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[17 Mar 2009|08:23pm] |
First day of classes was yesterday.
So, Isaac and I are both going to overload this term. We're probably a little crazy for that. The fun thing about taking extra courses at WPI is that you only take 3 already, with the workload balanced around only having 3 courses... so taking even 1 extra is a full 33% increase in coursework.
Hopefully the IQP will be less strenuous this term than it was last term. This is the final term for it, so theoretically it should be harder, but now is when Andrew (who hasn't really done a whole lot for the past 2 terms, since he doesn't know programming) theoretically will be doing a lot of work, with me coming in 2nd (because I'm amazing at writing really lengthy papers, so I'll be needed to make our final report substantial in size).
Social Implications of Computer whatever is probably going to be really boring (2 hour class, too) - I don't know for certain, though, because the professor missed the first day of class.
Distributed Computing is basically Operating Systems version 2, so it shouldn't be too bad - a lot of work, but I'll know how to do it.
ECE 2022 (the class I'm overloading for) will give a nice head start on the minor I'm going to work towards next year... it's definitely going to be interesting, though. It's geared for Freshman ECE students. Isaac and I are Junior CS students. Listening to him describe the course, the stuff that's supposed to be hard is going to be stuff we can do in our sleep (binary->hex->decimal conversion, state machines, etc) - while the stuff that is supposed to be easy is the stuff that is going to take us ages, because we don't really know a whole lot of ECE yet (he mentioned how people should know Ohm's Law like the back of their hand - I don't even remember all the letters used in the equation).
So far haven't had any luck with internships or anything, hopefully that will change... would be nice to make a bit more over the summer, or have more regular hours.
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[15 Mar 2009|02:48am] |
Was a little late for work, because I thought my shift was at 5 rather than 4. Thankfully, Boelke called and reminded me... though I then rushed to work, got there are 4:30, and Sebastian said I was in the clock for 5:00 now, so I got to wait around. I was actually in a good mood at work, though - I think it helps that I'm not overwhelmed with schoolwork.
There are so many new employees, it's disconcerting - the people I don't know outnumber the people I do. Felt like I had noone to joke around with. Found out that Emily, one of the few new employees that I actually like, I've apparently met before... she hangs out with some member of the Boelke/Ben/Rocky/Dan group of people (she mentioned that she thinks she's seen me before, and started naming names, and those were the ones I recognized). I'm really pretty horrible at remembering people, I guess. Though I suspect I was probably drunk when I did see her before.
I've got an 8-11 shift next Wednesday, which really confuses me. That's *after* our first set of shows, which is the busy set, so I really don't see why I would ever show up after that set, to just hang out until close.
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[25 Feb 2009|12:56am] |
Might overload next term, to get a start on my somewhat spontaneous ECE MQP. Billy might be a peer tutor for the class, which would be kind of hilarious.
Going to go to the DMV to renew my license tomorrow (so I'll eventually have a horizontal one) - then I might try and see if I can find a store that's actually willing to accept a Vertical, unexpired ID that says I'm 21 (the main problem being that it will still be vertical). I'm not sure whether I should just ask outright whether they'll take it as valid identification (which would probably make them assume it was fake) or actually try and get stuff and give them the ID then.
I know it's vertical, but it's *clearly* real... I mean, it's all holographic and crap, and has my birthday in like 3 different locations, and my picture on it twice... if people can make fake IDs that awesomely realistic, they don't need fake IDs to buy alcohol, they're probably working for some highly organized criminal group or something.
Ah well, I'll see tomorrow.
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[20 Feb 2009|02:30am] |
I like how my 21st birthday is in 2 days... and not only do I not have plans, but I probably wont even make any, since I'm too busy with schoolwork.
On the bright side, was looking at the numbers and course schedule, and if Isaac and I can get our MQP to count as ECE capstone credit, we can pull off an ECE minor by the time we graduate. It's actually sort of hilarious that we're so far ahead in our CS coursework that we can just kind of spontaneously get a minor. There are all of 2-ish CS classes even *left* that we wont have already taken by next year (other than grad classes).
I kind of miss when I used to post in this thing every day... it's hard to remember what happens week to week anymore. I mostly only even use this as a pseudo-RSS reader for my webcomics, at this point.
Had a nightmare the other night that I somehow managed to logic myself out of. I don't remember a lot of details, but it was frightening enough and unusual enough that I actually remember thinking "This couldn't possibly be real, it's nearly statistically impossible. I must be dreaming, this is a nightmare and I'm asleep. Stop sleeping now." and woke up. Nightmares suck, but it was a pretty cool feeling knowing that I managed to outthink myself.
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[19 Feb 2009|07:56pm] |
I'm writing this mostly because I need a quick break from my compilers project.
About an hour ago, I was thinking there was no way I would get this done by work at 5:00 tomorrow.
Now I'm thinking 3 more hours tops and I should have finished it.
Computer Science sucks sometimes.
Anyways, ran into Mr. Johnson when I went to Shaws earlier, was sort of neat - he apparently hates Randolph. Most people here hate Bassett, so really it would be best if everything just went back to the way it had been, with Johnson back here and Bassett back at Randolph =/. A few things Bassett does make sense, but that's dwarfed by the number of things he does just to exert his authority. Control freaks are only okay in management positions if they aren't at the top of the ladder, so can still be restricted somewhat... not when they're "city managers". =/ (Just a few of the latest pet peeves: Creating a "display" of nachos and cookies in the broken nacho warmer - despite the fact that we've already got the real nacho warmers displaying genuine/edible nachos; having people construct 7 cup tall pyramids of cups for 'display' (arbitrary and pointless, not to mention time consuming); Wanting to encase old pretzels in plastic so we could put them on display even when we dont have pretzels (a *really* horrible idea, we'll get 10+ customers a day "But I saw pretzels down there, what do you mean you're out?!" because they're all used to checking the end to see if we have any).
Work on Valentines Day didn't suck as much as I expected it to - it was busy, yeah, but there weren't really any more annoyingly affectionate couples than any other Saturday, which was kind of nice.
Housing Selection was last night, turns out Bobby's number was the *first* number any senior had, at all... so we got very first pick of east hall. Turns out we should have studied the floor plan more, since we accidentally picked the wrong side of the building - we're in room 508, when we actually should have wanted 507 or 509. Ah well. On the bright side, it's 4 singles next year, so I wont have to share a room anymore.
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[14 Feb 2009|05:03am] |
Work was really busy, sort of - I was on cart, and only went to three shows, but managed to do an absurd amount of sales in each one (possibly breaking my previous sale record on cart). If I'm on cart tomorrow, with my much longer shift, I'll probably end up doing even more.
Tomorrow's valentines day, too, so I'll get to watch a ridiculous amount of couples come into the theater. I would make a sarcastic comment about that being nice, but I'm not sure I can even convey the huge amount of sarcasm that would be necessary to say something positive about the fact that tomorrow is Valentines day. It isn't like my upcoming birthday would be enough by itself to remind me that I'm single, right? 21 years old and never having so much as been on a date... I feel like that safely puts me into that little niche where someone I met would make the (understandable) assumption that I must actually be a serial killer or creep or have some other significant flaw that they just haven't observed yet.
Meh. And I've got a ton of work to do for Monday and Tuesday... enough work that I might end up just having to work straight through Sunday and Monday nights.
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[13 Feb 2009|01:04am] |
Had the phone interview with GotVMail today. I think it went fairly well, but in retrospect I of course think of different ways I should have phrased things and so on. They said they got about 80 resumes, were going to have phone interviews with about 25 people, and would have about 10 people down to their office for genuine interviews. I'm actually really hoping I at least make it to the next interview stage, the company seems really interesting from what I've looked up about it, I think it would be an awesome internship.
So right now I'm mostly just focusing on not going back and doubting myself regarding the interview - I probably did fine.
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[11 Feb 2009|04:06am] |
I was surprisingly not on "cart" at all this weekend at work... I was going to be disappointed, except I remembered that since it's February, the pre-trailer-ad-stuff includes this absurd montage of romance scenes from chick flicks for Valentines day... and watching that 20 times in a day is kind of deadly. Valentines day sucks anyways, as a holiday.
School has been pretty hectic. I keep expecting each term to calm down somewhat, but it really never does... think it'll be this crazy for awhile. Getting used to it, at least.
Had my OS midterm last Friday, got it back today. Got an 88, which is pretty good - though the class average was pretty high to begin with (Isaac got like a 97). The professor also allows you to write down the grade you think you'll get, and if you're actually dead on, he adds a point to the grade he gives you - I originally had an 87, but correctly guessed it up to an 88. Kind of proud I managed to predict that. Billy didn't do well at all, which is amusing in that he doesn't want Sally to know he did poorly, because he's worried she'll blame herself for the fact that he didn't study.
Had my Compiler midterm this morning, already got the grades back this afternoon... got a 20.5/25, which is basically an 80%. Thought I had done better, but I'm still ~12 points above the class average.
Had a guy from GotVMail send me an email the other day (I had met him at the internship fair), to try and set up a phone interview for Tuesday (today) - by the time I responded, his schedule had filled up, so he wanted to set one up for Wednesday. I accidentally replied to him with my regular (peacemkr2) email address, though, instead of the one I *had* been using, that had my actual name and stuff - felt kind of stupid over having done that. "Hey, this kid doesn't know how to use internets". Whoops. I sent a real email from my more-official address this afternoon, in case the former one got marked as spam or otherwise disappeared, so hopefully he'll get that tomorrow. The company does seem pretty sweet, and most of the skills and such that they're looking for in an intern align nicely with what I've got experience with (agile programming, version control, etc. etc.) At the same time, though, it would be kind of awkward if I actually got an offer from them, only because I wont really be hearing back from any other companies until late March, probably - that's when most of them do their internships.
Pollice was finally happy with our IQP presentation this week - for once he didn't mention "you're supposed to be doing 15 hours of work a week"... which we for the most part have been, the project is just way more massive/ambitious than we originally anticipated.
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| Summer Internship Failure? |
[06 Feb 2009|01:00am] |
Yesterday was the summer internship fair... I felt like I didn't really do that well at all. It seemed like most of the time the people in front of me in lines would be having these long conversations about the company or projects, and then I wouldn't even really introduce myself that well, and would practically just end up handing over my resume.
Today was the Career + Internship fair (combination of both). I felt like I did quite a bit better - I still messed up and got flustered during a few of the discussions I had, but I felt like I was presenting myself a bit better... though it also seemed like half of the times where I actually had a decent conversation with a person at a booth, it would be one of those jobs you just apply online for anyways. And then I felt even less like I had done well later, when I talked to Billy, and he already had 2 job offers and an interview (two of the three being companies I thought I had presented myself fairly well with... apparently not.). I did have one guy who gave me his business card and said I could give him a call if they didn't contact me, but his company wasn't even really looking to hire CS people.
I didn't even manage to get anywhere with the company that I'm going to be doing my MQP with next year (I did mention that I was doing my MQP with them, but I don't feel like I did it in a good fashion) - whereas both Billy and Jordan managed to get an internship offer right there (they got a "email us (directly) your resume and we'll set up an interview" whereas I got the generic "you can apply online (here)". Billy said he thinks he probably could have gotten me in, too, if I had been at the fair at the same time as him, which kind of adds to the whole "what-if" train that plays in my head about every situation I screw up.
I really kind of hate how bad I am at introducing myself and doing the whole conversation thing. My conversation with the guy from Phase Forward was going great until he asked how much I knew about his company, I said I had looked around the website a fair amount (which I had) and then he asked if I could say what his company does, and I suddenly blanked, so he probably thought I had just been completely BSing him.
I probably shouldn't feel bad about how I did, I was feeling fine until I realized that a fair amount of the companies were *actually* selecting interns, so it seems like the "apply online" stuff was almost more of a polite "maybe we'll glance at your resume, but we don't think you're what we're looking for".
I'm just not that great at selling myself (probably because it's hard for me to ever think positively about myself) - being compulsively honest doesn't help - "no, I haven't used that software before, though I've used similar ones" "I would say my experience with X is somewhat limited compared to other languages I've worked with, but I do have some". I did do an okay job tailoring the interests I focused on based on the company I was working with, but I still messed up there, too - told the data analysis guys that my networks class was one of the ones I had found most interesting, and told the embedded systems guys about my networks project.
It probably would have helped if I hadn't looked up the companies beforehand and picked (and only gone to) exactly what ones interested me... now it's like I feel I screwed up with the ones that have genuinely interesting programs. Time to apply online to a few dozen places and see if one will take me, I guess.
And I really am probably being way too hard on myself... props to Billy for making me feel like I didn't pull it off (I really liked ViaSat, and thought I did okay with the whole side interview thing I did, but Billy and Jordan both do the side interview, and the guy sets up a full interview for *tomorrow*, for each of them).
And now I'm regretting the courses I've gotten lower grades in than I should, even though I really shouldn't, since I've got a 3.57, which is higher than a lot of my friends. I need to drop this tendency to move towards self-doubt. I did fine. I've got a business card or two I can try to follow up with, if I don't get any calls.
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[23 Jan 2009|01:19am] |
Me and Isaac both slept through our alarms, and ended up being 20 minutes late to Compilers. We also had homework to turn in... fortunately the professor accepted it at the end of class, but she made it clear she would never accept homework at the end of class again - beginning of class or a 0.
The other two assignments I had (due tomorrow) were both kind of a pain... but I'm mostly done with them (finishing up Operating Systems tomorrow afternoon).
It really wouldn't be such a pain if I didn't have my free time limited so much by the theater - looked at my bank balance earlier, and I'm really thinking about just taking the rest of the school year off work, I don't really need the money - and it might be worth it to take my car off the road, too, rather than pay for insurance - I don't really drive anywhere but work (I had figured maybe I would hang out with people more if I had a car, but I kind of haven't).
I realized my birthday is in less than a month, at this point. I still don't have any plans, or any clue if I'm going to do anything at all.
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[18 Jan 2009|02:06pm] |
If I had just woken up 2 hours sooner, I would have been awake in time to prevent my car from being towed, since the RA had sent out a warning about the parking ban.
I could have sworn I parked on the right side of the road, but apparently I didn't... yet the side I was on was absolutely full of cars, too.
And the number I'm supposed to call to figure out where my car went, noone is answering.
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[17 Jan 2009|04:19am] |
Classes started Thursday.
Operating Systems and Compilers both seem like they'll be pretty tough, but not that bad compared to what I've been taking. In operating systems, the ridiculous questions some people were asking made me feel a bit more positive - like, if those are my classmates, passing the class will be trivial.
Got a call in the middle of my 2 hour OS class from Work (I didn't answer, but the mere fact that they were calling at 2 in the afternoon wasn't good) - they wanted to make sure I showed up to the reserve shift I had, because it was *that* busy.
It was really busy at work, but I didn't notice as much since I was on the concession cart for most of the night (though I did way more sales on it then I usually do).
Had a customer who really annoyed me, though. First, he starts off by walking up to me and grabbing a piece of popcorn and popping it in his mouth, then asking for a small popcorn (I only carried larges). I explain that all we have is larges, and he calls his friend (who is all of 5 rows away in the theater) to ask if a large was okay. That in and of itself was frustrating, but then he can't find the quarter for the 6.25 popcorn - he's kind of on my nerves at this point, so I just tell him I'll cover the quarter (I had change people had left without)... guy seemed grateful for that, but then I went to hand him his popcorn (it's worth noting there was one popcorn with a fair amount less than the rest, I just hadn't filled it properly or it had spilled or something - this was the one he had grabbed a piece from earlier), and he went
"Could I have like (pointing) that one, instead, since it's more full?"
"Normally I'd say yes, but you already grabbed a piece of popcorn from that one, before even deciding that you were ordering popcorn"
"Come on man..."
"You already stuck your hand in it, sorry, that's how it works"
"Well, can you at least pour some from another bag in, fill it up?"
"Nope."
At this point, I'm taking his money, and he takes another bag himself, pours some in the bag he was getting, and takes it. I was *really* tempted to tell him 'oh, I couldn't find that quarter I was covering you with, sorry, here's your money back unless you find a quarter' but instead I basically decided to try to call him out on being a dick, and went "Really, dude? After I cover the money you're missing you go and pull that?". I mean, yeah, it was only a quarter, but it's kind of a dick move anyways, but particularly when I had already done him a favor.
I also had (while I was behind the actual stand) some guy come up to the counter and ask if I could hook him up with a drink. And last week I was standing (pretty far from any registers) with my back to the lobby, and someone tapped me on the shoulder to order a drink. Customers are so ridiculous sometimes, I'm finally at the point where I genuinely enjoy inconveniencing the dumb ones.
I have way, way more hours next week than I would want. But there aren't nearly enough concessionists for me to be able to get my hours reduced much - next Friday I really wanted to try to get off, but pretty much every single closer is working =/. Even today, they brought over like 3 people from Guest Service or Box to be concessionists for the day (was weird seeing Penelope as a concessionist again). I'm not sure exactly what to do - I don't want to stop working altogether (heck, that would leave Erickson even shorter), but I can't be destroying any potential for a social life or free time by working 20+ hours a week on top of school. On the bright side, while Erickson/Karen were cashing me out, they made some back and forth comments about me being really good, and I think I heard Erickson say "yeah, we should promote him or something". (Not a serious statement, was more of a joke, but it was still kind of nice hearing her acknowledge me as being a good employee).
Made pancakes when I got home. They were pretty delicious, though I messed up the first ones.
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[05 Jan 2009|02:08am] |
So Christmas was alright, I suppose. It just doesn't feel like nearly as much of a holiday anymore.
I'm a good portion of the way through winter break, and except for Chris W's New Years party, I have yet to hang out with a single friend, or do anything at all. Working at the movie theater doesn't really help that, but I'm still incredibly non-proactive when it comes to seeking out social interaction. I don't even talk with nearly as many people as I used to.
Mr Johnson is being transfered to be manager of Randolph, which kind of really sucks. I really liked having him in charge - and it isn't even like Sebastion or Erickson or someone good is being promoted to replace him, Mr. Pausette is coming back from being Randolph's manager. I don't really remember him that well, since he transferred/got promoted shortly after I started working, but supposedly he'll be really strict (which I find really ironic, since what little I *do* remember him as is as the guy who managed to have a relationship with an employee for 6 months without anyone finding out. He's still dating Val, though she hasn't worked at the theater in ages).
Anyways, Johnson found out last *Tuesday* that he was being transferred to Randolph... and his last day at Millbury was Saturday. Home office really, really sucks like that. He's worked at Millbury for a very long time, and then suddenly he's given 5 days to completely pack up and leave? It was kind of depressing watching him wheel out the boxes full of stuff from his office, with rolled up posters and such. Really going to miss that guy, he was an awesome manager... I hate seeing him screwed over by corporate.
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| Merry Christmas |
[25 Dec 2008|02:59am] |
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So a fair amount has happened since I last posted, but at the same time, nothing has happened.
Got a flat tire (in the driveway, same tire my Mom had get a nail in on her car, some suspicion on the neighbor's kid due to the identical nature of the problems we've gotten). AAA messed up phone numbers so the first tow truck left without towing it, but the 2nd one towed it, it got fixed, I didn't miss any shifts at work or anything.
Had a kind of lame 5-9 shift on Tuesday. The very first customer I had was a Dad who came in with a really cute kid, cheered me up a bunch. Kid was really talkative, and was really excited to be seeing Bolt, and was telling me about all the other movies he wanted to see. I love talking to people, but the naive joy of kids can be pretty uplifting.
Went up to Millbury to finish up my Xmas shopping tonight, but forgot that they close early on Christmas eve - working at the theater, I think of Holidays solely as chances stores have to try and squeeze in more sales, not "Hey lets let our employees go home early and enjoy their day off".
Christmas doesn't seem like as much of a holiday now as it once did. It's still cheerful, though. I think I'm almost looking forward more to working, and running into all the families coming in to see movies for Christmas, than I am to the holiday itself. Predictably, it's other people's cheer that's going to cheer me up. That just seems to be how I'm wired.
I realized, while I was in my room, that my fear of losing memories or forgetting things is practically a compulsion. All I need to do is pass by some toy I played with when I was a kid, and I'll wish I had a concrete record of it, a photo with a text file attached with notes of how I used my imagination with it, and where I got it. It isn't like I was even focusing on the plastic car or whatever it was, I just happened to spot it in a drawer, and my mind started trying to come up with a list of notes to attach to it. I do that all the time, too - pass by things and wish I could catalog them mentally. Even my hard drive on my computer, I hate the idea of deleting files - instead I organize, and label, or backup. I often wish that it were possible to sort and organize (and make permanent) all the various thoughts I have, in mental filing cabinets. There is no technological invention I would appreciate as much as the ability to take notes mentally, as thoughts flit through my head - a notepad in my mind.
I'm not sure I've ever really looked at it as a compulsion before, since I never actually run around attaching sticky notes to everything, but that's practically what it is, since I always *want* to - I have this phobia of forgetting. Even the LJ was mostly just posted in regularly for awhile because I was afraid I might forget who I was, or what I've done. Even my strongest memories, I never feel like they're permanent parts of who I am. A psychologist would probably claim that this attitude stems from the fact that in my childhood I pretty quickly learned that the world was in constant flux, and that you couldn't count on things to stay the same. Or maybe my fear of forgetting comes from the fact that there's a pretty straight correlation to how young I was to how naive/carefree I was. Life travels sporadically yet reliably downhill, so I don't want to forget that peak, long ago.
My room has needed to be thoroughly cleaned out for a long time... but every time I seriously go to do it, I realize how much I need to throw out, and feel like I can't (and wont) do it unless I've got a digital camera to take pictures, and make permanent, all I'm throwing out.
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[21 Dec 2008|05:31am] |
It's quite a relief to have the term done with.
Finals didn't go too bad - AI I think I did tolerably on (despite the ridiculous amount of material we had to read each night for homework, the test was actually mostly stuff I knew) - since he curves I'm kind of hoping that some of the questions were ones the class as a whole might have trouble with (I think they were).
Networks final was pretty much as I expected - though I'm sure I'll lose a ton of points just because he expects an absurd level of detail for each answer. That happened last time, too, though, and I still did good.
The final project presentation... it wasn't nearly as functional as I would have liked it to be, but not for lack of trying. It was extraordinarily frustrating when, after banging my head against the wall trying to fix this one problem for hours, I turn around and realize that both Isaac and Billy had stopped caring and gone to take a nap (this was around 5:30 AM, project was due at 8) - the thing was, *someone* needed to still care, because there were a few things we hadn't done (documentation, mostly) that absolutely needed to get done before we could actually hand it in/present. And, of course, I was the one who wasn't willing to drop the ball, even though I really wanted to stop caring.
But now I'm done, and can relax... though I'm still working quite a few shifts at the theater, unfortunately.
Overslept my alarm this afternoon (probably because I didn't sleep Thursday night), so I woke up and basically had no time whatsoever - I needed to get ready for work and shovel the driveway so I could leave for work, but I didn't even really have time to do either, let alone both. Then driving to work my car slid all over the place, it was pretty crazy - once I got to 146 it wasn't too bad though.
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[14 Dec 2008|01:44pm] |
I kind of keep surprising myself by how *not* behind on schoolwork I am.
On the other hand, I realized while looking at my work schedule, that Christmas is only like 10/11 days away. Which means I'm going to have all of 4 or 5 days to do my Christmas shopping (3+ of which I'm working) after school gets out. I have no idea how I'm going to pull it off, really.
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[10 Dec 2008|02:26am] |
The end of the term pretty much completely snuck up on me. How I only have just over a week left until break boggles my mind.
I've got a lot of work to do. A *lot*. Got a surprising amount done of the Networks project today, though.
It will be really, really nice to be able to relax, and not worry about school.
Though I also need to write a letter to my "Endowed Scholarship Sponsor" by... the 12th. Fun. If I didn't think it would be kind of a dick thing to do, I'd just reuse my one from last year... I doubt they actually get read anyways. (The endowed scholarship thing is basically WPI looks at all the people getting merit scholarships in any quantity, change the name of it to the "(some donor name) Scholarship", and have students write thank you letters to Alum who've donated, as well as attend some sort of dinner later in the year.
Oh, and I was excited about Silicon Valley... but then the other night, Billy made a pretty convincing argument for the local General Dynamics MQP. It sounds like a more interesting project in general - Billy already convinced Isaac to switch, and I would actually get to work with people I knew/liked. I do kind of want to do an off campus one, and it would be nice having experience of working at a company like NVidia... but at the same time, with the economy the way it is, I wont be getting a job offer anywhere in Silicon Valley right out of school (at least not related to the MQP I do at all), but General Dynamics is a defense contractor, so isn't actually hurt much by the economy... and they only do CS MQPs every few years (mostly because it isn't highly publicized and they're selective), so not only would I have a much greater shot at a job offer, but we also would basically get our pick of projects to pick from - and legitimate projects too, unlike the busywork I'd probably end up getting assigned at Silicon Valley. I don't know what to do. Don't have a lot of time to make the decision. I already told my Mom/sister, and my Uncle, that I had gotten into Silicon Valley, and I'm not sure what they're reaction would be to the idea of me not doing it - doing it at a (relatively) unknown company, instead of an area that they think of as being a huge Tech hub...
I don't know. Sometimes I hate decisions.
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[07 Dec 2008|04:43am] |
Work wasn't too bad. They've got another contest going, which is annoying in the sense that I don't actually have a shot at winning it (or even placing) thanks to the hours I work and the fact that I'm unwilling to "cheat", but need to be careful not to actually care about it because then I'll just be disappointed when I lose to people who aren't as good as me (since it's unlikely Boelke or someone awesome will actually come in first, because supervisors and good employees do actual work, and not just register).
Cart was frustrating only because the pre-show is playing Christmas music now, which gets old fast. In one show, Maria commented that I seemed unusually socially adept for someone from WPI - I explained that it was basically all just a front, and I pretended to be confident.
Got sent home early - drank a bunch, back in Worcester. Was probably a bad call, only because once in my room, I kind of IMed my RA, and had a lengthy conversation. One of those ones where I ramble and open up and stuff, which might be awkward once I'm sober.
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[03 Dec 2008|02:41am] |
Got a call from my Uncle the other morning. It was nice hearing from him again.
Otherwise, not much has happened lately. Had to give my presentation for "Wellness" class (Phys ed credit)... I hadn't really expected it to be easy (it's an easy presentation, but the actual presenting bit isn't something I'm good at), but it was actually quite a bit harder than I thought it would be anyways. I kept misplacing words, or half-stuttering, or losing track of what I had been planning on saying. They aren't graded, so it's not like it matters, but it was still kind of awkward - especially because I was one of the very last presenters, and the rest of the class all seemed to do better (even the ones who in their presentation, mentioned not being good at presenting).
Went to see Transporter 3 on Sunday night, with Isaac/Andrew/Billy and Sally (our RA). Movie was decidedly mediocre, but it was nice to leave the dorms.
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[28 Nov 2008|12:28am] |
Dropped by home for Thanksgiving this morning/afternoon. It was nice seeing the family again, and walking the dogs. I also got cookies/brownies to take back to WPI, which was pretty nice.
Work sucked. There were a lot of people scheduled, but it was really dead near the beginning of the night. First thing I did when I got in was volunteer to go home if they ended up cutting people, because Andy had texted me saying a bunch of the guys were getting together to hang out around 8:00, and I had just been thinking about how I never see any of those guys anymore.
Anyways, they can't cut people until 8:00 because everyone was in at 5 and shifts need to be at least 3 hours long. It actually got quite a bit busier than I expected it to, but it wasn't busy considering how many people we had working. Then at 8:00, they cut people. I was really really hoping to get sent home, but I wasn't. This wouldn't have bothered me too much, except they cut 6 people. That's a lot. So despite really wanting to leave (and me someone who almost never tries to leave early), and them sending 6 people home, I wasn't one of them - this bothered me especially because I was already working 30 hours this week, which is exactly twice what the maximum I said I wanted to work per week was. (I made it pretty clear on my availability that I wanted to work a maximum of 15 hours each week). Sure, this week is a holiday, but I've still got plenty of schoolwork.
I was | | close to stopping caring about work, and not bothering to do my job to the best of my ability. I didn't, of course, but I was really kind of frustrated. I'm working twice as much as I'd like to, and part of the reason I end up working so much is because I'm good, so they like me to be working a lot and always be on central registers and such. It's less frustrating during the summer when I want a ton of hours, but now that I don't, it kind of sucks being basically punished for being a good employee.
It's too late to submit a time off request for next week, but I'm definitely requesting all the time from then until the semester ends (+ a few days) off.
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