Robots Don’t Sleep

This isn’t exactly news, but regardless, I am very excited. Please bear with me.

I am well aware that this may not mean anything to anyone that may read this blog, but I have something special to announce. I have waited at least a month to say this, but I am very excited to announce that in less than 2 weeks, I will be making a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! I was lucky enough to receive a free ticket to MIX, a Microsoft conference that has a strong focus on the correlation between current internet technologies and design. The talks are presented by very high-profile speakers in the industry, and I actually follow a lot of these guys on twitter, or I subscribe to their blogs on Google Reader.

The code that I write is lagely inspired by the things that these people write! I know it’s super nerdy but c’mon!

I am not only excited to make my first trip to the real Vegas, but I am really looking forward to the chance to network with some of these bigwigs in the industry. I can’t believe that this opportunity just fell in my lap out of nowhere. At the same time, however, I am extremely humbled at the fact that I will be representing my company (along with my CEO and boss) at such a huge technology event. I have even considered entering in a Rock Band competition.

Besides the fact that I haven’t worked with very many web-based technologies as of late, I still believe that I have an interest in where a lot of the current trends are going. For example, I have been doing Silverlight 2 work on and off, as well as giving talks at SoCal Code Camps and participating in Silverlight labs in Irvine. Most of the talks that I am planning on attending are either Silverlight 3 or Expression Blend related, and I have been advocating on the behalf of Silverlight almost nonstop since it was released a few months ago.

It’s time to switch to the dark side, Actionscript Nazis!

Wow… haha. But seriously, all joking aside, I think that this year’s MIX Conference will be extremely rewarding and I’m very lucky to be given the chance to attend such an event so early on in my career.  To make this blog post that much more boring, here are some of the sessions that I am planning on attending:

• What’s New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Integrating Microsoft Expression Blend with Adobe Creative Suite
• How’d they do it?  Real App.  Real Code.  Two Weeks.  Nothing but .NET (Scott Hanselman!!!)
• From Concept to Production: Microsoft Expression Blend
• User Experience Design Patterns for Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Consuming Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Deep Zoom++ : Build Dynamic Deep Zoom application with Open Source
• Touch and Gesture Computing, What You Haven’t Heard (Joseph Fletcher!!!)

I’d like to add that almost all my former classmates from school do web-based work with their companies, while I have done hardly any web-based work so far at all.

So… yeah, it’ll be nice to rub it in their faces when I get to meet a lot of these famous Microsoft people face-to-face.

Haaaaah, it’ll be great.

Well, I’m officially DONE with school. I now have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and I am so relieved that it’s over. I know it’s been awhile since I posted last, but I’m probably going to be moving to a new blog soon. I’ll get WordPress set up and finally buy a domain. I’m thinking probably www.robotsdontsleep.net or … does anyone have any other suggestions?

Also, I have been living in California now for about a week. I just started my new job on Monday and I couldn’t be more excited. I am doing some awesome work and I’m convinced that this is pretty much my dream job. Everything is just going perfect. If only I could get back into shape… Grr… I joined a gym today and I signed up for 3 personal trainer appointments. Hopefully if I’m paying for this damn membership I can get my ass to the gym every day. I really want to go to the beach. I’ve also been watching a ton of Arrested Development lately. God I love that show.

Wayne Jarvis: I spoke with GOB. He appears to know nothing.
Michael Bluth: Yeah, that’s not an act. He’s twice tried to microwave a Ding Dong while it was still in its foil… twice.
Wayne Jarvis: Twice?
Michael: Two times.

Lastly, I just wanted everyone to check out the new neude.net/. It has an entirely new format and I think it’s actually going to succeed. Before, it had kind of reached a niche among Neumont students/alumni/potential students, but I think with this new format it will have a much broader variety of readers. I’m probably going to be contributing to it soon, so check it out. Subscribe to its rss feed if you want.

As always, this is where I promise I am going to write more often. I’m hoping this time I keep that promise.

It’s getting close… I will be graduating from Neumont University in less than 6 weeks. However, our graduation ceremony is actually this coming Friday. I’m really excited about having my parents in town, but we’ll see how well our house can hold as many people as are going to be here.

Michael: Will they throw their hats, you think?
Ryan: What?
Michael: A lot of times, at a school, or naval academy, after a rousing speech, the crowd would throw its hats high into the air.
Ryan: You understand nobody’s graduating?

Because graduation is coming up so quickly, I have been working hard on trying to secure a job before I’m out of school. I’ve updated my resume, thrown it online, and am fielding off dozens of calls from company recruiters that scour Monster and Dice daily. We’ll see how this all plays out. I have interviews pretty much all next week, and I’m looking at applying at some companies that are not a part of our Career Week. I’m really hoping that I can find a job somewhere outside of Salt Lake, but if it comes down to it, I won’t be entirely disappointed if I have to settle here for a few years. Also, I bought a suit! Finally.

Of course, now is the perfect time to get sick. I came down with a sinus infection on Sunday, and have been feeling like crap all week. Hopefully I will get over it by next week for interviews and graduation.

On the political front, I was really disappointed when Obama lost Pennsylvania. It wasn’t entirely surprising, though, seeing that Hillary’s campaign spent its entire time in Pennsylvania mudslinging. I’m so sick of these non-issues that keep coming up and dominating the media. I don’t give a fuck about Reverend Wright, or Obama’s bowling score, or the “bitter” comments. I am just waiting til the day in the near future when I wake up and read that Hillary has finally thrown in the towel. She’s been done for awhile, and everyone has been calling for her to drop out of the race for months.

It’s already May. Holy crap where has time gone?

Michael: May your hats fly as high as your dreams.