It Can Be Said That No News Is Good News!
I'm not exactly sure of who actually looks at this to see what is being posted and whatnot, but for those who do look at this at times, you'll note that this is the first time posting to this blog in quite a long time. I know that you've been missing the blatant, obvious, and lame comments, but you should know that all this time that I've been "gone" has been for some seemingly good reasons.
Basically I haven't posted because I've been really busy with a group of high school students in a project called FIRST. The basic idea of this project is that a group of high school students build a semi-autonomous robot to play a game in a competition setting. The kids are given 6 weeks, a limited budget and stringent guide lines for safety reasons. My position in all of this? I was and am the electrical mentor. I worked and coordinated about 10 kids to put together all of the electronics on this machine. It's a really great program and a great experience. I participated in this when I was in high school as well. This year was my first year doing it in a long time, but in the coming years as long as they decide to have me back, I'll be trying all sorts of new things! I missed this week at the Boston regional, though from all the positive remarks that I've been hearing, I really wish I could have been there! In about two more weeks I'll be heading to Atlanta with this bunch to cheer them on, help them in the pits, and just have fun! That's the most important part of this whole big thing, that "my" kids have fun. All in all, I'm really glad that I'm doing this and have met all these new people (kids, parents, and co-workers). Each of them has really contributed something to me by teaching me something about myself, or making me feel important in some way. I even feel that I've gotten some really great "adult" friends as well. In the end it's not about the trips or anything, for the number of nights that I was at the school past midnight and even till 3am(!) I could have easily bought/used vacation and payed for my own trips. Like I said, this is more about the experience. It all depends on who you're with, which determines how good of a time you have.
Besides FIRSTing life has been going along well with this whole new work thing. I've been working on a project with a super aggressive schedule. Deadlines are usually pretty rough with it, but at least my manager knows that some of the things that are goin' on with it aren't my fault, so he at least is nice enough to push out the dead lines to a point where I can call them reasonable. I think in these last few weeks of working on the project I learned more about my specific "application area" (basically HMI) than I have for the last long while that I've been there. Some of the stupid features of OO programming are starting to demonstrate how useful they actually can be (like inheritance and polymorphism). It's all good most of the time. At times like this past week, I feel that my manager sometimes leaves me out of conversations that I should be involved in. This is a bit disturbing to me, but I try to not let it get to me, though I was quite terse with him at our last group meeting. To meet the deadlines on this project we've been working weekends over top of the extra time that gets put in on a daily basis. These weekend work sessions are part of the reason that I wasn't able to really attend the Boston FIRST Regional with "my" kids. At least the hard work has been paying off and the people who have been paying attention to this part of the project can see the progress. In my own mind I'm at least doing something that is productive, and somewhat interesting. I do find other places to stick my nose in at times, and learn by watching these other people do their debugging, so at least I have something to side track me when my main project goes nuts and I just don't feel like putting up with it.
The Perinton group keeps on getting more and more serious with each passing week. It's a different kind of fun that I have there. I don't want to say that it's professional, because I don't think that it's intended to be a professional ensemble. I must admit that the last concert we played was not completely all together, and yes this should be corrected in the future, but I do believe that the people there all knew this for themselves and will take it upon themselves to correct these problems. The next concert that we will be playing has even more challenging music. I really love the musical selection with this group at times! Of the pieces selected for performance comes Music from Carmen and Capriccio Italien! These are some amazing pieces and I'm already enjoying working on them! I guess with this group, fun is in the music and the social aspect is only an undertone.
In other generalities, I've heard several bits of good news! A good friend of mine, Hanhan, who tried her hand in the business word for an internship has decided to take a job as an RF Hero! I didn't ever want to bias her, so in talking to her I never really wanted to bring up post graduation activities. This was her concoction, and I'm pumped that she took a job being a nerdy engineer! I love it when good things come along for my friends. In my own news, I, as well as some of my work, has been mentioned in several of the last Theses to finish at RIT computer science department! It's always really exciting to be a big enough part of someones work that they acknowledge you, or even important enough that they end up citing you! Lastly, on a less positive note, I've had a recurring headache lately... It sucks and bothers me lots... I've also had some pain in my back and sides... It worries me a bit, but I'll wait to see if it clears up with some good rest and less stress (which I hope to achieve in the next month).
Basically I haven't posted because I've been really busy with a group of high school students in a project called FIRST. The basic idea of this project is that a group of high school students build a semi-autonomous robot to play a game in a competition setting. The kids are given 6 weeks, a limited budget and stringent guide lines for safety reasons. My position in all of this? I was and am the electrical mentor. I worked and coordinated about 10 kids to put together all of the electronics on this machine. It's a really great program and a great experience. I participated in this when I was in high school as well. This year was my first year doing it in a long time, but in the coming years as long as they decide to have me back, I'll be trying all sorts of new things! I missed this week at the Boston regional, though from all the positive remarks that I've been hearing, I really wish I could have been there! In about two more weeks I'll be heading to Atlanta with this bunch to cheer them on, help them in the pits, and just have fun! That's the most important part of this whole big thing, that "my" kids have fun. All in all, I'm really glad that I'm doing this and have met all these new people (kids, parents, and co-workers). Each of them has really contributed something to me by teaching me something about myself, or making me feel important in some way. I even feel that I've gotten some really great "adult" friends as well. In the end it's not about the trips or anything, for the number of nights that I was at the school past midnight and even till 3am(!) I could have easily bought/used vacation and payed for my own trips. Like I said, this is more about the experience. It all depends on who you're with, which determines how good of a time you have.
Besides FIRSTing life has been going along well with this whole new work thing. I've been working on a project with a super aggressive schedule. Deadlines are usually pretty rough with it, but at least my manager knows that some of the things that are goin' on with it aren't my fault, so he at least is nice enough to push out the dead lines to a point where I can call them reasonable. I think in these last few weeks of working on the project I learned more about my specific "application area" (basically HMI) than I have for the last long while that I've been there. Some of the stupid features of OO programming are starting to demonstrate how useful they actually can be (like inheritance and polymorphism). It's all good most of the time. At times like this past week, I feel that my manager sometimes leaves me out of conversations that I should be involved in. This is a bit disturbing to me, but I try to not let it get to me, though I was quite terse with him at our last group meeting. To meet the deadlines on this project we've been working weekends over top of the extra time that gets put in on a daily basis. These weekend work sessions are part of the reason that I wasn't able to really attend the Boston FIRST Regional with "my" kids. At least the hard work has been paying off and the people who have been paying attention to this part of the project can see the progress. In my own mind I'm at least doing something that is productive, and somewhat interesting. I do find other places to stick my nose in at times, and learn by watching these other people do their debugging, so at least I have something to side track me when my main project goes nuts and I just don't feel like putting up with it.
The Perinton group keeps on getting more and more serious with each passing week. It's a different kind of fun that I have there. I don't want to say that it's professional, because I don't think that it's intended to be a professional ensemble. I must admit that the last concert we played was not completely all together, and yes this should be corrected in the future, but I do believe that the people there all knew this for themselves and will take it upon themselves to correct these problems. The next concert that we will be playing has even more challenging music. I really love the musical selection with this group at times! Of the pieces selected for performance comes Music from Carmen and Capriccio Italien! These are some amazing pieces and I'm already enjoying working on them! I guess with this group, fun is in the music and the social aspect is only an undertone.
In other generalities, I've heard several bits of good news! A good friend of mine, Hanhan, who tried her hand in the business word for an internship has decided to take a job as an RF Hero! I didn't ever want to bias her, so in talking to her I never really wanted to bring up post graduation activities. This was her concoction, and I'm pumped that she took a job being a nerdy engineer! I love it when good things come along for my friends. In my own news, I, as well as some of my work, has been mentioned in several of the last Theses to finish at RIT computer science department! It's always really exciting to be a big enough part of someones work that they acknowledge you, or even important enough that they end up citing you! Lastly, on a less positive note, I've had a recurring headache lately... It sucks and bothers me lots... I've also had some pain in my back and sides... It worries me a bit, but I'll wait to see if it clears up with some good rest and less stress (which I hope to achieve in the next month).
posted by Dave at 7:06 PM
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