| mountains and morels |
[Jun. 8th, 2008|09:44 pm] |
My two favorite experiences in the last couple weeks are climbing mountains and morel mushrooms.
I met another intern named Josh last week as we were going down to the Pike Place Festival. We spent the day walking around the market buying tasty treats for dinner -- local asparagus, fresh rainbow trout, and morel mushrooms. Later that evening we came back to my apartment and made the tastiest dinner I've had in a long time. The fish and asparagus were great, as would be expected, but what really topped it all off was the morel mushrooms. We prepared them in a sauce made from butter, white wine, and garlic. I don't typically like mushrooms but these were some of the tastiest foods I've had in my life. Morels are pretty cool because, like truffles, they are quite hard to find, can't be grown commercially, and have a very short growing season.
I've also been really getting into hiking and, to a lesser extent, climbing. I do two hikes a week, for a total of about 10-15 miles. I typically do Tiger Mountain every Wednesday after work, plus some other mountain on the weekends. So far I've done Rattlesnake Ledge, the Olympic Coast, trail work on Little Si for National Trails Day, and, today, a killer hike on Mailbox Peak. That last one has a gain of 4000 feet in 2.5 miles -- silly steep. I've also started climbing, which I have to say is really fun. I've taken a couple classes, and there is a gym near my apartment that I can easily go to for practice. Plus, I've found a really great and enthusiastic partner, which I think is really essential to sticking with it. Definitely having lots of fun now that I finally have a chance to get outside more often.
This weekend, I spent Saturday morning doing trail maintenance (with a pickmatic!), then immediately after went climbing for a few hours, and then spent all day today climbing Mailbox. So I'm completely exhausted and sore. Thankfully I've had a chance to take a shower, and now it's time for bed. :) |
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| seattle |
[May. 7th, 2008|10:25 pm] |
So I'm in Washington (state) right now, typing this at the dinner table of my Redmond apartment. I'm working at Microsoft this summer as an intern in the Windows Live Mobile team. It's a great group and I'm really excited to be here.
It's been a while since I posted. I spent most of the last semester working on the OrangeMesh dashboard (website coming soon, I hope), a web-based management tool for ROBIN wireless mesh networks. It's kind of taken off, among early adopters, but it's been pretty cool to see people actually using my software.
I'm done with my second year of college now -- it's really flown by. I'm most of the way done with my computer science degree, so I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do for the next couple years to fill up my time. Since Eve passed away, I've given more thought to trying to live by the Carolina Way that she espoused. She set such a wonderful example for us to follow. While her death was absolutely devastating, it has compelled me to critically examine how I live my life, how I interact with other people, and what sort of legacy I am leaving behind.
In that spirit, I am trying to take advantage of my summer here to infuse my life with Quality. I am really trying to dive into my job at Microsoft, while at the same time exploring this beautiful region and trying to connect with this community for the brief period that I am here. I went to the Seattle Wireless hack night, where I met some of my community wifi heroes, the folks over at Metrix. Turns out they are all just really smart, really cool nerds who love the potential in wifi. It's great to meet those kind of folks for me. And their store is in the heart of Capitol Hill, which means I'll be seeing one of the cooler parts of Seattle on a fairly regular basis.
I'm going to try to get my pictures up here as soon as I can, or at least links to them. I think now I'm going to eat a snack, watch some more of The Big Lebowski, and go to bed early-ish so I can wake up at 6.00 as I've been doing all week. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|07:36 pm] |
There is a door on the top floor of the math and physics building that says "Do NOT Open Except In Case of Fire!". Which is an invitation to do just the opposite. What could be on the other side?
I open it, the alarm goes off, and I see a hallway with professors' offices. NOT worth it. |
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| ...and we're back |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|12:29 am] |
Seeing as several friends have taken up posting on here again, I figure I'll give it a start. To paraphrase one of you, "If (insert friend's name here) has time to post, then surely I can manage one or two."
My life this semester has been dominated by Palestine, class, and mesh networking. Let's start from the beginning.
A couple weeks ago SPEAC (Solidarity with Palestine through Education and Action at Carolina, phew) put on our first Palestine Week. It was the work of probably no more than 7 or 8 of us, yet as far as I can tell we were able to engage a good part of campus through our events. We had some item in the Daily Tar Heel every day of the week, which was really great. I feel like we introduced a lot of people to Palestinian issues - all our events were heavily attended. I mean, to the point of standing room only, people crowding out in the hallway to hear a talk. It was great. We had our share of Zionist reactionaries, of course (got mentioned on Little Green Footballs, a pretty big ultraconservative blog), but we concluded the week with a letter to the editor from a campus Jewish group supporting Palestine Week. It was just a great experience overall. Lots of work, sleep lost, money spent (out of pocket), but worth it. We had a kickass "Hip-hop for Palestine" event Saturday night too.
My classes this semester are relatively light but all very difficult. I'm only in 13 hours. I'm taking differential equations, which is just really hard, for me (and apparently most of the class; our first exam average was about 26/50). My professor is very demanding but I have to say probably the most fair professor I've ever had. I'm in three CS classes. Two are really closely related: the first is an automata theory class, and the second is computer organization. Automata theory is basically the first course in theoretical computer science, and touches on a lot of the work that underpins the entire field, stuff that they were doing in the 1940's when computers were still abstract mathematical concepts. Computer organization is basically how computers are built, starting with transistors and working our way up. What's really cool is the overlap between the two classes. We talk about abstract CS theory and theoretical machines in my automata theory class, and then talk about how to implement those concepts in silicon in my computer organization class. It's definitely filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge.
The last class I'm taking is Software Engineering. I'm working on a wireless mesh network management tool for community networks. Check out our project page. I'm really loving this class, although so far it's been the most time consuming and frustrating. It's been a really cool experience working on an open source project. We're coordinating with a guy in Italy and another in Portland on this. The goal is to create a system for non-technical community groups to deploy and maintain wireless networks quickly, easily, and cheaply. We're working with an NGO around here, Orange Networking, to develop this. They're going to actually take our work and deploy around here, hopefully. There's talk that the Town of Chapel Hill might take our system and deploy it in some of the housing projects around as part of a project with the school system to provide internet connectivity to more area students. But that's in really early stages, so I'm not getting my hopes up.
Well, that's about all I'm doing. I have slept maybe an hour and a half since 8.00am Tuesday, so I'm going to get to bed now. :) |
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| treb is done |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|10:44 pm] |
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Whoop-dee-dee! The trebuchet is done. I fired it thrice from my deck using a calculator, flashlight, and bottle of wood glue as counter-weight to throw a hacky-sack across my back yard. It went about twenty feet or so, although it did hit a tree before it peaked out. Tomorrow I take it to an open space and have some fun. Pictures later. |
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| trebuchet |
[Dec. 14th, 2007|08:40 pm] |
My brother has to build a trebuchet for his TAG class. I get to help him. I suppose most kids will build a toy one, so we're going to have to do something awesome to outdo them.
Because that's what it's all about. |
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| physics exam |
[Dec. 9th, 2007|08:27 pm] |
Mmm, I love my physics class. Our exam is comprised of two main sections that correspond to the two midterms that we took, and one small section of material we haven't had an exam over yet. My prof said that if our midterm grades were higher than our grades on the corresponding exam sections, then he would just use those midterm grades instead.
This got me thinking, and I ran some numbers. Based on my performance on my midterms, my labs, my homework, and my recitation, if I don't show up for the final, I will still have an A in the class. Sweetness. One less exam to study for. |
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| microsoft |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|08:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | seattle | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
It's official - I've sold out. I'm interning at Microsoft this summer. w00t! |
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| Knoxville, A Better Place |
[Nov. 26th, 2007|08:48 pm] |
A quick post between homework and a meeting.
I really, really wish I were in Knoxville right now. I love UNC, this is a great place, but I can't wait to get back to Knoxville. There is nowhere else like it. It's not the greatest city, and it has a lot of work to be done to make it better.
Everything feels simpler there... It's like, when things get hectic you can just drive out down Northshore until the road ends and just sit. Or go down to a park on a lazy summer day and just sit, watching the water. And the mountains - such amazing country just a few minutes away.
It's quiet there. The pace is slower. And it's not boring. There's family in Knoxville, friends in Knoxville. Bluegrass in Knoxville, peace in Knoxville. I am so blessed to have a home that I love so much, and one that I could make my home in the future. I'm starting to become convinced that I want to do my Master's work at UT. Perhaps I'll take another few years to go somewhere more prestigious, but I would have to return to Knoxville afterwards.
I hope my wife will understand this feeling. As it stands, I can't imagine settling down anywhere else, much less raising a family anywhere else. |
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| Coffee |
[Oct. 30th, 2007|11:31 pm] |
I've hit a low point. Last night I brought a coffee pot with me into the SASB to help me stay awake even longer. I'm running on 3-4 hours of sleep a night and I'm starting to feel alright about it.
Horrible, horrible, horrible.
But,it seems to be paying off, because I made an A on my last Arabic exam and math quiz, and I felt pretty good about my physics exam today. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 23rd, 2007|04:52 pm] |
Microsoft's flying me up to Washington in a few weeks for second interviews!
This will be my first time going west of Texas. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 22nd, 2007|12:39 am] |
Ideas to consider for summer:
1) Intern at Microsoft. I still don't know if I got to the second interview round with them. Also I'm starting to have ethical problems with the thought of working for them. It'd be fun though.
2) Intern at Google. I am 99% sure they won't hire me.
3) Intern at IBM. This is an interesting option. Their recruiter personally contacted me and told me I had a strong resume... We'll see. They're big supporters of open-source, too. I might even be able to work on something really cool like Eclipse.
4) Google Summer of Code. This, actually, would be the shit. It's a bit of a long shot as well since it's basically pitching a substantial improvement to a pre-existing open-source project. A few I'm interested in are Pidgin (IM), CUWiN (mesh networking), and Player (robot device interface). I would get paid to write OSS code, and get to stay in Knoxville. I wish the application process weren't so late though (late April).
5) Social entrepreneurship fellowship to set up low-cost wifi-based internet for low income communities, potentially partnering with Habitat. I'd really enjoy doing this but I don't know how I'd get money to do it, let alone support myself. There are a couple grants I could apply for, but I don't know how far that will get me. But, if I do well, I'll finish with a business of sorts of my own, or at least valuable experience for starting one up. An interesting option for sure. And gee whiz would a steady, scalable stream of income be nice.
I think a main thing for me is really figuring out what I want to do now. I have a lot of opportunities that I'll be missing out on if I don't take them now. I'd like to stay in Knoxville, near family and friends. I'd like to be near the mountains. I'd like to make enough money to be able to afford a car for next year so I can get back to Knoxville.
I'll be exploring these in the coming weeks as I learn more information about all of them. |
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| Loss of Residency |
[Oct. 20th, 2007|03:51 pm] |
I just found out that upon entering the West Bank last week Israel revoked my father's Palestinian residency. Poof. He's no longer legally a Palestinian.
He spent the first eighteen years of his life there and now some teenage border guard says that he can never go back as anything more than a tourist. Poof.
I deeply want to believe that Israel wants to live in peace with the Palestinian people, but actions like this shake that belief to the core. One by one they are driving us out of our homeland.
Too bad we're not leaving. |
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| To-do for Fall Break |
[Oct. 19th, 2007|02:03 am] |
Ah, Fall Break. This place is empty and quiet. Perfect environment for getting stuff done. Sadly, I've done little of that.
I did completely rearrange my room. Now I have separated my work space from my sleeping space from my living space from my food space. I bought a chair off Craigslist today for $25. It's one hell of a sturdy chair - This End Up made it. It must weight at least 50lbs, if not more. After all, it is built from solid wood.
I really like my new room set up. My desk is up next to the window, so I can have a breeze and natural light as I'm working now. The wall behind it is drywall rather than cold cinder block, so my feet stay warm when I put them up next to it. All the mess of my wire rack is hidden by my now-prominently displayed Palestinian flag, but I still get to keep my printer and food next to me and storage space up next to my bed. And, while I was moving stuff around, I vacuumed the room so I can walk around barefoot and keep my feet clean. Elinor likes that last one, I'm sure.
Anyway, this fall break I planned to:
- Finish NCF Paper that was due last week (check!)
- Rearrange room (check!)
- Work on internship paper (check!)
- Begin Zen study guide
- Study for Arabic Midterm
- Finish a few lab reports (get fully caught up?)
- Put together web site presentation for RESPC (check!)
- Figure out how to print to a university printer from Linux (check!)
- Become the darling of the OS community here by doing the above (in progress)
Time to get it done! |
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