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[12 Dec 2012|12:09am] |
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mood |
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current mood what |
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A lot of posts in this journal are * *, because I am mysterious.
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| YAY.... BOOO |
[04 Mar 2009|11:09am] |
So many things I'm excited about!
FRIDAY 4 A.M.: Watchmen IMAX
Next week FRIDAY NOON: Our super intense road trip begins! Look at this shit. We're actually planning on skipping Charlotte, Houston, and Fort Stockton, but I'd still like to do something in the east/southeast coast other than Richmond. RECOMMENDATIONS? Is Charleston any good? Better than Wilmington? Should we go to Mobile, AL instead of Montgomery?
Next next week WEDNESDAY EVENING: SXSW. Weee. After that we're going to Juarez to see my parents and scare the shit out of my gringo friends, then we're flying back to New York.
This is gonna be pretty awesome, I must say.
Unrelated: just as I was starting to get excited about electrical engineering and such, my idea for a microcontroller-based project was REJECTED! This is what I emailed my professor, which is basically the best pitch ever because it starts with "Have you seen Never Say Never Again?":
Have you seen Never Say Never Again (the james bond movie)? Our other idea is basically the fake video game they play in the movie, Domination, except instead of taking over the world it'd be another (simpler) game like Battleship or just Pong. In case you haven't seen it, the main premise of the game is it shocks you whenever you lose. We realize there are 'shocking' controllers out there already, but our game would have to be played only by two players at the same time, face to face, making it more like a nerd fight club than just shocking yourself playing against a computer in your living room. The game would probably be more interesting if it was some sort of Pong or a 2-player Asteroids, where you can potentially get shocked *a lot*. The game ends when either player gets either too nervous or instinctively pushes away after the shock, and takes the hand off the metal plate that shocks him. So, besides the video game (and the controllers for the video game, probably knobs or joysticks), there would be some kind of sensor that detects whether the players' hands are on the shocking surface, and the shocking circuit and signal themselves. The shock would just be from batteries, so the players won't be directly hooked to the 120v wall outlet. Still have to figure out the details, but we think this could work.
...
His reply, paraphrased: We would have to get human experimentation approval and won't get it. I will not approve of this project.
Human experimentation? I get shocked when I touch my doorknob (heyooo) every day, am I really in DANGER? I'm just really disappointed that it was only after I transferred that I realized this school isn't a good fit for me. The engineering program is way theoretical (we only just got to do projects until this semester, my LAST ONE) and the fact that it's so research-focused makes everything very "practical." The very notion of "engineering for engineering's sake" is totally rejected, and a very conventional trade-school approach is expected both from faculty and students. I love useless shit and I always have, especially if it's technically challenging and interesting. I like doing this with absolutely no purpose other than my own or others' entertainment, is that really selfish? I mean, does wanting to make a useless video game instead of saving the world with the best solar powered water pump or some shit make me a shitty person? ~who cares~
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| Still alive |
[11 Feb 2009|02:17am] |
I just bought this book:
This purchase can be defined as "my last attempt at trying to understand what the fuck is going on in electronics, mere months away from receiving my electrical engineering degree." Unfortunately this semester I'll actually have to invent something, and the fact that I know nothing about circuits other than V=IR may or may not mean I'm fucked.
In other news, hey guys. What's up! Yaay!
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| Today |
[11 Dec 2008|04:08am] |
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| Phew. |
[26 Sep 2008|01:12am] |
THE JOB FRONT:
I didn't get the Citibank job. I don't really care. I got an interview with Google. They are taking me out to dinner. I am going to Chicago in two weeks. Things could be worse, I suppose.
THE LOVE FRONT:
I am going to New York in two weeks, two! I love New York, guys!
THE SCHOOL FRONT:
I thought I failed my probability exam but turns out I only got one question wrong. This is completely unprecedented. I feel like having people I know/friends in my classes has definitely helped me this semester... after 4 years of misery, I finally figure it out.
THE AWESOME FRONT:
Justin T. Cass wrote the greatest column ever written in the garbage-riddled Opinion section of the Daily Sun (ever since the sad departure of Andrew Webb, anyway). I will post it here for future reference, and for the enjoyment of all:
Lehmanfreude
September 25, 2008 - 12:00am
Guest Room | Justin Cass
The specter of failure in the global credit market, it isn’t a big deal. David Foster Wallace offing himself — that’s news. AIG doing the same just doesn’t strike a chord with me. The consensus from everyone sufficiently removed from the matter seems to be that fiscal elites in New York and Washington — including fellow Ivy Leaguers Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson — will more or less get their shit in order. Really nothing for us Cornellians to be concerned about.
Maybe that’s blasé, but look no further than the response on The Daily Show — one of many remaining East Coast redoubts for aspiring Ivy League satirists and comics — for proof of how banal this entire matter is. What was their response to the Fall of 2008? Not Jon Stewart tearfully declaring the view of the Lehman Brothers skyscraper from his apartment is gone. Instead, a week of potshots at CEOs, Sarah Palin, and the media’s take.
As an English major, I suspect us liberal arts students who are temporarily glued to the stream of klaxon on the front page of the Times are actually slightly giddy over the idea that something consequential could actually be happening to our generation! Something besides that generational showdown against Muslims other generations expect us to fight, anyway. After all, no matter what happens to big biz, we’re fine. For the most part, we’re extremely talented and well-educated students of writing, music, architecture, visual arts, science, and all brands of critical and social theory. However, I’m sure the reaction is a tad different for our colleagues who long ago made the decision to study something completely useless like, say, “applied economics and management.”
God knows you tried. Take a few SAT prep courses, attend an Ivy League school, make something called “connections,” and end up with a prestigious high-paying job as a coke-addled I-banker at one of those indefatigable Wall Street firms with an officious name like “Merrill Lynch” or “Lehman Brothers.” What could go wrong, other than your alumni overspeculating and ultimately precipitating a global recession?
Alas, all that hard work has been for naught. Three giant financial firms have already folded this heady September. And with even that great populist John McCain vowing to cut retirement packages for bailed-out CEOs to a meager $400k (less than the President makes!), the situation looks bleak for you rugged Ivy individualists who as recently as last week seemed ready to stake out your millions in the free market.
So now what? Y’all is fucked is what. 60,000 fellow hotshots, most of whom boast Ivy pedigrees and thick resumes, are already on the street. Better bring a gun to your next interview. I almost feel bad for the scores of you who suffered summer internships at Lynch, et al., thinking maintaining a happy, hangover-hiding demeanor while doing grunt-work for superiors not much more savvier than you would one day pay off. Whoops! But don’t fret too much. I’m sure “Brewed Coffee for Equities Trader” will look great on that bank teller application.
Whither the would-be I-bankers? Some have suggested that law school applications will spike as fewer grads choose to pursue an M.B.A. That’s a decent lateral move for elite underachievers intent on maintaining a dignified vocation. I just hope it isn’t too intellectually straining for you kids. I personally don’t plan on going into law, but I hear there’s a lot of reading involved, and intertextual analysis might come in handy with your casework. You’ll need to do a bit of that oh-so-hard writing thing. (It wouldn’t hurt to know a little Latin, either.)
But why just aim for law? Medicine is also well-paying, you know. The clergy have historically enjoyed social prominence. And D.C.’s always looking for some well-educated young folks with no original ideas of their own.
And if all else fails, you can go on the dole. No shame in that. I think a twenty-something photographer hacking it out on unemployment in a shared studio apartment in the Bronx has a bit more dignity than the same fellow still living with his parents in Westchester while trolling for start-up cash.
But there’s no use worrying about you folk. As far as us liberal arts majors are concerned, you voluntarily consigned yourselves to lives of mediocrity years ago. We, meanwhile, are looking forward to our cultural and scientific pursuits. Everyone’s angry at the financiers, but the novelists and the biologists are just fine, thanks.
So shalom, you well-connected coke-swilling fratboys! And shalom you artists sniffing fair-trade coke in Washington Square. For once you legions begging for research grants or drinking nightly over blank notepads as you stack books by day at Borders can laugh off the suggestion that a linguistics major was a poor choice. And hey, if there is a Depression 2.0, maybe the new WPA will start shelling out cash for indigent bloggers, indie rockers, and DV filmmakers. Can you believe that genuine intellectual pursuits would actually pay off? Only in America!
It's like, "I guess this sort of applies to me, only not really! I suppose this means I can laugh about it!" Anyhow, I truly hope Justin is enjoying the deluge of hate mail he'll receive. Good man.
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