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Wishing I Was at SXSW

Personal Comment [12]

First, congratulations to Bryan and the 9rules for winning the Blog and Community categories respectively at SXSW, I couldn’t think of a more deserving group.

After seeing what a blast everyone’s having down there, I’ve decided that I will make my first visit to the conference next year. I know it’s a little early since this year’s event still hasn’t ended, but I’m really excited about finally meeting everyone and maybe even learning a thing or two.

In other news, my first big project at work has just gone live and I’m really happy about the way it turned out (it took a mammoth of a CSS file too).

Update: Just to clear things up, I don’t design anything at work, just front-end coding stuff. I only wish I could do some of the stuff the designer makes.

Insignificance

Personal Comment [3]

The view from atop Hochstetter Hall was stunning. On a campus of stout buildings that chose to dig basements rather than face the biting Buffalo winds, it stood apart. I stared out the full-length window on the sixth floor and could see the entire school and its countless ant-like students. Hundreds of lives passed right before my eyes, each with its own insurmountable obstacles and hopeless problems.

Then, in thecenter of the open plaza at the heart of the campus, a student tripped and fell. It was not a minor accident; from my vantage point I could see that she had not managed to bring her hands up in time to effectively shield her face. The student quickly jerked back to her feet and ran to the closest building, turning red from the combination of embarrassment and her fall.

Her mortification will not fade quickly although the witnesses and myself have already forgotten her and I would have likely done the same had it not struck me as a perfect example of how we live our lives. We all think so much of our own lives…we see what is happening around us but we still consider what we are doing more significant.

In the end, we are much more forgettable than we would like to think. If you trip and fall, no big deal, you’ll be forgotten by the time you get back up.

Blindsided

Personal Son of a B!@%$ [19]

To those people that use their cell phones while driving, I hate you. One such moron targeted my vehicle this morning, and when I say targeted, I mean the driver literally aimed at my car. Needless to say, my baby was totaled in a fairly violent collision. I had no fantastic summary of my life flashing before my eyes, instead, all I got was my breath knocked out of me, the thick stench of airbag gases, and approximately 8000 bruises.

Just to add some fun to the wonderful event, I popped open my laptop and what do you know…poof. And my books, well, those were almost completely drenched in the hot chocolate I was taking to school with me. Other than that, things are just fine, thank you.

Update:
Well, I’m quite sore this morning, but everything (my limbs, for example) seems to be working.

The pound was closed, but I managed to snap a picture of the wreckage. I also found my glasses and am trying to recover info off my laptop.

Technology Makes Life Easier

Personal Comment [10]

“Just one more second here…” The professor stood at the podium computer with a puzzled look on his face as the stragglers in the 400-strong course enter the lecture hall.

“I just need to finish setting this up so we can get started…” The students followed the mouse pointer on the massive projected image as if in a daze. They’ve been waiting for about ten minutes while the professor attempted to set up the single most useless piece of technology ever: a radio frequency “clicker”. The idea itself is not bad, students enter the hall click their remote control-type device and their attendance is recorded. Also, the clickers could be used throughout the lecture as polling devices.

Unfortunately, two semesters of ill-fated testing and hours of lost lecture time have made it obvious that the clickers are useless. Perhaps if each student were to enter a shielded vacuum chamber and point a single device directly at a receiver things might work, but otherwise, it’s futile.

As a last resort, the clicker “expert” comes in to tap a few buttons and jiggle a cable before shrugging and leaving. By now, the lecture is almost over and instead of supplementing a fascinating lecture with an interactive quizzing session, we leave with neither.

Studying History

Personal Comment [17]

It is an odd task. Many people cannot understand the point of studying history since it “already happened” and “you can’t prove any of it”, but I have yet to find a field that focuses entirely on future events or a science that is entirely provable.

Extras

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