Biogeochemistry
January 22nd, 2007 Filed Under books, unfinished
Stumble it!punk vs. punk
January 21st, 2007 Filed Under adventures
I was standing on the corner of Broadway and Thomas on Capitol Hill yesterday, waiting for a friend, when a car pulled up and stopped at the red light. The driver threw a Jack-in-the-Box cup out his car window onto the street, three quarters full of oreo cookie vanilla shake.
I walked a few steps over to the shake, picked it up, walked a few more steps to the car and said to the driver through his window, “I think you dropped this.”
He replied with the fuck-you honesty expected from a punk, “I didn’t want it.”
For just a moment I was struck mute. In retrospect, I thought up all sorts of great things I could have said, like “We don’t want it either” or “Let me throw it out for you”, which coupled with my action could have made a powerful point. But I was not so verbally inspired, and instead I silently tossed the cup full of milkshake through his still-open car window. I think this surprised him, and he fumbled with the cup like it was a live grenade, trying to avoid getting his milkshake waste all over the inside of his punk car.
I turned and walked away, and he of course threw the cup back at me. I think he called me an asshole. At least I only throw fast-food desserts on other assholes.
my sevens
January 14th, 2007 Filed Under personal
I recently watched the Up Series, a 1964 BBC documentary interviewing a group of 7-year-old children from diverse backgrounds. The project now includes interviews at 14, 21 and every 7 years after, and is still ongoing (they are 49 in the last). The concept is brilliant and the director’s dogged devotion overtakes any flaws in execution.
I don’t think this level of documentation should be reserved for some chosen population sample, no matter how large. Any person who documents their life every 7 years will find their efforts amply rewarded. One night I sat down with my favorite drink and wrote mine in about two hours using this sevens brainstorm aid I created. I will soon collect pictures of myself at 7/14/21/28 and post them here.
7 up
Where are you going to school?
I’m in 3rd grade at St. John’s elementary school.
It’s a private school?
We have chapel every wednesday morning. We’re not really Lutheran, we go to sunday school sometimes in Elmhurst.
What are you good at?
I can type fast and read.
What do you enjoy doing?
Programming the computer. in BASIC on the TRS-80.
What about your parents?
My dad and mom talk really fast.
What’s your biggest fear?
I’m scared about going to heaven, forever and ever and ever.
14 up
It’s 1990 and I’m 14 years old, still living in the same house in Lombard, but I spent my 8th grade year at the public school, and I’m now a freshman at Glenbard East high school.
I still program the computer, all the time. I’ve been calling BBSes after dark when no customers are calling my dad looking for used office furniture. My parents are selling Amway and growing an organization.
I worked with my uncle on software to run an Amway business (in BASIC). My dad canceled the project at seemingly 75% because another software product had come out and did basically the same thing.
I wrote a Heating/AC invoice generator ($500) by myself in BASIC a year or two ago, and was working on an orthodontic billing system in Clipper/dbase, which I actually made good progress on, but found difficult and tedious and eventually stopped effort on it, much to my father’s disappointment.
The past two summers I’ve printed name badges for uncle gino’s high school reunion (class of ‘3x). I cut lawns in the neighborhood with a Reel lawn mower. I’m in the library chess club where I met my best friend Jonathan.
I’m in all of the freshman honors classes, and I couldn’t try out for the first play of the year, Steel Magnolias, because it only has parts for women. I do math contests and I am learning to program in assembly language. I have a crush on my spanish teacher, who just graduated and I think is 23. I’ve not kissed a girl yet. I got contacts.
21 up
I’m in my fourth/senior year at UIUC.
I’m the elected (by one vote) Chair of the local student chapter of ACM. We just hosted an impressive conference that I can not really take credit for.
Last summer I made $15/hour working at Neoglyphics, a web design company.
I just got my real ID so that I can drink; I was using a fake ID. I’m living with Paul, the Vice Chair of ACM, and Joey, my mostly ex-girlfriend, in an apartment very near DCL. I dropped acid at our halloween party. I’m still technically a theatre major, but am attending very few of the 4 classes this semester I’m taking, 2 of which I need to graduate with a degree in Computer Science.
A Black Russian is my favorite drink; Murphy’s the bar to get drinks. I’m that Ben Seaver kid. I love TMBG and Chopin. I’m active on #uiuc.
John Ahart, my directing teacher, is an inspiration.
My first semester at college I tried IVCF. Quickly I learned it was not a good way to meet girls and anyway, I wasn’t a very good Christian. I had since become something of an atheist, one day on a bus I started crying that there was no hope for me to live forever.
A year or two ago, I realized that change is the only constant.
I frequently find my lack of focus detrimental to the studies I have chosen. I get distracted easily by something I feel I know that I can do and will benefit the world.
28 up
I live in Seattle, having relocated here after college to work at Microsoft. I met Tara about 6 months after my 21st birthday, about 3 months before I graduated (by the skin of my teeth), and she came with me. We’re still together after almost 7 years, and we have a certificate of Domestic Partnership dated Jan 3, 2000. Tara and I live in one bedroom of a self-described kommune, with Jim and his girlfriend, Marijane, and a rotating fifth, sixth, and sometimes seventh housemate.
I started a company, called Paulgames, with my friend Paul from college, and though we effectively raised $20k and had a working prototype, it wasn’t enough and it fizzled in the lean post-dot-com years. We didn’t talk for several years, but now he comes over for poker.
I’m now working for CoCo, a startup making a mesh network protocol, to which my friend Ivan (who comes to Go Club) recruited me. I was just asked by Jeremy, the CTO, to be the protocol team lead, and so now I’m leading a team of about 6 engineers.
I’ve been reading about molecular biology and trying to develop board games that teach the fairly simple scientific principles through their mechanics.
Annus Mirabilis
January 10th, 2007 Filed Under books
Journey to the East
January 6th, 2007 Filed Under books
