March 2004

I couldn’t really make it back to my parent’s house for Spring Break last week, so I decided to spend this weekend with them. My Dad’s 61st b-day was on Thursday, and Mom’s 57th was Saturday. I think this is the first time I’ve spent their b-days with them in 5 years! I also got to spend some time with my sister and my kitty Minnie.

My sister and I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Saturday afternoon. It’s the new Jim Carrey movie that opened Friday. It was definitely an awesome film, but probably not a film that the mainstream audience will appreciate or have patience for. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but it was a movie that I got totally emersed into, and I completely lost track of the time (I love movies that have that effect!). It also got me thinking about my past relationships and friendships, and how much of an integral part they are of who I am today. I definitely want to see it again!

I’m heading back to NY tomorrow morning. My flight is at 6 AM (arrives at 9:15 AM), meaning I’m leaving for the airport at 4:30 AM. Then I’m taking a tour of SUNY Albany at 10 AM, and classes start at 12:30. It’s going to be a long day, but it will be nice to be back in my own bed tomorrow night and I will definitely sleep well!

Ohhh yeah, I forgot to mention this. Last week (during spring break) I received a letter from Factset thanking me for interviewing, that they enjoyed hearing about my experiences and skills, and letting me know that they would not pursue employment with me at this time.

It was a courtious letter, portions of which I may use for rejection letters that I send out when I interview people. I am a bit bummed about not getting a job there, but things go on!

I don’t know why I’m excited that Spring Break is almost here, because I don’t seem to be doing much academic work recently… but indeed, after my two exams this afternoon, my Spring Break officially begins! I’m not sure where I’m going or what I’ll do, but I also plan to catch up on a lot of Union work (which I also consider a good time). More on Spring Break in a seperate entry.

I had a weird dream last night… a flashback if you will to an academic trip I took in Middle School (at Taif Academy in Taif, Saudi Arabia). We went to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia as a part of our Knowledge Bowl team, a trip chapperoned by Robert Gomez and his wife Maria. Sometimes calling himself Trebor Zemog, Mr. Gomez was our art teacher and I remember him being quite young. Anyway, one night we went out for a team dinner and (this is where the dream kicks in) while we were eating, he asked everyone to stop for a minute, look at their food, and envision the food. He had us to a “see through the food” kind of thing, and then slowly take a bite. I thought it was odd at the time, and I think it’s especially odd that I had a dream about some miniscule event (that I haven’t thought about in a while) eight years after it happened.

All right, I just wanted to write about that dream before I forget about it for another eight years! Now I have to finish up studying for my two exams (Probability for Engineering Applications and Professional Development 3).

I woke up at 9 this morning so I would have plenty of time to shower, eat breakfast, and prepare mentally for my 10 AM phone interview with FactSet for a Software Engineering position. All was well until…

My phone rang at 9:10 AM while I was still laying in bed catching up on the morning’s CNN headlines. I answered, and it was Jay from FactSet (the guy who was supposed to contact me). He apologized for calling late! Anyway, we started talking and he mentioned that he was a network security person. I asked how that was related to software engineering, and he said it wasn’t. Uh oh, I was interviewing for a different job!

He asked me a few technical questions, which I kinda fumbled over because I wasn’t in networking mode, and had just woken up. But we spent some time talking about the company, about the position, my background, etc. I would say that it went ok, but not as well as my last interview two weeks ago for the PC Systems position. He said that they were interviewing many people, both from colleges and industry, and that I should hear back in the “near future”. We’ll see how that goes!

All right, time to go fulfill my democratic duty and cast my primary vote with Khaoula. I’ll update more on that later!

I changed my LiveJournal username last night from lemworld to lem. I used a rename token (http://www.livejournal.com/rename) to change my journal name into one that had been previously deleted and purged. The best part is that nobody will recognize a difference because only the name changed… all my entries are intact, friends are still friends, etc.