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I cannot be the only person who has a box of this kind. For the past few years all sorts of treasures (the untrained eye would call it junk) have ended up in a storage box I have. The list is as follows:

• Zaurus – the one chance linux had to be in a handheld. It is the greatest gadget I’ve owned in my life. Unfortunately it never got the care it needed.
• Magic Cards – classic part of any geek’s box of treasures
• Backup TI-83 calculator – I always carry a TI-89 but you never know when you will need a replacement
• USB extension cord
• Memory card reader

• Pads, bookmarks, plane tickets, receipts.. etc&.

So much of this box has already become outdated that its hard not feeling old. Imagine, twenty years from now the box will be worth thousands. Who even uses compact flash anymore? Or has seen a sharp PDA that actually works better than a Blackberry?

What if life is like a book which has already been written? Suppose we are the anaphoras and similes and metaphors that this book has? What if we are the symbols? When you read a biography at the end you always notice a pattern a person had – a battle which repeated several times and if they were lucky they managed to conclude it before their death. Yet can someone which is living in this book discover these literary elements while living? I think you can, or like to hope I can.

When I was a eager sophomore in high school at the beginnings of my learning of computer science I was called down to the principle’s office. This would be the first of many times that I would be approached over the matter of how I use computers. The story is not very interesting, and rather silly yet a very important theme began at that point. At the end of the discussion about what I did the principle told me – “What you did is like having a gun in school and not using it.” That bothered me, I hate analogies when they attack me, but I moved on after a while. I never got in trouble and that was the last time I spoke with him.

Four years later though, the same thing has occurred. I have been approached by Facebook.com pertaining to a script which violates the terms and conditions which the site institutes. I admit, it’s not legal to use the script, but does it mean I can’t make it available? I have taken the script down for the moment to avoid too much fuss but I don’t think this is the end. This is just the beginning. Is it illegal to make a gun and not use it? Is it illegal to be strong and not punch someone? Is it illegal to know and not use the knowledge. I choose to defy their opinion not because I disagree with why they dislike my script (because I’ll admit I would do the same thing if I worked for them) but because it feels like a possible learning opportunity. A chance to perhaps, just maybe, place a conclusion to a battle that could perhaps repeat several more times more in my lifetime.

Today driving home from Brienne’s house for the first time since last year I noticed how all the feelings that I used to get had expired. Seeing Brienne be greeted by her family, and seeing her excitement was like seeing the reflection of myself a year ago. I recall being super excited about returning home. There was always the train trips where for 4-5 hours all I did was think of home. There was the family greeting and dinner where we catched on odd pieces of conversation and happenings. And finally there was seeing Brienne. None of these things are quite the same this year.

To return home is like never finished a major chord. It begs to be concluded, but I always leave before it even has a chance to strike the final tone. I feel like an alian in this city. I have so many memories while driving up and down the local roads, but all seem to far and distant to reinvigorate any feeling in coming home. And there are so many memories too, a shame they all go to waste.

Home will never be the same as it was. Perhaps this is a transition we all make because let’s be honest, coming home once a month to your parents house is not something most adults do. The more interesting thing however is: should I be feeling this transition, or is there something going wrong with how I choose to live my life?

During the summer I started to notice that a lot of people ask me for directions. While at Rutgers I go at least half a dozen people asking me for buildings, streets and places. I didn’t even go to that school, but somehow I managed to always help them. It gave me an odd feeling to say the least, it made me feel like I was part of the Rutgers student population for a while.

Now here in Albany the same thing is happening. Just about every day I have been asked for some sort of guidance. Yesterday I got a drunk freshmen asking me where the lecture center was. For those who don’t study here let me tell you, the lecture centers is at the heart of the campus, there is no way on earth anyone should ever not know where it is. Its like saying where is the gas when you go to a gas station.

To day 3 people asked me for information but the oddest one was just now. This girl sits behind me on a computer next to me and first asks me how to write an e-mail from the UAlbany account. w*f Then she asks me how one spells a-s-s-i-g-n-m-e-n-t. Alright, maybe she doesn’t know how to use the e-mail program we have at school, and assignment could be seen as a tricky word. Then she asks me to read the e-mail over because it was her first class ever and she was afraid of making a bad first impression. It was full of grammar errors and repeated words in the same sentence however the most entertaining thing was how she metioned the “book store” as the “ book house”. Conclusion, another drunk freshmen that I have had to deal with in the past 2 days. sigh.. I was soo not like that.

You think, when you are in High School, that once you graduate you will not have to stay out in the rain and wind waiting for a cramped bus in the morning. Yet it so happens that that experience never ends. Today at 8:45 sharp I was out at the street corner of my dorm waiting in the cold for the bus (which is always slightly late).

Being college basically upgrades the bus experience. Now as a college student I am allowed to actually stand while the bus is moving. I have no option of seat belts. And you have weird people siting next to you. This reflection came about when I was looking out the window and a yellow school bus came to a stop next to my public transportation bus.

Just when you think you moved on to new things: the past comes by and reminds you that you haven’t changed as much as you think you have.

Today was my last day of work as an intern. 2 months ago I had very little clue of what I would be doing but surely enough the longer I worked the more I started to do. In the end I am amazed at all that I have done. It was a good challenge because not only did I learn things that I had almost no clue about but also because I actually ended up with nice results.

The first month of work I primarily made a program that allowed users to synchronize lyrics to songs so that the songs could later be used in Karaoke machines. The program seemed simple enough to make but as time went on I started to notice how user friendliness matters. In Java (the language I used to make this program) everything has to be defined. So when I was told to highlight the current word in the song I was forced to write about 100 lines of code just to make that simple feature. In the first version of the program a user took from 1 to 3 hours to synchronize a song however once I did all the minor tuning that was required the time went drastically down to 5 minutes per song.

During the second month I started designing a site using what must be the worst programming language ever created: ASP.NET. It sucks so much that now I understand that no serious site online uses ASP (such as CNN, Yahoo, Weather.com, etc&…) Because of the learning curve it took me a few more days than I had planned but in the end everything works perfectly. Sadly enough the best part of the site I was unable to have enough time on: the design. I wish I had seen this coming earlier so that I could have put more effort into it. In the end the site doesn’t look too bad. It has a distinct feel to it and all it needs now is content. Everyone seems very pleased with the results.

Well that is all. I’ll definitely miss working here and I am sure I will stop by during my breaks to say hello. Who knows, I might even work here again next summer.

I am a Grande guy. It’s small enough to comfortably fit into my hands and yet large enough to fill me up. Yet, last Friday while at Starbucks, the highly amusing girl who was making my drink somehow managed to completely do something that resulted in me having a Venti® sized drink instead of my usual Grande drink. (Highly sketchy if you ask me)

Anyway, my first impulse was: “Sweet I got this for free!” However I soon noticed the most horrific feeling, I had the guilt of being ‘American’. The thing is so enormous that it made me want to hide it or throw it away. I couldn’t bare to walk to the streets of New Hope with it. That Venti® drink stood for everything I disliked. It was far too big, I had no need for it, and it made me one with the masses of fat Americans who believe that the bigger the better.

I think that is something and something worthy to ponder more on. Big things are starting to have a bad connotation and perhaps this is the beginning of change. People should feel guilty of getting more than what they need.

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Although celebrating one year and a half is not something many people do, I think it is a lovely idea. To be honest, I think every month deserves a small anniversary. This month, to celebrate the big 1.5 we decided that the beach would be a creative way of spending August 14th.

After an exciting previous night from attending a very handsome Indian wedding reception I woke up at 7am (with only 6 hours of sleep) to get ready for the beach. My mother was up and my father shortly after was up as well for no particular reason except for the fact that they are morning people. (Yes, I always include waking up as part of any good story)

The following is an extract of a conversation I had with my father when I went downstairs:
Father: How was last night?
Me: Like every other night.
F: Was it fun?
M: As usual
F: Where are you going today?
M: I don’t know.
F: Why don’t you tell me anything?! (whaaa)
M: …grunt… (Proceeds to continue watching BBC World News)

Anyway, I left the house at went to pick up Brie. It was lovely to be up at Hopewell Mountain so early to see the Great Mrs. C. going out for her morning Capochino at the local QuickCheck. After getting money, and me having to go back home to get my wallet we headed off to Point Pleasant Beach.

Nothing spectacular happened on the way there. Upon arriving we discovered that we couldn’t actually get in the water because it was too ‘rough’. Seriously, even me the avid swimmer could have handled those tiny waves. I did have my worries about Brienne getting in the water. Luckily neither of us were allowed in it. Due the water restriction, we had 6 amazing hours in the beach where we talked, and talked, did nothing, and most importantly built a ‘castle’ of sorts. That was fun. It was probably a yard in diameter and it had a nice ditch all around it (my side of the castle being much nicer than her’s). We even received a complement from a little kid later on in the day. (“Look at the pretty castle”) There was a small lesson learned though: Never make a castle under the umbrella because I think in the list of priorities I think humans should get the shade before the castle does.

But that was only the beginning for we had to be interrupted by you know what that shall not be named. The Expedition to Find the Holy Big Blue Box. Brie assured me that I could walk barefoot on the boardwalk. Yeah.. She also forgot that I have feet of a princess, they have never touched anything rougher than carpet and therefore are as silky and sensitive as a baby’s butt (a clean one). After roaming both sides to find the ‘Big Blue Box’ which still boggles my mind why it would be so big, my feet had two enormous blisters. But seriously, the Big Blue Box is so enormous, hasn’t anyone invested a bit of time in making it smaller? They might as well put wheels so that you can pull it around behind you. Alright, enough about the Big Blue Box.

Once we found the Big Blue Box (yes, 5th mention in this post) we took a walk up and down the beach. And there once again I demonstrated that my feet are far too delicate for the rough ragged sand beach (those broken shells seriously took a toll on my feet though).

6 hours later, now 4 in the afternoon, we got up and took a more relaxed walk on the boardwalk. Those little houses facing the beach are quite neat to look at. Some really are unique to say the least. Heading back we stopped at an Arcade so Brie could waste some valuable money in one of those monkey key chains. While we waited in line to get her prize, I am not sure what I did, but it was something that made me do the silly laugh I have, this little girl in a lavender dress look up at me and started for a good minute not knowing if she should run or laugh. This is how I noticed that the girl was staring at me:

• I look around and see the girl staring at me, no big deal right. (I continue to look around the Arcade)
• I have a feeling I’m being stared at so I look down at the girl and she is still focused on me… (alright, I’m just really tall and she is amazed at that). I continue to look around
• Second later I look down again and she is still looking at me. I have to check if its really me so I look at Brie who now has noticed that the girl looks like deer in front of headlights.
• I look at Brie. Brie looks at me.

• We both look at the little girl.

I think I have officially traumatized a little girl with my girly laugh. After we got the monkey key chain we resumed the walk. When it was around 7 we proceeded to the car and headed home only to notice that I had not paid a single second of attention to what was around us on the way to the beach, meaning: I had no idea where I was really going for nothing was familiar. Luckily we didn’t get lost and in 45 minutes we were back in Hopewell.

[Nothing goes here]

I don’t think I have ever had such a pleasant time at the beach and this way by far better than what had occurred 1 year ago on our .5 anniversary I hope to repeat this in the future, perhaps on our big 2.5.

Today was the first time as an adult that I have been for an extended amount of time inside an office during work hours. There were many things that I couldn’t help but notice.

1. The insane amount of calls and calls being forwarded
2. Sales and Marketing are many times as loud as the programmers
3. I believe all of them are married, damn I feel left out
4. I am now introduced as the CEO’s neighbor (I don’t like the impression that gives of me)

1. Work ends at 5:30 (wasn’t sure of that today)

Cannot wait for Friday when I get to work full time for one day from 9ish to 5:30 again! You see, I’m sure that in 30 years when I read this I will laugh at how simple and innocent I was to actually liking to work in a cubicle, but for now this is really cool.

Not quite an interview since me working seemed to be already a given from the moment we started talking. I explained the work I had done, what my experiences were, and what I expected to accomplish in the next 2 months that I am home. I think I did a good job presenting myself, I enjoy how I can speak in complete sentences when required. I miss the days of talking to professors where every word has to be thought out or else they will question the meaning of what you said.

However, the CEO of the tiny consulting not being too technical, asked one of his employees (who is probably in his late 20s) to interview me to know what my technical skills are. Wow, am I not ready for this sort of job. Because of the nature of the company, they don’t care about what is hot or what is free and hip in development. All they know is things that begin with “Visual” or “Microsoft” something something. On the other hand I’m totally hip, free and open source.

Its good that this didn’t seem to be an issue. I start working on Monday at 1pm right after class. My job, just about everything that can be passed down to me (like filing, getting coffee for the team, cleaning the white board, etc&…) but mainly research for a possible project they are doing. I will not be Dooced, but I can just feel all the interesting things I could potentially write about.