LeeMobile

Going Going Gone!

Well folks, I’m heading on out onto the road to California in 4 hours.  Hopefully I’ll make it back safe and sound after two weeks, and give an all out report on this crazy trip of mine.

Until then!

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DoneXor!

Today I wrote my final exam for the term… and I feel relieved.  Yes, this means that as I write this I’ve had a few beers in me and am enjoying the sweet feeling of freedom.

Really, my marks are in the air and there’s not much else that I can do about it.  However, my prof told me some good news today before writing my Software Architecture final.  First, that poker project that I’ve been furiously working on all term, the tuxpoker project, is ranked first for the projects in the class.  I’m relieved quite a bit by this because I was unsure of how well it would’ve had scored, considering it’s not completely error-proof.  Though I did plead with the prof before he graded the projects to take into consideration the complexity of our project.

Among the projects, ours was the most complex because it involved a lot of network programming and a heavy GUI graphical component.  So I’m pretty happy we were all able to pull through on this.

Secondly, after all the marks have been tallied in, including the project, I went into the final exam with the highest mark in the class.  I’m pretty stoked because in previous years I haven’t really put an effort into University, I just kind of took it for granted as the “next step to high school”.  Although my marks haven’t been bad, they just weren’t excellent from my lack of commitment.  Coming back from my internship I have felt revitalized to finish my academics strongly, and I’m glad that my effort has returned some result.  The final is worth 25% of my final mark, and I hope I did decently to pull through for a nice grade.

Now, I have to worry about packing for Ottawa, California, and to just visit some friendly faces I haven’t seen since I got back.  I feel floaty

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In other tech news, I believe Google world domination has started to commence.  In 2004 I worked in the summer with 2 other guys at a start-up called BugByte (www.bugbyte.ca).  We developed a commercial scheduling application, where people can schedule their meetings, and also have their secretaries schedule things too.  Apparently, Google has implemented a similar application but on a web-based version.  Sigh…

Check out Google Calendar, it is tres cool.

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Lee is Mobile

So I found out through a friend that my blog wasn’t working in Internet Explorer.  That bothers me on so many levels, mostly because it frustrates me in understanding how a massive corporation like Microsoft can’t implmement a web-browser properly.  Use FireFox people!  It’s so much better for so many reasons.

There’s a nice post that I guess only got out to half the people out there, so scroll past this one if you haven’t read Chelsy’s poem.  It’s quite nice.

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Yes, I am mobile… I finally have my license.  I almost scored perfectly on the road test except I got a minor deduction for not attempting to pay more attention when backing out.  I was damnit!   Oh well, I’ve got it nonetheless.  Looks like I’m all clear for the trip in terms of driving!  Booyah.

Edmonton drivers beware… I’m on the road now :-p

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The University of Alberta competed in the ACM world finals and they’ve done incredibly well.  The ACM is a programming competition where universities across the world send their best programming team to compete against each other.  My school finished top out of all the other Canadian universities that competed, and placed second to MIT in North America.

Overall the school placed 11th, which is a really strong standing.  Saratov State University took the world by surprise by finishing first.  Those crazy Russians!
http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/Finals 

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A Farewell

Today I attended Chelsy’s funeral. It was the first funeral I’ve ever attended, but I think the service was exceptionally beautiful. It was directed more towards celebrating her life than mourning our loss. I had failed to realize the extend of how active she was her pursuits to “save the world”. Also, there were many that showed up for her service. She was so vibrant, charismatic, and warm to be around that it wasn’t surprising to see how many friends she had.

It was uplifting to reflect on her life there, because she did what she believed to be right even if it wasn’t easy or practical. Debating with her is hard, because a lot of the time you know deep down she’s right and that I rationalize a lot of cop-outs. There is a point in our morality when we feed ourselves lies, or morsels of denial, to rationalize our actions, and she really had very few of those points. Going to the service really helped me realize that I do this quite a lot, and though it is “practical” and done often, it doesn’t make it right.

I know I’ve always had ideas of stepping away from my career and working to help others, and I think today helped me revisit those ideas. I can’t drop everything right now, but I’m gonna steer myself more in that direction. I mean, really… writing computer code will help pay the bills but it won’t really make a difference that I value. She had the courage to do what she was passionate about, maybe I’ll find that someday too.

She was brilliant at a lot of things, and writing was one her many talents. She wrote this for her high school graduation, entitled “A Farewell”, and I think it is really fitting:

“I say farewell for the final time. Final… how abstract, how surreal that concept is to grasp. How can I imagine an end to all of this? It comes too soon, it comes too fast. How odd it seems to say goodbye, to so many people, so many experiences in but one single moment. How strange it is to sum up all of the emotions I feel at this instant with one single word. To give each memory of reminiscence and appreciation it deserves would take too much time, prolong the inevitable – but perhaps that is the point. If a farewell encompasses every treasured memory, every amusing conversation, every feeling of love and pain and regret and healing, perhaps they wouldn’t be as painful as they are. For it is what the ‘farewell’ is lacking, what it fails to express, that is the most painful and aggravating thing, at least to me. I do not look forward to ‘farewell’s’, for I always know that there will be something left unsaid, that there will be emotions and thoughts that will never be revealed because of the feeling of awkwardness that always accompanies the telling of deep emotions. And so I’ll bid you all a farewell, and hope that through some mysterious way, you’ll all understand the way I feel towards each of you, and hear the words I’d meant to say.”

-Chelsy Shillington, 2000

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Welcome!

I realize this isn’t the first post, but I should have a welcome post to “restart” my blogging.  This is the new home of my blog, and I hope it’ll be the source of my mundane driveling for many.

For reference, my old poorly written blog can be found here: http://spaces.msn.com/leemobile

I can’t promise better content or something not mundane, but perhaps this one is a little less of an eye-sore?

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Anyways, back to mundane news!

Planning for Lee’s extreme California adventure has started.  Some more destinations that we’re planning to hit up are:

• Yellowstone National Park
• San Diego Zoo
• Disney’s California Adventure (I think that’s what it’s called, it is also separate from “DisneyLand”)
• Californian Beaches (Possibly?  Maybe Malibu?)
• Camping in the RedWood Forests.
• Seattle!
• The Okananogan in BC
• Banff (I’ve gotta see the Rockies at least once this summer)

Of course, the highlight will be the much anticipated Coachella music festival.  Expect a massive multi-part trip blog when I return, as I’m sure there’ll be tons of photos and stories to share.  Also, any requests for funny photos I’ll take into consideration.

I think I’m going to try and get a photo of myself posing with all the female characters in Disney (perhaps with shocker pose).  We’ll see :-p

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My first day of Statistics Canada in Ottawa starts May 15th.  Which makes my California trip a bit tight, but it’ll be over 2 weeks so it should be long enough.  Ash has reservations about me moving in with her, and she’s right for the most part.  Moving in with the ex-girlfriend would create too much drama.

I’ll be living with my buddy Frank possibly, or Anne-Marie.  I haven’t hashed out any details yet, but it looks like it’ll be either of the two.  My summer in Ottawa will probably be low-key compared to summer here in Edmonton, but I’m looking forward to at least seeing the Montreal Jazz Festival.  Yes… I didn’t see it when I was there on internship, and I’m a fool for not seeing it.  So I should at least make up for it this time around (and yea, maybe taking a tour of Parliament might be handy too).

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All this is in the future, as I’m swamped learning for finals.  Learning?  Yes, when you try to understand new concepts for the first time it’s called learning and not studying.  I don’t know why I always do this to myself every semester, but it seems like it can’t be avoided.  I’m getting old, cramming isn’t what it used to be.  Wish me luck on my finals!

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For Chelsy

I found out yesterday that a friend of mine, Chelsy, passed away in a car accident in BC. She’s the same Chelsy that I’ve mentioned in my blogs previously.

I’m not sure how I feel right now, but I know I’m deeply saddened to hear this. I feel that the world loses someone special with this news. I don’t say that lightly, because she had a true activist’s spirit. It’s hard to find people who are genuinely compassionate towards the plight of others, yet at the same time avoid being naiive. She embodied a lot of the qualities of wisdom and compassion that I wish I have.

I really think she would have done great things in the world. She just finished her degree in Environmental Conservation. She was also socially aware and I remember attending a lot of events to expand social awareness. She was also never one to shy away from volunteering her time.

I’ve never would have thought that I would have to deal with the death of a friend at the age of 22, but that is simply life. I think it’s a refresher for me, to remember that death is completely unpredictable and that we will eventually have to face it. It’s cliché, yes, but life is short and we should learn to cherish whatever time we have. We could say that thinking about death is morbid, and that we should avoid it until it comes, but I think that’s always unhealthy because it is a part of life as much as anything else is.

She has moved me in many ways, and I thank her for it. I hope she’s well wherever she is. I’ll miss her.

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