Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Bill Buxton’s Impromptu Presentation

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Thank you Twitter! I was sitting in a session on productivity, when the @WPCDC Twitter account tweeted:

@WPCDC: See Bill Buxton speak now at the #WPC10 Expo Theater – back of the Expo Hall by MPN Booth #484!

I up and left that session, and rushed over.  (I have got to figure out my way around this place. Went down a huge staircase and up another to get to the Expo.  Needless to say, I was out of breath.)

Kinect (formerly Project Natal), the new controller-less technology for Xbox, has been the center of a lot of hype since its first announcement.  Bill Buxton, a principal researcher at Microsoft,  fights against the notion that newer is better by presenting these two scenarios:

  1. Kinect in the home.
  2. Kinect on an airplane.

Clearly you can’t be jumping around in an airplane.

Similarly, conference calls are used to join people remotely, but on an airplane you could lose your job by sharing confidential information aloud.  The focus is what is appropriate technology for the situation.

The four watches above utilize “touch” technology.  The first allows you to swipe number on the screen, which then are shown on the display.  There is a touch screen keyboard on the second watch, and with the third you can touch different areas around the watch to activate a compass, thermometer, etc.  The final watch has a phyiscal keyboard.

Now which watch is the outlier?

The majority of engineers’ gut choice is the watch with the physical keyboard.  However, the instructions could be the same for both the watch with the physical keyboard and the watch with the touch screen keyboard.  The outlier is the watch that takes input via swipes.  When looking at the watch, you wouldn’t easily guess that’s how you input data.  Bill says there lies the difference between a designer and an engineer.  It’s a good point, and an instinct I have to fight myself on.

Finally, guess what year the watch with the swipe technology was developed.

Answer:  1984

Buxton has written columns for Business Week, and in October 2009, he wrote on this very topic.  Tomorrow, he returns to WPC during the A-List feature of the morning keynote.  You should be able to watch it live at Digital WPC starting at 9 AM ET.  (Bill Clinton is also keynoting tomorrow, and all cameras and video are banned, so if the live stream isn’t happening, that’s why.)

On that note, I return to the stage during the same feature with the rest of the S2B students to share our accomplishments with Partners.  (Students interested in the training and submitting their resume to potential employers, register with Experience, Inc.)  If you don’t catch it live, the recorded session of the keynote will be up later in the day.

Note to Bill Buxton:  My apologies for the awkwardness when I came after your presentation.  My intention was to tell you how much I appreciate your passion in fighting for the user, but I tripped up cause I was in “Tech celebrity!” awe.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Second Time Around at WPC

Monday, July 12th, 2010

A year ago, I was in New Orleans for the first time with Ed to attend Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference.  While next month I’ll begin my job at Microsoft testing a Microsoft product, this conference is about the non-Microsoft folks that generate approximately 90% of Microsoft’s income.  (That percentage is so high, I feel like I’m remembering it wrong.)

Partners include consulting firms from those that employee under fifty such as my summer employer in 2009, Aptera Software, to those that employee thousands such as Avanade as well as big name companies such as Best Buy and HP.  Other examples of partners are web hosts and ISVs.  ISV stands for independent software vendors and is just a fancy way of saying a company that develops software products, such as DyKnow, which was developed at DePauw by Dave Berque.

While Ed and I were brought in to represent the Imagine Cup, Mihai Nadas (Romania) and Darren Doyle (Ireland) came as Microsoft Student Partners to talk up Microsoft’s Students to Business program.  I had an absolute blast working with these guys covering the event and letting partners know they can help themselves by helping today’s students.

In fact, we made such a splash that this year there are sixteen students attending from fourteen different countries.  We’ve created a blog planet to aggregate our posts, and you can find our tweets with the hashtag #S2BWPC.

Tomorrow morning, we are starting bright and early with an 8 AM keynote that anyone can watch.  I am actually excited to sit in on these keynotes to see how things have changed from last year.  Now my sleeping schedule is clearly wacked as I’m a night owl with the summer off who has been sorting through my belongings in the midst of the night for the past week, so it’s time for me to sign off.

Wish me luck tomorrow. ;)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Kevin Grey: Road to Developer & Tips from an Imagine Cup Judge

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

In January, I traveled to Microsoft’s Redmond campus for the Microsoft Student Insider Program Kick-Off.  What follows is a write-up of my interview with Kevin Grey, a Software Development Engineer on the Time Management team for Windows Phone.

Kevin Grey was initially attracted to Computer Science because the grade was clear cut:  either the code works or it doesn’t.  This was an environment he thrived in as it allowed him to distinguish himself without subjectivity.  He was able to focus on learning rather than worrying about the grade.  He also lucked out that he enjoyed programming, because if he’s not interested in the work, he won’t do it.

After working for a VOIP company, Grey moved to Boston and took a position with a consulting firm.  The Boston firm assigned him to work on Pocket PC applications, which was Grey’s first experience with mobile computing.  He was fascinated with programming for a computer with such tiny specifications.

Later, Grey moved to New Jersey and took a position with a different consulting firm located there.  While there he received a phone call out of the blue from Microsoft, who had gotten his name from his time at the VOIP company.  He interviewed for an architect position, which he didn’t get.  He hadn’t felt ready for that position, so three months later he interviewed for a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) on the Windows Mobile team.  He initially received a no hire decision, but was called back for a different SDET opening.  Although he was hired as an SDET, his goal was to become a developer.  Today, he successfully holds the title of Software Development Engineer.

Grey worked with Diane Curtis, who now runs the US Imagine Cup, when she was a Program Manager (PM) on the Windows Mobile team.  Diane asked Grey if he would like to be involved, and he hasn’t missed a year since.  He started as an interviewer when the competition format involved students competing individually.  Students would work their way through unit tests, and if they passed, they were interviewed.  He has also mentored a team.  (What follows is a scenario I would have LOVED.)  The process for that year involved creating an application over a week.  Students were flown in and mentored for a week and participated in a huge coding party.  Microsoft rented out the Courtyard Marriott for the geek out week, and since it took place in Bellevue, WA, the final judging was done by high level Microsoft employees from the Redmond campus.

As an experienced judge, Grey stresses that students be prepared to acknowledge and defend the weaknesses of their projects.  Many times there are a fair number of PMs judging.  While they may ask high level technical questions, Grey wants to know how much of the project is actually implemented.  The more a team has implemented, the more the team understands about the feasibility of their project.

The Imagine Cup matches perfectly with Grey’s advice that outside classroom experience is essential for success in the field of Computer Science.  You won’t learn everything you need for a job in your CS Courses and experiences such as the Imagine Cup and internships can help fill that gap.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Ada Lovelace Day 2010

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videoblogging, podcasting, comic drawing, etc.) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited.

When I first decided to do the technology thing, I hadn’t given much thought to how I was introduced to the field.  Computers hadn’t always been around my home, because I remember when my family got our first computer.  It was normal though, and before long we had a kid computer and a parent computer.  My dad was the one who set up all our computer stuff (actual computers, printers, scanners, home network) and even installed some hardware.  So when I got to school, I considered my dad technical since he did the hardware thing just fine.  I just considered my mom more with the times, since she takes on new tech much quicker than my dad.  (She’s wanted texting for ages at this point, and we’re forcing my dad to get it to make our lives easier.)

It wasn’t until within the last year or so that it finally dawned on me just how technical my mom, Brenda White, is.  When I was in elementary school, my mom worked as a director in the medical records department of the local non-profit healthcare system.  This was back when everything was on paper, microfilm, and microfiche.  I remember the stacks upon stacks of manila folders, like the stacks of books in the quiet sections of your local public library, with the colorful tabs bearing the beginning initials of the patient’s last name.

While I was in high school, my mom switched to a job that had to do with implementing new systems.  She had to coordinate downtimes, training, making sure the new systems worked with other systems that communicated with the old system, etc.  She tested things and broke things, to work out the kinks before going live in the hospital.  “Go live” dates meant times where my mom would leave for work in the middle of the night and times where she was extremely busy and possibly very stressed if things were cutting it close.  Despite the stress, these were very important dates that she was very happy about when the project was successfully implemented.

When it got around time for me to enter college, there was a reorg at my mom’s work and she had the opportunity to apply for a new job.  This was bigger than her last change, when she was still working in the medical records department; her new job would be in the IS department, and she would be reporting directly to the CIO!  How sweet is that?

She now spends her days in charge of a ton of software solutions, which makes me feel even more silly about it being such a surprise that my mom is a technical woman.  I think part of this is because when she was first implementing applications, it was before I began my official foray into technology, so it was just a part of my mom’s job.  You know, nothing notable.  ;)   Also, you have to cut me some slack; she went to college for music management.  Since she returned to school early on in my childhood to receive a degree in health management, I got stuck on the management aspects of her director positions.

Now I cannot wait until we attend a technical conference together, because my mom totally gets how much fun they are.  I love that!  She is an awesome example of not needing to enter college or even the workforce as a computer loving geek to become a technical person.  It was something she learned on the job and embraced, and that approach worked just fine!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Hope At Last

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

My school week consisted of just Monday and Tuesday this week. I’m attending SIGCSE for the remainder of the week to promote the Imagine Cup to CS Educators. Malisa picked me up from DePauw Tuesday night to make for an easier commute to the airport come Wednesday morning. With it essentially being a Friday, Malisa and John declared it a Big Bang Theory marathon night. As marathon style is the only way I’ve watched the Big Bang Theory, I was totally okay with this.

We watched Season 2, which I didn’t realize is the same season I marathoned before until the end of the first disk. Around 11 PM, after switching to the second disk, my phone began to rang. Malisa and John were laughing and talking about the end of an episode. I went from in the moment to being outside it when I saw “Kevin (Eve’s sist…” on my phone.

Kevin is my uncle Rick’s sister-in-law. We exchanged numbers last Saturday, since she lives a town away from DePauw and could give me a ride to the hospital come when Rick is matched with a heart. It was the only reason she would be calling me.

They found a heart. They found a fucking heart. A heart!

I was flying to Milwaukee at 10 AM!

I had to hang up, because I needed my parents to tell me what to do.

When my dad picked up, he was totally calm. I had to double check that he knew. He told me to still go to Milwaukee, which I took to mean to stay put. I made him put Mom on the phone to see if she would say the same thing; she did. We discussed how my mom didn’t feel well. How today was Tuesday, so Dad had already been to Indy once today since Tuesdays have been his visit Rick days. Even though we knew Dad was going back, Mom said how he hadn’t decided yet. I hung up to call Kevin to let her know I was staying put. Mom was calling my sister to let her know of the news.

I returned to living room to tell Malisa and John. I sat back down and sent text messages as I waited for AJ to find out so I could send happy day tweets and update my Facebook status.

My 15 year old brother updated his status to say he was going to Indy and shortly thereafter I heard from AJ. She had been in a practice room when my mom called. She didn’t initially put it together that it was 11 PM at home and answered nonchalantly. She returned to her boyfriend’s practice room in a bit of shock.

We talked as she ate. At that point we both were staying put. Eventually we both started texting people and she needed to go practice, so we hung up. I began thinking how if my brother was skipping school, since my parents left Fort Wayne around 11:15 PM, then I could go and someone could just drive me to the airport come morning.

My mom called to let me know everyone was going and I told her I wanted to go. I called Kevin and caught her in time to deviate from her path to pick me up. She’d already been pulled over by a cop. I told her to breathe. The cop was awesome and let her go after telling her to be safe especially with her child in the car.

I was wide awake waiting for Kevin to get there. We chatted the entire way to the hospital. My grandparents and Eve’s ex-step-mom were in the waiting room when we got there. Eve was with Rick. My aunt and uncle came in shortly thereafter. I called my parents and they were less than 20 minutes away.

We all gathered in Rick’s room. The nurses began the blood transfusions, which from what I understand were necessary since he had been taking blood thinners. At some point my cousins (Rick’s boys) got there. The nurses brought in extra chairs, including the shower chair.

Rick’s room had to be emptied of his personal belongings, which took a lot of bags since he’s been at Methodist for four months this week. Once the room was emptied and after Rick had to shave before the final sterilizing of his skin, the adults began to nod off. My mom, aunt, and uncle all fell asleep in chairs in Rick’s room. The cousins were still up, but I couldn’t leave my rolly chair, since my dad was leaning on it from the shower chair nodding in and out.

I can’t remember when I left, but I joined the grandparents in the small waiting room. That’s the room near the critical care for heart patients. At night, there are a number of people that sleep there. I sat down next to my grandpa and talked to him for a bit, but fell asleep pretty quickly once I wrapped up in my blanket. This was around either 4 or 5 AM. When I woke up, my grandpa was asleep. I moved to a chair by myself to curl up in a ball since my legs were asleep. I woke up again when my feet were asleep and moved to one of the love seats, where I slept until 7 AM.

At that time I returned to Rick’s room and found out that once they switched from the portable VAD to the giant hospital VAD, he’d be taken to the surgery wing. We began to gather in the hallway. My cousin Travis was trying to write a final blog post saying Rick was actually being taken to surgery when Rick’s bed was wheeled out. For a moment we couldn’t find my dad; he had run out to the car to eat breakfast. We followed Rick’s bed down the hallway. I had to fight back tears once or twice when the surgery wing came into view. This was real.

We said our good lucks and good byes. I had thanked Rick back in his room for getting this show on the road before I had to leave for the airport. As Rick was rolled through the doors and we began to all move to the surgery waiting room, the actual surgeon came up to Eve to say a few things. The heart wasn’t the perfect match, but he needs it. He was well rested.

We all put down everything we were carrying. My mom and I grabbed breakfast. I ate just a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, because my mom wanted to leave at 8:15 AM for the airport. My dad went to buy my brother breakfast before we left. We joked that my brother may have ended up with $6 since my mom gave him money before my dad decided to go with him to pay.

Then we left for the airport. The closer we got to the airport, the more tired I got. I was just glad I was getting there before Malisa so I could drop my blanket off in her car. I fell asleep the moment the plane took off. I had already decided it was Malisa’s job to think for me today. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and I slept for five hours. (Actually, we both did.) I got texts while I was sleeping that said things were going well.

It wasn’t until dinner late tonight I finally talked to my mom about the surgery. It was during the Microsoft crew dinner, and someone was speaking to all of us when she called. Thinking about it now, I’m glad I was by the door, since I tore out of there to hear the details.

What a difference this had been. Finally it was all hope and not dread.

So now we wait. For good things. Finally.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Microsoft Student Insider Kick Off in Seattle

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

The official kick off for the Microsoft Student Insider (MicrosoftSI) program took place virtually last Wednesday, January 20.  The program is organized by Jessica Anderson and Hilary Pike, and Hilary took the reins of this presentation.

The MicrosoftSI program strives to provide opportunities, nurture growth, provide insight, create a community, and help with networking.  Opportunities include conference trips such as my trip to PDC, presentations such as from Frank Arrigo and Scott Hanselman, and resources.  Growth includes online traffic, collaboration, and skills.  Insight includes access to conversations we might not otherwise hold.  Community refers to the Insider Community that has already naturally began to be built amongst the Insiders.  And finally networking, oh the ever stressed thing to do for your career, is essentially covered by the previous goals.

What I like about this program is that I’m expected to make my own experience.  While Hilary shared goals of the program, she also stressed coming up with a plan of what us Insiders want out of the experience.  I have the opportunity to interview three Microsoft employees and pick their minds.  I’ve googled them to find out some basic background information and prepare questions, but I’m excited to just sit down and chat and see where the conversation leads us.  (Thank goodness I realized I could use the Flip as an audio recorder.)

Tomorrow marks the in person kick off at Microsoft’s Redmond campus.  While I was flying out today, hit me how weird it is that Seattle will be “home” soon.  It took me about a year to begin to accidentally refer to DePauw as home, but I think if just let it sink in already, Seattle will make the transition quicker.  Flying into Seattle is already familiar.  The landscape, okay, yeah, most of it still just looks up and down all over.  (Otherwise known as hilly, but I grew up thinking hilly in terms of tiny, tiny rolling hills that were about a block long.)

The MicrosoftSI Redmond campus visit happens over two days.  In the mornings we meet as a group, in the afternoons we interview people on our own, and in the evenings we venture into Seattle.  I will laugh if I end up in the Space Needle at night again.  When I was in Seattle with Ed for our 2009 spring break, our first visit ended with us getting to the Needle after the observation deck closed, and our second visit we were there about a half-hour before it closed.

One thing that is cool about this trip is Hilary and Jessica gave me some free time so that I could meet some of my InfoPath team on Friday.  I’m cool about that now, but generally that means that directly before it happens I’ll get super nervous.  After all, this will be my team!

Whoa.  For serious.  Okay, I’m going to go back to my bubble where that isn’t a reality yet.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Location: Basketball, Thought Process: Politics

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

Basketball
I am sitting at a Fort Wayne Mad Ants basketball game.  I have such a love for Hoosier ball.  There are a couple of players on the Mad Ants who are from universities in Indiana, and I root harder for them.  I didn’t pursue coming to a Mad Ants game in prior seasons.  I am still bitter over the fall of the CBA, since I was a huge fan of the Fort Wayne Fury basketball team.  But my brother and I had free tickets to a suite, and I’m glad I’m here.  (Though, I would totally cool with a lower seat.  From here, I can’t read the numbers on the giant scoreboard.  Luckily my brother’s vision is annoyingly good.)

Last week was my brother’s first two games of his high school basketball career.  Won the first game, the second did not go so hot.  However, I am totally pumped about attending North Side basketball on a regular basis again.  Bethany and I used to regularly attend away games, especially post season.  My favorite time was when we accidentally sat ourselves smack in the middle of the South Side student section when the North Side-South Side game was at South.  Dangerous I tell you, dangerous.

Politics
I have a list of eighteen blog posts that I want to write.  I’m actually beginning to develop a pattern!  There’s one that I’m attempting to figure out how to classify.  My goal in writing this category is to figure out where I stand on things, and to get myself educated (i.e. by writing these posts, I open myself up to serious criticism, thank you blog world).  In my head I’ve classified these as “Liberal Leanings” and I can’t seem to shake the name.  The only reason for this is because I grew up in a Republican leaning household, and Republicans are called conservatives and anyone who doesn’t agree with the Republicans get called a liberal.  Thus far I still consider myself an Independent, but that’s only because I don’t consider myself educated enough either way to say what I am.

Hence the coming blog posts.  I suppose I’ll just stick with “Political Musings” or something of the like.

Now if only the internet at the Memorial Coliseum was free so I could post this live.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

And Out of Left Field, I’m Moving to Seattle

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

This will come as a complete shock to anyone who has spoken to me in the last, oh, four to six years about where I saw myself after college.  I have been bound and determined to end up in Fort Wayne.  I love this city.  Yes, even with all its flaws.  I mean, it’s Fort Wayne.  My favorite description (not because I like it, but because it’s accurate) is that Fort Wayne is a large small town.

So, I had this conviction that I would be here.  My first year of college, I took care of homesickness with photos surrounding me and subscribing to The Journal Gazette’s RSS feeds.  (I grew up on The News-Sentinel, but they didn’t have any RSS feeds at the time.  They do now, but one that I can find.  The JG has different categories.)  Man, I was more up to date on what was up in Fort Wayne than my dad.  Then sometime during my sophomore year I discovered Fort Wayne bloggers.  Since I love getting info from blogs, a whole bunch of them ended up in my feed reader, too.  During my junior year, I was so excited to be up to date on what was going on in FW.  I have lived out of Fort Wayne since graduating high school, and since this past summer I have been home.  I knew what was up, and had all sorts of plans (which about 25% occurred).

Then I began to look for my “Real Job” as I have tagged all the related emails.

Now, I had done serious legwork in the past three years searching out opportunities in Fort Wayne.  In fact, that’s why I was home this summer and fall: two internships.  Also, I found a company I was totally excited about the prospect of working for.

At first, I applied to companies outside of Fort Wayne to have better chances of obtaining a job offer, and because the jobs found via DePauw are all outside of Fort Wayne.  When things started to get serious, I had a conversation with Kenny that completely caught me off guard: “Ashley, you were the one who wanted to live in Fort Wayne.  I am fine living elsewhere for a while.”

Oh.

Then it dawned on me I could get a job ANYWHERE.

Whoa.  Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Anywhere?  (Okay, so Kenny’s probably really glad it didn’t actually end up being ANYWHERE, because I was totally feeling the desert climate of Arizona during GHC.)

Now, back in May during the Imagine Cup, the Microsoft Campus Recruiter for DePauw sent a, “Hey, I exist,” email.  We were smack in the middle of the competition in Boston, so I went, “Oh, that’s sweet,” and promptly forgot about it.

Then at the end of the summer, the Campus Recruiter contacted me again to see if I was interested in applying.  Sure, why the heck not?  It’d be sweet to be able to say, “I got an offer from Microsoft.”  (Obviously, at this point I was totally still staying in town.)

I did my phone interview, it went well, a Redmond interview was mentioned, and then a month and a half went past.  In this time frame, the job hunt ramped up in terms of getting to the point of receiving offers from the companies to which I had applied.

Then out of the blue I received an email detailing my on site interview at Microsoft in less than two weeks.

PANIC.

It was shortly before that when I realized I could work anywhere, and that this wasn’t just for props anymore.  I had serious reservations about living elsewhere, specifically because I felt I was giving Kenny no choice since he still had a year of school left.  It took him a long time to convince me that he’s totally cool with that big of a distance from Fort Wayne (I still don’t fully believe him).

So, next summer I will begin working as a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) on InfoPath at Microsoft’s Redmond campus.

It hasn’t sunken in yet.  This is mostly because my uncle had his heart attack less than twelve hours after I got back from the interview, and I’m in wait for next change (end of internship) mode.  But I have now officially accepted the offer, and can begin letting folks know.  This is to attempt to avoid another situation such as how Ed found out.

Ashley: “At least Kenny will like that it snows less in Seattle.”
Ed: *silence* “What’s all this talk about Seattle?”

Go me.  (I was planning on tell her in person, and instead told her over the phone the day I was going to see her.  FAIL.)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »

Millennials and the Danger of Being Smart

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Growing up, I was always in the smart groups.  I wasn’t the smart kid, but I was damn proud of my reading skills.  I attended a Montessori elementary school, and I was in the group of kids reading the more advanced books.  I remember there was few enough of us that we sat at a table rather than in the area where large groups gathered on the floor.  In middle school, I was in a group of four kids in my 6th grade block class that was supposed to read more advanced books.  One of them was The Hobbit, though as far as I remember, I never read it.  Man, those were the days.  My free time was spent reading and writing.  I miss reading like that.

In middle school, as a 6th grader, I also was allowed in the 7+ math class, which was literally an 8th grade math class.  I was so bored in my 6th grade math class.  If I remember correctly, I wasn’t doing so hot close to when I got moved up.  My parents will have to correct me, but I believe their reasoning was I was doing poorly, because of my boredom.

Maybe that’s true and obviously I handled the classes successfully enough to pass with good grades, but there are times where I think I was just…bored.  The way the classes were taught was uninteresting to me.  Once I hit calculus, my “ability” to do math was done.   I just didn’t get it.  In college, I flew by Computational Discrete Math course.  That’s all about following algorithms and patterns; it was a breeze.  Theory of Discrete Math?  Big fail on me.  And I took that f’ing class twice.

A week or so ago, someone tweeted a link to Millennial Marketing on whether or not Gen Y Suffers From Lack of Failure. (Are you sensing a theme here?  Just be glad I made these things separate posts.)

Phase 2 stuck to me.  “Kids that had been initially been praised for their smarts….were easily discouraged.”  Is that me?  This isn’t something I can cookie cutter fit myself into.  (Cue bringing my mother into the discussion as she generally already knows these answers.)

I ran into issues with math, and I gave up figuring it out.  That isn’t something I like.  At some point in my life, I will break down and buy the Head First Algebra book, so I can actually learn Algebra.  (My school system was silly and taught me “integrated math” where I had/have no clue specifically what algebra, geometry, etc were.)  In the mean time, I just don’t think about it.  I pursue what I’m “naturally” good at: programming.

Except there I can’t decide whether I’m moving away at a time I have experienced challenges or if I am exploring a new challenge.  Truthfully, it’s a little of both.  However, in accepting a job, I have accepted the new challenge for a long haul.  To be honest, I am excited about the prospect of focusing on one “challenge” for a longer than three months engagement.

So, verdict still out on whether the points in this article fit me.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

Failing & This Millennial Thing

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Dr. Phil’s most recent show was on the “Me Generation” as the book of the same title refers to my generation.  This was painful, embarrassing, and infuriating to watch.  I have no idea how my parents brainwashed me, but man, am I glad I stress about spending money.

(My mom has no idea how she accomplished this.  My siblings aren’t intense like me about parting with money.  She speculates it was due to where my parents were at financially at a time where I was attuned to the situation.)

The young man and woman Dr. Phil interviewed were spend, spend, spend.  A good chunk of the others spoken to want a job that is some form of “famous”.  My favorite was the woman who wants to have a show about animals, like those on Animal Planet.  During her interview, her point was not clear nor succinct, and her “likes” and “uhms” were to the point of distracting.

I learned of the term “Millennial” within the last year.  The person who introduced it to me, who is not in my generation, warned me it’s something to essentially be on the defensive.

I was thrilled when Dr. Phil pointed out the generation that raised us is responsible for whom we’ve become.  I was yelling at the TV when one mom sympathized with another about giving her 24 year old son, who lives outside the home, rent money from the moment he moved out.  “It’s because, as mothers, we want to help.”  Putting aside the fact I want her to say parents instead of mothers, no.  No, your job isn’t to help.  Your job is to allow your children to experience failure.  Responsibility.  How else will they become capable of living independently when they’ve had no prior experience?

A number of times, after my parents have provided an update on my siblings and I, they have received compliments on how well they have done as parents.  (Though, since my brother is just a freshman in high school, the verdict is still out on him.)  They do a double take at this compliment, because they view raising us as responsible adults is their job as parents.

My parents haven’t left me out in the cold.  Since I do stress about the money thing, I know I can call them when I’m freaking out after running into an emergency.  The difference is my calls aren’t to ask for money.  They are to ask for advice on what my next step should be to handle it on my own.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »