The Past
So, it seems like a wise idea to have these things visible to my friends only if I'm going to be totally honest.
I could be paranoid, or maybe I just smoked too much...
anyway, I suppose it's good to start any story from the beginning.
I was born in 1980, on Halloween at 3:07 pm. I had an unpleasant childhood, for the most part. One of my earliest pleasant memories was reading myths with my dad, and another going to the adult bookstore for the first time in the 5th grade. That trip was a turning point that begin a voracious consumption of novels, one author at a time, that lasted for years.
The other bright thread throughout my past is computing. My first experience was with an Atari 2600 - with karateka, joust, pole position, pit fall and duck hunt (with the light gun). I didn't have my first programming session until around 7th grade with an 8086 and a QBasic animation of a venus fly trap eating a fly. Despite some allegations from on high, I don't believe experience with basic basically destroys a programmers mindset
Though, goto # does blow. After that, I decided to upgrade and hit C++. After convincing my dad to get me Borland, I decided to go ahead and try to learn via the book for the IDE... and never managed to write a single int main() { printf("hello world;"); return 0;} . After a brief flirtation with Visual Basic 6.0 that took me into my junior year, I started working on the web with a local consulting firm. I got the job after being sent there to do an interview for my chemistry class, from the standard yearly assignment of one of the best (chemistry) teachers at my school. He just had us interview someone in the career we thought we'd want.
So that brings us to my undergrad days. I went to a small local college, and I should have set my sights higher with the SAT scores that I had. I did turn down a scholarship to a more exclusive private school for a girl. I finished a double major in math and computer science in three years with my APs, and picked up a working knowledge of java for a project telecommuting with a larger school, and a knowledge and love of mathematical modeling through a research experience for undergraduates project at another.
This led me to grad school, where I started on a PhD with my sites set on computational medicine. In my second year, I gave up a lot of my drinking and picked up a bit of smoking here, there and everywhere. I found it better for creation of thought, and an overall better fit. As I finished my MS, it became clear to me I was in the wrong specialty - that I should have gone down the practical applications side, with pure research interests in emergence and complexity. My relationship with my adviser deteriorated a bit, and I found myself taking my M.S. in computer science and engineering and entering industry.
and what a joy it has been! ... .... .... The first few months of learning web application development were great, but there's nothing that has any purpose but the love of money. Not that I don't have my share of lust for it. I find all my spare time now turned back towards research, trying to leverage my combination of mathematics, software engineering and computer science knowledge to make a dent in some problem, to return to a different kind of lifestyle and finish my PhD. For better or worse, I've decided to attack problems related to the overly buzzed semantic web. Perhaps it's buzzed for a reason, though most of the bees seem to be following false trails. I think I've grabbed onto a good one, though and a proof of concept application could get my foot back into the door of the ivory tower, and maybe even turn a profit on the side.
That's all dreaming now, though.
So, it seems like a wise idea to have these things visible to my friends only if I'm going to be totally honest.
I could be paranoid, or maybe I just smoked too much...
anyway, I suppose it's good to start any story from the beginning.
I was born in 1980, on Halloween at 3:07 pm. I had an unpleasant childhood, for the most part. One of my earliest pleasant memories was reading myths with my dad, and another going to the adult bookstore for the first time in the 5th grade. That trip was a turning point that begin a voracious consumption of novels, one author at a time, that lasted for years.
The other bright thread throughout my past is computing. My first experience was with an Atari 2600 - with karateka, joust, pole position, pit fall and duck hunt (with the light gun). I didn't have my first programming session until around 7th grade with an 8086 and a QBasic animation of a venus fly trap eating a fly. Despite some allegations from on high, I don't believe experience with basic basically destroys a programmers mindset
Though, goto # does blow. After that, I decided to upgrade and hit C++. After convincing my dad to get me Borland, I decided to go ahead and try to learn via the book for the IDE... and never managed to write a single int main() { printf("hello world;"); return 0;} . After a brief flirtation with Visual Basic 6.0 that took me into my junior year, I started working on the web with a local consulting firm. I got the job after being sent there to do an interview for my chemistry class, from the standard yearly assignment of one of the best (chemistry) teachers at my school. He just had us interview someone in the career we thought we'd want. So that brings us to my undergrad days. I went to a small local college, and I should have set my sights higher with the SAT scores that I had. I did turn down a scholarship to a more exclusive private school for a girl. I finished a double major in math and computer science in three years with my APs, and picked up a working knowledge of java for a project telecommuting with a larger school, and a knowledge and love of mathematical modeling through a research experience for undergraduates project at another.
This led me to grad school, where I started on a PhD with my sites set on computational medicine. In my second year, I gave up a lot of my drinking and picked up a bit of smoking here, there and everywhere. I found it better for creation of thought, and an overall better fit. As I finished my MS, it became clear to me I was in the wrong specialty - that I should have gone down the practical applications side, with pure research interests in emergence and complexity. My relationship with my adviser deteriorated a bit, and I found myself taking my M.S. in computer science and engineering and entering industry.
and what a joy it has been! ... .... .... The first few months of learning web application development were great, but there's nothing that has any purpose but the love of money. Not that I don't have my share of lust for it. I find all my spare time now turned back towards research, trying to leverage my combination of mathematics, software engineering and computer science knowledge to make a dent in some problem, to return to a different kind of lifestyle and finish my PhD. For better or worse, I've decided to attack problems related to the overly buzzed semantic web. Perhaps it's buzzed for a reason, though most of the bees seem to be following false trails. I think I've grabbed onto a good one, though and a proof of concept application could get my foot back into the door of the ivory tower, and maybe even turn a profit on the side.
That's all dreaming now, though.