Simple Musings

Cal Poly proceeding with partnership with Saudi college despite human rights concerns.
Cal Poly is planning to accept $6,000,000 for a five year partnership to open a school in Saudi Arabia. Cal Poly claims that the move will enable new research opportunities and spread its world-wide influence, but critics say that a partnership with Saudi Arabia would require turning a blind eye to civil rights violations.
Can we sit back while Cal Poly funds a school that will require a man's permission for a woman to attend a (segregated) class? Should we fund enrichment of a culture that persecutes sexual "deviancy" (read 'homosexuality') or "heresy" (read "Christianity"), sometimes with death?
Conversely, if we believe that these human rights violations are abhorrent and ignorant, is it a mature response to prohibit the education that would be crucial for a social reform?

Orson Scott Card blasts J.K. Rowling
In a much less depressing news item, one of my favorite authors is thrashing another. Orson Scott Card (most famous for Ender's Game) criticizes Joe Rowling (only famous for Harry Potter) for her lawsuit over a meta-book that gathered facts from her series and organized it into a lexicon. Interestingly enough, JKR apparently admitted using the same author's fact aggregation while writing her books to stay consistent and awarded the author's site. Once the author published his data, JRK has sued, claiming that she "feels her words were stolen."

As a counter-argument, Card calls to attention a large number of parallels between Ender's Game and Harry Potter. Card criticizes JRK for suing someone for doing something explicitly allowed in copyright law (literary analysis) and suggests that she has not only become greedy since her success, but is fearful that she won't be able to outdo Harry Potter. This lawsuit might fulfill Card's predictions, as JKR loses face with her fans.

Well, time for my once in a blue moon update.
Things have changed so much for me since moving to Washington. I'm still known as the CA guy cause I've bitched about the weather from Fall onwards & reminisced about how perfect the weather is in SLO. I've had amazing opportunities at work that I can't claim I deserve from merely hard work and aptitude. I'm in a position to learn a lot and hopefully make a difference in the world. I can't wait until something I've done goes public and I can show my baby to all my friends.

I've been getting much better at guitar in this last year, though my abilities seem to dull rather quickly when I run out of time to practice or practice a different skill (When I practice finger picking I lose my muscle memory for cross picking & vice versa. When I focus back on cross picking & hybrid picking, I start picking up extra strings while strumming). The songs I'm currently trying to learn/improve at are "I'll Have to Say I Love you (In a Song)", "So Long (My Friend)", and Rodrigo y Gabriela's version of "Stairway to Heaven" (though I'm just hoping to get the solo).

I'm also in love with the local gym here. Microsoft pays my membership fee for the Pro Club, a super-posh gym, so I decided to give it a shot. I started working out & remembered how much I used to love being active. After getting a good workout buddy (ironically, someone who graduated with me at Poly, but I didn't meet until MSFT), I've started a really good program and I'm in the gym roughly 8-10 times a week. I'm much more flexible than I've ever been before, I have much more stamina while running, and I just found out that I've lost 2/3 of the bodyfat I had when I graduated college (22%->6/7%). Unfortunately, I'm still trying to get back some of the strenght I had before I became a slacker in HS (I swear... the weights at Troy must have been hollowed out for our ego, because I'm not benching anywhere near 215 anymre, and I look much more fit now than I did then).

All in all, life is still challenging - in some ways more than it's ever been. And, truth be told, I'm pretty homesick for friends, family, and weather in California (btw, I'm coming back for a week in July). I'd have to say, though, that life right now is great. While it's adventurous to a degree, I still feel like I have a fundamental grasp on things that I haven't had in years. I see the future and it's looking nice. It just feels good to finally be on the upside of luck and fortune.

Just wanted to clarify that the reason I'm not posting here is because I've consolidated those fun blogging things into myspace and facebook (mirrored. MS has better formatting options & FB lets me tag people who are involved).

Those two are a blog of what I am doing whereas this page may see a post every now & then about how I'm feeling, though for courtesy's sake, if I'm feeling anything but splendid the post is probably marked as "friends only."

MS link is at http://blog.myspace.com/th3fall3n

Ok.. i know I don't ever post to LJ anymore, but I just wanted to get the message out!
So it's coming up a lot sooner than I expected. It turns out that my parents are moving June 21st. I'll be in town probably from the 17th to the 20th. After that I will be in SLO until either the first of July or the end of it (verdict is still out). I want to take the time I have left in each of those areas to say goodbye to my friends and the cities I've known for the last 22 years.
If you would like to hang out please let me know when you are free.

My senior project is now codenamed "MESH"
Mesh -
N. A computer network in which each computer or processor is connected to a number of others, esp. as an n-dimensional lattice.
V. To be in or bring about harmony

It's perfect ^_^
Oh, and for pics of halloween (quiiiite creeeeepy) go to www.csc.calpoly.edu/~tbouldin/halloween or my DA page ne0nimda.deviantart.com

In more serious news, my dad's testicular cancer turned out to be ovarian cancer (yeah... weird... but it's happened to 16 other guys too. Just because it's "ovarian cancer" doesn't mean it can't effect more than the ovaries.) but that's good because it means it's almost 100% surely not fatal, wheras we weren't so hopeful with testicular cancer. Microsoft sent us a really nice care package to help out too. They gave me a gift card to shell so I could afford to drive down & see my family more often even with high gas prices and they gave my family a hefty gift card to the safeway stores since they deliver w/ online purchases. This friday I accepted my job offer at Microsoft instead of going to grad school. I think I'll go study for my doctorate in a few years when Microsoft will pay for it. In the meantime, I'd have to be a fool to pass up a job offer so nice I had to sign an NDA before getting it.

In other news, I'm doing very well in my classes (except for my senior project, which I can't find enough time to get working on) and went to Halloween Haunt w/ Ms. Q & my lil bro. Apparently Ms. Q & I are just platonic anymore, which I figured would happen once I was so much less convenient than her S.O., but que será será, ¿no? I figure this way it'll be less heartache & I'm free to flirt w/ the girl in my guitar class more.

Stay tuned for probable pics of my halloween costume. It's inspired by Fred Gallagher's drawings of lost angels but a fair amount darker (a.k.a. Goth). Think what would happen if a death goth dressed like an angel (or vice versa).

Well, since i'm making an effor to post semi-regularly I'm still alive & having fun in OC. Ivan & I were hanging out for the first 2 days & then I was hanging out w/ david longshore for 2 days (inc. tonight where i met up w/ daniel & james too).
It's expensive to furnish a house - even w/ ikea.
And since I don't think anyone really reads this, I don't think i really need to go into detail on the trip back to slo - the only things worth mentioning I definitely won't forget soon (I like vampires ^_^ )

Back in OC for a week & no worse for the wear physically. I'll possibly give a full debrief later; I'm too tired right now

I got the job offer ^_^

OH MY FUCKING GOD I"M SO PISSED I WANT TO CRY. I got a fucking speeding ticket for something that's fucking impossible to do. Within 20 feet of my driveway I got fucking pulled over by an undercover cop for supposedly going fucking 55MPH in a 40MPH zone. I HAVE A FUCKING 4 CYLLINDAR VEHICLE! IT IS NOT FUCKING POSSIBLE FOR ME TO ACCELERATE THAT FAST. Now I'm out $130 because some fucking ass hole excuse for a cop noticed I have CA license plates (his FIRST question was "so, do you live up here?")
GOD I FUCKING HATE COPS

Wholly crap... Ms. Q & I got some stuff at guitar center the other day, including a book w/ all the sheet music from The Killers' "Hot Fuss" ... WOW that stuff is HARD. It's SOOO not your typical power chords (why I wanted to get their book) but OMG... syncopation in the middle of shifting bar chords?? Playing songs on frets 16-19?! (btw.. standard guitars have 22 frets... which means 16-19 is hard to get to...) and I take a breather any time I see something as slow as a quarter note....
OOOWWWWWWIIEEEE

Anway.. i finally met up w/ jessica today. We were going to take a tour through the underground "old seattle" (the part that burned to a crisp) but it took me an hour to get the 10 mi. from work to her place so we wouldn't make it in time. Instead we (her, me, & her friend) went to a place that used to be a hawaiian restaurant, but has since been turned into an irish bar & pub (I certainly didn't mind! I had been aching for a good shepard's pie for aeons) and then I got a call from Daria. I had forgotten that we were going to go to Jet City Improv tonight >_< Jessica, Robert, & I headed down to the improve house (ironically, we got there first) and watched a really corny (but fairly amusing) show. Afterwards we had boba & then went our separate ways. (and i started playing guitar, which lead to the start of this post)

Wow This is cool!
http://tochka.jp/pikapika/2006/06/report_pikapika_in_kitijoji.html

In other news, I lost half the work i did today (and it's my last week here)

my fingers hurt from my guitar...

Ok.. so yesterday I woke up early (7:30AM) to get to a dr. apt. but it turns out that I went to the wrong dr. office & nobody had any idea where i was actually supposed to go to.. so I decided that I might as well actually go to work at the ripe early hour of 9AM. I'm really glad I did... I didn't get outta there until 2AM I just about broke down into tears when somewhere between midnight & 1AM a major component of my demo the next day broke... Ms. Q was still at the office & offered to give me a shoulder rub to help me stop fretting & to wkae me up (? yea.. doesn't make sense that it would wake me up instead of putting me to sleep, but who am I to turn down a massage?)
Once I came back I looked at my code & instantly realized that I was testing for failure when I should ahve been testing for success & everything started rolling. I left microsoft about 2AM & finally found a parking space (in someone else's reserved spot..) at 2:30 & crashed.
Today I woke up @ about8 so I could get to my full time interview at 9:30. HR didn't really ahve any clue what to do w/ me... they were going to give me an "interviewee" sticker & they told me that for my techincal interview I should walk down to the receptionist & ask her to call the guy even though we were in the same building...
So I met my full time recruiter (as opposed to my internship recruiter) & we talked about what I did (I just so happened to have a slide deck in my pocket of the powerpoint presentation I was giving later that day).
So I got outta that at about 10:45 and had to finish preparing my computer for the presentation that started at 11:30 (so I had about 15-30 min to finish everything & then head over early to the presentation room). Although I can't give details of what was in the presentation, my demo went really well thanks to some stuff I fished yesterday & the day before and my mentor was really happy with me.
After that I went to the receptionist & asked her to page the guY I was going to be interviewing with... he came down & laughed & asked what the heck I was doing. It turns out that he was only about 5 doors down from me.... stupid HR... the interview was me quickly saying what I did in my project & then us brainstorming about the future of programs & where the market is moving to. We then talked about how to solve some of the problems facing admins & users today and how that would effect/use/change my project (mostly my project would go by the wayside).

I then realized that it was 5PM and I was going to go swing dancing with Alicia tonight... I IMd her & we decided to go to this place that had lessons @ 7 & dancing @ 8... but by the time we decided that it was already 6... So I ran home to greet the familia (they flew in wed) & since the nice dinner my mom was cooking wouldn't be ready for a while, I microwaved some twice fried pork (wow... that sounds like old food there..), scarfed it down & picked up alicia in time to be only a half hour late to the practice. It turns out that this place has swing dancing every wednesday & friday EXCEPT for today becuase the lead teacher person had another gig somewhere else....... So we called up our friends to find out who might have an internet connection & give us somewhere else to go (we drove from redmond to seattle & didn't feel like trippling the trip). We were referenced to Underground Dancing and wow... that place was sketch... it was in the capital hill district (gay district) and it was a bit... la habra-ish. I was worried that my car would get broken into because it was too new. There wasn't much fo a need to worry though becase it turns out that every LAST friday fo the month this place has a weird as hell "alternative" dancing instead of swing. It was really weird... "It's a lot of fun. It's all free movement, and we have some intruments here you can use and..." "um... let's go outside where we can hear & talk"
So we get one last reference to the gay dance hall that was having a "coming out" party. I was desparate enough to finally find a place to go swing dancing that I agreed. The dj seemed almost insulted when I asked if they were going to start playing swing (they were playing country) and explained that tonight was the "going out party" and not swing dancing.... .... .... WHERE THE HELL CAN I GET MY SWING FIX?! Alicia mentioned DDR at some point while we were drinving to a place where I could get thrashed around trying to pick up salsa & we decided to go play that instead. Sooooo sad...

Oh... Ninety Nine Nights is fun! it's kinda like ninja gaiden meets FP RTS & RPG (ninja gaiden like controls, except you're a LOT stronger & can't use consumables, but your char gains exp & levels. You also chose troop types & do rudamentary troop control for your support).

So.. i bought a new electric guitar today & I'm learning how to play "good riddance" on it. I'm actually remembering a lot of the techniques better than I thought ^_^
Oh... and see mood

So Ms. Q & I had an interesting date last night. We went to get sushi (DEAR GOD IT WAS GOOD) & then went shopping @ the chinese food store across the street. She was in heaven -_-
After that we went to my place & turned on some swing music and I started showing her how to swing dance on the balcony. After that we finally settled down & watched The Phantom of the Opera. I lit the fireplace (which hadn't been lit in forever & the flue is clogged I think) and we tried to have smores... except we forgot to buy ghram crackers. We held forks by oven mits w/ marshmellows on them & had fun w/ that for a while... until the fire alarm went off. Of course, it was the fire alarm on the vaulted ceiling... I had to grab a coffee table & put a dinner chair on top of it & stand on my tiptoes on top of that to try to dismantle it... including its backup power source. This was a 2AM btw... I was so embarrassed. After that we just closed the cover to the fireplace & used it for heat & light and cooked marshmellows in the microwave.
All in all it was really fun (and OMG it was so cool to watch the part of the phantom of the opera where the theatre populair was on fire w/ an actual fire causing the room to flicker.

Oh, and in other news, friday was spent watching anime at my place & drinking wine w/ everyone that was leaving Microsoft cause their internship was over.
I'm also thinking about buying an electric guitar setup & starting to play again. I found a cool deal online to get a guitar, case, stand, & amp for $200.

Is it just me, or is this Mel?

It's a very Mel thing to do, but that'd be quite random to have her just pop up in a random sakura-con photo album of one of my friends...

WHOLLY CRAP
I went clubbing w/ some friends yesterday and I swear to god... one of the girls danced like a female night elf... SO HOT >_<
So I've finally gone clubbing for the first time ever & I've finally crashed on someone else's couch cause I didn't feel save to drive home (much more comfortable than sleeping at microsoft, i must say)

Ok.. so why haven't I been on wow when I'm not being SUPER productive at work?
Long story short, I found a girl... and she really intrigues me
I still can't figure out if I should like her or hate her
All I know is I want her and I can't have her
And strangely, I'm not even sure how much I care...

Looking back I laugh
The quandry and teenage angst;
I feel young again.

Am I attracted
To her or the way she acts?
Just enjoy the ride.

Sexpert Nobility You scored 47% Experience and 18% Sluttiness!

Your not quite royalty yet but your are a very skilled sexpert without much slutty tendencies. I bet your partners are more than pleased with your abilities cause they know that you will choose quality sex instead of just quantity. Less is more and you know exactly why. Congratulations!

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 60% on Experience You scored higher than 31% on Sluttiness

The Action Junky You have 46% Alien knowledge!

You like this movie cause it's packed with action! That's cool cause it is a great action movie but there is much more to discover. More marines to take a closer look at, more cool lines to learn and if you haven't seen the uncut version, see it now! Keep watching and you just might notice some more details (like the one below). Adios :)

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 16% on Alien knowledge

Link: The BIG Aliens Test written by Mojo_CAF on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

(yeah.. i saw aliens once a year and a half ago...)

"Not now, my children, not now."   The False Messiah Deliberate Brutal Love Master (DBLMm)     People believe in you, and then you send them to hell. Behold, the False Messiah.     You're usually a very kind person, and conscientious, too. Socially, you're a leader, and your friends and associates look up to you. You're probably tall. In intimate relationships, you're a capable, responsive, and experienced lover. Outside the box, however, you run into trouble. Your exact opposite: The Pool Boy Random Gentle Sex Dreamer     Girls fall hard for you, but you're much more ambivalent about them. The beginnings of your relationships are unusually intense, making it all the rougher on her when they end. At first, using all your accumulated tricks of the trade, you ladle on the affection. But once she's all covered in soup, you withhold the true napkins of commitment. What's that all about? We should've called you the False Waiter.     You're looking for Love. But history tells us you struggle to settle down and accept it. There's a deep streak of carnality within you. And while you'll never be a predator, you'll always fight the urge to roam free. You like to plan things out, so plan this: find someone who can indulge your selfish side, has a healthy sexual appetite, and doesn't mind uncertainty. FLEE: The Sonnet, The Window Shopper PURSUE: The Stiletto, The Peach, The Nymph Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.