that is the equivalent of sticking a dolphin into a toilet instead of the ocean.

Just real quick, before I go to bed, I wanted to share this with you all:

This was my summer.

Nearly 8,000 miles not including stops, getting lost, or detours to the world famous Corn Palace.

Spending 20 days on the road,
Crashing in like 7 hotels, 3 National parks, 2 relatives’ places, 2 friends’ places.
Something like 30 major cities, with tons in between.

Seeing Chicago, Omaha, Rapid City, Denver, Salt Lake City, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Mountain View, San Jose, Ridgecrest, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Studio City, Universal City, Laguna, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, San Clemente, Costa Mesa, Albuquerque, Roswell, Carlsbad, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Nashville, Atlantic City, and State College, not to mention tons of little towns in between.

Eating Chicago Pizza, Drinking Omaha Microbrews, Driving in the cloudy Mt. Rushmore weather, Getting stuck in tourist traps that brainwash you, hanging out in the garden of the gods, climbing pike’s peak, viewing vast amounts of nothingness, witnessing the great salt lake, marveling at Yosemite national park, driving through san francisco, shopping on Haight st, trampling through the mojave desert, bordering death valley, spending the day amongst the great sequoias, hiking around the joshua trees, attempting to surf the pacific, longboarding every day, spending 2 months in long beach, frequently shopping and skating beverly hills, meeting amazing californian people, learning as much about southern california as possible, cruising the real route 66, hunting aliens and surviving storms outside Roswell, pissing off cops in Texas, crashing their parks at 5am, doing the whole bourbon street thing, beers and music in nashville, Braving DC/Baltimore/Philly Traffic, Casinos in Atlantic city, Having my feet in two oceans within a week of eachother, and making all back in one piece to good old State College. Seriously, that’s about as short as I can put it, and there’s a whole lot of stuff in between all that…

I love summertime, With the way things have been going, I’ve got one hell of an adventure to top.

How was yours? =)

Decided to take a break from the screaming children tonight. Some people say that here has some bad areas, being out alone at night in a place like this could have consequences. Maybe I stick to the right areas, maybe those people exaggerate. Doesn’t matter. Short sleeves, short pants, short socks, long board.

It’s been awhile. I rolled my ankle the last time I was out, and have been dealing with murmurings of a shin-splint on my pushing leg. Doesn’t matter. I’m ground-floor.

The ipod’s been broken for weeks. Abstract art from freed(!) liquid crystals. Doesn’t matter. I know how to feel it out, at least enough to get it to shuffle. Tonight’s shuffle was beautiful and appropriate for my first night boarding in awhile. Fate can be fun like that, in the way that presents you with slow solitary piano, delicious post-rock and the illest of hip hop at just the right moment.

It feels good to be on the streets, I’m not planning a big ride (haha I never do but they happen often) and I know the smoothest pavement near my place. Shaking the dust off of these creaky bones happens faster than I expect. It didn’t matter.

The streets are mostly empty, and the sky is perfect. Palm trees and powerlines silhouetted against the gradient of a subduing sky and the light pollution (and I do me pollution) of the bustle that surrounds these neighborhoods. I guess that doesn’t matter much, either. Blacker still is the asphalt, and I’m happy

It’s fun to feel like a kid in your twenties. Slaloming the paint on the street, taking big corners down low, hitting the banks, attempting (and failing) tricks. If this place had hills I wouldn’t be home yet. Everything’s smooth and quiet, these streets belong to me. This is my place in the world.

Cruising at about 15, I stretch as tall as I can go. Sometimes it’s upsetting to think that I’ll be moving away from everything I grew up with. Sometimes it’s upsetting to think the opposite. But there’s a lot of roads out there, and I’m not going to be on this planet nearly as long as I’d like to be. But this sense of movement, of freedom, of fresh new experiences, that’s a constant I can live with. I’ve made it this far, I want to keep going. These are the things I think about when carving the concrete at night, as the rest of the world doesn’t matter for a bit.

You’ve got to work in teams, or at least you’ve got to work with the idea that someone OTHER THAN YOURSELF is going to be working with your code at some point. I’m sure there are some people out there developing some crazy proprietary stuff that will never release their code to anyone but the client.

I haven’t blogged in a bit, but today’s boiled my blood enough that I kind of had to.

If you don’t code, just wait for my next post.

And without further ado: Danny Iachini, since you’re the only one in the intersection of “reads my blog” and “codes a lot” (at least that’s apparent to me)

—

So I’m doing this project that was made awhile ago by some guy I’ve never met (thank goodness) and I’ve been plenty mouthy about my issues with this project. It’s a management system for a global company to keep track of their products and statuses and servicing and stuff like that. It also includes an RMA system. I inherited most of the code, which is script-based, and went to work patching things up and adding a few little functions here and there.

Sadly, no two coders are alike, but I think that most coders have common ideas about what is efficient, scalable, and elegant. I am working with code that is none of these things.

1. First off my number one problem with this code, is the goddamn whitespace. For any non-coders reading this, whitespace is sort of like indenting your paragraphs in a word document. it makes it easy to read, easy to see where paragraphs start and end, and you’re quickly able to see the details when browsing quickly. Whitespace is a programmers best friend. This guy doesn’t use it. No tabbing inward, although sometimes random spaces are thrown in to sort of emulate the idea of whitespace without it being consistant at all.
2. Now, I don’t know if this is a valid complaint, but I’ve always coded php using echos. So, in other words, I echo out what I need in the dynamic parts of the page, interrupting strings to concatenate variables into it where they’re needed. This means that I’ve got solid blocks of PHP embedded in whatever other code I’m working with. This guy does the opposite. He interrupts a huge big list of html (that all gets processed by the server) with multiple sets of php-openers and closers for things like end-brackets and if-statements. ugh. Not only does this make it ugly, segmented, and longer/more taxing than necessary, but coupled with the lack of whitespace, i have NO clue where one function will end and another begins. It’s horrid.
3. This guy’s variable names are full of capital letters, underscores, and all sorts of other fun crap that I have to hit the shift-key for. Thanks for taking up my time because you want to be extra accurate in naming this column Product_Name instead of simply productname.
4. The database. Ugh, I don’t even want to get into it. There’s more redundancy per table than I’ve seen anywhere lately. A good example is in the RMA system. There are flags for steps of the RMA (it being received, investigated, and returned), as well as dates for when these processes were completed. What I don’t get is why the flags need to be there. It’s an extra set of columns in the table used for determining if something had been done yet. YET you could just as easily have a script investigate that for you just by testing to see if the cell is empty or not. That’s just one example. There’s tons.
5. Error messages are passed through request variables in the URL. When’s the last time you were ever at http://a-site.com/?I’m sorry you can’t view this page because you’re not logged in. ?? ugh.
6. I don’t know the previous author’s grudge with more than one file, seeing as every file has about 1000 lines of crap that could easily be split into function-specific files. Instead of edit_products.php, why not just have edit_product1, edit_product 2, and so on…

Well that’s it. I’m done ranting. I feel better now.

Oh yeah there are california videos and stuff if you can find them

I was informed yesterday that we’re stopping to see Mt. Rushmore after Omaha. =D

Also I’m going to try to blog from the road, and expect my youtube account to finally host something other than a video of my roommate stealing a plastic dolphin and the outtakes from our hit high-school commercial, “Trout Yogurt”. I hope my little point-and-shoot will be enough to make a documentary if I upload videos after each night.

HOORAY.

Oh, hell yeah.

Itinerary

• 19.May: Cranberry Township, PA. – Chicago, IL
• 20.May: Chicago, IL, – Omaha NE.
• 21.May: Omaha, NE, – Colorado Springs, CO
• 22.May-25.May: Chill in Colorado Springs
• 25.May: Colorado Springs, – Salt Lake City, UT
• 26.May: Salt Lake City, UT, – Reno, NV
• 27.May: Reno, NV, – Santa Clara, CA
• 28.May-1.June: Chill in Santa Clara
• 1.June: Santa Clara, CA – Long Beach, CA

4-1-1

• Distance: ~3,290 miles
• Participants: 3 of my best friends
• Duration: 12 Days

I smell something life-changing.

Ugh, I just had to make a rough choice. This one will be fun to look at later in life, I think.

Two offers. Two great offers. It would have been so much less stressful if I only got one, but I got two, so be it.

Offer #1

• With: The Honeywell Corporation
• Location: Bangalore, India
• Perks: I mean, it’s INDIA, Flight covered, housing covered, reasonable stipend on top.
• Job Description: Development of a control system platform for industrial applications — setting up the whole system, and then running user-experience tests on the mockups and prototypes we’d make.
• Number of coworkers: 6,000 (team of 4 or 5)
• The Scoop: Honeywell is huge, which means I’d have a ton of resources at my disposal, and that oh-so-cohesive gooey corporate communication, with people who are actually reliable . I’d be doing work that I enjoy, fresh in my mind and applied from my course load this semester in something I feel I want to work with in the future. It also presents the chance to participate in the engineering process, applying some heavy compsci, and satisfying my thirst for details and technicality. In my free time I’d get to explore India, a beautiful land with a great new culture (we all know how much I love that). And to boot, I’d be there with 3 other IST students, two of whom I’ve known for years now. Awesome.

Offer #2

• With: Ventura Marketing, Inc.
• Location: Long Beach, California
• Perks: Housing covered, Long beach is great, good stipend.
• Job Description: Doing web development for numerous sites. Databases, scripting, graphics, etc.
• Number of Coworkers: 10
• The scoop: Working for a small Cali-based startup, flexing my creative muscles and doing small degrees of user-experience engineering. It gives me the chance to be a be a bigger member of the design community, I’ll be able to really sharpen my skills, and I’ll have a visible impact on the workings of a company that deals in my paradigm: the web.

So which did I pick?

It wasn’t easy. By far one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. I went for California. After getting council from as many people as I could, I realized that it was important for me to start plugging myself into the west coast technology scene. I’ve been abroad, I’ve done international work, and as much as I want to see India, and as great as I think I’d do at setting up that platform and studying how usable it is, it’s a process I am capable of, I already know that. Working as a designer not only exposes me to the “real”, or “professional” version of what I’ve been doing on my own, but it’s going to challenge me, I’m going to grow, and I’m going to network. Working in a web firm is going to help me get a web job, or at least I hope. People have always said that I belong in California, and I’ve had an inkling to believe them, and this is a good chance to see if the west coast is really for me.

I really wish I could have done both. Honeywell’s an amazing machine. I met one of the senior VPs last friday, as well as people that have been working in Bangalore both on and off my project. The people there breathe professionalism and skill. They’re some of the top people in the world for their respective jobs, and I am honored that they picked me for this internship, and I’m deeply sorry that I can’t be in more than one place at a time. I hope I made the right choice.

Monday: Woke up early to print out programs for the IST night of honors. Failed at that, skipped a class, got them printed, found out that there was a mistake on them, had to print another batch (wasted money due to me hooray), worked on an award for the dean. Skipped another class due to the print-shop’s closing time, ran out to get a frame, put on suit, went to event, pitched in a little afterwards, got home, attempted to watch Lost, passed out.

Monday’s Perk: Sheer exhaustion forcing me to bed early.

Tusday: Woke up wonderfully refreshed, class, home at 1, 1 – 4 spent cleaning apartment (mine) and washing dishes (not mine), tried to grab a shower, late to class. 1 hour break of attempting to accomplish work on prototyping, more class til 745, baked casserole (ingredients were going bad), more correspondence, gave up and went out at midnight to try and unwind (nothing crazy, have some faith, folks.)

Tuesday’s perk: Casserole.

Wednesday: Woke up for 7am phone session with people in india. Attempted to get more sleep, went to class, did the TI thing, set up shop in IST for working on stuff until 3, helped the FutureForum committee, got home from IST around 6, went to SOMA meeting. Won presidency, got home and worked on German. Went to bed early with hopes of working on German in the morning.

Wednesday’s Perk: SOMA presidency, Good news concerning my startup.

Thursday (so far): Woke up. Bombed German presentation. Came home, further self-loathing,
Thursday (now): Just enough time to do a homework assignment and blog this between classes, nothing else.
Thursday (projected): Helping futureforum crew at 3:30 to 4:15. 4:15 class. Break from 5:30 to 6:30 where I frantically scrape more prototypes together. 6:30 class, quiz which I am not prepared for, 7:45 group meeting for a semester project that I don’t have time to work on by myself that my group hasn’t done things on, 9pm game thing for IST that i’m contemplating skipping.

Thursdays Perk: None. I give up.

Friday (projected): Early wakeup for 7am Futureforum setup. Event all day. Reception afterwards. Home at maybe 7 or 8. Freedom, provided I haven’t found a good bus to throw myself in front of or a nice toaster to take a bath with.

Friday’s Perk: Free food since I’m out at home.

People I am neglecting as of late: two web-development clients, my partner in business, myself.

Things I wish I had time to do: Shop for food, do laundry, finish the cleaning i started on tuesday, read the book i’m supposed to read for class, read a book I started in February and haven’t been able to get anywhere in, do development work for my neglected clientele, update my personal portfolio, continue photoblog development, put more time into SOMA, the list goes on.

it’s all just puzzle pieces. I wonder where my soul went. I’m sorry everybody.

So glad to be leaving this for awhile.

Doing some thinking lately. Perusing.

Immanuel Kant once wrote

“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

In normal English, this means that we should act as if the reasoning for our actions would become human nature — we should act as role models, even though we aren’t.

Another thing I’ve been wrapped up in has been Nietzsche’s note, “The Greatest Weight”. Here it is:

What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!”

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: “You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!” If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are, or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, “Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?” would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight! Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?

So, let’s recap.

1. Listen to Brecht (a few posts back) and take in life as much as you can. It’s short and needs to be valued.
2. Listen to Kant and make sure that the reasons behind your actions are ones that you would find acceptable or agreeable, were other people to d them.
3. Listen to Nietzsche and consider the greatest weight before committing and action. Would you be willing to experience it over and over again?
4. Apply a little Nietzsche and Brecht and continue to try and experience events that would make your life worth living over and over again for all eternity. It’s those moments that make our lives valuable.
5. There’s a ton of stuff I could say here from the Dalai Lama and how being selfless and compassionate not only fits in with the previous, but I really don’t have time to write a novel

Bit of a rando post, but I figured it’d be fun to share. I’ve been thinking a lot lately, it’s nice to jot this stuff down.

If you’ve got suggestions for good pieces of philosophy to read, there’s the comments section.

Today is honestly my third favorite holiday of the year. Right after Christmas and Thanksgiving. Laugh if you must, but Daylight Savings Time is a yearly major improvement of the quality of my life. An extra hour of daylight (that would have been missed while I slept) and increasing temperatures is just what I need after a long, nasty, depressing winter.

There were a few days this week where it was warm and the snow melted. I wore flip-flops, refused my jacket, and really enjoyed myself. Sadly, last night decided to get ugly and snowy, but this doesn’t destroy my hope. Spring will always win in the end.

Spring and Summer are by far the best seasons for me. It’s nice to have changing leaves in the fall, but after a few weeks (including the dropping temperatures) I am quite fed up with it. Winter always hits me delightfully. I love the first snow. Then I hate the subsequent months of it. I think this is why I like Spring so much. It takes away the general gloom of post-first-snow-novelty-slush/snow/darkness.

Here are some things I’ll be looking forward to in the coming months:

• Not having my car door freeze shut on me: Last night I had to ice skate back to my car, climb in through the passenger side, and brave a drive home that could lightly be called “dangerous”.
• Warmer temperatures in general: Not having to bundle up every time I want to go downtown brings a lovely sense of freedom.
• Light past 6pm: The sun’s working a little more with my schedule finally.
• Vegetation: This is a big one. Plant life coming back is really uplifting. It makes being outside enjoyable
• Fireflies: The Pennsylvania state insect is the Pennsylvania Firefly (“Lightning bugs”). When these guys come out, it makes a night in the spring or summer simply awesome. I always get mad when people squish them.
• Shoes become non-compulsory.
• Outdoor naps become acceptable again.
• The Blue Loop (campus bus) won’t always be full because people don’t want to walk in the cold. And even if it is, who cares, it’s nice out anyways.
• Rain will be enjoyable instead of bone-chilling.
• Thunderstorms will return to be watched.
• Stargazing becomes a possibility for a night’s activity.
• My birthday will happen (and all the subsequent madness of turning 21 at PSU)
• Outdoor activities (hiking, frisbee, barbecues, sunbathing, etc.)
• Fewer instances of Raynaud’s Phenominon: I have this circulatory weirdness when my hands are exposed to cold temperatures. The second they start to warm up, the blood vessels in my fingers constrict and my hands change colors a few times and it really kind of hurts. It’s a minor annoyance but an annoyance nonetheless and the only time it happens during Spring is if I hold a cold drink for too long. So, yeah. woo woo.

K, so that’s all I could come up with right now. I’m pumped for this Spring business to be happening.