It's been almost 11 weeks since I was last in Tallahassee, but luckily there is only a week and a half until I am back again... Every day seems that much longer, and that much harder to get through... I don't remember the last time I was as homesick as I am now. I like Austin, but I guess I just never let myself completely settle down to make it feel like home. I miss my dog, my bed, my kitchen, my parking spot, my alarm clock, (you get the point by now)... Most importantly though, I miss my girlfriend Amanda! I'm just glad she has stuck with me even though we are 900 miles apart!

I am proud of what I accomplished for Freescale this Summer. Once again impressing myself... I can definitely see the my programming skill improving (at least in Visual Basic) which is a good thing... I like working on projects that I can see the results... I like knowing that it is making somebody's day go by with less obstacles... I hope when I graduate, and find a job, that I get the same enjoyment out of it... It'd be nice if I could feel this way about Graduate School as well, but it just feels so pointless because on-the-job experience seems much more valuable... We'll see.

My cousin April is having another baby! I am so excited, and I think it helps contribute to my longing for home (because she too is from Tallahassee)... She sent a great picture out to let the family know... The picture to the right is her daughter (my God-daughter!) I love her more then can be described...

Labels: amanda vichich, april pinner, ashlyn pinner, austin texas, family, freescale

The trek home wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... 12.5 hours is all it took... of course, this is after all the teeth work I got done in the morning (which cost me more then I thought it would)... I decided not to stop in New Orleans because I really wanted to get home... I had bought 4 red bulls, and casually sipped them throughout the trip... well, the caffeine buzz didn't hit until I got home... (11:00 PM EST) when I started to clean the fridge and oven, as well as strip all the kitchen cabinets clean of the crap I don't use (there were 4 coffee makers in the cabinets, and I don't even drink coffee...) I finally decided to force myself to sleep at 5:30 AM... But then at 8:30 AM (The oven self cleaning cycle hadn't even finished yet) I was up and at it again... Once the oven was done, I headed off to Walmart and bought $250 worth of stuff the house needed... ant bait, shower curtain, a rug, a mirror for above the fireplace, new shiny things that go under the stove burners, and a ton of cleaning supplies... (cheap paper towels, Windex, Swiffer Sweeper stuff, Febreze, Pledge, sponges, etc.)

Tatiana is in Dallas Texas and I forgot she wasn't going to be here yet... so I don't get to see her until tomorrow evening when her flight arrives... and April, Jesse, and Ashlyn were out of town until this afternoon, but once they got back they had to go to a dinner party for April's work... so I could have watched Ashlyn at this point, but the house was a mess with all the crap I was taking out of the kitchen, and definitely not baby proof...

The UPS guy came today, but he didn't ring the doorbell, I thought I heard somebody knocking, but couldn't tell if it was the neighbor's, or if it was my imagination gone astray due to the massive amounts of cleaning fumes I had been exposed to... But since the doorbell didn't ring, I figured it wasn't the door... but it was, and now I have to wait until the delivery guy gets back from his route so I can pick it up at the shipping center... which is down the street, but I have been there twice already today hoping he would be back, but then I decided I will go 10 minutes before they close... and just wait until he comes back... maybe then I will get it... I have never had so many problems with FedEX... but maybe that is just me...

The couches I got are awesome... I love them... and I was so excited to see them in my house... I got them from Adriana (Francisca's mom)... I am also happy because she got a job when she was having trouble getting one in the past because her English isn't 100% (I understand her perfectly, but supposedly there are some things she can't express clear enough...) oh well... I have to head over to the UPS center, it is about to close... Hopefully I'll get it, otherwise I will be pissed!

Labels: adriana infante, april pinner, ashlyn pinner, austin texas, francisca amunategui, jesse pinner, tatiana treffehn

This is the second attempt at posting, the first attempt got deleted when the stupid IE popup blocker went on... so yeah... SPREAD FIREFOX!

Anyways, my evil uncle woke me up at 6:30 just because he wanted to see me annoyed one last time... he he... I guess I can't blame him for trying to get one last laugh out of me... I have had to put up with this for the whole summer, but I guess I can't complain since he was nice enough to let me stay here free of charge... at least my aunt sides with me sometimes when it comes to the constant bashing of Nikk... I'll miss having them around... Tina and Cory will also be missed, they were my main source of entertainment (human entertainment that is) over the summer... they also introduced me to Heather, who's really cool and deserves more then what she lets herself have... I just want to let all of them know how much they have meant to me over the Summer, despite the fact that they are glad I am leaving... he he... oh well, have to finish my last minute packing before I head over to the dentist for my crown... after that I am going to hit the road and try to make it all the way back to Tally, but the weather report says I am going to hit a ton of rain, which will probably slow me down... I might spend the night in New Orleans because my best friend Megan is there visiting her brother and her dad... but that depends on the time I am making and my mental state after the 510 mile leg of my drive...

Labels: austin texas, best friend, dentist, firefox, heather, kelly folts, tallahassee, tina folts, tina marie palma

Yesterday we went to a Dave and Busters like place called Main Event... first we bowled for an hour, which my arm is still sore because I used a 16 lb ball... I am getting really good at putting the spin on the ball though... anyways, once we were done with bowling we played some arcade games to win points (equivalent to tickets)... with $30 we won 2206 points because we found this one game that Megan was really good at... so we just kept getting points... but that was only after we wasted 10 of that $30 on skiball which gave us hardly any points at all... With the points Megan got a gumball machine and a stuffed animal... and then we both got cups with spiral straws and cool little parachuting aliens... oh, and I got a deck of cards... the gumball machine has got to be worth at least $20 alone... at least if you bought it at Spencer's Gifts it would have... so yeah, we made off pretty good... if only we didn't waste all that money on skiball we'd have a ton more points... Well, after that we played two games of pool before heading home and watching Hitch... which is a great movie by the way... Then I was stupid enough to introduce Megan to the Sims 2... 7 hours later I was able to pull her off so that I could go to bed... now she is obsessed with the game... I'll have to be more careful next time I suggest the Sims 2... it tends to have that affect on people...

Today was Megan's last day here... her sister suggested that we all go to this park down town that is a natural spring that pumps 36 million gallons a day into a creek... They gated it off and damned two ends to make the creek deeper near the spring and to keep the street runoff from polluting the immediate area so it is completely clear and clean... (even if a little kid would to pee in the springs, 36 million clean gallons would be there the next day)... at first the 68 degrees that it is year round is extremely cold after being in the 95+ degree air... but after about 5 minutes in the water it becomes rather refreshing... After swimming, we sat under an old tree and talked, which was just another way to relax...

Oh well, bed time...

Labels: austin texas, best friend, bowling, gaming, vacation

I was told by my boss today that I possess "the skills, knowledge, motivation, and ethics" that make me a perfect fit for Freescale... Pretty nice... I didn't think I would have another internship opportunity next summer because I have finished everything he needed done, but it turns out that he thinks he will need somebody next summer for something similar, yet different... So he hopes he can pull me away from summer classes at FSU so that I can do that, and if he ends up not needing me he said he is going to put in a good word for other departments so that I could still get hired... The exciting thing is that now that I have this internship under my belt, as well as I would be half way done with my Masters degree, my starting salary should be closer to $65-70,000/year ($33/hour... $264/day... $1320/week)... and I'll have nobody to spend it on except for me! They explained how they decide the pay rate by plugging in your credentials and it spits back a number after assessing you... They explained how it assesses you by how much school and how many internships you have had... woot woot... and so if I decide not to stay at Freescale, which I would rather not in the long run, but still, if I don't stay here then I could still say that I made $70,000ish at my last job so I would be making tons when I got out of school... I think I am going to apply for internships at other companies next summer as well... maybe diversity would be better, it doesn't matter where your internships were according to Freescale, but I would think other companies might think otherwise... If I could find an internship at a video game company I would scream... yeah... oh well...

Megan comes to Austin on Wednesday... I am excited to see her... I am going to take off most Thursday and all of Friday so I can chill with her...

I miss my fellow CSers... can't wait to get back to Tallahassee, move into my house, buy a dog, and start programming... I still want to program after programming the whole summer, which is a good sign that I am on the right career path... Oh well...

Labels: austin texas, best friend, freescale, tallahassee, work

I just got through my first day of work, of course it was only orientation, but it was 7 hours of orientation... There was this girl that I swore I had dated before, and the odd thing was that she had the same first name as her too... Well, after talking to her I am sure it is not the same girl because she never lived in Germany and is a year and a half younger, but it has to be her identical younger twin...

I still don't know exactly what I will be doing, I find that out tomorrow, this was just the general stuff about the company, filling out paper work, etc. <yawn> oh well, I got paid $224 for it... not bad at all... that is a lot to make in a day B) every day B)I realized today that the internship is 2 weeks longer than I thought so that is another $2240 I'll make... woo hoo... I need to get my car windows tinted, and maybe buy a new computer... I make enough in a week to do both, it is really hard to find ways to spend the money... I am saving most of it though... I got my first American Express... it will double my warranties on things and all that goodness... Instead of paying rent to my parents when I get back to Florida, I am going to join their mortgage payment and pay 1/3 of it so that when they sell it I will get 1/3 of it... my first real estate purchase if it all works out... we'll see... well, this morning when I woke up I pulled the pulley on the light to turn it on and the whole dome thingy fell off the fan and shattered on the floor... I thought that that was a perfect start to my day... Well, we'll see how tomorrow goes... I hope I can actually do what they need me to do...

Labels: austin texas, freescale, work

It looks like I have no choice but to move to Texas this summer... I wanted to go to South Florida to be with my people... Maybe my people will visit me in Texas... This internship is offering me $28 an hour for 12 weeks... $11200... That is more then I have ever earned in a year of work anywhere... I have mixed feelings about it... but I know my job in South Florida can't match that... I have never heard of an intern being paid that much... if I worked there forever it would be $56,000 a year... awesome... I am going to miss people though... but at least then if I don't get into the gaming schools, I can move to Orlando and live there with that money... I am really scared about life though... The company use to be owned by Motorola but recently spun off and so it is world wide and huge huge huge... I was told that I am going to get sucked into the company and never be able to leave because they will make offers that I cannot pass up... I just hope I like what they are having me do... I didn't mention above, but I also get medical and dental insurance...

Anyways, last night I was REALLY dizzy... for like 5 hours... so finally I just went to bed thinking I would be fine when I woke up... but I wasn't... I have never had problems like this, so it kinda freaked me out... I decided I'd go see the doctor since it was really bad... they gave me some medicine to stop dizziness and said if that doesn't help (since it could be anything from a virus to a brain tumor) that I need to come back in a few days... oh well, my show is on now so I have to go...

Labels: austin texas, freescale

Another week done, meaning 5 weeks from now I will be done with my Undergraduate... I am pretty scared... I don't know what I am going to end up doing with my life... The offer from Freescale, the company I interviewed with in Texas, sent me an offer and it should be here early next week... I am excited about it in some ways, but not in others... I hate Florida, so it would get me out of here, but unfortunately Texas is Florida with more Republicans and higher humidity... bummer... I am also scared because then I would have nobody... well, I have family there, but I would have no friends... Not the posse, or my friends from my other home (the Computer Science Majors lab)... I am going to ask Barry (Ken's IT guy) if he will match the offer for me to work there the whole summer so that I can spend my last real summer with friends. Moving away is just to much of an abrupt ending... I guess I shouldn't hang onto impossible hopes that one day I will be as happy as I once was... Luckily I have been too busy to be bothered by my feelings... too stressed about getting into gaming school and trying to figure out what exactly I am going to do with my life... Getting accepted to UCF helped my self esteem a little... not that FSU is bad or anything, but rumors have it that the IT department is going to take over it because not enough people want to get into it... The teacher are afraid of changing from what they are use to and won't teach us what we want to know, practical stuff... They tempt me to stay here with the whole 85-90% paid, plus $14,000/year, but I am not going to be bribed to stay somewhere when I really want to do something else (This is how I feel about that job in Texas too, if I have another opportunity, then I will probably pass it up, no matter how excited my family there is)

Anyways, on a different (nerdier) note, I am learning a lot about C and Java that I didn't know which is really exciting, I wish I could have learned it in school, but the teachers don't want to teach it, so I have to learn it myself... but considering I learned 90% of both those languages on my own, what is more going to hurt. Next weekend is the programming contest and my competition (Micah) some guy from the majors lab (Jacob) and I are all on a team... Micah can code in C damn well, and now that I am using it and getting use to it I might actually be more of a help then I thought I would be... Jacob said he is good at figuring things out, he just isn't the best programmer, so he can give us pseudo code and we can make it code... I hope we win so I can get Microsoft Software and also put it on my resume... as long as we get in the top 3 I would... hell, I might go to regionals this year (invited the last two years but turned them down because I wanted to be with Francisca) even though I know we wouldn't win, but at least I can program, which is the only thing I truly live for...

Tonight Micah had a birthday party that I went to, everyone there was a foreign exchange student from every freaking country in the world... it was pretty cool, it brought me back to Munich International School days... Anton was the only other CS person that showed up... Micah was lucky because I was paid 30 bucks by Mike (the other lab monitor) for covering for him for 3 hours... so I gave him $22.50 or something... I had spent some of it already... I hate carrying cash so I thought why the hell not... anyways, I want to throw a graduation party but I am not sure how many people from the department would actually show up to it, most people there I would consider "in school" friends, very few I would tell anything personal to... Only people I would think would hang out with me would be Kelley, Kerstin, Micah, Meat, Anton, and um maybe one or two other people that are always in the lab... If Erica, Christy (but she would never hang out because she is to much in love with her husband), or Tom, were still there they would be on the list too... and of course, I could be wrong about the above too, so yeah... who knows...

I am enjoying the Intelligent Systems face reorganization program that Micah, Kerstin and I are making... that is a lot of fun, it isn't due for another month and we already have all this cool shit that we don't need... yeah... We are going to kick team Bling's butt... mu ha ha ha ha... them and their "awesomeness factor" are going to be blown away... yeah, ok...

OH well, it is almost 2 so I should go to sleep, I left Micah's after 3 hours because I was so tired... but then I got carried away here... oh well, probably won't have anything to update for another month or two in my boring life... well, I guess next week I will get that letter thingy... but yeah... oh well...

Labels: acm, austin texas, diet, francisca amunategui, grad school, kelley jones, mike smith, programming, the posse