Ice Cavern Studios

To say that this weekend was an excersize in contrasts would be an understatement. From Alan's party Friday night to my activities for today, I've been from one side of the spectrum to the other.

To begin, Alan Shen threw this awesome party. Well, he didn't throw it as much as just housed it. And housed is the appropriate word…kind of. See, Alan is tearing down his house so he can rebuild on the property. And when a few of his friends got together, the only logical solution was to throw a demolition/indoor beech party. Yes, that's right. An indoor beech party.

Friday night, I walked up to Alan's house to find the lower floor covered in an inch of sand. There were decorations all over to make it look like a beech; there were half-naked people in beach attire; and there was alcohol. It was definetly…OFF THE CHAIN.

I had an awesome time at the party and got to really meet a bunch of people I'd seen at other various parties. It was awesome. That and there was dancing. Which I enjoyed.

So the rest of the weekend?

Pretty friggen chill. Saturday, H and I chilled out and went to Ikea to look at furnature. Then I played World of Warcraft because that is all I wanted to do. Today? I did laundry and cleaned up the apartment. I also worked out and did some grocery shopping.

Fun stuff, huh?

Oh, shit. I forgot to mention it. Joe has asked me to be one of his groomsmen. That's awesome. I'm really glad/excited/honored to even be asked. So yeah, October 8, 2005, gonna be off the hook.

Ok, time for the sleeping. I want to get up and get to work early. Word. Later.

Life and Times

Ok, I know it's been a while. And many people can probably guess why I haven't updated. For those of you who aren't so in the know; Nicole came out to visit last Wednesday. Well, there was that, and the whole moving thing. Oh yeah. I guess I didn't mention that. I moved out from my old apartment and into a newer, nicer one.

So first, the move. About that. Basically, a week from last Saturday, I dropped into the Archestone Redmond-Hill apartment complex, just to take a look around. While there, I did some thinking about apartments. After much consideration, I determined that the Archestone complex across from Microsoft was where I really wanted to be living for the next six months or so.

Thus, the following day, I went to the Archestone Redmond complex, took a look around, and after discussing things with H, I applied for and got the apartment. (I actually signed for it the following Day due to not being able to enter stuff into their system on Sundays).

I also decided that I wanted to move out as soon as possible for a myriad of reasons. I may go into them later, but not at this time.

Anyway, on Monday and Tuesday nights, I spent time moving stuff from my old apartment and from storage to my new apartment. Of course this left me with my furniture and a few other things still to move. Which is what Wednesday was for. And yes, I mean the same Wednesday that Nicole flew out.

The day started at 5:40 in the morning with me getting up and moving some more stuff to the new place. At 6:45 I picked up Andy (a friend of mine in the complex) and we drove to U-Haul where we picked up a van and high tailed it to my old apartment. From 7:15-8:30 we moved my old furniture (Andy stopped at 8:30 since he had to goto work). From 8:30 to 9:15 I moved the rest of the stuff from the van to my apartment.

After that, I drove down to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up various things that I needed. Then it was back to the apartment to take that stuff back. Of course, the day was going way too smoothly, and at 11:30, as I was leaving, the key to my apartment broke off in the lock.

Now, to give you an idea of all the timing. Nicole was due to land at 9:20 PM PST. This meant that I had a lot of work to do in a small amount of time, because I wanted everything to be ready when she got in. This meant that I needed to get the key fixed; the van returned to U-Haul store; and be back at my apartment by noon. All of this had to happen because the Cable guy was scheduled to be in any time between 12 and 4.

Needless to say, I broke into action. I ran to the office and told them what was up. I also said I'd be back in like 30 minutes to get the key. Driving as quickly as possible (not quickly at all, really, it was a big ass boat of a van) I went back to the U-Haul, then back to Meghan and Steve's to get some things I left, and then back to the apartment. When I arrived at 12:15, the key was removed, a new one was at the office for me, and the cable guy was outside at his truck getting things gathered to come up.

Praise be to Him for all of his miraculous timing.

So for the next couple of hours, I put stuff together and pulled stuff out of boxes while the cable guy did his thing.

Oh yeah, I should mention now that, at 2:50, I had to drive to the office for a team meeting to discuss changes in the Microsoft Test Organization. Yeah. I definitely surprised people who figured I wouldn't make it. I was glad I did, although it did eat into a bit of my time.

After that it was back to the apartment to do more laundry, dishes, and unpacking. At 6:15 I grabbed picked up Andy and we high-tailed it to the grocery store (he needed to get stuff and I wanted the company). From about 6:30 to 7:15, I used various ninja shopping techniques to amass enough food to feed me and Nicole for a week. So then it was zoom back to the apartment to unload and get food put away.

Now thankfully, I called the airport and found out that Nicole had been delayed by 20 minutes, so I knew I had extra time. Which meant I basically had time to organize a few more things before racing to Sea-Tac.

Somehow, I managed to get dressed, pick up one last thing from Meghan and Steve's, and then high-tail it to Sea-Tac airport. I don't understand how, but it happened. I even had time to grab a quick bite to eat.

So yeah, I got Nicole and we headed back. At this point, I should mention that I like to surprise Nicole. The way she reacts to surprises is great. It tends to be a, “Wha…huh?” kind of thing. It's really really cute, and so when I pulled into the complex and explained that I had moved, I got the exact response I was hoping for. It was great.

So yeah, I moved. Like a ninja. Andy and I are thinking about starting a moving company called “Ninja Movers.” Could be pretty cool.

So, what did Nicole and I do for the week she was here? Not much. A lot of bumming around. A lot of watching SNL. A good deal of cooking (I really like to cook). A great deal of eating. Did I mention bumming? Oh yeah.

Seriously, we didn't do very much. The most activity we got was going out to see Ocean's 12 (awesome) and going out to dinner Sunday with Meghan and Steve. It was great.

But yes, a lot of bumming. And this bumming, and spending time with the girl has meant no blogging. I feel it's a good trade off, really. And I promise, I'll post pics of the apartment, and stuff. Really. But yes. I moved. I got to see Nicole. And I even worked out today. Sweet.

Life and Times

Sorry about that last posting, I was a bit…miffed. And I was up to late. But it was a good reason. I was out partying. See. I didn't do work on the weekend. GO ME!!

Life and Times

So this was posted to Slashdot, and subsequently it was sent to random. I hate this crap. I really do. By the way, the following may offend some people. If it does…I'm not really sorry. But shit like this pisses me off, and I'm going to have to speak freely about this.

Simply put: This article is absolute crap. Basically, a bunch of people are trying to bring down the reputations of elite universities (the Ivy League, MIT, Duke, etc). God, why does this crap come up?

It seems like every few years, someone comes out with some bullshit statistics about why paying for a school like Harvard or Princeton isn't worth it. They take some stats or facts (because stats lie) and distort them to make it seem like a huge waste. Today's misuse of information is this: the number of CxO's (CFO,CEO, etc) at fortune 100 companies who have Ivy League degrees has fallen from 14% to 10% since the 80's.

OH MY GOD! WHY WOULD YOU PAY FOR A SCHOOL LIKE YALE NOW!? IT'S SOOOO NOT WORTH IT ANYMORE!!

Basically, this article says JACK SHIT! So the number of people running corporations like GE, Wal-mart, and Pepsi aren't coming from Ivy League schools. Um…ok? The article makes it sound like they are hiring less Ivy League students? Does this mean that Ivy League students aren't finding jobs and have to walk the streets homeless?

In short; no. Does the Ivy League education hold less weight? Most likely not. Then what does it mean? It means the makeup of college graduates contains a smaller percentage of people coming from “elite” institutions. I mean, let's look at it for a second. If we the take what they plan to expand the class sizes at Princeton to, 1500, we see that it is roughly 13% of the class size of Ohio State (roughly 10,000 a year given the 50,000 undergrads they usually have). Wait a minute. Let's look at those numbers for just a second. 13%? Sure, Ohio State is one of the two largest Universities, but still. Come on. For every school like Harvard, there are at least 2 state institutions with huge student bodies. I mean, Stanford has roughly 6000 undergrads. Michigan has 24,000. That's four times as many.

According to the article, there are 146 “elite” colleges. This I already cal into question. How “elite” are they if there are 146 of them? But I digress. Looking at these numbers, it's quite easy to see. “Elite” university graduates are a small portion of the work force to begin with. Then couple that with the fact that not everyone wants to be CEO. Jesus. I sure as HELL know that I DON'T want to be CEO. Maybe CTO one day, but probably not. That doesn't interest me in the slightest. If it did, I probably would have thought about business school. But…I don't have that inclination.

No, a good deal of Ivy League graduates are going on to become Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists, Professors, Politicians, and other “important” professions within society. Many others are starting their own companies, not interested in working for places like GE. Others are off writing, acting, and creating works of art and music. But since all that matters is getting to the top of one of 100 companies, many of which don't do anything remotely exciting, the Ivy League is falling off.

The other thing I just LOVE about all of this bullshit is that it brings out a host of people going, “See, I got just as good an education for a fraction of the price. You wasted all that money on an education you could have gotten at a cheaper school.” Um..look, I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but there is a big difference in schools. Hell, there is a big difference between “Elite” schools.

I love my sister and all my friends at UM, but college for you and me is an entirely different thing. I sat at Camp CAEN, and watched how people fought to get a book they would need for class authored by a man who would later Precept one of my classes (Sedgwick). Both my Discrete Math professor AND my Theory of Algorithms professors had Touring awards. My photo professor had a Sundance film award. I had a class in Design for large media taught by a man with AN OSCAR. My Advanced Programming Techniques professor and my indipendent work advisor was BRIAN FRIGGEN KERNIGHAN.

What did $160,000 get me? The chance to work with and learn from some of the top minds in my field. I went to school with the future leaders of this country. I was taught in a style very different from other schools. And I worked my ass off. I've had experiences and seen things that I would have only gotten through Princeton.

I don't mean to hate. I'm not saying I'm better than you as a person. But in terms of academics, my school is a head above yours. That's just the way it is. There are a lot of good schools. I applied to and was accepted to a bunch of them. But there are a handful of truly “Elite” places.

Generally, I don't like talking about school. I tend to do it only with other people who went to “Elite” universities. I don't like doing it, because it's hard trying to explain what the “big deal” is. It really is an exclusive club. It's supposed to be. You take the top 1-2% of the people, stick them in a school together, and make them into the leaders the world needs them to be. You give them access to the deepest resources and the best teachers. You provide a rich environment for them to grow, and you go.

In the end, it's best put by the following:

Jackob Maki: Stan, we (UIUC) are rated higher than you in computer science. You should have come here instead.
Geoff Levine (Another UIUC CS Major): Jacob, shut up. It's fucking Princeton.

Life and Times

Well, it would appear that I'm at least been able to keep some of my resolutions so far. In the past week, I have in fact walked to and from work every day. Good. I've been eating better, and I have started eating breakfast. As for music…if by play music, I meant play World of Warcraft, then yeah…d'oh. And the working, well…at least I'm sleeping more.

On my last post, Tos mentioned that it was hard to adjust from Princeton life, and as I think about it, that is a very true statement. There are parts of the Princeton experience that I could have seriously done without. Or at least I could have done without the bad habits that were formed. The big one's I have are the workaholic tendencies and the lack of sleep. How sad is it that I have to make the resolution to work less, and to sleep more. And for some reason, I just can't seem to stop. It's really not healthy.

Even now, as I'm getting ready for bed, I'm contemplating how much sleep I want to get. I'm seriously weighing in on whether I want a lot of sleep, or if I want to get less sleep, but get to work earlier. I'll probably get less sleep and go in early. Sigh…but maybe I'll get my car back, which would be good.

Oh well. I have a lot I want to get done tomorrow morning, so I should probably sleep. Yes..sleep. And before midnight. Who am I, and where is Stan?

Life and Times