gate bridge from Vista Point
Harpswell looking east from the bridge
Harpswell looking west from the bridge
Santa Cruz Beach
The other side of the wharf in Santa Cruz

Critiques of the Canon photo stitch program:
The seams are dark

Peace

Matt

Be ever so humble

There's no place like home.

Car's ready, oil changed, brand new Kenwood KDC-MP245 in dash receiver from the nice people at Crutchfield.

The flights went well, albeit long. One guy either didn't know where his elbows were or he didn't care that they were in my side half the time.

As a side note, US Airways is no longer flying from Portland to Pittsburgh. In other news, Independence Air is flying from Portland to Dulles (and Dulles to Pittsburgh) but they don't look as inexpensive as their website is cheap.

Peace

Matt

End of internship

And I'll miss it.

12 hours from now, I'll be at the airport.

Goodbye Google, goodbye California... it's been fun

Dell 1703FP

Today, I treated myself to a new, 17 inch LCD (The Dell 1703 FP). It's the little brother of the 20 inch, 2001 FP I use at work.

What I'll miss from California

In-n-Out Burgers
The amazing views
The team (Partner Services & Operations)
The Burstein family
The Company
The organic food
The Weather
Chilling with Longnecker
Flying out of SJC on JetBlue
Palo Alto

What I won't miss
No thunderstorms

Weekend in Tahoe

Summary of weekend:

Friday: Matt, Justin and I drove up to Auburn to spend the night at the local KOA. We get lost on Highway 49 and end up in Cool, CA.

We eventually get to the KOA and pitch tent. Justin, however, was supposed to bring a sleeping bag for me. He forgot. I was very very cold.

Rafting was awesome! The rafting out here is different from Maine - the river was narrower and lower water release, but longer with more rapids. We saw a bunch of equipment from what used to be gold mining setups, we saw 2 bridge abutments that were missing their bridge (it was wiped out in 1964); we all jumped off a cliff 25 feet up into the river too. I got knocked out of the boat 3 times though. Still, a lot of fun.

My uncle picked me up and drove me up to Truckee on beautiful Lake Tahoe. We kayaked from the Lake Tahoe - Nevada State Park for a couple of hours. My uncle and I went to Donner Lake and rented Sea-Doos. They have a really cool statue that was as tall as the snow was the year that the Donner Party decided to gnaw on each other. Unfortunately I lack a link for the picture.

We ate dinner tonight at Lanza's. My cousin, Mike Laroche was here with a bunch of friends when we got back.

Peace

Matt