Greetings from Massachusetts,
This paragraph lists all the excuses I have for not writing. First of all, I've been taking cake decorating classes. Classes are on Monday nights, and there are homework assignments to bring in frosted cakes. I also have dance lessons on Mondays after cake decorating. I've been watching the Sopranos which had been taking up two hours Sunday nights. We also had two snowstorms which disrupted my schedule. Before the last storm, people were buy food and groceries as if they would be snowed in for two weeks. Now for more detail.
Cake decorating is going well. There are three 4-week courses, Wilton I, II, and III. In Wilton I, I was the only man in the class. However, in Wilton II there are two other men taking the class. I have a tool caddy filled with bags and metal tips. I've learned how to bake cakes, make frosting, ice cakes, make roses, sweet peas, leaves, shell borders, frosting clowns and teddy bears, drop flowers, writing, and star fills.
Dance lessons are going okay. I'm working on learning Samba in private lessons on Monday, and on Thursdays I'm taking an intermediate ballroom dance class. Since moving here I've taken West Coast Swing, Ballroom and Hustle lessons. Let me tell you about my former Hustle instructor, Dan Radler. His relative is a Hollywood movie guy who directed the movie, Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option starring Treat Williams and Angie Everhart. It is a terrible movie, lacking any sort of plot coherence. However, it does have a cameo appearance by Dan Radler as an alumnus of a strict military academy (he does a ballroom dances at the officers ball). In real life my former instructor is an extremely effete man who speaks with a lisp. I simply cannot believe him as having graduated from a military academy. What an awful movie.
I've been watching the Sopranos to improve my New Jersey accent. Ever since I was a little kid it has been my greatest wish to be on the Sopranos. I'm waiting for the next open casting call. I've even written up my own character (I play Tony Soprano's cousin, a made man from the old country.)
Apparently, we received a big snowstorm a few weeks ago. It wasn't that big, according to Buffalo standards. Anyway, I had bought this collapsible shovel, but it broke towards the end of the snowstorm. Next year I'm going to buy a real shovel and just keep it in the trunk of my car. In Massachusetts, people do stupid things like drive in snowstorms without enough gas so that their cars get stuck on the turnpike, effectively shutting down the road.
My advice to current CSE students is to pay attention to computer architecture, computer organization, operating systems, and OS internals courses. It is information from these courses that I've found myself needing to recall while at work. Specific topics include process scheduling, mutex and other locks, assembly language, and file systems. Pointers, too. Lots of pointers.
A student has asked me to send them my project source code from a CSE course I took at UB. This project for this year's course is exactly the same as from the year before when I took the class. In fact, this project is the same one as the one for the same course offered two years ago. The instructor has been re-using the same projects year after year, without modification! I'm going to try to do something about this.
Don't have a job yet? At this point last year, after Spring Break, I was in your position, with no job offer and no prospects. I did not receive a formal job offer until the day of Commencement. Do not worry. Many people graduate without a job offer. There is still plenty of time. However, you should be working hard at finding a job and also thinking about your job-search plans for this summer. Go see Melissa Ruggiero if this applies to you.
When the economy gets tough, people go back to school. If you are considering graduate school as an alternative to finding employment, be aware that this year there will be many more competing applicants (I predict).
Thursday, March 29, 2001, from 3:00 - 6:00pm, the Campus-Wide Job Fair will be held in Alumni Arena.
Once again, some of the more notable and/or amusing advertisements from previous weeks' Boston Sunday Globe's "Boston Works" section.
Hmmm... This isn't good. I'm looking at the classifieds right now. Not am I having trouble finding an interesting ad, but there is an article about how "College seniors face cooling job market as graduation nears." I'll keep looking...
Hmmm... Here's one for promotional staff. "Do you think you have what it takes to host a fashion show, emcee a high-profile public relations event, manage a mobile tour throughout the United States, coordinate a trade-show, or manage your own promotional event team? ... pierce promotions and event management is actively seeking promotional models, actors, new and experienced event staff, and health and beauty professionals to train as part-time field staff in Boston." (www.pierceevents.com)
That wasn't very useful. Let me try to find another one. Foxboro (www.foxboro.com) is advertising. They have positions in Software and Hardware Development.
"It's chaotic. It's slightly insane. And it's not at all where I thought I'd end up. BUT IT IS ALL MINE. I always saw myself working in an office. But it turned out like thinking on my feet, doing ten things at once. I like managing a balance sheet impacting a $5 billion company. And I definitely like the potential to earn more money than my friends climbing the corporate ladder. It's a little surprising how much I enjoy it. But Enterprise is a surprising place. They train me. Support me. Reward me when I perform. Yet they let me do it my way, and I've never learned so much in my life." Yes, this is Enterprise Rent-a-car. (www.enterprise.com/careers/)
Wow, Progress Software is holding an open house event at House of Blues in Cambridge. They are bussing candidates in from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and UMass Lowell. There will be demos and prizes including a laptop computer, a Palm Pilot VX, and Bruins/Celtics tickets. I pass by Progress Software on my way home. (www.progress.com)
"Want to work on Disruptive Technology? ... We're building a large-scale computer system specifically designed to meet the demand of the ultra-high bandwidth applications of the future. In fact, our concept is so innovative, it's been described as 'disruptive technology.'" Don't laugh, but they are offering pre-IPO stock options. On the plus side, they are located in Scottsdale, Arizona. (www.xyterra.com)
Octave Communications has been advertising in the paper for the last two weeks. (www.octavecomm.com)
"We are a stable, dot.com company looking for a web developer who can architect and develop, using the 'coolest' technology. If you love the challenge of a 'mission impossible' and enjoy the satisfaction of a 'mission accomplished', then we'd like to hear from you." They are looking for a Senior Web Developer. (www.circles.com)
+++ I'll try to do a better job of responding to my email. If you have any questions about academics, job hunting, or the Boston area, please email me at (bfan2 "at symbol" yahoo "dot symbol" com) and I'll try to answer them.
Until next time,
Ben