It's easy to tell when the career fair is going on: double or triple the usual amount of traffic, hundreds of students dressed in suits, and an overwhelming sense of arrogance.
This is what always turned me off about the career fair - all of a sudden, I would see people in my classes that I had NEVER seen before, not even on the first day. Maybe my memory was fuzzy, maybe I was having trouble matching the mental image with the showered, gelled, and sharply dressed dickhead sitting next to me. (Oh, and I don't like your cologne. Neither do the other 30 people in this room.)
Do these people really have hopes of landing a job with IBM, Microsoft, or Apple? Classes certainly aren't everything, but there is some correlation here.
If there's one thing I regret about my dislike of the career fair, it's not making more of an effort to get a summer internship. This is one thing Joel on Software has touched on recently. Granted, I worked at a programming job all through college, but I don't think it brought the same opportunities an internship would have.
This isn't something I normally think about, but when it comes up I get annoyed.
You're out with a friend; let's call him or her Person A. Another friend, coworker, or acquaintance of yours walks by; let's call him or her Person B. You start talking with Person B without introducing Persons A and B.
I don't know what it is, but a simple introduction makes the difference between Persons A and B standing there feeling awkward and Persons A and B being comfortable with talking.
There are two reasons why you might not introduce Persons A and B:
I think that, as a rule, you should introduce people at least twice. The first time, you can provide a formal introduction: "Person B, this is Person A. He's my friend from high school." The second time, you can say: "Oh, Person B, do you know Person A?" Making sure Persons A and B know each other the second time breaks the ice again and removes any uncertainty Persons A or B might have about who the other is.
Not introducing Persons A and B because you think they would have no interest in talking, or because "they won't ever see each other again" is pretty rude. While it may be true that Persons A and B will never see each other again, it never hurts to introduce them once.
Having said all that, I admit that I'm not great at introducing people. But I'm becoming more aware of the problem, and that's the first step...
Dreams and belief have gone
"That's what I see when I close my eyes yeah".
On drama: I remember this phase, just glad I'm not involved this time.
You know the days when you wake up, and you know it's going to be a bad day? I know it when I get to work, and I can't focus on anything. My mind is running circles, my heart is racing, my skin is crawling, and my hands are shaking. It's like a caffeine high without the illusion of ehanced ability to focus. Music doesn't help but to push me deeper - choice albums being "The Fragile", "OK Computer", and "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness". Don't ask me why.
On a lighter note, cxreg referred me to The Ur-Quan Masters, an open-source version of the venerable Star Control 2. He also helped me find Sid Meier's Covert Action, an old DOS game that I played at Tommy's house for hours. We haven't been able to get it to run yet. This game might just be worth buying VMware.
I remember what the second item was: Fox is doing a show to let Americans find out their IQs. I think this is a really bad idea.
Oh, it wasn't clear...that post from yesterday was part of my thoughts from about a year ago. Things have changed.
I don't even know what to say. I try to be supportive, but nothing seems to help. I just want to know that you are okay.
So, I'm sitting in physics today, anxiously awaiting my fate on the test. I start picking up on a conversation going on behind me between a girl and a guy. They were justifying to each other why they smoked - they both came to the conclusion that it's okay to smoke because it's a good break from studying:
Girl: "You know, you can't watch TV because you'll be there for at least half an hour."
Guy: "I know, it [smoking a cigarette] only takes 10 minutes."
Short pause
Girl: "I don't know, I'm gonna quit after college."
Guy: "Oh, yeah, I'll quit after college."
Sometimes I love UF. Then again, sometimes I hate it.
You know, we're coming to the same conclusions. Just thought I'd point that out. Oh, and there's a difference between being bitter and being annoyed that people can't bring themselves to be just slightly more compassionate.
"It's a regular topic of discussion as to who has managed to talk to you lately, as though you're some kind of challenge, some ridiculous pet that hates us all that we still need to check in on. You seem overwhelmed with bitterness towards pretty much everyone for something. ... I'm sorry that everyone feels like they owe it to you to overcome whatever hatred you foster towards them." HA!
