The Fourth

I went to Pittsburgh for the 4th of July weekend. We spent 3 nights at Kenzie's mom's house. It was pretty fun. We got to see the old apartment, which strangly enough still had electricity. There was also a lot of mold in the fridge so hopefully I don't lose my security deposit over that, though the rental company, Halsband Properties, is not known for being nice. (I would never recommend them to anyone, though I would not actively speak out against them either).

It's nice being back in NoVA. You can really tell the difference between Pittsburgh's economy and the way things are here. The infrastructure in Pittsburgh is literally crumbling, there are almost no jobs, and the people there don't seem very happy. Quite the opposite here.

Being shifted around at work this week, though should have some stability in about 2 weeks, once everything gets started for my team... I'd rather start working during a dry spell and have time to learn things anyway.

A few unrelated thoughts

Is it possible to be a middle-right libertarian when the government (indirectly) pays you? I'd like to think so. Despite my new job working for a government contractor, at least I can say that when the govt (fed and local) buys our products, they are eliminating waste and probably becoming better governments...

Speaking of work, this current week was my first week with real work. There wasn't too much of it, since I'm still learning the system and my team isn't horribly swamped by work at the moment, but I've been busy enough. All the people I work with are pretty cool, its a very easy-going atmosphere. That came through during the interviews, so I'm glad I wasn't disappointed once I started. I was supposed to get a laptop, but someone ordered developer desktops for us instead...at least they are fast, 2GB of RAM tends to do that.

One of my friends who disappeared for a while got in touch with me yesterday. I think a lot of people have been fucking with his head for the last month and a half. Hopefully he normalizes again... but that's only one possibility with the other being that my friend as I knew him will disappear. That's sad because he's a really good guy too.

I'm going to Pittsburgh this weekend to Kenzie's mom's house for the 4th of July weekend.

Supreme Court to Homeowners: Fuck You

The Supreme Court made another horrible decision today. They voted 5-4 to allow the government to confiscate private homes for almost ANY reason, including private development. This decision is a slap in the face to the intentions our Founding Fathers had when they included the eminent domain clause in the constitution. I'm starting to think that the only justice with a brain is Clarence Thomas, at any rate, he seems to be the only champion of liberty. Scalia also dissented, I'm starting to agree with him more lately. Stevens has become a senile old man, his prior record of upholding the constitution seems to have gone down the toilet, along with all property rights.

My First Week in the Real World

Haven't written anything here in a while, the last week has been pretty hectic. The whole time you are in college is supposed to be preparation for some mystical "real world" that everyone but students is a part of. I'm not sure I really all of that, but if I did this last week would have been my first as a member of the world.

I reported to orientation at 9:30 Monday morning for a day's worth of speeches on topics ranging from the company's past, present and future to a more detailed explanation of the benefits. I already knew most of this stuff, but did my best to be as attentive as possible. Thankfully we had a few breaks along with some food at several points throughout the day. There wasn't anything memorable except at the beginning we had to interview someone sitting near us and introduce that person. The person who interviewed me went first and trying too hard to remember how to say my last name (which he did, a rare accomplishment) he introduced me as "Luke." I corrected him and just about everyone laughed. It was definitely an icebreaker.

I also got to meet my "buddy" who has been with the company for a year or so to help me learn what I'm supposed to do and show me around. I'm on a different floor than most of my team, so I haven't met many people yet besides my boss, a few new hires and various other people.

I've been in training which is never exciting, but its a lot better than going to school (and pays a whole lot more!). The people in my office are all pretty nice, I went out with several of them last night to some bars in DC and met up with my friend Jason from high school who I haven't seen in a few years. I'm relieved that I was able to find people with similar interests within a week instead of having nothing to do for a while...

So far so good.

Supreme Court Fucks Over America(ns)

Today the Supreme Court (6-3) overturned the wishes of voters in almost a dozen states and the doctors of seriously ill people by allowing the federal government to prosecute those using medical marijuana with a doctor's prescription. This is a serious blow to states' rights since it effectively nullifies the wishes of people in states such as California, who voted to allow medicinal marijuana.

Apparently John Paul Stevens is really getting senile. His majority opinion concluded that something grown and smoked in California is "interstate commerce." This line of reasoning is complete bullshit, and even a non-jurist like me can see the faults in their reasoning. At least Justice Thomas, the closest thing to a libertarian on there, dissented. Other than that, unless we the people put pressure on Congress to act on issues like this, everyone will continue being fucked over by the feds.

Goodbye oxidation!

For the first time in my life, I no longer reside in the Rust Belt, my home throughout the beginning of my life and college. Yesterday, Kenzie and I moved to Centreville, VA in Fairfax County. Our apartment is very nice. We no longer have to worry about someone in another apartment flushing the toilet as we shower, scalding us in the process. We have our own full-size washer and dryer and a dishwasher too! The refridgerator was built more recently than 1975 (no joke, Halsband Properties uses those!). But seriously, the Rust Belt is annoying. You hear all sorts of bitching from out of work people, the infrastructure of the cities (i.e. roads in MI and bridges in Pittsburgh) and the whole area is just generally depressing. DC has a pretty stable economy from what I gather, since the Fed never really can go out of business.

We still have a lot of unpacking to do, lots of boxes laying around and such. I am currently using my unknown neighbor's unprotected wireless network to write this, hopefully they don't mind. I'll write more on my first impressions here later...

Don't travel to Indonesia

If the threat of being bombed by a terrorist or drowned in a tsunami wasn't enough to sway your choice of travel destinations away from Indonesia, the possibility of getting 20 years in jail for flying on an airplane just might...

Schapelle Corby, a young Australian female was just sentenced to major jailtime in a third world country for a crime she said she didn't committ. She was found with about 4 keys of weed in her bag upon landing in Indonesia and their lovely third world legal system brushed aside all of the defenses evidence. This evidence included an investigation of Australian baggage handlers putting cocaine into people's bags, inconsistencies with her statement (notably they saying that she admitted guilt with her blaming the translation). Hopefully she'll be allowed to serve her time in Australia; I'd rather die than rot in a jail cell in that part of the world...

Thankfully in this part of the world we are entitled to a trial by jury, not a three judge panel that is probably on everyone's payroll.

I urge anyone reading this to not travel to Indonesia and if you have recently sent any aid checks destined for that hellhole, consider cancelling them. Hopefully the Australian will pull back their aid (even though everyone knows they won't). Since they seem to be proud of their primitive legal system, we all should have let the tsunami set them further back into the stoneage.

On the road

Technology sure is wonderful! I'm writing this using the free Wi-Fi at PIT. As far as I know the only airport to provide this service without a fee unlike the bastards at MSP and others. I'm on my way to Chicago-Midway flying Southwest (for the first time). The good news was the ticket was only $40 with tax.

As I wrote about earlier, the TSA banned lighters in all baggage. Here's a method I've heard of people using that **may** work at getting lighters through security. Put two of them well hidden in your bag, if they detect it they will only probably see one of them. You give them that lighter and the idiots won't re-scan your bag, so you'll have one at your destination. Not that I'd ever try doing this... Or you could just bring 2 books of matches, which is totally legal.

Episode 3

Saw the new Star Wars flick tonight, the Revenge of the Sith. Not a bad movie by any means, except by that core bit of cinema we call acting. Special effects galore, a do-able transition between the prequel universe and the "original" universe, and the makings of Darth Vader. I must say that the Dark Side of the force looks cool, if it existed I'd no doubt be a master of it, screw those pussy Jedis, they all die anyway. Sorry if that spoiled it for any of you, but if you've seen the first three (oops, I mean the last three) episodes, you already know what's going to happen in this one. There's been a lot of talk on how violent this movie is. That may be true compared to the rest of the saga, but hacking up robots just doesn't seem violent to me; must be all the TV. I recommend this movie to anyone who has ever seen a Star Wars movie. It's definitely not as good as The Empire Strikes Back (my favorite), A New Hope, but might edge out Return of the Jedi.

When Magazines Kill

It seems that Newsweek is in a bit of trouble. The news magazine had a snippet in its May 9th issue describing the desecration of the Quran at GITMO. While I see nothing wrong with flushing the Quran, or any other religious text down the toilet (I actually support the practice as part of a greater "War on Stupidity") it seems that some Muslims disagreed and decided to riot and kill each other in Afghanistan.

Now Newsweek says it fucked up and that it can't confirm that what it printed was the truth.

I think that Newsweek's credibility is about to go in the same direction as Dan Rather's, although at least he never got anyone killed. I can't remember another instance of a news source publishing a false story directly contributing to deaths, but I'm sure that's happened before. Until we hear more about this, I'll stick with Time.

An Alum At Last

Yesterday, May 15 was CMU's graduation and I was one of the many receiving my Bachelor's Degree. There were two different ceremonies, a graduation for the entire university and the diploma ceremony for my school (Tepper School of Business). They were both filled with speeches. Some were good, some went on too long, and others were odd. As with any graduation it was pretty boring. It hasn't really hit me that's it all over, but I've said some good-byes to friends and that's not easy. I've met a lot of good people here who I hope to keep as friends for the rest of my life, though I'm sure I'll lose touch with some. I don't really have anything planned for this week until the latter part, but more on that later...

A few of my friends remain here for a while, so I will have some people to hang out with. Of course, Kenzie will also be here which is the best part.

What a relief!!!

I had a lot of trouble sleeping this past night, nervous about the grades that would be visible in the morning. Nervous because whether I graduated with honors depended on a class whose grade was unknown to me, but could have been very bad. I was able to find out my grade about 90 minutes early by checking a system that updated before the main one for viewing grades. That class didn't end up with an A, but it was good enough to leave with with a 3.52 QPA overall, guaranteeing the honors! If I had gotten 1 B instead of an A during the entire time I was at CMU, I would have had a 3.494, losing the honors. I'm so relieved now!!! Tired too, so I'll take a nap.

CMU VI

I moved off campus junior year, to 300 craft avenue in south oakland. Rooming with my good friend Carlos. I love living off campus... I don't like being in the CMU environment 24/7 and there's also privacy and no bedroom sharing. The downside was I skipped more classes. Sure I have a bus pass, but who wants to use that when you have a car. Cars and CMU don't get along too well though, parking is at least 50 cents per hour, you have to make sure you have tons of quarters for the meters, and it can take up to 45 minutes to find a spot. The classes junior year were slightly more challenging but I actually felt like I was learning business which was a good thing. I also ended my relationship with CMU solutions, a business club I helped start up (but that's a whole other story). Junior year ended and I stayed here all summer, unable to find an internship.

Freedom Loses

An $82 billion dollar war spending bill was approved unanimously in the senate today. It contains the Real-ID act which kills our civil liberties. Soon enough we could find ourselves going through a checkpoint between, say, Ohio and Michigan and be asked "can I see your papers please."

This sucks.

CMU V

The last two posts on CMU didn't really follow the first two, but this one does...

Sophomore year was a pretty good year, I lived off campus at the run-down Cathedral Mansion apartments at an apartment rented through campus housing. The first half wasn't very memorable.

In January I finally brought my car here which helped a lot. I could finally go places, explore the city, and easily buy groceries. Got my first parking ticket within a few days too!!! In the second semester I had more "real" business classes which I was glad to finally begin taking since that is my major. They were alright. Business Communications caused a lot of headaches and Organizational Behavior had a lot of group projects.

The best part of sophomore year was at the end when I met the love of my life, Kenzie! I met her near the end of the semester but it was pretty obvious that we really liked each other so I made plans to stay in Pittsburgh for the summer. I took an ethics class which was interesting, but not really useful. The summer was relaxing and some of my good friends were also here. About two weeks before school started again Kenzie and I took our first vacation together to Niagara Falls. It was really fun and there are lots of good memories from it.

Next entry: Junior year.