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Scott's Googl-oscity (and my reactions thereto)

So, Google has apparently decided to hire Scott, which is, of course, amazing but not all that much of a surprise when you think about it... Scott's exactly the kind of person they want there: creative, intelligent, hard-working, social, unconventional, not to mention his mighty programming skillz. It's an excellent opportunity for him, and I am sure he'll do phenominally there.

Meanwhile (talking about me because it's my blog, darnit!), I am stuck contemplating my life and what I'm going to do with it. I'm sad (as well as excited) that Scott's going away in January. He's been my friend the second longest at CU, but he's certainly my closest (non romantic-type) friend right now, and although we'll still be in touch and working together, I'm going to miss him terribly, which is kinda sad since we often don't even spend much time together.

But that's not all that's going on in my head right now. Scott's going to work for Google, undoubtedly the best job in the industry, and meanwhile I'm here, doing irregular contract work for Not-Quite-Enough per hour (I'm not complaining too loudly about the money, though; it's good, but not what I'd like). I have the potential to follow him to Google -- I need some more experience first, but the potential is there -- but is that something I want to do?

He once said to me that he was sure I could work for Google, even if it was only in the IT dept (don't screw up there!), and, even though I'm sure he meant it as encouragement, it felt like a consolation prize. And I'm sitting here asking myself, not only "What do I want to do?" but, "Where is my potential for Greatness to be realized?" I sometimes wonder if I haven't made poor choices in remaining in the shadow of Scott and others. Yes, it's true, I didn't want the commitment and time that it would take to do some of those things, but maybe I should've taken them on anyway. I couldn't have beaten Scott for President of the chapter, after all (not only is he far more popular than I ever would be, he was the best person for the job. I truly believe that he is the best president the chapter has seen), but I have shirked away from leadership when opportunity has come my way.

And so we come to Scott leaving for Google. I'm confident, given another year or two (including waiting until Steve graduates) that I could get into Google, even if only as IT support staff. But is that something I want to do? If I go there, will I be following Scott, standing in his shadow and basking in his glow (to mix metaphors a bit)?

Ah, well, enough of the whining and complaining. I've got too many errands to run today (our pledges become Brothers tomorrow, yay!) and I need a shower. I shall contemplate.

Okay, new look for the blog 'cause I thought the default style had been there long enough. More changes ahead? Who can say? Probably.

Hmm, well let's see. Monday night I... screwed around on the computer until bedtime. Played some Freeciv for a while until it unexpectedly crashed on me. I'm not angry though. Firstly, it was just the client that crashed; the server was still up and running, and secondly I don't think there were any other players in the world. Not even AI, so I'll have to figure out how to do that soon here.

Tuesday, Physics was cancelled because the sub got in a car accident on the way to class, so I'm hoping the final won't have much on PDEs. Rise/Fall Rome was interesting. The prof went over some sample test questions and then described some work he'd done in Turkey at Aperlae. After that was lunch, and I was heading back home when I saw Sarah, so I decided I should probably do some office hours and followed her up to the office. Fortunately, Scott had left a Game Developer Magazine in the office, and I read that for a while before I read some more Utopia. Then to LGBT Studies, where we had our final presentation. All that remains is to turn in my paper revisions and take the final. Woohoo! I worked a bunch on the paper last night, and on my Semantics take-home as well. So far, so good.

This morning, work... And I found out that my work schedule for finals week is actually going to work out! Of course, I have to go in at 7:30 on Sunday, but otherwise it's very nice. Class today was okay. Gave my email addy to Andy, we'll see whether anything comes of that. I ran into Todd after lunch and spoke with him for a while before coming back here. Then Papu and Kyonee dropped by, those silly boys. We talked for a while before they had to go do some work. And here I am.

Utopia's... interesting. Some aspects about it, such as the seemingly socialist nature of Utopia, are very appealing. Other aspects discussed, such as essentially permanent enslavement of thieves (though, granted, this was in a neighboring country and, in addition, did sound quite a bit better than capital punishment), are appalling. Nevertheless, it's interesting so far, once I get past the wall of language that is old formal english (not anglo-saxon, though).

That's 'bout it for now.

Geoff

Well, well, well, apparently someone is reading my blog since someone requested comments... so they should work, now. Be happy.

I forgot something that was actually really cool that happened last friday. In A-S, the prof brought in a swordmaker to talk to us about swords and other weapons from the time of the anglo-saxons. He brought in a fairly wide range, from a Roman cavalry sword (replica) up to an Irish, well, it wasn't exactly a broadsword, but as I recall it was two-handed. Swordmakers used to take soft iron and carbonized iron (steel), and make parts of the blade separately. Then, they would weld them together, with the harder steel on the outside and the iron on the inside providing support. Of course, some also folded the steel into the iron to get a blend... and Damascus blades (or what were called Damascus blades in the old days) were made from taking the steel and iron, melting them together and then fashioning a sword. But that process usually left the blade very inhomogeneous. When higher temperatures were reached later, the smiths had access to a relatively cheap form of homogenized metal... and sword prices went down. Very interesting lecture, nice guy. He brought in some speartips, too, and we got to handle the weapons (heheheh). Only the guys seemed to actually pick them up though. Maybe the guys were just the pushiest? Ah well, anyway.

Friday night... I did get to go to the party, kinda. I got there a bit early, and helped set up (and injured my finger somehow... I think the couch that we had to move had splinters). And for some reason I ended up folding the host's laundry. I'm much too nice sometimes. I shouldn't be such a pushover. Anyway, the party had just barely started (and wasn't really going yet) when my parents called, saying that the parade was done. Apparently the Parade of Lights folks are very good at ending on time. So I walked over to the Civic Center and met my parents. We took the bus home, and not just any bus, the SLOW bus (which kinda annoyed me. Taking the park-n-ride I could've been to Wagon Road before the bus we were on got back. I could've stayed longer, but I would've had to not go with my parents) because it was cheaper than the park-n-ride. I understand that, but it doesn't really matter to me since my bus pass is good for the entire system. Oh well.

Mom and dad got me a present for my birthday, which did please me. It's my very own DVD copy of the Original Broadway cast recording of Into the Woods. I was very happy with it, and I'll have to bring it up here to show Jeff so that he can marvel at the beauty and talent of Bernadette Peters. We watched it Saturday evening, and I've decided I like the second act much better. It's more... allegorical, and you know how good I am with allegory, so basically it slapped me in the face with it, but I still love it. And Amy got me something, too. I'd asked for a small CD rack so I could put it on my desk and hopefully clean up some of the nightmare that it is. So, I now have a CD rack. It turns and holds 80 CDs. Thanks Amy!

That's interesting. By saying, "you know how good I am with allegory," despite my knowing perfectly well that you probably hadn't any idea how well I dealt with allegory, I was able to convey to you how good I am with allegory through the use of the formula. Neat.

Saturday morning dress rehearsal went okay. We only ran a few moments into the choir's time (about 5 minutes), and so we were done by about 10:30. Bobbette and I went to her house after calling Arte, and I played with her new recorder while she fed her animals. Then we practiced. When I got to my parents' house, my sister was watching Pirates of the Carribean, having just purchased a copy last week. So I watched it, too. Very nicely done, well-acted. The plot drew me in and kept me there, despite being just a bit far-fetched. Johnny Depp was, to say the least, fabulous. And sexy. Wanted to shag him right then and there. Well, maybe not in the living room. But yes. Then Into the Woods, and then random television for a while until Degrassi: The Next Generation came on. I like that show, even though it's for teenagers. I think it deals very well with real issues and everything else you hear said about such shows. Plus Marco's cute.

Sunday, the first concert went okay. Not great, but not poorly. The audience still enjoyed it. The second concert went better, in my opinion. The trumpets said they had a harder time in the second one, but I couldn't hear any problems. I think I'll see if I can borrow the "Olde English Aires" from BrightonMusic for the quartet to play in our upcoming gig. Yes, that's right, the quartet has a gig. A wedding, on the 27th of December, downtown. Really our first gig since summer, though we did have a small reception for a bank opening in October (I think). Anyway, Russian Christmas Music went much better the second time. I'm glad that we've the opportunity to play more difficult pieces like that, even though the group's small and not as good as some others around here. Anyway, after the concert I rushed back to Boulder for the dlp meeting, which was good. We got a group picture in, though Jessie's been on a cruise. "Paste 'im in!" they said. Oh, and they did the sweetest thing for me. Apparently someone let slip that my birthday was the fourth. So they got me a cake and sang and everything. Candles, even, though I missed blowing out one. What a neat bunch of guys!

Today, work, school. Almost done. GSA ally training was cancelled for tonight, which makes me wonder if we'll ever have another GSA meeting. I hope Arte got my message.

Also, apparently Jason's founding the "Bois of Boulder" group, which he wants to be a social coalition of queer groups in the area. I know that we do have a coalition of sorts, Queer Town Hall, but I don't know that it's so social. I think it's a good idea, since I know almost no one outside dlp. If it weren't for dlp, I would know... Jess. And I wouldn't be on speaking terms with Craig. And that would really suck. I just hope Jason does a good job with it, because we definitely need coordination in the community here.

Well on my way to having my poetic license revoked:

As snow piles up on the ground,
And on the internet I dick around,
Time keeps on passing
And instead of you sassing
I should into my head some facts pound.

Hmm, well I just read Jason's blog and... whew, if only he weren't conservative. Stupid lousy intelligent conservative fags. Where are all the prudish intelligent anarchist fags? Oh well. Anyway, I realized what I'm doing wrong: I'm not posting anything interesting. Let me rephrase that. I've been describing events, which dad says is on the second level of intelligence. (Below that is discussing people, and above it is ideas.) So it's time to step it up a notch.

But first I need to think.

This is actually something that's been disturbing me for some time. I used to think. I used to have ideas and intelligent conversations. I also used to enjoy my music and get pleasure from reading. Lately, however, I've... stopped.

I was talking with Jeff the other day, and we came to point in the conversation where I said that my geekiness was in decline. "I used to be a tech geek," I said, "but haven't been recently. I'm more into RPGs and comics." "You've fallen backwards," Jeff told me. And he's right.

I've begun to correct the situation, I hope. I've begun reading again, poetry in particular. I read a collection of T.S. Eliot the other day and I just finished reading a collection of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as well. I liked Longfellow better than Eliot because of the meter and rhyme. Eliot's style does not very much appeal to me. But, and perhaps I have read superficially, neither seems to have much import to me. They seem pretty, but merely for pretty's sake. I am about to embark on a reading of Sir Thomas More's Utopia, which should interest me much more than the poetry.

A piece of advise: read Nozick. And then laugh at him.

And the obligatory rundown of my last few days:

Yesterday was my birthday. It was nice. I'm not at all displeased with it. Of course, I still ended up alone at the end of the night, but you know what a prude I am. Here's what happened. I woke up early for some reason (I think it was the jerks galloping around in the hallway screaming, but I could be wrong. I have been waking up early lately), got showered and went into work to turn in my finals schedule and collect my goody bag for "Student employee appeciation day." It's basically food, which is good, but not really what I was hoping for. Plus the soda was Mountain Dew. Anyway, physics was okay (No Craig again, I swear I'm going to beat that boy to a bloody pulp if I see him tonight) and I went to history because, as Jason says, I'm here to get an education. And it was interesting, the lecture gave me new insight into the connectivity of the world by the manifold (from anglo-saxon maniyfeald 'complicated'. I apologize for the lack of the yogh... my system doesn't seem to have it on any of my fonts and I can't find its unicode reference) reasons for the collapse of Rome (western Rome, anyway). Everything from the barbarian hordes to the public baths to the changing climate to a love of cheesecake (from the Farmer's Almanack, a veritable wellspring of verifyable and easily tested information) has been blamed for the fall. And it's cool to imagine the interplay of all these factors "converging" to lead to the fall of central political authority in the west.

Anyway, after class I met Nara and Jill for lunch, and that was good. Jill and I went to the bookstore, where they were having a sale and a drawing for an iPod, as well as cider and cake. (I didn't win the iPod, at least I haven't received anything saying that I did and they had me leave my phone number and email address.) Nara used the time to work on a paper she's writing for class. Afterwards, Jill and I picked Nara up and played some pool. This was about 2pm, which is when the cute british guy had been coming in. Unfortunately, he was not there yesterday. Then I went to LGBT studies, where there was a presentation on gays in television, which was interesting. I came back, and went up to see Brandon for a while. I actually finished my page for the fraternity bio-book, yay! It looks cool, too. Papu came and hung out with us for a while, and then Papu and I went to go watch Kyonee perform in a series of one-act plays. Well, he was in three of them. He's a rather decent actor. I was quite impressed. After, I came back home and it was bedtime.

Today... Work, school, nothing special Going to a party tonight provided things work out well. We'll see.

Some poetic nonsense:

A jibber once danced on my head
"Your head is quite hard," he said,
"It's large, and it's thick!"
So I grabbed up the prick
And that night on jibber I fed.

Umm... so it's been a few days. Let's see if I can get everyone caught up.

Last Wednesday, work was different because we were preparing for a much smaller group of students than usual. So we actually spent the first part of the day helping the Emporium out. Then, we cut some rolls and such and some cleaning. We even cut some brownies. Then, after work, class was okay. No rehearsal due to Thanksgiving, and so I went home that evening (after a brief confusion over the viewing of X2, which we actually got around to watching Sunday.)

Thursday was fun. My cousin Terry and Aunt Lauri came over for "dinner" at about 12:30. Dinner was good, turkey and stuffing and cranberries and all sorts of good stuff. Amy had to work, unfortunately, but she got to come for some of the games. We mostly played ard games, though we did get some Yahtzee in, as well. It was about 7, I think, by the time that Lauri and Terry went home. Can't remember what else happened that day, nothing of great import, obviously.

Friday my parents and I went to see a friend of dad's about making a webpage for the company she works for. It sounds pretty easy, but the trouble is that I'm going to have to actually do something on it eventually. Which is not... my usual M.O. But the meeting went well, they're looking forward to the page, and I'm definitely looking forward to having some extra money. So that's all good.

Saturday was rehearsal for orchestra, before which we went to the hospital for lunch, and which went reasonably well, and Sunday we had jazz rehearsal. So, the weekend was busy enough but not greatly busy.

Monday... Well, PSP met at Mongolian BBQ, which was fun and tasty. It was the last meeting of the semester, so there were awards handed out and everybody had a good time. There was the usual cliquiness, but that's expected. We'll keep working on it. I got two awards, the "hardest working e-board member" award and the "Most Willing to take on Anything" award, aka the "I will wrestle an Alligator" (their comment) or the "I start stuff that I never finish" (my comment) award. I did get the email lists up and running, though. And I also have been a relatively decent recsec. But, the webpage's not up yet. But that's a project for next semester.

Tuesday, I got my history test back. I got an 80 on it, which means I have a guaranteed A- in the class, which is good enough for me. I may take the final, but I probably won't. I will be going to class, though, unless CRAIG SHOWS UP TO PHYSICS and we decide to have lunch or something. (Craig has not been to class since... well, for several weeks.) A week and a day until the end of class. Two and a half weeks until the end of school. I CANNOT WAIT!

I will be 20 tomorrow. No longer a teenager. And I've not kissed a boy nor had a boyfriend. I'm starting to get depressed about it, too. Not seriously depressed, mind you, just annoyed that I suck so much and yet there's no one there. (Take THAT in the sense thou wilt).

Oh, also last night, I went to a presentation on BDSM. It was very interesting. Learned a whole bunch about the subculture and also a little bit about technique. The presentor is a very promenant man in the local and national scenes. And he's very good with a whip. He did a couple demonstrations (not full-fledged scenes, of course). I should've spoken with him to get info on joining the Scene, I guess. It's something I want to try, but I've been 1) too busy and 2) too chicken to really do it. But, perhaps I will yet. We shall see.

For today, well it was work and school. Ditched my office hours. Doing laundry currently. Have rehearsal tonight if I can find a ride.

Stupid lousy state of boyfriendlessness.

Okay, Satuday night. Friday went alright... nothing particularly special about work or school. ran into Papu on the way home, managed to "lie" about what I was doing that night so he didn't find out about the surprise party. The party was fun if short. We met at Brandon's and about 8 headed over to Papu's. Cake and chips, talk and some dancing, and of course SPONGEBOB! Then a bunch of folks decided to go to Static, so I came back to my parents' house to take care of the pets. Whee!

Today, well it started snowing. And so the roads were bad. So I carpooled with Kat to rehearsal, where we had 12 folks show up, which was about 7 more than we were expecting. Oh, quartet rehearsal was cancelled this week, and next week, too. Anyway, after rehearsal, back home and... TV for about 6 hours. And here we are.

I need a boyfriend.

Well, it's Wednesday. Night. Almost Thursday. Today, work, school (though french was cancelled today, which is a "yay" I think), then home, played around on the internet for a while, then went to rehearsal. Then I got the car from my parents, and here I am again, parked in front of my computer instead of out getting a piece of ass like I should be. Sigh. Anyway, I've got a midterm tomorrow, which I probably should've studied for, but haven't, yet. It's open book, which makes it even worse. Grr. I'll have to study hard for the final. Speaking of which, Chelle called me today and wanted to know how I was studying for the midterm tomorrow, since we're in the same class but not the same lecture. I told her I wasn't, and she said that we should get together and study sometime. I'm not sure whether that's a come on or what. I doubt it, since the entire chapter should know by know that I'm queer, but we shall see.

Nothing to discuss. Jeff was having trouble with his comic, but he seems to have resolved it now. So you should go read it. Test Tube Undergrads.

Oh, yeah, Aidan feels lonely 'cause he doesn't have any gay friends to talk with, 'cause he lives in some rural town in Oregon. I sympathize with him, but I really can't give him any advice. If he were near here, we could get the GSA to come out and speak at the school, but Oregon's not exactly close by.

Okay, now I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll find someone to share it with me on Friday night. Doubtful, but hey, you never know.

Well, I'm in a good mood due to the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling. For those of you who won't take the time to click on the link, the ruling was a 4-3 decision overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage, saying that it was unconstitutional. The court turned to the legislature to correct the laws "to the benefit of gay couples." Of course, there are many things left to do, and, as the article states, the state isn't handing out marriage licenses yet. If marriage in Massachusetts is legal, however, there will be precedent, and couples married in Massachusetts may be able to challenge the DOMA laws in effect throughout the rest of the nation, which refuse to acknowledge same-sex couples from other states, due to the Full Faith and Credit Clause in the United States Constitution. On the other hand, Hawaii and Alaska have had similar rulings, which merely resulted in the passage of DOMA laws and the amendment of the states' constitutions. It is, however, a step forward.

In more personal news, I found out that the GSA meeting was cancelled because the president, Kimberley, was in the hospital. So, I hope I'm on the mailing list now, and we'll see whether communication can be improved. Also today, had a 5-minute meeting with my linguistics advisor, basically touching base. Unfortunately, I walked out early from my physics class to do so. Oh well. No Craig today, either. I'm starting to wonder what's up. I have a suspicion he's just not coming to class, which is something that definitely appeals to me. Anyway. Got a parking permit so that my parents can give me the car when they go out of town this weekend so I can feed the pets. Fun. I hope the timing will manage to work out. I'm looking forward very much to Thanksgiving this year, mostly because I'm tired of school and I'm hungry. So I think I'll go fix myself something to eat.

A bad limerick:

A toasted cheese sandwich is nice
If you've got no sugar or spice.
But for a well-balanced meal
You'll need a good feel
For freshly-picked onions and rice.

I've changed my mind. Jessie and Jeff are too cute a couple to break up. Sigh, oh well. :-p

Anyway, today's been pretty normal. Got up, went to work, sliced turkey and ham and cheese and bread. Yay. Then class. French was pretty boring, we just worked on corrections of a composition that he handed out to us. Anglo-Saxon was kinda fun, we were working on translating some modern computer terminology into A-S, and he also handed out some middle english for us to look at, and middle english seems pretty simple compared to A-S. Linguistics wasn't anything special, and neither was lunch. And now, I'm here. Maybe something interesting will happen later today. I've got a GSA meeting at 6, which is supposed to be a special presentation on "How to be a Good Ally," which is always informative, and then at 8 there's a Phi Sigma Pi meeting, which could be good or could be boring, we'll see. Afterwards, I've got nought but my physics homework to work on.

I haven't seen Craig for about a week now. I hope he's alright, probably the lazy bum's been sleeping through Physics. If he misses many more without a good excuse he'll have to be on his own; I'm not lending my notes to someone who doesn't bother to come to class.

Well, I'm about to start my office hours. Hopefully we'll get a computer in the office soon and I'll be able to do some work in there. Oh well. Later.

Oh, I forgot... after the dlp meeting, Jessie, Jeff, Clay, Bill and I went to Peaberry's for coffee/suchlike and talk. My resolve to spend more time around Jessie and eventually steal him away from Jeff is well on its way. Mwahahaha! Then we came back and I got to put a 20 pound turkey in my freezer.

And for some reason I can't make that sound dirty. Sigh.

Wheeeeeeee!!! So... now I have a blog.

Wheeeeeeee!!! So... now I have a blog.

This weekend: whew. Busy as ever. Okay, well not really, but here's what happened.

Friday night, I go to my parents' house to spend the weekend. Watched television, went to bed. Fun. Oh, and my sister's engaged. With a ring and everything. Looks like the One Ring to me, only without the creepy Mordor writing. They're going to get them engraved when they're married, and then they'll become wedding bands.

Saturday, I get up about 9, shower etc, head over to Bobbette's about 10 to have quartet rehearsal. She had just found out about Arte really being a girl on Wednesday, and is cool with it but thinks Arte needs to make a decision as to whether she's going to portray herself as a man or a woman. Anyway, they had a long talk about it, and then Bobbette called me back and we have a relatively long talk about it as well. Anyway, so I decided that I should come out to Bobbette and Eizo, who are also in the quartet. Well, I came out to Bobbette, but I didn't quite get the chance for Eizo. We also had a couple extra violinists that came, Chan and his girlfriend Jen. Chan's okay, but not as good as Eizo. And Jen's not as good as Chan is. But, they're both decent players, so we'll see how things turn out. I also got to play with Bobbette's new digital recorder. Yay! That was fun, but I couldn't get it to play out to her sound system (we think we hooked up the cords wrong). Well, more to play with next week.

At 1, Bobbette and I went over to Orchestra rehearsal. The director, Kat, was out of town, so I lead this week. I think we had a good rehearsal. We went through all the pieces we're going to play in the Christmas concert, and had time to really work on a few. It was definitely a good rehearsal.

Then, after that, I went back home. Mom and I went out to get some food for dinner (chicken) and a couple movies for the night (The Hours and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat). Mom made dinner and I watched. Then we watched The Hours, which I had to watch for my Intro to LGBT Studies class. It was good, not as good as the book (by Michael Cunningham), though. Then, we watched some tv and eventually went to bed.

Today, Sunday, I got up, read the comics (which is definitely something I miss when I'm at my apartment), and had a breakfast of croissants and omelettes. Yum! Then, eventually, mom and I decided to watch Joseph, which... is... weird, but very good. I like the music (but then, it's Andrew Lloyd Weber, so what should I expect?). Costuming was very good also. The settings were... weird. Weirder than I thought they'd be for a story from the Bible.

Anyway, then I took my shower, watched some of Nightmare Before Christmas and went to jazz rehearsal, which I was again directing. It was okay, but not the best rehearsal I've led. Oh well. Then, home again for dinner and back to my apartment to drop off some of my stuff. Then, to Delta Lambda Phi Interest Group meeting. It was... actually pretty boring this week. Oh well, that's what I get for walking in late, after the gladitorial combat. And now, I'm writing this blog instead of my french homework, which I'm not going to do anyway tonight. So there. And that's my weekend.

In hopes of starting a tradition, a bad limerick:

What is it that I've I never done?
I've never had sex with someone.
I've never been drunk
A class ever flunked
Or turned down the chance for a pun!