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November 3, 2004 - Thoughts

Election 2004 - a work in progress.
Further site updates soon.

November 7, 2004 - Been too long

Yeah, so it's been almost two weeks. Sorry again.
But to make up for it, I've done a good deal of stuff around here! First, I archived October; no big deal. I finally put up 40+ pictures from Halloween weekend - be absolutely sure to check those out. I made next semester's schedule, and popped it on the schedules page. And if you haven't checked out my election 2004 page from the last update, that might be worth a look too. And of course, new POTD and QOTD ... but you knew that.
So, to summarize last week: Insanely busy. Tons of schoolwork and projects, though I managed to get it all done ... if a bit on the shoddy side of things.
To summarize last weekend: Awesome. The pictures do a better job of telling the story than I ever could, but it was an absolute blast. First and foremost among the great things were getting to see some friends who I haven't seen in years (literally!) and meeting some online acquaintances for the first time.
To summarize this weekend: Also awesome. Kelsey had margaritas at her place Friday night, followed by Jackie's birthday over at King's. Then Saturday, our football team actually showed up and won our fifth game of the season! (!) It was a great game - we rushed the field at the end and everything. A great time. Sunday was mostly spent on sleep and playing tech support.
The upcoming week doesn't look too bad ... but I have a lot of work that I should do if I plan to be sane during the last weeks of the semester. So if I'm not doing anything this week ... kick me, and tell me that I should.
Oh! And happy birthdays go to James (belatedly), Jenny, Jackie, and Emily! Crazy Valentine's Day babies...

November 8, 2004 - w00t!

So I just got an email from Microsoft telling me that I've been selected to fly out to Redmond, Washington and have an interview. This is me being stoked.
Want a real update? Check out yesterday's, it's much better.

November 23, 2004 - Uberlong update

So, believe it or not, I'm writing this on a plane right now. I forgot to update this before I left today (well, that, and I didn't exactly have a whole lot of spare time), so this seems like as good a time as any to write an update.
Yeah, it's been awhile again. What can I say, I'm busy.
Let's talk about today first, though. What a day, really, although I suppose it could definitely have been longer. I woke up at ten, had an exam at eleven, came home to shower and eat, had another exam at two, came home to do some last-minute scrambling around, packing, etc, and then left at about 4:30 to catch my flight(s) down to Austin for my interview tomorrow with National Instruments. I'm quite brain fried, and I think it's just going to be worse after the technical questions that I'm sure I'll be answering tomorrow.
But, on the plus side, it's more or less officially Thanksgiving Break! This, of course, means a whole week with no schoolwork, no classes, lots of sleep, and general happiness and relaxation. Yeah. if you're a business major. For me, it means about 24 hours of traveling, four appointments, miscellaneous obligations, and getting caught up on all the projects, homework, testing, etc. that I'm behind on. Still, it beats school, so I guess I can't complain.
What about this week? Not much, really ... projects, videogames, class, homework, etc. Boring stuff. But last Friday I made the Ultimate Purchase™ - I bought Halo 2. Needless to say, it killed my entire weekend, and portions (small portions, but portions nonetheless) of this past week also. Playing it online is amazing, when it works, and I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. Right after these projects are done.

And now I'm writing this on a different plane. I'm on my way back now, and I didn't have time to update this while I was in Austin. To avoid confusing some of my ... more easily confused readers, shall we say, I'm posting this all togteher as one entry.
My trip was an absolute blast, though... I went in not really knowing what to expect, but not really expecting much. To be honest, I wasn't really all that interested in the company, but I have to say that that's changed. NI did a wonderful job of selling their company, and it seemed like they truly cared about recruiting us and matching our needs to theirs. Let's do a recap of the trip:

• I got in to the motel at 1:30 AM on Friday morning. A little bit of unpacking and chilling, and it was 2:30 before I got to bed. Of course, I had to be in the lobby at 7:30 the next morning, so that meant that I had to get up at about 6.
• Friday was quite the day. Up at 6, on a bus at 7:30, arrived at NI at 8. I met my host - a most exceptional fellow by the name of Dan - and had a quick breakfast before a couple of company representatives gave the obligatory "welcome and here's why we're so great" speeches. Then came an interview, the first of three for the day, each of which was an hour and fifteen minutes long. They were mostly technical questions, too, which suited me just fine. After the first interview was lunch, then two more interviews, a quick walking tour of the campus, and a goodbye speech. They took us back to the hotel briefly (where I thankfully grabbed a quick nap) before rounding us up again for a very nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant. My host was tired, I was tired, and pretty much everyone else was tired too, so Dan dropped me back off at the hotel and I crashed at about 9:30. Most excellent.
• Saturday morning, Dan came to get me and a couple other ISU'ers at about 10:45 We went over to a sports bar and watched Iowa State win its sixth (!) game of the season, a thriller over Kansas State. Oh yeah, and the company bought us lunch and drinks again, which rules. After that, the bus tour of Austin was cancelled for some reason, so another host by the name of Jim picked us up and took us to a local hangout, where we basically sat, hung out, and drank beer until about 6:00 when it was time again for dinner. This time, we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse, where we all got awesome and hugely large Italian meals. Then, Dan and Jim started doing their jobs very well. They were supposed to show us around the city, show us some of the landmarks, the hangouts, and the places to go. So basically, we went to Sixth Street and hit about half a dozen different bars. Great times, but I didn't get back to the hotel until about 1:30.
• That brings us to today, where I'm writing this on a flight from Dallas to Des Moines. Oh yeah, and my flight from Austin left at 6:00 AM. This implies being up at 4, which, after a Saturday night like the one I'd just had, is not a happy experience. Regardless, I'll be back in Des Moines by noon, and have this first on-site interview under my belt.