February 28, 2006
二月雨
It's been hectic. Homework all over the place, just finished a midterm today (and I have no idea how I did), thinking constantly about the interview that is to come, and all in all being busy busy busy. Only 2.5 weeks left before finals and I'll be glad when the quarter is over. Next quarter I should have no labs whatsoever, as compared to the nine hours a week I have now.
The mood of the day is cheerful and speculative. The rains have been both nice and annoying. I like rain when I don't have to trudge through it for most of the day with a backpack full of crap.
I found out from a friend that four of her friends also applied to the NEC equipment engineering position and were not called back. This means that of six or seven people, I was the only one called back.
I also talked with my dad's really good friend and coworker's wife, who once programmed for NEC in the same facility as the one I'm being interviewed by. She says that they're really nice, have a good gym, good cafeteria, and take lots of breaks.
Also that they are allotted $150 for shoes every year. With that money, they are expected to buy shoes specifically for work. They will take those shoes, and leave them in cubbies or some crap at work. From then on, they will wear some sort of shoes to work, take off the shoes they wore to work and put on their work shoes. I find this amusing.
She also said some stuff about my chances given that they've called me on site for an interview, but I'm honestly worried about jinxing things lately 'cause I've been so optimistic. Yes, I realize I'm being irrational, but whatever; I'm not usually superstitious so I figure I'm allowed this little bit.
Beat House of the Dead 4 solo with one play, three continues. I messed up in stupid places and I need to stop going for score when I am in danger. My goal is to not lose so much life and to break a score of 300k.
There are trees in full bloom all around campus. It seems premature. I think I might take some pictures at some point, but we'll see.
And it looks as though the rain is going to continue all week. I have a feeling I am going to get tired of the rain real quick.
The mood of the day is cheerful and speculative. The rains have been both nice and annoying. I like rain when I don't have to trudge through it for most of the day with a backpack full of crap.
I found out from a friend that four of her friends also applied to the NEC equipment engineering position and were not called back. This means that of six or seven people, I was the only one called back.
I also talked with my dad's really good friend and coworker's wife, who once programmed for NEC in the same facility as the one I'm being interviewed by. She says that they're really nice, have a good gym, good cafeteria, and take lots of breaks.
Also that they are allotted $150 for shoes every year. With that money, they are expected to buy shoes specifically for work. They will take those shoes, and leave them in cubbies or some crap at work. From then on, they will wear some sort of shoes to work, take off the shoes they wore to work and put on their work shoes. I find this amusing.
She also said some stuff about my chances given that they've called me on site for an interview, but I'm honestly worried about jinxing things lately 'cause I've been so optimistic. Yes, I realize I'm being irrational, but whatever; I'm not usually superstitious so I figure I'm allowed this little bit.
Beat House of the Dead 4 solo with one play, three continues. I messed up in stupid places and I need to stop going for score when I am in danger. My goal is to not lose so much life and to break a score of 300k.
There are trees in full bloom all around campus. It seems premature. I think I might take some pictures at some point, but we'll see.
And it looks as though the rain is going to continue all week. I have a feeling I am going to get tired of the rain real quick.
February 20, 2006
Premature Exuberance!?!?
I just got a call back from NEC Electronics. Talked with some lady named Sonia and I am going to their facility on March 3rd for an on-site interview. (!!!) I'm to show up at the place around 0900 with ID to be let in. After that I guess they're gonna show me the place and interview me until 1130, though I don't know in what proportion this is going to happen. At that point, the official part is done, though Sonia says they like to take the interviewees out to lunch afterwards and hang out for a bit. Once again, I'm guardedly excited, nervous and confused as to what I should study in preparation.
Two weeks.
Augh.
Two weeks.
Augh.
February 16, 2006
Feh
lkasdl;lja;skjtal;ksjdgoailjsglkasjgd
I've just been feeling really angry and frustrated all day. Not sure exactly why, but it's just this pervading sense of stress, rage, and impotent fury. Sometimes it gets to the point where I just kinda wish someone would pick a fight with me so I could hit things.
Actually, I guess I can identify at least three sources of stress/anger that are causing me to feel this way. Of the three that come to mind immediately, I can't do anything about one of them, the other is also largely out of my control, and the third is probably going to require me to not sleep tonight. Oh well. I'm sure I'll feel much better after a nice dinner and maybe a bit of wine.
Edit (0055) :
Wine and dinner for the win. Though I still have a paper draft due in eleven hours and I have nothing written yet. Sigh.
I've just been feeling really angry and frustrated all day. Not sure exactly why, but it's just this pervading sense of stress, rage, and impotent fury. Sometimes it gets to the point where I just kinda wish someone would pick a fight with me so I could hit things.
Actually, I guess I can identify at least three sources of stress/anger that are causing me to feel this way. Of the three that come to mind immediately, I can't do anything about one of them, the other is also largely out of my control, and the third is probably going to require me to not sleep tonight. Oh well. I'm sure I'll feel much better after a nice dinner and maybe a bit of wine.
Edit (0055) :
Wine and dinner for the win. Though I still have a paper draft due in eleven hours and I have nothing written yet. Sigh.
February 15, 2006
"And it's not made out of Rush or anything!"
My new suit. Ignore the corny smile. I like it a lot actually. My first suit ^_^.
Good Thing + Good Thing = Awesome??
Two of my favorite things being put together.
Opera, which is my favorite browser ever. Comes with all the features I want, it's fast, it's simple, and good on memory management until I open like 50 tabs across three windows.
And the Nintendo DS, which is just cool. My favorite handheld because the stylus and touchscreen allow for lots of random games that are fun to play. And it also has the games that are already fun like Advance Wars and Mario Kart. Then the wireless play is cool too.
And now you're telling me that soon I will have Opera for the DS? This is too awesome. I look forward to browsing with a d-pad + stylus + shoulder buttons. I think it will work out very nicely.
Opera, which is my favorite browser ever. Comes with all the features I want, it's fast, it's simple, and good on memory management until I open like 50 tabs across three windows.
And the Nintendo DS, which is just cool. My favorite handheld because the stylus and touchscreen allow for lots of random games that are fun to play. And it also has the games that are already fun like Advance Wars and Mario Kart. Then the wireless play is cool too.
And now you're telling me that soon I will have Opera for the DS? This is too awesome. I look forward to browsing with a d-pad + stylus + shoulder buttons. I think it will work out very nicely.
February 14, 2006
Post-Interview Reflections
A long time ago back in senior year of HS, back when I was young and stupid (or perhaps just younger and stupider), I unilaterally declared that Tuesdays were dress-up-in-nice-clothes day. So on Tuesdays, not necessarily every Tuesday but generally every other week at least, I would put on nice clothes, which generally involved a nice shirt and slacks and once in a while maybe even a tie. It never really caught on hugely, but within the people I knew there were a few people who'd do it for the hell of it on random Tuesdays. It was a fun diversion to keep my mind off the fact I was getting five hours of sleep a night on average I guess.
Anyway, I just bought a real suit this weekend. Went into Men's Wearhouse and got fitted and everything. It's mine. Yeah. And so today was the first day I had ever worn a suit that was for me. And I had to wear it around campus and get gawked at by passerbys 'cause I had classes right after my interview. Coincidences like these are probably just coincidences, and probably aren't really significant to anyone but me, but for some reason I get a kick out of this right now.
Anyhow, the interview. The interview was alright. It was just a one on one interview in these tiny-ass rooms on some new building on campus. The guy's name was Matt and he was really laid back. He'd let conversation wander during the interview and we'd just shoot the breeze for a little bit before returning back to business.
The questions he asked were pretty typical I think. The first was something like, "What do you know about NEC?"
Naturally, the first thing that came to mind for me was the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx, which he found amusing. Then I rambled off some stuff about the merging of the subsidiary back into the parent company and some other stuff I read in the news.
Then he asked about what my favorite electives were, my favorite engineering classes, what I considered my greatest accomplishments, my goals in further education, describing what projects I'd worked on, describing what other projects I'd worked on, and some other stuff. I did my best to answer in a non-hokey way, and all in all talked a lot about how I wish I could have studied more things, how I enjoyed classes, disciplines and projects which incorporated many branches of study together, and some other stuff about heuristics to guide actions given that humans can't exhaustively research all possibilities and stuff.
Now, the really confusing thing was the technical question.
Usually in engineering interviews they ask you questions about your particular area or the area that the job deals with. For example, for an IC design sorta job, they might draw up simple differential pair with a tail current and ask you to analyze it. Or ask you to draw an op-amp circuit with gain of positive ten. Or some other crap about circuits.
So, I was expecting to get something relating to any of the sub-fields of EE since the job seemed to require knowledge in all of those areas. As it turned out, I was thinking in the right direction, I just didn't take it far enough.
He put a piece of paper down in front of me with three drawings on it. He explained that one drawing was a top view, the other was a side view, and the other was the other side view. I was to draw an isometric sketch of the object; that is to say, draw a 3d-ish model of it.
"Uh..., I'm sorry, I need to think about this."
"No problem, take your time."
"I've never dealt with anything like this before."
"That's what all the EE majors say. I wouldn't give this to an ME since this is the very basics of what they do. I give them the circuit problems."
So yeah, it took me a bunch of sketches and what felt like a bazillion minutes, but I finally nailed it. Matt actually said something like, "Yeah, right on!" when I finished my final drawing. He mentioned the dude that I talked to at the internship fair (whom Matt had also interviewed and brought to the company) had done rather poorly on that part of the interview.
After that, he asked one or two more questions about miscellaneous things, and then asked me whether I had any questions for him. I asked about Roseville and what it was like there, and he went on at length on how it was alright, but that he preferred living in Davis and commuting. That of course it wasn't going to have a huge population of 18-24 year olds (seven percent! 7%!!!), especially when compared to a university town, and some other stuff.
Roseville though. Not exactly the kind of place I pictured myself living in.
Then I asked about the job itself, and he gave me a rundown of what Chery, the dude who talked to me at the intership fair, has had to do since joining the team. Chery apparently is the only EE major on the team, and the rest of the team is Mech Es, Chem Es, physicists, and some other random crap. Since joining the team, he's been spending a lot of time learning about plasma physics, mech e stuff, chem e stuff, and basically learning about all aspects of fabrication and manufacturing.
So Matt, the interviewer, stressed that an important part of the job was to be able to understand things beyond your own field so as to really be able to comprehend the workings of the entirety of the fabrication plant and to use that knowledge to come up with good solutions to problems.
This is a good thing I think. Not only do I really like learning about a lot of different things, I actually emphasized that sort of sentiment in describing my projects and favorite classes. So, I mean, he might think that I, like, am a good fit for the job and stuff. 'Cause I am interested in exactly the kind of thing the job requires. Yeah.
After the interview, he gave me a packet with some stuff and said that they would get in contact with me in two to three weeks. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I think I have a reasonably good chance of being called back for a second interview. I hope. Augh.
Altogether the interview went well though. I just need to deal now with the waiting and, well, mostly the waiting. Good thing I've got plenty of crap to deal with in school and life so I don't stress about things I can't really change anyway.
Speaking of which, the nervousness never really got to me during the interview. I mean, I got kinda shaky when I saw the interview question, and at other random times when I felt like I couldn't find the words to express what I wanted to say, but all in all I was pretty cool through it. At least, I think I was.
Anyway, it's over and done and now I just sit and hope.
Uf.
Anyway, I just bought a real suit this weekend. Went into Men's Wearhouse and got fitted and everything. It's mine. Yeah. And so today was the first day I had ever worn a suit that was for me. And I had to wear it around campus and get gawked at by passerbys 'cause I had classes right after my interview. Coincidences like these are probably just coincidences, and probably aren't really significant to anyone but me, but for some reason I get a kick out of this right now.
Anyhow, the interview. The interview was alright. It was just a one on one interview in these tiny-ass rooms on some new building on campus. The guy's name was Matt and he was really laid back. He'd let conversation wander during the interview and we'd just shoot the breeze for a little bit before returning back to business.
The questions he asked were pretty typical I think. The first was something like, "What do you know about NEC?"
Naturally, the first thing that came to mind for me was the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx, which he found amusing. Then I rambled off some stuff about the merging of the subsidiary back into the parent company and some other stuff I read in the news.
Then he asked about what my favorite electives were, my favorite engineering classes, what I considered my greatest accomplishments, my goals in further education, describing what projects I'd worked on, describing what other projects I'd worked on, and some other stuff. I did my best to answer in a non-hokey way, and all in all talked a lot about how I wish I could have studied more things, how I enjoyed classes, disciplines and projects which incorporated many branches of study together, and some other stuff about heuristics to guide actions given that humans can't exhaustively research all possibilities and stuff.
Now, the really confusing thing was the technical question.
Usually in engineering interviews they ask you questions about your particular area or the area that the job deals with. For example, for an IC design sorta job, they might draw up simple differential pair with a tail current and ask you to analyze it. Or ask you to draw an op-amp circuit with gain of positive ten. Or some other crap about circuits.
So, I was expecting to get something relating to any of the sub-fields of EE since the job seemed to require knowledge in all of those areas. As it turned out, I was thinking in the right direction, I just didn't take it far enough.
He put a piece of paper down in front of me with three drawings on it. He explained that one drawing was a top view, the other was a side view, and the other was the other side view. I was to draw an isometric sketch of the object; that is to say, draw a 3d-ish model of it.
"Uh..., I'm sorry, I need to think about this."
"No problem, take your time."
"I've never dealt with anything like this before."
"That's what all the EE majors say. I wouldn't give this to an ME since this is the very basics of what they do. I give them the circuit problems."
So yeah, it took me a bunch of sketches and what felt like a bazillion minutes, but I finally nailed it. Matt actually said something like, "Yeah, right on!" when I finished my final drawing. He mentioned the dude that I talked to at the internship fair (whom Matt had also interviewed and brought to the company) had done rather poorly on that part of the interview.
After that, he asked one or two more questions about miscellaneous things, and then asked me whether I had any questions for him. I asked about Roseville and what it was like there, and he went on at length on how it was alright, but that he preferred living in Davis and commuting. That of course it wasn't going to have a huge population of 18-24 year olds (seven percent! 7%!!!), especially when compared to a university town, and some other stuff.
Roseville though. Not exactly the kind of place I pictured myself living in.
Then I asked about the job itself, and he gave me a rundown of what Chery, the dude who talked to me at the intership fair, has had to do since joining the team. Chery apparently is the only EE major on the team, and the rest of the team is Mech Es, Chem Es, physicists, and some other random crap. Since joining the team, he's been spending a lot of time learning about plasma physics, mech e stuff, chem e stuff, and basically learning about all aspects of fabrication and manufacturing.
So Matt, the interviewer, stressed that an important part of the job was to be able to understand things beyond your own field so as to really be able to comprehend the workings of the entirety of the fabrication plant and to use that knowledge to come up with good solutions to problems.
This is a good thing I think. Not only do I really like learning about a lot of different things, I actually emphasized that sort of sentiment in describing my projects and favorite classes. So, I mean, he might think that I, like, am a good fit for the job and stuff. 'Cause I am interested in exactly the kind of thing the job requires. Yeah.
After the interview, he gave me a packet with some stuff and said that they would get in contact with me in two to three weeks. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I think I have a reasonably good chance of being called back for a second interview. I hope. Augh.
Altogether the interview went well though. I just need to deal now with the waiting and, well, mostly the waiting. Good thing I've got plenty of crap to deal with in school and life so I don't stress about things I can't really change anyway.
Speaking of which, the nervousness never really got to me during the interview. I mean, I got kinda shaky when I saw the interview question, and at other random times when I felt like I couldn't find the words to express what I wanted to say, but all in all I was pretty cool through it. At least, I think I was.
Anyway, it's over and done and now I just sit and hope.
Uf.
Jitters
Interview in about six and a half hours.
NEC Electronics.
For a job in Roseville.
At this point in time, I'm not really nervous. There's very little I can do in preparation besides making sure I look, smell, act and speak well. It seems all so far away, and yet I'm waiting for this serenity to disappear and leave me a sweaty, gibbering idiot.
Uf.
I kinda want to be worried about this interview, but it just isn't coming. It's kinda unnatural. Instead, I just keep thinking about stupid crap that hardly makes a difference in the big picture. That's just me I guess; even when my future is staring me in the face, I can't keep my mind off the largely insignificant events of the past.
I dunno.
言葉が見つけらない。
"Lately I haven't been myself at all/It's heavy on my mind."
NEC Electronics.
For a job in Roseville.
At this point in time, I'm not really nervous. There's very little I can do in preparation besides making sure I look, smell, act and speak well. It seems all so far away, and yet I'm waiting for this serenity to disappear and leave me a sweaty, gibbering idiot.
Uf.
I kinda want to be worried about this interview, but it just isn't coming. It's kinda unnatural. Instead, I just keep thinking about stupid crap that hardly makes a difference in the big picture. That's just me I guess; even when my future is staring me in the face, I can't keep my mind off the largely insignificant events of the past.
I dunno.
言葉が見つけらない。
"Lately I haven't been myself at all/It's heavy on my mind."
February 12, 2006
What a flop! This is how the story ends
Whoo, consecutive nights, haven't done that in a while. It's a pity no one I knew had a camera at the pimps and hos party, 'cause there was some sweet pimp-age going on.
Went suit shopping today, which went remarkably well. Men's Wearhouse is full of very helpful people. They asked what kinda job I was going in for, then made suggestions as to what kind of colors I ought to wear for the first interview, and how I ought to wear brighter colors to show off my creative side for the second interview, et cetera, et cetera. Nice people there, that want me to spend lots of money. I am going to pick up my sweet new suit on Monday, in preparation for my interview Tuesday. They gotta do some adjustments, 'cause I'm a bit weird shaped I guess.
The weather lately has been fantastic. Spring weather. Sun shining, breezes blowing, and warmth. Which has coincided remarkably well with me having recently bought a new shortboard. Speaking of which, here are some pics :
Check out those fat risers. Ground Zero had tiny risers and humongous risers; nothing in between at all. If I had gotten the tiny risers, the wheels would have been constantly biting the board and causing me to fall over. So, I figured I might as well get the humongous ones. Surprisingly, it's not that off balance, and I don't feel as though I'm going to fall over at any minute.
And here is the nice board with the crappy design. I got the cheapest board they had, but it turns out it's actually made of pretty good material; it's just cheap 'cause the design is shitty. I plan to paint over it with something eventually, but I just haven't had time. And I'm still not sure what to put on it. Maybe I can put decals of my favorite indie bands, yeah! Or a sweet Chinese character.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the board. It cost a little more than I expected it to, but the parts I got were nice and the board is super smooth. I'm very happy with it. I <3 cruising on my sweet board. My goal is eventually to ollie with it, though I think the wheels are a bit big for it. I can hope anyway. And fall. A lot.
As for life, it's been going pretty well. The quarter up 'til recently had been an absolute shithole, to the point where random people were walking around talking about how crappy the quarter was going. Now it seems like the gloom and stress is slowly lifting, the grim faces are lightening up, and the people aren't griping quite so much as they were. The weather has helped, no doubt (or did our mood change help the weather?), and I guess it also helps that most people have probably finished their first round of midterms.
For myself, I think it has something to do with all the crap I have going on. I've got a job interview with NEC on Tuesday, which is awesome. My degree check has been run and so I just need to talk to my advisor to make sure all my crap is in order to graduate next quarter.
I'm reasonably on top of all my homework, and this is probably my last truly difficult quarter of undergraduate study; next quarter I'm only required to take 10 units, so say hello to bowling and "Organizational Communication". I AM taking a graduate class for sure, but I hear it's ridiculously easy, so I'm not worrying too much. The big thing is that I should be having no lab next quarter, as compared to the nine-plus hours I have this quarter.
Anyhow, to sleep I go. Tutoring and homework to look forward to in the morning.
Went suit shopping today, which went remarkably well. Men's Wearhouse is full of very helpful people. They asked what kinda job I was going in for, then made suggestions as to what kind of colors I ought to wear for the first interview, and how I ought to wear brighter colors to show off my creative side for the second interview, et cetera, et cetera. Nice people there, that want me to spend lots of money. I am going to pick up my sweet new suit on Monday, in preparation for my interview Tuesday. They gotta do some adjustments, 'cause I'm a bit weird shaped I guess.
The weather lately has been fantastic. Spring weather. Sun shining, breezes blowing, and warmth. Which has coincided remarkably well with me having recently bought a new shortboard. Speaking of which, here are some pics :
Check out those fat risers. Ground Zero had tiny risers and humongous risers; nothing in between at all. If I had gotten the tiny risers, the wheels would have been constantly biting the board and causing me to fall over. So, I figured I might as well get the humongous ones. Surprisingly, it's not that off balance, and I don't feel as though I'm going to fall over at any minute.
And here is the nice board with the crappy design. I got the cheapest board they had, but it turns out it's actually made of pretty good material; it's just cheap 'cause the design is shitty. I plan to paint over it with something eventually, but I just haven't had time. And I'm still not sure what to put on it. Maybe I can put decals of my favorite indie bands, yeah! Or a sweet Chinese character.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with the board. It cost a little more than I expected it to, but the parts I got were nice and the board is super smooth. I'm very happy with it. I <3 cruising on my sweet board. My goal is eventually to ollie with it, though I think the wheels are a bit big for it. I can hope anyway. And fall. A lot.
As for life, it's been going pretty well. The quarter up 'til recently had been an absolute shithole, to the point where random people were walking around talking about how crappy the quarter was going. Now it seems like the gloom and stress is slowly lifting, the grim faces are lightening up, and the people aren't griping quite so much as they were. The weather has helped, no doubt (or did our mood change help the weather?), and I guess it also helps that most people have probably finished their first round of midterms.
For myself, I think it has something to do with all the crap I have going on. I've got a job interview with NEC on Tuesday, which is awesome. My degree check has been run and so I just need to talk to my advisor to make sure all my crap is in order to graduate next quarter.
I'm reasonably on top of all my homework, and this is probably my last truly difficult quarter of undergraduate study; next quarter I'm only required to take 10 units, so say hello to bowling and "Organizational Communication". I AM taking a graduate class for sure, but I hear it's ridiculously easy, so I'm not worrying too much. The big thing is that I should be having no lab next quarter, as compared to the nine-plus hours I have this quarter.
Anyhow, to sleep I go. Tutoring and homework to look forward to in the morning.
February 10, 2006
Will Kung-fu for Food
Warm-up kick demonstration : 2 minutes
Kung fu set duration : 1.5 minutes
Cost of dinner (per person) we were treated to for free : $35
Rate of pay : Roughly $600 per hour
Seven courses (at least) including walnut shrimp, crab, lobster, peking duck, the best fucking sea bass I have ever had, and a bottle of wine. For the win.
Kung fu set duration : 1.5 minutes
Cost of dinner (per person) we were treated to for free : $35
Rate of pay : Roughly $600 per hour
Seven courses (at least) including walnut shrimp, crab, lobster, peking duck, the best fucking sea bass I have ever had, and a bottle of wine. For the win.
February 09, 2006
Written Eloquence is Overrated
There has been a lot of crap going on lately and a lot to talk about, but words really just don't seem to be coming. Text, phone, and pretty much every form of communication besides face-to-face talking has felt very ineffective lately in general. That is to say, as of recently, it has been feeling like my written words and spoken words alone don't convey all the information I want them to. I have no idea why I feel that way, but whatever, here goes.
So, I've got an interview with NEC Electronics next Tuesday morning. I have mixed feelings about the job I'm interviewing for, but all the same, I want to do well. I'm excited, happy, nervous, worried and such about the interview, but it seems the worries tend to dominate my thinking. My resumé is weak compared to some of my engineering friends, and my GPA isn't exactly awesome either. I'm not entirely sure what kind of interview questions to expect, since the job doesn't fit nicely into one of the sub-disciplines of electrical engineering. I'm worried there are more qualified candidates, that I'm going to do poorly, that something entirely unexpected is going to happen and screw me over, that they're not gonna like me, et cetera, et cetera.
And it also seems every time I start to get kinda excited about it, I start thinking about all the bad points. I've been noticing lately that I do that a lot. I guess I'm subsconsciously trying to expect little so as not to be disappointed if things don't work out; it's a self-defence mechanism I guess. I can think of more than a few incidents wherein I've gotten really excited about good things that might happen to me only to have them not quite pan out the way I wanted them to. So..., I decide that being excited leads to bad things.
Yeah, my response doesn't really seem rational to me either, but no one ever said I had a whole lot of common sense. I should probably work on that a bit.
But anyway, the interview is coming up and I'm not really sure how to prepare. I want to say I'll review something for it over the weekend, but I really have no idea what they might ask me. Oh well.
As for the rest of today, I've got a lot of work to do. But, today is also Sean's birthday! He's 22 now. He's oooooooold. Which is a sobering thought, since I'm only six months younger than he is. And I'm supposed to be leaving college and getting a real-life job in four months. Which is.., not very far away at all. I suppose, I will have to make the most of the remaining time.
So, I've got an interview with NEC Electronics next Tuesday morning. I have mixed feelings about the job I'm interviewing for, but all the same, I want to do well. I'm excited, happy, nervous, worried and such about the interview, but it seems the worries tend to dominate my thinking. My resumé is weak compared to some of my engineering friends, and my GPA isn't exactly awesome either. I'm not entirely sure what kind of interview questions to expect, since the job doesn't fit nicely into one of the sub-disciplines of electrical engineering. I'm worried there are more qualified candidates, that I'm going to do poorly, that something entirely unexpected is going to happen and screw me over, that they're not gonna like me, et cetera, et cetera.
And it also seems every time I start to get kinda excited about it, I start thinking about all the bad points. I've been noticing lately that I do that a lot. I guess I'm subsconsciously trying to expect little so as not to be disappointed if things don't work out; it's a self-defence mechanism I guess. I can think of more than a few incidents wherein I've gotten really excited about good things that might happen to me only to have them not quite pan out the way I wanted them to. So..., I decide that being excited leads to bad things.
Yeah, my response doesn't really seem rational to me either, but no one ever said I had a whole lot of common sense. I should probably work on that a bit.
But anyway, the interview is coming up and I'm not really sure how to prepare. I want to say I'll review something for it over the weekend, but I really have no idea what they might ask me. Oh well.
As for the rest of today, I've got a lot of work to do. But, today is also Sean's birthday! He's 22 now. He's oooooooold. Which is a sobering thought, since I'm only six months younger than he is. And I'm supposed to be leaving college and getting a real-life job in four months. Which is.., not very far away at all. I suppose, I will have to make the most of the remaining time.
February 08, 2006
Pain in the Neck
I've got half written posts littering my desktop, but lately I just can't seem to find the time nor the will to finish writing them. Maybe eventually they will be completed, or maybe they'll just fade into obscurity, though the difference is hard to tell sometimes.
Anyhow, I have managed to hurt my neck. I have no idea how bad it is, but it hurts to turn it left or right, look up or down, or really even move my arms or upper torso in a lot of ways.
So how did I do it?
Kung fu?
Lion dance?
Wrestling?
Fisticuffs?
Climbing on shit I shouldn't be climbing on?
None of the above.
I had just woken up and was sitting in bed contemplating what I should eat for breakfast and thinking about the lyrics to "Here Comes Your Man" and stretched. Hands behind the head, push shoulders backwards, and streeeeeeeeeeeee*POP* "OH SHIT MY NECK".
So yeah. I spent fifteen minutes trying to massage it out in the shower under very hot water, which was largely unsuccessful. My next plan is to eat food, and then eat copious amounts of ibuprofen or aspirin.
Honestly though, how does one hurt one's self while stretching? I hope it isn't serious, mostly because I don't think I'd be able to live down the stupidity and shame of it all.
Anyhow, I have managed to hurt my neck. I have no idea how bad it is, but it hurts to turn it left or right, look up or down, or really even move my arms or upper torso in a lot of ways.
So how did I do it?
Kung fu?
Lion dance?
Wrestling?
Fisticuffs?
Climbing on shit I shouldn't be climbing on?
None of the above.
I had just woken up and was sitting in bed contemplating what I should eat for breakfast and thinking about the lyrics to "Here Comes Your Man" and stretched. Hands behind the head, push shoulders backwards, and streeeeeeeeeeeee*POP* "OH SHIT MY NECK".
So yeah. I spent fifteen minutes trying to massage it out in the shower under very hot water, which was largely unsuccessful. My next plan is to eat food, and then eat copious amounts of ibuprofen or aspirin.
Honestly though, how does one hurt one's self while stretching? I hope it isn't serious, mostly because I don't think I'd be able to live down the stupidity and shame of it all.
February 01, 2006
Things That Don't Suck
I saw this video sometime in December or something, but I didn't think too much of it then. For whatever reason, I saw it again a few days ago and now I find it absolutely hilarious.
We're going down tuuuuu in a luleelurah!
And of course, Dr. Thorpe. Assholes being assholes to other assholes is funny. Even funnier if you talk about indie or emo kids.
Firemelon is always hilarious. I call those guys idiots, but in reality I've done far worse; I'm just lucky enough that I don't usually end up hurting myself. The time I exploded a can of butane fuel comes to mind. Think 15-20 foot high fireball.
Pandora is pretty cool too. Like, yeah. The idea has been done before, but this is the first incarnation I've seen that does it well. The idea, if you haven't heard of this thing already, is that you can give Pandora the name of a song or artist you like, and it will create a music "station" that will have similar style to the song or artist you named. You can put multiple songs/artists to a station, and as you listen to the station, you can thumbs up/down songs that are playing and further customize the kind of stuff the station will throw to you.
I've been dicking around with it and trying out different combos of artists and songs to try and get the ideal station that will play awesome new song after awesome new song and I think I've kinda figured it out. For me, it worked best when I put in a list of songs as opposed to artists. They talk about why that's the case in the FAQ a bit, but who reads that kinda crap anyway?
It's a service worth checking out in any case, if you happen to like listening to music you haven't heard before.
And the coolest thing this week that didn't suck was an e-mail I received from NEC Electronics the other day. I talked with their booth dude for fifteen or twenty minutes or something, and apparently he liked me. The gist of the e-mail they sent me was, "Our recruiter was very impressed with your skills and would like to encourage you to officially submit your resume." I am hoping this means that they will definitely include me on the interview list, and I also hope this means that other people I spoke to that day felt the same way. It'd be nice to get a post-graduation job lined up before the Spring quarter starts.
And, I should be getting a shortboard soon. I imagine sometime later this week, when I finally find time to hit the shop. It's a chunk of change, but I think it'll be more than worth it for getting around from campus to work and for just dicking around on. I'm just wondering what design I'm going to paint onto it.
We're going down tuuuuu in a luleelurah!
And of course, Dr. Thorpe. Assholes being assholes to other assholes is funny. Even funnier if you talk about indie or emo kids.
Firemelon is always hilarious. I call those guys idiots, but in reality I've done far worse; I'm just lucky enough that I don't usually end up hurting myself. The time I exploded a can of butane fuel comes to mind. Think 15-20 foot high fireball.
Pandora is pretty cool too. Like, yeah. The idea has been done before, but this is the first incarnation I've seen that does it well. The idea, if you haven't heard of this thing already, is that you can give Pandora the name of a song or artist you like, and it will create a music "station" that will have similar style to the song or artist you named. You can put multiple songs/artists to a station, and as you listen to the station, you can thumbs up/down songs that are playing and further customize the kind of stuff the station will throw to you.
I've been dicking around with it and trying out different combos of artists and songs to try and get the ideal station that will play awesome new song after awesome new song and I think I've kinda figured it out. For me, it worked best when I put in a list of songs as opposed to artists. They talk about why that's the case in the FAQ a bit, but who reads that kinda crap anyway?
It's a service worth checking out in any case, if you happen to like listening to music you haven't heard before.
And the coolest thing this week that didn't suck was an e-mail I received from NEC Electronics the other day. I talked with their booth dude for fifteen or twenty minutes or something, and apparently he liked me. The gist of the e-mail they sent me was, "Our recruiter was very impressed with your skills and would like to encourage you to officially submit your resume." I am hoping this means that they will definitely include me on the interview list, and I also hope this means that other people I spoke to that day felt the same way. It'd be nice to get a post-graduation job lined up before the Spring quarter starts.
And, I should be getting a shortboard soon. I imagine sometime later this week, when I finally find time to hit the shop. It's a chunk of change, but I think it'll be more than worth it for getting around from campus to work and for just dicking around on. I'm just wondering what design I'm going to paint onto it.
