This is my old blog. My new ones are herdrick.tumblr.com or herdrick.posterous.com

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

In sympathy

My thoughts are with my friends in Arizona. Take care, folks.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Shaving the Yak at work.

Perhaps not swamped, but I'm seriously bogged down right now with a lot of things that aren't exactly what I'm trying to get done, but really need to be done anyway. It's Yak shaving.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Google transit is excellent

Another web service has made my varsity team. Google Transit tells you how and when to take the bus to wherever you want to go. It's a must if you live in King county (i.e. metro Seattle) and commute to a high-density area (the U-District, downtown, Belltown, SODO, downtown Bellevue, etc). I use it daily. Imagine Google Maps driving directions with discrete choices leave time choices and you pretty much have it.

It only really has two problems: buses often run late (so the times can't be taken too seriously), and it's probably not available in your town. But if you're one the lucky people in one of these places, try it: Burbank (Burbank Bus), Orange County (OCTA), Tampa (HART), Honolulu (TheBus), Duluth (Duluth Transit), Eugene (Lane Transit District), Portland (TriMet), Pittsburgh (Port Authority), and of course, Seattle (King County Metro).

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Research job.

Following my ICFP-inspired plunge into academic Computer Science last autumn, I knew I'd need to get a regular industry job to replenish the war chest before making another raid into the classroom. Another option came up though - while walking back to the Allen Center after taking the final exam of my favorite class ever, I was talking with the instructor of the course, my favorite professor ever, (making a brown-nosing jackass of myself, no doubt) and he asked if I'd be interested in doing some research. I was, and after a job interview with the manager of the research project, I got an offer to work full time as an undergraduate researcher. I happily accepted. Today was the sixth day of work at the lab and I'm enjoying things. We're wrestling the usual sort of problems that plague any big piece of software. Before too long I'll be starting work on some actual research - more about that later.

Speaking of new directions in life, last night at the SeaFunc meeting I was talking with an interesting fellow and somehow or other the topic of major life changes came up. I quoted a person in Michael Lewis' nonfiction Wall Street memoir, Liar's Poker. (That was a heck of a book - you should read it - and it had an big impact on me. Speaking of that book, and this one, I need to do a post about investment banking, the study of Economics, the Pacific Northwest, word of mouth and clouds of personal connections someday. Remind me.) I think it was his mentor in London, who, when Lewis told him he was leaving his carreer in finance just when it was about to make him very rich, said something to the effect of, "Good for you. These major life changes are always the right decision." Now, a programmer going back to school to study Computer Science isn't exactly like closing the shop, selling the house, buying a ticket to the west coast and giving them the stand up routine in L.A., and it wasn't much of a change compared to my usual life modification, but this time I wasn't in some kind of desperate or dead-end situation. So I think it counts as a significant change.

(insert excuses for not blogging here)

Didn't think I had time, blah blah blah, you've heard it all before.