More things I want to see from technology

1. Right now, when I get a call, my computer pauses music, turns off the sound, and displays the caller id info for the person calling. When I hang up, it undoes everything it did. I'd like my car to pause / mute my music and roll up my windows when I get a call, and then return them to the original state when I hang up.

can't figure any other out right now. Oh yeah, back in Pittsburgh!

Things I want in a weather site

Features I would like to see in a weather site:
1. More historical data. What was the weather on any given day the data exists?
2. Weather along a route. Kind of a combination of Google Maps and weather. Give a starting time and location, and it shows you the weather at about when you'll head through a city every 60 miles or so.
3. A different way of visualizing data. I'd like to have ad-hoc queries & reports against historical and forecasted weather. My random one is being able to specify a line on a map, then left to right show the temperature across a period (either across a day, or highs across a year). This would be cool to see if one area has a shorter period where it's at its high temperature, or which states have more excessive temperatures, and how that varies by region.

Tomorrow's the 12 hour trip to Pittsburgh

From a friend

My friend Andrew, from high school, took this summer off to spend some time with his dad, who was sick. I knew Andrew's dad pretty well - he went to New York with us when we were in high school, and was a really nice guy. My mom worked with him for a while and always found him to be a good guy.

I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this - it was really moving. I'm going to the visiting hours really soon.


Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005
From: Andrew
Subject: news

Hi,

Yesterday morning, my dad, Ed, passed away after a three year battle with renal cell carcinoma. I thought I should let you know.

Visiting hours will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Brackett Funeral Home, 29 Federal St., Brunswick.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Charles Borromeo Church, McKeen St., Brunswick.

Later in the day yesterday, a very large end-to-end rainbow with another faint rainbow above it appeared in the sky facing my house. It was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. I couldn't fit the whole thing in my camera, but I thought I would send a few pictures of it anyway. You can see the middle of it in the first picture and the right tail in the second. I don't think the rainbow was a coincidence.



I am sorry if I forgot anyone.

Andrew

BNAS: Closed

So I got lots of notes yesterday about the base closings - thanks everyone for knowing how much this means to me.

However happy I am Portsmouth stays open, Brunswick Naval Air Station, which is no more than 3 miles away, has not made the cut. It has been slated for full closure.

Originally it was slated to be "realigned". That meant that the Navy didn't want to pay to keep it open, but didn't want to lose the runway either. The board decided it would be better to return the land to the community, and therefore decided to close the base.

20% of the kids in school around here are military kids. The base adds a lot of money to the community, and a lot of diversity. I've never had a problem with people from the base - they've always been an excellent part of the community.

I'm interested in seeing how everything reacts around here - the big box stores, the small stores, the schools, the housing prices, and how the land is used.

Did I ever tell you about the time...

Back when I was 3, my dad used to do his reserve duty in Washington, DC. My mom, sisters, and I would go down and meet him halfway through the two weeks. I would sit by my mom, and my sisters would sit behind us (they were older, and honestly better behaved!).

Back in the day, you used to get planes with a 3 and 3 configuration from Maine to DC - I'd sit at the window, my mom would sit in the middle, and a random person would sit on the isle.

One time, I wanted to try the middle seat. My mom implored me not to, but I wanted to, so she let me.

She woke up to hear me saying "tickle, tickle, tickle!" She looked over to see me tickling a very unamused Ralph Nader.

Ideas while stranded in LaGuardia

1. The subway system signage in NY should be replaced by LCD or projected displays. At one point, we got off a J train because the J train said "all passengers must get off". There was a sign to take another train, on the weekends, down to where we were going. So we got to that platform, only to learn that this other train wasn't the right way to get there on the weekends.
2. How hard is it to do the plane reassignments in storms? I could imagine it's all done by computers, and I could also imagine it's all done by hand. Our plane has been diverted to Baltimore, instead of landing here - does a human say which people get which planes in a situation like this? Does a computer suggest alternatives? There are hundreds of flights to keep track of, but how much planning is automated?

Things I learned

First and foremost: you reserve a room at a hotel, but you request the type of room. We reserved a room at the Grand Central Hyatt, but requested 2 double beds. we got one king. SOL says the hotel.

Saw all the typical NY things yesterday & today - saw the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller center, St. Pat's, Central Park, the Met, Battery Park, Statue of Liberty from afar, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Chinatown, etc. Led people around - I know how to navigate this city pretty well now. I still haven't mastered subways, but when they change things up all bets are off.

By the way: the idea of All you can eat sushi is amazing.

Apple customer support: 4/5. Apple repair facilities: 2/5

Got the laptop back. I'm impressed with the turnaround time - but the repair place is in Tennessee, so now I get why fedex got it there so quickly

Plus on repair: they replaced the front face that I decided to drop this summer, without me asking.

Minus on repair: the left half of my monitor is still dim. They also told me it wasn't covered under warranty and therefore I should expect to be billed in 5-7 days.

Apple customer support assured me when I called this morning to say "I'm not paying" that I wasn't paying.

Downsides on customer support: they take forever to get stuff done when you call.

Upsides: they said my repair'd be free and they actually don't try to get you to go away

The fun of Apple

Fun things Apple said

"You didn't specify this as the problem when you left it at the store." (a. But I did? b. What did I say then? c. Why'd you notice it if I said something else?)

"You didn't damage your laptop, we see the problem, and it's under warranty, but it's not a manufacturer's defect." (uhh, what's the definition of manufacturer's defect?)

"I'm sorry, I was on hold" (man, but I was on hold)

"Repairing your monitor costs $1256" (but the laptop only cost $1299)

They're repairing it, but after 2 marathon sessions with customer support. Good game, Apple, good game.

Pittsburgh

I actually like Pittsburgh. I like the start of the school year - each start has felt special, due to running CIA or starting school or having someone to see. I like September and the smell in the air at school, and the walk to campus.

Hero of the Day

Hero of the Day: Traci, for lending me Rustic Overtone's hard to find 1994 release Shish Boom Bam. Well, now you can't find any Rustic Overtones stuff, but this CD was hard to find even 5 years ago.

How to repair the Master Boot Record in Windows

How to repair the MBR for Windows XP when you screw it up like I did by deleting the Linux partition.

1. Download the Windows Recovery Console ISO.
2. Burn this ISO to a CD (making it bootable) using Nero, Record Now, etc. (Don't just burn the file, actually burn the image)
3. Launch the Windows Recovery Console
4. fixmbr is the command that replaces fdisk /mbr , so run fixmbr

If you need more details, let me know. but this is more for me

More things that are silly

Eric said yesterday "I never use Linux on the work laptop, so I am going to blow it away to get the space back for Windows"

I thought this was a marvelous idea! So I went into Partition Magic and deleted the Linux partitions.

I forgot to reformat the Master Boot Record. So now the laptop's dead in the water until I make a bootable disc for it and reformat the mbr.

Funny story

I keep locking myself out of my car. I did it 2 times last semester, and then I did it again this summer.

This time, since it's warm out, I left my windows slightly ajar. Well, I discovered a way to break into my car: I took off one of my windshield wipers and pressed the unlock button on the inside of the passenger door to unlock my car.

Important lesson: if you leave your windows cracked, make sure it's not too much that someone could stick a windshield wiper through. Though I guess someone could always stick a coat hanger wire in through a narrowly opened window.

(I guess the more important lesson is don't lock yourself out of cars, but that one seems more obvious)

Lappy takes a break

Randomly, the left half of my PowerBook lost a lot of brightness. It only happens when the brightness is set low (which I always do, because it used to still be really crisp and legible. But now I can't see everything that I used to be able to. So I had to bring her in to the ol' Apple Store to see what they'd say.

They said that there's nothing they can do in store (slight surprise) and so it's been shipped off to Apple's maintainence location, hidden in some remote mountain location. I'll be Apple laptop-less for 2 weeks, but at least I have the IBM ThinkPad to tide me And hopefully the display will be fixed & like new when I get it back. I can deal without the Apple while I have the ThinkPad. I don't want to have a faded screen in the fall.

When you blog

When you blog, be prepared for your mother, your roommate, your enemies, the government, your school administration, anyone on earth to read it. If you don't want a certain person to read it, make it private.

Stand by what you write, stand by what you say.

It reminds me of this old thing someone once told me - "If there is one person you could not tell what you are currently doing, you're probably doing something wrong." It doesn't mean that everyone has to accept what you're doing, but it does mean you must be able to stand up to anyone who might confront you on your actions.

distances

East coast
Portland ME to Boston: 106.8 miles
Boston to Providence: 50.7 miles, Providence to Hartford: 85.9 miles
Boston to Hartford: 101.2 miles
Hartford to New York: 117.6 miles
New York to Philadelphia: 100.2 miles
Philadelphia to Baltimore: 102.2 miles
Baltimore to Washington DC: 44.1 miles
Washington DC to Richmond: 104.9 miles

Yeah. You get a major city every 100 miles out here. It's pretty different in the southeast, things aren't as close. I hear New Mexico & Texas have even longer drives between places.

Polenta

Polenta is great. Just thought you should all know, and try it sometime.

My next car

The Thunderbird is in the shop. It needs power steering work, oil pump work, and brake work.

I'm thinking the cost of the repairs might be more than the car is worth. I'm therefore considering my next car.

The requirements are: all wheel drive, wagon, manual transmission, sporty. That narrows it down to Subaru, Audi, and BMW. (The Dodge Magnum only does auto with AWD, Lexus IS 300 is RWD, and Volvo is decidedly un-sexy)

I am not a fan of Subaru, for no good reason. So the WRX is out.

I've decided on an Audi. Now the question is S4/A4 and new/used. If my car's dead, I might have to settle...

Song of today

"What a Good Boy" - performed by Duke's Men of Yale

(Thanks to Katie Dana for getting me hooked on them)

Grocery stores

In Durham, we have 4 choices for grocery stores. From lowest to highest cost, we have Food Lion, Kroger, Harris Teeter, and Whole Foods.

This is quite the nice departure from Pittsburgh's single source of food - Giant Eagle. There is a single Whole Foods in the Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, but it doesn't really make a dent in Giant Eagle's monopoly.

And now it's time for me to decide where I want to be, full time, when I grow up. I have to figure out where I'm going to work, and start work in February or July, depending on whether I go to Qatar to TA.

Honestly, I'm not extraordinarily fond of the idea of living here in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina after I graduate. The combination of low 90s and high humidity makes me not want to go outside much during the day. In the bay area, to contrast, the mid 80s with low humidity made it easy to be outside during the day.

I really enjoy Chapel Hill's Franklin Street. However, I don't really feel a community feeling here otherwise.

I was asked this week to specify where I want to be when I graduate. I said California Bay Area, followed by Boston and Pittsburgh. I also said I'd go anywhere for the right job.

Tornado Watch

I don't know what's up with this, but I didn't sign up for a Tornado Watch here.

The Delinquent

So I've been delinquent posting. I'll give you the highlights, in bullet form.

• Project at Extreme Blue is going really well, working about 45-50 hours per week
• Parents are visiting this week
• They brought lobster, there was one left over, now I'm eating lobster rolls
• Tomorrow I'm leaving with them for Carolina Beach for the fourth and fifth
• I got paid to work on my resume this week, so I can do IBM placement
• I just bought The Goblet of Fire, Quicksilver, The Humane Interface, and The Magician's Nephew.
• I also bought a couple shirts at tshirthell.com(1, 2)
• Dave Matthews Band was AMAZING on Wednesday. They did indeed play "All Along the Watchtower" which made me happy. Quickest 2 hours and 45 minutes of my life
• Raleigh Arboretum pictures
• I killed my cell phone by washing it, had to order a new one

Have a good Fourth of July everyone! I have to pack and take out the trash and sleep now!

Brandon and Pizza Hut

"They're running out of places to put cheese!" - Brandon, in reference to the Pizza Hut 3 Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza

Wonderful day

One of the mentors brought in Dunkin Donuts today. I love Dunkin Donuts. Pittsburgh doesn't have Dunkin Donuts (nearby anyway).

I also have started to like coffee (!). 3 large cups of coffee and a Monster Assault later, I'm pretty wired.

Tact

Walking down the hall in the lab

Coworker: "Wow, no belt?"
Me: "uhhh..."
Coworker: "Oh, you are wearing a belt"
Me: "Uhhh..."
Coworker: "Just over time you've grown steadily more sloppy"

I wear jeans and collared shirts to work normally. Today, I have no presentations, no meetings. I'm wearing jeans and a Sunday River shirt.

I'm a coder.

DDR

I'm becoming a DDR addict at work...

Stealth Start-Ups Suck

Lots of thoughts good in the linked blog post, but especially his bulleted list of

Why go fast? Many reasons:

• First mover advantage is important.
• There is no such thing as a unique idea. I guarantee that someone else has already thought of your wonderful web service, and is probably way ahead of you. Get over yourself.
• It forces you to focus on the key functionality of the site.
• Being perfect at launch is an impossible (and unnecessary and even probably detrimental) goal, so don't bother trying to achieve it. Ship early, ship often.
• The sooner you get something out there, the sooner you'll start getting feedback from users.

The EB program has me thinking about the end user, differentiation, first-to-market, rapid prototyping, start-ups, entrepreneurship, corporations...

One of our speakers talked this morning about how important focusing on users is. That's what I bring to where I work - I care.

Father's Day

My dad was the first person in his family to graduate high school. I'm not sure if his brother or sister ever finished college. He spoke only French til he was 10, in America.

------

When I was a kid, about 6 or 7 years old, my mom used to read all the time. She'd always have a new book from the library.

My dad once in a while flipped through a magazine. When you're 6 years old, you keep hearing about how bad illiteracy is and how you need to learn to read. So I assumed my dad didn't know how to read. My sisters and I thought that he just memorized all the books he read to us before bed.

------

Every night when I was young, my dad would read a story to me and tuck me in to bed. Although I was pretty old when he stopped tucking me in, I only realized then that I felt safe and warm in bed because he tucked me in.

------

I remember my dad's Navy dress uniform, he let me keep his Commander's cap after he retired from the Reserves. I was so afraid during the Gulf War that my dad would be called into active duty - that is what they do to reservists after all.

I remember my dad going down to DC for his 2 week a year deployment. He'd head to this mystical place called "The Crystal City" and he'd always bring us back grapefruit slices. I was so proud that my dad was serving the country and not just his family. Of course, my dad works for a defense contractor, and he's still serving the country.

------

My dad built the porch at our house in Bath, and rebuilt the porch at our Harpswell house. He used to do almost everything in the maintenance of my Grandpa's apartment buildings in Bath - build steps, paint ceilings, wire things, work on the plumbing. He landscapes, weeds, seeds & mows the lawn, snow-blows, and builds. He's going to build a lot of the Bethel House, in 3 years (when he's 60).

------

My dad was my hockey coach, my soccer coach, my cub scout den leader. He'd wake up at 5:30 on the weekends to bring me to hockey practice, he'd watch me referee games that he didn't have anything to do with. He helped a lot of other kids grow up.

------

He's worked at Bath Iron Works for almost 30 years - through ups and downs. Even when he's annoyed with the company, we know he'll retire from there. He's a company man, dedicated and loyal. During the DD-X Project, he worked 65 hour weeks. He still worked around the house, took care of the dogs, and did everything that he had to, and more. He never, ever complained.

------

He has never complained about doing things for us, I've never felt unloved by him, and I've always felt safe around him. He's been mad at me before, but because I don't recall him ever being mad at me without reason, it really means a lot to me for him to be proud of me. His trust in me means more.

------

When I was a senior, my high school had our parents write us letters to explain how proud of us they are. My mom's letter made me happy - my dad's made me cry. He's the strong, silent type - I never realized how proud of me he is.

------

He has taught me the value of people, the value of honesty, simplicity, and purity

------

I hope I can grow up to be as selfless as my father. I hope I can raise strong children, show them what it means to give and not to count the costs. He's taught me that "just good enough" isn't enough, and excellent work should be done, even if it's not recognized. He's shown me that sometimes things just have to get done, and complaining won't do anything and won't make me feel better. He's taught me the joy of working with my hands, of building. He's taught me to pick my battles, to give, to love, that sleep is less important than people, that it's not "someone else's problem." He's taught me that drinking a beer on the porch is a darned good way to spend a summer evening. He's taught me a lot on the chair lift and in the car about life.

------

I love you dad. Thank you for everything. Happy Father's Day.

The summer so far

North Carolina is a pretty good place to live; I could imagine raising a family around here. There are a ton of trees, the traffic isn't as bad as everyone had warned us about, there are jobs, there's education around, there's minor league teams (and a major league hockey team, if hockey ever starts back up).

The commute to work is about 10 minutes; it then takes about 5 minutes to walk from the car to the office. IBM has quite a few buildings (30+?)in Research Triangle Park, and even has a few campuses in RTP. I work in the 500 campus, which is the software group location. The company seems a lot older when you first look at it, at least compared to last summer, but then I see a bunch of mid 20 somethings walking around, and I know they're not interns. Their work policies are very family oriented.

The Extreme Blue lab is pretty cool - it's a cave though, no windows to the outside, and the windows we have to the inside are always kept closed. We do have a lot of fun things inside the lab, like a server room just for us, competition DDR pads hooked up to a PS2, and foosball. I've been working 8:30-6:30 so far, but during crunch times I'm sure that'll increase. Some people have already been logging 65 hour weeks.

However, from talking to full timers who did the Extreme Blue program previously, it sounds like it's not as cool working in the rest of the company. I'll definitely consider IBM for full time anyway. My dream job is programming with travel, at least right out of school, and there's a possibility for something like that at IBM.

I also realize this summer that I like the lab environment, the research setting, knowing that cool new things are happening that have never been done before. I like attending technical presentations and learning what other people are doing. I really want to work at a company ahead of the cutting edge (Bleeding edge, if you will).

So in summary: the summer in North Carolina has been pretty good so far!

UNC Bar Crawl

Highlights of the night:

32 ounce black & tan at He's Not Here (In other news, I'm becoming a black and tan fan)
"Hey, you guys should be dancing!" from a couple cute UNC girls, to Will and me, at a place called Players

Downsides: we only hit 2 places

Next time we'll have a better plan. But that was a good night.

Must Read Books

Book for Software Engineers: The Mythical Man-Month
Book for Java Coders: Effective Java
Book for people dating women: She Comes First
Book for science students: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

What I do in the summer

News update on today

I propose a genetic test on any woman I date in the future.

Next week is shaping up to be fun.

Sunday night: Ralphie May at Charlie Goodnight's in Raleigh
Monday night: Durham Bulls with Extreme Blue
Tuesday night: Modest Mouse with one of the other interns

Frames

I had the same frames for 3 years at least.

New frames came in the mail today.


Almost everyone who knows me knows me with the old frames. It'll be interesting, other than the people who have read this. They'll notice some small change, be freaked out. Well not as much due to the summer break.

Corn

Fresh corn on the cob is good.

Getting it, sweet and perfect, the third of June, is better.

mmmm.... North Carolina...

IBM songbook

MARCH ON WITH IBM

Verse:

The fame of IBM
Spreads across the seven seas,
Our standards fly aloft,
Proudly waving in the breeze,
With T.J. Watson guiding us
we lead throughout the world,
For peace and trade our
banners are unfurled - unfurled.

Chorus:

March on with IBM
We lead the way,
Onward we'll ever go,
In strong array;
Our thousands to the fore,
Nothing can stem,
Our march forevermore,
With IBM.

March on with IBM
Work hand in hand,
Stout hearted men go forth,
In every land;
Our flags on every shore,
We march with them,
On high forevermore,
For IBM.




........... there are more IBM employees than citizens of Qatar, so this makes a little sense. It's still hilarious however.

And yes, I'm in Big Blue right now.

Warning signs

My right wrist hurts. And I think it's the hurt of RSI.

Possible causes:
Driving. (It didn't hurt before yesterday)
Powerbook (I use a natural keyboard in Pittsburgh, but I've been using the laptop exclusively for 3 weeks now, and in any random posture I feel like)
Random.

I think I'll get a natural keyboard asap at work, and asap for the laptop

Bugnuts

This weather is driving me batty. Cold and wet. And dim.

Can't wait for next week. I drive down on Sunday, and start Tuesday.

I guess this is Maine's way of making me glad I'm not coming back so often.

7 months from now, my life is a complete mystery.

The Diamond Age

     "I think I have finally worked out what you were trying to tell me, years ago, about being intelligent," she said.
     The Constable brightened all at once. "Pleased to hear it."
     "The Vickys have an elaborate code of morals and conduct. It grew out of the moral squalor of an earlier generation, just as the original Victorians were preceded by the Georgians and the Regency. The old guard believe in that code because they came to it the hard way. They raise their children to believe in that code--but their children believe it for entirely different reasons."
     "They believe it," the Constable said, "because they have been indoctrinated to believe it."
     "Yes. Some of them never challenge it--they grow up to be small-minded people, who can tell you what they believe but not why they believe it. Others become disillusioned by the hypocrisy of the society and rebel--as did Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw."
     "Which path do you intend to take, Nell?" said the Constable, sounding very interested. "Conformity or rebellion?"
     "Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded--they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity."

From The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. (Page 355-356 of my Bantam Paperback)

Maine at Night

You know the drill, the title's a link to the gallery, the photo is the one I like best.

The first 9 are around the dam on the Androscoggin between downtown Brunswick and Topsham (and the Frank J Wood Bridge).

BT - "The Revolution"

We stand in the face of a quickening,
And the great dumbing down of our people,
And in our greatest minds,
And we wage war,
By whatever means necessary,
By punishing awakening,
Into our sources and into our thoughts,
By blaming our cookie-cutter pleasantville,
Out of our gray slumber.
This revolution is not free
This revolution is not free
It's powerful

Why is this news?

IBM has been over the news lately with news of how FireFox is being recommended internally, and 10% of its 300,000 employees are using it.

IBM is a computing company (mainly software and consulting). Natonal acceptance rates for Firefox are about 5%. So it actually is surprising how LOW the acceptance rate for Firefox is given the (hopefully) early technology adopting of a tech company.

I can virtually guarantee Google's Firefox usage rate was at least 25%+ last summer. Y'know, 12 months ago. We had issues in my group that some of the stuff rendered slightly wrong in IE and the developers didn't notice because we all used Firefox.

So let's start writing news articles like "Tech companies, which should have Internet Explorer strictly for testing how pages render (because they know better), still have more than 50% of their users using an old, buggy, spyware-prone application."

We're the people calling out for the average net user to stop using IE, yet the average user at our tech companies aren't adopting it.

Never date someone...

Never date someone who...
... doesn't want you to look at her before she's brushed her hair
... doesn't want you to look at her before she's put on makeup
... isn't comfortable wearing her glasses around you
... pretends that she doesn't burp
... wouldn't wear sweats around you
... wouldn't consider eating pasta and watching a DVD an excellent Friday evening sometimes
... wouldn't cry in front of you


(Feel free to suggest more)

Puppies

Things that are very uncool

Dualdisc.

I will not be buying any more CDs that aren't plain old CDs anymore.

Dualdiscs are new CD/DVD combinations that you flip to use as one or the other. However, they don't rip on my PowerBook or on my parents' DVD drive. They do rip on my parents' CD-RW however.

I only buy CDs so I can rip them and have the liner notes & jewel case. I listen to music solely on my computers, solely off of the hard drives.

As a side note, I purchased Ben Folds: Songs for Silverman, and Dave Matthews: Stand Up

And as another side note, both discs have big ass "FBI ANTI-PIRACY WARNING" logos on the back. When did this start?

To do this week

To do this week
• Learn about OS X Widgets and maybe start programming one
• Eye appointment
• Visit Cheverus
• Slack
• Inline the bike path 3 times, hopefully returning to 10 miles per session

My mom graduated from her master's program this weekend, and she's turning 50 on Tuesday, so it's been a very fun couple days of celebrating her.

A realization after my 21st birthday

Number of times I have purchased alcohol since I turned 21: 5
Number of times I have been carded: 2 (once only because everyone was, at PDC, and once at a grocery store)

If I'd known carding was so infrequent... I probably still wouldn't have risked it. But it's rather surprising.

The Falls & The Drive home

(Click on title for gallery)

Notes of my trip:

• The exit for the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls is not well marked from 190. But there's another bridge a little further up that works
• Customs is easy. Going in to Canada, had to show no id. Coming out was almost as easy. Plus the guy said "Happy Birthday" to me
• The falls look big in pictures, small in real life.
• It takes longer than you think to drive from Niagara Falls to Maine.
• Driver suffers burn in crash on I-495, jumps into river to put out flames (whatever happened to stop, drop, and roll? The extra hour and 15 minutes the holdup put on my trip (at least) let me take pictures like this though)
• Leaving one place at 7:15 am and getting to the destination at 12:40 am is not fun; however, I wasn't driving all that time.
• New York is a lot of nothing. And unfortunately you can't see Rochester, Syracuse, or Albany from I-90.

Home.

Things that are bad

So today's been interesting.

Get to campus before 10 to do some things - the cross registration form for Arabic at Pitt, change of address form for campus mail, etc.

First realization: Postal Services doesn't open til 10, Hub til 10:30.
Second realization: when I rebooted computers the other day, my webapps project would no longer work from outside the apartment
Third realization: while packing stuff from my desk, I didn't see my Social Security card or my Birth Certificate (they're kept together)

Well, these were all solvable
Had enough time to return and fix the webapp
Took in the trash from outside to make sure my SS card/Birth certificate wouldn't get taken
Did my change of address & cross registration after lunch

Everything's good, school's out for the summer, and I'm in good shape for the future

Have a good summer everyone, I'll keep blogging!

The flip

When I was a freshman, I went away to college. We all did the long pack of moving away.

Now we're all packing to return to a place that isn't any longer our base of operation. The long, emotional pack is at the end of the year, and the beginning of the year we're just sliding in to our dorms, back to normal.

In the fall, I'll carry some stuff up from the basement, take a few courses, and then move. To where, who knows. But there's one semester left after this one. And then the big move. The next big separation.

Advisor clarification

So I'd like to clarify something about the post from the Advisor.

I recognized myself not in the male description given in the Advisor, but the description of the female. That's what I found most amazing.

Some females I know peform the role of the male, not talking about things due to perceived lack of perfection, a perceived loss of strength.

It's not to say that I'm effeminate, but that I've got appreciation for reassurance that a relationship is strong, and I appreciate conversation that reassures me of that fact.

But at the same time, I don't look to share mundane details with my male friends.

Disclosure does not make me feel vulnerable. It actually makes me feel stronger.

If you've ever seen 8 Mile, it's like the scene where Rabbit (Eminem) disses himself, and then says "now what are you going to say about me?"

If you make everyone know your weaknesses, you lose a weakness: the ability for someone to find out something you're hiding that they could use against you.

I'm also not very comfortable with the idea of "gender roles" either. Even if we are genetically predisposed towards being one way or another, I believe the human mind and body (not to mention soul) are such amazing things that we can all do everything, and we can all peform the actions we feel are most correct.

I'll continue being me, continue to keep my faults obvious, continue to reaffirm my affection, and continue to ignore gender roles.

The Advisor

Sometimes, the advisor's pretty amazing

What does it mean when a woman asks, "What are you thinking about?" --W.G., Bowling Green, Ohio

She's looking for a pulse -- some acknowledgement and reassurance that the relationship is humming along. The question usually confuses guys. They figure if the relationship isn't working, one person will leave. They think, Does she want me to catalog my current random musings on baseball, (etc)? That will only piss her off. But if you respond with those old standbys "nothing" or "you," that doesn't satisfy her either. Men need to recognize that the exchange of seemingly mundane details is how women establish intimacy with their best female friends. She's approaching you in the same way. Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown who wrote the bestseller You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, says the best way to deal with this is for couples to acknowledge what's going on. The man should get in the habit of bringing up topics for discussion. The woman needs to reassure herself that, absent other signs that the relationship is suffering, the silence doesn't mean he's unhappy. Linda Vaden-Goad, a social psychologist at Western Connecticut State Univesity who has studied how couples use silence, says even if men are willing to share their thoughts, they are more comfortable with action than analysis. "Disclosure makes them feel vulnerable, and they're supposed to be strong," she says, "though some men in our studeis admitted to using silence as a strategy to maintain power because it keeps their partner guessing." Which is interesting but not something we want to talk about.

Postmortem

43 minutes to fix.

Now break.

Break time

Because

rm model/*.java
is not the same as
rm model/*.class

It's just a bunch of classes that will be easy to rewrite

but it's still probably an hour of work

Next statement

Every government (or administration) has to decide between two goals that are fundamentally at odds.

They can either pass and enforce laws (rules) that follow the idealized morals of the society, or they can enforce sensibly. It's the choice between idealism and realism.

The administration of Carnegie Mellon is caught in this issue right now: do they do as they usually have and turn a blind eye to underage drinking, or do they enforce realistically, caring more about safety than catching minors consuming and frats providing?

College students will continue drinking underage, no matter what the school tries. By enforcing idealism, they're creating a more dangerous environment, with people drinking hard alcohol irresponsibly outside the confines of the amnesty policy, instead of drinking bad beer on campus within the school's safety net.

Tying in my earlier post, I believe that young, intelligent minds should be allowed to make their own moral decisions as long as they're safe. The amnesty policy increases safety on campus. Drinking a drink or two, even underage, is safe. Students are no longer free to try a drink or two, illegally, and make up their own minds and learn their own lessons.

Making alcohol taboo will only increase abuse.

To the administration of Carnegie Mellon: let us make mistakes. Let us learn our own lessons with alcohol in a safe environment, instead of making us experiment in a more dangerous one. Your idealism now will cause more problems later.

(This sounded a lot better in my head)

Idea for human relationships

In Computer Science, in some protocols, there's something called "exponential backoff" when something would otherwise break.

When you have a problem with someone else, I recommend exponential backoff. First time you annoy someone, go away for 1 unit of time. Next time, 2 units. Then 4 units. Etc etc etc.

I've found, looking back on my experiences, that's how I handle people a lot of the time. Back off in larger increments each time. Persistence is important in some things, yes, but giving people more time each time does help, I find.

It's not simply that x time has elapsed since you pissed someone off, it's that it's been y units of time since you last tried to talk to them about it.

Golly gee I'm a dork.

The beginning of a philosophy

I'm trying to synthesize my ideas into a coherent and cohesive corpus.

Here goes


Parents are called to prepare their children for their adult lives. This, I believe, is composed of two large parts: morality and the ability to fail.



The ability to fail is under appreciated. If you look at the past in America, people came through great adversity to try, to take the chance that they might fail in order to succeed greater than they ever have before.

If you look at many people who lead in America, they have failed. Look at Bill Gates, who left college. I can almost guarantee most of the great leaders of America had relatively tumultuous upbringings, that they didn't lead better than average lives. Even if they grew up rich, that doesn't necessarily imply a calm, peaceful existence.

People who are comfortable with failure will take the big risks and earn the big rewards.

So I believe that parents should teach their children to question, to try, to experiment and not keep them away from failure.

A parent's responsibility is not to make their child the happiest child ever, make her life the easiest life ever, or remove every obstacle from his path. (I was pretty pissed off when I knew my parents could do something for me and didn't. I appreciate it now.)


However, the questioning nature needs to be weighed against the idea that a youngster could lie, cheat, and steal because they believe he is always right, or she believe there is no other authority. Morality therefore needs to go hand in hand with the instilling of questioning, so that the child will have to reflect and think about the decisions so wise ones are made.


So the general idea is a society of people who are OK with failing and willing to admit mistakes.


I think a large part of the problem in America is that much of the country has grown up as either the strongest nation in the world or seemingly tied (during the cold war). We have the problem that many act as the spoiled trust fund child - the idea that we deserve the first place position and that we are entitled to it perpetually.

Others realize that this isn't the case, so they're fighting the current trying to stay in one place, trying to keep first place by standing still.

The reason America was first was due to a desire to be ahead of the pack, a desire to run, a desire to strive, a knowledge that survival wasn't guaranteed.

We're going to not be first forever. And some people are going to be shocked. We need to, right now, put ourselves into a state of intellectual battle if we're going to excel. The ever increasing globalization means that our geographic isolation will no longer be enough to ensure success. We need to start designing better cars, building better airplanes, writing better code, being better to mother nature, being better teachers, and having stronger minds.

I said Johnny whatcha doing tonight?
He looked at me with a face full of fright
And I said how about a revolution?
And he said, right.

"The revolution will not be televised"

food

So CIA had their BBQ here due to rain out last weekend.

Left over were a ton of buns, pre-shaped patties, and American cheese.

Ever since, I've been making Double-Doubles for lunch.

Mmm.... double doubles

Sadly, I will miss being in California due to the Double Doubles.

must... not... stop... coding

Fall 2005

From: John Robertson (Director of Undergraduate Programs, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar)
To: Matt Laroche
Subject: Re: Qatar TA position

Hi Matt,

I have bad news. We will not be able to bring out a TA for the math classes.
...

Weird dream

I dreamed I was a pitcher for the Red Sox, and I got into a disagreement with the coach. He said that one of the other players and I were trying too hard, and we were going to peak too early. I said I was trying hard because every game mattered and I was trying to carry last season's momentum into this season. I also said our record wasn't that good so far (and let's face it, the Sox aren't exactly perfect so far).

Reason the dream was a nightmare? He traded me to the Yankees.

Email analysis

Notes:
Peaks in April (due to Carnival?)
2005 is higher than 2004. (Due to being chair of CIA?)
2004 is higher than 2003. (Due to being assistant chair then chair?)
500 emails per month in April 2005 is insane.
September higher in 2004 due to recruiting and getting CIA rolling?
May is very low (due to being home or busy with finals?)
January is the lowest it seems. No buggy in January.

Congratulations to the new CIA Officers!

Something I never expected

Xinhua, a Chinese newspaper, has some amazing body paintings on their site. They're the astrological signs.

(NSFW, unless your boss is really cool)

Forget LA

I'm not flying to LA to see Paul van Dyk this summer, instead I'm going to catch his show in Central Park on August 20 on my way home.

That will be one hell of a capstone to the summer.

(Note on comments)

I'll continue to allow anonymous posting as long as people leave their names on their comments.

I don't want to force people to sign up for blogger to leave a comment, but it's getting pretty creepy...

Minor: done

This morning, at 9:30, I handed in my electronics formal lab report and 2 labs, thus concluding 33-228: Electronics I.

I am now done my physics minor.

It feels pretty sweet

Photo again

Idiosyncrasies

We're all a little atypical - we all have ticks, things we do we can't explain. Things we know are illogical, but we still do.

I, for example, never put on socks again before I wash them. Even if I've only worn the socks for 5 minutes, they get washed. Which means each week I wash something like 21 pairs of socks.

I've enabled anonymous posting on this post. Go ahead and post your idiosyncrasies.

Sometimes full resolution and full quality is necessary

(click)

When I was a child

When I was a child, I looked around the world and said things like "wow, I could never be the type of person to have a good job, amazing opportunities, or be in the Olympics."

I realize now that the world is smaller than we think. Someone I know in high school won a gold medal in the Olympics last summer and also the previous Olympics. People we know are doing the amazing. I have opportunities now that I never would have believed could be possible for me two years ago.

We are the people we never thought we could be. The world is, ultimately, small. We can do anything we set our minds to.

In that vein, I've decided to go and get whatever I want as much as I can. I no longer believe anything's too big for me to make a difference, I no longer believe in being artificially constrained. I still want to go to the Middle East for a semester, I want to go to a festival in Los Angeles just for a weekend.

The world is waiting - fill your backpack and do the unimaginable.

recap

Our women's A team posted a time during exhibitions that would have gotten them 4th overall. Bummer, and sorry to the ladies for the failed pushbar. Our men broke 2:20 during finals, which is awesome!

I'm considering flying out to LA over the July 4 weekend for the IndepenDance Festival featuring Paul van Dyk. Tickets are $35, airplane tickets are about $300. If I fly in on the day of, the concert goes all night, and I could maybe stay at my aunt and uncle's and use them for transportation.

It sounds amazing... however, I can't float the cash today. And I'm not sure I really should be floating the cash for this. And my parents were planning on coming down to NC that weekend.

I've decided to drive by Niagara Falls on the way home after finals, as I don't have anywhere to be immediately at home. I've also purchased tickets to Modest Mouse and O.A.R. (in addition to the Dave Matthews Band tickets I've already got) so it sounds like a rather music summer coming up.

Learning, constantly learning, about everything.

Feet

Raceday, 2005

So today rocked. Our men's A team posted a second best time for races since CIA re-formed in the late 90s. The 2003 team got 2:18:something. Today we got 2:20:30. Good enough for second day.

We had an issue with Firebird's bar, which comes under the "Don't expect to get something installed Truck Weekend and have it work perfectly on raceday." Our women's A will race an exhibition tomorrow with everything working perfectly.

I was pretty out of it today, went from rolls to pancakes to the alumni advisory board to sweepstakes, back home to nap for a few hours.

Tomorrow, we do it all again, for finals. I miss not having responsibility, being able to watch from the chute while other orgs roll. But it was nice to see our time go up and know we'd be out second day.

Raceday wasn't as crazy this year as it was last. 6 dqs for men's (including 3 failed brake tests, Pioneers intentionally roster DQing due to not enough buggies) and 2 failed drops for women. Sig Nu actually rolled in the chute (not all the way over, the pushbar halted rotation) and broke their pushbar. Their driver was, thankfully, alright.

Much love to Pioneers, who won't be racing tomorrow. You guys have big hearts.

Tomorrow: finals, return U-Haul, shower & change, midway (checking out booth. Today was owned by buggy), awards ceremony, and party.

Spoke too soon...

I said that out of the 4 most important computer science companies (Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft) I only didn't speak to Microsoft about this summer. I spoke too soon. Miccrosoft, unsolicited, has asked me if I am interested in a contract position.

Still at design comp, raceday tomorrow, finals Saturday. i'm really excited.

What this world needs

What this world needs is not more pundits who are convinced their view is uniquely correct, but people who are open to thinking, adapting, and dialogue without rote rejection.

We need more people who aren't out to win or push their agenda but who seek the truth.

My other car is a U-Haul

Truck weekend, 2005. I have now rented a 26' U-Haul. It's my first diesel experience, and I have to say I wouldn't enjoy it as a daily driver. Sloppy truck shifter, sloppy steering, feels a little bit bigger than my car...

My car is right next to the truck right now, and I wish I had my camera here, for a perfect picture titled "My other car is a U-Haul."

This is what all the buildup is for, this is when it all matters. Raceday on Friday.

Distance

Lots of people have asked me why I chose Carnegie Mellon for college. I could always answer the standard PR line of "CMU is ranked first for Computer Science (by US News and World Report)."

But there's more to it. One thing that's huge to me is that CS is its own special thing here at Carnegie Mellon; it's in its own college, it has unity because it's the only undergrad major in the SCS. Carnegie Mellon also has people who come to CMU for music, or art, or achitecture, or business. MIT may have great humanities, but almost no one goes to MIT to major in humanities or arts.

Carnegie Mellon is also really good at interdiscicplinary activities - doing computer science for more than just the sake of computer science.

Another reason is distance. MIT is a 2.5 hour car ride from my family's home (it's certainly no longer mine). I didn't want to be able to think of Harpswell as a safe haven if something happens, of a place to go if I need a doctor, of a place to go if m parents wanted me home for Easter. I needed to go away without a safety net, maybe with the ability to fly to Maine if something drastic happens, but still not a weekend trip. I wanted the challenge of being independent all at once.

(Let's also be honest, I might not have gotten into MIT)

I dropped my sister off at the airport this morning; she has been here since Monday evening. When I am in Harpswell in May, she'll be gone on an exotic vacation to Indonesia. If she doesn't come visit me this summer, I may very well not see her til Christmas. It made me feel rather distanced from my family.

I am hungering to go further out of my comfort zone, for longer, where it's too expensive to call home and simply impossible to go home for a weekend. I want to test who I am, not what the environment around me allows me to be. I hope I get the opportunity to prove to myself that I can excel in any environment.

Update?

You want an update? You are interested in my life?

Here's the 3 minute list.

• Applied to TA Calc in Qatar. Very anxious to hear back about this
• My oldest sister (Danielle) is visiting for a few days - she's very self sufficient (and I'm busy) so she's entertaining herself while I'm busy
• I'm getting excited for Extreme Blue and Raleigh. Way too early.
• Spring has sprung
• Carnival is in 9 days, so the people who are doing buggy are irritable, busy, tired, and stressed

3 minutes up. Word.

Dave Matthews Band

I just bought tickets for Dave Matthews Band in Raleigh June 29. Should be fun, surprised they aren't already sold out though!

Philosophies

Me: Shit happens
Supriya: Everything happens for a reason

Us: Shit happens for a reason

CMUQ student presentation

Wednesday Mar 30

4:30 pm: Carnegie Mellon Qatar Student Presentation
DH 2315
All welcome, bring friends
5:30pm: Reception - All welcome

Maybe I spoke too soon...

...maybe.

No Qatar next fall

Since they're looking for Calc and Business TAs for Qatar for next fall, and not CS TAs (I thought they'd need a TA for 15-211), I'll be in Pittsburgh next fall.

Let Go lyrics

Drink up baby doll
Mmm, are you in or are you out
Leave your things behind
'Cuz it's all going on without you
'Scuze me, too busy
You're writing your tragedy
These mishaps, your bubble wrap, when
You've no idea what you're like...

(So let go)
So let go
Mmm, jump in
Oh well whatcha waiting for
It's alright
'Cuz there's beauty
In the breakdown
(So let go)
Yeah, let go
Just get in
Oh it's so amazing here
It's alright
'Cuz there's beauty
In the breakdown

- "Let Go", Frou Frou, from Garden State Soundtrack

Bombing in Doha

Let me preface this post by saying that Qatar has an almost non-existent history of terrorism. A couple Russians killed a former Chechan president there last year, but that involved neither Qatari/western targets nor Arabic attackers.

Yesterday, there was a car bombing in Doha of a theater frequented by westerners. You can read the articles for more information.

This is not changing my opinion of Qatar, of the safety of Qatar, or my desire to TA there next semester. In fact, I feel more obliged to go now and hopefully do my part in Middle East relations by helping show that Americans aren't all bad and help educate the future leaders of the Middle East.

The blast occured near the home of one of my CMU-Qatar friends. She's alright, all the CMU-Q students are alright, and all of the CMU-Q faculty and staff are alright.

Suddenly, all the security around Education City makes sense. Attackers are trying to show their dislike of Western presence and connection in Qatar. What is more noticable than a 4 square mile plot of land intended to house Western universities (Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M, Weill Cornell Med School, Virginia Commonwealth), Western companies (including Microsoft), and all of that faculty and staff. On the other hand, the majority of people at the target tonight were westerners and Education City is meant for westerners to educate and enterprise with Arabs, so it wouldn't be such a pure target.

I hope my parents spend a couple days not reading newspapers though. They've already said OK to me going. (I still have to apply and be accepted of course)

Sobering. Absolutely sobering.

My CMU-Q friends will be arriving next weekend :)

Matt

If you're going to talk the talk

I bragged about being immune to jet lag, just because 3 hours has never phased me. Let me tell you, 8 hours sucks. It took me 3 days to recover from coming back.

Monday, I accepted IBM Extreme Blue. Raleigh, NC for the summer. Riggs has already made me promise to go visit him at his camp.

Push practice started this week, and so from 11:15-1:45 Sunday-Thursday nights I will be out, helping out and pushing. This is why I have almost no courses this semester. This is game time, under a month til raceday.

Travelling abroad was fun, but the school spoiled me into believing international travel is cheap and easy (since they handled everything). Being handled through customs is amazing. Reality will set in the first time I pay for my own tickets, the first time I'm in a customs line where the people don't speak English as a first language.But I welcome it. A wider world-view is never a bad thing.

Peace

Matt

Apple

Last night, I got a call from Apple Computer at 9:34pm asking if I was still looking for an internship.

Too late, but it coulda been fun.

Matt

Jet lag

From Pattern Recognition by William Gibson:

She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien's theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage

Reflections on flight from Qatar to Heathrow

(Written on the plane, posted from Heathrow. We were delayed quite a few hours in Bahrain)

The energy is lessening, everyone is succumbing to exhaustion. In a way I noticed it in the hotel, before we headed back to the souks to get the final gifts for everyone. Everyone was nodding off in the lobby, killing time before we got picked up. We all have been awake, alive so much this week that when it all was said and done, when we all had an unwinding experience, we gave in to tiredness. But the sleep was peaceful.

The energy on the flight over, the energy of our Pittsburgh student delegation, was nothing compared to the energy of the students, faculty, and staff of the Carnegie Mellon - Qatar campus. They are excited to be starting something big. There is palpable enthusiasm. They know they are pioneers. They seem to have the right attitude. They are all proud of Carnegie Mellon, proud to be Carnegie Mellon - an example I should emulate.

Our group's energy has been converted to wisdom. We had to sign study abroad documents to go on this trip; the documents talk about earning credits. I was joking then that we should earn credits for this trip, because the forms were designed for people who were. I've earned much more than credits on this trip; I've been reminded of so much about life that I have become cold to. I have become more aware of the global environment in which we live. I probably will always have a spot in my heart for the Middle East. I have friends there. My heart was alive and well this week.

This week has made me think about my future - what I want to do. I would love to be part of something big, starting up a world class institution (or a branch thereof). I almost want to stay for next spring just to be able to go back on spring break. It was amazing.

I worry about the trustees and administration. During the information session held by the Education City planner, they discussed the building so much, they discussed so much that doesn't seem applicable to the every day life of students. Even the pictures of people in the buildings didn't look like the students that will be there. I understand they need to build infrastructure, However, the bigger picture seems missing. The administration spent almost no time with the students; some person only interacted with the students to get a picture with them. It felt like that picture was a trophy of his trip.

It seems, right now, cross registration among the campuses in Education City is limited. Students at CMU-Q are limited to CMU courses. I believe they would be wise to treat the colleges in Education city as departments, having Carnegie Mellon Qatar handle business and CS courses in education city, and have the other colleges handle other electives. This could dilute the "brand name" of a Carnegie Mellon degree, as they are trying to make sure that a CMU-Q student gets the same education as a CMU-Pittsburgh student. However, mass cross-registration seems to make the most sense to me.

If you ask me what was the most fun this week, I might say duning, I might say the dhow ride... but honestly, I have made friends. I learned about others. I learned about the world. I learned about myself. And that is so much more important than the activities.

Students of Carnegie Mellon - Qatar: good luck. You have made us proud, you are doing something amazing. Tell the administration what they're doing wrong: they need the brains of people on the ground there.

Students of Carnegie Mellon - Pittsburgh: we have family in the Middle East. They are Carnegie Mellon students just like we are.

I'll miss you, CMU-Q students. I can't wait to see some of you later this month. Lina, I don't know when I'll see you again, but I look forward to it.

Thank you to Student Affairs, for realizing that this trip wouldn't have been complete without Pittsburgh students.

Anyone want to take a course in Arabic with me next fall at Pitt?

A-salaam alaykum

Matt

Don't want to leave tomorrow

Things fall apart and things die
So c'mon c'mon be alive
C'mon c'mon revolutionaries
With hands by your side
You've got to decide
This is the motivation to change the way you look from the inside


I don't want to leave tomorrow. The end.

Matt

Western things in the Middle East

The students at CMU Qatar go to the mall and get Starbucks during lunch.
I saw a McDonald's when we left the airport, and saw another today.
I've seen a Baskin Robins, Burger King, and Subway here.
I ate Pizza Hut for lunch.
I've seen every American car manufacturer ever here.
I know that there's also a Chili's, Dairy Queen, and an Applebees here.

Best sight today: traditionally dressed Qatari man, talking on the cell phone, driving a Suburban.

Best food eaten today: traditional hummus. Wow. Amazing. I could live on that.

Tomorrow we go to the Souks. I hope we go back to the gold Souk, today was just window shopping.

Here

I'm here in Doha. The city is very nice, though the roundabouts (traffic circles) are scary. I'm very glad I'm not driving. We saw the Corniche Pearl, went to a horse farm and saw a swimming horse.

The Sheraton is very nice. They even delivered our luggage to our rooms. I've never stayed in such a posh hotel: fresh fruit in the rooms, shower and tub, 2 flat plasma tvs, porch on the ocean, very comfy beds, etc etc etc.

The campus is nice. Small, but they're growing...

Gave Sarris chocolate bars to all the CS students today. Had a heart attack: one asked me if chocolate liquor had any alcohol in it. It doesn't, but it was just harrowing to have that asked! Didn't think about that.

Breakfast had veal bacon, speaking of the dietary restrictions.

That's all I have for you. Check out the pics, and enjoy!

Thoughts in flight

Today has been an amazing day. I'm not even to London yet, and it's been really fun - the energy of the group is astounding.

Some of us are veteran travelers - Supriya has an amazing Indian passport, stamped and things inserted many times. She flies home twice a year. Drea has a Trinidad and Tobago passport, which is drilled all the way through with TOBAGO. Erik has a big sticker from Qatar slapped on the back of his passport from when he visited last summer. A bunch of us have never left America & Canada. I'm glad I've taken a 6 hour flight before, and I'm used to the car ride from Maine to Pittsburgh - otherwise this might feel grueling.

Supriya almost didn't make the trip - as she's Indian, she needs a transit visa to travel through the UK. However, she happened to get a five year UK visa in 2002.

I've been thinking about Krista a little bit on the trip. Walking through the Philadelphia airport was just a reminder of how strong the emotions were between us. We first introduced ourselves at the Philadelphia Airport after Christmas break Freshman year. The travelling group also ate at TGI Friday's in Philadelphia, so I had to think about when she and I ate at Friday's in the Pittsburgh airport before spring break freshman year. So everyone reminding me that I'd find good memories about her - you were right. Thank you for reminding me. So much of what the good memories are is the joy of being requieted; the happiness that comes from successfully pursuing someone. I was so surprised someone so pretty could like someone like me. I'm beginning to understand why more clearly.

I'm currently 1630 miles from Heathrow, according to the inflight map. British Airways does a great job, and having so many British accents around is just different! I was pulling out money to buy a beer on the flight, and they give you beer free - I'm so used to domestic flights charging $5 for beer. Is free beer on international the rule or the exception? The beer was one I'd never heard of before, Grolsch.

I'm also reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, which I recommend for anyone in science. I just read Feynman's Rainbow, a reflection on Feynman's personality by a colleague at Caltech, and it reminded me of that I find fun and beautiful about Computer Science (even though everything was about finding beauty in Physics). Doing science for the love of science, and the love of problem solving, and the love of learning is something I'm rediscovering.

(This was written on the flight, and was posted from Heathrow - so hello from Heathrow!)

Things not to do before leaving internationally

Lock your keys in your car. Don't do that.

Thank goodness that I had my alarm remote at my apartment.

Hero of the day status goes to Dre, for letting me back into the apartment.

Puppies to keep you entertained while I'm gone

Our four yellows

Writing to Senators

Senator Lott,

I am Matthew Laroche, a Junior at Carnegie Mellon University.

I grew up in Bath, Maine. My father works at Bath Iron Works; he used to be an engineer on the DD-X project. In school, most of my classmates had at least one parent working at the yard.

A few years ago, when the contract for the DD-X project was assigned, you made sure that it went to Ingalls, in your state. Ingalls had a team with a lesser design and had lesser ability to fulfill the contract. You even ignored the Navy’s recommendation of which shipyard was better for the contract, and ignored BIW’s appeal when the assignment had several flaws in it, making BIW an even better choice for the contract.

Even after the contract was given to Ingalls, they have had issues completing it because they were not prepared – at the time, even they knew BIW was better prepared and had better ideas. The choice of Ingalls has been proven poor.

At the time, I was disappointed – but I thought BIW would always have a future so I did not fight. Now, the Navy is thinking of going to one manufacturer of destroyers – either Ingalls or BIW.

Since you decided to do what was best for your state when the project was assigned instead of what’s best for the country, I now believe you have a moral obligation to make sure what is best for the country happens when the Navy chooses one yard. Remember, you may be a senator from Mississippi, but you are a United States Senator first. You have an obligation to everyone in the country, even people in Maine.

Otherwise, I believe you will be responsible for what happens when BIW closes its gates. My hometown will die. Not because the Navy did not have enough ships to build, not because they didn’t fight the good fight, but that politicians chose what was best for their area and not what was best for the country.

I see that you have rejected the winner-takes-all suggestion for DDX construction, but if the time comes, I invite you to go further. I invite you to fulfill your duty to the country; I invite you to give Bath a fair chance. I invite you to be fair and impartial when the time comes and chose what is best for America.

Thank you for your time,

Matthew Laroche

Callie

Sometimes Dallas and Callie try to get in the same kennel. Callie is definitely not impressed by Dallas' attempts to do this.

And miles to go before I sleep

Things to do before I leave
• Pack
• either install Tomcat&MySQL on my laptop or do my 15-397 assignment
• Do work for Danny
• Rent DVDs for flights

Yay slack. Yay break.

Matt

Tugging at heart strings

I am super excited to go to Qatar next week. However, IBM is setting a response deadline on my Extreme Blue offer for March 14. That's the monday after I get back from break.

I have an offer with Google for support style stuff, similar to last summer but on Enterprise instead of in PSO. I am trying for a software engineering position. I'm interviewing tomorrow. However, if I don't get that, I can't interview next week at all with Google. Apparently there are a bunch of groups interested in talking to me, but timewise I cannot swing it.

Cynde (G intern coordinator) said that being at Google this summer would give me a much better chance for a full time job.

I guess I'll be sitting on the plane on the way back next weekend figuring out what I'm doing this summer.

Matt

Lesson of day

Do not wear glasses when getting a haircut with someone who is not your regular hairdresser. Wear contacts.

In related news, my hair dries really quickly right now. I'm glad it's short, but it's much much shorter than I expected.

Note 2: Penzoil takes a lot of pride in their work changing oil. They tried to reset my stupid "change oil now" light (which no one has tried before). They also vacuumed my car.

3 busy days til I leave for Qatar!

Matt