• Learn Haskell.
• Create a computer game.
• Flesh out my idea for a startup.
• Get more than 5 hours of sleep a night.
• See friends more than once a week.

Nolan, my roommate from last year, and I decided to stick together and got an apartment. We had our own kitchen so I did some cooking this year with varying degrees of success. Lots of mac and cheese and pasta sides, but I made legitimate meals every once in a while when I had time and wanted to get a way from the computer screen. I even made dinner for all my friends a couple times. I take their willingness to eat my food as I sign that I’m a passable cook (or they just want free food). I also made some pretty epic brownies that disappeared quickly every time I made them. Weird how that works.

There are some downsides to living off campus like having to walk farther to class everyday, but it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had an 8:30 class first semester so it was a little rough in the mornings sometimes but that had more to do with waking up at an ungodly hour than walking to class. Thankfully I only had one of those first semester and none second semester.

None of my classes first semester really standout. I took C & Unix (15-123), Data Structures and Algorithms (15-211), Technical Communication (15-221), Physics I (33-111), and Microeconomics (73-150). I learned some interesting things in 15-211 and wrote a chess AI that I couldn’t beat but I can’t say I fell in love with the class.

I will probably remember this year mostly for what I did and didn’t do second semester. I took Principles of Programming (15-212), Intro to Systems (15-213), Cognitive Psychology (85-211), Physics of Musical Sound (33-114), and Calculus 3D (21-259). I’ve mentioned 15-212 before and I absolutely love that class. The things you can do in functional programming languages are amazing and it completely changes the way you think about problems. On the other end of the spectrum is 15-213 which I hate with a fiery passion. I could rant about everything that is wrong with that class but it would make for uninteresting reading.

Enough about classes though. The things I will remember about this year were all outside of class. This semester CMU cancelled class because of snow for the first time in over a decade. I went sledding way too much and built a snow monster. I also fell in love with Settlers of Catan which I previously refused to play. I can’t even count how many nights I spent playing Settlers this semester (I’ve gotten pretty good at it recently).

Nolan and I went to Philadelphia (Exton actually, but close enough) over spring break and stayed a friend’s place. We went laser tagging at the Laserdome. It was the first time I had ever been laser tagging and I think I’m going to have a hard time beating the Laserdome. The arena has a two level structure which makes for some serious fun. I even got top scorer a few times.

I’m on a plane headed home as I write this. Unfortunately I won’t be staying for long before I’m off again. I will be working at Amazon in Seattle this summer. I’m not sure what I’ll be working on yet, but it should be a good experience. I’m going to try to update this blog more often. I know I’ve said that before and failed, but I’m really going to try this time, honest.

• Smiling and saying hello to people I know when I walk pass them–I’ve just never been good at this for some reason.
• Walking people to the door.
• Expressing gratitude–I get embarrassed when people do things for me. Might be because they never did until recent years.
• Cooking (basic survival skill, mucho importante).
• Talking to people–historically not very good at this either.

A few things I’ve gotten better at recently:

• Less arrogant–finally.
• Less competitive–somewhat related to arrogance.
• Less self-conscience.

It’s kind of strange to be one eighth of the way done with college already. The last few months seemed to have passed rather quickly. The first couple months were hard. I missed home; the classes were hard; and everyone seemed to know more than me. I figured out how to manage it all and cope with the stress after talking to a few people. There were moments where I wondered what I was doing here at CMU and if I had made a mistake in flying all the way across the country for school. I managed to convince myself that I wouldn’t be happy anywhere else knowing I could have gone to CMU. That worked for a while, but the longing for home was still there. These past few weeks have been different. CMU finally feels like home. Nothing has really changed, but I guess I’ve finally settled it.

80,000 people gathered at the Waterfront to watch people soar into the Willamette River. We managed to get a good (but rather uncomfortable) seats close to the water. There were people watching on boats, all along the Hawthorne Bridge, in trees, and even in the buildings behind us. It was crazy to say the least but really fun. Maybe we’ll actually participate in the next flugtag…

Here are some pics I took of the event. It’s hard to understand unless you see it.

I can’t say it will be the best years of my life since I have still a long life to live ahead of me, but they were right about one thing: you will change more than you know and so will your friends. When you first enter as a freshman, the counselors make you fill out a questionnaire with some random questions about yourself. Four years later, they show it to you again just to prove their point about how much you’ve changed.

As a freshman I was timid and shy around strangers and socially inept at times. Now… I think I’m just socially inept. Two out of three isn’t too bad. I’ve become a somewhat competent technologist too, but I’ll save that for another blog someday. My philosophy on life has changed significantly for reasons I don’t remember at the moment. It goes something like this: overcome one hurdle at a time; when you knock one down, look back to see what you did wrong, but focus on getting over the next hurdle. More recently, I developed another when I had an introspective moment this year: don’t care so much about what people think.

Thinking back, I can remember the many different phases I went through, particularly this year, where I behaved and thought differently in each. Sometimes the transition between each phase was gradual and at other times it would be quite sudden.

The friends you have as a freshman may not be the same friends you have as a senior. The reality is that although you may hold onto a few close friends all the way through high school, many of them will change and you will make new ones along the way. I met most of the people I hang out with now in my junior year: Luke, Abbi, Melissa, Sadie, Brian, Julia. Interestingly enough I got to know most of you through IB Physics. Matt and Brett, my homies, my partners in crime, you guys are awesome. We’ve been making ruckus together for all four years. Rock on at OSU and try not to get into too much trouble.

I’ve learned to appreciate the immeasurable value of mentors in one’s life. At the time you don’t think much of it, but afterwards you appreciate how much time they’ve set aside to make sure you succeed. I’m not sure what motivates them, but it is a gift that exceeds all others. I have been fortunate enough to have two mentors during my time at Gresham. The first is Stephen Scannell who without him, there would be neither InvenTeams nor FIRST Robotics for me. The second is John Walker, who has imparted many words of wisdom and helped me realize, perhaps, the human side of technology. If I ever write a book about my life, both of you will most certainly get a shout-out. It’s been an honor.

I mercilessly teased some of the lower classmen about how many days of high school they have left (actually, I only talk to one so you know who you are), but part of me is envious of him. A small part of me doesn’t want to let go. There are a lot of people I don’t talk to much outside of school. Previous summers have always been fairly easy to cope with. I think part of the reason for that is that I knew that I would get to see everyone again in the fall. But this summer is different because we’re all headed off in different directions, or at least many of us will be. We were all traveling the same road for a while, but it is nearing the time where we all must choose our own path and follow our own destiny. Perhaps they will converge again at some point, or at least cross.

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

Randy Pausch seems like one of those great guys who is passionate about what he does and infuses everyone around him with his enthusiasm. Just watch his last lecture and you’ll see what I mean. He’s a CS professor at Carnegie Mellon that was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I hope I will have a chance to meet him when I go there this fall.

In his lecture, he talks about achieving his childhood dreams. As I sat in history today, I started pondering my own childhood dreams. Rather then write them down, I decided to doodle them.

There’s me as a kid dreaming. The cloud on the far left has a paintbrush in it because I wanted to be an artist. I took art for several years all through elementary and middle school.

I also wanted to be a roboticist. I liked to play with LEGO Minstorms as a kid. I used to build and program LEGO robots and upload pictures of them to the internet for the world to see. My profile on the Mindstorms community site is still online after all these years. The pictures of my robots are gone sadly.

The third cloud is obviously a rocket in space. Who didn’t want to be an astronaut at some point? My friend and I said in forth grade that we would go to space together someday. He changed his mind though and wanted to be a wolf biologist.

But before wanting to be an astronaut or a roboticist, I wanted to be a programmer which says something about me I think. The last cloud has some C++ code for the seminal “Hello World!” program that everyone starts out writing.

I think I’m on on my way to at least three of those dreams. I doodle a lot and design websites which can be considered art. I built a robot this year. I’m majoring in computer science in college this fall. I’m not so sure about my astronaut dream though.

I decided where to go in English class of all places. My teacher passed out note cards so that people could write what college they were going to and stick it on the door of the classroom for everyone to see. By that time I had already researched everything from recreational activities to how the computer science program is structured. I doubted there was much else I could find out about the schools without actually visiting, which I couldn’t do due to cost of travel and lack of time. So I’m sitting at my desk with a blank note card in front of me and I think to myself “Ah, what the hell. Now is a good time as any other.”

I wrote Carnegie Mellon on my note card and proudly stuck it on the door.

I competed in the Oregon SkillsUSA web design competition again yesterday. The rules were the same as least year. We had four hours to build a website based on a fictitious website proposal. However, I went solo this time around and competed against six other teams of two. It was interesting to say the least.

After the competition I went to Red Robin with Sadie, her dad, and Emerald for lunch. I had the most amazing burger I’ve ever had in my life there. It was heavenly, epic even. I think it was called the Whiskey River BBQ Burger. The onion straws at the bottom are magical.

After lunch we went back to the competition for the awards ceremony. It was really long like last year’s. They awarded the winners in alphabetical order by competition name so web design was near the very end. Sadie and Emerald took third and I took first again. That makes me the two-time state web design champion monster.

Here’s a link to the website I made. That’s what four hours, a computer, a Kit Kat bar, a bottle of water, and an iPod full of good music can get you.

May 20, 2001

Today I woke up at 9:30 to watch Rwall! Redwall is a T.V. show base on the book Redwall, written by Brian Jauces. When I was done watching Redwall, an hour later we went groecry shoping for Plenty Buffet. But, first we went to ABC to buy some shrimp, but then we realized we might be a couple hours till we get home and the shrimp would be dead by then. So we we to [insert Chinese characters] first. Then we went to [insert Chinese characters]. After that we went to Plenty Buffet to dropp of our grocies and went home. At home I mowed the lawn. Oh yeah, I for got that at ABC we bought some oysters. At dinner we ate some shrimp, oysters, and fish. I like the oysters the best. After dinner my mom cut my hair. Which took about 20 minutes. Now hear I am writing in my journel. oh, I for got to get my money.

This must have been a weekend because I used to go grocery shopping with my parents every Sunday. Life was simpler back then. The next entry brings back some memories.

May 21, 2001

At class today we did our morning routines as uasel. Then we read Bound for Oregon and did the questions. After that we did some math. One of the questions was so hard barely anybody could figure it out. But I managed to figure it out because one of my math books taoght me how to do that kind of proplem. By the time we were finished with math it was reccese. After reccese I got to silent read, which I enjoyed. My friend showed me the new book he got and he let me read a little bit and I enjoyed it a lot. We played kick ball at P.E. I liked to play kick ball. After reccese, the teacher said idenitie #6 (which was me and three other girls). The fate was that my wife got bit by a rattle snake. So I had to write how to treat the bite at home.

I think I was in forth grade when I wrote the journal entry above. We were learning about the Oregon Trail at the time. Mrs. Grilley, my forth grade teacher, created a game where the class was split into groups which raced to the end of an Oregon Trail game. It wasn’t The Oregon Trail computer game; it was more like Dungeons & Dragons meets Oregon Trail. My group won of course. I remember that day because my parents told me how to treat a snake bite. You have to tie off the limb just above the bite to prevent the poison from circulating, make two cuts with a knife where the bite is, and suck out the poisoned blood (and spit it out). That must be one of the few things I learned in elementary school that I still remember…

My dad bought me math workbooks when I was younger. I could do basic algebra by fifth grade. That’s part of the reason I zoomed through math in elementary, middle, and most of high school. It looks like I could have used some spelling and grammar workbooks though.