Brainstorm take me away from the norm.

I couldn't sleep this morning after having a million thoughts in 5 seconds, so I got up around 645am. Lo and behold, my friends are seriously predictable (especially on their off days! lol), so I got a phone call around 730am from Rae. On that tip, I was reminded of 311, so I went and got a bunch of their stuff of iTunes to start the day.

Quite excellent. Amber is the color of your energy!

Moshi. Moshi.

Yeah, so one of the best parts of being back at home is access to a vehicle. I stole the car today and went for a spin on the other side of town--out of the county, basically--and discovered this nice neighborhood in Harnett County on a golf course. They've got tennis courts, too! I'll probably be indulging in more tennis next semester thanks to finding a tennis partner, so I'll have to sharpen up this summer in Texas.

I sent off my acceptance of the HP offer today. w00t!

Since I've been out of school, I've actually been productive. I've gone through this stack of AJAX books that I have, so now I'm working through Agile Web Development with Rails. I'm building this stock ticker thingie that's not quite a stock ticker. lol. I know. Bad description, but I can already see it in my head, so I'm great!

w00t!

Writing of epiphanic proportions...or that looks good on paper!

Yeah, I'm back in NC now. Yes, it's almost a thank God situation. I was enjoying this semester in DC socially, but academically--I'm shot. Computer science pissed me off more than I could enjoy it, so I found myself skipping class and programming and reading in my room. Needless to say, my grades showed it.

I can say I'm pretty much disappointed in almost every class this semester. Or maybe it's me...who knows. I've read some tasty books this semester though. Here's a smattering: The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra, The Venture Cafe by Teresa Esser, The Question of Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, Getting Real by 37Signals, Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomas along with David Heinemeier Hansson, and a stack of other books. I'd say I was productive this semester intellectually still.

This summer I got hired at HP (told you I was productive this semester...I got a job!), so in a few weeks, if all still goes according to plan, I'll be heading out to Houston, TX. w00t!

On top of that, next semester I'll be working as the online editor at The Hilltop, so naturally, my writing bug has bitten me--HARD. I've churned out a lot of content lately (it'll be posted here in time), been reading my ass off (I'm getting glasses later this summer), and I've got stacks of papers (notepads, napkins, etc.) with writing ideas. And, it all sounds quite excellent. It looks good on paper. My Pentel is my friend.

I've also made the decision to attend gradschool once I graduate. I know I want to focus on the web with my work in gradschool, but we'll see what happens. lol.

The endgame was not strong.

Yes, so the semester is actually over. Does anybody know how long I've been waiting for that moment? Actually, it ended on Thursday upon turning in my OOP project (incomplete, yes). With that, I really did do a cartwheel through the lower hallway of the engineering building. And...I had never done one before that point, folks. lol.

This semester was stressful, disturbing, and interesting to add insult to injury. But, on the whole, I read some great books, met a ton of people that I'm glad I met, and I'm looking forward to next year. 2006-2007 onward, ho!

Right now, though, I'm sitting in The Hilltop office waiting for a call from the editor to get my online publishing privileges fixed. I'm supposed to be leaving Washington today, but I just talked to my dad and he said they just left the house. So really...they won't arrive until 5pm or so. In light of that, yes, I have a few hours to sit around and do whatever.

But, oh yeah, I'm being hogged. More on this later. lol. Don't you folks just hate continuations? hahahahahaaha.

Clicky...clicky...new media and such.

UC Berkeley has a ton of courses available to listen to on iTunes. That's pretty hott. Go here (iTunes will open up).